Build a cheap coffee table

Gooday,

I have owned an entertainment unit which was given to me by my brother several years ago.
He made it in woodworking class in high school. I have used it to store our old TV, after that it was a bookshelf.

Instead of giving it away, I thought the unit would make a good coffee table. All the material was there - solid pine panels and the screws. I decided to disassemble the piece of furniture and start cutting out the pieces.


The "before picture" of the entertainment unit.











 

I laid out the curves on the legs with my spare router base and cut them out on my Delta 16" band saw. The edges were sanded using a sanding drum chucked up in my drill press.

Pieces are shaped and ready for fitting.
 



Table top cut shorter and glued up.

The top and bottom of the entertainment unit now serve as the coffee table top. Next step is to take my Stanley 112 scraper plane and scrape the surfaces smooth.  Stay tuned for more pictures !


Salvaged lumber to the rescue

Gooday,

A few weeks ago I volunteered to fix one of the oak benches(pews) in my church. When I finished that job I noticed the adjacent bench was not secured properly. When I looked under the bench I found the supports that the bench sits on were split from top to bottom. Having deliberated on a repair scheme for the pieces I decided to use the existing supports as templates( after gluing them together)
and trace them on to thicker stock.

Tucked away in the workshop was several large slabs of clear western hemlock. The hemlock was salvaged from the pews that were removed from my Baptist church back home. My Opa built these benches over thirty years ago. Definitely not by coincidence part of the  church pews from Salmon Arm B.C. ended up in Brentview Baptist church in Calgary, Alberta.

The old pew material needed to have a couple of holes filled with beech dowel I had in the shop and the front and back edges needed a pass with the router and a round over bit. The original varnish finish was touched up and the bench was assembled once again.

Using salvaged lumber for this project was a natural decision for me based on the other projects on this blog that also utilize salvaged wood.

Drive belt for Delta 3 wheel band saw

Gooday,

Today, on a snowy day in May, I installed my drive belt on my 16" Delta band saw. This model band saw seems to be the oddball in the world of vintage band saws, apparently not many three wheel band saws were manufactured. The guts of this power tool show a heavy duty cast iron frame which holds everything together in a very robust manner.

 So far I have been able to find replacement parts for the tires that go over the two wheels(Carter's Products) and the drive belt P\N 419961330005 (ereplacementparts.com).
A stabilizer band saw guide for 1\4" wide blades are available through Carter's.

The old belt was cracked and loose. The new belt needed to be stretched and soaked in boiling water before it would fit over the drive wheel and the blade wheel. I also loosened the motor mounting bolts to make it easier to stretch the belt over the wheels.

 

Roubo book stand

Last night I went down to the workshop and made this copy of Andre Roubo's book stand.
I watched Roy Underhill on the PBS website to have a refresher course. I also watched a video by theinternetwoodworker.com . He made a stand and made the hinges at 45 degrees instead of the round hinges.

 

So I laid out my hinges and started the chisel way the waste. My first ever attempt to rip a board on edge , length was successful ( to my surprise ). I followed my lines from the marking gauge and sliced through the wood grain using my Japanese saw.

The real fun part was splitting the wood after ensuring the hinges were cut down enough.
With each tap of the wedges the hinge broke free and the sounds of wood cracking
were alarming. If the cuts were not done properly the book stand could break in the wrong place , ruining the previous evening's work.

Taking little baby steps the wood was successfully split along the hinge where I had cut to the layout lines.

Magnifique !