Well so far about half of the Christmas presents are made, and I don't have very much time left. I have been doing pretty well usually completing a gift a day, with some of them taking a max of three days.
Here are some helpful hints about making it a woodworking Christmas.
1. Sit down and make a list of everyone you would like to make a gift for, and what you want to make them. It is best if you can make a few of the same type of gift to give out to multiple people.
2. If you are going to have to ship the present make sure it is not to big, and keep how much it weighs in mind. Shipping is going to be a fortune either way. If everyone is close together, go hog wild.
3. I try to keep my scrap bin in my thoughts as I think what to make people. I often have small amounts of some of the more exotic species in my bin. This is a great way empty the bin.
4. Give yourself plenty of time. I would suggest starting 3-6 months before Christmas according to how many gifts you are making, and how much shop time to have. This year I have about 25 gifts I am making. I also plan on spending at least three hours in the shop 4 days a week. So I decided to get started at the first of October. Also keep in mind that you need to try to ship things out a couple of weeks before Christmas.
So as you can see for it to be sucessful your main goal is perfect time management.
Don't know what types of things would be good to make? Well here are some suggestions with the scrap bin in mind.
1. Rolling pins are always good. You don't have to make them out of one piece of wood. They can easily be made from multiple pieces, or even segmented. I do suggest however that you make them using a waterproof glue like Titebond type II, and use a food grade oil finish on them.
2. Scroll saw portraits. These are fairly easy to crank out, and cheap. A piece of 4x8 1/8 Luan ply may seem expensive but you could easily make 8 5x11 portraits out of one piece. Not good with a scroll saw or just starting out? I got started by thinking about the individuals interests, like say for instance Volkswagens. Google an image of the VW symbol, print it out in black and white, spray glue it to a piece, and cut it out. I think it only took me 20 mins to do. Took more time to make the frame.
3. Toy trucks or cars. These can be made easily from scrap, but be careful not to make them too complicated. Also if it is for a toddler, think seriously finishing it with food grade in mind. You never know when a lil guy or gal is gonna think that walnut wheel looks tasty.
4. Pencil holders. Another great scrap bin project, just search it in youtube to see how its made.
5. Bandsaw boxes. Every gal likes a nick- back box. There are some very simple designs that literally take 30 mins to cut out ( not including glue ups act)
I can think if tons more, but it is easy to get ideas. Maybe check out Steve Carmicheal's scrap bin video playlist for some. Also there is some great videos from The Drunken Woodworker on making succulent planters, pencil holders, and bandsaw boxes. Be sure to check them out!
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Easy disc sander
I like many others had a need for a disc sander. I like many others do not have $300 to spend on one. I do however have a 70's Craftsman Radial Arm saw that has wear in the bushings making it impossible to keep adjusted to correct alignment. This particular model has an accessory side on the motor that a 1/2" Jacobs drill chuck will screw onto. The motor also spins at 3500 RPM which is a great speed for a disc sander.
What I did here will work for anything that you can connect a drill chuck too, whether it is a Radial Arm Saw or a wood lathe.
I like many others had a need for a disc sander. I like many others do not have $300 to spend on one. I do however have a 70's Craftsman Radial Arm saw that has wear in the bushings making it impossible to keep adjusted to correct alignment. This particular model has an accessory side on the motor that a 1/2" Jacobs drill chuck will screw onto. The motor also spins at 3500 RPM which is a great speed for a disc sander.
What I did here will work for anything that you can connect a drill chuck too, whether it is a Radial Arm Saw or a wood lathe.
For $7 you can buy this sanding polishing disc that has a 5/8 11tpi attachment. Another plus is that it has a hook and loop attachment for the sanding discs themselves. It is easy to find these 7" sanding sheets nearly anywhere. You will also need an adapter, that I was able to get at Home Depot. It is a Milwaukee adapter 48-03-1005, and cost about $5. This adapter screws into the sanding disc backer (5/8" 11tpi), and then allows you to screw in a m10x1.25 bolt. M10 is small enough to fit into a 1/2 chuck once you cut the head off.
With what I listed above, you have a sanding disc that can be chucked up in the chuck you use on your lathe, or a motor you have chuck on. If you want to make what I did continue on.
The RAS has a slider that slides forward and backwards. attached to this slider (don't know what its called for real) is a cradle that allows the motor to turn from a cross cut to a rip cut. This cradle is what I removed, with the motor still attached. I also removed the on off switch to reuse. My RAS was mounted to a rolling cabinet that came with the saw, so I removed the rest of the RAS from this cabinet. I then turned the cradle upside down and mounted it to the cabinet so that the accessory side was hanging off enough to allow the disc to mount without hitting said cabinet. I also mounted the old on/off switch to the cabinet to run the motor. Now I have a disc sander, just need to build a table on it, and a shaft that spends at 3500 RPM that could easily power another piece of equipment.
The Harbor Freight Grinder/ Carver #40432
Been a while since I wrote a new tool review for a Harbor Freight tool, honestly it has been a little while since I bought one. My newest acquisition was the Grinder Carver. It had fairly good reviews, and looked like a well made tool. It comes with the motor, a hand piece, a foot pedal, and a 1/4" chuck key. It comes with no accessories which isn't a big deal because if you are like me then you have a hundred of nearly every kind of bit, so it is a non issue.
After I bought it, it was a couple of weeks before I even pulled it out of the box. When I finally got around to opening it, I was pleased to find that it looked well made. After I plugged it in I found that it was very powerful on initial start up, however after a minute of running it the chuck went spinning across the bench. Turns out the chuck presses onto the shaft, similar to how a MT2 spindle presses onto your lathe.
So I fixed that by cleaning the shaft of oil and pressing it back onto the spindle. After a gentle hit to the chuck with a mallet, it was fixed. Soon I has happily removing the waste off of a block that I was carving into a small toy horse for a toddler's christmas present. Suddenly the cable went slinging around the shop and all that was left in my hand was an aluminum tube (the body of the carver hand piece). After taking a moment to reflect on life in general ( a cable slinging around at 15000 RPM and missing your ear by about 2 inches can do that to a fella), I decided to have a look and figure out what went wrong.
At the Motor the cable is bolted to the cable, this held together. The cable housing then screws to the motor as well, part of this was on the floor next to my feet, the other side was still mounted to the motor. The other end of the cable had a "nut" that screwed onto the aluminum tube that was still in my hand. the cable that was at one time still in the housing had just slid into a square hole on the shaft that held the chuck.
So what happened? The cable housing "nut" that attached to the aluminum tube had been threaded onto the tube. This was done with very fine and shallow threads. The pressure of my carving put pressure on the chuck, which in turn put pressure on the shaft, and this put pressure on the last place it could. That was on the shallow machine threads on the cable housing "nut". Needless to say this is what caused the issue, the threads gave up, the cable went slinging round ripping part of the housing off.
What saved me from injury? I was wearing a full face shield, and and form fitting gloves.
So would I recommend this tool to a friend (as Harbor Freight's review system asks)…… Yes. Why you ask? If said friend does a lot of carving and knows about this issue ahead of time, then they would just have to invest $49 and the time putting some small screws through the cable housing "nut" and into the aluminum handle. This would have fixed the problem. I could have exchanged it, but I see that the problem would not be any different on any of the other carvers they had on the shelf. I decided to opt for the return and used the money to buy supplies like sand paper, etc. I'll stick to my dremel and knives for carving.
Been a while since I wrote a new tool review for a Harbor Freight tool, honestly it has been a little while since I bought one. My newest acquisition was the Grinder Carver. It had fairly good reviews, and looked like a well made tool. It comes with the motor, a hand piece, a foot pedal, and a 1/4" chuck key. It comes with no accessories which isn't a big deal because if you are like me then you have a hundred of nearly every kind of bit, so it is a non issue.
After I bought it, it was a couple of weeks before I even pulled it out of the box. When I finally got around to opening it, I was pleased to find that it looked well made. After I plugged it in I found that it was very powerful on initial start up, however after a minute of running it the chuck went spinning across the bench. Turns out the chuck presses onto the shaft, similar to how a MT2 spindle presses onto your lathe.
So I fixed that by cleaning the shaft of oil and pressing it back onto the spindle. After a gentle hit to the chuck with a mallet, it was fixed. Soon I has happily removing the waste off of a block that I was carving into a small toy horse for a toddler's christmas present. Suddenly the cable went slinging around the shop and all that was left in my hand was an aluminum tube (the body of the carver hand piece). After taking a moment to reflect on life in general ( a cable slinging around at 15000 RPM and missing your ear by about 2 inches can do that to a fella), I decided to have a look and figure out what went wrong.
At the Motor the cable is bolted to the cable, this held together. The cable housing then screws to the motor as well, part of this was on the floor next to my feet, the other side was still mounted to the motor. The other end of the cable had a "nut" that screwed onto the aluminum tube that was still in my hand. the cable that was at one time still in the housing had just slid into a square hole on the shaft that held the chuck.
So what happened? The cable housing "nut" that attached to the aluminum tube had been threaded onto the tube. This was done with very fine and shallow threads. The pressure of my carving put pressure on the chuck, which in turn put pressure on the shaft, and this put pressure on the last place it could. That was on the shallow machine threads on the cable housing "nut". Needless to say this is what caused the issue, the threads gave up, the cable went slinging round ripping part of the housing off.
What saved me from injury? I was wearing a full face shield, and and form fitting gloves.
So would I recommend this tool to a friend (as Harbor Freight's review system asks)…… Yes. Why you ask? If said friend does a lot of carving and knows about this issue ahead of time, then they would just have to invest $49 and the time putting some small screws through the cable housing "nut" and into the aluminum handle. This would have fixed the problem. I could have exchanged it, but I see that the problem would not be any different on any of the other carvers they had on the shelf. I decided to opt for the return and used the money to buy supplies like sand paper, etc. I'll stick to my dremel and knives for carving.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)