Construction

I got slightly addicted to An engineer’s approach to Woodworking a few months ago. So much so I now have a list of his plans to buy and build (having knocked out a reindeer on the bandsaw):

• The lathe will probably be my first project simply because I quite fancy one
• A screw advance box joint jig looks really neat but there’s only point in making it once I’ve got a table saw … so it’s a bit of luck I’m picking up a table saw, albeit an ancient one, next week
• A belt sander (I may try to adapt this to include a disk sander)
• The pantorouter looks very cool so I have to give it a go at some point
• A tilting router lift would be useful but looks hard to make so won’t be first
• A strip sander (actually I may not bother with this, not sure yet)

Then there are more bandsaw boxes to make, a table for my lair and of course before any of the above starts I need to finish the stable for my daughter’s stuffed horse toy thing. Yes, really. In reality I suspect there will always be stuff to make, even if only for the fun of it I’ll steer clear of the green paint though…

Destruction

But before I can make any of the above I need some components that don’t grow on trees. Motors fit easily into this category. As do metal rods for various purposes.

I’ve already got one working motor from a pump I disassembled a couple of months ago. It should be strong enough for the lathe even though it runs a bit too fast … I’m hoping I’ll be able to fix that with some appropriately sized pulleys. I also nabbed a couple of other motors from a dishwasher destined for the knacker’s yard although I doubt they’ll be suitable for much woodwork wise. Maybe the strip sander.

But metal rods are in short supply. At least they were until I dismantled my old laser printer. Once I’ve finished dismantling the toner cartridges (one down, three to go; lots of care required as although laser toner isn’t dangerous per se, it does get everywhere) I’ll have 30 rods of various thicknesses (I reckon the range is 3mm - 10mm or so with most hitting about 6mm) and lengths (mostly a bit bigger than a sheet of A4, unsurprisingly). Four of them will be magnetic too (thanks to the toner cartridges) … no idea whether that’ll be useful mind.

Hopefully one of the thicker rods will be ok for the lathe. The thinner ones will probably suffice for the pantorouter. They may even be ok for the belt sander given they’ll be strengthened with wood. I can also cut up some old oven racks for more 4-6mm rods although I’m not sure how straight they’ll be!

Now I just need to figure out where to get threaded rod that isn’t stupidly expensive. And possibly some decent quality plywood rather than the cheapo stuff I’ve got right now.