This is a simple project I knocked out this weekend, it’s the base for a child’s birthday party punch-out game. Once it’s painted, solo cups with tissue paper over the top and prizes inside will be glued into the holes with a hot glue gun. This projects was fun to make, it required no planing and a very limited number of tools. The hardest thing about it was making the 25 3-1/2″ diameter holes, and then sanding them smooth. Considering the amount of praise I got for making it, the time I spent was well spent.
Everyone knows that fine saw dust can be bad for your lungs, but last weekend I learned about another saw dust danger the hard way. My shop dust collection isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough for now. I usually have some dust laying on the top of the table saw, Thus last weekend I thought nothing of it when I went to use my cross cut sled. It wouldn’t drop into the miter slot, so I bent down and looked down the slot. when it dropped in, I got a shot of large MDF dust particles in my right eye.
I got most of it out with the eye wash kit in the bathroom, but one or two chunks would not come out. By the time I was able to get to the doctor the next morning, I had a severely scratched cornea. For 2 or 3 days I could barely open my eye, but thanks the ointment the doctor gave me, I have since fully healed. While I’m fine now, the doctor warned me that I could have easily permanently damaged my eye. Thus next time you’re in the shop, make sure you keep in mind some of the other dangers related to sawdust.
While I was waiting for the Varnish on my end tables to finish drying, I made some lift top boxes for an important woman in my life. I’ve documented how to make them on my blog before, so I wont go into the details of their construction, instead I’ll share some pretty pictures I took of the Finished project. All the boxes are finished with a few coats of varnish & wax.
Peruvian Walnut sides with Maple keys.
Panga Panga sides with Purpleheart keys.
Quilted Maple lid
PurpleHeart lid
I freely admit I’m an accuracy addict, when I’m milling stock my calipers are never more than a few feet away. The only problem with my calipers, is that they are graduated in thousands of an inch,and while I know some of the decimal to fraction conversions I’m not in the shop often enough to memorize all of the useful ones. Fractional calipers can be had, but they are usually only graduated in 1/64ths and in my opinion that’s just not fine enough, so I never purchased one.
Fast forward to black Friday, and Berland’s House Of Tools. if you have ever been to Berland’s, you know it’s more of a contractors tools store. I wasn’t expecting to find anything spectacular, but while browsing the layout & measurement section I came across the little gem below. When I saw this baby i lit up like a 5 year old on Christmas day. A fractional caliper graduated in 1/512ths, yes please.
My first, and hopefully not my last attempt at resawing & bookmatching. The panel is kind of thin, as it started off as 4/4 stock. After two rounds jointing, planing & sawing it came in at a little over 3/8″.
