Workshop – yesiwood.be

My Workshop

Jo — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:24:13 +0000

Align your Table Saw

Jo — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 10:34:54 +0000

For a table saw, precision is the key, including checking if the saw blade is properly aligned with the guides, otherwise you end with skewed cuts. You can find lots of expensive stuff to check that out, but this works at least as well. Including the satisfaction of I-did-it-myself combined with I-saved-a-buck

Gluing 45° angles

Jo — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 10:21:20 +0000

Of all woodworking techniques, clamping workpieces after gluing them is a constant source for (pleasant) stress and matching creativity.

I needed to clamp a whole series of pieces for my attic windows. The challenge was that the two pieces were cut at 45° angles, so there was no way to just clamp them and pray for the best. The pieces were joined by dowels, but this would apply also for biscuit joints or tenon-and-mortaise joints.

Before sawing out the parts, and after laying out the final form with a template, I fixed a block of wood on each side of the joint with screws in the scrap part of the workpiece. Rather than clamping the work piece, I clamped the two support blocks and pulled them strongly together.

Arabesques and Moucharabiehs

Jo — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 14:16:49 +0000

Since building the first moucharabieh a few years back, it became time to update you on some new SketchUp design techniques that will help you speeding up the process and its accuracy. This guide is also published on Instructables.com

Dust Traffic Cop

Jo — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:59:56 +0000

In the Bible, Genesis 3:19 states “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. That certainly applies to woodworkers, and in our careers we already build up a lot of dust credits. I’ve done my fair share of dust battles, starting with a very basic dust cyclone bin. The two elbows in the top cover point in opposite direction, and create a circular airflow in the dustbin. It helped already a lot to keep my dust extractor clean- my guess is that 80% of the dust ended in the separator, which is much easier to clean. So far, so good.

I had been looking in many issues of woodworking magazines to find a dust cyclone cyclone, but found that the shipping costs to Europe were prohibitive. Finally, I found some smaller ones on eBay, Okay for small orbital sanders and routers, but undersized for a central separator job ( I’m using a Camvac 2.5 inch dust extractor, 110 CFM).

I started researching, and found two absolutely great sites, which should be mandatory browsing for all woodworkers. (1) Flowering Elbow ( http://www.floweringelbow.org/projects/the-cyclone-dust-separator ), which planted the idea of building my own cyclone separator, and (2) billpenz.com, which represents the Bible of Dust Collection (to stay in the same mood) and Cyclone Design. Awesome, impressive, superlative etc etc. His website even offers a cyclone sizing/calculating Excel spreadsheet!

I’m not a metal man, I cannot weld, and I’m not married to Rosie the riveter.

That left me with a nice little puzzle how to build such a cyclone. On one of my exceptional outings from our beautiful countryside,I got stuck in the road works around Albi, and there was my Solution:

Believe it or not, but I went to a regular store to purchase a traffic cone, which sells for less than 10 US$ each.

The cyclone separator has three main parts: (1) an upper cylinder, (2) a middle (traffic) cone, and (3) a dust bin. For the upper part, I used a 180 mm ( 7 1/2 inch) diameter stovepipe, into which I cut an opening according to the Bill Pentz design sheet:

The interesting thing about this design was the air ramp in the upper cylinder. This forces the air down into the cone ( and ultimately in the dust chute), whereas the “clean” air travels upwards to the central vertical tube. A skewed inlet helps orient the dusty air downwards. In the picture below, you see the upper cylinder before the top lid is put in place:

A closer look at the skewed air inlet:

And the whole contraption, once finished:

Works very well for collecting chips. I’m not yet sure how much (fine) dust is captured, that is the next step.

PS. A late entry today by my baby sister. Very to the point! Thanks Bei!

VeneeRebar

Jo — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 08:42:23 +0000

We did a raid with some copains on a plant in the South of France, which was liquidating its stock of exotic veneers. I indulged myself, only to discover that I could not properly store my little treasure. You need something that is not too heavy, but you need many trays, as well as easy access. Plus, the veneers are best kept flat.

After a few sleepless nights, I found a solution. I would use rebar, reinforced steel, that is normally used for concrete.
I used three diameters – 6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, and cut them to lengths of respectively 25 cm, 45 cm, and 65 cm.Then, I rounded one of the ends with an angle grinder.

Two sheets of plywood were stacked one upon the other, and I drilled holes through both sheets, 5 cm between each hole vertically and 20 cm horizontally, with diameters of – you guessed right- 6, 8 and 10 mm for the bottom, middle and top rows.

The two sheets were fixed to the wall, perfectly aligned, with in between them a space of approx 6 cm by way of wooden beams. These beams were first screwed to the back sheet before this one was hung to the wall.

Once the two sheets in place, it was only a matter of hammering the rebar pieces through the holes. I then took some scrap irrigation PE piping of 16 mm diameter, and slid these on the rebars to avoid having rusty veneer in a few years.

Stack and label everything, the smallest veneers at the bottom, and you’re done:

The two vertical sheets of plywood with a space in between

Sculpture stand

Jo — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 09:37:54 +0000

I made a series of these sculpture stands for an exhibition. The legs are in oak, the tops in reclaimed pastel-painted attic wood, and the joints are 3D joints. For a long time, I thought I had invented the technique, but if you now look on Pinterest, you will find thousands of examples. If you want to know more about the technique, look at my separate post on 3D joints

3d joints

Jo — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 08:10:58 +0000

I have not come across this type of 3-dimensional joint so far. It was inspired by the wooden puzzles. Stock is 1 x 1 inch wide. Very easy to make on the table saw, using a cross-cut sled. All the horizontal ribs are identical

Table Saw Cross-cutting Sled

Jo — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:07:57 +0000

This jig changed my woodworker’s life. It improved considerably my accuracy, it is mandatory when making a series of identical parts, and it increases both ease of use and security.

The sled runs on two parallel guides, which run in the two slots of the table saw. I used a square of Quickstep laminate floor covering about 25 x25 in, because its bottom face is very smooth and glides easily, as well as very hard.

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In the two vertical fences at the front and the back of the sled, I embedded a curtain rail in aluminum, so that it would not protrude. It is located sufficiently high, about 4 in above the sled bottom, so that the saw blade will not reach it.

At the front side of the sled, towards the operator, i fixed two pieces of MDF, left and right from the sawblade with a distance in between them of approx. 1/4 in. They protect hands from the sawblade once it cuts through the vertical front fence. In addition, I attached a handle of a discarded handsaw to the sled, this facilitates an easy grip.

I have a number of fences and stopblocks that attach to the aluminum U-rails of the vertical fences. These allow me to cut to length, but also to cut dadoes or joints. See the pics for some examples. I also use jigs to cut 45° angles, e.g. for frames or miter boxes.

Finally, for safety, I mounted the blade guard of the table saw on the sled. Wish I had done it before, it would have saved me 2 mm of my index finger…. A painful lesson I won’t forget.

The incredibly shrinking workshop

Jo — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:47:51 +0000

My (relatively) small workshop had become too big on machines and too low on moving space. I combined five machines -bandsaw, miter saw, drill press, router table and disk sander into one 6 x 2 ft workstation on wheels, so I can move it around for max flexibility. Before, each of them had their own support stand, eating up a lot of place.

All of the table tops of the machines are horizontally aligned, so that I use e.g. the bandsaw table or the router table to support long cutoffs on the miter saw. Since each of these machines has a “dead zone”, none is hindering another one.

At the same time, I installed a combined dust extractor box connected to each machine. I drilled five 2 1/2″ holes on one side (disposed in a circle of about 9″diameter), and connected these holes with flexible hoses to the different machines.

On the inside of the box, I installed a 12″ diameter wheel made of MDF, in which one hole was drilled that matches the position of the five holes in the side of the box.
Finally, at the bottom of the box, one 2 1/2″ hole connects with a flexible hose to the central dust extractor system.

The wheel extends about 1 1/2″ above the top of the workstation surface at the back, through a slot that I routed.

To select an outlet, I turn the wheel left or right to one of five markers, so that the corresponding opening at the back of the box matches the one opening in the wheel, thereby sealing off the openings to the other machines.

To complete the setup, I installed an overhead light, and mounted a homemade dust filter above the machines, to capture as much as possible of the airborne dust at the source.