Quick and easy nightstand

On By zenoIn Indoor furniture3 Comments

Hey ! This project is about making a nice nightstand very fast in just a few steps.

In order to speed up the work I’ve used prefacbricated  pine wood panels ( 40 cm x 200 cm ). All you have to do it’s just to cut the panels to right lengt and then to assembly the cabinet with some dowels,  most probably the quicked way to join pannels.

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Once all the pannels were done, I’ve screwed the drawer hardware (it’s easier at this stage) and glued all toegheter.

I’ll skip the drawer making part, it’s nothing fency about it, I’ve just a standard lock rabbet technique.

Regarding drawers, I’ve payed a special attention to the drawer pulls, I do not like the old fashion traditional pulls so I’ve designed a  new “trendy” drawer pulls. The idea was to have an oval inset which holds the pulls. Precision is very importat at this stage so I’ve used the CNC machine to cut the oval and the pullers as well, but you can use a router for oval and handcut for the pulls.

I’ve very pleased about the result, I think it looks very original !

AFter putting all togheter and applying a couple of varnish the night stand is ready, voila!

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Lego (wood) man is back !

On By zenoIn ToysLeave a comment

Hey Guys ! Kids always likes lego figures so in this post I’ll show you how to build a  “lego man” out of wood. It’s jsut a fun project so I’ve used some leftover pine wood from the shop.

I searched the web to find a right lego man right design  and then printed the 1:1 sketch  to A3 sheet. The ones from below looks quite handy.

lego design

After a fair amount of cutting and sanding I’ve manged to make the all the parts.

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To make the head I’ve rounded a piece of wood on the lathe, then assembled all piece togheter without any glue.

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To mark the eye I’ve used the Laser Engraved with tht rotary support.

… and here we go, the leg man is ready !

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Wooden Flower Pots

On By zenoIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hi ! I’m starting the new year with a couple of new projects. The first project from this series is a wooden flower pot. The pot basicaly is a wood bucket made out of 20 pieces of wood sticks. I’ve never made anything similar until now and I really had no idea how to cut the sticks at the right angle, but after a bit of research on youtube I’ve figured out that the technique is similar to barrel manufacturing and the secret lies in a proper jig.

Before jumping to the details let’s recap the theory first.

Requirements:

  • pot diameter = 200 mm
  • pot height = 220m
  • wood sticks no. = 20 pieces

Calculation:

  • wood sticks width = Diameter * PI / 20 pieces = 200 * 3.14 = 628 / 20 pieces = 31.4 mm
  • wood sticks angle = 360 degree / 20 / 2 = 18 / 2  = 9 degree  ( equivalent with 81 degree on the table saw)

Step 1 – preparing the wood stiks

First of all you have to cut 20 wood sticks at right width ( 31.4 mm)  and length (220 mm).

To ensure the grove for the bottom part I’d cut a ~8mm grove at the end of each wood stick at the same distance. It’s important to make this groves before cutting the wood sticks in angle.

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Step 2 – making the Jig

The role if the jig is to help you to cut both sides of the wood stick on the tabble saw. Without this jig there is no way to get it right. The jig has to be precise in order to get accurate result. You need two jigs, one to cut the first side and the second one to cut the other side of each wood stick. The second jig is bit different and taking in account that you already did the cut on other side.

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I’ve cut the left side of each sticks with jig1. After I’ve finished all the 20 pieces I’ve fliped over and cut the other side with jig2. To calibrate the angle  (9 degree) at the table saw I’ve used a digital angle measuring tool which can be atatched to the blade.

 

After all 20 pieces are cut you can move on to the bottom part. The pot is quite small so you can make the bottom from one single pieces of lumber. I’ve cut the circle on the band saw and then rounded  the edge on the lathe.

Step 3 – assembling

I haven’t used any glue just some metal braces in a similar way as it’s used in barrel manufacturing.

…and after a bit of sending the wooden flower pot is ready !

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Winter gifts

On By zenoIn AccessoriesLeave a comment

I’m a bit late with this post, but the truth is that I didn’t have time to write this blog.

These small gifts are very handy and easy to make if you own a laser engraver.

You have to choose carefully the branches, some of them may crack very bad after dries ( e.g. hardwood like cherry, beech…). I’ve picked birch wood for this project, it’s soft wood, looks nice has white bark and never cracks. If you still want to use hard wood make sure the wood is dry enough ( ~ 10-12 % humidity).

After cutting the wood slices you just have to resize the selected image in order to fit your workpiece. I’m using corel draw with laser engraving plugin for editing and engraving.

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I’ve used 400 mm /s engraving speed and 30% of the laser power (80W).

And in a few seconds the gifts is ready !

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Afer attaching a small string and a wooden ball it looks just amaizing.

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Clothes Drying Stand

On By zenoIn outdoor furnitureLeave a comment

Hi all! I haven’t posted for a while but now it’s time to get back to work.

This time I’ve made a clothes drying stand out of brich wood. The old one, made from metal pipe has broken so I had to make new one.

You need aporx. 7 meter of 2×4 cm stock. The frame size is 110 x 50 cm and the legs are 115 cm long. The frame joint has to be very strong because there will be lot of presure from the weight of the wet clothes so I ‘ve picked the handcut figner joint to do the job.

When glue the joints make sure to clamp everithing in square.

I’ve applied the same technique to build the two small frames, but for the legs I’ve used a classic tenon and mortis joint.

Once all the pieces were ready I’ve stained the wood and applied 2 coat of polyurethane varnish.

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Voala, here we go!  Simple, quick and easy.

Toothbrush support

On By zenoIn Interior AccessoriesLeave a comment

This project is quick guide for a toothbrush support to hold your toothbrush and toothpaste.  The support consists of a cylindrical wood cup which has an engraved image on the side.

Making the wood cup it’s a basic turning technique on the lathe so I’d rather focus on the CNC engraving part.This is my first CNC project where I’ll try to engrave a vector image to a cylinder using the CNC 4th rotary ax.

First I’ve created a cylinder block on the lathe, then mounted to the CNC chuck to do the engraving. Once this was done, I’ve mounted the  work piece back to the lathe and turned the central hole. It’s simple as that !

Forgot to mention that after the engraving was done I’ve put some dark oak stain over the image which I’ve sanded down later, hopping to have a better contrast of the shape. Unfortunately this was not the case, if you look carefully the stain destroyed a bit image. Anyway overall the support look good and I’ll do it better next time.

 

…  after a bit of sanding and finishing …

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Iphone Retro Audio Amplifier

On By zenoIn Iphone / Ipad AccessoriesLeave a comment

This post is quick tutorial describing how to make a retro audio ampifier for you mobile phone. The amplifier is passive so you do not need any electronics just the pice of wood. The project creates a replica of the Amplio product using beech wood instead of bamboo.

The amplifer is made of six 10 mm thick beech lumber layers. Each layers are cut out on the CNC router and then glued toegheter. The hole to fit mobile phone is a bit wider so you can use various mobile devices as long the speacker is at the bottom.

Cutting the layers on the CNC router

To have a perfect cut you need a CNC, otherwise you’ll have to build diferent templates to ensure you can produce equal pieces.

Before jumping to machining the workpiece, let’s take a look at the design.

The design is made in Vectric Aspire and has 6 layers. The first and the middle layers are two-side machined.

Once the design is ready just turn on the router and start the job. If the setup is correct you should end up with the below pieces.

After finishing all the cuts you should have six perfect layers you can glue toegheter.

Once the glue dried apply two coat of varnish and the amplifier is ready to be used.

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Garden Sun Lounger

On By zenoIn Outdoor funiture1 Comment

Hi guys, summer is almost here and all you need for your relaxation is a comfortable sunbed to enjoy the sunshine!

In this post I’ll illustrate how to make a foldable sunbed with curved deign for added comfort. The design doesn’t belong to me, I’ve tried to create a replica of the Bentley Garden Wooden Sun Lounger model available for sale on amazon.

I had no details about how to build the foldable mechanism, the legs or what should be the correct sizing for the curve, but after some measurement and prototyping I came up wit the following sketch which finally turned out pretty well.

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The trick to make it foldable is to ensure that both legs are curved and can be folded inside the upper side of the bed. The length of the curved side will indicate the height of the legs which will determine the height of the sunbed.

To make the curved edges I draw the curves using a stick and a rope and then cut out on the bandsaw. The measures for the curved edge are: 100  cm length x 4.5 – 5 cm width x 3.5 cm thick; the curve is 10cm deep in the middle.

To smoothen the edges I’ve used router table with a copy ring and a template. The template is screwed to the bottom of the workpiece so the copy ring will follow the curve ensuring your workpiece will be identical and will have smoothe edges.

The legs were build following a similar procedure. Each pair of leg were joined at middle with a tenon and mortise joint. To make the mortise I’ve used the drill press and a hand chisel.

The frame is ready for a test !

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The hard work is over, only the middle sticks are missing. I’ve needed 26 pieces of 5cm x  70cm x 1.5 cm. After mounting all together the sunbet started to looks like a lounger.

After applying some light oak stain and 2 coat of varnish the result was amazing.

…..and voala….

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Garage Workbench Lamp

On By zenoIn Interior AccessoriesLeave a comment

In this post I’ll illustrate how to make a lamp for your wood workbench in a few steps. The lamp is only for workshop and it’s built mainly from leftover pine wood.

The most complex part is to make the lampshade, the rest is very basic stuff. To cut the shade I’ve glued together two circles, one with 25 cm and another with 15 cm diameter and turned them on the lathe.

Once the lamp shade was ready, I’ve glued a holder support to the bottom and drilled a hole for the bulb.

I’ll jump to the final product now and  I’ll skip the lamp stand building part because it’s a very basic boring woodworking task.

Here we are, this is the workshop lamp which can be easily fixed in the workbench dongles and rotated in any direction and angle.

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Walnut butcher board

On By zenoIn Interior AccessoriesLeave a comment

You can find many butcher board on the internet posted all over the places, so I’ve decided that I have to make one as well. Recently I’ve bought some walnut lumber which was just perfect for this job.  I do not really like the convectional / rectangular cutting boards so I’ve designed one with an irregular shape and used the CNC router to perform the cut.

The walnut I’ve used was 15 mm thick and the size of board was roughly  15 cm x 30 cm (incl. the handle).

There is not much to say about this project as the machine does the whole job, so I’ll post a couple of picture from different stages of the process.

I’d like to highlight the fact to pay attention to the right finish. If your cutting will be used in the kitchen your finishing mineral oil must be food safe (non-toxic).

…. and the final product looks like:

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