Archive for October, 2008

Christmas Presents

Oct 30

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in Projects | No Comments

I’m taking a little break from the hall table project, to work on some Christmas presents. In past years I really haven’t made anything to give away. I guess I never found a project that I liked and that would represent what I was trying to do with my woodworking, and could be completed in a short period.

This last summer I took a handsawing class from Christopher Schwarz and in that class we made a Shaker Silverware Tray. The tray has handcut dovetails and was pretty easy to make. I though this would be the perfect project for Christmas gifts. I plan to make 4 trays if time permits. If you would like to make one, I using the plans found on Popular Woodworking’s site.

I’m working on this project with my woodworking pal Ananda. A few weekends ago we went out looking for some nice Cherry, but struck out on finding some Cherry. We wanted to find some s4s ½” Cherry, so we didn’t have to mill or resaw a lot of lumber. We wanted this project to be somewhat “quick”. All the ½” Cherry we found was all sapwood. I don’t mind seeing sapwood in some projects, but these boards were almost all sapwood. There was so much sapwood it really didn’t look like Cherry anymore. We did find some really nice Maple and chose to go that route instead.

We spent most of that first day laying out and cutting the boards to size. I also spent some time gluing up the tray bottoms. This last weekend started on one of the trays. I’ll post pictures of the process and progress in the coming weeks.

This should be fun project and now some friends and family will have something I’ve made.

Hands down the best Table Saw DVD I’ve seen

Oct 23

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in Reviews, Techniques | No Comments

Please check out my review on lumberjocks.com, of Hendrik Varju’s new DVD Revelations on Table Saw Set-up & Safety.

New Tool – Plow Plane

Oct 20

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in Tools | No Comments

This last weekend I was treated to the early delivery of a new plane I ordered. I have a couple projects coming up where I need to cut groves for the bottoms of drawers and the like. Wanting to do more with hand planes, I’ve been looking at Plow Planes. I looked at come “older” Stanleys, but I’m not into restoring planes at this time. There aren’t too many companies out there making Plow Planes at this time, but more are starting to show up. I choose to go with the Veritas Small Plow Plane from www.leevalley.com. At this time I only got the 1/4″ blade, it’s what I need for my upcoming projects.

I had a chance to try this plane out at a woodworking show recently, and to be honest I wasn’t really impressed with it. Although looking back, I have to say the condition in which I got to use the tool wasn’t ideal. After reading countless positive reviews by other woodworkers, I knew I hadn’t given the tool a fair chance. I knew Lee Valley had great customer service, and if I really didn’t care for it after giving it a try, I could return it.

Well, I don’t think I’ll be sending it back. It worked much better in my shop, after a good sharpening of the blade. The plane cut really smooth. It was easy to set up. It feels comfortable in your hand. The blade adjustment is very easy. The depth gauge is easy to set and stays in place.

The only think I will say against the plane, is that it feels a little “tippy”. I’ve never used a Plow Plane before, so it might just be me getting used it. The fence seems a little small in “width”, but is plenty long enough. You can add an auxiliary fence to it, and I will most likely do this for some added support.

Small Hall Table Update

Oct 20

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A few weekends ago I did a test glue-up of the apron. Over all the test went well. I’m glad I did a test glue-up, because there were a few things I learned and could do better.

First, I was using a glue I hadn’t used before, URAC 185. URAC 185 is an Urea Formaldehyde glue. It come in 2 parts that need to be mixed together. I tried to measure the 2 parts by volume, because I thought it would be easier then weighing the 2 parts. I don’t think doing it by volume is as accurate. My mix came out quite a bit thicker than I think it should have been. I think I’ll try it again but weigh out the 2 parts.

Next, I new the URAC 185 glue was going to be “dark” and might cause the glue lines in the laminates to show more in lighter woods. I think the glue lines are more visible, and I do plan to use something like Maple for the base. I ordered another type of “cold press” glue from www.joewoodworker.com. This other glue comes in a couple different shades. I choose the lighter one for the Maple I plan to use.

During the glue-up I didn’t pay close attention to the laminates and how well they lined up. The result was a pretty uneven edge. This made cleaning up the edge a little harder. Next time I’ll try and keep the edges as flush as I can.

Other than that, the test was a success. I had very little spring-back when I took the apron out of the form. I cleaned up one edge on the jointer. Then ripped it to size on the bandsaw. Using a full-scale drawing of the apron and legs, I marked out where the apron needed to be cut and cut it to size. I’ll practice cutting the sliding dovetails on this mock-up and 1 or 2 more test pieces.

Bandsaw Weekend

Oct 5

Posted by TheInquisitiveWoodworker in Techniques, Tools | 1 Comment

I did a quick tire change on the bandsaw this weekend and tested out the new bandsaw blade I ordered. The tire change went fast without any problems. It was then onto testing this new killer blade.

Resaw King bandsaw blade
The bandsaw blades I’ve been using lately have been Wood Slicer blades. I’ve been really happy with these blades. They cut pretty fast and pretty smooth. I knew even with the “nice” cut I was getting, there was going to be a lot of work cleaning up the cut surface. Recently I was listening to Wood Talk Online, and Mark was talking about a new blade he was testing. It was the Resaw King from Laguna Tools. He commented on the smoothness and quality of cut he got with this blade. He also said it was pretty expensive and he was right. I thought if the blade worked as well as advertised, it could save me a lot of time during the surface clean up.

There are some nice videos on Laguna’s web site, you might wont the check them out if you are considering one these blades.

The first thing you will notice about this blade, it’s not the standard hocked toothed blade you are used to seeing. It really looks like a “table saw” blade, but stretched out into a bandsaw blade.

A positive thing about this blade is that it can be sent back to be resharpened. It helped me justify the initial cash outlay, which for me was about $180. My bandsaw can support up to a ¾” blade, so I got a 105” – ¾” Resaw King.

While on Laguna’s site, I watched some of their other videos. In the section on their bandsaws, one of the demonstrations was on setting your fence for blade drift. It was brilliant and the simplest procedure I had ever seen. I had to see if it really worked.

Setting your fence for blade drift
First, find a nice piece of stock a couple inches thick. Make sure the edge that will ride against the fence is flat and square. Make your first cut about a 1″ in from the outside edge. The cut should be a couple inches deep. Turn off the bandsaw. Observe the blade position in the cut.

In my case the blade was resting up against the right side of the cut, as you looked at from the cut side. The goal is to get the blade in the center of the saw curf. I opened the fence up slightly and did another test cut.

I was a little conservative on my first adjustment. Another slight tweak, and I got it on my second try.
This really is the simplest and quickest method I’ve ever used. Now, the real test was going to be how it cuts.

Testing the blade
Here’s an example of a resaw cut I did last weekend using my Wood Slicer blade. It’s what I’m used to getting on my bandsaw and until now I thought it was a pretty nice cut.

Here’s an example of the quality of cut I get with the Resaw King blade.

You can just make out some very light “ribs” left by the blade. It is the cleanest and smoothest cut I have ever seen on a bandsaw. Laguna says they are trying to achieve table saw quality cuts on their bandsaws. I think I’m about 95% there with my bandsaw. I suspect you can get that quality of cut, on one of their saws with this blade. I on the other hand have a Grizzly 14” bandsaw, which is working fine for me now. Although, I look forward to the day I can move up to a higher quality and larger bandsaw.

I was so impressed with the quality of cut, I recut the laminates for the apron. The surfaces were so smooth, I decide to try the glue up without even cleaning up the cut surfaces. The apron is curing in the form and will be ready for a closer look tomorrow, or this next weekend.