The core of a torsion box is a grid made up of many thin strips of wood. For my shelves, those strips are 1/2"x3/4". I machined the strips for the core using my table saw and thickness planer to ensure they were dimensioned uniformly. Then I moved to my tablesaw to cut the half lap … Continue reading Lap Joints
Quite often, I need to mix small amounts of epoxy. I've found the best way to mix it is to get a small, flat scrap of wood (about six square inches is usually ample). Then I squeeze out one bead of resin and one of hardener on the board. I've found that this is a … Continue reading Mixing Small Amounts of Epoxy
Woodworkers use clamps for many tasks, but most importantly for clamping work together while the glue sets. Some clamps, like spring clamps are fairly weak and apply about 35 lbs of force. At the other end of the scale, heavy duty bar clamps can exert up to 6800 lbs, and C-clamps can exert well over … Continue reading The Fine Art of Sticking Two Pieces of Wood Together
A few weeks ago, I received a call from my friend Dave. He had just gotten word that two large trees - a large Norway Maple and an even larger elm - had just been brought down. He asked me if I was interested in any of the wood and mentioned that the elm was … Continue reading Some Kind of Work
I have been working on developing a line of furniture for my company. Inspired by some Douglas Fir I found in my wood pile with green iron stains, I built this bench. If you look closely at the inside of the left leg, you can actually see evidence of the square steel spike that was … Continue reading Prototyping – Bench
Okay, I know that it's been a while since I updated you on the progress on my smoother. I've ground the blade to a shorter angle which works much better. I installed the wedge, set the blade with light taps, then secured the wedge and blade with one knock to the top of the wedge. … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part V
Today, I finally got back to working on my plane. I started by turning a dowel from lignum vitae. I cut out the billet (blank) from the straightest-grained stock I had available, then turned it round on the lathe. It ended up being 11/32" diameter. Then, I located a good position for the pin in … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part IV
Well, I spent another few hours in the shop yesterday on the smoother and got a lot done. I am very happy with how it is coming.I started by fitting the blade. I wanted a good fit between the blade and sidewalls - not so tight that I'd have to strike the blade to get … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part III
Today I trued up the body. I have never before been so glad to have my power jointer. I moved the fence all the way back to use the less-used blades and was rewarded with a much smoother cut. But it still required a little cleanup. I trued up the body with the table saw … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part II
I have never worked with Lignum Vitae before, but have read about it and talked to other woodworkers who have. Nothing could have prepared me for actually working with it though. Let me tell you, it lives up to its nickname of Ironwood. I am building a smoother plane and started with a 4" wide … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part I
