How to make a wooden toy boat

I wanted to make a summer project. I wanted to be fun and if possible to combine playing in the sea. So I made this toy boat out a few scrap spruce pieces and an oak dowel.

First of all I designed a template, glued it on the wood with spray glue and cut it out on my scroll saw.

For the propeller of the boat I planed down a wood piece. To do that I clamped my plane upside down on my vise.

I joined the two pieces of the propeller with a half lap joint.

To sand the pieces I used 80 grit sand paper and my metal ruler in order to sand the curves of the boat.

Then using a round over bit on my router I rounded some of the edges.

Using a conical bit I made a bevel on the bottom of my boat.

I glued everything together using two part epoxy, because it is water proof.

I made a jig to cut the dowels to the same height, using my flush trim saw.

I wood burned the name of my boat.

I finished the piece with 9 coats of polyurethane varnish while sanding between coats. I used 2/3 poly and 1/3 thinner for my mixture. I did that because I wanted my coats to dry pretty fast.

After everything was dry I added a rubber band on my propeller and my boat was ready!


Free plans for the boat here.

How to make a pair of sawhorses out of scrap wood

Sometime ago, I found a piece of plywood and a piece of spruce in the garbage. I also had some leftover pallet wood. I decided to make a pair of sawhorses out of all that junk.

First of all I roughly cut the plywood with my circular saw.

For the legs I made a template, printed it out and glued it on the plywood using spray glue.

I made holes for dowels on my drill press and cut out the template with my jigsaw. I used my block plane to straighten the edges and then sanded the round parts of the legs.

To make the other legs I duplicated them using my router upside down and a flush trim bit. But before that I screwed the guide piece and a new one to keep them steady.

I made the rest of the leg pieces with the same method.

I also made a few circles using my hole saw. 

Because I made holes for dowels in certain points, I assembled the leg pieces and everything looked the same. Now all I had to do was to pre drill pilot holes and screw everything in place.

I had to make a cut on the top piece of the legs in order for them to provide a straight place for the tops. I used the dowels again to align the two legs together and cut both legs at the same time with my circular saw.

I repeat the process for the other legs. Using the dowels I transferred the previous cut line to those legs as well.

I clamped the tops together and  marked the width of the legs using the leftovers from the previous cuts. I adjusted the depth of my circular saw. I made a series of cross cuts with my circular saw and cleaned the grooves with a chisel. 

I joined the top with the legs, drilled pilot holes, created counter sinks and screwed everything in place.

From a leftover pallet piece I cut the bottom cleats using a saw and my miter box.

I used a clamp to keep the cleat in place and screwed everything in place.

I lightly sand everything and my two sawhorses are ready.

How to make a wooden hard drive enclosure

Recently my PC technician changed the hard drive of my laptop. So I had the old hard disc laying around and I have decided to make an enclosure for it, out of plywood. This way I can still use the hard drive as an external file storage device.

First of all I traced the shape of the disc on a piece of plywood using a pencil.

Then I measured the side of the disc using my caliper.

Using a straight bit on my router I freehanded the hole for the disc on the plywood. I completed the routing process with two passes.

I used a chisel to make the hole a little bit cleaner.

I then measured the outer areas and cut the piece to size with a hand saw.

I straightened the edges on my belt sander.

For the bottom of the case I wanted some ventilation holes. I glued a template on the piece using spray glue and drilled the holes on my drill press.

I used rust remover to remove the template.

For the top of the piece I used a thin plywood piece with my logo on it. I drilled the starting holes on my drill press and cut out the template on my scroll saw.

I then drilled pilot holes for the top screws. I made countersinks using the appropriate bit.

After screwing the top, I used the flush trim bit, and trimmed everything flush with my router turned upside down.

I sanded the piece.

In order for the disc to be locked in place I made two metal brackets.

I cut the pieces out of a scrap metal piece using my dremel tool and a grinding disc.

I drilled the holes for the screws.

I applied a few coats of black spray paint on the piece.

I applied a few coats of clear varnish.

I screwed everything in place, added the sata to usb adapter cable and my external hard drive is ready!