How to work wood and SAVE MONEY

[johnelliott]

Time we big spenders put forward some of our ideas on how to do woodworking tasks without expensive machines.

Here's the first of mine-

When I first started making guitar necks, years ago, I needed to thickness pieces of maple, approximately 900mm long and 100m wide. No money for a planer thicknesser and no space either.

I did have a 1/4 router, though, so this is what I did. Sorry, no pics. I made a table big enough to hold the maple blanks, then attached two pieces of steel to form rails above the level of the wood. Then I mounted the router on another two rails which bridged across the table rails. I fitted a 25mm face cutter to the router

To use the device, I fixed the maple so that the top face was sort of parallel to the table. Then I skated the router to and fro across the wood and skimmed it til it was flat. Then I turned it over and fixed the blank flat to the table. Skim the other side and, if carefully done, one perfectly thicknessed piece of maple!

I would then let the wood settle for a couple of days before the final skims. The results were at least as good as could be obtained with a planer thicknesser

I shall look forward to reading other poster's methods for bypassing the big spending route to woodworking (I realise that we have already had a good many of these eg Tony's thread on modifying circular saws)

John

 

[Alf]

Time we big spenders put forward some of our ideas on how to do woodworking tasks without expensive machines.

Hand tools

That was easy. Next? :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Philly]

Good idea John!
Come on-let's hear your top tips.
Philly

 

[Waka]

Not sure about machines, quality hand tools are not cheap.

 

[George_N]

Time we big spenders put forward some of our ideas on how to do woodworking tasks without expensive machines.

Here's the first of mine-

When I first started making guitar necks, years ago, I needed to thickness pieces of maple, approximately 900mm long and 100m wide. No money for a planer thicknesser and no space either.

I did have a 1/4 router, though, so this is what I did. Sorry, no pics. I made a table big enough to hold the maple blanks, then attached two pieces of steel to form rails above the level of the wood. Then I mounted the router on another two rails which bridged across the table rails. I fitted a 25mm face cutter to the router

To use the device, I fixed the maple so that the top face was sort of parallel to the table. Then I skated the router to and fro across the wood and skimmed it til it was flat. Then I turned it over and fixed the blank flat to the table. Skim the other side and, if carefully done, one perfectly thicknessed piece of maple!

I would then let the wood settle for a couple of days before the final skims. The results were at least as good as could be obtained with a planer thicknesser

I shall look forward to reading other poster's methods for bypassing the big spending route to woodworking (I realise that we have already had a good many of these eg Tony's thread on modifying circular saws)

John

There is something similar described in "Woodworking with the router" by Bill Hylton. In the book he says it's fine for small amounts of timber but not really feasible for larger amounts. I guess guitar neck blanks would come into the small category but I wouldn't want to do a kitchen's worth of cabinet doors by that method.

cheers

George

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Ok, here goes.

If you need an overhead routing facility and you have a Trend T3 or, iirc, the small Bosch you can remove the body and fit it into the Faithfull heavy duty drill stand. It cost about 33 inc. vat.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Paul Chapman]

Ok, here goes.

If you need an overhead routing facility and you have a Trend T3 or, iirc, the small Bosch you can remove the body and fit it into the Faithfull heavy duty drill stand. It cost about 33 inc. vat.

Cheers
Neil

Or any drill stand with the standard collar size (think it's 43mm) - I have the Record drill stand, which is very solid.

Paul

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Paul

Or any drill stand with the standard collar size (think it's 43mm) - I have the Record drill stand, which is very solid.

I didn't know the Record stand worked as well.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Paul Chapman]

Two more.

Cramp heads mounted on a suitable wooden bar - much cheaper (and some of us would say as good or better :wink: ) than expensive sash cramps.

If you have a hand-held circular saw, many of which have a flimsy, not very precisely made, pressed metal base, you can improve it by cutting out and screwing on a sub-base made out of, say, 10mm MDF. Make sure the sides are parallel with the blade. Go over the sub-base with wax polish to make it moisture resistant and glide nicely. The MDF sub base is also kinder to metal guide clamps if you use them. You could also cut slots in the sub-base and make up some adjustable fences - which would be more accurate than the sort of fence usually supplied with these saws.

Paul

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Paul

Or any drill stand with the standard collar size (think it's 43mm) - I have the Record drill stand, which is very solid.

I didn't know the Record stand worked as well.

Cheers
Neil

Not used mine with a router, Neil, but see no reason why it would not work as well as most tools nowadays have the standard collar size.

Paul

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Paul

....as most tools nowadays have the standard collar size.

I tried either four of five before I found one that worked. :lol:

Cheers
Neil

 

[Newbie_Neil]

John asked, "How to work wood and save money".

There can only be one answer, don't go to woodworking shows with Philly. In fact, don't go anywhere with him. :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Neil

PS Sorry Phil, but I couldn't resist.

 

[builderchad]

I have just started getting into making my own tools. This is mostly for the interest value but the cost savings are also attractive.

I am currently in the middle of a small bowsaw (to be used as a coping saw) because I have never been happy with the metal ones. I also have all the metal parts lined up for a frame saw which I will use for resawing. I do have a bandsaw but it cost £300 and will only do 200mm max cut hieght. My frame saw blade teeth are 540mm long so with the right technique should be able to resaw quite near that width given that you need a little bit of a stroke.

The initial cost has been quite high because I needed to make those one time purchases like a tap & die set. Other things will do for several projects like blueing agent for the metal components etc.

I am taking pictures of each step of the builds and will post complete walkthroughs in the projects forum eventually.

The real savings I am looking forward to are from making my own planes from scratch. Beech is relatively cheap and ideal for planes. The only real cost will be the blades but those will still be a lot cheaper than a decent quality plane and theres nothing wrong with using low end Japanese blades which are good quality for the price. Looking at some peoples collections I can't even begin to imagine how much it would cost to replace 200+ specialised planes.

 

[Alf]

one time purchases like a tap & die set.

If you're making tools I doubt you'll find a tap and die set is a one time purchase.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Paul Chapman]

Hi Paul

....as most tools nowadays have the standard collar size.

I tried either four of five before I found one that worked. :lol:

Cheers
Neil

Blimey, Neil, are their manufacturing tolerances that bad these days :shock: I bought my Record drill stand soon after they introduced it, which was many years ago, and it's been fine. One of my best purchases.

Paul

 

[ike]

Alf wrote:

If you're making tools I doubt you'll find a tap and die set is a one time purchase.

If you mean as in wearing out, all cheapo sets are carbon steel and will quickly oblige. My money saving tip is don't buy the set - buy individual taps/dies as required, as many of the sizes in a typical set probably will never get used.

Buy HSS ones (like Dormer etc)from the local engineering supplies. They should last a very long time (unless you break them).

Ike

 

[Colin C]

Make my own carving tools from old drill bits
I will be showing all how to soon when I have time to start a new one.
Ps there dont take long and come up at about 10p - 50p for the the bits ( car boots)

 

[Paul Chapman]

Make my own carving tools from old drill bits
I will be showing all how to soon when I have time to start a new one.
Ps there dont take long and come up at about 10p - 50p for the the bits ( car boots)

And they are very good. I'm the lucky owner of one of Colin's hand-made carving tools \/

Paul

 

[Colin C]

Hi Paul
I did not think you would miss that one :wink:

 

[Philly]

John asked, "How to work wood and save money".

There can only be one answer, don't go to woodworking shows with Philly. In fact, don't go anywhere with him. :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Neil

PS Sorry Phil, but I couldn't resist.

Yeah, you got that right! :lol:
Also, don't forget Waka :wink:
Philly the bad Influence