How to make a DIY draw knife from an old file

Those vintage woodworking tools are rare and expensive. So I decided to make one from an old file. Files are a good choice because they are made of really hard tool steel.

First of all I used a chalk to mark the areas I wanted to cut out. Then I used my angle grinder to remove the unwanted material.

I then moved to my bench top belt sander to clean the file marks from my tool. I also used my rotary tool with a cylindrical stone bit to clean the inner curves of my shape.

I then moved to my grinder to establish the bevel of my knife. I used a home made tilted base to help me grind the bevel as straight as I could.

I wanted the handles of my tool to be at a slight angle. To bent them I used a propane torch to heat them up to red hot. Then I clamped them against a metal cylinder and hammered them in place. I also used an old sledge hammer as an anvil.

I drilled holes for brass pins on my drill press. Before that I burned the tool with the torch in order for the steel to become soft. Before that the drill could not penetrate the hardened steel of the file.

Then I heated the tool to red hot with the torch and dipped it in oil to harden. I then put it in an oven at 180 degrees Celsius  for 2 hours. This heat treatment gave the tool some flexibility to prevent it from snapping.

I cleaned the tool with WD40 and 100 grit sand paper.

On a piece of paper, I drew the handle shape and transferred it on a piece of hardwood, I think it is iroko. I then cut the handles on the bandsaw.

I cleaned the bandsaw marks on the home made disc sander I made for the lathe.

I used my chisels to carve out the grooves for the tool’s handles.

I used my drill press to drill holes for brass pins. I cut the pins to size and glued everything with two part epoxy glue.

I then cut off the excess brass on the bandsaw and used my belt sander to shape the handles. The belt sander was mounted on the bench with clamps. I finished sanding by hand.

I finished the handles with a couple of coats of teak oil.

I then sharpened the blade with various grits of sand papers, a flat sanding block and WD40. 

I then finished the blade with a piece of leather with polishing compound.

My draw knife was ready and razor sharp, I hope you like it!

How to make a simple DIY tool board for the shop's wall

I wanted to make a new tool board for my shop’s wall.

I made it using an OSB panel, screws, nails, hangers and a few scrap plywood pieces.

The board would be mounted on the wall with upat. First I drilled the holes on the OSB.

Then I used a 2x4 and a spirit level, to hold the board straight. I then used a marker to mark the positions of the holes to the wall.

I then drilled the holes and used a mallet to drive the upats in. After that I screwed the board on the wall.

Basically I used three methods to hang the tools on this board. 

The first was to use metal hangers. I predrilled and mounted them on the board. I positioned them depending on the tool arrangement I wanted. I also used screws and nails to kind of hold the tools in the positions I wanted. 

I also used a marker to trace around each tool, so I know it’s exact position on the board.

The second mounted method is used basically for my chisels, screw drivers and even drill bits.

I cut a scrap piece of plywood on the bandsaw. Used a compass to mark the hole positions. And then using a step drill bit I opened conical holes. I then cut an entry slot on the bandsaw.

I predrilled screw holes on the drill press. I used a mallet to tap the chisel holder on the board. I predrilled and screwed the holders in place using my spirit level again, to make sure everything was straight.

The third and final mounting method is using wooden dowels. I used that to mount my pliers. I just positioned the tool, used an owl to mark the place for dowels, drilled holes and placed the dowels with wood glue.

This is basically it. I tried to position the tools on the board by categorizing them. So I have my saws all together, my pliers, my chisels, my measuring tools e.t.c

I hope you liked it.

How to make a skew woodturning chisel from an old file

I wanted a really large skew chisel for my lathe but those tools can be really expensive. As a result I decided to make a homemade one, out of an old file and a piece of walnut for handle. I used a file because files are made of pretty hard steel.

First of all I used a chalk, to mark the areas of the file, I wanted to remove.

I then used the angle grinder to cut the areas I did not wanted.

I then used my desktop grinder for some rough cleaning with the stone disc.

I then cleaned up the chisel using a belt sander. Since the file was pretty hard steel, I had to change belts quite often.

To clean up difficult areas, I used my rotary tool with a cylindrical stone bit.

I then used a marker to mark the basic bevels of my chisel. I rough shaped the bevel on my belt sander. Because I wanted to avoid hardening the tool, I often dipped the edge in water to avoid burning.

I cut a piece of walnut on the bandsaw to act as my handle.

I used flat chisels and a V carving chisel to cut the groove that would receive the tool’s handle part.

To duplicate the first opening, I sprayed WD40 and kind of printed one wood on the other.

I glued the two pieces together.

After the glue dried, I flattened the edges on my disc sander. I also removed material using my block plane, to save me some time on the lathe.

To turn the handle on the lathe, I glued a piece of wood on the hollowed edge. This way I can mount the piece on the lathe between centers, without ruining my hole.

I used a scraper and a skew chisel to shape the handle. I also cut a metal cylinder with my rotary tool. I measured it’s diameter with a caliper, and used a parting tool to make a cylindrical tenon on my handle to receive it. 

I then sanded the piece on the lathe and applied a few coats of wax and olive oil finish, while my handle was still mounted on the lathe. 

I then cut of the pieces I didn’t want on the bandsaw.

I used my disc sander to sand the metal cylinder flush.

I glued everything together using two part epoxy. I also used epoxy o fill any remaining gaps.

To sharpen my chisel, I used a flat wooden piece and strips of sandpaper. I used 100, 240, 500, 800, 1000, 2000 grit papers and polished it with leather. I also applied polishing compound on the leather.

At this point my tool was ready. It works pretty nicely and I am really happy with the way it came out. I also learned so many things while making it!

I hope you like it.

How to make a disc sander for the lathe

I did not have a disc sander, and I decided to make one. After watching a few other people (on you tube)  that had already converted their lathe into a disc sander, I decided to make one too.

You can watch other people’s builds here:
Dema's WoodShop
George Fotinakes
Patrick's Work Shop

I made this build with whatever scraps I had in my shop.

I begun by salvaging a few boards from a pallet, using my circular saw.

I squared the ends of the boards on my table saw, using a cross cut sled.

To create some thicker stock, I glued and clamped two boards together.

After the glue dried, I flattened the piece with my hand plane.

I cut it to size with a saw and a miter box and reduced it’s thickness, using my hand plane again. I did that in order for that piece to fit snuggly in the lathe’s runners.

I then used my angle grinder, to cut a metal piece on which I drilled a hole in the middle, using my drill press.

I then used my band saw, and cut two pieces in a way they fit together with a half lap joint. I glued those pieces together and drilled a hole on them to receive an M6 screw.

I then cut out a screw’s head with a hacksaw.

I connected the wooden block, the metal piece and the screw with butterfly nuts and washers. This is actually the base of the sander and it’s mounting mechanism.

I cut a circle on the band saw from 10mm plywood. I mounted on my face plate  and used a scrapper to turn it even all around. I then glued on a piece of sandpaper using spray adhesive. I trimmed the sand paper flush with an exact knife.

I then cut and drilled the rest of the pieces on my bandsaw and drill press.

I predrilled, counter sinked and screwed the pieces together. For the moving parts I also used M6 screws, washers and butterfly nuts.

To make the sanding platform, I cut a piece of melamine to size, using my circular saw and a guide rail. Because the cut was across the grain , I used masking tape to reduce tear-out.

I then used a 90 degree straight edge to mount the platform at 90 degrees. I screwed it in place.

My sander is ready, it works nicely with around 100 grit sand paper.

I hope you like it,it is a really useful tool to have in the shop!

How to make a DIY judge's mallet ( gavel )

 

I had a few pieces of firewood in the shop. I think it is from apricot tree. It had really nice grain patterns and I decided to make a mallet with those. I thought a judge’s mallet would be an interesting woodturning project.

I begun with the mallet’s head. I roughly cut a piece on my bandsaw. I then chucked it on the lathe and shaped it with a scraper. I added a couple of decorative elements using the skew chisel.

To kind of flatten the edges, I chucked the piece on a homemade jam chuck and used the scraper for that job.

I then cut another piece of wood on the bandsaw to act as the mallet’s handle.

I used my drill to make a hole that would receive the handle. I measured the depth and the diameter of the hole with my caliper.

Using the parting tool, I created a tenon at the end of the handle to fit snuggly in the mallet’s head hole.

I shaped the handle, with a scraper, a skew chisel and bowl gouge.

I sanded the handle and cut it to size on the bandsaw.

I glued the handle and the head with wood glue and applied to all, a coat of teak oil.

I then cut a piece of wood for the gavel’s base. Because one side was not flat enough. I mount it on my vise and used a hand plane to flatten the base.

I then fasten it on my base plate and rounded it over with the scraper on the lathe.

After turning it to the shape I wanted, I cut it out with a handsaw.

My little judge’s mallet was now ready. It was a fun woodturning project, I hope you like it.

How to make a turned bowl for your cat

I wanted to make a DIY food bowl for  Mickey, my neighborhood cat. I thought this would be a nice and easy wood turning project.

First of all, I took a spruce board and cut 3 rough squares out of it, using the bandsaw.

I then glued them together, with wood glue and clamps.

I drew the diagonals and marked the center with an owl.

I cut out a rough circle on my bandsaw and mounted the piece on my lathe using a face plate chuck.

Using the scraper tool I rounded the outer side of the bowl.

I drilled a depth hole on my drill press, to establish the desirable depth of my bowl.

I then used the bowl gouge to hollow out the bowl. I also used the parting tool to make the inner sides of the bowl straight.

I sanded it on the lathe.

I used blue masking tape to mask the name of the cat. I used a marker to write the name and an exact knife to cut out the area I wanted to paint on.

I painted the name with black spray.

At this point my little bowl was ready to receive some nice food for Mickey the cat.

I hope you and he, like my little wood turning project!

How I made my first wood turned spoon

I recently got myself a lathe and I decided to make a turned spoon out of a piece of lime tree ( tilia ).

First of all I used my circular saw and a guide rail to cut the piece of wood I needed.

I made a cross cut on my bandsaw. 

I then marked the center of the piece and used a caliper to mark a circle. I removed as much material as I could on the bandsaw.

I chucked the piece on my lathe and started turning a cylinder using a round edge gouge. 

This piece will be the spherical part of my spoon. It is important the end grain of the wood to be the outer side of the sphere.

After the cylinder was done, I used the partying tool and a skew chisel to shape the out side of my spoon while still keeping a cylindrical part.

I then mounted the piece on my four jaw chuck to start hollowing my spoon. For the hollowing process I used a bowl gauge.

I sanded the piece on the lathe and used the parting tool to cut the spoon loose.

I then cut the remaining tenon on my bandsaw.

To make the spoon’s handle, I cut a piece of wood on the bandsaw and turned it round on the lathe.

I made a tenon on one edge of the handle using the parting tool. The handle and the spoon are joined with a mortise and tenon joint.

I then used the bowl gouge to make all the conical shapes and finished the rest with the skew chisel. 

I then sanded the piece on the lathe and cut the handle loose on the bandsaw.

I made a mortise using the drill press and glued everything using two part epoxy.

I hope you like my first turned spoon.