What is made most in the shed …

Today, I made some inroads into tidying up my shed/workshop.

The main task that I had to complete so that I could actually put my tools and materials in some kind of an order, was the creation of some shelving.

A couple of weeks ago the house next door was sold and the new owners told us that they intended to demolish and build a new house. BING! went my brain … material! I asked our new neighbours if I could salvage some floorboards before they carted it all to the tip. Our neighbours gave me a week to tear out whatever I wanted from the house before they demolished. Lucky, lucky me!

I didn’t get greedy, I went in with a purpose in mind. Floorboards = shelves.

Yesterday, I bought some batten pine and made up the frames for my shelves and it all went swimmingly. To make my shelves all even and level, I made one frame with 5 shelves and then clamped crosspieces to it and the legs so that every one of the four supporting pieces were the same. It also helped that I had two drills. One for drilling pilot holes, and another with a Phillips head drive in it to drive the screws into the holes.

Today I put it all together and I am pleased to say that my shelves are now firmly attached to the shed walls and sturdy. The shelves are only 2 floorboards wide, but that’s plenty wide enough for my tools. The shelves are about 3.5m long and 2.4m high with loads of space underneath the bottom shelf for my big metal toolboxes to fit (with the lid open … a design feature suggested by my darling wife).

Tonight, I started sorting out my stuff. I also put up a peg-board on one of the walls of the shed so that I can hang my hammers, saws and various often used tools.

Joy.

I reckon that the most commonly made thing in a shed/workshop is the humble shelf.

Hot Wire Polystyrene Cutter–Part 2

I gave the base of the cutter a coat of wood filler and then sanded it down. The next step was to go to the electrical supply store. Off we went.

I bought a single throw switch (push button), an inline fuse holder, a couple of 5V slow fuses (in case one blows, I now have some spares) , a couple of speaker wire holders and a 4m length of NiChrome wire.

I wanted to mount the switch in the arm so that it would be easy to turn the cutter on and off. The plywood for the arm was a little thick, so I drilled a hole through it for the switch (1/4”) and then cut a rebate into the front so that the switch would be slightly recessed.

The washer and nut were then put on the other end of the switch and tightened.

The power supply hot wire attaches to the switch and then goes into the fuse.

I am using some speaker wire clamps to hold the NiChrome wire. The clamp in the top arm is attached to a small plate inside the arm so that the wire is held over the hole. This gave me a little bit of a problem, because turning the knurled head is difficult in the space that I’ve left myself. Bad design, but OK for what I need. I can tighten the head with a pair of pliers.

The other end of the fuse attaches to the clamp.

Underneath, the job isn’t very hard. There is just so much space underneath that it is a dream.

I made a small barrier under the body that will hold the lower speaker wire clamp in place. Then I wired it up.

The AC Adapter is then threaded through the back of the arm and we are done.

The last thing to do was to take the cutter out to the shed and see what I could do with it.

Turns out … not very much.

The cutter does indeed cut, but it does it very slowly. I think that the adapter that I am using just doesn’t have the chutzpah that I need. However … it is more likely that I just have to wait for the NiChrome wire to heat up sufficiently. I certainly didn’t give it that much time. Oh well, I’ll give the cutter some warm-up time and see if that makes much difference, although I am leaning toward the point of view that if 5V ain’t enough, then maybe 12V will … I’ll start hunting for a 12V AC Adapter.

The bottom line here is that, I made a Hot (Warm) Wire Polystyrene Cutter for a total cost of about $20. If I had to buy the plywood for this project and the AC Adapter, then it would probably have cost me closer to $60. But that is still a hell of a long way shy of the $600 that I’ve seen these puppies advertised for.

I will repost when I have jiggered around more with the power for the cutter.

Hot Wire Polystyrene Cutter

There are definitely two schools of thought when it comes to carving polystyrene. On the one hand, there is the sharp knife, saw, rasp and sandpaper camp. The benefits of using hand tools is that you have the pleasure of being able to handle your material and the designs can be more organic. The down side to this method is … polystyrene dust. I have seen some truly awesome models using this method of carving. On the other hand, there is the hot wire camp. Hot wire gives you a clean, crisp. The down side there are fumes from burning polystyrene.

I’ve tried using the saw and knife method and, clean-up is a pain in the ass. I used to have a little hand-held hot knife that I used to use for making terrain for wargaming. It was a little 9V battery in a plastic grip connected to a U bar with a wire running between the ends of the U. This was a pretty easy way to cut polystyrene.

Finish is the other determining factor with the choice of methods. Knife, rasp and sandpaper leaves you with a rough surface. Hot wire leaves you with a sealed surface … but one that has been melted.

I’ve decided to make a bench hot wire cutter. The machine will have a opening that is about 12” high and the bench itself will be about 12” x 24”. The first job is to make the body of the cutter. This is basically a 12” x 24” box with a L shaped box added to the short end. The L has a hole in it for the wire to pass through and the bed has a hole that takes the other end of the wire.

Add a wall adapter, a fuse and a switch and we should be away.

I had an old mobile phone charger (5V) which is, basically an AC to DC transformer that steps the power down from 240 to 5V. I’ve cut the plug from the end of the adapter and exposed the two wires (black and green). I have soldered a red wire to the green and a black wire to the black wire of the adapter.

I’ll put an in-line fuse into the wire and mount a switch onto the arm so that I can easily turn the cutter off.

The cutting wire attaches between the red and black wires to complete the circuit. I am planning on using fine steel guitar string as the cutting wire, so I’ll either take one off the Fender, or go and buy another one.

I plan to put a spring loaded connector at both the top and bottom attachment points to that the cutting wire is held taught.

Today I did the timber work. I had some old plywood sitting around with nothing to do, so I did some cutting, gluing and screwing in the workshop. Tomorrow it’s back to the electrical store to get a switch and fuse. If the music store is open tomorrow (Sunday in Hobart) then I’ll get a guitar string as well.

To get the position of the wire hole in the base, I had the arm detached and positioned in the right place in relation to the body, but with the arm resting on the base and then drilled a pilot hole through the arm and base at the same time.

The arm is attached to the base with four bolts that pass through the inner wall of the arm and then into the wall of the base. I want the arm to be able to be removed for when I want to store the tool on the shelf.

Well … now I’m going to go to the electronic store and get some more electronic stuff to make the hot wire circuitry. If they have NiChrome wire at the store, I’ll get that instead of using a guitar string.

Sickle repair

A while back, I bought a broken sickle from the tip shop. The blade was in good condition and not twisted. The reason that the sickle was at the tip shop was that the tang was broken and the handle was long gone.

When I got it home, I beat out a new tang for the blade and welded it on, then ground it down (roughly) … and then it stayed in my shed for a while.

On the weekend, I did some mowing with my ride-on Husqvarna. I just went around the paddock fence line so that I would have an easier time of putting up the new fence. I also cut around the chicken coop so that the chooks could scratch up some insects.

As the goats hadn’t been out, I decided that I’d cut the grass closer to the coop than the mower could get … and that I’d use the sickle.

I honed the blade to a nice sharp edge and then went to town on the long grass, cutting it and dropping the cuttings into the wheelbarrow. Of course, not having a handle on the sickle gave my hand a pretty hard time … and before long, my hand was bleeding from the rough parts of the tang gouging my finger.

Enough was enough! Last night I took the sickle back to the shed and cut a new 2 piece handle from some spare cedar and then I cut some 5/32 brass rod to make some rivets. I cut the cedar on the band saw and then I drilled three holes in the tang and matched the tang holes with holes in the handle blanks. I gave the handle a rough shaping with my bastard rasp and then set the rivets (that just means I hammered the rivets until they were flush and then used the centre punch to finish them off, rivets in handles don’t need to be mushroomed, just thickened a little). Then I rasped at the handle some more until I got the shape that I wanted, then it was onto the sandpaper.

The place that my finger was taking the most damage from was the 90^o angle between the blade and the tang, so the new handle is cut to ease this into a soft radius. I also shaped the handle so that it fit the curve of my hand better. Later on, I’ll rub some linseed oil into the wood … but that isn’t all that necessary.

Sickle repair

A while back, I bought a broken sickle from the tip shop. The blade was in good condition and not twisted. The reason that the sickle was at the tip shop was that the tang was broken and the handle was long gone.

When I got it home, I beat out a new tang for the blade and welded it on, then ground it down (roughly) … and then it stayed in my shed for a while.

On the weekend, I did some mowing with my ride-on Husqvarna. I just went around the paddock fence line so that I would have an easier time of putting up the new fence. I also cut around the chicken coop so that the chooks could scratch up some insects.

As the goats hadn’t been out, I decided that I’d cut the grass closer to the coop than the mower could get … and that I’d use the sickle.

I honed the blade to a nice sharp edge and then went to town on the long grass, cutting it and dropping the cuttings into the wheelbarrow. Of course, not having a handle on the sickle gave my hand a pretty hard time … and before long, my hand was bleeding from the rough parts of the tang gouging my finger.

Enough was enough! Last night I took the sickle back to the shed and cut a new 2 piece handle from some spare cedar and then I cut some 5/32 brass rod to make some rivets. I cut the cedar on the band saw and then I drilled three holes in the tang and matched the tang holes with holes in the handle blanks. I gave the handle a rough shaping with my bastard rasp and then set the rivets (that just means I hammered the rivets until they were flush and then used the centre punch to finish them off, rivets in handles don’t need to be mushroomed, just thickened a little). Then I rasped at the handle some more until I got the shape that I wanted, then it was onto the sandpaper.

The place that my finger was taking the most damage from was the 90^o angle between the blade and the tang, so the new handle is cut to ease this into a soft radius. I also shaped the handle so that it fit the curve of my hand better. Later on, I’ll rub some linseed oil into the wood … but that isn’t all that necessary.

I’ll post some pictures of the finished sickle later on.

Wheel Jig – Part 2

Cart Wheels Part I

Today I made some improvements to the wheel rim jig, I marked out the outer rim using a transom arm protractor. That is, a protractor that is made by fixing a batten to the centre of the circle and then rotating the batten through 360 degrees marking a line at the end of the arm. This gives you a circle. Then I cut along the line with a jigsaw to leave me with a circle. I still need to rasp down some high spots and fill some low spots, but it gives me the shape that I need.

I drew a line through the centre of the circle to give me the starting point. This line passes through the centre point in the circle, the line gives me 0^o and 180^o. From there, I marked off points at 36^o, 72^o, 108^o, 144^o and back to 180^o. As the circle is divided by an even number, I can simply draw a line from each of these five points to the opposite side of the circle to give me 10 equal divisions.

Next, I marked out a point on each of the division lines about 1 and a half inches back (2.5cm) from the perimeter and drilled holes through for the jig clamps. Turn the jig over and clean up the slight tear-out from the drill and, presto, a wheel rim jig is made.

You should be able to draw a straight line between each opposing pair of jigs and they should all meet in the centre of the circle.

I may need to fix another layer of fence palings to the jig to make it thick enough. Otherwise there will be a tendency for the laths to warp because one side or the other of the clamp will be off-set.

 

The threaded bar that is used in the clamp has been left quite long so that I can have enough clamp to make a rim up to about 15cm.

In the top photograph, I have put the topmost clamp all the way through and brought the next two clamps all the way forward so that I can use the clamp as a hanger to hang the clamp off the ground. I have also got a hole drilled through that was at 45^o from the first hole. This will be where I can hang the jig up in my workshop. Hanging the jig means that I can have bench-space cleared up while I wait for the epoxy to cure. The epoxy that I will be using is a two-part marine epoxy. This epoxy has a little bit more flexibility in it than other woodworking epoxies and the wheels will take a bit of bumping around when under load.

One of the reasons that I have made this jig with 10 jig clamps is that I intend to make my wheels with 10 spokes. The clamps also provide me with a guide for making the spokes.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it.

Read Part I here

Making Cart Wheels

Cart Wheels Part II

I need to make some cart wheels for my planned goat cart. Some time ago, I had some jig clamps made (to my design) by a local engineering company, they are simply a pair of round bar of equal size and diameter. The bottom piece is tapped so that a bolt can be passed through it, while the top piece has a hole for the bolt to pass through. When the bolts (2) are tightened, the two pieces are brought together.

The idea is that you have a timber form and you drill a hole through the form and pass the tapped clamp piece through the hole. The work piece that needs to be clamped is then put on the form and the top piece of the clamp is added with the bolts (I have fixed nyloc nuts to the ends of the threaded rod to make my bolts). I have 10 of these clamps.

On another project that I was working on, I made some crude timber wheels (using fence palings).

The wheel was only being used in a “proof-of-concept” so I never actually used the wheel. The next part is to mark up the wheel and put in the holes for the jig clamps. There are 10 clamps, so 10 holes around 360o means that they will be at 36^o from each other … well I can work with that. First, drill one hole and put the clamp in.

Here you can see what I mean, one part of the clamp is fixed in the jig, while the other is able to move in and out by turning the bolts top and bottom. The only real drawback with this design is that it is easy for the piece to skew, so I have to be careful when tightening the bolts.

So, to prove the concept for you, here is a piece of Huon pine that I cut from a larger piece, this is called a lath. I cut many of these laths to make laminated longbows from (another story for another time).

I’ve placed another jig clamp at 45^o (because it is easier to measure with what I had at hand. I will put the rest of the clamps at 36^o).

You can see how the clamps are pulling the Huon pine in to the shape of the former.

For this to work properly, I will need to steam the lath (and the lath will need to be much longer). I will be cutting many more laths on my table saw from Tasmanian Oak since that’s a fairly easily obtained timber in the widths and lengths that I need. I also need to refine the timber wheel that I am using as a form. It is not a perfect circle. For that I need to set up my router on a swing arm from the centre of the wheel. I’ll use a straight cut router bit so that the wheel is cut cleanly from the centre.

The lath will be set on the forming jig while pliant from steaming and then taken off the former. When the lath has cured, I will then use epoxy to glue it to another lath until I have a wheel rim that is approximately as high as it is wide.

In between laminations, I will leave the progressing wheel rim on the jig as the next lath will need to be formed to the wheel rim as it goes.

The above lath is about 3mm thick and 30mm wide, so I’d need about 10 laths to make a wheel. Also, each lath needs to be about 3mm longer than the previous one to account for the increase in thickness.

So, there you go. Apart from a bit of tidying up in the workshop that was my playing around in the workshop.

Tomorrow I have a Goat Judging course to attend, so I won’t be doing any more work on this project until Sunday.

Loooong weekend

This weekend is a long one for me. I am taking this Friday and Monday off for some much needed rest and recreation.

Now that the forge is completed, I can start planning some other stuff that I’ve been wanting to do.

A while back I made some wooden wheels that were going to be used on a water rocket carriage. The water rocket project went into hiatus (mostly because of time and cost issues), but the wheels were completed. I am thinking of using the wheels as a forming jig for making spoked wheels for a goat cart. I’ll need to drill some holes into the perimeter of the wheel so that I can attach the steamed wood to the jig using some clamps. I’ll need to rip-cut some timber that I have in the feed shed (blackwood, sassafras, Huon pine, leatherwood … etc.) and then I’ll steam and bend the wood around the jig. After the wood has “formed” I’ll bend another and then glue it to the previous lath. I intend to make each wheel from about 7 x 3mm thick laths. This will make each wheel about 21mm thick and about the same width.

I’ll make the rims for the wheel using steel hoops (made on the forge). I need to make some hubs and spokes as well … but I’ll get around to that later, for now, the wheel rim is the target project.

I will make one wheel rim and see how that goes. If it all goes pear-shaped, then I will rethink the plan.

When the wheel rim is crafted, I will need to cut it up into sections so that it can be hammered onto the spokes … but that is probably thinking about it a bit too early.

Also, I am picking up some aluminium roofing from a friend on Friday, so I will also need to do something with that. The aluminium roofing is intended to be the roofing of a new goat shelter that I am building in  the bottom paddock. I will need to buy some timber posts for the frame and some stud timber for making the wall and roof structure. Ideally, the new goat house will be only about 1.8m high. The goats won’t be able to use it until I have sorted out the fencing in the bottom paddock … but that is still a job for later when I have enough spare cash for fencing material.

15th Century German Sports Crossbow

I started this crossbow for a mate in 2009. The crossbow is based on the images supplied found in Galwey-Payne’s awesome book on medieval and renaissance crossbows (and ballistae).

The stock is made from Tasmanian Blackwood. I had a local engineering workshop make the hardware for the crossbow in stainless steel.

The stock was cut from a 1 1/2” thick plank of blackwood on the table-saw and then rough shaped on the bandsaw. Then I used rasps, chisels, planes, draw-knives and smoothing scrapers to finish the shaping.

The head has been rebated to accept the lathe.

The trigger was inset into the stock by matching the movement to the paired pieces.

The headstock is routed to allow the bolt to move in a controlled direction.

I made the cheek plate, trigger plate and siting plate from 16 gauge steel sheet and then etched the steel using the electro engraving method.

These certainly add interest to the piece and enhance the apparent age of the reproduction.

I made a timber finish for the crossbow by combining gum turpentine, bees wax and linseed oil (1 part each). The turps helps the finish to penetrate, the linseed keeps the timber cells from collapsing while the beeswax contains resin and helps to hold a polish. Also, the finish helps the bow to repel water and protects the steelwork.

I think I’d like to make some relief parts for the bow from cast aluminium or brass.

Siege Weapons

The challenge was to make a scale model medieval siege engine capable of throwing a marshmallow.

I made two … one was the typical Counterpoise Trebuchet, a long swing arm attached to a counterweight and a sling.

The projectile is placed in the sling and then the arm is lowered and attached to the trigger.

When the trigger is released, the counterweight swings the arm of the trebuchet and the sling is also swing up. When the loop on the sling slips from the pin at the end of the swing arm, the projectile is release.

The counterpoise was fun to make and would throw the projectile (marshmallow, but pictured here with a hazelnut about 8 meters. This siege engine is about 30cm along the base and about 15cm wide.
The other siege engine that I built was an onager or your more traditional looking catapult

The onager is a torsion siege engine, that means that the motive power of the engine is a twisted rope (in this case a 8mm braided nylon cord) that is twisted from both sides of the beam (a bamboo salad spoon).

The torsion sets the beam forward against a padded section of the catapult frame (made from thick felt and more braid).

When the beam is drawn back, the pressure is put on the beam to return it to the rest (forward) position.

I made a simple trigger from three eye screws and a modified nail.
The onager would cast the marshmallow about 6 meters and also has the same (30cm x 15cm) footprint as the trebuchet.