A couple of weeks ago we made pumpkin decorations for the front porch. We used three cedar fence pickets, which cost less than $3 each.
Pumpkin Decorations Made From Cedar Fence Pickets
Tag: woodworking
Golf Alignment Stick Aligner
When practicing in the golf sim I use driveway markers. I think I bought them at Home Depot a long time ago.
They’re always getting bumped by us or our cats. Another issue is one marker lays on top of another so it’s end can be closer to the golf ball. Two problems that could easily be solved by an old piece of oak and a bunch of passes through the table saw.
In the photo above you can barely see the left side groove, which is for the first alignment stick and allows me to use the edge of the hitting strip as a reference line for everything. The two grooves running parallel to it give me an option to place the second stick closer to my feet. I penciled in a line on the top side to extend the perpendicular stick, which I guess is no longer needed. A quick sanding eliminated any sharp edges.
Solving a problem doesn’t always need a complicated solution. Quick and simple can often get the job done.
Hat Stand
Brandi bought this hat at the Masters and wanted to put it on display in her pocket office.
I sketched out an idea for a stand and made a quick plywood test to figure out the actual size.
The final pieces were made out of black walnut.
To make the hat stand out, we used green paper as a backer. Turned out great with the LEGO flowers to tie it all together.
A Larger Drill Press Table with a Motor
The table on my new Bucktool drill press is about 9-1/2 inches square, which is too small. I set out to make something bigger. First, a side quest though. I still had the top from my old work table, which was two sheets of 3/4″ plywood glued together.
A big chunk was going to the sanding station, which had sheet metal over junk MDF for the top. The brackets holding it to the metal frame were always getting pulled out.
I cut up the plywood lamination and rounded the corners and edges. I changed the orientation of the machines to give me easier access to the big belt sander, which saved about 10″ of width. I also mounted a power strip.
The small chunk of plywood was for a new drill press table. I worked on the layout, routed the middle for inserts, and routed slots.
The wide slots are for T-tracks. One of my requirements for the table was to make it function with the Magswitch fence I had. So I bought 3/4 x 1/4″ steel bar stock, which fit perfectly through the top of the T-track. The shorts slots in the table offset to the left got additional pieces of metal, allowing me to move the fence over to clear the quill feed handles.
When I bought the flat bar, I place it across both magnets and I could not pull it off. That turned out to be a flawed test. After screwing in the short pieces as shown in that last picture I could easily move the fence. I did some research and found the 1/4″ thick metal was fine, but it needed more surface area to hit the magnetic field. I clamped two pieces of the metal side by side and couldn’t move the fence.
So I bought a piece of 1/4 x 4 x 12″ flat cold rolled steel and cut two 5-1/2″ pieces. Then I did a bunch of sanding and drilling before spraying three coats of lacquer.
On the table, I cut and glued plywood in the back section of the T-track slots. After the glue dried, I routed large areas for the plates. I cut the T-tracks shorter, sanded the table, and gave it 3 coats of shellac. Then I mounted the tracks and metal plates. This turned out to be a much better solution.
It was time to start working on a powerful upgrade. Raising and lowering a drill press table is usually a pain in the ass. This larger table actually got in the way of the hang crank and I wanted to motorize it. I bought a couple high torque gear motors, a momentary 3-way rocker switch, and a 15mm to 8mm flexible shaft coupling.
The crank shaft on the drill press is actually 9/16″, so the coupling was too large (I could only find metric sizes on Amazon). Three small pieces of aluminum can were thick enough to shim it and test. I connected an 18 volt laptop power brick, added extra weight to the table, and toggled the switch. It worked!
I had ordered both the DC90 and DC350 motors and went with the DC90. The beefier motor was too slow and has way more torque than I’ll even need.
I bought a 24v power supply, motor speed controller, fuse, and 12 gauge wire. I also grabbed a toggle switch and limit switches from my parts bins. The toggle switch was so AC wouldn’t be constantly flowing to the power supply. The limit switches were to prevent the table from going out of bounds, which I do enough of on the golf course! I wired things up for an initial test.
When I bought the speed controller there wasn’t much documentation and I was hoping the FWD/REV terminals would allow me to directly connect limit switches. They didn’t. At least not out of the box. The controller has two modes; you can use the switch on the front or bypass it with your own switch connected to those back terminals. In the picture above I got the bypass working with my limit switches and the 3-position switch used in my initial testing.
This was unnecessarily complex, disabled the switch on the front of the box, and meant I’d have to mount the additional switch. I opened up the controller to see how it worked. The case’s switch was plugged in to the circuit board, so I popped off the connector and connected it through my circuit instead. Bingo!
It was a latching switch, but I wanted a momentary 3-position switch, so I bought a pack. I soldered wires to the new switch, clipped a bit of plastic from the case, and fed the wires through the larger hole. The new switch was a perfect fit.
I took the original table off the drill press and brought it to my assembly table. First, I mounted the tables together and then screwed down the power supply. I made a custom bracket for the speed controller.
I forgot about the on/off switch though! So I scrapped the mounting bracket and made a new one. The second one used a piece of metal saved from a table top basketball game and turned out much better.
To make a proper coupling that would join the two shafts I ordered parts from Motion Industries:
The middle piece is flexible and would help with any misalignment, but I wanted to try to get the shafts lined up the best I could. I think it turned out pretty well.
Then I put the table back on the drill press column. After squaring it to the cart, I tightened hose clamps around the rack to prevent rotation. I never need that functionality. Then I figured out the limit switch triggers and positions.
I hadn’t used the drill press much, but while drilling the holes in that piece of butter knife, I was already sick of the cluck key location. So I mounted the clip on the side of the table instead.
I had extra hold down clamps from the assembly table, so I bought M6 star knobs, 100m M6-1.0 bolts, and T-track slider nuts to make them useable for this table. I also bought a 19×12″ silicon tray for the table, to help contain the cutting fluid and chips, when drilling metal.
I forgot to cut corners off the inserts earlier, so quickly did that. It’ll make it much easier to get the inserts out of the table. Eight spares should last a long time.
Here’s a quick demo of the motor and limit switches. This thing is awesome!
This project was a lot of fun and is a big improvement to the machine.
Drill Press Cart
When I setup the new shop, I decided to finally put my planer on a cart and took over the one used by the bandsaw. Then the bandsaw needed somewhere to go, so I scooted the drill press over, added a piece of plywood to support the overhang, and screwed it down. It did not fit and had been terrible since day one. The sharp edges of the bandsaw table were an accident waiting to happen.
I did this because I’d been wanting a new cart for the old Homier Distributing Company BDM 5 Drill Press. It was too high and I needed more drawers so I could organize everything better. This move would surely force my hand, though it ended up taking over a year.
I’ll get to the cart in a minute, but there’s more to this story. For years, to change speeds on a drill press has required opening the top housing and moving belts. I restored that Homier over eight years ago and can’t ever remember changing the speeds, which isn’t good. Different materials and bits should be drilled at various speeds. The problem is almost always spinning too fast, which can dull bits and produce poor results. I saw the Nova Voyager drill press in a YouTube video and wanted one because of the digital features.
For what I do, I could never justify the cost. About two months ago I started searching for other options and found models where variable speed is adjusted by a handle. The popular budget version seemed to be the WEN 4214T (or the 6.2-amp WEN DP1263V). After more research I decided, when I was ready, I’d get the Bauer 12″ from Harbor Freight. Then on Christmas Eve morning a deal for the Bucktool DP12 popped up. I threw it in my cart and it was half off after discounts. Sold!
That new cart became a priority, so I determined a much lower height and the dimensions. I got out 4″ castors and 22″ drawer slides. I didn’t have enough 3/4″ plywood, so cut up MDF leftover from the outfeed table. Assembly was quick and attaching the slides to the cabinet before putting it together makes it so much easier.
I was worried about the castor screws pulling out of the MDF, so I glued and screwed pieces of 3/4″ plywood to the bottom of the cart and then the castors. I also added more support across the middle of the top, where the bulk of the machine’s weight will be. Then attached the top and a shiplap paneling back.
Next, I made four drawers.
The final step was to mount the drill press. The height of this cart is a huge improvement!
With everything done I organized the drawers and made a custom holder for my Forstner bits. I think I’ll eventually make a something for all the drill bits and everything that goes with the rotary tool.
Now the bandsaw could live by itself on the old cart. I removed the butcher block and replaced it with 3/4″ plywood to lower it as well. There isn’t much to go with it, so I was able to store other various plastic and metal materials in the cabinet. Those were the last boxes to unpack after the move!
Stay tuned for other cool drill press upgrades. Ideas are baking and parts have been ordered.
DIY Shop Towel Bar
With my big shop table done and a lot of storage space to fill, I finally started to tackle the boxes and piles of things that have been sitting in the corner for nearly a year and a half. First up was towels, rags, cleaning supplies, and first aid. We had an unused plastic shelving unit, so I put it to use. It went between my Ryobi cordless tool wall and the utility sink.
I’ve been draping a hand towel over the edge of the sink since moving in and now I had a place to mount a towel bar. I quickly cut some 2×4 to size, so it would fit between the edges on the side of the top shelf.
Then I drilled four holes in the edge of that shelf and mounted the piece of wood. I drilled two more holes in a piece of PVC and mounted it to the wood.
This was a quick project and it’s extremely useful. I love simple shop builds where functionality is the most important requirement.
If you’re looking for a much nicer towel bar/rack, check out the rustic ones with hooks I made for Brandi’s old house or the combo of black walnut and railroad ties for our old previous house.
Playing Card Racks
Mom sent this photo and asked me to make a couple racks/holders for playing cards.
Sounded like a fun little project to put my spin on. At first I assumed the slots would need to be angled away from the player. The more I thought about it, the width of the slot should provide enough of a lean. I gave it a test.
I was right, no angle needed. My next question was if you could see the cards in multiple rows, so I cut slots at several distances apart.
Not great. I had a hunch that differing heights would help and this made me confident. So I cut one slot deeper and tried it as the front row.
Yep! I grabbed a couple pieces from my lumber rack and marked slot spacing that could get me two racks, each with three slots.
I laminated a couple of boards to give me enough height for the different slot depths.
Then I squared up the edges, cut to length, and sliced down the middle. The dimensions are 12 x 2-5/8 x 1-1/2 inches.
At my fancy new router station, I chamfered the edges.
Finally, I cut the slots. The deck of cards I have in the shop are a bad example, since the numbers on most of the cards are lower than they should be. The slots are 1/4, 5/8, and 1″ deep, with 5/8″ of space in between.
I sanded with 80, 120, and 180 grits.
Something was bugging me and it hit me when I watched TWW’s video on making Greeting Card Holders. While his build was a bit different, this gave me an idea.
All the chamfers on my ends and the slot depths being visible was a bad look. So I cut out the middle section of each end, made black walnut fillers, glued them in, and trimmed them at a 10° angle to spice up the visual. I also added my NM stamp on the bottoms.
Much better! As a bonus this adds strength and will keep the cards from sliding out if the holder is picked up. I applied two coats of Bumblechutes All Natural Wood Finish and then Bumblechutes Bee’Nooba Wax. To finish them off I added felt pads to the bottom.
They turned out great and Mom is happy!
Outfeed Assembly Table – Part 3
Time to finish this table. While part 1 and part 2 were quite involved, the rest was all about drawers. I needed to make use of the rest of the space inside the table.
First, I got to work on a cabinet next to the router station, on the front of the table. I wanted to use five sets of cheap drawer slides I salvaged from an old dresser. I had enough room for four deeper drawers, using 22″ slides. I took measurements and sketched out a plan. I had to design around the vice, which hung down below the frame of the table.
I cut a full bottom panel and some 2x4s for extra bracing. I wanted to make good use of space and have the most room for drawers on the right side of the table, so the vertical supports were made in the odd L shape again. The one on the left was cut to match up with the one from the router station.
In the middle, I needed something up top to connect to, so I cut a piece of 2×4 and would secure it in place after determining the exact width of the left drawer column. The vertical on the right needed some cut away around the vice.
Then I was able to cut all of the drawer sides, with two different depths for the different types of slides I was using. Or so I thought.
As I was going over some of my notes I realized I didn’t cut the back part of the middle and right verticals tall enough. To fix the mistake, I glued and pocket screwed on some patch pieces. I also had to recut longer sides for two drawers. From there I figured out the width of the left drawers based on the foam router bit storage tray I was using. Then I cut the fronts, backs, and bottoms for the five left drawers.
Assembly was quick with glue and brad nails.
I modified the old drawer slides with an angle grinder to remove tabs that were in the way for my use case.
I mounted the slides to the verticals for both columns of drawers. Then I was able to secure the left and right verticals to the table frame, attach slides to the left drawers, and put them in to guide the placement of the middle vertical. It got screwed in, along with the upper 2×4.
With the left column of drawers in, I figured out how wide the remaining parts needed to be for the right column of drawers and got them done. Then it was time for some drawer fronts and a false front, since the vice prevented a drawer from being installed there. This gave me a place for a recessed power strip with USB. I didn’t have enough matching handles, so I used two different styles I’ve bought at estate sales.
I filled in a few drawers.
I will never combine different drawer slides in a cabinet like this again. It was a major pain in the ass and too much to keep track of with the different mounting methods, widths, depths, and clearances. I had to adjust the placement of the old slides many times and alter some drawers. Wasn’t worth it.
The drawers for the right side of the table was much of the same and went together a lot faster. The table frame is slightly out of square, so the bottom drawer was a touch too tight and the top too loose. I had to route a recess on one and add some spacer material on the other. The handles were cut out of a test piece from the nightstands I made.
I cut a piece of shiplap paneling and closed off the back of the shelf. This leaves a little unused area in the middle back of the table. If I took out the drawers I could hide something back there. Shhh!
The saw outfeed and the huge work area are already amazing to have. This is really going to improve my processes in the shop. Here are some final photos.
Pet Waste Bag Dispenser
We use those small pet waste bags when cleaning out the cat litter and just throw the roll on a cabinet.
I’ve thought about making a holder/dispenser for quite awhile and decided to do it this weekend. I picked a piece of oak from my scrap bin to cut all of the pieces from. It was a quick, crude build. I snipped the ends off a nail for the pin and glued a couple of magnets in the bottom, since the cabinet is metal.
Does the job!
Storage for a Ryobi Framing Nailer and Narrow Crown Stapler
Quick build this weekend to expand my Ryobi tool storage wall (which moved to the new workshop) with spots for the framing nailer I got last year to build the shop wall and a narrow crown stapler I recently bought on sale.
As I’m writing this and seeing the pictures, I butt jointed the back and bottom incorrectly, which is why it’s too tall and not deep enough to match up with the old spots. Oh well!
It’s great to be back in the shop again and getting it more organized.
