Inspired by the Net

   There are several woodworking sites that I follow regularly, and most days I spend sometime wandering through the World Wide Web looking at other folks' projects.  Today's blog is inspired by two videos that came to my attention recently.

  The first video is from "Zack of All Trades" .  As a lone wood worker I am always looking for new and better (also cheap) ways to hold work still for planing or drilling.  To that end I have many clamps and jigs. "Zack" had a very good instructional video that mostly stated the obvious. It was of course one of those forehead slapping moments. The video shows a very tidy way to live without a tail vise.

These are my new solutions to work holding without a tail vise.  Needless to say they get my safety red, or they'd get lost amidst all the other bits of wood.  I made a thin and a thick dog and a long thin wedge. After drilling three more dog holes in my work top my set up works well now for planing small boards.

  June 2017's blog talks about tool trays and shows a couple I made with duct tape and coffee bags.  I am still using my trays for loose bits and pieces on the bench.

  I just included this to show that a good design and project continues to be useful.

  The other project was inspired by Jimmy DiResta, a talented and versatile maker.   In this video he made a rustic band saw box.  His project inspired me to follow his lead, but on a small scale.

  I had collected some tree branches over time and let them dry in my shop.  The plan was, walking sticks, or a lathe project .... ?  Anyway I've used some of the wood to make 'band saw style boxes'.

  The box is 5 1/2 inches long and is about 3 inches in diameter. I think the wood is cherry from in front of our house. I haven't decided exactly what hinges I will use.  This is a situation where hinges need to be either hidden or....in your face.  I await fulfilling inspiration.

 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).

The Finished Table and What's Next.

   I always like to see my projects installed.  Underneath this three sided black table is a hatch cover to a sump pump, but you would never know it.  For that matter you wouldn't know that this is a funny three legged table.  The client is happy and so am I.

   Now I am onto making a knelling chair for my friend David.  

  David is quite a talented composer who is spending too much time sitting at his computer and hopes this alternative style chair will be a good for his back.  He is helping me make  his chair from a plan that he found on the net.  

 We cut out the pieces from one of the church pews that I got a couple of weeks ago.

  

  The oak pew sliced up nicely, all that remains is to buy (or make) some large dowelling and various small nuts and bolts. This is one of those projects that will take as long to sand and finish as to build now.

  Speaking of chairs.

 There is another chair from my Mother's house.  I don't remember how long ago my parents bought those chairs,(25-30 years ago) they have lasted well and only required a little bit of attention over all those years.  We are heavy folk and seldom miss a sit down meal so those chairs have lived a hard life.  I love wood and those chairs are a solid example of why. Some glue and clamping and the chair is a sturdy as ever, you can work with wood in a way that is satisfying and special.

  Again I had to take some time out to clean up and put away tools, cutting up the oak pew meant I needed slightly more room to move.  Also I have been seriously reconsidering my wood 'addiction'.  My friend Ron pronounced me a 'wood junkie' several years ago when he encountered my shop in it natural state.  So I have sent myself the goal of cutting up and throwing away at least 10 quarts of wood a week.  My fire place owning friends don't need anymore wood and so I am going to send 10 quarts per week to composting/recycling.  Ten quarts happens to be the size of container I have chosen to fill each week no other reason.  For years I  have kept and used off cuts and left overs.  There are dozens of projects that I have done from the scrap bin, some nicer than others.  I have also kept dozens of little bits to turn on the lathe. (that's never really happened in-spite of my best intentions).  While it is deeply satisfying to make something from nothing but...floundering and tripping over bins and boxes of wood scraps has lost its allure.  Gradually I am going to reduce my addiction and improve my work space. (pictures to follow.)

  Anyway as I was culling some scraps I found two projects that I'd begun a while ago.  I found an olive tray project from an oak barrel stave and a spoon.  Both of these things had been started with my hatchet, and forgotten.  It seemed like a good time to take them in hand.

The olive tray is the last of several I've made over the years.  The first few trays I began by cutting and shaping the staves on my band saw and then using an angle grinder and power sanders to finish. The results were acceptable, the trays were popular gifts.  Oak barrel staves are really nice wood.

  

  I'd switched to hand tools for spoons last summer and this time I decided to work the oak stave with hand tools too. You can see my fabulous hatchet that I bought in Sweden just down the road from the foundry that forged it.  It is a Wetterings #106 and a work of tool art. Their forge is twenty eight kilometres away from my kids house in Sweden I think I need go for a visit the next time I am in Sweden. 

  Scattered about on the bench are chisels, planes, and rasps. The only high quality tools of the bunch are the hatchet and the rasp. The chisels are a mixed bag, some good quality    

( Two Cherries) gauges but others are no name for a wood show.   The hand planes are quite ordinary too.  Most workshop projects don't need tonnes of expensive equipment to complete.

  

similar to the KIng K-2800 

  There are speciality vises that will hold none parallel items but for my purposes I get along with an ordinary vise and wedges.  I cut out four wedges with different angles ages ago and when I make one for a particular situation I save if for later use.  

  The other thing I'm working on is another spoon.

basic shape formed with gouges and chisels

  By the time I am finished with scrapers and rasps there will be little need for sand paper.  I like making spoons/spatulas with hand tools, this way there is almost no dust and no noise.  

I will use a draw knife to shape the handle. 

I will share the results later in the week.

On the Bench

 My workbench is again, chaos. On the bench are carving tools, files, sand paper, shellac, brushes, planes, saws and knives. Not to mention a large coffee cup and a cutting board drying in clamps.

   The cutting board is fairly obvious, this board is maple and about 11 by 17 and 1 inch thick. I glued it together last evening and set it on the corner of the bench to dry. Hooray for Bessey clamps and water proof glue.  

  The other project that was drying over night was a brooch carved out of bass wood and painted with acrylic paint.

   I think those two projects reflect the real nature of my workshop. Projects of all types and sizes come out of my basement shop, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  It has been a few months since I produced a cutting board which is fine, I was getting bored of the process.  Lately I have been working on these little carvings because it is relaxing and gives me a chance to play with design ideas.

  Art and design is funny.  What you make may become popular or not,  and the quality of the work is not as important as the "look".  If the right person sees your piece and likes it, then it will sell and maybe even become popular, and if it isn't seen by the right person.... your piece collect dust.  There is no way of guessing what is going to happen.

  When I work on something small it still needs lots of tools.  Anything made of wood requires the same preparation, the wood has to be square and smooth. Shaping wood for a book case needs saws, planes, files and sand paper, so does shaping wood for a 2.5 inch brooch.  I use more hand tools when working on things like the brooch, I like that because it is quieter produces less fine dust.  I also chose hand tools because I feel it is safer. 

  A workshop footnote.

  Last evening I was ripping 3/8 strips off of mahogany planks with a friend and we began the process by reminding ourselves about shop safety.  With more than 100 years shop experience between us and both with all our fingers we still talked shop safety before settling into serious band saw time.

  The shop will get cleaned up, and it will get messed up again too. I think it is called the circle of dust.

cheers, ianw

  

   

Bench Top Clamping

  Tom at Tom's Workbench recently wrote a blog featuring the KREG KKS1110 Bench Clamp.

  Tom's post was entitled "Hold it Down" and in that post Tom showed another interesting twist on bench clamping. 

  He said that he got this idea because he didn't want to cut into the top of his lovely bench. As you can see I do not have a lovely bench, nor do I have any qualms about cutting it's top. 

   My bench's top is 1 1/2 thick plywood and occasionally I sand and fill the rough bits and paint it. Actually it is in pretty good shape currently. I have an less damaged bench for finer wood work but this is the Clydesdale of my wood shop, it does all the heavy lifting.  These are a selection of the various bench top appliances that I have acquired over the years.

Lee Valley Wonder Pup

Lee Valley Bench Blade

hold down made by Daniel Linkenheld 

  Turns out I have an extra plate for my KREG KKS1110, so I think I may follow Tom's example and make a movable clamping point as well.  I would screw it to the bench top if it served my purpose, I can hear the groans of  the bench lovers as I type.  It is not a bad idea to have an extra insert plate or two for custom clamping. 

KBK-IP

  I don't abuse my tools, or bench, I just make them work hard.