These last few months, I have been slowly getting together some tools and rehabbing them. So far, I have four saws. One of them is a nice old rip saw that is about worn out (not much blade left), another is a Disston that might be about 50 years old. I also have an almost new and not-too-rusted Stanley backsaw that has a price tag on it of about US$12. Another saw that I haven't rehabilitated yet is a really old dovetail saw with damaged saw nuts and a handle that is worn out but still usable.

I have sharpened each of these saws once (except the dovetail saw). I filed the Stanley backsaw for a rip cut. It was my first ever try at sharpening a saw. I did this one without a proper saw vise, without proper lighting, and without any jigs or aids.  read more »

Part IV 

All right then! Here it was, around the beginning of April, and I had a plan for the new shop (more or less) in hand. It was time to go ahead with the construction... or so I had thought, anyway.

I got a contractor lined up to do the concrete. I had decided that work was simply too much for me to handle on my own, and that it would probably serve me better to have it done by somebody else. I didn't have the equipment, nor did I have the help (or the back) to put down the concrete by myself. I might have mentioned that North Idaho was undergoing an unprecedented building boom at the time. What that meant for me was a wait for the permit. Permits usually take just a couple weeks. Usually, this might not be an issue, but the concrete guy I had lined up had a very tight schedule. Well, it turned out I had a couple of issues that permitting wouldn't allow, mainly the bathroom I had discussed previously. With that, I took the plan home and removed it entirely from the design (which actually helped me out budget-wise), but as it would have it I couldn't take the time off of work to get back to the permit office for two week. When I did finally, it was two more weeks before I got the plan reviewed and approved. I called the concrete guy up, and turns out I was past his window of availability. I would have to find another.

That delay led to a two week long search for another concrete contractor. The only one I could find available was still three weeks out before he could start, but he didn't do excavating - though he knew someone who did. So, I contacted him, and he was three weeks out too. So - what I thought might be a two to three week period of getting the permit reviewed and groundbreaking turned out to be entirely too optimistic. By the time I got the excavator there it was the end of May, a full 5 weeks later than I'd hoped.

Being an architect, I'm familiar with the whole process so didn't let it get me down, and just chalking it up to the way things work. But - when this showed up out front of the house early one morning, I started getting a little excited:

It's not really the machine I would have chosen for the task, but as long as the hole got dug, I wasn't going to worry. I had considered doing it myself... had I done it; I would have rented a loader with a backhoe mounted on the back. A track-hoe (like above) tends to rip up the lawn too much when you turn on it... It's also a very small bucket - which can be a good thing, both for digging utility trenches and when you have a plan with a lot of little corners... But I don't have a great deal of experience in digging foundations, and what little I had done was over 20 years ago... I figured it best to leave it to someone who knew more. Besides, the cost of renting a backhoe for myself would have been 2/3rds of the price of paying someone else to do it, so I figured it was better hired out.

It was finally time to break ground. Here's where the shop was to go shown in the site plan again:

Here is a photo of the yard, talen looking north from the end of the patio:

The scarring you see in the center of the yard was from an old willow tree that had to come down a few years prior when a windstorm had knocked the main portion of it's trunk down. The scarring was from the year previously when I finally got the stump out of the ground using a skid-steer I had rented when putting in the pavers for the patio, which you can see in the lower left. Within an hour or two, the trench for the main footings were dug:

Finally, something was happening. I was still worried about the excavation, though - I thought it odd that he would only dig the trench and not strip the topsoil within the footprint of the building first. In the end, it turned out I didn't need to worry about it. The fellow was a young guy, for whom renting himself and his track-hoe out was his main method of income in the warmer months. While young, in the end it turned out he was hard working, honest, and truly concerned with doing a good job - and for not really all that much money, either. But I didn't know that yet at this point, so was concerned. Even though it was taken care of later and I was satisfied with his work, I do wish it had been done properly. But with the building environment the way it was, I was just happy to have somebody to do the job.

Up next, the foundation!

We now have LumberJocks profiles and groups on the popular social networking sites. So if you’re registered on any of them don’t hesitate to add LumberJock to your friends or join the LumberJocks group. Here’s the list:

• Facebook: LumberJock profile - add to friends
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And while on Facebook don’t forget to send me the friend request too. Here's my profile.

Here’s something you’ll want to put on your calendar. PBS will be airing a show entitled, “Craft in America: A Journey to the Artists, Origins, and Techniques of American Craft.” It will air in three episodes beginning on May 30. The most notable artist to be featured—as far as woodworkers are concerned—is Sam Maloof. You can see a list of other artists to be featured here. The web site has a cool virtual exhibit that will show you some of the work of the artisans.

To find out when Craft in America airs in your local area, click here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2007
Release #07-275

Firm’s Recall Hotline: (866) 761-5572
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

Robert Bosch Tool Corp. Recalls Skil® Circular Saws Due to Laceration Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Skil® brand Circular Saws

Units: About 811,000

Manufacturer: Robert Bosch Tool Corp., of Mount Prospect, Ill.

Hazard: The trigger switch on the circular saw can be locked on or the switch can be turned on without the use of the safety lock-out. This can cause unexpected operation of the saw, posing a risk of laceration.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received five reports of the saw staying on after the user released the trigger. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recall involves Skil(r) brand circular saws with model numbers 5650, 5700, 5750 and 5755. The model number and date code are printed on the nameplate located on the front of the saw. The recall includes the following date codes:

28101 - 29231
38101 - 39231
48101 - 49231
58101 - 59231
68101 - 69231

No other models or date codes are included in this recall.

Sold at: Home centers and independent hardware retailers nationwide from January 2002 through December 2006 for between $70 and $80.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled saws and contact the firm for instructions on obtaining a free repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact the Robert Bosch Tool Corp. toll-free at (866) 761-5572 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at http://www.skiltools.com/en/CustomerService/SafetyInfoRecalls/

To see this recall on CPSC’s web site, including pictures of the recalled product, please go to: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07275.html

Al says he "doesn't get in the zone until 9:30" and since it's only 9:00, he and Tommy sit around talking about...well, not much of anything.

Should you ever happen across me anywhere on the face of the interweb, muttering at length on the evils of poly-uckathane varnish, don't think it's from a position of strength now, will you? No, it's not because my hand is innocent of inflicting such horror; rather that's it's largely based on personal experience. One such varnished chicken came home to roost not long ago. Talk about a blast from the past - an early endeavour that was condemned to be returned to its perpetrator on the demise of the owner. There's an argument against living a long life, if ever I came across one. The idea of further youthful projects returning like so many homing pigeons is enough to make me wake up in the early hours in a cold sweat. But that's by the by.

The architect mostly achieves the ideal process of culture combination and success to represent a unique colour of ur main pillars (as part of Joglo) and Soko Geder (one pillar). On the top of soko guru there are put tumpang songo (nine support) (it musn't be nine, it could be only three support (tumpang telu (tiga)) which depend on the capability of the owners), as the support of roof construction.

The roof construction of traditional house of Kudus shows the level of wealthy of the owner since cost to make the roof is the highest cost compare with any other parts of the house. The expensive cost was because of the motifs perfection and the carved style also the difficulty on the process to construct it.

The Pencu style roof (the towering roof) used to be made of Rumbia (a particular kind of palm leaves), but now more likely to be made of tiles. Kudus tiles often have special plant motifs, and there are the so-called genteng gajah (with elephant ornamentation) on the wuwungan (the topmost row of tiles), and the genteng raja (king tiles) which are beautifully decorated.

The design interior of the traditional house of Kudus looks simple and divided into Jogo Satru room as a guess room, which in the standard traditional house of Kudus the cover area is around 3 x 10 msq. In this room, the floor is lower around 1 m from the main room (inside room) and is a part of the fourth step or floor.

Then, inside room (jogan lebet) is a fifth step with area around 7 x 10 msq. A chair uses as the connection between the two rooms because of its level differences.and as partition between the two rooms used Gebyok.

Inside the inside room (jogan lebet), there are several rooms such as living room located below the joglo, then bedrooms and gedongan as the place to keep the heilroom and wealthy. Gedongan placed between inside room and pawon (kitchen) that located in the left or right of the house.

This pawon except use for cooking and dinner room, also use for the family activity, such as made of convection products and other home industries. In front of the pawon, precisely in the edge part of the yard placed well complete with the bathroom.

There are several types of doors in the traditional house of Kudus, there is one door, two door and sliding door. One door is usually for the kitchen, two doors in gebyok and the sliding door is in the front.

One thing that necessary to be noted is that traditional house of Kudus always build face to the south that full with the philosophy meaning and based on the natural rule of rational calculation.

Tommy sits down with Al to respond to questions and comments posted in his newly-launched message board and send out a big thank you to all his fans (and especially Chicago Ron for the cigars!). After being asked by a viewer, Al gives a "quick" biography of himself. He also fields a question from another viewer about a matchstick holder he made.

A humble ring which honors all of the women and men that have made they life's work of clothing and sheltering the human race.

See more like this ring at http://www.simplywoodrings.com.

The back frame and panel is assembled with panels in place and installed at the back of the cabinet. The cabinet is slowly evolving into a piece of furniture. The frame and panel back fit very snugly after some light, judicious planing of the outside rails and stiles. I have not yet finalized the layout of the interior of the cabinet, but I expect to create an assembly with two or three drawers in the lower right section of the cabinet. In the photo, you can see the overhang at the front top and bottom of the cabinet to allow for the front doors. The amount of overhang or space I allowed for is the thickness of the individual veneered door panels along with a very small extra gap both behind and ahead of the door.There is also the small chamfered edge of the top and bottom surrounding the cabinet front, sides and back.

Creating the door panels is my next task in this cabinet build and I will be working on this over the next days. I'm also working on the stand design which has not yet been finalized. I have a feeling I will be modifying the original drawings and doing something a little different here. I'm just waiting to determine how the enclosed cabinet looks to me and what stand design provides the best complement for the cabinet. This goes back to a term I coined a few months ago on an earlier project.

The term I coined is "dynamic design" and allows the maker to dynamically modify a design as the build progresses. The modifications in design are directly attributable to how the project is taking shape, as opposed to moving forward with an existing design which might or might not make sense any longer. The concept of dynamic design and artistic freedom go hand in hand. I mention to my clients that the design will most likely evolve as the project continues and to expect some changes, most likely small ones. There needs to be a certain trust between the maker and client to be able to accomplish this, something I strive to provide the client.

I should have the beginnings of the door panels done in the next day or so along with resawing of the veneers I will be using.

Many of the short course dates are full but some have a significant amount of space.

Tool tuning, sharpening and plane use, is the ...

If you own a DeWalt cordless drill/driver, you may want to check the table below. These models are being recalled because of a potential fire hazard. DeWalt wants you to stop using the drill immediately if it’s included in the list below:

You can find out all about the recall here on the CPSC web site. You can take your drill to your nearest service center for a free inspection and free repair, if needed. Click here for instructions on DeWalt’s web site.

 

Welcome to The Wood Shop? This entry was posted on 9/21/2006 3:11 PM and is filed under Welcome. Picture Saloondoors2 Courtesy of Warsaw WoodWorks Welcome to The Wood Shop !  Let me first start by Introducing myself to you and let you know what we're all about . My name is Dan Rose . I am the head broom and dust-pan guy around here , so let's help keep it clean. I'd like to discuss Mesquite HardWood and other things wood as well.  Some basic rules : Feel free to post here and visit often. A reminder this is a public forum , your postings here are NOT a private matter. Please no foul language , no links to pornography ,  no extreme political , race , or religious views need to be posted here. Difference of opinion or approaches to a problem are OK , but personal attacks and name calling will not be tollerated. Please let this be a retreat from those things and a place to come and discuss the beauty and warmth that is offered by our common passion , wood. I'll be writing some articles that cover basic properties of Mesquite , Industry News and specific things we are doing here at Arizona Desert Mesquite to improve our service and support of the Mesquite HardWood market in the USA. We'll showcase some of our dealers and end use customers and their pictures and experiences they have had with Mesquite. Most of all I hope this can become a place to learn new things , to share information and knowledge . Everyone that will be featured here can teach us all with something new and exciting to be shared with others . Again as a reminder , this is a public forum. ADM does not take responsibility for content here posted by others. As time permits , I WILL edit any comments that in MY opinion do not meet our standards. So pull up a Log and Set a spell. The Root Beer is cold and there's a gentle breeze a blowin' from the SouthWest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2/2/'07 - Check out the New photos Submitted by Murdock Floors on the HardWood Flooring Page ... Awesome ! Reminder : to see full page content click on  the    MORE>> marker wayyyy over to the right under the opening page.

 

Cen-Tech Digital Angle Gauge
From Harbor Freight. Regular price $29.99, at the time of this writing it is on sale for $24.95!

I know, Wixey has the name for these little digital angle gauges. But the HF version works just fine.

It ships with the angle finder and an instruction sheet (I hesitate to call it a pamphlet) in a small white paper box.

It's pretty straightforward to use. Set it on your horizontal surface and turn it on. Give it a few seconds to settle on an angle then push the "Calibrate" button. The trick here is not to move the device while pushing the button. If you move it too much it will either be inaccurate or you'll get an "Err" on the display. Once you've calibrated it and it reads zero, put it on your blade or fence (my Rockwell 4" Jointer is in the photo). Give it a few seconds to settle then adjust your device a bit at a time. You have to let it catch up to your adjustments, so adjust slowly. Once you think you are set, wait a few more seconds to let the reading settle down. You may have to make another tiny adjustment at this point to nail your desired angle.

Once you're done, or you've got an "Err" on the display, press and hold the "On/Off" button for 5 seconds to turn the device off.

Not having owned a Wixey or other Digital Angle Gauge, I can't do a direct comparison. But the HF one is very accurate. It is sensitive to being picked up or moved too suddenly while it is turned on, resulting in the "Err" display, but rebooting the device takes care of the error.

It was definitely worth the $$.

welding

I am constantly amazed at the differing reactions that can follow from rather mild advice proffered on woodworking forums.
A recent thread on Fine Woodworking ...

I like old tools. It can be a 100-year old hand plane or a 50-year old table saw. I enjoy the history and reading about old tool companies. For power tool history, the Old Woodworking Machines (OWWM) web site is a great resource. There you can find photos, instruction manuals, and catalogs that tool collectors have uploaded to share with everyone. I’ve used OWWM frequently when I needed a manual for an old tool that somehow managed to find its way into my garage shop.

And if your a fan of old catalogs, photos, and other paper items related to old manufacturers of hand tools, check out Gary Robert’s Toolemera web site. Gary collects, studies, and enjoys old tools and related books and ephemera. There you’ll find old bills of sale, postcards, letterhead, books, pamphlets, and assorted other items from Gary’s collection. I’ve got one of his old photos as wallpaper on my computer screen. It’s fun just browsing through Gary’s site.

Now that I've completed a couple of projects with redwood, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

• Power tools don't work
  Especially if you choose redwood with any figure, planers and jointers will introduce chipping and tearout. Redwood is a brittle softwood, and does not respond well to high speed tools. Instead of a planer, use a hand plane. Instead of a jointer, use a table saw with a sharp blade.
  
• Sanding Challenges
  Redwood grain lines are much harder and denser than the wood in between. If you sand with a typical finish sander with a padded base, you will find the wood between the grain lines to sand down much more quickly than the grain lines themselves. After discovering this while making my floating shelves I had a decision to make. Do I want to try to get the shelves perfectly smooth or work with the grain. A test board smoothed out nicely with sandpaper attached to a shop made wooden sanding block. But I rather liked the slight raised pattern caused by the softer wood sanding down between the grain lines. So I ran with it.
• Flat? Whassat?
  I found that even BORG "S4S" (Surfaced Four Sides) redwood wasn't perfectly flat and straight. I chose my boards for figure and color first, then by what was flattest. Using a straight line ripping method (use Google, or wait for my write up sometime in the future on this technique) will get you one jointed edge. From there you'll have to decide whether to risk the tearout in a planer or use hand tools. I went the hand tool route...
• Color
  Redwood color can vary widely from a deep maroon to a light tan. While all heartwood will darken with age or exposure to sunlight, the pale sapwood will not. If you leave sapwood in your workpiece be mindful of the fact that it will stay pretty much the same color while the red heartwood darkens over time. Also, there are wide variations in the color of the heartwood. The wood at your store is usually adequately aged so you have a good idea of the color the wood is capable of and where it will end up after aging. Working the wood removes the darker aged color, and it can then be difficult to determine what the color will be. Choose your wood by color, and if you are purchasing different shades of heartwood at the same time, save working the wood until right before your project, and somehow mark the wood after it's been worked to keep the colors separate.
• Finishing
  I'll finish with finishing. I use shellac on redwood whenever possible. Shellac provides a better "lensing" of the highlights in redwood than poly. Many coats, sanding with 400 grit paper after every second coat, gives the best finish. On the floating shelves I had planned to use polyurethane because of the wet environment of a bathroom. But after seeing the results from the small shelf, making a test piece with the poly, and comparing them, I found the shellac to be MUCH nicer. Six coats, a couple coats of paste wax, and the shelves were ready.
  

I hope this helps you to explore redwood. The warm colors, distinctive grain, and specular highlights under shellac, all combine to provide you with a beautiful material for your next project.

With apologies for a lack of royalty payments to David Bowie, I've made a few minor navigational changes to my blog and website that I see fit to trumpet to all and sundry. It was good enough for...

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There is one variation of usage which has struck me forcibly after many years of reading American magazines and Reviews.

Larry Williams' wooden moulding ...

Tommy works on the "really tough" drawer fronts, eight in all. He's trying to "elevate his game," but the project is "starting to get" to him, especially because of all the tiny pieces of wood. But Tommy is satisfied with the finished pieces and determined to keep moving forward.

My first real, full-time job with benefits out of high school was working for a coatings (”paint”) manufacturer. I worked for about twelve years in the research and development lab. Years later, as part of an unrelated job, I helped set up quality assurance labs inside of manufacturing facilities. Needless to say, I’m pretty familiar with the supplies that are used on a day-to-day basis in the lab. So you should have seen the looks on everyone’s face in the office when I ordered in some “lab” supplies for an article I’m working on for an upcoming issue of ShopNotes magazine.

I ordered inexpensive beakers, disposable pipettes (”eye droppers”), aluminum weighing dishes, wash bottles, and all sorts of other “lab supplies.” Now if you don’t know what any of these things are, you’re not alone. But as a woodworker, I’ve realized that a lot of these items can be real handy in the shop. Beakers can be used for measuring and mixing stains and finishes. The pipettes are great for squeezing glue into tight areas for repairs. Disposable aluminum weighing dishes make great mixing containers for epoxy or for holding small amounts of glue during assembly. Wash bottles are a lot more convenient for storing and dispensing solvents like paint thinner than those square metal cans.

My two favorite sources for lab supplies are U. S. Plastic Corporation and Lab Safety Supply. Take a browse through their web site or order a catalog. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll find that’ll be handy to have in the shop.

I got a treat on Sunday. The Heritage Carousel at Union Park in Des Moines, Iowa was celebrating its tenth anniversary.  As part of the celebration, they invited the original builders of the carousel, The Carousel Works, Inc., to attend and demonstrate their carving and painting skills.  I got to speak with the owner and his wife (Art and Marilyn Ritchie) about their craft.  It so happens that they’re from Mansfield, Ohio, close to where I grew up in Ohio.  He’s been carving for over thirty years.  His wife does some of the painting.

As we stood there chatting, he was using his Pfeil carving tools to smooth out the body shape of a horse figure.  You could tell his tools were very sharp.  He was effortlessly taking thin chips out of the basswood figure.  I asked him how he keeps his tools so sharp.  He uses a buffing wheel to hone the edge as needed.

One of my boys asked him how many times he’s cut himself.  He smiled and pointed to his tool roll you see here on the left.  He includes bandages as part of his tool kit.

As time went on, he commented to passers-by that they’ve got seven full-time carvers on staff at the shop.  He said that the figure he was carving on that day is going to be a training aid for his carvers.  As we were talking, he flipped the figure over to show how he had carved the musculature and rib cage of the horse on one side.  His point is that unless a carver knows the anatomy of a horse, he’s going to have a difficult time carving one.  The detail was fascinating and realistic.

The discussion turned to painting.  He says they use three coats of primer, sanding between coats.  Then the colors are brushed on.  Finally, five coats of clearcoat are applied for durability.

Besides building new carousels using wood figures, The Carousel Works also does restoration of old carousels.  To me, it was refreshing to see that there are still companies out there working hard to keep craftsmanship alive.

Kleenex box alert! Even an ace make mistakes, and for Tommy, a slight miscalculation early on means a heavy load of heartache today. The hours spent hand carving the doubler are down the tubes as Tommy takes a router to his mis-sized masterpiece. Could he have fudged it a little and made it fit? Sure, but that's is simply not the way he works. So Tommy sucks it up, rips it out and starts all over again. Didn't a famous home improvement guy once say, measure twice, cut once? He hopes he won't make that mistake again.

Tommy takes a moment to talk about the Federal style table's bandings. Moving to the whiteboard, he outlines how he created the look. It might all be a little confusing but it will make sense when he moves to the table saw in the next video.