Jay’s Ramblings
May 2010
Have you ever walked
out into your shop and looked at something you’ve been using for many, many years and thought to yourself, hell - I’m
a woodworker - I can improve on that? Fifteen years ago I built a pair of “Forever
Sawhorses”, after I acquired some 3/4” stainless pipe. I welded up a set of sawhorses and topped them with redwood
two by threes. I then decided to make a workbench to set on the sawhorses that could be removed and stored
out of the weather at night. I chose a quarter sheet each of birch and oak. This was way back when Home Depot had decent plywood
in quarter sheets. To keep the bench top from sliding off of the sawhorses, I screwed two 2” x 2”’s to the
bottom, rimmed the edge with oak, drilled a lot of 3/4” holes for my wonder dogs, nice slots in the
middle for clamping and side rails for my router plate that stack and attach with bolts to “T” nuts set under
the bench. I use the router to mill down large thick boards in lieu of a giant jointer and planer.
Now fifteen years later I have decided to replace the sawhorses with a roll-around
cart and free up the saw horses for other jobs. Thanks to Jim Jameson at Jameson Tool and Die generously
giving four pallets of scrap baltic birch plywood to the wood club, I got enough plywood to build most of the cart. Now in
all the magazines I read that the “Professionals” are always making a project with a few wood scraps they have
lying about and the whole project ends up costing about $1.75. Well in real life it doesn’t generally work out that
way. Yes the baltic birch was free but the bottom and the shelf are 3/4” plywood and yes I had it on hand but it still
cost me around $20 at some point in the past. I buy deck screws in large boxes to cut costs but I still paid good money for
them. Add in $50 worth of casters from Grizzly, a quart of Urethane, a sealer coat of Shellac and some brushes and now the
project is pushing $100. Not what I’d call cheap but the cart is exactly what I wanted and a lot cheaper than purchasing
one and shipping it to Tennessee. I don’t consider buying local an option based on the quality of what I find in our
Big Box Stores.
Some time ago I gleaned idea’s from a lot of wood magazines and used the best of what I found combined with a
few of my own ideas and built a nice router table. I put in a pulley system to raise it up to the ceiling of the garage (my
shop) and set it on a Sears folding table similar to the Black & Decker version but much better, with the idea that I
would use the table for other projects while the router table was aloft. Didn’t happen! I use the router table so often
that it found a permanent location. The table supported the router table fine but served no other purpose. I just completed
a roll-around stand for the router table that contains 14 drawers. Much better use of the space under the router table and
the Sears folding table is back in use. I
had built a flip-top cart for my planner and 6 x 48 belt sander several years ago but neglected to make the drawer for the
bottom so while I was on a roll I got that made and installed. All this fixing up the shop really cuts into my turning time
so I’m trying to catch up.
May is the month that we had two sessions with Alf Sharp scheduled in order to
learn more about basic hand tools. I attended the second session and really enjoyed it. My hat is off to
Doug for setting it up and all the work he put into it to make it a success as well as the work Doug’s fellow officers
have done to assure the success of the club’s first organized seminar. What made the seminar’s
special was the wonderful workshop that Logan Hickerson graciously allowed the club access to. thank you Logan!!! I have attended
seminars where everyone sat around and watched and listened to the speaker like attending grade school. This was much more
informal with Alf showing us things and then assisting us in trying to repeat the process on our own tools. Personally I felt
like a sponge and rather than working on anything, I just watched, questioned and learned as Alf helped various individuals.
A lot of what Alf was teaching I had either read about or had some knowledge of but it was vague and semi-accurate. I chose
to cement as much of this knowledge as I could and then go home to do the monotonous tasks of grinding, and honing my tool
edges. Alf started by going over wood planes
and how they work. Many different brands and types and sizes of planes and spoke shaves were brought by the attendees and
addressed by Alf. Stanley being the most common brand present but it quickly became apparent that the name Stanley is on everything
from bottom of the line cheapo-crap to some nicely made good quality planes. Alf took a bottom of the line
Stanley garage sale plane that Carole Johanson brought and he and Carole reworked it until it functioned considerably better.
When we looked at most of our planes they were found to have cheap rough castings with little or no effort by the manufacturer
to machine the contact points for pieces making up the complete assembly and usually covered with globs of paint. You gets
whats you pay for. While the manufacturer didn’t take the time and expense to machine theses surfaces doesn’t
mean that you can’t put some effort and time into it and improve what you have. Scrape away the paint, file the surfaces
flat and possibly a shim will work wonders. Is the time and effort worth it -- that’s your call.
You’ll never make it into a top of the line tool but you’re balancing $15
to $25 against several hundred to $5000.Yes that is correct - Alf says there are custom
built planes out there that are to die for, that the wood just surrenders to the blade on sight - probably French made! We
all learned that it is possible for any of us amateur woodworkers with limited skills to make big improvements to our tools.
Learning how to get a cutting edge really sharp will really change how we work and open up new levels we can hope to achieve.
Just remember that the $5000 plane requires the blade to be sharpened periodically so just because your wife gives you a custom
made plane for Christmas, she ain’t gonna sharpen it for you - that’s your job! Card scrapers: Every article I’ve ever read talks about filing a flat
edge and then burnishing a hook onto it. Alf filed a good edge on a scraper and without burnishing
a hook on it proceeded to scrape some very nice shavings producing a really smooth surface. Out of the box tools: Chisels, plane blades, carving tools, lathe tools etc.
while they may appear sharp when you purchase them they are not. Even if you can shave with a tool it may or may not be sharp
enough.
I had a new, never used “V” carving tool that I thought was ready to use. I learned that it needed to be
reshaped and the bevels reground. Alf spent 30 to 45 minutes improving the tool. Alf calls all the time
spent on water stones and stropping edges TV time. The real danger is if your wife catches you using water stones in front
of the TV. You’d best purchase a small TV for the shop along with your water stones. Sharpening Systems: Every manufacture out there is selling a sharpening system
and most of them work just fine. After you select a system you need to really learn now to use it. Don’t keep changing
systems looking for the magic one that is quick and easy. The old Japanese samurai era carpenters spent the first half of
every day meditating and sharpening and the last half of the day constructing. It’s time consuming and boring but must
be done to lift yourself above wood-hacking to wood working. Wet & Dry sandpaper adhered to glass or a piece of MDF or
a precision lapping plate will do nicely after you master it. Diamond pastes and Aluminum oxide power in a water or oil slurry
will work on glass or lapping plates. Oil stones or preferably water stones are a great system. There are an infinite
number of power grinding systems on the market from simple bench grinders to the complicated and expensive Tormac system.
If you take notice of how Alf and other experts go about sharpening their tools they shy away from
complex systems and lean towards more traditional and less complex systems. Complexity eats into production time and although
us engineer types thrive on a complex challenge, at this stage in life I don’t have time to waste. Hell, I’ve
even stopped buying green banana’s. Guides to hold the tool while grinding and lapping will make your life much simpler
and again everybody makes one. I myself prefer the Lee Valley Veritas Mark II guide system for a cost of about $60 as did
Alf and several other attendees. After the edge bevel and back are honed to a mirror surface, with no scratches whatsoever
it will still need to lapped on a hardfelt wheel or a leather wheel and stropped on a piece of leather all with a quality
lapping compound. Periodic stropping with buffing or lapping compound will get you a long way before you have to return to
the stones or sandpaper. My father had a handle that would clamp a single edge razor blade while he stropped it on a razor
strop every morning before he shaved - he would use the same blade for over three months before replacing it. Tried and proven!!
Alf demonstrated how to
take a back saw in very poor condition and recut the teeth. David Sapp used the saw to demonstrate how to hand cut dovetails
saw cut to sawcut. This meant very little paring to achieve the final dimensions. Alf showed us how he under cuts his dovetails
and likes to pare everything to the final dimensions. Alf and David stressed that chisels were not intended to pry out the
wood. If you’re prone to do a lot of prying, Alf showed us that mortise chisels are what we need and to stick to making
mortise and tenons. Interesting comment from Alf - drilling out the mortise with the drill press and then chiseling out the
waste is harder and more time consuming than making the mortise with only a chisel. Yet the majority of magazine articles
that I have read lately stress the drilling. You do learn some interesting things by attending seminars of this type! As a side note
if you have never thought about it, guitar makers use some pretty neat precise woodworking tools that I find very helpful
in my other woodworking endeavors. Check out the Stewart-MacDonald catalog, call 800-848-2273 for one, or visit their web
site at http://www.stewmac.com/
Shop Notes issue 72 had an article on page 14 about using your battery charger, a plastic tub with
water, Arm & Hammer washing soda and a piece of clean steel to remove rust using electrolysis. Set your battery charger
on the lowest amp setting, clip the negative lead to you tool and submerse the tool in the tub of water with one or two tablespoons
of the washing soda. The author of the article found the soda in a grocery store close to the detergents. Attach the positive
lead to a clean ( no rust or scale) piece of steel (not galvanized) for the anode and submerse it in the tub of soda water,
so it doesn’t touch the tool. Plug in the charger and you should see some amp load if the charger has an amp meter and
or see some bubbles start to form on the tool and rise to the surface. The process should take several hours and you should
rotate the tool periodically. The tool will not be shiny but after drying it well, or maybe some low temperature time in an
oven, some Scotchbrite will clean it up since the rust will be gone. Wax and or oil will help preserve
the clean surface from rusting again. I haven’t tried this yet but I have used some different chemical rust removers
back when I was cleaning rusty motorcycle parts with great success. REMEMBER!!! Electricity and water is dangerous!! Always unplug the charger before
you touch anything. Jay
There will be election of officers in May.. The nominating committee has listed a slate of candidates for the coming
year. 
The scholarship program will continue in 2010=2011. Veryl Robinson will explain the procedure during this meeting.
Our annual picnic will be held on June 5 at the Las Cassas Fire Department. Bring a covered dish of veggies, or a salad,
or a dessert. Bread, Meat and drink will be furnished by the club.
Remember to bring canned food for the food bank.
Visit our library.