A friend of ours wanted a Leopold Bench, but does not currently have the space to put it outside. She’s @ UT so has a lot of books to deal with and requested that we make the bench into a temporary shelf. Here are the results:

You can see that I used a piece of 1×10, cut to about 42 inches, to act as an upper shelf. It is mounted to two scraps of 2x8s, cut at 22 degrees. This means that the shelf leans at the same angle as the Leopold. The 1×10 touches the back, so it has support along that entire edge.

Some books on the top:

This is a nice way to retrofit a Leopold Bench for indoor use. Once school is over, she can remove the shelf and use the bench as originally intended. Since the shelf is not fastened to the bench, this is easy to do — and the bench doesn’t get altered in any way (ex. no dados [slots]  in the sides).

Here is the little Harp Stool, stained and sitting next to Evelyn’s Celtic harp:

Here is a shot with the harp on top. Evelyn will sit on the futon and practice. Having the harp at a better height makes this easier.

Would you believe that the whole thing was made with only 26″ of 1×10 pine? I sliced a ~9 1/2″ piece for the top, four 2 1/2″ for the legs, and two 3″ for the stays. I would have used 1x4s or 1x3s for the legs, but didn’t have any on hand, and wanted to make it the nicest scrap-only piece I could.

Sometimes it’s a good challenge to build something out of inferior or inappropriate materials. It makes you work harder and learn more. I guess that’s what I get from all those years of IT work, where you had to run an infrastructure on rubber bands and prayer.

The other day I noticed that Evelyn’s Basil plant was a bit low, sitting in a pot on the floor. I decided to make it a little (10″ tall) stool to sit on. Here was the initial design / prototype:

This was my “learning” build. I made it out of super-cheap lumber (1×2 pine furring strips) and a leftover piece of 1×6 pine. I messed up the height of the leg supports, so they are off. And it’s supposed to be tied together with biscuits, but the lumber was too narrow for even a number Zero biscuit. Regardless, it came together as a pretty neat project.

When Evelyn saw it she thought: I could use this for my harp. She needs a little stand to put her harp on, so she can sit on the couch and play it. My initial prototype was too lightweight, so I built her another one today.

I didn’t have any 1×4 pine on hand, so I just cut up some of the 1 x 10 material I had on hand. Here is the result:

You can see that I cut the 1×10 into pieces for the legs and supports. Since they were wider, I was able to use number Zero biscuits to hold the legs to supports. I also got the overlap of the supports right this time.

I went with a square top design, since everything else was squarish. (And we need plenty of top for the harp.) Here is a view from the bottom:

You can see here that it uses two tops. One is made of 1×8, the upper of 1×10. The neat thing about using two tops is that there are no screws visible (except on the underside). As an added touch, I cut a 22 degree bevel into the edges of each top, to give it a slanted look.

Here is the new version next to the original prototype:

You can see that they have different looks, even though they are the same basic design. Next I need to stain the new square version.

Finally, here is what the stool looks like next to the harp. The harp will sit on top while Evelyn is playing it.

it was a neat little project. Something for me to hone my skills on.

I’ve owned this Jigsaw (aka Saber Saw) for about 6 months now, and I continue to be very happy with it. It’s strong, smooth running, and has been used for a number of projects (such as my “Bill Dings” build).

Bosch 1591EVSK 6.4 Amp Barrel Grip Jigsaw

It’s available as either a Barrel Grip (shown) or a more traditional pistol grip. I prefer the barrel, since it gives me some more (perceived) control. It’s heavy, though, so can be a bit tiring after a while. It will also warm up with extended use on hot days. It keeps chugging, but the body does get a bit hot. (Keep in mind that I was cutting in a 105 degree shop during the middle of an Austin Texas summer. So cut it some slack.)

You have the adjustments you’d expect from a high-end tool. Speed control, aggressiveness of cut settings, blade stabilizer, and so on. The blade release is super simple, too. Just slide that black level on the front toward the right and the blade pops right out. Putting the blade in is just as easy, just pop it in until it locks. The connection is rock solid. I’ve never had a blade come loose (or break, for that matter).

The other bonus is that it’s made in Switzerland, which I think means something about the quality of tool you’ll be purchasing. However, the case the tool comes in is awful cheap plastic! It makes a horrible first impression, until you actually take the tool out and feel how well built it is. I don’t know why they went cheap on the case for such an expensive tool.

I pair up this saw with some of the excellent Bosch T308B Xtra-Clean for Wood blades:

Bosch T308B 4-1/2-Inch EC HCS T-Shank JSB, 5-Pack

These are really excellent blades for wood. They cut very fast and clean. Expensive, for sure, at $12 for a pack of 5. However, I’ve been running on the same blade for 4 months, so that’s something. (I’m cutting pine, so I get a lot of life out of the blade. If you do a lot of hardwood work, expect shorter life.)

Another good one for this saw is the T234X Progressor. It’s a pretty fast cutter. Not quite as clean as the Xtra-Clean, but still very very good.

Bosch T234X Progressor Wood Blade (5-Pack)

While we are talking about blade, let me make a point: If you think that your circular, trim, miter, or jigsaw is crappy, I’d recommend doing one thing — Get A Better Blade.

For the Bosch Jigsaw, this means getting a good Xtra-Clean or Progressor blade. For the other saws, get yourself something like a Freud Diablo.

Let me give you an example. Recently I’ve been very frustrated with my little Craftsman 5 1/2″ trim saw. This saw is already underpowered, but I use it for work which is too dangerous with the free-hand 7 1/4″ circular saw. It just wasn’t cutting, and Craftsman wanted to sell me an overpriced and hard to get blade.

As luck would have it, I browsed around at Home Depot the other day and saw that they carried a Freud Diablo blade — and in 5 1/2! Horray! It didn’t cost too much, about $12 if I remember correctly. Well, I got home, put the blade in, and it was like I had a new saw. It was still underpowered and sad sounding, but it cut so much better than before. (No jamming or kicking back.)

Meanwhile, I’d noticed that my 10″ miter saw (a cheap — $110 — Skilsaw) was getting sloppy in it’s cuts. Splintering and whatnot (which is no good for miter joints). So, off to Depot again. This time picking up a 60 tooth Diablo 10″. After some fiddling to get the blade in, I fired it up.

The result? Almost polished cuts. Super smooth. The additional teeth (more=smoother) and the better blade significantly improved the cuts on my wet soft cedar.

Freud D1060X Diablo 10-Inch 60 Tooth ATB Fine Finish Saw Blade with 5/8-Inch Arbor and PermaShield Coating

Now I know it sounds silly spending $40 on a blade for a $110 saw, but it made a huge difference.  The Freud Diablo blades are available from Amazon, or you can pick them up at Home Depot. They are very easy to spot, as they are painted bright red. If you are running a miter saw, I’d recommend the 60 tooth version. I’ve been very happy with it.

Heck, I’m not even recommended that you get the REALLY good blades either. If you want one of the best blades, check out Forrest Saw Blades. A 10″ Chopmaster with 80 teeth will set you back a cool $132 — for one blade. Or, for those with deeper pockets than I, check out their 90 tooth Signature at $167. Hopefully one day the woodworking will pay enough for me to afford one of these US made and serviced blades. For now, the Diablo will do.

Back in July I built a little rolling cart for my tool bucket (see Rolling Tool Cart). I’ve found it pretty handy when working on projects, but it has two limitations. First, it’s big — since it’s a 5 gallon bucket with nearly all of my key tools. Second, it didn’t properly hold some of my newer tools (such as the Makita Compact Drill/Driver Set). After fumbling around for tools and wasting time, I decided to make a new caddy for my drill work.

Drilling and fastening (with screws) is something I do all the time. All of our products are fastened with screws, so there is a lot of pre-drilling, counter-sinking, and fastening to be done. I probably pick up my Makita driver and drill a couple hundred times a day, so I need them close — but don’t want to be wearing a tool belt all day. (Because I’m often going back and forth between the shop and the office, a belt would be a drag.)

I had some time this afternoon, and a pile of scrap wood, so I got to work. Here is the result:

It’s about a 12″ x 8″ by 5″ tall. The size is nothing special, it’s what I had on hand and what I needed for my drivers. (They are both quite small.) Here is how the drivers are held in place:

I had a piece of 2×4 (painted black) which I drilled two 2 1/8″ holes into. The hole size was determined by the grip diameter — the Makita’s are about 2″. This 2×4 was mounted about 1 1/2″ from the bottom (a piece of scrap 1×8 pine). It’s held in place with two screws on each side of the caddy (visible in the first photo).

On the right I made a little partition for holding stuff like little levels and tape measures. The curved piece is nothing I planned, just the piece I had on hand.

The left is a little more complicated:

On this side I added a piece of wood to make a compartment — that’s the 3″ tall 1×8 directly to the left of the black 2×4. I then subdivided the compartment with another scrap. This gives me two good sized “bins” for my most commonly used screws (in my case 1 1/4″ and 1 5/8″).

After putting in the screw compartments I thought: I need a regular screwdriver, too. So I drilled a 1/2″ hole into the edge of the divider for my super-handy ratcheting Snap On screwdriver. Then I thought: I need to hold a bit. So I drilled a 3/8″ hole for a hex bit. While I was at it, I put in another hole for a pencil.

Now I have a drill, a driver, two kinds of screws, alternate bit, ratcheting screwdriver, pencil, and tape measure — all in one little caddy.

I’m not sure if I’ll put handles on it. They might get in the way. I’m also considering wheels, but again I’m not sure yet. I’m sure it will evolve.

Before Christmas I had built a 1/3rd scale Owl Box. This morning I decided to “break in” the new shop with a small build: More Miniatures.

Here is the Mini Owl Box, V2. It’s the same design as the first, except I’ve stained it Redwood.

Since I’ve been playing around with Woodpecker box prototypes, I did one of those also:

It even has the sliding clean-out door in the bottom.

Finally, I built a small scale Leopold Bench. This one’s proportions are a bit off, because I didn’t have the right wood to scale it properly. But it came out pretty good nonetheless.

It’s kinda funny. I think the mini and Child Leopold’s look better than the Adult one. For some reason the tighter gaps between pieces makes them look better to my eye.

Here is the set of three:

The pieces aren’t exactly scaled to each other, due to the limitations in the lumber I had on hand (everything was done in 1×4 cedar). However, they are pretty close. Once they are dry I’ll take a photo with me next to them, for additional scale.

With the burst of business activity in December it quickly became apparent that we needed to reorganize our shop. Our shop is a one car (barely) garage, so space is at a premium.

After we moved in we installed shelving along the entire side of the garage. It was great for storing all our stuff, but with the business we need less storage and more work space. So, gradually, the shelving has been moved/removed and replaced with tools and benches.

During our trip back from California we decided that a major reorg was required. The idea was to remove all storage from the main work floor, shift some benches around, and clear up space toward the front of the garage.

For the past three days we’ve been working on the change over. I’m pleased to report that we’re almost done.

Here is a look into the back of the shop. Previously the wall on the left had five shelving units, with another shelving unit against the back wall.

As you can see, all of the shelves have been removed. In their place is the Miter Saw stand, a Baker’s rack, and Evelyn’s workbench. Where did the shelves go?

We moved everything into the “nook” area at the back of the garage. This is a 12′ x 5′ area where Evelyn’s workbench (and the water heater) used to be. There are three 36″ wide shelves on the left and two on the right with a 2′ walkway down the middle. Evelyn got some Target drapes from a local resale shop so that we could hide this area. Important when customers are in the shop — plus it just looks nicer.

Here we see that Evelyn’s work bench has been moved to the main floor. This gives her a lot more room to work in and better lighting:

We’ve learned a lot over the last 6 months about what we need at hand, so I put all that stuff along the wall. The 2x4s were already on the wall — to secure the old shelves — I added more 1x4s for hanging white boards, squares, and so on. You can see we use a lot of little plastic baskets for odd and ends that need to be at hand (such as biscuits, screws, staples, etc).

We needed a better way of storing the rolls of Poultry Netting and Hardware Cloth. The stuff is heavy, sharp, and loves to unroll itself. So I built a rack / storage unit for it.

In a wonderful bit of serendipity I placed my router table top on the Cloth storage unit. Holy Crap! It also made a perfect router table stand! So now I have a combination storage area and router table. To give you some scale, that router table is 36″ wide and 24″ deep — it’s big.

We used a Baker’s Rack in our old apartment. The house didn’t have space for it, so it was relegated to the garage for junk storage. We decided to move it onto the main floor as a power tool area:

At the top (obscured) we have sanding discs, timer buttons, clock, XM/Amp. On next shelf are bits and blades. Then you have power drivers / drills (and beer) and router bits. Below is a shelf for sander, plunge router base, and biscuit cutter. At the bottom, portable circular saw and sabre/jig saw. Everything in one place, right in the middle of the shop.

This wall had a shelf unit (hence the 2×4 support). The shelf is gone, but what to do with the space? Clamp storage!

The 2×4 hold a selection of 6″ clamps, some baby clamps, then some 24″ pipe and bar clamps. Below is a small box holding a strap clamp (and fire and first aid). On the ground sits a slew of big cardboard boxes. These are what we ship our Owl Boxes in. Big boxes (13″ x “13″ x 30″).

Here is a shot of my work bench:

Not much has changed here. The drill press is still in the same place, though the Dremel Scroll Saw has been moved to Evelyn’s bench (near the storage area). The first shelf contains key stuff — rulers, pencils, levels, calc, etc. Bottom shelf has chargers, drill bits, more drill bits, and, hidden from view, other power tools. On the left of the photo you can see where our electronics parts reside.

(That stack of shoe boxes is waiting to get dumped into storage. Normally the Shop Vac sits there, under the cord reel.)

The door to the garage (from the kitchen) is where we store the mops and brooms. It’s also where the electronics parts are tucked into. We set this up a couple of months ago.

The overhead lighting has also been re-arranged in the shop. The storage area has a 48″ light and the main floor has four 48″ lights over the benches and saws. I also put a small light in the door / entry area, to better illuminate the electronics parts area.

I built this for my parents to have. It’s an Eastern Screech Owl Box, sized to about 1/3rd scale.

Here it is next to the regular version, so you can get a better idea of the scale:

The last couple of days have been very busy. We’ve been working on Christmas orders for Owl Boxes (the ideal gift for the husband who has everything!), prototyping of new finishes, figuring out Woodpecker house design, and more.

Let’s start outside. Here are three completed Eastern Screech Owl boxes. Once they are stained/finished they are placed outside. I hang them from part of our fence, behind the shed. This allows them to weather a bit (so I can see if any wood is going to crack) and helps to remove the stain & human scents on the wood.

These Leopold benches have been outside for a couple of months now. They are holding up well.

In the shop now. I’ve had to better organize a couple of things, and needed a couple of quick-fix solutions.

On the organization front, I set up a new storage area for my Speed Squares. The one on the left is my newest one. Since I do so many “free hand” 22.5 degree cuts (the angles of the bird box roofs), I have it fixed at that angle. The included rail makes it a lot easier. I LOVE the heft of this square. It’s worth the $20. (There’s a YouTube video up at SixtySecondShop.)

To the right is the 12″ plastic and the 6″ plastic. Bright orange is good in a crowded shop. Though, I did have to mark in the numbers myself using a fine tipped Sharpie. (The non-highlighted numbers are hard to read. Make them stand out with the black Sharpie. Five minutes of work that will pay off forever.)

Here’s my jury rigged router table fence. I still have a Incra on my wish list, but this will do for now.

It’s simply a straight 1×8 clamped to my large (36″ wide) homemade router table. Since I am only making some very simple dado (slot) cuts for the bottom of the Woodpecker boxes, I didn’t need anything fancy. Just something that will keep me at the correct distance. Running them on the table is faster than straight edges and free hand.

Notice that I did bolt on a piece of scrap acrylic as a guard. The table is a LOT safer with it in place. At the least, you never loose track of where the sharp bits are at.

Here are some of the Owl and Woodpecker boxes sitting in the shop. They are in various states of completion.

The labels on the ground help me to keep track of where in the process boxes are (“WIP”, “needs stain”, “needs silicon”, “complete”). The taller boxes are for the Eastern Screech Owls. The smaller ones are for common Woodpeckers. I need to complete their sliding bottoms and a protector around the entry hole (to stop squirrels).

Those funky colored ones are our newest invention. We call it Fire Polishing. It allows us to give the wood a natural dark finish with no stains. They are available as Limited Edition models (due to the labor involved).

They look even better in person. The wood has an iridescent quality. The boxes will weather to a gray / black color scheme. Almost exactly like “regular” tree bark.

We *try* and be considerate neighbors, so I drop the garage door whenever I’m doing a lot of cutting. Unfortunately this means I often don’t know if a customer is outside. Back in the day I made an ultra-loud door bell setup for my Dad’s repair business. I could do the same thing here!

So I put together a small wooden box, painted it red, and gave it a big arcade button. This box gets hung outside of the garage:

It’s about 7″ tall. Right now I’m putting in a flashing LED in the front (that white dot you see) so as to catch peoples’ eyes. I think it’s a neat use of the “One Player” arcade button, don’t you?