theBreeze
Woodworking Topics
An introduction, a preview, a background is required. As a kid, we did not have money for tools. My grandfather was a ship's carpenter in Glascow, Scotland. My Dad was not a woodworker. I did like carving, and building wooden things, a result of being a Boy Scout. I always wished I could build nice things of wood.
I went to college as a traditional engineer, at a time when courses included trades-oriented laboratory sessions. I learned metallurgy, metal working, welding, electricity, fluids, surveying, casting and woodworking. In 1990 I bought a good Porter Cable router and some bits, a Skil finishing sized circular saw, a Makita powered finishing hand sander and some hand tools, including a Stanley miter saw (no miter box), a chisel, square, and ruler. There was need for a light colored, tall, narrow hall table. I liked simplicity of design. As an engineer, less is better. That same simplicity still pleases my eye.
I started reading. I read Basic Woodworking Techniques, a Sunset Book. I practiced building a rectangular piece of wood. I got a Garrett Wade catalog, and bought two planes, a Stanley... and a Record... I looked through some mail order catalogs, and found a table to copy. It was Santa Fe style, and I mixed a Japanese piece desgin with it. I measured the size limitations of the space in the hallway. I made a to-scale drawing, and revised it until the proportions suited the space, and my eye. Stain was a chemistry-job. I purchased several half pints, and tried combinations of finished scraps of the wood (maple). The target was akin to the light shade part of old oak flooring. I also bought some recently discovered in an old warehouse Bouffard Freres inlay from Garrett Wade. I planned to fancy up the table top with an inlay. What a woodworking lamb!
The actual execution is too long for here. One interesting design execution had to do with the inlay, which I decided best to insert after the finish was applied to the top. I'll leave your judgement to decide on that, based on the following photo which shows one of four matched corner details of the inlay.
Sharpness
My ear echos Bubba Gump whittisms when I think of describing the value of sharpness. You can make up your own. Do sharpen most new tools that have a cutting edge. Do sharpen them regularly, perhaps just before doing special work, or while goofing off following a long stretch of strenuous work. I use those diamond coated plastic sticks that look like tongue depressors in "Fine" and "Extra Fine" grits for router bits and miscellaneous blades.
For chisels and planes I lap the backs with sandpaper on glass, ending at oiled 600 grit black paper. The other face is done on a 6000 grade Japanese waterstone, held by a Veritas honing jig. I finish with a few passes at one-step steeper on the Veritas honer to create the final edge, and polish it on the back of a leather cowboy belt rubbed with Tripoli, a polishing compound. I also polish the back edge. This results in hair shaving off to the capilliary skin vessel level if you aren't careful testing.
With a sharp edge on a tool you press rather than force. There will be no jumping or skipping of the tool. The cutting stroke will be smooth throughout, starting where you wish, ending as you wish. Photo's of edges and swirlings for your perusal. The information provided is the real stuff. Everything written here works. This is the land of reality rather than scholarly dissertations from theory. Enduring, repeatable results is the achieved objective.
Air Filtration
HVAC engineers who design scientific laboratory clean-rooms follow some principals applicable to woodworking. Note that none of the following has anything to do with the presence of flammable or toxic chemicals. It does relate to removal of airborne dust.
Clean air results from removal of particles. Drawing air through a filter or filters does just that. The amount of air is cubic feet, the three dimensional volume of the space. Length x Width x Height = Volume, in cubic feet. My basement work area is nine feet high by 23 feet long by 12 feet wide. As volume this is 9x23x12=2484 cubic feet, lets say 2,500 cubic feet to keep the math easy. I spent $65. for an attic exhaust fan, capable of pumping 250 cubic feet per minute. Therefore it will take ten minutes to pass all of the air in my shop through the fan. Further, in sixty minutes (ten times six) I will have done this six times. This is called six changes per hour, and is a pretty good for air cleaning. The best "clean rooms" have about twenty changes per hour.
What about particle removal? Easy, put that attic fan in a handy sized box, and place a couple of filters in front of it, so the air will be drawn through the filters, past the fan, and be exhausted back into the room (or out the window). This is just what I built, and it works wonderfully. The cost was an attic fan, a sheet of plywood, a 24x24x1 standard blue furnace filter (roughing filter - a first filter for the big stuff), and a 24x24x1 white allergy filter (final filter - to catch the small stuff). It's hung by chain from the floor joists, mounted by through bolts with big rubber grommets between washers to ease noise and vibration.
After running this rather quiet air filtration system for thirty minutes or so, the air is so clean it almost looks glassy. Cost? A hundred bucks, or less.
Delta Tools
Don't be deluded into believing that because it says "Delta" on it, that that is synonymous with "good". I own three Delta tools; a little drill press that works fine; a mortiser that sucks, including it's pricey Delta chisels, and a Shopmaster table saw that I was ready to return until I threw out it's Delta carbide tipped 10" blade.
I'll skip commenting on the drill press. It works fine. The mortiser in the cellar is the second one; the first one broke in less than an hour. It looked like a carbide inclusion in a casting to me - snapped the hold down rod off cleanly. Woodworker's Supply where I bought it gave me another one in less than a minute. Nice people - of course, this means they went out of business. I purchased two Delta morticing chisels with it, a 3/8" and a ½". The whole operation, regardless of care taken, is carpenter grade at best. I would not consider using it for a furniture joint, even if hidden. The quality of the cut is offensive. I'd like to try a quality mortising bit. Drop me a note if you have one that works.
I have a Delta Shopmaster table saw. It uses a ten inch blade, and came with a Delta 10" carbide tipped 40-tooth blade. Shake, rattle, whine, lousy kerf. No amount of tuning showed a difference. I purchased a Forrest Chopmaster blade for a Hitachi sliding compound miter saw, and could not believe the difference. Cuts with the Forrest blade were router smooth. Absolutely amazing blade. Great saw. The eight inch blade handles 2 by 12 inch boards, which completely suits furniture work. In the Navy vernacular it is four balls accurate. So, I bought a Forrest Woodworker II for the table saw. There also was a $12.95 zero-clearance insert at the same Internet site, so I got it too. Once again, Forrest Manufacturing demonstrated to me the quality difference. Blade whine was knocked WAY down. It felt and sounded like the saw was turning at about two-thirds the RPM. The cut was clean, absolutely satisfactory. The only variable changed on the saw was the blade and insert. I would venture to say that this saw and blade, and insert, which cost $300 + 100. + 13. = $413. cuts as cleanly as you will ever need. I added the off-feed table for about twelve bucks in cut-offs and hardware for a grand total of $425.
The Bandsaw
Laguna Tools used to import an Italian 13 inch bandsaw (Meber - I think). I bought one from them in response to a postcard in the mail sale for a very most reasonable price, back in 1995. I follow Mark Dughinskskisp??? The Bandsaw Book for tuning this saw, and only use Suffolk tools blades from …. In New York. For resawing I use featherboards before the blade.
The saw is a direct drive 600 RPM machine. I like it a whole lot. I don't know if Laguna still carries this size in their line. Look at the ongoing and ever-winning rave reviews for their 16 inch saw. This saw is the same, just smaller. I have the great good fortune to be within a very easy drive of Willard Brothers Sawmill, just north of Trenton, New Jersey, where I can buy good boards of the right size, sequentially sawn (matched) if I need them.
Chisels
The least expensive Japanese chisel you can find at the Japan Woodworker is about five times better than anything American, British, Scandanavian, or German that I have. These Japanese chisels cost about fifteen bucks each. I do not buy collections of tools. I buy what I need for the job I am working. Hence, I have five chisels. A six millimeter Vorsk I use for some coveted turn-of-the-century Bouffard Freres inlay I have put away, a 1/4" Whickley, a 3/8" Japan and a 1/2" Stanley. God bless Stanley tools. I use many of them. However, this chisel, the first I ever purchased from the now defunct Hechingers would not make even a good bottle opener. It is heavy and blunt. The Vorsk is good for one cut, then the edge chips – too hard, therefore brittle, I think from high carbon content. Another looked nice, but would not take an edge, too buttery, like stainless steel. I have gradually replaced all chisels with the generic Japanese chisels from The Japan Woodworker.
Router and Table
I am modestly embarrassed -in a way- to call this a router table. I will call it a router station, although it originally lacked legs. It also lacks a miter guide. It gets tons of use and is functionally excellent.
I use a Porter Cable 690 router. It is dicey to plunge route with. I only do so gingerly. I normally use a $30 speed controller from MLCS with it. I do not need production speed. I prefer safety, comfort with power tools and accuracy. I also work with cherry a lot, and low speeds alleviate burning the wood. So does spritzing cherry with a spray bottle of water – an old German Mennonite trick Herb Setzkorn taught me. Herb also let me in on the real meaning for those Amish barn symbols ('chust fur nice, he whispered). I have not put a timing light on the router to verify it's speed. To the ear, it is just up from steady speed, maybe 1,000 RPM for ¾ wood. I also take light cuts.
Rather than attempt machining a miter guide 90 degrees to a non-perfect edge, I use a partially fixed fence, and hand made T-squares for table routing. I have used this method for about ten years. It suits me.
I do not have a planer yet, hence I own some big straight bits (actually I have a lot of bits) and true boards on the router table. It works for me. Practically all of the router bits, except for some millimeter sizes, are carbide from MLCS. I have only had one bit from MLCS that I didn't like. It was a design flaw which Carmen and I fixed with their supplier years ago. Never a broken bit, never need to replace one for wear. I sharpen them with those plastic tongue depressors that have diamond dust in "Very Fine" and "Extra Fine" grits. A dot of machine oil finger rubbed on the shaft and surfaces before putting away is all it takes.
Measuring
I meaure too much. Measure twice? Sure, to the 64th of an inch. Lines lightly drawn with 0.5mm lead in a drafting pencil ( I am an engineer by profession – structural dynamics, specifically – things that don't move, or move and deflect in an orderly, functional fashion). I am also the consummate nudge of the cutting device, the fence, the clamp, the joint. By taking such care with where things should be, I can then apply a degree of relaxation to the actual execution of the work, and enjoy it. I enjoy working materials, especially beautiful wood, very much.
I mostly use, in order of frequency of use, a good British square, good rules, six inch through 24 inch, a modest (painted marks, not engraved) 24" centering rule, plastic drafting 45-45-90 and 30-60-90 triangles, cheap depth gages and calipers, a set of ship's curves, aluminum angle and channel stock as guides for long cuts, and a Japanese scriber for measuring and marking wood.
I use inexpensive machinist squares, dial gages and attachments for truing up the bandsaw, miter saw and table saw.
Ebonizing Wood
"There are many, including some convoluted ones like iron buff (a liquid extracted by filtering the results of rusted metal soaked in vinegar) which work primarily on high tannin woods, and the usual run of dyes. None of these work particularly well. By far the best and easiest is India ink. Unlike dyes, which tend to show too much wood and end up looking either blue/black or green/black, India ink, a pigment, is true black. It comes in oil or waterbased versions (I prefer the waterbased) and will generally go full black in just one application. However, because it is a pigment, you can let it dry and reapply for deeper black.
For more depth and a truly classic look, stain the wood first with India ink, then add a small amount of black dye into each clear coat of finish that you apply."
(Michael Dresdner)
Cutting Mortices
"I like to draw the actual outline from the workpiece using thin pencil lead. I also mark the thickness of the piece in 32's. Next, staying inside the lines, use a very sharp chisel of appropriate size to cut the outer lines of the mortice. Once the outline is done, increase the cuts so that the chips are literally falling off. Clean out the chips. Test fit the workpiece too early, and sneak up on a final fit. Look carefully and you will notice the final fit is undercut slightly, so the hinge slides under the wood on three faces.
1. Pencil outline from work |
2. Chisel outer edges |
3. Increase cuts |
Books
Basic Woodworking Illustrated, Sunset Publishing
The Complete Book of Wood
Joinery, R.J. DeCristoforo
Jigs, Fixtures, and Shop Furniture, Nick Engler,
Rodale Press
The Fine Art of Cabinet Making, James Krenov
Impractical
Cabinetmaker, James Krenov
A Cabinetmaker's Notebook, James
Krenov
Finishes and Finishing Techniques, Fine Woodworking, Taunton
Press
Band Saw Handbook, Mark Duginske
Traditional Woodworking Techniques,
Fine Woodworking, Taunton Press
Modern Woodworking Techniques, Fine
Woodworking, Taunton Press
The Encyclopedia of Wood, Facts on File
The
Encyclopedia of Wood, Time Life
Links
Willard Brothers Sawmill
Japan Woodworker
MLCS - Penn State Industries
Garrett Wade
Forrest Manufacturing - Saw Blades
Laguna Tools
Veritas Sharpening
Suffolk Machinery Bandsaw Blades
Projects
Breeze Home
I went to college as a traditional engineer, at a time when courses included trades-oriented laboratory sessions. I learned metallurgy, metal working, welding, electricity, fluids, surveying, casting and woodworking. In 1990 I bought a good Porter Cable router and some bits, a Skil finishing sized circular saw, a Makita powered finishing hand sander and some hand tools, including a Stanley miter saw (no miter box), a chisel, square, and ruler. There was need for a light colored, tall, narrow hall table. I liked simplicity of design. As an engineer, less is better. That same simplicity still pleases my eye.
