June 20, 2012

power strop to go

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

 More work done today on my new carving stand including a way to power hone my tools for those scary sharp edges that cut wood as if it were butter.


My carving stand was built using a "hide-a-horse", lightweight (7lbs) folding saw horse. I love it, it sets up in seconds but folds up into a very small package easy to store under a bed or in a closet.
Watch the video on this link to see how it works http://hideahorsefoldingsawhorses.com/

 A proper tool stand was made to fit. It is screwed to the base plate, not to the saw horse. The screws allow me to take this carving stand apart and flat pack it. If I wanted to I could then  put the pieces of the stand (minus the saw horse) into a suitcase and fly away with it.  I put T-nuts into the back side of the plywood to hold the vise and used plastic knob screws to go into the T-nuts. That make it fast to take apart but still strong. I have put cork sheeting on the underside so the tool stand so it can be used on its own on a table or desk.

I put a layer of thin adhesive backed cork sheeting over the magnetic, stainless steel knife bar. I purchased the bar from my local Ikea store but they can also be found on Amazon or Ebay.  The length of the bar is what determined the size of my carving stand. I like the stand to be that long because it keeps the C clamps that attach the stand to the sawhorse, desk or table top from hitting my knees. Also it gives me lots of room for hanging up carving tools. The cork sheeting is shelf liner from the Contact brand. You can find it in hardware, home center stores and places such as Walmart.
photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012

Another chore today was mounting a honing disk onto a mandrel so I could use it in my battery powered drill motor. This kind of mandrel can be found in hardware stores. The honing wheel is made by gluing layers of mat board together.  Be sure to carefully cut the circles so you don't have to do a lot of sanding to true up the disk surface after the glue is dry. Use the motor turning against a sanding block. But to get that chore done even faster turn it with the drill motor against a running power sander.
Add captionphoto copyright Karin Corbin 2012
 The green color on the wheel is honing compound. The wheel does not need to be charged with compound very often, it last a good long while.





2 comments:

Debora said...

Restickable tabs, sounds like that Tell-Sell product called Sticky Magic. Reusable sticky rollers to use on clothing, carpet, furniture... get rid of your cats hairs on the couch, your husbands hair on the pillow, anything! Just rinse with soapy water and it is as new :D

Seriously now. The honing wheel i remember from previous posts, and your set up looks very good. It makes every sense, but i wonder how passers by will react, when you're comfortably sitting in the park or by the ocean. Have you took it out with you already?

Cos in the past i've made myself a tiny my bobbinlace pillow to go, and sitting in the train with it on my lap i've been given many weird looks ;)

Karin Corbin said...

Debora, it is perfectly acceptable where I live to work on art in the parks. We have craft fairs every week all across the region. The danger here would not be getting weird looks it would be getting interrupted with people wanting to talk about what I am doing.

Yes I have taken it out but we have had very few dry days this summer so I have had little chance to get outside. I am looking for a small caravan I can tow behind my car to use as a mobile workshop. I am starting to realize I will probably have to build one to get something suitable and affordable.