57 - A Shop-Built Pin Router, страница 5

TIPS & TECHNIQUES

Quick Tips

A Instead of throwing out dried-up tubes of silicone caulk, Donald Schwegman of Grove, OK uses the material for cleaning sanding drums.

Sander Platform

mm

A For a quick, inexpensive chuck key holder, Terry Ferber of Upper Saddle River, NJ fastens a piece of coiled copper wire to his drill press.

A Before putting fasteners in his nail pouch, Greg Goforth of Ottawa, Ontario places them in resealable plastic bags to keep them organized.

■ Several years ago, I constructed a large bookcase project that had fifty shelves. I used a finishing sander to sand the shelves. But I quickly became annoyed at having to turn off the sander and wait for it to stop vibrating before I could set it down to Fpick up the next shelf. I tried simply setting the sander down on its side without turning it off, but the vibrations would cause it to fall off the bench onto the floor. Finally, I came up with a better solution.

I created a small platform for my sander. It's just a piece of hardboard with a few scrap pieces glued to the top to create a "holding pen." A piece of berber carpet is glued down to the

hardboard, inside the "fenced" area.

The platform just sits on top of my workbench (you can clamp it to the workbench if you want). When I want to set down my sander, I just place it on top of the carpeted area, without turning it off.

The carpet absorbs the vibrations of the sander and keeps it from jumping off the bench. But there are other benefits as well. The fibers of the carpet actually help clean dust and debris off the sandpaper. And since I'm not constantly switching the sander off and on, I've noticed that my sanders last a lot longer.

Hal Brown Morrisville, North Carolina

Locking Arms.

■ I built Randy Hoy's portable workbench from issue No. 53. The only thing I didn't like about it was that when transporting or storing the bench you had to keep it flat or the legs would fall out. So I added a couple of arms that swing over the legs and hold them in place. Each arm is just a piece of ^"-thick hardwood that pivots on a screw. A notch k in the end of the arm allows it to lock over a second screw, see drawing.

Joe O'Hara Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

No. 57

PIVOT SLOTTED ARM #& x 1¹/₂" Ph TO HOLD LEGS

WOODSCREW IN PLACE

WASHER

^_

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