Project: Quickie Screwdriver Rack

Recently I acquired a new set of Wera Kraftform Plus 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.

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 Tanos Systainer toolbox.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, near perfect) fit.

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Of course, now I want to make holders for the rest of the loose hand tools in my toolbox. Maybe another day.

Thanks for reading!

Project: Mud Room Bench

Every 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.

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.

Because it's my sister, I can get away with those conditions. Most paying clients would refuse. Anyway, on with the project!

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.

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.

(Above: Planning a project beforehand will make your life way easier in the long run)

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.

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.

(Above: No table saw? Just get your wood up on some 2x4 blocks and you're golden)

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.

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.

Stay tuned!

Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Update

It'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.

I also picked up a couple of commissions along the way too. Those make me nervous. (Mostly because I figure expectations are really high)

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.

Here are a few sneak peeks at what's been going on:

(Above: Minwax Satin Polyurethane is the finish of choice for this project)

(Above: After the 4th and final coat - it's sealed up nicely)

(Above: "Black Steel" plumbing fittings - went with 1/2" which seems sturdy)

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.

Stay tuned!

Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Pre-Finishing Work

When 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.

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.

(Above: Taking off the roughness with a block plane)

(Above: Marking out the high spots/high edges)

(Above: Making good progress)

(Above: You make a lot of waste fairly quick when planing)

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.

(Above: This old Makita belt sander is a beast.)

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.

(Above: Pretty nice result - but not finish-quality yet.)

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.

My solution? Epoxy.

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?

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?

(Above: Prepare your fill-holes and your epoxy *before* you start)

(Above: The painters tape allows you to be a bit sloppy.)

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.

(Above: That's one filled knot hole. Just need to trim the excess.)

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.

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!

Stay tuned for more, and thanks for reading!

Project: Reclaimed Barnwood Desk - Building Up

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Project: Ikea Dimmer Switch Mount

A long time ago, I had purchased a couple of Ikea dimmer switch cords - 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)

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.

(Above: Simple dimmer from Ikea)

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.

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.

(Above: Laminate boards together if you need additional thickness)

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.

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.

(Above: Poor planning and impatience lends itself to a bad result)

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.

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. 

I took measurements, found the appropriate sized/radius of drill bit, and went to town. 

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.

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.

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.

Stay tuned for the revised build!

Project: The Freezer Lid Hook

Sometimes you make things to improve how something works, other times you make things to fix something that isn't working the way it should.

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.

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.

Since I've been doing some odd repair jobs around her house, I chose to fix this problem for her.

I started out by sketching the design on my new favorite paper - the Square Cross Grid.

And then cut my 'to scale' designs out with a hobby knife and a ruler...

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.

(Above: Looks safe, right?)

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.

Once the glue dried, I did another check of the fit.

(Above: A 1/4" dowel will make a good, strong pivot)

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)

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.

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.

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.

(Above: you can barely see the small screw that meets with the magnet)

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)...

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.

As always, thanks for reading!