WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>Here's a pic of it

Well, That beats the

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Heck out of my Rubbermaid tub my waterstones live in. Scott, thinking about yet another project to add to the list.

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Tony - Memphis

>Hey, that's real nice. I need to do something like that too. Although I don't sharpen a whole lot, it takes too long to get everything out to touch up. I did make a melamine "table" with a mahogany lip around it. The water stones stick in place on the melamine.

Tony

Re: Well, That beats the

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>heh...

I realized very quickly that pulling my stones out of a cardboard box and having to lay down a plastic bag for the water was not only a pain in the neck but would discourage me from keeping my blades sharp(er).

So I scribbled a drawing down on a piece of paper, did some rough layout with my equipment and figured out a workable size. Then it was just a matter of finding the scrap, cutting it down, and gluing/nailing it up.

The longest parts were waiting for the glue and caulk to dry along with the poly.

One thing... you want your platform that your stones sit on to be high...

It's hard to tell from the picture but the stone holder on the bottom right sits on two pieces of MDF which puts the holder higher than the rest of the tray. It's high enough to allow for easy access but low enough to catch water..

One thing that works well is that I can move around the tray real easy so I can use different parts of the stone without having to move the holder.

One side note, the latest Shopnotes has a sharpening box. It looks ok...but there are things that I would change on it...

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>Yeah, I thought the same thing about the time. So I made that... It's nice to be able to pull stuff out and get to work with little effort.

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Don Thompson - South of Miami

>Are you not worried about water messing up the MDF on the bottom?

(I have to make something similar for my wife, and I have been contemplating what to do with the bottom and the joints)

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>Could you be more specific? Are you referring to the MDF base or the sides?

The bottom is made from one piece of MDF while the sides are 2" strips of plywood glued with gorilla glue and nailed to reinforce areas. After I finished building it, I used silicone caulk along all the joints along the MDF base.

After that dried, I applied four thick coats of polyurethane along the bottom and sides and top edges.

Once that was done, I even put some paste wax over in the holder area for even more protection.

The water beads up and floats on the top of the MDF in the holder section.

I soak up any remaing water with an old rag or paper towel.

Re: WaterStones WaterStones Everywhere...

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>I was just mentally meandering. My wife uses this incredibly ugly cafeteria tray (but it works..) under the dogs' water bowl, to catch splashes. I was looking at it the other day, and thinking (dangerous, I know) of making something more attractive, with handles. I was sort of thinking that some mica on the bottom would make it easy to wipe clean, then I was thinking about the substrate (MDF or ply) soaking up water...

And hence my question.

I guess it was a bit vague.