Chuck Grimmett

Archives

Category: Workshop

  • Workbench build

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    Step two of the workshop upgrade. Previously: Insulating and heating my workshop with a diesel heater

    Research and design

    The workshop is a small 10×14′ space, so I needed to be very intentional about where I put this workbench to maximize work area. The previous owner had haphazardly installed a 72″x20″ particleboard desk top as a bench, which I shored up when I moved in, but it was way too small and bounced whenever I used a hammer on it.

    I considered a lot of options, and almost went with The Anarchist’s Workbench, but I didn’t have the space to walk around something like this in the middle of the floor, so I decided to go with putting a bench along the full 10′ wall.

    For the top I wanted something hefty. The Anarchist’s Workbench calls for 2x6s halved from 2x12s. I thought that was probably overkill for what I needed and more expensive. I opted for cheaper, more readily available 2x4s.

    I wanted the top to be 31″ deep so I could slide big plastic totes completely underneath for storage. I also wanted plenty of space to work. 2x4s are actually 1.5×3.5″, so that means I needed (21) 10ft long boards.

    Laminating the 2x4s and planing the sections

    When I got to the point of laminating the 2x4s, it was still below freezing at night, so I needed to laminate them in my basement so the glue would set.

    I laminated them in 3 sets of 7 boards each so they’d fit through my 12″ planer. I laid them out, rolled glue on one side of each board, and clamped them together.

    After the first one was done, I ran it through the planer. There were two issues:

    1. It took a lot of passes to get down below the rounded corners on each one
    2. The rough-ish edges didn’t stick together as well as I’d hoped. There were some gaps.

    I decided for the next two sections it would be better to pre-joint and plane the 2x4s before glueing them, and that make a big difference.

    The other thing that made a big difference is that a new set of planer blades came in right before I was ready to plane the final section. The cut was faster and cleaner with the new sharp blades, so I did one final pass on the two I had already planed to both clean them up and ensure the depth of all three matched.

    Framing

    For stability, we opted to mount the bench to the wall on three sides and support it on the fourth with legs. We used 2×4 stringers on the wall and leveled them (not relative to the floor the wall, because nothing in that shed is square.)

    It is 36″ high.

    Routing out spots for the carpenter’s vise and legs

    We wanted to route out spots to flush-mount the vise and to inset the legs, and we figured it would be easier to route the front section before joining all three sections together. Here was my plan:

    Dry fit first.

    That’s my Dad routing. We took turns.

    Biscuit joining and gluing the three sections

    After routing the front section, we used a biscuit joiner and joined the three sections together with glue and biscuits.

    A biscuit joiner is ingenious. Since it always cuts at the same depth, you don’t need to sweat minor variations in the depth of the items you are joining, as long as the top is flat.

    This was a late night. I think we finally finished around 11:30pm.

    Adding legs, shelves, drawers, outlets, and backstop

    The next morning we screwed the top in place on the stringers and set to work putting in the legs and the shelves. I varied from my above plans slightly to leave a section in the middle with no shelving for a chair, trash can, vacuum, etc. The shelves are at different heights to accommodate totes on one side and a set of drawers on the other.

    We decided to run two outlets for above the work bench, then added plywood, which French Cleats will be later mounted to.

    Adding the vises and LED bars

    Sanding the top and putting on a coat of finish

    I planed and sanded the top to even out some uneven spots, especially at the seams. Then I added a coat of a beeswax and linseed oil blend that I made for stools a couple years ago.

    I decided one coat was enough. It is a bench that is going to get dirty and beat up anyway, it isn’t a piece of furniture.

    How is it?

    Great! It is solid and does not budge or bounce. It has plenty of storage and is the right height for me to stand and work at.

    What’s next?

    • Adding dust collection (done IRL and post forthcoming)
    • Adding french cleats (in progress IRL, post when complete)
    • Adding bench dogs (not started)

  • Insulating and heating my workshop with a diesel heater

    I mentioned this in some weekly posts, but wanted to write a dedicated one so I have a place to link to in the future.

    Working out in my 10’x14′ workshop on a cold day in January and shivering, I resolved to finally put in some heat.

    My first idea was a tiny top-loading wood stove that I could burn offcut chunks in. I priced out some options, but it ultimately had three big downsides:

    1. They take a while to heat up and cool down. I can’t just go out there and work for an hour, I need to start the fire an hour before, keep an eye on it, feed it while I work, and make sure it burns out before I go back in the house.
    2. They are expensive! The cheapest one I could find new was $350, and the quality was iffy. Good ones were over $1000 and made for sailboats. Used ones are hard to come by, too.
    3. They take up valuable floor space. This matters in a tiny shed.

    When I was chatting with my Dad about it, he asked,

    “Have you considered a diesel heater?”

    I hadn’t, mostly because I had never heard of one. I knew I didn’t want a loud, smelly forced air propane heater, and that is that I thought a diesel heater was, but I was totally wrong. They are small, quiet, and fuel efficient. People often use them in RVs, ice fishing huts, hunting cabins, and garages.

    We settled on a Silvel 8KW, 12V version, which my parents gifted to me for my birthday. To power it we used a 120V -> 12V converter.

    In order to make a heater worthwhile, I needed to insulate. It had bare studs with plywood paneling on the outside.

    I went with double reflective insulation because it is cheaper and easier to install than fiberglass (less itchy too!) and less messy than spray foam. It won’t keep the space conditioned all the time (not a good choice for a house), but it will work long enough to keep the space heated while I’m working out there.

    I used the 16″ width for between the rafters and 48″ on the inside of the roof. I put up about half of it myself and Dad helped with the other half over President’s Day weekend.

    Once we got the insulation hung, we installed the heater. We opted to install it outside to reduce the noise, save space, make exhausting it easier, and not have to worry about filtering out dust from the air intake. We piped the hot air in through the wall.

    I set up a French cleat shelf outside on the back of the shed under my kayak storage overhang to keep it out of the rain. Air intake and exhaust go through a hole in the bottom of the shelf. We used a hole saw to cut a hole big enough for the pipe to go through, ran wires for power, and secured everything in place.

    The heater works great! It runs for about 14 hours on a gallon of diesel, give or take depending on which level you run it on. (It has levels 1-10).

    After running for ~3 hours on level 10, it got the cold shed up from 36F to 70F. Incredible.

    A month later I’m still very happy with it. Working in a warm workshop makes a huge difference. Even after I turn the heater off, the shed holds heat in for a while as long as the door is closed. I tried to seal as many gaps around things like the door as I could with weather strip.

    Up next: A post about building and installing the work bench, and a post about the french cleat tool storage.

  • Making kitchen tools from a log

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    A friend gave me some nice cherry logs that I sealed the ends of and let dry for the past year. I haven’t done much of my own milling, but I decided to get one of the logs out and see how much I could make out of it.

    What I ended up getting out of one log:

    • Kitchen mallet
    • 3 French rolling pins
    • 1 traditional rolling pin
    • 2 cooking spoons
    • 1 eating spoon
    • 1 eating fork
    • 1 coffee scoop

    First I split it in half and then split one of the halves in half again, leaving me with a half and two quarters to work with. Look at that gorgeous red!

    I milled the half down into a square blank on the bandsaw, carefully removing the pith, which always splits when it dries. I also cut off most of the sap wood (the wood around the outer edges). Sap wood is younger, more wet, and more susceptible to splitting and tearing that the heart wood, which is older. The sap wood is growing and it is where the tree’s nutrients are carried to its limbs. The heartwood is no longer growing.

    Mallet/Ice crusher

    Turning: First, make it round. Second, plan out the cuts. I tend to mark them with a pencil. This wood was still a bit green, so it cut easily and made large shavings. I roughed it out to its final shape, then had it let it dry for a few hours before I could smooth it out and sand it.

    Once it dried, I sanded it with 80, 150, and 220 grit sandpaper. Then I cut the grooves in the handle with a skew chisel and sanded the whole thing with 400 grit sandpaper before cutting it off the lathe. I cut it off by gouging the ends down to the size of a dime or so, cutting it close with a hand saw, then sanding down the ends to match the 400 grit. After that I take it inside and finish it with a coat of mineral oil + beeswax that I heat up over a flame on the stove so it soaks in and buff the wax with a cloth.

    Finished! I paired this with a Lewis Ice bag when I gave it to my friend.

    Rolling Pins

    All of the rolling pins started out just like the mallet, but the blanks were a little smaller. I didn’t take many photos of that process, but in essence it is the same as the mallet:

    1. Plan it out
    2. Rough it out
    3. Finishing cuts
    4. Sanding
    5. Finishing

    Each rolling pin is roughly 14 inches long. The French-style can be used for all 14 inches. The traditional one can be used on the 9 inch center portion.

    The three French-style rolling pins have a taper all the way across. To achieve this, I used a pair of spring-type calipers to measure the thickness at points equidistant from each end. I used the same technique on the traditional fixed-end rolling pin to cut the handles. I couldn’t resist putting the decorative bands on there to help with holding it.

    Spoons and utensils

    I was able to get a few spoon blanks out of this wood, too:

    • 2 cooking spoons
    • 1 eating spoon
    • 1 eating fork
    • 1 coffee scoop

    I haven’t quite finished these yet. Hoping to do so this weekend. Note: Some of the things pictured are not from the log. I had three spoons already cut from a different piece of cherry I had. The butter knife, too.

    Lessons Learned

    1. I need to plan out my blank cuts a little better. I cut things a little too big on the first pass, but the second cuts didn’t leave me much room to do anything with, so I wasted wood. I could have gotten at least one more rolling pin out of this, maybe two.
    2. The surface of the wood needs to dry a bit before turning to avoid tear out.
    3. I didn’t take branches and knots into account when planning out the initial cuts on the bandsaw. Thankfully it didn’t cause issues this time, but definitely could have. I need to plan better next time.
    4. I should remove the bark with a draw knife before splitting and cutting to make the sawing cleaner.
    5. Getting a split flat with the draw knife would have helped for the initial bandsaw cuts.

  • Two Staked Wooden Stools from The Anarchist’s Design Book

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    I love staked wooden chairs and I want to learn how to make them, so I picked up The Anarchist’s Design Book from Lost Art Press. All of their books are top-notch and I highly recommend them. Christopher Schwarz’s introduction on what he means by “anarchist” resonates deeply with me.

    I figured I’d start small and work my way up: Make a low stool, then a high stool, then try one of the simpler armless chairs before going all-in on a staked arm chair.

    Low Stool

    First, I had to make some concessions: I used Douglas Fir instead of hardwood for the seat because it was all I had on-hand and we were in the depths of the pandemic. I had a few 2x12s sitting in the rafters of my shed. I wanted to avoid a glue up, so I made the seat a bit smaller than the plans.

    Second, after I had the thing made and was flipping through the book again, a tiny slip of paper fell out. It read “Errata.” Sure enough, it was about the low stool. The angles of the legs were off, so mine looks pretty different from the plans. Oh, well. I learned a lot in the process and it made the second one easier.

    Drilling the holes for the legs and testing the fit
    Planing and shaping the spreaders, then dry fitting them.

    Glue up!
    Finished stool.

    High Stool

    I learned a lot while making the low stool, especially about shaping the legs and cutting the tenons on them, so I was a more confident on this one and it went faster.

    Lots of planing. Look at all those shavings! Side note: Always make extra.

    Drilling the mortises, cutting the tenons, and testing the fit.
    Checking to see if the holes I drilled for the spreaders line up. Looks good to me!

    The perils of pine: Sometimes breaks happen. Always make extra legs.

    Bummer.
    Dry fit pre-glue up.
    Post glue-up, pre-trimming, pre-finishing.

    Here are the finished stools!

    I finished both with boiled linseed oil and beeswax.

    The low stool lives in my office as a small side table next to my reading chair, where it is often adorned with books and coffee. The high stool lives in my shop and I use it every time I’m in there, whether while carving, working at the bench, or just taking a break. We often pull it out and use it as a s’mores station by the campfire, too.

    What’s next?

    I’m planning on making another low stool with a hardwood seat. I have both Cherry and Oak right now and can do a glue-up.

    After that, I want to make a staked back chair without arms. Working my way up!

  • Maintenance on a Shopsmith Mark V

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    Two weeks ago while using the lathe on my Shopsmith Mark V, I heard what sounded like the belt slipping. I’d also been having some problems cutting heavy stock on the bandsaw attachment, so I figured it was time to change the old belts.

    I had replacement belts on-hand from Jacob Anderson Shopsmith Repair, so I started watching his excellent videos to figure out how to tear down the headstock and replace the belts, I quickly realized what my actual problem was: The floating motor sheave was stuck open, so when I turned the Shopsmith up to higher speeds, the motor sheave didn’t close in relation to control sheave opening up, so the drive belt had too much slack and wasn’t getting any traction. After roughly 45 years, the sheave got gummed up with old oil, grease, dirt, and sawdust.

    Here is the stuck open floating motor sheave, in need of a cleaning and repair.

    The floating motor sheave is number 119 in the diagram:

    A better version of this is available at Shopsmith.com

    Since I had to tear down half of the headstock to get the motor out to work on the sheave, I decided to go the rest of the way and replace the upper Poly V belt as well. The whole thing needed some serious cleaning, oiling, and greasing anyway. My model was made in the mid 1970s and I don’t think it had ever been completely taken apart. The putty was still in the quill set screw at the top of the case. I don’t expect that is the kind of thing you replace after scraping it out.

    Again, Jacob Anderson’s videos were incredibly helpful in figuring out how everything comes apart and goes back together. If you need Shopsmith parts, buy them from him!

    The whole process took longer than I expected. It took me about 20 hours over the course of four days to take it completely apart, clean it, oil the moving parts, grease the bearings, and get it all back together again. I’m including the time I spent watching videos and making various jigs to help me work on it.

    My empty headstock.

    A few tricky points:

    1. Removing the spring on the motor sheave.

    The spring needs to be compressed in order to remove the retaining ring, and that spring has considerable pressure and a washer with it. Using Jacob Anderson’s advice, I drilled a hole through a piece of plywood and carved a groove for the washer to set in, pushed the spring down, and held it in place with some quick clamps. The washer still shot across the room, and it was pretty tricky to get back together again, but I don’t see any way it could have been done without something like this board.

    2. Unsticking the floating motor sheave.

    This thing wouldn’t budge by hand. I had to use a piece of plywood underneath and one on top, hammering them together to force it open. Once open, I did a good cleaning to remove the grime, then polished the shaft to help the sheave move. It still doesn’t move as easily as the top one for me, but it does move.

    3. Putting the idler shaft (number 105 in the diagram) and eccentric bushing (103) back in after replacing the Poly V belt (55). The old belt was stretched out, but this one was much tighter. I also frustrated myself by stupidly putting the idler shaft and eccentric bushing back in once before putting the Poly V belt in and had to take it back apart. What a pain.

    4. Calibrating the speed control

    First, none of my three sets of Allen wrenches were long enough to get to the tiny screw inside the speed control face in order to take it off. I had to go out and buy some longer ones.

    Second, you can’t adjust the speed control without moving the drives, either with the motor or by hand. This is not easy, especially since you probably set the control sheave open as wide as it could go (high speed) when putting the belt on. In order to calibrate it, you need to close down the control sheave to get it back in Slow mode. You shouldn’t start the machine at a high speed anyway, so you have to do this all by hand. Adding the disc sander attachment helps quite a bit by giving you something to turn like a steering wheel.

    5. Putting the switch back in

    I wasn’t paying close attention to the orientation of the switch and had just assumed it was still in the Off position, despite lots of jostling, so I had to be careful when plugging it back in for the first time. Thankfully I got it right, but I think I might mark it or tape it next time.

    Thankfully everything worked as expected when I put it back on the stand and flipped the switch. The difference is night and day. No more slipping belts or the drive stopping when cutting heavy stock on the bandsaw or shaping something on the lathe at high speed.

    With regular oiling, I shouldn’t have the issue with the floating motor sheave locking up again. Fingers crossed.