The Programmable Box Joint Jig - Introduction and First Run

As a budding woodworker I always wanted to try making box joints. My table saw however was not designed to handle a dado stack. If I could use a single blade accurately I could make wide finger joints, but that can get difficult and repetitive. If I could automate the process, then I could easily cut box joints of any size. After months of development, here is my first test run on the programmable box joint jig.

I want to go into deeper detail on how it was made and how it works. What I really want is to answer as many of YOUR questions as possible, so if there's something you want to know more about, let me know.

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit: http://amzn.to/2bxqBl0
Limit Switches: http://amzn.to/2bxrJF6

Box Jointed Pallet Wood Pencil Cup

My oldest son loves to color these days, and wanted something to hold his markers. Meanwhile, his dad loves to make box joints these days, and was looking for an excuse to do so. As a result, we came up with a simple box-jointed open-top box to use as a pencil (or marker) cup, made to fit in with our dining room decor.

This project also served as a fun upcycling challenge for the 2016 Pallet Upcycle Challenge. The entire project came from a section of thick beat-up pallet wood that I picked up awhile back. At first I thought I would leave it looking "rustic" but I was pleasantly surprised how nice it looked after sanding off the rough surfaces.

Silicone mini glue brushes: http://amzn.to/2baXC9h
Cognac wood stain: http://amzn.to/2baXPJv
Water based satin polyurethane: http://amzn.to/2bryXev

MUSIC: "Undone" by Lunova Labs
https://soundcloud.com/lunova/undone
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Portions were repeated to extend the length of the music.

Making an overhead camera rig with an articulating lamp

I've been looking for articulating lamp to use for a wall-mounted overhead camera rig, assuming I would remove the light and just use the arm... but why not have both? The light is great for lighting my work, and adding a camera mount is simple and convenient and requires less modification. I picked up the lamp from a thrift sale for $3, made my own simple wall mount for it, and added hardware for the camera mount. This works well for lightweight smartphone cameras. Most lamps like this aren't designed to hold the weight of a heavier video camera or DSLR. Another advantage of having a wall-mounted camera rig is the vibration isolation. If I bump the table, or if a power tool makes it vibrate, the camera remains steady.

For those of you who aren't familiar with camera mount hardware, all you need is a simple 1/4"-20 bolt.

This camera rig was used for some of the overhead shots of my battery station build video.

Tripod mount cell phone holder: http://amzn.to/2bcUXdb
T-Nuts: http://amzn.to/2a6FfvH

Making a Star Knob with Fusion 360 and the Band Saw

I'm in the process of building another bigger project, and I needed to make some star knobs for a clamping application. Normally I would draw up a design and go make the part without much detail on video. I decided to dive deeper into this process and show you how I designed this part in Fusion 360, and how I used model parameters (a key aspect of parametric modeling) to make a flexible design that I could easily tweak until I liked it. After modeling, I walk through creating a drawing from within Fusion 360, and how I make it work best for making the parts on my drill press and bandsaw.

Battery Storage and Charging Station

Plans can be found in the B2Builds store.

As a family of four, we have a lot of toys and devices that need batteries in our home. For years we've had our batteries thrown in a drawer. Eventually we started using rechargeable batteries too. We didn't want to give up valuable counter space for the charger though, so it wanders throughout the house. I decided it was time to organize our batteries and charger and put them in one place where we could easily access them, see what we had and what we needed, and free up some space in our junk drawer.

After seeing some similar, simpler battery storage systems online, I came up with a design of my own that was easier to load, big enough to keep regular batteries separate from rechargeables, and gave us some storage space for the charger and other batteries and battery-related supplies.

Energizer Family Battery Charger: http://amzn.to/299lEiU
Keyhole Fasteners: http://amzn.to/29AfpS3
1/2" x 3/4" Aluminum Angle: http://amzn.to/29ldV27
Square Rubber Bumpers: http://amzn.to/299forb

How to Make a Six Legged, 3-Piece Pole Stand

While building out a basic dowel tree project, I decided to get creative and come up with an interesting design for the base. The result is this six-legged pole stand, made from three pieces of wood with a triangular opening in the middle. The geometry gave me some trouble during the build, but it all worked out and came together nicely.

See the Wolfram Alpha request I used to calculate the triangle size:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=pack+1+circle+diameter+1.25+into+a+triangle

TOOLS AND SUPPLIES:
Table Saw: http://amzn.to/1Z7x9GS

Over-Engineering a Custom Cardboard Box with Wolfram Alpha and Packing Algorithms

After building a simple dowel tree, I started thinking about the long-term life of this build. It would need to be stored for most of the year, and there were several dowels that needed to be kept together. In this video, I'll walk you through my thought process in designing and making (and re-making) a custom-sized cardboard box to hold these dowels. Along the way we'll take a quick look at Wolfram Alpha and the 2-D packing algorithms that helped me design the box.

Making an adjustable Pliers Holder for my pegboard

After dealing with bad pliers holders for long enough, I made a simple but effective pliers holder for my pegboard. Watch to see this basic design take shape, and how it can improve your pegboard space.

L-HOOKS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
10-pack L-Hooks: http://amzn.to/1VuPU9l
100-pack L-Hooks: http://amzn.to/1W42NW4

OTHER TOOLS AND SUPPLIES
Table Saw: http://amzn.to/262R6Ui
Band Saw: http://amzn.to/1ShuImg
Vise-Grip Curved Jaw Locking Pliers: http://amzn.to/1V6RSMq
VISE-GRIP Locking Pliers Set: http://amzn.to/22zQD7C

Modular Spline Jig for the Table Saw Sled

In this video I walk you through the build process for a simple spline jig I built as an add-on to my edge-jointing table saw sled. It's been working well for cutting spline joints on a couple of my recent box-building projects.

TOOLS AND SUPPLIES:
FastCap 2P-10 CA Glue Kit (4 glues, activator, debonder): http://amzn.to/1SR14RK
FastCap 2P-10 Solo Kit: http://amzn.to/1YXXcQt
Table Saw: http://amzn.to/262R6Ui

Tape Measure: http://amzn.to/1p0vG8J
Handi Clamp: http://amzn.to/1p0weLG
GRR-Ripper Push Block: http://amzn.to/1ShuSKc
Glu-Bot Glue Bottle: http://amzn.to/1XxgJqF

Air Filter Repair - Follow-up Fix

After posting my air filter repair video, one of my viewers pointed out that I left a capacitor lead too close to the mounting screw. He was right, and I should have known better than to miss that. Here's my quick and basic repair to make sure it doesn't short out in the future.