June 2018 Prints

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Chase

A bountiful harvest of prints this month. I had a lot of work going on in the shop, and that typically ends up producing different jigs and prints to help out.

First up, I reorganized all of my machine screws into one central organizer. To help with organization and to tell them apart I printed a screw ruler and hardware guide.

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The ruler measures screw lengths of either flat head or other style. The guide has through holes that match my common hardware styles along with examples of washers and nuts. It makes matching a random bit of hardware easier.

I do a pretty good job keeping my eye and ear protection on when in the shop. Dust masks are another thing. A lot of my tools have vacuum, but certainly not all. Most masks I have tried don’t work well with the beard and mustache, and most are pretty hot. This one works well for me. I built it a little home to prevent damage, and so I always know where it is. I feel a little like bane when I wear it.

I took a photo of it on the cutting mat, then used the lines to help design an appropriate housing shape. The hinge required a single screw and nut, and a magnet in the lid and body keep it closed. The backplane screws down so I tucked it under a cabinet with other PPE.

I had a lot of flat parts that needed holes drilled in them in the same location. Instead of marking every one I made a drill template with bushings. The bushings are sized so a particular drill bit just fits inside. It keeps the bit on location and perpendicular to the surface. They will wear out eventually, but are easy to replace. These all fit in a 5/8″ hole and have two screws to keep them in place. Once built this saved me a ton of time and increased repeatability.

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Dust collection fittings never fit. There was an article about it in one of my woodworking magazines. The guy basically threw up his hands and told the industry to get their act together. I emailed him with my solution. He said it was cool, but a workaround for an issue that shouldn’t exist. Agreed, but here is my workaround for my miter saw.

I switched to using these small bottles from woodcraft for my glue. I like them a lot better than the bottles that most glues come in. The only trick is that the little red caps blink out of existence once dropped. I did a few test prints with a segment missing to get the taper size and groove right for this one, but I think I have a winner. It is much easier to handle, harder to lose, and is more easily replaceable.

I had kind of a failed attempt at a vacuum system for degassing epoxy. I might revisit it at some point, but for now it is a defunct project. I needed to tap some polycarbonate for pipe fittings and bought a pipe thread tap. It didn’t come with any case or even pouch, so I printed one. I sprayed it good with oil to prevent rust. Hopefully stored this way it will not get lost, broken, or rust.

Bookbinding Press

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Chase

During a visit to my crafty mother, I came across a good build to support her habits. She showed me a series of bookbinding finishing presses. I am not super familiar with how they work, but they looked a lot like a moxon vise. I am planning out a moxon vise build of my own, so this would be a good learning experience and make a great gift.

Traditional books have a lot of layers of material that need gluing together. This helps keep it all clamped for various operations. The side wings let you clamp it to a table, and with it hanging over the edge, any length book can be held. The jaws will open to accept a 3″ thick book, and there are 13 inches between the screws, allowing for a very tall book. 5/16″-18 hand screws should provide plenty of clamping force. The hand screws come out, so it can be disassembled and packed into a smaller space.

I started with the backbone and dovetails. If something was going to get screwed up, it was the dovetails. I need to cut a lot for an upcoming project and I am beyond rusty. Mark, saw edges, fret away waste and pare the rest.

My dovetail transfer jig has already come in handy. The pins look pretty rotten, but they should be very structurally sound. Sorry mom!

With that taken care of I glued up two pieces for the front, and added another to the backbone. One piece was taller than the other which eventually got planed to an angle. That gives your fingers easier access to the book spine.

I assembled the dovetails and put on side wings that let you clamp this jig to any table or workbench.

When all the glue was well cured I put on a few coats of polyurethane in the hopes that bookbinding glue wouldn’t stick to it. Felt pads on the bottom should keep it from scuffing any tables. I pounded in some threaded inserts meant for wood. They should hold just fine, but to be sure I sank a few screws beside them.

To run the threaded rods in and out you are going to need a stout handle. I chopped some maple dowels down to size, drilled out for a 5/16 threaded insert, reduced the entry shoulder for a brass sleeve, then flipped it around, threaded it onto a 5/16 mandril, and smoothed out the back side.

The bare wood got multiple coats of spray polyurethane, then when cured, I epoxied the brass sleeve on the handles, and the threaded rod in place.

Dovetail Transfer Jig

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Chase

I have quite a few dovetails to cut in the upcoming months. One part of the process I always felt very weak was in the transfer of markings from one piece to another. Whether you do tails first or pints first, at some point you need to clamp the to parts together and do a transfer.

I have seen a few different variations on this idea, this is just my take. Essentially the two boards need to be held at right angles, and up against a fence that references two sides of the boards as co-planar. I don’t normally keep around extra big plywood because I don’t have the room to store it. I found out lowe’s has 1/4 sheets of “lauan grade” plywood. Not as good or as pretty as birch, but it looks stable enough for jigs, and was much cheaper.

I started by using pocket holes to join the base. together. I relieved the edges up against the fence with a plane to make sure no dust would keep the aligned boards from interfacing with the fence. A 90 degree cut of plywood made a fence/reference surface for the boards. I made sure the base was good and square before nailing in the fence. The fence only protrudes enough to act as a reliable alignment surface.

This might have been good enough, but I wanted additional assurance that it was square, and a little help lifting it up off the table. These blocks do both as well as stiffen the jig.

To demonstrate the use of this jig I have a (admittedly poorly cut) dovetail that needs transferring. The jig sits on the bench top, or could be clamped down. Adjust the two boards to be jointed until they are lined up. When set, transfer the edges of the cut dovetail to the pin board as shown. Because the jig hangs out over the edge, a really tall board could be dovetailed without issue.

This simple easy jig should be helpful in the months to come. Hopefully I reference it soon with high praises.

Belt Sander Grinding Table

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Chase

*Update* I got this thing published!

I have been wanting to move my hand tool grinding to a belt sander. My hand grinder works, but is really tough to get an accurate angle. Also despite the slow speed I have still managed to burn blades on it. Belt sanders remove material more slowly, but don’t get nearly as hot. The build is hard to explain, so I will start with the finished product.

It is essentially a small flat surface that sits on the same plane as the moving sanding belt. Because the table isn’t moving you can use your favorite honing guide jig to keep a really accurate angle.

The table is held in place with an “L” shaped piece of wood. I cut the groove on the table saw wide enough to catch the top of the sander surface, but not so wide it interferes with the moving belt.

I attached a piece of plywood to the inside of that L so that the top of the plywood would be co-planar with the top of the sander.

I took the table surface to the belt sander to cut that angled shape. It needs to conform as closely as possible to the flat top of the sander so you don’t end up grinding on the rounded section of the belt sander. I had issues with the pine sliding on the painted sander sides so I threw a few pieces of PSA backed sand paper on it to prevent the jig from sliding around. Finally a clamp keeps it all in place and very stable.

I reground a plane blade and a few chisels that needed resetting or bevel changes. The little table worked like a charm. I can go from the belt grinder to my honing stones without even taking the tool out of the honing guide!

Sharpening: Flat Back Jigs

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Chase

I don’t always build sharpening equipment, but when I do I go overboard. With a more stable work station I can get deeper down the sharpening rabbit hole and focus on doing better work. I am trying to take sharpening from an afterthought to an everyday part of my woodworking. This post’s focus is going to be on flat backs.

It is important to have flat chisel backs and for the last inch or two of your plane irons to be flat. Pushing down on a small area gives me hand cramps after a while. I always want to cut corners in this area, but need to get better. Ideally when human frailty becomes a process issue I would advocate for robotics. I am not that rich, so a helper jig will have to do.

I started with the idea of embedding some magnets in a block of wood sized right to fit in your hand. Instead I found this magjig switchable magnet. It has a lot of force when you rotate the knob and align the magnets. I thought about woodworking a handle of some sort, but printing turned out to be a lot easier.

The magnet is be better than hands even without the printed parts, but they help spread the force over a larger area of the chisel, and makes for a better handle.

I made a gif of it in action. It holds really well and lets me put downward pressure across the chisel while controlling the back and forth motion. This works well on wider chisels, narrow ones don’t take long to flatten. Added to thingiverse.

Flatening Gif

Plane blades are a lot wider and thinner. That makes the magnet option harder. This jig I found in a popular woodworking article won’t have that issue. I started with a quite lovely short piece of maple.

I used to never make a jig out of anything but the cheapest material I could find. Now I am starting to get the idea of the jigs being tough and good looking themselves. That having been said, I made a complete hack job of this slot. It was an odd size so none of my chisels quite worked. I drilled out a little pocket so my handle bolt wouldn’t spin.

A big mushroom handle on top lets me grip with the whole hand and have a lot of control and force. The slot allows for a wide range of plane blades to be clamped.

It probably isn’t the best mirror polish the back of a plane blade has ever seen, but it is hands down the best I have ever done. Plus, it is a jack plane, so perfection isn’t exactly required.

I played around with the jig for a while before applying a finish. I made a second hole on the other side to move the handle closer to the edge. That seemed to control a little better. Adjustment there might be nice in the next version. The bolt that clamps down the blade was an issue too. I could only tighten so far before the head would spin. Sometimes the blade would want to rotate. I thinned a scrap of maple and cut another pocket. Now there is wood on metal instead of metal on metal (no chance of damaging the blade), and I can tighten to my hearts content.

Lastly a touch of tung oil made everything look gorgeous. This thing will probably be black with grinding good in a month, but for now it is gorgeous.

Corner Radius Routing Jig

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Chase

Two hobbies collide as I print something super nifty for my wood habits. A cool thing you can do with router tables is apply a template onto wood, and use a templating bit to match cut. The bit has a bearing of the same diameter as the cutting edges. It rides against your template and cuts away any underlying wood that isn’t shaped like your template. Super handy, but you need a good template to start with. Enter the 3D printer.

I modeled up this little jig so that it hooks onto the edges of a board and gives an exact radius. It is hard to see given the color, but I printed a 1″ text in the bottom to note the size of the radius.

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Here is a picture of the jig fully seated, and what the resulting cut looks like. Very clean and smooth. The large circular cutout gives a lot of finger purchase so you can hold it tight and far away from the spinning bit.

One concern I had was with the material. Would the cutting friction heat up enough to melt the plastic. I did 4 cuts on a 3/4″ bit of plywood and everything looked good. If I had a hundred corners to do, I would worry. I could always upgrade to PETG.

The part is available in multiple sizes on thingiverse

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