Allison's Blog at LumberJocks.com

I could not do without this sliding shelf

Allison — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:17:28 GMT

I meant to post this post quite along time ago. I guess I got sidetracked and I forgot.Today I found the pictures I had taken for it and decided to post it now.

Let me start off that I have an extremely small and weird shaped shop, so anything that saves space for me is not only a must do it is an absolute necessity. My shop is only 25 feet long by 6 feet wide. In it I have a couple scroll saws out at one time, 2 belt sanders out at once, one is a 1×40 and the other is a 4×36. Along with that is a standing drill press. Add to that a band saw. So you can just imagine I am sure just how “crafty” I have to be with “my space”

In the pictures below is what I call my “intarsia” table.It is here that after cutting , sanding etc. all the little pieces, I will bring them to this table to lay out on the pattern. To fit them together.

Anyone that knows intarsia knows there can be (and often are) hundreds of little pieces that need to be put together and glued.

Again anyone that knows intarsia knows what a complete nightmare it can be to lose just one of these pieces.

My husband built me a pull out drawer for underneath my table. It is here that I can safely put all my pieces on without worrying that they will fall off, get lost etc. I do not know what I would do without this one pull out table. It is without a doubt THE most important piece of “furniture” in my shop. My pieces are always secure and always right there where I am working.

He also has made me a similiar item on my regular desk where I place my computer. Underneath the “top drawer” he has made me a pull out shelf that holds my keyboard.

The slide out section is securely holding some of the pieces to a few projects I had going on at the time

This is it when it is pushed in. Underneath that you can see a trunk. In that trunk is where I have my extra special little intarsia pieces of wood, like I got last December from a friend. They stay safe in there and don’t get all thrown around or dirty etc.

You can see this is an A-frame room also. Where the ceiling connects to the wall is only 4 feet high.

Not the shop for a tall person. LOL!!!

Another little thing that I do is on everyone of my tables in my shop is one of those sewing measuring tape. That way no matter what spot I am at I have a measure right there.

Pelicans #1: Sanding Pads and Pelicans

Allison — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:47:06 GMT

I am working on a couple Pelicans that I am hoping to incorporate into a “big picture” somehow. They are done completely in hardwoods and I was thinking of perhaps sharing how I sanded little pieces such as these. I have already started and as you can see I still have pencil marks for an eye on one. However when I brought my camera into the shop to show how I was going to sand these lil’ pieces I noticed how dirty, (dusty, sawdust, etc.) my little sanding pads were. They are essential( for me anyway) when it comes to sanding something such as this.
What I really wanted to post about was a little trick Iwas told that I tried that I swear by when it comes to these pads.
Wash them! Yup right in the washing machine

As can be seen, some of these are on the old side, LOL!!! But I swear by this trick, just place them in a pillow case and tie the end of the case into a knot and was as you would your laundry. I always use cold and that’s what I use. Of course I place nothing else in the washer, but they come out nice and clean and ready to sand some more for you! I have them here by my wood stove on one of those clothes drying racks (made with dowels)
And the following are the Pellicans I am working on. Neither have their feet yet as I am not quite sure how I am going to be using them

When the pads dry which will not take more than a couple hours I will continue (I hope) just how I go about sanding super tiny pieces.

Scrolled Christmas Ornaments #1: Christmas Ornaments

Allison — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:57:05 GMT

I found an incredible deal before last Christmas while visiting my father down in southern Ca, at the La Mirada swap meet. 1/4 inch tongue and groove aromatic cedar. I would say I got around 25 pieces of it. They are all in 3 foot lengths .

Because of their size there has not been any ideas popping up in my head on what to do with it. However today looking through old pattern books I found a bunch of Christmas ornaments and immediately thought of this wood. After all how nice would Aromatic Cedar smell on a fresh Christmas Tree. It also appears to be lite enough that a small ornament would not weigh down the tree limbs.

The upper piece I have covered with packaging tape. Then I have sprayed the paper patterns that I copied from the original patterns on my printer with spray adhesive spray and then placed them.

On the bottom of the upper pictures you can see I have put pieces of double sided carpet tape on the wood and trying to keep most of it from being underneath the paper patterns above when I place the top piece onto the bottom piece.This wood appears to not be warped and I am hoping this will hold. I use this method quite often especially on thin pieces such as these.

Now in the shop I drill out my starter holes. As you can see I have placed a couple of pieces of old pine I don’t plan on using in case of tear out. Quite frankly I am unsure if tongue and groove such as this will be less sturdy due to the, well——, tongue and groove! LOL!!!

So I drill out the starter holes for this one angel and I do think I will have to secure the two pieces together more securely as I feel slippage between the pieces. (I have only stack cut projects 2 other times besides this) so this is VERY new to me. The others were at least 1/2 inch thickness and for intarsia not scroll work!

This is the back of the angel and I am seeing some tear out.

Sooo I just had to see what this would look like had I NOT had the pine beneath it
NOW THAT IS TEAR OUT!!!

Next post will be cutting it out and learning how I am going to secure it better. I can tell I will need to, yet I am hesitant about using any more packing tape but I just may. I also can tell now that this wood is dry, I mean SUPER dry. Maybe stack cutting may not work. I will see!

Note: Even though it appears that I am wasting quite a bit of wood in between the ornaments, trust me, I am not. Intarsia is my passion and I will eventually use all small pieces in some project!

What to do with all those patterns you get with magazines

Allison — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:11:19 GMT

I just posted this on my personal blog( so some of the wording may be strange but the content is the same) but kinda felt it was worth sharing with any of you that may find yourselves wondering what to do with all those paper patterns you get with magazines .
I subscribe to Google Alerts, for scrolling or Intarsia patterns; And I get them all the time. Today I saw one that caught my eye because it was called “keeping track of woodworking projects and plans” I have lived through this nightmare, and the writer of this article came up with something quite similar, however it gave me the idea to share mine.
First of all I am mainly writing about the plans you get with magazines. I am always writing about Creative Wood works & Crafts as my favorite wood working magazine (with patterns) and for the most part still is. Every 2 months you get a magazine and in the center are paper patterns for the projects, however inside the magazine is also the instructions, the type, the thickness of the wood suggested for the project, etc. So it is really nice if these items can always be together. It sounds easy but inevitably I end up looking for a pattern in a mag, I find the instructions for the pattern but now where is the pattern itself? Or worse I find the paper pattern but now “which magazine did this pattern come from?” so I can find or refresh my memory on the instructions. Because I have zillions of these pattern mags and books, I truly was going crazy trying to keep them all together, and I might add, I have tried several ways. I have come up with something that is simple and doable AND keeps your sanity.
When you get one of these mags, they always have a page, usually 2 that show the picture of the finished pattern along with the page # for the instructions. I always tear these out and place them face up, on the outside of the magazine on both the front and the back. I then slip them in a see through plastic sleeve that you can buy in any drug store, paper store etc. along with the magazine itself, and with the patterns all in the same sleeve. Then all those are placed into one of those heavy duty 3 ring binders. Now I have binders full of my patterns in order and by mag, (I will place one company’s into one binder etc.)
and all I have to do is open the binder and look at 2 pictures of each mag (What I have made into the front and back)in each sleeve and see right then what each mag has to offer. The instructions, the patterns, everything is inside the sleeve in one place. I do not have to open any of them to find anything, as it is all right there. I sure hope this helps anyone who has gone through this turmoil as I did. It’s funny how simplistic trying to keep all these in one place turned out to be. Plus having them in the plastic sleeves keeps them clean and all together so they don’t get all torn.

Ebonizing; Steel Wool and Vinegar

Allison — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:04:33 GMT

A few months ago I had read an article about ebonizing wood with steel wool and vinegar. Awhile back I tried this and absolutely nothing happened. I never even tried again. Ebonizing is a stain of sorts I guess. I also have heard there are several ways of doing this. The reason the original article caught my eye was because I sure as hell don’t have the money to buy Ebony (wood), and I am forever wanting or needing dark/black wood for my projects and I do not like to use paint, to the point of not making something I want to make if I need paint. (This is just a personal preference). Stain in itself can be quite expensive at times. However I just so happen to always have steel wool around especially the 0000 kind, as I use it as my last sweep of sanding. I also am one of those thrifty homemakers that likes to make a lot of her own cleaning supplies, and almost all have vinegar as an ingrediant. Even in my town, I can still buy a big gallon jug of vinegar with 2 bucks and leave the store with change!

The article I have the link to above says this

The ebonizing solution is made with two common products: vinegar and steel wool. A plastic jar with a plastic lid is best to use because the lid won’t rust.

To make ebonizing solution put a coarse steel wool pad in the jar and pour in enough vinegar to cover it, loosely screw the lid on the jar. If the pad is not totally submersed rust will quickly form on the portion exposed to air. After about twenty-four hours pour the vinegar in another jar. Don’t squeeze the vinegar out of the pad or you may get bits of metal in the liquid, which will rust, then just brush the solution on the contoured project pieces you want ebonized.

A couple of days ago I ran into another article about how to do this , and I decided to give it another try. Come to find out the reason it did not work for me the first time was the steel wool I was trying to use was some generic crap that wasn’t completely steel wool. At the time I never really checked nor did I know that you can even buy steel wool that is not real steel wool. LOL!!!

The article I followed starting day before yesterday was slightly different. First of all it said to use nothing but a glass jar. Place your steel wool in it. Then cover with vinegar. (Again making sure that you do indeed completely cover the steel wool with the vinegar.) Then place your lid on it and make sure it is tight. (Not loose like the first article) and to keep it in there for 48 hours.After the 48 hours strain the liquid a couple of times thru a coffee filter and then apply.

Following is what I did this morning messing around and I was so impressed.

Above is a piece of 1/4 inch Birch plywood. This is with the first coat. I painted it on the wood with a brush for blush make-up.

(Sometimes a girls just gotto do what a girls gotto do) as this was all I had! LOL.

The dark side on the left is a second coat. the middle is what the wood looked like before I put this solution on . The right side is the same wood but the other side with just one coat.

Same piece just upside down. Now with 3 coats on the darker side and 2 on the other side.

Well now I am having too much fun. I love the way this is looking , so I gather up some funky odds and ends just to see what would happen.

On the left 1/2 inch toungue and groove pine from a drawer.The middle apiece of pine originally brought home for our wood stove.It is laying on corkboard flooring. And to the right is a 1 inch piece of Douglas Fir, that I only did half of.

This is a piece of the redwood that we just used to make our deck on our house. It has a couple of coats put on it.

I am truly thrilled that I gave this another try.(And used the right steel wool) LOL!

I have so many patterns where I need dark/black wood that I have not done. I now feel as if I can. All this was done today in a hurry.I was so excited by the outcome. I feel confident that I can ebonize wood for my intarsia pieces, yet I won’t feel as if I used paint. When I used the whole jar up of the stuff I made I came in here to write this. In doing so, I had forgotton about reading about how this can be deluted with water if you prefer a lighter dark.Of course I would not recommend doing this on a nice piece of furniture for color, but I think it is going to be perfect for my scroll work , and intarsia!

Scrolled Wooden Puzzles #4: The Grasshopper and the End

Allison — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:13:33 GMT

This is the puzzle all cut out and put back together

Notice I did not even really try to cut my “G” and “H” perfect. You can see where ther is some to be removed also between the “O” and “P”. I would have rather cut this out better but I did not, nor did I notice it till now.

In comes “The Cheater” My term of endearment to one of my very favorite tools I own. My very old Delta 1×42 inch belt sander (with a 8 inch) disc sander on the side.
This also needs to be level and also squared.
I am not sanding off anything that will keep this puzzle from fitting from one piece to the other, however I do want his back and feet to be squared.

Now he is back together and he is all cleaned up!
By the way all his pieces fit the way they were suppose to and I did not even use a spiral blade. So I learned something my self here.
I also want to point out I used a #7 reverse tooth and also a #9 reverse tooth blades.
To be exact the #s on their packages of blades are #7 – .047 – .018 – 10(8rev)
and the other is #9 – .049 – .018 – 9(6rev) These are Olsen Blades that I get from the same place I got these patterns at
https://www.scrollerltd.com/
Now for the pattern removal. I did it the way I have said on LJ’s before. I place the packaging tape on the wood first. Then I use spray adhesive on the pattern, wait 5 or 10 seconds for the spray adhesive to become tacky and then I place the pattern onto the packaging tape that is placed on the wood.
Poplar burns real easy and because of its light color I have always had trouble trying to “get the burn out” .I could not capture the picture I wanted to show you all, but I had actually burnt the paper on one of these pieces just with the scroll saw blade. Sooo if I had not had the packaging tape on it first that piece of wood would have been burnt instead of the paper that is on the tape. That would have been real bad considering there isn’t a lot I could have done to fix a formed puzzle piece.

This is the best I could get on this, but I hope it sort of gives you an idea on how the tape just balls up and rolls the paper pattern off with it, by taking a heat gun and waving it over your project. Again don’t get to close, you sure don’t want to burn your now finished project.
I will say though this DID NOT work as well as usual. I am sure it is because of all the twisty cuts of the puzzle itself. I still would not change the way I did it unless perhaps transfer the pattern with a piece of carbon paper and then simply place the packaging tape. That may very well be the best way to do it as this did not come off anywhere near as easy as usual!
And again, the reason for the packing tape is to keep the blade cool. When the blade is kept cool it does not get all out of shape as quickly (especially on these puzzle pieces)and a cool blade has a much longer life.

Scrolled Wooden Puzzles #3: The Grasshopper

Allison — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:58:01 GMT

This is the way I have chosen to cut this out. First to go is the “O”. Leaving me with with the long “H” which is like the back

Just a short tiny cut removes the 1st “P”of the double “P’s”

Now I only have the “H” left and the “G” and I can cut them any which way I want to.

In the next and last of this much too long series I will be bringing in “The Cheater”

Scrolled Wooden Puzzles #2: Alligator and Grasshopper

Allison — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:49:52 GMT

My next step has been taken and that is to cut out all the inside pieces with the starter holes. I have done many of these puzzles and normally I have cut them by simply cutting off a letter at a time. Besides the middle of the A’s and R’s and O’s and P’s a person does not even need to place a starter hole in the other places if you are to cut the letters out one at a time. In the letters L,L,I,G, if I were to have cut the letters OFF one at a time then these inside cuts can be done later.

There is a couple reasons I am not doing it that way on these. This is a piece of 1 inch poplar. Like I stated in the first of the series you have to be level AND squared so as the pieces will come apart properly. Doing it this way helps me keep better control of the wood. The last thing I want is to end up with one letter that needs some kind of sawing. Even my small hands are to big for that.

Now I remove the inside of the legs so that I can get to the actual pattern pieces.This way I will be able to then cut UP through the body and then over the “back” or top of the next letter and I then have a fully cut already done letter that “hopefully” fits!

And since I started this “blog” tutorial I can say happily that on my grasshopper , the R connected to the E piece and the E piece connected to the P, just fine!

WHEW!!!

I normally use a spiral saw blade to cut these puzzles out. Most people that I have spoke to that scroll do not like to use spiral blades. I learned how to use a spiral blade very early on before I read all the horror stories about them. I probably would have never tried even using one if I had read and continue to read the bad rap these blades get. I am not using a spiral blade on these puzzles for only one reason and that is because of the thickness of this wood. So this is new for me also . That’s why I said whew. I know that Betsy here at L.J.’s uses spiral blades as she recommended something to me about using one on a particular project, but I do not hear about them much at all.

A Spiral blade is a blade with teeth all the way around instead of just on one side such as a band saw or jig saw blade. This makes it where you do not need to turn your wood around to do a cut . You are able to move the wood (without turning it) any way and it gets the job done. I love them. Just not for this project

PEACE!!!

Scrolled Wooden Puzzles #1: Alligator and grasshopper

Allison — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:20:33 GMT

This is the plate of my Scroll saw. What I am going to do for this project is I am going to cover it with a couple sheets of white paper and a playing card. I have a couple of reasons for this. First is I don’t want any small pieces I will be cutting to fall through. Which in actuality there is not small pieces per say, rather the little ends of the “puzzle pieces” . The tabs that I do not want to break…..
picture
So this is now taped on the scroll saw table just for this project .

Now you can see where I placed a small hole to feed my blade through.The reasoning behind the card and not just paper is, it is a waxed card and therefore a little more supportive. I will “hear”and or “feel” if I feed the wood to fast and hit the card. With these puzzles I will try to explain how important it is to have your blade square and your table level .

So I am now “leveling” my table. Besides the fact that this particular scroll saw has a tilting table and because of the wear and tear I have laid on this particular saw I have to make double sure that it is level and it is going to stay that way!

Then this is the way I square it. Believe it or not I use a real square all the time but the hubby has them all down in the basement he is working on. LOL!!

This is the beginning of my tutorial of cutting puzzles and here are the two I am making. An alligator and a grasshopper.
picture
As you can see I have placed packing tape on top of the wood first. Then I use spray adhesive to place the puzzle patterns on TOP of the packing tape. I used a 1/16 and a 1/8 drill bit for my starter holes. It may also look as if I am wasting a big piece of wood, but I am not, because I mainly do intarsia and with intarsia there is not a whole lot that of wood that will be wasted and I do make a lot of trees and such out of green poplar.Also to be able to hold on to a bigger chunk of wood is easier to cut when it comes to making these puzzles or (anything little for that matter) I don’t quite understand this wood as it does not feel like a hard wood going through my bandsaw or scroll saw but it seems to burn quicker than any wood I have worked with so far. That is why the packaging tape is a must do (in my opinion) for this type of wood.

Alligator and Grasshopper

Allison — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:46:47 GMT

Anyway the blade for these puzzles has got to be square. Just picture making a puzzle without the table being level and square. If you are not cutting square then your puzzle pieces will not go together (as in from the top and bottom) any slight miss-cut will keep them from going together. The same with it being level, if it is not level than you also will have problems getting the pieces to go back together. Believe it or not just the a hair of difference can make a HUGE impact on whether these pieces will fit together correctly. but I am cutting these out of 1 inch green poplar because I have made both of these before a couple times and if the wood is thick enough than you don’t need to hang them or place them on a mount of any sort, because they will stand on their own. I personally LOVE these patterns.They have wildlife , birds, domestic animals, and all sorts of other wood puzzle patterns, along with tons of patterns that ARE NOT puzzles.You can find them here.

Scroller LTD

Anyway

This is the beginning of my tutorial of cutting puzzles and here are the two I am making. An alligator and a grasshopper.

As you can see I have placed packing tape on top of the wood first. Then I use spray adhesive to place the puzzle patterns on TOP of the packing tape. I used a 1/16 and a 1/8 drill bit for my starter holes. It may also look as if I am wasting a big piece of wood, but I am not, because I mainly do intarsia and with intarsia there is not a whole lot that of wood that will be wasted and I do make a lot of trees and such out of green poplar.Also to be able to hold on to a bigger chunk of wood is easier to cut when it comes to making these puzzles or (anything little for that matter) I don’t quite understand this wood as it does not feel like a hard wood going through my bandsaw or scroll saw but it seems to burn quicker than any wood I have worked with so far. That is why the packaging tape is a must do (in my opinion) for this type of wood.