WOODWORKING
* SHEET SAND PAPER CUTTER FOR 1/4 and 1/2 SHEET SANDERS —
Using a hack saw blade, a few washers and a piece of plywood, I made a sheet sand paper cutter, which makes cutting quarter and half sheets of sand paper a breeze.
(1) I laid a piece of sand paper on a piece of plywood slightly larger than the sandpaper. The grist side should be down, against the plywood. In doing so, I oriented the sandpaper and plywood like I would an 8x10 piece of writing paper for writing.
(2) I drew a horizontal line, which bisected the length of the sandpaper into two equal sections.
(3) Using a felt tip pen, I traced around the sandpaper. This provides an easy reference for positioning all future pieces of sandpaper for initial cutting.
(4) I laid a hack saw blade flat over the sandpaper, aligning the teeth against the the horizontal line drawn in a previous step.
(5) I place a flat washer under each of the mounting holes in the hacksaw blade. Depending on the thickness of the washer, you may have to add a second for ease of use of the cutter.
(6) Holding the hacksaw and sandpaper so they do not shift from the perimeter line you’ve drawn, or from the horizontal line the blade is aligned with, secure the saw blade to the plywood.
(7) Still holding the sandpaper in place, tear the sandpaper in half by pulling from a corner such that the center of the sandpaper is torn by the teeth of the hacksaw.
(8) Take one of the halves of the piece of sandpaper and draw another horizontal line. This line should, again, bisect the longest dimension.
(9) Slide the pieced of sandpaper under the hacksaw blade so that the teeth again align with the horizontal line.
(10) Holding the half sheet with the horizontal line aligned with the teeth of the blade, draw around the half sheet with the felt tip such that when you remove it, its patter remains on the plywood, within the first, larger pattern.
(11) Still holding the sandpaper in this position, again pull from a corner such that the sandpaper is torn by the saw blade teeth.
You now have a quarter sheet cutting tool and can cut a stack of sandpaper into quarter sheets for your pad sander in just a few minutes.
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* CORNER CLAMPING AIDS —
I made several corner clamp aids using scrap wood and ninety degree metal brackets like those used for construction. These give something to clamp to when pulling boxes into square. I merely glue the wood at ninety degrees using an accurate square, then apply the brackets to both sides for strength.
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* SAWDUST PATCH —
I used sawdust on wet paint to hide the edges of a patch on painted rough wood. After playing just a bit, no one knew a eight inch by eight inch hole had existed, where once there had been a dryer duct.
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* BURNISHING TOOL — I looked all around town for a burnishing tool for my wood scrapers, but couldn’t find one. When I finally did, they were way over priced, at around twenty dollars for a piece of iron with a handle. After some investigation, I learned a burnishing tool was just a rod of very hard iron. So is a round cold chisel. Now I use a two dollar cold chisel from Harbor Freight to put a burr on the edges of my scrapers. It works as well as the expensive ones.
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* PAINT EQUIPMENT STORAGE — An airless or remote pot for an HVLP is an expensive investment and needs special care for storage, to avoid freezing or moisture that can cause rust, even on stainless steel. When I put my airless away for any period of time, I pump it full of a mixture of oil, paint thinner (+/_ 25%), lacquer thinner (+/_ 5%) and rubbing alcohol (+/_ 10%). The thinners help clean the system of build-up of any paint and the alcohol mixes with both water and oil. Of course, the oil keeps things lubricated.