What a great day today was. Nice enough to work is a t-shirt and cool enough to not sweat all over the projects. Wish all the days that I want to work outside would be so nice.
Today's project was to make the work surface of the MFT a little taller. Different projects can call for different working heights and well depending on your stature making things more comfortable is always nice.
The first part of the project was to make a mft type top that was the same length but a few rows less in depth. The SO made this pretty quick and pretty fast.
- td1.jpg (278.72 KiB) Viewed 8659 times
I used an engraving bit to score a line so I had a visual to set the track saw up and cut the top out. Works really well and no additional measuring needed. It is a little hard to see in the picture but the green arrows should help.
- td2a.jpg (178.87 KiB) Viewed 8659 times
Next I wanted to make some "legs". I had picked up a piece of 1" dia pvc rod for this purpose. The idea was to make a tendon on each end of the rod that would fit in the lower table and the upper table to gain the height. They are not fixed in any one set of holes so if some clamp or what not would interfere you can adjust the position of the leg.
I could have done this with a lathe but since I have the SO I just made up a little jig to clamp the tube and use the vertical table to work on. The "V" notch made sure it was both vertical and in the same place for all 12 cuts.
- td3r.jpg (181.07 KiB) Viewed 8659 times
If you notice the tendon is not centered you are correct, this was to provide a way to tighten the legs by give them a turn but as it turned out this wasn't needed..... well at least I got to try the idea out.
Here I placed the legs in what might be called the standard position. As I mentioned you do have the flexibility to locate them in any of the holes.
- td5.jpg (217.27 KiB) Viewed 8659 times
Then the taller top goes on. I should also mention that I had a reason to use the width I did but that will be for a future post. You could even have a full size table or a much smaller one, same for the height, just make more legs with different lengths. Just staying agile and flexible.
- td6.jpg (221.97 KiB) Viewed 8659 times
The next installment might be a while off as I have to start on another birthday sign.........
Ed
