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There are always new people interested in woodworking, and often these are younger people who have an interest in learning how to do woodworking and the best way of teaching them is getting them involved in making something. In the past I have made bird houses, and they are fine, but more recently I discovered another project that is still quite easy, but this one gives the woodworking student something to take away and something they can use in the future ... their very own tool tote.
It's easy to make, can be made with power tools or hand tools, there are many different designs, sizes and methods of making these all of them have their own unique advantages and perfect build for helping to teach newcomers to woodworking some of the finer techniques and methods
A Tool Tote Teaching Task
I prefer to use Pine, or some other softwood as it is lighter in weight, so less to carry around. Softwoods are usually less expensive and easier to "work" than hardwoods, and if you make a mistake, it's not too costly to fix or replace. What's nice with this design is it doesn't take all that long to make, the tote works great and you can use a wide variety of tools in making and assembling it.
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Here I am back at the annual "Tractor and Industrial Swap Meet" and as usual you never really know what is going to be for sale at these events until you attend them. Last year I picked up a great little woodworking plane, this year, I left empty handed, but I still had fun snooping around and seeing all the different things for sale.
This year there was not the volume of woodworking tools but there was a nice variety of woodworking and re-finished furniture for sale that I often use for ideas on other pieces I might want to make.
One thing that did catch my eye this year was the use of iron and wood used together for tables, mirrors and other things, something I might experiment with in the future. There is something about mixing different kinds of mediums together that can make for some interesting furniture pieces.
2016 Tractor and Industrial Swap Meet
I am looking forward to the 2017 swap meet and in the mean time there are plenty more other swap meets around to take up my time and help cultivate new ideas ....
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There are many things that plastics can help us out with in the workshop from creating certain jigs to making new throat plates for your table saws. The nice thing about working with plastics is that you can pretty much use all you existing woodworking tools to cut drill and shape it into the form you need. There are a few things to know about working with plastics, like what bits and blades to use, but other than that, it's not difficult at all.
For our part, we are building a stand for our laser engraver that will have a place above the engraver for a laptop computer to sit. This will save us a lot of space by stacking the units rather than having them side by side.
Working with Plastics to Build an Engraver Stand
Working with plastics is fun and something different to do and for some projects, it's can be used to make special jigs or augment new or existing projects.
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Many musicians yearn to be different and unique and although a custom guitar stand might not improve their guitar playing techniques it will certainly be an eye-catching accessory. Custom guitar stands are not new but they are somewhat rare, at least compared to the hundreds of thousands of off-the-shelf versions that abound in the music industry.
In my case we are taking what, at first blush, appears to be the top end cut off Fender Stratocaster guitar, and manufactured into a guitar stand, and that is what it is supposed to look like.
How to Make a Custom Guitar Stand
Unable to find any kind of a plan for this project, I did start off my making a very rough mock-up to get some ideas of angles and shapes. I discovered that the backbone of the stand in the shape of an inverted "Y" was an easy and strong solution.