What We're Making

[Tetto]

I've spent the last 4 weeks on and off making a tool cabinet. Will add 2 more hinged inner doors and sliding cabinet doors left and right of the main cabinet before I'm done.

Beautiful!

 

[JoeWras]

You all are so incredibly skilled. I've been a little reluctant to post my projects.

But here it goes. Myself and another skilled volunteer led a team of unskilled volunteers in making this little access panel for troublesome leaking plumbing at the non-profit. Aside from suggestions and supervision, I didn't do anything except put the knob and magnetic catches in place. All made from left-over wood, trim and paint. Hardware cost was $12. I'm proud of my volunteers. They learned a lot, such as mitering corners and the need for a proper reveal when placing trim.

 

[street]

Wow!!! Some more great projects and thanks for sharing your creative talents. Very nice work!!

 

[Ronstar]

Very nice JoeWras!

 

[Surewhitey]

You all are so incredibly skilled. I've been a little reluctant to post my projects.

But here it goes. Myself and another skilled volunteer led a team of unskilled volunteers in making this little access panel for troublesome leaking plumbing at the non-profit. Aside from suggestions and supervision, I didn't do anything except put the knob and magnetic catches in place. All made from left-over wood, trim and paint. Hardware cost was $12. I'm proud of my volunteers. They learned a lot, such as mitering corners and the need for a proper reveal when placing trim.

Mitering & reveals are some of the most important things in any project. I still struggle with both. Nice work.

 

[Surewhitey]

I've spent the last 4 weeks on and off making a tool cabinet. Will add 2 more hinged inner doors and sliding cabinet doors left and right of the main cabinet before I'm done.

Very fulfilling to give tools their own place. Very nice.

 

[Fotodog]

Nice tool cabinet Ron! It’s important to keep your tools happy.

 

[JoeWras]

Thanks for the encouragement. Here's another humble project, nothing like what you guys do, but I'm pretty darn proud of it.

Problem: pocket door needs to be converted to swing door.
Constraints: do this for under $25 (non-profit), reuse door opening and trim
Solution: reuse the pocket door and convert to swing door.

I don't have pictures of it all. But basically the pocket door was oversized for the door opening. This isn't unusual, since you don't mind that a few inches of door stay hidden in the pocket when closed. But we couldn't tear out the wall and redo the whole frame for various reasons.

So we took the door out, added a jamb to cover the pocket opening and top track, ripped some stops from spare wood, and then resized the door to fit the opening. The door was 34", but needed to fit at 32". Parts purchased: hinges, simple knob and jamb wood. Stops made from scrap wood.

My solution was to rip 2" from one side that contained the door latch, so we get rid of most of that intrusion. But wait! Dang, now the hollows of the door are exposed, so this can't be put on the hinge. I simply took out the solid portion I ripped off, ran it through the table saw to whack off the veneer, and then shoved it into the hollows and glued it firmly. A little bondo, a lot of sanding, and painting gave us a new door for nothing but the cost of my sandpaper and glue. The non-profit is also into environmental stewardship, so we can claim reuse instead of throwing something into the dump. Those year 1979 hollow doors are actually pretty well made.

Forgive my clamps. It is all I had on had that day. Use what I got. Here I am doing two doors at once.

I post this humbly in the presence of such greatness.

 

[pacergal]

Joe--Nice door work
great thinking, reduce, reuse, recycle!
Sounds like you are also teaching others good skills.

 

[street]

JoeWras, great job!!! I always if I can use or recycle something for projects and builds. I find so many throw away things that can be reused.

Thanks

 

[Ronstar]

Very nice Joe! The first thing I thought of when I started ready your post was - uh oh it's probably a hollow core door. But you handled that. It's great to reuse old pieces like you did.

 

[street]

Been cleanup and burning a lot of branches and old wood this fall. I had some old dried-up chokecherry trees about 4 inches in diameter and decided to use some of it for a few projects.
Come to find out it is classified as a hard wood. The grain is very tight and has beautiful colour and grain. It is a very hard sustainable wood and great to work with. I was surprised!!

Any way I decided to make another ice fishing handle/rod with a piece of that chokecherry wood. I hand rasp the handle and oiled.

Here is a picture of the chokecherry and one other I made yearly this year. The one I made from a horn I did post here before.

Nothing special but fun usable item. I plan of given them to my
GD's sometime. Their dad is a fisherman.

 

[JoeWras]

We had some doors that were unusable. I was able to get 2 doors from Habitat Restore for $20 each. Another good source to reuse something that would have gone to the dump.

 

[skyking1]

I've got nothing going right now, but my clamps are on a job.
DN and DB are building a boat kit. It has a double bulkhead and gets sawn in two to make it easy to transport.
Personally I'd have a hard time doing that cut. Looks fine in one piece and I would figure it out.

 

[Ronstar]

Been cleanup and burning a lot of branches and old wood this fall. I had some old dried-up chokecherry trees about 4 inches in diameter and decided to use some of it for a few projects.
Come to find out it is classified as a hard wood. The grain is very tight and has beautiful colour and grain. It is a very hard sustainable wood and great to work with. I was surprised!!

Any way I decided to make another ice fishing handle/rod with a piece of that chokecherry wood. I hand rasp the handle and oiled.

Here is a picture of the chokecherry and one other I made yearly this year. The one I made from a horn I did post here before.

Nothing special but fun usable item. I plan of given them to my
GD's sometime. Their dad is a fisherman.

Very nice! The kids will love those fishing rods!

 

[Ronstar]

I've got nothing going right now, but my clamps are on a job.
DN and DB are building a boat kit. It has a double bulkhead and gets sawn in two to make it easy to transport.
Personally I'd have a hard time doing that cut. Looks fine in one piece and I would figure it out.

That's a good looking boat! And I found that you can never have enough clamps when building a boat.

 

[JoeWras]

That's a good looking boat! And I found that you can never have enough clamps when building a boat.

And glue, as long as it isn't made on Gilligan's Island.

Something I learned very late in life is the strength of a proper wood glue joint. I guess my dad, being an old school plumber, always resorted to mechanical connections. I don't remember him ever touching glue.

When I built my laminate countertops 12 years ago, the book I used called "Making Plastic-Laminate Countertops," had a section that implored us disbelievers to respect the power of glue. This was primarily for the slick contoured edging I bought from a supplier. It was all glued and clamped with strapping tape. Yes, tape. There literally is no way these edges will come off before the countertop fails.

And no, I'm not talking about contact cement, specifically the edge banding of laminate typically used. That's a different animal with problems. Contact cement does not equal wood to wood joint with good glue.

 

[Surewhitey]

Joe,
Nothing wrong with ingenious ideas. That's a skill in itself. I totally followed your reasoning and you did exactly right in my book.

 

[Surewhitey]

Finished with the rv. Glad I don't have to paint or replace the flooring... Lots of extra storage and sleeping spots.

 

[street]

Looks great. Tight quarters for working I would assume.

 

[Ronstar]

Nice project Surewhitey!

 

[Surewhitey]

Thanks and you are correct on the tight space. She wanted more utility than space for walking. It's only about an inch smaller, but it's a big inch.

 

[Ronstar]

My toolbox slides around in the back of my Jeep. So I bought a Milwaukee PackOut toolbox. And a mounting bracket for securing the toolbox on a wall or in a vehicle. First I mounted the mounting bracket to a piece of mdf, then the mdf/bracket to the Jeep floor with u-bolts.

Didn't like the ends of u-bolts exposed so I cut them off. Still didn't like the look, so I went to the hardware store for nut caps. They didn't have them. So I measured a hex nut, designed a nut cap in Sketchup, and 3d printed some nut caps.

 

[ERD50]

My toolbox slides around in the back of my Jeep. So I bought a Milwaukee PackOut toolbox. And a mounting bracket for securing the toolbox on a wall or in a vehicle. First I mounted the mounting bracket to a piece of mdf, then the mdf/bracket to the Jeep floor with u-bolts.

Didn't like the ends of u-bolts exposed so I cut them off. Still didn't like the look, so I went to the hardware store for nut caps. They didn't have them. So I measured a hex nut, designed a nut cap in Sketchup, and 3d printed some nut caps.

Nice fix. I had to search 'nut caps' (or are they 'cap nuts'?), I always called them 'acorn nuts' (seems redundant, since acorns are nuts!). I'm surprised you couldn't find them locally:

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Hardware-Fasteners-Nuts-Cap-Nuts/N-5yc1vZc2cw

-ERD50

 

[Ronstar]

Nice fix. I had to search 'nut caps' (or are they 'cap nuts'?), I always called them 'acorn nuts' (seems redundant, since acorns are nuts!). I'm surprised you couldn't find them locally:

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Hardware-Fasteners-Nuts-Cap-Nuts/N-5yc1vZc2cw

-ERD50

I did find acorn nuts, but they only had stainless and they were about $5 each. Besides it was much more fun making my own on the 3d printer. Kind of a learning experience for future parts making.