For Numismatists, Notaphilists & Coin Collectors

Here is my latest project, ready for the next edition of The Shed magazine.

It is a coin storage cabinet, with spaces for 1200 individual coins, stored in acrylic trays.  It has a curved top (using kerfing) and tambour door.  By replacing a 6mm thick tray with two sheets of 3mm clear acrylic, bank notes could also be stored and displayed.

Each tray has a tab with a descriptor of the tray engraved in it, such as “Australia 50c Commemorative”, and each coin slot is sized to the specific coin that it is to house.

When the edition of The Shed comes out (soon), the article goes into detail how it was made, using both CNC and non-CNC techniques.

Tambour Sun Lounge

Managed to finish off the Tambour Sun Lounge this evening – went together surprisingly quickly in the end.

It is made up of 137 individual, interlocked tambour slats, produced using the Lonnie Bird Tambour Router Bit Set from Toolstoday.com.  I made quite a few more than I needed, as I wasn’t sure how many I’d break testing the load limits, or, when I started the project, just how long a tambour I’d end up requiring.  The slats I have left over can be turned into a small drinks table, and/or a lumbar support.

I’ve now made over 300 tambour slats with this set, and it is still going strong.  This project uses approx 90 meters of slats, so if you work that out – 2 passes with one of the router bits, and one with the other, that is 270m of routing, and about the same distance again on the tablesaw, not to mention multiple passes on the jointer and thicknesser.  All in one day – over a km of timber passed through one machine or another.  I slept well that night!

I made the slats about as thick as I could manage, and still be able to slot them together.  Granted, it would be possible to go even thicker if you were prepared to make the slot on the bottom of the slat wider.  However, I tested this tambour by standing on it, on one foot.  That it survived that torture test (just) demonstrates just how strong they are (and the timber obviously).

So that’s it – job done.  The full step by step writeup will be in the next edition of “The Shed” magazine.  If you haven’t seen it yet (available in Australia and NZ, and I imagine digitally elsewhere), it is worth checking out.

 

What I’m Working On

A couple of years ago, when I first made a tambour door using the router bits from Toolstoday.com, I thought (and mentioned) at the time that it could make an interesting chair of sorts.  I had in mind a sun chair.

So that is what I have been making over the last few days, (and the full article when finished will appear in the next edition of The Shed magazine).

Started with a design concept in my head, that sketched out looked like this:

 

Made a stack of tambour door slats (over 175 in total)

and when all joined together, created a tambour roll, ready to be rolled out over a supporting frame.

Took a full day to make enough slats, and it isn’t much to show for from the original pile of timber.  However, other than a bag of sawdust there was little other wastage.

In a few days I should have the supporting frame finished, then we can all see if it will work how I picture it in my head!  Seems I prefer building things without a plan, or at least without someone else’s plan.  Presents more challenges and puzzles to solve.

I did lay the tambour bed out over an existing sun chair, and it looked good, and was very comfortable (at least as comfortable as it can be without padding!)

I also laid them out on the tablesaw, following the curves I am intending to see how it will look.  Bit hard to see from that camera angle, but it should be good.

Looking forward to seeing the resulting item.

 

Seeing things

For the past year or so, I have been a subscriber to the Toolstoday.com mailer – nice to get something in the inbox that isn’t work related (or trying to sell me viagra!). They have a large collection of router and saw blades on offer, so I’m interested to see what they are wanting to promote.

Got an email tonight, on the Tambour Router bits – that ou may remember I have reviewed, and used, and documented through Stu’s Shed. After a few seconds, I looked a little closer, and thought there was something very familiar about the upper-right image. The router table ring looked very Incra-like, and the more I looked, the more it looked like my table.

So I went back to my original article, and sure enough – it is one of my photos 🙂

Before you get the wrong impression, it is perfectly fine – Toolstoday.com and I already have an arrangement that means they are welcome to use relevant images of their products, nor do they have to tell me each time they do. If you look around their website, you will start to find articles and reviews I have written.

So rather cool – having an image used in that way, when they would have had heaps of others to choose from.

Bending Timber

Many years ago (I can say that now, being 5 or so years ago!), I wrote a post about bending timber using kerfing. To this day, it remains one of the most clicked-on posts of all time. It would certainly justify a revisit, and expansion to the original post.

Out in the shed today, I was using the Amana Tool Tambour Bit set to make a large tambour door for the toy kitchen (and the full article about the construction will be in the next edition of ManSpace magazine). When I had finished it, and assembled all the slats, it was surprising to see just how flexible the interlocking slats were. It made me think of kerfing, with a different surface texture (obviously). (The bit set is available from Toolstoday.com)

If flexibility was not the desired end result, but the forms that could be created during assembly, this could produce some really organic structures – lounge chairs, curves around structures etc. Although (like kerfing) there are some inherent weak areas, (which don’t compromise the structure if used for a roller door but would if used for a deck chair), these could be easily overcome with good glue, and supporting structure, allowing the form of the tambour, with the strength required for the alternate purpose.

Tambour Door

So there is the teaser. The full door (and in this case, it will be a door for the toy kitchen), is 450mm wide and around 750mm in length, and is made up of 52 individual slats that require no joiners, no backing tape or canvas: just pure, interlocking timber slats. Total distance of timber passing through the various machines in getting it sized correctly, then shaped by the router table was around 1/2 a km. Not relevant, just interesting!

Saw Blade Quiz

I knew there was going to be a real benefit when I conducted my “Battle of the Blades” sawblade review.

That benefit has just been realised when I conducted the Saw Blade Quiz on Tools Today.com

Cutting Saw Blade quiz
by ToolsToday

Heh heh – ok, so I’m skiting (wonder if that is a term particular to NZ/Oz?) I managed 15/10 – there are bonuses to answering quickly! I don’t mind the occasional online quiz (so long as I do well!)

Router Bits quiz
by ToolsToday

Just had a look at their site, and saw they sell tambour door router bits. Just caught my eye, as I’ve had a few people ask about them over the years, and I haven’t found anyone selling them in Oz.  Might have to see if they will export! (Hmm Stu’s Shed Router Bit of the Month review?) 😉

Tambour Door Router Bits