Sanding and Drilling and Tapping, Oh My.

  The sanding story is nearly always a cutting board story in my shop.  Everyone I know needs a cutting board and I like making them. 

 These boards are oak, sanded to 400 grit and finished with Hemp Oil.  I like Hemp Oil as it is natural, food safe and grown locally.  As with any cutting board these will need to be re-oiled over time.  In a busy kitchen a wooden board can be re-oiled with just about any cooking oil since it will not have time to go rancid before it needs to be renewed.   Maple makes a very nice cutting board too, I just don't have a ready supply of maple handy.

  The other project was another nut cracker. 

  This version got sort of antiqued finish.  No, I don't really like it and no I won't do it again.

  This is one of the few things I make in my shop that  requires special tools and doesn't have a variety of ways to be made.

  I use a big forstner bit to drill the vertical hole.  I mean big.  In this case 1 3/8 inch big.  To drill the hole I hold the wood in a large wooden hand screw, which I clamp to the drill press table.  If everything goes well, you could hold the wood with your hand.  If things don't go well...well.  Just clamp things down when drilling a really big hole.

  The horizontal hole is another story altogether.  I drill that hole with my brace and bit. I threaded a one inch dowel and so needed a 7/8 inch hole in the side of the piece.  I prefer to use the hand drill because it is really slow and there is less chance of break out or splitting.

   Once the hole is drilled I use the tap which matches the threaded dowel and slowly tap the hole in the side.

  I have used this tap and die set several times over the last couple of years and here are a couple of tips for threading and tapping wood.

  -soft wood is easier, so if you can get away with poplar or pine, this latest nut cracker is cedar, use it.

- soak the dowel for a couple of days in food safe oil, the threads will cut better, not perfect, but better.  If you have the time and have planned ahead turn your own dowels from quality wood with straight grain but still oil it.

- when tapping the hole, oil it and the tap too. Dry wood is more likely to splinter. A dry tap more likely to stick.

-go slow, threading and tapping wood takes time.

- clean up and oil the tap and die box when done so it will be perfect when you come to use it again in ten months.

 

  This is one tool  for which there is not a work around.  There are multiple ways to cut, drill, shape, plane, fasten and finish,  only one way to cut threads and tap wood.

  It is January 11th and we have no snow.  That is a good thing.

cheers ianw

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