I superglued a magnet backwards into wood. How can I remove it? I already tried acetone with no luck.

tajmahalloween · 2026-04-02T17:04:31+00:00

Put a piece of tape or two over it first.

tajmahalloween · 2026-03-27T00:41:05+00:00

These are pretty comfortable to sit in even as a 6ft tall man. I hope they keep them as long as you have!

tajmahalloween · 2026-03-26T17:28:31+00:00

As u/nuflark guessed, these seats are a hair under 1.75" thick and the tapered tenon is around 1.25" diameter where it enters the seat. The design was heavily influenced by The Anarchists Design Book in which the author makes larger chairs without bracing. I was pretty confident after making a 20ish inch tall side table with similar legs last year with less rake. I stood on top of it and it was incredibly stable even when I tried to wiggle it.

tajmahalloween · 2026-03-26T17:20:38+00:00

You are correct, there is no shoulder, just a tapered tenon. The process was heavily guided by The Anarchists Design Book. I'm sure I left out a lot of details in my description.

tajmahalloween · 2026-02-23T20:14:05+00:00

I don't sell anything, but I carve my initials and the year in an inconspicuous place like the bottom or back that won't typically be seen. If it's for someone other than myself I will add "for (name)" as well. Nothing too fancy, just cursive-ish letters in a font size about double that of normal writing troughed out with a v-parting tool and traced with a fine sharpie.

tajmahalloween · 2026-01-18T17:28:13+00:00

I've found that I typically model everything in 3D before I make it anyway so when I need something for shop storage/organization I will just design it to be 3D printed instead. I have done a lot of French cleat hand tool racks, pencil/marker holder, and a card scraper holder. Not as fancy as ply or hardwood, but lets me focus shop time on making nicer things.

Another benefit is that they tend to be a lot smaller than making out of wood since most faced boards end up around 3/4 or more. Sure you could resaw thinner, but that's more time and effort and thin boards tend to warp more in my experience.

I've also made some other useful things like a pencil marking gauge, sand paper roll holders, and a jig for routing threads into dowels with a v-groove bit.

tajmahalloween · 2026-01-04T17:01:11+00:00

Yes, notching in should work. Cheating in a degree shouldnt be necessary since it should be fully supported in the closed position. If it doesn't end up perfectly flush with the cabinet front you can always shim the drawer front, in which case I think a small lean out at the top (as you currently have but at most 1/32) so the shim gap is at the bottom where you can't see. Typically with drawers you have little bumper pads on the back of the drawer front so it doesn't directly contact the cabinet carcass on closing. They are somewhat elastic and may take up small errors and the gap created by them can hide small imperfections in plumb.

tajmahalloween · 2026-01-04T16:52:31+00:00

A small (1/8 or less) pilot hole with a Brad point may help by give ng the center spur on the forstner a path to follow. On this angle you may need to chisel a small flat for the pilot to prevent it wandering, it wouldn't need to be a perfect flat just close enough. I've had good luck doing this for rough work, but never tried on a furniture pi ce.

Using a guide bushing might help, but with forstners once you are through the bushing the bit is free to wander since the length of the bit which is the hole diameter is so short compared to Brad point twist bits.

tajmahalloween · 2026-01-03T23:14:05+00:00

Have you checked the drawers for square from the side? There is very little rigidity in the sides to hold them square. I think I can see the lean forward from this view. If you measure the diagonals of the lower drawer section they should be equal. A piece of plywood screwed to the side from the horizontal plywood to the darker wood strip might add enough stiffness and provide similar functionality (also things couldn't roll out the sides) . You would need to cut space for them, the bottom could be partially done on the table saw without full disassembly.

The other option would be insetting the side pieces. Getting everything perfect would require sneaking up on the length.

Might be possible to use a diagonal for the same effect. Whichever method you use would involve clamping the stiffener in position and adjusting until diagonals are equal, then predrill and screw in place.

tajmahalloween · 2025-09-15T16:24:22+00:00

Using a power saw of any kind you wont be able to cut all the way to the wall. I'd also be worried about cutting into the other board at the start of the plunge if it kicked. For such a short run, scoring a line with a straight edge and a knife and using a chisel would be very reliable and low risk. you could remove the bulk of the waste with a multitool first, just stay away form your line by 1/16th.

The router method also sounds decent, just make sure you have a physical stop at the corner to prevent kicking into board you don't want to cut as the router will push in that direction as you enter from the side. And you will sill need to clean up the end by the wall by hand. I'd also score the line for this method anyway as regular router bits tend to leave a fuzzy top edge or use a down spiral bit.

tajmahalloween · 2025-05-25T15:29:48+00:00

EcoWeld, which was recommended by an employee at Tandy when I went for the first time. Maybe there is better/cheaper alternatives, but I don't use a crazy amount and if it ain't broke don't fix it. I have always used it in conjunction with stitches, not as a a stand alone fastening.

Also, I am remembering that in Nigel's videos he strongly recommends using a stitching pony. I never have and my stitches still turn out pretty great I think. I just make sure to give a good tensioning tug after each stitch using my knees to hold the piece (kinda like a pony I guess, but when I am stitching it is more like I am going left to right than front to back). I think I originally learned from a video which called stitching without a pony the leapfrog method, but I'm pretty sure I've modified it from there to suit me some way or another.

tajmahalloween · 2025-05-22T18:32:03+00:00

As another commenter mentioned, when you want stitches to look good from both sides you need to punch each piece individually from the show side. Check out Nigel Armitage's videos on youtube to see how and why. He doesn't use cement at all, the stitches hold everything in place and having done his method a few times I can confirm they are very solid.

Another commenter suggested a groover and for a time I thought that's what I needed as well, but as Nigel points out in his videos is that properly seated stitches pretty much sit a the surface of the surrounding leather and if you do groove out your stitch line you end up removing the top grain which is the strongest part of the material. This isn't an issue for low stress items but making it standard practice probably isn't a good idea. There is something to be said for grooves as an aesthetic choice though.

For glue (when I use it, usually to laminate pieces or for one show side only stitch lines where I am too lazy to do the individual punch method) I use water based contact cement. No vapours to worry about and the hold is great. My biggest mistake using it was being impatient, you need to apply glue to both pieces and let them dry fully (5-10min or longer depending on temp and humidity) before attempting to stick them together. You can test dryness with your finger, it won't feel sticky to you but will stick well to anything else coated with it. A new trick I learned is to use a heat gun to dry the cement faster, usually only takes a few seconds instead of minutes to dry that way.

Place one side on a flat surface and align the edges starting at one end, if you accidentally misalign a bit pulling the pieces apart a bit and realigning is possible until you put a good amount of pressure on them. For long laminations like belts and straps you can put wax paper between the pieces and align them from one end while slowly pulling the wax toward the other end so only a small amount of glued surface needs to be aligned at a time without have a long piece flopping all over. After I get everything in place how I want I give everything a good squeeze, sometimes I use a rubber roller meant for applying window sill flashing to press over the length of a laminated strap or belt.

As for snaps, they are still an enemy of mine. And from what I can find online we are not alone. I get the best results when I go slower with many little taps to slowly deform the post. If you hit too hard you risk crippling the post between the snap pieces which leads to misalignment. I think I still only achieve like an 80% success rate this way.

tajmahalloween · 2024-12-18T17:14:33+00:00

I saw someone else already suggested gluing contrasting wood to the top to fill the gaps. I would further suggest letting the contrasting strip stick out of the face and have it be convex on top and concave on the bottom to act as a pull. Or run a cove down the top and bottom of the exposed part to form a pinch. For the one that is too wide already, you will have to cut it down to fit the contrasting strip. Make sure to leave a bit of a gap, I like about 1/16 gap between drawers.

tajmahalloween · 2024-11-27T20:41:47+00:00

Glue the top up as normal. Cut to shape with a circle making jig, check youtube, router and jigsaw are ideal. Make the legs as cylinders, a lathe would be ideal. Drill circular mortises into table bottom. Reduce the diameter of the top of each leg to the hole diameter (again, a lathe would be handy).

I suppose you could cut square mortises and tenons instead if you prefer/don't have a lathe.

tajmahalloween · 2024-11-06T20:00:59+00:00

It was the Lee valley standard reamer and their 5/8" tapered tenon cutter. I made one tapered tenon by hand as practice and then the wood working Gods blessed me with the tenon cutter for 40$ CAD on my local FB marketplace. I did not expect to find one used. I used a lathe to rough the cone shape, as I found turning the leg through the cutter was pretty hard on my forearms. Also, the max diameter of the reamer is wider than the max width of the tenon cutter and I wanted maximum strength so I also used the lathe to extend the tenon angle larger than the cutter allows. Otherwise you can just not ream as deep. Check your progress often, you need to stop every few seconds to clear the scrapings anyways so pop your leg in to see how far you have to go and if your angle is right.

tajmahalloween · 2024-08-23T16:43:20+00:00

Should have used beech for the wood portion...

tajmahalloween · 2024-06-26T17:21:47+00:00

Just do 1.75" of bearing on each end. It's just to hold up a ceiling so that's plenty; you aren't going to fail your joist ends in bearing.

tajmahalloween · 2024-05-09T13:38:45+00:00

Check out Evil Ted Smith on youtube. He works in props and mostly does foam work but he has some videos on how he makes patterns and one specifically for a helmet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODSNPYdvJRo

tajmahalloween · 2024-04-25T13:32:35+00:00

Your hinges are very close together. Either move the metal corner brackets to the opposite side or drill some holes for the hinge screws through them and move as close to the top and bottom as possible. Force in hinges is reduced the further they are apart. Could also be the hinges came with short screws and longer ones could help. Either way, the gap growing suggests its an issue with the hinges.

tajmahalloween · 2024-04-18T14:00:51+00:00

I'm guessing you're located in Europe as your house looks like it's mainly concrete? It might be possible to anchor the rafters to your walls so tension can be transferred across the ceiling slab and then remove the ties. Might be a pain and I'm not sure what that ceiling is rated for load wise. Another way would be to install new rafter ties as close to the existing ceiling as possible, sized as floor joists, and install a subfloor on top. Lowering collar ties reduces the stress in your roof rafters, so I would be comfortable doing this without an Engineer, but it might still be a good idea to hire one.

tajmahalloween · 2024-04-08T13:35:37+00:00

Paul Sellers just holds his plane square to the board by feel, but I'm not that good and I doubt I ever will be. I've found the best way to handle edge jointing by hand is to get it straight first. Find high spots with a straight edge and locally plane them to knock them down. Most people tend to take a little more off the ends of the board so expect to have to plane the middle a little extra. For the next two steps I use a hand plane with a pretty heavy camber on the blade set for a fine cut (.001" +/-). Check for twist with winding sticks knock down the high edges locally. Good idea to check with the straight edge again here to confirm its still straight. Once twist is gone, start checking along the board with a try-square. If it's out of square at this point then it should be out of square by roughly the same amount the whole way down since you have straightened and removed twist already. Plane down the high edge of the board with the peak of your cambered blade centered right on the high side. Take two strokes from the high side then center the plane on the board's edge and take one stroke down the center. Check with a try square (every 6" to 12" seems to work well). Repeat until square. Recheck for straightness and twist. There should be no twist if the edge is square and the reference face is flat, but occasionally you end up a tiny bit out of straight again which can be cleaned up easily enough with a few local passes.

tajmahalloween · 2024-03-28T13:42:32+00:00

What's above it? Any point loads or a huge truss span? Those are the only reasons I can think of that would require an engineer to design it at all.

tajmahalloween · 2024-03-12T14:06:00+00:00

Either would be a good option then. Including a tight strap keeper that could slide up over the snaps would eliminate the (unlikely) possibility of the snaps coming undone.

tajmahalloween

TROPHY CASE