Materials Cabinet

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Chase

In industry there is a line of drawer cabinets from a company called Vidmar. They can be short or tall, but are usually pretty wide and deep and super well built. Each drawer can hold hundreds of pounds, they have different divider systems, and full extension drawers. Also they tend to have fancy features that don’t let you pull out too many drawers. You could easily tip one over on yourself and cause serious injury.

In looking at my materials storage area, I have a lot of plastic bins that are organized, but maybe only half full. I have made hardware drawers in the past and love their organization and dense storage capacity. This new cabinet will be much larger and deeper and use full extension metal slides. I started with a lot of planning. I wanted to maximize the materials I used, my limited shop time, and the space available.

I had it all worked out on paper, and started with the drawers. I cut 24″ wide sheets of 3/4″ plywood and put a rabbet down two sides to make half lap drawers. All four sides of the drawers would all be the same length. This made batching easier. Routing bulk material was faster and cleaner than cutting out individual sides, then doing the routing. This was a big improvement over previous drawer efforts.

With all the sides cut, I put another rabbet along the bottom of each board for the drawer bottom. Each would get a 1/2″ piece of plywood in the recess. Probably overkill, but I want them to be able to handle a lot of weight. Eight 24×24″ drawer bottoms worked out nicely to 1 full sheet of 1/2″ ply. It was subtle, but I put a little radius on the top edges of all the drawer sides to make it easier on your hands when reaching in. They took a bit of sanding to smooth out.

I had everything figured out really precisely, and cut all the drawers at the same time to reduce error. If they went together with any kind of bows or warp, it would throw my plans off. I attached a board to my table saw to act as a square, and used the top as a large flat assembly surface. Each side got glue and nails in two directions. Nailing and gluing a half lap like this is really fast, easy, and strong. The drawer bottoms got glue and nails in from the bottom, and into the side of the bottom plywood. They were fast to assemble, and should be bomb proof!

For the drawer fronts I cut a single strip of 1/2″ plywood and aligned each front with numbers so the grain flows naturally from bottom to top.

Next came the carcass of the cabinet. Nothing special here, just a box with an open front. I had to be very precise though, if the sides crept in, I couldn’t fit my drawers, and if it got too tall, It wouldn’t fit in the right spot in my garage. I had a little squareness issue, and had to break out my biggest clamp to fix it while installing the back.

For finish I turned to my usual boiled linseed oil shop tool finish. There was so much to do I broke out a roller and tray to put it all on. I think I went through half a gallon to do the cabinet and drawers. My shop helper was sprinkling the painter pyramids all over the driveway for me to step on.

A few days later when it had all stopped smelling I started assembly. The bottom drawer was numbered, and went down with a small spacer between it and the floor. I installed the hinges, then slowly pulled out the drawer and attached the runners. With the first drawer done, I put a 1/2″ sheet of plywood down to provide proper spacing for the next drawer to sit on top of the first. The runners go on the cabinet at a set height, then the next drawer goes in for installation. That gets washed rinsed and repeated until all the drawers are in.

Next comes the home for this big fella. I put heavy casters on the bottom so I could roll it around to clean underneath or rearrange easily. It cost a little storage space, but who wants to bend down that far anyways? Here is the cabinet next to its final resting spot.

Yes it is a mess, that is why I need this cabinet. I cut out the bottom shelf and slid everything home. I had planned it perfectly. The drawers all fit, the drawer fronts align well, and the cabinet fits up to the next shelf with only a tiny bit to spare.

Gap between the top of the cabinet and the next shelf. Less than 1/8″

Drawers of this size need a good beefy handle. I employed my mill to cut a nice looking handle shape. It was a bit more of an ordeal than I thought it would be. The machine really bogged down in oak, and a number of them broke off the double sticky tape before finishing. After numerous failures I got the feeds set slow enough and incorporated a screw in the work holding.

To keep from drilling tons of holes in my waste board I made the first operation to drill a hole for my screw, then pause the program. That drill operation is quick, and doesn’t stress the double sticky tape. With the screw installed in the same space every time, I reused the hole in the waste board, and knew it would be out of the way of my cutting. The results were rough, but they worked.

Next the handle blanks got sanded, a round over, and more sanding. I figured I would make their look a little more industrial, and set to counter bore the front for a screw. Lots of stop blocking and clamping was needed for that. This would be stronger than screwing through the back, and easier to install. I like the aesthetics of it too.

Things were coming together. I needed some labeling, so I printed slots that would accept 1″ label tape without the back removed. It meant I could rearrange tags quickly without peeling anything. A little calking on the back held the holders down. I used a few pin nails to tack them in place while the calking dried. No heads on the pins means they don’t interfere with the labels sliding in from the sides.

I painted on a little linseed oil on the handles and installed each one down the center. They are comfortable, easy to use, look gorgeous, and finish off a wonderful cabinet. I should make my own handles more often. I feel like my experience and planning payed off. Other than some issues with the handles this job went off without a hitch. I have done a lot of other stuff like it before though, so I shouldn’t be making as many mistakes at this point.

I spent days pulling things out of bins and drawers, organizing, cleaning up and throwing away junk. This isn’t the final configuration, but it is close. The shelves are a lot cleaner and I still have a lot of room left in this guy. It isn’t hoarding if you use labels!

Modular Buffer Stand

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Chase

While I was building my Anvil Stand I was also building this buffer stand. I love my bench grinder stand to death, and want to have my other grinder setup as a buffer full time. I read about a chisel sharpening technique called unicorn sharpening, and it calls for a buffer. I tried it, and it worked well for me!

I made a basic box shape out of 2x8s (pricey these days) and attached them to a piece of 2×12 left over from the anvil stand as a base.

For the top I made a template out of hard board and labeled it with the orientation and hole info. Every tool base base that goes on top will have two T-Nuts embedded in them so 5/16″ bolts can come up from underneath to attach. That way you are always 2 bolts away from taking a tool off an installing a new one. I keep the template attached to the back of the stand so I can easily add new tools in the future.

Like the bench grinder stand I clad the cavity in plywood and filled it with sand. This shot is of it 2/3rd full, I had to go back to the store and get more sand because of all the filled projects I have been working on.

So I don’t have to go to the toolbox and remember which wrench is the right one every time, I made a palm wrench that fits the bolts. The bottom is rounded to make it easy to rotate in your hand for fast installing, and the outside hex shape lets you get good torque on it. A print like this can be surprisingly strong without any modifications and only 20% infill.

The buffer is all ready to go and looks great. It is weighty and stable while in use. I only have one tool attached now, but might get another grinder or buffer in the future. When I do, I’ll make another base and hang the unused tool off the side or back of the stand. Boiled linseed oil finished everything off.

Anvil Stand

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Chase

I haven’t done any armor creation or blacksmithing in a long time. That said, I still have the anvil and other tools for it. I have the anvil strapped to a piece of 2×12 that usually gets put either on the ground, or screwed to a bench for temporary use. It comes in handy for trying to tap something back together, or for banging out something. I felt after all these years it needed a proper stand at the right height.

I measured the distance from the ground to my hand while wearing my shop boots and designed a basic box structure to hold the anvil. I made the base the width and depth of the already existing wood it was attached to. No reason to re-do that, it has been very successful.

I added a foot to the base. It sticks out the front so that if I am hammering away on the front of the horn, the whole thing won’t want to tip forward. Weight and stability are what we are after. I attached it with screws and construction adhesive to make sure no sand leaks out.

When the glue from the sides and the base all dried up I filled the center cavity with sand. It is cheap, adds weight, and helps deaden vibrations. I put in a whole 50lb bag, plus some extra.

I estimate it is about 30 pounds of wood, 60+ pounds of sand, and the anvil is 55 pounds. At roughly 150 pounds, this thing ought to stay put when you smack on it. I attached the top and had a usable anvil stand.

Last but not least I added my favorite shop finish, boiled linseed oil. Cheap, effective, and pine looks great after a few years of aging with it on. This thing will look really aged by the time Ira is old enough to ask about it. Maybe I will make up some story about it being rescued from some ancient site. That should work till he notices the epoxy coated torx head screws I used to assemble it.

Spray Paint Crate

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Chase

I picked up a few extra cans of spray paint for different things I have in the works. Those added to my modest collection of paints meant I was way over capacity in my limited storage arrangement. I tossed out the old setup (which I forgot to take pictures of), and built myself a set of spray paint crates. This was a nice small project, but probably the biggest woodworking thing I have done since Ira came along. It is good to make sawdust again.

Every good shop project starts with some plywood. I had a lot of 1/2″ lying around from the toy and baby furniture days. The front, back and bottom are 1/2″ ply glued and nailed together with 1/4″ glued and nailed to the sides. It made for a pretty stout box without being too bulky or heavy. With 18 fullish cans, this thing was heavy enough.

For the front and back handles, I could have just drilled out the sides and used a jigsaw, but I wanted something repeatable and re-usable. I 3D printed a jig with a sized cutout for my hand and with a reasonable offset. There is a notch in the center so I can line it up with a mark. Not sure how often I will use this jig, but it was cheap to print, worked like a charm, and should last a long time.

With the handle cut out I rounded the corners with my corner radius template and then used my trim router to round everything over. Some quick sanding later and the handle area was smooth and comfortable.

The assembly was as mentioned before. Glue and brad nails. I eventually let that dry and put a coat of boiled linseed oil on these to make sure they stay together for a long time. They are just the right size for fitting in the bottom shelf of my paints cabinet. It need more cleanup and rearranging to get the second one in there. That calls for more shop organization!

Router Table

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Chase

While building my baby bookcase I noticed the table top on my router was not flat. The joinery was poor enough I had to go to the table saw instead. 10+ years of Florida humidity and a heavy router finally did it in. The red arrow is pointing to all the light coming out from under the straight level.

I use my router table a lot, so I wanted something nice to replace it. A full professional router table setup can cost 1,000 bucks with all the bells and whistles. I want something of decent quality, but not for that much money. I did a ton of research and finally broke down to buying a really high quality lift, and building the rest. Say goodbye to my old friend! By the way, I took the mounting plate out and tried it on my tablesaw top. It had a very distinct rock, so it wasn’t flat either.

The Top

These days my building and blogging are badly out of sync. Some short projects get posted in a week or two, and bigger ones linger for months before getting posted. This one started right about the time we were all supposed to limit our trips out to essentials only. The hardware stores are open, but I can’t call this router table essential. A broken toilet or water heater, this is not.

I normally would have gone to pickup laminate faced plywood, but instead I looked around and decided to use this big piece of butcher block counter top. Some friends were having their kitchen redone and saved it for me.

I got to cutting off a nice hunk and my saw went a little nuts. It turns out the way they clamp everything together is with screws! Lots and lots of screws. If you look at the side, they even cut through some to make the counter top the right size, and just filled the void with putty. They must make these things in massive sheets, then cut down what they need.

I took my number 5 to it and planed off all the old finish that was feeling a little gummy. It looks a lot nicer now. This is really soft pine and not as flat or as stable as I was hoping. There was some twist I couldn’t quite get out.

With the top mostly flat, I built up a set of guides to install my router lift. This part didn’t go quite as planned either. I tried to attach each piece together with pocket hole screws, but going into the plywood sideways with a screw caused it to de-laminate and bulge. I muddled through with double sticky tape and got to routing with a template bit.

Once I had a recess routed that was the thickness of the router lift top, I went through and cut out the inside area. Those pesky screws came to bite me again, my jigsaw was not happy. When it was all cutout I marked the location of the leveling set screws and soaked the area with thin CA glue to stabilize the wood. I was worried the set screws would slowly sink into this soft pine otherwise.

The top’s twist was a little evident in the fit of the router top, and the template bit’s radius was off. It turns out the lift has a corner radius of 3/4″ of an inch, and my bit is 3/4″ in diameter which yields a 3/8″ radius. I think we are going to call this a practice table top. I will eventually get a new material and make a better one. I put down a few coats of polyurethane to seal it up and give me a solid surface to wax.

Base

With the top basically finished I was able to move on to the base. Using the plywood I had available I made a 3 chambered base. The left was going to be for open storage, the center would house the router and collect most of the dust, and the right would have a set of drawers for bit storage.

I set the top down and the twist is even more evident. The bottom is really uneven, so I guess they only ever planed the top to flat-ish.

I thinned down some maple scraps and cut them up to make runners. I used a piece of hardboard as a template for the drawer side height, and it also served as a square and guide for installing the runners. I nailed and glued those in place, then hit everything with boiled linseed oil to finish.

Fence

I had some ideas about how I wanted to make a fence, but wasn’t quite sure which way to go. I was also running low on some materials, so to conserve, I just re-purposed the fence from my old router table. I added wings to make it reach out further. To hold it in place I made it go past the edges of the table, then used a little clamp paw to squeeze it down to the edge of the table.

To attach the wings I just screwed them down from underneath

It worked reasonably well, except that any time I pushed on the fence in the center, it seemed to bow outward. The system wasn’t rigid enough. I added a support across the back to help stiffen it up. That reduced the bow. Next time I will sink some tracks into the table top to facilitate more centralized clamping.

Drawers

Things were starting to come together. With the top in place and a working fence available I was able to employ it in making drawers. Nothing fancy, just some plywood sides with half lap joints and rabbeted bottoms. I added drawer fronts with rounded edges and finished everything with boiled linseed oil.

The top drawer holds my trim router and all 1/4″ shank bits. Only got this thing a month or two ago, but have found it to be an incredibly useful tool.

Next are all of my 1/2″ shank bits. They fit with plenty of space to spare. I 3D printed the holders for these because I didn’t have the right sized drill bits. A 1/2″ bit will leave a really snug fit. My next size up was a 5/8″ forstner bit. Too loose! Everything is kind of grouped and there is a lot of room left for new bits. The last drawer is empty believe it or not. Plenty of room to grow!

Finishing Touches

With the drawers set I was able to work on a few finishing touches. I moved the power switch over from the old table to the new one. This works great and will stay. There is a hole in the back for the router’s power cord to come through. I covered it with a custom 3D print cover. I put a cover over the front router cavity with magnets. It comes right off if I need to service something, but otherwise has gaps to pull air and dust through when in operation. On that cover I have two printed holders with magnets for the collet release and hex tool that runs the lift. Lastly I added a shelf to the left cavity. It holds common use accessories and a stack of different brass setup bars I cut from 12″ lengths of key stock.

I have been using this table for a few weeks and it has been working really well. The router lift was pricey, but is a dream to work with. It adjusts easily and locks down securely. The top is fine for now. The pine has already gotten dented and my install job has left some gaps. The fence clamps work well, but it flexes too much. I will take all these lessons learned and do a series of upgrades soon. For now, it is back to work on other projects.

BBQ Sign

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Chase

I have a cooking corner on the porch. It has my grill, smoker, and the griddle cook-top out there. I wanted a kind of old western style sign to help indicate the area. Blacksmithed letters and old wood are the look I was going for. I don’t do much metal work but figured I could cut some basic letters if I had to. I started by 3D printing a B and a Q in the font I wanted. The print only acted as a tracing template, but it help me set the scale of the project and pick the right wood. I started with a jigsaw, but had trouble with the sharp turns I needed.

I tried using a friend’s plasma cutter but got pretty rotten results. Also I am not very good with a plasma cutter as it turns out. I found a cheap nibbler and ended up going that route. The nibbler is a little round punch that oscillates in and out and is powered by your drill. It can start from and edge and cut a swath, or if you drill a starter hole it can do inside curve work. It is hard to get right up to a line, and often you are left with little round cutouts as shown below.

I slowly went through and cut all the pieces out. I was showered in a sea of little crescent shaped metal debris. Those things are sharp as heck! A good magnet sweep is a must for a nibbler. After the roughing pass I used a carbide bit on my dremel to take everything up to the layout lines. The final result was pretty good. Only a few errant nibbler bites were present. To help add authenticity I heated the letters up with a torch to darken them.

After the heat treatment I picked out a piece of cypress and coated everything in boiled linseed oil. The letters got drilled out at points so I could hammer them home with cut nails for the final touches. The firing and oiling got the color of the metal letters about right. As it sits outside on the porch it will continue to age and darken. Overall a pretty nice project once I got the basic metal cutting figured out.

Pallet Wood Florida

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Chase

I am not really into the shabby chic movement as a whole. I guess it is good to repurpose things, but it isn’t really my style. That said, I have seen some cool pallet art that is of different states made out of random bits of wood. I liked this idea and decided to go with it. My rock project came in on 10 pallets, so there was no shortage in available materials.

I started by using my mini projector to project a silhouette of Florida onto a sheet of butcher paper. It is such a weirdly shaped state that I had to add a little panhandle extension to the paper. I traced the shape while making simplifications for all the waterways, and cut it out.

With a serviceable template in hand I headed to the shop and set about tracing it onto a sheet of 1/2″ plywood. I wanted this to serve as the backbone of the sign. I didn’t want it to show up around the edges, so after tracing it I offset the line inwards to hide it behind the pallet parts.

With that cut I assembled pieces of pallet from my collection in the rough shape of Florida. I used the template to make sure I had enough coverage. I clamped them together and again traced the outline.

Now I can go through and trim up each individual piece to shape. It took a lot of time with a jigsaw and my spindle sander, but I got the shapes I wanted. A heavy smear of glue and a lot of pin nails holds all the pallet pieces down to the plywood I cut earlier. The plywood is recessed enough that you can’t even tell it is there from the front.

I gave everything a super thick coating of Boiled Linseed Oil and let it dry. A wire across the back acts as hanging gear where I put it up on the porch. It makes a really nice addition in the corner where I have my grill and smoker sitting.

Bandsaw Outfeed Table

Posted on May 11, 2019 by Chase

I have a project coming up that will require a long resaw cut on my band saw. Resawing is where you sit a board up on its skinny side and cut down the length. I love my bandsaw, but when it comes to doing long work the small table has left me in the lurch. The bandsaw is a tall tool so that most roller type outfeed supports don’t come close to high enough. I am going to add a removable outfeed table to the back end to help with these kinds of scenarios.

I have some phonelic resin covered plywood that makes good slick surfaces for things like this. The resin surface can chip off if hit on the edges though. I made a frame to hold the plywood, protect the edges, and give me a place to bolt too. This could have been done in pine, but I am trying to increase the quality of my infrastructure work, so I went with maple instead. I routed a groove on the router table and used my roundover templates to make the corners match on the plywood insert.

After gluing and pinning it through the side I did a careful trim with a block plane to get the outside frame and inside surface to be perfectly flush. This made fun little corkscrew shaped shavings. Now anything sliding across wouldn’t get caught on a lip or edge, and the sides of the plywood will remain protected. This is another place where hand tools make the job a lot safer and less likely to induce disasters than something with a motor would do.

With the table top complete I needed a support leg to help keep the back end from sagging. Making it screw together let me turn two short pieces of plywood into a longer one, and helped with fine tuning the outfeed level.

A hinge attaches the support leg to the under side of the table top. There was a good place for the bottom of the foot where the bandsaw base meets the cabinet it sits on. This will let the table support a decent amount of weight without sagging.

The bandsaw’s table top has two bolt holes in the back that accept M6 screws. I got some socket head cap screws and bolted the front of the outfeed into the back of the cast iron top. The back support leg keeps the rest of the table top up under load. I finished everything with boiled lineseed oil and wax.

The table is almost exactly the same width as the iron top, but doubles the total length. Now I can resaw a 3ft board without worry about it dropping off the back end. As a bonus, the outfeed table doesn’t interfere with anything behind it when pushed into its resting place. Nor does it interfere with the fence. Basically I will probably never take this off.

Maple Closet Shelves

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Chase

I am starting to mix in house projects and longer term goals along with my shop infrastructure work. We pulled all the built in organizers out of the master closet when we were renovating. It was basic white particleboard and appeared to be rather old. We cleaned up all the walls and installed brackets that supported a continuous closet rod for hanging clothes. This gave both of us ample hanging storage space. The bracket is designed to have a shelf above it. I wanted something nice, and waited until now to build it.

Actually like a lot of my projects I started this a few months back and got side tracked by other house issues. I got the only 10 foot maple boards they had at the local lumber place and went to town planing them.

Buying rough cut wood is a bit like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. In this case, some cool mineral darkening and nice figure.

This is an interesting transition project. I started it with my old Hitachi planer and ended it with my new Dewalt planer. The old planer has been donated to a co-worker that is starting to fill out his shop and could put it to good use.

With the boards cleaned and flattened I needed to work on the edges so I could joint them together in a panel glue up. I preserved the length as long as I could knowing that the ends would eventually get cut down some. Planing a 10 foot board by hand is hard work. I had to employ a helper to keep the board propped up. I haven’t had a power jointer in years, and I don’t see how it would have helped me in this situation.

After much time spent with my #7 jointer I glued the two shelves together and was ready to continue the flattening. This time with the new planer. The main reason I bought this one was because it was reviewed well, and there was an available helical cutter head for it. The two are a match made in heaven. No matter what, the thing produces a clean surface, no tearouts, and the carbide inserts will last a long time.

There is some really pretty figure in the wood. Another advantage of the new cutter head is that it makes really short shavings. You can see them wizzing around in the first stage of my dust collector window.

After a very minimal amount of sanding and clean up of the ends, I routed a round over on all the exposed edges.

With the boards in their correct shape I applied a coat of boiled linseed oil to protect the wood and give character. These will not see heavy use, so a tougher film finish shouldn’t be needed. The oil really pops out some of the birds eyes and other grain variation.

Once the oil soaked in and dried I installed the shelves. They don’t hold a lot now, but probably will as we collect junk in the future. With all the clothes in place you can barely see them. I almost wish I had used pine instead of this gorgeous wood. Oh well, it should be a good shelf for generations. The next owners certainly can’t say it was made of particle board and falling apart.

Jacked Up PushUp Bars

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Chase

I built a set of pushup bars to go with my pullup bar from early last. You grip them while doing a push up and it lets you dip down further than when using your hands on the ground. That stretches your chest and gives a harder workout. The only problem with them is that now I am flexible enough that my chest can touch the ground. Time to jack them up a bit! I started with the same 2×12 that they came from.

It turns out old ratty 2x12s can be quite beautiful if you just give them a bit of planing. Hand planing construction grade pine to make a piece of exercise equipment is probably some kind of sacrilege, but I like using hand tools when I can. Besides, sanding is just the worst!

I chopped this piece up to give two layers of material beneath each bar and glued.

All the load will be pushing down on these, so only a minimal joint is needed. 1/2″ dowels will be more than enough. You drill in one side, insert these metal plugs with a sharp point in the center, align the other part and give it a wack. The sharp points all transfer over the exact center of where you should drill to the mating part.

Some drilling, gluing, drying, and a fresh coat of boiled linseed oil later they looked smart. Well not really smart, kind of chunky really. If it were architecture I would call it brutalism. Probably fitting for a room full of kettlebells.

My beard touches easily, but my chest still has inches. This is hopefully the last raise these will need for a long while.

Kilted Craft Works

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