Jeff's Workbench

For the last two days I’ve been milling the stock for the crib.

Yesterday, I loaded all the wood into the Explorer and took it over to Bill’s house.  He was kind enough to let me use his jointer.  I had never used one before.  So, I was given a tutorial on it’s use.  How to hold the board, where to press(only on the out-feed table), where not to press (not on the in-feed table), and how to read the grain and what way the grain should run.  So, I grabbed one of the pieces that goes into a leg and promptly ruined it. Not encouraging.  I tapered it quite badly.  I could get it to take off wood when I would first start it into the jointer, but could never get it to take off the back end.  Figuring it was my technique, I moved to smaller pieces.  I figured they’d be easier to control.  Turns out they were.  I got off to a slow start.  But, the more I did it, the better I got at it.  Somewhere along the line, I figured out what I did wrong on my first piece.  Turns out, when a board is bowed, you want to joint it with the board facing the jointer so the two ends touch the table, not the high center.  It works SO much better that way.  My theory on that is that if it’s sitting like a bowl, and I only press on the out-feed table side, when the longer board is away from the cutter, I couldn’t apply enough pressure to keep it down.  Thus, I was taking off wood on the start, but not on the end.  I never did test that theory, but once I started using the straight edge to check the boards before jointing, I never had that problem again.  Things people don’t tell you!

That was a long day and my hands took the brunt of it.  Actually my left hand did.  A multitude of tiny cuts, several splinters, and two scraped up knuckles.  I saw and article or ad a while back about some self adhesive flexible tape to put on your fingers.  I didn’t really understand at the time why you would one anything like that.  But when you can’t wear gloves, it would have been really nice to have some of that to protect my fingers!

Today, I got my planer put back together.  I went Sears, Lowes and Home Depot in the attempt to find a blade alignment tool and struck out in all three.  Well, technically, I didn’t strike out at Sears.  They could have ordered me one from their web site, but it costs more to ship it then the part itself costs.  No thank you.  So, I got inventive instead.  I took my try square, the ruler out of my combo square and a couple spring clamps and made my own alignment tool.  I made a mark on the inside of the planer so I always put the cutter head in the same position, then hooked a spring clamp to my try square so it would stand up on it’s own.  Then, with the other spring clamp, I clamped the ruler to the square.  Then I raised the blade till it just touched the ruler.  Then I slid the contraption over to the other side and did the same thing.  I repeated this process two more times (it’s a three blade planer), and I was done.  Then I took a scrap piece of pine and ran it through.  Then I raised the bed, flipped the piece of wood over and ran it through again, on the left side of the planer.  With my highly accurate tape measure, it seemed like I had two faces that where parallel.  Them, without moving the bed, I ran it through again on the other right of the planer (it’s 12.5″ wide).  It took off a very small amount of shavings.  Then I raised the bed again and ran the piece through on the right side.  Then again, on the left side without moving the bed.  It appeared that I got the same very small amount of shavings.  So, I think I’m good!  I was off to the basement to get my crib wood!  (Oh, yeah, I ran what I did past Bill to see what he thought of my alignment and testing techniques.  He approved.)

Now, some of you are going to cringe at this, I’m sure, but I had to mill 50 some odd pieces down from ~3/4″ down to 3/8″.  That takes a long time.  It’s a lot of passes, and it makes a lot of shavings.  If I had some other tools, like a band saw, I could have resawn some of those pieces to produce two pieces and not wasted so much wood as shavings.  But for now, I have to work with what I have.

This is what those shavings look like at the end of the day.  And I still have two more passes to go on those pieces.  But tomorrow is President’s Day, and it’s a holiday for me (that’s  a first I think), so I plan on finish planing the rest of my lumber, and maybe get to gluing up a leg or two!  You’ve got to love progress!

Stay sharp!

I need a router table to do some of the work for my crib project.  It’s always more fun when I can make something myself, so today I made it happen.

A while back, Bill gave me a chunk of left over melamine he had, and  I picked up four 1″ 1/4-20 bolts.  That’s really all I needed.  With a couple C-clamps, the melamine was attached to the wing of my table saw.  I used a Sharpie to mark the location of the wing under the melamine.  That told me how far back I could mount the router.  I flipped it over and used the base plate of the router to mark some holes and drilled them out with a 1/4″ drill.  Then I flipped the board over again, clamped it down and mounted the router.

The plan was that I would use the router and my straight cutting bit to bore the hole for the bit.  After I had the router all mounted up under the melamine, I realized I had not chucked up the straight bit.  DOH!  A couple minutes later I had the router off, the bit in, and the router mounted up again.  It was a real simple matter to then use the fine adjustment to just walk the bit right up through the melamine.  I was then that the second problem showed itself.  Only about 5/8″ of the straight bit came up through the table.  That’s not very useful.

Now I had to make a bigger hole.  That would have been easy to do if I didn’t already had a 1/2″ hole in the melamine.  Then I remembered someone telling me about how the redrilled holes in a door.  Cut the new sized hole in a scrap piece of wood and then clamp that over the hole.  It provides the support needed to redrill the hole.  So, I grabbed my 2 1/2″ hole saw and ran that through a scrap of pine.  Then I centered that over the 1/2″ hole I had (yeah, I had to take the router off again!), and clamped it down.  The hole saw made short work of the melamine.

So, here’s what it looks like.  Nothing special at this point.  It’s a lot like Gary Rogowski’s table, and he’s a professional wood worker!  If you aren’t familiar with Gary Rogowski, I recommend taking a look at his DVD.  Bill lent it to me a while back.  Very informative.

With the 2 1/2″ hole, and the Triton boasting above-the-table bit changes, I can just get the wrench on it.

I now have an upside down router.

For the time being it will be clamped to the wing of my table saw.  I’ll pull it off when I don’t need it.  All I need now is a fence.  Maybe two.  One for jointing and a regular one.  Maybe some t-track too.

I spent another half hour on the #4.  It’s gotten a bit better, but it’s not done yet.

The center seems to be the worst.  That and the toe itself.    This plane was not well taken care of.  Some of the scratches in the sole are fairly deep.

The above pictures are essentially the same picture.  One with and one without the flash.  You can see different details in bot.  The pitting shows up better on the one without the flash.  The grid shows up better with the flash.

I think I’m going to try to find some courser sandpaper tomorrow.

This afternoon, I took some time and swept up some of the sawdust in the garage.  This allowed for the wife’s vehicle to get back in the garage.  It’s good to keep the wife (especially the pregnant wife) happy!

After that I spent a bit of time getting the rough cut wood all stickered up in the basement.  Another little puzzle.

Today, I rough cut all of the lumber for the crib.

First I made a push block.  I found some plans on Woodsmithshop.com.  It gave me an excuse to use my router a little.  The push block worked fine, but it’s not very comfortable.  I’m thinking that a handle more like a hand plane would be nice.  This one has a more horizontal handle.  It would probably be fine if I weren’t doing so much cutting, but I cut up almost 100 bf of wood today.  Comfort matters.

I used the bench I got for Christmas, and my circular saw to cross-cut the boards.  My blade was not as good as I had hoped.  It didn’t track well, and it burnt a bit.  I’ll have to pick up a new one before I do any more serious cutting.  Since this was just rough cutting, it didn’t matter too much.

I did my ripping on the table saw.  I must say, I was very impressed with how the new blade worked.  It made very smooth rips, with very little burning.  In fact, I ‘d say any burning was more my technique then the blade.  A couple times I set the push block down in a position that was awkward, and had to pause a bit to grab it.  I think that was when most of the burning occurred.

All of the pieces are rough cut and carried back down to the basement.  I haven’t stickered it yet, as I had to cut more stickers.  I’ll do that tomorrow.

While I was cutting the stickers, I happened to look down at the push block and noticed something.  Yeah, that’s what you think it is.  I hadn’t noticed I was bleeding.  A quick check to make sure all 10 fingers where in tact revealed my right palm was bleeding a little bit.  Then I remember getting stuck by the rough cut edge of one of the boards while I was taking it back down stairs.  It had me worried for a second.

Did you notice that the pictures of me in the garage were a bit cloudy?  I think it was the flash picking up the dust in the air.  I guess I’m glad I wore a dust mask.

Stay sharp!

Today I picked up an unknown #3 planer in need of some rehab.  The only external identifying marks say “Made in USA”.  It needs some work, as it’s a bit rusty.

I took it all apart and scrubbed it a bit with some dish soap and warm water.  Then I stuck it all (except the tote and knob) into the dishwasher.  It cleaned off most of the grime.  The above picture is actually after I put it back together after it came out of the washer.  I didn’t take any pictures as it was when I got it.

I had one sheet of 220 wet/dry sandpaper left, and it turned out to not be quite enough.

I was able to make the above progress on the bottom.  It’s WAY better than the block plane (which I never did finish flattening).  I should be able to finish it up pretty easily.

While it was apart I found a few identifying marks.

Under the lever cap, it is marked C116.  Beneath the frog is stamped C73.I don’t know if that means anything, but I’ll do some research.  It also has a Defiance iron, but I am told that that is a common replacement blade.  So, that may not mean anything.

So, here it is, after an hour or two of clean-up.  The sole needs a bit more flattening and the iron needs to be sharpened.  At some point, the tote needs to be changed.  It is not very comfortable in my hand.  But, I’m working wood right?  That should be an easy change. 

Stay sharp!

I spent a couple hours the last two nights laying out the parts to the crib on the lumber I bought.  That is a fun little puzzle.  Seriously, I have enjoyed it.  It’s all well and good that the plans layout all the pieces for me, but that’s on boards that are 1″x8″x8′.  Not one of the boards I purchased fit that bill.  So, lay out one part, figure out how much space is left on the board, then find another piece that might fit there.

I’m probably 3/4 done right now.  I think one more night and I’ll have it all done.  Then I’ll start rough cutting!  Gotta love it!

Today, my search for lumber (or at least lumber I am willing to pay for) came to an end.  After calling a couple mills and several stores, I finally came up with a supplier.  Turns out Johnson’s Workbench had plenty of flat sawn ash in their Grand Rapids store.  So, I left my day job a bit early and took the Explorer over to Grand Rapids.

I had never been to the store before, so I did have to spend some time wandering around the store.  They’ve got a lot of different kinds of wood, so I’m sure I’ll be back.  But today, only interested in the white ash.  They had plenty.  And they had it in several thicknesses.  8/4, 6/4 and 4/4.  I needed ~120 bf.  So, I pulled boards until I came up with 118 bf.  When they added up the tags on the boards they came up with 108.  We split the difference and I paid for 114.  I haven’t gone back and added them up again to see who was right.

They even helped me load it into the Explorer.  Most of the boards were 10′.  So, they stuck out a bit.  Only about 2′ with the seats down.  When we were done, I put a ratchet strap around the bundle, and a bungy to hold the liftgate down.  I figured with the weight of the wood, it wouln’t move at all.  I figured wrong.  Just turning out of the parking lot, the wood slid back about 6″!  Did I mention I figured wrong?  I pulled into a gas station just down the block.  I had more ratchet straps, and the Explorer has tie-down rings in the back.  So, a couple mintues later I was on the road again.  No further incidents occured on the trip home.

Once home, I took it all down to my basement and stickered it up.  Actually I do need to make a few more stickers.  The top two layers are not stickered.

So, there it will sit for the next two weeks.  So, I’ve got two weeks to get my planer back in order, my chisels sharpened, and some layout done.  No sweat right?

… continues.

Obviously this is something I should have started quite a while ago.  I didn’t realize that finding good, decent priced, quarter sawn white oak would be such a problem.  Places either don’t have it, don’t have enough, or want way too much for it.  Some even have two of those conditions.  I’ve called woodworking supply stores and sawmills.  I guess this is why people have barns of wood just wating for a project.  I guess that way you can get it when the price is right, then come up with a project later.  That way you avoid having a project that you need wood for and have to settle for whatever wood you can find at whatever price you have to pay.

I do believe I will be settling for ash.  It’s a reasonable oak substitute and there appears to be enough for my upcoming project in Grand Rapids.  Looks like I’ll be making a trip over there sometime this week.

… didn’t go so well.

So, I’m in need of some wood for my first major project.  I wanted to use quarter sawn white oak.  A friend recommended a couple  sawmills he had ordered wood from before.  One didn’t have any at the moment.  The other only dealt in basswood.  So, I’m looking for other sources when he suggests that we attempt to rive some trees he recently had cut down.  He’s has both red and white oak.  Immediately I’m game.

So, Saturday, I meet him at his house and we walk back behind his pole barn to the log pile.  Right on the end, we find a decent sized log right on the end.  We can get to it without even moving it.  Which is good because it’s too big for the two of us to move in one piece.  With two splitting wedges, a maul and an 8 lbs sledge hammer, we go about trying to split the log in half.

We should have looked at the log a little more carefully before we started to work.  We assumed the pith was in the center of the log.  It wasn’t.  So, we wound up pealing a chunk off.  It didn’t run the full length of the log.  It was quite a bit of work.  But, enthusiasm was high.   The second attempt produced a full length split.  We just kept brushing snow off the log as we went.  We should have done that first.  The log wasn’t as straight as we thought.

It was now that we decided to aim at the pith for the next split.  These are things we probably should have read up on before we started.    This split turned out to be MUCH harder to start.  We were splitting a much larger piece, and it was actually in half this time.  But once it started to go, it went.  What a sound the log makes when it splits.  It’s very cool.  And when you get a good split going, even after you stop hammering the wedge in, the log still makes those cracking sounds.  It’s quit interesting.  And the smell!  I love the smell of fresh split oak.  Oh, did I mention this turned out to be red oak?  Well it is.  And it’s RED.

By the time we got that split finished, Bill had to call it a day.  He had dinner plans that evening.  We had to then get it loaded in a truck.  Did I mention it was over a hundred yards from the truck to the wood?  And there was a lot of snow?  Yeah, we had to drag it.  We attempted to drag it with some rope.  That didn’t work very well.  Even with a shovel under the front to keep the log from digging in.  We then attempted to pull it out with the truck.  That worked for a minute, then the rope broke.  A comedy of errors.  We then decided that it was worth the risk of getting the truck stuck to back up to the log.  It turned out fine.

Bill dropped off one of the halves and the two smaller split pieces on his way out of town.  It’s now displaced my car in the garage as it waits for me to finish splitting it.

It probably won’t work for the project I had intended.  I’ll be able to get wood out of it, but I don’t think I’ll get pieces long enough for this project.  And I don’t yet have all the tools necessary to work this type of wood.

All in all this was a fun day.  It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot!

• Make sure the log is straight
• Split the log in half, aiming for the pith.
• Start at the narrow end of the log, it’s easier than starting at the large end (yeah, did I mention that we started on the large end?)

In the aftermath, I am quite sore.  We lost both of Bill’s splitting wedges in the snow.  Bill wound up taking a day off work because his back hurt too much.  Everyone is blaming me for that.  But it was his idea!

Better luck next time!  I’m going to figure out how much quarter sawn ash I need to order.