Pine Burl Table

A few tips left out of the videos:

Drying- I let these burls dry inside my shop for over a year.  They had been drying covered outside for several years.  If you open up the wood while the moisture content is too high you are asking for it to split on you.  This can be lessened to some extent by spraying it with a coat of poly when you are done each night but it can get irritating sanding it off in the morning.  You could also keep the wood in plastic overnight.

Pitch- I only mentioned it briefly but as the burl is scar tissue it tends to be full of pitch.  The surface layers will dry and harden over long periods of time (read months) but as you sand and cut you expose soft layers soaked into the wood.  Now those too will harden over long periods of time but who wants to wait?  If you spray poly or lacquer over it the solvents will soften the resin and lift it, marking the finish.  I attacked it two ways...

   Turpentine: Soak and scrub, soak and scrub.  This will lift the pitch to the surface then you can scrub it off with a rag.  This will only take up surface deposits but still that might be enough.  On my table this is what I did.

    Bake it:  Find a local kiln and ask that they toss your dry burl in to set the resin.  They do that type of thing all the time and the price will be cheap.  This will harden the resin inside the entire chunk.  It will still soften if you create a lot of heat sanding so go slow and keep it cool.

    Seal it: Spray your bad spots with shellac to seal them in.  I would only do this if the spot was minor.  Once you have a layer or two of shellac protection built up finish normally.  This will give the wood an extra yellow/orange look.

PLEASE NOTE!  ON A HOT DAY THE RESIN IN THE WOOD COULD STILL SOFTEN AND WELL UP THROUGH THE FINISH CREATING STICKY CRACKS.  (it can even do this though poured epoxy) THE ONLY THING THAT WILL STOP THIS IS TO HAVE THE PIECE KILN DRIED TO SET THE RESINS.

Craftsman Moulder Sharpening Tricks

You can spend $$$ on jigs and stones and I know the edge is better because of it but by how much?  I believe in the law of diminishing returns and feel taking 2 min to get 75% is better than taking 10 to get 80%.  With the exception of planer blades I just hold all of mine by hand and only use two stones.

The pair of stones I use are both diamond, about 2 1/2 x 6 inches and come in 'coarse' and 'fine'.  If I had to guess 600 and 1500 grit respectively.  I like the diamond stones because they stay flat and need so very little care, just wipe them down.  They were sold as water stones but I use a sharpening oil.  Water causes rust and I normally sharpen on the bed of my tablesaw. 

Cutting face: Carefully hold the blade at the angle you want on the coarse and draw it backward over the face of the stone.  Lift at the end of each stroke.  This is the only 'skilled' part of the process.  You are sharpening by hand so it isn't like you can wreck the edge in one pass.  Check often to see that you are getting a polish over the full edge.  If the cutting face glints you need to keep going.  Move on to the back but return and give the cutting edge a few more strokes on the fine stone and the last swipe should be lifted up onto the cutting edge slightly to give a last micro-bevel.  I find I only need to hone the cutting face every 3 or 4 backside sharpenings.

Backside:  This is where most of the work is.  Lay the blade flat on the stone and move in a circular fashion until the polish extends all the way to the cutting edge.  This can take a while the first time depending on how the blade was made.  However once you get it flat from that point on all you have to do in normal sharpening is hit the backside on the stone and you are ready to cut.  Once to the edge move to the fine stone, hone the cutting edge to remove the bur and polish the backside.  This step will go much quicker.  I also sharpen hand plane blades this way.

I know sharpening purists will feel I am cutting corners but I am a practical man and this works for me.

iPad Stand

The video of this project is below:

I did this for my Grandmother who loves her iPad.  Browsing the web on a tablet is great but it can be a pain to clutch it for a long period of time.  Using it flat on your lap requires arching your feet up to get the legs level, something that gets tiring.  This very simple little device (a picture frame in essence) allows the use of the built in cover stand on right your lap.  This means you can watch with feet flat on the floor and your arms resting in your lap.  This is a simple and useful tool for anyone with mobility issues and is darn convenient for all who like to sit and browse.

I built my stand from scrap I had around the shop.  This is a great project for eating up those leftovers that are too big to toss but too small to be useful.  I toyed with gluing together then planing down the center in order to build in to nice contrasting wood but in the end decided on the oak/aromatic cedar combo.  I felt the scent, activated but lap and device heat, would be a pleasant addition. 

TIPS:

When getting the groove for your board cut, sneak up on the final width because it will be dificult tighten it up later.  Remember because you flip the board around and cut on the saw twice any movement of the fence is doubled.

It might be worth taking a scrap of the right thickness all the way out to the proper width then once you are happy run the edge banding you have prepared.  That way instead of working out you start at the proper width and work in.  No chance of over cutting that way.

If you cut the groove too wide build up the thickness of your center panel with masking tape then after the glue dries carefully cut the tape back to the edge of your frame.  No one will see the tape in the joint, it will be our secret ;-)

Do not try and plow out the boards after you miter them, miter first then cut the 45 on the ends.  Plowing them first leads to an unstable surface for your push stick to hold securely.

When cutting the center panel sneak up on the measurement with a few multiple cuts.  This will ensure that the board is the proper size.  If you cut it too small it will still work provided you still get adequate groove insertion.

Planer Snipe Tricks

There is always comes a day when you have cut a board to length but forgot it needed more planing.  How to do it without sniping the ends of your special board?  I personally use the sacrificial stick method shown in the video below:

Some extra tips:

Where possible you might try to overlap the boards to assure the infeed and outfeed rollers can't jump.

Run 2 or 3 sacrificial boards in the planer loop to avoid that moment when you are scrambling to grab one as the end of your good board slides inside.

If you miss it, let it go!  It is just snipe after all, not worth losing fingertips over.  If you missed timed it don't try to frantically jam one in, let it go.  LET IT GO!

You only need to bother with it the last pass of each side.  The last pass is enough to remove the snipe unless your machine is cutting particularly bad.

Remember to adjust the rollers.  This trick is only to help that last whisper, not save you from a machine that hogs out a massive 1/8 deep snipe.  Grab the manual and a straight edge and have at it.

For those interested my main planer is an older Makita 2012N 12 inch with the two sided disposable blades.  It has been a workhorse for better than a decade now.  In the video you can hear that it is in need of some bearings and occasionally the chain drive binds and releases leaving marks on the boards.  For the most part I live with this.  About once a year I crank it all the way down and wipe the feed rollers with some solvent to get the gunk off.  This seems to help greatly with intermittent feeding issues.  My secondary planer is a 5hp Rockwell 18 inch that scares the crap out of me because it is missing parts like the chip breaker.  I hate standing in front of a planer when you can see the blades spinning, but that is a story for another day.

Toy Table Saw Plans

My little boy has been 'cutting' things on an imaginary table saw for some time now.  When I was thinking of gifts he might like for Christmas one toy popped into mind, a wooden table saw.  I admit I never searched for plans or anything, I just built one but it occurred to me that others might like to see how I built the unit and maybe see some plans I drew up for it.  The entire unit can be constructed from one 2x4 foot 1/2 plywood off cut so it is a great 'build from scraps' project.  The one I made my boy is birch hardwood dunnage from our sawmill.  It is the twisted bark covered thin/narrow boards that can't be sold.  It took a lot of them and some glue up but once again we salvaged something of beauty from the trash.  As the suggestion of my wife I will make a start to finish overview video of the project not from my initial hand built example but from my plans.  With luck that will be up soon as it is a priority for me.  Until then I thought you might want to take a peak at my rough plans.  Video and detailed assembly pictures to follow.



 End Plans

I like the little bracket feet but they are optional.



Side Plans

 It is important to get the holes centered precisely on both sides, take your time.  Also the doweling must spin freely so sand/size hole accordingly.

Top Plan

I recommend setting the proper depth on a Circular Saw and plunge cutting this carefully from the back side.  Use jigs and saw stops if needed.  Match the blade to the opening rather than the opening to the blade.

Blade Plan:

I like using a dark hardwood but 3/8th ply works too.  The cut list has the blade cut from the same 1/2 birch plywood as the rest of the saw.

Extra Parts Plan:

The 'blade backer' is simply to stabilize the blade but you will need multiples to keep the dowel from moving side to side.  I put them on the outside on my original but thought it would look better inside the saw case.  Set their placement after setting the top to provide adjustment.

Cutting Diagram:

Just some ideas as to how to map it out on a 2x4 foot sheet.  If you cut the screw cleats and blade from the scrap then all you will need is doweling.










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Sawdust Sucks! -Adventures in Dust Collection

 
Humble Beginnings:

Prior to the instillation of this system I had no dust collection of any kind.  Sometimes I would use a mask, sometimes I put a box fan in the door and blew it all over the parked cars.  I was lazy about using masks and sawdust snot blowing or nose bleeds were common.  I never thought much about it until my son started to work with me.  My stupid should not be his stupid.  I have had a blower fan for years, on the self, in the barn, back on my parents farm.  Not doing a whole hell of a lot out there.  The cost associated with a system was more than I felt we could absorb until an opportunity for free ducting presented itself.  Naively I thought that having this pile of duct would somehow knock the price down a huge amount, it didn't but more on that later.

Video: Overview Of Project and Ducting Pile

As it would turn out the person who put this heating system in was apparently a HVAC genius.  Only two 90 degree fittings in the whole pile, something I didn't notice until I picked it up.  It was all also 5 inch, appropriate for my system but rare as an honest politician when it came to finding fittings here in Montana.  Also the fittings were very expensive, again like politicians.  Who cares, I am stubborn and tend to place an unnecessarily strong value on working with what I already have so I committed.  I purchased fittings from Audubon Plumbing Supply Co who were hands down the least expensive I found for my peculiar 5 inch tastes.  It would have been nice if they got back to me on the questions I asked but I figured it out myself in the end.  For the flexible lines and fittings I used the good people at Peachtree Woodworking Supply but I will go into that later, first we need to get sucking.



My blower came from the scrap yard, that should have told me something.  It is 1HP with an 11 inch fan.  Much, much smaller than those I have seen but the thought of flipping on a 3 or 5 horse motor to suck dust from my palm sander made my ears itch.  Besides when I plugged it in I noticed two things right off, despite being a mere 1hp that thing sucks and the bearings howled like demons in hell.  I pulled it a part to see what could be done.  I think it was a bulk mover blower of some sort, nothing big had gone through the impeller but the motor had taken a massive beating at some point.  I had to work some magic.

Video: Blower Motor Repair

After banishing the bearing demons I left the motor plugged in and running for an hour to check for overheat or vibration issues.  It passed with flying colors.  I am still worried about it operating normally at 20 below but time will tell.  I can say this, whether you find and fix or buy a new blower, secure it to a board and play in the stream of air with a 3 year old.  Trust me it is just one of those things that is good for the soul.  Protect the inlet from little fingers because it isn't so good for them.

Filtration Frustrations:

Let me just start out by saying I wanted a Clear Vue Cyclone.  I wanted one in the worst way.  If I was honest I wanted to watch shit swirl around in it.  I would film it and post videos on youtube.  Clear Vue will sell just the cyclone and I could have it at my door for about $700.  Unfortunately it needs 4 or 5 HP do work at the efficiency they are capable of.  At 1 HP it is a massive overkill and would simply work like a regular cyclone.  It would be like shooting gophers with a shotgun, fun but not entirely necessary.  I went with the Super Dust Deputy from Onida.  I thought long and hard about building my own cycle from the Clear Vue plans but I rationalized the time spent versus likely hood of getting it done before winter and decided to buy.  The Super Dust Deputy is intended to add cyclone prefiltration to those roll around bag blowers you see from places like Grizzly, Harbor Freight ShopFox or others.  On the plus side my blower was a better size match for these units.  At first glance my Deputy was smaller than I expected, but on reflection I realized I had images of big commercial cyclones dancing in my head.  It was well packed and shipped with only a small dent on the cyclone inlet lip.

Video: Cyclone Out of The Box



The box wasn't damaged so it must have clunked into something in the factory.  No big deal, pliers will straighten it right out.  I would have liked to seen continuous welds on all the parts rather than stitch welds but I figure warping must be an issue during assembly.  All the seams have been caulked and look tight.  I think adding some sort of hard points to attach mounting hardware would be a bonus.  I will figure out a way to mount it, but a bracket would be nice.  Maybe it was an extra.

I know that it is strange to locate the filter outside but that is the location I have and it will keep the noise down inside.  The cyclone inlet is right at floor level meaning all the runs but one will move down hill.  Not sure how much that will effect the system but it can't hurt!  Essentially the motor/blower will be directly coupled to the cyclone, as a single unit and hung from the wall outside...in the rain.  Some sort of protection for that will have to be developed but all things in good time.  Note, I suck an extra piece of roofing tin out over the eaves above meaning the rain will have to blow back 18 inches to get on the unit.  I am sure it will happen but not often.

Video: Cyclone Location

 


I ended up mounting the unit in two pieces, blower/motor and cyclone separately as I had to hang it by myself.  The cyclone is mounted to a 1 1/4 plywood flange standing rather than hanging.  This is how it would be mounted if it was being retrofitted to an existing dust system.  With the motor mounted separately and a simple connection between the two, it means the cyclone is not being asked to hold any additional weight.  The motor is bolted right through the side of my shop with 4 carriage bolts.  The astute among you might notice it is tipped some.  Oops.  As I was working solo trying to hold that dang thing above my head and then mark/drill I figure that was close enough.  If I had to do it again I would make a plywood drilling template and get it up there right.  I am not normally a fan of hanging something like this from the building but as the siding on the shop (ex-barn) is 120 year old, 1 1/4 inch thick, 12 inch wide clear fir I think it will be fine.  One modification I did make was to swap the 4 inch air return line out for a 5 inch.  5 inch flows way more air and I thought it would just help the system function better.  I had the pipe anyway so why not?

Video: Mounting the Cyclone




Building the fine filtration box was a key element of the system, I am not doing this for cleanliness but for dust hanging in the air after all.  I had an old file cabinet that I wanted to use as the filter station as it was about the right size for what I imagined in my head.  In trying to source filter media I fell back on my heavy equipment roots and started to look at big air filters.  After checking out the 'special' wood dust filters recommended for these applications I realized they were little more than heavy truck air filters repackaged.  Close anyway.  At 5 micron filtration, the wood dust filters are not as fine as a motor filter.  I started asking around for truck filters and the first one to come in was from a 2004 Peterbilt.  It filtered on the inside, was tall and narrow at about 10 across.  I liked it but felt I needed more.  The next time I was in Missoula with a load of scrap I stopped in at Watkins-Shepard to ask if they had any used filters.  I am not sure what they run as their fleet truck but the filters I found were perfect.  Shorter but much fatter, they stacked on each other forming a huge air filtering monster.  The nice people at Watkins just let me dumpster dive and I came up with three, two were replaced with very low miles and the third was a mess and is borderline unusable.  I cleaned them out, stacked them up, sealed the box and I had a very slick filter housing that takes up no more space than a water cooler.  Truck filters can be had for as little as $50 new and trust me, they are up to the task.

Video: Fine Filtration System




The last part of the system was a collection bin.  I am using a 30 gal paint barrel.  I picked that one because the lid fit nice and we had it at the shop.  I also had a 55 but thought that might be a hassle to deal with.  the 30 fills fast when running the plainer so I see myself overfilling and making a mess at some point in the future.  I use aluminum ducting to connect it and while it seems to be ok so far it is not ideal.  I will look around for some good UV proof 6 inch rubber stuff and replace it as needed.  The hard part is finding some place that will sell me only 2 feet of it.  Because the clamping ring fit loose I ditched it for 5 rubber bungee cords.  Seems to work.  I think the whole unit leaks a little meaning more fine dust makes it into the filters so more work is needed but I just had to get the shop back running so this is what it will be for the winter.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you have.

Video: Dust/Chip Bin




Well it is done.  I figure even with sourcing free pipe and blower it still cost $600+ to get it up and running.  Additional scrounging might have saved more but not much.  I know it isn't the peak of efficiency but it does work great.  Now I don't have to worry so much about having my little boy up working alongside me.  No bloody noses or sawdust buggers for him!


UPDATE!

Well the system has been in use for a long time now and I still feel it was the BEST modification I ever made to my shop and the tool I use the most.  I have made no modifications, it all runs exactly as you see in the last video.  I am still on my same truck filters and will blow them out after every 4 or 5 vacuumings because the vac just can't quite get it all clean.  That dumb aluminum duct to the sawdust bin is still there though wrapped with tape for most of it's length now due to cracking.  We all saw that coming.

SHOP TIPS- HAND-RUBBED POLY FINISH

When it comes to a finish sometimes you want the grain, other times you want glass.  There are many ways to get a glass like consistency on your projects, this is just how I do it.  The following is a video tutorial of how I finished a salvages oak sideboard.

Hand Rubbed Poly



When deciding on a finish you really need to know they type of use your item will be subject too.  In this case I opted for the hand rubbed poly because it was too cold for me to spray in the shop.  I would not consider this sort of finish to be overly durable.  The sanding slurry goes along way towards filling the grain and pores but it takes a long time to build a good hard protective barrier this way.  I would think twice about using a finishing method like this on a dining table that will see serious use.  I would use it however to fill the grain for that glass smooth base, then spray it with poly.  For items not subject to frequent spills or abuse, a rubbed poly like this will be fine.

PRO&CON of Hand Rubbed Polyurethane Finish

PRO- Ease of application, it is darn near fool proof
PRO- Provides a stable smooth base for topcoat aplications

CON- Durability, unless you are going to do numerous coats the film barrier produced will be thin
CON- It takes some skill when sanding for slurry not to cut to deep and effect the color of the stained wood.  Practice first!

Please direct questions to acme66@yahoo.com  I will post your question and my response here for others to see.

WORK SMART!  YOUR SAFETY IS YOUR PRIORITY!  USE INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!