Home Made Router Plane

 

Poor Man's Hand Router

  If you are working in a small shop area there you can make a good argument for a Hand Tool shop. If you search the Internet you can find dozens of sites that feature D.I.Y tools and short cuts for making hand tools.  Paul Sellers  has a you tube channel where he shows some of his projects and in the above video he shows how to use a chisel to make a hand router plane.  If you had to cut many dadoes it is cost effective to buy a router plane, if you occasionally need to clean out hand cut dadoes this shop tip is a way to save money and get the job done.

  Winter seems to have arrived a bit early.  We've had several days with wind chills below zero. I want to remind you to bring your iron and steel tools in out of the garage.  If your tools get warm, when you heat the garage while you work and then cold over night with the heater off your tools will get condensation on them, and then RUST. 

 I think it is easier to have a tool box that you fill with steel tools and bring in at the end of the work day than it is to remember to clean and oil all your tools at the end of the day.  It is also cheaper to move the tools than it is to heat the garage 24/7.

 

Dewalt Tough System

     A tool box system like the Dewalt is not cheap,but replacing your auger bits, drill bit, planes, knives and chisels is more trouble and expense in the long run.

  Get out there and build something.

cheers, ianw

newest look for the shop???!!!

 

  

 

Lets Look at our Portable Belt Sanders Again

 

Belt Sander Tips

  The belt sander was a staple in many wood working shops in time gone by.  Generally they were viewed as noisy, dusty and too aggressive, but we used them because they were the only game in town.

  I have two belt sanders that I turn to when I am looking to remove lots of rough wood, or glue. I confess to not having thought about the newer features or considering replacing my old standbys.

  As I watched the video I was taken with the improved quality of the dust collection and I'd never really thought of the advantage you get with variable speed. 

 

 Belt Sander Platform

  The video above shows a really good solution for life in a small work shop. A platform like the one in the video adds versatility to your sander at very little cost. 

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  A foot note on today's blog is the work that I am doing in our garage. I am building a 12 foot by 4 foot platform/deck 3 feet hight inside our garage to take advantage of our garage's very high ceiling.

 

  In the front of our two car garage is a freezer and two sets of off season tires. (tyres).  Once the deck is complete the tires and recycling containers etc will be underneath and the freezer and storage rack will be on top. Effectively we will increase the available storage space in the garage by 48 square feet. Wouldn't everyone like 48 more feet of storage?!

 

   I worked for a couple of hours in the cold building the frame and legs for the deck. This is a job that I should have done earlier in the year. 

  The legs still need to be braced before moving the deck into place and screwing 3/4 inch sheet stock on top.  Working with the 2 x 4 sometimes make me think that I am not a wood worker, but a weaver.  I had pretty good 2x4s, I picked most of them myself and they still have so much internal tension that they twisted as I was working with them.a

  Once my hands got too cold I came inside and worked on Bufford, he got a shellac coat and I've begun to paint him.  If I get some quiet time over the next couple of evenings he should be done by the end of the week too. 

  I have a couple of days away from the shop, but I hope to be finished the build by Friday and maybe get all the stuff moved on Saturday.    

  If you are where the snow is, shovel carefully.  If are where there is no snow, lucky you.

cheers, ianw