Category: Projects

April 13, 2023 – Storing Fuel: Accessing Electricity

April 13, 2023 /

Whether you have a generator or are running an inverter from your car, the power needs to get from the point of generation to the device that needs the power. It is imperative for safety and proper operation that you have a collection of appropriate extension cords.

Imagine for a minute that you were smart enough to have a generator and you needed it because of an expected, days long power outage. Because you were so smart, you also know that your refrigerator is probably good for a day or so if you do not open the doors. But what isn’t smart is running the generator inside. You need to get the power from the point of generation to the device safely.

To get further into the nuance, you not only need to get the power safely but also appropriately. Some number of years ago, we hired some painters. They were trying to run the paint sprayer on a household extension cord (these are the two wire, flat cords meant to plug in Christmas lights or something like that). Because there was so much power draw, it was tripping the circuit every ten minutes until I gave them an appropriate diameter extension cord.

The farther you need to go or the more power you need, the thicker the extension cord you need to have. The very common orange outdoor power cords are typically 16gauge wire. These are great for running drills or work lights but when it comes to heavy draw, not so much. They might work, but if something is running on a dedicated circuit, you might want to do more of a calculation to see if this is going to be adequate.

In the old days when I had more time than money, I used to read instruction manuals for power tools. It was pretty common for them to recommend different sized cords depending on the distance you are running. If you know anything about electricity, then you will know that it is code to have a minimum 14 gauge wire for a 15 amp circuit and 12 gauge wire for 20 amp circuit. So, this should be your rough guide on extension cords. And this is why you should be OK with a 16 gauge cord with devices pulling less than 10 amps of continuous use.

If you start getting tricky and adding surge protectors or other devices, they are good for some things like tripping an internal breakers to protect the device. I have some extension cords with built in breakers. They will trip if the tool load gets too high so be aware of the set and forget mentality. I use them when I want to have multiple things plugged in but not necessarily running at the same time. The more frequently a circuit breaker trips, the weaker that breaker becomes and trips much easier.

If your cord is ever hot, it is not sized for the load. It might be OK in an emergency situation or monitored use, but leaving it as a semi-permanent installation is a recipe for a potential fire. Fortunately, most devices that the home user is going to use with a generator will likely be lower draw items. But watch out for power tools and appliances for this problem.

I think that everyone knows that electricity and water do no mix. There are specific cords made for this use but they are expensive. I think a better strategy would be to not have any connections made in a wet environment (have a long enough cord). But if you have to, it is probably much more cost effective to build an enclosure. Drill some holes in a Rubbermaid style container to keep connections dry.

The cable of the extension cord is part of the system. If your cords have damage, repair or do not use. What I do if I have cords that have nicks in the insulation, I will shorten them with repair ends. If the nick is in the middle make two short ones if you can find a use for these. Electrical tape is a field repair. It will probably keep you from getting shocked, but if the conductor is damaged, it is effectively reducing the overall wire gauge and therefore decreasing the overall wattage capacity.

There is also the theory that sometimes it is better to have tool extensions rather than have longer power cords. The common adage in air compressors is add more air lines rather than extension cords. That is a high draw tool at 13-15 amps. If you had a 12 gauge cord, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. But, most people haven’t invested $100 into an extension cord and more air hoses are always useful. For ultimate longevity, consider other options that just extension cords.

End Your Programming Routine: I didn’t realize that I was going to have so much to say about extension cords so easily. But, if we are going to generate power, it makes no sense not to be able to use it. Having sufficient lengths and quantities available when we need them so that we can do so safely and effectively is really the only thing that makes sense. Not only that, we can use them for the same reasons when the power is not off. It’s a no brainer.

March 29, 2023 – What is With 220V?

March 29, 2023 /

I’m going to keep this short (it think). When my son borrowed my dad’s welder, we had to power it. What had been extremely variable as long as I have known is the electrical connection. Researching ranges and clothes dryers, I know that the male end of the connector is very variable (can I say ‘male end’ anymore). As far as I know, you pick the male plug to match the female end of the plug in.

Getting back to the welder, I bought a new plug-in to match my dad’s welder. But, now my son bought a welder and it did not match what my dad’s was. He wanted me to change it to work, I had a different idea.

What I choose to do was make an adapter. In this case, it was an adapter and an extension cord. Because the welder had a ten foot cord and my outlet had another ten feet, it was beneficial to add another 10 feet in between. I happened to have ten feet of 10/4 cable from one of my annual apartment remodels.

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I guess my point is that if you have a 220V appliance and you have a connector that doesn’t match, maybe the solution is to make the appliance match the female end rather than make the equipment match. Using this approach, then I think that you will have several adapters to make your equipment work.

If you don’t know as well… and four conductor cable contains two hots, one neutral and a ground. When this protocol was established, it was two hots and a neutral, no ground. In these days, a ground and a neutral are the same place. But, when there is no officially termination of the ground, it gets deleted or cut from contact and ignored.

End Your Programming Routine: I suppose what I am saying is that if you are wiring 220V, you have to figure it out. Don’t make a concrete commitment, make it something that you can roll with. That means, make an adapter, not just change the plug-in but change the adapter. From a safety point of view, ground is better but don’t worry if you have proper wiring, especially at the panel.

March 28, 2023 – I Never Thought of That

March 28, 2023 /

As the title says…. Back when I was putting the major pieces of my office together, I had a problem and an idea. I also had some options. I have a cabinet that I removed from the apartment that I wasn’t sure whether I was going to paint and install it back in the apartment or what. The thought crossed my mind to put it back into my office.

Ultimately, I chose to do something different. I was going to build a sliding drawer that fit between the legs of the couch and under it. This drawer was on casters. I made measurements and did the quick woodwork to build this,

As I was taking out all of the items to install my sofa table, my son was preparing for a correspondence math course test. I left the drawer out while I took a break and he continued to work. As I was making breakfast, my wife said “Did you build that, it is amazing”, Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about because it was out of context.

At first. I thought it was my sofa table. I had been talking it up to her and I was proud of my work. But, she said no it was my drawer. I was a bit dumbfounded. I built this on a whim and it had been installed in office for months.

She said that I could sell these things. People would buy them for under the bed storage as an example. I had no idea. This was a solution to my problem, not necessarily a market problem. She said that I could have a booth at a flea market or something like that. And, her friends would like things like this.

I had no idea nor was this my intent. I suppose that is the way of the world. Entrepreneurs that are successful channel this accident into something successful. I myself haven’t done anything with this, nor do I know if I will. That being said, it doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize opportunity,

End Your Programming Routine: I would love to be my own boss, I just don’t know if this is the right place. Knowing what I want, riskier people might jump on this idea. I just know if this is the way to go. I suppose that keeping it slow, I can see where it goes. Let me know if you want one.

March 22, 2023 – Finally, After Several Years…

March 22, 2023 /

I have been professionally employed now since February 2021.  It took about one day to realize that working at the dining table wasn’t going to be adequate for a forever location.  After setting up a temporary table in the basement, It only took me about two or three days to realize that I was going to have to build something more permanent.  It was cold in with the temperatures in the mid-forties and that was with a heater running under the table.  

Quickly I added a propane heater that my wife had won at a local high school auction.  Those two were not enough.  I had to build an office.  Once I realized that this was a blank canvas and this space could be my own, I wanted to move my long orphaned stereo system in there.  

In fact, the stereo was the first thing that I moved in.  I had it setting on an old night stand.  If you look at some of my first pictures inside my office, you will see it.  Soon after I moved my desk in, my wife wanted to jettison a small couch that the cat had adopted as a scratching post and I actually wanted another seat in my office.  So, the stereo system only lasted a couple of weeks before it was moved back out of the office.

But, I had plans.  I was going to build a table that fit the space and the stereo would have a home behind the couch.  The trick was, I needed to spend the time to build it.  The wood I had.  In fact, a leftover slab of wood from my cabinets I built in January 2020 was in my way in the shop since I finished that project.  The slab was originally slated to be made into another pantry shelf at my wife’s insistence.  I persuaded her to try out the pantry first so there it sat.

My first efforts to get started on this table began in the spring of 2022.  Yet, I didn’t have a plan and I didn’t have a deadline.  Two of the rough cut legs sat for six more months still in my way.  It was my realization that I was getting up three or four hours before everyone on the weekends that got me motivated in December 2022.  That is when I got serious about measurements and a design.

I wanted to practice my skills at fine woodworking.  That means a piece that is built without fasteners.  There is mortise and tenon joinery and all made from solid wood.  Fine woodworking also means staying away from engineered materials like plywood as well.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not a purist I don’t care if people use those mechanisms but this was for me.  I want to be confident that I could build anything, anytime any way.

It is definitely not perfect. I don’t know if Douglas Fir is the best choice for wood and it is not as defect free as I would like.  But it was the wood I had and I still have a pile of it in the basement.  Free is a pretty good motivator.  All that to say, I think it looks pretty good and I am proud of the work that I did.  My wife wanted it too when I started to put the dry assembly together.  This one however was custom sized for the height, width and length to fit my space.  Looks like I might be building another one soon.

Now with the stereo in place, I can finally say that I am done, kind of.  My experiment with the AM antenna was done to ultimately also connect to the receiver.  You all know that I am an audiophile.  Maybe not so much about quality, but consistently consuming it.  I wanted the ability to listen to the local college games through the receiver and this was all done well after I built my office unfortunately.  So, I still need to run the AM antenna wire.

While I was building my office, I had visions of bringing the surround sound back to life as well.  I ran all the wires and did all the terminations for that.  But at this point, I can’t justify the space.  My speakers are from the 1990s and too bulky. My wife and I have talked about building an ‘adult space’ in the basement to go along with the keezer and wine cellar.  Maybe those speakers will find their way to that someday.

End Your Programming Routine: Any similar version I make, I assume will be quicker.  I stalled out a little on this project because I was going to build tapered legs but I had to figure out how to do that.  I kind of waffled at that point, and it was close to Christmas too.  I want to say that the builder is always the harshest critic.  I know where my flaws are and I see them.  The good news is that you won’t unless you are really giving it the third degree.   

March 21, 2023 – Cleaning the Cleaner

March 21, 2023 /

Given that I am away from home for a number of weeks, it is difficult to keep up with writing everyday. Things have been super busy lately, getting ready to go and buttoning everything up. Hopefully, these next couple of days do not come off as week or phoning it in. But I won’t deny that I am pushing to keep up with my schedule.

One of the requirements to earn the Eagle Scout rank is to perform what is called an Eagle Project. This is a service project that the scout plans, leads and executes. Maybe I will talk about mine another day but today I am going to talk about another peer of mine’s project.

If you remember this post from last year then you will know how this story begins.

May 17, 2022 – Does Preserving History Matter?

My friend’s project was to vacuum out the attic of this church as well as paint. In the course of the project, we burned out six different vacuums. I didn’t get the chance to go up there, but I heard that the dust was inches thick.

My point with this is vacuums don’t run well when the matter vacuumed coats the filter. It is the airflow through the device that provides the suction. I use my shop vacuum for a dust collector. It does a much better job than nothing but it also leaves a lot to be desired.

Over the years, dust collection has become a much larger topic in woodworking. Like all things safety bike helmets or seat belts as an example, there is no denying that using those things do raise the odds of surviving something catastrophic. On the other side, there are no guarantees. I have heard that there are some that wont even enter the shop without turning on dust collection.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love the space and equipment to have a proper and professional setup. And it is not like I am in there all day, everyday. My dust collection is aimed at reducing the amount of cleanup later and less about a dust phobia but I am not denying that dust is a risk. For better or worse, this is my setup. It always requires a thorough cleaning afterward to get all of the escaped dust.

When I was building my pantry cabinets, I had my old 13″ TV on. At one point, the picture actually went black. I thought maybe it was ruined due to dust building up on the electronic components so I vacuumed it off and it worked again. I do know if it was dust on the inside or the outside of the TV but that seems to have some kind of effect its function. And this is using the vacuum with dust collection, hence it leaves some to be desired.

The filter in the picture is the original filter I bought with the vacuum. When I start to notice a significant reduction of suction, I take it outside and bang all the dust out of the folds. Looking at this filter, I could stand to replace it because it is pretty caked in a lot of the folds. I have spares on hand, so I will probably do it soon.

End Your Programming Routine: I am a strong believer in maintaining things you own. The sweatshirt I am wearing as I write this I bought in college, twenty-five years ago. I have a lot of items that are old as I am getting there too. Even if you ‘buy once, cry once’ it doesn’t mean that you can use things beyond their capability. So if you have a shop vacuum, take a look at the filter. It might need replacing.

March 16, 2023 – Storing Fuel: Inventory Liquids

March 16, 2023 /

The more I think about this topic, the more I think it can go on for many weeks. It is not that it is complicated but that it is so deep. It is so deep that I am having a hard time getting started because as soon as I start thinking about a direction I almost immediately fork (in my mind). I will try to keep it on a high level and generalities, that way you can apply the concepts to your own situation.

As I said last week, the first step is to inventory what you have. Now, not everything you have you may necessarily need in an emergency situation. For instance, is the lawnmower a necessary piece of equipment? I don’t think so but you might want to note that you have it and it runs on gasoline (if you don’t have a battery or corded model, but that is a different discussion). Whatever happens, you may want to have two gas cans for your mower so that you don’t have to run to the gas station before you mow your grass.

See what I mean, I am already jumping around from inventory to necessity to power equipment. Staying in the power equipment arena, I have a string trimmer, chainsaw and leaf blower. These are all two cycle, gasoline tools, so they need gas and oil. I think the industry trend is now 50:1 blend but old tools were 40:1 and some were even 32:1.

Preferably, I would like all of my equipment to require the same blend ratio that way I only need to have one mix on hand. What is key in my situation is that I pay for yard maintenance. So, really I don’t have anything pre-mixed because I don’t want it sitting around and potentially going bad. When I do use them, I mix what I need at the ratios I want it. I do usually have a small amount of commercial premix available in case of emergency. What is nice about that is that is those containers are sealed and free of contaminants, like water. Read easy to store, quick to use but super expensive at $10 a quart.

Of all of those things, only the chainsaw to me is an emergency tool. Here I would star in my inventory, need gasoline. Moving on, I have a small generator, more gasoline. Did you know that you can use your car as a generator? More on that another week but more gasoline.

I mentioned that my house is all electric. My backup cooking plan is Coleman camping equipment. Mine are dual fuel which mean that they run on gasoline and Coleman fuel (white gas). I prefer gasoline as a common fuel and less to inventory and store, more on that in a minute. FYI- They made some older models that were Coleman fuel and kerosene with some part changes if you are looking for versatility. They were for European users since apparently kerosene is easier to get than Coleman fuel.

I have some Coleman fuel in storage for the same reason I have premixed two cycle gas. It is sealed and free of impurities. The truth is, I have had it for several years and this is before I really got my gasoline program in place. This provided a stop gap for having fresh gasoline available for all the things I wanted redundancy. And it is easy to take on a camping trip. At least easier than a five gallon gas jug.

I use a kerosene heater in my shop. Is is the best setup? Probably not, but I have it. In some areas of the country, you can buy kerosene at the pump. I was able to do that when I lived in South Carolina. But here, I have to buy it at the stores like box stores and home centers. The trick with this fuel is that it is seasonal. It is only stocked in the stores in the winter time frame and when it is out, it is out.

That is to say that when the bulk quantities are out you can often find one gallon jugs in the paint section but you are also paying double what the winter prices are. Now, it is running $10 a gallon at winter prices. So, I buy it when it is on sale and available to have 10 gallons available at all times. Remember that my house is all electric, so I want the ability to move heat where I want it if I need to.

I have gotten some use out of my heater and I know that 2.5 gallons lasts about 40 hours running. It is good to know how much fuel that you might want to have on hand if you need it. This means that my storage capacity is about 160 hours. I wouldn’t run it all the time but a couple hours in the evening would be nice.

I know that I am all over the place. I told you that I was having a hard time staying succinct. But, by my count I want gasoline and kerosene at least and I want some two cycle oil with the ability to measure and mix. The basic strategy is count up all the things you have or want and what fuels they use. Figure out what might be required inventory and rotate (more on that later too). The more commonality you have, the simpler things will be.

One final thing about fuels. Things like generators run on fuel but they don’t run forever without maintenance. If you have one and you think that you might have to run it, oil changes are required. On mine it is every one hundred running hours after break-in. If you think about it, that is about every four days of continuous running. I would suggest that you store corresponding maintenance fluids and even parts so that you don’t find yourself smiling until the generator seizes up.

End Your Programming Routine: Next week, I am going to talk about storing gases. Probably the following week all things electrical. Hopefully, I am not going to bore everyone by going down the preparedness rabbit hole but even if you choose not to do what I do, not having to go to the gas station before you mow the grass seems smart to me. Consolidating and having dual fuel or commonality also seems smart to me. I am going to keep going so hopefully you learn something as well.

March 15, 2023 – My Old Enemy… Time

March 15, 2023 /

I suppose this is somewhat of a project update and some sort of analysis. When starting this project, literally months ago I had scoped it to be done by the end of January. I knew that I was going to be travelling in February but now it is getting to the middle of March and I am not done yet.

Now, am I actively working on the project? Yes I am currently in the glue up portion where I am gluing the aprons and the legs together. This means that I am very close to final assembly and finish. This means that the project will be done. However, this is my last week this month so it is likely that this will now run into April.

When I estimated the project at the beginning of the year I guessed that it would take 100 hours for this project. I am not sure that I have spent much more time than that but I think where I went wrong was 100 hours over a month would be 25 hours a week. And that is not really realistic. I am probably logging 4-6 hours a week.

Extrapolate 100/5 would be 20 weeks. That is five months and by that math and hypothetically I am actually ahead of my estimate. However, I borrowed an old crutch of hope, that was wrong. I hoped that my work would accelerate as it often does when I get into things but hope is not a plan.

I am enjoying the work and I do believe that it will be worth the effort. So, I am not necessarily wishing it to be over but I am certainly looking forward to moving my stereo system into my office. To that end, I am also looking forward to getting my rain barrel setup as my next project.

While it is not my first, fine woodworking project I would consider myself a novice at it. My mortises and tenons were rough. with loose fit for some. My chisels sometimes were dull, causing some of that roughness. This was my first tapered legs that I have made. I learned some things from the experience for sure.

I guess that you could boil all this down to using realistic expectations. If I had just used my brain rather than hoping I could do this, I would have set clearer expectations and by proxy wouldn’t be disappointed by my results. I knew better.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s like I always say, fifteen minutes a day is still almost two hours a week. This is another trap that I sometimes fall into. Ultimately, I am committed so it will be what it will be. And, it truly wont be that long until I am done, I am just lamenting that we are coming into April and I wanted this done at the beginning of February.

March 9, 2023 – Life Without Fuel

March 9, 2023 /

I was born in the mid-1970s. I do remember the gasoline shortage of 1979 vaguely. I remember asking my mom if the water could run out. My dad purchased a bicycle and started riding it to work everyday. He rode a bike to work and back from 1980-1983 (until we moved too far away). My mom rode a bicycle to the grocery store and around town.

Whether people realize it or not, our lifestyle revolves around fuel. One type of fuel is electricity. In my house that is the stove, the refrigerator, the freezer and the furnace. I would say that it is pretty important. A small amount of electricity can be stored in batteries and another small portion of electricity can be made with a generator but that doesn’t run without fuel.

We have all seen the Walking Dead where gasoline all runs out and the entire planet switches to ethanol. It’s a fun fantasy for sure but not really realistic on a large scale. Some preparedness minded people have made a huge investment in solar but this also assumes the outage is not caused by something like an Electro Magnetic Pulse. This is essentially a high level nuclear detonation that fries anything electrical. If you think that it is not possible, think about military escalation with Russia and a Chinese balloon that flew undiscovered along with who knows how many others.

I really don’t think that it is possible or practical to prepare for catastrophic events. What is smart is to deal with the typical, short term problems we see in everyday life. An ice storm knocks out power for a week or the government shuts down society for a month. You can’t leave or you don’t want to leave how is this going to work?

Can you actually stay home for two weeks? I know that examining what happened during the pandemic we didn’t. Sure, we had lots of food and we were fairly well prepared for survival. On the same hand, none of us knew what was going to happen so we went out in search of more while we could.

I remember standing in an hours long line at Costco on one of the first Saturdays of the lockdown. We waited for an hour and eventually decided that it wasn’t worth it. We ended up going to a scratch and ding kind of place called Wheeler Dealer because there were no lines. We got everything we wanted at scratch and dent kind of prices without the wait. It was mostly snacks and comfort foods, not something we stock a lot of. The truth is, we didn’t need to go out. It was a shortage fear that triggered us to react.

Leaving woulda/coulda/shoulda of that era behind, fuel is not much different the food. We may need to leave to get it, the prices are generally going up, it has a shelf-life, we can never have a lifetime supply at any one time and we use it daily. I am going to take the next couple of Thursdays talking about fuel storage, redundancy and alternative solutions.

End Your Programming Routine: This was going to be a single post but I couldn’t get my head around exactly what I wanted to say. There was too much and the topic was too broad and I wandered too much. I think I changed the title ten times before I settled on this one. Fuel is always something on my pantry list. It’s not sexy or fun but boy are you glad you have it when you need it.

February 23, 2023 – When Cheap is Expensive

February 23, 2023 /

Way back in college, I wanted to purchase a .357 magnum revolver. Things are a little bit different now then they were back then. With the proliferation of plastic frames and Metal Injected Molding (MIM) along with Computer Numeric Controlled machining, some firearms have have gotten a lot cheaper. The truth is, there are a lot of models that can be purchased for less than what I did in the middle 1990s.

I really wanted to purchase a Ruger GP-100 but I was $50 short, so I ended up buying a Rossi M971 for $450 instead of a Ruger at $499. I really have only had two complaints. One is that the same Rugers are selling for $800 now whereas my Rossi is selling for $300-400 used (read bad investment) and the second is that parts and accessories are far and few between.

Recently, I was at the range and the rear sight broke off. I have no idea how that happened. I don’t think it was dropped, I speculate that the plastic just became brittle over time. My replacement is metal, I am hoping that this is the last time it has to be replaced because it may not be replaceable in the future.

Don’t take this as gospel but Rossi is a Brazilian brand. It is now owned by a Brazilian conglomerate Taurus Armas which owns brands like Taurus, Rossi and Heritage. They got their start copying Smith and Wesson and Beretta handguns (originally under license). Once those patents expired and agreements ended, Brazilian copies started appearing in the US markets, hence there are a lot of similarities of a Rossi and a Smith and Wesson revolver.

The reason any of the above is relevant is because about a year after I owned the revolver, my roommate was handling it without my knowledge and dropped it an broke the front sight. At that time, Rossi was it’s own brand and the distributor handled all of the parts. They sent a replacement, free of charge. Since the acquisition, the distributor no longer exists and Taurus USA does not sell parts aftermarket. This would be for a product that they no longer make. In fact, Rossi has become a rifle/shotgun brand only. So, I doubt they have parts in the first place.

But, despite the similarities, there are some differences. I am not going to go into that right now, but what it really means is that aftermarket support is really scarce. For instance, I can find replacement sight blades for Smith and Wesson at $13. I found one local manufacturer base in South Dakota. He was selling a replacement sight at $38 plus shipping and I was happy to pay it.

The way it installs is different too. In the Smith and Wesson it is all largely done with a screwdriver. I needed to purchase a 1mm punch to drive a tiny pin out. This of course cost me $35 dollars. The first time I used it, I broke the drive pin because 1mm is tiny and that metal is hard and therefore brittle. So, I purchased replacement drive pins in a six pack at $15.

What I am getting at here is that I am now $100 and two months into this. I suppose I could have taken it to a gunsmith. I doubt that would have saved me any money, maybe some time. Here again, this is probably a quarter of what the firearm is worth. But without it, it is almost worthless so it has to be done.

If we were talking about a domestic brand like Ruger or Smith and Wesson, first of all this probably would have never happened. But, if it did there are parts available. Gunsmiths can do the work or even the factory. This is the argument for buying the F-150 or the Toyota Camry or the Whirlpool. When there are lots of them made then there is future support likely. Of course there was no way of knowing that the Rossi brand would get scarfed up and discontinued. But initial price and reputation have to play a factor in those types of decisions.

End Your Programming Routine: I am super grateful that Jack First Inc is in business to help keep me going. I am not saying that I was pennywise and pound foolish but had I waited and bought what I really wanted, I don’t know that I would be writing about this subject. I certainly would be happier with my investment value and never wondering what-if. I can’t say that the revolver has ever treated my bad, is inaccurate, not reliable or anything like that. It is just cost a lot of time and money to repair. Maybe this is my foreign sports car?

February 1, 2023 – Making a Taper Gauge

February 1, 2023 /

I am slowly getting there. I suppose that I lost a little momentum over the holidays and it is taking a minute to get back there, but it is happening and I mean my sofa table project. Last weekend, I got to the point that I was ready to cut my legs. So that is what I am going to write about today.

First, I am going to start at the beginning. What am I doing? I am making what is called a Shaker styled leg. That means that it is tapered from the bottom to the top and those tapers will be on the inside edges. The outside two faces remain square.

The Shakers were a religious movement around the early 1800s as part of the great awakenings of that period. Shaker’s were know for their simplistic styles in efforts to maintain focus on worship. This has translated as furniture that lacks the adornment and decadence of the Victorian designs (they go by other names in the furniture/art/history circles).

So, I needed to taper some legs. I looked at buying some fixtures to do a generic version of this, but I soon settled on the fact that I would build my own purpose built ones. I had all of the materials, so let’s see how it went.

The first two things you need are a base and a fence. I chose a piece of plywood that will act as a sled against the saw fence as the base. The fixture fence was a piece 2×6 that I salvaged from my facia project this summer. That I send through the joiner to get a flat bottom and edge that I want to cut against.

Both the top and back of the fixture fence do not have to be perfect. The back for obvious reasons. On the top, I will mount some adjustable clamps. Because I can adjust for tightness, the top does not necessarily have to be square.

Measure and mark your taper on the base. When you figure that out, you can attach the fixture fence and base together. Counter sink the screws so that everything rides properly with the fixture.

I used some short mending plates to act as a stop for the front edge of the fixture. That way, as I push against the piece, the pressure will keep my workpiece tight against the fixture. My only other piece of advice here is keep metal away from the blade and make sure that the stop is placed low enough to contact your final dimensions. The clamps I placed roughly in equal thirds for distributed downward clamping pressure.

Amateur Tip #1 – The fixture fence should be as tall or taller than the workpiece thickness. Mine was shorter which meant that the clamps didn’t fully lock in place when adjusted to the minimum height. This is part safety and part quality. Had I have known, I could cut a fatter piece from my 2×6 and mounted it on edge

Amateur Tip #2 – After cutting the first face, save the off cut. Reattach the off cut to the main part with tape to maintain a flat (ish) surface for the second cut. If you can get away with rotating the cut edge to the top, then this wont be necessary. I picked the two faces that I wanted to remove and sometimes the first cut face needed to be facing down against the sled to get my taper on the proper side.

All in all, I am very happy with my first attempt. Part of this process is actually getting the proportions correct. I drew them to scale and the looked alright there. I think that they looked pretty good in the real world too. My next step is cutting mortises and tenons for the base. And that is another day.

End Your Programming Routine: There were a few things that I would change. Like for instance, I didn’t verify that my base was square, which is wasn’t. Consequently, my taper was a little more aggressive than I planned. But, that is OK. Experts would say that someone without experience should run test pieces or mockups. That’s great advice for commissions or expensive woods. In this case, my whole project is training. Live an learn, but I am happy with my first shaker legs.