Year in Review 2022

I had fun this year.  not as many projects and no new toy designs.  The Etsy shop is going well.  I have had a couple of commission jobs from it.  It is nice not to have to do a lot of painting and repairs on a house.  I was able to get the garage mostly setup.  There are some minor things here and there to work on.  Now it is more about getting things cleaned up than workable.  

This year I purchased a new cabinet saw.  It is the Laguna Fusion 2.  I am really happy with it.  It has the safety devices on it that I was missing on my last saw (riving knife and anti kickback).  It is so much quieter than my old saw.  It was a good purchase and enjoy using it.  I just finished up my first workbench for me.  It is more than just saw horses and a sheet of plywood.  It has drawers for storage for all the tools that I frequently use.  I also added t-track on the outside edge so that I can clamp pieces to it.  It isn't fancy, but it is solid.  Blog post on that will be latter.

Favorite project was the blanket chest.  It looks good and came together well.  I like how solid it is and the lid does not slam shut.  I probably should of had a lighter lid but I like how it looks.

I did some animated toys this year from a book I got a while back.  Again the blog post will be latter because I have to put them together.  I was thinking that this would be a next phase in my design.  I am not thinking that anymore.  In short, the designer does a great job and amazing work.  The small pieces and the inability to lock the small parts in place make them a choking hazard.  I just was not impressed with them.  I will have to think of some other things to design

Business is holding steady.  Etsy has been doing well.   I have not done anything to grow business out here.  There are a lot of craft fairs, but I am not sure if I want to go through and get a Virginia sellers license.  Time will tell on that.  I am enjoying what I am doing now. I was able to donate to the Laurel house this year and also to operation Santa.  I had some kids help make the donation toys this year.  It was a lot of fun and will continue to ask for help.

Next year is already booked out.  I have been asked to make a toy train from a graphic.  I have started the design part.  This should take about three months.  I am going to be making chest of drawers for our room this year.  That will take most of the summer.  I am also looking at a repeat customer that runs and week long church camp and part of the time is spent building four projects.  I have the toy donations that I will be working on as well as the many ornaments to do this year.

Blanket Chest

 This is the next piece in our bedroom furniture.  This gets the sheets and blankets out of my son's closet.  This project posed some design concerns.  The first one was how it was going to fit in with the rest of the bedroom furniture.  I am using a mission style.  I have kept open sides but the chest cannot have open sides or front.  There were a lot of different ideas that I had to accomplish this look.  The one that I settled on was grooving all the cherry parts and the walnut was in insert panel.  

Another design concern was the weight of the lid.  The lid is made of three pieces of 1 3/4" thick cherry.  The total weight of the lid is 35 lbs.  I did not want the lid slamming shut and hurting someone.  There is not a lid stay on the the market, that I could find, to handle a 51" x 21" top with that weight.  I did find torsion hinges from Rockler that I liked.  The calculator does work but it said my top was too big.  If I took the lid and divided it into two lids, it said to use 2  - 60 inch-pounds torsion hinges.  So it takes 240 inch pounds to open the chest.  The lid does not slam shut.  I am happy the way the lid turned out.

The lesson learned from the lid is that the case needs to be heavier than the lid.  It does once it was filled.  When it wasn't, it was a tipping hazard.  

Other designs features that are part of the chest:

• The bottom of the chest is made from tongue and grooved aromatic cedar,  It is said to repel bugs so I put it in our of tradition
• The top has two battens that are installed with sliding dovetails.  This is the first time using this type of joint,  I did not execute it as well as I had hoped but it still works to keep the top flat.  This was the part that I was most nervous about because if I screwed it up it is a lot of wood that becomes firewood,
• All joints are mortise and tenons.  I made these using a router instead of hand chopping them out.  This seemed to be easier then drilling and cleaning them out.  They were a more consistent making the tenons easier to make.
• Inserts are walnut.  I was going to make them out of maple for the contrast.  I am glad I didn't.  The cherry will darken over time.  The two wood tones will compliment over time.
• The front was originally going to look like two drawers.  It was not going to look as good.  I was also going to add an internal tray.  That also was removed.

I really like how the features come together.  This was a challenge in getting all the lines to line up and offsets look the same.  There are a couple of things that did not go as plan.  The parts for the sides should have been the same for the front and back.  I was off by 1/4".  It all worked out.  

The other design feature is the inserts are not glued into the center curved pieces.  This is to allow the wood to expand and contract.  It may never cause a problem but I did not want the joints to break over time.

I like how the project turned out and it fits with the other bedroom furniture.  The next piece is going to be the chest of drawers.  That is next year

Buildable Toys for a Church

 I was contacted by a church in the south about making kits for youth to build at their youth camp. Of course I said yes and under costed the project. It is a little more difficult to mass produce build your own projects. I didn’t have a belt sander to make everything flat and smooth. 

They requested 4 projects and 15 of each. I could not do all the toys the person wanted, because I did not have the time to redesign so they can be put together by kids. They turned out all right. I don’t know how easy they were to assemble, but I got good feedback from them.

Simple Shop Projects

 I had a couple of small projects that I wanted to do for the garage since we moved in. Both were out of need. I have been working on using the Triton router table more. It is better than my bench top and has more functionality to it. The problem is that it is not easy to move for two reasons. The first is that all the attachments (saw and router) are underneath it and it is not mobile. The second is that it is a flat surface that is a catch all for projects and battery chargers.

I had a couple of thick pieces of “scrap” I purchased from another woodworker. The piece I used was 2” thick 8” wide and 24” long of red oak. I made a floating shelf out of the piece to hold my lawn mower batteries and the cordless system batteries. I cheated and just put a groove in the shelf instead of pocketing out the space for the wall mounting bracket.

The other project was a clamp rack for my larger clamps. I had them hanging from shelf supports. It was working but I wanted to hang them on the wall. I looked at purchasing some but I had several 2x4’s that would do the job just as well. It was a quick project but it made a huge difference in the accessibility of the clamps.

Next shop improvement project is my workbench.

Saburrtooth Burrs

 I am going to try some intarsia projects this year. A lot of them will require shaping and detailing. Some of which I can do with sand paper but others I need to take a lot off. I have used the sanding drums on the Dremel and some of the carving tools that come with the Dremel. I have been watching some videos on the process and someone recommended the saburrtooth brand burs. They were a little more then I hoped, but not unreasonable after using them. The set was about $100.

I have used them on creating deeper profiles on some animated toys that I am making. These things will take material off. These look like little medieval weapons. The will not do a finish ready surface and I will say you will start at a rougher grit sand paper to get it ready. It beats the tool wear that happens on the Dremel carving tools. I would burn them up as well as the sanding drums before finishing the part.

Laguna F2 Table Saw

 I said good bye to one of the first power tools I purchased.  My DeWalt contractor saw has served be well for over 22 years.  It was a good saw and I have no complaints.  It was starting to show it's age.  The alignment was starting to go more often and the plastic on the electrical cord was starting to go.  I had also removed a tossed the blade guard and anti kick back equipment.  These were a couple of the factors for replacing the saw.  Designs have also changed with different safety features.

I purchased a cabinet saw to upgrade.  it comes with the blade guard and a riving knife that are easy to change out.  I had looked at the Grizzly table saw and also the SawStop and decided on the Laguna F2.  I liked the SawStop, but it was expensive for what I wanted to pay.  I understand the safety of it and maybe I will move to one someday.  I have read and heard that the brakes will fault out over time and need to be replaced.  I am safe with the table saw in general.  Grizzly is a decent brand and some of the parts are probably the same on the Laguna.  The features on the Laguna and shipping costs are what made my final decision to go to the Laguna.  

Here are the features that I like about the Laguna F2:

• Mobile base is standard
• digital bevel guage
• The face of the fence slides back and forth
• It has a 36" rip capacity

What I don't like

• The T style fence.  I am use to the DeWalt rack and pinon fence which is really nice.
• Dust collection is not great, but I am using a shop vac so I will give it a pass

I have only used it a couple of time so far and I do not have buyers remorse.  It is quieter and cuts better than my old saw.  It is also a lot heavier.  I don't have to worry about it moving around.  

Kid's Workbench

In preparation of making my own work bench, I made a smaller one for kids.  I used an old kitchen island wood top that I had acquired some  time ago.  The other wood and was gathered from scrap and trash from work.  The only cost that I had in the bench was hardware and labor, which was  not cheap.  It was a good practice and design check for my workbench I hope to make later this year.  Here are the highlights of the project:

• First of all this was designed around the height of my youngest.  It is a little taller than it should be for him.  He does think it is his now.  Kids are taller than I first thought.  My bench is going to be 35".  I am six feet (almost).  Half of 48" is 24".  Good thing I tested before assembly.  I added another 3" to it and made it a better height.
• Drawers are shallow for a reason.  I don't want a lot of stuff in them.  It is mainly for kids and storage of their tools.  I am hoping to put foam with cutouts for all the tools.  This is a project for another day.
• When making five piece side make sure the glides span the two verticals.  I did not check and had to set my glides back 3/4" so I could attach them.  Not impossible, just make the task more difficult.  
• The only drawer that was designed for a purpose was the paint drawer.  All other drawers were made with the same height drawers.  This may not have been the best idea as some tools don't fit as well.  My bench will have more specific drawers and design.
• I purchased a mobile base from Grizzly Tools.  I am pleased with the result.  It does roll smoothly and carries the weight.  my only complaint is that it does not work well with 3/4" board.  It says that it will work with 1/2-1 1/4 board but the screws for the 3/4" board drag on the floor every once in a while.  The 1/2" board works great.  Since I screwed the base also into the work bench frame I am not concerned about bowing of the base.
• 
  I also purchased t-track from Rockler and some of the accessories.  I put this around  the parameter of the bench to make a cheap set of vices.  I did not leave enough material below the track for the clamps to work well.  This is something that I will remedy with my bench.  

It is not the best work I have done but it does function.  My youngest is happy with it.  It is a good addition to the shop as I start working with more kids.  I enjoy the mobility of the bench and the storage it has.

Making Changes

 There are changes happening in the garage shop.  There are things that I have wanted to do in the past three homes that I have lived in.  I have wanted to add more electrical outlets in the garage.  I finally did it because I am hoping to stay in this place a little longer than the last one.  I upgraded the line to a 20amp breaker and added 2 more outlets.  I can now have my scroll saw and drill press always plugged in.  the third is for the extension cord that I use for the mobile equipment.  

The line was pretty simple.  It was on one wall in line with the electrical panel.  There was little damage to the dry wall.  I did have help because I do not like electricity and have never done work in the panel.  He did panel and wiring work and I watched for the most part.  

I did upgrade the line from a 15 amp to a 20 amp breaker.  This is largely because I was tipping the breaker when running the table saw and shop vac at the same time.  There is another reason that I will get to later (probably another post).  

I actually looked at some of my equipment specifications and they said I need a 25 amp breaker.  There is no such thing at the local box stores.  Ironically, some of my tools have a 16 amp startup draw and a 14 gauge plug. So I knew that a 20 amp line would be fine.  If I went to a 30 amp breaker, I would need new plugs on everything.

There is a thing called new work and old work fixtures.  That was a mind blowing experience.  New work is for all the stuff that drywall is not in place.  Old work makes it real easy to put the junction boxes in drywall.  

There are a lot of breakers out there.  Make sure to know which breaker to get.  It is actually pretty straight forward to replace the breaker.  That being said, I still don't ever want to do it.

I did help install the wiring in the outlets and attach the outlets in the wall.  When we first powered the line the circuit blew.  Why did it blow, I had the ground touching the hot wire when I put the wires in the the box.  One more reason I do not like working on electricity.