Tag: power drill

Home Makerspace, Small Projects, Woodworking, Woodworking1 Comment

Home #Makerspace: DIY Knock Hockey Set

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When the ice melts from the first burst of spring, the hockey fun doesn’t have to stop.  Take hockey inside with DIY Knock Hockey, a wood table-top game which makes for hours and hours of fun.

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This tutorial utilizes a table saw to create the necessary rabbets and miter joints.  These are great intermediate table saw skills to learn, practice and utilize in your work flow.  Strong, clean joinery really sets your project apart from the pack.  While kid-focused, this project isn’t really designed to be made with young maker help.

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I use this game to help teach basic concepts of physics, such as momentum, rebound angles, and friction.  Game play teaches turn-taking and sportsmanship.  Lastly, the rules are incredibly simple…but “house” rules unleash cooperative play and teach fairness.

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Home Makerspace, Jigs, Small Projects, This Week In the Shop, WoodworkingLeave a comment

This Week in the Shop: DIY Height Gauge

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A quick jig can make the difference in a woodshop.  This height gauge helps measure and set cutting tool heights and thicknesses for rabbets, dadoes, chamfers, etc.  Since it incorporates a digital caliper, the dial is easy to read, precise and accurate.

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This tool came in handy building the light box project – I hit the rabbet depth and thickness dead-on each time.

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In the next few weeks, I will be developing new projects for NoVA Labs and this blog which utilize more intermediate woodworking skills.  Build this jig now and it will be used over and over again.

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Home Makerspace, Small Projects, Techniques, This Week In the Shop, WoodworkingLeave a comment

Home #Makerspace: The Fishing Rod Storage Rack

woodshopcowboy

Last week, I built a small shelf using hand tools.  This week, I will use a mixture of bench and power tools to create a storage rack for my family’s fishing rods.  This rack has two assemblies, the upper rack and the lower rack.

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The lower assembly has three holes for accepting fishing rod handles.  The upper assembly has the same three holes with access channels.

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Using power tools, this project will take fifteen to twenty minutes to complete.  It can be completed with only hand tools, if so desired.  Young makers in the middle school range comfortable with hand-held power tools, especially the jig saw and power drill, could complete this project with minimal adult assistance.

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Tool Primer2 Comments

Tool Primer: How to Select and Use Power Drills

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The first power tool I probably ever used (and owned) was a power drill.  The lowly power drill can do a whole lot of things if you know how to use it.  A power drill can strip paint, drill big holes, little holes, create dowel joints, sand curves and screw stuff together.  It makes pocket holes and wood split.  If you don’t know exactly what a power drill is, it is a handheld tool which spins a metal bit attached to an electric motor via a chuck.  The magic of the drill is in the bit.

In short, it’s pretty essential to the hobbyist and homeowner.  In this post, I’ll break down the types of (power) drills available for the average homeowner/hobbyist/woodshop teacher and give some tips on how to choose which is right for you.

First, let’s take a walk through history, why don’t we? Continue reading “Tool Primer: How to Select and Use Power Drills”

This Week In the Shop2 Comments

Woodworking Plans: The Kid’s Bed Frame

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Last year, I posted a quick project: The Bed Frame.  It has since become the most searched for post on this website, garnering a little over a thousand views with no publicity.  People like to build beds. It’s taken a while, but I’ve put together a small PDF which outlines how I make my simple bed frames.  You can catch the goodness here:  The Kid’s Bed Frame Plan If you build it…send me pictures at woodshopcowboy @ gmail.com!  If you have critiques, send them to a different address…I mean, send them over too. Remember to like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook and … Continue reading Woodworking Plans: The Kid’s Bed Frame