What are you working on currently?

G-Man wrote: »

What ply is it and what way is the front edging done.. Cut and route or sand or what.

Would like to do, but would surely end up with it chipped. sd

18mm Birch plywood, I didn't edge band it-just sanded it and broke the sharp edges with sandpaper as well. I made a jig from scraps and routed an 18mm wide x 89mm deep rebate, glued & clamped the shelves in. Screws & glue for the top and bottom shelves, the plinth is just four pieces of ply glued & screwed as well.

I'm still quietly working away on the loft bed I've been at for months. Something this big takes forever when you can only give a few hours a week. Nearly done however, I made the ship style ladder today. A few dowels to flush cut before work tomorrow morning, then sanding and finishing over a few evenings this week and the woodwork for the bed will be done.

awec wrote: »

Looks like a great job!

Is that the parkside drill press that was in lidl last week?

Thanks - yeah it's a Parkside but I've no idea if it's the same one they had in recently to be honest. I got that one in late 2016, it's a PTMB 500 C3 (Grizzly Tools) and like all Parkside tools it's very much a compromised budget piece of kit.

The amount of runout on the arbor is massive so it's terrible where any level of accuracy is required but is grand for banging out DIY stuff where exact positioning is negotiable (there is an adjustment screw hidden beneath the safety off switch but its impact is limited and impacts the usability if you try to dial it in too much)

Thanks, both of you for drawing a line under a "should I ...?" doubt that's plagued me for about two months! There was one of these in the clearance bin at the Lidl around the corner from where I work, unpriced. Unfortunately, it had just been dumped there by someone and hadn't been reduced so I left it. A few weeks later, I impulse purchased one of their drill stands instead which had been reduced (to 16€) got it home, put it into use and after struggling with its many design flaws wondered if I should have stumped up for the "proper" equipment instead.

In the end, once I'd carried out some modifications and bolted it to a Workmate, it did accurately allow me to drill the 200 or so holes needed for the project - but the niggle persisted ... until now!

I had a few decent off-cuts form both builds above, so I made a small table for using a laptop while seated on a recliner:


The legs are made from 2 x 20mm thick boards laminated together and squared off with the track saw, chamfer router bit used on the corners.

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I just screwed the legs in place, then friction fitted two small pieces to keep the legs from wobbling; this worked well, and I can disassemble if not needed.

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chillyspoon wrote: »

More lovely work; wow you're cranking them out at the moment, lovely stuff!!

Cheers, plenty of time to at the minute... takes nearly as much effort to get the materials

glynf wrote: »

I had a few decent off-cuts form both builds above, so I made a small table for using a laptop while seated on a recliner:

Great work Glyn! The grain in that wood is lovely. Can't wait to get back to some form of woodworking when I can get my hands on some nice hardwood.

Have you ever worked with Ash? I can get hold of a regular supply of it soon and am planning on a few projects but not sure how hard it is (on a hardwood scale).

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

Great work Glyn! The grain in that wood is lovely. Can't wait to get back to some form of woodworking when I can get my hands on some nice hardwood.

Have you ever worked with Ash? I can get hold of a regular supply of it soon and am planning on a few projects but not sure how hard it is (on a hardwood scale).

Thanks, no I have never used ash; I'm a noob so apart from flooring and soft woods-white deal, pressure treated and birch & bamboo plywood-white oak & walnut are the only hardwoods I have used.


I found oak easy to cut and work, having had the track saw blade sharpened before I started helped I'm sure. I did have end grain tear out using the router, but I sorted this by clamping the pieces to a scrap of the same thickness the next attempt. There is a Janka hardness test that shows ash and white oak are similar in their hardness, as in determining how durable the wood is (measured in Newtons).

Loft bed finally finished, deconstructed and then reconstructed at its destination -> One very happy teenage recipient!

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

Slightly off topic (MODS: move if necessary)..


Does anybody know (has used) a good supplier in Ireland for "piano/continuous hinges"? I am looking for some heavy duty ones in wholesale in lengths from 3 ft to 6 ft.

I have found UK suppliers but would rather buy Irish where possible to help our economy before another.

TIA

Lenehans do them: https://www.lenehans.ie/search/?q=piano+hinge

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

Sadly they are not strong enough. I'm looking for 72/76mm for a stronger joint as I'm using 2/3" material at 4ft to 6ft lengths. So I need a beefier "look" as well.

But thanks for the link



I could order from here but as I say, I'm trying to buy Irish if at all possible.

Maybe something like this? bright steel designed for welding, so no holes... might want to get some decent carbide bits as well though.

Those look like T-track u-channels. But the generic name you want to go to ebay with is just "aluminium extrusion" - there's all manner of profiles for them.
I don't think they'd have quite as much strength as you'd need to stop boards warping in a panel glue-up though. There are very old designs of wooden panel clamps for that. Veritas remade some of the hardware a while ago but they're a tad spendy (as is usually the case - fantastic quality, great customer service, but you do pay for it). Shannon Rogers had a video a while back making his own:
https://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/rww203-panel-clamps/

Where aluminum extrusions are fantastic is for straight edges and for winding sticks. I have a 3' length of aluminium box section that's my primary straight edge, and two T-section pieces that act as my winding sticks. Never moves with temperature or humidity (at least to any degree that'd matter to the stuff I do), cheap as chips, and tough.

Oh, and a luthier trick from crimson guitars - stick some sandpaper on the flats of a box extrusion with double-sided tape or the masking-tape-and-superglue trick, and you have a cheap way to file wood flat while not shredding it like a metal file can.

Guru Maith Agut wrote: »

Anybody know what you'd call [IMG][/img]aluminium struts? They look like they'd be the dogs boll@* for keeping boards flat to stop warping during glue ups.

looks like normal steel Unistrut to me. all electrical wholesalers will have it .. its 41mm x

41mmm

or 21x41mm

Putting this in here as I see a number of you restore Record planes etc so let's see.
The vice came from a foldable school bench that was used back in the 30's and 40's at the start of the vocational schools in rural Ireland.
the idea was that the bench could be transported from school to school for wood work classes, with a vice at each end of the bench so that two students could work diagonally across from each other.
I have had the bench for c 50 years: the metal part of the vice is in perfect condition, the timber work needs replacing.

Thats enough history..
Any body interested get back to me by PM.
Keep safe and well