This has put me on a line of thought of building a case for the laptop which would allow me to carry the laptop, a mouse and the charger. Ideally, the case would also act as a sort of desk for using the computer, thus I’d like to have a place to ‘mouse around’, maybe a small pull out or fold out table. So I’m currently putting my mind to this. Any ideas?

Universal disclaimer, I’m not meaning to advertise for these items. I’m not linking to where I saw them, I’m just posting interesting pictures.

Here’s two I found this morning:

In the coming month, I need to build two more bongo cajons. We’re gifting them to my daughter’s music teachers, General and Band. I also need to throw together an odd box for my brother. It’s more of a stand than a box though.

I still need to post the last present I made for Christmas, but that will wait a few more days.

So anyway, even though I didn’t ‘leave’, I’m now back.

I didn’t want to use up the photo space on the project page explaining the keyboard mechanism, so I’ll do it here. This blog refers to my Shesk project here.

At first I thought I’d just get a drawer slide to allow the keyboard tray to be pulled out or stowed, but the clearance required would have made the unit too tall and make it look too boxy. I wanted to preserve the shelf look of the unit.

I tried to find an under-mount drawer slide—the expensive kind, but alas, I could not find one anywhere that was for a drawer only 12 inches deep. So I wracked my brain for a day, trying to invent something that would do the job well, and hopefully have a coolness factor to boot. Finially it dawned on me that I had seen and indeed made a prototype for an idea.

Always on the lookout for ideas, I spotted this expandable trivet in our grocery store. I actually have a prototype made because I want to make a few soon. (‘tis the season!)

Using this idea I built a similar system to hold the keyboard shelf using hardwood dowels. The following photos pretty much describe it.

Along my route this morning I spotted a chest of drawers on the curb. One drawer was out and on the top of the dresser so I could see it was solid wood without the wide dado so often found on modern furniture. So on my return trip I stopped and hefted the eight drawer dresser in my Impreza wagon. At home I knocked it apart and then cleaned up most of the wood, removing nails and staples. This is the yield of useful wood I got:

From the drawer sides (above) I get 16 1/2 in. thick wood pieces from which I can cut a useable piece 5 inches x 14 in. and 8 pieces from which I can cut 5 in. x 16 in. These are glued up pieces, but they are solid wood and I don’t think it’s pine.

In sheet goods, I got a piece of 1/4 in. plywood measuring 30in. x 35 in., 2 sheets of 3/16 in. plywood measuring 12 1/2 in. x 31 in., and 8 pieces measuring 1 1/2 in. x 16 in.

The top is a 3/4 in. glue up and measures about 16 in. x 37 in. The legs have a small portion of useable wood as well as the 8 drawer fronts (forgot to photograph,) which are solid wood.

I still have to clean up the sticks that were inside the carcass as drawer slides and such.

Some of this wood is finished on one side, but other than that I think it was a great find on a clear October morning. Now let’s see what I can make with it… Let the fun begin!

My table saw has a simple pull push switch and for a long time I’ve puzzled over how to add one of those paddle switch mods to it. There have been times when I would have felt more comfortable being able to power down my saw without moving my hands. Like usual I thought about it for a while and just recently came up with this.

Above the switch itself is a sort of ledge just big enough to fasten a small hinge. I attached the hinge to a 10 inch length of 1/8 inch hardboard. I cut it to look a little cooler than a rectangle and drilled a hole convenient for reaching in to turn the switch on.

I added a few pieces of scrap to the area in front of the switch so that it would easily contact the switch and turn it off. In the on position the paddle actually stands out from the saw, making the position of the switch more evident. This is not so obtuse that it causes a problem. I haven’t yet accidentally switched the saw off during a cut. The paddle flips up so that I can still remove the key if necessary.

I painted the paddle red. All I need now is a ‘stop’ sticker to put on it.

First up is my band saw:

This band saw was the second tool i bought (around last Christmas.) While I get along with it and I like it, I’ll admit that out of the box it gave me some trouble. The blade kept slowing down, grinding to a stop. I fixed that problem by changing the pulley on which the drive belt ran. It’s a two speed pulley, but one doesn’t work very well. Also, after I broke the blade that came with the saw, a replacement blade of the same tooth spacing, but not from Skil cuts much smoother. Right now it lives on a table in a corner. I can use it there for small jobs, but for larger pieces I carry it out and put it on a table I’ve got. In the future I’ll make a rolling stand for it with storage drawers.

If I had to complain about this band saw, I’d say the table has a design flaw. Its fluted, but sometimes the piece you’re cutting catches a piece of scrap and gets caught in the fluting.

Drill Press:

This was my most recent purchase. I bought it around March of this year. It’s a nice little drill press and I like it. I made the simple table for it with a removable plug under the bit. Eventually I will probably cut the round hole square because square plugs are less trouble to make than round ones. Currently the drill press sits on a workmate bench. In the near future I’ll be making a rolling stand for it with storage. This is one of my upcoming projects.

Table Saw:

This table saw was the first major purchase I made in this adventure called woodworking. For the money I had to spend, this was the best of the choices. I haven’t found much to complain about this little saw. I did cut the ears off the miter slots to make sleds easier to make.

Wall space is a premium in my shop because of the multiple uses of the space. When I started thinking about making clamps I knew I would need a place to store them. I devised a way to put a clamp rack in front of my scrap stick area and hinge it so that it could be pulled up to the ceiling when I didn’t need to access my longer clamps. It’s raised with two pullies with the rope held taught with an old window sash weight. A clip hooks onto a screw eye at the bottom of the rack, enabling me to unhook the rope to let the rack hang for use. The rack is held to the ceiling by a hinged hook which mush be pushed back to lower the rack. It’s the best system I could devise even though I know it’s not perfect. Eh, it works for me.

The oil tank is a feature because I can put drawings or notes on it with magnets. They don’t blow away of get lost as fast.

The workbench is one of the first things I knocked together after we bought the house. Someday I’ll probably rework it with better legs and lower it a few inches.

The ‘ell’ part of my shop leads past the laundry (with a shop sink—yay!) I opened up the wall, removing much of the wallboard I installed 15 years ago to create racks for long and short cut offs. Dowels are kept further along.

Shortcomings in the shop are lack of really good lighting in a few spots and lack of a dedicated circuit for electricity. I only use one tool at a time, but the lights blink when I turn on the old TS.

Bar Type Clamps:

The first information I found about making your own clamps was Alex Harris’ video.

I made one of these out of some second hand wood I had, though I did fudge the screw in favor of my own variation.

Spool Clamps:

I also have some spool clamps, a compliment of 14 which I used when i built my wife’s dulcimer. Since I plan on continuing my dabbling in lutherie, it seemed wise to have some around.

Not sure if I needed this, but here’s a video on the subject.

Cam Clamps:

Another cool clamp is a cam clamp, also called a luthier’s clamp. Ya never know when you’ll need a light duty clamp with some reach to it.

Picture Frame Clamp:

And since I like oddball projects, I couldn’t resist making a picture frame clamp after I found this video:

My version, made of recycled oak from a shipping pallet.

My Bar Clamp:

This clamp I made after much searching around and careful though. I felt so good about the design that i sent a very short one out to Steve Ramsey in case he wanted to do something with it in a video. Later this year I’ll e making more of these. I figure I can make 6 clamps out of a board 12 inches wide. I plan on making six 4 footers and six 3 footers.

Steve was kind enough to give me my 15 seconds of fame in his Mere Minutes Vlog (though truth be told, I do not live nor ever have lived in Albany.)

Hand Screw Clamps:

And Lastly I made this hand screw clamp.

I was thinking about this for some time and thoroughly enjoyed the series starting here

However, it was when I found these instructions that I felt comfortable enough to make the attempt. I did fudge them by using nuts nested in a drilled hole instead of threading turned screws, but hey, that’s how I make sawdust.I think the best thing about these is that I can make them out of scrap 2×4s. The one shown used a hunk 9 inches long.

Heavy Duty Bar Clamps:

If you need to make a clamp that’s really heavy duty, I found this video that pretty much shows to to make classic style bar clamps. A couple of these are on my list for a future project.

And if you just like to watch videos, here is a link to a playlist I maintain about any shop made clamps I find. Enjoy.