My solution for storing sandpaper for my various sanders.

I got a new pre-owned Skilsaw for my Birthday which, as luck would have it is almost completely identical to my current Skilsaw.   Rather than have two identical saws (who needs that?) I took it upon myself to make one of them better.

I use the Skilsaw when I have really large panels to be cut because it’s sure a lot easier to zip through them with a Skilsaw then to trying and manhandle them on to the table saw.  Unfortunately, there are several problems with that:

1. I have a hard time making perfectly straight cuts.  I always cut against a straight edge but I often don’t push into it hard enough and the saw will pull away slightly.  Sometimes I top the saw when cutting through the last bit and make a non 90 degree edge.  Both are bad when I’m trying to make something like cabinets from that piece of plywood.
2. Tear-out.  Cutting nice plywood with a when there is no support on either side of the blade means I get a lot of tear-out.  I don’t like that.

My solution was to attach a new sub-base of 1/2″ Baltic Birch and Arborite.  I then lowered the saw blade through that sub-base.  Now I essentially have a zero-clearance base for my Skilsaw, which is great in that it now supports both sides of the cut, but it’s bad because now the guard is completely disabled.  Oh well!

I routed a 3/4″ groove in the base parallel to the blade and created a guide that the saw can ride on with a 3/4″ cleat.  Unlike using just the straight edge, where the saw can move away from the fence, the saw is can only move backwards and forwards but not side to side when cutting.  To make a cut I just clamp the guide to the work piece lining up the edge with where I want my cut and voila.

The end result is very easy and very accurate cutting with my Skilsaw while completely sacrificing safety.

You can see the cutting guide under the saw in this next picture.

Another little tidbit.  Long cords on many tools like Skilsaws are annoying.  They are a nuisance to store and always seem to have a knot in them.  Also, they are NEVER long enough which means that you use an extension cord and inevitably the plugs will snag on something when you are 3/4 of the way through your cut and you’ll find yourself off balance with one leg up and the air trying to unhook the cord with your toe while the saw is still running.  Cutting it short and forcing the extension cord plug to be up by your hands makes things better.  Or at least I find it does.

They have to win for one of the best April err.. tools.. pranks ever.  Mostly because I think they actually fabricated this stuff!

Go to their search page and search for “AFD”.

The Pouchless Tool Belt is supplied with six belt pucks (additional pucks available separately). Each puck is 2-3/8" in diameter, and is precisely turned from 3/8" thick Japanese white sword-steel. Corinthian leather belt loops are a generous 1-1/2" wide, and are made from sustainably harvested and certified BSE-free sources. Loops are securely bolted to the pucks and reinforced with a 1-1/4" diameter backing plate.

This one went together perfectly.  Unfortunately, immediately after taking these pictures (which was only 30min or so after making the pen), I put the cap on and forgot about it.  The crazy glue used in assembly was still wet and a vapour covered the grip and, I think, the nib.  This pen doesn’t write well at all

Tip: If you use CA glue when assembling a pen, leave it overnight before putting it all together to give ample time for the CA glue to dry. Otherwise you’re likely to end up with a nasty frosting on all the shiney bits.

Tip #2: If you ignore Tip #1 you’ll find that nail polish removed (the stuff with acetone) will take most of it off.

Update: I hadn’t done this before but I yanked the nib out of the pen and replaced it with one from one of my uglier (but smooth writing) pens and it worked.  It is fantastic now.  Phew.  Given this kit was $18 it’s nice to salvage it.

This one, for the most part, turned out really well (pun intended).  My only mistake is I put in a couple of brass rings backwards and it doesn’t look as nice as it should

Tip: Don’t assemble things backwards,

I’ve mostly switched to using fountain pens these days.  Mostly because they are fun to make, have a zillion ink options, and fun to write with.  There is just something that seems right about writing with a brown inked fountain pen in my Moleskine notebook.

Over the weekend I made a new one from a “Green Dyed Maple Burl” from LeeValley.  It turned out almost perfect.

My current favourite ink is Private Reserve’s “Copper Burst”.  I buy my ink from Ried’s Stationary downtown.  The bottle cost me about $9 but it is going to last for ages!

Finally here is a photo of all of my current inks and a few of my pens:

I have about 8 fountain pens now that I’ve made from woods like wenge, blood wood, the maple burl and bocote.

The inks I have are (in order pictured):

1. Parker Quink (blue) – I don’t like this ink.  I feels like I’m writing with a normal pen.
2. Waterman Brown – I don’t like this ink either.  It’s too purple.
3. Private Reserve “Black Cherry” – A very dark red.  I kinda like it but it’s not one I use very often
4. Private Reserve “Copper Burst” – My favorite brown ink.
5. Private Reserve “Black Velvet” – I bought this mostly to experiment with darkening my brown inks.  My nibs seem to plug up really fast with this ink.
6. Private Reserve “Ebony Blue” – A very dark blue that I really like for office use.
7. Private Reserve “Lake Placid Blue” – A very rich blue that I love (cartridges)

I whipped up this little work bench on the weekend to replace a bigger flimsier one I’d been using before to hold my mitre saw.  The top surface is about 23″ x 44″ and made of 1.5″ of MDF, edged in 3/4″ oak, and covered with a scrap of Arborite.  I wanted a bench I could do sharpening on (ie. reasonably water proof and cleanable), and also do glue-ups on.

The legs are a lap-joint type thing and the stretchers are fastened with bolts so I can take it apart pretty easily if need be.

It’s a nice design.  It’s extremely solid and didn’t take too much time to build.  I think I’ll add a set of drawers under it at some point in the near future.

I whipped up this cross-cut sled for doing angled cuts on small work pieces last night.   It was more of a prototype than anything so I used 3/4″ MDF which works but is a tad ugly 

The angled cross-cut sled is quite different from my plain old 90 degree cross-cut sled.  Instead of being one single sled, with a fence extending across both sides of the blade, this sled actually has two pieces.  On the left is the work piece holder and adjustable fence.  On the right is just a small surface to help support the work piece through the cut and after to eliminate tear-out and limit the likelihood of my off-cut being flung into my stomach.

Here you can see the workings more clearly.  There are two t-slots down the base board which are used to lock the fence into position.  The fence is a 1.5″ x 2″ strip of MDF with a t-slot routed in the top (for locking the stop block in place), and another t-slot in the back for the L-shaped brackets (from 1/2″ plywood) that attach the fence to the table.  This lets you move either end of the fence around and also slide the fence towards or away from the blade.

One little trick I’m finding when making table saw accessories:

I often, twice in this project, need to attach the mitre bar to the bottom of a sled so that it’s exactly square to an edge.  What works really well is to use my 3/4″ router bit and cut a 1/16″ deep grove in the board wherever I want to put the mitre bar.  It’s easy to get that groove parallel to any edge of the board using the router table (and the other edges are usually square to those coming off the table saw).  Then assembly is just drawing a bead of glue down that groove and setting the mitre bar into that groove (I use 3/4″ strips of 1/4″ baltic birch with success).  It’s really nice not having to worry about anything shifting out of square in the glue-up.

I imagine I’ll take a pencil and mark 22.5, 45 and 90 on this thing to speed up setting angles.

I had intended to put a stick-on ruler on the fence but then it occurred to me that if I keep the fence really cheap I can cut right through it which gives much better work piece support.  I wouldn’t want to do that if I had used a fancy stick-on ruler.

Here it is adjusted to 90 degrees. 

I’ve only used it for cutting some test scraps but I really like it.  It’s a clever system (not my idea) and obscenely easy to construct.  For smaller stuff it’ll certainly be preferable to the mitre gauges I have.

When using western style saws (that cut on the push stroke) it’s a lot more comfortable to have your work piece down around knee level where you can use your body weight to hold the board in place, and where the cut stroke is more comfortable, etc.

This saw bench is just a ridiculously solid saw horse for using those saws.

It’s made from 2-by lumber.  The legs/rails are joined by 1″ through wedged mortise and tenon joints.

It looks so nice I’m not sure I’m ever going to want to use it.

I built this contraption as a first attempt at a dust separator.  The idea is that that box should pull out most of the big stuff (especially planner shavings) before the make it into the vacuum thereby prolonging the time between filter cleanings and increasing the capacity of the whole thing.

I decided to build mine as a short box so that I could stick the shop vac on top (since my shop is lacking floor space).  Often these units would be a separate free-standing device but I didn’t want that. 

The vacuum in/out ports are made from ABS 3″ to 2″ reducers that I drilled out with a 2 1/4″ hole saw and then enlarged to fit with a drum sander.  They fit great.

Here you can see the ABS elbows that are creating my “cyclone” action.  I think the real thing is a lot better but it works surprisingly well.  I took the opportunity to vacuum up all the dust, small wood scraps, plastic bags, rags, etc on my floor and I would guess that almost 90% of it ended up in this box instead of the vacuum.  Unfortunately the really small stuff is still making it through. 

I might start playing with different ducting inside the box to see if I can improve the efficiency a bit.