I have had this desk light for years now. I have tried to use the little plastic clamp that came with it, but it always come loose at the wrong time (like with glue up time or sometime like that).
I have a dinky little workbench with 5/8” dog holes. So took a DF closet rod and stuck a 5/8 dowel in the bottom and drilled a 1/2” hole in the to for the light.
About 15 minutes later we are in business.

Why did I not do this earlier???

PaBull.

I needed some Christmas presents, so I check on LJ for ideas and found some of you guys with great looking nail balancing puzzles (thanks you guys!!!). My daughter brought home a long time ago, an old Windsor chair not worth the repair it would take to get it back to a dining table. I could not throw away the parts, so I have used them for several projects and here is another. Recycling is good.

The object is to balance the 9 loose nails on top of the one nail in the center.

Note that I used an odd number of loose nails to balance, this makes it a lot easier ta balance, specially when YOU have to show off.

The pictures:
1. The Final finished Nail Balancing Puzzle
2. The four puzzles I made for Christmas (with one with the solution)
3. I used a stain to match the fresh cut and lacquer and shellac to finish the puzzle
4. From 1 leg I was able to make 2 different shaped puzzles
5. Here the chair leg before and after.

I hope this gets you inspired for Christmas projects.

Pabull.

So my son came by one time and gave me a Manzanita stump from the back yard of his wife’s grandfather. It has been laying around in my garage for a while (this happens with a lot of stuff in my garage).

I needed a birthday present for my son AND he will be graduating from college this Christmas in Computer Science. So what do you give a kid like this????

With chop saw and hand saw and table saw and chisels, I was able to get this all into a business card friendly shape. I finished it with tung oil and polyurethane.

In addition, he is getting some advertising done this way.

He was VERY happy with the gift.

Thanks for checking.
PaBull.

I copied this idea from KnotCurser, posted here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/67785, thanks for the idea!

I ran into it when I was desperately looking for an idea for my sons birthday, something I could whip out in an evening. So I searched for “puzzle” on lumberjocks.

So in reverse this is how it went:

1. The finished puzzle. I can’t believe I was able to put it all back together myself. As KnotCurser explained, opposite faces need to add up to seven. There are no extra dots inside the puzzle.

2. I used a Danish Oil (Mads, this must be the best, right?) as a finish. Quick and easy.

3. I used my bench hook for planing to plane down the plugs.

4. Hammer the plugs into the holes with a bit of glue.

5. The blocks are drilled and the pugs are ready.

6. I used the drill press to drill the holes for the plugs. It drill nice and straight and I am able to set the stop for depth.

7. I cut the blocks from some left over White Oak wooden flooring.

8. The plugs were made from Walnut. These were scrap pieces I got from my floor installer. Nice guy!

9. The plugs were not completely drilled through. On the table saw I just cut halfway up through the wood and the plugs come rolling out.

Thanks for checking it out and please don’t leave without a comment.

PaBull.

Last time I moved my drill press, I broke the verticle adjustment crank. So for a while I used a vise grip, but this got really old. Finding a replacement crank was like finding a needle in a haystack.

So one day I got so sick of it, I build one out of baltic plywood, a !/2” dowel and a bolt. Works great.

Pabull.

The dresser just came out the garage. I still need to make room in the closet, before it will gets its final destination. Up untill then everybody can go “Oh” and “Ah”. This project has occupied my garage for over a year now.

Below is the “wife-approved” cardboard design of thew dresser. The design and materials are covered on this blog: http://lumberjocks.com/PaBull/blog/28354

For the dado’s I used the “Never Fail” dado jig, see below:

The rest of the story about the gluing, pocketholes and how I used the Stanley #45 you can read in the following blog: http://lumberjocks.com/PaBull/blog/28375

I went on and designed a jig for the drawer slide installation:

Thanks for looking.

I love to hear your comments!!

A couple of years ago a guy at a garage sale gave me a couple of pine slabs. They were about 6’ by 18” by 2” thick. We used them for around our fire pit and just put them on plastic crates. This worked fine for years. But not any more. My second daughter is getting married (I mentioned this earlier in another post) and this bench needs to be official and nice, but primitive. So they came to me. I had to fix it. And believe me this is one of the easier tasks.

So from some pallet wood (my favorite kind) I cut some 2 1/8” square stock by 17” long. On the tablesaw I put a 45 bevel on it to give it a little bit of a rounder shape.

I bought a 2 1/8” forstner bit, this was the most expensive part of this project. I drilled the four holes in the slab in a 95 degree angle. (see pic #2)

Next I took the forstner bit and used it to mark a 2 1/8” circle on the end of the stock for the legs. (see pic#3) This would give me an exact outline to follow.

The next step is VERY exciting for me. I own a draw knife, but never had a purpose for it. With the draw knife I was getting close to my Forstner bit marking, but not hitting it. (see pic #4) With a spoke plane I finished it to the line perfectly. (see pic#5)

Next is a saw cut with the band saw for the wedge.

After that, I installed the leg in the hole, put the wedge in the sawcut, and beat it home. Now the cut for the wedge needs to perpendicular to the grain. (see pic#6)

After that I cut off the waist at the top end flush with the bench, and use my Stanley 9 1/2 to get at all the way perfect.

Thanks for visiting with me.
And one thing I was wondering about, in the rain and the sun, what do I do with that end grain…..

PaBull.

Sorry about the extreem simplicity of this jig. But it is the simpicity that makes this jig kinna special.

So I am working on the top for the dresser I am making and I had a hard time holding in my vise. At one point I had a 3/4” stick leaning into the vise to keep the thing from racking. I was going to build a little t-shaped space, but instaed I made this stack of plywood. Each shim is just under 1/4”. As most jigs, I made this out of scraps.

1. The Anti-racking spacer in action, with the top of the dresser also clamped in the same vice.
2. The anti-racking spacer finished.
3. I used loctite to keep the nut on the b olt. (I could not find a lock-nut this size)
4. I drilled the whole pack of shims at the same time.
5. The shims are 2” x 3” x 1/4”.
6. Hing this spacer where you can find it, but out of the way, right under the vise. (just added this a little after posting)

Below is the dresser I am working on:
http://lumberjocks.com/PaBull/blog/29471

There are other LJ’s that have been playing around with rock inlay. And I have been toying with how to do this nicely and still keep it simple.

This box is for one of my eight daughters for her birthday.

The rocks were collected during our last vacation in the redwoods in Northern California.

pic #2. I used the top of the box for the inlay, and as you can see on the pictures. I used sapwood and the sapwood is joining in the center.

pic #3. On the tablesaw I cut a stopped sawcerf where the tho halves are meeting.

pic #4. Here you see the saw cut.

pic #5. Next I took the rocks I selected for the inlay and laid them on the copy machine and made a copy.

pic #6. With this copy I was able to trace the silhouette with both halves pushed together.

Here you can see that I only carve out the upper layer above the saw cut.

Check the fit of the rocks. I marked the rocks with a little pencil mark to remember how they were supposed to face.

This is where it all started with, a pallet from Taiwan.

Another daughter is getting married. And the bridal shower organisers (my other daughters) commissioned me to make a recipe box.

For all the details on how I put this pallet wood box together, please check this blog:
http://lumberjocks.com/PaBull/blog/29136

1. the box finished
2. the box open with recipe stuff ready to go
3. that sap wood came in handy to do some writing on
4. proud finger joints
5. the wooden hinge, no metal on this box
6. half way the construction

I will have to go by my daughters place and check out what she is cooking after she is married.

Thanks for stopping by.
Pabull.

There are a lot of different jigs on the market for mounting drawer slides. The are all based on holding the slide in place where it needs to go and screw it in place. This gives a lot of room for error, because the screw holes are so big and you do not have a lot of room inside the cabinet to get your screw gun perfectly lined up. I came up with a very simple jig using 6 1” drywall screws in some left over 1/2” plywood. The screws line up with the holes of the drawer slide. Put the jig in place, flush with the face frame, wacky the screw heads with the mallet and you have the starter holes for your drawer screws. You will see that this is a lot more accurate than the Blum Slide Jig Gun. A lot cheaper too, $23.49 plus shipping for the gun below.

The reason for the double row of screws is left side and right side. The jig on the picture was build with 3/4” inset drawer fronts in mind.

You could build this jig with one row of 3 screws if you cut the width of the strip of wood exactly 2x the height of the screw hole from the base of the drawer cavity.

I hope this will help some of you LJ install the Euro drawer slides faster and more accurate.

Also check out my other Scews-N-Plywood jig:

Pabull.

So I was busy finishing up a little project. But I was in a hurry and wanted to put finish on all sides. I needed something to keep the project up in a way that you could not see that is had to dry on “blocks”.

I did not have time to order something online or go to the store. Nor did i feel like spending any precious hard earned money.

So I used a 2” hole saw. I used superglue to glue a 1” drywall screw on top of this puck. And I was planning on using them more often, so I put a coat of Polyurethane on it.

And there you have it…..the poor mans cookies.

Pabull.

Oh, I forgot to mention that these guys will stack nicely as you see here. And maybe even better if you use 3/4” screws (instead of the 1” drywall screws I used). The screws nest into the hole from the pilot drill from the hole saw.

Quite a few members of our family got into weaving. So restoring an antique floor weaving loom was the first project. Here is the second. These are Inkle Looms. They are used for the weaving of belt type of things.

I used 3/4” plywood and 3/4” dowel.

Here are some inkle looms build by other LJ’s:

My Dear Friend Mads,

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful little package from the far ends of the world.

Here is my story and I stick to it:
1. After lunch, that I normally have with my family, today it was with the wife and the 8 kids that are still at home (the rest moved out), I went like I always do to the mailbox to pick up the mail. And what caught my eye was a package from Denmark.
2. I took all my mail to my car and tossed it on my dashboard.
3. I drove to my office that is inside the greenhouses.
4. I tossed my feet on my desk to get comfortable, and checked out the package one more time.
5. Oh wow, this well wrapped in bubble wrap, it’s a knife, but the blade was not installed so the mailman would not hurt himself.
6. The nicely turned handle has a label on it with the famous MADS stamp on it with red ink. Signed by Mads.

It is nice to have friends that care.

(Oh, by the way, if this is the wrong place to put this project from Mads, I am so sorry and will never do it again!!)

Inspired by the hot dog from Mads, I started looking around in my shop for hot dog material, but could not find any.

But I did find some Drumstick scraps. The scraps were from an old rocking chair my daughter found along the street that was too far gone to fix. My groove did not come easy, first too small, then too big. I had to fix this by gluing slivers back in the groove. But we have a perfect fit now.

I really like the feel of the drumstick in the hand. It gives you something to hold onto.

The hot dog or drumstick is used as a better positioned grip when using a #62 on the shooting board.
For a shooting board look at the link below.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mads.

Pabull.

My 14 year old daughter along with other members of the family are getting into a new hobby; weaving. We bought an old loom. It’s a Leclerck from Canada. It is 50 to 75 years old and needed lots of help, refinish and parts. It is actually kind of fun, because it is all so mechanical.

Here is the loom as we bought it before restoration. In addition to the loom they also needed a shuttle (working on it) a bench, adjustable, so short and tall people can work on the loom and a warping frame. The warping frame is the first thing you grab before you start weaving. You roll or collect your yarn on this frame.

So I started to look for some inexpensive lumber and ran across an old bed frame sitting in my garage.

Removed the finish and cut the pine boards to size. It is always nice to see old wood find a new purpose.

I used 3/4” dowels after it was pointed out to me that the 1/2” dowels, I bought earlier, are too light for a warp.

Mads asked me about my 62. This is my new/used Stanley #62. I am an old plane user, and it was a bit of an disappointment when I had the level cap in my hands, it is a light dinky thing. The tote is not the most comfortable thing either. But other than that, this is my first low angle bevel up plane, and that an OH WOW!!.

As you can see the 62 looks like a “flag on a mud ship” with the rest of my planes, but we will keep her. One thing I might do is change the tote.

Lee Valley has a nice design in their website I might use. But enough about my 62, I was talking about my warp frame.

I bought the hardware for the frame also at Lowe’s. I like Lowe’s better than HD. There is just something a little more professional and friendly about that store. I am using small t-nuts and clamping knobs to be able to take the frame apart when not in use.

This is the hardware I bought. And on the next picture below you see how I matched up the T-nuts with the Forster bit to counter sink the T-nut flush with the wood.

Thanks to Mads for encouraging me to post this simple Warping Frame.

Thanks for looking and thanks again for your comments, Pabull.

Please remove this if this is not appropriate. It was send to me by a friend, Willie (thanks Willie). I just wanted you LJ’s to see it.

Pabull.

I was lurking around on the Wood Whisperer’s website and ran into his Exact-Width Dado Jig. I liked it a lot, but it failed when Marc had to reach under the jig to tighten his nuts. Please check Marc’s jig out and also his explanation on his video on how to use the thing, he does a way better job than me!!

I had my own cabinet shop for years and I always struggled with setting up the dado blades in the table saw, a little wider for solid woods and a little less for plywood. I was never able to hit it dead on. But I could not handle Marc’s jig with his nuts under the table.

So I came up with the “never fail” dado jig, with the nuts above the table.

And if it was not for the fact that I was building a dresser for my lovely wife’s closet, and it has a bunch of dado’s in it, I would have never build this jig.

This is one of those jigs, once you build it, you can’t live without it.

The boards are made of 3/4 plywood cut to 2 1/4 width. Add a strip of 1/4×3/4 hard wood to the edge, glue not nail.

On the two long boards cut a small rabbet on the hardwood strip 1/8×3/8. This needs to face up when assembling the frame. See picture above.

The jig takes just a hand full of hardware. One side, the side with the screws is also glued and needs to be VERY square!!! Clamp it first for a while before you actually put the screws in place.

When all hardware is in place it is time to true the jig up to ONE set of guide bushing and router bit. This set will be the set that will be married of to this jig. Put a board in the jig, use clamps as shown below.

With the first run you will shave a little off the sides of the jig. Now it is time for the true test. Set again a board in the jig clamp it tight, tighten the nuts, take the clamps off and run the router up one side and back the other side of the jig. I feel like blah-blah-blah, I am not getting it explained. Best is go to the link up above and watch the video Marc did so well.

Anyway, thanks for reading this post and I hope you have as much fun with this jig as I did.

Pabull.

Not enough bench space…..... or not the right vise…....... or small parts that you can not hold correctly in your vise….... or the bench vice is in your way when you want the bench to be clear…......

Here is what I did:

I did not come up with this double duty bench vice myself, but it made a lot of sense to me. And the ideas did not all come from one place, either. Actually I don’t even remember where I got it from. So forgive me if it was your idea.

I started with a metal bench vise on top of my work bench. after a while I acquired a woodworking side mount vise. Off went the metal vise and on with the wooden one. But it did not take very long and being the repair man of the house I really needed a top mount metal vise. I got to thinking and mounted the metal vise on a 2×8 and underneath that a 2×6. In the 2×6 I made some slots to allow for the hardware of the wooden vise. Now I can mount that metal vise in seconds in the wooden vise. AND being 6’-2” tall, those extra couple of inches it now is higher helped.

Than the next step was holding small parts in the metal vise. I used “fin ply” or 1/2” plywood and inserted rare earth magnets in the surface facing the jaws of the metal vice. The magnets would hold those little wooden jaws in place while my hand are occupied by closing the vise AND holding the object.

Thanks Mads for the great idea http://lumberjocks.com/projects/41470 . It has taken me a long time to make this grease box, but it’s here. I don’t think this will get me in the “club” (it’s got no grease), but that’s ok, I did score with my darling wife when I gave her this box for her “25th” birthday. She is a quilter, that’s why I choose that text.

Again this is a piece of old pallet wood. So because of that, I have no clue what kind of wood this is.

The shells are a souvenir from our last vacation in Northern California. The kids and us always collect “stuff” that needs to come home.

Thanks for looking, be well.
Pabull.