UNIQUE PVC FRAME & WOODEN TOP BED

UNIQUE BED WITH PVC FRAME

Hi All,

I wish to share with you a UNIQUE project of a quick, half a Day work of a bed, with nice wooden top and frame made of 1.5" PVC pipes and PVC fittings. Top is clamped to the frame. This design and build is a creation of one of my dear friend and trainee-mate during the 6 week Training Programme at AWTC, Bangalore. His name is Raghu Rao, and he is too modest to give any publicity to his work. Being a friend, i managed to get his permission to post and share the details with Forum Members.   

I liked it very much is the innovation of the design, and simplicity of its build, with basic tools and basic skills. I am sharing the photo of the BED, when it was dry fitted, and it was too high, subsequently the height was reduced by 6", making it a nice perfect bed. Now, it is normal single Bed dimensions of 75" X 36" X 18". One can cut PVC pipe with a hack saw or a coping saw and use the joiners with PVC cement. For top, if no woodworking need to be done, then one can buy a ready Block board Door of 36" wide and 75" high. and do only sanding and polishing/painting/varnish, depending upon choice and budget.

KADAMBI 

HOME BUILT - FESTOOL STYLE Multi Functional Table mounted on 8020 extrusions of  45mmX45mm

I wish to share the latest project I have just finished, it is Festool Style MFT with a 20mm holes on the entire table top of 48* X 27" on a 4" square grid. The boring of all these holes was done with a 20mm Carbide Forstner Bit, after carefully drawing a perfect 4" grid on a 19mm MDF board. This board is mounted on a 45mm square 8020 extrusion, which has mitre corners, so that the clamps and other connectors can be inserted from all corners. The 20mm dia holes would take all bench dogs of 20mm and also those plastic clamping pieces which come with Black and Decker Workmate, in combination with Festool Special MFT clamps (which are sold in India my Hefele India Ltd. 

It is pretty simple to make, as long as one takes great care while drawing the 4" grid on the table top (festool uses 96mm grid, as it is cut with CNC or multiboring machines, which have got 32mm spacing between two boring heads (centre to centre), I choose to make 100mm grid, as it is easier to mark exact 100mm and the boring is done manually. You have a choice of making with a router or a vertical drill stand. As I was not sure of safety of using a carbide Forstner bit on a router, I used my Einhell Red 18volts Li Ion cordless Impact Drill. You can also make a acrylic template of say 10mm thickness having a grid of 5x5 holes or 3x5 holes and keep boring thro the template. As I am making just one table top, i did not go thro the template route, instead spent lot of time, carefully drawing the grid and punching the centre hole on all points of intersection of 4" spaced lines on X and Y axis and bored each hole, by carefully parking the centre tip of the Forstner bit on the punched hole and keeping the drill vertical with the help of a T square held next to its body.

These are the few photos showing the home made MFT and also some items clamped on it using Festool, special MFT clamps and Workmate bench dogs.

HOME BUILT SCROLL SAW WITH 
EINHELL RED JIG SAW RT-JS 85

Jig Saw is quite versatile for any contour cutting and even straight cutting of small pieces and thin material, which is not possible with either a handheld circular saw or on a table saw similar to what i have built and shared on this blog. 

But, many times i found that, I was unable to turn the Jigsaw at the right moment and right angle or arc, resulting in ruining the design I was planning. This I realised, could be solved if I mount the Jigsaw similar to my mounting my circular saw into a table saw mode, so that it would be much easier for me to move and feed the wooden piece on to the cutting blade and i can see all the time, the entire design i am cutting.

So I decided to mount it, but having a dedicated table top (with box beneath, as dust collection module to which i hook up my vacuum (please see my table saw blog for details), i decided that i would mount the jigsaw on a insert plat (similar to router insert plate) and would insert it on a box top. the same box top, can be used for various other tools, i am planning to mount, to free both my hands for manoeuvring the wood than the machine. (next in line would be my belt sander, my 82mm power planner, angle grinder and ofcourse a router)

I decided to use a bamboo kitchen cutting board of 15"X 9" and cost me just Rs.190/-, I have purchased four such boards for my various other tool mounting.  I routed a recess, to snug fit the aluminum caste base of my jigsaw, the recess was exactly of the same depth as the thickness of base plate (12mm) and the cutting board is 19mm thick. This I have done, to bring the firmly clamped part of the blade, as close as possible to the mounting plate surface, so that, while cutting the blade would remain firm and straight enough to give a true cut @ 90 degree to surface. Overarm with a clamp to hold the tip of the jigsaw blade is also in the making and i would install it so that the entire blade would remain straight while moving up and down. 

I used the two threaded knob base of the jigsaw for fixing a parallel guide to fasten the jigsaw from the insert plate top (with counter sinking) and to ensure firm clamping, also used a washer and a wing nuts and at the rear, drilled a centralised hole on the base the fastened it similarly. The following picture would make it very clear and no further build details need to be given. I have shown the mounted jigsaw just clamped as the box to receive this as insert plate is in the making as on date. 

Nothing new or innovative, but I wished to share so that others can adopt a few features which may be unique the way it is mounted etc.  Happy DIYing.

  

UPDATE ON MY SHOP BUILT TABLE SAW (WITH CIRCULAR SAW)

hi,

I have finished mounting a 8mm malamine top to my top mounted table saw and trimmed, the edges with my Hitachi Fixed based router with a cutting board subbase (fully detailed in my blog) and is ready. The malimine top is American Walnut finish. Now i would be mounting my fence made of 8020 aluminum extrusion and also a cross cut sled, which would slide on the sides of the table, that is why i did not make any mitre slots on the table top. I would share the photos of fence and cross cut sled soon.

SHOW CASES OF GLASS AND WOOD IN THE WALL ALCOVES IN LIVING ROOM

GLASS AND WOOD SHOWCASES IN THE WALL ALCOVES IN OUR LIVING ROOM:

Frame and vertical sections made of 18mm plywood with teak beading and horizontal shelves are 6mm glass fixed with chrome plated brass clamps. The design highlight is only vertical sections are wood, all horizontal shelves are 6mm glass with rounded edges, mounted on brass holders, screwed to wooden parts of the showcase.  Yet another feature is both the showcases are mirror to each other, one is the shape of S and another in the shape of Z. 

-- ALPHA-ZEE CREATIONS

LARGE BOOK-SHELF AND GLASS & S.S. STEEL SHOW CASE, BELOW THE STAIRS OF OUR HOME, WHICH WAS JUST WASTED, TILL I BUILT THESE:

We have Double “L” stairs, at one end of our double height living room, connecting ground and first levels. The space under the steps, was vacant and was not put to any use, since 2000, when the house was built. I wished to use that space, to the maximum, with a combination of storage underneath.

The 3’ X 3’ space under the second landing, has full 7’ clearance and I decided to put a glass and steel showcase for my numerous curios and the space of around 3’ X 7’ with varying heights leading to the second landing, i have designed and built a Book Shelf. The shelf was built with frame of 18mm plywood and shelves of 12mm plywood with half round wooden beading, fixed on all edges.

Entire lower portion of about 30” X 7’ is divided in two sections with shelves inside, where my collection of music CDs and DVDs are stored. This part has 12mm shutter doors with teak veneered plywood and upper portion is open shelves of different fancy sizes to house my collection of books and curios. Open shelves are painted with white enamel with satin pink colored beading, frame beading is polished mahogany strain, and shutters strained with natural teak shade.

Entire shelf, rests on 4 large stainless steel legs of 4” height. I choose this kind of legs instead of a platform, to facilitate pulling out the shelf, for cleansing to keep the space below stairs free from any insects etc.

-- ALPHA-ZEE CREATIONS

ANOTHER WEEKEND QUICK PROJECT : MAKE YOUR OWN ROUTER SUB-BASE:

All the router bases either round or mostly circular with one straight edge, would have a plastic subbase, fixed to router with 3 or 4 screws. When we plan to trim the edges of table tops, cabinets etc, half the base would not have support, that poses, risk of not able to focus on the cut, as great skill and hand control is needed to guide the trim bit, either cloakwise and anti-cloakwise, depending upon the job, becomes little tricky. and also while routing a rabeted pocket for mounting tools, clamps etc, the small router base of around 5" to 6" diameter is inadequate.

There is a need for making our sub base, which would give us greater control on such tasks, which is larger and also quickly allow us to clamp it homebuilt subbase to our workbench, so that we would have a router table, in a jiffy. 

Keeping in mind this, i was exploring various materials and evaluating it and one day while in the kitchen, i noticed the strong Nylon cutting board which is around 10mm thick and 400x250mm in dimension. I thought, why not I use a Nylon cutting board, which is quite strong and had a non slippery matt surface. So, in the evening i went to a neighbourhood shop who sells kitchenware and brought a Nylon cutting board, after due examination to check for dimension & flatness and got one and removed the small plastic subbase of my Hitachi Fixed Base Router and mounted the router after marking and drilling the screw positions and countersinking for screw heads, after carefully marking the dead centre for the mounting and cut a 30mm round hold in the centre with my Drill Press with a Forstner Drill bit. I choose 30mm for the hold size, as i have full range of Bronze guide bushes of various dimensions which  can be fixed in the hole with a locking threaded nut of the set.

Here are the two photographs of the final mounted Router. Total cost: a princely sum of Rs.300 for the Nylon cutting board.  I have retained the contoured handle of the cutting board, so that, i can comfortable lift the router mounted on the board and also hold it while doing edge trimming etc.

ONE MORE BONUS, WHEN I BUILD MY ROUTER TABLE, THIS CUTTING BOARD MOUNTED ROUTER WOULD BE JUST INSERTED INTO THE TOP OF ROUTER TABLE, WITH APPROPRIATE CUT OUT AND REBATING FOR MAKING THE CUTTING BOARD, SIT FLUSH WITH TABLE TOP.