Re: Tote for My Mitre Box Saw
Mike Fitterling
>Next one, I will post pics, but this is how I went about making this one.
I took a big enough slice off the chunk of osage on the big bandsaw. Then I jointed one side flat on my Northfield. Ran that through my planer until I had the thickness right, comparing to the old tote as I went. I laid the old tote on top of the osage blank and simply traced the outline with a pencil, making up the missing bit at the bottom by simply guessing and trying to make it look nice.
Took the osage now to the little bandsaw with a 1/4" blade and cut out the outside shape. My jigsaw is broken, but my brother was coming over so he brought his and I cut the hole out with that (Guess I should have galooted it and pulled out my coping saw). Next I installed a 3/4" radius cutter in the router table and ran it only around the handgrip edges frontside and back.
Next I got out my various rasps, files, and a LN float and started smoothing everything out and making some of the details that a router cannot. The top and bottom edges were not radiused, but more arched, and I did that by hand with the rasps and float. Followed that work with a Dremel with a small drum to smooth out any bumps and get rid of any burn marks from the router bit. It was a bit of Dremel work, back to handwork, then Dremel work, handwork, etc. until everything was the way I wanted it.
Next, I had to make a mortise in the top front of the tote to accomodate the blade's top bar. I just penciled that in and chopped it out as I would a dovetail with a couple of my bench chisels. Then making a careful line down the middle and around the tote to the spot where on the original the blade left the tote, I made a cut along that line with the rip side of a ryoba. I realized after doing that, I should have made the kerf with the same blade of the mitre saw. So I switched and finished up the cut with that. I had to cut, test fit, cut, test fit until the blade would seat itself all the way in. I did not want to go too deep and end up cutting through into the open area of the tote.
Finally, I marked the holes for the screws through the old tote onto the new tote. I now realize that I should have marked them with the blade as the template instead, and it caused me some frustration getting all the holes to line up, one or another being off just a hair too much. I drilled the main holes with a striaght bit then put an auger bit in a brace and, with its lead screw in the hole I just made through the tote, I drilled the recesses for the medallion and screw heads.
Finally, I sanded everything first with 100 grit paper, then 220 grit. Took the tote outside, filled my touch up HVLP gun with amber shellac and sprayed it.
I was really surprised by the results and that it was not really difficult at all and the next one should be easier and turn out better. The other thing I was surprised at is how easily the osage worked. I thought it might be a killer, but I had no problem cutting or drilling, whether by hand or machine and it really took the finish nicely.
Cheers,
Mike
