Vacations, bench top, sharpening, bird and sanding disc storage

Vacations were pretty relaxing for me. We were involved in many activities especially by the sea. 

Vacations are over now and I thought it was a good idea to make a few simple projects, just to warm-up for the upcoming woodworking season.

The first project was actually cleaning my bench top. My bench was really dirty with paint, glue and all shorts of stuff.

So I used my angle grinder to sand it. I started with 40 grit and moved to 120. Then I used a vinyl stencil I had as a mask to paint my logo with white latex paint. It worked out really nice!

The next project was a bench hooked sharpening station for my new two grit oil stone.

I cut a piece of 9mm plywood to size on my table saw. I set a stop block on my cross cut sled to make repeated cuts. I then added a drop of glue and nailed the pieces in place.

I used the stone as a guide, to mark the positions of the pockets. I wanted the stone to fit loosely in the pockets. I glued and nailed all the pieces in place.

Then I used a solid wood piece as a guide to cut a piece of leather. I applied adhesive to both surfaces, let it dry about 20 minutes and joined the two pieces to get an instant bond. Just to be on the safe side, I added weights and waited for the glue to fully cure over night.

My leather strop was ready.

This set up is all I need to sharpen my flat chisels to a razor sharp point.

The third project was a wooden bird. I wanted to cover up the air conditioner’s hole on my office’s wall. So I made a bird as a cap so I can remove it if I decide to reinstall an air conditioner.

First I roughly sketched the bird on a piece of 8mm plywood. I then cut the shape out on the bandsaw.

Then I used a flexible metal ruler as a sanding block to remove the saw marks.

I then painted the edges with water based black dye. I then used a wet rag and a brush to create a gradient effect. on the surface of the bird.

I finished the piece with two coats of clear while lightly sanding between coats with 220grit. 

Finally I glued the bird on the wall with silicone. I also added tape to hold it in place, while the silicone cured.

The last project was a three compartment storage rack for my angle grinder’s discs.

On an a 8mm plywood piece I designed the base and cut it on the bandsaw. I used a disc as a template, to round over the edges. 

I then designed the spacers, cut them on the bandsaw and sanded them on the belt sander. To make all the cut’s at once I taped the pieces together.

I then glued and nailed the pieces together. I repeated those processes with all the parts of the rack.

The rack was not that heavy, so I decided to hang it on the wall with two nails. I drilled out the holes for the nails and sanded everything flush with my angle grinder.

I hanged it on the wall and added my wood sanding discs, my metal grinding discs and my metal sanding discs.

I the middle of each compartment I left a gap so that I can put my finger and lift the discs up.

Those were really cool and useful projects for me. It was the perfect woodworking warm up after vacations!

See you soon with a new project!