65 - Our Best Bench Yet, страница 4

TIPS & T E CHNIOUES

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Box Fan Filter J

■ Like a lot of woodworkers, I made a cheap air cleaner for dust in my shop by attaching a furnace filter to a box fan. I just set the fan on my workbench whenever I'm sanding. It works so well that I decided to make a more permanent air cleaner.

I mounted the fan overhead, attaching it to the floor joists in my shop, see drawing. (You could mount it to the rafters if you have a garage shop.) I made a couple of brackets that bolt to the sides of the fan.

A hardboard strip attached to the bottom of each bracket creates a ledge for supporting the furnace filter, see detail in drawing at right. The brackets then get screwed directly to the joists.

When it's turned on, the fan pulls the dusty air up and through the filter. The filtered air is then expelled into the cavity between the joists, where it can return to the shop. And

when the filter gets clogged up with dust, I just slide it out and blow it off, or replace it altogether.

Kevin McLaughlin Helena, Alabama*

Knock-Down Sawhorse Cutting Grid.

E3 Cutting down full sheets of plywood with a circular saw has always been a bit awkward. I usually lay the plywood sheet on supports on the floor and then have to crawl around to make the cut But recently, I came

up with a solution that makes the process a lot easier.

I made a simple cutting grid that fits over a pair of sawhorses, see drawing below. The grid is made up of interlocking strips of plywood.

The strips are all 4" wide. I cut two 8-foot long strips for the main rails and five Moot long strips for the cross rails. Then all the strips are notched so that they interlock to create a grid. I also notched the bottom edge of the long strips and the top edge of the sawhorses to hold the grid in place and keep it from moving.

The grid is assembled on top of the sawhorses by simply sliding the pieces together. Then I put the sheet of plywood I want to cut on top of the grid. I set the blade on my saw so that it cuts through the plywood and just barely starts to cut into the top edges of the grid. (If the rails get chewed up through use, it's a simple , matter to make some new ones.)

The nice thing about this cutting grid is that when I'm done using it I can simply disassemble it and stc^^

Jay Reichwein La Verne, California

it out of the way.

No. 65

ShopNotes

NOTE:

notches allow rails and cross rails to interlock

rail (4" x 96" -w plywood)

notch at ends of sawhorse to keep grid from sliding