A Few Awesome Tools

So I was going through the shop doing the big cleanup and I came across these awesome tools. Obviously they are awesome just because of the kind of tools, drawknife, froe and hatchet, but especially because of where they came from. Last summer I served as Chaplain (Padre) for the Greenwood Cadet Summer Training Center and the Cadet Padres from the Maritimes gathered for training in Halifax. Quincy, one of the other Padres, had been these tools at home and had not been using them, but we had been talking about wood working at the training during break time and realized we were not only friends but also kindred spirits. A while later he showed up at Greenwood with these for me. Wow! Now I need to find a special place for them so I am reminded of a good friend when I see them and use them.

By the way, I could not say enough good about the Cadet program and the summer camps. They too are awesome.

O, the cleanup is posted up with a few new pages here.

Questions About Recycling, Reusing In the Midst of the Big Clean

As I was cleaning off my old mono-tube lathe and its base, I of course came across my old oil tray. This is just a cookie sheet with a stand off to hold a wire tray. When I turn things like tops, mushrooms, spatulas and the like I dip them into a mix of vegetable and mineral oil and leave them in the tray to drip dry. These oils are not harmful to the environment, edible, an supposed non drying. They get absorbed into the wood and can be renewed easily. People with wooden cutting boards and spatulas or spoons in the kitchen are supposed to re-oil them once a month. It may not happen, but we should.
So now those non-hardening oils have hardened to a solid mass around the wire mesh and congealed to a disgusting slop with wood dust and shavings in the tray.

The only way to salvage this is to take it in the house and wash it in the auxiliary sink. There is no way my wife is going to let it in with the dishes and I do not blame her. I had to first scrape out the tray and use a wire scrub brush on the tray. Lots of cleanser later, it looks pretty good.

It must have taken a good hour or more, lots of elbow grease and too much cleanser down the drain. I am a recycle nut. The wood I use is mostly firewood and landfill with a bit of farm grown exotic thrown in for pens. The shavings are used for mulch and compost, mostly compost. Any leftover pieces of wood are kindling and firewood and the ashes go in the compost pile. We recycle plastics and paper and anything else we can. On the other hand, two minutes and two bucks in the dollar store would have replaced this setup easily. Sometimes doing what is right takes time and effort. Looks good though and kind of satisfying. 

Winter in Nova Scotia as the Cleaning of the Workshop Continues

While I am still cleaning the workshop, the year goes on and the snow falls. It takes a fair amount of time to write up and post the activity in the workshop and some things are really delayed getting to the web. In this last section I posted I got to the corner of the shop where the lathes live.

This was back on January 27 and I finally got it posted. We had a bit of snow back then.

Since then I have shoveled a bit. This next shot was taken on Feb 15, say two, two and a half weeks later.

More snow coming they say. Looks like winter to me. I need the exercise anyway.

Just Keeping On Cleaning

Man alive there is a lot of stuff in this shop. No wonder my wife calls me a packrat. I would hate to think what it would cost to replace this mass of tools and accessories. Of course they were picked up one at a time or received as gifts. Some of them were inherited from my father-in-law who apprenticed as a lad as a wooden ship builder and was an amazing wood worker. A couple of years ago one of my uncles showed up with 3 lathe tools that had belonged to one of my grandfathers. I have an absolutely sweet double bladed limbing axe from my other grandfather and a peavy that my dad used as a kid. Lots of memories.

As I was looking at the assortment of pictures from this cleaning section I came across this lamp stand.

It is really a general purpose stand. It has a weighted base, a clip on lamp, and a movable platform, threaded for a camera, at the end of an arm. This is really handy and I have to do a better writeup on it for the tip section one of these days.

A Lesson From My Shop Vac

As I was working my way through the workshop cleanup I used my shop vac a lot of the time. It is fantastic for getting at that fine dust that the machines especially kick up. However, I noticed that I was getting less and less suction from it and the motor was obviously working harder with fewer results. I opened up the machine.

Inside I found that the filter was a disaster. Shop vacs like mine and the vast majority of them out there in the real world are wet/dry machines. You can suck up dry dust or wet sludge with them and more than once they have been used to simply pick up puddles of water from the floor. So the interior environment tends to be damp.

My machine like most has a foam filter around the little cage inside around the motor. The filter was so packed with fine dust caked to it that was preventing air from flowing and the motor to work so hard it was in danger of overheating.

Enter your lungs. When you breathe in you pull in that fine dust just like your shop vac. The inside of your lungs is damp just like your shop vac. Fine dust cakes to the lining of your lungs just as it does to the foam filter. The more it cakes the harder it is for your lungs and therefore your heart to work. this is decidedly unhealthy.

I took the filter and washed it and dried it and reinstalled it. This is hard (I hesitate to say impossible with medicine these days) to do with a set of lungs. The better idea is to prevent the cake in the first place. Get a good cartridge mask and use it. Replace the air filters at reasonable intervals. Take care of your lungs, you only get one set and turning wood is a lot more fun if you can breathe.

Really, It's All About the Wood - And the Friends

Some new pages on the great shop clean are up.

As I was cleaning through the shelves, a long and reflective happening, I came across a bunch of flat pieces. Some of these were small sections of well grained log that should make decorative plates. Others were pieces that I will likely use for glue plates and the like. Some I will possibly thread as faceplates. Regardless, these are all hardwood sections and now well dried. These would come at a cost as there are more than a few board feet here.

I was reflecting on how good it is to have friends and how fortunate I am. I buy very little wood. Most of this came from friends who were going to dispose of it somehow and thought to call. Some others came simply because friends who cut firewood for a living found too nice a piece to be burnt and thought of me. Big or small, the thoughtfulness makes it worth a lot.

More Cleaning, More Wood, It's Coming Along

 I am continually amazed at the amount of wood we throw out in the province of Nova Scotia every year. The great stuff that get burned as firewood is at least firewood but still there is a great deal of wastage. I once watched a pallet mill make some bird's eye into pallets for shipping because that was the next wood in line. They would not let me buy the wood or the pallets.

As I continue to clean up the shop I continue to come across gems in the woodpile. Some of it is beautiful wood while other pieces teach me about the wood itself, how it moves and cracks and adjusts. We are privileged to play with such wonderful material.

I have found a super hoard on the next shelf as the clean up goes on.

There is everything from butternut to maple to ash and even some basswood to carve. Too bad I have to wait to use it until I am finished the great clean.

New Beginner's Project - Make a Mallet

I am getting tired of cleaning the workshop, which is not to say I have stopped, just gotten bored with it. However, it does go on, and on and on and - you get the picture. Sometimes I think I could be a hoarder, but then the whole thing gets to me and I clean up whatever I can.

Anyhow, as I was looking through some of the stuff on the computer, I found some pictures I had taken a while ago on making a woodworker's mallet, one of those things we keep around the shop for swatting the piece of wood that won't move and that sort of thing.

Anyway the project is up at Workshop Mallet. This is one of the exercises in Milton and Wohler's book but there it is just a measured drawing. It is a good beginner's project although I find it a useful thing in the workshop as well. The jaws I make for my OneWay chuck are a neat rig for getting the handle set right in the head. Take a look.

Beginning Woodturning: Four Tips Before You Get Started

As you look at a bewildering display of turned wood objects and an even more bewildering display of woodturning tools, it can quickly get discouraging to consider getting started turning wood at all. However if you look at the wide array of people who turn wood you quickly realizes that woodturning is an accessible hobby for just about anyone. The real question is how to get started. Here are four quick and easy ways to begin the entry into the world of wood turning and working on the wood lathe.

1.First take your time. Do not rush out and buy the first lathe you come to just to find out it is not suited for the objects that you would like to make. Read a few books on woodturning. Most libraries have one or two and maybe even a video to watch. It may be for a more advanced turner but will certainly give you some ideas of what you are getting into. Look for the basics such as what tools are needed and what kinds of wood lathes are available. Remember that you are starting out and all the bells that whistles that the pros like are probably not necessary for you.

2.Once you get a feel for the basics, consider what you might like to make for your own purposes, be they gifts, table legs for other projects, pens or whatever. Think of what accessories you might need other than the lathe or turning tools. Budgets start to come into play here. You might be able to find specialized books on your choices or even classes at the local community college or school dealing with this particular interest.

3.Consider taking a class in woodturning. Many woodworking classes in night school will have a lathe available and may have an instructor that knows how to use the machine. In addition look for a woodturning club in your area. A lot of communities have them and most have a fair number of watchers and even members who do not turn but are considering getting started. As a rule, woodturners like to demonstrate their skills and introduce others to the art and craft.

4.Stay safe as you start. Get a face shield and dust mask and use them. Hearing protectors are great too. While most lathes are fairly quiet wood shop tools, most wood turners will use chainsaws, band saws, planers, drills and the like with all the noise they provide. Safe woodworking is by far the most enjoyable.

These simple tips will get you started as you begin the interesting and compelling art and craft of woodturning. Soon you will be giving tips to someone else with the same interest.

For more tips and instruction, check out my website

Memories of the Past - Carvings Surface from the Boxes

As I have been going through the shop I have been finding all kinds of things. One of the things that occupied my time before the turning bug bit was wood carving. I still have a lot of the stuff around including some finished and unfinished carvings.

One of these days I have to get back to it or them or whatever. For now it is back to the massive cleanup. Maybe to find more memories.

Today's Postings

Start of the Cleanup

As with many things in life, it takes longer to write about them than to do them. The shop cleaning is farther along the path to results than is the writeup, but it is interesting to me do this exercise. I hope it holds some interest for you. I have added a few more pages as I have found some boxes that I have not opened for ages and projects that have laid forgotten for a year or more. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of work to get to be able to do it.

Cleaning of the shop has begun! Notice the nice, clean cabinet top, cleared of all the mixed stuff and ready to be used.

Ok. So the table saw is already being used. Sometimes a table saw is just a table. Still, some progress has been made. This is going to take a while. Hopefully not as long to clean up the mess as it was to make it. Sort of like going on a diet. The fun is in putting on the weight, not taking it off. O well, once more into the breach dear friends.
Take a look over at the web site.
I will be adding more pages soon.

There's gold, or at least burls, in them there trees.

A wood cutting friend had to drop a dead spruce for a customer. There are over 20 burls in this pile, various shapes and sizes. The largest look to be about 14 or 16 inches. There should be some great grain in these and an amazing amount of fun. I have got to get the shop cleaned and start turning some of this beautiful wood.

Spruce burls are our most common ones in Nova Scotia, I think. Some times I have taken over 30 burls from one tree. My family have grown Christmas trees since forever, it seems, and there is always a spruce in the way of the balsam fir. Balsam fir are beautiful Christmas trees, spruce are not. The needles are too sharp if you have children, the needles drop quickly after cutting, especially indoors, and the smell is not anywhere close to a balsam fir. 

On the other hand, spruce sometimes burl amazingly and they are great lumber trees. Look for the burls off of limbs in particular. The largest burls are usually found around the trunk, but they will generally have less grain movement than the ones around the limbs. They should be very good for pyrography though. Maybe I will try one.

The cleaning goes on. One of the big hassles with cleaning and one of the great reasons it does not get done more often, is the projects that come up or the gorgeous wood that is found which needs to be turned or worked on. Somehow the demand is made by that wood that it be done right now. Could it be that it is more fun to turn than clean?

For instance, in the middle of all that mess, fuss and confusion is a lovely bowl on the lathe. All it really need is a bit of final turn and sanding and finishing. Of course, the shelves around it and the floor in front of it are covered in shavings and sawdust, most flat surfaces near it are covered with stuff that should be put away, and cleaning has been stated as a priority. Grit your teeth, leave the bowl that is not going anywhere, and clean.

Sometimes I hate it when I am right.

Aaaah.. it is five years past time for the annual cleaning of the shop, as you can see from one corner (the others are just as bad and maybe worse). In order to use the table saw or the router table or anything else, I have to clear off any flat surface. Some af the not so flat surfaces are just as bad. How did I manage that? Oh well.  Mess and pack rats will find a way.

Most things are lost under a layer of dust. projects are waiting to be finished, Some are five years plus overdue for turning or carving or... The wood stash is growing. OK that's no bad thing but it is growing. Time to get out the dust mask, clear the debris and get things in order. Keep an eye out. This is going to take some time. I will post here and over on the website because this will take a while. I am interested to know what the archeological dig will uncover. Besides which I have a bunch of stuff to write up for the website on other stuff too and a woodturning course to get online. Should be fun.

How to Turn a Piece of Firewood on a Lathe - Spindles

With the cost of hardwood these days, it can be prohibitive to turn anything on a lathe let alone practice. Many beginning turners and even the experienced move to the firewood pile for turning wood. While the practised turners will have little trouble mounting the wood, beginners need a couple of hints to get started.

A lot of firewood will come in sixteen inch lengths and will be spilt in halves or quarters of the log. For spindle practice select a quarter log about three inches on a side with no splits on the end. If there are small splits they can be dealt with in the shop. Cutting an inch off the ends will generally get rid of the small splits in a quarter section of log. If it does not, cut off another inch or get another piece of wood from the firewood pile.

As you examine the face of the quarter log you will realize that you can get about a two inch turning square from the quarter. For all intents and purposes divide the width of the quarter (three inches) by three and multiply by two. If you have a bandsaw you can cut the waste away to leave a rough square or it can be done laboriously with a hand saw. This is not a good cut to do at the table saw.

Another option is to remove the waste at the lathe. Starting at the corner of the section measure in an inch and up an inch on each end. This will give the centers of the two inch square. At the wood lathe choose one end for the headstock and the other for the tail. Center the spur center at the headstock on the center mark of the wood and hit it on the other end with a mallet to drive the spur center home. Some turners object to this for fear of hurting the bearings but this if a bearing will be hurt by such an event it is too light for woodturning.

Bring up the tail stock and center the tail center on the mark for the square center. Tighten the tailstock and advance the center to hold the wood firmly in place. Because of all the extra wood on the log section it will be very unbalanced. Learning to deal with it is a good exercise in lathe work.

Make sure, with the lathe off, that the wood clears the tool rest and tighten the rest down. Stand clear of the wood and turn the lathe on to its lowest speed to make sure the wood is secure in the centers.

Sharpen a roughing gouge and prepare to rough down the wood. The tool should be held firmly on the tool rest and held so that the tip is above the spinning wood. It will bounce on the uneven wood but not cut. The handle of the tool rests on the hip and the planned cut will be very near one end of the wood, usually the tail stock end. As the handle slides up the hip and the tip moves down the wood a chipping cut will begin as the tool nears forty five degrees. Cut towards the end of the log. After the cut is done move down the log a little and repeat. This continues until the other end of the log is reached. At this point move the tool rest in towards the wood so as to give better control and repeat until the wood is round. Now it can proceed as any other spindle.

Firewood is a great source for practice wood and also for advanced projects. It is dry enough to work and provides an excellent supply of local hardwoods for woodturning enjoyment.

Ready the Band Saw for Wood Turning

After the wood lathe itself, one of the most used tools in the woodturning workshop is the band saw. For many woodturners, after the lathe and the grinder have been bought and set up, the band saw is the next purchase for large machinery. A few simple steps make it a better tool for woodturners and other woodworkers.

Like many woodworking machines, the band saw needs to be set up and periodically tuned for safe and accurate use. Most such machines in the home shop are typically two wheel saws, fourteen inches in diameter. The size refers to the diameter of the wheels and not to the depth of cut which will likely be in the six inch range.

Those wheels will look much like bicycle tires with rubber rims. While they will of course be clean in a new saw, as the tool is used the tires need periodically to be brushed clean of dust which will cake on to them especially from green softwoods. They also need to be properly lined up.

This means they need to be parallel to one another and running coplanar. There should be a means to adjust the distance of the free running wheel, that is, the one not powered by the motor. While this may be form shims, set screws or some other method, it should be noted in the instructions from the saw. A straight edge spanning both wheels, placed immediately before the axles, should touch the top and bottom rims of both the top and bottom wheels simultaneously for the wheels to be coplanar and parallel.

Once this is done, the blade should run at the center of both wheels. There will be an adjusting knob to track the blade. With the saw unplugged rotate the wheels by hand and adjust to track in the middle. Tighten the blade so it can be moved a quarter of an inch at center or follow the instructions with your saw. Each blade will need to be tracked and tensioned when it is installed and may need periodic adjustment during use.

A band saw is useful for wood preparation both for small projects and for large. For small, finer cuts a one quarter inch six tooth blade is a good one to start with for general use and wood up to a couple of inches thick. Heavier green wood for bowls and the like will require a three eighths three point blade or something similar. Like all saws, blades need to be kept sharp and clean for good use. Having a couple of extras on hand is a good idea.

Band saws are versatile for straight or curved cuts and a valuable asset for the woodturner. They are easy to set up and use as well as being one of the safest cutting tools in the shop.

Choosing A Wood Lathe: What To Look For When Sturdy Counts

While it is obvious that wood lathes spin wood around, it is not always obvious to the first time buyer that spinning wood, if out of balance, vibrates tremendously. In addition, wood lathes may be asked to spin very heavy sections of wood and need to be able to withstand considerable force. There are a couple of simple things to look for to ensure that a lathe is sturdy enough for the work at hand.

If you have a small shop and intend to turn small objects, it may seem as if sturdiness will not be a factor, but this is simply not so. Most small lathes turn at high speeds and have a very high minimum speed. Just as on a car, an unbalanced wheel does not seem a problem at low speeds but vibrates at high ones, the same thing happens on a lathe with unbalanced wood or with unbalanced lathe parts. While a small piece on a small lathe may not try to walk across the floor, vibration encourages poor cuts and difficulty in a good finish.

Larger lathes tend to have lower minimum speeds and thus allow for less vibration in unbalanced pieces. However they also are generally bought with the purpose of handling larger pieces of wood and thus more weight. A bowl blank of forty pounds is not unusual on a lathe with a twelve to sixteen inch swing and can literally walk a light lathe across the floor of the shop.

The solution to the problem is to have a lathe sturdy enough to handle the work. It starts with a good foundation such as a stand that is well made and heavy enough to not move under the forces of turning. Sand is a good vibration absorber and many turners design their lathe stands to hold hundred of pounds of sand.

The lathe itself should have lots of cast iron and steel in its construction. Stamped metal parts tend to give little support. Good welds should be looked for. Check with your woodturning friends and find out what lathes they use for the type of turning you intend to do and then find out if they are satisfied. Good bearings are a must and even more important are the bearing housings. Bearings are easily replaced but not where they live in the lathe.

One of the best tests of sturdiness is common sense when looking at the lathe. If it looks solid it likely is. This would not be just a catalogue look but rather a chance to stand at it and see if the steel is substantial and the iron castings are solid and well finished. The mechanisms to hold the headstock, tailstock and tool rest should be strong and lock firmly. Speed controls should move easily and switches readily accessible.

The final test of the lathe will happen as you turn on it. Many turners will push the envelope of size and speed and safety is each individual's responsibility but much of it can be ensured with good planning and a little foresight.

Mounting Wood On The Wood Lathe: Do Not Forget The Jacob's Chuck

   One of the best and worst things to happen to modern woodturning is the invention of the four jaw chuck for holding wood. While it is a great addition to the woodturner's asenal, it is also an expensive tool and many beginners find that it costs more than their wood lathe. Also, like many tools a cheaper version is aggravating and in some cases simply dangerous to use. One thing to remember is woodturning has been around for thousands of years and there are many ways to mount the wood without the newest fashions. The Jacob's chuck is a great tool for all turners.

   A Jacob's chuck is designed for holding drill bits. It is the chuck on the end of the drill press or the electric hand drill. As such it is often used held in the tail stock of the lathe to hold a drill bit for putting a hole in a piece of wood in the head stock or vice versa. However, it may also be used to hold a piece of wood for turning.

   The difficulties in using a Jacob's chuck for holding wood are

1. its size which is generally limited to one half inch although slightly smaller or larger ones are available for some lathes
2. its having three jaws which make it awkward to hold onto a square piece of wood
3. it is made for holding metal and may well crush the wood in its jaws

These limitations are easily dealt with.

   The time to use a Jacob's chuck is generally to turn a spindle that needs to be held on one end only. This means that the stronger grain orientation of long grain is being used as opposed to face grain. In such circumstances a piece of one half inch wood such as maple is easily strong enough to support a three inch spindle of reasonable length. It remains to mount the spindle first between centers and turn it round, allowing for a short length at one end to be turned down to one half inch so as to fit in the chuck. Now it can be remounted in the chuck, trued up and finish turned.

   Note that this also removes the second difficulty of trying to fit a square piece of wood into a three jaw structure. The tenon to fit the chuck is now round. It also deals with the third problem of crushing the wood. This would serve to mar the wood and also to move the piece off center for turning. A truing cut will put it back on center and the tenon is considered waste wood and removed from the finished piece.

   The old and established technology of the Jacob's chuck is not as versatile as the newer four jaw chuck but it is reliable at a much lower cost and opens new avenues of wood turning to the beginner without a lot of expenditure. Besides which, a Jacob's chuck is a welcome addition to every turner's arsenal.

Five Glues For Woodturners – Answering Three Different Needs

   The hardware and speciality stores abound with adhesives of all sorts these days. Confusion can easily beset the woodturner buyer unless the needs are known for the glues. Thankfully four different and readily accessible glues are all that is needed for ninety-nine percent of woodturning requirements.

    First of all is the typical woodworker's glue or aliphatic resin emulsion which most call carpenter's glue or yellow glue. It is similar to polyvinyl acetate or white glue but has a better tacky quality and less initial slippage. Both dry to a bond that is stronger than most woods, at least when applied to side grain. It is often used to attach a waste block to faceplate turnings and may have paper separating the waste block and the turning wood. In addition, it is a good glue to use building up segmented turnings.

    Second is another standby of many wood shops, epoxy resin glues. This is a two part adhesive that is great for attaching handles or any situation where it is necessary to adhere metal to wood. It will also allow the joining together of damp woods while most other adhesives require the wood to be dry.

    Third is cyanoacrylate adhesives or “super glues” commonly called CA glue. These have become the standard of many woodturners. Thin or watery CA is used to fill cracks in burls and other woods while the medium can be used to attach waste wood to faceplate turning even on end grain or wet wood. Thick CA can be used to fill voids in woods that might otherwise be thrown away.

     The rise in the popularity of turning wooden pens has brought polyurethane glues to a similar popularity. While some pen turners use CA to attach the brass sleeves to the wooden pen blanks, others find the gap filling ability of the polyurethane glues along with their great strength to be valuable in turning pens and similar projects. It should be noted that the foam of polyurethane glues which serves to fill the gaps has very little strength but the the strength of the bond where two materials meet is exceptional.

    One of the least used or understood glues in the woodturner's possible arsenal is hot glue from a hot glue gun such as the crafters use. It can used to quickly make temporary jigs as well as to hold waste blocks to faceplate turnings. One should use the high heat and not the low heat glues.

    A little common sense in the use of five types of glues should make the use of each of them reasonable and valuable to woodturners. Each has its place to play in the workshop.