Holder for Extra Roll of TP

Coming up with this project would seem like I had ran out of ideas on what next to do. Well, I was intrigued by one little item at a hotel where we stayed. In the bathroom was a holder for extra toilet paper. Typically we'd find this extra item hidden in an under-sink cabinet or on top of the commode itself. This one was on the wall near where the regular roll was on a standard holder. I wish I had taken a photo. As it turned out there are dozens of these holders sold commercially at home furnishing centers and online.

I decided to make four of them for the number of bathrooms in the home. It must have the minimum amount of material possible - staying with the minimalist aim for completing the projects. Commercially available ones are either molded metal or hard plastic which easily achieves the minimum material limit. With wood, the challenge is in the joinery, which is really the main reason for this project - exploring new joinery methods for a simple project but it must be effective and strong.

A tapered pilot hole for the vertical stem is a must so the rod will not split or crack

Well, this project with the special joinery will be on file for future ones.

Another Tip: Re-purposing in Lieu of Discarding

Things we throw away from the workshop are unusable scrap material, saw dust (although I keep some as spill absorbents), rags, etc. The motor on this one of two Fein shop vacs I own burned out a while back.  I threw the motor assembly and cover but kept the bottom canister. For a while it was a trash can at the corner of the shop. Then I decided to do something with it, sort of re-purposing it for a somewhat related function.

I was going to use it as an intermediate stage canister with a cyclone dust separator. I purchased online a cheap version of a separator at half the cost.

I cut a circle from a piece of 1/2 inch plywood, lightly larger than the diameter of the top of the canister.

Drilled a 3-inch hole at the center.

Installed the cyclone separator

The wheeled canister adds a lot of convenience and a long hose even more so, when attached to tools with dust extraction.

This system prolongs the life of the vacuum motor because very little dust actually goes through the vacuum filter since much of the dust, specially the heavier ones, drops to the canister while only lighter dust and air go all the way to the separate vacuum cleaner.

Simple Tip for Joining Wide Boards

I needed a wide board for a project. Not wanting to cut the piece from a bigger board, I decided to join a couple of pieces lying around. There are commercial jigs or tools to make the joinery, i.e. biscuit joiner or the special Festool Domino, or pocket hole joinery.  If one does not have any of those, a table saw alone will do.

First step is to create a groove on both pieces to be joined. It's critical, of course, that the groove should be perfectly centered at each edge of the boards. The easy way is to use an ordinary saw blade. Set the height to about 3/16 inch. Eye ball the blade to the center of the edge. Run the board one way, then flip it around, so the other flat edge that was away from the fence is now against it. This insures that the groove is perfectly centered. The final groove could be slightly wider but that is fine.

Now, you can rip the rib that will be sandwiched between the the edges. I keep a lot of ripped pieces at the scrap heap and sure enough I found one. I cut it to the right width (3/8 inch), applied glue to the grooves and the rest is normal glue up. 

This is going to be a strong joint without any special jig or tool, other than the table saw.

The Tolerba Tool Box

It is the penultimate tool box because, in my opinion, there is no such thing as the ultimate perfect tool box. What could come close is the entire workshop with all the tools in it, if you can carry the whole thing with you. And that is the key to a tool box. Portability. With that criteria, the best we can hope for is to get close to the ideal. This is version 4 for me. What prompted it was the last project on installing the two drawers to an existing desk in the house. I made so many trips back and forth, for this and that tool. There is just simply no way to anticipate everything one needs inside the house without a few trips back and forth. So, here I go again.

This is a specialty tool box in that it is designed for specific tools but the methods used can be adapted to your particular tools.

I cut these panels first. They will determine the inside dimension of the box

                             

A dado blade set makes quick work of creating the dadoes as shown in next photo

Cut parts complete with 45 deg miters at each end, dado and 1/4 inch channels for the "floor" panels in each box

Glue up assembly

Scroll saw, or alternatively coping saw, was used to cut profiles of the drill battery base outline and reinforced with plywood backing (glued)

A dado blade set cut a channel on a piece of walnut, then ripped in half to create angular pieces to reinforce the corners..

The corner of a miter joint is not the strongest. So, an angular reinforcement at each corner is very effective.

Glue and screws later make these corners very strong.

Drilling various hole sizes for different drill accessories

The handles were 3 layers of  laminated 1/4 plywood (glued)

Drilled 1-1/4 inch holes on two layers of laminated plywood, then glued to another layer, it makes sense with the next two photos

Dry fitting

Dry fitting with the drills in place

Lines drawn before tapering at the table saw

Drilling 1/4 inch holes for drill bits and other accessories

   

Finishing with wipe on polyurethane

This hardwood bar - glued with screws - is a key "anchor" component where the uprights of the handle will slide into. A bolt knob will hold it in place while also adding more anchor strength (see next photo). 

The upright of the handles will be secured  two ways: The notch on the upright will slide into a bar, then a 1/4 inch bolt and knob will keep it in place

The thin hardwood pieces are where the plastic bins will clip into

Between the bolt and the slide, there is plenty of holding power to carry the heavy tool box.

Obviously, this is customized to my set of tools but the idea is to create a tool box for your needs.

The screws that secures the 1-1/4 rod is not completely tight to allow for the handle to rotate ever so slightly. This prevents the stress on the hand grip when carrying the tool box

View of one side, showing some of the "quick-connect-disconnect" drill accessories

View from the other side

There will be less than a dozen times in a year that this tool box will venture out of the workshop, so it will mostly be on a shelf. It was worth all the trouble because it does get the tools organized. And when the need arises ...