Grampa's Work Shop and Opa's Too

  My Grandfather was a wood worker, before it became a popular hobby.  My Dad's family lived in a small village a long walk from a small town and a serious train trip from what passed for a city in rural Ontario. So my Grandfather was a wood worker, because they wanted storage shelves and an ice house and skis and all sorts of other things that we now have some one in china make for us.  In my Grampa's workshop I learned the names of the tools, and how to use the basic ones and watched and helped as day to day things were created or repaired.  As well as basic domestic things my Grandfather, with my Father's help made boats before I came along.   They made 5 or 6 wooden boats, car top boats or slightly larger boats that would easily carry three men and their fishing tackle.  My Father and I helped a friend make cedar strip canoes one winter, my Father and my friend are gone now. 

  I was rummaging around in my shop and found the last project that my Grampa made.

  It's a door stop that he made in the wood shop in the seniors home in which he lived the last few years of his life.  The door stop needed the leaves glued back on, as with real leaves they fall off after a while.  I have a few tools that where in my Grampa's shop and then my Father's shop.  I think the old saying 'saw dust isn't just up your nose, it's in your blood." is true. 

  This last week has been filled with Christmas music and Christmas shopping. (I think we are expecting 167 people for Christmas, or at least we've got enough food to feed that many) and a couple of projects that will become gifts.

  My Grand Daughter Clara got a wooden 'blanket box' last year and this year she is getting her own middle sized rocking chair.  The chair was a cast off that I got for free, and it didn't need anything but soap and paint to make it as good as new.

  The original finish was long gone so all I needed to do was clean it up and put an entire spray can of gloss white paint on it.  My wife is making a colourful throw to go on the chair.  Clara is going to have a very special custom furnished bedroom.  I have a plan for one more interesting piece for her room.  Maybe for her birthday?

  Nut crackers have become a thing.  I am working to refine the thread cutting process.  These last two nut crackers has the dowel soaked for 24 hours, not quite long enough for smooth cutting but the dowel didn't swell.  The next attempt will soak the dowel for three days.

  Anyhow the wheels keep turning and it is winter, though you couldn't tell that by looking out our windows, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Glorious Long Weekend....whatever your family says at this time of year.

  We are having a gang here, not nearly 167 but lots so...see you in 2019.

cheers, ianw

An ancient Christmas Carol sung wonderfully.  The Wexford Carol

Nut Crackers---sweet

  I saw a plan for a nut cracker on Instructables last week and decided that I would make one, or two, or three....

  Once I got going, I decided to adapt the idea to make a more rustic style nut cracker.

  To make a wood screw nut cracker you do need one piece of specialized equipment, and some drill bits and a drill press. You need either a thread box or...some other method of cutting threading on a dowel and tapping a hole.  I have a thread box and matching tap.

 I began these nut crackers by threading a length of one inch hardwood dowel after reading variety of blogs taking about cutting good crisp threads with a thread box.

  I took the dowel and soaked it in vegetable oil for a week as suggested by a blog. The threads cut very crisp but...the dowel did swell a bit and fit very tightly in the thread box.  Next time I will soak the dowel for 3 or 4 days in hopes that the outside is soaked but not too swollen. 

  Cutting the thread was the most difficult part of these projects.  It is very difficult to get a good grip on round oily wood.  I had to clamp one end of the dowel with vice grip pliers, which tore it badly.  I threaded about twice as much dowel as I needed so I could pick and choose this time and so that I'd have some in hand for a later project.  

 With threaded dowel in hand I picked a piece of six inch black locust for my nut cracker. I cut one end square and left the top on a bit of an angle, just for the 'look'.

  Next I used a Forestner bit to drill a hole down the end grain.

  Drill slowly and clamp the wood firmly when drilling.

 You can see the branch clamped to drill the side hole, that will be threaded.  I use a wooden hand screw since it will hold irregular shapes better.

  

  I used the matching tap to thread the hole.  Again the branch needs to be held firmly, and the tap started straight and carefully.

    I glued a piece of barn board onto one end of the threaded dowel and await the final setting of the glue.  Once the glue sets I'll shape the knob a bit. On this nut cracker I drilled an opening on the opposite side for the dowel to fit into.  This way when not in use the dowel is totally buried and takes up less space on the table as well is protected from being broken if dropped. 

  I learned something important while experimenting, I could not cut threads into end grain, I had to cut thread across the grain.  End gain just tore and was useless.  I found that problem in maple, maybe other woods would work better, I'm not going to bother trying. 

 I thought I would add a photo of my bench in process.

When I am working on something 'new' my work space becomes chaos.  I am forging ahead full steam and don't put things away as I work. Also when I am working on something new I usually end up with about twice as many tools at hand than I end up needing.  For example I only needed three Forestner drill bits but I didn't know which ones for sure so I brought the whole box off the shelf.  I had things to clamp but started with the wrong type or clamps that were too small. They are there on the bench.  There are knives, chisels, saws, glue bottles, and various pliers.  Most of which will stay on the shelf the next time I do this sort of project, everything will look much more professional, next time.

  At the end of today's work it took 20 minutes to clean up and put all the tools where they live. This style of working is not a habit a new woodworker should cultivate and one an old wood worker should try and break. (maybe a new year's resolution)

  I think these will be popular Christmas gifts .

cheers, ianw

  

Opa's Workshop Christmas 2018

 I have settled into several jobs with a Christmas dead line.  

  Pettson and Findus are in the mail to Sweden as this is being typed. One job done.

 While working on other things in the shop I made a quick side trip and made this for Eva.

 

  If the yarn did not give it away, for you non knitters this is a jig for making pom-poms.  You don't need a shop to make a jig like this but having the materials and tools laying about makes it easy to do.

 I used my drill press to make a quick jig for use in the art kit.

 

  I bought two replacement erasers, needless to say they did not fit into the holder that I had.  Who would have thought that eraser producers would make none-compatible parts.  So...I threw the plastic thing away and made two wooden holders. I will spruce up the final product later, since I  needed an eraser right now. 

  The nail keeps the eraser in place and having a drill press meant that I could drill the hole in the center of the dowel and have it meet in the middle.  I could never have drilled that accurately free hand. The drill press was one of the game changing tools for me early in my workshop days.

  The actual serious project, upon which I have spent 5 hours since yesterday and made vast amounts of saw dust is a bowl. ( gone are the days when I could work hunched over the bench all day, a couple of hours a day is my max now.)

  This is a burl bowl and it is not going to be round.  I had the burl on a shelf, for several years and had planned to turn it on a lathe someday.  I had the burl, before I had a lathe.  Turns out my mini lathe is just a little too small for this chunk of wood.  The more I looked at the wood the more I wanted to go 'free form" anyway.

  Needless to say I was well into the project before it occurred to me how cool this is going to be and so photographs are not available for the first part.  Initially I blocked out a basic shape with chalk and began work with my Arbortech Turbo Plane . I've used this tool before to clear away large amounts of wood in short order.  It is however, aggressive.  

  Using the 4 1/2 inch grinder with the turbo plane and various sanding disks requires both hands, three would be better still.  To be able to safely work on the burl I screwed a block to the top first and gave the outside a basic shape as well as created a flat bottom. What you see in the photo is the block screwed to the bottom so that I can work to hollow out the inside.

  By clamping the block in a hand screw then clamping the hand screw to the bench I am able to rotate the bowl most any direction I need.  I can also hold it at a level that lets me sit while working. Sitting is just that little bit more stable while using various power grinding tools. After roughing the inside out, with the turbo I switched to various bits in various Dremel tools and hand drills.  I've done a number of bowls through the years and have a small tool box filled with dozens of burrs, rasps and grinding tips. In my experience power speeds the job along but quality results still require patience and steady hands. Rushing or lack of attention can make for a serious ugly gouge in an instant.

  I think I have at least 3 more hours of sanding with the final sanding having to be done by hand.  This afternoon I soaked the bowl with water, once it is final sanded and varnished, it is going to look cool.

 cheers, ianw

21 days 'til Christmas.  If asked, you can remind your family that a wood worker can always use more clamps. (or sanders).