Monthly Archive: March 2012

Mar 28 2012

My First Bowl

Categories:

Bowls, Lathe, Miter Sled, Table Saw, Urethane, Walnut

March 28, 2012

A few weeks ago, I turned my first bowl. I wanted to make something on my new mini-lathe, so I found a slab of walnut in my wood stash and decided to make a bowl. I did some things right, some things wrong, and learned a lot about turning in the process. …

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Mar 24 2012

My Daughter and I Built Another Birdhouse

Categories:

Bird house, Cordless Drill, Daughter, Miter Saw, Plywood, PS20

by benjamen

March 24, 2012

I had some shop time alone with my daughter yesterday and she wanted to build something. I told her she could use any materials I had in my shop, not just the scrap pieces I usually let her use, if she drew up plans for what she wanted to build. She decided …

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Mar 22 2012

Fixing a Burgled Birdhouse

Categories:

Bird house, Block Plane, Cedar, Pin Nailer, Table Saw

by benjamen

March 22, 2012

This last week, I finally got around to fixing the hole some critter (most likely a squirrel) ate into the birdhouse my daughter and I built a few years ago. I just got sick of looking at it sitting empty. Since I nailed and glued the front of the house in place, …

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Mar 20 2012

First Lathe Project: Toy Tree

Categories:

Lathe, Pull Saw, Red Oak

by benjamen

March 20, 2012

My son’s wooden train set came with some lame 2-dimensional trees cut out of flat stock. I thought now that I have a lathe, I could make a much more aesthetic tree. I came up with the idea for the simple project after experimenting with the different tools on some scrap wood. …

2 comments

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Mar 13 2012

Tablet Stand

Categories:

Leopard Wood, Router Table, Table Saw, Urethane

by benjamen

March 13, 2012

I made a permanent mount in the kitchen for my Android tablet a few months ago, but most of the time the tablet doesn’t live there. I find myself using it a lot around the rest of the house, strangely enough even when I’m at the computer where desk space is at …

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Mar 12 2012

Excelsior Mini-Lathe Walk-Through

Categories:

Harbor Freight, Lathe, Rockler

by benjamen

March 12, 2012

I thought I’d post a slide show showing some different views of the Excelsior mini-lathe I recently bought, in case other people are interested in purchasing one. Also I thought I’d share some of the specs from the Rockler page and some I figured out on my own. From the page: Powerful …

17 comments

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Mar 08 2012

Magnetic Saw Guide

Categories:

Drill Press, Magnets, MDF, Miter Saw

by benjamen

March 8, 2012

Last month, I watched an excellent video by David Barron called “Hand cut dovetails made easy.” His whole technique was excellent and it was easily the best demonstration for cutting dovetails I’ve seen yet — it made me feel like a hack for posting my dovetail …

4 comments

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Mar 07 2012

New Tool! Excelsior Mini-Lathe

Categories:

Harbor Freight, Lathe, Paste Wax, Rockler

by benjamen

March 7, 2012

Last Saturday, after months of talking to a friend about his Excelsior Lathe, I finally decided to purchased one. Of course the fact that it was on sale at Rockler for $200 with the free bed extension didn’t hurt. Unfortunately they didn’t have any more left in stock when …

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Mar 06 2012

Adjusting A Miter Saw Vernier Scale

Categories:

Miter Saw

by benjamen

March 6, 2012

While making some angled cuts for another project, I noticed that the Vernier scale on my DeWalt 705 miter saw wasn’t reading accurately — it was off by 1/2°. Since I was shooting for a 7.25° angle, I clearly needed to realign the scale before I continued cutting. The first thing I …

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Mar 05 2012

Cherry Coat Rack

Categories:

Cherry, Danish Oil, Furniture, Hide Glue, Miter Saw, Router, Router Table, Table Saw

by benjamen

March 5, 2012

Click here if you don’t have flash Rather than put their coats away, my kids usually throw their coats on the floor. I suppose it’s not all their fault after all, since they really can’t reach the hangers in the closet. Getting sick of the mess, I decided to build a coat …

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