Lilly's Crazy Home Woodshop

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Outdoor Cedar Cooler

My wife came across an outdoor cedar cooler for the back porch. She sent me a link to one and then asked me to make one like it. As always, it got away from me. I made two of them at the same time. One was for my wife and the other was for my sister in law and her new husband as a wedding present.

Side View

Lots of plans are out there, but having made one without using a cooler, I would do it again using a cooler. I made mine going a little over the top, which I would not do again to make it easier. For example, mine was made totally out of cedar (2x4 or 1x6 fencing) and galvanized outdoor decking screws. I used a Kreg pocket hole jig to make certain none of the screw showed. This added a lot of work, but was worth it. The bottom had a shelf, which was a great feature. All of the boards were sanded with 80 grit paper. This kept a rough look, without being so rough one could hurt themselves. I used a tub and insulated it, but if I do it again, I will search garage sales/ Craig's list for older square coolers. The tub was insulated by both pink Styrofoam and that expanding foam from a can. Once all done, I then applied some water sealant and keep it covered on the back porch.

Groove Cuts for the top boards

Bottom part is done

Top Part before putting on handle

Inside the tub

I overdid the supports

Finished Front with bottom shelf

Top down view of tub

Insulation on lid

My push block

Push sticks such as this are not as safe as push blocks such as this when feeding wood into a table saw. The main reason being that the longer push blocks allow for downward force along the wood and provides for less chance to slip than a stick.

Lots of designs can be found on the internet for them, such as here. I had a reciprocating saw break on me and I saved the handle to make my own. Below are pictures of it. I had some 1" pressed board and made it out of it. One thing very nice is that it allows me to have 16" of wood pushing down on the piece I am cutting. In addition, the my hand is unlikely to slip from the large handle.

Fancy wooden USB wall outlet cover

So someone at work gave me a combination USB /120 wall outlet. I have been wanting to get one to put in by our kitchen; however, it was white and the ones in the room were the almond. Being a different color, I did not want to install it. With that, I decided to build a wooden box for it with the intention of my wife bringing it to work and use it there.

I think that it turned out really nice and was a good project to work on. At the bottom I put in there some information on how I made it. I almost wonder about selling them. I found something similar for $25; however to me it looked like it was made in 6th grade wood shop class. If they sell for that, I should be able to sell them for much more.

The Outlet on the desk

View of outlet

Different View

Back of Outlet

To start with, I used a metal handy box bought from a local big box store. I had a spare 16 gauge 3-prong outlet. I put the cord through a metal clamp and wired it up correctly. I am not showing that, but there are plenty of places that can tell you how to do it correctly.

One not of warning. Do it properly, DO NOT make this with an plug without a ground wire.

Once I figured out the length of board (1x4) to use, I first ran the face that would show through my planer and then used a power planer on the one narrow to smooth out the sides that would show. Then I cut a grove in it ~1/2" from one side to allow the faceplate to rest in. I believe this gives it a polished look. Next I used a 1/4" round to round out the two sides that would show. the four sides were cut on the table saw using a 45 degree cut to also give a polished look. Three of the sides were then put together with glue and 23-guage pin nails to hold it while the glue dried. A piece of oak vainer plywood was cut to fix in the groves loose, followed by cutting the hole for the outlet cover. I made the plywood piece fit loose so it could move to get the final location of the outlet centered in the correct place. Once it would fit correctly, I then put it into the grove and put the 4th side on with glue and nails. The nail holes were covered with wood puddy and then it got stain and 2 coats of polyurethane. The outlet was put into the box and held in place with some cleats & shims. Once it was good, a small strip was nailed in the back to hold it in place. Once done, I realized I should have put on a back. I added this as an afterthought, but should have done in the first place.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

I love the Oneida Dust Deputy

All I can say is that it works great.

To see my set up go to this article on what I had built.

However, I think the pictures tell the story.

About 6" of sawdust

Nothing in the Shop Vac Bag

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Homemade Air filter

I came across an interesting article while looking for information on wood dust which said the average hobby woodworker breaths in so much more dust than a professional with dust control mechanisms. Wood dust is bad to breath (although, how bad is up for debate) and that makes me want to take dust control serious.

To start my dust control system for my basement wood shop, I first added a cyclone to my ShopVac. As a follow up, I started to build myself a homemade air filter for wood dust. There are lots of pictures on the internet from people who have made their own, so her comes one more set. Below are some final pictures of the dust filter in place.

To start with, I got scroll cage blower from my local AC shop. Thankfully my wife and I bought an AC from them so they were willing to help us. The fan came with several wires for the four different fan speeds. I built a 4-way selector switch to choose between the different fan speeds. In addition, I added a 60-minute bathroom timer, so I can let it run after I am done and it will turn itself off.

I think the air filter system got away from me in size, like most of my projects. Oh well, that is part of the fun and challenge. The first filter is something that is super course and was given to me by the maintenance guy at work, who needed a small piece, but the minimum order was about 100 times what he needed. The second filter is a 20” x 25” standard pleated filter that is 1” thick from the local hardware store ($4). Using their ratings, it’s not a very fine one. The third one is a 20” x 25” that is 4.5” thick and the highest rating that they have ($32). The final filter is one that I made and should be the finest.

This final filter is made from six filter socks that were headed to the trash from where I work. They are ~ 3” in diameter and about 12” long. I then put them on a plywood board with some 3” PVC pipes going through. The pipes are glued in place and then the socks are hose-clamped in place. One reason that the unit got so big is that I needed room to have the socks folly extended, which made the filter housing MUCH larger. Upon talking to the engineers at work who know much more about it than I do, I should have done a calculation to determine the ratio of sock area to air flow. Oh well, I hope I am not using such a high air flow that the very fine particulate gets sucked though the sock bags. Nothing I can do at this point.

The outer boards were all chip board. This made the unit heavy; however, it was free as the boards were headed to the trash after unpacking a crate at work. The frame was made of all 2x2’s. The part that held the filters is surrounded by brown Masonite board. Each filter is then sealed with some foam, like you use on an outside door. To help make it air-tight, as I want to make sure the air passes through the filters not cracks, all of the boards are glued and screwed down to the frame.

Below are some pictures of the work in progress and final part.

Enjoy,