Outdoor Cedar Workbench

I have a fun idea!  I want an outdoor workbench.   I like to work outside when I can.

So here it is:
Workbench

The vise is one that clamps onto the bench,  so it can be put up.   Hopefully the rest of the table will take the wear and tear of outdoor  living and do fine.

The table is made of wood and these bolts:

Bolt

The wood is definitly pretty enough.

Here are all the tools needed:

Tools Needed

I used a few others, but over the course of making the table, decided I liked these tools best for the job.

Starting on the right side, close end first, here is the list of gear.

Open Wrench — to get into the holes so the nut and bolt can be tightened.

Socket Wrench—to tighten the bolts.

Stabby and Stabby Jr, Marking Awls—To make starter holes for drilling precisely and lines for acurate work.  One would do, I like using two of them.

Nut and Bolt with three washers—to hold parts together allowing it to be taken apart or modified later.  A bunch of these were used.

Clamp, pair—to hold parts together and in place while drilling and lining up.

40″ Stainless Steel Rule—measureing.

Brace—For serious drilling,  Power tools are inferior or even dangerous when force is needed.

Royoba Saw, Razorsaw 650—Cutting wood.

Long Drill Bit—For drilling channels for the bolts to fit in.

Set of Forstner Drill Bits—To make square bottomed holes, and nice neat holes, these are just the thing,

Continuing on the left side, ignoring tools that are on both sides:

Scraper—It looks like a rule, but I use it as a scraper.

Vise—Ok, I didn’t use it for this project.  But it is nice to have handy.

Big Orange Speed Square—One of the best and cheapest must have tools out there.

Ryobi Lithium 18V One Plus Power Screwdriver—Sweet drill, could have done it all with a brace, this made it faster.

This article is continued  here.

Bob

August 18th, 2008 | Category: Hand Tools, Power Tools, Tools, Tutorials, Woodworking | One comment

Cheap Sanding Tricks

In general, a scraper is a much better  tool all around than sandpaper.  For  some tasks however, sand paper is still quite useful.  Here are two tricks to shaping on a budget.

sandpaper rolls are very useful.  By using a length and grabbing each end, applying pressure and pulling the sand paper back and forth like you were polishing a shoe, very quick work can be done.

By applying pressure on a high spot with a finger, and drawing sandpaper underneath that finger by pulling the sandpaper strip with your other hand, you can sand specific spots.

Bob

August 15th, 2008 | Category: Hand Tools, Woodworking | Leave a comment

A Pretty Minirature Waterlily

Here is a lovely miniature waterlily.  I have always had a fondness for the smaller waterlilies.

I rather like this one.

Not quite two inches across, with a variegated leaf.

I think the snake likes it too!

Bob

August 14th, 2008 | Category: Flowers, Pond, Wildlife | 5 comments

Zephyranthes, Rain Lilies

These lovely flowers bloom sometimes right after it rains.

Nice flowers.

Bob

August 13th, 2008 | Category: Flowers | Leave a comment

Scrapers, How to tune them.

Our goal is to make a scraper do this,

make nice long fluffy shavings.  Nice fluffy shavings means a well polished wood surface.

There are a lot of ways to tune a scraper.   The following is my preferred method,  and it works quite well.

The goal is to shape a hook edge on the end of the scraper.

You take a much harder surface, and deform the scraper with pressure.  This draws out the edge, which is then angled to be able to cut a shaving.   The following picture shows the concept, and shows my understanding and experience.  I  must warn you that there are a lot of quite smart, researched and experienced folk out there that don’t entirely agree with  my perception of this.  I like to push the end first, not the side of the scraper.  Then I ‘bend’ the bur over to make the hook.

The  neat thing about the hook or bur that you make on the edge, is that it is ‘work hardened’ and very tough.  You can, I have, make a bur with a less hard burnisher,  but it will not usually be as good a bur and will take more work to do.

Here are a few scrapers with a hand held burnisher,

First thing you do is clean up the scraper.  This is 400 grit Norton 3x sandpaper, good stuff for cleaning up a burnisher.

Still cleaning up.

Then I clean  up the ends.  You can put a block on  the sandpaper and  slide the scraper along it, if you want  an exactly square end.   A lot  of folk do.

Now that we have removed any previous burs, we start to make one.

First I make a few even passes on a really hard polished rod, at the normal or 90 degree angle.  I put about as much force on it as it takes  to pick up a gallon of milk.

Then I lower the angle a little bit, maybe 3 degrees from  the normal.  At this angle I make another smooth pass.

Then I go ahead and burnish at the 7 degree from normal, angle that my burnisher is set to, by putting the scraper in a slot and having that guide the scraper against the burnisher for one more pass.  If it doesn’t make a good scrape I may make another pass or two until I like the edge.

A burnishing tool can be made with a small carbide rod, an old tap, or a really hard punch.  As long as the rod does not show damage from the scraper, it is probably hard enough.

A slit and a drill hole in a stick are all you really need for a handle, or you can always buy one made for the task.

Bob

August 12th, 2008 | Category: Hand Tools, Sharpening, Tool Making, Tutorials | 5 comments
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