Working plan

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Useful Build wooden xylophone

Wood Xylophone - 15 notes

Outdoor Wood Bench Plans

Toys for 3 Year Olds

Make Your Own

Homemade Xylophone

images taken from various sources for illustration only Build wooden xylophone

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Thursday, March 6, 2014

New Project Book Nook Part 1

Alright, alright, time for a new project! I was asked to build a childrens bookcase that would hold books with the covers facing outward instead of the traditional binding facing outward; kind of a book display really. I did a little research and found these are typically called a Book Nook. These are pretty interesting, and pose some unique challenges, because of the dimensions; typically they are only a foot deep, about three feet tall and about 4 feet wide. What got me was only being a foot deep; I felt that this would make for an unstable design. I did notice in my research that many of them had a way in which to fasten the top of the book nook to a wall for stability.

So, with all this in mind, I decided on the final dimensions and design. This one will be 12" deep, about 42" wide and about 36" tall. It will have 3 shelves with each shelf capable of holding about 4 books side by side and roughly 3 or 4 deep. I also decided that this piece will be made in cherry and the finish will be BLO and shellac, no stain.

My first order of business as was to make a trip to Peach State Lumber and get the cherry I would need for the project. I decided I wanted 8/4 cherry so I could resaw it for the sides, since I knew I would have to glue two pieces together. I literally had to go through the entire pallet to find the boards that would work for me, but sometimes you have to do that. So, here are the boards I picked up:

From Book Nook

I did get more than I needed because I will be using the rest for another project once Im done with this. My first order of business was to mill the lumber square so I could resaw it on the band saw. Some of this required the use of hand tools, which I dont mind.

From Book Nook

Once that was done, they were resawn on the band saw and laid out for glue up. Here you can see the book matched pieces, ready for glue up. I always make some kind of witness mark on the boards so I know exactly how they should be put together.

From Book Nook

Once I had both side panels glued up, it was now time for the tedious process of laying out for the 3 shelves. I wanted them to be equally spaced both vertically and horizontally. I did this by laying them back-to-back so that I could just transfer the lines from one to the other and know they were in perfect alignment. Here are the two side pieces laid back-to-back with the insides facing up.

From Book Nook

Also note that I make sure to mark the grain direction; that is was the arrows are for. This just helps me keep everything flowing the same direction. Next, I had to do all the layout lines, which took a good while because I wanted to be exact and there were some design features that I had to take into account. After the layout was done, I used a router to rout out a 3/8" deep dado for each shelf and then used chisels to square up the dados.

From Book Nook

So, my next order of business is to mill up the pieces that will be for the front and bottom trim. These trim pieces will serve multiple purposes. First, they will have a dado in them that will allow them to fit into the shelves so that will help to keep the shelves from sagging by adding support. Next, they will stick up from the front edge of the shelf about 1" which will provide a lip for the books to set into so they dont fall off the shelf and lastly, the will have a profile on them to add character. Once I have those trim pieces done, I will also begin to build the back of the shelves. That is all Ive got for now....

Be Safe!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Table Saws and kickback

For a nice video showing the value of a riving knife click here.

Another bracelet

Just got an email from another Mere Mortal, Bill Akins, who decided to try his hand at turning my wood bracelets. He used red cedar to turn this bracelet for his wife. He used a faceplate on his lathe to cut out the center.

Nice work Bill!

BTW, if any of you have tried any of my projects, send me pics!

Id love to see them. zrammedia (at) gmail (dot) com.

Sanding and sandpaper for absolute beginning woodworkers

I want to thank Shy Lev-Ari, a viewer from Israel, for suggesting this video. A lot of us take sanding wood for granted, yet it is the most basic skill we need to know about woodworking. Ive often quipped that woodworking is 10% design, 10% construction, and 80% sanding.

But with all the grades of sandpaper available, its something that can easily confuse the beginning woodworker. In this video, I have tried to boil sandpaper down to its basics.

Essentially, woodworkers need to know that you can do almost anything with only three grades of sandpaper: 80, 120, and 220. 80 is the coarsest grit and is used for leveling out rough wood caused mostly by machine marks from saws.

From there, move up to a 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out the marks left by the coarse 80 grit paper. Finish off your wood with a 220 grit (fine) sandpaper.

You can learn a lot more about sanding and get more detailed, but for most of us, we really dont need to bother sanding past 220 grit. Let your finish provide the smooth feel of your project.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

What the hell is that thing

On weekdays, I dont have any time to build anything out in my shop. But I still manage to pop in from time to time and sort of plan out projects I want to work on come Saturday. Somehow, just being in the shop helps me to think a bit more creatively. I might just pick up a few chunks of scraps and start "assembling" them into something. Plus I just like to putter around, maybe clean up a bit.

I save more crap than you can imagine. Today I decided to crack open one of my ancient coffee cans of stuff. Maybe something there would inspire me.

Well, lets see. Theres the lamp plug that looks like Thomas Edison designed. One plastic caster wheel. A tail light bulb from a car I probably sold 20 years ago. An eraser that still has the smiley face I drew on it in 6th grade. It no longer erases. A 12" length of chain. A couple of enormous wing-type toggle bolts. Just the wing parts...the bolts dont fit.

And this:

This is a connector to a Coca-Cola Machine I have left over from when I was 18 and did maintenance work for a chain of movie theaters. WTF? Why in the world do we keep this stuff? What kind of bizarre things are in your shop?

Then again, someday I may want to build some sort of lighted soda dispenser that can be rolled around on one wheel. I better put everything back in the can.

Contests and more on the spinning top It really spins!

Mere Minutes
After my less-than-stellar attempt at making the top yesterday, I wanted to show you that it actually does work. I just needed a larger space for it to spin. I think a sharper point would help too.

*****

Whirligig contest.
There is still time to enter! Heres the original video with all the details. There are over $1000 worth of great prizes, so get on it. Enter over on A Simple Design of Ocala.

Heres an update video from Laney:

*****
Picture frame contest.
This looks like a fun one. Brian over at Garage Woodworks is running a picture frame contest. Hes giving away a Woodpeckers 12" Precision Woodworking T Square. Enter here.