A Learning Adventure in the Workshop

"Woodwork" Magazine Discontinued

Apparently, our hobby lost a great magazine this month. 

"Woodwork" magazine, had been sold during 2008 to a new owner, and issued an excellent just-like-old-times "new" issue under its new owner a few months ago...but , NOW it is fully dead.  A letter from the publisher indicates that unforeseen problems have occurred, and that the recently restarted publication has been permanently discontinued.

The letter further stated that my paid-up subscription to "Woodwork" has been converted to "American Woodworker" , a sister publication of the parent company.  Yuck...

Woodwork had personality and depth of content.  It was unique and worthwhile, and had content for woodworkers of all levels and styles.  American Woodworker is an also-ran at best, and clearly targeted at beginning woodworkers.  Not at all an equal substitution. Oh well, my subscription will run out soon. I'll give it an issue or two to see if it improves or is influenced by the old Woodwork.

Over the years, I have subscribed to basically all of the major woodworking magazines and I have developed definite favorites.

Hands down, my favorite is Woodworking Magazine.  No advertising, great content. Worth every penny.

Woodworking Magazine's sister publication "Popular Woodworking", is my second favorite.  By far the best of the "general" woodworking magazines.

A distant third is "Fine Woodworking"...it is a very good publication, but seems to me to have lost its personality in recent years.  It is a bit too polished, a bit too Martha-Stewart-perfect.  It seems almost formulaic to me.  But, I still like it, and learn from it.

All of the rest of the mainstream woodworking magazines, are only OK at best.  I still get several of them, but usually can read them cover to cover in under an hour.

"A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work" by Silas Kopf

I recently met Silas Kopf at  a local book signing event.  I was fascinated with Silas' marquetry work already (from magazine articles), but his new book  "A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work" is rich with color photos of his work and the historic work of others in the field of marquetry.  This is one of my new favorite woodworking books.  It is partly about Silas and his work and career, but equally a primer on the history of the craft.   Silas knows his stuff, both historically and with his tools.  Plus, he was a very open and personable guy.

More images, etc here at his website.

I have yet to try my hand at marquetry, but it is now high on my list of techniques with which to experiment.  Click on the image below for more info on the book.

Worksharp 3000 Wide Blade Attachment

For those of you that have the Worksharp 3000 Sharpening Center, I highly recommend that you invest in the new  Worksharp Wide Blade Attachment  .  I got it for Christmas, and have really put it through its paces since then.

This attachment resolves my only significant dissappointment with the Worksharp 3000...that it could not sharpen blades wider than 2".    With this attachment, you can sharpen blades up to 3" in width, more than enough for all normal plane blades and chisels.

The attachment is solid and well-made, and once it is installed and adjusted so that it is perfectly in-plane with the top of the rotating disk, it is quick and easy to use.

A bit overpriced for what it is, but worth it in the long run.  Highly recommended. 

Woodworking Drought

We've been remodeling our kitchen, and the way that our house is laid out, it has made access to my shop more or less impossible for the past couple of months.

In addition, the demolition of the old kitchen in our 104 year old house has generated an enormous amount of black grit and dust that has settled across all of my tools.

My hope is that by Christmas day the kitchen will be largely completed and I can begin to recover the work shop.  See you then!

Woodworking in America 2008 Conference, Berea, KY

Last week I got to attend the "first" annual (I hope) "Woodworking in America" Conference sponsored by Popular Woodworking Magazine and held in Berea, KY.  Click on the image below to see the conference website and details.

Probably, many of you were there, or have already read a lot about the show, so I will not go into any great detail other than to say it was "FANTASTIC".   If you can go next year.  DO IT!

The presenters, vendors and the attendees were some of the nicest people that you will meet, and it was a rare occasion to spend time with people that are even crazier about this stuff than I am.  A veritable army (or maybe  feeding frenzy) of hand tool nuts.

Someone mentioned that the conference organizers might be considering doing either a bigger show next year, or several around the country.  My vote would be for them to do several smaller shows (no bigger than this year and charge more if they need to) around the country, if those are the two options.  One of the best things about the conference was that it was a manageable size and attendees got to interact personally with many of the presenters and vendors.  A larger show would make that harder.   Also, the hands-on sessions (that everyone wanted) were hard enough to get into as it was.

I know that the organizers need to balance this with the economics of the conference, and I will likely attend again either way.  But I like the conference smaller and am willing to pay a higher entrance fee for it.

It was great to meet many of you last week in person and I hope to see you at the show again next year!

Roubo/Holtzapffel-Hybrid Bench Complete!

I finished the Roubo/Holtzapffel-hybrid bench inspired by Chris Schwarz's book this past weekend.  The bench is made from southern yellow pine and a collection of other wood types from off-cuts, etc.   The front vise jaws, 2" plane stop, and deadman are mahogany, the shelf dowels are walnut, the end vise jaws are maple, the left-end plane stop is oak, etc...whatever I could scrounge up for each step.  This bench is designed to be USED, so I was not worried about matching.

It is basically the French Roubo-style bench that I modified by adding the sliding deadman, a Veritas twin-screw vise  (24" between centers, 42" overall) and a 1/2 length tool tray.  The end-vise is a Groz metal vise.   I cut the slot into the bottom of the front, left leg in case I ever want to switch to a leg vise.   I drilled dog-holes into the bottom shelf for storage of dog devices under the bench (see below the front vise).

Notice the Chris Schwarz designed plane stop on this end of the bench.  Loosen the screws and raise the plane-stop board to the desired height.  The screws ride is a T-track mounted in to the end of the bench top.

Above is the metal end-vise.  Notice the tool tray slots to the right.  The bottom of the tool tray slides out this side for cleaning.

Better view of the tool tray.  Both vises are through-bolted for strength.  Those are the bolts in the bottom left.  Note the only knot that I did not manage to bury in the bench top somewhere, visible next to the bolts.

This is how the tool tray bottoms (two pieces) slide out for cleaning. They can be completely removed.

The bench is finished with two coats of Danish Oil that will be renewed as needed.

All joints are doweled together for extra strength (some are draw-bored and some are not).

I really like the 2"-square plane stop block insert into the bench top above.  It can be moved up and down as needed.  It is held in place by friction alone.

On its own four feet

This past weekend I mounted the legs into the massive mortises that I had cut into the workbench top.   My wife and eight year old son then helped me to "flip" the giant, heavy beast onto its feet.

Next step is to plane and install the under-shelf material, make the sliding deadman and vise chops and install the twin-screw front vise.  After that, drill the dog holes and other work holding, flatten the top and its complete.

I think that I am about a week and a half  away from completion.

Bench Legs

Over the past weekend I planed and fully laminated the wood for the 5" x 5" x 32" legs for the bench. Each leg is made up of four 1.25" boards laminated together, with massive 2.5" tenons on the top end for attachment with the underside of the bench top. After the glue dried, I jointed and planed the laminated leg blocks to final dimension.

Additionally, I made the front and rear stretchers.  The front stretcher has a beveled top edge so that it can act as the lower track for the eventual sliding deadman attachment.

Next, I will make the side stretchers, and design some sort of support at the attachment point for the right rear leg's mortise and tenon joint, since that leg will have to deal with the tool tray location that I added to this design.  I have some ideas for this, but have settled on the final design yet.  I hope to do these items tonight.

No photos recent, because our digital camera is missing.  I hope to be able to post some soon.

Progress on the Bench Project

Slow but sure progress on my Roubo-like workbench project.

The bench top is now "complete" and fully laminated to 24" by 92" long.  I decided to go with a 1/2 length tool tray on the back of the bench.   I couldn't commit to a full length tool tray, but also did not want to exclude one.  I figure that this way, I will have the full bench width in front of the front vise, and the tray to the right, where I tend to stow and reach for tools anyway. The tool try has a sliding bottom (divided into two sections) that can slide out of the bench to the right, so as to allow for easy dumping of wood chips.  The tool tray bottom is 1/4" plywood that runs in 1/4" slots that I routed into the sides of the tool tray with a 1/4" slot-cutting bit in the router.  Photos coming soon.

I have also purchased the twin-screw Veritas vise as my future front vise, and a standard 9" Groz quick-release vise as my tail vise.  These will be stored until the bench is finished.

Last night I managed to plane all of the wood for the bench's legs to final thickness.  Four of these boards will be laminated into each 5" x 5" leg.   I hope to begin the leg lamination glue-ups tonight, or this weekend.

A little more information on the "Pilliod" tool chest and company

I received a nice email from a relative of the Pilliod family today with the following information:

"What you have is a Tool Chest made by the Pilliod Cabinet/Furniture Company of Swanton, Ohio. I have seen a few listed on Ebay but not in the good condition that yours looks to be in. Although related to the Pilliod family I know very little about the cabinet company. I do know that they sold jewelry boxes, silverware chests and the tool chests you have. The company is no longer in operation. It was to my knowledge owned by T.J. Pilliod and passed down to his children. I do not know if T.J Pilliod was the original owner of the company or if his ancestors started it. As for the tools in the chest I don’t believe they came with the tool chest. Hope this helps."

Workbench like a ship-in-a-bottle

Building my new workbench with a 8' laminated top in my tight, low-ceiling basement is a bit like building a ship-in-a-bottle.

Cutting, jointing and planing the 10' rough boards for the workbench's top within the low ceiling and vertical steel support posts ends up being a real dance (similar to my post about long clamps).

Funny how building this new bench that will allow me to use more hand-tool techniques has required more power tools than any project that I have done lately.  LOTS of ripping and planing.

I can't say that this project is a lot of fun (although it is not difficult or complex), but I look forward to the end result.

Disston No. 2 Saw Vise

A few weeks ago I purchased an old Disston No. 2 hand saw sharpening vise on eBay (circa 1890-ish, I think).   It was in reasonably good shape, but was rusted and had not been used in a long, long time.

I sanded and filed off the rust, repainted the vise and oiled the moving parts.  The photos below are the result.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any "before" photos.

 

I have never actually sharpened a hand saw yet...that is a skill that I intend to learn later this year.  In the meantime, the vise is now ready.

Shop Made Drawbore Pins

The laminated wood top for my new woodworking bench is coming along well (but slowly). 

In preparation for eventually joining the legs of the workbench to the top,  I made myself a set of drawboring pins this weekend.  I intend to experiment with drawboring these joints for maximum strength and durability.

My drawbore pins are based on Chris Schwarz's "Drawboring Resurrected" article on the WKFinetools website here:  http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/cSchwarz/z_art/drawBoring/drawBoring4.asp

As Chris recommended,  I bought a cheap set of  "alignment tools"  from Sears.  Sears sells an eight-piece set of punches and alignment tools under its "Companion” brand ($6 total).  Two of the eight tools are alignment pins that can be modified into drawbore pines.  The model number of the set was #30130.

I followed the directions in the article, and using some scrap mahogany from the desk project, I came up with these:

One small and one large.  Slight tapered and hex handles to make it easier to "torque" the tools when using them.

I'll try them out on the workbench in a week or two.

 

At last! Good hardwood charcoal is Pittsburgh!!!

Another BBQ post...

Pittsburghers rejoice!  GFS Marketplace in Robinson Town Center (next to Costco)  is carrying the USA-made version of Royal Oak brand hardwood lump charcoal!  Royal Oak is rated "highly recommeded" by the charcoal guru the Nakedwhiz.

I have not been able to find half-way decent hardwood charcoal in Pittsburgh anywhere till now.  All that we could get here is Kingsford (no thanks) and Cowboy (burns too hot for me, but OK for grilling - not smoking).  I was actually mail-ordering charcoal, which I think is ridiculous.

Everyone run out to GFS and buy the Royal Oak so that they continue to carry it.  I bought three 20 lb bags yesterday to get me through the next couple of months.

Building a Cold-Smoker for Cheese with a "Primo-Brand" Grill

This post will be a short departure from woodworking, and will be about my ongoing experiments with my "Primo-brand" smoker.

Last winter my son and I watched an Alton Brown "Good Eats" episode on Food Network TV that showed him making both a "hot" smoker and a "cold" smoker out of hardware-store parts and other misc junk.

A "cold" smoker is used to smoke things like cheese that cannot get hot during the smoking process or they will melt.  You want to smoke without cooking the food.  The temp needs to stay somewhere below 90-degrees (F)  while still providing a lot of smoke to the cheese. 

We wanted to try to build a cold-smoker by creating something that would mount on my Primo "hot" smoker rather than starting from scratch as Alton did in the show.   The goal is to pull the smoke away from the grill that has the fire and heat in it, while letting the heat escape elsewhere.

So, based on Alton's principals...this is what we came up with:

Our contraption  consists of a typical hardwood charcoal fire in the Primo grill (the large black thing built into the tabletop) with a quantity of apple wood on top of the coals to generate the smoke.   The internal temp of the Primo is stable at around 300-degrees for this experiment.

I then attached a 6 foot length of flexible aluminum dryer vent pipe to the top vent of the Primo's lid and roughly sealed the connection with some aluminum foil.

The dryer vent pipe then runs through a cooler that is full of water and ice to keep the pipe cool.  See below:

I used my charcoal chimney with a brick on it to weigh down the pipe into the water.

The dryer-vent pipe then terminates between the lid and base of my small tabletop Weber grill that we use when we go to a park or somewhere that requires grill portability.  I then filled the rest of the gap between the base of the Weber grill and the lid of the Weber with a bent piece of aluminum roofing-flashing (the gold colored stuff).   It is plain aluminum on the inside so as to not contaminate the food with any chemicals.

The lid then sits on the aluminum gap filler as shown below.

There is no fire or charcoal of any type in the Weber grill.   The cheese (or other food for cold smoking) sits on the Weber's grate as normal, but the only thing happening inside of that grill is the delivery of smoke from the dryer vent-pipe.  The grill is otherwise empty (I forgot to take photos of this).

You can see the yellow thermometer on the lid of the Weber in the photo above.  It reads 63-degrees (F).  We never broke 71-degrees through the entire smoke!   The contraption worked great.

You can see the back of my son's head in this photo pushing air into the Primo with a small set of fireplace bellows.   Not sure that this was necessary, but it did increase the smoke volume from time to time (although there was plenty of smoke anyway).

For the first batch of cheese we smoke pieces of cheddar, provolone and mozzarella (all at the same time) for 45 minutes.  Wow, were they smoky!!  I think that 45 minutes was a bit too long and the cheese was a little harsh for me, but some tasters quite liked it.  Next run will be less than 30 minutes.

Note that cheese smoked in this way hardly changes color at all unlike the "smoked" cheese you get in the grocery store.  I am told that the color on the store bought smoked cheese is artificial.

All-in-all, this was a fun, easy and cheap (less than $20) experiment that mostly succeeded.  I would say that the device works well, and we just need to work on smoking time, recipe, etc.

A thought on clamps

When I first started buying "real" woodworking clamps a few years ago (like my Bessey clamps),  I went with the theory that since I was spending so much money on clamps, I should buy the longest ones that I could.  After all, you can clamp a small object with a 40" clamp, but you can't clamp a 36" piece with a small clamp.  Seemed to make sense.

So, I bought mostly long 40" Bessey clamps for a couple of years. 

The thing is, those clamps are REALLY long (and heavy).   Clamping a small object with a big clamp in a workshop with a low ceiling tends to be quite an effort.   After I poke the ceiling, knock stuff of the bench and drop everything on the floor, the long clamp works very well...

I now find that my small number of 24" and 30" clamps are my favorites. 

Another lesson learned.  Good clamps are expensive, but if you are like me, you will end up wanting both long and short clamps.

As a wise man once said, "you can never have enough clamps."   I will change that quote slightly.  You can never have enough GOOD clamps.

Ernie Conover Hand-Cut Dovetails Class

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a one day hand-cut dovetails class with Erie Conover at his shop in Ohio.

The class was excellent, and I met some interesting people.  I will take more classes from Ernie in the future.  He has a great classroom/shop with a teacher's bench for him and 8 full benches for the students (one each).  Lots of natural light.  A great environment.

His website is here: http://www.conoverworkshops.com/

I will post more later about the class, but one of the side-items  that I took away from the class is that I REALLY liked using a workbench with a tool tray after-all (or hamster run as Chris Schwarz calls it).   I've never worked for any period of time on a bench with a tray, and I had no intention of building one into my workbench project...but now I am reconsidering.  Having a place to put my tools where they will not roll onto the floor was very nice.

If I do install one in the bench, it will have a removable bottom.  At the end of only one day of class at Ernie's, mine was full of shavings.  So, Chris was right...but it may be worth it anyway.

By the way, Ernie let slip that he is in the final stages of writing a book on dovetails (including the history of their use and styles).   He says that it may be out by late 2008 or early 2009.

"Workbenches" by Christopher Schwarz

Chris Schwarz has done it again...inspired me to build a new workbench that is better suited to the "blended" style of  hand tool and power tool woodworking that I do these days.

My original bench has served me well, and will be passed on to my son, who needs to graduate from the very small bench that we made him when he was about 4 (he is 8 now).  My son's very small bench will be passed on to my daughter (now 4), who also loves to spend time in the shop. 

My slave labor woodworking gang is growing.  Plus,  its more justification for me to build myself an honest-to-goodness woodworking bench.

This project started when I bought Chris Schwarz's new book:

Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use

Click here to buy it from Lost Art Press (Chris' own store) and Chris will send a signed copy of the book and a CD containing an electronic copy.

Don't buy this book  if you don't want to build a new bench!!!! I guarantee that buying this book will force you to build a new bench, whether you want to or not.  It is that well researched and written, but that is what I have come to expect from Chris.

Right now, I am looking to build a blend of the French Roubo bench and the Dominy bench  at Winterthur.    I am still  working on my design.   

I am likely to go with some sort of twin-screw front vise and a metal tail vice.  I'm shooting for at least a 3.5" thick top.    I also want a sliding deadman.  Likely, I will not include a tool tray in the top, although I have been tempted to add one.

Idea for Planer Manufacturers

Quick idea for bench-top planer manufacturers...

Put a power switch on BOTH the front AND back of the planer (or on the top ).  In my one-man shop, I am always starting the board through my planer on one side and then walking around the planer to get it on the  other.  Then I want to shut off the machine, but the power switch is back on the front. 

Small thing, but annoying.

Newly turned woodcarver's mallet and pepper grinder

I've managed to spend a little time in the shop over the past two weeks and "turned" out a couple of small projects (pun intended).

First is a woodcarver's mallet.  I needed a traditional round faced woodcarver's mallet for an upcoming hand-cut dovetail class that I will be taking at Ernie Conover's wood shop in Ohio.  He recommends this style of mallet (rather than a square faced carpenter's mallet)  in his tool list for the class, and I just couldn't see buying a mallet when I could make one.  Besides, I wanted a tradition lignum vitae wood head, and you can't buy those easily now-a-days.  Hard maple seems to be norm for purchased mallets these days unless you get one with a man-made material wrapped head.  Ernie does not recommend those due to "bounce."

I turned this one with a hard maple handle attached to the head with a  wedged through tenon.  The head is made from Argentinian lignum vitae wood that I got from the local Rockler.  I was surprised to find a large enough block of the lignum for this project.

The wedge is a scrap of ebony, and then I buffed on a carnauba wax coating.

The mallet is about 10" long with a 3" radius at its widest point.  It weighs 20 ounces overall.

Turning the lignum was easier than I expected given its incredible density.   BUT....don't try and saw through it  with your delicate Japanese hand saw.  The teeth of the  saw with lose the battle with the wood.  Don't ask me how I know.

Below is my first attempt at a pepper grinder.  I turned it from Kingwood and then buffed on a carnauba wax coating.  I used a "crush grind" ceramic mechanism for the internals.  This type of mechanism allows for you to adjust the grind from the bottom of the mill, so that you do not have to have an adjustment know sticking through the cap.  I found the mechanism to be first-rate.

I enjoyed doing the mill, and will likely do more of these.  They are fast , fun and useful.