Workshop apron from leather scraps

Now that I've recently added a welder to my workshop, I need something a bit more protective than just the usual old clothes I use as workshop attire, so I've been planning to build a leather apron.

What makes this project a bit different though, is I have inherited a large box of leather from another leather crafter who sadly passed away. It's a significant amount of material, so I don't really want to go purchasing yet more for this project.

So the challenge that I set myself is to 'frankenstein' the apron together from the smaller pieces, but do so in a way that hides that fact - or at the very least, styles it out so it doesn't look like a patchwork bodge.

I'm using a borrowed canvas apron as a rough template, but will adapt where necessary to suit me.

The largest suitable piece I have is this, which covers most of the area, but the template comes in a bit short at the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second piece, although a different colour can attach to the bottom, extending it to a more suitable length. This covers the size of the canvas example apron.
 

 

 

 

 

 

I also created edge pieces for the vertical sides of the apron, to tidy it up.
When I've used aprons in the past, I've always found an annoyance of them is how the side bits often 'flap about'. To try and combat this in this design, I've enclosed a length of steel wire in there, which should strike a balance of being flexible enough yet maintaining some sense of shape.

There's still the scuffed portion at the top to deal with. This will be where I affix the straps, so have cut a couple smaller pieces of thicker leather here so which cover the problematic patch, and provide the mounting point for the strap. I did the same on both sides to maintain the symmetry.

There was also enough left over to add a central pocket, which I planned to divide into two.

 

 I wanted all the pieces to be a consistent colour, but not too dark, so I opted for a shade of brown just slightly darker than the pieces were currently.

After dyeing, I fixed the bottom and side sections in place with contact adhesive. This would serve as a placeholder while I stitched them, and add to the overall strength.

 

Straps

In the box of leather that I inherited, there were what appear to be, a number of several unfinished belts. These were all consistent in the type of leather, so were perfect to repurpose as straps for the apron. All I needed do is dye them to match the colour.

 

For the shoulder straps I used a single rivet, as this would also act like a pivot and allow flexibility. This was covered over by the top pieces I mentioned earlier.

I joined these in the middle of the back using a small piece cut from thick leather, from which another piece moves downward to join the belt portion, like a 'Y' shape.

 

 

Another 'junction' piece joins that to the belt in an 'upside-down T' shape.

The belt itself is simply riveted to the sides of the apron. I made the right-hand side particularly for the buckle, as I reasoned it would be easier to fasten/unfasten from the side of the body than trying to reach behind my back.

Finishing touches

I soon realised that the front pocket would just end up filling with dust, so I made a cover flap for that.

Also used some remaining scraps to add some padding to the straps near the shoulder.

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Wooden Pallet Mallet

I typically don't do much woodwork over the winter as the weather has a tendency to suck the enjoyment out of things.

When I set-up to start again in the spring, I usually find that I need a simple project to warm up and refresh my techniques before I get involved with something more complex.

Normally it's a bit of a throwaway project that I wouldn't put online, but this one was very simple to create and has been very useful, so I thought that it might be of use to others.

This year I made a wooden mallet as I needed one for leatherwork.

The handle was two strips of pallet wood glued up and shaped around a hammer handle.



The head of the mallet is one of the end blocks, also from a pallet.

The finished mallet. Simple, but effective

The technique is simple - drill through the centre of the block to create an opening that the top of the handle can fit through, but is narrow enough to make a tight fit.

Then drill through the part of the handle that protrudes from the top of the block and wedge a dowel in place to prevent the block from slipping. (The block is actually a tight enough fit that this is a little bit unnecessary, but it adds an extra layer of safety, and a bit more of an aesthetic quality to things).

Everything after that is just a matter of sanding and shaping.

Wedding Cake Stand

Off the back of the "Dutch Courage" sign that I made for the wedding, I was asked if I could also help with a custom cake stand for their wedding cake.


They're not having a traditional wedding cake, instead they've opted for brownies, in 7 different flavours, so the cake stand needs to accommodate them all and at the same time be able to differentiate between them.


In addition, there's a multi-colour theme to the wedding, so that needs to be included with the design.

The obvious thing to do was use different colours to separate the flavours, and my initial ideas centred around something like a painter's palette.



I was looking at a segmented circular design, but it was looking a bit strange with an odd number of segments, so I opted for six segments with a smaller platform in the middle to provide for the 7th segment.

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To calculate the size I was told that there will be one tray of brownies per flavour, and that would be about equivalent in size to about a Roses tin, which is roughly 9 inches diameter by 4 inches tall.
Using that as I guide, I based the design on a circle of 18 inches diameter divided into 6 sectors (so 6 triangles with two 9" sides and a 6-and-a-bit" rounded side).
This equates to approximately equivalent size.


Construction

The back segment (red in the original diagram).
This one also has a small solid tip added
as it will overlap the central segment

• The base was cut from some chipboard up-cycled from some flat pack furniture.
• Each segment was cut from 3/8" marine plywood.
• Six 9x4" rectangles were cut to create the face panels, and attached to the sides of the raised segments (2 for the rear segment, 1 each for the other raised segments.)
• Supporting posts for each of the raised segments 
• The central "tip" of each segment was trimmed to allow room for the wooden pole that will support the centre segment.

These were secured to the base of the stand, but could be easily disassembled.



Rounded supports were attached to the underside of the curved edge of the segments. These were made from scrap, and supported a thin hardboard which was curved around to provide a solid outside to the segments. This was attached with staples, as the hardboard was too soft and nails passed straight through.

Each segment was wrapped with coloured fabric, fastened in place with staples and spray adhesive.

The centre segment was a smaller disc with a segment removed to allow the red segment to overlap. The supporting pole was approx 1.5" diameter and attached to the centre segment with a combination of glue and nails.
This assembly was wrapped in white fabric and attached to the base with a couple of screws (so to avoid rotation).

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I'm really pleased with how this project turned out. With a lot of projects, the actual building usually highlights issues not thought of during the design, and so adaptations have to be made, but in this case, the end result came out pretty much exactly as the initial design.

Working on this project also helped develop a new workflow - due to geographical and timing constraints, most of the design discussion was co-ordinated via WhatsApp. It was a case of being sent links and screenshots of ideas, sketching up a plan, photographing it and returning it etc. It was a surprisingly good system and something I'd definitely use again.

Reclaimed Wood Pirate/Treasure Chest

The first step was to join the slats together to create the boards that will form the sides of the chest.

As I don't have access to a planer/jointer this was a case of hand planing boards where necessary and being selective which boards matched together best.

In the absence of enough clamps I screwed the boards to a piece of scrap wood to hold them in place whilst the glue dried.

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With the boards joined, I could get a better idea of how the panels would fit together.

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The panels were too big to cut on my small tabletop saw, so I opted for handcut box joints.

I measured them so that the would line up with each of the slats on the long sides of the chest.

Cutting the curved top required some maths to match up the number of slats that would form the lid with the angle that would need to be cut in each slat to form a proper semi-circle.

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Once these were cut I glued them and used a metal bar bent to a curve to temporarily screw them to as it was not possible to use a clamp.

The handles are simple bought. The hinges were standard trangular shaped hinges, but in order for them to work with the curve of the lid, I bent them to a curve by heating them with a heat-gun and a hammer.

Finding a suitable padlock was more difficult - sure, DIY stores sell padlocks, but I wanted something more old-fashioned looking to fit the "pirate chest" aesthetic. After quite a bit of searching I found this one at a car boot sale.

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For finishing, I used the heat gun to heat the wood to the point where it started to brown (almost like toast), without burning. I thought about going the burn-and-sand method, but at this point I had invested enough time in the project that I didn't want to risk it.

Finally, the chest was finished with a coat of oil to help highlight the grain

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Can Crusher

At work we get through a lot of cans of soft drink, and an comment about incentivising recycling gave me the idea of making a can crusher.

So I doodled up this sketch, and decided to set myself the goal of building it without leaving the workshop.
















With my initial sketch I was envisaging using PVC pipe as the container for the can, but it turned out that I didn't have any. What I did manage to use instead was this metal tube - it was scrap from an old side table.

Cutting apart the tube was substantially trickier than PVC would've been though. The ends were cut off with a hacksaw, and the middle 'window' section where the can would be loaded was done with a Dremel, a file, and a lot of patience.

The two plugs that would form each end were cut from a scrap of kitchen counter top, cut by bandsaw and trimmed to create a tight fit for the base end, and slightly looser for the plunger end.

Building the rest of the frame was a fairly straightforward process, the plunger became a metal rod scavenged from an old wardrobe rail, and the frame from lengths of 1cm x 1cm wood.

Initial testing showed the wood wasn't quite strong enough on it's own and started to crack, so I took the whole thing apart and reinforced all the joints with metal u-channel.

In the end, the design works, but it's a lot bulkier than I'd originally hoped, and would be best suited to perhaps being mounted next to a recycling bin, or maybe a can vending machine - as the test video below shows, it's a bit wobbly when just free-standing.

Magnetic Drill Bit Organiser

I'm forever losing drill bits, particularly the smaller ones in my workshop. While it's very much a "first world problem", the delay it causes to a project's schedule can be a huge pain, so this project uses some magnets from old dismantled hard disk drives.

Be warned - these magnets are very strong - putting them near your bank cards or anything else that's sensitive to magnetic fields is probably a really bad idea.

The plan is to magnetise a steel bar with the old hard disk magnets, mount it to the wall near my drill press so that I can keep drill bits and other small metal objects nearby and secured, and hopefully not lose as many.

The build
I started with a pine slat reclaimed from an old bed frame.

I didn't have a specific size in mind for this project, but the steel I purchased came in 1 metre lengths, which seemed a bit much, so I halved it and decided to base it around a 500mm steel bar.

The wood was cut to 55cm (allowing a 2.5cm margin) each side of the steel for mounting holes.

I measured out where the steel would sit, and drilled out a 3 grooves in the wood equally along where the steel would sit (so that the steel would cover the grooves).

In order to make the hard disk magnets fit within the boundaries of the steels measurements, some parts had to be cut down, which I did by using a grinder disk.

In hindsight this might not have been the smartest move, as the magnets would get hot from the friction and heat affects the magnetism of metal, and so this might have altered the effectiveness of the magnets.

In reality though, there was not a noticeable difference in their strength before and after trimming them.

The magnets were screwed into the wood so that they would sit in the drilled grooves, but the magnets themselves would sit in contact with the steel bar.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Nov 15, 2016 at 1:22pm PST

A slight groove is cut into the wood along the length of the steel bar, so that the bar will sit flush with the wood, and attach the bar to the wood with a bit of glue. The magnets will hold it in place while the glue sets.

The bar will be magnetized by the underlying magnets, although wiping the bar with another magnet can strengthen the field, it will always be strongest nearest to the magnets themselves.

Finally a bit of wood stain, mount it to the wall, and done.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Nov 16, 2016 at 1:48pm PST