Project Update - CAUTION! Mega Huge Picture Thread

[Freija]

I had used a piece of scrap wood to connect the legs in pairs but they were hard to manipulate to paint the other side of so I devised some spinners I just nailed into the ends so they would spin freely. I ended up making more and using them for all the other long boards. Angle cuts with the miter saw, some glue and staples in my 18ga brad nailer did the trick. I felt clever.



With the legs assembled and primed, I stored them back into the house before moving on to the three layers – the bed layer and middle and top layers.

I knew for joinery that I wanted to use dowels because I didn’t want screws interfering or running in to each other when the frames were screwed to the legs so I made a little jig for even hole placement and used my wonky old benchtop drill press to do the drilling, again with help from those handy roller stands. These boards had already been filled, sanded and rounded over with my hand router. The frames for the bed and middle shelf layer use 2x6s



I was stumped for a few days and didn’t do anything because I didn’t know how I was going to drill the corresponding holes in the end pieces but then I had an epiphany. I propped the long boards up on a tall bench at a level where the end piece was touching the ground then I used some 90º clamps to square things up. With a stop collar on my 3/8” brad point drill bit using my at least 25 year old Craftsman corded drill, I just drilled through the holes I had already put in each board and into the ends. I practiced on the top layer as it is 2x4s and I figured if I screwed up, it would be cheaper to buy new ones than 2x6s but it worked perfectly. Because normally dowel joints are hidden within a joint I had to make longer ones to go in from the outside.

This method was so successful, I went ahead and glued and doweled the other two frames.



Once everything had dried, I used my ancient oscillating multi-tool to cut the ends of the dowels off and then sanded everything flush. Came out nice and very solid.




With my legs done and my three frame layers ready for the next step, yet another side project distracted me for a bit. Of course it did.

Finances lately have been unexpectedly good and with this woodworking thing starting to move forward, I had the desire to kit out my “shop” a bit more. The things I had purchased so far, the jointer, planer and miter saw were quite adequate for an intermediate level hobbiest but I wanted my next purchase to be more pro grade stuff.

Although it had served me well for many years, my old Skill table saw was a piece of shit even though it was an upgrade to the one I had before it. The fence wasn’t square without fiddling with it and checking it with every cut, the blade was too close to the leading edge of the table, there was no dust collection of any kind and it didn’t have a riving knife so I started looking for replacement. Because I still needed something mobile and a huge cabinet saw wouldn’t work, I found a couple of hybrid options in the $1000 to $1250 range I seriously had my eye on. I knew I didn’t want a jobsite saw but I knew I wanted something with a rack and pinion fence and every day was a debate if I really wanted to spend this much money or not then an offer came up that was too good to pass up from an unexpected source – Harbor Freight.

Now I’ve always been kind of leery of purchasing things from HF but they have really stepped their game on some of their newer stuff. They had a recently redesigned Hercules model comparable to a $650 Dewalt for $399 and I had a 3-day only coupon for $312 so I jumped on it as a way to not spend over $1000 on something else and so far I am really happy with it. Annnd then came another side project. I need a home for it.

So, I started out making a cart so the bed of the saw would line up with my 900 Pound Steel Bench™ beginning with more jointing and planing crappy lumber. The jointer wears me out but the planer is like a carnival. It was nice having the miter saw to cut the pieces but I had to use my also ancient circular saw to cut the ¾” plywood top. Nothing fancy here, just deck screws and glue.



Rather than normal casters, which on my miter saw stand are kind of hard to lock, I decided to go with workbench casters so I added some extra reinforcement to the legs that also added a bit more style. This type of caster allows the stand to sit solidly on the ground when not engaged. Then I hit the whole thing with that million dollar B-I-N shellac based primer. It was looking decent. I used some scrap ½” plywood for a bottom shelf but had to make it in two pieces.


Somewhere along the way, I had purchased a much raved about electric handheld HVLP paint sprayer but I was afraid to try it with this weird primer fearing it would clog it up since it dries so quickly. I love painting and already own 5 or 6 paint guns (plus 2 airbrushes) and have painted 4 cars but those guns aren’t meant for spraying latex and I didn’t want to move my big compressor to my back work area.

Here’s a picture my daughter took of me at least 36 years ago painting a Volkswagen fender.



I’ve owned 5 different VWs of different types, love them and wish I still had one. In 1971 at 16, I took my first time driver’s license test in a 1967 VW bus so they’re in my blood but back to the story.

But, with my new little saw stand, I decided to give my new electric spray jobbie a go. With a couple quart cans of Rustoleum and a stir stick, I don’t know what I was thinking but I was wanting to go with something close to orange and obviously red and yellow can’t get there.



I don’t know what this color is but the new sprayer worked a treat. It came out pretty good.


I was finally able to use my new saw and it is awesome! Haven’t done anything fancy with it yet but ripped some 8’ 2x4s into 3 pieces and it works great, has a very effective dust collection port and is so much quieter than my old saw. And that fence! I can rip something up to 24½ inches wide. That’s a 4x8 sheet of plywood right down the middle. The toylike little miter gauge that comes with is, like even on expensive saws was junk so I picked up an aftermarket one (not shown)

Here’s the whole family. Planer, new saw, miter saw & router table, jointer and my old saw. Eventually, I will build an actual base for the jointer rather than a garbage picked sawed down entertainment shelf on a dolly and paint the miter saw stand after I finish adding the fold out extension wings.



Then I had yet another side project. Is it any wonder I’ve been 5 months working on things? Once a month, my city has uncontained refuse pickup and they take most everything – cut down trees, old furniture, junk, broken toilets and you name it. It looks pretty ghetto for a few days but if one is so inclined, it is scavager city.

-continued next post