Year in review

So did I get everything done this year that I wanted, no.  Did I reach the goals I wanted to do this year, no.  Is this disappointing or unexpected, no.  There are always things that I want to do but I do not get to because something more interesting comes up.  So here are some of the highlights:

• I had a goal of making enough money to buy a lathe.  I did not even come close.  I did have some sales but as most hobbies, I lost more money than I spent, but I almost broke even.  My wife says I will never get a lathe because there are more important tools that I need or want.  To be honest, she is probably right.  I am going to need another belt sander.  My current one is starting to jump the belt and I feel it is going to die soon.  I also need to build a router table and get a plate for it also.  I am also going to need a miter saw.  I will someday have to return my father's saw, but right now it works where it is at.  In fact I have his planer also.
• I still want to make the Marvelous Transforming Toys from a few years back.  I even have some of the patterns attached to blanks.  There are just other things that came up.  I did catch up on all the construction equipment in the Wood Magazine publication and then another one came out a couple of months ago and there will be another piece in a month.  It never ends.
• I never did any of the craft shows or online sales.  It is not that I cannot do it, it is the fact that I am scared.  I have a firm belief that if I commit to something then I fulfill the commitment.  These toys and projects take a lot of time and I want to make sure they are safe.  I want to have the toy complete before it is sold rather than take orders in fear that I will miss a child's birthday or Christmas.

Enough with the things I did not accomplish this year and on to the stuff I did do.

• The biggest thing is that I now have a garage. I can go out there when I want (and if it is ok with the wife) and spend a few hours and then come in to spend time with the family.  I have a decent set up and I like how it all came together.
• I have switched to shellac.  Not a huge thing but it is a pretty drastic change for me.  I am glad I have all the equipment to use it.  
• I finally finished a bed that fits a mattress.  I love it.  Beech was very nice to work with and it came out great.  I have one more to make.  I do not know if is going to be a bunk bed or not.  We had a recent addition to the family so I have a couple of years to plan it all out.
• I have become a lot better at the scroll saw, evidenced with the last Christmas project.  I am starting to lean more that way.  The projects tend to take less time and setup is a breeze as long as I do not change the angle of the blade.  I do not believe I will ever get into intarsia.  It seems a little too precise and a lot of "sand until it looks good" projects and all the pieces have to fit perfectly together.  
•  I am listening to the Wood Talk podcast and realize there is a lot of stuff that I do not know about woodworking.  One of them is strictly hand tools and so I am not even in the same league.  It is interesting the things that I am picking up and they have the same problems that I encounter.  So I am moving into using some of the technology that I have had at my fingertips. 
• I also learned there is a difference in sandpaper.  I am in love with the Ekoforce by Uneeda.  I am getting smoother finishes, the paper is lasting longer and it does not clog up.

Goals for this year:

• Finish the monster trucks! I am almost done but the handwork is killing me.  I also have some planes I need to finish.
• Of course catch up on the Wood Magazine construction equipment.  It is a fantastic set.  Maybe I will design one that is more toddler friendly.  The acorn nuts keep coming off despite super glue and they are a choking hazard.
• We just got a CNC milling machine in the sample shop I manage.  I am planning on learning it.  I will not abuse my responsibility but I do have some access for personal projects.  This is not the CNC machine that will carve ornate figures or designs.  It is meant for sheet goods.  The smallest tool I have on it is a 1/4" ball end mill.
• Of course there is a Christmas project I have one planned.  I don't think it will out due this year's.  I am open for more.
• Last but not the least, not to accomplish anything but have fun doing it.

I am amazed at the traffic my blog gets.  It isn't that great but it is interesting.  I will occasionally see the traffic that comes through, where it originated and what they were looking at.  To my surprise the most popular post is the "rocker template".  I do not know why.  There are a lot of hits also on the construction equipment and scroll saw projects.

Christmas presents and decorations

I guess I can post this now that these have been opened and given away.
In the grocery store I was looking at the hobby section and there was a scroll saw holiday issue.  I found some things that looked interesting and so I purchased the magazine.  This is the first of a couple of projects that will come from this publication.

The picture does not do it justice: "O Night Divine" with the star and a dove

 
Each side has a depiction of the the nativity.  The top does come off so things can be put in it.  I cut the notches in the side panels on the table saw.  It would be impossible for me to cut a straight line that far into the wood on a scroll saw.  This way the sides fit together snugly.  I made four boxes so I stacked them all together to give me a good stable base to cut the grooves.

Mary, Joseph and Christ

Shepard and sheep

Camel and Angel

Three wise men

The blue tape was a life saver.  I would have never been able to sand off the pattern without damaging the project.  There were a couple of areas that did not come out as I had hoped but they still came out.  I made four of them.  I thought my wife would like the maple one but she opted for the figured oak one because maple did not have the color for a Christmas decoration.  The cuts were really not that difficult when I had a sharp blade.  I knew when the blade was getting dull it would walk all over the place, especially in the figured oak.  There were a lot of holes that needed to be drilled.
 The interesting  part of this project was all the sharp cutouts.  I though I would have a lot cutouts all over the floor.  I did but not as much as I had thought, most were really thin or the cutout completely turned to sawdust. It also was neat to discover the blades can go through very small holes.

The second project came from a project that I did 25 years ago.  It was made in leather.  This was not a good medium for me.  I am trying to redeem myself and make them out of wood.  The leather ones have slowly fallen apart and are being thrown away this year.  My grandmother had ornaments with all of her kids, their spouses and grandchildren.  I am doing the same for my mother this year.  I have plenty to add to the family still.

Here are the original sleds that were made 25 years ago, what  is left of them anyway.

Here are the new sleds.

These were my design.  I had fun building and figuring out how to make the fixture to put them together.  They are still a little more fragile than I would like them, but I think they came out nice. 

Christmas Projects

So I have been making a couple of Christmas gifts this year.  My wife says one of them is her favorite thing that I have ever made.  Unfortunately for you, the reader, I am not going to post any pictures of the finished projects because they are gifts.  I will go through the set up.  The first project is a scroll saw project.  I keep hearing to use painter's tape to protect the wood and it is easier to remove the pattern.  I think I will be investing in painter's tape from now on.  Sanding these patterns off would have been a nightmare.

The other part of the scroll saw is that designs can be cut inside of the wood.  Starter holes need to be drilled to to put the blade through.  There were a lot of holes on several parts.  My sons did help drill the holes on some of the parts so their initials also appear on the project.  I cannot take all the credit. 

One thing I did learn about the scroll saw: Don't use it to blow off steam.  It will be even more frustrating.  The blade comes loose, or the board is not cutting where it should be cutting and is all because forcing the board on a thin blade does not make for a good combination.  There is much more finesse and art when using the scroll saw and it does not like being pushed around.

On to the second project.  I am diving more into smaller scale things.  This project I wanted to make several and so I build a jig to make repeatable assemblies.  These things are not as easy as I thought.  The first one I cut with the parts that were going to fit inside the jig.  I assembled the jig with the proper spacing and found out that the parts were too tight to even fit in.
The second attempt I got the spacing right and the first one came out just fine.  I would call this beginners luck. The second, third, and fourth I broke the parts trying to remove them because I was not pulling them straight out.

The third time is a charm, right? well at least it is in this case.  I drilled large holes in the bottom to push the low pieces out.  This proved to be a better way to remove the part without breaking it.  I thought better of drilling all the way through the first time.

There are the setups for my Christmas projects.  Pictures will follow later of the finished projects.

Noah's Ark

I finally completed the Noah's Ark Maypole.  I liked the Nativity one so much I bought this plan also.  I am not as excited about this design.  It is flawed in many ways.  Here are the problems with the design:

• The sides I would thin up.  This would allow the base to be lower to the bottom.  Right now it sits about 3/4" above the base so the noses of the animals don't hit the ark.
• The top of the ark does not allow the base to to spin very much.  
• The animal legs are so thing they are attached with 1/8" dowel.  So the animals are glued into place instead of being removable.  
• The strings tend to catch on the top stopping it from turning.
• I would probably use a lazy susan base if I did it again.

It works and look nice but the finished product really did not excite me.

A couple of weeks ago my company sponsored us in a color run.  I took my younger son and we had fun.  I turned out looking and feeling like a Cheetos.  On the same day in the area was the Wood Working Show.  I wasn't really impressed again with this show.  It has become extremely small.  The majority of the show space was Peechtree and Wood line vendors.  The only tool vendors that showed were Jet and Bosch.  There was no good deals.  I was talking to some of the clubs to see if there were any in my neck of the woods.  Supposedly there is but I cannot find them.  I will have to email the contacts I made to see if they have phone numbers.My son loved the show.  I think it was the first time he saw some of the tools being used.  I was disappointed that we were not able to see the lumber mill band saw demonstration.

On a more upbeat note I did learn a new trick from the scroll saw group.  It was probably in the instruction manual but I didn't get that far.  When doing inside cuts I always loosened the top arm and blindly put the blade through the starting hole on the back side of the part.  If I loosened the bottom arm the top arm has enough movement to pull the blade all the way out.  I can now see the end of the blade and the hole, making it much easier to thread the blade through the small starter holes. 

Finally After the Third Bed

I finally finished the bed for my son.  He had about six more inches before he grew out of the converted the crib.  We also needed the crib for the next one.  So the changes from the last bed:

• I used beech not pine.
• Already had a mattress so I had the actual dimension instead of going off the internet.
• The sides are the same rather than having one a complete slab.  
• Added more mattress supports.
• It is finished in shellac instead of polyurethane.
• Tried a new profile for the drawers.
• Reduced the height of the drawer box .
• Used handles not knobs for pulls

So why beech, because the company I am working for is starting to use it.  Since I am asked a lot about the characteristics of wood I thought I would try it out.  It is interesting because it is harder than maple.  It has ticking like oak and is a reddish in tone but is closed grain.  It is a substitute for maple in a dark finish; the ticking is still visible in lighter finishes. I found it to show tooling marks more.  These were easily removed with a light sanding.  Granted my tools may not be the sharpest in the world.  It was a good wood to try, but I think I like maple better.  Maple is whiter and looks better with a clear coat.  Just some random information about the wood and why beech is becoming more prominent. It is actually German beech and they have a better sustainable forest system than we do in the States.  Beech has constant buys for all the grades of lumber so not a lot of the tree is firewood or press board.  Maple is going up in cost by a lot.  The demand is high while the supply is shrinking.  Maple is also not as clean as beech for the same grade of material.  This gives a better yield and less scrap.

Mattress supports are more important than I originally thought.  I put about eight slats on the last bed.  The problem is that they have a tendency to move so occasionally I will sit where there is no slats and sink further than I would like.

The profile change was because I wanted to try putting a bead inside the slab.  It was alright.  I burned in the corners.  The setup was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I clamped some scrap boards and used a bushing and a router bit to rout the inside profile.  It made it a little nicer.

The first set of drawer boxes we about a 1/4" from the top of the frame.  It makes it a deeper drawer box which is better right? Wrong! We tend to pack drawers full of clothes and clothes are not very consistent.  If the stuff in the drawer was above the drawer box by more than a 1/4" the drawer would not shut.  So by lowering the drawer I have psychologically proven to myself that the drawer will not get stuck as much. The other thing it did was create a perfect yield on a 5x5 foot birch plywood sheet.  I think I wasted a half a square foot total.

Why handles, because kids cannot unscrew them!!!

I still had my issues.  For some reason I could not drill my glide supports straight.  Then there was the small mistakes and underestimating the lumber that I needed.  Overall the bed came out well.  The beech will make it last longer and does not scuff as easy.  I am glad I had a respirator.  The fumes on shellac are strong even with an open garage.

For the record, my kids did help me put this together.  They picked out the large screws for the bed and the small screws for the drawers.  They also screwed in the screws if they could or gave me parts.

Here are the things I love about the bed; I can fully disassemble and reassemble  for moving and everything should be interchangeable but that is still to be discovered.  It is a solid bed and can be jumped on and abused.  The style will last and looks a whole lot better then the metal frame and it will not be out grown as my kids grow up.  It has full extension glides with deep drawers (drawers only pull out 3/4 extension).  My kids have jumped in the drawers and they work fine and hold up.

Plan, Think, then Measure Twice and Cut Once

So most people have heard of the old phase measure twice and cut once.  There is nothing more frustrating than cutting a board and only to realize the board is an inch too short.  There really no way to fix that mistake.  I have added two more steps before that phase.
Plan - There are many times where I think it is just like another project that I have made in the past only to realize that parts have had to go together in a certain way.  The other thing that happens a lot more than I would like to admit setups.  There are times that I have a machine setup and cut the pieces I needed only to realize that I could have used the same setup on other parts.  For example: I am working on a bed for may younger son.  There are three drawers underneath.  So I cut the grooves in the drawer sides and ends for the bottom panel.  I then tear it down and cut the bottom panel.  Then I have to cut the grooves in the drawer sides for the drawer ends.  When all it really should have been is adding a couple of blades to the stacked dado.  Plan your similar cuts and operations to maximize efficiency and reduce setup time.
Think - Never think that there is such a rush not to think through the process and what the desired result should be.  I am understanding there are several ways to reduce the blowout and plan defects where they will not be seen.  However I need to start thinking through the operation first.  Couple of examples; first if I rip after cross cutting, I can cut out the blowout that always happens.  I am also working on some monster trucks.  If I thought through where the blowout was going to be I would have realized all my marks where on the wrong side.  I can fix it but it is going to be a lot of sanding.

Now onto my little venting session.  If you do not want to read further I don't blame you.  I was on Facebook the other day and this add popped up:

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I have learned to accept Saw Stop and the technology that it contains.  Obviously it works and saves people from severe injury.  I cannot pay over $1700 for a base model for the saw stop.  You can argue the "if you lose your hand, would it not have been worth it?" card.  If I didn't want to get in a car accident I could stay home all day too.  It is extremely frustrating that a group of lawyers is trying to profit off these injuries because one one table saw has this technology and the other manufacturers understand safety but the technology prices them out of the general market.  This technology is great but it is not in the price range of the average consumer.  This all stems from a law suit where an individual was awarded $1.5 million for making a free hand taper cut on a table saw.  If he did not have the correct tools to make this cut it is another story, but he wanted to save time.  This just makes things more expensive for the end consumer.

In short: Know your equipment and know how to use them, then think.  That is the best safety advise I can give you.

Random Thoughts and Projects

Here are a couple of weekend projects I finished some time ago.  The first is a step stool. It does not look like much but it was designed by my grandfather.  We found the pieces and the pattern while cleaning out the garage after my grandmother passed away.  It is the only pattern that I have heard was found.  I have copied a couple of other projects of his but no plans have ever surfaced.

 It works great and is very sturdy.  The nice thing and bad thing is, the kids can carry it.  So overnight they grew 18".

The second is called a safety cupboard.  This is where all the safety equipment is supposed to go.  I cleaned it to take the picture.  I still need to put the hooks in to hold everything on the peg board but it still functions to keep the dust off of the safety equipment when not being used.  The main piece is the respirator.  It is not fun to have dust accumulate in the mask and then put it on.

 

The cabinet is made completely out of scrap.  One thing that I did on purpose is to put a melamine door on the front.  The reason for this is the door can now be used as a sketch pad.  Pencil will wipe off with a damp rag.

So the one thing that I do not have in it that I should is a first aid kit.  I have them inside the house and in the car but not one at my disposal in the garage.  I am going to go into a little bit of specifics on the first aid kit that I want in the garage.

• Random selection of band-aids.  This is pretty self explanatory.
• Good set of tweezers.  Splinters need to be dealt with quickly or they get forgotten about and infected.
• X-acto knife or hobby knife.  This has a sharper point than a utility knife and can cut skin.  My mother dug out splinters with a pin or needle.  This is effective but when digging it tears skin instead of cuts it.
• Gauze bandages, large. If it is not a small cut it is a large one.  
• Gauze wrap.  I hate the tape on skin and hair.
• Medical tape.  Something has to hold the gauze wrap in place.
• Anti-bacterial ointment.  Another thing that is self explanatory.
• A trauma pad.  I hope to never have to use this.  It is a pad for lots of blood. From what I understand a super absorbent maxi pad is the best, but I know nothing about feminine products.

I have been lucky.  I have had my fair share of splinters and minor cuts, but nothing too serious.  I have had sawdust lodge itself in my eye, I was wearing safety glasses.  And I nicked my finger with a router bit.  It did more damage to the nail than the finger and this was completely my ignorance and poor setup.  I am in no way putting off respecting the safety and rules of the equipment.  This is why my injuries have been minimal.  I make toys and they have a lot of small parts.  I will sacrifice clamps and scrap wood before I risk a body part.

I do not really complain about the weather in California.  Let's face it, in the middle of winter we have the Rose Parade and it is gorgeous outside while most of the US is is covered in snow. This past weekend was extremely humid and hot.  I made it a point to stay hydrated.  It is really easy to get to  really focused on what you are doing and forget to hydrate - water is the best and soda does nothing.  Heat stroke and dehydration are not fun and the affect can last for days.  Please know your body's limits and not to push too hard.