How to make a DIY designer’s desk

I wanted a large double desk for two people. I made it out of a spruce panel, three saw horses and spruce boards. I wanted everything to be removable, so I joined it all using screws and metal corners.

It’s design is industrial looking and I like the fact that it kind of reminds me construction site because of the saw horses. 

I begun by making the main frame. I used my circular saw and a guide rail to cut the 45 degree miters.

I then used my table saw, to rip cut the cleats. I did a bit of cleaning with my block plane. 

I predrilled pilot holes and screwed the side cleats to the sides of the frame. 

To hold the frame together before screwing it together, I used corner clamps. I joined the pieces of the frame using screws and metal corners.

I cross cut the cleats to size, using my cross cut sled on the table saw.

To clamp the sides so I can add the cleats, I used a piece of string and tightened it just like bow saws do. I then installed the cleats with screws and metal corners again.

Using my circular saw and a guide rail again, I cross cut the desk top panel to length. I used again the circular saw, only this time I freehanded the rip cut to rough size. I then used my block plane to trim the sides so that it fitted just right in the frame.

I then secured the panel to the frame using screws and metal corners, once again.

I marked the dimensions of the saw horses and trimmed them to size using the bandsaw.

I then made a few stop blocks on the bandsaw so that the saw horses stay in place. I made the miters  on the blocks using a spirit level so that the saw horse kind of sits straight. I screwed the blocks in place.

I then used the block plane to clean up, to round over the edges and to plane the sides flush to the desk’s top. 

I sanded everything. I also filled a few gaps using glue and sanding dust.

I cleaned all the dust with my vacuum and applied six coats of clear, satin, water based varnish on the desktop. I sanded between coats with 240 grit sand paper.

My desk was now ready. I hope you liked it.

How to make a DIY spoon carving gouge

This spoon shaped chisel is designed to reach deep and difficult areas in a wood carving situation.

I made it from an old file ( because files are made of really hard tool steel ) and a piece of maple.

First of all, I used my angle grinder to cut the file to the basic shape I needed.

I then used the belt sanders and the bench top grinder to shape my file even more and clean up the file lines.

This gouge has two curves. To make them, I heated the steel and bended it against a metal cylinder and a sledge hammer that were both mounted on my bench. I heated it using my propane torch.

The tip of the carving gouge must a have a curve. I heated the tip to red hot, and then hammered it against the ball of a ball headed hammer. With my basic curve forged, I moved to the belt sander to grind my basic bevel.

I then heated my tool to red hot and dipped it in oil to harden it.

To give the blade a bit more flexibility ( to avoid snapping ), I heat treated it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 2 hours.

I then cleaned the steel with 100 grit sand paper and WD40. To remove any burrs, I rounded a piece of wood with my block plane and sand paper. I mounted a piece of sandpaper and the wood on a vise and used it as a curved sanding block.

I cut a piece of maple on my bandsaw, to make the handle.

Using my chisels I opened up a groove to receive the tool. I then glued the two pieces together. 

I clued a piece of plywood on the end of my handle ( the one with the open hole ).

I mounted the handle on my lathe and used the scraper tool to round it over. I used the skew chisel to make the handle’s back. 

Using my rotary tool I cut a piece of metal tube. I measured the diameter with a caliper. I turned the edge of my handle to match that diameter. I used a parting tool, the skew chisel and a spindle gouge to do that.

I then finished the shape with the spindle gouge, sanded the piece and applied a couple of coats of beeswax and olive oil finish.

I cut the excess pieces on the bandsaw. I also shaded the metal ring flush with the handle, using my homemade disc sander for the lathe.

I glued al the pieces together with two part epoxy glue.

At this point, I decided to change the grind of the tool before sharpening it, so I moved to the belt sander again. Only this time I had to dip the tool in water from time to time, to prevent the tip from burning and losing it’s hardness.

I sharpened the tool on my two grit oil stone. When I reached to a burr I removed it with a cylindrical stone.

I then stropped the tool on a piece of leather, on which I had applied polishing compound. I removed the burr again by rubbing the tip against the sanding block I made earlier. Only this time, it had leather instead of sand paper.

At this point, my tool was ready and razor sharp. I hope you liked it!

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.