What's on the bench.

[legenddc]

Everything to do with the lathe seems to be slippery and needs a million extra things.

I do have access to a drill press at my dad's house and a very small shop so I think I'll be picking up a 4 jaw chuck and a drill press chuck. I saw Wen has a drill press chuck for under $20 so I'll most likely try that. Not sure if I want to look at the Wen 4 jaw chuck or just cry once and get a Nova. 

@Chestnut - Glad she's sleeping better. Hopefully the crying eases soon as well. Kids seem to just mess with you constantly. Once you get the hang of something it all changes and you're back to square one.

[Chestnut]

45 minutes ago, legenddc said:

Once you get the hang of something it all changes and you're back to square one.

Funny the doctor literally just told us that exact same thing.

[BonPacific]

On 8/23/2022 at 2:16 PM, legenddc said:

Not sure if I want to look at the Wen 4 jaw chuck or just cry once and get a Nova.

The cheaper Wen 4-jaw looks pretty similar to my Nova Midi chuck in design (no idea how the fit-and-finish compares). I would say, if you can swing it get one that uses a chuck key rather than the rotating ring and pair of pins. Those are knucklebusters and just constantly inconvenient to deal with, often requiring three hands to position the piece and the chuck and the ring properly.

[JohnG]

I have the Nova G2 chuck and it has been great, but I don’t have any experience with other chucks to compare it to. I knew I didn’t want the two pin style mentioned above. 

[Askland09]

My mother is participating in a craft show and asked if I could batch out a bunch of these little guys.  I have about 30 to do in about 2 months.  

This guy was the trial run to get batch process all hammered out. He's not perfect by any means but will look pretty neat on my new shelf.  All in all took about 30min from block of scrap to first coat of finish. Plan on doing sets of 3 or 4 (buck, doe, and two little ones) for each set. And if nobody wants them, got some Christmas gifts ready to rock for this year!

[Mark J]

I would definitely avoid the Wen chuck, and for that matter anything with Tommy bars.  

 Nova is a good brand.  Some people favor Axminster and Vicmarc, but they're more money, and harder to find.

[Chestnut]

How do you differentiate between the buck and doe? Is the doe just a little bit smaller?

I've always enjoyed making the little reindeer. I probably have 10-15 scattered around my house. I'm sure with the little one around I'll be making more in the future.

[Chestnut]

I got some real shop time for the first time in 6 weeks. The first thing on the bench was to make some extensions for the handle for the wagon stroller. The axle for the wagon runs across the back and while pushing you hit your feet on the axle often. Megan asked for a fix so I figured this was the easiest way.

I made the extensions on the lathe from some Elm. I cut down a tree years ago and cut blanks to make rolling pins. I made 1 rolling pin that gets decent use and a 2nd was never requested. The elm should be strong enough to pop wheelies still with the stroller. It should make it easier giving the pusher (me) some more leverage.

[Chestnut]

I also forgot to post about the mail box support I made. I made this right before we went to the hospital for delivery. One of my neighbors gave me the bright ideal to combine our 4 individual posts in to a group post to clean up our mail box area. So i bought some treated timbers and went to work.

The main brace extending out is attached to the post with a through tenon. I extended the through tenon backwards about 12". The cross braces the mail boxes sit on are a half lap joint secured with screws. The entire post is quite sturdy. I left about 36" of post to go below grade. It was a quick fun project.

[legenddc]

Reindeer looks good! Would be interested to hear about your process batching out 30 of them.

I'll probably hold off a month or so on buying a chuck since I won't have much time to use it. Will keep my eyes open for a sale on the Nova one. I think if I end up not using it I'll be able to sell it for more.

[JohnG]

Started a cabinet to go under my Husky bench. I haven’t decided if it will be drawers or cubbies, so it’s currently housing my Leigh DT jig and a couple other bulky items. Might end up staying that way. 

[BillyJack]

After a lot of time outside on the house I wasn't feeling well for a few days and thought an air conditioned shop was the need. 

I pulled an old project off the floor and proceeded to make the bases for the gliders. I took the orIginal chair back and forgot to position the holes for the hardware. Spend a couple days trying to figure it out so I would have tge pattern. 

 

[Chestnut]

Knocked out another quick project. Hazel needed a bow holder. I used some carbon fiber rods that I bought to repair my fishing rod. It turns out I only needed half of one of the 10 I bought. They are nice and rigid and take sanding well so I used them as pins for a holder.

Used a keyhole bit to mount this too the wall.

And then filled it up.

[treeslayer]

 Nice work Dad ! 

[Chestnut]

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08TBN8YPJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

This is the product that I used. I might buy a package of the 5mm size to just have some around. They could be useful for pins in some other applications.

As a note these are true metric sizes and the metric drill bits I have fit perfectly. Metric drills bit are always useful to have around.

[Coop]

Speaking of bench, we had a great gathering of SIL, grandson, brother and friends lined up for an opening day dove hunt this Saturday that got benched due to 90% chance of thunder storms. I’ve never dove hunted in hip boots from a piroque and don’t want to at my age! 

[JohnG]

I’ve been enjoying the MFT style top on my Husky adjustable bench. 

Also finally had time to do a few test joints with my Leigh jig to get familiar with it. 

[Coop]

John, go into more detail about the top. If you’ve posted before about it, please direct me. Thanks

[JohnG]

Maybe just in passing here. I made a torsion box, maybe 3” tall, the same width and depth as the benchtop. I let the sides overhang to allow for clamping and cut slots in the front and back for clamping. 

The internal spines (whatever you call them) also have slots to allow more freedom when clamping through the dog holes.

I used 4 blocks to secure the torsion top to the bench, each block has one screw into the benchtop and one into the bottom piece of the torsion box.

I used the Parf guide system to drill the 20mm hole grid, which takes a while but works well.

[gee-dub]

@JohnG - If I didn't say it before . . . that is badass John.

[JohnG]

On 9/4/2022 at 4:16 PM, gee-dub said:

@JohnG - If I didn't say it before . . . that is badass John.

I feel honored! I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, but so far so good. Haven’t had much time on it yet though. 

[Tom King]

Once you get the bit depths dialed in with that Leigh jig, measure the bit projection on each router, so you can quickly get back there next time.  I keep two dedicated routers ready to go, but that was before I saw a digital depth gauge that works good on routers.

[JohnG]

I don’t plan to have any routers dedicated to it at this point. From ky test it’s easy enough to dial it in on the fly. 

Made a few mini storage drawers for my BS and TS fence rails.

[Mark J]

John, that's very clever.

[JohnG]

On 9/10/2022 at 1:47 PM, Mark J said:

John, that's very clever.

Not my idea, saw it somewhere else but can’t remember who to give credit to. Now I have pencils and small rules/squares stashed all around the shop!