Tag: DIY

Custom Belt Guards for a Craftsman 12 Inch Wood Lathe (113.23800)

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

After I improved the lathe table in September I actually did start on a belt guard for about 15 minutes and then didn’t touch it for weeks. Happy to say I finally got back to the project and ended up making a guard for each belt.

According to the product manual, here’s a sketch of the main belt guard.

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I actually found one for sale on eBay and here are pics from that listing.

The pictures of the speed chart turned out to be especially useful because I was able to manipulate them in a graphics app to create my label.

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This was a fun build where I got to try a lot of new things. I hadn’t created a video in a long time and it showed because there were several times when I forgot to turn the camera on or off. I tried some new editing stuff too, like sequences for repetitive build actions.

I need a simple project to learn how to use the lathe. Any suggestions?

DIY Trash Bin Wheel

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Back in April, a wheel fell off my trash bin and someone ran it over. Without the wheel, the bin easily tips over and it’s been a pain in the ass getting it out to the road on trash day. So I finally made time to make a new wheel.

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I glued and screwed two pieces of 3/4″ plywood together. Then I found the center of the block, center punched it to make drilling easy later, and drew a circle to match the size of the working wheel.

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On the band saw I cut close to the line.

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Then I took it over to the disc sander and sanded right up to the line.

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On the drill press I made a hole the center with a bit slightly larger than the trash bin’s shaft.

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Time for a test fit. It was perfect!

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Back over to the sander, where I added a chamfer to the edges.

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Sprayed a couple of coats of paint.

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Then I used epoxy to attach a washer to each side of my wheel, which would sort of act as bearings.

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The final step was to find something to hold the wheel on the shaft. In one of my junk boxes I found a plastic piece, which fit on the shaft after using a file to make the hole a little larger. I used more epoxy to attach this to the shaft.

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I’m not sure how the plywood will hold up to the rain and snow, but I’m sure I’ll find out over the next few months.

Circuit Breaker Install

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My brother had asked me to help him upgrade some wiring for his shop, because he only had one 15 amp circuit powering the entire shop. Running his planer along with a shop vac would trip the breaker. I’d never installed a circuit breaker, but I was up for the challenge. This weekend I finally got some time to make a trip down.

For the new circuit we decided to use a 20 amp breaker in case he gets a machine that requires more juice. We (Mostly him, because crawling around in the hot attic was all on him.) ran 12/2 Romex wire through the attic and across the porch roof. Then we did a bunch of outlet rewiring to swap two 15 amp outlets with 20 amp ones connected to our new circuit. We also added a new 15 amp outlet from this circuit on the outside of the shop where they could plug in their patio string lights.

We saved the scary part of installing the new breaker for last, which might have actually been the easiest part of the job. The inside of that box is still extremely dangerous when MAIN is turned off, so I just had to be careful not to touch the wrong things (or die). After closing up the box and flipping the switches everything worked as planned!

DIY Custom Michigan Rummy Board

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Our family always had fun playing our own version of Michigan Rummy (there is also a version called Tripoly) as kids. Then last year we played it almost every night on our family vacation, using a modified board. It gave me an idea to build a custom board for my Mom.

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As soon as I saw this case with two decks of cards at an estate sale several months ago I knew it would be neat for the board. I think I paid $1. The copyright date is 1947!

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I’ve been wanting to build something with pallet wood and thought it would give the board a neat look. You can get free pallets all over by looking on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

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With the help of my pallet buster and some brute force, I broke down the pallets.

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These containers with covers are from Menard’s, free after rebate. Another perfect piece for the project. I laid everything out to get a feel for the size.

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After taking measurements, I mocked up a 3D model of the board’s top layer in SketchUp (download on GitHub). It would be about 24×16 inches.

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I also printed out the text using Arial Black for the letters/numbers and Futura for the suit symbols.

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I trimmed, planed, and jointed a bunch of boards.

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Then glued up panels that would make the top and bottom of the board.

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I measured and marked a bunch of lines and then placed everything where it would end up to get a better feel for the size and layout. I liked it.

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I finished drawing in more details and did a rough cut of the outer shape with my band saw.

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The scroll saw got heavy use cutting everything out. I also cleaned up the holes and edges with various sandering. You can see a couple of places where I started to carve in the text. It didn’t take long to scrap that plan though; it was going to take forever and some of the wood was really soft so I wasn’t happy with how it would turn out.

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I decided to use raised letters that I’d glue on. After doing a bunch of work, I realized this would be much better because the containers would be up above the board, so it would have been hard to see the recessed lettering.

I used the band saw to cut all of the letters. More sanding to clean them up and then some spray paint.

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I didn’t get any pictures of the next steps, which probably took the longest. I used a bunch of the cutoffs to build up an outer support ring as well as eight stacks in the middle to prevent something heavy from breaking the top or bottom panel. There was a lot of gluing, clamping, and band saw trimming. Finally I had enough layers and I was able to glue on the bottom panel.

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After the glue dried I did a lot of sanding on every surface. I had tied in a piece of bungie cord earlier that would hold the card case in place. Then I drilled shallow holes so I could glue in (with epoxy) rare Earth magnets to hold the containers in place. I used CA glue to attach all of the lettering.

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It was finally time for some finish. I used three coats of shellac (with light sanding after each coat) and a coat of wax polish. I spray painted the Michigan map on half of the containers and gave them two clear coats. The last thing was to stick some of those felt pad circles to the bottom and it was done. I really like how this turned out.

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The layering you can see from the sides is a neat look.

DIY Dust Collector Chute for a Craftsman 351.233831 Planer

Nick Momrik6 Comments

My Dad got an old Craftsman 351.233831 Planer (manual) from one of his friends for $75 after it stopped working.

When turning it on the motor would hum for a second and then the breaker (or power strip) would trip. He left the machine with me to fix. The motor shaft wouldn’t turn at all so I had to take a bunch of the machine apart (and cut the belt off) to get the motor out. I ended up using a screwdriver and hammer against the fan to free up the motor. It didn’t want to move, but slowly some hardened gunk broke up and the shaft was spinning. Since I had it in pieces I cleaned out the gear box and applied new grease to the gears.

That’s not what the title of this post is about. Since I had the machine I thought it would be nice to build some dust collection for it; these machines create one hell of a mess. Here’s a step by step of the dust collection build.










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Murdered Out!

I think it turned out pretty good and the paint is a nice touch. I might have to paint the one on my Delta dust collector.

After putting the new belt on and testing it out I noticed the feed rollers were in really bad shape so ordered a new set. The machine is an absolute beast, so I mounted it on one of the Harbor Freight stands, made a plywood base for the bottom, and put on some castors.

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I still need to figure out how to replace the feed rollers and will swap out some of the knives that are nicked up. Then it should be running like a brand new planer! It’s cool to see my Dad getting excited about a new hobby; he already has a bunch of pallets collected to tear apart.

DIY Overhead Camera Rig v2

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Last year I made an overhead camera rig and wasn’t in love with it. It was hard to adjust and unless I was doing a really close shot, the base of the rig was always in the video frame.

When I saw an old swing arm desk lamp at an estate sale I knew I could make something better. Here it is…

It was a very simple build…

Without the base, I’m already in love with how much extra space I have on the desk and how I can move the clamp all the way to the back of the desk with the arm against the wall.

Lamp Repair: Replace Touch Control with a Switch

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

My Mom’s bedroom lamp was malfunctioning so I told her to send it down with my Dad and I’d take a look at it.

The lamp uses a very common TA-306A touch control unit and the BT134 thyristor on the board often gets fried. I think this might have been my bedroom lamp when I lived with my parents 20 years ago, so there is no sense buying parts for it. I replaced the touch controls with a switch I salvaged from a different lamp.