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72K views 342 replies 81 participants last post by  mafe 
#1 ·
Million Dollar Idea...

How many of us have one of these somewhere in their home?The Problem...
Yeah, I thought so, almost everyone. Am I the only one, or do other people have a hard time remembering which pull is for which? 50-50 chance and I was forever picking the wrong one!
About 5-6 years ago I was visiting a friend and she had one too, with one pull marked with an ornament. I asked whether the marked one was for the light or the fan and she said she forgot! Well, I said to myself, this is ridiculous! So I gave thought to scrolling out something to define the pulls once and for all…
My first thought was just to cut the words "Light" and "Fan" out of a couple pieces of scrap, but how would that help someone illiterate or who spoke a different language?
Anyway, I went to work that night and as luck would have it there was a bulb out in the basement of the restaurant. I went to get a new one to change it, and there…on the side of the box…was a little cartoon of a light bulb! A light bulb went off in my head and I had the answer, at least for the light pull. I thought about a small propeller type thing for the fan but didn't think it would wear well with constant yanking…
Ultimately, I came up with these:The Solution!
I could have tied them to the string, but I was too lazy to try to untie the loop, so I just made a couple of quick fishhooks out of a clothes hanger. Life couldn't be better now…It's amazing how good it is when the simplest little nuisance problem is resolved, permanently! And everybody that sees them wants some for their own! You guys and gals that work the fairs and such ought to bang out a bag full of these! They cost next to nothing to make, and I would think people would think nothing of giving you a five or ten spot for them…$$$$ :)
 
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#178 ·
Of Circular Saws...

I have the simplest of projects to do, a boarding-up of the basement windows. Since I'll be using plywood, I thought it would be a great time to demonstrate an answer for an old Forum topic here…
I can't remember who it was, but 3 or so years ago somebody asked how they would go about cutting Plywood to size on their garage floor.
I was a little surprised at the time that the generally agreed upon answer was to lay down some Hard Pink Insulation, and cut right through and into it…
I've used a different way for many years, and wanted to tell them then, but thought it would be easier to show rather than tell… This is the first opportunity I've had…
Those of you who do this for a living… Please, bear with me!
But, also bear in mind that there are every type of skill sets on LJ's… Things that are utterly routine for you, might be beyond someone else's experience…
Anyway, I took some Measurements and drew a quick sketch…Some measurements...

Then I secured a good size piece of 3/8" Plywood… (Lucky Me!! Someone painted it pink!!)Some Plywood

When I was cleaning down in the basement, I came across a couple of 2"X6"s that were water damaged on the ends… A basement find...

These will be perfect for a pair of Poor Man's Sawhorses!!
First, I set the Circular Saw fence deep enough to cut just-through the 2"X material…Setting the depth of cut...

Then, after marking the plank, I place it atop the other and make the cut…First Cut...

If you look closely, the sawhorses are already in use as I cut the other end and then the other plank…Flip it and cut the other end...Repeat with other 2"X 6"...

Now I'll mark my Plywood Sheet at the measured 35"... (Ah, the Wonder of Chalk Lines!)...The Wonder of Chalklines...

The next step I can't stress strongly enough!
It is absolutely essential, to re-set the the Circular Saw's fence to the "New" cutting thickness, i.e., the thickness of the Plywood!...
If I didn't, working here on the concrete floor, I would likely be bombarded with carbide teeth…Reset Depth of Cut!!

It's then a simple matter, using the new "sawhorses", to make the cuts…Make cut...

Of course for this project, accuracy is not critical so I've been free-handing. But I could just as easily have used an either store bought, or home made, straightedge to get the cuts right on…Cutting for width...

So long as the cut-offs fall off, and you keep them out of your way, and use a sharp blade, and work carefully, this works just fine…
I found a great place to stash the Poor Man's Sawhorses too… Up, and out of the way between the floor joists…A place for Everything...

I'll get to attaching these to the windows sometime this week…To be attached later...

Not having a Table Saw the size of a Billiards Table might slow you down, but it should never stop you my Friends!! :)
1 July 2012
 
#194 ·
Details...

I got an early start yesterday on a couple of things that needed doing…
Where we live is a largish Apartment building. The mail gets delivered to the front (of course), and that's where the street numbers are…
In the back, is the parking area and the rear entrances for the various units. Everybody in the building has their unit numbers written there too, except us… I could have left it that way, and let people who visit park and guess which one is ours, but that would be… discourteous…
I also could have run to the hardware store, purchased some numbers, and tacked them up… but where's the fun in that?
I decided to make some numbers… Happily, I didn't have to re-invent the numerals, a few days ago I simply made a tracing of the numbers in the front…Tracing of Street #'s...

There was a time when I cut letters and numbers out of plied wood, but I soon discovered that they do not fare well when exposed to the elements… I don't think there is a glue made that can stand up to the weather, as signs that were put outside had the wood plies peel like an onion…
So I secured a small scrap of Oak… It was too thick for number or letter work so I had to re-saw it…Re-sawing...

As an aside, I just put new jaws on that old vise last week, so it was my first time using it… The old ones were in a pitiable state, with loose, stripped screws that left dandy dents from the screw heads in any clamped work…Old Vise Jaws...

But anyway, once sawn, the now-thinner stock was ready to have the tracings transferred to them. The plan, is to tack these up with some Brass Brads, so at this point I pre-drilled for the brads and added the usual access holes for the Scroll Saw work…
Scroll Saws make very short work of this sort of thing…After Pattern transfer and ready for cutting...Cutting...

I still had a half can of Spray Lacquer left over and it was used on these, starting with the underside first…Finishing backs first...

While I waited for that to dry, I turned my attention to a Spice Rack that I made, circa 1999-2000… It hung on the wall in Manchester until last October, and looked it!New life for an old spice rack...

It's not a fancy thing, I made it to be useful, not pretty…
And so it has been, and after taking it apart, and giving it a good cleaning and sanding, it will be useful still…Spice rack...

Anyway, all of that didn't take very long, a little over two hours…
We had made plans to go to the beach yesterday, and with the scattered rain that was falling we almost changed our minds…
Debbie and I finally just up and went, and I'm glad we did! Even in the rain, there is still a restorative and calming effect when visiting the Ocean… Nice to know the lighthouse is still there too…Nubble Lighthouse

When we got home, just before dinner, I tacked up the new house numbers…
It's funny sometimes, how satisfying these little "detail" projects can be… They'll be there to greet us every time we come home…
And I'm not likely to forget the day that I put them on…
Yesterday, was my Birthday… :)New Street numbers...
5 September 2012
 
#195 ·
Belated Birthday wishes Mike

Nice view, all the wee bits make it a home

The spice rack was done right first time makes

it easier to clean up.

jamie
 
#219 ·
Quick Kitchen Shelf...

The order came down last week, "Honey, could you make something for over the sink? This thing is no good!"... What I'm replacing...

I couldn't agree more!!
Having a small shelf over the kitchen sink is a great idea, but a store-bought one?! This one was left to us by the previous tenants and it's no wonder that it is sagging in the middle, it's not even one board across the whole span…[IMG alt=""Fine" joinery of the store-bought shelf..."]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8173/7978873415_8fd1089ea6_z.jpg[/IMG]

Okay, it has got to go…
I searched around and found some Oak that's barely long enough, but it's all I have, so it'll have to do… I also found some Douglas Fir that will make decent legs…After selecting Wood...

Ordinarily, I would use through-mortise and tenon for the joinery, but the Oak isn't long enough for that…
Box joints would work, but I'd like the thing to be able to be taken apart for cleaning…
Dovetails?? They would be perfect, but I'm no good at cutting them…
Well, that settles it, Dovetails it is! I'll never get any better at them if I never make any…
The only time I ever tried them was on a very small box (they were terrible!); this time I'll be using more substantial lumber… I hoped it would be easier…
And it was…
First I cut the pins…Cutting depths of pins...Pin cutting...

Then came the tails… these were cut with the Scroll Saw…Cutting tails...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, I present my first dovetail-connected lumber!! Dovetail joints...

Lots of room for improvement, but a lot better than my first efforts!
Next, was to trim the top to width and to cut the sides down to size…Ripping for width...After cutting sides down to size...

I'm going to use that off-cut for a cross brace… First I cut slip-fit slots for it in both sides…Slip-fit for cross brace...

Then I chiseled out a small saddle and cut a saddle notch in the cross member… It'll slip up and over, and be held down by a couple of wedges…[IMG alt="For lack of a better term, a "saddle" joint..."]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8037/7978873222_852366dd00_z.jpg[/IMG]

A few final details, and this thing is ready for some finishing… :)A few final details...Ready for finishing...
12 September 2012
 
#220 ·
What a grate improvement! It really makes a difference doing things right. This is a great way to get your feet wet on a couple of newer techniques without getting overwhelmed. It looks really nice, Mike!

Sheila :)
 
#236 ·
Hanging it up...

It's Winter here and the White Season brings with it the need for heavy jackets…
We have closets for them, but they're upstairs… Most of the time, the coats end up hanging on the Chair-backs in our kitchen, where they are ready-to-hand…
But no one wears the same coat every day, and we end up with half the wardrobe cluttering up the Kitchen!
There was a need here for a simple place to hang our Winter "Stuff"... Yesterday, I got a chance to fill that need…
The project idea was as straightforward as can be, Pegs in a Board… But rather than buy pegs, I just wanted to use doweling and cut my own…
In order for straight pegs to work they'll need to be tilted upwards a little… Though this could be done by hand, a quick "Tilted" fixture for the Drill Press was made, in the interest of uniformity…A Tilted Fixture...

The two track pieces would probably be enough, but I made a wedge shaped support piece for under where the hole will be drilled… just in case that 1/2" drill wants to split the workpiece…
I took a scrap piece from the workpiece itself to do some boring tests, and to set the depth stop so it doesn't go all the way through…A boring test...
Because of the length of the board I'm using, I next had to move the Drill Press to the floor. That will allow me the space on either side to feed the board through…Drill Press on floor...

After the holes were drilled, I cut ten lengths of 1/2" dowel and chucked them up one by one in the drill press…
It's an easy matter to take a rasp or file and round-over and smooth one end of the peg this way…One of the pegs chucked-up in the Drill Press......In order to round-over one side with a file...

And a new place to hang coats begins to take shape…The Coat Rack takes shape...

I had to de-ice the car after a night of snow and freezing rain first, but I then took it to our local hardware to get some small screws to hold the pegs on from the backside…Attaching the pegs...

Off to the "Finishing Department" where it has already received two coats of Wipe-on Poly and awaits a third…First coat of wipe-on polyureathan being applied...

All that's left is to hang it on our hallway wall, but that could be a project in itself… These old buildings, with their plaster walls, always make it an adventure trying to find the studs!! :)
30 January 2013
 
#252 ·
Fixing a Hole...

It's been well over a year since Debbie and I moved into our "New" Apartment.
There has been something unsightly in our kitchen bugging me all that time…
Covered over by taped plastic, there is a big hole in the ceiling… It's an access hole, to the plumbing for our bathroom, in the room right above it… Today I tore down the plastic, to see what it looks like…The problem...

It is about what I figured… In these old houses, they put in dropped ceilings many years ago… Somebody must have gotten wise to the fact that it's cheaper to heat 8' rooms than it is to heat 11'! There is even an old dilapidated tin ceiling up there!
What I want to do, is put a trapdoor in… Since there's really nothing to nail or screw to, and the drywall that covers over the 2 X 4 "joists" that are up there off-sets everything, I started by building a box-frame to re-square the opening…
I began by sawing a 2 X 8 in half and screwing together a frame…Cut a 2 x 8 in half...A quick frame...

I then hammered that up and into place and screwed it to the "Joists"... Now, the opening is level with the ceiling…Frame in Place...

Next, I got some old trim board from the landlord, cleaned it up some, and started cutting trim for the opening…Cutting and fitting...

Of course I did all this between errands, and reaching this point was when I found out that there wasn't enough…
But I went ahead and put them up anyway…Used what I had...

The Landlord was gone (couldn't hit him up for any more scrap), so I rummaged around and found a piece that was long enough but a different thickness… With a couple shims under I made it work…Trim in Place...

This much will all be painted (and I could just drop in a piece of plywood now and call it done), but I want to make a simple drop-in door for it out of some Poplar… But that's another day's work… :)
 
#275 ·
Fixing a Hole - Part #2...

I had enough time yesterday morning, before we went out, to make a simple door for this fix…
Growing up in my Parent's house, they had a similar situation to this for the Attic access. What the builders of their house had done, was used left-over Beadboard from the wainscot work on the first floor, to make a quick Z-braced door that just slipped into the opening…
While I don't have any Beadboard on hand (nor the router cutters to replicate it) I still wanted to at least try to reproduce the look…
I began by cutting up a length of Poplar into strips…Poplar marked and beginning to cut...Poplar strips...

After they were run through the planer, to get them all uniform, I cut them to length and used the jointer to chamfer the edges of what will be the exposed side…Chamfering the cut-to-length strips...

Then, a straightedge was squared to the backstop on the bench and assembly began…Squaring a block to the bench back-stop...Beginning the assembly...

Using spacer blocks, holes were marked, pre-drilled, and counter sunk for screws to attach the cross braces… Since the Scroll Saw was used to cut these to length, I saw no reason not to round them a little while I was at it… The radius was marked by the nearest thing to hand…Pre drilling and counter-sinking the braces...Marking to round the cross members...

I find it easiest to just mark the diagonal in place… It doesn't have to be that precise, because a little swing in it will get it perfect… Marking the diagonal...After the cut...

The diagonal was screwed on in the same fashion as the cross braces, and I got to take a look… The finished Door...

I'm liking it, but it was still about an 1/8" too wide to fit in the opening… Happily, this door is so small, that it could be passed over the jointer a couple of times to trim it down to size…In Place...

And there you have it, all ready for paint and Polyurethane…

But Wait!! Not so Fast!!

As happens so often, one thing leads to another… The ladder I've been using for this little project is going to be needed for the painting as well, but the fold-out shelf is in really bad shape! The shelf of the ladder needs an upgrade.,,

That won't do!
Fortunately, I had some left-over strips of Poplar from the door-making… and I just got some practice attaching them… :)A new deck for an old ladder...A new deck...
28 July 2013
 
#276 ·
I just went back and read the first part of this. What a nice job you did here, Mike! I love your blogs because they really hit home with so many people. Another great job on this. You keep it simple and functional, but it still looks really nice when you are done. Awesome! :)

Sheila
 
#290 ·
Woodworking in December...

It is that time of year, time to put up the Christmas Tree…
I've grown fond of smaller trees (the so-called "Table Top" size), but apparently so have many other people, because they're getting increasingly hard to find!
Luckily, those of us who work with wood can improvise…
This year, the Tree will go next to our Front Window, so others can enjoy it as much as we do…
I placed the Tree stand in the desired spot and measured to the ceiling… The Sky is not the limit!


After measuring, an elaborate plan was drawn and implemented… Very important, to allow for the Tree Topper!


A single, regulation Tree was required… One was procured, and brought down to the Basement Shop… It's too Cold to work outside today!


I had to buy one of their smallest, a full five footer, but it should work very well…
The Tree-top Star is added now, temporarily, so a proper height can be determined…


This must be why they call it "trimming" the Tree…


And after it is cut to length, there is nothing left to do but attach the stand and put it where it belongs… and clean up the mess…


The Tree will be left alone for a day or so, before the lights and ornaments are added, to allow it to thaw and droop as it wishes… And watering has not been forgotten, they are very thirsty!!

One last thing to do…
Perhaps in the tradition of the old Yule Log, for generations my Family has taken a cutting from the Tree and saved it in an old decanter bottle…
Upon the raising of the New Tree, the Old clipping is burned, and then replaced with New… And the Tradition continues… :)

14 December 2013
 
#311 ·
Have to Get in the Shop!

It has been a L-O-N-G and C-O-L-D Winter here in New Hampshire!!
Perhaps we didn't break single day records, but it has been consistently cold since last October, which dealt a crippling blow to my enthusiasm for Woodworking…


The Temperature in the Basement Shop here hovered around 40° for most of that time, too cold for whatever determination I possess!
But the Calendar pages turn, and Good Old Sol continues to ride higher in the Sky, with inevitable results…


It is finally getting warm enough to begin to venture into the Wood Zone!
But there's always something…
The door that leads to the Cellar stairs had Knobs that kept on coming loose and wouldn't engage the door catch…
My Honey found herself trapped in the basement, unable to open the door to come up!!
That was the second time that happened and I resolved to make it right… After all, as much as I want to get some Shop Time in, I also want to be able to get back out of the Shop!

Yesterday, I removed the offending Doorknobs and inspected the Door… It is a typical hollow core affair, with nothing of any substance to fasten anything to, so a couple of spacer blocks were cut, set, glued, and clamped into place, above and below the hole in the void inside of the door…


Now with something to attach to, I could have proceeded to the Hardware store and bought some handles… But where would be the Fun in that?!
While the Glue was drying, I went down to the newly warming Shop, and cut a couple of quick Maple "Plates",,,


And then a couple of quick Cherry handles …


To ease the outside edges, I used the old "Pencil on its Side" Trick to mark them and then gave them a quick trim with the Scroll Saw tilted to 45°…


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Morning, with the Glue dry, it was a pretty simple matter to first "Toe Peg" the plates into place, and then peg on the handles in the same fashion…


Lastly, I took a minute and cut a small "Cover" for the old lock set holes…


I'm going to do a little more shaping of the handles with a file (and of course some sanding and finish) but they are already in use and a Huge Improvement…
And I've got a Warm Shop again (that I can get out of too)!! :)
7 April 2014
 
#323 ·
The "Greatest" Picture Frame

Debbie and I love to rummage around at the backs of Department Stores (where they keep all the kitschy stuff) and search for Prints and Pictures to decorate our walls…
We're particularly fond of Photos, or artful representations, of the Icons of our generation… For example, we found this one waiting for us at a Target Store in Manchester…


There are few alive who don't recognize those four young men!

Another that came home with us a little later was a Young Man who I am convinced was a Saint… A Man of Peace and Love…


Unfortunately that message frightened someone for he met a very violent end… Silenced forever, except through his Music…

And then came Marilyn…


Marilyn Monroe was Glamorous, and looked it, but this photograph caught my eye because it is the least Glamorous shot I had ever seen of her… There is also this, her smile in this one does not look like it was for the camera… It looks like, for one brief moment, Marilyn was Happy…

Anyway, I only bring these up because another of those pictures followed us Home last year, but it was frame-less; essentially, a poster glued to cardboard… I resolved to frame it as soon as possible, but you know how it goes… Time passes, with other concerns and cares, and resolutions thin and dilute…

A couple weeks ago the Landlord was fixing a section of fence that had blown down last Winter, and I finally saw my chance… I asked for (and took) a few of the slats from the old fencing…


This morning a quick and simple Rustic Frame was made by first sawing the slats in half…


Then a shallow Rebate was cut with the Router to accept the cardboard-thick poster…


When I'm not dreaming about them, I sometimes use my Miter Saw… :)


Nothing fancy here, next I cut some quick triangles to hold the corners together…


Held them all together, drilled the four holes, countersunk them, and put them in place…



And there you have it, a very quick and simple frame for our latest acquisition…

What's that? Oh, Who's the picture of?
I thought I told you in the Title! It's a picture of the one, the only, Mr. "I AM THE GREATEST" himself, Muhammad Ali… Who else would it be?! :)

19 July 2014
 
#324 ·
you know what he is saying don't you…come on get up…i'm like a bumble bee…oh but my sting…...very cool mike, your always make me smile by the way to find solutions to things, very cool work…love that miter saw, ive got a saw that size but i dont have the rest…
 
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