DIY Disc Sander

Last year I bought an old DeWalt radial arm saw, and I broke the motor mount while trying to disassemble it. It looked like the aluminum casting had a void in it - and tapping on it with a hammer didn't help.

I figured I couldn't use the motor in the hanging orientation, but if I flipped it upside down it would still work for something. I drilled through the casting in a couple of places and put inset screws to make the mount solid.

I decided it would work well as a disc sander.

I bought a buffing plate from Harbor Freight for $4. I comes with the same 5/8" threaded arbor mount as the saw.

I put it on tight, then added the arbor nut to make sure it would stay that way. I mounted a 3/4" plywood disc to the plate and turned it until was well-balanced and just over 10" in diameter. It has almost no vibration, lending to a very heavy motor, mounted on a large plywood base.

I added a worktop with a 2" vacuum port. It's boxed-in around the disk to capture all the sawdust.

You really need dust collection on these, or you get quickly get a lot dust in the air. I made the table removable (of course), and also slightly adjustable. This way I can set the gap between the table and the pad to get the best vacuum. It's currently at about 3/16 and works great - no dust escapes. I have learned to leave some air gap when making vacuum baffles like this to keep the air velocity up.

The motor is 1/2 horsepower (10 amps / 120 volts) and 3400 RPM.

By my observation, and I've checked on it - older motors have a lot more actual power for the stated HP rating than new ones. Old ones where typically under-rated for the working power, and new ones are often a bit over-rated for "developed" power - apples and oranges. So a 60 year old 1/2 HP motor that runs well is going to be more like a 3/4 or 1 HP new motor. Just my opinion - buy old and buy American when ever you can.

For this set-up, the motor has all the power I will ever need. I can feed the end of a 2x4 into it with a lot of pressure and it won't bog down.

The RPM is about double that of a typical commercial model, although you can buy them in this configuration. There are two issues: power and speed of material removal. As I said, I have no trouble with power. I like the high-speed material removal - I have a 60 grit pad on there and that's what I'm looking for.

Here's a short video showing how it works (my first video)...

It grinds away the stick about as fast as I can feed it. There is absolutely no dust with the vacuum system on.

Costs: I'm calling the cost of this project $13, since the motor was left over from another project.
- Electrical parts: $3
- Sanding discs $6
- Buffing plate $4

Door Horses

I'm building a number of doors for the beach house, and I wanted to avoid the problem of not holding them solidly while I routed for the hinges. In the past, I've clamped them to my workbench or regular saw horses, but they still moved around a bit.

I looked online for door holders, and most of them were too complex. They have clamp assemblies or wedges at the bottom, which seems to be overkill and too specialized. Here is an example:

You can hold a door with that thing, but not much of anything else.

I decided to go a simpler route, making heavy duty T-shaped stands - door horses - and they work great.

The bottom's are 4x6 and the posts are 4x4. These were leftovers from the shop build that have been sitting in the corner for quite a while. They are joined with dado's, glue and a few 4" deck screws.

I need to do a post on my "dado machine" - an industrial 1950's Dewalt radial arm saw with a dedicated dado blade on it. It makes it very easy and quick to cut slots and dados.

Theses are fairly heavy and hold the doors really well. I could have just as easily make them from 2x4's glued and screwed together. It would have taken three or four 2x4's - about $10.

I hold the doors with clamps at the top and that's plenty of support. If needed to, I could move them to the ends of the door and clamp the bottoms as well. I could also hold full sheets of plywood this way.

I thought about drilling holes so I could put dowels in to raise the door up, but I don't think it's needed. If I want the doors higher, I can cut a couple of blocks and clamp them to the posts.

Crosscut Sled Safety Label

I just built a new crosscut sled for my table saw. This must be number 10 or higher - I use them all the time. Sometimes my kids (late teens, early twenties) use them as well, and I'm kind of fanatical about their safety (and my own).

So here is my safety label, using red paint:

It might be a little graphic, but it has caught everyone's attention immediately when they set the sled on the table.

I may also put a wooden blade guard on the back of it, but I want them to be thinking about safety regarding the blade when it's doing the cutting in the body of the sled as well.

I might write DANGER on it...

Thickness Planer Upgrade

In all my years of woodworking, I've never had a thickness planer. I've always cut stock down on my table saw, then jointed it to get it flat. Now that I've had one for a few months, I can't figure out why I didn't buy one a long time ago. It's a big time-saver over my old method, and it produces better results.

I found an older 12" Delta on Craigslist for $100. The guy had owned it for a number of years, and never even changed the blades once - so it didn't have a lot of use. I figured it was hard to go wrong for that price.

I found a great video series on YouTube showing the full tear-down and rebuild of the planer, plus blade replacements and a feed table upgrade by ghostses:

After replacing the blades, which was fairly easy with the blade jig I bought for $20 on ebay, I decided to build a feed table.

I built it out of HDO plywood - High Density Overlay - which is smooth, durable and makes a great surface for sliding material over. I mounted the planer to a simple cart make of 2x4's, OSB, and MDF cut-offs.

It's a very straightforward design: a sheet of material bolted to the in-feed and out-feed tables on the planer.

The idea of the feed-table is that it supports the stock enough to get rid of snipe at the end of the board. It did reduce it, but I still get a little bit. The way I deal with it is to run boards through the planer continuously, and run a final scrap piece at the end that gets the snipe.

I'm probably going to add a fold-up table at the end, so long boards don't fall to the ground after being planed.

All said, the feed table is worth the time to install. The stock ends up being smoother and flatter, and it's easier to manage the lumber coming out the back.

Changing Jointer Blades Using Magnets

I have a simple Harbor Freight 6" jointer. Typically I would not by a power tool like this from them, but it had a number of very positive independent reviews, and cost less than half of anything else - so I gave it a shot.

I've had it for about 5 years, I use it all the time, and only have positive things to say about it's performance. Changing the blades is another story. I always dread replacing them, because it takes quite a while to get everything aligned.

I found a simple method that works works really well, using a couple of magnetic tool bars.

Before removing the old blade, I marked the highest point of the cutter head on a speed square. Anything flat object would work for this.

I pull out the old blade and put in a new one, aligning it to the mark. I set the bars on the out-feed side of the jointer, and they hold the blade in alignment to it. This sets the blades at the right position for cutting. I tighten the two inner bolts, remove the bars, then tighten the two outer bolts.

It takes about 5 minutes per blade.

These magnets are really strong, which I think is the key. They hold the blades tight with no slipping while I'm tightening the bolts. You can buy a magnetic jig for this at about $30, but these were already in my shop - and cost $4 a piece on sale.

Harbor Freight no longer sells jointers, or replacement blades. I found a set online that works fine:
POWERTEC 148030 6-Inch HSS Jointer Knives for $15 a set on Amazon. I'm going to try to sharpen my old ones, but I don't want to take the time to do that right now.

Workshop Carts

I bought a couple of cheap saws for doing remodeling at the beach house. They work OK, but they aren't very functional if I just set them on the nearest flat surface. The biggest problem is lack of support for larger boards and plywood, especially on the table saw.

I decided they needed to be mounted to work carts, and those carts needed to be mobile - including rolling them out on to the gravel driveway. Casters and gravel don't mix, so I decided to make them "push cart" style with bigger wheels and handles.

Here is the table saw:

I added a fold-up wing on the right for plywood and to hold stock while I'm working.

I made these out of extra wood I had sitting around the shop, which kind of dictated the design.  I made the frames from a stack of 1x6 Doug Fir that was just one step above fire wood. I ripped these into 2.5" strips - both sturdy and light weight. I added 1/2" plywood tops.

The second cart is for the miter saw. I added a fold-up wing on this one for longer boards. When I put the carts next to each other, the table saw out-feed supports the other end of the boards. This makes a fairly effective work center.

I had space on the back side of the miter fence, so I attached a grinder, battery charger and power strip. Also, the storage shelf behind the table saw is where I keep the skill saw.

This was the first weekend I used them, and I'm really happy with the results. It took me less than 5 minutes to roll them out of the garage and set everything up - and the same amount of time to take it down and put it away.

I'm still thinking about an assembly table. I will just use sawhorses and plywood for the time being, but I may end up making a third cart.

Cart Cost: $24
- $20 for four 7" wheels at Harbor Freight
- $4 for lag bolts to hold the wheels
- Everything else was cut-offs and scrap.