A Learning Adventure in the Workshop

This is a collage of

This is a collage of several of the shop-built tools and jigs that I hav constructed over the past couple of years.  Note the plywood boxes in the NOVA lathe stand.  They contain about 200 lbs of sand to help to stablize the lathe.

Spalted Birch Natural Edge Bowl

Spalted Birch Natural Edge Bowl

Above picture is of a bowl that I completed while working with Edric Florence.  Its one of my favorites so far.

Wasting Wood

I've been continuing to face-joint the mahogany to prepare it for the desk tops.  Some of my beautiful 6/4 wood is pretty badly warped and I'm having to remove a lot of wood to straighten it.  Some of the 6/4 boards end up at less then 4/4 thick after face-jointing enough to eliminate the cup...I need at least 4/4 for the tops.

Sure hope I'm doing this right.  About 80% of the wood is easily face-jointed with little wasted wood.  About 20% is badly warped.

Might need to order more wood later if I continue at this rate.

New Wood Turning Project Photos

Finally got around to photographing and uploading some photographs of my recent green-wood turnings.  See woodturning Photo Album at right to view them.

Greene and Greene: Masterworks Book

I just read the book Greene and Greene:Masterworks by Bruce Smith to get a better feel for the G&G style details.  The book was very good with lots of high-quality color photos of the G&G houses and furniture that still exist. 

Based on the photos of the breadboard furniture tops in the book, I'm not going to do the cloud-lift details on the top inboard sides of the breadboard ends of the desk tops.  This detail appears to have been added by folks after the Greenes and does not appear on their furniture (at least in the photos that I have seen).  Additionally, I am building solid mahogany tops, like the Greenes did, and therefore the straight edge is better for wood movement.  I believe that the folks that have made the other detail must all be using mahogany veneer plywood for the top, because otherwise I do not know how they prevent cracking.  May be possible, but it is beyond my skill so far.

Templates Complete

I completed cutting and sanding the templates for the desks today, and started on prepping the mahogany stock for the desk tops.

I began jointing the warps out of the boards on my jointer.  Most of the boards look good, and are fairly straight.  But a few of the boards have strong warps and need a bit of work.  This process will take a little while.

A side project completed

I recently modified our kitchen cabinets to provide enough room for a new, much larger, refrigerator.  As a part of the modifications, I needed to cut the crown molding and replace it in a different arrangement.

I used a Rockler crown cutting jig for the power miter saw.  The jig worked great and made the crown work easy.  One problem.  On the last cut, it snapped in two at the joint between the base and vertical part of the jig.  The whole jig was plastic, and too brittle apparently.

Good jig, poor constructions.  I will build myself a stronger one out of plywood next time. 

Seems like I'm bashing Rockler in the last two posts.  I'm not.  I like Rocker, just seems like the products are well conceived, but need a bit more work on execution.  Price is right though.

I've started the desks at last!

Last night was the official start of the Greene and Greene inspired desks for my wife and me.  I drew my own plans from photos of Greene and Greene's original work, and with a heavy influence from the work of Darrell Peart of Washington State.  The desks will be similar to his "Aurora" desks....I call the design the "Aurora 2"  and give him credit for the inspiration.

I began by cutting patterns on 1/2-inch plywood to be used later for pattern routing of the curved pieces on the sides of the desks.  I hope to complete the patterns today and then begin laying out the mahogany for the two breadboard desk tops.

The new bandsaw performed perfectly.  I love it.  Now that the motor is replaced, it is an excellent machine.  Very smooth.  I can balance a nickel on edge on the table and see no vibration at all.  I've installed my old Rockler bandsaw table on the new Jet bandsaw and it fits well.  The Rockler table is a nice add-on for making a larger worksurface, but I am not crazy about the fence.  It does not stay in adjustment when removed from the saw, and it needs to be re-aligned every time I use it.  Someday, I will probably replace it with the Jet model.  Save your money and don't buy the Rocker model.

The African mahogany has seasoned enough to begin work.  I can't wait.

Notes from my first classes with Edric Florence in 2004

Below are the notes that I took during my first two classes with Edric Florence (an excellent local turner) in the fall of 2004.  They look simplistic now, but they still do me good to read from time to time.

1. don't be afraid to roll the gouge WAY over - almost past 90-degrees, leaving only about 1/32 between wood and top of gouge
2. remember, Ellsworth bowl gouge is 3-tools in one, gouge and two shear edges - gouge with the open face and tip, and shear with a closed face and wings
3. shearing should produce very fine shavings and little/no end-grain damage
4. don't bother rounding the piece when first mounted, just start cutting from the back of the bowl toward the bowl edge and it will round itself
5. keep back of gouge handle LOW and face CLOSED to shear cut - choke up on the gouge if necessary
6. Keep the rest very close to the work and move it often
7. Rest can be below center as long as cutting edge is at center
8. squaring up the blank on the lathe is very important on natural edge bowls - use the fingers on the rest to measure and align otherwise wall thickness will not be even due to the difference in edge height
9. use knock-out bar to hit piece when mounting and then re-tighten pieces after a few whacks
10. don't use the tail-stock wheel lock so that you can continually retighten
11. keep tail stock VERY tight with the wheel as you go
12. microwave on 30% power for 30 seconds about 45 minutes apart until weight does not change
13. don't run the lathe when you sand
14. WD-40 on the oils stones and lathe ways
15. SHOULDER is most important part of chuck grip, not base against chuck unless piece is large
16. Cyano glue (thin) to stabilize spalt, bark, etc...lots of it
17. Use accelerator on the cyan glue and dry with shavings
18. never get the pith in your work piece, it can be in the tenon if necessary
19. 6-parts water to 1 part dish soap soaking mixture to stabilize green wood.
20. when cutting the inside of the bowl, RUB the bevel on the bowl wall
21. don't grip too hard

Above is picture of one of my first natural edge bowls (spalted birch).

Impatience Wins

I couldn't wait any longer. I took the old motor out of the new Jet Bandsaw, and discovered that if I pounded out the cowl over the fan, I could replace the cowl and the motor would work fine. When the new motor finally comes, I am going to keep it anyway, because the old one is a bit on the abused side at this point, but it runs. Must have been shipping damage.

So, the bandsaw is up and running, and my next trip to the shop can be to get back to woodwork and not metalwork.