I quickly headed over to Phil's Official Site, and realized that Phil did indeed see his shadow. 6 more weeks of winter. Bleh. I shoveled off the backyard rink and got ready for some pond hockey, but then the wind really whipped up. It was just too cold to get the kids outside. Sunny, but bone numbing cold.

Well, I have to think of something to keep me and my kids from going shack wackey ! So a little shop time for all is in order.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed over to the local box store and picked up an 8 foot x 16” laminated pine shelf. While the kids watched Madagascar 2 I took some time and knocked down some pieces for some birdhouses.

Not fine woodworking, but certainly fun woodworking!

It’s been a long time since I blogged something, so I thought I’d shoot everyone a line!

We’ll see where the kids get with assembly and finishing!

Cheers!

Tom

I cut the 2×4 into a bunch of little pizza slices and got ready for the next step. That step involved finding out if my mitre saw read 15 degrees accurately!

Two half circles were made, and the pieces taped together. I didn’t have any of the fancy blue tape that those lucky guys that do veneering use, but settled for the green stuff that us lowly turners have on hand!

I pulled clamps from my dust collector pieces box, and daisy chained them together for my glueup. I was off by a smidgen so I used a chisel to keep the two halves taught. I’ll workout how to correct the error later. I was still thinking at this point.

After my glue was dry, I ran both half circles through the drum sander in order to make they perfectly flat and equal. This step may have been unnecessary as I’m going to have to do this again, as you’ll see.

After using a compass with the halves held together, to mark circles, I set the bandsaw table to 22 degrees and cut out my half circles. Many of you have guessed, by this point, where this little 2×4 is headed.

After cutting out the half circles, I glued them into rings. The error I had with the angle being slightly less than 15 degrees, was taken out with my tablesaw sled and a quick swipe. The rings took another trip through the drum sander, at this point, in order to make sure they had perfectly flat glue surfaces.

I then glued, stacked and clamped my rings! Those of you that guessed a hat from the band Devo? Well, you’re wrong! Close though! I was a little dissappointed in how little gluing surface I left on this. The bowl itself will be just around 1/4” thick. I think that, for a spruce bowl, this will really be a test to turn it.

With a little creative chucking, the project is starting to take shape! The wood was VERY dry, the step on the rings left for a VERY thin wall, and I had a heck of a time turning this.

After a lot of sanding and some very tentative turning to keep from blowing this thing into a bunch of pieces, out came the bowl. This is a picture of the bowl, the building block and some of the waste. Those of you that turn, know that that’s about 1/4 of the mess that came off the lathe. I kept the rim pretty thick for two reasons; the bowl had to be turned too thin because of the ring overlap, and with it being so dry, turning the rim was pretty exciting with the the wood so dry, so once it was round, it didn’t get too much more treatment.

Well, Mr. 2 X 4, I’m pretty pleased with what you had to show me! Thanks for looking, folks!

Cheers!

Tom

To go along with the intent of the challenge, I pulled this 2×4 out from behind my hockey sticks and and broken shovel handles in the corner of the garage. You know, the one that is where my door is blocked by the shop floor hoist to move steel around and take my hydraulic deck off my truck….sorry, I digress. Anyway, I found a 2×4. It’s straight, really dry, and sort of orange.

I started by cutting it in half as maneuvering anything that is 8 feet long, in my shop, can end up with broken light bulbs, smacked knuckles and a general poor attitude by the shop inhabitant.

After a few passes on the jointer, a run through the planer, and a taste of some carbide on the tablesaw, this seemingly forgotten hunk of spruce comes to life! To think, the lonely days and nights that led to months and years, that this piece of wood sat. Just waiting for the day where it could say, “Joint me, plane me, cut off my round overs. Let me show you what I have to give!”

I flipped it, and flopped it, then slathered it in Tite Bond II and glued it back together. Some of it’s long lost cousins, veterans of another time, another bench, another test of process, helped this fledgling piece of framing lumber. Helped it hold itself together on plane. Helped it on it’s journey to becoming more than just another 2×4!

Show me, Mr. 2×4! Show me what you have in store for me!

To be continued….

I put together a 15 minute overview of the basics of the shooting board. Please note, the shooting board is a tool that will have unlimited uses in your shop. For box makers, I think it’s as invaluable as your imagination. The shooting board can be used in many ways and I’ve tried to cover three or four ways that I make use of it. Construction of the shooting board can take many different forms. A quick google of Shooting Board, will net you some great discussions and information.

Also, on Lumberjocks, you can read some of the projects and discussions from WayneC, Bob #2, and yours truely.

So, onto the video. Enjoy! Of course, any questions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Tom

Larger Format Version Here

I mixed up some amber shellac flakes from Lee Valley in a 2# cut. Thanks Bob #2 for the math help on small batches. I was scratching my head a bit.

First I used Dowelmax to align the ear blocks and to centre drill the top for the leather ears. I drilled all the holes before the ear block was profiled. I keep finding more and more uses for this tool. As a doweling jig, it is unmatched in it’s precision and ease. I used it as a precision drilling jig for the ear blocks and was equally impressed with it.

A backer board was used to control blowout with the drilling process.

The ear pieces were doweled and clamped with through drilling, the step was added for security. I think I might add some friction tape to it. It depends on if he crashes too often or not. Two coats of amber shellac and we’ll see how it wears!

Thanks for looking!

Tom

I spent several very late nights getting the horse completed for Christmas. Three nights ago, I was able to get the legs mounted to the body. I was suffering with aligning each front and each back leg but then benifitted from the time that I spent leveling my work surfaces. Thanks to Neil Lamens for that little tidbit gleaned from his Furnitology Blog. With a level work surface, the left side legs were aligned, then the horse was held plumb and the opposite sides were clamped, checked and then fastened.

After another long night of getting things sanded, routed and ready for the next step, the horse was mounted to the rockers. This was a finicky little step as I wanted it to sit level saddle when no weight was on it. That was a lot of trial and error and a hope that a K-body in front of the front legs, and one behind the back legs, would cancel each other out. I added some cross bracing to the rockers and it’s starting to look like a rocking horse. I also added mane and tail accents to the horse.

All the screw holes that will see little feet were plugged with flush taper plugs, and the rest were plugged with decorative buttons. The handles were added and the horse is ready to give for Christmas.

I decided to not rush the finish process so he’ll get to play with it a bit, and then I’ll put finish on it next week so I don’t have to rush that part.

Once the finish is on, I’ll add him/her to the projects list. Just a small list of final touches that will get done next week: Ear blocks, step blocks, finish.

As I’ve done previously with projects, here’s the list of tools that were used to complete this project. Please note, I’m by no means, a minimalist.

Power Tools:

Festool TS55 Plunge Saw – Most cross cuts and panel sizing
Festool ES150 ROS – surface sanding of all parts
Festool Domino – panel joining and alignement
Festool CT22 Vac – dust extraction on festool tools and router
Shop VAC 15 Gal – dust extraction from router and shop cleanup
Dewalt 12” SCMS – rough cross cutting of some pieces
Dewalt Jigsaw – scroll cuts on body and ends of rockers
Dewalt DW621 Plunge Router – edge treatments
Porter Cable PC718 Router – flush trimming and round overs
Porter Cable Brad Nailer – fired a couple brads to gang up parts for scroll cuts
Porter Cable Pancake Compressor – can’t use the nailer without the pancake
Dewalt Finish Sander – Sanding round overs after using a rasp and file
Porter Cable 371K Belt Sander – some contouring and beveling of the legs to the body
Makita LXT 18V Drill – holes and countersinks
Makita LXT 18V Driver – 2 screws before I changed my mind and used the clutch in the drill for driving screws
Craftex 15” bandsaw – resawing, ripping and some scroll cuts
Nova DVR-XP Lathe – turning handles and eyes and for marking centre in a jig
General International 185 Table saw – ripping, dimensioning lumber
Dewalt DW735 Planer – Dimensioning lumber
Ridgid Jointer – squaring stock for dimensioning
Ridgid Belt/Spindle sander – cleaning up scroll cuts
Craftex Drill Press – various hole drilling duties of course
Craftsman 8” grinder – sharpened a spindle gouge
General International 1HP DC – dust collection from router table and SCMS
General International 2HP DC – dust collection from bandsaw, jointer, planer and tablesaw
Performax 16-32 Drum Sander – dimensioning inlays

Hand Tools:

Veritas Low Angle Block Plane – cleaning up inlays and shooting board work for sizing inlays
Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane – cleaning up inlays and adjusting fit on some parts on shooting board
Veritas Bevel Up Smoother – some smoothing work on the rockers and legs
Veritas #4 Bench Plane – cleaning up planer marks on body panels
Veritas Edge Trimming Plane – cleaning up jointed boards for glue up
Lie Nielsen Skew Block Plane – same with opposite grain
Lie Nielsen Chisels – 1/8, 3/8, 3/4 – cleaning up inlay grooves and trimming flush plugs
Stanley Chisel – 1 1/4 – cleaning up glue squeeze out
Veritas Card Scrapers – cleaning up glue squeeze out, smooting joint on leg panels
Four in Hand File – rasping and filing round overs that I couldn’t get at with router, cleaning up bit scorch
Veritas Double Edge Flush Cut Saw – trimming flush plugs
Small Rip Dozuki – cut some walnut off a board I was too lazy to take off wood rack (pathetic I know)
Fret Saw – trimming inlays
Various Screw Drivers
Dead Blow Hammer – fit parts
Small Claw Hammer – put in plugs
Large Claw Hammer – for the plugs that wouldn’t fit
Various Mallets for chisel work
Dowelmax

Blades Bits and Jigs and Fixtures:

Forrest WWII Multi Purpose Blade – all tablesaw duties
Freud 1/4” round over bit – round overs
Craftsman 1/4” round over bit – round overs
Craftsman 1/4 flush trim bit – flush trimming
Craftsman 1/4” spiral down cut bit – cutting with trammel for rockers
Woodpeck Precision Router Lift – made life easier for sure with flush cutting wedges for leg alignment
Woodpeck Drill Press Table – a nifty unit that gets lots of use
GRRippers – Sorry Nicki, but I really dig em
Excalibur Overhead Blade Guard – tablesaw dust collection and blade cover when available
Dado Jig – cutting inlays
Small Parts Bench Hook – planing some inlay pieces
Shooting Board – dimensioning inlays
Bessey K-Body Clamps – 12”, 18”, 24”, 48”
Samona Quick Clamps – 12”
Irwin Quick Clamps – 6”
1/4” Viking Bandsaw Blade – scroll cuts and a bit of resawing when too lazy to change it
1/2” Viking Bandsaw Blade – resawing and ripping

I think that’s it.

Cheers and have a very Merry Christmas!

Setting up a temporary trammel and using all the bench square footage I could muster, I started measuring the arcs.

I cut my prototype / template from 1/4” hardboard on my little trammel setup. I used a scrap piece of 1/4” plywood, a clear base for the router, and some double sided tape. I screwed it at a fixed point centred on a scrap piece clamped to the bench, and cut the arc. The top part of the rocker is a bigger radius than the bottom part, so this gave me a good idea of how I was going to do that.

A little cleaning up with the jigsaw, and I have a prototype. Relatively painless. I did spent an inordinate amount of time planning this move. Mostly by sitting and staring at it and scratching my head to pass the time.

I had a centreline drawn on the template, and had another alignment line on the piece that the trammel was screwed to. I used the longest straight edge I had to line up my board to get the most pleasing grain, or what I hoped would be.

I then set up my trammel again and cut one rocker. I made some anti-tip ends on the the rocker as per the plan suggestion, finished it’s shape, then used it to help align the next rocker, chucking my template for the now better shaped and final sized rocker #1.

The end result:

This move took me a lot more time that I anticipated. I realized very early in the build, that the rockers aren’t where you want to see any error, so they have to be perfect. I think these are. They are the same, anyway.

While I was thinking the rocker moves, I cut out the legs and some mane and tail accents.

I cut some wedges for the correct spread of the hooves, and glued them all up. Lots of clamps.

I trimmed the wedge blocks and used the little Porter Cable belt sander to fair them off for joining to the body of the horse. I also took some time to fix a couple of errors that I made when gluing up the initial panels for the body. I used dominos and three of them ended up right in the middle of a scroll cut for the head. I had to route them out and fill them. Finicky work but it was all chisels, block plane and my shooting board, so I was smiling.

Assembly will occur tomorrow night and God willing a coat of amber shellac. Two more coats Sunday, leave it sit Monday, and put a bow on it for Tuesday. I hope I have time!

Cheers!

Tom

The first two cuts creating the side profile:

The block was taped back together, and the top profile was then cut, revealing the half saddle within:

The two halves of the saddle ready for shaping.

The saddle with preliminary shaping done. The Porter Cable 371K compact belt sander was used for most of the shaping. Combined with a Festool ETS 150 and some Lie Nielsen chisels, it’s getting closer. Final finish sanding will have to be done by hand.

Before the saddle was mounted, the inlays were planed down to flush with a low angle block plane.

The build continues!

Cheers!

I started by resawing some walnut that I had laying around left over from God knows what.

I couldn’t use the GRRipper here, so no controversy tonight!

I ran the pieces through the Performax to get them fairly close to size.

I made a little router jig to route the grooves for the inlays. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do this, but I brainstormed with Bob #2 and then decided to go with a similar concept to a dado jig for a router. I used 2 sided tape to hold it in place.

The router bit I used left a bit of fuzz, so 3/4 chisel and about 10 minutes, and everything was ready for the walnut inlay. Added to the tool wishlist was a router plane. I got by without it, but it would have been fun to use.

Using a combination of a low angle block and a low angle jack plane, I used the shooting board to fit the inlays. I was very pleased at how well this worked, and though it seemed like rather finicky work, I seemed to be smiling through the entire process. I was actually surprised that they didn’t fit perfectly after the little jig I made, but with such thin pieces, I didn’t want to shove them in…I wanted them to just fall in.

Here’s the inlays glued in place. They are proud by about 1/32 and I’ll use a plane to take them down to flush after the glue has set for a day. The pieces are cut for the other side as well, but I won’t bother with that until I get this side flushed. I’ll trim them flush as well, once the glue has dried. I have other things to move onto so I’m not set back by my caution here.

And a close up. They are still proud, but the fit is quite good. I’m not sure if I’m going to get recruited by the Professional Marquetry League, but I’m pleased with the job so far.

Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll get working on the legs,finish the other side of the inlays, and think some more about how I’m going to cut the rockers!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

I started by grabbing some wood from the rack. I chose red oak because it’s what I have in abundance and after an attempt to resist it’s downfalls, I’ve become quite used to working with it and it’s special considerations. (ie. end grain porosity and ease of tearing fibers)

After doing some remedial grain matching and layout, I started to cut some pieces to make panels. The plan calls for the grain running parallel to the lines of the horse, so a panel for the body, neck, head, and tail need to be made. Most of my wood is under 6” as I prefer these widths. Most of what we have around here is rift sawn, so it’s advantageous to glue up smaller boards, with alternating grain, to resist cupping. The Festool MFT 1080 and TS55 plunge saw made very easy work of this part of the project.

After cutting pieces, I jointed, planed and ripped them to dimension. My jointer is a short bed so I prefer to work with smaller pieces. As I’m not a production shop, I don’t mind not making perfect use of my time by jointing, planing and ripping larger boards and then cutting them. I’m ready to make some panels. As this is a toy that is going to be beat around I used the Festool Domino with 5mm domi’s to help strengthen and align the edge glued panels.

The panels are glued and ready for clamping. I use green tape to keep the squeeze out off my clamps. I’ve tried all sorts of other means like wax paper and the like, but a run of tape, put the panel on, then peel the tape up that isn’t needed to facilitate the clamp sliding to position and crank em down.

After the panels were dried, I scraped most of the glue off, ran them through the drum sander, instantly wished that I scraped more than most of the glue off and the proceeded to spend the next 2 hours scraping, planing and sanding the burnt glue streaks on my new panels. Lesson learned. I tossed away the destroyed abrasive on the Performax 16-32 and then spent another 30 minutes piddling around with putting a new strip on. This is not typically a time consuming thing, but I should have just left the shop and took my migraine to bed. I’m on a deadline now though.

I used the Domino and 8mm x 50 mm domi’s to join up the panels. I could have used Dowelmax to do this part, but I didn’t have any 2” dowels and I wanted to get as much glue surface area as I could. I hope you can see what I mean by the direction of the grain running parallel to the lines of the horse now.

This did present some clamping challenges, but the MFT1080 helped out alot. I could have used dogs on my bench too, but this surface isn’t piled up with tools and other crap.

I used a jigsaw and a Bosch blade whose teeth have a neutral rake, to cut out the shape of the horse.

And we have something that more resembles a horse.

I have to run and get some walnut for some inlays for the tack and to make the saddle. I’ll make up the legs tonight and get ready to make the rockers. I haven’t worked out how I’m going to do that just yet as I want it to be a rocking horse, not a wobble horse. The plan calls for a trammel, but to save some dust, I’ll make a template and then pattern route them

The build continues!

Cheer!

Tom

I took a 2” piece of walnut from the scrap pile. I drilled a 1/4” (0.247” actually) hole in it close to one face. I took a few passes through the drum sander to just show the hole cut. I chamfered one end to accept the workpiece stock. I clamped an old plane iron creating an awkward looking jig.

My first pass came out too thin. I clamped a playing card between the iron and the walnut. My second attempt came out at 0.247”. Blind ass luck to get it that close, however, my intent was to go for that diameter, so 2nd attempt or 12th attempt, I was in for the long haul.

Here’s the process of making the dowel:

I started by ripping a few 5/16” strips from the stock I’m using to make my box. Sorry Niki, I used the GRRipper. I don’t think it’s an accident waiting to happen. I use the GRRipper in conjunction with the MJ Splitter.

After I get a piece of oversized square stock, I chuck it up in my hand drill and use the belt sander to sharpen the end of it to go into the jig.

I wanted to knock off the edges to make more of an octagon to relieve stress on the jig. I could have done this on the tablesaw with the blade at 45, but this isn’t a precision maneuver, so I just used the belt sander. Next time I’m going to use a small parts clamp I have to knock the edges off first, then sharpen the end. This way, I had to hold them with my fingers, risking a slight manicure while I was doing it. I might have used the GRRipper for this too, but would have just been to torment, Niki.

I chuck the stock up in the drill, and then head to the jig.

This is a picture of the stock part way through the jig.

When I get near the end of the stock, I reverse the drill, chuck up the other end, and pull it through.

And the finished dowel, sitting atop my little jig.

Thanks for looking!

Tom

The following is an idea I gleaned from a woodworking video by Rob Cosman. It’s just a piece of MDF with a strip of 1/4” hardboard glued to it and a bench hook screwed to it. The hook keeps the planing jig from moving, and the 1/4” thick strip keeps the piece from sliding. It works brilliantly for it’s intended purpose.

This worked so good I just thought I’d share it.

Cheers!

I bought this plane for three reasons:

1. It was cool to look at.
2. It didn’t cost much
3. I thought my son could play with it and it could be his.

Now, being a son of the metric system, I knew this plane was small. I just failed to take it’s dimensions into account and thus didn’t realize HOW small it is.

Clicking on this picture to bring up a larger image with an everyday object inserted for scale:

It’s a cute plane for sure but will probably end up on the coffee table as a conversation piece. I honed up the iron, and it cuts fine! If I ever have to put a chamfer on a 1/4 balsa stick, this will be my go-to plane!

Cheers and have a great weekend!

As many of us know, the blade guards that come with standard table saws are awkward to use and often get taken off and never replaced. My original motivation for the blade gaurd, however, was not safety. It was dust control. When I set up my shop in my basement, I got overhead dust filters and dust collectors with piping. After cutting with my tablesaw, I always had a big poof of dust all over the place. I realized that a significant amount of fine particles come off the top of the saw.

I started hunting for plans for a blade guard and looked at some commercial offerings. Anyone that’s been through my shop tour or my shop cam have learned that I worked in a crammed space. It’s small and it’s bordering on over-tooled. I know that’s blasphemy, however, it’s a fact of life. Most of the overhead blade guards either mount to the extension tables or to the floor. With my setup, I just couldn’t do that and started looking to ceiling mounted solutions.

Excalibur, a Canadian company that makes scroll saws and blade guards was offering a new item. It was a ceiling mount blade guard, but without the mount. I thought, Canadian, blade guard, ceiling mount? It’s all good and ordered one. Excalibur has since been bought out by General, another Canadian company.

That left me having to design and build a mount for my shop. I’m a hobby woodworker and a hobby metal worker, so no problem. As I have rack of steel in my garage, I headed out to the shop to build the prototype.

Starting with some angle iron, I cut a recess in one end to accept another piece welded at a right angle. This is going to be my stop for the blade guard so it doesn’t swing too and fro.

I used 1” square tubing to weld an H shaped rack that would mount to the dimensions of the Excalibur unit.

I ground all the welds flush and got ready to take it down to the shop for the test fit.

After a bit of fiddling and realizing the floor joists are at 14” centres in my house, I got it attached to the ceiling of the shop.

The Excalibur unit attached to the new blade guard. It all fits and swings correctly.

Waiting for the paint to dry after the test fit.

And finally, with dust collection hooked up and ready to work.

For ripping smaller stock and for using mitre guages and cross cut sleds, the blade guard goes up to the ceiling out of the way. Well mostly. I’m 6’1” and it hangs at 6’ 3/4”. I do hit it from time to time. Also, as my outfeed table and tablesaw double as an assembly bench, it’s nice to get it out of the way as well.

Please note: This as of writing this, Excalibur no longer offers this variation to their popular blade guard.

Thanks for reading!

Tom

Bob #2 and I were meeting up last Saturday to attend the Edmonton Woodshow.

The show had offerings from Delta, Hitachi, Steel City, General, Dewalt, Lee Valley, Lie Nielsen and a mixture of local guilds and arts and crafts distributors.

Overall, the show was quite good. There was lots of machinery there and Bob and I were able to meet up with Jim Lindsay, inventor of Dowelmax. Jim and his wife Marie, are really great people to spend time with. If you see them at a show, stop by. You’ll be glad you did.

Jim has been working on a prototype of another attachment for Dowelmax for mitred box joints. He gave us a heads up and the verbal howto to get it done. A later blog will go through making and testing a similar attachment for my trusty jig.

Bob and I watched a few demos, talked to a lot of tool reps, and one or two reps that were tools. Most products were well represented and the food was pretty good! Bob and I picked up some tools that we wanted. Both of us were impressed with a product from Woodline called, Dadowiz.

Dadowiz is a quick little jig for your router for cutting precise dados. I’m a big fan of having a few different ways to skin a cat and for a quick dado with fast setup and tear down, this little jig works like a charm.

A representative from Laguna Tools was at the show. He was demo’ing the latest and greatest bandsaw offerings as well as their Resaw King blade. There is shot of this in the video at the end of the blog that is worth watch how well this saw and blade cut through a hunk of elm.

Bob got himself an awesome Sliding Compound Mitre Saw from Hitachi. With show price, and rebate, he got a heck of a deal. If I didn’t already have the behemoth from Dewalt, this machine would have been in my shop by now.

The folks from Worksharp were also at the show. WayneC did a great blog on the Worksharp system. The show price was also excellent so Bob can’t whine about dull tools anymore! Bob picked up the WS3000 System.

I went to the show, jonesing for a Performax 16-32 Drum Sander.

I was quite disappointed to find out that the local dealer didn’t bring one to the show. As it turned out, they did, but as our show experience went, the guy that gave us an answer didn’t necessarily know the right one. After some wheeling and dealing, and some camel trading that made Bob proud to be my imaginary friend, we had one to load up. The sander came along with it’s stand, (which I tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to give to Bob) and infeed/outfeed tables.

We stopped by the Lee Valley booth as they were doing a demo of the Veritas Mk. II Sharpening System. I have this system and have been having less than stellar results with some Lee Valley Chisels that I have. You can read a mini-review in my blog, here. I thought I’d get the guy at the booth to see if he can throw a crazy sharp edge on one of them. Unfortunately, though he was demonstrating the use of the tool the general public, he had quite alot of trouble using it. Bob and I both came to a simultaneous realization, this guy doesn’t know how to use it. However, we had him talked into the demo so we sat through it. The biggest time consumer of the demo was watching him put a 20 degree bevel on a 25 degree chisel. Anyway, he finally couldn’t get it sharp either so we headed back to the Lie Nielsen booth and I grabbed a few Lie Nielsen Chisels.

At that point, we had been there for about 6 hours and were still having fun. However, all good things must come to an end and we loaded up our booty and headed back to Bob’s shop. Our intention was to setup the Hitachi Saw but both being quite fatigued with our day, we saw a big bag of hardware that came with the stand and both instantly lost any motivation to put something together.

There were, four memorable moments from the days outing. Unfortunately we didn’t have video running on any of them but I’ll do my best to describe the events…

First of all, Bob #2 is a great guy and the day was well spent. We laughed, he cried, it was all good!
Second, was a quote from Bob….”Get my son anything he wants!”
Third was a quote from Mot…”Excuse us, my grandfather is old…he gets confused…”

And the grand daddy of memorable moments came, thanks to hand tool guru, Rob Cosman. It turns out that Rob can be a tad smug. Not known for my ability to understate, I’ll just leave it at that. Rob was doing a dovetail demo (go figure,) and asked if anyone in the crowd was over 200 pounds. He was eyeballing our Bob #2 when he asked and wasn’t looking anywhere else. Rob said, “Can you step on this dovetail joint?” He then placed it on the ground in front of Bob. Bob brought his leg up, and in a show of force that was as enviable and impressive, Bob SMASHED this joint into the cement. Rob’s eyes popped out of his head as he just sort of muttered, “Uhhhhh…” Bob asked, “Oh you meant stand on it. You should have asked for what you wanted.”

At that point, Rob did gain composure, looking at the joint and held it up to the crowd (which turned out to be mostly an entourage of previous Cosman students – aka Cosmonites.) Rob exclaimed, “The joint didn’t fail, the wood failed.” And he was right. The show went on. I was hiding behind a few other people at that point as the general feeling in the group was my grandpa’s day pass must be just about up, either that or he needs to take his meds.

Here’s a somewhat humorous video of our day:

Cheers!

I’ve been wanting to do some concealed wooden hinge boxes, ala Rob Cosman and with a confidence in my heart, I took out a little maple and some walnut. I re sawed and dimensioned it to about what I wanted my box to be. I pulled out my old shooting board and got all my little parts just right.

...then I got interrupted. It was a good interruption. My father was on the phone, but an interruption nonetheless. I got back down to the shop. I wanted to use some dovetails on the box and was getting out my calipers and chisels when I got interrupted. Another good one. I wasn’t upset to get taken out of the shop to see my 2 year old in a Spiderman costume.

It was worth it. He looks very funny in it. The good kind of funny.

...anyway…I get back down to the shop and have lost my place. So I reset my brain and line up my parts and get an idea of my layout before I start marking. DING…another interruption. This one isn’t so nice. It’s Sharon. Some of you may remember Sharon. If you don’t and have some time for a good read, take a look at this forum entry so you know who Sharon is.

...I’ve given up on the handcut dovetail and whisk out my Akeda Jig. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this jig, but screwing up with it is more difficult than screwing up buttering toast. I mean, it’s easy, precise, and creates spectacular joints. This is a diary of how to screw up using one of the easiest tools ever invented. Oh, a full review with video is in the works for this jig. It’s a Leigh world and occasionally the little guy needs a break.

Anyway, after setting up the jig, I want to leave some offset on the sides for the thickness of the recessed top. Mistake #1 comes here:

If you are going to use taller sides than front/back, then allow for a full pin or you’ll get a gap. Ick!

Now, cruising along, not realizing that the box is already ruined (it’s too small to put in wedges) I continue on. Not spending alot of time with router dovetails, I forgot to climb cut a bit to keep from tearing out when routing my pin board. Mistake #2 comes here:

Now it’s really getting ugly. I just don’t know it yet.

Cruising along some more, I failed to realized that I wasn’t precise with my partial pins and was out by 1/64th. This is a big deal as it makes for a pretty wobbly box. I could have setup the jig with mirror fingers on each side and been able to accomodate for this had I known it was happening. LOL…but, as hindsight is totally out of context and NOT 20/20, I’m still not realizing that I’m really screwing up this box. Mistake #3: It’s subtle, and wouldn’t show up on a blanket chest, but on a small box…yech!

So, I walk upstairs. I’m disgusted with myself. My little box is junk. I’m going to toss it in the kitchen garbage so I don’t have to look at it anymore.

As I’m tossing it, my 9 year old says, “Why throw it away?” It told her, “I made many mistakes and it can’t be saved.” She asked, “Why so many mistakes.” I said, “I’m not as familiar with the tool I was using, as I thought I was.”

Then comes a viewpoint that I may not have had since I was 9. She says to me, “Daddy, does pen work on that wood?” I said, “Yup.” She says, “Why not write the mistakes on the box so you can see them and not make them again. Then leave it with the tool in your shop?”

And so, this little box now sits with my Akeda jig. A reminder of a few of the things to take into account when I use it again. In the meantime, I’m getting out my chisels again. I’ve found that anything that is meant to save time and increase productivity, can compound mistakes at lightning speed.

Have a great Friday!

Tom

I took out this cabinet and using some scrap pine and plywood cutoffs that I had in the scrap pile, I built a new cabinet. Instead of it being 4” deep, I made it 8” deep and inset it 6” into a 4” wall (stud plus 1 thickness 1/2” sheetrock) Now, it only sticks into the shop 2 inches, not impeding my workbench yet is deep enough to actually hold stuff. The things that are now in it are things that I use in the shop and like to have access to.

The entire cabinet is literally thrown together with brads and pocket screws, but serves it’s purpose wonderfully.

With the door open, it reveals it’s little secret. You had to know this was coming.

Again, pretty pedestrian woodworking, but this one is all about function and little about form.

Cheers!

Tom

In looking at the wonderful work done by fellow lumberjocks, I’ve become fascinated with bent laminations and veneering. Two things that I think would be necessary in this project.

The table would most likely be made from cherry veneer with maple inlay. I also though of doing two circumferential brass inlays, each 1/8” thick and separated by 2” around the top. It may not be plausible, but I see it in my head.

Here’s the table. Forgive my rudimentary sketchup skills.

The table is 108” long by 60” wide. It stands standard height.

Thanks for looking!

Tomot :)

Many of you know that I’ve been trying to work out the shop computer situation. I had a number of suggestions given to me and most of them excellent, and all quite good. In true “Me,” fashion, I chose none of them and came up with another option.

As most of you know, one of the greatest concerns about a computer in the shop, is dust. This is a big concern, because even a cheap computer can ingest a lot of dust but there also came the concern about the space situation in my small shop.

So, here’s what I did:

1. I bought a clearance LCD monitor at the local box store for $97.00
2. I bought a cheapo keyboard for $19.00
3. I bought a cheapo mouse for $9.00 (optical with scroll wheel a must)
4. I ran CAT5 cabling from my home office to my shop.
5. I bought a Remote KVM Extender= from Monoprice.com
6. I plugged it in.

What the Remote KVM Extender does, is allow a second keyboard, video display, and mouse to operate off the main computer. The connection between the transmitter and receiver is made with CAT5 cabling which is pennies per foot. The KVM switch give priority to whatever keyboard is being used and instantly gives control to whatever console you are at. You can switch off the display on the remote or host PC by hitting a series of hotkeys that I haven’t bothered to try. So, essentially, my home PC is my office PC and my shop PC. The tower sits in my office but can be controlled from either location. The one limitation is that it can only be controlled fully from one of the two with this setup, so it’s not a remote desktop as much as just a second display and control. However, this isn’t an issue for me as everyone in the house has a computer or two.

At first, it didn’t work. I was choked. It wasn’t particularly easy to run the cabling for me. Not because running cabling is hard, but it was 35 degrees Celsius with 90% relative humidity. I was crawling around in a non-airconditioned shop and office sucking up behind-the-desk-dust-bunnies. I was really choked. I went to work ready to just buy another iMac for the shop (I already bought one for the shop, but I decided to keep it at work to play with…long story) Anyway, after thinking about it for a bit, it HAD to be cabling. I replaced both ends, and it works perfectly.

Here’s some shots, but it’s just a little black box at both ends, and a keyboard/monitor/mouse in the shop.

There is a matching little black box “sender” in my office upstairs.

This isn’t it’s final home as I’m going to build it into a new storage cabinet behind my workbench, but chalk it up as problem solved! I’ll also put in a CAT5 jack in the wall. Right now it’s just running out of the ceiling until I get the bugs worked out of where I’m going to put this thing.

Cheers!

Tom

WayneC posted a great blog entry on Turning a Pen with outstanding instruction and resources. Using Wayne’s blog and resources, I started turning a few pens and have found a lot of enjoyment in a quick little project in the shop. I have limited shop time and while I stall on a large entertainment centre as a feature in our home theatre, as well as trying to find the time for the summer entries, I’ve been spending some quality time with my lathe.

With the help of WayneC’s blog, and with an inability to goad him into doing a video (he actually had legitimate reasons but I love my petty torments,) I’ve done a video on basic pen turning of a slimline pen kit.

Thanks for looking and please contribute to the LJ Cyber Skillshare program. I’ll be gather up some resources and info for a Howto podcast on setting up your contributions. I’m going to demonstrate from both a Windows based PC side and the Mac side. Stay tuned for that feature in the next couple of weeks.

Tom