Wednesday 24 August 2011

Change of use, what was old shall be new-old

The other day I decided it was time to get ready for the great move. The shed I work out of is to be demolished and recycled into a new position in my tiny back yard, also it might grow a few feet, but don't tell the Mrs. 
Before this can happen I need to collate all my accumulated tools and junk into some kind of moveable storage. I have a few plastic totes but, lets be honest, it's all about the wood really, so a wooden tote was in order.
I decided to use some old wood I reclaimed from an old pallet and set to work. I also wanted a quick build so went for some easy dimensioning for the box from the wood I had in stock. The pallet strips where 47" long, so I chopped them in half to give the long side lengths of 23.5". I figured I needed 3 each for the front and back, 3 for the base, maybe 4, and 3 more to each be cut in half for the sides. I dully cut the wood into the required lengths and was all set for the assembly.
I decided on a simple rebate on each end of the front and rear panel, it was only going to be a simple functional build after all, but how to cut them.
I do own a router, and I'd made a router table, so it seemed logical and quicker to use this to cut out the rebate.
 Or was it? First I had to set the height of the cutter, I had the right one fitted so that was a task saved. Then I had to adjust the fence back and forth a few times to get the length right.  I then realised the size of the cut would require a couple of passes. As it turned out, each cut needed several passes. It was noisy, with both shop vacuum AND router running, it was taking a dogs age and the resulting cut was, to be honest, a mess. I remembered seeing an episode of the Woodwrights Shop called Peter and the Box where the visiting Woodworker, Peter Farnsby, demonstrated how to cut rebates with a simple cut with a tennon saw, then dropping a wide chisel into the scribe line on the end grain. Bish, bang bosh, finished.

 
 All that was needed was a quick clean up of the face with the same chisel and I was done. It took under a minute to complete compaired with 5 or so noisy minutes using the router. So maybe simple is best. Here is a shot of the routered and hand cut rebates, click on for a larger image, and you decide which was better.


Next it was time to put the box together, or was it? Had I thought the build through? Was this box going to hold? I'd seen loads of old crates on my travels, but something was bugging me, something wasn't right?


Can you spot it? If I tried to build this crate up in layers like this, what would hold the layers together? I searched through the fog of my memory for images of crates and realised I needed to stagger sides in relation to the fronts to provide overlapping surfaces. I figured the best way to do this was to rip the short sides in half, but I don't own a decent rip saw, only some general purpose saw's. I began to cut, but was getting nowhere fast. I needed to think outside the box. I needed, the AXE. My axe, my favourite tool in the shed. It split the would length wise in a trice, a quick tidy of the edge with my trusty block plane and we were ready to rock. With some 5 minute PVA, some nails and the newly staggered joints I had a super strong box.



Now I just needed some super strong handles. I drilled to 19mm holes in each side and used a rubber curve to create a nice consistent sweep.




I used a jigsaw with a sharp blade to cut the holes, then finished them with a rasp and some rough grit sand paper to add a little age and wear. And all was done. 
What was once a modern storage device had been transformed into a traditional old style storage device.
What was old, had become new, and old.



Now that's a Sabby Chic storage box.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Router Ramblings

I bought a router after spending far too long making some simple lap joints for a cupboard door. It was a revelation. I could make smooth perfect cuts with ease. To keep things neat and tidy I fitted the shop vac pipe to the cowl that came with the unit. This wasn't a straight forward fit as BOTH the vac pipe and the cowl outlet were the same size. Luckily a small length of plastic drainage pipe fitted inside both pipes and, with a little duct tape we were in business.
 After getting the vac pipe caught up on the edge of the bench, making me jerk around and lousing up a few cuts it was time for a little more improvisation.  With the aid of some stout rubber bands looped around the pipe and the other end hooked on a nail in a roof beam, I had a safe and clean working router.

After stumbling around the internet and reading a few books from the library I decided to knock up my own router table. I used MDF and laminated chip board as that was what was lying around in the shed. The first problem was cutting a large hole in the base of the chip board for the router to screw into. There is a plastic base which is held into the base plate by 5 plastic screws. I used this as a template to cut the recess for the router to sit in. But the screws that held the plate were too short to hold the router upside down. To clear this little hurdle I got some small bolts, cut them down to size and made small recess holes in the top to allow them to be suck out of the way of passing work pieces. 

I didn't think this would be capable of supporting the whole of the router, plus I wanted a method of raising and lowering the router slowly and accurately. I've seen and heard of many methods, car jacks, wood cogs, but my low tech solution was two blocks of wood with a 45ish degree angle cut between them. A long slit was cut in one block into which a long bolt was passed through into a nut at the rear. As the bolt is turned it closes the blocks together which raises the router, screwing out the bolt lowers the router. When you do this you have to remember to take the brake lever off! Also in the picture you can see the Velcro strap used to keep the power switch in the ON position. You MUST be really careful with this method of control. I switch the router on or off from the switched power socket and to be extra safe, If my fingers have to go anywhere near the bit or the shaft the power is un-plugged and the strap slipped off.
I took my time to make a fence which was bang on 90 degrees, you must do the same if you want work to come out square and true, time spent on this is well worth the time saved correcting miss-cut work. It also has an air box on the back to suck out debris when cutting. The original fence had a hole way to big and ment to much floating around when passing work over the face, and it wasn't square.



 
It is a continual learning curve using a router table, and one is always wary of the dangers of dealing with a carbide tip spinning at 4000rpm. I pick up tips here and there and intend to pass them on here, so why not follow me on Twitter or bookmark me here and pop back once in a while.
 Here's one tip I picked up. Clamp a rule to the left side of a fence, feeding in  from the right gives a nice square edge, just right for box making, but that's another ramble. 

Saturday 6 August 2011

Built for function, not for style.

I like messing with wood, especially free wood. Today I decided to build a Ryczka Stool using the wood I'd salvaged from a pallet the other day.
First off, I needed to work out how big it should be. I'd recently read about the "Golden Selection" ratio, a ratio of sides that together form, what is considered visually most pleasing. The ratios are 1 x 0.62 x 1.62 . The other day I made a couple of wooden blocks, one cut to this ratio and one cut to 1 x 2 x 3.
It was funny, I did't think it would make a lot of difference either way, and I'm sure there are countless group forum chats about if it works or not, but I think the 1x0.62x1.62 block looks better, don't ask me why, I just like it better. So this was the basis of the stool.
First, take three planks of old pallet 100mm x 19mm (4" x 3/4") and butt together, this gave me a seat depth of 300mm. Now, this was my 0.62 ratio, to find the value of 1, I dragged up a maths lesson from the dark recesses of my mind to give me;
 1 = 300 / 0.62
which gave me a height of 486mm. 
Now the width, 
486 x 1.62 = 784.


784??? This was going to be a wide stool! But I wanted to try this Golden Ratio doo da to see what it would turn out like.


 Now the maths and the sketching was over, it was time to break out the tools and knock this bad boy out. I didn't want to use any power tools today, plus I wanted to see what could be achieved with the simplest of tools. I used some nails, 5 minute PVA, a hammer, simple saw, a knife, a block plane and, of course my axe, no build would be complete without some axe work.
I cut the top pieces to length and planed them on the glue faces. This was only going to be a rough build for use in my shed, but I still wanted it to stick together. I used the edge of my big rule and a pencil to mark the high spots, then took them down with my block plane, this gave me some good faces to glue up. If I'd had some long clamps I would have done that, but as I don't have them I split down some battens with the axe and nailed them across to hold it all together. 





The two end pieces were now made, by this time I was way off plan, but that's how I role. Make the best from what you have. I figure that the whole thing could do with some cross stringers to give it some sturdy support, after all, it was going to take 260 lbs of lumbering woodsman on it. I took two bits of wood that had split when I'd took the pallet apart. They were rough and ready and looked great! I don't posses a spoke shave, so I used my sheaf knife held at the right angle to trim off the rough bits. 
Now it was time for the grand finale of putting it all together, there is something really satisfying about driving a nail into wood, especially into end grain, nice sound. Within a few hours I'd gone from a pile of dirty wood to a fully functional stool.

 Once built I ran my block plain over the edges and the seat to prevent any splinter related intrusions.
It may not be the prettiest of stools, There's no fancy dovetail work, just rough saw cuts, nails and glue but there is something about the ratio of sides to height to length that make it look good.
 I like it, it fits well in my work shed and is definitely fit for purpose. So grab some wood and get busy with the glue & nails.