Wine Bottle Stoppers

I took a class on making wine bottle stoppers this last fall at the Cleveland Woodcraft store. Of course, Woodcraft sells the kits to make the stoppers.
The kits include the mandrel to hold the wood for turning, a drill bit to create the hole to attach the wood to the bottom, and four of the metal lower sections, and the plastic washers to seal the bottle. The metal stoppers offer the advantage that they will not pick up the taste or odor from other wines. You furnish the wood and turn it to whatever shape to become the top, decorative part of the stopper.
The class was helpful with several hints to improve the chances of successfully turning the decorative wood top. The kit is set up for you to drill a hole in the wood, thread the wood onto the mandrel and then turn the wood. Once done, unscrew the turned top from the mandrel and thread onto the metal post of the stopper bottom.
The class suggested drilling the wood blank to accept a 1/4"x20 threaded, brass insert and using CA glue to assure the bond between the insert and wood. This eliminates the chance that a "catch" while turning would strip the threads in the wood and make it difficult to finish turning or to attach the top to the threaded lower section. That suggestion alone was worth the trip to Cleveland and the cost of the class.
I was disappointed, however, when I left the class to buy the kit. They were out of the kits. I actually ended up buying the kit in Columbus when I was visiting there a week or so later.
I have had mixed outcomes mostly because I used some push-in brass inserts instead of the threaded inserts. The deal I got on the push-ins was totally wiped out by the wasted wood when the inserts broke loose and spun in the wood (but refused to dislodge completed!). The stopper on the left is cherry while the one on the left is bubinga. This is one of my 2007 "Unfinished Projects." One down, a lengthy list to go.
Our only problem with the wine bottle stoppers is that we almost always finish a bottle once it is opened - so why do we need one of these stoppers?

Getting ready for next year

On one of the coldest and snowiest weekends of December I spent the better part of the day looking through old wood working clippings to decide on a list of projects to keep me busy next year.

I have literally hundreds of articles from shop tips to furniture that have been sitting around for a couple of years. Some of the furniture - big, tall and deep entertainment centers - have waited so long to be built that they have passed out of fashion. Many of the others are more established designs for furniture or helpful suggestions for jigs and equipment for wood working.

Here is my ambitious list of twenty projects for 2008:

Redwood Garden Arbor
Quarter Sawn Oak “Lazy Lawyer” Revolving Bookcase
Rolling Out feed Cabinet/Planer Cabinet
Ebony and Curly Maple Veneered Chess Board
Cocobolo Table
Western red cedar bird feeder
Hypertufa Trough
Lathe Turning Storage Center
Tape Dispenser
Portable Mini-Lathe Base
Router Bit Cabinet
Set-up and Stop Block
Panel cutting Sled
Walnut Classic Column Bookends
Turned Rustic Birdhouse
Chip carved basswood Christmas stars
Routed picture frames
Walnut maple and oak Keepsake Box
Bamboo, purple heart and cherry Sushi tray
Cherry turned scoop

The list could be embarrassing at the end of the year if I have done little. This is just like writing down a New Year's resolution hoping that you can actually keep the commitment. But I like the mixture of types of projects: woods that I have never used and types of woodworking - intarsia and veneering - that will be new to me. Some have been specially chosen by my wife and some will be destined to be gifts to friends and family. All will be products from my newly organized work shop at the lake. It is exciting to look forward to getting started.

That is, after I finish the "Unfinished Projects" from 2007.

My first experience with milk paint

I just assembled a graduated set of Shaker boxes that were made of maple instead of my usual cherry wood. My intent was to try painting them to have a finish that looked old, faded, and distressed. So I was drawn to milk paint. I wanted to apply this as an exterior finish but keep the interior of the boxes unfinished to prevent any odor contamination with the future contents.

The paint I chose came from Woodcraft and is made by The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. in Groton, MA. Real milk paint comes as a powder and the size package that I bought makes a pint of liquid paint. It's like no other paint I have ever used. I don't know if I mixed it incorrectly but it was thick, dried almost too quickly to be easily spread, and had a grainy, rough texture. I believe the texture is part of the allure of milk paint. It was supposed to dry and be ready for a second coat in one hour!

And it truly was dry and workable at the end of an hour. As I sanded to prepare for a second coat, I decided that I did not even need the second coat. I had a dusty, "Lexington Green" coat with plenty of "wear and tear" marks from the sanding. It really had been an easy application to this point.

The directions that come with the paint suggest that protecting the milk paint is not necessary but would add some protection to the finish. I decided to use tung oil. The first coat of tung oil reduced the dusty look of the finish but it heightened the intensity of the color. Again, one coat seemed to be enough.

All in all, a very easy experience and I got the type of look that I wanted to try. If you're into the distressed, antique look, this would be an excellent choice. The paint gives the boxes a utilitarian look. Although I'm glad I tried this type of finish, I still like the look of the clear finish on cherry for the Shaker boxes.

I will use these boxes as the containers for other Christmas presents for my wife.

Tis the gift to be simple

My friend, Tim, and I met again to complete the assembly of the Shaker boxes that we began last week. Tim was assembling a set of five graduated Shaker boxes. Their sides are made from cherry and the top is from veneered birdseye maple.

The combination of cherry with birdseye maple is just beautiful. A clear finish will allow the cherry to age from a light-reddish brown to a richer, redder color while the birdseye maple will draw your eye to the top with its yellow and brown dotted look. When we were done on Saturday, Tim was taking the assembled but unfinished boxes home for a final sanding and application of the finish. He does such fine work. I will be excited to see one of them finished.

Before Tim arrived this morning I formed and tacked a graduated set of maple boxes which I will let dry until next week. I want to finish these in a milk paint, distressed finish since I have not done that before.

Both Tim and I each worked on a presentation box which includes a section with a music box that plays "Simple Gifts." It is a more elongated box than the usual Shaker box. The box bottom is made of cedar and in much thicker than the other boxes since it is the sounding board for the music box. The box is divided into two sections: the music box section has an inner acrylic cover while the other section is open to be a storage space.

The lyrics of "Simple Gifts" is a reminder of how important it is to enjoy and maintain the simple things in life, like the friendship I have with Tim. It was so much more fun to share the wood working experience with him.
"Tis the gift to be simple
Tis the gift to be free
Tis the gift to come down
Where we ought to be."

In the shop with a friend

My friend, Tim Sullivan (pictured at left), and I are spending time in the workshop creating Shaker Boxes. We ordered kits from John Wilson in Michigan. We each bought one of the Presentation Boxes and Tim will make his first attempt at a series of cherry boxes.

We are working in a garage workshop with a small electric heater, so it is cold. But the fun of working together and having a good time together makes up for the chill. Tim is a very skilled wood worker but has never made these boxes. In this one small instance of wood working I am the teacher. What a change of our usual roles.

This first weekend we prepared the cherry box sides and heated and bent the wood. We left the boxes to dry over this next week. We will hopefully meet again next Saturday to cut and fit the box bottoms and lid tops. The boxes will then be ready for finishing.

Beer Carriers - Version 3

I made five wooden carriers carriers for my brewed beers. Each carrier was to hold a sampling of the beer that I had brewed this fall at The Brew Kettle in Strongsville and was to be a Christmas gift to each relative who had given me samples of beer they had brewed this year. These carriers are made from cherry and have the initials of the relative routed into the end of the carrier.

The carriers hold twelve 22 ounce bottles and are the same dimensions and style as previous models noted in an earlier post. I brewed a very light "Golden Honey", a nice "Dortmund Lager", and a seasonal Oktoberfest beer. Each carrier had four bottles of each of the beers. This was a fun gift to make.

Maple and Purpleheart Cutting Boards

This project came from a podcast, The Wood Whisperer, that I started listening to several months ago. Episode 7, released in December 2006 and January 2007, demonstrates the making on a hard maple/purpleheart cutting board. A free set of down-loadable plans for this project is also available from this website. I will warn you that there are several discrepancies between the podcast measurements and the plan measurements. I didn't catch the differences in time to save me from spending more money on the wood than I needed to and thus ending up wasting some rather expensive wood. Since I was not watching this podcast at the time it was released I do not know whether or not someone caught these discrepancies and brought them to light in the chat room of the website. Had I gone through the construction process more completely before I bought the wood, I might have caught the error.

That would be my single disappointment with this project and I should make it clear that I am very pleased with this project in general. It was challenging and required me to learn a few new techniques and develop some alternatives that I had never used before.

Marc Spagnuolo is the host and wood worker of this series of over thirty podcasts. In the space of nineteen minutes he does an excellent job of taking the viewer from the initial wood preparation through making a choice of finish. You end up with a large, heavy cutting board meant for serious use in the kitchen. It measures roughly 12" x 16" x 1 1/4". Since the hard maple and the purpleheart are heavy, dense woods, the total project weight is 7 1/2 pounds.

The maple and the purpleheart are cut into four pieces of differing widths (2 1/4, 1 3/4, 1 1/4, and 3/4) . Then the pieces are arranged in the order shown in the first picture at left and glued into one slab. This was my first time using purpleheart and I found it to be a brittle, very hard wood.

Once the first glue-up (as shown in the picture to the left) was dry, it was off to Keim Lumber's mill shop to sand the slabs to an even depth. The $3 I paid them for this millwork was a pittance compared to buying a $900 sander for my shop. Next the slabs were cut into 1 1/4" pieces and every other piece inverted to make a checkerboard-type pattern . The second glue-up was finished sanded again at Keim Lumber mill shop. After additional sanding, rounding over the top and bottom edges, and routing in hand holds on two sides, a food-safe "Salad Bowl Finish" was applied.

I cut enough wood to make two boards or to have spare material if I encountered a major problem. Fortunately I was able to complete two Christmas presents - one for my wife and one for my son, Eric. The finished cutting board needs only to be maintained with occasional mineral oil.

The Big M-O-V-E

I finally did it! After a lot of talk and little action, I hired movers for the large equipment and moved almost everything from my basement shop in Wooster to my ground-level garage shop at the lake. I had resisted this final step due to concerns for the safety of the machines and the costs of the move. A lot of mental resistance to a step that needed to be made.

Last Thursday, two young men from Reed Warehouse, arrived with a large moving van to take the drill press, bandsaw, jointer, planer, chop saw, workbench, a lot of small tools, a large pile of wood, and an old chopping block. From their slight physical appearance you wouldn't describe these young men as well-built. However, I had to marvel at their strength as they hefted the floor-model drill press up a flight of stairs. They impressed me with their strength and ability to handle the machines without causing damage. They lifted and toted all the equipment and supplies - every one of their grunts and groans helping me feel easier about the cost of the move. That was Thursday morning.


By noon on Thursday the equipment had been delivered, the van had returned to Wooster, and I was overwhelmed: I had a garage full of machinery with nothing in its final place. I had a thousand decisions to make so that I could clean, move, and try to organize. What an awful mess. There was no room in the garage for a car, let alone two ( I am blessed with what amounts to a four car garage).
The top picture shows the placement of the drill press to the left of the workbench. Out in front of that bench is a work table. Right now both are cluttered with small items that need to find a home in the cabinets and drawers of the workbench. To the right of the workbench across the back wall (but out of the picture) is the bandsaw, router table, and another work table for small machines.
The second picture shows the center island, table saw, jointer, dust collector and wood scrap can. Behind that equipment is the wood storage rack, dust collector, chop saw cart, and radial arm saw. Still out in the middle of the garage are a lot of orphans yet to find a home, mortiser, spindle sander, disc sander, Workmate, etc. This partial organization is the result of a day and a half of working (more accurately described as flitting from one thing to another). What fun this weekend has been!
I'll take better pictures and write an update as I make more progress.

Auxiliary Jaw Liners for a Wilson Bench Vice

I had installed a Wilson bench vise on a workbench about a year ago. It works beautifully - glides easily in and out to adjust the gross positions of the jaws. The outer jaw adjusts for odd-angled pieces, and the vise is sturdy when tightened down.
The only drawback was that the tightened cast iron jaws would imprint into wood and their surface was too slippery to hold some smaller items. I tried adding baltic birch jaw liners from an idea I had seen in an older wood working magazine.
The liners have 1/2" grooves routed vertically and laterally which help in holding odd-shaped items. The wood liners are less likely to imprint on any wood clamped in the vise and the surface of the unfinished plywood helps hold slippery items. I added two 3/4" rare earth magnets to the back of each liner to help hold it in place on the jaw face. So far I like the addition to the vise.

Rockler in Columbus = Wood Werks

I had to go to Columbus for an errand and decided to stop at Rockler. Well, it wasn't where it used to be and wasn't anywhere close to the same store! The old store had closed and been incorporated into another woodworking supply store, WoodWerks Supply Inc., 1181 Claycraft Road, Columbus (614-575-2400). Since my errand was at the Columbus airport it was an easy drive around to the east side of the airport.
What a difference! The old Rockler store was crowded and carried only a smattering of larger items such as power tools and lumber. The new store has the most extensive display of wood working tools that I have encountered. Accessories and add-ons are displayed near the power equipment to facilitate finding what you need. They displayed Jet, Delta, Powermatic, and several other brands.
In a separate room was a large supply of wood. Common types, poplar, cherry, and walnut were available in packs of 100 to 500 board feet. Many more varieties were available in single boards in several thicknesses. There was an extensive selection of exotic woods for turning as well as a lot of basswood for carving.
Finally, in another room with a Rockler banner over the door, were the typical small items for which Rockler is sometimes the only source. Pen supplies, small box hardware, drawer glides, hinges, and router bits were nicely displayed. This section had a much neater appearance than most corporate Rockler stores. The overall store should match about any need a woodworker could have. On a later visit I will try to be compare prices for wood and equipment with other northeast Ohio vendors.
This was a nice way to turn an errand into a new discovery.

Auxiliary Table Saw Fence and Accessories

The Fence
Adapting a pattern from ShopNotes magazine, Volume 10, Issue 60, I made an auxiliary fence for my table saw. It consists of a 3/4 inch baltic birch, three-sided case to fit over the main Biesemeyer table saw fence. The purpose of the auxiliary fence is to hold the many accessories necessary for various table saw cuts: "burying a dado blade to make a rabbet cut, using a featherboard to hold down a workpiece to the table surface, using a taller fence for support in cutting wider or taller workpieces, and offsetting the workpiece from the fence with a stop block. Each of these accessories is easily added to the auxiliary fence using t-track and toilet bolt/knobs.

The adaptation that I made to the original plan involves the method used to hold the auxiliary fence tightly against the Biesemeyer fence. The original pattern suggests drilling holes through both fences and bolting them together. I chose instead to use an idea from the February, 2006 issue of Workbench magazine. The change involves adding a dado on the inside of the right auxiliary frame piece (see inset). A hole is drilled in the middle of that dado and a t-nut installed in that hole to allow a bolt to turn into the the dado space and force a hardboard clamp against the Biesemeyer fence. Two of these clamps hold the auxiliary fence securely in place.

The Accessories

The feather board accessory attaches to the top rail of the auxiliary fence. It consists of two parts, a slider and a featherboard. The slider has a lateral groove which allows it to be attached via a toilet bolt and knob to the track. This attachment allows the slider to move forward, backward and laterally. for placement on the workpiece before the saw blade. The groove allows the featherboard to move laterally to accommodate the dado fence. The actual featherboard is attached to the slider piece with adjustable depth knobs to accommodate various thicknesses of wood.

The dado fence and tall fence are similar in design but very different in use. Both pieces are 3/4 inch baltic birch plywood attached to the left side of the auxiliary fence with t-bolts and nuts. The dado fence is 3+ inches tall while the tall fence is 12 inches tall. the dado accessory is meant to be consumed as the dado blade is buried in it to make a narrower dado. The tall fence is designed to provide vertical support when cutting taller workpieces.

This issue of ShopNotes has been really useful since this is the second major project I have made from it. I previously made the air compressor caddy. I like the addition of this auxiliary fence to my workshop. First it replaces a couple of poor quality accessories I had attempted to use. It also is an improvement in my mind over the original plan since I did not have to drill holes in my Biesemeyer fence. I wish I could give credit to the source for the clamping alternative but I just don't remember the source. Finally, it lends itself to further modification and adaptation so it will be fun to try to add other accessories.

Project completed October, 2007.

Tool Review: Milescraft SignCrafter

I bought the Milescraft SignCrafter at Keim Lumber and waited until this week to assemble and test it. I immediately discovered that one nut in the end assemblies was missing. This allowed the aluminum bars to flex enough that, no matter how tightly the clamps were set, the bars flexed and allowed letters to drop out of the channels and ruin the work. I called the factory (the most negative comment about this product really relates to the lousy phone system at Milescraft when calling for a replacement part. Better to write them at P O Box 737, 270 N State Street, Hampshire IL 60140).

Once I received the missing part I was able to place letters in the aluminum bars and they stayed rigid throughout the routing process. The instructions are complete enough to assemble the unit and to set up the router. There could have been more instructions or suggestions relating to using the unit and adjusting it to different work needs.

My first project was routing initials onto the end panels of beer carriers. The carriers are only 10" wide while the shortest aluminum bars are 18" long. As the picture above shows, I needed to use filler strips on each side in order to fill in the width difference. I completed a placement jig by installing a filler strip above the unit so that the letters were centered right-left and top-bottom. The picture shows the initials "SS" for routing. You have to use other letters to fill in the space on the aluminum bars. A little bit of forethought and practice are essential.

The number of pieces that come with this kit creates a need for extra storage. You get two sets of large and two sets of small letters and numbers, two bushings, a router bit, a centering tool, bar extensions, four aluminum bars, a router base, and two end units. I moved all the smaller items to a small plastic tool box. The top section houses all the smaller items and the bottom section houses all the letters and numbers. I put in a couple hardboard dividers to help keep the letters and numbers in order. Hopefully, this organization will make it easier to keep track of parts and find the letters I need. I still use the original packing box for the aluminum bars, router base plate, and the two end units.

I have no experience with any similar product so I cannot compare the SignCrafter to any other system. It seems as though the product is well-made and performs simple letter/number routing quite adequately. At a little under $40 it becomes a rather expensive investment for just one project. I hope to find other uses for it.

One hint I found on the Amazon.com web page for this item suggested blackening in the letters to create a starker contrast with the wood. I tried this and liked the results. It added to the clarity of the letters and also covered up the router bit burns in the cherry wood.

A really thorough tool review is available at OnLine Tool Reviews.com. It is full of pictures which help in the learning process.

Eight months between posts?

I have to admit that my woodworking has taken a back seat to almost everything else in my life. A few weeks ago my wife and I had a heart-to-heart talk about how much other life situations were depressing me and how I had gradually just stopped doing any woodworking. It was an eye-opening conversation for me: I was neglecting one activity that would help relax me and put thing back in balance.
So for the last few weeks I have gradually resumed working in my shop. I have made great strides in organizing my workshop at the lake and moving some smaller tools and accessories from the Wooster house to the lake. As my wood working activities have increased, my spirits have improved. What a dunce I was to not see this myself.
Anyway, I will start posting some of my activities and projects. I am working on more beer carriers to be part of Christmas presents. Also in the mill are some really elegant looking chopping blocks from a pattern on the Wood Whisperer. Two other projects that will be finished quickly are a set of outside steps for the Wooster porch and an auxillary fence for my table saw. As I finish each project I will post pictures and information.
It is really nice to be back in the shop.