-
Mitre bar replacement
It looks like only Bosch, Skil and Ryobi make 16 mm slots (5/8″). You can’t buy a high-quality mitre gauge replacement, you have to make it yourself. So I bought a 16 mm mild steel flat bar and made a mitre bar that has no play. The idea was simple – resize the bar from 16.0 mm to 16.3 mm (5/8″ to 41/64″ which is an extra 1/64″) by hammering. The method is not very sophisticated but it worked just fine. I don’t have an anvil so I used a sledgehammer instead. It’s not easy to show the progress in…
-
Circular saw jig
It’s made of OSB, steel and spruce timber. Simple and stiff construction, ideal for cutting long pieces of timber such as skirting boards. Cutting at 2 angles: 45 and 90º made easy. (The post Improved circular saw jig can be found here) The first thing to do was to trim the board to length. It was an easy job for my recently bought circular saw. 4 supporting pieces I cut on my table saw as they were too small for any other tool. The steel corner I bought had to be cut in half, but that was the easy part.…
-
Gallows lamp
3 pieces of wood and 4 dowels were used in this project. The length of the arm was approximately half of the dining table, so the light could spread evenly throughout the top. I started by cutting the tenon on my table saw and then shaping the other end of that arm. To minimize any tear-out I drilled the hole before proceeding to my sanding station. I wasn’t sure what bulb holder would be installed (plastic or metal) so I used for this project a 3-core cable, just in case. Sanding took a while. I used more aggressive belts first…
-
Router flattening jig
It’s made of MDF (scrap) and 3/4″ plywood (purchased). This jig is going to replace my budget thickness sander. The main reason is the dust – I’m hoping to reduce the dust amount significantly. First I cut the MDF to length, then the plywood that I purchased. Dimensions of 1.2 x 0.6 m were a challenge for my table saw. I was going to use my jigsaw to cut the groove, but I realized that this is a tool for savages, so I swapped bases in my router and installed a parallel fence. Slightly more than halfway through it cut…
