Kamis, 31 Maret 2016

Odds and Ends Experiments and no ants

Hi Everyone,
Well its a lovely Saturday afternoon here. Its sunny and warm-tomorrow its going to cool down and we may get snow so we need to get outside to the wood shop for some turning and carving while we can.
Ok first turning: I have a good friend who will be retiring next year and Im going to make her a small salad bowl that will be just a right size for her and her husband (hes retiring too, on the same day). Ive acquired a block of maple and I have some left over Goncalo Alves wood from another project and Ive laminated them together to make a turning blank. By laminating the two pieces together Ill be able to make a bowl that uses the entire block of maple for the volume and leave the foot to the Goncalo Alves wood. Heres a photo:
This second photo shows the bowls rim. Ive been interested in reproducing some pie crust and ribbon platters. These platters were popular here in 18th century America. I dont currently have the tools or the skill to reproduce one by carving it so I decided to add a ribbon rim to the turned bowl and this is what it looks like at present:
Maple is a great turning wood. It holds fine details very well and it cuts very smoothly and cleanly. Its my favorite turning wood and this particular piece of wood holds this detailed rim very well. More on this project as I turn it.
I also finished my election night spoon out of red birch:
Actually this came out really well. Its a big, long spoon and Im going to keep it on my mantel here at home.
Ive also made some long promised tasting spoons for a friend of mine out of cherry, black walnut, and Goncalo Alves wood:
Ive never heard of a tasting spoon before but apparently they are a spoon with a small bowl and a long handle. I dont know why anyone would design a spoon like that.
And Im working on a round ribbon platter out of white oak at the moment and Ill show you photos of this in a day or two.
More later,
VW
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Lid for the tea box and a couple of trays

Hi Everyone,
Well the weather has certainly improved over yesterday and its warmer. And I remembered I do have a piece of red colored wood so we can move forward and make a lid for the tea box. Lets go down to the wood shop and take a look:
I had a large piece of tiger wood in stock that had gotten shoved underneath a pile of hickory and so I pulled it out and cut off a portion large enough to cut a lid out of . I also had a smaller piece of Brazilian cherry suitable for a knob so Ive marked them for cutting:
Ive cut the lid into a circle and cut a small block for the know and left that square.  The knob serves two purposes: it provides an attachment point for the lid while its being turned and it also provides a handle to pick up the lid. Since the whole lid-knob thing will be subjected to a lot of physical stress while turning, this whole thing has to be securely put together. So Ive drilled holes in the knob and the lid and inserted a wood screw inside and then screwed and glued them together with superglue and clamped the whole thing together for an hour:
Well come back to this shortly for turning. While the glue hardens I decided to finish a couple of trays out of black ash and hickory and here they are:
This is hickory:
This is black ash:
These will make really nice trays.
Ok, Im going to finish a cup of coffee and go back to the wood shop and take a look at the tea box lid.
See you in my posting.
VW
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White Oak Home Office

Custom mission style, white oak desk and built-in bookcases, Westchester, NY
11-foot tall, built-in bookcases with custom moldings offer storage to new heights in this home office with 14-foot ceilings.
The custom-built, 7-foot long, mission style white oak table is a great desk for one person but capable of accommodating an office assistant also.
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Rocking Chair Repair

Heres another old furniture repair post, and also a lesson on the importance of grain direction.
This old rocker had a broken runner:
A closer look revealed how the sawn runner split down the grain. If the runners had been bent, with continuous grain, this couldnt have happened.
I didnt need to disassemble the chair; it was easy enough to loosen the screws and rotate the broken parts to get at the surfaces needing glue. The brown fuzzy strip is adhesive backed felt to protect the bamboo floor.
Heres the clamp swarm holding things put after glueing:
The glue probably would have been enough, but just to be sure I removed some of the felt and drove two finish screws across the joint. To insure that the screws pulled everything tight, I bored two different size pilot holes. First I drilled a small pilot hole (the size of the screws shank) the full depth of the screw, and then bored a larger hole (the size of the threads) just as deep as the break. This choice, the clamping effect was between the threads of the lower part and the head of the screw.
To replace the felt, I squished the new felt with clamps until it was the same thickness as the older felt. Although I am confident this repair will hold, I didnt want to tempt fate by putting a lump right under it. Confident is confident, but safer is better.
Oh, and although I already pointed out that bent runners would not have failed this choice, I also concede the point that these sawn runners lasted almost 100 years. So there you go...

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Book Review Lathe Fundamentals The Complete Gude

Good Evening Everyone,
There are a number of books on the market about wood lathes and one of the very best books for beginners is Lathe Fundamentals: The Complete Guide by Popular Mechanics/Rick Peters ( New York: Hearst Books, 2006. ISBN: 978-1-58816-447-6. 192 pages). Many of the books published about wood lathes tend to be written by experts for people who have been turning for a long time or their coverage of all the aspects of wood turning tend to be rather uneven. Lathe Fundamentals covers every aspect of wood turning-from selecting a lathe, the basic types of chisels, and basic techniques. It also goes into more advanced techniques, has a very clearly written section on chisel sharpening and grinding, and an excellent section on lathe maintenance and repair. At the very end of the book are several projects that will help the beginning turner achieve a simple but well made project-it even has a section on pen turning. The book is also is well illustrated with numerous photographs that show step by step how to achieve a given activity. Its very clearly written with a noticeable absence of technical jargon, which I think at times can be a little confusing for the beginning turner.
If you are planning to purchase a lathe and get started as a wood turner, this book is the book you should read before making a purchase. If you plan on purchasing a lathe for someone as a gift, then you should definitely purchase this book.
VW
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Statement Art Free Download

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on our round table makeover - you all make my day! The prints were also very popular, so I thought I would share a little more about them today.
Heres why I love them.
1. Easy + Super fast to make
2. Large and make a statement
3. Cheap
Does it get much better than that for art? :)
I created them in Illustrator, and since everyone doesnt have that program, I tried to find a choice to create a large scale document with editable text (so you could make your own) with no luck ...
Instead, I made a few more files for you (Download PDF in the following links). Including: You are my sunshine, Follow your Dreams/Heart, and Never ever give up. If you would like something custom, feel free to email me at  sarahmdorseydesigns{@}gmail{.}com and Ill send you a similar PDF for $5.
The larger paper size is 16x20 and the smaller is 5x7, and fit in the frames I used (with mats) Ikea Ribba 1 and 2.
You can get the files printed at Staples or a similar office supply/print store. Ask for Engineering prints (quality is similar to a laser printer). I found it easiest to call my local staples, explain my project and email their store (ask for the store email address) directly with the PDFs and instructions attached. Each large print costs about $1.30.
Prints will have to be cut down to 16x20, you can do that yourself or Staples will do it for you.
If you have Illustrator or a similar program, the font I used is Lavenderia. In case you missed the file download yesterday, here is Enjoy the little things.
 Happy creating!
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Rabu, 30 Maret 2016

Felicity Ann Restoration

Hi Everyone,
There is a wonderful project underway at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Washington state to restore the Felicity Ann, a wooden boat that was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1952 by Ann Davison who did the first female solo crossing.
The boat has several homes since then and it was acquired by the Northwest School and is being restored by a team of female boat builders. The whole story is on their web site http://felicityann.com/. Take a minute and look this over as it looks like an interesting project.
I sure wish I lived in Port Hadlock, Washington!
Best,
VW
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New Project Coffe Table

Time for a new project! This time around Im going to be building a coffee table similar to the one pictured below. This is a photograph of one in a magazine.
Mine will not have the curved sides like this one, but straight sides. I will have the curve in the sides though so its not so boxy. Also, the legs will not have that dramatic of a curve in them. This project is going to be several firsts for me. First, Ive not done cabriole legs before. Second, the corners are scalloped and Ive never done that before. Lastly, I will be using mahogany for the wood, Ive not used it before so Im looking forward to that.
My first order of business was to practice making the cabriole legs and finalize the design. I decided to practice on a couple 2x4 boards glued together. As usual, I didnt do a good job of documenting my procedures, but I will on the next test run. You can find a really good video tutorial on Charles Neils website here: http://www.antiquesbuiltdaily.com/tips.htm I followed this basic procedure for my first attempt. Even before that, I had to go to Highland Hardware and get myself a smaller blade for my bandsaw. Once I had that, I was ready to begin. So following Charless basic principles I created a template out of 1/4" plywood. The table is going to be 21" tall, with a 1" thick top so the legs need to be 20" tall. Also, I decided on 2 1/2" thickness for the leg blanks. Armed with that, I created the template, traced it to the legs and cut it out on the bandsaw.
From Coffee Table
I also used the lathe to round the foot and create the pad, that was pretty fun. I need a spokeshave to form the heel so I had to order one, cant believe I dont have one. I also need it to help clean up the marks from the bandsaw.
So, this is my first attempt, not too bad, but the design needs some work. First, the foot is choice too fat. I can fix that easy enough by taking it down more on the lathe. Second, there is not enough curve in the leg; it looks a little too straight. Lastly, the post is too tall. I want the aprons of the table to integrate with the curve of the leg, like in the picture above. So, armed with that, I went to work to create a new template. In this new template the first thing I did was draw a line for my final post length and based everything off of that. Here is a shot of the new template.
From Coffee Table
This looks a little better, but the more I look at the picture I think i can make some improvements. I think I may move the curve behind the knee up a little and make it a little more dramatic. I do like the knee and the transition into the foot. The ankle may be a bit too thin, but this wont carry much weight so it may be alright. Also, I may need to push the foot and pad back about a half inch or more.Read More..

Rough couple of days in the workshop

Hi Everyone,
Well, it has been really cold here in Minnesota and Im afraid my tools have rebelled--my table saw and the band saw have both frozen up and cant be used right now. And its been so cold that Im almost freezing up myself so Im going to clean up the shop and shut down for a week or two until the weather improves a bit.
Bad news on the bowl front: the hickory bowl I made several weeks ago has cracked and is beyond repair. Im not sure if it was the cold or if the stress in the wood fibers was more than the bowl could handle but its cracked on both sides of the bowl and it cant be salvaged. Oh dear...
So Im going to take advantage of this shutdown and sharpen everything again and get ready for our next projects. Stay warm!
VW
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Coffee Table Build Contd

lots of progress since my last post. After I got the rails dry fit to the legs, I began to glue it all together. I started by gluing two sections together at a time. I used a strap clamp to pull the legs in just a little and then a clamp at the post to bring it all together.
From Coffee Table
Once this was done, I followed the same principle for gluing the whole thing together. One thing I did before I glued it together though was to cut a grove about a half inch from the top of the rails on the inside; this will be used for the buttons I made to attach the top to the bottom. I need to now focus some attention on the top. My first order of business is to resaw the board I have for the top in half to book match it.Read More..

Selasa, 29 Maret 2016

Poor Mans Holdfasts

You know how you have a list in your head of things you need for the shop? Some things shoot right to the top, get purchased and crossed off. Other things get removed from the bottom of the list because after a while you realize that you dont need them after all. But a third group of items seems to float in limbo right in the middle of the list - not so important that you make it happen, but not so unimportant that they get dropped. For me, that would be holdfasts.

Ive been wanting to buy a pair of holdfasts for a long time - maybe Gramercys or maybe some from Galena Village Blacksmith. But heres the problem; I made a pair some time ago, and while not perfect, they ARE functional, and thus the purchase stays in list limbo.

Heres my setup being used for planing a large rabbet:

Just some rived spruce, oversized holes to allow pivoting, washers, wing nuts and long carriage bolts. The bolts go down through my dog holes, with wing nuts and washers on the bottom.

The wing nuts are for adjusting the amount of play in the system. The real clamping pressure is from the wedging action of the small blocks of wood under the ends of the arms. Slide the blocks in towards the bolts (fulcrum) and the pressure increases - slide them out and things loosen up. Pretty simple really, just a little slow, especially when I need to remove and then replace them multiple times, and they take up a lot of real estate on the bench.

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The arched top door Minster Oh fitting update

I made a trip to Minster today to test fit the screen door and the core frame for the entry door. Great news - the screen door needs a little tweek (the width of a saw blade), and the entry door fits like a glove!!! Looks like I made a good template on my initial visit, and now I can continue on with the construction of the door!
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Spoon carving weather

Hi Everyone,
I got a good nights sleep last night and this morning I was able to stand up on my own for a while so I thought Id go down to the wood shop and see if its all still there-and Im happy to report that it is. So Im going to just work on the handle of the spoon a little and stop at that.
The weather was warming up in the middle of the week but this morning when I woke up it was cold and misty. By the time I got down to the shop we had freezing rain:
And after a few minutes of that it all turned to snow so winter is still with us.
Here is a photo of the spoon to begin with. The handle is wide and squarish in shape and the edges are sharp, all of which make for an uncomfortable kitchen spoon. Im going to contour the handle a bit by thinning it down and narrowing it:
Here is a finish photo of the handle:
A closeup of the handle:
 The handle could use more thinning down and more narrowing-not much, just a little to give it a little bit of a spring when its used and to improve the line of it.
And here is the bowl. Im going to hollow the bowl out and keep this spoon as my official pancake batter spoon so ultimately it will serve as kind of a ladle as well as a serving spoon.
Well, Im absolutely exhausted so Ill stop here.
VW
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Finishing up some projects

Hi Everyone,
Well, its cold in Minnesota but weve had basically no snow since the beginning of November. It looks like were going to have a brown Christmas this year. I love the snow and the cold and the change of seasons, but ice is something I can live without so Im not terribly upset about this.
Here are a couple of updates for you all:
First of all the Blue House bowl was one by a colleague of a friend of mine. Im not sure of her name and I dont have a photo as of yet but Im assured well have one later this week so stay tuned.
Red Maple bowl
I absolutely love red maple wood. It is got a nice closed grain, lovely figure, it holds small detail well, the colors is pretty, and it finishes beautifully. I had a chance to purchase two red maple bowl blanks in October and Im currently making them into bowls for a couple of friends of mine. I began turning this large bowl this morning and Ive finished the underside of it:
Ive rubbed oil into the surface and it looks great. Ive brought it in to help the finish set as its too cold outside right now for that. Ill send photos of the inside of the bowl later this weekend.
Ive also finished the basswood fruit platter:
Its a lovely ivory color and the surface is wonderfully smooth. This goes to its new owner this weekend.
I also have another bowl but my camera batteries have died so I couldnt get a photo. Ill get more batteries and send one along later this week.
Just a reminder: I will be closing for my annual shop cleanup and time off beginning right after Christmas and ending at the end of January. If you have a question about any of the postings send me an email.
Im going to go and make some bread and have some hot cocoa. See you this weekend.
VW
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Senin, 28 Maret 2016

More on wooden spoons

Good Evening all,
Ive long been an admirer of Robin Wood, the pole turner from the UK. And I also like his spoons and Ive been wanting to try and make one using an ax and a carving knife like he does in his videos on YouTube.
I have a stack of dried white oak firewood in my shop and I decided since I now have the Mora knife, today is the day to make a spoon just like he does:
I dont have a carving axe but I do have a roofing axe which is hollow ground and I thought might work for this. So I cranked up the bench grinder, gave it a very sharp edge, grabbed the wood and walked over to my wood block and gave it a good hard whack with the axe. I didnt cut myself but I also didnt make a dent in the wood. I hit it again and nothing happened. Again and nothing happened. After about 10 minutes of whacking away all I had was a small pile of chips to show for it. So I grabbed the wood and cut out a spoon blank on my bandsaw. I guess Im just not a hand axe kind of girl.
Here is the blank I produced:
Looks kind of similar to the blank Robin produces with a hand axe.
Its getting cold right now so Ive quit for the day. Ill start carving on it over the next week or so and you can follow along and see if I get close to the type of spoon he produces.
More later,
VW
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Two Very Different Reasons to Love eBay

I love eBay.

Yeah, I know, its not perfect. Ive been sniped more times than I can remember (Live by the sword...), overcharged for "handling", charged more for shipping to Alaska (in a USPS Flat Rate box!), told that shipping to Alaska was unavailable because they would only ship USPS (49th STATE people!), frustrated by lousy pictures, and annoyed, very annoyed at the crazy amounts some people will pay for items, thus driving the prices ever upward. Did anyone besides me notice the 4 vol. set of Audels going for $300 plus!? And it sure didnt look like the first edition either, rather the 1940s edition to boot! Crazy!

But for me, in the Old Tool Hell of the North, its just about the only choice I ever get tools short of traveling back east. I dont really know how many tools I have, but I can count on a single hand the ones Ive scored locally. Okay, one local purchase was 30 wooden moulding planes that pretty much fell from the sky, but other than that, it is slim, slim, slim pickins up here. Which is why I spend so much time on eBay. And sometimes it pays off. Today I opened a box with a nice set of Russell Jennings bits and felt the satisfaction of having made a good purchase and added to my kit. Yep, despite all its annoying qualities, I do love eBay.

Gerald, on the other hand, has a completely different reason for loving eBay...

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CA Finish for Pens Part 2 An Observation

In one of my previous posts I commented on my success and failures of using a CA finish on some of my pens. Ive been tinkering with it a bit more with some more success, but Ive made a few observations about the success, or lack of success in some cases, I am having.
First, Ive noticed that if you use more than, say, two coats of CA, the pen will have a plastic feel. This makes total sense because the CA is an acrylic of sorts so the more you add, the more "plastic" you get. The advantage to this is you get a rock hard finish that will last nearly forever.
Second, the wood makes a difference. Ive tried using a few different types of woods; cherry, tiger maple, paduk and rosewood. For some reason, it seems to me that the harder woods such as cherry, paduk and rosewood seem to do better than a softer wood such as maple. I have had success with maple, but it just seems more finicky than the other woods.
Third, one thick coat goes a long choice. How I have had good success is to use a good coat of BLO. I apply this by wet sanding with 1000 grit paper and wiping the access with a rag. Then, with the lathe off, I apply the CA to the pen while rotating the mandrel by hand and quickly rubbing back and forth. I go around, quickly, three or four times, then stop. Next, I let that sit for a while to harden and cure, then I come back and wet sand with BLO, but this time with 2000 grit paper. I then increase the speed and apply BLO to a rag and wipe the whole thing down and apply slight pressure to heat the BLO into the pen, if you will.
This method has given me the most success so far. The other thing I really like about it is you do get a good protective CA finish on the pen, but it does not feel like plastic and retains the warmth of the wood underneath. But, this is all one persons observations, I would love to hear your take and your method for finishing.
Be safe!
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Making A New Turning Saw Part I

My "prototype" turning saw finally died. It was a quick and dirty project that was never intended to last. The original idea was to work out the bugs in the design, and then move on and make/use a nicer saw. It didnt end up that choice. In fact the prototype was superior, and was my turning saw of choice over the years while the "nicer" saw hung on the wall.
Heres a shot of the DOA saw:
The epoxy that held the brass pin in the handle finally let go. I could just fix it, but as good as this little saw was (choice better than you might guess from looking at it) Ive been wanting to build that nicer saw that really works too. I though this was probably the time.
The new saw will be made of oak. I still have some left from the broken library chair episode. After making some cardboard templates, I traced the design onto the stock. I decided to make the handle convex where my hand will hold it, much like a panel saw handle, rather than the more standard concave bowsaw handle. Im not sure if this will end up being a good idea or a bad idea. Ill know soon enough.
I prefer to do the mortising while the stock is still square. The setup is easy with the holdfasts. The big (giant!) mortise chisel and mallet do the grunt work and the smaller chisel is for cleaning out the chips and flattening the bottom:
The mortising sequence - start in the middle and work to one end (not quite to the layout line):
Back to the middle and work the other choice:
Continue until the mortise is deep enough, then clean up the ends:
After laying out the tenons with the same gauge setting used for the mortises, I cut just outside the lines with a backsaw and trimmed with a shoulder plane to a snug fit.
Heres the saw so far - looking very chunky in its unshaped form:
In Part II I will shape the frame parts, make the blade assembly and create the tensioning system. After that, Ill try it out.
If history repeats itself, Ill be regluing the prototype in Part III.

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Monkey Puzzle Bowl 1 ???????? ??????????? ??? 1

Hi Everyone,
I had some spare time this afternoon so I thought Id work on the monkey puzzle bowls. Here are a couple of photos of the first bowl/
?????? ????,? ???? ???? ??????? ?????????? ??????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???, ??????? ? ?????, ??? ????????? ?? ????? ???????? ???????????. ??? ????????? ?????????? ?? ?????? ????:
The bowl sides look more convex than they really are but I probably will cut them more concave.
More later this weekend.
VW
???? ??????? ???????? ????? ???????, ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????, ?? ?, ????????,???????? ?? ????? ?????????.????? ?????? ? ??? ????????.VW
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Heritage Craft Association

Hi Everyone,
One of my favorite organizations is the Heritage Craft Association in the UK. They promote the preservation of traditional craft skills and they seek to create a public space for people who practice these crafts and make a living at them. Ive been a big admirer of them and wish we had an organization like this here in the US.
Anyway, they have a very interesting section on "What is Craft?" that I would like to share with you at:
http://www.heritagecrafts.org.uk/index.php/news/hca-blog/item/123-can-we-define-what-craft-is?
See you soon,
VW
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Who the Devil is H Lyons

Another plane has been added to my H. E. Mitchell plane collection, this one being a small plow and one with a new twist. On this example, poor ol’ Henry’s stamp has been over-stamped with one for “H. Lyons” of 15 Nurse Street, although no city is included.
Goodman’s, British Planemakers from the 1700’s has a listing for a “D. Lyons” who made planes from 1873 to 1877, but no listing at all for an “H” Lyons. I have a feeling he was a dealer, not a maker, and for some reason, thought putting his stamp on top of the makers stamp was acceptable.
If any of you have run across this situation on one of your planes, or have any information on Mr. H. Lyons, I would appreciate hearing from you.
While I am asking for help here, I will add that I am trying to put together a list of common British and American plane profiles along with their common widths from the 1700’s to today. This has, surprisingly, turned out to be a difficult task. I can’t believe that I am the first person to ever think such a list might be interesting, but finding any previous lists has eluded me. Whatever information I do come up with will be posted on the web for anyone who is interested, so whatever information you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Peace,
Mitchell
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From Coffee Table