I love Tools!!!!!!

I came to a place in the construction of the sewing table where I really needed 100% accuracy, I don't have a milling machine yet, but I remembered that Proxxon sells a compound table for my drill press so I bought one and it works fantastic!!! I cut a piece of MDF to the size of the table, screwed it on and used a cutter to cut grooves as far as the table can move to all four sides and put wood pieces in the grooves to give me 90 degree corners to push my work piece against. I also wrote down the directions to turn the handles because I sometimes forget and then it goes the wrong direction!!!!

Here I am busy cutting mortises in the  top for the raising support of the table top which will look something like this when it is finished. The piece of wood is only 1/32" thick so I am keeping it in place with double-sided tape.

The Proxxon drill press can't be locked at a certain height for constant cutting at a certain depth, so my clever husband modified the handle so that you can do just that.

On hot summer days I take my tools outside to what we call a "stoep" in South Africa, how nice to work outside in a gentle breeze with bird song and some bathing in the fountain which you can't see because it is behind the drill press in the garden.

Here the top is in the table, on the left you can see the caster parts that my husband is busy making for the tables next to the Housework caster on the right that we all probably have seen. My husband has never done anything like this before and this small so I am very proud of him and grateful because there is just nothing like this out there that I know of.

The drawer knobs in place.

The candle slide just peeking out.

Have a great day!!!!

Elga

The Monster is actually a Gentle Giant and more tools..............

Although the Band Saw is big and scary looking I think it is going to be my favorite tool and it is the quietest of all my power tools, I love the fact that I can feed really hard wood through it slowly. I was able to cut wood less than than 1mm thick on it. As wonderful as the saw is, the wood still needs some sanding to get it really smooth. After buying the saw we had to come up with something that wouldn't cost a lot to make and after some internet searches we decided to use the lathe to make a drum sander. We just used what we had on hand, later we will make a longer drum, but this works great for now. The table consists of two pieces of wood that is hinged at the back and a screw in the front makes the thickness adjustment. This article describes the whole thing much better than what I can.



Here is the result of some sanding I did yesterday, I am very happy with how everything works and that I can now make my own sheets of wood. This is all local South African wood, the pieces on the left are Mopane wood and the one on the right is Candle wood. I see some furniture building in my near future :-)

Elga

Monster of a Band Saw

I added a monster of a saw to my workshop today. I am at the stage where I want to cut up hard woods into thin boards for miniature furniture and I mean HARD, I almost blew the motor of my little Proxxon table saw and realized that I need something much more powerful. I have made mistakes in the past with choosing tools, so I first did a lot of research on what tool professional woodworkers use to re-saw thick stock and they all use band saws, even for cutting wood into veneer and I figure the thicknesses we use in miniatures fall into the veneer category. Finewoodworking.com has a wealth of information for serious woodworkers and I find I can use most of their info for miniatures too. I am really looking forward to experimenting with this saw, now I need to learn how to change blades and set it up for properly for use. And I promise I will be CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elga