Changing Table

After the arrival of the Kreg jig I asked Santa for, I decided to proceed with the changing table which I had planned to build for our upcoming arrival. It took me drastically less time with the jig and hid all the screws. A total of 6 hours and $20 of lumber yielded the changing table that we wanted that converted to a desk after the child has grown.I had to make a small adjustment and added a front rail to hold the pad on. Anyway, in a few years you remove the front rail and bottom left rail and it becomes a student desk.

Here is the finished product.

Comment Box

I was approached by someone at work to construct a comment box. This was a quicky but here it is. It is unsanded in the pictures.

Sick of Sawdust??? Have a laundry bag? Great!

I was beginning to become tired of the massive 20 pound pile of sawdust that accumulates under the table saw. My shoes were always dusty and I tracked it all over.

I decided to build a dust collector but had planned on using some sort of fabric to act as the bag.I whipped together a quick frame and I found a waterproof laundry bag that I never used and cut it apart. With a little sewing and reformulation in the shape department and a few staples we have a slanted bottom dust collector which i can now drop down on hinges and suck out the sawdust with the shop vac. Less Clean up and More HAPPY!

Small projects for small hands

I love tiny things! LOL Anything that is smaller than normal size and I am into it. in this post i will show off some of my "smaller" successes. About a year ago i started a dollhouse.... a year later I am still picking away at it.

After I started the dollhouse I made a tiny bench:

When i got my drill press I also got a circle cutter.... That is a time saver and a half.

Being able to cut perfect circles led to some great wooden wheels for a car that i have started.

After i saw how easy the wheels were I decided that I would contribute to my wooden food pile i have been making from scraps in preparation for the wooden play kitchen. Care for a burger or donut? Maybe a poorly made Croissant???

Automata

I found a huge section of woodworking books at the local library (what a surprise!). I've decided to share one that I thought was especially fun:

This book is a great amount of fun and a good starting point for someone like me who aspires to make things out of wood that do more than sit there and look pretty. This book is jam packed with wooden workings, gears, cams and all sorts of fun concepts and toys that can bring life to your stuff. I have a play kitchen in my future and am especially interested in ways I can make it really fun.

The project plans in this book lead you to building a gearbox and sample set of just about every working to attach to it (mine are less colorful and pretty than theirs). I think thats a great idea and a way to keep those items around in your shop so you don't foget how to do it. it also gives you the opportunity to mess around with those pieces and come up with creative new uses for them.

If you have any desire to ever work on a wooden clock, This is a great starting point!

Two projects from awhile back

So I thought I would share two projects that I completed awhile ago.

My wife told me that her sister wanted something special for Christmas to store baby food. After making a call while in Wal-mart to decide which size baby food jar it needed to house (since they somehow got away from the regular size ones), I purchased a jar and took it home to start the project. After the shop shelves i felt pretty comfortable throwing together a quick cabinet to hang on the wall so it was really a breeze. The only real difference between the shop cabinet and this was the door and close shelves. Total project time was under 1 hour. The result was pretty good. Take a look.

This cabinet holds 24-25 Stage 3 baby food jars and makes a great gift to a new mother!

My other totally impressive a cool project was this design by Popular Mechanics ( I think) for a library chair. This guy was a long 6 hour project, but that was before I had a good setup in the shop. We have some high cabinets and its the perfect thing to have around the house.
The whole thing cost around $15

The chair back flips over the front to turn into the step ladder.

Shop Shelves: A closer look

I have had a few e-mail questions about the shelves in my shop. Folks have noticed that the bottom of each is unique. Well let's take a closer look:
The first shelf I built was to hold my driver. I always forget to charge the damn thing. With the shelf i have trained myself to look and charge every time I leave the shop. I also drilled a few holes to hold bits that I use regularly including my countersink, so that when I am assembling and holding something together I can reach for it easily. The other shelve are meant for screws and such but I have not gotten my smaller bins yet. The shelf also houses a surge strip for any hand tools i happen to be using just under the drill shelf.
The second shelf i customized to hold all of my Dremel bits. I hang my Dremel right next to it and use the flex-shaft to work with. It's nice to be able to reach out and pull out a bit for a fast switch.

Outside of that these shelves are 1x4 stock lust boxed out with a 1/4 inch channel cut with a dado blade down the interior of the sides and crosscuts for the shelves. I used 1/4 inch MDF for the shelves and back.

Hallway Table/ Key Catcher

This is a quick weekend project and for me it came in just under $10 for the whole deal unfinished. i never have anywhere to put my keys etc. when coming in and out of the house. I decided I'd try a little handy router work and whip up something reasonably pretty to do just that.

This guy is constructed for one 1x4 ripped in half lengthwise on the table saw and a short section of 1x6 and a 2'x2' scrap of 1/4 inch ply. I routed the top edges of the bottom runners, the bottom of the drawer sections, the drawer face and the edges of the top with a 1/2" quarter-round with bead bit.

Tinker Bell Project for Baby's Room

Upon finding out that our first child is to be a little girl, my wife decided to theme the room around Tinker Bell but to keep the concept mild. We decided that we would paint the room green and used butterflies, dragonflies and stars as decoration. The only Tinker Bell we decided would be over the crib and be a 3-d stacked wood sculpture. I set to work on this and picked at it over time. The final result was surprisingly cool. We decided on having her squeeze through a keyhole. The only real issue in the formulation of this was the size of the keyhole relative to her would have made it huge, so scaling back the keyhole resulted in a less recognizable for but still a pretty cool piece.

Welcome to my shop!

This is a quick photo tour of my still developing little shop. I just moved to this house a few months ago and with a new job and a baby on the way time and cash has been a little tight. i consider these the "before" shots.

Here I have my lumber rack and a pile of half-done projects. To the left is mt drill press and band saw. The green table acts as the center of my shop and is my assembly area.

Further left of the drill press and band saw is the router and sanding supplies. I am still holding out for a better price on a decent bench top sander. The cabinets in the corner hold my hardware and paint/stain supplies.

Further left above the cabinets you can see a box fan I am using right now for ventilation. I use the old coal door as my vent and as the main load=in for materials.I have installed pegboard and some small shelves over the junky bench that was left from whoever years back. I will be working on building a newer larger and better equipped work area in the future. I have also thrown together a small table for the scrollsaw but a proper stand with storage is on its way as soon as i get bored with other projects and do it.

Finally the last turn... There is an angled wall next to the door which I have been using for the table saw. The angle helps give plenty of area on either side for longer cuts, but plans are to move it to the center of the shop with future rebuilds. The pegboard that is installed there now will eventually become a clamping station.

This shop came together pretty well for a 2 hour quick fix in the middle of a hot july move-in. It's still a work in progress becuase I've been using it so much but having to pull it half together without what I need.

Dust collection will be a major planning issue in the future as well. Noise is already an issue I am struggling with. I have never felt the need for ear protection until I started working in a stone box.