Dowel Plate from Lee Nielsen

   About ten years ago Lie Nielsen's travelling road show came to a local wood working supplier and I went along to see their outstanding product line.  At the time I was just beginning to set up my shop and didn't have the money to buy what I needed at the premium quality level.  However I wanted to support the local effort and hoped that it would be successful enough that Lie Nielsen would visit again in a couple of years.  

  Moral support is nice but financial support is nicer.  I bought two things at the show. I bought this dowel plate what was expensive though not as much as now.  Also Canadian money was at a better exchange rate in those days. 

  I use the dowel plate fairly often.  I keep my chop sticks from restaurant meals and use the dowel plate to make 3/16 dowels.  The bamboo chop sticks make really strong dowels. Recently I have made 24, 1 1/2 inch 3/16 dowels for the wooden train planter project.  The hopper car is finished and the coal tender is nearly done too.  I began the steam engine today by cutting wheels and gluing up the base plate.  

 

  The other thing I bought was a plane makers float. It hardly even gets used.  I have quite a few good files and rasps and this one doesn't fill a special need, at this time.   I am still glad I bought it, I hope that someone else will take on the responsibility of inviting Lee Nielsen back to Ontario for a show.

cheers ianw

Proportional Dividers - A Design Tool

  Lately I seem to have been taking on projects that required me to draw or at least design the object from a photo, a sketch or just an idea.  For my Grand daughters I drew some garden ornaments.

  The three year old and the five year old have different artistic styles, as you can see.  

    I am also working on the train planter and I have to design it from scratch.  For that project   I did sketches in 1/2 scale and then made full sized plans so I could see the spacing of the wheels particularly.  Doubling the size of a plan requires simple arithmetic.  Taking a design from a photograph and making it 20% larger involves more number crunching, or having the correct special tool.

 

Proportional Dividers 

  I made a set of Proportional Divider  from a piece of roasted maple.  With these dividers I can scale up or down by 4 times.  

  This video shows how to use Proportional Dividers beginning at ten minutes in.  If you have to scale drawings and don't have ready access to a photocopier there are other methods explained in the rest of the video.

Realistic Drawing Tutorial 

  When I watched this and a couple of other related videos I went on line to see what it cost to acquire my own Dividers.  Everything from a little to a whole bunch. Since I am thrifty, resourceful and have a basement full of tools, I made my own. I also plan to make a larger set for bigger projects.

 Making the dividers was a hand tool job.  I used my low cost jack plane and planing jig to shape the project,  then my finish plane to add the final touch. I cut the angles with a fine tooth saw and drilled the holes using the drill press.  Before I drilled the holes I taped the two pieces together to insure the alignment was exact.  My D.I.Y.  dividers  are not  a precision instrument but will provide consistent enough information for my uses.

   As well as wood working things for Tova and Rowan to paint I drew a couple of things for them to colour. 

  Dividers make it easier to move drawings like these from a book to an art paper suitable for colouring.  

cheers ianw

It Sure is Hot Here

  We are Canadians, in the winter we grouse about the cold and the wet.  In the summer were wilt under the heat.  Historically there are about three weeks in mid-September that we like the weather but by our Thanksgiving Weekend ( 2nd Monday in October) it can be too cold again.  Right now the heat is not as big an issue as the lack of rain.  I have spent an hour or two watering our flower gardens each day lately.  

  Several years ago I bought a King 14 inch band saw. I have used this saw frequently and not always gently, and never had a problem. 

  Last week I splurged on The Woodsaver blade.  It was twice as expensive as my usual blade, however it tracks perfectly, my saw has no blade drift at all.  The blade tracks so straight that I dug my KREG band saw fence out of storage and use it  now.  I am flabbergasted at how well this new blade cuts.  It is very thin and sharp, now the question is how long will it last.

  My Swedish Grand daughters aged 3 and 5 arrive tomorrow and they want to work in the shop.  At this stage they are only painters although I may let the big one hammer some boards together if she whats to.

  

  I prepared for their visit by cutting out some garden snails for them to paint.  In the Girl's yard in Sweden there are swarms of real snails, this way Tova and Rowan can paint snails for Oma's garden.  Interestingly I had to use my jig saw  to cut out the snails, the new super blade is very thin and not interested in cutting curves. Aw well, you can't have a super re-saw  blade that is also a good compass saw. 

  To carry on with the Train shaped planter I bought some of my favourite wood the other day.  I love everything about cedar except the dust.  Cedar is light, has good grain and colour and is easy to work but the dust is toxic and so I need to wear a dust mask when doing almost anything with the wood.

  

  The box part of the planter is cedar.  I first glued it together with water proof glue, ( you can never have too many clamps. ) Then I drilled the butt joints and used dowel pins to add some strength to the corners.  I decided that I would use dowels because copper nails are silly expensive, the last I checked 1 1/2 inch copper nails were $0.25 each.  To my eye rust bleeding off nail or screw heads spoils the look of a project.   One day, when I win the lottery I will spent the money on copper nails maybe.

  This is a quick easy video re-minding use that a skid/pallet recycles in to something that every yard seems to need. 

'Turning a free shipping pallet into a planter. 

  Anyway, I expect to be a little bit distracted for a few days, the shop is great but nothing can compete with a Grand Kid.

cheers ianw

   

Doing What Comes Naturally

  Much of what I make in my shop is designed to fill a need or serve a purpose. Some times the purpose is to preserve a moment in time for someone that is too young to understand how important that moment was.  

  
  Sometime, long ago we made Captain in the shop.  Last fall I repainted the boat and last week I put it in our pond.  Kieran remembered making that boat,and the many other boats we've made in my shop. That moment is just about as satisfying as a moment gets.

  What else have I done?  I dragged out my old friend 'Contact Cement' and added some leather to customize my shoulder bag and to add some heft to the flap.

  If you have the glue and some clamps and someplace to let it dry, (like a shop). You can add detail and ruggedness to something you bought at the store like everyone else.  I include this sort of thing to remind folks that a home shop can become integral  to your life and life style.  We mustn't dismiss 'craft' projects as less important than 'wood working' projects.  I admire many of the 'Makers' I see on-line that are doing lots of different things, not just wood work.

  So that you can see that I am still working with wood.

  Under the stairs coming down from our deck is dead space.  Into that dead space has drifted garden related stuff.  You know the sort of thing, chicken wire, stakes, flower pots etc, etc. However you can't see most of that stuff because it is hidden by the screen that I knocked out from some left over lattice and 2 x 4. The only thing that is semi-interesting with this screen is that it is easily removable.  I drove two 3/4 inch dowels into the frame of the stairs leaving enough dowel proud to hang the screen on.  The job was dead easy since I have a table saw and cordless drill. It is great to have a few tools on hand and a bit of wood laying around waiting to be employed.  In fact 2 x 2 lumber from the box store would save you from having to use a table saw. This is almost a 'craft' project.   Get out there and make some simple stuff, come on, make something.

   On my bench currently is an actual wood working project.  

wheels 

  I am designing and building a steam train with coal tender and one car to be a set of planters.  The first stage is to arrive at a design that is balanced looking. I am not trying to make anything to scale but it does have to look right.  I decided to begin with the wheels since that is the most labour intensive and difficult part of the project. (after the design is done)  These wheels are being cut from 2 x 4 stock on the band saw, since these wheels don't have to roll much.  I am going to put them on 1/2 inch dowel axles so the planter can be nudged around of the deck if need be, but they wouldn't be a toy.

After the wheels, everything will be cedar fence board.

  The weather is good, the days are sunny and I am spending time in the garden.  For us life is good, I hope it is good for you too.

 

cheers, ianw

  

Organizing, still, it may take a long time.

  One of the many advantages of having a serious shop space easily at hand is the making of custom solutions to everyday problems.  

  The problem was the tangle of wire by my Wife's computer.  The are three modem related bits of equipment, all requiring their own transformer/adaptor. As well there is the charging station for our phones, and Eva's computer.

  For a while all this related spaghetti has been corralled into a shoe box, more or less. This sort of mess makes it difficult to vacuum with out un-plugging something and messing up the internet or phones.  The other issue is the wasted floor space in our small entry area.  Since we have been making a serious effort on our annul spring cleaning (once a decade) this tangle has become a priority.

  I will show you the solution to this mess.  

isn't that just so much better!!

    I added a narrow shelf to the small bookcase and cut some holes through the back, creating a special shelf for the three modem related gadgets.  The famous lizard now has its own place of honour up off the floor and out of the way.  Best of all, that box on the lower shelf contains the surge protected power bar into which all the other gear is plugged.

all five things plugged in, yet hidden.

  I wanted to use the surge protected power bar, 'cause I am old school.  The other reason I didn't just plug everything into the wall behind the book case is that occasionally we need to re-boot our router by turning off the power.  This way all that needs to happen is to open the lid and turn the power bar off for a few seconds.  Everything re-sets at once, easy-peasy. 

  Since I have a basement work shop with lots of tools and too many bits of wood I was able to make the box to fit exactly on the bottom shelf, exactly, not just close because that was what was available at the store. Also we have a nice little wooden box on our wooden bookcase, not a plastic thing, all the way from China. The shelf is  cut to size and stained from materials at hand.

  Making the box was interesting.  I set out to make a box with mitred corners like the last one but ended up with wood of two different thicknesses so opted for dados on the corners.  Cutting the dados could have been done on the table saw, or the router table. I have dado blades for my saw and lots of different router bits.  However I opted for the quickest and easiest  way to cut four small dados.  I used my sliding mitres saw.  I have done this many times when I needed just a few small dados cut.  I raise the blade and put a spacer against the fence to enable to raised blade to cut fully across the board.  Making the set up time short makes up for the multiple passes needed to clear the dado completely.

   

    This box is the last of the wood from the dresser.  I made the entire box with glue and my lead gravity clamps. This project took a couple of evenings because I wasn't in a hurry.  I cut the box out and glued it together and used the drying time to work on the long chair rail and a couple of other small things. Having several  things on the go at once doesn't bother me, much.  I have found that different projects move me around the shop, which is good for my back.  If I stay in one position too long,  carving, or painting or whatever my back complains loudly.

  Once the glue set on the sides I glued on an over sized top and bottom.  When that  glue dried completely I used hand saws to cut the top and bottom to size which I then planed and sanded before finishing.  I have been listening to audio books and podcasts lately and working with hand tools is quieter and more relaxing while I listen.

  If you are like me, part of the reason you work in wood is for the "Zen" sort of relaxation that  it can bring.  One of my meditation projects is tool handles.

  I buy all my files/rasps un-handled and most of my chisels that way as well.  While glue or vanish was drying I made a handle for this small file.  It began as a piece of 3/4 inch hardwood dowel into which I drilled a small through hole.  I then widen the hole so the shoulders of the file would seat firmly into the wood.  While things dried I listened to music or a books and shaped the handle with my wicked sharp shop knife.  ( I have the carbon steel version that cost $6.50 Cdn in Sweden).  I get as much satisfaction for hand shaping a handle for one of my tools as basic as it seems as I do making many of my projects.  I also love whittling with a really good knife, even if all I am doing is make small sticks, smaller.

  Carrying on woodworking.

cheers, ianw