Cool Desk / Work Bench

I saw this cool desk \ work bench at work on a job site it was made from construction leftovers it was pretty nice for construction waste.

legs were made out of gas pipe.

Flange to affix the top.

Conduit for the bottom and conduit hangers nuts and bolts to assemble it. I may have to make one.

50'-60' Era Jig Saw Project almost done!

Well after taking apart the saw, I found the saw's drive shaft had some deep groves in it and a bit of a wobble. So I guess it was time to make a new one.

A friend helped me make a new shaft, big thanks to my friend Greg who has a lathe he was lots help on this project. I installed it and pressed in a new brass bushing into the freshly painted saw. By the way he did it all as one part not 3 parts pressed together like the original one. How he did that I will never know?

Now I just need to reassemble it.

Not too bad its ready for another 50 years of use.

Now I just need a new pulley,belt and a saw blade.  

50'-60' Era Jig Saw Project Update!

Now that I have the painting just about done. I think it is starting to look good.

This is the crank case.

This is the base plate. 

This was the top plate and cank plate.

Well now on to the crank shaft.

Metal chips & magnets

I was in need of something to pick up all of the metal chips in my shop so came up with this handy tool.

What I did was I took a board and nine hard drive magnets and came up with a magnetic broom.

I used the magnet mounting holes and some recycled screws to screwed them to a 1"X 2" about 12 inches long. Then cut off a clear cover from a 3 ring binder and screwed on the side of the board. After that I folded it over and stuck a small bit of Velcro on the back and it was done!



Now I can pick up metal chips and pull off the clear cover over the trash and it makes for easy clean up!

50'-60' Era Jig Saw Project

So I picked up this 50'-60' Era Jig Saw from flea market at a steam show I went to. I've always wanted a Jig Saw and for $5 Bucks I couldn't pass it up. Its all steel and American made! I think with a little TLC it will be back in working order in no time.

It is belt driven the pulley is bent I will have to get a new one and a motor to run it too. But some oil paint and a couple of new parts it will run for another 40 years.

These were the only to markings on it. The one on the top is marked DEERE, I was thinking John Deere the number on the side not sure what that's for, I tried googleing it no luck.

Update to the Soldering fume extractor project

This is an update to the Soldering fume extractor project. I added some white LED's to see what I'm working on. I salvaged the white LED's from broken led lamp that someone gave me.

I finely figured out what to make the base out of a friend of mine gave me a 4" steel roller from some type of machine I cut off a chunk with my band saw and drilled and taped a hole in the center to mount the arm to. I've found quite a bit use out of that roller never pass up free metal!

I also added a power supply and a on and off switch. Every thing on this project salvaged now I need to find a charcoal fish filter to hang on the back.

DIY coupon organizer's!

So I had allot of coupons laying around and not organized at all. Ya lets get real, I have a lot of stuff just laying around but coupons are a pain. When you go to the store there falling out of the cart your pocket you never know what you have and ya I could pay for a nice one at the checkout lane at the store, but you know me by now if your read this blog, I'm not buying one. I have way too much laying around I can just make one for free.

Step one free folder from some vendor catalog.

Step two some free CD protectors from some old software that has been upgraded. 

Step three cut them down so they fit the folder.

Step four put in folder and label each one section tab by type of coupons.

Step five the ones you cutoff to make it fit into the folder punch a hole through one corner  and take an old key ring with a clip and put it through the hole.

Now you can organize them at home take out the ones you want for your shopping trip and put it in your key ring holder and snap it to your cart and now your organize and doing something with that stuff just laying around your house. Final cost just time.

DIY Emergency Lights

So I've been thinking about building some emergency lights for the basement for a while now. I was just at a conference and scored some jumbo white LED's from a DIY led throwies build and figured it was time to build the lights. A quick trip to the junk box for a few parts like some washers,nuts,screws,threaded rod,some angle iron and a light reflector from an old broken garden solar light.    

I figured I could screw them floor joist's in the basement so if the power goes out during a storm and we had to take shelter we could have light.

Now I need to get power to them a little wire and some screw terminals and little Perf board.

 So there up now for a test run!

We have light! It's just the right amount of light to see in the basement and it will run for a vary long time in a extended power outage. Now I just need a automatic switch to turn them on during a power outage well I guess will have to think about that for a wile and check the junk box. Not bad for 0 dollars! 

DIY Junk Box Flashlight

I decided to do this project because I wanted a small but vary bright flashlight, so that I could use to use up all the old smoke detector 9V batterys.  I change them every New year so I have a good supply of half dead batterys. This is what I came up with 3 white LEDs a chunk of pc board and a top to a 9V battery and some hot glue and some solder.

Soldering fume extractor project

I've been doing allot of small electronics projects lately that require a fair amount of soldering. So I figured that it was about time I got a fume extractor until i saw the price. They ran any where from $36 to $400 bucks. So once again I'm going down the build it your self road. I started by looking through the junk box and I found a few parts i could use.

I needed a fan since that was basically what the project was all about, I found an old brush less ATX computer fan 12V Dc, and a old early 90's styled bag cell phone hand set car Mount to mount the fan on. I also found a computer power switch with led power on indicator lights I figured I could replace the led's with bright white led's for lights to see what I'm working on and use the switch to turn on the fan.

To mount the fan I needed to design a bracket to attach the fan to the cell phone bracket. I had a friend who is a sheet metal guy make it he soldered small tab on the bottom not sure why he didn't make it from one peace?

A little sheet metal and a few brass crews and we have a mounting bracket!

Next I mounted the power switch and the led lights on the bracket I still need to get another white led.

Now with the fan controls and lights mounted its time to work on the base and power supply.

So stay toon for the next installment of the Soldering fume extractor project!!!

Handy tool you can make your self!

I saw this at one of those old time country stores so i took a picture with my phone and went to work making one. It is made from a miss dig marker flag, I twisted it around a 1 1/2" pipe to make the end then twisted it tight for a few inches. I took a peace that i cut off before i twisted it around the pipe and twisted it around a pencil to make the slider. Then i took it off the penile and slide it over the two straight ends after the twist. then you take a pair of pliers and bend small loops for grippers and that's it your done! now you ask what is it? well take a guess.

Make your own oil lamps for your deck!

I found this one on another blog called (Judy of the woods) she is a bit strange, but she is doing some cool stuff like this oil lamp. It's made from a salsa jar I had and the wick holder is a piece of copper from some house wire the wick is just string. The oil is just veg oil from the kitchen that had gone past it's use by date. I put a link to Judy's blog in my blog list, she has pretty good how to on how to make it on her blog. I will give you a hint though use a bobby pin to pull the wick through. Also another hint if you make the handle to fit in the jar you can put a lid on it to snuff the flame, plus if you want to store it out side it keeps water and dirt out of it.


You can see the difference between the two pictures here, ones out and the others is in the jar. By the way no I didn't fix first one I made another one. There vary handy out on the deck at night.

You can do it with out a handle but if you want to take it out and replace the wick or light it, it's easier with a handle. That's what the tool in my other post the (Handy tool you can make your self!) was for.