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Episode 54 - Bombe Series - Stop Dados
00/00/0000, 00:00 | T Chisel - The Rough Cut Show!Curved Blade Jig fits Tormek
00/00/0000, 00:00 | David's blogEpisode 24 - Bombe Series - Planing the Dividers
00/00/0000, 00:00 | T Chisel - The Rough Cut Show!Episode 2 - Shop Safety. Making a Push Stick
00/00/0000, 00:00 | T Chisel - The Rough Cut Show!Replacing a Rotting Stair Riser
09/06/2008, 03:59 | A Woodworking Odyssey
The top riser of the back porch is rotting and needs replacing. Tonight I started that process by fitting the replacement riser.Supplies needed:
6' length of 2x8 PineI discovered the hard way that even though Home Depot and Lowe's carry risers that are 48" long, your riser might require something longer. So, after two trips for lumber I was ready to start fitting using the 6-foot length of 2x6 pine I'd procured. I suspect that someday I will wish I had purchased poplar, but pine it will be.
Shims
Drafting compass
Saber Saw or Coping Saw
Pencil
The riser height was not exactly equal to the space (room for movement), so I had to shim it up into place to get a marking. Veritas has a fancy gadget, called a transfer scribe, for marking odd shaped ends, but I just used my standard compass. I set the compass to a width greater than the deepest section of the step against the house and simply dragged the tightener against the house while the pencil scribed the board.
I then cut the shape using a saber saw. I returned to the back porch and inserted the riser to see how well I had done.
The fit was good enough, so I went to the other end of the board and marked it directly from the porch. That measurement was not the correct length, because the end is capped by another board. So, with the direct scribed line, I knew I had to subtract the width of that other board. I Using the compass again, I set the compass arms to exactly the with of the end board, then used this setting to shift the mark to where my cut needed to go on my riser. I took it back to the basement and cut it square at the mark.After tonight's work, the riser is ready to prime for painting, which I can do in the basement this weekend (even if it does rain outside, with the arrival of Tropical Storm Hannah). If all goes well I will be as happy with the fit of the new riser as I was with the old one (installed by a professional carpenter). So far, so good. Here's the before and after shots:
One of the best planemaking lessons...
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Sauer & Steiner
... happens at the bench using the tools you’ve made.
I have been working away on the kitchen doors these last few days, and was reminded of why I started making planes in the first place. I have spent several hours taking the final finishing passes on all the 27 door frames. It only took a few minutes of planing for me to forget about the plane as an object and focus on the plane as a working tool. I stopped thinking about the infill wood, the choice of sidewall material, the stainless steel lever cap. All I cared about was the quality of the shaving, the comfort of the handle, the balance point of the plane and where I had placed the candle butt to wax the sole. For a few blissful hours - I felt like a furniture maker.
I have been collecting quarter sawn wood for years - and it really paid off for the kitchen. All the door frames are QS walnut. In a few cases, I had entire boards that were quarter sawn - but I also dipped into my stash of really wide walnut planks to get the quarter sawn wood from the edges. It worked out perfectly because the planks were wide enough to get two 2" wide frames off each edge and still have enough material in the middle to get the single board panels I wanted.
Most of the panels were resawn from 5/4 stock to yield two 7/16" thick panels. I wanted to keep the weight down as much as possible, plus this also allowed me to bookmatch all the panels. There is a large floor to ceiling pantry where I used 5/8" thick panels. I left them a little thicker so I could put a raised panel on the inside as well.
Below are two shots of all the freshly planed frames before assembly.
To really geek out for a minute - here are some technical specs. I re-honed the blade in the A5ss 6 times without going to the grinding wheel to hollow grind.
The above photo is an attempt to show the surface reflection of the last rail I planed (click on it to enlarge). This is the type of surface on all the frames. On average, it took two sets of two overlapping passes to remove all the jointer and thickness planer marks.
The mortises were cut with a bench top hollow chisel mortiser. With over 100 mortises - this felt like an appropriate tool. The haunched tenons are 1-1/2" long and were cut on the table saw using a dado set. Again - 100+ tenons... .
I pre-finished all the raised panels. There is nothing worse than that unfinished line and ridge of dried finish that appears in the dead of winter when the panels shrink.
I am hoping to assemble all the doors over the weekend and start fitting them. Once they are fit, I can apply the finish to the frames.
Some thoughts on dovetails - part I
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Sauer & Steiner
For the last several weekends, I have been working on our kitchen drawers. I have just crossed a major milestone - there are more drawers completed than remain (only by 1... but it still feels great!). So I have had “dovetails” floating around in my head quite a bit lately.
There was in interesting thread about dovetails in one of the forums a week or so ago. The thread was titled “Skinny pins in hand cut dovetails”. After reading most of the thread - I started thinking on my own dovetail evolution - and the whys and how's of it. I have also had a bit of an epiphany moment sparked by that thread, and it has to do with the relationship between process and efficiency. I am fully aware that I may to step on a few toes with this one - and I am fine with that.
My goal with woodworking and planemaking is to become extremely efficient while continuing to improve my accuracy... and in that order. I make my living in the woodworking field - I have to be efficient. So everything I do is motivated by using the fastest method even if it means a slow initial learning curve - complete with bumps and errors. Sharpening is a perfect example. I made a very conscious decision to learn to freehand sharpen because once you know how - it IS the fastest way to sharpen. Sure, it made for a lot of frustrating sharpening sessions and the dizzying parade of sharpening jigs were quite tempting - but I can honestly say I am glad I stuck to my guns and learned to do it freehand. I am now fast at it, and don't hesitate to stop work to restore an edge. I will write more on freehand sharpening in another post.
Back to dovetails & efficiency. I believe that the dovetail joint is a functional mechanical joint that can be extremely beautiful if well executed. There are a lot of times when dovetails are used and they are not seen - and in these instances how it looks is less important (though they still need to be tight fitting and designed for mechanical strength). The drawer is usually to blame for all the discussion about dovetails - skinny pins vs fat pins, machine cut vs hand cut, spacing, angles, pin lengths etc. This is because these dovetails can be seen, and rightly or wrongly, have come to symbolize the quality of the piece they live in.
I decided that I would hand cut my dovetails for several reasons (in no particular order). I like the somewhat random and irregular look of handcut dovetails - they tell me that a person spent time making this - and I like that. I like skinny pins - especially in contrasting woods - they make everything look lighter and more delicate. I like irregular spacing. I tend to put narrower tails on the outside edges and gradually increase them as they get closer to the center. It means I don't need to do as much math and is really quite fast to lay out. Here is an example;
The tails on the top and bottom are 3/4", 1/16" pin, 1" tail, 1/16" pin, 1-1/4" pin. It makes for a somewhat rounding effect.
Once I made the decision to hand cut my dovetails it meant I needed to be as fast and efficient as I could be. To me, this means the goal is to be able to fit the dovetails off the saw - no paring. My friend Karen was over a few weeks ago and we were talking about this as we stood in a sea of kitchen drawer parts. I commented that I was going to cut to the line and not intentionally cut inside and then pare to the line. If I overcut and there was a gap - so be it. I would not scrap the drawer but live with it. I explained that I felt this was part of my learning process and working towards maximum efficiency. She gave me an affirming nod and agreed. As we continued to talk we realized that there are many woodworking schools out there that teach to cut well inside the line and to pare to get the right fit. Looking at that now - it seems a little off - it is teaching a process where the outcome is consistently a 10 hour dovetailed drawer! It may be beautiful and perfect - but the process strikes me as questionable - not to mention it is unrealistic to expect a client to pay for a drawer that took 10 hours to make. I would much rather endure the pain, suffering, and disappointment of a few gaps here and there knowing that I am slowly, over time, getting closer to dovetails that fit right off the saw (I am aware that I am building drawers for my own use and not for a client - so I do have the luxury of “learning” through my work). So with that in mind - here are a few examples of dovetails I have produced spanning my entire woodworking life.
This was the first furniture project I made with a drawer. The front is cherry and the sides are pine. Drat... it is a bit out of focus:)
These are the drawers on my left handed, shaker inspired bench. There are 10 drawers in all. The sides are 5/8" basswood and the fronts are 3/4" mildly curly soft maple. They are still a little clunky - but the spacing was starting to feel right on these.
This is a drawer in a table I built for my sister and her husband as a wedding gift. Skinny pins have arrived and are here to stay! 1/2" maple sides, 3/4" walnut front. Note the African Blackwood pull... I shaped them by hand... no lathe:(
Which brings us to the most recent dovetail project - the kitchen drawers. I have just finished 5 more kitchen drawers - here is a shot of the stack.
There was a magical moment that happened while building these 5 drawers - I did actually cut a set of dovetails that fit right off the saw. It is pictured below.
There are a few wee gaps - but after they were glued and planed flush, they were gone. And after this set - there was another set of 1/2 blinds and two sets of through dovetails that fit off the saw. This was most encouraging and confirmed to me that this longer road was the right road to take.
And hey... I have 7 more drawers to practice on!
Door panels (4)...
00/00/0000, 00:00 | The Refined Edge
Once the mortises for the knife hinges are successfully created and care is taken to make certain the offsets are uniform and the depth of each knife leaf is consistent, the next step is to temporarily install the doors while fitting each door to the cabinet. The reveal around each door is important as well as any small differences in how the doors hang within the cabinet frame. In this photo the cabinet is reversed in orientation top to bottom for me to work on the fitting. The left door is in the photo. The knife hinges have a very small amount of leeway for me to adjust the doors so the reveal at both the top and bottom and the center part between doors is uniform. I also need to be conscious of how the outside edges fit the cabinet , they need to be parallel and in the same plane as the cabinet sides. The fitting of the doors can be somewhat time consuming but in my opinion this needs to be done correctly at this stage or the visual impact of a non-uniform reveal will be very apparent later.
After completing this fitting and knife hinge adjustment I will be creating the lip at the juncture of the doors in the middle of the cabinet. The lip serves to hide any open space between the doors and also to create an interlocking, positive closure for the doors. The right hand door will have a rabbeted lip whereas the left hand door will have a additional piece of beech added to the rear of the center edge of the door to form a mating lip. To maintain grain matching I have pieces of beech left over from the same plank I used to resaw the veneers earlier.
We have plenty of snow up here at this time , more than the average winter, and my wife and I will be leaving for a skiing trip at a resort next week. We're both crazy about spring skiing and there is plenty of nice weather coming up.
Bench Finishing
08/27/2008, 18:36 | A Woodworking Odyssey
This summer during vacation I managed a rather large woodworking project to completion using volunteer labor. My friend Sean had come up with plans for breakdown benches that would look medieval, and store flat. I'm actually working to make a pair of these benches in my shop, but I'm much slower and my shop is more primitive than Sean's: I expect to finish my two before we go to Pennsic next year.Sean, on the other hand, is a powerhouse for bulk woodworking. You may remember the post I made about his 20 box run. At the time he completed the boxes, these benches were a pile of rough cut lumber in Sean's barn. In less than two months he converted that pile to what we thought was 30 collapsible benches (it turned out to be 29 bench tops and 28 complete benches).
The bulk of the bench parts were sent down to Pennsylvania with Jay on Wednesday, but Sean stopped by our house to deliver most of the bench sides at 11 p.m. Friday, the last possible moment we could have taken them with us. These benches would be outside for the next two weeks, and needed to be finished before being put to use. I promised Sean two things before I left: first, that I would take pictures of the benches after they were finished and assembled; second, that they would be properly stickered for storage during the following year. Implicit in those promises was a third: that the benches would be stained, sealed, and assembled.
So the first week of my vacation, I took a trip to Home Depot looking for staining and sealing supplies. Jay wanted to stain the benches green, so they would be identifiably ours, and after long deliberation, I chose Minwax water-based stain in an Olive tint rather than Hunter Green. Minwax Helmsman spar varnish would be the sealant. This started a two-and-a-half day marathon of staining, sealing, and convincing people to help complete the project.
With 28 total benches being finished for assembly, we recruited everyone willing to wield a brush. We went through a lot of protective gloves during this: probably 15 different people helped out with this project, the most important being Anne, who started staining and coordinating volunteers while I was still finishing the sand table. At one point the gloves we had made us feel like villains in Firefly. "Two-by-two, hands of blue".
Eventually (after several runs to The Borg) there were enough stickers to properly stack the benches between sessions. These came in handy during the finishing, since we could sticker them while they were drying from stain or sealant. Here's the full pile of 28 benches stickered while the Spar Varnish was drying:
Everyone's technique was slightly different: some charged the brushes more than others, some spread the finish more thinly or evenly than others, and some were faster than others. At the time, I could have cataloged these differences and told you who had sealed or stained each bench part, like looking at a finger print. It was fascinating to see all of us doing the work in essentially the same way, but having visible differences in the outcome. It makes clear that running samples for different finish combinations and techniques can be a valuable exercise.The benches were completed by Wednesday. Nicodemus assembled the benches once they were dry and we enjoyed using them for the rest of the two weeks.
Sean expected the benches to withstand at least a 500 pound load (something they could plausibly be asked to do). I don't think they were ever tested to that degree, but through two weeks of use, being hauled about and seating up to four people at a time, the benches were enjoyed by the entire camp, and served without sign of failure!
Order, Mistakes and Karma
05/27/2008, 23:52 | Lost Art Press Blog John is at it again. We just finished a brutal month of traveling and teaching and John has got back in the shop!
There is a certain order or Karma to life, and when you violate this flow events let you know. Like the time I saw this woman and said ?when are you due? to wit she said, ?I am not pregnant!? Now the natural order would have flowed thus, a woman appears pregnant, you keep your mouth shut until she admits being pregnant, at which time you hesitantly congratulate her.
I learn through mistakes. I could be in the minority here but when I mess something up, I remember why and am less likely to repeat it. Like cutting on the wrong side of a line or jamming a perfectly sharp Barr chisel into my hand and cutting a tendon. Chris and I have been on the road a lot last month and I have not been in the shop much. The project shows my ?learning? and I hope someday to make something without learning anything.
To fix the problem I re-sawed a inch piece of wood and glued it to the full length of one side of the leg. After the glue up was dry, I snuck up on the fit. It now looks like this.
Can you guess which side has the wood glued to it? If you can, I will say that there is another learning experience in here. If you see a small glue line it is a result of that part of the piece not being clamped down to the leg. It could be that the piece was not flat or maybe the clamp is a bit off. Nonetheless, next time I will ensure the ?show? side has a seamless glue joint, and yes I am already fixing that nice nick off the bottom edge. Fortunately this will be painted!
-John
Father's Day $20 Gift from Highland Woodworking
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Highland Woodworking Blog
Happy Father's Day from Highland Woodworking!
A special $20 Free Gift just in time for Father's Day.
Purchase a $150 (or greater) Highland Gift Certificate by June 15, 2008, and we will give you a FREE $20 Gift Certificate as a special bonus.
Visit Highland Woodworking to order your Gift Certificate today!
Podcast #29: Top 5 Shop-Built Router Jigs
00/00/0000, 00:00 | WoodworkingONLINE.comJig plans for cutting circles, adjustable dadoes, and a flush trim jig are included in this week’s Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar Podcast. Bryan Nelson will also give the low down on how to build a hinge mortising jig and a unique router table sled that holds narrow workpieces firmly while routing across end grain.
Check out the Woodsmith Podcast Store for more deals on router bits and the seminar guide.
Thoughts on Mitered Corners
09/05/2008, 03:18 | A Woodworking OdysseyOf course, the simplest way to do this is with a straight miter:
The matched angles of a miter provide some resistance to separation, but the primary benefit lies in the concealment of all the end grain. This is aesthetically pleasing, and can be advantageous in joints that need to endure weather, but nothing can change the fact that end grain to end grain provides a weak glue joint. So even with modern glues I always nail through with wire brads when making a frame.Another way to strengthen the joint is to add some long grain to long grain contact. We can do this with a mitered half lap:
This has the added advantage of having more edge contact between the boards. You can also put a blind peg in from the back to keep these mated pieces snug. This does reveal some end grain on one side, but provides a much stronger joint. Although this joint looks simple enough, it can be hard to wrap your mind around the geometry: notice that one piece requires two cuts, but the other requires three. When I was drawing this, I kept trying to "cut" the wrong part of the the mating board, so before making any cuts I double check my layout.You can take the long grain to long grain theme to another level with a mitered bridle joint. This joint starts to get complex.
Even with the increased complexity in the joint, this one is somewhat easier to understand in layout: each piece has one angled joint and one square joint, where the half lap has a more asymmetric structure, with one angled joint on on piece and both an angle and a square on the other.While I was thinking on variants, I came up with the idea of adding a mechanical joint to the glue joint. I've never seen this done, but it must have been, and it seems that adding a single dovetail on each joint could be elegant and effective:
Properly done, this would be a great way to brag.Another way to use a mechanical joint is to key the joint: I didn't have time to draw this one, but I hope to add it in the next few days...
Des Moines Woodworkers Pitch In
00/00/0000, 00:00 | WoodworkingONLINE.comThe Des Moines Woodworkers Association makes it clear that their mission is to dedicate their time and effort (and a considerable amount of expertise) “…to education, community service, and sharing of knowledge for those of all ages and skill levels…” who are interested in woodworking.
For example, a few months after 9/11, I became involved with a project sponsored by the club and Woodworkers United for America to build Memorial Flag Boxes for the families of victims of the terrorist attacks. It was a gratifying experience and I ended up building a few extras for my family members.
Then, just the other day I heard a member of the club on a local public radio station talking about their latest community project — building special caskets for preemie babies. The Infant Casket Program is an off-shoot of the Precious Angels Organization. Their goal is to help families who have lost children and may not be able for whatever reason to afford a quality casket or other services. You can find out more about this organization here.
Des Moines Woodworkers club members can build caskets from plans provided on their website. The club also provides wood to any member who requests it to build caskets. They announced the plans to help out at their last meeting and the hope is that members will bring their projects to the September meeting where they’ll be presented to Vicki Dischner, the young lady who runs the program for SpecialAngelsIA.org. The Des Moines Woodworkers have also contacted clubs in Omaha, NE., and Ames, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids in Iowa to become involved in this worthy project.
Contact Russ Wilson, the community service director for the club, if you’d like to be involved.
Mea culpa
07/04/2008, 01:36 | UnpluggedShop.comIt wasn't intentional. I didn't know. It was a mistake. Your money will be refunded as soon as your claim is processed by our customer service department located conveniently (for us) in a country that an English speaking person has never left alive.
Well, it isn't all that bad, but this website let you down. In particular, inadvertent alphabetical discrimination of the worst sort (ok, so you didn't get the pun, yes, it is a bit obscure, think: sort, lists... oh, nevermind) was practiced. It isn't bad enough that you always had to sit at the back of the class just because your name started with "X" or "Z". It isn't enough that we put you at the bottom of the list in the best of times. This time, you were left out completely if your name started with one of the latter letters of the alphabet and you were "listed" on one of our longer directory lists. read more »
Getting in Touch With Our Inner Europe
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Popular Woodworking
I think I was in the DeWalt booth when I suddenly felt the tide turn.
One of the company’s product managers was explaining the new guard on the DeWalt jobsite
table saw. It was one of the new riving-knife-based guards that all the manufacturers
are installing on their machines to comply with new government standards.
“This guard is so easy to use,” the product manager says, “the user won’t have any
excuse or reason not to use it.”
And with that he installed all three components of the guard on the saw in less than
17 seconds (I timed him).
When I say the tide turned at that moment, I mean that at that moment I realized how
many times I had heard that same speech – and almost those same words – used by other
manufacturers as they introduced their new European-style guards during the last 12
months.
Bosch, Delta, Steel City, Grizzly and Jet have all been eager to show off how easy
their new guards are to use. Whereas during the last 13 years I’ve covered the industry,
usually the guard was discussed like this: “And there is a clear plastic guard.”
Those old guards, which were required by government regulations, were practically
useless (as we all know). And they’re rarely used. Heck most people probably couldn’t
find their table saw’s guard hiding somewhere in their shop.
But now suddenly a safe saw is a selling point. Wow. That’s a big change. As I began
to look around a bit, I realized that many European-style tools are now infiltrating
our American shops. Don’t believe me?
In the last three years Festool has gone from being a niche toolmaker to a company
that makes the tools that everyone wants to beat. The Festool Domino, a feat of European
engineering, is probably the most visible evidence of this. But you also see other
clues: DeWalt is introducing two
plunging circular saws to compete directly with the Festool TS 55 EQ.
Last year Jet Tools introduced a new European jointer/planer – and this year is introducing
another version of that machine with a helical cutterhead. SawStop has always used
European guarding on its saws and has successfully used safety as a selling point
– and the company just continues to expand.
Even Grizzly Industrial – long a mainstay of Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturing –
has been putting down some Teutonic and Italian roots. Parts of some of Grizzly’s
sliding table saws come from Germany and Italy. And right now, there are four Grizzly
products that are made in Germany, including a sliding table saw and a wet sharpener.
Plus the company is introducing more European-style machinery that is designed in
Germany but built in China.
So what does this mean for U.S. woodworkers? Good things, for the most part. I’ve
seen what Festool is planning on introducing to this country in the coming years,
and a lot of it is exciting stuff. Plus, I’ve been in European workshops and can say
they are safer and healthier places to work.
But the tools are more expensive (usually because of the quality). And I find that
many of their machinery setups are more complex than ours (mostly because they use
the guards properly).
So as the DeWalt’s new table saw guard clicked back into place onto the top of the
saw I concluded a couple things: American woodworkers are due for some changes in
the way we work. But I also bet that as Americans, we’ll find a way to mix the Budweiser
with the Beaujolais to suit our tastes.
— Christopher Schwarz
Oh....I Forgot to Mention...
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Skiving OffBecause there were pre-teen girly sleepover things happening at her house, Gail and I invited her 10 year old brother, Isaac, to spend the night with us last night.
Isaac and I played Wii. I am not a video game person, but as soon as I tried Wii bowling last year, I knew I had to have one. Isaac doesn't even have a Wii, but as an American 10 year old he has logged about 3000 more Wii hours than me, a full fledged Wii owner.
However, I had never attempted Wii golf until last night with Isaac. The stupid thing is that as Isaac was "teaching" me to play Wii golf, I was having to go first. So, on the first hole AFTER I managed to drive the ball about 30 yards right of the fairway, Isaac told me I should watch out for that 25mph wind blowing left to right. Then, he aimed way to the left and drove the ball about 300 yards landing right in the middle of the fairway. (Thanks for the tip, Isaac.)
Then, AFTER I used an iron to hit the ball so far over the green that it went out of bounds, Isaac pointed out the swing power meter, and he hit his iron with about a half swing and dropped the ball onto the green inches from the hole. It seems that my nephew is the King of Post-Failure Instruction.
Perhaps in a few years he will get the woodworking bug, and I can get some paybacks:
1) Oh, yeah....I forgot to tell you about dry-fitting the parts prior to glue up.
2) Wow, Isaac. You're quite the bleeder. I guess I should have told you about pushsticks....
3) Dude, you should have heard the Banshee scream you let out when that glove got caught in the jointer. Sorry for not warning you not to wear gloves, Little Buddy.
Kellogg's Rice Krispies for Ireland: Snap, Crackle, and Bang
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Skiving OffWhen the writing gig started, I couldn’t be sure I was a published magazine feature writer until I saw the magazine on the shelf at Barnes and Noble’s. Sure I had gotten (and cashed) a check weeks before. They even sent me a few copies of the magazine a couple of weeks before it hit the newsstand. However, I could not be 100% sure those advanced copies weren’t Photoshop’ed fakes until I saw the identical thing on the retail shelf.
When that finally happened, it took everything in me to not grab the magazine, flip it open to my article, and run through the store while screaming incoherent rants to the long line of foster parents, parole officers, and counselors who told me I would never amount to anything. (Mom and Pop, I know you never gave into the urge to walk away from your parental responsibility. The previous sentence is a complete fabrication that many authors (and ALL political speech writers) call “jazzing it up” in order to make a boring story a little more interesting.)
While in
Then, one day in the City Centre of Galway I happened upon a large bookstore that had a significant selection of magazines. As I approached the woodworking magazines it seemed a certainty that I was going to be able to forever say that in June of 2008, I travelled to Ireland and found pictures (and an eloquent 4 page description) of my building a Windsor Tall Stool back in my homeland.
Here is what I saw….
WHAT?!?!?!?!
I understand Fine Woodworking being a logical choice for export to the
So even though I thought about yelling at Chris Schwarz, Megan Fitzpatrick, and the entire F+W Publications team about the lack of penetration into the Irish Market, I have decided to let it go. I eventually realized that if the Multi-billion Dollar Cereal Giant from
Given the Anti-"Pop" Irish bias, my advice is for Mr. Schwarz to concentrate on Woodworking Magazine being the opening salvo of F+W’s invasion of
Episode 45 - Bombe Series - Drawer Stops
00/00/0000, 00:00 | T Chisel - The Rough Cut Show!JUST MARRIED (UPDATED -> Photos)
08/23/2008, 22:01 | LumberJocks.com :: woodworking showcase
Yesterday was our special day and everything was just GREAT! Wedding photos coming soon ;)))
UPDATED: I’ve just added some wedding photos to my Facebook photo albums.. click here to see the photos
The Trend RoutaSketch
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Wood Destruction by a Woodscrub
It was when they had the coupons 50% off any clearance item. They had two of these RoutaSketches, original price $99, clearance price $50, with my coupon $25.
I figured for $25 it was worth checking out. I was intrigued by the concept, that's for sure.
Inboxed, it's clear the thing was made as cheaply as possible. All plastic except for a pair of brass thread inserts in the base and the steel bars to hold up the template and the tracing stylus.
I assembled according to the directions. The steel bars were a REALLY tight fit in the plastic bases. Tight enough I feared I'd break the plastic before even getting to try it. But they survived. The plastic may be tougher than I initially thought!
After assembling the stands I looked at the instructions to determine which holes in the base to use for my Porter Cable router. But, alas, there were no PCs listed in the table!
No Porter Cable support? How can this be?!?!?!
I suspect that maybe PC isn't as big in Europe as it is here in the US. Trend seems to be based in the UK. That might explain it.
I tried to line up the holes in my PC with the myriad holes in the base of the Routa Sketch. No luck. None at all. Bleh.
I decided to grab the Harbor Freight plunge router that's been pretty much setting on the shelf. Sure enough, the template holder screws were a match. In fact, Trend was nice enough to include long screws that fit! A good thing since the ones that came with the router were far too short to mount the RoutaSketch base with.
After some dry runs making sure I had the motions down and was comfortable controlling the
router with this big thing attached (really it isn't that bad, things moved quite smoothly) I picked one of the designs that came with the RoutaSketch.The RoutaSketch comes with a good assortment of line art to use. Oddly enough (or maybe not), at least a few of those are public domain line art. My wife saw one of them at the local library for the kiddies to color!
With the paper on the tracing platform, my plunge router dialed in to make a very light cut, and my daughter and I wearing goggles, I started cutting.
The reason I wanted to use the PC router is I hate plunge routers. I understand the need for
them, which is why I own one, but I prefer a straightforward simple router without the plunge feature. During this trial, the biggest reason I hate plunge routers showed itself. If I concentrate on the work, I'll relax my arms, causing the router to "de-plunge". The router keeps making the right motions, but the bit is no longer cutting. Grr...Another thing that was irritating me was the stylus would grab the paper causing the paper to move. Well this screws up the pattern being cut into the wood. It turns out that the package came with a sheet of acetate to lay over the paper so the stylus moves more smoothly.
Whoops!
Even so, I thought it came out pretty decent!
I just carved into the mini-bench top. Don't worry, I'm not damaging my work surface. I had enough damage to it already that I need to resurface it with my jack plane.
I didn't carve any of the details. This was more a test of the tool. It's not a project. The outline looks good, but you can see where the aper shifted. it shoved the sea horse's forehead into it's ears. The acetate should prevent that from happening next time.
Yes. There is going to be a next time...
Carving a Philadelphia Ball and Claw
08/21/2008, 01:35 | Arts & Mysteries with Adam Cherubini - Blog 
I had the privilege to host the Philadelphia Museum of Art's secret weapon, carver/conservator Chris Storb a few weeks ago. Chris isn't just an expert carver, he's intimately familiar with 18th c work and especially familiar with Philadelphia work.
Chris is a fantastic source for not only how to do it, but also specifically what was done. This makes him particularly rare. These two bits of information are more typically found in two different people (expert period woodworkers for the how, and furniture curators for the what). So it was with great pleasure that Chris agreed to visit my shop and let me painstakingly photograph him carving a Philadelphia style ball and claw foot. I'm looking forward to sharing what I learned from Chris in an upcoming issue of your favorite woodworking magazine.
Adam
Chris Storb Links:
- Access Privileges from my blog
- Two American Masters from my blog
Two peas in a pod (Wooden Wedding Ring Set)
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Wood Rings by Simply Wood Rings
"Two peas in a pod"
For that couple that have that unique bond of having so much in common. I have made this set "Two peas in a pod".
The Box is made of White Oak wood and Red Oak wood.
The rings shown are single wood Walnut (men's) and Mahogany (women's)
Click Here To See The Listing.
Essential Joinery Plane: The Moving Fillister
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Woodworking blog Woodworking Magazine
As woodworkers dive into handwork, they usually start with a block plane, then the
bench planes, the saws and the joinery planes.
Joinery planes – such as plow planes, router planes, shoulder planes and rabbeting
planes – are some of the easiest planes to set up and use. Their irons are straighforward
to sharpen (no curves needed), and because the tool doesn’t produce a show surface,
you don’t need to be a maniac about the keenness of your cutting edges.
One of the most essential joinery planes is the moving fillister. It cuts a rabbet
either across the grain or with the grain. And it can make a rabbet of almost any
size thanks to its adjustable fence.
Moving fillisters are different than other planes in the rabbeting family in that
its fence is adjustable (planes with a fixed fence are called standing fillisters),
plus it can work across the grain because it has retractable nickers (planes without
the nickers are just plain old rabbet planes).
The iron Stanley No. 78 is the most common vintage version of this tool, however I’m
not fond of the form. The fence wobbles because of the way it is attached to the body,
so the plane does a poor job in hard woods (in my experience). Record, by the way,
fixed this problem with its metal version of this plane, though it’s a tough tool
to find in North America.
This really is a case where the wooden versions of a plane are superior. Wooden-stock
moving fillisters are fairly common in the secondary market, though they usually require
some rehabbing to be usable. So what do you do?
You could ask Clark & Williams to make you
one – they showed me an excellent moving fillister they make a couple years ago. You
could buy an ECE
from toolsforworkingwood.com. Or you could buy a new traditional one from Philip
Edwards at Philly Planes in England.
Philip’s planes are excellent. I recently reviewed his miter plane plus a plane designed
for raising panels for drawer bottoms. They both work like a charm. So it’s very exciting
to me (and a good sign for hand work in general) that there is a new moving fillister
on the market from Philip’s shop.
We’ve ordered one for our shop here, and I will offer a full report once it arrives.
Until then, however, if you need a moving fillister, I can recommend Philip’s
planes highly.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Want to learn more about joinery planes? Then definitely pick up a copy of “The
Wooden Plane” by John M. Whelan.
????/ box making
09/09/2008, 02:55 | Masashi's woodworking diary
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The next project after the picture frame is a box making.
There are two purposes for this project.
Mitre joint; to cut the boards at 45 degree to assemble.
To predict how the material moves and to know how to minimize the trouble caused by the movement.
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So I brought lots of boxes from home.
Some tiered lunch boxes are badly warped.
It is more difficult than you expect to make a box from wood.
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Everyone started making after the lecture. It took two weeks for them to finish.
The most difficult part was to fit the lid perfectly to the body, but they did well.
After five months of practise at the college you can make a box.
It is quite a progress.
First Pen Turning
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Wood Destruction by a Woodscrub
I finally got my hands on the tool accessories needed to turn a pen(cil). So using a scrap cutoff of padauk, I went to town and made this beautiful padauk mechanical pencil, with gold plated trim and a black stripe on the clip.
Wait, what accessories were needed?
Aside from the obvious (lathe, turning chisels, drill press, wood), the following are absolutely necessary:
- Pen mandrel to fit your lathe.
- Pen kit.
Another thing you may find useful is a barrel trimmer. this squares the end of the turning blank to the newly inserted brass tube. Keeps things neat and tidy. Mine was $20 at Woodcraft. All that is left is to make the pencil!
I took a scrap piece of padauk and cut it into 4" sections. Two of those sections I put into the drill press and put a 7mm hole through them to hold the brass tubes. I then pressed the tubes into the wood with a drop of CA glue ("super glue") to hold it together.
Then I mounted the whole thing on the turning mandrel with a bushing on either end, and one in the middle between the blanks.
After tightening things up and mounting the mandrel to the lathe I was ready to turn.
Too bad my craptastic Harbor Freight lathe wasn't compatible with the mandrel! I knew it had a "morse taper #2" fitting. But it didn't occur to me to check that the fitting was in the headstock... The part that turns. The fitting is only in the tailstock in the cheap 40" lathe. The tailstock doesn't turn, so the mandrel wouldn't turn. I had to find a way to get the mandrel MT2 base into the headstock.
I had a faceplate that was separated from a mug I made that I hadn't cleaned up yet. There was enough meat on the wood there to carve out a MT2 hole for my mandrel to rest in.
Once it was carved out, the arbor fit nicely. My live tailstock (a MT2 spinner) was tightened snugly into the dimple on the end of the mandrel and I fired up the lathe.
It worked perfectly!
All that was left was to start cutting the wood! I started off gently removing wood because of the thin diameter of the mandrel. I was afraid it would start bowing under any pressure. It turns out that my fears were unfounded. It's very rigid and does not bow under normal cutting pressure.
The pen blanks were turned with a 5/8" spindle gouge and finished with a 3/4" skew chisel. I got such a great finish I was able to sand starting at 600 grit! A pass at 600 and a pass at 2000 got
me a nearly mirror finish all by themselves. I then applied some thick CA glue for a finish.If you're applying super glue for a finish, don't worry about slopping it on the bushings and such. The pieces will pop right apart and the CA glue will be removed the next turning session.
I got the blanks out and started assembling the pencil. The package for the pencil kit didn't explain what parts went where. It took some trial and error to get things where they belonged. I'm sure once I've done a few of these the positioning will make sense. Until then, I'll have to pay extra attention to the order the pieces are assembled.
As you can see, the results were awesome! I'm really happy and want to make more! Lots more! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Nothing Magic About My Rag
00/00/0000, 00:00 | Woodworking blog Woodworking Magazine
Sometime back in 1996 I took a piece of cloth that was cast off from my wardrobe.
I cannot remember what the garment was. A sweatshirt perhaps? Long underwear? It’s
a bit stretchy. And I soaked the sucker in WD-40.
Since that day, I have soaked that rag with every kind of oily substance you can imagine.
Here’s the short lubricant list: Camellia,
3-in-1, Jojoba, mineral spirits,
thread-cutting oil, spray-on “dry” shop lubricant and oil from various recesses of
my personhood (yes, it’s true, and historically correct. Ask me over a beer sometime).
I use this rag to wipe down every tool after I use it. I lubricate my plane soles
with it while working. I use it to wipe off the sharpening slurry from my tools after
honing them.
And what I’m about to say will upset people who know anything about chemistry: I have
never suffered any ill effects from this nefarious mixture when finishing my projects
using any of the known finishing compounds: shellac, lacquer, oil, varnish, wax and
all of their wacky combinations. No fish-eye has ever appeared in my finish. No orange
peel. No silicone contamination.
So what gives? How have I cheated the finishing gods for 12 full years?
Probably because of the cutting action of all tools. When I wipe down a tool – a sawblade
or a handplane – I leave the thinnest coat possible behind. This thin film is all
I need to protect the tool from rusting. Then, when I apply the tool to the work,
there is little doubt that some of this lubricant winds up on my work.
This first cut removes the lubricant from the tool. Then my next pass with the tool
removes the wood that has the lubricant on it. Problem solved.
In addition to my magic rag (Lucy, my wife, calls it my “woobie”), I also am very
fond of the Sandflex blocks from Klingspor to
remove rare and errant spots of rust or staining that show up on my tools. These spongy
“rust erasers” are like rubber that has been impregnated by a mild abrasive. The blocks
will abrade your tools, but only slightly – in most cases less than steel wool. One
block (I like the “medium” and “fine”) will last for decades of normal use.
As a result, I have had few problems with rust on my tools, despite the fact that
I live outside a humid river city (Cincinnati) and my home shop is in a basement.
The bottom line is that diligence is far more important than the brand of lubricant.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Below is my latest project with a shellac and lacquer finish with no finishing problems. Maybe next project....
