Culling old woodworking magazines

I have saved all of the issues of the various wood magazines that I have subscribed to over the years. They now fill a large storage cabinet and overflow onto the table top. Any useful reference articles or projects that appealed to me were copied and put in notebooks. While most of the magazines are neatly arranged by date and magazine title, I have never referred to them after filing them for information or ideas unless I was disposing of older issues. So, I have decided there is little value in saving the entire magazines.
I am culling through issues from the 1990's and coming to an understanding of why the accumulated magazines are unused. As I look through the magazines I am noticing how many projects are out-dated, e.g. media centers for deep televisions, and how repetitious the projects are - hundreds of plans for Adirondack chairs and saw horses. Plus, it is really time consuming to leaf through an entire magazine hoping to find a particular reference. So, after culling several years of two magazines I have a stack of articles about an inch high that I believe are worth saving. A much more usable pile of information.
I am pleased to get rid of this burden but, as I get closer to more current issues, I am sensing I will have more difficulty making the call to save or throw out. But, in the short term, at least now I will be able to store all of the magazines in the cabinet.

My grandson the woodturner

Friday my grandson, wife, and I went to our lake house and spent some time in the woodshop. I had previously written about the idea of making a spurtle as an introductory woodturning project for my grandson. He seemed interested and so we set up the mini-lathe and gave him his first lessons.
I was surprised and pleased to see how he enjoyed the project. He seemed to understand the mystery of seeing what finished project was hidden inside the raw stock. I was impressed with his ease at learning how to use the tools and his natural carefulness in following new methods.
His tasks were to round a square maple spindle with a roughing gouge, then to use calipers to determine the thickness at several points. Then he used a parting tool to set the depths at four places along the spindle. We were removing a lot of wood to reduce the spindle in size so, instead of just removing the waste quickly with a roughing gouge, he used a spindle gouge to practice making beads and coves.

The spurtle appears to have evolved into a straight dowel-shaped implement with a handle area and a stirring area. Other than that, there are numerous examples of spurtles that look quite different one from another. So, the tool that evolved was Dylan's unique design.
Once he was finished turning it, we polished the wood. It is now ready to make a trip to Colorado and stir some delicious oatmeal or soup.
We will have one more day at the lake house. If he is interested in more wood turning, I do have a couple 4-in-1 screw driver kits that might be another turning project for him to try.

Spurtle

My grandson, Dylan, from Colorado is arriving today to spend a week with us in Ohio. I had been working on several wood working projects that he and I might do while he was here. I even made one project that my son, Eric, and my grandson could do together -make race cars - but I think my son has other plans.
What I did find that I think might be a good introduction for Dylan to wood turning is a spurtle. It involves turning a maple spindle into a thin, foot-long kitchen utensil. Although most of the samples I have seen include a definite handle section and a slightly tapering stirring section, there really are no rules. If he can learn to use a roughing gouge to make the stock round and a spindle gouge to make some combination of beads and coves, he should be able to make a spurtle. I bought two three-foot lengths of maple so that we can try making a spurtle. We'll see if Dylan is interested in this kind of a project.
The utensil is said to come from Scottish and northern European cultures and evolved into its present shape as an effective tool to stir oatmeal, porridge, or soups. It is also popular today since the wooden utensil does not scratch the surfaces of the pans.

What's more fun than raking leaves?

This weekend, most of the trees in my yard decided to drop their leaves. Of course, this came just days after I had cleared all the leaves from the house and the yard. My neighbor and I were standing out in the yard talking when the maple tree decided to rain bright, yellow leaves down on us. It was like a yellow blizzard and covered the ground with leaves in seconds. It was a disheartening experience to say the least.

So, when "the dump" occurred, did I rush out to clean them up again? No, I retreated to the workshop to clean up several old planes. Seems perfectly sensible to me - let the leaves for another day.

Actually what turned out to be more fun than raking leaves was cleaning and adjusting a couple of planes. Over the last several years I have bought several old planes at auctions. My intention was to clean them up and learn to use them. They have set untouched for a long time and I decided to try working with one.

I had just watched a Podcast from Woodsmith which reviewed how to recondition and maintain older wood planes. I learned a lot about dismantling the planes and cleaning the various parts. I had previously taken a class in sharpening plane blades. So with all this knowledge but no previous experience, I chose a Sargent plane to be my first. I took the plane completely apart, used several grades of sand paper to work to flatten the base of the plane, used the same sand paper to flatten the back of the plane and create the 25 degree bevel. I had some success in using WD40 to clean the parts. Since my workshop is in an unheated garage next to a lake, I have two sources of moisture to attack metal in my shop. The WD-40 will hopefully help prevent rust on the plane surfaces.

Putting the plane back together seemed simple enough and I was feeling rather smug until I realized I had installed the blade upside down. After making that correction and adjusting the plane, I was producing some nice, light shavings on a scrap of cherry. It was a nice learning experience and I am looking forward to working on a few of the other planes still waiting for attention.

I didn't spend the whole afternoon fixing one plane. I did move on to work on two different projects.

I drilled and set brass inserts in 11 bottle stopper blanks - four cocobolo, four bicote, and three acrylic. I also trimmed and sanded the box lid I have been working on. The picture shows the bird's eye maple veneer lid with mahogany edging and paduak splines.

Lidded box - version 2

I copied a spline jig that I found on the Internet. I did add two clamps to hold the frame in the jig and a miter slot key to keep the jig in line. All the pieces are 3/4 Baltic birch with the exception of two hardwood braces and the miter slot key. The changes that I made make it easier to use clamps to hold the frame thereby eliminating the dangerous practice of holding it with your hand. The cuts are also more accurate with the miter key (although the spline placement is limited to 3/8" from the edge).

I used the spline jig to add paduak splines to my box lid. The saw cuts are approximately 1/8" thick and set to almost the depth of the corner angle. The paduak grain runs across the miter giving the miter a lot of extra strength. The coloration of the paduak should be an orange/yellow hue to compliment both the darker mahogany and the lighter bird's eye maple.

At the same time I trimmed the dividers for the box interior and put the first coat of wipe on poly on the box bottom and dividers. Next visit I can trim the paduak splines and apply the first coat of finish.

More Christmas present ideas

One of the neatest gifts would be a Hock Plane Kit #KF150. It includes all the material to make a bench plane including a Hock blade, one of the finest blades on the market. The kit is $98.50. Your order by phone at (888)282-5233 or download an order form from their web site.

Rockler is offering free shipping through 12/31/08. The promotion code is U9006 for my customer number of 8629597. A couple of items from their catalogue that I would like are Painter's Pyramids #24162 at $6.99, pair of bench dogs #33523 at $22.49, or a set of Cool Blocks #25997 at $14.99.


Along the line of buying items that I need for projects, here are four items that I would like to incorporate into my new work bench. The three are from Lee Valley. A large front vise #70G08.02,$76.00, a shoulder vise screw #70G01.51, $32.00, or a pair of square bench dogs #05G02.01, $38.50.

More cleanup and progress on projects

I've been back to the work shop twice since my last post. The continuing cleanup and organization is helping me make some progress on several projects. Here's a view of the storage section that separates the workshop from the car parking area.

My first attempt at veneering was a bust! The veneer seemed to form into high ridges at the seam in the middle and all over each piece. I don't know why it happened. For my second attempt I decided to do one side at a time and to use a plywood caul to spread the pressure more evenly over the veneer. This seemed to work well as my second try was very nice looking. I have now glued the second side and have it in the vacuum press.

I used a model that a fellow wood worker posted on the web to build a spline jig for the table saw. I added a miter track runner and two clamps to the model to make it even more efficient. It is now ready to use whenever I have the box lid completed.

I have also made four holders for quilter's plastic rulers. One was specifically requested by a Tree City Quilter and the other three will be given to that organization to auction or sell. These were made of mahogany and ranged from 14" to 10" long.
While I was sanding these rulers, I decided to make some progress on a cherry chest that has been sitting half done for a year. I planed and sanded one drawer box and its door front in preparation for putting on the first coat of sealer.

Finally, I also put cherry edging around the sharpening station counter top. It is clamped and drying now. The next steps will be to chamfer the edges and add the miter track. I have the case work cut but not dadoed and have the face frame pieces cut to raw dimensions. I should make some substantial progress on that on my next visit.