Tag: DIY

Improving a Delta Miter Saw: Part 2

Nick Momrik3 Comments

If you haven’t seen it, check out part 1 of this series about improving a Delta Sidekick 12″ Compound Miter Saw (Model 36-235).

I’ve been keeping a list of improvements I wanted to make to the miter saw and haven’t made time to work on any of them. When I made a frame a few weeks ago I noticed the fence to the right side of the blade wasn’t square. After looking things over, I found a large crack, which I’ll share in part 3. Now I had an excuse to prioritize the improvements and give the saw some love.

I removed several things from the saw and decided the first thing I’d build was a zero clearance insert plate. The original plate was a little beat up.

img_1910

I actually made two plates since it’s not much extra work. I can either use the second one for bevel cuts, which I don’t think I’ve done once since I bought the saw, or keep it as a spare. I really liked the natural wood look, but it’s better to paint them red to signify the dangerous area.

IMG_1915.jpeg

Check out the difference in that slot! Cuts will be much cleaner and I’ll no longer have to worry about things clogging up underneath. The new inserts also fit much tighter than the original.

I used a piece of reclaimed pallet wood (oak I think) to make these. Here’s a video of the process, which took about 2 hours.

Check out part 3 of this series where I build a new fence.

Improving a Delta Miter Saw: Part 1

Nick Momrik3 Comments

I’m starting on some improvements to my miter saw and realized I never posted anything about some of the things I’ve already done. I bought this Delta Sidekick 12″ Compound Miter Saw (Model 36-235) for $75 off someone on Facebook Marketplace last September. It’s not a sliding one, but the 12 inch blade is nice.

delta-36-235-miter-saw

I immediately bought a quality 12″ Diablo blade since there was only a 10″ in the saw. I also took the handle apart and replaced the mangled power cord with a 10′ extension cord I bought at Harbor Freight.

A few months ago I picked up a Masterforce folding miter saw stand from Menards. I think it was less than $80 during a sale. It’s been so nice to have the saw ready to go at all times.

delta-miter-saw-on-stand

I recently cleaned up the sticker residue (was still there in the picture above) on the table and fence. I think that about covers it for what I’d done so far. Check out part 2, where I make new insert plates.

A New Table Saw Sled Fence

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I built my crosscut sled for the table saw just over a year ago and one thing always bugged me. The piece of plywood I used for the original fence had a slight bow to it, so the cuts weren’t perfectly square. While it had served me fine for building shop furniture, it wasn’t going to work when building a couple of cabinets.

To fix the problem:

  1. I cut an old piece of 2×4 to length.
  2. Using the jointer, I flattened the front face and squared the bottom.
  3. I also cleaned up the top and back on the jointer.
  4. On the router table I added a chamfer to the bottom edge of the front face. It gives sawdust a place to go instead of getting in the way of the work piece.
  5. All of the top, left, and right face edges also got the chamfer for comfort when handling the sled.
  6. I went over all of the chamfers with a sanding block.
  7. Then I attached the new fence to the sled, making sure it was square to the blade slot.
I like the look of the solid wood much better.
img_1900-e1543668448363.jpg
I hadn’t cut through the fence yet, but here you can see the chamfer at the bottom.

I should have fixed it a long time ago, especially since it was only a 30 minute job.

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.

lathe-original-belt-cover

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.

lathe-belt-covers

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

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

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.

img_1715

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.

img_1716

On the band saw I cut close to the line.

img_1717

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

img_1718

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

img_1719

Time for a test fit. It was perfect!

img_1720

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

img_1721

Sprayed a couple of coats of paint.

img_1722

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

img_1725

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.

img_1726

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

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

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

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

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.

img_1210.jpg

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!

img_1157

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.

img_1137

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

img_1154

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.

img_1155

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.

mi-rummy-model

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

Screen Shot 2018-07-04 at 10.41.01 PM

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

img_1158

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

img_1159

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.

img_1160

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

img_1161

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.

img_1165

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.

img_1167

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.

img_1197

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.

img_1201

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.

img_1210.jpg

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