Travel Tool Chest & Workbench Build Process

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First job for the morning was a tidy up of all the photolithography stuff. Then I heated the brass plate up with a blow torch and melted some shellac wax into all over it as before. 600 grit wet & dry paper (lubricated with WD40) was used to clean up the face:

I put my home-made vertical table in the horizontal bandsaw and chopped a few of the bits up.

I kept going until I had a couple of promising examples of each number, then left the rest as spares.

Each piece was then held in the bench vice (which has home-made aluminium soft jaws) and filed at a slight angle (narrowing towards the back) until the border line just disappeared.

Each piece then got a few strokes face down on some 1200 grit wet & dry paper to finish them off.

Finally, they went in the kitchen oven at 180°C for a bit to smooth out the wax. It didn't go as glossy this time, but I'm still happy with how it looks.

Finally, I chopped out some mortices in the top of each drawer with an 8 mm chisel...

... and glued the brass number plates in with some superglue.

With that done, I could finally take off the masking tape (with drawer numbers written on) that has been on the drawers for the last 6 months!

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

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