Merry Christmas 2020

   For only the second time in my long life I have not shared a meal with my Mother and Brother on Christmas Day.  The only other time Eva and I were in New Zealand on holiday. Fresh local strawberries are traditional on Christmas day there.  This year it is Eva and I. No extended family, I am lucky to have Eva with which to share the day.

  This year we are in lock-down because of Covid-19, however, everyone in our extended family has remained healthy and almost fully employed so in the grand scheme of things we are Okay.  I truly hope that you are too.

  I have been working on some small seasonal things over the last week or two.  This is a candle holder idea.  The bottle is used as a chimney to protect the tea light flame.  As a prototype it is clear that the wooden backing needs to be reduced in size. 

  

  In the back of the photograph you can see last year's nut cracker and a carved bowl.  It is pretty tough to find a view in our house with no shop projects in the frame.

about 2 x 4 inches

  Two small scroll saw/carving projects, awaiting varnish.

If you are hot chocolate drinker, a serious, old school hot chocolate drinker you know what this is.  I turned this hand mixer from hard maple and burned a few lines into the handle just for fun.  Used correctly, with the right rich creamy ingredients your hot chocolate tastes like a holiday in Barcelona. ( note: hot chocolate, not cocoa.)

  Two bowls, the tall narrow one is from wormy wood. It was fun to turn on a face plate but tough to finish since it has voids. 

  This bowl is still on the lathe, I am trying to fill all the voids on this one before final sanding.  It is taking time,

  It has been a busy December what with shop things, binding books, painting Christmas cards and searching for the perfect surprise gift.  

  We all look forward to the New Year with bated breath.  Please be wise, be safe and be kind.

Merry Christmas from Eva and I.

cheers ianw 

wheel barrow - done

 This was a workshop repair in which I defaulted to Plan "B" as the full details emerged. My original plan had been to take the whole thing apart and replace all the wooden parts.  Our storage situation means that this wheel barrow has lived outside, more or less unprotected for the last 10 years.  We were also neglectful of the wood.  If we had scraped and painted the wooden parts occasionally replacement would not have had to be considered.

  Plan B emerged after I had glued up and shaped the wooded replacement parts. ( I now have two 5 foot 2 x 2 s , I will find a use for them eventually.)  Closer examination made it obvious that all the hardware would have to be cut off and then it  looked as though reattaching the tub would become too difficult to be practical. It looked as though welding might become necessary. Next I considered replacing the metal tub with an open wooden body like you see in old farm photos. Basically building  a new old style wheel barrow around the wheel.

 

  But barrows like that are top heavy and would need more paint not less to keep it looking good. It also looked like there would be more work than the result was worth.

  So I opted to make basic repairs instead of major rebuilding.  The problem that set this project in motion was the rotting of the wood at the front end of the wheel barrow.  Both sides rotted and the bolts came free.  The black bracket at the front of the barrow keeps the frame from separating and the axle coming loose.  Since I cut the rotten ends off and re-drilled for the bracket I had to also cut out some of the bracket to leave space for the wheel to freely turn.  I seem to need my angle grinder more and more often. 

 I soaked the wooden handles in a couple of coats of left over oil based stain to try and cheaply seal the wood and then painted it with outdoor trim paint. 

I will paint the inside of the tub in the spring when I can wash it out, outside with the garden hose.

You can see that I added from re-enforcement wood under the tub, on both sides. There are boards there to keep the tub level and aligned between the handles. That wood was also in rough shape.  The tub is bolted through the handle and the additional wood providing alignment, cutting the bolts was going to be easy, getting it all connected together again didn't look as though it was going to be so easy.

  Option "B" was not a coward's way out.  I rather think of it as choosing which fights I want/need to fight and to which avoid.  Now I can get that big thing off my bench and return to Christmas sized projects. 

cheers, ianw

Christmas Gifts

 

 This is some of the typical seasonal stuff that I make in my shop.  Many people I know like wood grain and slightly rustic decor items.  The only special tool that you need for this sort of thing is a Forstner bit of the correct size.  It is nice to have a drill press too when drilling those big holes.  I buy my candles at the $ Store and drill the holes to fit.

  

  A quick project for our basement bathroom.  I used scraps and left overs to make the bathroom tissue holder. I doubt that there are many bathrooms with elm paper holders. Glue and dowels,  so when the floor is flooded by a grand kid nothing will rust.

  The joy of doing a project like the paper holder was working the wood with my planes.  I have a scrub plane, a plane I recommend for all shops and two smoothing planes.  The plane at the bottom of the picture is a A 33 Stanley,  copy by Anant from India.  I have been happy with my Anant planes for the price, very happy. The top plane in the photo is my low angle smoother from Veritas.  It was a Christmas gift a couple of years ago.  Properly set up and sharpened those planes are wonderful to use.

  I am still working on the wheel barrow.  Once I got the handles glued and shaped I discovered I was not going to be able to undue most of the nuts and bolts without serious violence.  Also I was pretty sure that I would need to do more metal work than I like or have the proper tools for.  It is always good to have a plan "B".

  Tomorrow sees more of plan"B" in action.

  IMO this is a great year for personal, homemade gifts.  We all need some extra encouragement this year.

cheers, ianw

  

Shop Knives -Pt. One- Apron and Utility Knives

   I could easily do a 12 knives of Christmas series of blogs.  May 2017 featured a photo of my pocket knife collection (http://blogthetoolstore.blogspot.com/2017/05/folding-andor-pocket-knives.html)  At times I have also talked about various shop knives, which are also many.  Shop knives often serve for me the purpose other woodworkers assign to chisels.  Even when I am wood carving, I am much more likely to reach for a knife than a chisel.

   These are my apron knives.  You can see a lanyard attached to each knife that is tied to a shop apron, usually. Often I have a folding knife in my pocket but these two knives are not only very sharp, the blades are extra robust so can stand up to prying and twisting that a typical pocket knife may not survive.  I do not abuse my tools, but they are worked hard.  Both of these knives have blades that can be resharpened without to much trouble and so far neither is chipped from hard use. 

  

  The top knife is a Japanese style knife which I find quite versatile for marking as well as making fine adjustments when working small projects. 

  The bottom knife is ???? but really heavy duty.  I think it's proper use is as an electrician's wire stripper knife, I don't do that but It is also good for splitting off bits when getting ready to turn something on the lathe.  The spine of these knives will withstand being struck with a mallet.

 I have a 600 grit ceramic stone and a strop close at hand and so regularly touch up these blades. Commonly when I  stop to rest, drink coffee or make a plan I will pick up  a sharpening stone or strop and give an edge tool some attention.  For me dealing with edge tools a little bit at a time is less tiresome than spending all afternoon sharpening everything.  Also it means almost never reaching for an edge tool: plane, knife or chisel that is not ready for use.

  

  These are the knives that take the most abuse.  I use these to cut plastic, dry wall, foam core, card board, insulation and all the other stuff that is just brutal on a real knife. These are also the blade that digs out dried paint and muck from screw heads.  I like the heavier handles of these knives vs. the sliding blade type of knife.  The replaceable  blades can also be touched up a bit on the ceramic stone though it usually isn't worth the effort.  I have two because, if I only had one I would spend too much time looking for it.  These knives have a place in my tool cabinet but seem to prefer laying out on the bench.   

  The lost couple of project have been knocking Christmas decorations into shape so they can be put out for the season.  After  hours of fun I think we have the light situation in hand and today we had to shovel snow for the first time.  The winter season has arrived. sigh.

cheers, ianw

  

     

  

  

End of November, wrap up.

   So I finished my version of the Eldris knife.  I really like the handle, it is very smooth and comfortable with a wax finish. The blade is 85% fully sharpened and will shortly be razor sharp.  It turns out that I am glad that I didn't spend money on the real thing.  This is sort of a knife solution looking for a problem to solve.  It will sit on a shelf  with lots of other knives but at this time I can not see a special use for it.

  I have a project coming up that will require a bunch of dowels.  I have plenty of 3/8 dowel rod in my shop.  If you buy dowels for assembly they are usually fluted, the flutes give the glue someplace to go when you are setting the dowels.  

  I made my own 3/8 dowel fluting jig.  I drive the dowel through the hole, the points of the screws cut into the dowel and 

  end up cutting fluting for the glue.

   This little fellow has hung around awaiting the cast for his arm for at least two seasons. While waiting for glue to dry the other day  I finally remembered to make the repair. I can't remember were this flower pot ornament came from, but that is not reason enough to just throw it away.  This is the sort of cute thing that Grand children love.  And cute little things remind me of my cute little grand children.

   My wife was trying to make a Christmas video for our church yesterday.  I went into the shop and made a cell phone holder using a 1/4-20 nut and some wood scraps. It is nice having a shop and tools.  This holder is one of those things that may get used once a year.  I saved the cost of a shopping trip and the purchase. When the phone size changes this holder will not be discarded with the hundreds of tonnes of other quick, easy, cheap imported plastic junk. It can be  easily modified to fit the next  phone or used to light the BBQ either way, bonus.

 This is the big job on my bench now.  Our wheel barrow needs some serious restoration. The wooden parts are weathered to death.  I am gluing some hardwood boards together to make the handles. (that is were the dowels are going to be used). I suspect all the nuts and bolts will have to be cut off and replaced and the barrel needs to be sanded and painted. (maybe even patched in a couple of places.)

  Why restore this thing?  It has given years of service and is not anything special. Why not spend $100.00 and get a new and probably better wheel barrow?  Mostly I fix things because I can.  Also I really condemn our throw-away culture. We have the money to replace this but I have the time to repair it and it will probably last us the rest of our gardening lives once repaired. I would rather not add this to the local landfill site. 

cheers ianw

My Woodworking Shop Space

  Since I got my shop space cleaned up pretty well,  I thought I would share a view of my  space with my readers.  This shop is down stairs and shares space with the furnace and air filter/circulation system.

the space is 30 x 10 sort of.

 This rough drawing is not to scale, of course.  The following photographs are taken my me from the spot marked "me" on the floor plan.

  The is the long view from the back corner to the front.  On the left, a wood rack, sliding mitre saw, floor drill press and work bench. On the end wall I have two tool cabinets, over the work bench there are shelves for planes and chisels. In the far right is a shelving unit filled with finishing products and behind it another wood rack. On the immediate right is a KREG clamping table and a Jess Em router table. ( and a pillar and a furnace)

 

Behind my back in the corner is a band saw, shelving/storage as well as an old desk made into a sanding scroll saw work station. Also along that back wall is more storage .

  Turning to the right I have my joiner and table saw. Behind the table saw are double doors that enable me to rip long boards without have to move the saw around much.  My dust collector is through the wall in our pantry cellar.

 Under the stairs is my mobile lathe and another band saw.  Behind the lathe is stuff relating to tiling, grout, boxes of left over tiles etc.

  Needless to say all the wall space is filled with shelves containing wood, small tools and all the everyday stuff that one needs to make a shop work.

  I am very lucky to have this much space and this many tools.  The abundance of tools does reflect my decade of working in the woodworking tool business.  An ordinary shop probably wouldn't have so much stuff.  Less stuff and more room might well be the better way to go.

  This wood shop journey began about 20 years ago when I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and got a CPAP machine to help me sleep.  It took two nights to get used to the CPAP machine. I began to sleep properly, was no longer falling asleep in the chair after supper and suddenly had four or five extra hours a day    to do things.  I bought a scroll saw, long worn out, and never looked back on my woodworking journey.

  Now it is make Christmas gifts season. 

Stay safe, care for others and make some saw dust.

cheers, ianw

Busy Days

 Yesterday's busy day began Thursday evening gluing the face plate to a maple board.  My plan was a shallow bowl.

  To be able to turn the dish/bowl on a face plate I needed to attach the board to the face plate without screws.  I choose this method, instead of using my three jaw chuck. The face plate is screwed to a piece of wood (oak) which is rounded but more importantly flattened.  I next glue paper, (cereal box) to the oak face and the bottom of the bowl blank.  LET THE GLUE DRY, I give the wood glue  overnight in the clamps to dry completely.

  To begin I turn the blank between centres until it is round and turning smoothly. After that I remove the tail stock and hollow it as I would any other bowl. This project has three burned lines as details.The lines are made by holding a wire against the bowl as it turns until the friction burns the wood. After sanding I waxed the bowl and took the whole thing off the lathe, face plate and all. The bowl is separated using a chisel and I sand the paper off with a random orbital sander. 

  Then I left the mess to be cleaned up today.

Mini Lathe 

  The messy lathe work station was just one of today's messy spots.

  Yesterday before I began work in my shop I had another of those none wood working things to do that keeps a wood working shop going.  I had to sew the seam on the left index finger of my shop gloves.

Actually I pretty pleased with my work.   You can't see the repair. These gloves have saved many skinned knuckles. 

  I talked about making my own knife. 

 I had two blades from which to choose::

  The blade on the left is a Morakniv blank  and the one on the right is one of several I bought 25+ years ago with big plans.  Over time a couple of these blades have been used to make some tools for my shop so I know the steel is good.

  

   I guess because I like to make life difficult, or because it doesn't look as  though I will be in Sweden anytime soon I opted to reshape the blade on the right. Now it is not just fitting a wooden handle it is almost like knife making.

   I used a stainless steel cutting wheel on my angle grinder to cut the rough shape of the blade. Then using my bench grinder I refined the shape some more. Tip: keep a bowl of water handy when using either grinder and cool the steel frequently.

  Once I got the blade shaped to more or less its final form I began working on the blade with sand paper on a marble slab.  This is a slow process but slow is better, if like me you are not experienced.  It is easy to burn and/or mess up the final stages of forming and sharpening a blade with a machine. 

  The blade here is sandwiched between pieces of Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba). Wooden sides are pinned with dowel and the whole thing is clamped and glued over night.  In the past I have found that two part epoxy glues the wood to the steel permanently. 

  So this morning I went into my shop, knowing I had left it in total chaos.  Generally I don't like to do that but by the time I'd ground and shaped and sanded and worked on the lathe I just didn't feel like cleaning up.

  

 First thing was un-clamping the knife. It looks as though it will turn out Okay.

  Then....

work bench

work table

  Everything was just left where is was used last.  Once I finished with the bowl and this stage with the knife I lost my mind and really went to cleaning town. 

   Everything does have a place, and I did get it all put away, and vacuumed the whole place, top to bottom.All the floor mats were taken up and seriously vacuumed.  I even got on my knees and vacuumed under the work benches.  It was amazing what I found hidden amongst  the dust bunnies. ( hex keys and small hardware mostly)

  Everything does have a place, and I did get it all put away, and vacuumed the whole place, top to bottom.

  In the next blog I will show the layout of my shop space, the way it is organised and what it looks like clean.

cheers ianw

                                      

                                                

 

 

Small Project - rehabilitate a plane?

 I just finished a larger project. (is a surprise so I am not talking about it here) It was one that was totally new to me and one for which I had to do some design and experimentation. So now I am looking for a couple of small things before I drive into another large project.  I will probably do some more wood turning as a distraction too. 

 In a back cupboard I have a few things that have been the in back of my mind. I have knife blades that needs handles and two plane bodies that need blades.  5 or 6 of the knife blades are Swedish Mora blades of various styles, one of my plans is to make my own Morakniv  Eldris. I think an Eldris will be a great pencil sharpening knife and will fit well into a tool belt for use as a marking knife. 

  For this plane body I had a blade in my collected parts and pieces  that was slightly too wide.  The other body is for a 5/8 rabbet plane, I have no idea where to get a blade for it.  I may have to cut a chisel apart, or....?

  I  clamped the blade in my work station and carefully filed the sides down until it fit into the plane body.

  Most of the files that I have in my shop are either from my Grandfather/father's shops or something that I bought cheap at a garage sale once upon a time. Between these three I filed the plane blade so that it fits snugly in the body.  I may have to track down a chip breaker for this blade and make a hard wood wedge as well.  I am going to fiddle with the wedge before I go looking for parts, unless I can get a chip breaker cheap this may end up as the body of a large sanding block.  I don't remember where the plane body came from and suspect it cost $0.00.

 

  Currently the weather is unseasonable and so full on shop attendance has been somewhat delayed, but it is coming soon.

cheers ianw  

   

Let Glue Dry - homage to Laura Kampf

 

   I hate waiting. I especially hate waiting for glue to dry. Ms. Kampf has a visual she places in her videos to show her audience that the action has been interrupted for the glue to dry.  As I was rummaging around my shop yesterday I reminded myself I need a visual reminder too.  My block is 13 x 4 x 2.5 with two cutouts for my lead gravity clamps. Each  of those lead plates is over ten pounds and come in very handy many times.  I recommend every shop to have some weights like this.  Weights that are proper cubes would be better.

 

 In January 2015 I helped my friend make this entertainment centre for their basement.  Recently I made the small TV stand that fits on top of the entertainment centre.  It is great working with/for these friends, they provide an exact plan, with exact measurements every time. This way  building things for their house is successful and so is very satisfying.  Insist on an exact plan when building custom  pieces for people.  If you do not have precise measurements there is a really good chance that you wouldn't make what the other person thought they wanted. In the same vain, I do the initial sanding but leave fine sanding and finishing to the other folks, that way it they don't like the colour, it's their fault, not mine.

  I have begun working on Christmas/seasonal things.  I made repairs to our large snow man a while ago and have recently dragged my lathe out of the corner.

  I think this is a Cossack snow man. The grain of the wood is actually pretty striking.    (he clearly needs arms)

  I had a little piece of fire wood and made a little thing.  Small projects like this are great to practice finishes upon and are quick enough they can be completed in a quiet evening. A tea light candle will fit in this wee bowl or I guess it could catch some loose change.  It had no preordained use.  It was a shellac/bees wax finish experiment more than anything else.I like how quick and easy the finish turned out to be too.

  I have seen many snowmen , elves, Christmas trees etc, on the net.  I think I will spend some quality time with my lathe this season.

cheers, ianw

  

Welcome to November

   To begin the blog I have two videos to share. 

   I have followed Rob Cosman for years. He and I worked booths at wood working shows a few years ago and Rob is one of the best know and respected wood workers in Canada.  His blog 'best woodworking tips and tricks 2020' is great, he speaks from long experience.

 Laura Kampf is a wood worker from Koln Germany who seems to be able to turn her hand to both wood and metal work.  Her video showing a new way to glue up a table top is great.  I am planning to copy her example on a smaller scale soon.

 What have I been doing? Making an over engineered  pencil sharpener.

  I embedded  a trim plane into a piece of oak and then made the oak board into the top of a box

  using a wooden hinge.

  This pencil sharpener can plane a wood pencil to a very, very sharp point, or a long point, or what ever you decide and the box underneath catches the shavings. It is like sharpening with a knife or chisel but without the mess.   There is nothing special about the project other than the wooden hinge.  I got the idea from an ad that showed up in my Facebook account awhile ago. Mine is not hand finished brass but....it will work as well.  If I made another one it would be easier and nicer, but not brass.

 The other project is a beginning on Christmas gifts.

 I sewed a 16 page book with  hand painted cover from nixed media paper.  A grand daughter will be able to draw, colour or even paint their own little book. I try and keep my grand children supplied with decent paper for their art.  It is always good to recycle office paper but it is best used for shopping lists not art.

cheers ianw

  

Small Box B

   The second small box I made from pallet wood also turned out to have lovely grain. This time I pushed my luck a little too far and made the sides 1/8th inch thick.  That did not give enough contact surface to get a solid glue joint so I had add  bracing.

 

The sides are braced internally and taped 

while the gravity clamp does its job.

  When I do a project like this that relies on glue alone I always give the glue lots of time, usually over night to set. I used Gorilla Glue to hold this together.  Also I tapered the corner braces so there was a smooth flow from the top into the box.

  The box is finished with two coats of "3 Part Finish" * and one coat of wax.  The only small handicap 3 Part Finish has it is is slow to dry.  I find that it needs 24 hours to dry enough that a second coat can be applied. It takes a couple of days for the final coat of finish to really harden. In this case time was available so it is not a problem, old style finishes are not for last minute folks. Once dry I gave the box a quick coat of wax and now it looks great.  

  Start thinking about gift season, it isn't far away.

  

* 3 Part Finish - one part boiled linseed oil

                          -one part varnish

                         - one part mineral spirits or turpentine.