tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21958901448743327862024-02-19T00:36:58.767-08:00Whiskey the MakerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-7192113336105252562014-12-30T11:09:00.000-08:002014-12-30T11:09:46.781-08:00Project: Restoring A Vintage Desk LampA while back my girlfriend bought a vintage desk lamp from a local Mid Century Modern store. Upon getting it home we realized it was a bit worse for wear. The base had signs of rust, the power cord was brittle, and the felt under the base was not soft anymore. Luckily the lamp cost very little.<br />
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I began by dismantling the base of the lamp, which was simple enough as it was all held together with one nut. Once I got the base apart I could see the extent of the rust. Luckily not that bad.<br />
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There was a bit of felt padding on the base of the lamp, which I definitely wanted to remove since it was so worn out that it both looked terrible and was caked in rust. I applied some Goof-Off and went to town with a razor blade scraper.<br />
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In order to treat the rust I figured picking up some "Rust Converter" would be a good choice. Nope. Bad choice. It barely worked. I was a bit surprised since I had used this stuff in the past to great effect, but oh well.<br />
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Back to the drawing board I went. I took this as an opportunity to try out my new multi-tool and sanding head. After going through the progressive grits, I was able to get rid of the rust and smooth out the metal quite a bit.</div>
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Once everything was sanded and clean, I used some rubbing alcohol on it to get any oils or residues off the metal, since I planned to either paint it or put on a clear-coat. Sure, I had some methyl-hydrate but I was too lazy to go outside to get it out of the shed.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Squeaky clean and ready for paint)</span></div>
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The threaded barrel that held the whole lamp assembly together was also a bit worse for wear, so I cleaned as much of it as I could with a stiff wire brush.<br />
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Next order of business was a new felt pad for the base. I started to cut it out, which I actually should have waited to do until later, but no harm done.<br />
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After getting my act together and choosing how I would handle the base - I selected a simple matte clearcoat. I set up a quick painting jig and got to work spraying the parts.<br />
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The power cord was beyond hope. It was dry and cracked in some places, so I repurposed a cord from a pendant lamp that I would likely never use. Also the grommet was white, and didn't fit my new cord, so I chose a simple black rubber grommet.<br />
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The next step was to attach the felt to the base. I ended up using the un-cut section of felt because once you have spray adhesive on, you don't really want to try to line up parts carefully. The excess felt could be trimmed off afterwards.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Spray adhesive is almost always a messy job)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: A quick trim and the felt is custom-fit to the base)</span></div>
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For the last bit of work, I had to wire in the new cord. For cord length, I went with 6 feet "out of the grommet" since I find a lot of lamps and most corded things don't ever give you enough cord to work with.<br />
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Wiring is not my specialty. To be quite frank it terrifies me. Sure, it's unplugged - but if you wire it incorrectly you could kill yourself when using the lamp or changing the bulb. So I spoke with a friend for advice and he told me how to wire it correctly (well, he confirmed what I already figured) so I set to work.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: All the wires are stripped and ready to be connected)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Wire nuts and electrical tape keep things connected and safe)</span></div>
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The last thing to do was to test the lamp, make sure I wired it right and didn't get a shock... and then to give the whole thing a polish and buff.<br />
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This restoration was very simple and basic, but still a lot of fun and taught me some more do's and don'ts for the future.<br />
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Thanks for reading!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-59611117582791207762014-12-28T10:30:00.000-08:002014-12-28T10:35:24.626-08:00Project: Picture Clipboard - Part 2We left off in the <a href="http://www.whiskeythemaker.com/2014/12/project-picture-clipboard-part-1.html">last post</a> with the project barely even started. In this post, we go through the rest of the steps to finish the Photo Clipboard project, just in time to give it to my sister for Christmas.<br />
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When I had rough cut the planks into smaller boards, I apparently did not cut them square (odd, since I used a speed square to guide the cuts...) so I had to line up the boards, mark a line, and cut off some excess.<br />
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Once I trimmed off the excess, I had to fine tune the cut and also smooth the end grain, so I got to try out my new low-angle block plane.<br />
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Mounting the 'photo clipboards' to the wall was something I had considered early on, I could have used a lot of different methods, I had it narrowed down to a keyhole plate, or one of those sawtooth hangers.<br />
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After mounting the keyhole hangers, and doing a test-hang, the clipboards hung a bit crooked - so in retrospect, I should have chosen the sawtooth hangers instead. But it was fun installing the keyholes and practising my chisel skills.<br />
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The planks needed to be roughed up a bit, since the corners and edges were too square and uniform. My sister wanted the rustic / well-worn look, so I got out my sander, some 60-grit paper, and went to town.<br />
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It's difficult to remember to take photos as you work, especially when sanding or painting, but I tried my best. After I had sanded the boards, I used my Shop-Vac to clean the dust off of the wood, in preparation for staining.<br />
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In order to get a nice deep tone, I left the stain on for 20 minutes before rubbing off any excess. The stain, clearcoat, and paste wax are all Minwax, so each stage of the finish would be compatible, producing a good end result. I've heard many times it's a good idea to stick to one manufacturer when finishing. (It's not a hard rule, but I seem to get good results this way)<br />
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Now that the stain is applied, I put on the satin finish clearcoat, which was fairly straightforward, I put on one coat a bit too heavy which caused drips - since I'm still not too skilled with applying finish I haven't found the best way to avoid drips yet. No big deal, I can scrape and sand afterwards.<br />
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While the clearcoat dries, I opted to modify the clips. Since the clips didn't lay totally flat, I cut one side of the clips off, which wasn't totally necessary, but I wanted to see how it would turn out. After the first clip was cut, I tested it out - it seemed to sit better than the un-cut ones, so I did the rest.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above - a quick jig helped me cut the bulldog clips)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: The modified clip next to the unmodified clip)</span></div>
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The clearcoat was finally dry - I could start assembly of the clipboards. The keyhole mounts were the first thing I installed, and then I moved on to the sanding stage.<br />
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With the clearcoat dry - the finish was dull and rough to the touch. I wanted to use multiple coats, but I was running out of time, so I stuck with one. (It was a real heavy first coat, so it would be good enough)<br />
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The boards needed a sanding, I put some 320 grit onto my random orbit sander. Sure, I could have done this by hand, but this would be faster since I was in a bit of a time crunch.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Before sanding, after sanding)</span></div>
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With the sanding done, the boards were nice and smooth, but also very dull. To complete the finish, I hand-rubbed in some paste wax with some 0000 grade steel wool. I have to say, this was the most tedious and time-consuming step of the whole process. In the end though, it was well worth it because the finish turned out really nice.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Smooth as silk, but still not too shiny)</span></div>
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Final assembly could begin since the finish is all taken care of. Now because I had cut off a portion from the bulldog clips, they didn't sit in a way where I could get my screwdriver though. I solved that by putting something between the clip to align the faces so I can get my screwdriver in.<br />
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Lastly, because the boards sit a bit crooked when hung, I solved that issue by sticking some non-slip pads to the back of the board. After installing them, I did a test hang again - they worked like a charm.<br />
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Another project finished, and just in time for Christmas! My sister seemed to like them, and now she can showcase her child's artwork for years to come.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Finished, hung, and a sample included with the new gifts)</span></div>
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This build was a lot of fun, and deriving inspiration from one idea and making changes to make that idea your own is part of what makes 'making' a fun process. Stay tuned for more posts and more projects!<br />
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-NelsonUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-73661985319873522562014-12-27T21:44:00.000-08:002014-12-27T21:44:14.975-08:00Project: Picture Clipboard - Part 1My sister had sent me a link asking if I was able to make this "<a href="http://lovegrowswild.com/2013/08/diy-photo-clipboards/" target="_blank">photo clipboard</a>" that she found on a DIY blog. Her intention would be to use it to display her sons artwork around her house.<br />
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After thinking about it and how I would make it, I set out and tried to source materials. The toughest thing to find out of the project was the bulldog clips. Most of the hobby stores or places where you would assume you could find them around town did not sell them. But I managed to find some eventually.<br />
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The backer board was easy enough. I was planning to use some reclaimed wood (or up-cycled, since that's also technically what it would be) but in this case I found a nice pine board at a local big box store, and it wasn't too expensive. The figure was really nice, and there were no knots, which is why I went with it.<br />
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The construction is straightforward. I was cutting up a 2 x 12 for another project, and since I had my tools out I cut up the pine 1 x 12 as well. I cut it into 14"-ish long pieces, which left me a tiny bit extra for scrap/maybe some other project.<br />
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After I cut the board down, I put a piece of standard letter paper back onto the board, centered it, and clipped the bulldog clips to the paper - this helped me align where the clips would mount. I marked the location of the clips with an awl, and drilled some small pilot holes.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Opted for a #6 x 5/8" screw)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Pilot holes help prevent splitting, even in soft wood)</span></div>
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There was a good reason for using that size of screw - so my screwdriver could fit through the holes in the bulldog clip to drive the screw. If I had gone for another size screw, I would have had a heck of a time getting a good purchase on the head of the screw to drive it. I could have used nails, but I tend to avoid them.<br />
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Once I had the bulldog clips mounted, I could slip in a piece of paper to get a good idea of how it would look. The paper centers nicely, and the clips sit fairly flush to the wood. I might consider cutting off one side of the bulldog clip - to make it more of a true 'clipboard style' - but I'm not certain I'll do that yet.<br />
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Since everything fit fairly well, it was time to focus my attention on the wood again. My sister likes the whole 'rustic' thing, so I figure I'll give that a go. I wanted to treat the edges with a 1/4" roundover bit in my router, but that would be too clean and uniform.<br />
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But that's all for now, I'll finish it off in the next article!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-52473197365598165582014-12-08T07:33:00.000-08:002014-12-08T07:33:41.146-08:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Building the Legs + Finale!This is it folks, the final build post and this project is finished! But what did it take to get there?<br />
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For the base/legs of the desk, I discussed a few options with my girlfriend and we landed on the somewhat popular iron/steel pipe legs. I had seen them used in a few places and always liked how it was a marriage of hard and soft, metal and wood, light and dark, and I was curious how it would work out, and what the technical aspects were to making it happen.<br />
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To start, I needed the pipes, unions, nipples, flanges, etc... the tricky part was deciding between 1/2" and 3/4". Due to pricing and availability of materials, the obvious choice was 1/2". After a trip to Home Depot, I had most of the materials needed to get started.<br />
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With a portion of the legs roughed up, I could get some more measurements and plan for the additional pipe I would need to purchase.<br />
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For some reason I had thought that the folks at Home Depot had the facilities to cut custom length pipe and even thread it. Boy was I wrong. They did not, so I had to buy the closest approximate lengths of pipe. I was kind of furious at this point, since I didn't plan for this.<br />
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After getting the pipes, and some time with the tape measure, I sketched out the general plan and finalized lengths and required cuts. Six pipes needed cutting, which wasn't too bad - all things considered. Knowing what I know now, I would have mounted the inserts to the underside of the desk after the fact.<br />
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With a cut list done, I made use of my Dad's workspace. It's older than me I think. But it has a sturdy bench, and an even sturdier vise. This was perfect for the work I had ahead of me.<br />
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So with a coarse hacksaw blade, and loads of blade tension, I began to make all my cuts - which was a lot of work as I suspected. I could have used a sawzall and a metal cutting blade, but that's likely to cause a lot of inaccuracy.<br />
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Six pipes cut, and it's on to getting some new threads cut. This started with de-burring the pipes - and I would later find out that I would have to file into the ends of the pipes quite a bit to get the thread cutter started.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEW2K1svLRo2KB-11FjgMqC3KNRlaEUXZYuXBOkdxw3y71Pw5VsUdqqEa5yfkXAv0Dnxa0AEOHBnQCSCGAKXDigZjpJPHefsokkHCeynz203r6W4BVFBFtljqtR0IMq7hfRvP59r0G4hA/s1600/IMG_2048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEW2K1svLRo2KB-11FjgMqC3KNRlaEUXZYuXBOkdxw3y71Pw5VsUdqqEa5yfkXAv0Dnxa0AEOHBnQCSCGAKXDigZjpJPHefsokkHCeynz203r6W4BVFBFtljqtR0IMq7hfRvP59r0G4hA/s1600/IMG_2048.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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The pipe threading was interesting, had a tough learning curve, and I had to break out the serious tools... which my Dad luckily had. I swear that man owns every tool imaginable.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxe8ELu2sEaxuNh9lasOYM1kwCo9xIYBjcaE4xdGOAOUzyrqKqDfRIPbonDSkXpCT9DdDInw4h8uFm93LrlDsfrXdgcg_xeMDqH7NveEygLg2kvRyk1PvOViXYoOeIJAkP_X3abSuyLM/s1600/IMG_2050+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxe8ELu2sEaxuNh9lasOYM1kwCo9xIYBjcaE4xdGOAOUzyrqKqDfRIPbonDSkXpCT9DdDInw4h8uFm93LrlDsfrXdgcg_xeMDqH7NveEygLg2kvRyk1PvOViXYoOeIJAkP_X3abSuyLM/s1600/IMG_2050+(2).JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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The pipes started to slip when I was using the bench vise - and surprise, my Dad owned a pipefitters stand, which had better clamping and leverage for the work ahead of me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipayziTJR7193PGvQycJFLhyMdKkg0jjXsBF-J8WrAK9T9-_m4FSGHyIDNszD4r60s3bZEjE45HzqopJVE65x365VebwAKKtTmk7Jr5S_epXpZCGeo-F2mI-GyuGX6vgSNbJaEiSyrcyg/s1600/IMG_2051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipayziTJR7193PGvQycJFLhyMdKkg0jjXsBF-J8WrAK9T9-_m4FSGHyIDNszD4r60s3bZEjE45HzqopJVE65x365VebwAKKtTmk7Jr5S_epXpZCGeo-F2mI-GyuGX6vgSNbJaEiSyrcyg/s1600/IMG_2051.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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After a lot of trial and error (and even more cursing, and sore muscles) I had the new threads cut and cleaned up. But as you can see, I had excess file marks on the pipes, which looked terrible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1o6qHBVJ2ikyOEKOlsoR_o595KoRJWywl-ZqwB72jvWnUszxliRliSbR23hDJvlb11md9MKv74ygNt4rj6NMUyPcsyIV0qScGq2mxN2l0yFOvQcXkeM0En7JsAgvYWaYgj9GQ0TWC8U/s1600/IMG_2052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1o6qHBVJ2ikyOEKOlsoR_o595KoRJWywl-ZqwB72jvWnUszxliRliSbR23hDJvlb11md9MKv74ygNt4rj6NMUyPcsyIV0qScGq2mxN2l0yFOvQcXkeM0En7JsAgvYWaYgj9GQ0TWC8U/s1600/IMG_2052.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Since the coating on the pipes were inconsistent from one manufacturer to the next, I chose to sand off the coating for all the pipes, and clean up the file marks I had made. This proved to be a very long and messy and strenuous job.<br />
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The end result on the other hand, was some decent looking pipe. But now they were too bright.<br />
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And now it was time to test fit the assembly of the legs and how they would fit to the table flange plates. I had to remove the table flange plates to get it all assembled and mounted, but it all fit!<br />
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Of course, now I had two issues... first - the pipes definitely were too bright, second - the table is a bit too tall... almost 2 inches too tall.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ScZbpgl6d4dY5X88G42zye9XQOKZEtdNzHqd_xcWJvfkq5TpgfKdSIcrevPPrRdzA-uAcL1n0FGSUG-TkN6ZER3tAwCrRi6zfGygl9zmJFunQ0Vjmn5iZoNYG5Jv9LirXrQbw_zaVt8/s1600/IMG_2058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ScZbpgl6d4dY5X88G42zye9XQOKZEtdNzHqd_xcWJvfkq5TpgfKdSIcrevPPrRdzA-uAcL1n0FGSUG-TkN6ZER3tAwCrRi6zfGygl9zmJFunQ0Vjmn5iZoNYG5Jv9LirXrQbw_zaVt8/s1600/IMG_2058.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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After showing the desk to my girlfriend - she was happy with the height, and the color of the legs - so I can keep things as they are. Now it's a matter of finishing up a couple small details.<br />
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The metal flanges are a bit rough, and can scratch flooring if they are left as-is. So that is one item that needs to be sorted out before final delivery. Another issue is the pipes might loosen over time, which could cause a serious wobble. I want the desk to feel solid, so this is also something I will need to figure out.<br />
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For the flanges that touch the floor, I searched Home Depot for some felt padding. I found sheets of it that would require cutting, which would not be ideal. My girlfriends keen eye found some 3" diameter round felt pads. We walked them over to the plumbing aisle and confirmed they fit the flanges - they did - so that was an easy purchase. One final item on the shopping list was some Loc-tite red.<br />
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Installing the felt pads to the flanges was a simple affair. I cleaned off any residue from the metal with some solvent, then heated up the flanges and felt pads with a hair dryer - and stuck the pads on.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif01xPfV988KEGJyGt3Vo87HuFhdJShVrCDDxjH90XRwIHKq5PGzz3VZPI2I2H6-vNFS6ihIPA8v_Vs1BpCkyFzQfmDBfWwkfh8GNFwA3ULkz78ZambzrQ-EYpH5tiQz-jsc5ZPM4908U/s1600/IMG_1481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif01xPfV988KEGJyGt3Vo87HuFhdJShVrCDDxjH90XRwIHKq5PGzz3VZPI2I2H6-vNFS6ihIPA8v_Vs1BpCkyFzQfmDBfWwkfh8GNFwA3ULkz78ZambzrQ-EYpH5tiQz-jsc5ZPM4908U/s1600/IMG_1481.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Talk about luck, that fit is perfect)</span></div>
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And the final step - taking apart the whole desk frame - and treating all the threads to some Loc-tite. I treated almost all the threads to the Red Loc-tite, so they wouldn't move - however I wanted the feet to be a bit adjustable in case the floor isn't level, and the back bar/brace would need to be removable as well. In this case I would use Blue Loc-tite on those threads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBrb6cMPPf1ibgxiColAuB0Y_HQxLj6eXWL-A_xXBq3JnYt-8rGWHUPqthXfM0Tf1qX5AHhDWB-W00yJCRfKQygg08RnlqG47qwLZaYNneYhOx_hW4RfODrfu-kCLOb3iGvPzW3vaGrI/s1600/IMG_0003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBrb6cMPPf1ibgxiColAuB0Y_HQxLj6eXWL-A_xXBq3JnYt-8rGWHUPqthXfM0Tf1qX5AHhDWB-W00yJCRfKQygg08RnlqG47qwLZaYNneYhOx_hW4RfODrfu-kCLOb3iGvPzW3vaGrI/s1600/IMG_0003.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3zBYna-lrdX_KFE9tpQ1dn3sL1aaDh7qDW8BBFW4WxiI2UAcIY4YW8i4jXkD3c6VQPrT0gZynXOYRq4fWMXqTLGhWxevxOozgEpHdpg8kIfNRzT44rsJ78TIczfIHwKnirDfLkyMUb8/s1600/IMG_20141205_232233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3zBYna-lrdX_KFE9tpQ1dn3sL1aaDh7qDW8BBFW4WxiI2UAcIY4YW8i4jXkD3c6VQPrT0gZynXOYRq4fWMXqTLGhWxevxOozgEpHdpg8kIfNRzT44rsJ78TIczfIHwKnirDfLkyMUb8/s1600/IMG_20141205_232233.jpg" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Once everything was secure, the desk could be brought over to my girlfriends place, reassembled, and enjoyed. I designed it in a way where it could be easily packed and transported - like Ikea but not as flimsy as most of the things from Ikea.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVjY8AjcqzWtSqP0UAnszH1C1z2OasqoFMMBoiAnS5odHb0Q45r0y8AbJ2z6lmcVoecUtUKMBJKRP_Ot6OyWQ94m5MpBeZX7aW5-LU6AYjqGlagHhQQsi6TYX3Tnj3OiCIc6Ev_VRhPQ/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVjY8AjcqzWtSqP0UAnszH1C1z2OasqoFMMBoiAnS5odHb0Q45r0y8AbJ2z6lmcVoecUtUKMBJKRP_Ot6OyWQ94m5MpBeZX7aW5-LU6AYjqGlagHhQQsi6TYX3Tnj3OiCIc6Ev_VRhPQ/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Packed flat and ready to transport)</span></div>
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Getting the desk to my girlfriends place was a simple affair, then I unpacked it and put it together. I used a "90" (ish) degree adapter on my drill to feed the mounting 1/4-#20 screws in most of the way, and I gave them a final tightening by hand afterwards.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I used a drill because I'm lazy)</span></div>
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And here is the desk all set up and in it's final resting spot. The floor was very out of level since it's a basement suite, but the great thing about using pipe and flange legs - they're adjustable, so I was able to get the desk leveled up easily.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72zlk8VoRXrNd8aBbu5pJVXoWcPDhdgBKH9whrS6yUbk4649GESDKEMmHW9Lrk2MJGe52MOmP4W4uiZjVnj4FuDQKKa9Qv34k4uurf9Yp81viw749qjXv3VPMieAGCTfE_zapG5Su1aA/s1600/IMG_0021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72zlk8VoRXrNd8aBbu5pJVXoWcPDhdgBKH9whrS6yUbk4649GESDKEMmHW9Lrk2MJGe52MOmP4W4uiZjVnj4FuDQKKa9Qv34k4uurf9Yp81viw749qjXv3VPMieAGCTfE_zapG5Su1aA/s1600/IMG_0021.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Cat inspected - cat approved)</span></div>
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Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoyed reading about this as much as I enjoyed building it.<br />
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On to the next project!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-69509625656318177842014-12-02T08:52:00.002-08:002014-12-02T08:52:52.427-08:00Followup: Custom Foam Systainer Tool HolderIn my <a href="http://www.whiskeythemaker.com/2014/11/project-custom-foam-systainer-tool.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> I had made a custom foam insert for my Milwaukee drill/driver set into a <a href="http://www.tanosus.com/000/En/Home.html" target="_blank">Tanos Systainer 2</a>.<br />
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Since that post I had added one more battery to my collection (the <a href="http://www.milwaukeetool.ca/accessories/batteries-and-chargers/48-11-2402" target="_blank">"extended capacity" battery</a> for the M12 system) - so I needed to adjust the foam for the new battery. Luckily the layout afforded me the room to do this, but I needed to move a few things around to do it.<br />
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My original layout looked like this:<br />
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After making the adjustments, cutting out a little more foam, moving some things around, and getting it all fit nicely, the end result looked like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX4wkCI5Ktzyt9T7hi2x_F1EOVTxkfGuHiD8rN6CirkPumMhK7ZVVxTgUUoCzxyfj9ySUWUQjH7G_c8xUl42EUpXlPcgMXyIrpTlMnJBlUGTxUW5BG9YxQMXV4I54U3-A-pODuvfw2HAc/s1600/new+insert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX4wkCI5Ktzyt9T7hi2x_F1EOVTxkfGuHiD8rN6CirkPumMhK7ZVVxTgUUoCzxyfj9ySUWUQjH7G_c8xUl42EUpXlPcgMXyIrpTlMnJBlUGTxUW5BG9YxQMXV4I54U3-A-pODuvfw2HAc/s1600/new+insert.jpg" height="375" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Small changes - but fits a lot of stuff)</span></div>
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Previously I had used the 'construction adhesive' to mate the two sheets of foam together.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicqej4W13aLd-PUfFIK0oCYtCrAxJcixieoKTB24jCh59QdOBc37i1ljdGebhQ-xnevL7XrDkkdgUcmLtY7Z9xnj7YPaoTaTt938c9egzJNr-UxQ_kC-JIY-gt-aiCFbk8ZUL0pdmuyqY/s1600/IMG_1431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicqej4W13aLd-PUfFIK0oCYtCrAxJcixieoKTB24jCh59QdOBc37i1ljdGebhQ-xnevL7XrDkkdgUcmLtY7Z9xnj7YPaoTaTt938c9egzJNr-UxQ_kC-JIY-gt-aiCFbk8ZUL0pdmuyqY/s1600/IMG_1431.JPG" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Worst. Glue. Ever.)</span></div>
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After cutting out more foam from the insert - I realized that adhesive was a terrible choice. Why? It never hardened. When I cut out a cube of foam - the glue was still wet. This made a huge mess, and was a pain to clean up after the fact.<br />
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In retrospect, I should have used slow-set hot glue for this instead, or spray-adhesive since you let it 'dry' first before mating the two pieces. Live and learn I suppose.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-84339191962998176792014-11-21T08:19:00.001-08:002014-11-21T08:19:50.067-08:00Project: Custom Foam Systainer Tool HolderOrganizing tools is almost a never ending job for most of us. Even if you have a large workspace with the best organization systems available, unless you're seriously devoted to putting everything back immediately after use - you're bound to have a few tools laying around now and then.<br />
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Over the years I have collected a number of tools, and am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by them. The plan as it stands is to donate some of my unused or duplicate tools to a local non-profit maker space for kids, and whittle down my assortment of tools to a more manageable size, keeping mostly things I need with a few things that I don't really need.<br />
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After doing a lot of research about toolboxes, storage systems, and the like - I ended up gravitating towards the German-designed-and-made <a href="http://www.tanosus.com/000/En/Home.html" target="_blank">Tanos Systainers</a>. They are durable, robust, work very well together as a system, modular, and very flexible.<br />
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The folks over at <a href="https://www.festool.com/Pages/index.aspx" target="_blank">Festool </a>have been using them exclusively to house their power tools, and while Festool goods are very much outside of my budget - the idea of well packed tools in Systainers stuck with me.<br />
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So I popped down to Lee Valley and snagged a few Systainers, and some "Kaizen-style" foam. (<a href="http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/Kaizen-Foam-p13435.htm" target="_blank">Kaizen foam</a> is an exclusive brand to Fast Cap, the stuff Lee Valley carries in limited stock is similar)<br />
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The project started by laying out the tools in such a way where they made the most out of the space, and made the most out of the least foam. The foam was inexpensive, but I prefer to not waste what I don't have to.<br />
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Thankfully Lee Valley had templates specifically for Systainers, so I cut those out, and traced the pattern onto the foam.<br />
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The Systainers have some odd shaping inside, so there were two patterns, one for the bottom of the box, and one for middle layers. I cut out the pattern into the foam, and checked the fit as I went, making adjustments along the way (and adjusting the pattern, which I found out wasn't perfect.)<br />
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After the foam was cut, it was time to draw the cut lines into the foam. This is where the Fast Cap 'needle nose' marker pen came in handy. I placed the tools in the layout I liked, and traced around them with the marker, which resulted in a pretty close outline to the layout of the tools.<br />
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After spending a good amount of time cutting out the foam (of which I didn't photograph, I was too focused on cutting everything correctly) - I did a test fit of the tools in the foam. They seem to fit nicely, which was good news.<br />
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Now came the part where planning ahead would have been a good idea. The foam sheets are stacked, the bottom sheet and the middle sheets needed to be adhered together to make the cut-outs more stable. But what glue should I use? Hot glue is out. Wood glue? Nah. I had two options (with the adhesives I had at home) - CA glue, or 'construction adhesive' - I opted for the latter.<br />
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In the end, I also used the CA glue as well because it held better, and tightened up the edges nicely.<br />
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Once everything was glued together, I wanted to make use of some of the excess space in the foam, and since I had some bits that never really had a home in my toolbox, and I didn't want to lose - I made provisions for storing those with my drills.<br />
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The charger cord also needed more room, so I made a cutout in the base layer foam for it (as you can see in the picture above). Things are starting to shape up nicely. The construction adhesive takes forever to dry, so I had to wait a while until I could get everything put nicely into the Systainer.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Almost ready to go)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I made a custom label for the Systainer)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: In the box and ready to go!)</span></div>
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For about an hour worth of work, I'm very happy with the end result. This will keep my tools organized, safe, easy to transport, and I'll always know where they are. Now I just have to do the same thing with the other Systainers and my miscellaneous power tools.<br />
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Thanks for reading!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-16349305169163488702014-11-18T09:26:00.000-08:002014-11-18T09:26:19.505-08:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Sanding, Sealing, and InsertsWhen we last left off, the desktop was still somewhat rough, but in a good state for finishing. Normally people don't much like finishing work - and I can understand why. It's a lot of repetitive tasks, and a lot of waiting. Sand, sand, sand, paint, wait, sand, etc...<br />
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With that being said, I got to sanding. I started with the usual 80 grit, to knock off the roughness and the epoxy residue off the top and bottom of the desk. Switching to 100 then 120 was a bit of overkill but it also provided a nicer transition between grits. I climbed to 180 grit, and finally settled on 220 grit. As for the carcass/bottom side of the desk, I stopped at 120 grit.<br />
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I felt the 120 for the bottom was smooth enough, plus it let me spend more focus on the top. One thing I like about sanding is once you get into a groove, it's almost meditative in a way. Either way, I enjoyed it (except for the hand sanding, I never like hand sanding)<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I might have a sandpaper hoarding problem)</span></div>
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Now that the desktop was sufficiently smooth, I applied some Danish Oil. That was a huge mistake on my part. Why? Because I realized after that I wanted to apply a mild stain. The Danish Oil blocked most of the stain from getting into the wood. So the desk didn't turn out nearly as dark as I would have liked. Such is life, and lesson learned.<br />
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This was my first attempt at using anything besides wipe-on polyurethane, so it was a learning experience. I opted to use all Minwax finishes, since it's generally suggested to stick with one 'brand' if you are using multiple finish types.<br />
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After the wood stain fiasco, I gave it a very light scouring with some "0" steel wool, and broke out the polyurethane. For the poly finish, I chose semi-gloss, and this was my first go with foam brushes - since they seem to handle more predictably compared to bristle brushes. (And I don't have to worry about cleaning.)<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Very happy with the overall finish in the end)</span></div>
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I sanded by hand with 220 between coats, and before the final coat I hit it with "0000" steel wool. I didn't put too much effort clearing the polyurethane dust after sanding either because I read somewhere with a matte or semigloss finish, the dust actually helps dull the finish. And that seemed to work.<br />
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The pipe flanges I selected for the base were proving to be problematic. The screw holes were large, and tapered. The closest size I could come up with was a #12 or #14 wood screw. And that was a problem.<br />
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Wood screws of that size are common, unless you want them short. Like, 1 1/8" short (which was about as long as I could go without poking a hole into the other side of the desk - which would ruin the project.) After some research, I opted for the threaded insert route.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Flanged threaded inserts and 1/4-20 screws)</span></div>
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A quick trip to Lee Valley and a few bucks later, I had my inserts. Except the inserts were too long, and by the time I figured that out Lee Valley was closed until Monday... so I had to cut them, and yeah - myself in the process.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: 24 tpi hacksaw blades are still pretty sharp)</span></div>
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This project now contains both blood and sweat. No tears yet. (There's still time for that) On with the installation of the flanges!<br />
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The flanges would be about 1 1/4" inches from the sides of the desk. I also had to tape off my drill bit to go only 1" deep. Again, I didn't want to be shooting a drill bit through the desk and ruining the whole thing. I took careful measurements, marked everything with an awl, punched the centerpoints for the holes, and it was time for some drilling.<br />
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The original thought was I would use a pilot hole with a small bit, then the full size bit. It was at this point I remembered I own a forstner bit set, which would be a better choice. Flat-bottomed holes, and no need to pre-drill a pilot hole, the forstner bits were the obvious choice.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Forstner bits to the rescue!)</span></div>
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With the holes drilled for the inserts - I could work on installing the threaded inserts. I mixed up some two-part epoxy and coated the insides of the holes before threading in an insert. These were relatively easy to install, since the underside of the desk is pine - so the threads cut in easily.<br />
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With the epoxy dry, I could check the 1/4-20 screws that I bought. The nice part about those screws? They matched with the holes on the flange plates quite nicely.<br />
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And they fit! The flange plates installed like a dream, held on nicely, and everything lined up great. I made sure to take a lot of care to measure, measure some more, check for square, and be careful through the entire process, since there isn't really an undo button.<br />
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Thanks for reading, and the next (and final!) article will detail building the legs/frame, and putting it all together!<br />
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Stay tuned for the final installment of this build!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-79975060104925894822014-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:002014-11-17T08:52:21.765-08:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Edging and Details<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Now that the top was at a reasonable state and the edges were fairly square, it's time to move onto the next step - installing the edging. Because the reclaimed wood was glued on top of a piece of pine, you could see the two different woods, which I didn't want. I wanted to showcase the old/reclaimed barnwood. </div>
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I started by cutting strips to size and gluing up one edge plus some overhang. </div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I cut some thin strips for the edging)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I started out gluing one piece of edging down)</span></div>
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The reason I glued the first edges with an overhang is so I could flush-trim the overhang to provide an even edge for the rest of the glue-up. </div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Flush-trimmed the excess)</span></div>
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It was slow progress, because I had to wait for glue to dry after gluing down one piece of edging at a time, trimming excess, making sure things fit, trimming more when needed, and so on. </div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: You can never have enough clamps)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Trimming more pieces to fit)</span></div>
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Once that was finished, I then had to trim more 'overhang' - I actually could have made an easier setup for my router, but I was being lazy and doing it the dangerous way.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: One word - unsafe.)</span></div>
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Doing it the dangerous way left me with mediocre results, but I'd be doing more sanding so I was okay with this for now. In the future, I'll do it the right way. </div>
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Once all the edging was on and routed flat, I realized I didn't like how 'thick' the edging looked, so I grabbed a power planer (since my Fathers' power planer was no longer functional) - and thicknessed the edging a bit.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Reasonable results for a 'budget' tool)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I made sure I clamped on a chip-out board for the end grain)</span></div>
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Now that I had the edging thicknessed, this was a good opportunity to give it a 1/8"th roundover to break the hard edge. Sure, I could have used one of my many planes, but I needed to practice my router skills, since it's a tool I use very infrequently.</div>
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The roundover turned out okay, the bit dug in a bit too much in spots, mostly due to the uneven surface of the wood. (I'm calling the uneven surface a 'feature' now.) </div>
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The edging wood I used was severely cupped, bowed, and even twisted. I mitigated as much of that as I could by cutting the boards to thinner strips, but you can't always get it all. I planed what I could a swell, but I didn't notice that the mating edges were not square. Oops. So that left a small gap between the desk and the edging on the underside of the desk.</div>
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Epoxy to the rescue. Aaaaaand since the top of the desk still had some minor imperfections, I filled those with epoxy too. This time I sprung for better epoxy, instead of those tiny $5-8 tubes that have maybe 0.5oz of epoxy in them.</div>
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That's all for this round. What I have left on my plate is as follows:</div>
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<li>Finish sanding of the top and bottom</li>
<li>Apply dutch oil</li>
<li>Apply stain</li>
<li>Apply many layers of polyurethane clear coat</li>
<li>Install bolt inserts</li>
<li>Build the pipe frame</li>
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Stay tuned for more, we're almost done!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-82851841402623414582014-11-10T10:31:00.000-08:002014-11-10T10:31:32.976-08:00Project: Quick Trinket HolderThe greatest source for inspiration when it comes to woodworking projects has been my girlfriend. Recently she had asked me to make her a holder for a handmade glass trinket she bought on a recent trip. She told me it didn't have to be fancy, and basically asked for 'a chunk of wood with a hole in it'.<br />
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After toying around with different ideas (including getting an off-cut of birch and just drilling a hole in it) - I came up with a basic idea:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsNCTrXUVj2EwX0A6lOdtsZ_1eeVx2d6calM3dZJGf5Jb-PsNfdMbvyqMOwXGe95d56Bjw1FLz_0BoAXHT8N0cDohFIbViWSvq9KfhGJBl0YigNU_k4a1feBirhntiUeLjnt3OLETt4g/s1600/IMG_20141105_215026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsNCTrXUVj2EwX0A6lOdtsZ_1eeVx2d6calM3dZJGf5Jb-PsNfdMbvyqMOwXGe95d56Bjw1FLz_0BoAXHT8N0cDohFIbViWSvq9KfhGJBl0YigNU_k4a1feBirhntiUeLjnt3OLETt4g/s1600/IMG_20141105_215026.jpg" height="533" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Not terribly elegant, but it could work)</span></div>
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After showing my girlfriend the general idea, she seemed to like it so I went ahead and started construction. However, I made a few modifications to the original design. (More specifically, I totally redesigned it)<br />
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I had a tiny bit of scrap Baltic birch plywood left over, and some 5/8" dowel that I ended up buying and not using for another build. So with that I cut off some of the dowel, trimmed up the plywood, and drilled some holes.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Can you guess where this is going?)</span></div>
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I drilled through one of the dowels, and partially drilled into the second dowel - which would allow the trinket to slip through one piece of dowel, and be cradled by the lower piece of dowel.<br />
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I then countersunk the holes I made in the plywood for the dowels, and the holes I made for the mounting screws. A small application of wood glue to the backs of the dowels, and a couple #6 screws later - the dowels were secure. To make sure everything lined up, I slipped a stirrer through the holes in the dowels.<br />
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Some light sanding, and a test fit and the holder looked like it would do the trick.<br />
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As a side note - the whole 'laser print / acetone label transfer' thing I've seen on Youtube - did <b>not</b> work for me.<br />
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Upon visiting my girlfriends place, she decided where she wanted it to hang, without her cat being able to get at it, but a place she could see it. A couple of wood screws later - here we are!<br />
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And in case you were wondering, the trinket in question is a handmade glass stalk of wheat. I left it unfinished - I like the way the raw wood looks.<br />
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Thanks for reading!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-76579259758439994502014-11-04T08:15:00.001-08:002014-11-04T08:15:24.195-08:00Project: Quickie Screwdriver RackRecently I acquired a new set of <a href="http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70227&cat=1,43411,70372" target="_blank">Wera Kraftform Plus</a> screwdrivers from Lee Valley. Before that I had a mismatched set of screwdrivers that I had cobbled together over the years, and while they did the job, it was time to put them out to pasture.<br />
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Now, the Wera screwdrivers actually came with a holder, and it does the job just fine. With two exceptions in my case, one of which is I have 8 Wera drivers, and the holder maxes out at 7, also it doesn't fit into my <a href="http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=69820&cat=1,43326,64664" target="_blank">Tanos Systainer toolbox</a>.<br />
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Since I had some 1/4" Baltic Birch project plywood left over from a project that I never started, I decided to make a simple rack to fit the screwdrivers nicely into my Sys-toolbox.<br />
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I started out by getting the dimensions of the inside of the toolbox, and the longest length of the longest screwdriver (the #3 Robertson, in this case) - and then I did a layout of the drivers, grouping them together while conserving space.<br />
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After the initial design, I transferred the marks with a punch onto the plywood, and got to drilling some holes for the drivers. And then for some reason I broke out my forstner bit set and drilled some more holes. I call them "speed holes" - or just a way to make the rack a tiny bit lighter in the toolbox.<br />
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After throwing some wood chips around, I broke out the jigsaw and cut out the panels I'd need. Now, a table saw would technically work for this, but would be horribly unsafe. A bandsaw would be ideal, but I don't have access to one at the moment. So a jigsaw and being very careful would be my way to go.<br />
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After drilling all my holes I did a quick dry-fit of the sides and check the holes to make sure the drivers all fit. I had to do some adjusting with a round file in the holes, and with my mini-plane to eke a little bit of wood off the panels to get a perfect (well, <i>near</i> perfect) fit.<br />
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Once that was done, it was time for glue. Any excuse to use my Bessey clamps really... it was a bit unwieldy, but in the end it worked.<br />
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Now that the glue was dry, it was time to check to make sure it was sturdy, and to check final fit. And this is where I realized something...<br />
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Sure, it looked fine. But the problem with this setup is that the handles would wobble around easily, which is irritating, and could cause damage-over-time to the holes. So I came up with an idea to put one more 'brace' about midway in the holder.<br />
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Problem with that idea - I didn't have much plywood left. I had a couple narrow strips that wouldn't fit. Then I remembered I own glue, and lots of clamps... don't have the right size panel? Make your own!<br />
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With that problem solved, I cut the new panel to size, made some more adjustments with my mini plane, and drilled the corresponding holes for the screwdrivers. Then it was time for another glue-up.<br />
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Okay, that totally worked, and the handles no longer wobbled. Design on the fly. Since I had a tiny bit of plywood left, and I was kind of looking for an excuse to keep working on this - I made a couple corner braces to make sure the whole structure was sturdy. I also had to make a corner block to make clamping easier.<br />
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At this point, it was getting late in the day - time to call it quits for now. I did a final test fit of the screwdrivers - and checked how it all fit into the toolbox - a bit snug. To finish this project off - I'll drag out my Dad's old belt/disc sander - and give this tool holder a quick little sanding to correct the fit. After that, a little hand-sanding and a coat or two of wipe-on polyurethane.<br />
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Of course, now I want to make holders for the rest of the loose hand tools in my toolbox. Maybe another day.<br />
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Thanks for reading!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-31415686847528397912014-10-30T10:52:00.000-07:002014-10-30T10:52:00.568-07:00Project: Mud Room BenchEvery so often people ask me if I can make stuff for them. Nine times out of ten I end up turning them down (mostly due to time restraints, or the lack of a workshop). In this case I was asked if I could build a bench for my sisters mud room.<br />
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Since I'm a little better outfitted now to do a variety of different joinery methods / finishing / etc, I agreed to do the project. With some conditions... the project would be completed 'as I have time' - and the majority of the supplies would be provided to me beforehand.<br />
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Because it's my sister, I can get away with those conditions. Most paying clients would refuse. Anyway, on with the project!<br />
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The project started out with a rough idea of what she'd need. And finding out the dimensions I'd be dealing with. The bench would provide storage for shoes and boots, it would be almost 78" wide, 11" deep, and roughly 16" - 18" tall, depending on a few factors.<br />
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I sketched up a general design, and sent it off to be approved. My sister seemed to like it, so after doing some math and planning, and making a cut list, I knew what materials I'd need.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Planning a project beforehand will make your life way easier in the long run)</span></div>
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I persuaded my sister to grab her Honda Element, since the lumber needed for this project would not fit in my car. After a trip to Home Depot, and $60 later, I had 2 planks of 2 x 12 x 16 framing SPF. To get them to fit in my sisters vehicle, I had to have them cut into 8' lengths. I also tried to pick the least knotty/nicest grain/least damaged planks.<br />
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Since the dimensions would be 77 3/4", the original length of the boards would have to be trimmed down. This would give me a chance to use my fairly new circular saw and new crosscut blade. After measuring, measuring, and measuring again, I made the cuts with the help of a 12" framing square.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: No table saw? Just get your wood up on some 2x4 blocks and you're golden)</span></div>
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As it stands, I haven't made much progress beyond this. I marked out the cuts I'd need to make on the longer planks (I need to cut a number of 16" sections) - but until the weather plays nice, I can't do the work, since all of my cutting has to be done outdoors.<br />
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Hopefully once the barnwood desk project is done, I'll be able to focus on this build more. I'm excited to get some practice with router-dadoes, dowel joinery, and the other technical elements that this build will put me through.<br />
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Stay tuned!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-87734253134097079722014-10-30T08:23:00.001-07:002014-10-30T10:51:40.423-07:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - UpdateIt's been a while since the last post about this project. Since I'm a hobbyist, without proper shop space, and very little spare time - working on projects can be a challenge. Plus I have a tendency to jump from one project to another, getting a little bit of each done here and there.<br />
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I also picked up a couple of commissions along the way too. Those make me nervous. (Mostly because I figure expectations are really high)<br />
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The desk is going well. I'm in the final phase of the build. I applied the last coat of polyurethane clear coat to it (4 coats total, light sanding in between each) - and I picked up some parts for the legs as well, which I'm excited about.<br />
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Here are a few sneak peeks at what's been going on:<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Minwax Satin Polyurethane is the finish of choice for this project)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: After the 4th and final coat - it's sealed up nicely)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: "Black Steel" plumbing fittings - went with 1/2" which seems sturdy)</span></div>
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I will hopefully have more time this weekend to get the legs worked on - at least mounting the flange plates, and find out the sizes of the pipes I still need to have cut.<br />
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Stay tuned!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-66734312342969161502014-10-01T08:02:00.002-07:002014-10-01T08:02:49.215-07:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Pre-Finishing WorkWhen we left off last, the desk was still in fairly rough shape and needed a lot more work to get it to a state where it was almost ready to put the finishing touches on.<br />
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To get to that state, I had to start with planing. A lot of it. The glue squeeze out left a lot of dried glue beads, and because none of the strips of wood were at a uniform thickness, the whole top needed to be planed down.<br />
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(Above: Taking off the roughness with a block plane)</div>
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(Above: Marking out the high spots/high edges)</div>
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(Above: Making good progress)</div>
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(Above: You make a lot of waste fairly quick when planing)</div>
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Now that the desktop was reasonably flat (not perfectly square, but at least flat) - I could attack it with a belt sander to try to even it out some more. I hit it with a fairly aggressive belt (50 grit if I recall correctly) - and it got the top fairly level.<br />
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(Above: This old Makita belt sander is a beast.)</div>
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Once the belt sanding was finished, I took to the random orbit palm sander, and 80 grit to start - to remove the scratching from the belt sander. Then up to 100 grit, followed with 120 grit, and lastly 150 grit. Sure, I could have skipped some of the grits in between, but it was a nice day out and I had lots of time to spend on sanding. Plus it was relaxing.<br />
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(Above: Pretty nice result - but not finish-quality yet.)</div>
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The strips/boards had a fair amount of imperfections in them from the start. Nail holes, decayed knots, some cracks, the works. But all those imperfections lend a sort of charm. But if this is to be a desktop then those would need to be fixed somehow. Nothing worse than writing on paper and your pen finds a knothole and you have a nice big hole in your paper as a result.<br />
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My solution? Epoxy.<br />
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Epoxy makes for a great way to fill holes (or at least, from what I've seen in the sites I've read up on). And I had a tube of Gorilla Epoxy on hand and some blue painters tape, so why not, right?<br />
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Well I learned that not all epoxy is created equal. This epoxy was very soft. 5 minutes to dry, no way. 24 hours to set/cure? More like a week. There is also a critical step missing in most of the write-ups about using epoxy - if you are going to use tape around the fill-spot -- how long before you take the tape off? Or do you leave the tape on until the epoxy cures/hardens? Then how do you get it off?<br />
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(Above: Prepare your fill-holes and your epoxy *before* you start)</div>
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(Above: The painters tape allows you to be a bit sloppy.)</div>
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Well, I left the tape on for the entirety of the curing. And when I went to pull it off, it ripped. So I took a hobby knife and cut into the epoxy. That worked. Then I took a small hand plane and carefully flush-trimmed the epoxy flat.<br />
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(Above: That's one filled knot hole. Just need to trim the excess.)</div>
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And here is the desk top as it currently stands... It still maintains a fairly 'rustic' charm to it, but I'm far from done.<br />
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The next steps in this build will be: adding the edging around the outside of the desk, flush trimming the edging, another visit with the sanders to get the desk nice and smooth and ready for finish, running my 1/4 radius round-over router bit around the topside edges, a bit of hand-sanding to smooth that round-over, and then lastly some finish!<br />
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Stay tuned for more, and thanks for reading!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-34277412775116011252014-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:002014-09-22T07:37:56.743-07:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Building UpPreviously, I had ripped the boards to a smaller width, laid them out on the carcass to get a feel of how they would look, and established a game plan.<br />
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Continuing on with the build it was time to start gluing the boards to the carcass. This would prove to be a bit challenging because I didn't plan to use pin nails or screws to keep the boards flat to the carcass, and I also didn't have deep throated clamps.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: I cleaned out my box of spring clamps for the glue-up)</span></div>
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You can see, as I moved along with gluing the boards on, I had to get creative with my clamping.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Weights, or anything heavy, work well for this)</span></div>
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I also had to plane some of the board edges to get them to fit, since when I ripped the boards it was far from accurate. Planing the edges also gives the desktop a more 'handmade' feel.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: A good selection of planes and chisels are always helpful)</span></div>
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As I continued gluing boards on I put a bevel on the edges to minimize glue squeeze-out (and also minimizing the need for me to chisel/scrape glue squeeze-out after the fact.)<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Get rid of excess glue before it becomes a pain in the ass)</span></div>
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Now that all the boards were glued to the carcass top, I had to do some planing to get rid of the rest of the glue, and do a basic leveling of the desk top.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: You can see the high spots getting taken down first)</span></div>
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Lastly, I had to trim off the excess wood from the edges to get them flush and square.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: A circular saw and an edge guide are a decent table saw alternative)</span></div>
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Oh and I also wore some safe footwear - barefoot. Not smart, I know, but it would be my own fault if I got hurt.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZwEPXibOLqQwAXyIuayFp2u7EdqOuF2ZBAYUJS65h7IaTqGyFl7U7rix40JRCbvOEI-i_Iy7tZh6LuYRLcE-iQK_ciWDyHtGS3i99IbKk4t81fVH3kNMC7at7Yycvfq4InVjHgpmFuI/s1600/IMGP0201+(Small).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZwEPXibOLqQwAXyIuayFp2u7EdqOuF2ZBAYUJS65h7IaTqGyFl7U7rix40JRCbvOEI-i_Iy7tZh6LuYRLcE-iQK_ciWDyHtGS3i99IbKk4t81fVH3kNMC7at7Yycvfq4InVjHgpmFuI/s1600/IMGP0201+(Small).JPG" height="375" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Barefoot = not the safest)</span></div>
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That's all for now, the next stages are planing the top flat, filling any knot holes and cracks with epoxy, some high-level sanding, and some pre-finish sanding. But that will be another day.<br />
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Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-68237144328989925262014-09-19T13:01:00.000-07:002014-09-19T13:01:16.739-07:00Project: Ikea Dimmer Switch MountA long time ago, I had purchased a couple of Ikea <a href="http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10063148/" target="_blank">dimmer switch cords</a> - because I wanted some variation on my pendant lighting in my room. (And I had a nifty set of Tardis patio lights that I wanted to dim down when I was using them)<br />
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The problem with them is they just kind of sit there, usually the slider flips over and you have to pick it up to adjust the brightness. As a result of this, I started to plan a way to mount them, and have them look nice in the process. They'd be in the same location (near the outlet) so I could mount them in the same place.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmk71HbywVaHlOiMHcJNbGKdWCjrH47-jQoebMD834zF9CFqR6FZIsJuh0leKqyRZQ0qaubzrpiqwPB7m93wuG5L2nJazhl-LcIfbO8aXorDTjMMYI2Q0ECWzn9o5llqtugcdlCTBHnk/s1600/dimma-cord-dimmer-switch__79376_PE203249_S4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHmk71HbywVaHlOiMHcJNbGKdWCjrH47-jQoebMD834zF9CFqR6FZIsJuh0leKqyRZQ0qaubzrpiqwPB7m93wuG5L2nJazhl-LcIfbO8aXorDTjMMYI2Q0ECWzn9o5llqtugcdlCTBHnk/s1600/dimma-cord-dimmer-switch__79376_PE203249_S4.JPG" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Simple dimmer from Ikea)</span></div>
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This is a project that I started quite some time ago, and picked up, put down, rinse and repeat for far too long. Before I knew any better, I bought some Baltic Birch plywood (very small pieces, sadly) at Michael's craft store for far too much money.<br />
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The panel needed to be approximately 1" thick, and the stock I had was 1/2" thick. To remedy this, I cut the stock in half, and proceeded to laminate them together.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDOCl8C6FZD2ZfV2ZNNZXag3TmDgPXtBKiUOKrP9mjXiaOT7hv_SvEf_R6Do8DcBf1VZYX8prZ9OSKdExZDYLIfX8sc5N2dYZfQpjrqALNV_s3QUsVomZALSfYuHR9UoDyQYi6UMSz8o/s1600/DSC_6739s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDDOCl8C6FZD2ZfV2ZNNZXag3TmDgPXtBKiUOKrP9mjXiaOT7hv_SvEf_R6Do8DcBf1VZYX8prZ9OSKdExZDYLIfX8sc5N2dYZfQpjrqALNV_s3QUsVomZALSfYuHR9UoDyQYi6UMSz8o/s1600/DSC_6739s.jpg" height="500" width="331" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Laminate boards together if you need additional thickness)</span></div>
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After figuring out spacing, drawing guidelines onto the stock, I broke out Mr. Jigsaw and began hacking away at the plywood. This is where I learned a few things. 1) Use the correct blade for the job. 2) Learn what the various settings on your jigsaw do, before you cut expensive wood.</div>
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As a result of the lessons learned, there was a significant amount of tear-out on the back of the piece, and the blades I used dulled very fast. Leaving me with very rough holes, that took a lot of filing, sanding, and cursing - all to get it to a still rough state, but one that barely fits the dimmer switches.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Poor planning and impatience lends itself to a bad result)</span></div>
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I still have another 1" thick piece of stock, so I plan to re-cut the sockets for the dimmer switches. In this case, I will use a router and a spiral bit to hollow out what I need, which will leave cleaner edges, and a better fit.</div>
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Next I started on the cover-plate. I didn't want the dimmers to be seen, only the slider portion of it would be shown. </div>
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I took measurements, found the appropriate sized/radius of drill bit, and went to town. </div>
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To clear out the rest, I used a coping saw to clean out the remainder. Since I don't own a scroll saw, this is a simple and inexpensive alternative.<br />
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Once I cut out the excess, I did a quick test fit, which turned out pretty close, I just need to do a little bit of filing to perfect the fit, and I'll be happy with the result.</div>
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This is where it stands. I'm not very happy with the build up to this point. I'll be planning and building a second version, with a different method of construction. This is all part of the learning process, learning how to design better, how to plan better, and practicing different woodworking techniques.<br />
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Stay tuned for the revised build!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-69195316265843715572014-09-16T09:24:00.000-07:002014-09-16T10:15:03.938-07:00Project: The Freezer Lid HookSometimes you make things to improve how something works, other times you make things to fix something that isn't working the way it should.<br />
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At my parents house, they have a very old 'deep freeze' unit that has a hinged lid. The hinges on the lid at one time (must have been before my time) held the lid open. But I never remember them working.<br />
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Years upon years my Mother complained that she couldn't sort the freezer because she always had to hold the lid with one hand, and try to bend down and sort the frozen goods with the other.<br />
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Since I've been doing some odd repair jobs around her house, I chose to fix this problem for her.<br />
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I started out by sketching the design on my new favorite paper - the <a href="http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/squarecross/" target="_blank">Square Cross Grid</a>.<br />
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And then cut my 'to scale' designs out with a hobby knife and a ruler...<br />
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I transferred the lines out onto some cabinet-grade plywood (I think it's oak plywood, but I'm not sure, they are reclaimed scraps) and took the work outside with a jigsaw, and carefully cut out the pieces. I didn't take photos of this process, because I forgot, but also because it would have been difficult. I then had to sand them to their final size.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Looks safe, right?)</span></div>
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Once the parts were shaped and sanded, I did a dry fit, and got to gluing and clamping. My tiny Bessey clamps were perfect for this, they also kept my knuckles out of the belt sander. Still, they're expensive for what they are.<br />
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Once the glue dried, I did another check of the fit. <br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: A 1/4" dowel will make a good, strong pivot)</span></div>
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Now it was time to drill the mounting holes for the bracket to attach it to under the cabinets. I also drilled a shallow hole with a Forstner bit to flush-mount a rare earth magnet. (More on that later)<br />
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In order to get the rare-earth magnet to stay put, I had to lightly sand the back of it, and brought out the epoxy. I'm going to have to buy a larger quantity of two part epoxy eventually. Those little tubes are expensive.<br />
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After the epoxy dried, I tested out the fit of the parts, and tested out the screws. I pre-drilled pilots, and well, they were too small. I ended up boring out the holes to the same size as the screws so they would fit loose. Makes for mounting it easier.<br />
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After checking the lid and the hook for positioning and making sure there was no interference when opening the lid past the hook, I secured it in place. I then added a #6 screw to meet up with the magnet, to keep the hook in the 'up' position when not in use.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: you can barely see the small screw that meets with the magnet)</span></div>
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And now, the freezer lid can stay up, and my Mom can use both hands to get at all those frozen goods. No risk of the lid banging her in the head, that hook is very secure. It's not the prettiest piece, but the whole thing took me about 25 minutes to build (excluding drying time)...<br />
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I left it unfinished, because really, it doesn't need to be pretty... the only thing I might do is take it back off, and give it one last sanding, just to clean it up and make it look a tiny bit nicer. In the end, my Mom is happy. I might re-design a second version eventually, but this will do the trick until then.<br />
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As always, thanks for reading!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-80180343526722039942014-09-15T08:08:00.000-07:002014-09-15T08:08:58.437-07:00Project: Steel Strap Bookshelf - Design<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Ikea makes decent furniture. We all know this. It's cheap. Easy to transport. Easy to build. Looks okay. But...</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Everyone </i>has Ikea furniture at some point or another. In my case, I have a couple of the Expedit shelves (Ikea now calls them Kallax shelves... and are a tiny bit 'skinnier', but it's the same thing.) I have the 2x4 cube, and the 2x2 cube shelves. They do the job, but I want to get rid of them.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Expedit, the record collectors shelf of dreams)</span></div>
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Now, this design is not 100% my own. Not at all. I originally was turned onto it from a Youtube video I had seen by a fellow named Ben who runs <a href="http://homemade-modern.com/" target="_blank">HomeMade-Modern.com</a>. The shelf as he calls it is the "<a href="http://homemade-modern.com/ep36-ironbound-bookcase/" target="_blank">Iron-bound Bookcase</a>". </div>
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It's a nice and simple design. And relatively simple to build. I used that design as the basis for my project. I want to build a shelf that will replace my Expedit 2x4 cube shelf, making it a hair shorter (or taller, we'll see) - and making it a lot deeper, to provide more space for my turntable and stereo amp.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Sketch your ideas as they come, even if it changes in the end)</span></div>
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I started to make my sketches, and planned out how to attach the shelves to the brackets. I wanted this shelf to be very sturdy, but at the same time, I'd want to be able to take it apart if I needed to move.<br />
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I also needed to modify Bens' design to afford more support for the shelf in the middle, to prevent sagging, and in case I decide to use it as a TV stand/console down the road. An element to a good design is making sure it can serve multiple purposes or uses.<br />
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After a trip to Home Depot, I found the fasteners I planned to use. They're beautiful. Just under 3" long and an M6 screw, they'll provide a lot of bite and support. And the nickel plating is nice and durable, and will contrast the metal brackets nicely.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Check things out online to save you the hassle in-store.)</span></div>
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Once I was at Home Depot, I could get a feel for what materials were available, and the relative cost. And I could also use them to compare to what I had seen online.<br />
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After planning, and revising my sketches, I came up with a pretty solid final design, I went ahead and bought the screws (man they cost a lot!) and the metal for the upright brackets. The wood will be purchased when I have cleared up space and finished other projects.<br />
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Stay tuned for more!<br />
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-Nelson<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-7069483357250964102014-09-04T12:43:00.001-07:002014-09-05T23:45:33.488-07:00Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - PrologueI've been really enjoying woodworking more and more lately, and in an effort to learn more skills, and practice things I already knew - I am tackling a desktop project.<br />
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A friend of mine donated a lot of old barnwood to me, and I wanted to make something with it. A lot of the boards had twists or were cupped, so I selected the straightest pieces I could find.<br />
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But for the base of the desk (sometimes referred to as a carcass), I used a 20" x 48" x 1/2" laminated pine project board from Home Depot. They're cheap, flat, straight, and square. Also they're fairly rough, so gluing to this 'base' will be easy.<br />
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After selecting a few of the straighter boards, I laid them out on top of the carcass, to get a feel of how it would look. Also, it gave me a good idea of how much wood would be required for the project.</div>
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You can see quite a difference from the really old boards versus the new pine board. Close to the same thickness, bringing the overall thickness to a bit under 1.5", give or take.</div>
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After laying out the boards on the carcass, I realized I didn't like them as wide as they were. Or is it depth? Depends, I suppose. Regardless, the boards were around 5" wide, and because some were mildly cupped, ripping them to 2.5" wide boards would lessen the cup, and also provide more boards to vary a pattern with.<br />
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I had picked up a "Footprint Tools Clamp and Cutting Guide" from Lowes a while back, and this would be the best opportunity to use it. I would have used a table saw, but it was broken, and well, it would have been tough to move anyway.<br />
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Now, this clamping and cutting setup is not ideal, at all. Possibly unsafe as well. But if you are cautious about where the blade is in relation to your body parts - at all times - you'll come out of it un-injured. But really, I would have killed for a table saw, 40 minutes of a portable circular saw would have been 5 minutes or less on a table saw.<br />
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Once all the boards were cut, I clamped them together, and took a belt sander to one side, to try and create a flat, even surface, and to bring the width of the boards down to 'near the same'. A scrub plane and a rough smoothing plane would have been a better choice, but I wasn't confident enough with planes yet to try.<br />
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Now, that big pile of wood, although it looked good, wasn't entirely usable. Some of the boards had knots that were too large, splits, cracks, and surfaces that would not yield a nice desktop. So I had to take them to the miter saw, and hack off the bits that I couldn't use.<br />
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: Not much left after a trip to the miter saw to remove the bad wood & knots) </span></div>
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Layout of the re-sized planks, trying to come up with a 'random' pattern that also looks good and fits well. Had to use my Japanese pull saw and miter box to trim up a few planks to fill the leftover spaces.<br />
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And with that, I'll leave it for now. Next steps will be securing the boards to the carcass, smoothing the boards, fixing holes, putting on edging... okay a lot of work left to go.<br />
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Stay tuned!<br />
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-NelsonUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-38381199787780782014-09-01T16:22:00.000-07:002014-09-01T16:22:33.769-07:00Project: Quickie Clamp RackOver time anyone who is somewhat into woodworking will collect clamps. Usually the clamps are of different lengths, shapes, manufacturers, and so on. This can make things a bit difficult, mostly because you'll likely have them all over your shop, or one rack won't work for all your clamps.<br />
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I'm sort of in that boat for my clamp collection. But I wanted to at least get my clamps into the same wallspace, and somewhat organized, so I didn't have a few clamps here and there.<br />
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First I start with the prep work/design. I measured out the thickness of the bars of my clamps, worked out the spacing front to back, and side to side. Then it came down to marking out where the brace pieces would be, where the studs were, and put that all together into a design.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Having a good game plan will help you in the long run)</span></div>
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After working out the rough design, it was time to break out the forstner bits and make some holes. Once those were drilled, I took my board (which was scrap/leftover plywood) and took it outside to make more cuts. It was too wide and too deep, so a visit with mister circular saw and captain jigsaw, it was brought down to its final size.</div>
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Once I had it cut down to a more manageable size, I pulled out my Japanese pull-saw, and got to work cutting the grooves for the clamps. Now, I could have used my jigsaw, but I wanted practice with the hand saw, and I could be a lot more cautious with my cuts. And accurate too, I suppose.<br />
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Many minutes of cutting later, and I had the clamp grooves all finished.<br />
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Then I moved on to cutting the back piece, and the support braces. I opted for 4 instead of the original 2 that I had planned, and then pre-drilled all the holes I needed to get everything mounted. After that came sanding everything smooth, first with 80 grit, then with 150. I'm not going to make it any smoother, since it's just cheap plywood, and I'm not bothering with a finish.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: My inner OCD kicked in a bit.)</span></div>
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Pre-drilling was a good idea, as it made the glue-up a lot easier. I just had to glue the seams, put the part in place, and screw it tight. No bother with clamps. Nice and simple. </div>
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Once the glue dried, I was basically done. I had to drill 4 more holes (16" center to center...) for the screw holes for where I planned to place the stud-lines. Easy enough. But I was pretty happy with how it looked up to this point!<br />
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And finally, after clearing some space and reorganizing the planned area for the rack... I mounted it up with some long 'washer-screws' and hung my clamps. For a relatively quick project, I am very happy with the result. AND I left room for 2 more Bessey clamps. ;)<br />
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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this project, and feel free to comment if you have any questions!<br />
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-NelsonUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-56027997356112868302014-08-22T14:58:00.000-07:002014-08-22T15:37:00.135-07:00Project: Custom Built Shelf - Better Than IKEAEveryone buys something at Ikea at one point or another. Their stuff is cheap, looks good, 'relatively' durable, and can be <a href="http://www.ikeahackers.net/" target="_blank">hacked</a> for the most part.<br />
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The "Ekby Valter" bracket is one of those Ikea items that gets hacked a lot. Usually into the form of a mount for pendant lighting, or variations on shelving.<br />
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Here's how it looks normally:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXCjBjHFS0nis8v2lrgB8q5yLm0rDBVeucPOf9BMybgZUihErTdcVdc4GBNZ9o1KuaOF6Wa7DzSCpy_stga9tLzlRrMkVNpVB9ZwZE9A2yIjyo5IVpWfLxF2elSjPxt0EaSbE3hgejr0/s1600/ekby1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXCjBjHFS0nis8v2lrgB8q5yLm0rDBVeucPOf9BMybgZUihErTdcVdc4GBNZ9o1KuaOF6Wa7DzSCpy_stga9tLzlRrMkVNpVB9ZwZE9A2yIjyo5IVpWfLxF2elSjPxt0EaSbE3hgejr0/s1600/ekby1.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8boX_-ro7qKmPv7jG8da5CIsOraV9x41cmd-CtbHJi44vTAC7-rxiscD1cJJAwIa8OX_OyGr3KunlcDpzdZ_qoIey5hPQQiojZrEz7MwAMlbmhqB0V8RN1fgyBB6SuhmAp_xUL8guK0I/s1600/ekby2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8boX_-ro7qKmPv7jG8da5CIsOraV9x41cmd-CtbHJi44vTAC7-rxiscD1cJJAwIa8OX_OyGr3KunlcDpzdZ_qoIey5hPQQiojZrEz7MwAMlbmhqB0V8RN1fgyBB6SuhmAp_xUL8guK0I/s1600/ekby2.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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For the most part, that shelf is totally fine. Except, the boards they sell you don't span over more than 3 stud widths. Their longest board is just a bit shy of 4 feet. Irritating to say the least, since most studs are 16" center-to-center - and there's no way I'd use these brackets in just plain drywall.<br />
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So in order to get these to span a wider distance (roundabout 8 feet or so) and to make them more secure by mounting the bracket into studs... and lastly to make the shelf strong and secure (the boards Ikea sell are pretty thin, and I plan to put a decent amount of weight on my shelves)<br />
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I started out by locating the studs, and mounting the brackets. I mounted them 20" down from the ceiling, which is a decent height for the shelves, and keep things 'up and away' for the most part.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgu20qql2Ass1VI4sOFFW0B7Sqq_pWQPYWd2VIUZhtrfhjZTl5DMgE6w1vBDZG3jCH56i1owedPRXl0Kl04nIhaa5rLtrEaIJOotYuzHzdrRgUtBS3k4Q5OVJh7WQpr5zfsTIt04_dMJo/s1600/Shelf+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgu20qql2Ass1VI4sOFFW0B7Sqq_pWQPYWd2VIUZhtrfhjZTl5DMgE6w1vBDZG3jCH56i1owedPRXl0Kl04nIhaa5rLtrEaIJOotYuzHzdrRgUtBS3k4Q5OVJh7WQpr5zfsTIt04_dMJo/s1600/Shelf+2.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Once I had the brackets mounted, I placed the rough cut 2x12 on top (it was a bit over 8 feet in width - 98" overall or so), and I scribed where the bracket faces meet the shelf board on the bottom.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZGnQSOWjjzFVAJE5JONxi-dSGVLSgA2gCX3x-bo19C0YrL5cuGQTI3KGeBlU3vy_gDJ3ya71ntvjXGAeBkhNoVaAQFkjmmc4foKd4f0-k099E6xPAAcn5afrhkrYaURPUUjZwIASXfY/s1600/Shelf+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZGnQSOWjjzFVAJE5JONxi-dSGVLSgA2gCX3x-bo19C0YrL5cuGQTI3KGeBlU3vy_gDJ3ya71ntvjXGAeBkhNoVaAQFkjmmc4foKd4f0-k099E6xPAAcn5afrhkrYaURPUUjZwIASXfY/s1600/Shelf+3.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Next I set up a 'poor mans dado' jig, which is a circular saw and two boards/guides clamped on to the correct dado width. Passing the circular saw over in small bits to remove as much wood as possible, and then cleaning up the dado by hand later.<br />
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After some rough chiseling and filing, the dados were looking pretty fair. They don't need to be perfect looking, they just need to be flat.<br />
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Once the dados were cut, it was time for a test fit, and hope that everything still lined up correctly...<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Nice! All of the dados align correctly!)</span></div>
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The next step was to flatten the roundovers, since I used cheap framing lumber, they always come with the corners rounded, and I frankly don't like the look. Also by planing them off, it reduced the depth of the board to the same depth as the shelf bracket arms. (Close to 11" deep)<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Luckily I had access to a handheld power planer, making quick work)</span></div>
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Another task that is hard to see in this photo below, was notching out 3/8" out of the back of the dados, to get the shelf to fit around the brackets against the wall.<br />
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At the back where the shelf almost meets the wall, is a slight gap, to allow extension cables to run behind it. Without the notch, the gap would have been close to 3/4", which was too much for my taste.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KcQeHxOISXDJrsrZ4DAI5Luz7LFRttddV-i7Kx2DrEZl2gdiUngjHpucHggQEkIwMRPytrrtcKknehI4nv6nFnV3lV3xTxvShA0MO_PWmPVX928PlcZLZLFAZ5TfDFubvuFIn4MRt1A/s1600/Shelf+9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KcQeHxOISXDJrsrZ4DAI5Luz7LFRttddV-i7Kx2DrEZl2gdiUngjHpucHggQEkIwMRPytrrtcKknehI4nv6nFnV3lV3xTxvShA0MO_PWmPVX928PlcZLZLFAZ5TfDFubvuFIn4MRt1A/s1600/Shelf+9.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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And here's the finished result! The shelves hold a number of storage boxes (I could stack them 3 high, but that's a bit too tall) - the shelves can support a good amount of weight, and because I used 2x12 lumber, are plenty thick and shouldn't bow with the weight.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Click the photo to enlarge it for a better view)</span></div>
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I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I'm leaving them unfinished as I like the color of the raw wood, and they don't get much abuse so durability isn't an issue. AND they cost me less than the Ikea shelf boards would have cost to buy to cover the same span!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-81367728893676851372014-08-05T08:36:00.000-07:002014-08-05T08:39:22.801-07:00Project: Corner Shelf - Second VersionIn a previous post, I had built a corner shelf for my bathroom - because counter space is kind of limited. Turns out, my mother liked the way it looked and asked if I could build one for her. Since I had material left over from building the first shelf, I got to constructing another one - with some improvements.<br />
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First I had to cut some 1" wide strips, for the shelf to attach to. I then cut the shelf with a jigsaw to try to match the angle of the wall. The bathroom wall is not square. In fact, the wall is roughly at a 92 degree angle. I wish I took pictures on how I managed to trace out that angle - because it was kind of creative problem-solving.<br />
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I tuned an old hand-plane and took off some excess material from the board, it needed some tweaking, and I didn't feel like bringing out the belt sander, especially since I could get a good finish with the plane.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: An old Stanley plane is sometimes a better option than sanding)</span></div>
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Assembly is relatively easy. I put down the 1" strips of wood, and placed the corner shelf on top to check if it was level. </div>
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It was 'close enough' - so I marked the bits that stuck out with a pencil, and marked underneath with a pencil where the strips should attach to the shelf. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczvSw3FncKvdgOemuRAoHPMaF8gTfRmJmZCc6rSnZyXUkGGWpXs_ByJb8G2RI0olNea2FsShZF5HbVy0yUPjAl6JkgTvKVMrYWdoVrTWW8g1lIBUu090u1ilb5dVoXUGS4ygpIZYGPtY/s1600/IMG_2606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczvSw3FncKvdgOemuRAoHPMaF8gTfRmJmZCc6rSnZyXUkGGWpXs_ByJb8G2RI0olNea2FsShZF5HbVy0yUPjAl6JkgTvKVMrYWdoVrTWW8g1lIBUu090u1ilb5dVoXUGS4ygpIZYGPtY/s1600/IMG_2606.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Fit looks ok, mark off the excess with a pencil to trim later)</span></div>
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Now for the fun part - the power tools. </div>
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I pre-drilled some pilot holes, mostly because I'm certain the wood would split if I just tried to sink screws in without them. My Ryobi countersink bit does okay, I lost the allen key to adjust the depth however. </div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Pilot holes and counter-sinks are your friend)</span></div>
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I used drywall screws because they were the right length and they were what I had on-hand. Plus, it's not like this shelf will bear a lot of weight, so they'll be more than sufficient. I also didn't glue the braces, because I wasn't in the mood to sand off the paint on the underside of the shelf. </div>
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With the braces secured, I could trim off the excess. I opted to use my Japanese pull-saw, and I cut the braces off on an angle (a bevel?) - just to make it look a bit nicer than the previous shelf that I built. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLj0VuEh6TT4ywLE1KO1zQp8UySf2_YWBvChLvtQ2w9_JDB_gWI7-6V8blghuVNhyHh-HMoJCEUZ6z7r9Gyj5XywaBrY5HKqYJlilkOTRSIJQBoEpbikjVvRMG6KUXt0GwvR-QDFkuozU/s1600/IMG_2613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLj0VuEh6TT4ywLE1KO1zQp8UySf2_YWBvChLvtQ2w9_JDB_gWI7-6V8blghuVNhyHh-HMoJCEUZ6z7r9Gyj5XywaBrY5HKqYJlilkOTRSIJQBoEpbikjVvRMG6KUXt0GwvR-QDFkuozU/s1600/IMG_2613.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: The bevelled cut looks a bit nicer than a square cut) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Pull saws are nice, minimal sawdust and clean cuts)</span></div>
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The screws that attach the shelf to the wall needed to be pre-drilled, and then sunk in part-way, to make the installation a little bit easier. Since the screws are underneath the shelf, it's not the most accessible - although an extension bit would take care of that. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoCCfYOErc0IccWlxLbhDtXIset4-3zFCRWDXWb-ItopsacePpKm8LWfxKzIoGRLgqNwnO10z9HtyAT5iwbvgvXonkb5pVcpI1KTaRiigDZZeWdEgBd5QT0zXXOlkUIihG7SNi_l3dVs/s1600/IMG_2618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoCCfYOErc0IccWlxLbhDtXIset4-3zFCRWDXWb-ItopsacePpKm8LWfxKzIoGRLgqNwnO10z9HtyAT5iwbvgvXonkb5pVcpI1KTaRiigDZZeWdEgBd5QT0zXXOlkUIihG7SNi_l3dVs/s1600/IMG_2618.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Having your screws ready to go can make installation much easier)</span></div>
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And voila, she's installed! But... not quite ready yet. The pale wood looks nice, but I know that this shelf will see a bit of unexpected moisture - so I figured some sort of finish would be in order.</div>
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I still had some Minwax Wipe-on Poly from a previous project, so I figured that would make a fairly decent finish for the shelf. It didn't take long to apply, and after a few hours of drying, it looked nicer than before, really emphasizing the grain of the wood. It will amber a bit over time, but I'm okay with that. </div>
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And with that, the shelf is finally done! The actual construction time took roughly 25 minutes, mostly because of hand-planing, and a healthy amount of time with the hand-sander, the finishing took a few minutes, and the drying time was about 4 hours. All in all, it was a quick little project, and hopefully I don't have to build another one of these any time soon!<br />
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Thanks for reading!<br />
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-Nelson</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-74523433543570332602014-08-01T08:14:00.000-07:002014-08-01T08:14:23.585-07:00Project: Quick and Simple Foot StoolI don't know about you, but when I sit at my computer for extended periods of time, I'm always trying to find the most comfortable place for my feet to be.<br />
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In the past I've tried a lot of different things, milk crates, stacked books, a plank of wood, garbage can, you name it. None of those things really worked out for resting my feet on. It was about time to build my own foot stool. It's technically a 'foot rest' or 'foot riser' if you want to get real picky about it, but either way - it's a place to put my feet when I'm at my desk.<br />
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I started out with a single 24" x 24" x 3/4" piece of plywood from the 'place that sells improvement materials' - did some rudimentary measuring, and got to cutting. I did the cutting with my cordless circular saw, a miter saw, and a jigsaw, which isn't my ideal way to work but I didn't have access to a table saw, and my bandsaw motor is kaput.<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Planing two cut boards to the same width)</span></div>
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Planing plywood is not recommended. Tearout city. I ended up finishing the planing work with a couple files/rasps. And of course, a fair amount of swearing. My workspace was a tiny patio (as you can see in the photo below) which is usually where I do my work, because it's covered from the elements, and I can use the railing as a makeshift clamping surface. </div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Cut to size, and test assembly)</span></div>
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After cutting, measuring, test fitting, I realized I needed to trim a bit more material to clear the baseboards... so a quick visit with "Mr Jigsaw" and that problem was solved. Another thing I learned is that drilling into plywood "end grain" for lack of a better word, is also not ideal. Makes for kind of a poor join, but again, this is just a tiny stool to hold my feet 5" off the ground, so no big deal.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: Test assembly, still have to modify one more thing before glue-up)</span></div>
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For the cross-brace, I decided to do an angle cut into it, to make it look a little nicer, and just in case I needed to clear the base of my office chair. But mostly because it looked nice. And also to correct some poor cuts from earlier. </div>
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After test fitting, adjusting, pre-drilling, and so on, it was time to do the glue-up. This part wasn't totally necessary - but it made the whole project just a little more secure and made it feel a bit sturdier.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(Above: A little dab will do.)</span></div>
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The last part of the whole build (if you can call it that) was to apply a finish to the thing. Cheap plywood is prone to splintering, and generally doesn't feel good. So I spent a fair amount of time sanding the whole project down, made sure it was relatively smooth, and then applied two coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly. </div>
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Normally you're just supposed to use a rag for wipe-on poly (I think?) but in this case I just used some cheap little brushes which worked out well. In retrospect, I should have poured off some poly into a small cup or container, because pouring it direct out of the rectangular bottle onto the work-piece was really annoying. Lesson learned for next time I suppose.</div>
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This is what I consider a 'quickie' project because it was built on a whim, with no real planning or design beforehand, and it was purpose-built to suit a need. It's been under my desk for a few months now, and it's working very well.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-60377100426568026612014-07-29T16:44:00.001-07:002014-07-31T08:24:21.341-07:00Project: Patio RailingWeather always has a dramatic effect on wood. Especially when it comes to decks.<br />
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My parents deck is slowly falling prey to the negative effects of being exposed to the elements. In this particular case, the railing is slowly pulling away from the side panels. That's one of the issues, the other is the deck is slowly sinking too, but I'm not equipped to fix that, so I'll stick with something a bit simpler instead.<br />
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I broke out some basic tools (for some reason I couldn't find my pry-bar, which was irritating...), and got to work pulling up the railing. A number of the nails were quite stubborn, I was being attacked by wasps, and there <b><i>may</i></b> have been some cursing as well.</div>
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Below, you can see the slow progress - pulling the railing up, bit by bit.<br />
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Finally pulled all of the railing boards off...<br />
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The railing wood was in surprisingly good shape, oddly enough, but was twisted and some parts were starting to rot a little. Also, I'd rather use deck screws instead of nails for the railing. I'm not too sure if this is the best idea, but you learn by doing, so this is a bit of an experiment in a way.<br />
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Once all the rails were pulled off, I drew a quick schematic, and threw some measurements down on paper. It would have been a bit easier to have done that first, but it didn't matter in the end really.<br />
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Now that I knew the measurements, had a diagram, and knew the miters I'd need to make, I broke it all down into some good old math, and came up with a cut list, and a purchase list, which worked out to:<br />
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<li>2 x 14' decking 2x4 plank</li>
<li>3 x 12' decking 2x4 plank</li>
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Simple, I only need to buy 5 planks, and cut them to size. I'm likely going to go with pressure treated wood, but I need to look into which type of decking wood is best, since I do need to cut it, and I don't want to have to seal the wood, or the cut ends... so I need to find this out before spending a dime.</div>
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(In the meantime, I put the old railing back on... time and finances dictated that choice, sadly.)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-32202000408062563142014-07-29T09:18:00.000-07:002014-07-29T09:38:36.293-07:00Project: Patio Gate Rebuild - FinishingIt's time for the final instalment of the Patio Gate Rebuild project!<br />
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When we left off in the last article, I had the gate glued up, the dowels in place, and gave the whole project a light sanding with 80 grit sandpaper. Sanding is my second least favorite task, and now we're moving on to the least favorite - paint/stain.<br />
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I went over the whole project with some mineral spirits to get the sawdust out of the grain. Whether or not mineral spirits is appropriate for that, I don't know. All I know is I wasn't about to run out and buy tack cloth (I've had bad experiences with it in the past as well) so this method would do me just fine. After a few passes with clean rags, it was free of most dust.<br />
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Now I had spotted some of those plastic yellow pyramid-shaped standoffs for painting on a previous Home Depot trip, and had the foresight to grab a set. I had a pine board still in it's plastic for a future build, so that would make a good base to apply the urethane over. I set up the pyramid standoffs, and got to stirring.<br />
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: Helmsman Spar Urethane was my finish of choice)</span></div>
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I picked up a synthetic brush for this project, and made sure not to skimp. In the end I wish I bought those cheapy $1 brushes because really, synthetic brush + Spar Urethane = ruined brush, no matter how much you try to clean it.<br />
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Oh, and never paint indoors, no matter how well you think your air circulation is. I got dizzy in a hurry. Which is strange, I figured it would have been fine. Regardless, the second and third coats were done outdoors.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWvVNDUwISG3dxW1vdottr_xS4ZTog7YNJGRlqHsBvMQA_uXUOxFPD4yFRwUvg_agT_0rkiQv9xAuJ48nS335C6RTN2E8xcTkAUvM4FEGrkNHbZ1xjKmPJkKY8S4u4W-VgMmrF2Us9qnA/s1600/IMG_2450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWvVNDUwISG3dxW1vdottr_xS4ZTog7YNJGRlqHsBvMQA_uXUOxFPD4yFRwUvg_agT_0rkiQv9xAuJ48nS335C6RTN2E8xcTkAUvM4FEGrkNHbZ1xjKmPJkKY8S4u4W-VgMmrF2Us9qnA/s1600/IMG_2450.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: After 1 coat, it started to look pretty good!)</span></div>
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Once all three coats of urethane were applied (sanding with 180 grit between coats, and wiping off with a soft cloth, to keep it fairly smooth) - it was time to install the hinges. Since I had pre-drilled the holes for the hinges before finishing, this was easy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2i2z7tfdIGTACaT8EGlKMlP3yv9B6BWkt1EMJyEBaFWe2UPR21HDienVyd6jLyNhjXsHuSHjqARQOX_iBHdKoqewWj-iNRiZO66cNQHBMiYeZ06vh4LMDYYx1UAJPAOEDjwKUORrStM/s1600/IMG_2479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT2i2z7tfdIGTACaT8EGlKMlP3yv9B6BWkt1EMJyEBaFWe2UPR21HDienVyd6jLyNhjXsHuSHjqARQOX_iBHdKoqewWj-iNRiZO66cNQHBMiYeZ06vh4LMDYYx1UAJPAOEDjwKUORrStM/s1600/IMG_2479.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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My parents deck is not level. Or square. It's actually a bit of a nightmare. So to get the gate to mount 'somewhat square' - or in this case I opted for level - I had to use a shim or spacer.<br />
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I measured out roughly the angle/space I needed to fill in to get the gate to sit correctly, and traced a cut line onto a spare baluster. I'm not going into the details on how I cut this piece with a handheld circular saw, but let's just say it was tricky. (But at least I did it safely!)<br />
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: The angled baluster 'wedge' to level/square up the gate)</span></div>
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Finally the fun part! I broke out the power tools, requisite bits, and all the clamps and shimming materials I'd need to get this gate installed.<br />
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I ran into some issues with the baluster 'wedge' I had cut earlier... It didn't fit.<br />
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Tossed aside and a new solution was planned, I remembered I had some cedar shims that would work well! So I clamped 1/4" worth of blocks on the left of the gate, clamped the gate to the railing, and shimmed up the right side to fit. Marked the location of the shims/hinges, and took it all down.<br />
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After propping the gate up in the open position, I started to mark and drill the holes. Once those were done, I used deck screws to mount the gate to the railing. I chose deck screws because they were longer than the original hinge hardware screws included, and since I'd be using shims... they just had more holding power.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWqVt1kefTpn66ih7gLFCjl9zEwE9QjnBB5in1ZWwDz3Wth7rojMMyEGNJRQh_fHtHk6YbbcKAaFTTL-0zGL-56PT_kSrbmOw1Hz6NZ9sSQDbD0GmUpLEXruElTa46_kBIv9b1QJhGGM/s1600/IMG_2547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZWqVt1kefTpn66ih7gLFCjl9zEwE9QjnBB5in1ZWwDz3Wth7rojMMyEGNJRQh_fHtHk6YbbcKAaFTTL-0zGL-56PT_kSrbmOw1Hz6NZ9sSQDbD0GmUpLEXruElTa46_kBIv9b1QJhGGM/s1600/IMG_2547.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: Shimmed and installed, in the closed position)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiQOfuriDYZkBfpicyPQ37s47JhE6n5sI_zvB180rVzVGpi4Hs5B-Pkrp71_1N93DLsBdSuaRNIfLkuwaAunu1_nvbosRXFBKUnxxsAenw6M-u8j2YZo467hm8G4RjFBl90lgUyz58Aw/s1600/IMG_2549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiQOfuriDYZkBfpicyPQ37s47JhE6n5sI_zvB180rVzVGpi4Hs5B-Pkrp71_1N93DLsBdSuaRNIfLkuwaAunu1_nvbosRXFBKUnxxsAenw6M-u8j2YZo467hm8G4RjFBl90lgUyz58Aw/s1600/IMG_2549.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: Shimmed and installed, in the open position)</span></div>
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After taking a moment to stare at my handywork, I moved on and installed the latch hardware. This required some delicate drilling of pilot holes and putting the screws in by hand. No brute force power tools here, I didn't want to split or crack the wood, and the screws are kind of close to the edges, which I don't quite like, but it seemed secure in the end.</div>
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Now that the latch is installed, I had to drill out the receiving hole for the latch bolt, to keep the gate closed. Lucky for me, when the gate was closed, the latch sat in just the perfect place - everything was flush and no adjusting was needed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRHKDXC2H9pAbXEZ90W6liuM_yfMH_ZtYzIkEl8A0QQqvXo0E8PMNcu3RrF_XXbvNXnNU9gNZf7c5QgxGcdNOZY4fan-kyBXQkfol8AF2oWkIhWq7XxcfjMrO5aFPUg7pT2qcoTHg2GzI/s1600/IMG_2550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRHKDXC2H9pAbXEZ90W6liuM_yfMH_ZtYzIkEl8A0QQqvXo0E8PMNcu3RrF_XXbvNXnNU9gNZf7c5QgxGcdNOZY4fan-kyBXQkfol8AF2oWkIhWq7XxcfjMrO5aFPUg7pT2qcoTHg2GzI/s1600/IMG_2550.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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And now the moment of truth... testing if it works...<br />
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It fits Perfect! I plan to epoxy in a brass or copper pipe bit into the hole to give the whole thing more support, I just have to find a scrap bit in the junk bin. It should hold a bit better than wood, and to those who notice the little details, they'd appreciate it as well.<br />
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After that was said and done, I had one last thing to add. I wanted to use one of those hook catches to hold the gate open (even though gravity already does that, a breeze might slam it shut) - so I threaded in the eyelets under the railing, and also threaded an eyelet in the closed position too, just for overkill. Now the gate can be secured with two latches.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgbllvZxYqLErRzTJuBgCW7tODEP48TLNQHqv4CCBzsKouFJCl1rY4PQcwjiRa9H-MegrbtIyjsy6TkBddZh-y7BkdyuBXLllUQk20OhCvf2UDBU0XCxlEvIsnN-GABx3904u50v4dgZw/s1600/IMG_2554.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgbllvZxYqLErRzTJuBgCW7tODEP48TLNQHqv4CCBzsKouFJCl1rY4PQcwjiRa9H-MegrbtIyjsy6TkBddZh-y7BkdyuBXLllUQk20OhCvf2UDBU0XCxlEvIsnN-GABx3904u50v4dgZw/s1600/IMG_2554.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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And voila! My "Patio Gate Rebuild" is finally finished, and just in time too - my folks are returning from their trip from Europe today. I hope they like it, I had a lot of fun building it, and now I can rest easy knowing my nephews + niece will be safe on the patio as well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CaWII0VlJpC9JZ8U8mOrFllk258RBM3k1cs8ofyuF6ps72zUNrHv5PBaoslcjA1LReyZbhRNakyZYO9ciyu5ncVOZi0yGnX09WOpE9vx-ureL5aXUvwyKc1BFzg84lEO223aSWSh2MY/s1600/IMG_2556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CaWII0VlJpC9JZ8U8mOrFllk258RBM3k1cs8ofyuF6ps72zUNrHv5PBaoslcjA1LReyZbhRNakyZYO9ciyu5ncVOZi0yGnX09WOpE9vx-ureL5aXUvwyKc1BFzg84lEO223aSWSh2MY/s1600/IMG_2556.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #999999;">(Above: Juxtaposition of the old gate behind the new gate)</span></div>
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I hope you enjoyed this project, feel free to comment if you have any questions or nice things to say.<br />
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Thanks for reading!<br />
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-NelsonUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195890144874332786.post-39077929588896735002014-07-20T18:36:00.000-07:002014-07-20T18:36:06.857-07:00Project: Medicine Cabinet Catches<span style="text-align: start;">This particular project isn't really a "project" per se, and technically I didn't "make" anything for this either. But that isn't the point. It isn't always about creating something, more often than not, it's about improving things you already have. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">In this case, the medicine cabinet in my parents bathroom needed some improving. Well, it didn't <i>need</i> it but I felt it could do with an improvement. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">The latches on the cabinet doors were from the 1970's. (As seen below on the right) They worked okay. Problem is, the spring steel catches didn't grip well, and some were even broken off. And then there was the catch pins. They were worn flat in places. So overall they were pretty much worn out.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnN0lXw_9BBgadRCPWdqDqKLkujYwlgYtzw7LSKP0jBaReCUxvFUutANZhbbnTydzMryJJH61WbrfXuKcIpgAYHnX0vp1yRFEMsd-NngsnVfqhZRXhN1AWbKblSyvlpNl7lNxfmkVfWu0/s1600/IMG_20140714_224438.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnN0lXw_9BBgadRCPWdqDqKLkujYwlgYtzw7LSKP0jBaReCUxvFUutANZhbbnTydzMryJJH61WbrfXuKcIpgAYHnX0vp1yRFEMsd-NngsnVfqhZRXhN1AWbKblSyvlpNl7lNxfmkVfWu0/s1600/IMG_20140714_224438.jpg" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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I picked up some replacement catches. I wanted them to look nice, but also provide a positive engagement, and hold the doors securely. A quick trip to my local improvement store, and I spotted these nice brass ones. The seemed very solid. They engaged well. And they looked good. Sold!<br />
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I started by removing the old catches. That was a bit tricky since the screws that held it all in were painted over many times, and whoever installed them in the first place stripped most of the screw heads.<br />
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Measure, measure, measure... I measured where the new catches would mount to the frame, and secured them in. Here's where I discovered that brass screws are basically the worst screws to exist. Made even worse are phillips brass screws. Okay, okay... I don't <b>really </b>hate brass screws, it's just that if you're not careful, the heads will strip. Which is what I did to a few of them when installing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsaBOeNyh5tLVHmNmonGJdZCSWM_rWZfC2SkUEpYFaeTOeVhLH7DB8aTh9SlognCgPdBBdpe3awU7THrL69der_XXIwt_WXc-h3ewyUl0rj3oKXz9-C5HJ1K2PPWXllODbNZPhCWX5qw/s1600/IMG_2433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsaBOeNyh5tLVHmNmonGJdZCSWM_rWZfC2SkUEpYFaeTOeVhLH7DB8aTh9SlognCgPdBBdpe3awU7THrL69der_XXIwt_WXc-h3ewyUl0rj3oKXz9-C5HJ1K2PPWXllODbNZPhCWX5qw/s1600/IMG_2433.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Next up was mounting the receiving catches on the doors. Measure and measure, and measure some more. These were a bit tricky since I couldn't seem to wrap my head around how to properly measure the correct position for them.<br />
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But then I remembered an old trick. I put the catches in the latches, and coated the backsides with something that would transfer to the door when I closed it all up. I dug through the drawers and found lipstick. Haha, yep, that'll do. And it worked. And I was able to line up the catches and screw them on.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Iw7BiQTmYhYA2jorNjKmcGOn8PBqiS0HPzBajVvfyfdeH_PB31ulmA8PX8zKLmtyRR5GFCjgLphbxFdTU3SohOnaiVKEgsHX8ve6CHD302SxpFbwVdF2ehnQ1Srj2mBeoXmxSohhls4/s1600/IMG_2435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Iw7BiQTmYhYA2jorNjKmcGOn8PBqiS0HPzBajVvfyfdeH_PB31ulmA8PX8zKLmtyRR5GFCjgLphbxFdTU3SohOnaiVKEgsHX8ve6CHD302SxpFbwVdF2ehnQ1Srj2mBeoXmxSohhls4/s1600/IMG_2435.JPG" height="500" width="500" /></a></div>
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Now for the catches, I opted to use a screwdriver and put them in by hand, instead of using a power drill. And that prevented the heads from stripping. Sweet.<br />
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So with that, I closed all the doors up, and tested them one last time. They close properly, and better than the old catches. I'm happy, and I'm sure my folks appreciated it too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com