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Author Topic: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!  (Read 9216 times)

Greggy1964

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It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« on: April 09, 2010, 12:27:02 pm »

This is a tale of two unrelated events, the first being my girls comming to live with me permanently 6 years ago as a result of me getting divorced in 1998.

Prior to this the girls were allowed to visit me every other weekend, and I have a tiddy two up two down house with a large master bedroom and a tiny box room as architects would have us lesser souls live in.

Mine was quite naturally the master bedroom as befits the owner of the house and my girls were assigned to bunkbeds in the box room.

This all changed when the girls came to live here, all my stuff that was at that time spread throughout wall to wall fitted wardrobes in my former room.

This was now crammed into the tiny room along with my kingsize bed!

The second event occurred one night when I flopped tired out into my bed, only to jump right up again at the sound of a loud crack.

The sound of one of the side beams of my pine bed splitting from one end to the other. The grain in this timber runs from the top edge of the beam at the head of my bed to the underside of same at the foot of my bed resulting in two very long toothpicks which rendered my bed useless. {-) {-) {-) >>:-( >>:-( %) {-) O0

Having propped everything up on a pile of books, I fell into a deep sleep dreaming of a new bed . . . . .  a super bed  . . . . . .but with the depressing realisation that I could ill affort to buy a new one. {:-{

But I dreamed that I could afford the materials to make my own bed to my design . . . . .  :-))

One where the top of the mattress would be 5ft6" off the floor and not 2ft as is now, one where all my little wardrobes could live underneath my bed in the current unused space thus freeing up a massive area of my tiny bedroom floor.

And thus the dream evolved.

I have had the idea for the design in my head since moving into the box room as a space saving plan, one which would allow me to sit up in bed to read with one inch clearance between the ceiling and the top of my head.

But it remained just a thought .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  until now that is! :o

When the girls were babies I made them a set of pine bunk beds utilising standard 3 ft single mattresses, the beds they still sleep in today although recently the girls expressed the wish to have the bunkbeds separated into two beds.

Out with the saw and I duly complied to my little darlings wishes :-)) O0



Here is one half of the former bunk beds.

My new bed is designed along similar lines but with a king size mattress.



Typical of 'back of fag packet designers' everywhere, here is my design







The side beams are two separate beams spaced out by connecting 1/2" dowels set a 4" spacings giving me a massive 21" depth which serves two purposes,

a) support my butt during slumber safely and

b) prevent me from rolling out during slumber which would be no fun at all! :((

Here is my poor kitchen table once again called into service as a work bench



accompanied by Molly the cat posing for her picture taken.



One of the legs for the head of the bed with mortice's cut for the top head and side rails with the beginnings of the bottom side rail mortise.



The top half of the head board with tenon in its mortise in the leg.



I like my joints snug and proper.



Top part of head board with connecting dowels fitted, these will be let into the top edge of the bottom part of the head board in a similar fashion to my daughters bed as will the side rails and foot board.

This design has stood the test of time, my girls bunkbeds being anything from a pirate ship to a double decker bus, plus when draped with bed sheets and clothes pegs becoming a huge cave.

All this with half the kids in the street all piled onto the top bunk, bouncing up and down as befits excited kids with imaginations suitably fired!

My butt is going to be 5ft off the floor so it has to be strong, and I have no doubt in my mind it will be :-))



More mortise shots.

This is the story so far, knee deep in shavings and wood chips with a pressing desire for a new bed! O0 {-)
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tigertiger

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2010, 01:10:12 am »

Hi Greggy
Great woodworking  :-))

Perhaps as we know it.
Its a bed Captian. Or to be more precise your daughters' beds could be made into captains beds by fitting drawers under them.

And you are indeed making a double cabin bed. It looks like you are puting stairs on the end. To save space you could use a buildt in ladder.
Double cabin beds are great for wardrobe and desk set up, because they are so deep. Single cabin beds can have a pull out desk if you wanted to modify your daughters room to give more floor space.

I have taken the liberty of attaching a few pics. The beds in the pics are not made from nice pine, but I do like the oblique (45*) wardrobe door on the Calder.
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2010, 12:26:24 pm »

Hi Tigertiger,

Thanks for the photos, but my design don't look much like these!

My joinery is fairly simple, restricted to pegged mortise and tenon joints, you just have to be careful with setting out and check and recheck measurements :-))

I will have to use a ladder to gain access to my bed, but I still have the set I made for the girls bunk beds stored in the loft and I intend to use these.

I have built the bed high as I have three small wardrobes which are 52" high which will fit under snugly and I also have a tow seater settee that will go under there too.

Its a bed on stilts really  :o

I can the move my computer station to a desk under my window and then shut myself off from the world if I wish to! :-)) O0 {-)

I will post more photos as I progress.

I should
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2010, 07:06:29 pm »

Dry run :-))

Here is the head board setup, the red tape on the left side of the photo represents the top of my 8" thick mattress and is 62" from the floor



The foot of the bed will be identical except the top half of the horizontal rails will be missing the wave bit i.e. half as deep,

You can see the mortises to take the side rails which will look like those of my daughters bed in my previous post.



This shows the join on the right post as you lay in bed, the tiny gap will close when all is glued and sash cramped.

I had a bit of a heart stopping moment while studying the top photo, it looks for all the world that the posts aren't parallel!  :o >>:-( O0 >>:-(

But a quick measure shows the inside faces of the posts to be 51" apart top and bottom as designed. :-)) O0

Phew! %) just an optical illusion on the photo! O0 {-) {-)

My only problem now is that the joints are so snug, I'm having a devil of a job to separate it all for gluing! >>:-( {-)

The top of the posts will remain square for now



This is a practice of how I might finish them, the ball is hand carved ie not done on a lathe.

It took a lot of work so they might get finished before the new bed falls to bits! :-)) O0 {-)

Thats my dog Simba snoozing in the shavings and wood chips!

He delights in paddling them about the house!  {-) {-) {-)
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2010, 07:19:46 pm »

Incidentally, the oil painting behind the bed frame is one of my favourite pictures.



It was painted by a local artist called Cyril Ward, sadly he died about 15 years ago and his wife burned most of his works on a bonfire while having a clearout.

Clearly she didn't appreciate her husbands talent :((

But this and a couple of others I managed to rescue from the flames and I'm proud to own them :-))
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tobyker

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2010, 01:42:32 am »

Great stuff, Greggy, and I'm glad to see the work is being supervised by Molly. I made my lad a bed in the sky many years ago. The only problem we found was that since hot air rises it got quite hot and stuffy up there - we had to cut a porthole through a partition wall to give him some ventilation!
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2010, 02:27:50 am »

Hello Tobyker,

No fear of over heating in my house, its a tiny ex council house with warm air central heating -  >>:-( downstairs only  >>:-( with my bedroom wall facing the prevailing north winter winds.

Summer might be a problem O0 as I confess I had not considered the issue of rising warm air but my room is really tiny so with a window open in summer the rate of exchange of air should prove sufficient, we will have to see :-))

Thanks for the heads up though! :-))

I always liked to top bunk as a kid and being close to the ceiling I find quite cozy in a mad sort of way, and anyway being a kid in a grown up body and there being no one here to object to my plans, a bed in the sky its going to be! O0 {-)
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2010, 12:33:42 pm »

Here is a design sketch of how the side beams and mattress support beams are laid out.



My old pine bed has a central beam running head to foot that supports 10 No. 2 3/4"  x 3/4" planks on which the mattress rests but the beam is 3/4"wide  x 4" deep.

In my new design this configuration will get in the way of things so that design is out the window :-)) {:-{

The new design calls for 15 'T' section beams which come flush with the bottom edge of the side beams, each of which will support my weight with a little deflection ( I been playing again can you tell? :-)) ) so 15 of them will easily support me and the mattress.

Plus extra strength  ;) should a new partner appear on the scene later :-)), though she'd better not suffer from altitude sickness!  O0 {-) {-)

Incidentally, all timbers that are going into this new bed are stock off the shelf pine as can be had at any decent timber merchants to reduce messing about, and the cost so far has been less than £100.00 all in which even if I could find a bed like this in the shops, it would cost me a truck load of money!

The only tools Ive used are as follows.

Tape measure

Small hand plane

One bunch of G clamps and bar clamps

Panel saw

Coarse rasp

Joiners square

Pencil

Nothing fancy as you can see :-))
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steamboatmodel

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2010, 04:57:55 pm »

You may want to add some diagonal bracing at the ends and the wall side.
Regards,
Gerald.
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2010, 06:34:04 pm »

Hello Gerald,

Thank you for your interest but I don't think that will necessary, you see the side beams are made up of two beams  3/4" x 8 3/4" and 3/4" x 4 1/2" and set 7 3/4" apart with connecting 1/2" dowels spaced at 4 1/4" and set and glued 1" deep in each beam, in effect two huge 21" castellated beams (one either side of the bed).

This proves to be a very stiff structure O0

The corner posts are 2 3/4" square which is twice the cross sectional area of my old bed legs, these timbers have been seasoning under my bed for the last 5 years when this project was originally thunk up! :-))

The whole thing is deliberately build massive for strength and longevity, my girls bed have proved the strength of the design for 16 years and still going strong :-)).

Bracing horizontally will either be by 1/8" play triangular gussets laid over the mattress beams at the corners or I might just board the thing out in the same, I haven't decided yet.
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2010, 06:51:50 pm »

I came up against a snag yesterday while dry fitting the head board assembly  {:-{

My sash cramps are waaay too small to span the 56 3/8" width to outsides of posts.

Being a tinkerer and model builder, and not one to miss a challenge when face with and obstacle, I set to thinking . . . . . . . .

I have some bar clamps and hold with the idea that you can never have too many clamps, I set about making something to fit the job.

I have two 90" x 1 1/2" aluminium tubes that are the top sections of my Landyacht masts plus I have some box section steel kicking around . . . . . .

I have 40 plus 4" G clamps and two have been sacrificed for the greater good. :-))

Out with the angle grinder and my huge stick welder and the results are as follows.


Take one G clamp and kill it with the angle grinder <*<


And resurrect it as two parts of a pipe clamp :-)) O0


M10 nuts are welded into a slot cut for them opposite the business end and a 1 1/2" bolt is screwed from inside and a thick walled tube welded to the other end


A 6" nail tommy bar completes the job.


Now I have one pipe clamp with a massive 86"capacity :-)) O0 %%

Tomorrow I'll make the 2nd of the pair needed, then back to bed building! :-))

Not very pretty and a bit agricultural perhaps {-) but guess what?

They work a treat :-))

Plus long term plans are to build my sailing canoe design found elsewhere here so these will come in handy ;)
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gondolier88

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2010, 06:56:24 pm »

Now that clamp is a proper piece of Yorkshire engineering- cost nothing, works and is about twice as engineered as it needs to be.

I think you should start a tinkerer's forum Greggy- this is a great diffrent-to-the-norm thread.

I have to report that in a week I will no longer be calling myself an East Yorkshire tenant! :(( However we are moving to the Lake District, so hey! :-)

Greg
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2010, 07:04:25 pm »

Hi Greg,

Thank you, your comments are much appreciated :-)

I do love to tinker, and being a true Yorkshire man, I have deep pockets and short arms {-) {-),

I hate spending money when I can use me noggin and the stuff I have kicking about instead.

The Lake District is a stunning place, I envy you.

Regards

Greg
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JayDee

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2010, 10:38:02 pm »


Hello Greggy1964 ,

You are the MAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IKEA, Eat Your Heart Out.

John.  :-))  :-))  :-))
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2010, 12:17:53 pm »

Hello John,

 :embarrassed: thank you  :embarrassed: your too kind!

I have made the pipe clamp parts pretty by painting them with red oxide, and as a result of their uniform colour, you can better see how they are constructed.


Odd pair


The clamp bolt is  M10 x 50mm and the nut is welded into a slot in the box section, the bolt head was shaped round like a normal G clamp with an angle grinder and then screwed in from the inside of the box section.

At this stage the nut is then welded to the box section taping the treads with masking tape/insulation tape to protect them from welding spatter. :-))


View inside the box section, this setup can clamp onto any pipe from 1" to 1 1/2"

The beauty of this set up is that when using a circular pipe as part of the clamp, they automatically square themselves up for clamping the job in hand :-))

It struck me that I could make tiny ones out of brass and either soft solder or silver solder of modelling purposes :-))

Hmmmm now there's an idea! O0 ;)

Here are 6 of the 15 mattress supports, I decided that the T part would suffice at 3/4" x 3/4" as 3/4" x 1 1/2" was a bit over kill, the parts are glued together with cascamite and four wood screws in each for extra safety :-)) O0

I can stand on four of them together with no deflection so 15 will easily support two people plus the weight of mattress :-))



The old structural mechanics studied while at collage did sink in as a youngster after all, though all I can remember about back then was . . . thinking of girls! {-) {-) O0
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gondolier88

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #15 on: April 12, 2010, 04:02:46 pm »

Nothings changed then... %)

Greg
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #16 on: April 13, 2010, 09:11:51 pm »

Your right there Greg! :-))
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #17 on: April 13, 2010, 09:50:13 pm »

Its bloody hard work this hand bowling and fitting these tenons in their mortises! >>:-(

On the lower side panels the measure 7 1/2" x 2" x 1/2"



I daubed the faces of the tenon with soft pencil before attempting to fit it in it's mortise in the bed head, this leaves shiny spots on the tenon where the pencil transfers to corresponding high spots in the mortise.



Sand-shave tenon

Sand-shave mortise

Trial fit

*Swear!* >>:-(

Sand-shave tenon

Sand-shave mortise

Trial fit

*Swear!* >>:-(

You get the idea :-)) {-)


And suddenly she fits just nice! :-))



With a spirit level elastic banded to the side she's plumb in both planes as you can see if you press your nose right close up to your monitor :-)) :o

Not bad for an amateur eh?

God I'm good!! hahahahahaaaa %)

Watch that bouquet of flowers Greg!

It's got a brick in it! O0 {-)

Only thing is now is I can't go any further till I make the foot board with accompanying mortises.

Starting to feel like ground hog day this caper is! O0 {-)


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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #18 on: April 13, 2010, 10:21:55 pm »

Feeling quite smug with myself at the moment,  %)

That is until I just had a horrible thought! . . . . . . . . . .

How am I going to get these chuffing great head board and Foot board structures upstairs to my bedroom? >>:-( :o

So I've just done a lot of huffing and head scratching to try and wiggle the head board out of my front room and up my narrow stair way.

The thing just goes through the door way to the hall way but no way was it going round the corner and up the stairs! >>:-( >>:-( >>:-(

Would it go any further?

Would it heckers like! (tactfully avoided swearing there!) :-))

I tried it all ways and have a few corner post shaped dents in the walls to prove it! <*<

A coffee and a thunk later I had  a bright idea! :-))  :D

Through the living room door way and out the front door into the street! :-)) {-) {-)

That caused a few curtains to flutter out there, I'm a constant source of gossip round here with my tinkering and antics, but they are used to me round here.

I got a new neighbour moving in a the weekend, hope she likes big dogs! hahahahaaaa {-) {-) O0

Poor lass!

But I digress

Where were we?

Oh yeah! out in the street in the freezing cold struggling with a great head board in the dark at 10 am! O0 {-)

If I shut the living room door I could just the wiggle the thing past the front door and between it and the side wall of the stair well %)

Then banging and thumping up the stairs, I managed to get the thing into my bedroom.

Yay!

All I got to do now is the blasted thing in reverse and I can go to bed! {-)
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #19 on: April 15, 2010, 05:33:14 pm »

I've decided . . . . . . . . .

I don't like the legs square, they need some shape to them O0

I needs me a wood turning lathe with a 6ft bed.

Hmmm what do I need.

Motor?       1100 Watt 240 Volt - Check! :-))

Flat metal bed at least 6ft long?       8ft Ex fibre glassing table made from 50mm box section steel from my old place of work  - Check! :-))

Great big stick welder?   - Check! :-))

Blunt end bearing support/tailstock?       Two 1" bore RHP bearing blocks plus some 1" o/d bore tube - Check! :-))

Miscellaneous bits of steel to make chisel rest etc etc?        Quick consult of Steptoes Back Yard . . . . . . .  - Check! :-))

Hmmmmmm . . . . . . . . . .  %)

 :}

I'm off on one tinkering again O0

Bed project temporarily suspended on account of making new lathe :-))

I got me all the bits I need to turn up some legs

New Project - 6Ft lathe bed ............to turn Bed-in-the-sky legs :-)) ;)
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Big Ada

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2010, 05:49:07 pm »

Hi Greggy,

The photo of your dog laying in the shavings, has he got his ear shut in the oven door ?. :o
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steamboatmodel

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2010, 06:29:17 pm »

Make a round bed lathe using your pipe clamps?
Regards,
Gerald.
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Greggy1964

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #22 on: April 16, 2010, 09:11:13 am »

Quote
The photo of your dog laying in the shavings, has he got his ear shut in the oven door ?. Shocked

 {-) %) {-)

Hi Big Ada, no! there is a 3/4" gap at the bottom of the oven door between it and the base of the kitchen unit, it allows heat exhaust from the oven to escape :-))

Since Simba was a tiny puppy he would hang around my feet while I prepared the evening meal, it has now become his place of choice to sleep.

Sometimes his ear disappears into the gap!

Quote
Make a round bed lathe using your pipe clamps?

Hi Gerald,  {-) the pipe clamps don't feature in this section of the build {-)

The lathe is a bit of an experimentation, the motor I'm using used to drive my big old 1930's metal working lathe but the edge of the pulley on its shaft broke which meant that it would not drive the belt to the lathe gearbox no more >>:-(

A bigger motor from an old pressure washed took over that job :-))

So the old motor has been looking for work.

I've ground down the tip of the motor shaft into a point by running the motor and an angle grinder at the same time, grinding the motor shaft to a point super fast :-)) O0 which will centre in a pip to match it in the business end of the work piece.



The pulley has been set back a ways and two holes drilled in its front face will engage in two drive dogs (M8 bolts with their heads sawn off) driven into one end of the work piece.

The motor is mounted on two angle iron brackets I've welded to one end of my work bench after removing its top and I'm hoping it will have enough oomph to turn the work piece against the chisel blade :-)) :D we will have to see :-))

The tail stock consists of two RHP bearing blocks supporting a 1" diameter tube with teeth cut into one end, which will be driven into the blunt end of the work piece, thus allowing it to rotate freely :-))



The tail stock will ride on an up turned 'U' shaped section of girder bolted to a clamp plate underneath which will allow the whole thing to ride up and down the side of the bench and the 2nd rail I've welded in to allow for turning shorter pieces of work, though the whole thing is set up so I can turn my bed legs :-))



Here is a closeup of the tail stock teeth :-)), the tail stock tube used to be the centre section of an old racing bike's drop handle bars :-))

It is a steel tube with a thin outer coating of aluminium and just happened to fit tightly into the RHP bearing, I just love happy accidents like this O0 {-)

The whole thing is an experiment and I tinker like this all the time, I enjoy pitting my little grey cells against my scrap pile and my tools :-)) in creating machines and other things I need out of what other folks throw away.

One mans rubbish is another mans gold is one of my motto's  O0 :-)) :-)

My back yard is my workshop and its a cross between a scrap yard and a kleptomaniacs cupboard and I make no apologies for the mess! :-)) O0 {-) ;D
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gondolier88

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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #23 on: April 16, 2010, 09:16:03 am »

Great work mate!!

Greg
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Re: It's woodworking Jim, but not as WE know it!
« Reply #24 on: April 16, 2010, 11:56:14 am »

Hi Greggy, just picked on this thread!  Nice bit of woodwork going on.  Loved your picture, I am part way through building a sailing model very similar.
following all with interest.
regards Roy
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