General Woodworking

In this episode of 360 with 360WoodWorking, Bradley McCalister is back to talk about his favorite woods to work with on the lathe, and we discuss various tools used when turning, including scroll chucks, traditional turning tools and turning tools that have interchangeable cutters.

Join 360 Woodworking every Thursday for a lively discussion on everything from tools to techniques to wood selection (and more). Glen talks with various guests about all things woodworking and some things that are slightly off topic.

Continue reading Bradley McCalister Talks Wood & Tools Used When Turning – 360w360 E.246 at 360 WoodWorking.

I am a woodworker, and as a woodworker I live by a certain set of norms which dictate that I be accurate, but not ridiculously accurate. After all, wood changes size all of the time, so there is a limit to how accurate we can be and how much we should really worry about it. For most of us, a few measurements in a job are critical and the rest of the pieces are fit to look good. We may use measurements as a jumping off point, but it isn’t uncommon to trim a bit here and plane a bit there.

When I am in the shop, I always have a tape measure hanging off of my pocket for anything that needs to be measured. I use it a lot, but mostly for rough measurements, like making sure a piece of wood will be big enough for what I have in mind. I also use it for more critical measurements, but I try my best to find ways to not use measurements when things start to get critical. For example, instead of measuring, I will use a scrap piece of wood as a spacer. That way I don’t need to worry every time about reading the tape measure wrong, and I know that all of my spacing will be very consistent.

As much as I try to avoid being fussy about my measurements, sometimes they need to be a little more accurate. One of the tools where accuracy is important is the planer. If I want 1″ thick wood, I want to know that it is 1″. Now, more engineery people might reach for their calipers, but for those of you like me, with only a tape measures on your belt, I have a very accurate way to make perfectly sized parts – just stack them up.

The target for this table saw run was 1″. The samples from the cut were close, especially the one in the middle, but adding all of them up confirms that they are a bit wide.

Here’s the logic. If your measurements are just slightly off, you may not notice it in just one piece, but as you add up the pieces you also add up the differences and they become much more obvious. Just run a scrap piece of wood through the planer, chop it into 3, 4 or 5 pieces, stack them up and measure them. 5 pieces of wood that are 1″ thick should measure 5″ – simple de dimple. If your 1″ thick board isn’t exactly 1″ thick, you will see it, even without calipers, and then you can adjust the thickness.

That’s better! Three pieces measure 3″ wide. The average is 1″. Let’s run some parts!

The beauty of this system is two-fold. First off, you don’t need to worry about having calipers (after all, those are for kids that work at Boeing and have really clean floors). Second, it gives you a more accurate real-world reading of what is coming out of your machine. We all know that a board coming out of the planer has dips and doodles in the wood and can range in thickness depending on the spot that you measure. Adding up several pieces of wood gives you not only a measurement that is accurate, but it is also closer to the average. We are only talking small amounts here, but if you are setting up to plane a bunch of lumber, it is great to know what the bulk of it is going to measure.

When running enough wood through the planer to make thousands of little sticks with thousands of little spaces, as in this wine cellar racking, accurate tool setup is critical and easy to verify by stacking up multiples.

I use this system to double-check measurements on other tools as well. It works great on the table saw to make sure that your 3″ wide board is really 3″. Instead of cutting just one sample board 3″ wide and determining that it looks really close, cut 3 or more and add them up. Assuming that you can do a little simple math, you will be able to tell if the 3″ mark is consistently spitting out 3″ boards and not 2-63/64″ boards.

When using my fancy measuring shortcut, there is one important rule to follow. Make sure the tongue on your tape measure is accurate or don’t use the tongue at all. If you don’t trust the tongue on your tape measure then take a reading starting at the 1″ mark to check the distance and then just subtract 1″ from your reading (and then hope that a holiday is quickly approaching that might lend itself to the arrival of a new tape measure).

I find myself needing a lot of small circles for use on wooden toys. When I cut those disks out with a circle-cutting jig on the band saw, the edge is a little too rough, so I’ve made a fixture for the disk sander that makes quick work of sanding the wheels perfectly round and smooth. A ledger strip on the bottom plate of the fixture fits into the sander’s […]

The post Tricks of the Trade – Sander Circle Jig: Make Perfectly Round Wheels Quickly appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Some items finished up lately. The first two in a series of bird bowls. I had some very large crooks recently, made some large spoons then dedicated some of these oversized crooks to bowls. And, a small run of straight-grained serving/cooking spoons.

I got some questions about the bowls, what does the blank look like? – here is a roughed-out bowl superimposed on top of its other half of the crook – had to cradle the crook in a notched block so it would stand for its photo. Gives some idea of where you can find these in a tree. They can be trouble to split. This one was 5″ in diameter, and 24″ tip to tip. Cherry.

and here is that roughed-out bowl grabbed between two wooden bench dogs – this is how I get at it to do the gouge work. If I keep getting crooks like this, I’m going to make a larger more robust set of these dogs. Note the notches in the inside faces.

If you would like to order a spoon or bowl, just leave a comment here about which one you’d like. Then I can send a paypal invoice,  or you can mail a check the old fashioned way. Either one is fine with me. Prices include shipping in the US – further afield and I’ll figure an additional shipping charge. Thanks as always for the support.

All these items are finished with food-grade flax oil.

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cherry bird bowl –

L: 15″  H: (at front) 7 1/4″
$500

Birch bowl – SOLD
L: 10 3/4″ H: (at front) 7 1/4″

SPOONS –

Aug spoon 1 – cherry, crook. This spoon blank left me with a very long, narrow bowl. Overall a long spoon. Great crook shape, I couldn’t resist.

L: 13 7/8″   W:  2 1/8″
$125 includes shipping in US

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Large cherry crook #3

L: 13″  W: 3 1/2″
$150 includes shipping in US

—————-

Large cherry crook #2

L: 13″  W:  4″
$150 includes shipping in US.

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Now, a series of straight-grained spoons for cooking or serving.

—————–

Aug spoon #1; birch

L: 11″  W: 2 5/8″
$85

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Aug spoon #2; birch

L: 10 1/2″  W: 2 1/2″
$85

—————–

Aug spoon #3; birch

L: 10 1/2″  W: 2 5/8″
$85

—————

Aug spoon #4; birch  SOLD

L: 9 1/2″  W: 2 1/2″
$85

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Aug spoon #5; birch

L: 8 1/2″  W:  2 3/4″
$75

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Aug spoon #6; walnut   – SOLD

L:  10 1/2″ W: 2 3/4″
$85

We are very fortunate to have cats, chickens and a toddler in our lives. In our garden and in the woodland behind it, we occasionally see deer, squirrels, chipmunks, turkeys and many types of birds that either live in the woods or pass by. But it seems that the only animal that we did not intentionally acquire, but made a lovely home in our garden, is a chubby groundhog we […]

The post Reclaimed Wood Sign for a Groundhog’s Castle appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

First Look: Deluxe ‘Roubo on Furniture’

After an astonishing amount of work from people on two continents – not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment – a surprise showed up at the front door today.

It was a FedEx driver in a big truck. Sign this, he said. And then five boxes were sitting on the front step. Inside were the first copies of the deluxe version of “With All the Precision Possible: Roubo on Furniture.” It’s the biggest (physical and mental) thing we’ve ever published at Lost Art Press. It’s also the most expensive book we’ve ever made (and probably ever will make).

The book is now sitting in front of me, and I’m still a bit bewildered. It’s like our deluxe edition of “Roubo on Marquetry” (now sold out) but more than twice as thick.

I’ll have more to report on the book as we get it into the mail to all the customers who ordered pre-publication copies. And we’ll definitely have copies to show off at the next open day on Saturday, Sept. 9.

— Christopher Schwarz, christophermschwarz.com

P.S. FYI, this book is available for worldwide delivery. Choose “Outside USA” when checking out and we’ll contact you about the actual delivery charges to your address.

Jameel and Fr. John and crew posted a superb video summarizing 2017 Handworks, where I gathered with several thousand of my closest friends to celebrate hand tool woodworking.  If you were there, this is a sweet taste of remembrance.  If you were not there, it is a bitter taste of regret.

Earlier this year my territory changed for my job and I acquired the Lowe’s in Morehead, KY as one of my accounts. Whenever I would drive down to that Lowe’s, I would always drive by the Harold White Lumber Co. I was always impressed by the amount of logs the mill had on its lot, but I saw no showroom or retail office, so I always kept driving. That was until a few weeks ago, when I decided to pull in and see what the place was all about. I figured the worse thing that could happen is they would tell me they only sell to wholesale accounts and kick me out.

I stopped at the mill work office and asked if they sold to retail customers. They said they did, but I would have to drive over to the lumber office so, I got back into my car and headed down the driveway to another office. There I met the office manager who asked what type of wood I was looking for. I said “nothing at the moment, just wondered if you sell to retail customers”. She gave me their price list and asked the plant manager to show me around the mill. He took me where they keep the short stacks of lumber with loads of cherry, oak, wormy maple and poplar. He told me that the 4/4 poplar was only $.80 board foot. I usually pay $2.20 for 4/4 poplar at my current lumber yard in Cincinnati. I would have bought some that day, but I didn’t bring any cash with me plus, I was just looking for info at the time and had no intention of buying anything anyway.

The mill is huge with thousands of logs on their land. I looked at their price list and they carry all the major domestic species, but they also have basswood, sycamore, sassafras, hemlock, and coffee tree. I was told by the office manager that they don’t always have the rare species in stock, but if you call ahead, they may be able to mill some up. You can even buy a whole log if you want to mill the wood yourself.

So today, I went back and I told the same office manager I was interested in the four-foot shorts. She had an employee follow me back to the area they keep them so they could load it in my car. The last time I was here, this whole area was stacked with bundles of lumber. The guy told me that the shorts don’t last long. They even have a big dumpster where people can dumpster dive for one to two foot long boards.

I came home with 20 board feet of 4/4 FAS White Oak for $30.00 for a whiskey barrel coffee table my cousin wants me to make for her. The wood should be enough to make the base and top of the table as I already bought a halved whiskey barrel last weekend. The next time I go back, I’m going to stock up on poplar, maple, cherry, and walnut. It’s nice to have place where I can buy hardwood lumber dirt cheap.

Due to the excitement from The Eclipse Event of 2017, I wasn’t sure I would be able to do a blog today. Locally, the eclipse was only partial enabling me to recover more quickly than expected.

I’m OK. now.

Wandering through my favorite auction gallery, I came across this piece:

Antique Continental Inlaid Dressing Table

Description: 18th century, mixed woods, reverse bookmatched veneered top with geometric banded inlaid edge, two cock beaded drawers, with barber pole banded inlay, raised on later cabriole legs with block feet.

Size: 29 x 29 x 17.5 in.

Condition: Later legs; insect damage; shrinkage crack to top with areas of fill; retains likely original pulls.

This lot has sold for $120.

Here is the reverse bookmatched veneered top.

And the geometric banded inlaid edge.

A cockbeaded drawer with end-grain veneer and barber pole banded inlay.

I opened one of the drawers with end-grain veneer and barber pole banded inlay and was surprised to not see dovetails. My first thought was the applied cockbeading might be covering the dovetails, but that was not the case. It is unusual for a table of this quality not to have dovetailed drawers. Rare but not unheard of.

Look Ma, no dovetails!! But there are nails.

At either end!

Looking for more construction details, I pulled out the other drawer:

There be dovetails here!

Dovetails at both ends of the drawer.

I checked the opposite side of the first drawer and found dovetails:

Dovetails on this side of the first drawer.

I went back and looked at the first side of the first drawer and found that:

There probably were pins. You can see the pin residue between the cockbead and the drawer side.

I’m figuring the thin pins failed and the drawer side was replaced with one nailed on.

It happens.

There was another piece there that I ignored at first:

Georgian Hepplewhite One Drawer Server

Description: Early 19th century, mahogany, oak secondary, bow front, single drawer with ebony line inlay to edge, banded line inlay to skirt and square tapered legs raised on brass casters.

Size: 29 x 36 x 19 in.

Condition: Later top; some inlay loss and other restoration.

This lot has sold for $130.

I had ignored it because the top looked too new and was glued up from several narrow boards. The top had no profile or decoration applied, just a plain edge, similar to today’s Bassett or Ethan Allen furniture.

Just to validate my dismissal of this server as new, I looked at a drawer and saw this:

Not at all what I expected.

That’s when I checked the catalog and saw that (part of) it was 200 years old.

Not something I wanted. It did find a home for $130.

I liked the pull, even if not original.

A contemporary-looking design that’s really from the 18th century. by Christopher Schwarz Pages 28 – 34 October 2017 Buy the issue here. If you’ve ever been dragged to Ikea by your spouse (few woodworkers go willingly – except to eat meatballs), you’ve probably seen a table similar to this gateleg one. It’s been a staple of the contemporary furniture company’s line-up for many years. One Saturday five years ago, my […]

The post Modern Gateleg Table: A Contemporary-Looking Design That’s Really From the 18th Century appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

Offspring nuptials often cause woodworkers to deviate from their normal regimen of projects.  I am no different.  Over the past fortnight I’ve been making hundreds of wood wafers as coasters for wedding mementos.

Of course I outsmarted myself by carefully sealing both sides of the coasters to reduce splitting, but then found out the ink would not stick to the varnished surface.  So I had to sand one face of each of the ~250 chotchkis on my disc sander to prep them for stamping.

This guitar, a Recording King Tricone Resonator, came into the workshop with a problem.  It’s owner, guitar virtuoso Roland Chadwick, wanted to use an open C# tuning  (C#,G#, C#, F, G#, C#) but couldn’t get it to play in tune. A web search rapidly revealed that these guitars are notorious for giving trouble with open tunings. There are probably several reasons including the high action at the nut and coupling of certain notes with strong body resonances, but another cause seems to be too little compensation at the bridge.  With an open C# tuning, this results in the two lower strings sounding more than 20 cents sharp at the 12th fret.

At one time, a replacement bridge was made which allowed the compensation of each string to be individually adjusted. (You can see it here.)  It looks an excellent design but unfortunately, it’s no longer obtainable. What to do instead?

I decided to follow a similar route but to get there by modifying the existing bridge rather than  making a new one.  I simply glued small pieces of ebony onto it and reshaped the string slots  to provide a few millimetres of compensation for the 2nd, 5th and 6th strings. I say simply but, although the idea is straightforward, it’s a bit tricky in practice because the shape of the bridge and existing saddle makes it hard to clamp the small lumps of ebony in place while the glue cures. I solved the problem by making a cast of the opposite side of the bridge from car body filler – a technique that I’ve described in detail in the Tools and Jigs section of this website.

Below are a few photographs of the modified bridge and the guitar with its top off while final adjustments were being made.

I didn’t succeed in getting it to play perfectly in tune over the whole length of the fingerboard, but the intonation is a lot better and I think that Roland will now be able to play it without making his audience’s ears bleed.

The post Solar Eclipses at Highland Woodworking appeared first on Woodworking Blog.

1. Wooden slides Traditionally, drawers have slid on wooden runners: strips of wood tenoned into horizontal rails at the face of a cabinet. In casework where a drawer will not be guided by the cabinet’s sides — for example, when the cabinet has a face frame that protrudes into the drawer opening — the runners are fitted with guides to keep the drawers from sliding left or right and binding […]

The post 3 Kinds of Furniture Drawer Slides: Pros and Cons appeared first on Popular Woodworking Magazine.

I’ll be ordering the lumber this week for the Sept. 4-8 “Build A Traditional Workbench” workshop at The Barn, so this is the last chance to register if you want to participate.  I will close the books on this at 5PM Wednesday.

If you would like to join us and go home on Friday with a finished bench, contact me here.

In October I will be teaching a pair of three-day workshops at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday session introducing 18th Century Parquetry, followed by the Thursday-Friday-Saturday workshop on Traditional Finishing.  This is something of an experiment for Marc schedule-wise, and I very much appreciate his accommodating me in this.

I know for certain that there are openings for the Parquetry session but am less certain about the finishing one.  I hope you can join me there and look forward to spending time with you there and, as a dear professor friend of mine says, “pushing back the frontiers of ignorance.”