I’ decided that I wanted to make some things to give as Christmas presents this year. Every one can use a good salt & pepper grinder. I decided to make sets of salt & pepper grinders as Christmas presents. Best part, I already had the wood, so all I needed to buy was the grinder mechanisms. I found those online at a good price from Packard Woodworks. I pulled out my lathe, sharpened my chisels and went to work. So far, I have completed 7 sets. I have 4 more sets to go.

Pictures:
1) Picture of all 7 sets that I have completed
2) Picture of 3 made from walnut logs given to me by fellow LJ, Grizzman (thanks Grizz).
3) Left is a set made of a glue up of American Cherry and Brazilian Cherry. Right is a glue up of Red Oak.
4) Left is a glue up of maple and Rosewood. Right is one maple and rosewood and one cherry and rosewood.

These have been a lot of fun. I’m running out of ideas to make each set individual. The finish is very simple. While the piece is still on the lathe, I spin it at high rpm and hold a piece of beeswax against it and let the friction melt the wax into the wood. Then, while it is spinning, simply hold a soft fleece polishing cloth to heat up and polish the wax and rub it into the grain of the wood.

Doc

Many of you are aware that, back in January of this year, the neighborhood where I live took a direct hit from a tornado. Prior to the tornado, I had set up a little shady spot in the back yard where my wife could set up her hammock and take a nap. Well, that little shady spot was one of the many casualties of the tornado. The tornado destroyed most of the trees that provided the shade. As a result, for my wife’s (SWMBO – She Who Must Be Obeyed) *%th birthday in September, I decided to build her a new spot to set up her hammock with some shade. Essentially, it is just a free standing deck with a roof. Sort of a Gazebo if you will. Anyway, a friend and I spent a couple of hours finishing the installation of the roof this past Saturday morning. There are still some finishing touches to go such as hand rails and steps, but the basic structure is completed. Not exactly woodworking, but I’m just glad to have been able to get back to work on a project and complete something.

Doc

I spent Saturday and this evening working on a few storage projects for the shop. As those of you that have seen my most recent blog know, I recently started on a major overhaul of my shop. This is part of that project to make my shop more efficient and organized. First of all, here is a pegboard project to keep some of my table saw accessories as well as my air nailers and a few other items accessible and easy to find.

The second item I made is a little rack to hang my egg beater drill on. It is simple, but effective little rack made from a scrap of rosewood I had laying around.

The third, and final item is a rack that I made to hang my collection of braces on. It is simply a piece of 1×4 piece of pine I had with some shaker pegs glued into it to make something to hang the top knob of the braces on.

Just a few little simple projects that I have been needing to do for some time. Hope you enjoy.

Doc

Some of you may remember that last year I posted pics from a Mission Trip (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/33315) that I participated in where we go somewhere and build a church building for a small rural congregation that probably could not afford to have a building such as this built without voluteer help. Well I do this every year during the second week of June. This is actually my fourth year to do this. This year, we went to a very small rural church in Northeast Georgia near the town of Clarksville, GA. This project was a little smaller than previous years, but it also was a very nice project. The weather cooperated nicely and we were able to get the building competely dried in for them and almost finished the metal roof and siding. We also were able to complete the electrical rough in. It was nice for us, because, as the framing crew, we don’t often get to see a project this close to completion. Also, sincce the project was a bit smaller than usual, we were able to go at a little bit more leisurelly pace than usual. Anyway, here are som pics of the project this year. I know some of you have posted about volunteer work that you do and I encourage any of you who are able to do so. The same group that I work with is going to be building some homes in conjuction with Habitat for Humanity to replace homes that were destroyed during the recent tornados here in Alabama. I’m sure I will be posting pics of those later.

Doc

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that my youngest son and I were working on a clock that he wanted to build for his mother to give her for Christmas. He wanted to use hand tools (almost only hand tools) to build it. I had some wood that I think is douglas fir that we built it with. I say I think it was doug fir. It is some wood that was used for shelving in my father-in-laws house that I salvaged when he moved recently. There were 6 1×8’s about 4 ft long. I thought they were stained, but when we cut one of the boards, I discovered that they were pretty dark all the way through. It is a soft wood and the grain and feel is definitely like doug fir, but as you will see from the pics, it is pretty dark. The construction if pretty simply. We cut the boards by hand then planed them square on a shooting board. The clock is actually a batter operated mechanism for which we simply built a housing. The joinery is nothing fancy. Simply butt joints with glue and finish nails. The finish is just 3 coats of BLO with some wax applied. The only thing that was not hand tools was cutting the opening for the clock itself. We did cut that on the band saw. My son is pretty proud of what he built and I think he should be. In the last pic (picture of my sons in their band uniforms) the blonde one on the right is the one that built this clock.

Doc

This is two simple little shop storage items. The first one is a cabinet to store my planes in. This actually was a little cabinet that my father in law was going to throw away when he was moving recently. I modified the cabinet slightly so I could mount it one the wall and I am using it as a way to store my hand planes. However, My plane collection is rapidly outgrowing this little cabinet so I may have to come up with something else before too long. The second picture is a rack that I made from some scraps of oak that I had to hold these antique chisels that I found in a flee market and brought them back to life. I had always wanted to have a skewed blade bench chisel. I just could never bring myself to pay for a nice new one. Anway, I got these chisels for about $4 each so I took two of them and ground them at a skewed angle and they come in very handy for cleaning out in a tight space.

Thanks,

Doc

I while back I posted a forum asking help in identifying a type of wood. After input from the LJ’s, I came to the conclusion that is was a wood called Hackberry. Anyway, this stuff is crazy hard – perfect for a mallet. I decided to use it to turn this little chisel mallet as a way to get some skew chisel practice. I did most everything except the coves with the skew. I really like the way this tool turned out (no pun intended). Finish is a burnished super glue finish.

Thanks,

Doc

I have wanted a scrub plane for quite a while. I had considered buying a Stanley #40, but in good condition, they bring a pretty good price. I picked up this old wooden jack plane in a lot of tools that I bought a while back. When I first got it, the poor old plane had been painted a really obnoxious green color. Also, the rear tote was broken and for a front handle someone had attached what looked like a common wooden door cabinet door knob. It had a good blade and there weren’t any cracks in the body of the plane to prevent it from being useful for something. The mouth was way too wide for fine work and since the blade is a little narrower than a standard Jack plane size, I decided that this just might make a good scrub plane. Anyway, the first thing to do was to disassemble everything. The original handle was completely destroyed and the makeshift front knob had to go as well. I spent quite a lot of time getting all of that horrible green paint off (sorry I did not take any before photos). Then I took some scraps of walnut that I had and made a rear tote and a front handle for it. The rear tote is patterned after the handle of my favorite back saw and the I went with a sort of european type of front handle. I then ground the blade to a nice camber as a scrub plane should have. It isn’t particularly pretty, but it works very well and is comfortable to use. If I need to hog off a lot of material this tool will get the job done. If I am doing lots of lumber, I will dig out the power planer, but for just one or two boards, this tool is the one that I reach for now.

Thanks,

Doc

I had a drawer box that I had mounted under the outfeed extension of my table saw. It is right beside my router table that also serves as my left side support wing on my table saw. I decided that this would be the perfect place to store my router bits, tools, and accessories. I made holders for my router bits so I can easily see what router bits I have. I used a plastic storage container with dividers to store my small attachments and accessories for my routers. I also have room for the hex tool that works with my router lift as well as my router wrenches. It works great.

Thanks,

Doc

Anyone that enjoys turning knows that you need your tools handy so you can make changes quickly or change to a different chisel, etc. Some gave me a piece of pegboard that they had left over and I attached it to the wall behind my lathe. I then mounted a couple of magnetic strips to hold my chisels. I then made a custom little rach to hold my drive/live centers and many of the miscellaneous items that always need to be handy. I don’t think that I will stay with the magnet strips however. It is great to hold the chisels and keep them handy. However, eventually, the chisels become magnetized. This isn’t much of a problem till you have to sharpen and the metal filings from sharpening want to stick to the tool. It is hard to get all of those filings off so that they don’t wind up as part of your project. I haven’t decided on another idea to replace the magnet to store my chisels.

A while back, I posted a project where I experimented with an old screwdriver that had a cheap plastic handle that I hated. Anyway, I noticed a while back that Lee Valley offered a set of screwdriver shanks sans handles. They also sell nice brass ferruls. The set includes phillips, slotted and square drive shanks. I ordered the complete set and then made handles for them. The wood that I used for the handles is a mystery. I salvaged it from a pallet and I have not idea what it is. I has grain similar to beech, but I’ve never seen spalting like this in beech. It made for some very interesting handles. I also made the custom holder to store them from a piece of scrap rosewood that I had.

Thanks,

Doc

My wife was cleaning out some items from her craft room. She had several of these plastic storage containers lie you might find in a fishing tackle box and asked if I could use them. I jumped at it. I then built this case from some scraps of plywood and mdf to put them in. I like the way that it works so well that I have already purchased several more of the little containers and am going to build a second cabinet for them.

Thanks,

Doc

A month or so ago, I found a really nice old Disston No. 4 12” Back saw on Ebay. Only one problem. It did not have a handle. The blade and back are straight. Nice heavy steel back. It was even reasonably sharp. Anyway, I already had a Disston No. 4 and I thought I could just copy the handle from it. In my preparation, Mike Wenzloff from Wenzloff and Sons was generous enough to send me the PDF files that they use for saw handle templates for their saw that is based on the old Disston No. 4. Anyway, for a quality 100+ year old back saw, I wanted a nice quality piece of wood to make the handle. I suppose that Ideally, this would have been made of Apple wood, but none of our local suppliers carry that. I went to Woodcraft on Saturday and I picked up a short lenght of Walnut, Cherry and Maple and decided I would decide when I got home which I would use. I had never worked with Walnut, so I decided to give it a shot. I now know why this wood is a favorite for many. It works so beautifully. I was most amazed at how I could take such fine paring cuts with a chisel when cutting the mortise for the back of the saw. I think this turned out very well. The screws are some that I salvaged from an old Disston saw that I picked up at a flea market that the blade was just too far gone to do anything with. This saw would have originally had split nut screws, but I think these old original Brass Disston Screws finish the saw off nicely. Finally, about 5 coats of wipe on polyurethane and it is ready to cut some tenons.

I’ve been wanting to make a carving mallet. I had some time to just kind of play in the garage this evening and this is what I came up with. It is a little smaller than I originally intended (thanks to some bloopers with the skew chisel). Perhaps what is most intersting about this project is the wood. Can anyone tell me what this is. I included pictures of the log still with the bark on it. This was a small tree growing in my back yard that I cut down about a year ago. I saved it purely because I was really curious about the bark. It has what looks like warts all over it as you can see from the pictures. The wood looks and feels much like hickory or pecan. I am familiar with the common hickory trees that grow here in Alabama and that is not what this is. The wood is very hard. I was really amazed at how hard it is. It polished very well on the lathe, but has a kind of porous, open grain much like an oak, but I just can’t get past that bark. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.

Not exactly a woodworking project. I spent a week of my vacation time on a mission trip helping with construction of a new church building in the small town of Akron, AL. I did everything from rough framing to electrical rough in. I even learned how to bend and fit electrical conduit. This is the third year that I have participated in a trip like this. As you can see, we did not complete the entire building in just one week, but we were able to get a lot of work done. When we started monday morning, there was nothing but a concrete slab. The first picture is end of day one, second is end of day two and third is end of day 3 and finally, forth is end of day four. Unfortunately, I did not take any pics at the end of day five.

Some of you have been following my blog about my attempt to make a new handle for an old dovetail saw. Well I finally finished it tonight. I am pretty proud of how this turned out. The two woods are honduran rosewood and beech. The last picture is the before photo of the original mahogany handle.

Check out my blog at http://lumberjocks.com/docholladay/blog to see the progress as I went through this project.

Also, if you want to see more photos, they can be seen at photobucket http://s870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/Tool%20Pics/

I hope you enjoy.

Thanks,

John

Lately, I’ve been on a tool making/modifying/repairing kick. Tonight, I was just puttering around the shop (that’s code for – waiting for glue to dry). I have always wanted some nice wooden handled screwdrivers. There is just something about the feel of wood in your hands as opposed to plastic or any other material. This is especially so after the tool has been used and gets kind of polished from use. Anyway, I had this cheapy old screwdriver with a cheap plastic handle. I figured if I screwed it up, I wouldn’t be out anything. I also had the nice little scrap of beech wood. Then I remembered reading where someone had used a plumbing fitting to make a brass ferrul for a chisel. I have made handles for my chisels, why should it be any different for a screwdrivers. Anyway, I scrownged through some plumbing fittings I had left offer and found what looked like an appropriate piece to make a ferrule. I went to my band saw and cut the old plastic handle off of the screwdriver. I turned and shaped the handle into a shape that felt good. I started with square and left part of the flats in order to give better grip. I think it turned out pretty cool. What do you think?

I had a nice piec of oak that was about 3”x3”x8” and thought, “Hmm, this would make a pretty good mallet head.” Then I saw a scrap of some honduran rosewood and thought, “that could be used for a mallet handle.” I split the oak down the middle and then used my table saw to cut an equal sized dado (tapered slightly toward the top) through each piece and then glued them back together. After the glue was dried, I cleaned off the excess glue and then cut the angles on the faces and on the top. I then cut the tenon on the end of the handle and cut slot in the tenon for wedges. I then applied glue to the morise and the tenon on the handle and put it all together. Drove in the wedges. I shaped the handle using spoke shaves, rasps scrapers and finally sanding. Finish is a couple of coats of tongue oil followed by several coats of wax. I am finally glad to have a good mallet that will not damage my chisels.

Next on my list is to make a nice carving mallet, but I’ve got to find a choice piece of wood for that.

In that box of old tools I also found this bevel square. The blade was pretty rusty, but not pitted. The main problem is that the locking mechanism was missing. I had to get a little creative on this one. I drilled a counter sink in the back of the tool and fit a brass screw in there and filled it flush. Then I just installed a brass knurled nut on the top side and it is good as new. Of course I also carefully cleaned off the rust without removing the patina. I think it turned out pretty well.

A few weeks ago, I posted some pictures of a bunch of tool that I picked up in an odd lot at an antique shop. I paid $5.00 for a box full of stuff. In the box were several marking guages. Unfortunately, several of them were missing the knobs to lock the fence. I was getting frustrated finding anything that would work that would also look good. I finally decided on this solution. I installed a threaded insert. And then I made the knobs by using epoxy to attach a brass bolt to some knobs that I turned on the lathe. I think it looks much better than just a plain old bolt.