The Abele's Web Site - Woodworking Shop Projects

The Abele's

Don's Woodworking Shop Projects

Here are some of my woodworking shop projects. These are those projects which were designed for the shop, this also includes jigs. Several of them have detailed pages showing construction and additional details. Clicking on those links will take you directly to those pages. You can also select them from the menu.

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19 February 2005 - Dust Collection Upgrade: I have the Jet DC-1100 dust collection. This collector has a 1½ horsepower motor turning an 11 inch steel impeller. The stock bags are rated at 30 microns. I have had this unit for several years now and it performs very well, especially considering I am using all 4 inch flex hose. The only complaint I really had was with the bags. With a filtration rating of only 30 microns, I would see a lot of fine dust all over everything at the end of the day. This was the stuff being pushed through the bags!!! Not being collected like it should. Additionally, the bottom bag was hard to tell when it was full of dust/chips and was a PITA to empty. The solution was to replace the bags. I thought about buying a replacement top bag with a lower filtration rate and a plastic lower bag, but the upper bag would still be huge. So, I opted for a much better alternative - a cartridge filter. This particular one is made by Wynn-Environmental and is rated to 0.5 microns and has a surface area of 274 square feet (more than the stock bags combined). The lower bag was replaced with a 10 mil thick poly bag which makes seeing the level and emptying much easier. While I was at it, I also added a neutral vane to the inlet and a downdraft tube to also help stops incoming air from smashing into the air going down into the lower bag. I constructed these from 20 gauge steel that I rolled and welded then pop riveted in place. While I don't have any means to measure the actual performance, subjectively I can say that it has made a dramatic improvement in the performance. For less than $100 and 3 hours of work, it was well worth it for the increase (and no dust in the shop).


	Here's a good overall shot showing just how tall the unit was with the stock bags installed. That's 8 feet tall!!!			The completed upgrade. That's a significant decrease in height. Overall height is now 5 feet 4 inches - almost 3 feet shorter.


Top view of the center ring. Shows the down-draft tube I installed.	End-on view of the inlet. Shows the neutral vane I installed.	Bottom-up view. Shows down-draft tube and neutral vane.

02 October 2004 - Router Table: This was another very long overdue project. My previous router table was a built-in on the left side of my old table saw. Since that saw didn't survive the trip from Washington to Virginia, I had to replace it (and was glad to upgrade it to a great jet cabinet saw). Anyway, I since have not gotten around to replacing the router table. And it's been quite difficult working without it. So, I finally got into gear and around to building it. This is a stand-alone version, built primarily after the design from New Yankee Workshop with several tweaks and modifications of my own and from advice of others. Click the photo for a detailed page showing construction details.

28 September 2004 - Sandpaper Storage Cabinet: I built this cabinet in about 4 hours because I was tired of having to sort through a jumble of paper in one of my large storage drawers. This solution keeps my belts, discs, and sheets all separate and organized by grit. It was quick and easy and works great. It's made from 3/8 inch baltic birch plywood. The carcass has rabbits from the top, bottom, center divider, and sides. The drawers use a box joint. I made a dado in the sides of the drawer for a wooden guide. Both the guide and the dado were waxed and work very well. Since it is a shop piece, it's currently unfinished.

27 September 2004 -
Box Joint Jig: I made this jig so I could make box joints for the drawer sides for the sandpaper storage (see above). It's really easy to make (took about 10 minutes) and REALLY easy to use. Box joints are super strong and look good too.

Drill Bit Storage: I made this out of some scrap in about 20 minutes. I was tired of my bits being just thrown into a drawer (and it's not good for them anyway). Keeps them all fairly organized now. My metal "general-use" bits are stored in the metal case they came in. These are all my "wood only" bits. The small shelf in the front holds all my various bit drivers.

23 November 2003 - Miter Saw Table and Storage: This was a very long overdue project. Prior to this, I had my miter saw on some old steel shelves and was using additional shelving for storage. It wasn't neat or pretty. This solution fixed both of those problems. Additionally, I resolved the issue of dust collection from my miter saw (which are notorious for being difficult to collect dust from). Click the photo for a detailed page showing construction details.