One of my favorite features of the top, is actually technically a defect — a quarter-sized knot hole. While both my wife and I agreed that it added “character” to the top, I couldn’t simply leave it as it was; it was large enough to swallow up small objects whole and naturally not very stable.
A large knot
After some searching, I found a few references to folks filling holes like this using “Pour on” epoxy, of the type you might use to encase small chatchkis in a bar top.
A Slow Leak
On the first pour, I found myself constantly “topping off” the depression. I would fill the knot, level it off and a couple minutes later, most of it had been absorbed into the knot. By the time it cured 24 hours later, there was only a thin layer of epoxy, coating, but not filling the knot hole.
Puzzled, I decided to simply pour again. This time it filled just fine. The next day, while moving the piece, I discovered the cause: the knot hole went clear through the board and the epoxy
Pour on epoxy
was leaking out the bottom! With the first coat effectively plugging the hole, the second coat filled it nicely and easily sanded flush (something I was a bit concerned about). The effect is exactly what I had hoped for.
My Favorite Finish
I spent quite a bit of time sanding this piece — and it still probably wasn’t enough. For the finish, I had purchased a wipe-on, “low sheen” Tung Oil-based finish. The first coat on the drawers resulting in less than spectacular results. Though each row was was made from a single board, a couple adjacent drawers were a noticeably different shade. This prompted a second, more vigorous round of hand sanding (and a few choice words). This time, they took the finish much more consistently. A week later I had built up 5 coats on all parts and was ready to attach the top and call this project “done.”
Amateur
After reading Dick Cain’sforum thread about “Photographing Your Work” (PDF from Wood Carving Illustrated), and feeling duly shamed about my previous point-and-click-using-built-in flash-against-any-old-background photo sessions, I decided to step it up a notch. Unfortunately, I don’t really own any real photographic equipment and can’t afford to start yet another incredibly expensive hobby at the moment.
So my first attempt fell rather far from the intended mark. I may take another crack at it later in the week — perhaps using a cleaner and less wrinkled backdrop and a couple more lights if I can find someone to lend me any! If the new pics are any good I’ll update this post.
In the meantime, here’s my (rather humbling) attempt at perfeshunal fotogerphy.
3/4 View of Completed Dresser
I thought I’d put some pics of the new baby’s older siblings on top…in theater we called this “dressing the set”…
I purchased the used machine for the purpose of sanding shop-cut veneers and inlay woods. However, with a 23-1/2″ capacity, it is capable of so much more. I first cut my teeth with this thing on the side panels. Now it was time to glue up the top — and I was really looking forward to seeing what it could do with the 21″ x 64″ x 1″ thick part.
Joining the top
I started by rough cutting and gluing up two 5/4 boards. Jointing an edge on these long, tall boards was a challenge on my 6-1/8″ Ridgid jointer’s 45″ table. One of the boards had a 1/4″ bow that simply couldn’t be removed on the short table, so I pin nailed it to a sacrificial scrap of 3/8″ plywood and ran it through the table saw.
It’s a “feature”
I had hand-selected three 5/4 cherry boards, nearly 80″ long for the top from Owl Hardwoods. The first one I chose was beautiful and featured numerous streaks/pitch pockets that I just love the look of in cherry furniture. Unfortunately I was unable to find a similarly figured board in the pile. The other two I selected were nice, but didn’t match the beauty of the first…I figured I’d sort it all out in the shop. Well…the time had come and my dilemma was that the beautiful piece was a poor match for either of the others, and the other two, while a better match for each other didn’t match the beauty of the first. After much consternation, and a determination that I simply couldn’t afford to go back to the lot to find its perfect mate, borrowing a term from software development, I decided that the mismatch should be a feature, not a bug.
I recall reading somewhere (maybe from David Marks?) that in a situation like this you should highlight the flaw…which has me now considering doing a simple inlay along the length of the joint. Perhaps in walnut and echoing the “cloud lift” (double, mirrored) from the front and side bottom apron? Or even something more “organic” (a river runs through it?).
Any opinions on that?
Dead Flat
Once the glue dried, I scraped and then planed the joint relatively flat and prepared to see how well the old Grizzly would handle the large piece. It took a bit of work just to place the machine in the room with >6′ of clearance on either side in my small shop…but in the end, I found the space. Since I was using nearly the full capacity of the sander, I was very nervous that it’d track a bit too far to either side and somehow ruin either the piece or the machine or both. While I did manage to brush up against the duct tape on one pass — resulting in the need to stop and re-secure the paper, I didn’t experience any significant issues. The front roller’s 100 grit paper loaded up enough to require replacement part way through the process, and I did notice some loading that I was unable to completely clean up on the edges, but overall this was an extremely satisfying experience with no burns or noticeable snipe and resulted in an absolutely dead flat top! Awesome!
My only issue was with the dust collection — for smaller pieces like the side panels, the collection was absolutely sufficient. However, with this piece, while there weren’t great clouds of dust or anything like that, I did wind up with a thin film of dust covering all of the shop surfaces. Prior to this, per a fellow LumberJock’s recommendation, I had replaced the flexible hose that came with the sander with rigid PVC. I’m sure this helped, but it still couldn’t quite keep up.
After sanding, I routed a bevel around the bottom edge with a plunge router.
Winding down the build phase
Finally, I installed some small stop blocks on the dust panels behind the drawer fronts to prevent them from recessing too far into the carcass and some “tip blocks” at the top corners so the drawers won’t dip significantly when fully extended.
Next up: Inlaying the top(?) and then sanding, sanding, sanding and more sanding!
Labor Day weekend my wife took the kids up to the family cabin for a couple days. I spent most of this time in the shop working on the drawers. For this dresser I had designed the drawers with large through dovetails. Since I don’t own a decent dovetailing jig that allows for custom size and spacing, I was going to have to do these by hand. Since I haven’t done many projects with hand-cut visible dovetails, I figured I’d better take my time with these. To make things a bit faster and more accurate, I used the bandsaw with the table tilted to 10 degrees to start the pins and the router table to hog out the majority of the waste. I’m not sure how much faster it is vs. a hammer and chisel, but it was certainly more accurate than I would be solely by hand and saves a bit of wear and tear on the chisel blades — I wasn’t keen on spending my rather limited shop time sharpening chisels!
That said, I do truly enjoy working with sharp chisels as I am here cleaning up the pins:
The pins completed on one drawer front:
Marking out the tails with an X-acto knife:
I’m very pleased with the end result. This is a dry fit of one of the drawers…
I used a simple dado to attach the drawer backs.
I had originally planned to use sliding dovetail drawer slides, but they fit so well, I decided to simply add guides on either side and a block at the top to keep it from dipping. Here’s the chest with the completed drawers:
Next up is the top. After that, sanding, sanding and more sanding.
I typically assemble face frames with pocket screws. It’s simple, fast and strong enough. Since this face frame is composed of 1″ x 3/4″ members, pocket screws seemed a bit weak to me — I’d only be able to use a single screw in each member, which would allow it to “spin” somewhat. While this would be minimized greatly after gluing to the carcass, some “twist” could still occur over time. Since the drawers will feature prominently displayed through dovetails, I figured dovetailing the face frame would be both practical and design appropriate. I briefly considered bandsawing and chiseling the joinery, but with a dozen to do and the drawers looming, I couldn’t see spending the amount of time it would take me to do this entirely “by hand.” Opening up my router bit drawer, I discovered a 3/4″ dovetailing bit I seem to recall buying to produce sliding dovertails for another job. So, I “cheated” and built a quick fixture to help me knock off this part of the process.
Test Fit
Without too much fuss, the bit and fixture process yielded some very nice, tight and clean joints.
Completed and Sanded
Once the glue dried, I sanded it from 120 through 220 and propped it up for this picture. Not only do dovetails create very strong, tight joints, they’re also “self squaring” which meant I didn’t have to make any adjustments to square it up during the glue up process.
Not too tight, not too loose…
I’m not certain, but there was likely an audible sigh when I first test-fit the frame to the carcass. It fit snuggly, without any gaps on the sides and aligned flush with the dust panels. Just the “right amount” of persuasion was required to complete the pairing. The trickiest part of the whole process was the glue up. I had previously cut a continuous slot along the front of each dust panel. I referenced my plate joiner’s fence off of this slot and proceeded to cut, more or less randomly, matching biscuit slots along the back side of the horizontal members of the face frame. Even with the A/C running, it was in the mid 70’s in the shop and there wasn’t much open time on the glue — and with around 36 biscuits to glue and set in place, this was gonna be tricky and hectic. Also, since the middle dust panels weren’t open, it was a bit tricky for the clamp to find purchase on the 1/4″ ledge around the panel. In my haste I was a bit overly-generous with my glue application to a few spots resulting in greater than typical squeeze out…and a longer than typical amount of time spent wiping up the excess. There are a couple spots that will require some additional sanding, but otherwise…success.
Fresh from the clamps
A few hours later the clamps were removed and the completed case is just awaiting its drawers and top.
I started the day by marking out and cutting the slots for the biscuits into the inside faces of the sides and back. Following this, I decided to “rehearse” the glue up of the main carcass — the sides, back and bottom front apron. After yesterday’s “flip” I have to admit to being a bit apprehensive about this step, but, lessons learned, I was watchful of the sides and never came close to dropping one this time. The green tape you see is there to protect the legs - I had preserved the offcuts from shaping the legs and I taped them back in place during clamping operations.
Dust Frames
My daughter has a lot of clothes. For the dressers I built for our first two children, I used simple open dust frames. I never truly understood the purpose of solid dust panels until one day, while trying to remove a sweater from my daughter’s dresser, I wound up in a tug-o-war with the dresser drawer. It seems that some clothes in the overflowing drawer had wedged themselves in the opening of the dust panel, effectively preventing the drawer from opening fully. I decided that closed panels were the way to go from now on! Since there’s no drawer below the bottom frame, I figured I could leave that one open. To build the panels, I purchased S4S dimensional poplar from HD — at $1/lf, it seemed worth it to avoid the prep time and wear on my planer knives. To simplify the assembly, I used butt joints and pocket screws to hold them together. Since I had dadoed the full length of the frame members to accept the panels, I had to go back and fill them where the pocket screws would “bite,” but I think this was a fair trade vs. doing stopped dadoes or tenons. I also ran a thinner dado/slot on the outside of the frames to accept the biscuits from both the inside of the carcass and the face frames when they’re installed. The happiest moment was when the first (and then the second, and third) frames slid in cleanly and tightly onto the waiting biscuits.
Thankfully the corners were tight since I didn’t really have a good clamping solution for the middle one!
In between trips to the zoo, the Children’s Museum and backyard “play dates” with the kids, I’ve logged some decent shop time on this project the past couple weekends. Last weekend I dimensioned the lumber and assembled the two cherry and walnut frame-and-panel sides. Due to a misaligned rip fence, I wound up with a mortise and stub-tenon joint that simply wouldn’t close. I decided to lop off the tenons and attach the rails to the stiles with splines instead. This worked fine, but resulted in weaker joints than I really need here. I really should have used a larger loose tenon…but more on that later.
In the midst of this work, I picked up a used Grizzly 24″ dual drum sander. I couldn’t resist running these panels through this beast. It made quick work of sanding them perfectly flat…awesome.
Curvy Legs
After cutting the mortises in the leg blanks for the sides and front and back members, it was time to cut the compound curves. This was the part I was really looking forward to! In the past, I would have done this with a template and a flush trim bit. There were two problems I saw with this approach. First off, I’m always anxious about tearout when flushing up cherry. Usually this can be avoided by rough cutting very close to the line — but nonetheless I’ve still occassionally nicked a piece this way. The other issue was a bit more serious - my largest flushing bit has a maximum capacity of 1-1/2″. Since the legs are 1-3/4″ on each side, I’d have to get a longer bit. I’m uncomfortable enough with 1-1/2″ of high-speed exposed spinning carbide. I decided to try Norm’s usual method. About six months ago I picked up the Ridgid oscillating spindle/edge sander. Ya know, the one it seems like everyone has. I really like this tool. I cut to within 1/16″ (sometimes within 1/32″) of the line and then finished the cut off with the edge sander and the standard 80 grit belt. Worked like a charm. I think the results are just beautiful.
Pass the Biscuits, Please…
With the legs cut, it was time to glue up the sides. While these “cooked,” I turned my sights to the back. I had originally planned to use a section of 1/2″ plywood panel capped top and bottom with a 4″ bottom/2-1/2″ top cherry “rail” joined with mortise and loose tenons into the back legs of the side panels. Upon further reflection, I made a very minor modification of my plans and used 3/4″ plywood instead. I did this for two reasons. When thinking through the joinery for the dust panels and final assembly of the carcass, I realized that I needed to first assemble the sides, back and front rail and add the dust panels after this sub-assembly. In the past I’ve designed joinery that required simultaneous glue up of the sides, back and dust frames — and this is simply far too much for one person to juggle. I also didn’t leave room to cut dadoes in the sides for the dust panels and didn’t want to introduce glued on supports either. I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to cut biscuit slots in the sides and back and then cut a continuous slot around the dust frames so that they could simply slide into place in the partially completed carcass. To have enough depth for the #20 biscuits, the back would need to be at least 3/4″ thick. The other reason was simply that the 1/2 ply I had was a low quality birch from HD and I happened to have a 3/4″ sheet of cherry veneer ply left over from a prior job. So this kinda just worked out.
While I was dry assembling one side to the back to mark out for the biscuit slots, the side slipped, did a flip and slammed onto the floor. Unfortunately, the shock split the stiles - one on the top and the other at the bottom - at the point where the spline ended. My “fix” was to install some pocket screws to help hold the split together. The dust panels should provide sufficient additional reinforcement, so I’m not terribly concerned about the longevity of the sides…however I will need to do some work on the outside to obscure the visible checks.
Tomorrow is another day
At this point I’ve got the sides completed, the cherry rails biscuited and glued to the plywood back, and the lines for the biscuit slots to hold the dust frames laid out and ready for the lamello/plate joiner/biscuit cutter/what-have-you to do its thing.
I hope to build the dust frames and assemble the carcass by the end of day tomorrow. I’ll let you know!
A few months back, we learned that we were expecting our third child. My wife, the youngest of five kids, is adamant that this child have their very own crib and dresser. Who am I to argue? A couple weeks ago we learned it was a boy - so, I set off to design and build a “masculine” dresser.
Inspiration
My first step was to review some of my favorite projects on lumberjocks.com. I’ve added references to these projects at the end of this post. They’re all excellent…check ‘em out!
Perspiration
With those pieces in mind, I set out to design the new dresser. Here’s my current Sketchup rendering:
The light colored wood represents cherry and the dark, walnut. I spent some time debating reversing the side panels, that is, using walnut for the frame and cherry for the raised panel. This seems somehow more “right” since it more closely echos the drawer/face frame arrangement of the front. Howver, I just didn’t like the look as well. Feel free to tell me if you think otherwise! Also, since I enjoyed the “hand cut dovetail” process so much on the kid’s bench project, I figured I’d do a whole bunch of ‘em for the drawers. I’d never really considered using through dovetails for drawers, but I liked the look of them so well on the design references below, I figured I’d give ‘em a try here!
Decisions Remain
I’m still unsure what I want to use for pulls. I’m nearly positive that I will be crafting them in the shop out of hardwood…but I’m still looking for just the right design. Anyone have any ideas? Also, as with most of my pieces, I intend to customize this one with an inlay or two. I’m still unsure of the “what” and “where” at this point. I’m considering a pattern that cuts across a number of drawer fronts — but with the child due to arrive in early November, that may simply be too much to finish in time!
Google SketchUp!
Here’s my SketchUp drawing for anyone who’s interested in playing with it.
I’ve yet to cut my first board and wholeheartedly welcome any suggestions, comments or criticisms (preferably constructive ).
Just after our second child, Sean, was born, my parents came out for a visit. While they were here, my mother mentioned that she was planning to purchase a toddler step for my niece, Samantha. Apparently this has become something of a tradition for her. I promptly nixed that idea, insisting that I build one for her instead. 18mos. later, during another visit with my folks, I was reminded that the bench was yet to be delivered. Sigh.
The past two weekends I managed to scrape together enough hours to complete this simple bench/step. As my niece’s middle name is “Rose”, the plan was to inlay a rose into the top. I’ve done very few hand cut* dovetails, so I figured I’d also take this opportunity to gain some practice. And while I’ve incorporated inlays into a number of my previous pieces, I always welcome the chance to gain some additional experience there as well. So a rather simple, blocky design was born. While it won’t likely win any design contests, I found cutting and fine tuning the dovetails very relaxing. It was also quite satisfying to assemble.
The sides are walnut, the top, is cherry. The inlaid rose petals are bloodwood and the stem is zebrawood. The finish is Watco Danish Oil, natural.
(*full disclosure: by “hand cut” I mean using a bandsaw and chisels instead of a router template. If it’s good enough for David Marks…)
UPDATE:
I decided it needed a couple top coats of a tung oil-based finish. This added a medium sheen to the piece and I think improved the look dramatically. I’ve replaced a couple of the older pics with the new ones below:
I had higher hopes for the finished room — some custom cabinetry and perhaps some painted details — but in the end, I settled for “neat, organized and finished.” On a friend’s suggestion I hacked off the lower two cabinets from an old built-in desk unit that was in the basement (and before that in the previous homeowner’s kitchen) and mounted it at counter height along the back wall to act as a planting station for my wife. I bought a Rubbermaid hanging organizer system for the side walls, which worked out fairly well. Overall, it’s nothing terribly special, but it’s functional, organized and clean. Here’s a before/after picture set:
Before
After:
I’m nearly done with the initial design phase of the basement remodel and hope to begin blogging about that in the very near future.
This past weekend, Mother’s Day weekend, I gave my wife what every mother wants: a silver “mother and family” necklace and a freshly-painted garage!
Mixology
Originally I was planning on heading out to HD and buying a gallon or so of “oops” paint (ya know, the stuff that they mix by mistake and sell dirt cheap) for the walls. But then, a woodworker/remodeller friend of mine suggested a better approach. He keeps a 5 gallon bucket that he uses for all of his left over paint. When he has paint that he no longer needs, he just dumps it in the bucket and uses the mixture to paint non-critical areas — like his garage walls. What a great idea! It also just so happens that I had a dozen or so paint cans of mainly light, neutral-color paint left over from the previous homeowner. Since all of the rooms that used this paint have since been repainted, there was certainly no problem with disposing of the stuff in this manner. I also had just emptied my 5 gallon bucket of “ceiling white” repainting the garage ceiling. So, off goes the bucket cover and in goes the hodge-podge of leftover latex — numerous brands, sheens and colors. The end result — the perfect shade of beige/tan. It was honestly about as close to the color I had in mine as I could have gotten. What luck.
Floored, Redux!
The floors were next. We purchased the house nearly 5 years ago. The original homeowners had taken very good care of the place, including painting the garage floor a lovely shade of battleship grey. Unfortunately, by the time we got it, it had seen better days. About 4 years ago I rented a floor sander, stripped it down and applied a coat of Rust-Oleum’s Garage Epoxy. This looked nice, but I chose a bad time for doing the job. The epoxy pot times vary based on air temp…and the outdoor temperature that day soared to over 80 degrees. This resulted in a rather short pot time — which I exceeded. I found myself running low on usable paint by the end of the second bay. This resulted in pretty poor adhesion in spots.
To prepare for the fresh coat, rather than take the time and money to rent another sander, I decided to use my belt sander on my hands and knees and some 60 grit belts. This worked pretty well (and didn’t hurt nearly as much as I had feared!) And this time, I paid a bit more attention to the kit directions. The weather on Saturday was perfect - it stayed in the 60’s all afternoon. This meant a total 2-hour pot time…plenty of time to finish the job. Some of the spots where the previous coat was removed more completely soaked up the new layer a bit more, resulting in some lower-sheen areas. However, overall I think it looks terrific.
Dressin’ Up the Joint
Finally, I installed a motion-sensitive light switch for convenience, an Insteon-enabled switch for the outdoor lights added to my dusk/dawn timer routine, and replaced the wall plates and the old, dusty GFCI outlet with a new model. I dressed up the window by installing some inexpensive faux-wood blinds.
Hiatus…
Next up, I’ll be moving the refrigerator down off the shop steps and back onto the floor…and then putting this project on hold for a bit so I can move on to the basement remodel. We’ll be turning our basement into a kid’s playroom with a Broadway/”Peter Pan” theme, which I’ll naturally blog about here.
After that’s done I expect to turn back to the garage and put up some cabinets and work surfaces.
Now that the shop is pretty much complete and the weather’s turned a bit more spring-like, I’ve decided to tackle the garage. Since I no longer need it for woodworking, save the odd large-piece assembly, we’re going to revert the space back to a more traditional use: car, bike and outdoor-kid-toy-storage. In addition, we’ll be adding a workspace and storage for gardening tools andn supplies. I also plan to repaint the floor…hopefully this time it’ll last a bit longer without the heavy tools and constant traffic from woodworking. Here are the before shots:
You can see the old lumber rack on the right-hand side. This is being replaced with something a bit more compact and likely moved to the other side.
This weekend I’ve managed to clean out the clutter and apply the first layer of joint compound to patch the myriad holes and nicks in the drywall.
As for my “scrap wood” pile: the DuPage Children’s Museum is a great place for kids — our 1 and 2-year-old really love it there — and they have a spot for wood donations. As I had piles of hardwood and 2×4 cut-offs that I really didn’t want to store in a corner somewhere during the remodel, I ran these over to their donation bin. Much better than tossing it out!
My original design for the shop included multiple compressed air outlets scattered about the shop. At the heart of this system would be a 60gal Ingersol-Rand 2-stage compressor providing at least 15 SCFM@90psi. Now months later, I’ve significantly revised and downgraded my plans. Part of it was financial, but most of it was a realization that all that I really needed was to be able to use my nail guns without the hassle of dragging out the compressor every time and tripping over hose.
Retractable Air Hose
To that end, I revised my plans and settled on a much simpler setup. I would put my existing 17gal Husky in the crawlspace below the shop, and run a hose through the floor next to my main assembly table. To this I would attach a combination regulator/filter/oiler and a retractable hose. This is precisely what I did.
The air filter/oiler unit is a $20 special from Harbor Freight…well, I got it for $20. It was down to $15 last time I checked…sigh. Unfortunately it only occurred to me after I had purchased the filter unit that I don’t really want an oiler. While most of the time I’ll be using a nail gun, I do occasionally wish to use the air hose to blow off the shavings from a piece in progress and I doubt that misting it with tool oil would be very good for the finish. I’ve mounted the unit anyway and plan to keep the oiler empty. Perhaps someday I’ll move this device to another location on a separate hose and reserve it specifically for tool use. Or maybe not.
The hose reel was $30 for 20ft. It was the cheapest I’ve seen and while not as “industrial” as some of the more expensive units, I kinda preferred the compact size and appearance of this one. It also included a swivel mount. It works great right now…hopefully the mechanism will prove more reliable than the price would imply. We’ll see.
Automatic Drain Valve
Another Harbor Freight special. The plan was to locate the compressor in the crawl space, accessed via a trap door in the floor. Draining it regularly via the drain cock would be somewhat of a hassle. What I needed was an automatic drain. Thankfully I found this site in about 5 minutes of research pointing to a product from Harbor Freight. It was fairly straightforward to install — except that the inner diameter of the hose running from the unloader valve to the pressure switch on my compressor was too small for the included fittings. I ultimately wound up buying a different fitting which suffered from the same issue — but was setup in a such a way that I was able to coax the hose over the inner brass piece by applying a bit of heat. A bit of sanding of the outer tube was also required to get the connector attached to the tee. It was a bit of a chore, but ultimately I managed to get it all to work. And just like the author of the site above, my new drain cock valve was no good…so I also replaced it with a part from HD. The thing about the drain is that it only opens when the compressor starts and shuts off. So I can either leave the compressor on so that it “tops off” periodically (thereby activating the drain) or program the switch it’s on (see my other posts re: Insteon) to run it for a few minutes each day and give it a chance to drain any condensation.
Vertical Sheet-goods Pen
Finally, after filling the compressor, I used my new hose and old air nailers to build a 9′ tall x 30″ wide x 36″ deep vertical sheet goods pen just outside the shop door and install some cheap pre-primed moulding around the pen face and shop doors.
This is the start of my next big project:the Garage Remodel.
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw — about 2/3rd’s of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading “Woodshop Dust Control” this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space — which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it’s rather awkward for IR control as I’d need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a “far” corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I’ve always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn’t “remember” the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it’s plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain “off” until you again manually press the “on” key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it’s just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It’s a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I’d had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly “common”), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I’d read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a “capacitor start” motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren’t any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter — using white for common — and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire
slow
medium
fast
RED
121V
9V
9V
BLUE
9V
121V
9V
BLACK
14V
14V
121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That’s all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to “undo” this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there’s an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds — but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn’t do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off — and two speeds seemed “close enough.” For the “hack bypass” switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the “hot” wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in “who knows what”(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here’s a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I’ll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 “Powerflash Interface” to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 “on” signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts — but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an “off” signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won’t do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn’t have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn’t support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I’m not an electrical engineer and couldn’t design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their “Engineer’s Notebooks” and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don’t fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn’t much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the “DustBunny 3000″ was born…
Hooked up to the “Powerflash” for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here’s the video demonstration of the system in action:
I’ve been dying to start stowing my tools away in the newly built shop cabinets — getting them both organized and out of the garage where they’re making it difficult to keep the car. The last remaining obstacle is finishing the countertops. Not that I couldn’t finish them with the drawers full…but some time ago I noted that while the tops were individually level, they weren’t perfectly in the same plane with each other. If they’re not properly aligned, I’ll have a heck of a time using my compound miter saw accurately. Therefore, until I remedied the situation, the drawers needed to remain empty and easy to maneuver. This weekend was my chance.
T-Track
Once they were properly aligned I routed a 3/4″ wide x 1/2″ deep dado in the tops 16″ from the wall to accept a mini t-track. I had originally planned to use the blue stuff that Rockler sells — but I live much closer to a Woodcraft. Turns out that the only track Woodcraft carries that matches these dimensions is the siginficantly more expensive Incra stuff. Now, you’re probably thinking: Why didn’t he buy the track first and then route the dado to fit? The simple truth is I had neglected to order the stuff in advance (bad planning) and I didn’t want to stop working to head out to the store and the only track I had on hand was a length of the Rockler stuff. I also was actually planning to head to Rockler until google maps reminded me just how long a drive it was…2 hours round trip not counting shopping time would have put too big a dent into my limited time. I ultimately decided to spend the extra bucks for the Incra track rather than wait for a delivery from Rockler. This turned out to be a good move. The Incra stuff is simply better…and for one single reason: the track leaves a space for the mounting screws. My regular mini-track can be a bit annoying to work with since the screws fit into a small countersink…and if you’re even a hair off alignment of the screw, the head will protrude from the surface and at the very least provide an occasional snag as you’re adjusting your stop block. Incra solves this by giving the screws their own space by milling little ledges on the sides above the screw heads for the guides to ride on. The screws can stand proud of the bottom without a snag. Simple but elegant and worth the extra $$.
Jointer Dust Port
One of the items I had left ’til now was hooking up the dust collection to my Ridgid 6″ jointer. The jointer lives under the countertop in the middle of the wall. I cut a hole in the back corner of the top and continued the run under the counter. I installed the blast gate at a convenient spot just above the counter.
CMS Dust Collection
Collection from my DeWalt 706 CMS was a bigger unknown. When setting up the PVC lines, I set a 4″ drop with blast gate just off center of the saw on the wall behind it. As I started to work out the details, I realized that I’d have to offset the pipe a bit more. The reason was that I wanted to have a hose hooked up to the built-in dust collection port installed in the “throat” of the saw…but I knew from past experience that this wouldn’t be sufficient, so I also was planning to build a venturi-box to collect from a wider area just behind the saw. The problem is that the hose sticking out of the back of the saw presses in pretty low at the back, making it impossible to run a pipe straight down from behind. Thankfully I didn’t use any glue in connecting the PVC, so moving the drop roughly 6″ to the right was fairly straightforward. At this point I’ve got the 1-1/2″ hose hooked up to the saw and a 4″ open pipe waiting to be hooked up to the yet-to-be-built venturi box. Next weekend, maybe?
Remote Control
This is still a work in progress — and if you’ve read this far and have had any experience at all, I very much welcome your suggestions/recommendations/comments. No where is this more true than with my emerging remote control setup. The dust collector is plugged into a 240V 20A Leviton X10-enabled outlet. I use Insteon for the majority of lighting controllers in my house and for the most part I love it. I decided to extend this into the shop. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, there was no Insteon version of the 240v oulet. As Insteon is X-10 compatible, I decided to try it. I was unable to find much information/discussion online regarding using X-10 for dust collection, though I seem to recall reading a comment somewhere where someone indicated that it was less than reliable. This doesn’t surprise me as I’ve read quite a bit about the unreliability of X-10, and in fact have experienced it first hand in my setup where I’ve been forced to use it. Undeterred (or crazy), I decided to forge ahead anyway. Early on I had considered a blast-gate operated system like the Long Ranger or JDS system. It certain is an elegant solution, but the thing is I wasn’t sure I wanted to be forced to close all the gates in order to turn off the system…though there is clearly an advantage in that you’d know when a gate was inadvertantly left open. Anyway, I still wasn’t sold and have thought that what I’d really prefer is a bunch of discrete momentary switches placed strategically around the shop - a single switch that I could press once to turn on and then again on any of them to turn it off again. After some searching and a brief chat with a Smarthome employee, I decided to try an X10 Universal Module. It’s still not clear to me that “mode 3″ will actually do what I want - I’m very skeptical - but the Smarthome guy said it would and for $26, I’m willing to give it a try. I also picked up an X-10 keychain remote. In the meantime, I’ve programmed one of the buttons on my main shop KeypadLinc to control collector and have also plugged in an extra X10 controller I happened to have gathering dust in a corner. I guess it’s still gathering dust, just in a very different way!
OK, so maybe not exactly a “monster,” but the old Woodtek 3HP double-bag dust collector I bought sure does sound like one…and appears to live up to its 2100CFM (free-air) rating.
I’ve finally finished the main duct work runs and over the weekend I cut the hole from the shop into the external “dust collection closet” and ran the 6″ main through. As I had feared, the dust collector argued mightily against being confined in such cramped quarters. The closet is <30" deep and ~60" wide with a standard 36"x80" door. The two-bag collector simply wouldn't make the tight turn through the doorway. Fortunately I'd half suspected this would be the case and was already mentally prepared for the situation...which likely saved my neighbors an earful.
The solution: disassembly.
I removed the upper-half, post-fan section that holds the bags to the blower and then removed the lower half, including the motor from the base. I’d already purchased a length of 6″ flexible hose that I’d planned to use to join the collector to the 6″ S&D piping…figuring that it would likely be a rather convoluted angle and possibly too tight a fit for a hard plastic 90-degree elbow. By mounting the base directly to the floor of the closet, I also gained an additional couple inches - making it now possible to use rigid fittings. Ultimately the hookup turned out to be “do-able” using rigid piping as well, eliminating the need for the rather pricey 6″ flexible hose. Anybody need any 6″ hose.
Though I don’t have any tools for measuring CFM or static pressure, my quick test sweeping some sawdust piles into the floor sweep at the very furthest end of the longest/narrowest run and hearing the swooooosh as the debris found its way swiftly into the waiting collection bags was enough to convince me that the system should do just fine. I’m hoping to do a test using the planer tonight — if it can keep up with the 13″ planer, it should have no trouble with the other tools.
My one real disappointment is with the on/off mechanism. I outfitted the 240v 20A circuit with an X10-controllable outlet and programmed the “D” button (for “Dust collection” of course) to send the appropriate on/off commands. It worked the first couple times I tried it, turning the collector on and off as expected. However, the third time I tried using the second keypad (linked to the first) and this time…nothing. I went back to the first and tried it a few more times. Again, nothing. I recall reading some forum posts (don’t recall where) by some unhappy woodworkers/X10 enthusiasts complaining about the poor reliability of X10 — specifically in the context of dust collection systems. I was planning on purchasing a “Long Ranger” or similar system and using a combination of manual switches and blast-gate mounted microswitches in the future…apparently this will need to happen a bit sooner than I’d anticipated.
As usual, the entire installation process — well, the indoor portions at least — was covered by my trusty D-Link wireless cameras. Here’s the finished video:
UPDATE: Last night I completed the “planer†test as planned. I hooked up my Rigid 13†planer to a port at the end of the run and took some fairly decent passes on a 9†piece of poplar. The dust shroud was empty. I opened a couple other blast gates and repeated the test. Still clear. Looks like this “monster†will do the job!
Not “green” in the environmental sense, mind you…but green in a very literal sense. I’ve spent literally months planning out most of the details of my new shop, since before they broke ground. One of the features I was most anxious to include that I was unable to have in my shared garage space was an honest-to-goodness central dust collection system. One of the earliest decisions I needed to make: metal or plastic?
Metal of Plastic?
I first read Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s oft recommended book “Woodshop Dust Control” where he makes a strong argument against the use of plastic PVC piping for ductwork citing the risk of explosions that could ruin your day/shop/life/etc. After reading this book it was clear to me that metal was the only way to go. That was, until I began researching actually purchasing the stuff. Expensive. What’s more, the stuff they sell at the “Big Box” stores is too thin…so the only real way to do this with metal ducting, beyond finding a local supplier (which I was unable to do) is to meticulously plot out the whole thing and place one big order to have shipped to the shop. While I’m no stranger to meticulous planning, I’ve never setup a dust collection system before and was not 100% sure I could plot this out perfectly without actually attempting to fit some pieces together first. In fact, I was pretty darn certain that I couldn’t plan this out to the last screw in advance of ordering the materials. I just knew I’d get half-way done with the install and either change my mind or realize I needed some other type of fitting(s) to finish the job. Without a local supplier, I’d be forced to place an order — likely a small one — and incur additional shipping charges and delays. Time’s too much of a premium to lose an entire day because I can’t get what I need. This realization sent me searching for alternatives.
It didn’t take long for me to find some interesting forum discussions online…but the clincher for me was this extremely well-crafted article. The upshot of reading this article was that I was now certain that I would definitely use the cheaper/easier-to-find S&D PVC piping for my system. Fortunately or Un- I was now also paranoid about what I could appreciate was the most dangerous aspect of my dust collection system — a smoldering fire in a collection bag. (Mental note: daily emptying of the bags is a must. But I digress…)
A bit of searching locally initially indicated that my local “Big Box” stores carried only up to 4″ diameter piping. My basic math says that I’d really be better off using a minimum of 5″ ducting for the main run. As S&D pipes aren’t offered in 5″, I opted for the next size up…which, as I mentioned, I was unable to locate locally. That is, until an unrelated and rare trip to Menards where I discovered all the 6″ and 4″ fittings and pipe I would ever need. Excellent.
Goin’ Green
Menards stocks their PVC piping in an outdoor lumber yard. This meant that I placed an order off a sheet with a nice picture of white 6″ PVC pipe listed as ASTM 2729 S&D. When I got into the yard, however, the pipe was actually the green stuff..ASTM 3034/SDR35. The Menards product number on the sticker on the pipe and the label on the bin matched my receipt, so I’m not sure if there was a mistake in their inventory or their labeling…or if they for some reason sell the 3034 and 2729 interchangably (seems unlikely), but I didn’t see the 2729 anywhere so I figured I’d use the somewhat heavier, green 3034 that I had paid for rather than start the hunt over again. I purchased a few 10′ lengths of the 4″ thin white stuff from Lowes as well figuring I’d at least have white drops.
Fittings
I purchased my blast gates and quick disconnect fittings from my local Woodcraft store and started the assembly. What I discovered during the assembly was that the thicker-walled SDR35 was a significantly snugger fit for the pipe fittings. Also, while a special coupling is required to attach the blast gates to 2729, they fit perfectly in the green stuff. So, while the 2729 is a bit cheaper and much lighter, I save money overall with the SDR35 since there are no adapters needed to fit the blast gates to the pipes. Serendipity.
Assembly continues apace. I’m currently roughly 50% complete with the core installation, that is the main 6″ line is 80% complete and half the drops are essentially in. I still need to build the hoods for the RAS and CMS and work out the details of the fittings for the router table, which will likely take more time than the assembly time to date. I’ve still got the two cameras capturing the process and have been sure to move them as needed as there’s no one position that can capture even most of the shop. Editing of the time-lapse is ongoing and I will be posting the completed video when the job is done, natch.
Over the years I’ve made many bone-headed mistakes.
Cut a piece too short because I “knew” the measure and didn’t feel the need to consult the drawings I spent hours preparing. Put a dado at the wrong height, the wrong length, or worse, the wrong side! Glue a part on backwards. I’m not quite old enough to say “I’ve made them all,” but by now I’ve definitely made my fair share of them. And while I tend to make fewer and fewer mistakes as time goes by…and thankfully don’t typically make the same mistake more than once (OK…maybe a couple times)…there’s usually at least something that requires special attention (repair, “design-around” or re-do) in just about every project.
This one’s unfortunately no exception.
A few months back, while visiting my folks in Florida, I read a magazine review for something I just had to have. I was so concerned I’d forget about this miracle device that I immediately went online and surrendered $40. It’s called the Wixey Digital Angle Gauge. This is incredibly cool - due to both it’s utility and utter simplicity. Place it on the tool’s table, zero out the measure and then place it on the blade to verify/adjust the angle. Quick, easy, AWESOME! That is, when you actually use it.
This past Saturday I began my day in the shop (after helping my wife with the kids’ breakfast, of course) by cutting out the various parts for the new 22′ long cabinets/work bench/miter saw fence for the shop. After lunch, it was time for assembly. I had cut dadoes for the cabinet bottoms and tops and was looking forward to the satisfaction of dry-assembling the pieces and lightly “banging them home” with a mallet. Things were going swimmingly until I went to attach the top supports. The top was nearly 1″ wider than the bottom!
How could this be???
After some choice words and a bit of grumbling I decided to have a closer look at my tools…and noticed the blade on the table saw read some 2-3 degrees off 90…which led to cabinet bottoms angling the walls a bit beyond their intended target. With the glue already curing and available time short, I decided to basically force the sides square and call it a bench. Truthfully, as mistakes go this one’s not too awful — there’s enough play in the dadoes to allow for the readjustment — but hopefully this will serve as a reminder to verify the dang blade angle before starting a new project; even when it looks 90 degrees.
Oh, and by the way…I also managed to assemble the right-most cabinet mirror-image to the design with the wider drawer compartment closest to the right-hand wall. No matter…I’ll just tell people I planned it that way.
This weekend marked the beginning of the “load in” process. With Grandma and Grandpa in for the weekend, the kids were well occupied and I had the time to finally start to finish the shop addition.
On Friday evening I finished the loft underside — and did my typical lousy job of taping/plastering the seams. “Hat’s off” to the pros who do drywall for a living…someday I hope to get it right.
On Saturday, I needed to pay a visit to my local Woodcraft store in Woodridge. They were having a “tent sale” this weekend. I’ve been eying a cast iron router table extension for some time now. I was aware of two — one from Bench Dog and another from Peachtree Woodworking Supply. While the Peachtree version was significantly cheaper ($219 vs. $325), I was a bit hesitant about it as I was unable to actually see it and there were no online reviews available. From photos online it was clearly a different product from the Bench Dog version, though I’m guessing that they’re both imported from Chinese factories. In any event, Woodcraft had the Bench Dog ProMax listed as “no longer carried” on their website, so deep down I was hopeful that they might have a floor model or clearance package at the store that I might get at a good price.
After trolling the aisles for nearly an hour, picking up ~$30 worth of small accessories, I made a second swing past their closeout table and noticed something I hadn’t seen earlier — on the floor behind and underneath the closeout table — a Bench Dog ProMax wrapped in cellophane! Awesome. Apparently this was the floor model detached from a demo saw that was sold the previous day. After some brief discussion with the manager and then the “boss” (aka my wife Suzy), it was mine for $255!
The best part is how easy it was to install.
Not being a metal worker, nor having cut any metal denser than aluminum in many many years, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to properly drill holes in the cast iron top if needed. Turns out that a) I only needed to drill one hole through the front to attach the fence and b) it was not an issue. The holes in the table lined up perfectly with the saw top and it took almost no effort (even alone) to get the top flushed and tightened. Beautiful. While they say you don’t have to attach the front edge to the fence rail, I figured it couldn’t hurt. So I drilled a hole for the bolt - first 1/4″ starter, then a 5/16″ to finish size.
I then removed the wooden wing from the other side of the table and drilled 5
).
Once they were properly aligned I routed a 3/4″ wide x 1/2″ deep dado in the tops 16″ from the wall to accept a mini t-track. I had originally planned to use the blue stuff that Rockler sells — but I live much closer to a Woodcraft. Turns out that the only track Woodcraft carries that matches these dimensions is the siginficantly more expensive Incra stuff. Now, you’re probably thinking: Why didn’t he buy the track first and then route the dado to fit? The simple truth is I had neglected to order the stuff in advance (bad planning) and I didn’t want to stop working to head out to the store and the only track I had on hand was a length of the Rockler stuff. I also was actually planning to head to Rockler until google maps reminded me just how long a drive it was…2 hours round trip not counting shopping time would have put too big a dent into my limited time. 
