Storage: A Cabinet Under The ShopSmith, Part 2

There!  Close enough to done that I feel okay about writing this post.  I've got 4 doors left to install, and then hang it from the ShopSmith (I've gotta get some carriage bolts to do that!)

Also, it was stinkin' hot in the shop today!  I was certainly a sweaty yeti, but I drank lots of water and persevered.  Not having AC in a garage shop in Phoenix is not particularly enjoyable, but I really wanted to get this assembly done today.

Another important lesson learned: if you're using material that is thicker than what the plans call for, you have to allow for that in your cuts.  It seems so obvious in retrospect, but at the time that I was cutting, I thought that everything would regulate, since I was using material that was consistently thicker.  I had to do a lot more cutting for the shelves and doors to fit.  That's the main reason that assembly was not entirely completed.

Assembling the cabinet base

Counter-sink those screws!

Main carcasse assembled

Yay dados....

Shelf supports going in!

Partition and shelf installed!

Sliding shelves installed

Door and cabinet back installed

Hooray for the doorknob!

The body of this cabinet was assembled with Titebond II glue and #6 flat head wood screws.  I failed to take pictures of the intermediate step of a dry assembly with clamps so that I could drill and countersink pilot holes for all the screws.
Now, dados are very strong mechanical wood joints, but since this is supposed to be suspended AND hold a lot of tools (some of which are quite heavy) all the joints have been reinforced with screws as well.

As you can see in some of the pictures, a couple of the shelves have some dados cut in them.  These are an example of that "measure 15 times, cut 50" thing that I was talking about in my last post.  Those 2 shelves were originally cut way undersized.  I'm not sure how that happened, but I had to use some scrap that was in the pile to replace them.  I will eventually replace those shelves, as material becomes available.

Other things I need to do: either sharpen my chisels, or get a hinge mortising bit for my router.  The strap hinges need to be recessed just a touch, and until I do that, the doors don't close correctly.  It also doesn't help that, while the body as a whole is pretty darn close to square, slight warping of some of the panels led to the shelf partition being a bit-more-than-slightly out of square.  Had I realized that was happening, I would have glued and screwed the back panel of that partition in place before screwing down the central partition.

Another thing I should really get: a stacked dado set.  Having that would have saved me a LOT of grief on cutting these dados.  That and maybe measuring 20 times.

Had to patch an incorrectly placed dado

These dados are a bit oversized.

Final verdict: Overall I am satisfied with this being my first complex project involving a decent number of techniques.  Could it have been better?  Absolutely.  That being said, though, it will certainly serve its purpose, and I am happy with the final result at this stage of my learning.  I will likely build another one down the road when my skills have improved, and that will be an interesting experience!

Parting thoughts: I have discovered that theoretical knowledge gleaned from reading and/or watching videos will only take you so far.  In the end, you've got to really practice those skills and techniques in order to convert that theoretical understanding into practical know-how.  So, I'm going to do what I should have started with: skill practice.

If you're just joining, Click here for part 1 of this project, or here for part 3.

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Storage: A Cabinet Under The ShopSmith, Part 1

It may not be incredibly obvious from this picture, but there is a lot of open space underneath the ShopSmith.  This machine also has quite a lot of accessories!  The base package has a miter gauge, a big rip fence, 3 10" saw blades, a 12" sanding disc (with a few sheets of sand paper), upper and lower saw guards, drill chuck (with key), a lathe tool rest, tail stock, cup center, drive spur, and a safety package including a feather board, over-fence push block, push stick and gripping push block.  Some older models also come with a set of drill bits and a set of lathe chisels.  That's a lot, and doesn't include any of the accessories for any of the SPTs. It makes a lot of sense then, to keep as many of these tools with or near the ShopSmith.

Several years ago, ShopSmith published a magazine, HandsOn!  Several of these back issues are available on ShopSmith's website.  One of the projects was an under-the-Mark-V cabinet.  I stumbled across this plan some time ago, and have been planning to make it for my shop.  I'm finally tackling this project!

On the surface, this cabinet doesn't look that complicated, and it has storage for a LOT of ShopSmith accessories.

 

I quickly discovered that simple is fairly relative.  While it's certainly not overly complicated, there are quite a few areas that are relatively easy to mess up.  Some errors can be easily dealt with, others require cutting a whole new panel.  I encountered a few of the latter, much to my chagrin.

Right between the center and right-hand tables, you can see three panels that I messed up.

 Though I tried my best to "measure twice, cut once", on more than one occasion it was more like "measure 15 times, cut 50".  Later I realized that some of these problems were due to some alignment issues, while others had more to do with process and personal attention.  I'm still learning, so process will improve, and the extensive extra work taught me the value of really paying attention to measurement details.  My next topic is going to cover the alignment, maintenance and cleaning issues.

I learned some interesting techniques with this cabinet, such as "fluttering" the quill to cut dados without a dado blade (or dado stack)

Dado, dado, dado!  I cut you from the wood!

Even though I did the initial break down of the plywood with my circular saw and straightedge guides (scroll to the bottom of this page for some plans for one of your own!), I also learned a bit about dealing with larger stock on the table saw.

Blade guard added for the saw's safety!

Due to a lot of extra work due to cutting errors, I wasn't able to get the cabinet assembled and placed in time for this post.  Part 2 of this post will go over all of the assembly, including hardware placement, as well as some finishing.  But here are a couple of pictures of all the pieces cut and (mostly) ready for assembly!

This is the main carcasse, shelves and mounting supports

Here are the doors!

Looking for the rest?  Part 2 and Part 3 are available!

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Workbench: It Works If You Work It (And Build It)!!

After tackling the lumber rack, I began looking around for workbench ideas that would function well in my shop.  Given my available space, major tools already owned, and current skill level, I had a hard time finding something that would work!

My shop is a 17'x10' one-car garage with limited electrical; that is, there is one outlet in the ceiling (designed for a garage door opener), and one on the far back wall.  The ceiling is a good height (about 10'), and it has both a big garage door, and a regular door in the adjacent wall.  The lumber rack is installed on the same side as the door, which leaves me a 10' wall and a 17' wall available.

Before I got the ShopSmith, I had built a torsion box workbench.  Unfortunately, having no knowledge of what I was doing, I made several major errors.  Mainly, I didn't let the dimensional lumber dry and acclimate to my shop after bringing it home from the big box store.  The bench top was bowed, and the front rail had nearly pulled away from the bench make the tail vise and dog holes useless.  There were several other problems, but those were the worst.  You can see the disassembled boxes on and behind my lumber rack.

Once I got the ShopSmith, I knew that I wanted to make it the heart of the shop.  That means that the bench needs to be out on the periphery, along one of the walls.  I also wanted to keep it fairly simple, while still offering a lot of capability and options for "upgrades".  That was all fulfilled by this modular workbench.

At 16' long by 2' deep, it offers tons of work surface and fits perfectly in my shop.

It only looks like I'm working!

Tools!  Free wood!  Clamps!!

I made a fairly major modification, in that I have a radial arm saw instead of a miter saw.

Such table!

Very securely mounted to the wall

There are several parts of the build that I have not yet completed, but the main body of the bench is done, and that's what I needed.  Obviously, I won't be making the swing-out table saw component, which works as I'm using that space to store some found wood that have given me a few ideas.  I do plan on making the rolling drawers, the slide out hardware organizers and flip-up assembly table.  I will cover those in later posts.

One thing I added that I'm happy with is a power strip.  I cut off a length of 14g extension cord that included the male plug.  This runs under the bench to the left of the radial arm saw to the outlet on the back wall, then comes up on the right side of the saw and is wired into a multi-outlet strip.  Now I can use powered hand tools on that side of the bench without having cords all over the floor.

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Dr. Lumber Rack:Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Keep Some Stuff Off of the Floor!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was working on a lumber rack.  I found the plans over at OneProjectCloser.  It was, in fact, my first real project made largely with my ShopSmith.  It's a simple design made from roughly one-and-a-half sheets of 3/4" plywood; I scored a good deal on some cabinet-grade plywood, and used that.

The rack uses two French cleats mounted on the wall, on which hang a series of joists with horizontal arms at three levels for holding lumber and sheet goods.  This set-up is incredibly strong!

One yeti per upright!

I am not a small guy, and there wasn't any creaking or flexing.  As you can see, the floor looks nice and clean.  Fortunately, you cannot see my driveway, where everything got moved to so I could mount the rack to the wall!

Loaded up!

Here's just about everything moved back in.  Yeah, that had all been on the floor!  What a mess!

Next up: The workbench!

I did learn some very valuable lessons on this project!

• Since I don't have any outfeed support, the long rip cuts were done with a guide and a circular saw.
• When making beveled rip cuts (the wall cleats for this project), it's important to pay attention to which face of the board the width measurement is made on.  I originally had the measurement on the back (wall-facing) side, and ended up with cleats about 2-inches to wide.  A simple fix, but time lost nonetheless.
• A jig-saw is a useful tool!  I did not have one for this project, and had to cut the slots in the vertical joists by hand.  Mostly with a coping saw.  That was not fun, and there were a lot of irregularities.  Some rasping, filing, and sanding made them pretty much ok, though!
• A tapering jig would have made the arms much easier and more regular.  I used some trigonometry to figure out what the angle should be, and used the miter gauge.  This was not particularly safe, I have learned, and I will not do it again.  Also, the cuts were somewhat irregular, but that was not critical for this project.

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The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Cut

Woodworking with a ShopSmith

How it started

A few years ago I got really interested in learning woodworking, and was living in a house that had space for a shop.  While I was really excited, I had absolutely no idea where to start.  I also didn't have a whole lot of time or money, so I spent quite a while in the, "Won't it be cool when..." stage of this hobby.  I'd spoken with some of my friends about my plans, and acquired a couple of small tools, but I still had no idea what to do.

After a few more months, a friend sent me a link to a CraigsList post for someone selling a ShopSmith.  I'd never heard of this tool before, but the pictured item looked really cool!  Unfortunately, the seller was really bad about returning calls, so I did a little more looking around on CL and found another one for about $500.  I picked it up later that day, and began my foray into woodworking.

What's this?

The unit I purchased was a 1956 ShopSmith Mark V from the Magna corporation.  For those not familiar with the ShopSmith, it's a very versatile 5-in-1 woodworking combination machine. Check out their website for detailed information: Shopmith.com.

In a nutshell, the main unit is a 10-inch table saw, 12-inch disc sander, horizontal boring machine, 34" lathe, and a drill press.  There are also several accessories and special purpose tools (SPTs) that can increase the overall functionality.  While it was missing the lathe tools, safety kit, and upper and lower saw guards, it did come with the bandsaw SPT, as well as a box of extra accessories.

After playing around with it a bit, reading the manual, and browsing a bit on-line, I realized that, while my unit worked okay, it definitely had some problems.  Alignment was a huge one, and I discovered that from the fact that I could not get square cuts on my stock, even with the table set at 90 degrees.  And the table was TINY.  I started to think my purchase may have been poorly thought out, but reading through their site, I learned that there was an upgrade path that every Mark V (5) could follow.

I attended a demo at a Lowe's a few months later and ordered the first major upgrade: The 520 table system with pro fence.  Once this arrived, I followed the (pretty clear) instructions, and was pleased with the new VERY large amount of table space, blade guards, and a really nice fence.

While waiting for the table upgrade to arrive, I had found some plans for a pretty nice lumber and sheet goods rack.  I got the plywood I needed for the job, and started measuring, marking and cutting.  This where I ran into the next problem.

What now?!

While making long rip cuts, the saw would bog down, and regularly stop.  This was a serious problem, as I'd have to move the table carriage out of the way, remove the saw blade, put on the sanding disc, and manually rotate that disc while move the speed changer down to slow.  Then I could put the blade back on, re-position the table, and begin cutting again.  After consulting the troubleshooting chart, it seemed that my motor may be bad, so I upgraded from the old 3/4hp motor to the new 1-1/8hp motor.  This helped, but I still had a problem with cuts bogging down.  I thought about it some more, but for my birthday, my mother-in-law offered to replace the headstock with a newer one from ebay that had been refurbished.  That sounded good to me!

The new headstock arrived a couple weeks later, and it was fantastic.  Now I was able to work!

Moving forward

That about covers the backstory of this blog.  Moving forward, I'll be talking about different projects and what skills I'm learning/improving as I complete them, pitfalls I encounter, and weirdness/cool stuff that comes up in the shop!

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