SawSquawk Table Saw Birdhouse

Our local woodworking club had a birdhouse contest, so I made a SawSquawk Table Saw Birdhouse.  It's inspired by the SawStop table saw.  Watch to see how I made it.

The key to making this birdhouse look like a table saw was to size all of the parts down to scale.  Click here to download my cutting templates if you would like to make one yourself.

The main structure of the birdhouse is a box with a large top.  Before assembly, you will want to cut out the slot that will be the entry for the birds and cut the miter slots in the table top.  The top is screwed on from underneath, with no glue so that it can be removed.

The rest of this project is just a matter of accessorizing the saw with all of the parts and spray painting them.  The painting takes some patience as some parts are different colors and require some masking.

I ended up winning the 1st place prize in the Yard Art category which totally made my weekend!  Thanks to Gwinnett Woodworkers for having the contest and also to Peachtree Woodworking Supply for the awesome gift card. Below are a couple of photos of all of the entries in the Yard Art and Traditional categories.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

Make a Cordless Tool Charging Station

I bought my first cordless drill and charger in 1993.  My cordless tool collection has grown a lot since then, so watch how I made a Cordless Tool Charging Station to organize them all.

I like how this cordless tool station looks more like a store display than a regular square shop cabinet.  I designed it to be build from a single 2'x4' sheet of 3/4" plywood.  The only additional piece is the logo brace at the top.  Click here to download my templates for this project.

The bottom shelf is for the battery chargers.  There is a 1" gap cut into the back of the shelf to route the power cables to to the outlet.  Two of my chargers are mounted upside down to the bottom of the shelf.

The circular saw shelf has a slot cut in it for the blade.  This allows the saw to sit flat on the shelf.  There is an 8" opening below this shelf so that the blade does not interfere with placing batteries on the charger.

The drill shelf holds four drills.  My particular drills fit nicely in 1-1/2" wide slots.  You may need to measure your drills to make sure you make the slots wide enough.

The top two shelves hold a flashlight, lantern, and reciprocating saw.  The top brace with my logo on it is the only board that did not come from the sheet of plywood.  Carving the logo with the X-Carve CNC Machine was a last minute addition and I think it looks really cool.

This was a quick, easy, and fun project that adds some much needed organization to my shop.  These cordless tools were scattered everywhere, but now they have a home on the wall instead of on my work surfaces.  Thanks for checking out my project!

Happy New Year 2016!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe 2016!  I think 2015 was an awesome year for the online woodworking/making community and 2016 will be even better.  Thank you so much for your support!  Let's make some more cool stuff!

I'm in the process of cleaning up the shop and getting more organized, so it's a great time for some shop organization projects.  Watch for that and a lot more coming up this year!  Thanks for watching!

How to Make an Acrylic LED Sign

I made a remote-controlled Acrylic LED Sign for my neighbor down the street.  He's the owner of  "Rob's Wood Shop - Daycare for Adults".  Check it out!

I opened Rob's logo in InkScape and used the Trace Bitmap option to convert it to vector art, then deleted the raster copy and saved it as an SVG file.  I imported the SVG file into the Inventables EASEL application and flipped it horizontally so it would be reversed, because all of the LED signs I've seen have the logo carved into the back of the sign.

Rob provided the acrylic sheet that was leftover from another project.  I used the ShapeOko2 to carve the logo about .01" deep into the acrylic.  It worked great and required very little clean up.  When working with acrylic, you must be very careful not to scratch it, because every little scratch will show up when the sign is lit.

I ordered this LED Light Kit and I waited to receive it before building the base, since part of the base design required me to measure the light strip width and thickness.

Here are the basic steps for making the base.  You may need to adjust the measurements depending on the size of your sign and the LED light strip.

1. I cut two 3/4" strips of 1/2" walnut that were the same length as the sign.  
2. I cut one 3" strip of 1/2" maple that was about 3" longer than the sign.  
3. I used the Inventables X-Carve to route an 1/8" deep groove in the center of the board to receive the LED light strip.  The groove is about 1/2" shorter than the sign so that the corners of the sign will rest on the surface of the maple with the LEDs recessed under it in the middle.  A 7/16" hole was drilled partially through the board on one end of the groove for the wiring.  (You could do the same thing with a router and a drill press.)
4. I drilled a 7/16" hole from the rear of the base into the previous hole for the electrical wire to pass through.
5. I cut two small end pieces of walnut and glued all of the pieces together, making sure the sign will fit snugly in the middle above the recessed LEDs.
6. I sprayed the base with Watco Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer.  Once the finish dried, I peeled the backing off the LED strip and stuck it down into the recess so it was centered.

I inserted the sign, plugged in the electronics, and used the remote control to test it out.  It's so cool!  I like being able to turn it on/off and control the colors with the remote.  I think my neighbor will love it.  Now I want to make one for myself!