69 degrees in the shop today

How to make a bowling ball vice out of Mary's old bowling ball and shop scraps.  I plan on using this vice for chain saw carving.

Some cuts of pressure treated 6x6 I got from a friend that I used for the base.

Notched out.

I wanted a very heavy sturdy base that won't move with the bite of the chainsaw.

I used a $12.00 bottle neck hydraulic jack for the lifting force of this vice.

The Jack didn't come with mounting holes so I drilled three 1/4 holes into the base of the jack and secured the jack to a slat of plywood with carriage bolts.  The whole unit can be removed without completely disassembling the vise in case the jack fails.

Finding as close to center as possible.

I need a way to secure the bottom plate of the bowling ball holder to the jack, so I tapped a 1/4 inch hole into the center of the jack.

As well as added lumber to the bottom of the plywood plate and drilled a 5/8 inch hole to meet the plywood so 2 inches of the jack is secured around lumber.

Making the hole with a chamfer cut to hold the bowling ball.

I have never seen one of these bugs before but they seemed interested in the progress.

Added 2x3 side supports that the bowling ball base can ride against then it's being lifted.

Adding the top plate to the vice that locks the ball in place when you pump the jack.  Blocks of wood keep the plate securely in place.

The finished vice with the top plate secured to the 5/8 threaded rod for mounting wood to for carving.

 Top view of vice with movable vice base.

The final vice ended up being rather heavy which is a good thing since it won't move during carving.  Still I put it on a dolly for easy transportation in between uses.

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85 degrees in the shop today

Last week we sold a fairly large piece of furniture to someone in California.  I was tasked with building a shipping crate for the long journey and went to You Tube to get some pointers on how to make one.  Unfortunately, there was not a lot of good information and how to's on building a good shipping crate so I designed one myself.  This post is for anyone encountering the same problem looking for a good crate build.

The Three objectives of this crate were:

1. Cost- If I spent over 50.00 on lumber and hardware I would be paying shipping costs out of pocket
2. Weight - The trunk itself was already heavy so I wanted to build something extremely light weight so my shipping costs didn't rise to much with the added weight.
3.  Strength - With how light I wanted to make the crate I still wanted it to be durable enough to withstand a cross-country journey at the hands of a stranger.

One trip to Lowe's later I started to work:

Materials for the crate (ended up being 4 ft x 25 in. x 25in.)

4 - 2x2x8- Furring Strips (only ended up using 2)
6 - 1x3x8 Furring Strips
2 - 2x3x8 (used only 1)
1/4 inch 4ftx x 8ft hardwood ply.
60 ft. of bubble wrap (used about 1/4 of the roll)
box of 1-1/4 screws (used less than half the box)

The design for the crate revolved around a human rib cage.  I figured copying our bodies design of having ribs form around our delicate organs would work with this crate so I started with 5 Square boxes made by the 1x3's

Once I had the square I reinforced their bottoms with 2x3's in case they used a forklift, set the box down roughly, or on something wet the extra elevation would protect the furniture.  This was the only step that I would consider omitting if I did this again just because the box was strong enough without them.

Lining up all my boxes (ribs)

Dry fitting the 1/4 ply on the inside of the box

Adding strips of 1x2 for extra stability and as an easy spot to grab when moving the crate

Nice tight fit, surrounded with bubble wrap

Finished crate ready for pick-up

When all was said and done I spent around 30.00 on materials and have plenty of leftover lumber, screws, and bubble wrap to us on the next one.  The crate only weights about 30 lbs. so my shipping cost rose very little.  Plus if it fell off the back of the Fed-Ex van I would bet my life it would stay in one piece, it's solid as a rock.

80 degrees in the shop today

Spent the better part of Sunday helping my dad replace all four sets of pads on my mom's car.  It was such a nice day we didn't let the fact that the last mechanic to go at the car had successfully stripped about half of the lugs with an impact driver making them borderline impossible to get off bother us.

I ran out of 3/8 inch dowel and did not feel like running to the store to buy warped to crap dowels.  I found an article on woodgears.ca about making your own dowels with a simple wooden jig and an old yet sharp chisel.  I had some extra oak for the jig and an old chisel, it took me about 30 mins. to make and adjust the chisel just right and then I had some 3/8 inch dowel.  I'm planning on making one's for 1/4 inch dowel and 1/2 dowel and never buying box store dowels again.

Making the dowel cut, the jig works a lot like an old school pencil sharpener shaving off the excess wood and is quite mesmerizing to watch.

Working on a new design for a marble machine for kids.  This is the beginning of a fairly simple camshaft that will move a marble up a set of stairs (pistons).  These are going to be a modified version of a design I found on www.scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com for a machine that moves marbles.  It was a good starting out point for my design.

Camshaft in place with the pistons for moving the marble set on top.  This still needs some tweaking to get it working exactly how I want it.

After the first washing there was still some unpleasant smells coming from all three deer skulls for my chandelier, which means there's still some organic material on them that needs to go.  One of my least favorite things to do is clean skulls.  1.)  The smell is worse than roadkill and unavoidable.  2.)  It is a ton of work and once you boil them your still only a little over half way done.  I've only ever cleaned a couple skulls before but I have a new found respect for taxidermist's or anyone who does it themselves.  Because besides my interest in anatomy there is zero fun in cleaning these things

Two skulls in the pot.  Nothing like your parents having a ten year old turkey fryer they only used once and never plan on using again, because they are perfect for simmering deer skulls.

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82 degrees in the shop today

 Attempting to turn these three deer skulls into a chandelier.

Test run of the positioning and angles needed for the skulls.

Once I knew the angle, I sketched out the chandelier arm design on some pieces of reclaimed 1 1/2 inch oak from some old pallets.

Testing how the skulls fit on the wooden arms.

Adding decorative brackets to the wooden arms that hold the skulls to extend the height of the chandelier.  Added pieces of 1/4 inch round rod to the decorative brackets.  Reinforced the wooden arms with 45's and solidified the whole thing in place with 1/2 oak dowels.  Testing squareness and alignment with a center dowel.

Detail of wooden brackets with 1/4 round rod.

Wooden frame about finished.  Hanging from the ceiling to start aligning skulls and layout wiring design.

Initial testing of the balance of the chandelier with the slightly different weights of the three skulls.

Skulls temporarily taped in place.

Skulls taped to the wooden arms, but later to be attached with pre-drilled holes in the bone and 1/2 dowel.

Next, Final cleaning for the skulls before permanently mounting to the wooden base.  Drill holes in the wooden arms to place lights and wire everything up.

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95 degrees in the shop today

These windows have not been open in at least 20 years.  After lots of scraping, swearing, sweating, and a close encounter with one very pissed off wasp I managed to get both open so there is at least a breeze with these high temperatures.

Cutting some dado's in an old shutter to make a record display case.

Finished shelf . . . holds over 100 records.  A neighbor gave me some pallets that I busted apart to finish off the shelf with a pallet wood top. 

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