A Little Box for Straight Pins

 

Pins Box

Open Pins Box

I needed to use some straight pins on a project.  The plastic package that the pins were in had started to self-destruct.   This little box I previous made from scraps using my CNC.  To establish it's final purpose the text and pins graphic were v-carved into the top.  Some tongue oil as a finish was applied. 

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UpDn Diamond Corner Joint

UpDn Diamond Interlock

This is another test corner joint.  It uses a 1/8" end mill rather than a 3/16" end mill to cut both sides. The same initial vector was used for both sides.  For the male side a perimeter line around the end was added so it would pocket out the surrounding wood. On the female side a profile beside the line and clearing profile on the line were used to cut the negative shapes. 

Female Side. Walnut

For contrast the female side was cut on the top end of a walnut board.  The male end was cut on end of an oak board.

Male Side.  Red Oak

Not knowing how exact the dimensions of the bit used were, I made two toolpath versions of the male side.  One with no added allowance, and the second removing an additional 0.003" to allow for some glue room if the first toolpath was too tight. 

The female side was cut first, clamped vertically in my Bridge Vise.  The impractical aspect of such joints done with a 1/8" bit is that it take several passes and considerable time to step down 3/4" around and inside the diamond shapes. 

The male side was cut clamped flat across my bridges with its end hanging over open space.  After it finish I checked the fit and found it too snug to slip together easily.  I made a profile pass with a .003 allowance and recut the end.  Second try the other side slipped on smoothly with no extra force needed.  

Both Sides Cut.

The straight grained oak helps emphasize the contrast.

Nice Contrast

Partly together.

Almost

Fully together.

Fit is perfect with a 0.003" gap for glue.

Once glued together, sanded, and with some finish applied this joint would be a nice surprise to discover on the sides of a kitchen drawer when opened.  It should easily be as strong as a dovetail corner joint. 

With one coat of Tung Oil

The interlocking diamond pattern might be nice for the corners of a jewelry box. With a 1/8" bit as long as your boards are thick many variations can be made for corner joints like this one. Imagination, knowing how to configure a CNC for vertical (and angled) cuts, and some understanding of wood properties are all that is required. 

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Square Interlock Corner Joint

Square Interlock Joint

This joint, cut on my CNC, could easily replace half blind dovetail corners for strength.  It can only be assembled in one direction.  It won't pull apart sideways.  As with many of the CNC joints I've come up with it uses the same vector for both sides of the joint.  One side is cut on the end of a board clamped vertically.

Side A. Clamped Vertically

The other side is cut on the end of a board clamped horizontally. 

Side B.  Clamped Flat.

This joint is half blind, showing only on one side of the corner.  

All the corners are rounded to account for the 3/16"diameter end mill used to cut the joint. A sharper cornered version could be cut with a 1/8"diameter bit if the cutting length of the bit was as long as the boards are thick. 

This sample I made from some pine board scraps.  When both sides were cut they slipped together easier than I expected.  This suggests that the bit I used was a little bit larger than .1875" in diameter.  More than enough room for some glue. 

Sample Ready to Assemble

The positive and negative sides together look a bit like a zipper.   

Partly Together

Drawer sides would be a good place to use this joint.  A drawer that holds sewing supplies would be a perfect application for it!

Glue Together and Sanded Flush

As with dovetail joints, the spacing between squares could be varied for a more personal design. Your imagination and the size of router bits available are the only limiting factors. 

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Rolling Stand for a Portable Air Conditioner

Portable AC Cart

I made this rolling stand from some old wafer board that had previously been the side of a shipping crate. The legs were cut from a couple scrap pine 2x6 boards.  

Stand Alone

The center bulge is for a 5 gallon pail to collect the water from the AC's drain. 

The pale pail. 

 

Drain Hose Attached

Four old casters add mobility to the stand. Their stems extend through the wafer board and into the pine legs. 

Old Casters

A stiffening rib made from northern hard maple was glued and screwed to the bottom of the bottom shelf to keep the weight of the water from bending it.  

Stiffening Rib

The wafer board was marked and distracting.  I ran it through my drum sander a few times, then painted both sides before assembling the stand. The paint is a dark red latex left over from a previous project. The pine legs were shaped to compliment the top and bottom. A bit of detail continuity. They have a spar varnish finish on them for some protection from the environment.  They compliment the red of the top and bottom.  

A simple design.

I used my CNC to cut out the top and bottom outlines and pocket holes where the caster shafts are.  I also used a V-bit to mark where the screws needed to be for screwing the legs to the top and bottom.  With the holes marked I took the boards to my drill press to drill through and chamfer the screw holes.  

The shelves have 1" radiused corners.  The rounded corners of the legs I put a 3/4" radius on with the intent to set them in from the shelf edges 1/4".  I made this jig to help inset them when assembling the cart.

Inset jig

Legs inset 1/4" from shelf edges

For the radius on the legs I first used a moulding toolpath on my CNC.  Results were varied as  the 2x6 boards I started with were a bit beaten up.  Before putting a finish on them  I ran the corners through my router table past a 3/4" radius roundover bit.  Then a couple passes through my drum sander to smooth both sides.  Still a bit imperfect, but fine for this little stand. The casters are happy to have a new use.  The wafer board and 2x6 boards are also happy to be parts of something useful rather than scraps in my garage. 

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B&D Workmate Update for my CNC Bridges

Bridge Vise for Vertical Clamping

The Black and Decker Workmate is an ingenious product.  The split top serves as vise jaws along with the bench dogs to allow clamping boards of most shapes snuggly to work on. I've owned one for 4+ decades and found many uses for it. 

On my CNC I use 3 bridges rather than a t-slot or vacuum bed to hold boards in place. T-track in each bridge top let me slide wood clamps to hold down projects.  I woke up early on 2/27/2026 with the idea of modifying two of the bridges so I can also use them as clamp jaws.  (Bridges)

First step was to double up the thickness of the jaw faces. I glued another piece of 18mm Baltic Birch plywood to them to create more surface area on the mating faces. I then applied some Cat's Paw friction tape to their surfaces. 

Doubled Up

There is roughly 22" between the right side rail and the radial axis tailstock rail.  Swing room for the crank handles may eat up 1.5" on each side.

The bridges don't need to open more than 1.5" or so for what they may need to clamp vertically.  Short lengths of all-thread, a couple lock collars and Teflon washers on each side, and a couple handles.  I'm using 7/16-14 all thread.  My local True Value store had 2' lengths of 7/16-14 all thread. I bought one and cut two 9" sections from it for this project

Some blocking to bring the thread collar out flush with the edge was added.  Collars and square nuts were ordered from the Jungle store. 

Collars arrived 3/11/2026.  I drilled a recess for the collars and the Teflon washer on the inside of the front bridge using a 1.25" Forstner bit on my Nova Voyager drill press. 

I made the Teflon washers for the 7/16" all thread. I clamped down a 1/16" thick sheet of Teflon on my CNC to cut the center holes that will ease the process.  I sliced off the row, then snipped them apart before sliding them onto the all thread.   I clamped them in place with a hex nut on each side, then mounted them on my hobby lathe to turn them round.  

3/16/2026: I finished up this project this day.  I chiseled out a slot for the square nut to be able to slide under the top of the bridge, then glued a board next to the nuts so they wouldn't be able to turn when tightened down. To keep the nuts in place I added magnets next to the shafts

Square Nut. Round Magnet

First test holding a 3/4" thick section of plywood proves they work.  As with the Workmate though the pressure from each side needs to be the same for flat boards.  Best strategy is to make sure the front side is parallel to the front frame rail and locked tight to the side rails. Screw the back bridge/jaw tight, then lock it tight to the side rails.  

Handles were needed.  I drew up a design and cut them out on my CNC from a thick scrap of red oak.

Red Oak Handle

Two Hex Nuts Jammed Together

Handle slips over the outer hex nut.

This idea works well for holding boards vertically to CNC joinery on their end. Dovetails and box joints and variations are now fairly easy to cut using my CNC.  The details of this project are prototype solutions.  As I use it needed improvements will like show up. I'll append them to this blog post when/if they happen. 

In use this bridge vise has proven to be quicker/simpler to use than my compound angle clamping fixture here:  Fixture.  Clamping anything from long boards that need joinery on their end, or small parts that may need a curved surface on their top edge is quick and easy to do. 

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Wood Handles for my Wood T-Track Clamps

 

Star Handle

I made a few new wood clamps for my X/Y drill press table, and needed handles for them. This star shaped handle is based on an old design that used an imbedded hex nut for the threads. 

Old Design

The new handles use T-nuts I had on hand for the threads.  These were a bit more complex to make, but they work as intended.

Insert T-nut

With the threads starting at  the bottom of the handle they can be used with short T-bolts.  The old design with the nut on top barely found threads to screw onto short bolts.

My CNC cut the bottom details, including the recessed outer area, the recess for the t-nut, the holes for the t-nut shaft and 5/15-18 bolt, the slots for the t-nut barbs, and the outer profile. The tiny slots for the barbs were cut with a 1.5mm diameter spiral end mill. 

Render from Aspire

Details

Once off the CNC I used my bandsaw to cut them apart, my trim router with a flush cut bit to flush cut the edges, then rounded off the top edges at my other trim router table.   The t-nuts were pressed into the handles using my bench vise. 

This was another quick CNC project, made from a small scrap of birch hardwood.  It took more time to draw up the file and create toolpaths than it did to cut them out.   The nice thing about using my CNC to make them is that I can use the same file to make more if/when I need them. 

My clamp design.   

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Drill Press X/Y Table

I previously made and used an X/Y table on my Delta floor standing drill press.  I've since sold that tool and replaced it with a Nova Voyager direct drive drill press. 

This post is about making a new (and improved) X/Y table for the new drill press. 

Nova Voyager Press

The previous table slid on 1/4" thick metal plate guides that slid in slots cut into plywood. With the leverage of threaded rods it worked well enough, but there is plenty of room for improvement. This version runs on linear slides salvaged from an old CNC project. 

A little sketching helped me visualize the assembly strategy.  There are 3 layers, a top, middle, and a bottom.  

Three Layers

1. The long rails mount on the bottom of the  top layer. 
2. The slides for the long rail mount on the top of the middle layer. 
3. The short rails mount on the bottom of the middle layer.
1. Four rails, 300mm long, were offset and used so the X/Y table could move forward 8.25". The 2nd layer is supported by 4 slides. 
4. The slides for the short rails mount on the top of the bottom layer. 
5. A removable fence mounts on the top rear edge of the top layer.
1. The fence/alignment strategy might mount on pins that drop into holes. 
2. The fence could be an L shape, with a short side and a longer side.
1. It could mount short side forward, or
2. Long side forward, or
3. Thickness edge forward. Perhaps the sides of the L fence are different thicknesses. Either thickness could be the forward edge. 
   
6. The height crank on the drill press needed to be accounted for.  Thus the notch in the rear right corner of the table. 
7. X and Y handles move with the table.  What they thread through is attached to the layer below. 
8. T-Slots running left to right on the top layer provide the best option for clamping parts down. Top layer is a sandwich of 12mm plywood with 5mm plywood between the tracks. The track is embedded into the 12mm layer so only 5mm sticks up. Track is .75" wide and .375" thick.  It works with both 1/4" and 5/16" t-bolts. One 48" long strip was cut in half to make two strips for the 24" wide X/Y table top. 
9. Strips of 1/8" thick plywood sit sandwiched between bottom layer and the drill press table. They account for the heads of the screws that hold the sliders to the other side. 

The bottom/last layer then was mounted to the drill press bed. I needed to screw up from under the bed into the bottom layer. There are square nuts embedded into the bottom layer's top surface.  8mm bolts screw up from below the table to hold the X/Y table in place. 

As I can move the top forward and back I see no reason to make the fence adjustable front to back, but it was  worth making it removable as well as variable in width and height. Fence yet to come. 

For the all-thread I used HDPE to make the blocks. One was drilled and tapped for the steel all-thread.  All were fit into CNC cut pockets for precise positioning and screwed in place. Between the bottom and the middle the all thread is flat on the bottom board.  I cut a shallow groove 1/16" deep below it using a 1/2" ball nosed bit it so it doesn't rub.  The second block is for the middle plate and collets to hold the all-thread in place. It took a bit of work after the CNC was done making it to get it to fit into the pocket made for it. Nylon washers are between the collets and the HDPE blocks. 

Y axis

X axis

Assembly started with the top.  T-track screwed into slots.  Rails screwed to the bottom. Collet block installed and screwed in place.  Middle layer installed by feeding it onto the all thread, and screwing it onto the slides.  Y axis rails screwed to the bottom side of the middle layer.  Bottom layer fed onto the all-thread, then screwed onto the slides.  

Last step was to mount this X/Y table onto the drill press table. 

Bolted down

The handles can slide off and be re-positioned if they bump into boards clamped to the table. The all-thread can also be turned quickly with a socket in my hand drill. 

The relatively thin 12mm Baltic Birch layers can flex under pressure of the drill press.  Support blocks I added between the layers to transfer any pressure down to the metal OEM table.  A single block centered on  the bottom layer stays in place as the layer above moved forward or back.  A row of blocks with Teflon tape on them stay in place as the top layer moves left/right over them.  No matter how much forward the top is there is always support directly under the center of the drill chuck.  

This X/Y table makes positioning work more precise, and allows spacing a sequence of holes easy by counting turns of the handles. One 360° turn moves the table 1/16". A half turn moves it 1/32".  A quarter turn moves it 1/64".   Sixteen turns move it 1". Eight turns move it 1/2". 

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