Unplugging more than the shop...

It's funny how trying to adjust one aspect of your life can affect others. Take, for example, my attempts at reducing the use of power tools and working more towards using hand tools in my shop. I enjoy the peaceful swish of a plane gliding across a board. I relish the minimal resistance I get from a sharp chisel biting into the corner of a hinge mortise. I must admit, however, I do use a small electronic device more when I'm downstairs - my MP3 player. Whether it is traditional Irish music or the electronic mixes of John Digweed or the classic soul-warming Grateful Dead, I can hear them all in perfect clarity during my power-free sessions in the shop.

Lately, I've tried reducing my plugged-in lifestyle in other aspects of my life. Last week, Dana and I went on vacation to the Outer Banks, NC. For one full week I didn't check voice mail or email. I didn't turn on a TV or a laptop. I used my cell phone to call family upon safe arrival and safe return and that was about it. It was very enlightening and freeing. I plan on trying to do that more often, even when I'm not on vacation.

(I should take a moment here to apologize to Kari. She thought I was mad at her when I didn't respond to her emails last week. Sorry, Kari. I wasn't ignoring you and I wasn't mad at you. I was just relaxing my brain.)

I spent a little time thinking about my woodworking while on vacation. I've stepped back from it over the last month or so, but I'm not really sure why. Probably because I'm still working on getting the new shop in order and things started feeling like "work" and not "play". I get that feeling sometimes when I accept a box order I maybe shouldn't because they've only given me a few weeks to work on it. And I know it will be like that when I accept the job, but I've never been one to shy away from a challenge, so I take it anyway.

It's the same way with the shop. Painting walls and hanging lights isn't fun! But I guess I need to look past the immediate tasks to see how much more productive my shop time will be when I'm back to being organized and settled into my new space.

I also have four or five partially completed boxes sitting downstairs just waiting for a bit of inlay, a tartan lining, and a coat of finish. Maybe I can compromise with myself between working on some boxes and working on the shop to more easily get through the latter.

I also got a bit of a motivational boost yesterday when I received a large flat package from Popular Woodworking magazine. It was two free issues of the December 2009 issue! Can anyone tell me what it means when you get two free issues of a magazine? That's right - it usually means you have something published in that issue! In this case, it is my Out of the Woodwork article called, "But aren't you a woodworker?". The original title to the blog that generated this article was, "But I thought you were a woodworker!" I still like my original title better, but other than that I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

If you happen to read that issue, pay particularly close attention to the last bit under my Contributors section, the part where it says, "... his first for Popular Woodworking...". I think we can all agree that means there will be more.

Speaking of "woodworking" I hate doing...

Before we left on vacation, I'd spent six or eight hours on Saturday getting my yard leaf-free. I piled them into my double-sized compost bin until it was overflowing and then filled my 55 gallon yard waste container and 14 yard waste bags with leaves. My yard was nice and clean, just the way my OCD personality likes it.

This is what I came back to - where did they come from? More importantly, are there more on the way? (Yeah, as you can tell from the first picture, they came from my sugar maple and my sweet gum trees - I guess I'm just a little upset I didn't get to enjoy the leaves on the trees as they were changing colors.) As much as I'd love to get in the shop and work on some boxes (or even paint some walls, honestly), I'm afraid most of my Saturday morning is going to be spent raking leaves tomorrow.

It isn't the kind of hand tools I like using, but at least I can listen to Jerry while I work...

Apologies for the hiatus...

I haven't been keeping up with my blog like I've wanted to lately and I apologize for that. Some chronic lower back issues have kept me away from lots of things I enjoy, but I'm doing better the past week or so and hoping to get back into the swing of things (woodworking, working out, home improvements and repairs).

I'll be traveling for a few days this next week and I'm bringing along an old-fashioned blogging system (pen and a journal). I'll have to transfer data upon my return but I hope to have something for you to read when I get back.

A Forgotten Project Gets Remembered...

A few months ago, before I started the whole basement shop rebuild, I'd started working on a fixing up an old egg beater drill I found at an estate sale for $3. It isn't quite as good a quality as my other hand drills - it does have a rosewood handle on the turning gear, but the main grip is a gold-colored metal (though it does unscrew to allow for drill bit storage) - but it didn't look to be in too bad a shape and I figured I could clean it up and give it a way to another woodworker who might need it.

Well, I'd started on it back then but got distracted with something or another and forgot about it. This evening, I stumbled across it again as I was sorting through some tools to start thinning some chisels from the collection and decided to take a half hour to finish it up.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take any pictures of the first part of the process, which was to remove the chuck, disassemble it, and clean up the three jaws. They had about a hundred years of grime, gunk, and build-up in them and the action wasn't as smooth as it should be. The only caution I would mention with this part is to wrap something around your vice clamps or pliers to make sure you don't mar any parts of the chuck when you disassemble it. Oh, and remember to unscrew it the right way - lefty-tighty, righty-loosy in this case.

Once the chuck was disassembled, I took a small dowel rod, wrapped some green scouring pad around it, sprayed it with WD-40 and scrubbed the inside of the chuck assembly with it. Then I took some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and cleaned up the three jaws. I re-greased the inside of the chuck with some lithium grease and then re-assembled it.

The next step was to disassemble the rest of the drill. This one came apart quite easily - one screw removed the handle and one screw removed the little tab that holds the main gear in place. After it was disassembled, I got out an old toothbrush and some low-odor mineral spirits and started scrubbing everything down. I went after some of the tougher spots with the green scouring pad.

After a bit of work, alternating between the green pad and the old toothbrush, I could see more detailed information about the drill. (Forgive my lack of macro pictures - the new camera doesn't have very good macro capability.) I found two marks of interest. On the chuck, I found a patent date of 1895. On the handle, I found an image of an oak leaf with the words, "WmEnder Oak Leaf" inscribed inside it.

A little internet searching turned up a small amount of information on William Ender. He worked for Simmons Hardware Co., a St. Louis-based hardware company(looks like this drill hasn't traveled very far). You might be more familiar with Simmons' Keen Kutter line of products. Ender was a V.P. in the company and developed his own line of products under the Oak Leaf name. I found an old court document in my search where William was listed as a witness in a legal action Simmons had against the city of St. Louis in 1917, so this drill probably dates to somewhere around that time. I say this because once he left Simmons, he marketed his tools under the Ender product name and not Oak Leaf.

Anyway... I continued scrubbing the drill with the toothbrush, making sure to clean up the teeth on the gear. Here you can see part of the drill sitting on a distant cousin of Chris Schwarz's affectioned "Woobie". I've only ever used this red rag in the process of cleaning old tools, however, so I'm not sure I would want to wipe down one of my hand planes with it before I put it away. After removing a lot of dirt and gunk, I was down to bare metal in several places. Maybe I'll take the time later to more aggressively scrub it and apply a new coat of paint, but for now a good cleaning was enough.

I put a bit of grease back in the hole where the gear spins, threaded the chuck back on, screwed the tab and handle back on and chucked in a drill bit to give it a test. The action on the chuck is a lot smoother now and the drill spins very easily. A test hole in a scrap of mahogany provides evidence of its function.

This was a quick, easy repair project and a fun way to take $3 and turn it into something very useable in the shop. Breathing life back into an old tool is also a great way of "going green", if you're into that sort of thing.

After a bit of pondering, I probably will take the time to disassemble the drill again, scrub it down even more and repaint it a gloss black (the original color, per the remaining paint I can see) and then give it away to someone. If I actually do follow through with that idea, I'll be sure to post a comparrison picture or two.

Working With Wood In A Different Sort Of Way...

I have to start off by saying Jim Malcolm was in brilliant form last night. Not only is he a great singer, song writer, and musician, but he also has a great sense of humor. This year he added a bit of theatrics as well, coming out on stage for the second half of the show dressed up as Robert Burns.

I don't really have any good photos of him, however, as I tried to avoid taking any pictures with the flash on - I'm sure it is distracting when you're up on stage. This is the best of the lot, honestly. I recorded video of a few songs with Dana's digital camera, but the quality and sound isn't as good as if taken from a real video camera, so haven't yet decided if I'll post them on YouTube or not.

I was excited for the chance to wear a kilt - I went with the Irish National tartan this time. The sporran is a custom Thorfinn by Turpin Ballard, in case anyone is wondering. Thorfinn sporrans are designed to have interchangeable flaps so you can get one made to go with every kilt you own. I need to try and sniff out a bit of some Ancient Campbell of Argyle tartan so I can have him make a sporran flap to match my other kilt, too.

Anyway, if you like Scottish folk music and you ever get a chance to see Jim Malcolm in person, don't pass it up. I've already seen him two or three times (three, if you count the time I saw him when he was singing for Old Blind Dogs) and I'm sure I'll see him again.

Now on to woodworking in a different sort of way...

I didn't get any shop time in today. Instead, Dana and I decided to do a bit of necessary work outside. For about two years now, we've been talking about planting a few more trees in the yard. Hey, I'm all for anything that reduces the amount of grass I have to mow. But the question is, what do we plant? We're both very interested in having a yard filled with native plants and trees, so that always plays an important part in our decision.

And we always take a long time making what we consider to be "big" decisions. That said, we've probably over-done the thinking part of this project. We've been to a particular nursery near our house so many times they know us as the "Grow Native" couple who hasn't bought anything yet.

Ah, well. That changed today with our purchase of a service berry tree and a beauty berry bush! The service berry tree normally has yellow leaves in the spring and summer and then turns bright red in the fall. It produces black berries a lot of native birds use for a food source. This tree will also be a good between-bites perching point for our bird feeder on the east side of the house. The beauty berry bush produces light purple berries many native birds also enjoy and, once it is full grown, it will become a resting place for birds using the feeder on the south side of the house.

We were initially going to just buy the service berry tree, but I wanted to take out a Japanese plum tree the previous owner planted way too close to the southeast corner of the house and replace it with something I wouldn't have to trim up twice a year. So we bought the bush, as well.

When making the purchase, the owner of the nursery convinced me I could plant the service berry tree myself. Had it only been three feet tall, I wouldn't have even considered paying someone else to do it, but we wanted to go with something a little more established. The tree we bought has three main trunks and is roughly six feet tall. But in the interest of saving about $75, I thought I would go with her advice and give it a try.

Since the soil in our area is... well, non-porous would be an accurate description... I had to modify the planting technique a bit. The hole needed to be just 1/2 to 3/4 the depth of the potted tree and then 2 or 3 times the diameter of the pot. The Missouri Department of Conservation suggests the top 12" of the root base are the most important, anyway, as that is where the biggest portion of roots draw in the largest amount of nutrients.

So I dug the hole to size and mixed a large amount of the good soil removed from the hole with a bag of clean soil and several gallons of our very own compost. We positioned the tree in place, cut away the plastic pot, and alternately watered and filled in the hole until it mounded up to the top of the root ball. A few inches of cedar mulch helps keep it from drying out too fast.

While I was working on the service berry, Dana pruned down the Japanese plum and started trying to dig out the root ball. She took a short break to help me backfill and water around the service berry and then I joined her, digging and clipping away until the root ball popped out and we had a 2' x 3' hole by the corner of our house. Planting the beauty bush went just about the same was as planting the service berry, only the hole wasn't nearly as big. Again, I got to use some of our home-made compost, which was such a great feeling, and again we finished it off with a few inches of cedar mulch. This variety shouldn't get but 4' or 5' tall with a total diameter of about 3' to 4', which is just perfect for this distance from the house.

While I didn't get a chance to work on my inlay pieces today, I did, technically, at least get to work with some wood. And it felt good to get outside and make some changes to the yard we've wanted to do for some time.

A New Inlay Idea...

I want to try out a new inlay idea on some of the boxes I'm making. Pretty soon I have to start getting ready for a Jim Malcolm concert, but I did have a little time this afternoon to get down into the shop and work on the first few steps, so I thought I would share that with you.

After laying out cut-outs of my idea on paper, I went through my stock to choose the wood I was going to use. I narrowed it down to holly (very white and with practically no grain) and then either bog oak or blackwood. The blackwood really has the darker color, which is what I'm ultimately looking for, but the blackwood I have would limit the size of my inlay. I think the bog oak will be dark enough once I add a little bit of boiled linseed oil to it, and it would allow for two pieces of inlay in the larger dimensions I wanted.

In the end, I couldn't decide, so I went ahead and prepared both of them. I'm always up for trying new things out and this seemed like a great opportunity to play around.

I already had my blackwood and bog oak thicknessed so I just needed to get a piece of the holly prepared. I didn't take any pictures of it, but you didn't miss anything. Since it was the first time I'd used the board, I took my Stanley #6 and jointed one edge. Then I used the tablesaw to rip off a strip that was about 1/8" thick. I cut a section off the strip that was the same size as the blackwood and then cut another section off that was a tad longer than the bog oak.

The blackwood was already 1/8" thick, so I didn't need to plane down that piece of holly, but the bog oak was a little more like 3/32" thick, so I took the block plane to the other piece of holly to get it flush with the bog oak.

The setup here is a piece of oak board (unfinished wide-plank flooring, in case you are wondering) with two brass screws sunk just shy of flush. I pressed the holly up against the screws and then planed towards them. Pressure keeps the strip in place. It didn't take much to get me down to 3/32" thick.

Then I needed to joint all of the matching edges. As you might have seen before, I like to do this with a Stanley #5 turned upside down on my bench. With that setup, I can easily run the strips of wood over the plane with control. I don't generally use any guide blocks to make sure the edge is exactly 90 degrees - you'd be amazed how well your mind can figure it out on its own.

After just a few minutes, all four pieces were jointed. If you're new to planing, this kind of work makes you feel REALLY good. It doesn't take much to get a small pile of curly shavings collected under the plane.

The only other thing I had time for today was the glue-up. Since this is inlay, and once I have it in the box there will be no stresses applied to the joint, I just needed to lightly clamp the pieces in place for a bit.

After a little thought, I accomplished this with the use of my bench hook. I pushed it into place on the bench, covered it with a piece of waxed paper, and then clamped a strip of wood parallel to the fence of the bench hook at the far end. With the addition of two filler strips (these three pieces are spanish cedar, waiting around for another project) and two shims I grabbed from my toolbox, I was ready to go.

I glued up the inlay pieces, set them into place, and then used the two shims to wedge the filler strips tight against the inlay. Again, I just need a good enough glue joint to keep everything together until I get it inlaid into the box, so I just tightened up the shims with hand pressure.

I'll let this sit for a day while I get kilted up for Jim Malcolm and hopefully I'll find some time tomorrow to work on the next part of the inlay.

Fuming... (Oak, Not Mad)

Of the six boxes I currently have in progress, four of them are made with some of the reclaimed white oak I got from an old house on our family farm. Having been a while since I'd done any fuming, I thought I would take the opportunity to pull out my supply of anhydrous ammonia and make some chemical reactions happen.

Before I begin, I would like to offer a few words of caution...

Anhydrous ammonia is a seriously dangerous chemical and should be handled with caution. As the warning on the bottle says, don't allow it, or the fumes, to come in contact with eyes or skin and don't ingest it. I'll add to those warnings that if you have any open cuts exposed to the air, you should make sure and cover them, as well.

I never work with anhydrous ammonia in a closed environment - always out on the patio or my driveway. I use full-coverage chemical-resistant eye goggles and a partial-face respirator rated for organic vapors (my mask uses 3M's 6001 filter). This is not the kind of respirator filter you will ever find at Home Depot or Lowe's (read the warning labels on the filters - they all specifically say they are not rated for organic vapors), though you can get them on-line easily enough. I happen to be married to a woman who has to have one just in case she is sent to a site for groundwater sampling that requires it, so... mine was free. I use the blue nitrile gloves because they are chemical resistant (and because I'm a cuticle biter and my fingers BURNED the first time I tried this without using nitrile gloves, hence the additional warning about cuts exposed to the air).

That said, woodworking is full of dangerous tools. If you don't take the time to become familiar with the tools you're using (whether they be mechanical or chemical), then you should fully expect to receive some time of injury at some point in your woodworking career. Have respect for and an understanding of your environment and you will decrease your chances of getting hurt. Now back to the blog...

My basic fuming setup is simple. I don't bother with wooden frame and plastic sheet tents. They're too easily damaged and something you don't want is a leak in your fuming tent.

Instead, I use an old Igloo chest cooler (which became obsolete after I purchased one of those wonderful 5-day coolers several years ago). It has an air-tight lid and is plenty big enough to fume several boxes at once.

It came with an open mesh basket that sits on a lip at the top of the cooler. I pour my ammonia into a plastic sour cream container, set it into the bottom of the cooler, and then turn the mesh basket upside down and place it over the container. That allows me to set boxes directly on top of the basket and not worry about tipping the container over.

I always fume several cutoffs from the same boards I used to make the boxes. These become test pieces for determining what finish I will use later on.

Once I get the ammonia inside and cover it with the basket, I place my boxes on top of the basket and lean my sample pieces against the side. Then I close it up tight, put a few pieces of painter's tape across the lid and tape a note on top that indicates I am fuming wood inside (to prevent me or my wife from accidentally opening the cooler). In order to get the best results, the container should be kept in a warm or hot environment. In the summer, nothing is hotter than my garage. Yesterday and today have been notably cool, so I was a bit concerned with how it would turn out.

It was, however, wasted emotional energy. As you can see, after 24 hours in the fuming tent the oak has darkened quite a bit. The wood in the lower part of the picture to the right is un-fumed white oak from the same board; in the middle are my sample pieces; at the top are my two boxes.

This image is also useful to point out how heartwood is affected by the ammonia much more than sapwood. Had I used sapwood in either of the two boxes I fumed (I specifically did not fume one of the four boxes based on a small amount of sapwood in one side), I would have some creative fixing to do with dyes and stain when I reached the finishing stage.

Before I do anything else with these boxes, I have to let them off-gas for at least 24 hours. After that, I'll work with my sample pieces to see what finish works best. I have some idea as to what I want to do, but I always test it out on sample pieces because each batch of wood can react differently to the ammonia. But generally, it involves a coat of BLO (boiled linseed oil) and a few light coats of amber or garnet shellac, depending upon how dark I want it to look in the end.

I will most likely spend some time with an inlay or two in these boxes, however, so I have some time before I worry about a finish.

Maybe while I'm in the fuming mood, I'll run some sample pieces for you to show you what other kinds of wood I've fumed and take pictures of what these woods look like fumed and un-fumed.

If you plan on trying to fume a woodworking project in the future and have any questions, let me know. I'll be happy to share whatever knowledge I have with you.

Prepare to be jealous...

Today was a productive woodworking day and I haven't even put edge to wood yet (hopefully I'll do some of that later this evening).

Before we start with what I did this morning, we have to go back to last night, when I got a phone call from my little brother (who happens to also be a woodworker). He informed me of a tool and wood sale going on down by our older brother's house. It is part of the estate of a woodworking mentor of ours, Pops, who passed away a few years ago - his wife is finally able to let go of some of his stuff.

This morning, I left the house a little later than I wanted to and didn't end up getting there until 10:00 a.m. After spending some time visiting with his widow, I helped her price a few more things (I provided her with the list of prices for most of the woodworking tools she had for sale) and bring some of the heavier objects out of Pops' shop to sit outside in the driveway.

And then I was finally able to poke through the shop and pick out a few tidbits for myself. I ended up walking away with a #51 Spokeshave (for my friend, Alex, who'd asked me to keep an eye out for a spokeshave), a Richard Kell dovetail marker, an older brass bevel gauge from Woodcraft (for determining the angles of chisel and plane blade bevels), a pair of older Stanley #4 trammel points, a very sweet looking Stanley (?) 3" square with a rosewood handle, a quality hardbound sixth printing of James Krenov's The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, a hardbound edition of Michael Dunbar's Restoring, Tuning, and Using Classic Woodworking Tools, and a Swiss made carving chisel.

While I was in the area, I couldn't miss out on the chance to visit with my older brother and my niece and nephew. Even though we only live 40 minutes apart, I don't get to see enough of them these days. It is something I want to try and change, though, because I miss seeing them.

I headed back in the general direction of home. On the way, I made a stop over at Alex's house to drop off his spokeshave - he seemed pleased.

Upon pulling into the driveway, however, I noticed a package sitting on the front porch. I was fully expecting it within the next few days and pleasantly surprised to see it had already shown up. After parking my truck, I grabbed the package, ran inside, and opened it to reveal...

The latest book by Chris Schwarz, Handplane Essentials. I paid the slightly higher full price and ordered my copy from Lost Art Press. John and Sharon provide the greatest customer service and I enjoy supporting such practices by purchasing from them when I can.

But as you can see, I also received a bit of a bonus (here is where you should prepare to be jealous...). Not only is the book signed by Chris Schwarz, it is also the one and only copy that is artistically decorated by his daughter, Katy, with a drawing of her sock monkey. I do believe this makes the top of my list for the week.

Alas, I had to put my blog entry on hold for a few hours while we had supper, went for a nice long walk and enjoyed some freshly cut watermelon, so I wasn't able to get into the shop and work on the boxes as I wanted to. That will be my task for first thing tomorrow morning. And I've taken some pictures of a few techniques I wanted to share, so I'll post something on those ideas, as well.