Vase and Flowers from Trail Debris

In early February, I took my daughter to a natural area near our house.  She rode her tricycle along the path, and stopped to pick up all kinds of debris.  Dried up weeds, bits of branches that had blown off trees, pinecones, etc.  Most of it she tried to bring home, packing it along on the back of the trike or trying to make me carry it.  At first I furtively tossed it back into the woods when she wasn't looking, but then she handed me a big clump and I got an idea.  So we collected a few handfuls, and I snapped off a dry teasel stem that had survived the winter.

Back at the parking lot, we went to look around in a wooded area that had been cleared of underbrush a couple of years before.  I found a wet chunk of mystery log, only slightly rotted, and we took it home with the other materials.  She insisted on hauling the log into the garage on her own.

 Back in the shop, here's a "before" kind of shot.

I cut the log in half on the bandsaw.  I can't identify the wood species, but I suspect it to be Prunus laurocerasus, English or Cherry Laurel.  It's a common invasive escapee in the woodlands around the city.  The wood was pretty dense, had no odor, and had a bit of spalting.  I quartered the round to make a blank for the lathe.

Once I got it on the lathe, it wasn't the best turning material.  Chunks tore out during roughing, and it cut fuzzy unless I used a very sharp skew and a light cut.  I sketched an outline on the blank before I started the shaping.

I sanded the little vase, but didn't put any finish on it, mostly because it was still soaking wet.  If it doesn't self-destruct from the drying process, I might put some shellac on it in a few months.  All in all, it turned out pretty cute for something made of materials collected by a toddler.

Not bad for "flowers" in mid-winter

New Mallets

My mom used to have four beech trees along her driveway.  One by one, they've come down over the past several years, and I've made use of the wood.  One tree had a fungus issue, so I let the log lay on the ground for a while and then sawed it into boards on the band saw, which gave me a small stack of spalted wood.  I still haven't had the guts to make it into anything.

Last fall, I found a piece of another tree in her firewood pile, and I decided to confiscate it and make a couple of mallets.  I cut off a blank and turned it into a large carving type mallet on the lathe, which was fun and pretty easy.  Beech turns well.  I used the plan in Fine Woodworking's 2013 Tools & Shops issue as a baseline for dimensions.  I think I've decided I don't particularly like big round mallets, and the handle is a little chunky for my hands.  But it is pretty and does a really good job of sealing quart size paint cans when you use the round end as the whacker.

Beech turning blank cut at the bandsaw

With some creativity at the band saw, I managed to get enough from the offcuts from that to make a traditional two-piece joiner's mallet.  Check out The Woodwright's Shop "Big Ash Mallet" episode from Sept. 2013 for the general idea.

beech blanks for a joiner's mallet - they're bigger than they look

The handle was sawn, planed to shape the taper and smooth the surface, and then turned to round off the grip portion.  The end of the handle had a pretty good end-grain split going, so I turned a 3/4" tenon on the end and made a walnut cap that I attached with a small screw.  The cap provides a nice stop to the end of the grip, and the grain runs across the crack in the beech handle, preventing it from getting any wider or splintering.

3/4" spigot on the end of the handle...

The head was a lot more work than I expected.  I marked out the tapered through-mortise, and then used a brace and bit to bore a 7/8" hole through the middle.  The spiral of wood that came out of the auger can't be called a shaving or a chip.  It was more like a piece of leather, fibrous and tough.  Then I chopped, and chopped, and chopped, mostly using a 5/16" pig-sticker style mortising chisel.  Beech planes fine, and light cuts are no problem.  I can pare thin slices of end-grain with a sharp chisel by hand, but trying to bite off a bigger chunk, or plunge deeply into solid wood was just not happening, so I resorted to nibbling out the mortise bit by bit.

Mortising the head starts out with boring, and
doesn't really get any more exciting later on.

Fortunately, it went together well, and can apply a hell of a whack to a big mortising chisel or other stout tool.  I don't use it an awful lot, because I have a rubber deadblow mallet for assembly tasks (less chance of bruising the finished surface) and it's just too much of a beast for most smaller-scale work.

Here's a photo of my three mallets.  The smaller one is also beech, made a decade ago from scraps of trim material from the building I work in.  I didn't have any pieces big enough to make a head out of, so I laminated several smaller blocks together.  I think I used a chunk of 2x4 framing lumber as a mallet to cut the mortise in the head, since I didn't have any sort of mallet at that time.  It was my first "real" mallet, and it's held up well.  I've beaten a lot of things into submission with it and it turns out to be the one I still reach for most of the time.  I guess I could make a new prettier replacement for it.

Restoring a Disston D-8 Panel Saw

A couple of years ago, I helped out in a neighborhood tool library.  We got a big influx of tools from one of our members' father's estate.  Among them was this little panel saw, quite rusty and far from usable.  The lower part of the handle was broken off, but I could read Disston on the medallion.  I thought it was highly unlikely that anyone would make use of it, so I asked the donor if I could have it, and he said ok.  It's hung on my tool rack for a long time.  I had some hope that it was a decent old tool, and I finally got around to restoring it this week.

Old Disston Panel Saw

I started by taking it apart, which was fortunately very easy.  The brass hardware is plated, which prevented corrosion inside the threads.  Then I wrapped a small piece of 220 grit sandpaper around a block of foam and applied a lot of elbow grease to the rusty saw plate, using plenty of WD-40 as a lubricant.  I used a scrap of plywood under the saw to prevent my bench from getting mucked up with the rusty oil slurry.  I wiped down the surface with paper towels, and another round with a new piece of sandpaper revealed the surface of the saw plate.

I was surprised to find that the etch was revealed, as well as the "10" stamped near the heel of the blade.  So I've got a 10 tpi Disston D-8 with a 20" blade, dating from somewhere in the 1947 to 1955 range, based on the "Disston USA" medallion.  The handle appears to be apple, not beech, which suggests 1947.  It was filed with a crosscut tooth configuration.

I'm going to make a new handle, maybe out of cherry, or maybe I'll go get a piece of apple or pear if I can find it easily.  The hardest part of making this handle will be forming the slot for the blade.  The D-8 slot was cut with a thin circular saw, which kept the top of the handle closed and helped hold the blade steady even if the hardware came loose.  This will be a challenge, since I don't have a circular saw that thin.  I might have to do something creative.

Another blogger cleaned up a nearly-identical saw last summer.  Take a look at Jonathan White's Bench Blog here.

Update:  Here's the saw, with a new cherry handle.

Cleaned up, but not yet sharpened

Here's how I got from here to there.  I took a blank of 5/4 cherry, and drew a rough outline of the handle shape using the old handle as a template.  Then I used the blade to precisely mark the location of the four bolt holes, and drilled them at the drill press with a 1/4" bradpoint bit.  Then I used a new 3/4 x 3tpi blade (to get a really nice cut) to resaw the blank in half at the band saw.  I smoothed the cut surfaces with hand planes, and then used the holes as a reference to draw the shape of the blade on the blank.  I also traced the handle again on this surface.  The area in between is the desired shape of the mortise.

Very shallow mortise will become the slot for the saw plate

I used a small router with a straight bit to cut a recess in the mortise area, the depth of the blade's thickness.  Then I glued the two halves of the blank back together, using a couple of 1/4" drill bits in the bolt holes to register the positioning.

After the glue set, but before it was totally dry and hard, I rough-cut the shape of the front of the handle at the band saw, revealing the thin slot mortise.  I ground an old hacksaw blade into a tool to clean out the squeeze-out at the bottom of the mortise, but after that bit of fiddling, the blade fit perfectly and snug.

I re-drew the handle shape of the blank, after using a jack plane to reduce the thickness by 1/8" or so.  After a visit to the bandsaw (1/4" x 4 tpi blade) and drill press (forstner bits), here's what the blank looked like.

The roughed out blank next to the original handle

Not very comfortable, but starting to look like a handle.  I took the blank to the drill press and made the shallow cups for the saw nuts and medallion with 1/2" and 7/8" forstner bits, respectively, and enlarged the holes on one side of the handle to 5/16" to accommodate the female half of the saw nuts.  The drilling was a painstaking effort, since the through holes meant I didn't have a center point to work from.  I just lined up the spinning bits as carefully as I could by eye, after tracing a circle on the surface.  I marked the side of the forstner bit with a thin blue felt pen to give me a consistent depth because the depth stop on my drill press is a piece of crap.  Next I used rasps to get right up to the layout lines, and then traced some contours with a pencil to help me form fair and consistent curves.

Offset layout lines help guide the rasps

  I recently bought this handle-maker's rasp from Tools for Working Wood, and it came in very handy for fine-tuning things and getting the inside of the handle shaped.  After about two hours of rasp work, I had the form to my satisfaction.  Another hour of hand sanding and card scraping got me to a comfortable and not too shabby looking end point.  There are a few flaws if I look closely but it feels good in my hand which I suppose is more important in the long run.  I put on a coat of natural Watco and will probably just add a little wax on top of that.

All done, with a coat of Watco

I used a Dremel with a fine wire wheel on low speed to gently clean up the saw nuts, and they came out pretty good with little effort.

The hardware cleaned up pretty quick with a small wire wheel in a Dremel

Corporate Joinery Sucks

Just and idea for a t-shirt or something.  The image could be a termite barfing, or maybe those stupid cam connectors that are ubiquitous on particleboard furniture.  I think I prefer the termite.

Have I been in Portland too long?

Restoring a Millers Falls #2 Hand Drill

I got this drill for $38 from ebay, and I'm happy to report that everything seems intact and in good working condition, with the exception of the missing side handle.

Millers Falls #2 Hand Drill from ebay

According to this page at oldtoolheaven.com, it dates from ~1929-1931, with the reinforced body, triangle logo, and Millers Falls, Mass labeling on the handle.  I sprayed all the metal down with WD-40, let it sit for several days, and then took it completely apart.  Here are almost all the bits (the bearing races are stuck in the body at this point) along with the few tools I used to take it apart.  Back up the body behind the pins with a block of wood to prevent damaging the frame when you tap them out with a small pin punch.

All the pieces

I'll make a new side handle.  It should look like this, unless I don't make it that shape.  The thread appears to be 5/16-24.

I brushed off all the big chunks of grime with a small brass wire brush, and then used Purple Power degreaser with a Scotch-Brite sponge and a toothbrush to thoroughly clean all the metal parts and de-gloss the remaining paint.  The red paint on the wheel actually dissolved in the cleaner and I could have stripped it completely with a little soaking.  I used the cleaner at nearly full strength, which is pretty aggressive, comparable to lye with some detergent in it.

After that, I used some Testors model paint to re-paint the wheel (gloss dark red 1104TT) and body (semi-gloss black 1139TT) with a small brush.  The smell of that paint sure takes me back to childhood.

Before and after a little red paint

After the paint dried, I put the wheel on my lathe, by pinching it between a flat wood drive block and a conical live center.  I ran the lathe on the slowest speed and hit the outer rim with P400 and P600 sandpaper for a little polishing action.

The wooden top handle on this version is threaded and screws onto a stud that is pinned into the top of the metal frame.  You have to drive out a 3/32 x 15/16 pin from the handle's ferrule, then you can unscrew the handle from the body.  This drill's handle wiggled a bit so I unpinned it and discovered that the wiggling was in the connection between the stud and the frame.   I tapped on the pin holding it in, but it didn't want to come out and I didn't want to beat on it.  I dribbled some blue threadlocker around the joint and wiggled it to work it down into the threads.  After curing for 30 minutes, no more wiggling (after some use, I'll admit there is still some slop, but somewhat less).

The flat-head screw that holds the handle to the main gear was an incorrect replacement.  The female threads in the gear were a little worn, and I couldn't figure out if they were supposed to be 10-24 or 10-32.  I thought about using a tap to chase or re-thread the hole, but it was easier to get a 10-32 x 1/2" flat head brass screw and just gently force it in.  The brass may have got chewed up a bit, but the tight fit will just keep the screw from coming loose.  It's a bit shiny and new right now, but a little age will tarnish that brass to a decent look I think.

I made a new side knob from a piece of madrone.  It's a similar shape to the original, and I like the feel of it in use.  It's intended to be held by one hand, while you hold the top and apply pressure with your body, and crank with the other hand.  I doubt I will ever use this drill this way, since I have the luxury of an electric drill when the going gets tough.  The thing that's nice about these hand drills in a modern shop is the degree of feedback you get when drilling delicately.  At least, that what everyone says.  I think I've got enough hours behind a modern cordless drill that I can feel every bit of the cutting action, and no wiggling hand crank motion to ream out the hole.  I regret using a copper ferrule (a plumbing connector) instead of waiting until I could go to the hobby shop and pick up a piece of appropriate tubing.  The color doesn't go with the top handle ferrule, but oh well.  I can always do it again.

New side handle in madrone

I cleaned up the gunk from the knurling on the chuck by very gently applying it to a fine wire wheel on a bench grinder.  The chuck desperately needs to be taken apart and cleaned, but I don't have a pin tool to open the body.  I'll have to make one one of these days.  For now, I just blew a lot of WD-40 through it and got it working much more smoothly.

Update:  I picked up a Park Tools SPA-1 pin spanner for $10 at my local bike shop the other day while getting some parts.  It worked perfectly to take the back off the chuck, with the body gently-ish held in a wooden hand clamp.  I cleaned out the guts of the chuck and now it works almost as the maker intended.  There is a little scoring on the outside of the jaws such that if the chuck is closed down completely it takes a little nudge to get it to pop back open when the mechanism is loosened.

Ready to Use

Veritas Plow Plane is Groovy, Man

OMGOMGOMG I just got the Veritas "Small Plow Plane" today and it is awesome.  I know, the entire internet has been telling you this since it came out, but this time it's true.  Five minutes after I got it out of the box I made the most perfect groove ever in the edge of a piece of pine.  Crisp, square edges all around, nice and straight, with an even depth.

Cleaner than a router table

It was quick, and clean, and quiet and all those other great things people are always babbling about hand tools - except this was easy.  I've watched videos of other people using plow planes (Roy!) so I had a clue what I was doing, but unlike sawing, chiseling, or nearly any other thing I might do at the bench, this required no learning curve on my part.  The finesse is apparently cast right into the steel.  Sweet.

Since I'm in Veritas fanboy mode, allow me to continue...  I don't like buying tools without putting my hands on them, even if everyone says they're awesome, because I just don't know if they'll fit me.  Veritas has a big booth at The Woodworking Shows, which are otherwise mostly dominated by big buckets of Chinese-manufactured goods, sadly.  It's too bad they don't do something classy like Lie-Nielsen does with their Hand Tool Events.  Would it be too much to ask for them to travel together?  Now THAT would be a hand tool event, especially if they brought along other independent makers like Blue Spruce and Bad Axe.  Anyway, I went last weekend, and got to try out their Skew Rabbet Plane and several other tools that I've been looking at for a long time.  Guess what's coming in the mail in a week or so!

Budget Moxon Vise

All the cool kids are building "Moxon vises" these days.  Actually, the cool kids built them several years ago, and I'm finally getting around to it.  It's basically a fixture to hold workpieces up a little off the bench, and especially to hold boards up vertically for dovetailing.  I've got quite a few drawers to build in the near future, so it's time.

I don't need to build a big one with $150 worth of (admittedly very sweet) hardware like you can get from Benchcrafted or similar.  I built mine with 2x6 lumber left over from a construction project, and $12 worth of hardware from the local Ace Hardware.  It works great, and unlike other "budget" Moxon vise plans I've seen, I'm not ignoring the cost of the expensive hardwood scraps that people use for the body.  I could have picked up a kiln-dried 2x6x8' stud from the local home center and built this thing for $15 as long as I also used that stud to make the handles.  The handles are long to cover the nuts, but also to cover the end of the bolt threads.  There isn't any metal exposed on the front of this thing to ding your tools or yourself on.

The $15 Moxon Vise

I used a couple of 1/2" x 5" carriage bolts to provide the clamping force, with long coupler nuts inserted into turned wooden handles for leverage.  The only little innovation to this design are some springs over the screws that push the jaws open when you loosen them.  With this setup, clamping depth ranges from 0" to about 1 5/8", and if I need more for some reason, I can just swap out some longer carriage bolts.

I milled the lumber down a bit by machine to make it square and prettier, and then used a hand plane to ease the edges and chamfer the upper front.  I clamped the two vise jaws together and drilled a 5/8" hole in the center a few inches from each end.  Then, I countersunk a 7/8" x 1/2" deep mortise around each hole with a forstner bit, using a scrap of oak to center it over the through hole.  The depth of both mortises together should be just a bit more than the length of your spring when it's fully compressed so that the jaws can close completely.

I glued a 2x4x20" base to the rear jaw, to give me something to clamp the vise down with and make the base wider for stability.  Either hold-downs in dog holes behind the vise or clamps at the front of the bench make for a secure setup.

I turned some 2" square x 3" cherry stock into simple handles at the lathe, drilled a 1/2" hole almost all the way through them, and then chiseled that hole a bit to fit a 1/2" coupling nut.  The length makes for a good friction fit into the wooden handle, with lots of bearing surface so the wood doesn't wobble or strip out.

I wiped on a coat of Watco, which, along with Zinnser shellac products, are my go-to finishes for most shop projects.

Detailed parts list:
Hardware:
1/2 x 5 carriage bolts, 2ea
1/2 flat washers, 2ea
1/2 coupling nut (1-3/4" long), 2ea
3-1/4" x 3/4"dia x 0.050 wire spring.  With firm finger pressure (~5lbs) it compresses fully to 3/4" length.

the hardware I used for my cheap Moxon vise

Wood:
18 x 5-1/4 x 1-3/8, 2ea jaws
22 x 3-1/8 x 1-3/8, 1ea base
1-3/4 dia x 3 for handles.  If you don't have a lathe, you could use large dowels, or cut the corners off a piece of square stock to make octagonal handles.  The larger the diameter, the more leverage you can apply to the vise, but you don't need a lot.

I just finished using it to make a small dovetailed cedar box, and I've got a modification in mind already.  I typically cut tails first then I want to clamp the pin board in the vise and hold the tail board perpendicularly to mark the waste on the end.  I usually just hold it down by hand, but any small movements can make for some ugly gaps.  So, when my new plow plane comes in the next week or so, I think its first task is going to be to make a groove in the upper part of the rear jaw for a clamping shelf just below the upper edge.  That, combined with a little support device (aka block of scrap) will let me clamp the mating board down securely so I can concentrate on accurate marking.  This is a feature found on many of these devices, but I didn't build it originally because I was trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Garage upgrade: new concrete pad

Once the building was suspended about 6" over the work site, I built forms with 2x6 lumber, held in place with wood and metal stakes.  I brought in half a yard of 3/4-minus crushed rock, and compacted it with a gas-powered compactor my neighbor just happened to be using the day before I needed it.  I have a hand compactor, which is basically a 15 lb iron plate on the end of a handle, and that would have been a hour-long workout.  Instead it was five minutes of guiding this machine around and I'm sure it did a better job, too.  The main pad is 4" thick, but it goes down to 8"+ around the edges to form a footing.  Yes, that's enough for frost depth around here.  I ran a single piece of #3 rebar around the perimeter, in the lower middle of the footing, to strengthen that portion, but I didn't bother with anything in the center of the pad.  Yeah, it might crack, but it's just a garage floor.  I didn't do any control joints, either.  I'm livin' on the edge!  I did put down a sheet of 6 mil plastic under the central part of the pad, to reduce the amount of water vapor moving up through the slab.

The concrete truck was scheduled for 10:30am.  I finished the rebar at 10, and got the plastic cut and laid down by 10:20.  Phew.

Ready to pour the concrete

The actual pour wasn't too dramatic.  The truck's delivery chute reached nearly to the back of the garage through the main door, so I just had to push the mud around a little with a rake and jiggle the corners.  Pulling a 13' screed board by yourself is a lot of work, but I'd been mentally preparing to scoop a few yards of concrete from the middle to the back of the pad if the chute hadn't been able to reach over my lifting beams.

Finishing it was no fun.  A strong storm forecast to roll in off the Pacific started dumping rain about the time the truck left.  Most of the pour was under the garage's roof, so not a big deal, but I had to run around and put up pieces of plywood to deflect areas that were dripping from the gutters or blowing in under the gap around the edges.  My lifting beams made bull floating the surface a huge pain in the ass.  I couldn't get the handle where I needed it half the time, and wound up digging in a few spots.  I managed to give it a quick once over in one direction and then gave up.

Using the Bull Float

After a couple of hours, I came out and edged the slab, and then hit it with a big steel trowel I bought the night before.  I guess I should have had a "fresno", which is bigger, thinner and has round ends.  I've never used one, but maybe I'll get one next time.  I tried to do a lot of the work hanging from planks laid on the lifting beams, but that was a tough angle to work from, and I was constantly moving the planks around so I wouldn't fall off.  A much better method was the usual way, which is to take a piece of plywood and use it as a work platform.  Thick plywood distributes your load better so you don't dent the surface, and you just clean up the spot where the plywood was previously sitting as you go.  I had a ~3'x2' scrap of 3/4" that worked really well.  I screwed a piece of nylon webbing to it so I'd have a handle to pick it up with as I moved along.  You need a strong handle, because the wet mud really sticks.  From down low, it's much easier to control the angle of the trowel and see any imperfections.  Anyway, my troweling skills are sub-par, but I got it relatively smooth and flat, so whatever.

Smooth Enough

A few days later, I formed and poured a couple of little ramps to get the car from the sidewalk grade to the garage slab.  I mixed up ten bags of concrete by hand and made the pads about 4" thick, with a couple of pieces of rebar in there.  To me, rebar is always a balance between making the concrete shape strong enough to last, but not impossible to break up later if (when) you realize you screwed something up or your wife changed her mind about how things should be.

After a week of keeping the slab damp and letting it cure, I lowered the garage back down, and parked the car inside.  I can't tell you how nice it is to finally have a floor I can SWEEP.

Garage upgrade: lift it up

Step one:  reinforce the framing so it won't fall down on me.  I installed some ceiling joists / collar ties to the rafters to prevent the roof from spreading.  There have historically been a couple of 2x4's nailed across the top plates, but no support for the rafters themselves.  A couple have crept out a few inches, and I might lift the center of the roof and pull them back in with a winch later on.

Then I installed a piece of OSB sheathing at one end of the building, screwing it pretty densely to the framing, to provide shear resistance.  That let me cut a pretty big access hole in the back wall, relieving some weight and making it easier to move materials around.

To do the actual lifting of the building, I sistered some short studs to four sets of opposing studs on the side walls.  Cutting slots in the siding with a plunge saw let me to run 2x6x16' lumber across the width of the building, with 2' sticking out each side.  The 2x6's are then screwed to the side of the primary studs, to keep them from flopping sideways, and prevent the lower part of the walls from spreading.  These beams bear upwards on the bottom of the short studs, which bear up on the top plate and are also lifting the regular studs through the fasteners.

I jacked up one side of the building at a time, using a motley of jacks I have around, from a 20-ton bottle jack that could lift the whole building to a little screw-up scissor jack that's meant for changing a car tire in an emergency.  Those little jacks are weak, and a little tippy, but they start really short and have a wide range, so they're handy, and easy to get at a junk yard.  I put a jack under each of the four beams and lifted a bit at a time until things were where I wanted them.  I then went outside and installed a stack of two concrete cinder blocks, sitting on 2x12 wood pads, to support the building while other work was done.  They're cheap and have good compression strength.  Repeat for the other side, and it's hanging in the air.

The 2x6 lifting beams definitely deflected some, but by keeping the points of support near the walls (either jacking from inside or on the cinder blocks outside) the actual stress on the lumber was not a big deal.  I was able to walk on them and work on the building with very little fear.

The Garage

Our garage is a 12' x 18' shed, built probably in the 1920's.  When we bought our house, it had a dirt floor, no foundation, some serious framing deficiencies, no human-sized entry door, and failing siding on the south and west sides that get all the weather.  A layer of gravel, an access door into the yard, and an automatic opener for the flip-open garage door made it barely usable, and we've been parking our car and storing crap in it for a long time.

I've been talking about doing "something" about it for years, and I'm finally getting to it.  Not that I've been ignoring the situation.  I've drawn up various plans, and made two or three trips down to the city's permit office to explore the possibilities.  Building a new garage is OUT.  After all the setbacks are taken into account, it could only go into a fairly small defined area, near the back corner of the yard, and what am I going to do with the 5' setback area around it?  Pretty tough to make use of those little strips.  Then there's the cost.  Permits, demo and disposal of the old garage, and all new materials for a new garage will probably wind up costing me at least $10k, and that's complicated by the fact that we're in a flood plain area, so I'd wind up paying for an elevation survey and wind up building the lower three or four feet of the structure from all pressure-treated wood or concrete block.  $...$...$...

The one really nice thing about our old garage is that it's totally nonconforming from a zoning perspective.  It's about 2' from the back lot line, and a little less from the side lot line where the driveway is.  Those setbacks are supposed to be 5' and 13' respectively.  The downside is that the only entry ramp onto the property runs right into the garage, so I have to pull trailers, extra cars, etc. up over the curb and into the yard via a gate next to the garage.  That sucks.  Early inquiries with the city into getting a permit for another curb cut and driveway apron were the usual expensive pain in the ass.

The solution:  I'm going to have my own covered bridge.  Well, sort of.  I'm going to install a second garage door on the back wall of the garage, so I can pull through it into the back yard.  The main issue to think about is the shear strength of the structure, once there are two 7'h x 8'w doors cut into it's 12' wide end walls.  The current framing configuration definitely wouldn't survive, and in fact I'm kind of surprised the thing is still as square and plumb as it is, but some proper braced panels, bolted down to a decent concrete foundation should do the trick just fine.

Mobile Base / Storage Cart for Contractor Table Saw

I have a Delta contractor type table saw.  I added a plate to the bottom to catch dust and chips years ago, but now it's time to build a proper cabinet for it.  I got four locking casters from Woodcraft, and a sheet of 3/4" cabinet plywood from Home Depot.  A couple hours with a circular saw and table saw, and I've got a box to set the saw on, with storage and dust collection underneath.

I've been using it for a while now, and I really like the dust collection.  I installed a piece of melamine-faced particleboard directly under the saw.  It slopes down toward the back of the cabinet, where there's a 5" wide cavity for the chips to drop into.  In that cabinet is another piece of melamine-faced hardboard, sloping toward one side, where a piece of 4" ABS plumbing pipe connects to my dust collector hose.  You can see the configuration of these dust-directing ramps in the photo below.  I also packed foam scraps from an old mattress pad up under the cast iron top, to limit air leakage.

View of the unfinished box from the rear, showing the melamine ramps that direct dust
to the port at the lower right side of the cabinet.

The rest of the cabinet is pretty much just a plywood box.  I put locking casters under each corner, and they work fine to hold the saw steady, at least for the way I use it.  They lock the wheel and prevent rotation of the caster assembly with one foot press.  I rarely load up big pieces of sheet goods or timbers on the table saw.  It's more for precision cuts on mid-size workpieces in my shop, so I don't need it to be totally immobilized.

I still need to fit the storage, but here's the saw mounted and usable,
with the old stock steel legs sitting on top.

EZ Deadman for the Workbench

I needed to joint the edges of some long lumber a few years ago, so I tacked together this support from some scraps.  It's been serving me (almost) perfectly ever since.  It's ugly and crappy, but it works well, and I've come to appreciate the flexibility of a standalone appliance instead of a sliding deadman fixed to the bench rails, or some other elegant, dare I say sexy alternative.

It's a scrap of 3/4" plywood, about 12" x 8", with a 2x6 post attached via some long screws through the bottom of the plywood.  I cut the post so the top is just below the edge of my workbench, and I clamp various fixtures to it to support my work.

Home-made Bicycle Work Stand

I'm my own bike mechanic.  Shocking.  Yes, and for years (decades?!) I've been mostly either just leaning the bike against something, or flipping it upside down on the handlebars and seat to work on it.  I've looked at the commercial clamps a few times, but they're just a little too much for me to justify.  I looked at DIY work stands on the web, and saw some ok ones, but mostly they looked kind of kludgy and like more hassle than they are worth.

Well, I bought a new bike last weekend to replace one that was stolen a few months ago.  First order of business is a set of fenders and a rack, but I also took a look at the work stand they were using in the store.  The mechanic was nice enough to let me take a photo of the clamp head, even.  It looked like such a simple, straightforward design...

Efficient Velo Tools bike workstand clamp

So my new bike sat in a corner in the basement all day on Sunday while I put this together.  It works great, and it only cost me about $10.  It's two pieces of oak scrap I had, about 7/8" thick, 1-3/4" x 12".  I clamped a ~1/2" scrap of cedar between them and used a 1-1/8" forstner bit in the drill press to bore a hole down the middle.  That made the two halves of the clamping saddle.  I glued some thin leather to the inside of the clamping part with silicone, to improve the grip and prevent marring on the bike.

A thin piece of cedar between the oak arms makes it easy to form a perfect pair of curved jaws with a Forstner bit

Then I screwed a block to the back of the clamp, to provide a fulcrum point, and tied a small piece of elastic bungee cord into a loop to hold the back together.  The clamping mechanism is just a 3/8" x 4-1/2" carriage bolt installed through the clamp halves 4-1/2" from the saddle end.  I reamed out the hole through one side by rocking the drill back and forth, to provide clearance for the bolt when the clamp halves pivot apart.  I used a 1/2" flat washer to spread the load at the head of the carriage bolt, and a 5/8" dia. spring in between the two clamp halves to move it open when I loosen the nut.  On the outside, I used a long 3/8" coupling nut to tighten the clamp, and got fancy with a turned handwheel made of poplar.  I cut a drilled hole into a hex shape in the handwheel hub with a chisel, and then epoxied it onto the coupling nut.  Having the long nut stick out of the handwheel is really handy, because you can pinch it and spin the assembly quickly into position when there's little force on the clamp, and then use the large diameter of the handwheel to torque it down.  Go easy, don't clamp any aluminum frame parts or anything carbon.  Aluminum seat tubes are cheap to replace, and pretty beefy anyway.

The seatpost is the safest place to clamp

To mount this clamp head, I drilled a couple of small holes and attached one arm to a 12" piece of 3/4" iron pipe with two 1/4" carriage bolts, lock washers, and nuts.  I made a couple of oak saddles for the pipe, by drilling a 1" hole in the middle of a small block of wood, and then cutting that in half.

The pipe is mounted into a 2x4, and fixed with a C-clamp for now.  I drilled a 1-1/8" hole near the top of the 2x4, and then cut a slit about 12" down the center of the board, splitting the hole in half.  The C-clamp at the top squeezes the two halves of the board together and tightens the pipe in the hole.  It's a solid connection, but it allows me to rotate the clamp head to any angle by loosening the clamp.  The 2x4 is also the weakest part of the whole assembly.  With a bike mounted in the clamp, the 2x4 will twist under pressure and allow the bike to wiggle - which is fine, for the most part.  If things are too solid, you could bend the bike, so I'd rather have the weakest section in the stand somewhere.  That said, I do want to improve the support post and clamp to make it easier to use.  Plus I need my C-clamp for other things.  Update:  I used a 3/8" x 5" carriage bolt, some washers, and another coupling nut through a 7/16" hole through the top of the 2x4 to replace the C-clamp.  It's basically the same mechanism that tightens the seatpost clamp.  It works great.  Much more powerful than the C-clamp, because of the finer pitch threads.

Pipe clamp is essentially the same as the seatpost clamp mechanism

In use, I clamp the 2x4 post into the big vise in my work bench, so I don't need a separate stand, but it would be pretty trivial to make one out of either steel pipe (especially if you don't care about the rotation clamp) or wood.  Now, time to install some crap on my bike.

Bike clamp in use

Home-made Hollowing Tool

We're putting up a Christmas Tree for the first time in nearly a decade, and I thought it would be fun to make a couple of turned ornaments on the lathe.  I like the ones that are a globe with a finial beneath and a hanger button at the top made out of contrasting wood.  So I made a practice globe out of a piece of cherry firewood, and realized I really needed to hollow it out to prevent it from cracking, and also to reduce the weight so it would hang on the tree nicely.

I drilled a 1/2" hole down the center and used a small spindle gouge to remove as much material as I could reach.  It kind of worked.  I couldn't get to a lot of material just inside the opening with the end of the straight tool.  So I picked up a 5/16" steel rod stock and some brazing rods at the orange borg a couple of days ago, and made a hollowing tool for under $10.

I bent the last few inches of the rod about 20 degrees in a vise.  Then I got an old 3/16" drill bit ("black oxide" no mention of the alloy used) and ground a flat on both the steel rod and the drill bit so they would mate together.  I wrapped a bit of thin steel wire around the assembly to hold it while I brazed them together, which I did with a common propane torch.  I've never brazed before, but it's pretty much the same as soldering, which I've done plenty of.  I didn't use any flux paste, just the stuff that was on the outside of the rod.

I cut the drill bit off about 1/2" long, shaped the tip into a scraper, and did some general cleanup on the grinder.  Then I turned a quick handle out of a scrap of alder and a 1/2" copper plumbing coupler, and epoxied it all together.  I gave it a very quick test-drive, and it seems to work well enough for my purposes.

Quick-n-dirty Home Made Hollower

Failed Braze Joint

Update:  I put it to the test tonight, and it started working well, but the braze failed and the cutting tip fell off after a few minutes.  I can see that the brazing alloy only stuck to a very small part of the joint, which I think is due to the tiny amount of flux used.  Basically, whatever melted off the rod when I was heating the joint is all there was.  I'll get a can of paste flux and try again.

Brazing is pretty easy (2nd time around)

Update 2:  I picked up a can of Harris Stay-Silv flux at a local welding shop and tried again.  That braze seems to be much more thorough.  I successfully hollowed out the previously unreachable spots on a little globe, although my cutter could use a little tuning on the grinder.  I'm a little torn on this brazed construction method, because I could also buy some carbide tips, drill and tap the end of the rod, and have interchangeable cutters that last forever anyway.  I could also drill a 3/16" hole in the end of the rod, insert my cutter, and fix it in by brazing or with a little set screw.

Hollowed Globe for a Christmas Tree Ornament, ~2" dia.

Filling Surface Defects With 5-minute Epoxy

I'm working on a tabletop right now.  It's Bigleaf Maple, and it's got a few surface defects like small cracks in knots, and beetle tunnels.  These are part of the natural beauty of the material, but on a dining table, little holes will just fill with gunk.

So I filled them with clear 5-minute epoxy, which was really easy and preserves the look.  The finish on this top is simple: a couple of coats of Watco Natural to pop the figure and bring out depth, followed by a topcoat of oil-based polyurethane varnish for durability.  I was concerned that the epoxy might fill the pores around the defects and change the way the finish looked, so I tested doing the Watco first, then the epoxy, then re-applying the Watco where I scraped and sanded around the repair.  I also tested simply putting the epoxy on the raw wood before even doing my final surface prep.

The latter is much easier, and worked fine for me.  At least with these finishes, and, more importantly, on this smooth, closed grain wood, the epoxy is too thick to really soak in and cause problems.  If I were working in oak or something similar with a lot of big pores, I'd probably do a prefinish step.  This process also becomes much more difficult if you're going to stain and want the defects to blend in.  In that case, you can try coloring the epoxy with a small amount of dye or paint pigment (go darker than you think) or try pre-staining and filling over it.

Here's what I did.  I got a tube of 5-minute epoxy at the hardware store.  Common stuff.  Squirt out a bit into a plastic cup or onto a piece of scrap, and mix it slowly but thoroughly.  Try not to get many air bubbles, because they'll show up in the filled hole.  You can see a few in the second photo after I scraped it down.  Dab the epoxy into the voids, working it down with a toothpick or similar so it makes good contact with the inside surfaces, and leave it very proud of the surface everywhere.  You don't want to have to try to come back and fill a little shallow depression because you didn't use enough.  Work quick.  If you mix it right, it will start getting thick and stringy in...  (spoiler alert!) about five minutes.

Overfill the holes.  It's easy to scrape off later.

Let it cure for at least a few hours.  It shouldn't feel sticky or leave any dent when you press on it.  Now it's time to shave it down to the surface.  I usually start with a sharp block plane, but you can use a chisel if you're careful.  Just shave off thin slices.  Don't try to remove the whole bump at once, or you might just pop the entire patch out of the hole, especially if you applied an oily finish first.  Once you get it down pretty close, get the card scraper out and continue gently shaving until you've removed all the excess and are just biting into the wood all around the patch.  You can also try a stiff sanding block, but a flat scraper does a much better job because the epoxy is inevitably tougher than the wood and you run the risk of sanding a divot around the patch trying to get the last bits of epoxy off.

A flat card scraper is the best tool to make the patch perfectly flush.

Then I do my final surface prep.  In this case, I used a random-orbit disc sander and some 150 grit paper over the entire top before applying the Watco.

The Anarchist's Litterbox

With apologies to Chris Schwarz.  Or maybe not.  Do anarchists apologize?

The Anarchist's Litterbox

It's just a plywood box with poplar bracket feet and trim, built in a similar style to his "Anarchist's Tool Chest" except with a 8" x 10" feline access portal in one end.  With the exception of the plywood panels, everything was cut, shaped, and joined by hand, which was a lot of fun.  I didn't dovetail the trim because this chest won't get much physical abuse, and I didn't want any more chances to screw up, but I did glue up an acrylic tray for the bottom, to fend off the inevitable splatter of cat wizz.

Inside view - it holds all the feline sanitary accoutrements,
including a minimal but sufficient tool set and a box of fresh
litter below the sliding tray

The hinges are crap from the borg, stripped of the ugly zinc plating by an overnight bath in white vinegar.  There's a sliding till in the top, made of reclaimed old-growth Douglas Fir, dovetailed by hand (badly) and riding on waxed rails of quartersawn white oak.  I carefully considered each tool stored in this till, and for a few bucks I'll send you a DVD with a video where I go through them.  Ha ha.

Look at those authentic iron stains
from olde timey construction methods

The inside is finished with shellac, because I hear it's a good barrier to objectionable odors.  The outside is interior latex house paint.

The Overly-Complicated Through Tenon

I'm helping my friend Lori with her maple dining table project.  It's a trestle design, with a single stretcher, through-tenoned into the trestle legs.  It's intended to be a knock-down design with tusk wedges holding the tenons.  The stock was only 4/4, so the finished stretcher is only about 7/8" thick, which means the mortise and tusk would only be a little over 1/4" thick if the joinery is done vertically.  That would probably work ok with a tough wood, but I feel like there's a small risk of racking forces splitting the leg with that narrow pressure point, and the proportions just aren't right in the context of the piece.  The easy solution is to put the tusk tenon through sideways, but then it's just pinned and you lose the beautiful gravity-assisted wedge action that keeps the joint tight as the wood moves with the seasons.

So I came up with this.  It's got a cross piece horizontally through the end of the through tenon.  That cross piece is relieved in the back so that wedges can be put in to pull the joint tight.  I did a quick prototype last night and Lori likes it.  I think the madrone cross bar with walnut wedges looks nice.  If it turns out ugly or fiddly, I can always just cut a single horizontal pin and do it that way.

Through Tenon, Pinned and Wedged - this is just a mockup using some blocks

Update:  This turned out great.  The maple and madrone came out remarkably close in tone after a coat of Watco "natural" so I lost the coloring, but the physical aspects of the joint are solid.  I did the joint the same way for the bench that goes with the table.  The only trick I have to share is in fitting the wedges.  I cut them really long (~16") with a tapering jig at the table saw.  Then I tapped them into place, with all the rest of the parts cut, and marked where to cut them to length.  That way I don't have to worry if one side is a bit tighter than the other.

Using a Concrete Edger

I poured another set of curbs for a new fence I'm building along the east side of our property.  Using an edger to put rounded corners on a concrete job is the easiest thing to make it look professional.  The key is to wait until the proper time to use it.  Too soon and the shape doesn't hold, too late and it's very difficult to work.

Basically, I fill the forms, level them off and then float them with a metal trowel, then go away for a while.  The amount of time depends on the temperature.  It was about 45˚F when I did this job, so I waited about 50 minutes and it was still plenty soft and workable.  In the summer, it might be less.  Usually about 15 minutes after you pour and screed and whatever you do initially, there's some water that bleeds up out of the concrete.  Don't touch anything while this is present.  Wait until it soaks back in, then give it a few more minutes.  If you start the process and the surface is still really soft, you can always come back later.  You want the consistency to be a little softer than modeling clay.

Start by digging in with the trailing corner to define the edge of the concrete

I use an edger in two steps.  First, I hold it up at an angle and drag it against the form to define the outer edge of the curb and create a track for the tool to follow in the next step.  Then I lay it down and use it to float and shape the surface.  Just apply light pressure and slightly lift the leading edge of the tool.  It's really pretty easy.  If the concrete is still pretty fresh, you can float up a lot of water and make the surface soupy.  Stop and come back in a few minutes if this happens.  Just work it until the shape is defined - and stop, or the cured surface will wind up weak and crumbly.  If you want to float it really smooth, come back when it's firmed up a bit more and give it a final pass.

Then lay the edger down to form and float the surface