Weekly Blog - June 25th

[john]

The weather outside has been great, so another slow week in the shop. However, I did manage to learn a couple of things.

I finished a bread knife that should look better than it does. The woods are padouk sandwiched between two oak pieces. Since the oak has open grain, sanding allowed the dust from the padouk to collect in the open grain. Even though I dusted the finished knife well. Some dust remained, unseen of course. When I wiped on the first coat of poly finish, there were slight traces of the orange colour in the oak. Each succeeding coat seemed to cause more colour to bleed from the padouk to the oak. I have used this combination before without this problem but I suspect that because the exposed surfaces were end grain, they did not absorb the colour in the same way. I guess I should have vacumed my piece before finishing and used a spray finish instead of wipe-on.

The second lesson was of the safety variety and thankfully no damage was done. I realized I had forgotton to round over the edges on the feet of the doll cradles so went to get the router table to proceed with the job. Found that the required bit was in the router, so proceeded to adjust the height and start routing. The bit cut more than expected so I adjusted the height again an started again. Same result! After three tries, the light bulb went on and I decided to check the bit and collet. The bit had climbed almost out of the collet. Apparently I had started to set this up but did not complete the process before being distracted or called away, so the bit was not locked in the collet. Thankfully it did not come loose to fly out of the router while spinning freely.

I will now remove all bits from the router before storing so that when I come back to it, I will have to start from scratch with the set-up so everything should be done properly before turning on the router.

Have a good week and work safely!

John

[charlese]

So sorry to see your unhappy face, John. Really, you should be smiling! After all there was nothing hurt but a couple pieces of wood! We all should be happy when we can learn an important lesson without personal injury. Wish we could all learn everything from a book, or have the opportunity to be apprenticed. But that's not the way for many of us.

Yes, I learned, a time ago, when my little 1/4" Sears router's collet refused to tightly hold a bit, that the loose bit will always plow deeper into the wood. All I lost were a couple pieces of wood.

Here's an idea! - When folks ask what the bread knife is made of - you can tell them padouk and padoak. It's a special color treatment!

This week, while waiting for our mini van to get out of the shop - I had no way to pick up wood - other than what would fit into the VW new beetle. So didn't even try to get any poplar for the shutter project. Instead took the pieces of walnut that were purchased (and drying) since last November and turned a couple of pepper grinders. 316

These were 2 1/2" blocks that were supposedly dried prior to purchase. I had turned them down to 2 1/4" cylinders and they were wet!! My moisture meter was pinned at 22% and didn't show any reduction until May. Since they were now down to 8% near the ends to 18% in the middle. The meter only measures 1/2" deep so I suspected the centers of the cylinders would probably be wetter. Since the centers would be bored out I decided to go ahead. They turned O.K and the boring chips from the cores felt quite damp. Looks like they will hold their shape and not crack. The salt grinders of the two sets were made for Christmas presents. Now the sets are complete. 317

Also planned out a couple of new shelves for my wife's sewing room. Can't believe that she needs more shelves. That room is nothing but storage and work space! Oh well, She needs to be happy!

Almost forgot! We got a chance to drive up to Edwards AFB and watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis land. Only drove 40 miles round trip. What a beautiful sight!!! Was amazed at the angle of approach! I swear it was 45 degrees! Also never knew that the air passing over that gliding shuttle would sound like engines. Really! quite loud! That thing must be pretty rough at pushing the air. 315

The Shuttle pix is not mine, but from the local newspaper. The Antelope Valley Press. (actually NASA)

[rkh2]

Nice looking pepper mills. Did you use forstner bit to bore them out? Also curious about what you used for the final outside finish. In reference to the shuttle, I used to live in Palmdale about a mile from plant 42 and used to watch them come overhead making the turn before they landed at Edwards. Sonic booms were really house rattling.

[john]

Chuck:

Nice pepper mills!

Even though I like to experiment with all kinds of projects, I have not yet tried anything of importance on the lathe. Pictures like these sure make me itch a bit to try.

I also like the "padoak" idea.

Have fun

John

[alancooke]

Nice pepper mills! I was just reading an article about those last night in an old woodworking mag. I guess that's my confirmation that I'm supposed to make one!

I've manged to get my rockers cut out with the router for my rocking horse. Also the foot supports and the mortises they go in. Getting close to glue and assembly time. Any tips from experienced rocking horse builders?

I also experimented with an idea generated from an earlier thread about a spindle lock for the SS. Nick's idea of using a 10" handscrew seemed to solve the dilema for everyone...except me (no 10" handscrew). My little jig is a 1 foot piece of 1 x 6 with a 1 1/4" hole drilled 2 3/4" up from the bottom edge.
The bottom edge rests across the way tubes, the hole goes over the lower aux. hub and then I used an allen wrench and wedged it in the hole between the wood and one of the grooves in the hub. Keep it on the tool shelf and it only takes seconds to install and use while turning. Testing so far is very prelimanary, but seemed to hold great on first try. I tried a pointed dowel first, but the allen key worked much better. One concern is that the allen key might mar the hub, any thoughts? Also thought of mounting an extra hub permanantly in the same type arrangement and then attaching with the existing setscrew but felt this would require more work so opted for the easier method if it suffices.

No, I don't have a picture... Yet:)

[charlese]

Thanks, guys for your compliments!

To rkh2 - Yes, used Forstner bits for both the counter boar and the through boring. The finish is Rockler "Wunder Coat" semi gloss. (67790 for 16 oz.) Damn - it's expensive, almost a penny an ounce, but it's worth it. Has a slight amber cast, which I like for a water borne polyurethane. It smooths out nicely on any surface with a sponge brush and dries real fast! After 3 coats, rubbed the grinders down with one of those blue shop towels.

B-2s come over the house once and a while. They get up grades regularly at Northrup at plant 42. There is one B-2 that stays here and is the test plane for all up-grades.

By the way - I absolutely love the chair in your personal picture. Also noticed your supply of clamps and the "strap clamp" on your bench. Almost makes me jealous! :) Gotta ask what is the light colored board with two holes that is on the seat of your chair (in the picture)? Once again I've got to marvel at your workmanship in that chair!

To Allen - Yep! The grinders came from a Kit recommended by Wood Magazine.
Gotta see your picture(s) of your spindle lock invention.

To John - Would like to see a picture of your padoak bread knife!

[john]

Chuck:

Here are a couple of shots of the bread knife, it must have moved on the second one, I know I didn't! One again, the photography is not good. I can't seem to avoid the flash effect.

Alan:

I have made four of those rocking horses but I don't know if I can offer any substantial help, I have screwed up something on all four. However for what it's worth:

- Attaching the body to the rockers gave me problems so on later ones, I screwed the legs to the body with slightly smaller screws and didn't tighten them. I then attached one leg to a rocker. Then proceeded to line up and attached a diagonally opposite leg to make sure the horse was standing straight. Only then did I firmly screw that leg to the body using the larger screws. I proceeded to do the same with each leg. In fact I loosened all but one screw on each leg as I was working on it so that it could move as required to line it up. (I hope yopu can understand this).

- The other part that gave difficulty was the wedges to attach the legs to the body. I couldn't seem to get these even but again after a couple of misses, I cut the wedge blanks then put the together so that I had then about even in thickness at the thick end. I then cut both to shape so they would be equal in thickness and shape.

- I don't know what you did for the bridle trim, but since I don't have much confidence using a router freehand, I cheated by laying out some masking tape where they should be and stained that area a walnut colour. Then I used a sharp utility knife to cut outlines that made them look more like a separate piece.

- I used 5/4' wood for mine instead of 3/4" and if you have not done this and intend to make more I would suggest you give it some thought. In oak, they are heavy, but in appearance I think they look much better. Just a thought.

Good luck

John

[charlese]

John! Nice looking bread knife! I was a little surprised to find the oak looks beautiful and natural. I thought there might be some interesting red stains in it. Even enlarged your photo to 150% and still looked like oak to me! Nice job!

If either of you guys are serious about turning out a 6" pair of salt and pepper grinders. Here is the link to the company; www.woodturnerscatalog.com item number 965-6666 / Peppermill kit (Wood Magazine) The kit comes with the grinding mechanisms (nylon for salt & Stainless for pepper) You have to be careful not to order too much since the kit comes with one long shanked 1 1/16" and one regular 1 5/8" forstner bits.

I had two problems with doing these: 1) The walnut was very wet and took 7 months to dry out enough in this desert low humidity. 2) drilling the core was very difficult to do without a lathe chuck. I used face plates and had a hard time re-aligning them when switching ends. If you are serious - buy an adjustable chuck now.

The Price for 4 mechanisms, 4 wood blanks (2 maple & 2 walnut), including the 2 forstners was $83.82 including shipping and handling.

The turning isn't difficult. I am not an accomplished turner by any means and did the turning without problems. An adjustable chuck makes the boring a lot easier. (I got the Oneway Talon from SS).