How to make a DIY animation toy

I made this classic “put the fish in the bowl” toy, using scrap plywood pieces and a dowel.

First of all, using a compass and a ruler, I designed the handle of the toy. 

I used my hole saw to cut the circular parts and then cut the rest on the bandsaw.

I used my drill press to drill the holes that would receive the wooden dowel. 

I sanded the piece. I also rounded over the edges with sand paper. I used a marker as a sanding block, to sand the round parts of the piece.

I then again used the hole saw to cut out a ring. The inner circle of the ring was cut out on the drill press for more accuracy.

I then cut the ring to the appropriate thickness on the bandsaw using also it’s fence. I used a pencil to keep my fingers away from the blade.

I then cut a piece of dowel and created a small hole on it, on the drill press.

I designed another circle, drilled a small hole in the middle and added a small nail on a piece of MDF to act as a pivot point. I used this quick and dirty circle making jig to cut that circle on the bandsaw.

I then cut a notch on the circle using the bandsaw and glued the dowel in there.

I applied a coat of white surface primer to everything. After drying I sanded the pieces and added a another couple of coats.

In the first side of the circle I drew a minimalistic fish symbol and on the other I drew a circle.

I added string in the spindle and attached it to the ring.

At this point my toy was ready. 

In order for the toy to work you have to rotate the spindle in order for the string to be wrapped around it. Then you pull the ring and the spindle starts to spin fast. 

The toy is based around a principle of the human vision called “ metaisthima ”. With the speed of the rotation the brain sees the image of the circle and the fish as one. As a result you see a fish in the circle.

I hope you like that project.

How to make a DIY knife from a file

I had an old file and a scrap walnut piece in the shop and I decided to make a woodworking knife with them.

First of all I cut the file to a basic shape using my angle grinder.

I then moved to the belt sander and started cleaning the file marks a little bit and also creating a basic bevel on my knife’s blade.

The steel of a file is really hard. In order to soften it I heated it with fire. While still hot I was able to move the blade to the drill press and drill out two holes for the brass pins of the handle.

I then reheated the blade until it was red hot. I cooled it down fast by dipping it in water. At this stage the blade was hardened. 

To give the blade a little flexibility it needs to be tempered. Other wise it might break really easy.

To temper the blade I put it in the oven in 220 degree Celsius for about two hours. After that the blade should have a kind of  blueish color.

I let the blade cool for a few hours and then moved to the belt sander again to clean it up. During that process, I constantly cool the metal with water to prevent it from losing it’s hardness.

I traced the back of the blade on a scrap walnut piece and created a groove to receive it, using a sharp chisel.

I cut the basic shape of the handle on the bandsaw and used the first piece to trace the second one.

I made holes on the wood to receive two brass pins on the drill press.

Because the brass dowel I had was a bit big, I used my drill press as a lathe and using a file I reduced it’s size until it fit in my handle’s holes.

I then used two part epoxy glue and clamps to glue everything together.

I cut the excess pins on the bandsaw. I also used the bandsaw to rough shape the handle.

To shape the handle I used several techniques. I hand sanded it with a sanding block, I used a spokeshave for the outer curve, a chisel for the excess epoxy and the belt sander with a fresh belt.

I finished the handle with a couple of coats of teak oil that revealed the beautiful grain pattern of the walnut.

At this point I sharpened the knife using my two grit oil stone. I polished it on the drill press, using polishing compound on a small leather buffing wheel which gave a razor sharp edge to my knife.

My file knife was now ready, I hope you liked it!

How to make a DIY toy truck

It’s been a while since I made a toy, so I decided to make this car out of a few pieces of plywood I had in my shop.

First of all I made a rough sketch of my idea. I then designed my templates in illustrator.

I joined two plywood pieces together with double sided tape and used spray adhesive to glue the template on it.

I cut all the pieces on my bandsaw. For the inner cuts I made entry holes on my drill press and cut them out on my scroll saw.

I used WD40 to remove the templates from the wood.

I gave all the pieces a sanding with a sanding block.

I began glueing the pieces together. I also used a few nails here and there.

I clamped everything until the glue dried.

I then used my block plane, to round over one edge of a scrap spruce piece.

I cross cut it with a handsaw and a miter box.

I then glued two spruce pieces in the back of my truck. Those pieces act both as reinforcements and seats.

I then glued the bumpers in place. I used a hole saw to cut two pieces to act as lights and glued them on the front of the car.

I also used a hole saw to cut the four wheels. I clamped them together using a bolt and two butterfly nuts. I mounted the whole piece on my drill press and used it as a lathe to sand them all flush with a sanding block. I also used this method to created a rounded edge, to all the wheels.

I sanded everything again and filled all the gaps with glue and sanding dust.

I made the holes for the wheels. I glued only two wheels to the edges of two dowels.

I gave all the pieces a coat of white primer. I sanded afterwards and then applied another coat.

I sprayed a few coats of black on the wheels.

I masked the bumpers and the lights with blue tape and applied a few coats of orange spray paint to the truck’s body. 

I then glued the rest of wheels. Cut the dowel flush with a flush trim saw and added a few shots of black paint to the exposed wood of the dowels.

I finished the piece with a few coats of clear varnish to protect the paint.

My truck is ready, I hope you liked it!

DIY hexagonal waste bin

I had a few melamine shelves laying around and I decided to upcycle them to a scrap bin for my shop. The bin's design is something like an extruded hexagon. That kind of shape is fairly easy to make and it's space efficient.

Each side of the hexagon must have a 60 degree bevel. To do that I tilted the blase of my table saw at 30 degrees.

I cut the bevels in both sides of all my boards. This way, when to boards are united, they create a 120 degree angle. A hexagon has 6 120 degree angles.

I joined my boards using glue and biscuits. I used my biscuit joiner yo create the slots on all boards. Before that I marked all my pieces so I knew which board goes where.

I glued the sides in 3 pairs first. After the pairs where dry I glued them all together. Clamping was tricky at that point, so I used a few ring clamps to hold everything together.

I then cut a piece of melamine on the band saw to create the bottom of my bin.

I screwed it in place after first making pilot holes. I used my flush trim saw to cut it flush with the sides of the bin.

I also screwed  4 wheels in place.

I then used my band saw to cut a piece of plywood for the bin’s top. To cut the inside piece I made entry holes on my drill press and cut the inside with my scroll saw. I cut that flange a bit bigger than I had to. 

I nailed it temporarily in place. I used a flush trim bit on my router and trimmed the flange flush with the rest of the bin.

I then secured the flange in place with screws. I predrilled and counter sinked the holes before adding the screws.

I filled gaps and imperfections with wood filler. After it dried I sanded everything with a sanding block.

I then designed a handle on a piece of plywood and cut it out on the band saw. I used the first handle as a guide to make another one.

I screwed the handles in place.

I gave the whole piece a couple of coats of grey acrylic paint.

My bin was now ready, I hope you liked it.

DIY picture frame on the table saw

I wanted to make a picture frame, using the table saw as my primary tool. 

I used spruce and walnut for this project.

I begun by ripping  a 2x4 to size using my table saw. I used an 8mm piece of plywood to measure the height of my blade using a caliper. After I adjusted the height of my blade I created a groove on my picture frame’s sides. 

I moved the fence over a couple of times and I repeated the cut. This way I extended my groove to size. I also used a chisel, to clean up a few miss cuts of the blade.

To created the miters for the corners using my miter sled. I also marked which miter matches which, because this procedure might get a bit confusing.

I applied glue to the joints, and used my picture frame clamp to glue the frame together.

I used my spline jig to make cuts in the corners for the splines. I ripped a piece of walnut to size. I planed it down to size, using my block plane upside down on a vise. I cut the splines to size with my cross cut sled and a stop block.

The splines where now ready to be glued in place. They have to fit snugly, so I used a mallet to force them in place.

While the glue dried, I used my cross cut sled again, to cut a piece of laminated MDF for my picture frame’s back.

I used a glass cutter and a ruler to cut a piece of glass for my frame. I also sanded it’s edges a little bit.

At this point I cut the splines flush, using my flush trim saw. 

The splines act both as reinforcements and as a decorative element. The miters are end grain to end grain glued together, which is not a strong joint. That is why we use the spines. It is nice to use contrasting woods for the frame and the splines. This way the splines look nicer.

I used my block plane to round over the edges of my frame.

I made a quick and dirty sanding block. I just stapled a piece of sandpaper on a scrap plywood piece.

I sanded the piece.

I applied three coats of water based clear satin finish to the frame. I sanded between coats.

I made two closings on the bandsaw. I made countersinked holes on them on my drill press.

I also made a hole to hang the frame.

At this point I assembled the frame and hanged it on the wall.

I think it came out nice. I hope you liked it!

How to convert old bookcases to a hanging shop shelf

I am moving to  a new shop and I had to rearrange my stuff to fit the new one. In the old shop I had two old IKEA bookcases made of melamine.

To save space, I thought it would be a cool idea to convert those cases to a hanging shelf. This way I still can fill them with a bunch of stuff but I can use the floor space for something else.

First of all I disassembled the bookcases.

Then I used my circular saw with a guide rail, to cut the carcass pieces to size.

I then used my 90 degree corner clamps, to keep the sides in place, while I predrilled pilot holes and screwed them in place.

I then used again my circular saw to cut the pieces for the spacers. On the spares I cut out a piece in order for the french cleat to sit it.I made that cut on the bandsaw. I used the first piece to mark the others.

After I fitted the spacers in place, I used my square to make sure that they sit straight. I added a clamp to secure them and screwed them in place.

I then used my table saw to cut a strip of melamine. I tilted the blade of the table saw to 45 degrees and cut the strip in half. This is my French cleat.

I screwed one piece of the cleat on my shelf. I created countersinked holes on the other part using my drill press.

I drilled holes on the wall and hammered in a few upats.

I screwed the cleat on the wall. 

At this point I lifted the shelf and joined the two pieces of the cleat together.

With this hanging method you can secure really heavy objects on the wall.

I hope you found this build useful!

How to make a very simple workbench

I made this bench mostly to host my desktop power tools. It’s dimensions are 2x0,5m and 0,8m high.

For this project I used MDF, plywood and spruce solid wood.

First of all I cut my legs out of a 2x4. I used my circular saw and my guide rail for that job.

I then cut the other parts of the legs using my table saw and my cross cutting sled.

I clamped the pieces of the legs, made pilot holes and screwed them together.

Now I screw the long cleats with the legs. To reinforce the structure I also added another 4 cleats on the top and bottom.

The bottom panels are made of 8mm MDF and are two pieces. I measured my feet with a caliper and used my jigsaw to cut put the corners. I screwed the two panels in place.

The top is made from two 12mm plywood pieces which I also screwed in place.

My bench was now ready.