Simple Jig For Tying A Paracord Rapid Deployment Bundle

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Jerry

Doing things with paracord has become very popular. This lesson will show you how to build a simple jig that will make tying the paracord bundle or fob much easier and how to tie a length of paracord into a small package that can quickly be undone. There is a YouTube video at the bottom that shows all of this as well.

Skills Learned:

measuring and layout
selecting a drill size, a simple depth indicator and drilling holes in wood
paracord wrapping and tying

Tools Required:

drill
bits – twist drill type
ruler
pencil for marking
clamp (desirable)

Materials Required

board – 2×4 or similar at least 18″ long
two round school pencils
tape – masking or blue painters
paracord

Using your ruler and pencil or sharpie measure from one end of your board and make a mark at 4″, 6″, 8″, 10″ & 16″. You want these marks to be in the center of the board.
Select the drill bit the size of your pencils and hold it next to the board so that the point is a little higher than the bottom of the board and put a piece of tape on the bit even with the top of the board. This is your depth indicator.
Put the bit in your drill and drill the holes, stopping when the tape reaches the top of the board. Try to keep the drill a vertical as possible, this is called plumb by carpenters.
Put the pencils in the holes and you are done.

The advantage of a jig for anything is repeat-ability. In this case you can learn how many wraps each length of paracord needs to come out correctly. I’m not even going to try to explain how to use the jig, watch the video. However I did list the settings I’ve found to work at the bottom. You may need to adjust them for the way you tie, but this will give you a starting point that should at least work.

The first hole always gets a pencil and 2nd pencil is placed in the hole that corresponds to the length of paracord you are using and then wrap the number of times indicated. Again see table below the video for the values that worked for me.

Length of paracord	distance between pencils	number of wraps
5'	2"	6
10'	4"	7
25'	6"	16
50'	12"	16

Building A Machete From knifekits.com With Some Hand Filing

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Jerry

We ordered the 18″ machete from knifekits.com which ended up being less than $30 including shipping. This is a complete kit including the handle and hidden bolt fasteners. The blade is covered with some kind of goop to protect it so I used acetone to clean the area under the handle. The wood handle had to be drilled out a little to accept the hidden bolt fasteners and then we did some filing on the back side of the blade. So far this is looking to be a much better quality machete for only a few dollars more then what can be purchased locally from a hardware or sporting goods store. My son also got a real kick out of “making” a knife.

There is a video posted on youtube.com/shopclassonline

Note that we did take a shortcut and drilled out the handle so the entire hidden bold fastener went below the surface of the handle. Normally you would tighten them up and file them smooth to the surface of handle.

Old Growth Mahogany

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Jerry

There is a cool article at Popular Woodworking about 200 year old mahogany trees found at the bottom of the rivers in Belize. What I find the most remarkable is the difference in growth ring density, up to 100 per inch for the old growth trees vs. 25 per inch for newer stuff. Follow up articles here and here. However costing up to $45/board foot puts it out of my price range.

Wood Shop Class – Introduction To The Circular Saw

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Jerry

As you start to build your wood shop skills, for most general purpose cutting I would consider the circular saw as the item to buy. It is the first saw you should buy and will take you a long way toward learning basic woodworking. It does has some limitations such as not able to cut an inside corner or rip narrow boards, but for general straight line cutting it is possibly the best power tool available. When you go to buy look for something in the $75-$100 range. If you are building houses for a living you will want something at a higher price point, but if you use a saw that much you wont be reading this post. When you are picking out a saw check that the blade doesn’t have side-to-side play and I prefer to have a laser on it as it helps free-hand cuts. The adjustment you use the most is the depth of the blade, so make sure that it is something you find easy to use. The standard size saw and one you should buy is 7 1/4″, which is the blade size. The saw will likely come with a blade that will work fine cutting 2×4 type of lumber for rough construction, but plan on buying a 40 tooth blade for about $20 to go with it. This blade will let you make fairly smooth cuts in both lumber and plywood. If you are planing on building plywood projects in your wood shop you should also consider some kind of fence. A fence is something that guides the saw and helps you make straight cuts. When you need to break down 4′ x 8′ sheet goods you need to make a lot of long straight cuts and a fence really helps. You can buy a fence that is usually an aluminium track that is about 9′ long and can be split into two pieces so you can cut either across the 4′ or 8′ length. You can also make your own. A speed square, drywall square and chalk line are also helpful in laying out your cuts.

Sawing Wood

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Jerry

I still remember 7th grade wood shop where my shop teacher explained to us how to use a hand saw. I know most kids (myself included I’m ashamed to admit) thought it was a waste of time when there where power tools (insert grunt like Tim Allen) that could be used. Now that I am a lot older and at lease a little wiser I see the reason we were introduced to cutting wood with a hand saw. Hand sawing gives you a feel for the wood, you get feedback through a hand tool that is hard to get from a power tool. You learn how some woods are harder than others and that grain makes a huge difference when cutting wood.

The problem for new woodworkers is good quality hand saws are hard to find now and are expensive. A beginner is also unable to sharpen a saw, which is required for it to work well. If you ever find an old style wood worker that has some hand saws he uses, ask to just cut some boards with them. This will improve your understanding of wood. Since this blog is focused on what you can actually do, affordably with easy to find items, lets talk about what you should buy to cut wood.

Circular or Skill Saw
This is where I think you should start your purchasing and learning on how to cut wood. Plan on spending $75-$100 for a saw another $20-$30 for a fine tooth blade. If you are doing rough construction then the carbide tipped blade that comes with the saw will work, however if you are doing any kind of cuts that people will see you need a blade with a lot more teeth. With different blades a circular saw can cut some metals, cement board and other things. It may be slow going on these other materials, but if you only have a few cuts then it will be the easiest/cheapest way to go. I also like the laser that is available on many models now, this will help you in making free hand cuts.

Jig or Saber Saw
For cutting any kind of curves you will need a jig saw. You have to think about what kind of projects you plan on doing to decide if you need a jig saw rather than a circular saw. If you plan it smaller items with decorative, curved edges than a jig saw might be right for your first saw purchase.

Hand Saws
An inexpensive hand saw will be useful as well and these can be had for under $20. A circular saw cannot cut an inside corner so you need another type of saw to finish it. I have a Japanese style pull saw like this. This has both a rip and crosscut set of teeth and I frequently use it where the circular saw will not reach even though I have a jig saw that would make the cut.

Saw Horses
You need something to put your wood on to cut it. A couple of saw horses is a good way to start. I have a pair of Black & Decker WM125 Workmate 125 350-Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench that I use but will be reviewing other options in the future.

The Art of Hand Filing – Introduction

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Jerry

With the availability of cheap grinders few are learning how to do “bright work” or filing these days. If you have a lot of metal to remove then by all means use, to quote Tim the Tool-Man Taylor, “More Power”. But this is usually only needed during fabrication or major alteration of a piece of metal. In times past metal was expensive and the stock removal method of making things out of metal was avoided when ever possible. So a good blacksmith or metal fabricator would shape the metal very close to the finished shape, the better the smith the less filing needed to be done.

No mater how good the smith all edged tools needed finish work with a file. Even today you would be surprised how much better your lawn and garden tools work when sharpened. While a right angle grinder will remove a lot of metal in a hurry, if you just need to clean up an edge why don’t you give a file a chance. Also many people don’t know this but a putty knife is supposed to have a square edge on it and a minute or two with a file will brind this back and it will scrape much better.

I recommend you start with buying regular hand or flat files that are about 8″-12″ long and get both a fine and coarse. Don’t confuse a metal file with a wood rasp. A wood rasp will have even wider spacing between the teeth and is used for shaping wood and other soft materials, not metal. Traditionally files are sold with what looks like a metal spike sticking out one end. This is called a tang and make sure you buy a file handle to go over this tang, if it doesn’t come with one. Trying to use a file without a handle is a good way to impale the fleshy part of your palm, our goal is to avoid blood on our tools.

Just as important as the file is also getting a file card, which looks like a flat brush with metal bristles on one side and sometimes some kind of softer fiber on the other. This is used to clean the teeth of when they build up with material. A file with clogged teeth will not cut at all, leading to much frustration.

A file needs to be stored like any other edged tool. If they are just thrown into a drawer not only can they damage other things in the drawer (files are very hard) if they bang against each other they can be dulled. Also a file should only be in contact with the metal on the forward, cutting stroke. You do not saw it back and forth like a wood saw, which will dull your file as well and a dull file does not cut very well.

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