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Archive for the ‘Woodworking’ Category
Monday, February 6th, 2012
 We have been working on our Downdraft Sanding Center for some time now, and this week we finally get to the heart of the system, the torsion box work top.
A torsion box is essentually built like an airplane wing: Ribs provide the internal structure and the addition of relatively thin skins to the faces creates a very strong but lightweight box. The fact that the core of the torsion box is mostly air space makes it ideal as a downdraft sanding table with a few modifications to the internal ribs.
Begin with the base. I cut it from 3/4″ ply, 24 inches wide and 36 inches long. I then spent a bit of time laying out the rib locations on the face. This allowed me to space them correctly, and see how many ribs were needed. I laid the ribs out for approximately 6″ spacing on center. With the outside faces, the spacing was not exactly 6″ which is why I did the layout first.
 
I ripped several strips of the same ply 4″ wide, then crosscut them to length. The long sides were 36″, but the long internal ribs were about 1 1/2″ shorter. I left the stop set at 36″ and used two scraps of the same ply so the center ribs would be exactly right since we know that the ply is not really 3/4″ thick. The shorter cross ribs are all the same, but while the ends remained 4″ wide, the rest were ripped down to 3″ wide to create openings for air circulation in use.
I used the layout on the base to mark the locations of half lap cuts in the ribs. I marked one edge of each rib to keep orientation the same. Otherwise, any minor difference can warp the finished box. The dado was set up in my saw and all the half laps cut.
When you dry fit the ribs you will see that air can pass under the short cross ribs, but the long ribs divide the box into three sections. Holes could be drilled to allow for the airflow, but that could leave dust trapped in the box where it would be hard to remove. So I stacked the three long ribs together and cut semi circles in the bottom edge between the half laps. You can see in the dry fit photo that the airflow will now reach all sections, and dust can flow out.
With the ribs dry fit as shown AND the sides clamped in place to insure the proper fit, I marked where the long ribs sat on the base and drilled pilot holes through for screws. I glued and screwed the ribs in place, then glued and nailed the sides and ends in place as well. If your halp laps are cut well, everything should be very flat across the top. If not, sand it all flat before adding the top.
 Finally, the pegboard top was cut to size and glued to the top of the assembled box. I used my vacuum bag to clamp it in place, but stacking weights on the top would work too. If you vacuum clamp your box, USE LIGHT PRESSURE. Too much vacuum can force the top down between the ribs or even crush it entirely.
Next time we will mount the dust port, attach the doors and hang the various sanding supplies on the cabinet.
I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand, 2sand.com, abrasive, aluminum oxide, belt sander, blog, casters, downdraft, electric sanders, garnet paper, glasspaper, organization, sanding, sanding station, sanding table, Sanding tips, sandpaper, storage, woodworking, work station
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
 Whew, the holidays are over! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed mine, and hope you enjoyed yours too, but all that partying and visiting really cuts into the shop time. I will admit to not getting as far as I would have liked with the Downdraft Sanding Center over the last few weeks, but I did manage to get wheels mounted and the doors ready to mount.
For this project, I chose some better quality casters. I am not so concerned about the weight rating, even four cheap casters at 150 lbs each will handle more than I can lift onto the table. But a sanding center will vibrate a lot and certainly will be pushed from side to side as we sand the edges of parts and such. So I wanted to use casters that locked not only the wheel, but also the swivel. I got a set of four with 1/2″ dia threaded studs for about $40.00
The stud was not long enough to reach all the way through the base frame, so I counter bored the holes and secured them. This was done before finally attaching the base frame. Now the cabinet is complete and can be easily moved around as I continue work. I have avoided building the top because all of this work on the cabinet is a lot easier without the big top.
The final step on the cabinet itself is to make and attach the doors. The doors are frame and pegboard panel, and are built exactly like the sides and back of the cabinet were, but with thinner stock.
 I milled the stock at 3/4″ thick and used the same stub tenon technique to glue them together. A couple pair of simple hinges are all that is needed to hang the doors. In the next installment, we will create the “egg crate” structure that makes up the center of the torsion box top.
I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand, 2sand.com, abrasive, belt sander, blog, casters, downdraft, electric sanders, finishing, sanding, sanding center, Sanding Storage, sanding supplies, sandpaper, storage, woodworking
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Thursday, December 8th, 2011
 Cutting Half LapsBase frame attachedBase Frame Attached Here at 2Sand.com our Downdraft Sanding Center build finally moves forward again! Things have been very busy and the build was put on hold for a bit, but since I think Santa will be bringing us some cool new casters for Christmas, I wanted to make sure that the carcase was ready by adding the base frame for the wheels.
Continuing with our theme of inexpensive construction, the frame was made from “two-by” stock, jointed and ripped to 1 1/2″ square stock. Since we know that the downdraft table top will overhang the smaller cabinet body, I wanted to insure that the wheels be set beyond the cabinet front and back to add stability.
So two of the frame members are 24″ long to extend a few inches front and back. The other two are 32″ so that the sides and back of the base are positioned on top of the base frame members for maximum support. These dimensions allow for the fame to be half-lapped together. Half Laps are simple but very sturdy joints that will take the stress of rolling the cart around and working on the top. The ends of the longer parts get half-lapped and the shorter parts are lapped 3″ in from each edge or 18″ on center.
 Base Frame Assembled
A little glue and a few screws and the base frame is assembled. Quick and easy! Now simply set the cabinet upside down on the floor, center the base frame over the cabinet bottom, then drill and screw it them together.
While we wait for Santa to come through with the casters, I will make the cabinet doors and hinge them to the unit. We could begin building the torsion box for the sanding table, but working with the box while it is still fairly light will make these other tasks much easier. Once the cabinet is complete and mobile, building the top in place will be easier. (I am going to attempt to use my dust collector to actually “vacuum veneer” the top during assembly!) So tune in to the next blog for the doors and hinges!
 Base Frame Attached I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand.com, abrasive, downdraft, electric sanders, sanding, sanding belts, sanding center, Sanding Storage, sanding supplies, Sanding tips, sandpaper, storage, woodworking
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Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
In the last blog post we got the cabinet sides attached to the back. If you are building along, you’ll have noticed that this sub-assembly is pretty flimsy, so it is time to add a top and bottom deck to secure the parts and finish up the cabinet.
The material used here is not really important, the top will be covered by the torsion box that will be the downdraft sanding area, and the bottom is nothing more than a fixed shelf since the castors will be fixed to a 2×4 frame. I used a piece of scrap OSB for the top (the hole in the center serves no purpose, it was in the scrap) and the bottom was a piece of 3/4 birch ply I had. It just looks nicer than the OSB.
These parts could be nailed or screwed through from the outside of the panels, but I chose to pocket screw them. Yes, it is just a work station, but I like things to look as nice as possible. For me, it is just more pleasant to use tools that look as good as they operate. Carefully measure your box opening and cut the panels to size, then drill the pockets and screw the parts together.
You’ll notice that I am using a clamp here. The point of a screw tends to separate parts a little before it grabs and pulls them back together. Since pocket screws go in at an angle, they tend to pull along the angle, mis-aligning the joint. clampint the joint prevents the initial separation, and the join remains where you placed it.
The same process is used to secure the bottom. If we were planning to attach casters directly to the bottom deck, then I probably would not trust the screws to hold since the deck is inside the box. This is a work station, and we can assume that it will see a lot of force pushing downward as we work. But since the top will overhang the cabinet, I want to casters to extend beyond the cabinet for stability, so we will be creating a frame under the cabinet to secure the casters. The entire box will rest on top of this frame so everything will be well supported. In the next post, we will assemble the frame and secure it to the box.
I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand, downdraft, finishing, sanding, sanding center, wood, woodworking, work station
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Thursday, October 20th, 2011
 With fall here and time opened back up for shop projects, the building of the sanding center can commence! In order to keep this as easy and economical as possible, I am using common stock available at any lumber yard or home center. Building the cabinet that will be the body of the sanding center is the first step. I created the sides and back panels as frames with the pegboard sandwiched in the frame. I used “two by” stock (not pressure treated) planed to 1 1/4″ thick and ripped into 2″ wide strips. The pegboard was bought as 2 x 4 foot panels, so that set the sizes for the box parts.
You will need: 6 Stiles at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 27″ ; 4 Rails at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 17″ ; 2 Rails at 2″ x 1-1/4″ x 29″ ; 2 pegboard panels at 17″ x 24″ and one pegboard panel at 29″ x 24″
The rails and stiles get a 1/4″ wide by 1/2″ deep groove centered along one of the 1-1/4″ edges to accept the panels and for the tongue and groove joints. Set your rip fence for 1/2″ from the blade and make two passes flipping the stick in between passes to get a 1/4″, perfectly centered groove. Now the ends of the rails need to get the tongues cut in them. The tongues need to be 1/4″ wide by 1/2″ long. I just set up the dado blade on my table saw, set the stop on my miter gauge to 1/2″ less than the rail length, and trimmed them flipping to center the tongue. Start with the blade set a bit low and adjust until the tongue fits snug in the groove for a good fit right off the saw. This is a stub tenon joint and is used on shaker and mission style cabinet doors. Once the parts have been cut and dry fit to insure that everything is right, the frames can be glued up.
Assembling the panels is kept simple by butt jointing them together with the smaller side panels inside the back panel.  I used pocket screws to keep it looking nice, but you can just screw through the back panel stiles into the sides. this assembly is a bit flimsy right now, but we will be adding a top and bottom plywood deck to lock it all together.
The doors will be built in a similar fashion in a future blog post, but as you can see even now, there is plenty of pegboard space available for hanging your sanding storage units that we designed and built previously. The lower deck will be attached to a 2×4 frame with wheels and the upper deck will hold the torsion box downdraft sanding surface.
I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand.com, disk sander, downdraft, sanding, sanding center, sanding supplies, sanding table, storage, woodworking
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Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Having designed and built the hangers for my sanding disks, the next objective was to organize and store my sanding belts. These shown are sized for Porter Cable’s 371 belt sander. Larger belts will work on the same system adjusted in size for whatever belts you use. Originally, I was planning to have a simple horizontal piece with slots to slip the belts into, but found that they did not always stay put, especially when the sanding station was being used or moved.
I tried to keep it very simple. A 1/2″ ply rib attached to a 1/4″ masonite hanger plate holds the belts while a 1/2″ cap strip overhangs at the top to keep the belts from slipping off. Since the cap strip keeps the belts in place via gravity, you can size the ply rib short enough to make removing the belt(s) easy. Too long and it is hard to remove the belts, but too short and they can curl when not in use. Build a sample for your belts to get the right proportions before making a bunch of them.
Note that I kept the hanger plates fairly narrow. I wanted them wide enough to hang flat on the pegboard, but not so wide that too much space was wasted. I also rounded the edges of the cap strip to make getting the belts off easier. These were simple to make once the dimensions were worked out, and I made up enough to store each grit that I keep on hand.
I am designing these as I go, figuring out what will work with the sanding station I laid out in the first post of this series. I certainly invite you to add your thoughts or send along ideas that have worked well for you. Please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand, belt sander, electric sanders, organization, sanding, sanding belts, sanding station, Sanding tips, sandpaper, storage
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Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
With the basic layout of the sanding station completed, I next turned to designing a holder for sanding disks. Ideally, they would store flat with a weighted plate on top to keep them flat, but that didn’t really work with my plan to hang them from pegboard. The next idea was to have an open top thin box which would work very well when full, but with only a few disks in the box there would be room for them to curl. so I needed a solution that would keep the disks flat with one or twenty.
My solution was to create a shallow frame. The inside dimensions are 5 1/4″ to accomodate the 5″ disks (make it 6 1/4″ for 6″ disks) and about 1 1/2″ deep. The sides were notched at an angle to accept the front. The front not only holds the disks from falling out, but as disks are removed, it slides down the angled notches in the sides maintaining pressure on the disks.
The front part is 5″ square. I cut it with attached ears that were then rounded to 3/8″ diameter using a dowel cutter, but it would work as well with dowels glued into the edges. As long as it slides down the angled notches freely, it will work. The back is nothing more than 1/4″ hardboard glued and nailed directly onto the back edges of the frame.
Obviously, this was a fairly crude prototype. The hardboard back needs to extend above the frame so holes can be added for the pegboard hooks. A finger hole should be added to the face as well to make it easy to remove. I will upload final plans for making all the holders as I test them out and make sure they work as designed.
As ever, please feel free to add your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think! -2Sand.com
Tags: 2sand, sander, sanding, sanding station, Sanding Storage, woodworking
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Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Drill press mounted drum sanders are excellent for sanding inside curves, but to get a really smooth outside curve requires a flat surface to sand on. Not having the space in my shop for another machine, I decided to build a disk sanding attachment for my lathe.
I started by marking out a 12 1/8″ circle on a piece of MDF and roughing it out on the bandsaw. My lathe has a swing of just over 14″, so I can use a 12″ disk. 2Sand.com offers large disks in both 12″ and 16″ diameters, so if you have the capacity, you can create a 16″ disk.
I roughed out the circle at 12 1/8″ so that I could true it up on the lathe. I know that even if I could cut a perfect circle, the odds of setting the face plate in the exact center was nil. Better to assume things will be slightly off and add a little extra to be removed later.
I mounted my faceplate as close to the ceter point of the disk as possible, and secured it with four bolts. You may want to aquire and extra 8″ faceplate. it will provide better support and having an extra means you’ll never have to break down this set up.
With the lathe set on low speed, I carefully worked down the edge to insure that it was smooth, well balanced and at exactly 12″ diameter.
In part 2, we will look at building a table and options for a miter gauge and jigs.
We invite your comments here on the blog, on our Facebook page, or via Twitter. Let us know what you think!
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Friday, February 4th, 2011
The WoodWorker’s Guild of America (WWGOA) website is an excellent resource for any woodworker. Currently on their website they have a clever trick for getting more from those gum rubber cleaning sticks for sanding drums.
The gum rubber sticks that you use to clean resins off your sanding machines are great, but when they get down to the end, can be scary to try and hold while that close to a spinning drum. Dave Munkitterick shares his method for mounting these “leftovers” onto a wood handle so he can use more of the abrasive cleaner before discarding it.
Safety, simplicity and economy add up to one great tip! Read the whole article here.
We encourage you to share your ideas, tips and tricks with us and our readers too! You can comment here on the blog, find us on Facebook, or reach us on Twitter.
RW
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Monday, January 24th, 2011
Clamping and holding parts during milling is always a challenge. A bit of fine sandpaper can improve your results.
Adding a bit of fine sandpaper to this template routing sled increases the friction between the part and the sled, improving the holding power of the clamps.
Remember to add the abrasive evenly to keep the part square and level.
We always want to hear your sanding tips and tricks! You can comment here, email us at RW@2sand.com, find us on FaceBook or follow on Twitter.
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