Posted by Jerry on September 6th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
Well, Sunday I just had to go back to the Working With Wood show – catching up on the demonstrations I missed the first time around. I always learn heaps at these shows – there was an excellent demonstration on making small wooden boxes, using a router and four cutters.
Outside there was a demonstration of chain saw sculpting – and a bizarre but skillful sculpture emerged of an Islander in an outrigger canoe – an amphibious one!
And there were the usual displays of portable saw mills, including the mighty Lucas mill – which turned my burnt ribbon gum tree into boards for me after the bushfires last year. But each year there are new innovations, like this one for smaller chainsaws for lifting slabs off lumber where it lies – great for reclaiming timber from dead trees or storm windfalls. This one doesn’t run on rails, but rather rides over the tree trunk while keeping the saw blade parallel throughout the cut. Simple, but effective.
This is at the start of the cut
and this is near the finish.
The result is a timber slab suitable for a bench seat or coffee table, and the size of the setup is ideal for reclaiming urban trees that are often not so large as forest trees, ones that would otherwise just be chipped when they grow too tall for the telegraph wires.
And yes I did pick up a couple more toys – notably a thread cutter for a wooden embroidery frame that my partner has been dropping subtle hints over…
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on September 5th, 2004 — Posted in Woodwork
Inspired by the Working with Wood show I thought it was high time I organised my turning chisels and put some of my new toys to good use.
I had a few bits of meranti sticks that I have been using to sticker my green timber, and thought I could spare a couple of bits to make a tool rest. It was a good chance to use the thicknesser (on its new stand) to bring the timber down from splintery rough-sawn to a reasonably dressed state. I chopped each in half and then took one half length and chopped several 2cm pieces and glued and tacked them starting with the outside ends of the uncut halves and worked inward keeping the spacing roughly equal, then drilled and screwed the ends and middle to the bench on which the lathe is mounted and gave the whole thing a quick oil wipe with organoil – instant organisation. Total time about an hour.
The finished tool rest – two layers
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on September 4th, 2004 — Posted in Woodwork
Friday afternoon saw me heading off to the Canberra Timber and working with Wood show at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) This show is a woody’s delight with manufacturers showcasing their latest products, and lots of show specials. It is also the place to pick up specialist timbers not normally available – such as the bizarre purple heart and a good range of myrtles. And there are some great demos – how to sharpen your tools, new finishing products, how to use dovetailers and of course the great Triton work bench.
Timbecon, pictured here was one of my first points of call – I remembered from last year that they had a copy attachment for a lathe and headed over to see if they had any at a good price. They were apologetic that they couldn’t demo it as they had just lost power to that part of the pavilion, but I mainly wanted to see how it was fixed to the lathe to work out if it would fit my Chinese Rhino lathe…
There were also some great displays from Bungendore wood gallery, the ANU School of Art – Wood workshop, Sturt University and Canberra Institute of Technology.
This delightful sideboard was part of the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) display
And Stan Ceglinski was back showing traditional bodger’s craft techniques – in this case how to build a bench using nothing more than a draw knife and a home-made chopping knife, an axe and a two-handled crosscut saw. Here is his bodger’s bench used for clamping components in position for shaping…
And to prove they sell timber at the timber and working with wood show:
I also had a long chat with an inventor who had developed a lathe attachment for turning ovals – this was at the stand for ornamental turners, and there were some amazing Heath Robinson lathe contraptions for making spiral patterns and scallops while turning. Here is the oval-turning lathe in action
So what did I wind up with?? Having saved my pennies for some time, I bought two major items and a couple of small things. Firstly, yes I did buy a copy attachment for my lathe – and it does fit the el-cheepo Rhino Chinese lathe (also marketed as GMC and several other brands) with a little timber packing around the clamping device.
The other thing was stand for the Ryobi planer/thicknesser that I bought two years ago at the same show – this enables wood to be fed in on a roller and out on a matching roller, keeping long lengths under control. It also raises the thicknesser to a good height to use while standing – this one I bought from the CarbaTec booth. They also have a shop in the Canberra suburb of Fyshwick.
So that was another good working with wood show – and it continues until Sunday…
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 3rd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
My partner Sharon (who writes the ‘in-a-minute-ago’ blog) and I have a great symbiotic relationship – if she leaves some of her threads in a mild sprawl across the lounge, then I can leave my music gear (mixing desk, microphones and a spaghetti of leads and plugs) decoratively draped across the dining room … And then after a while, just when the respective sprawls are looking a bit entrenched, it’s time to clear the decks – like a metaphoric clearing of the mind, ready for the next project.
A while back it became apparent that the threads had been fruitful and multiplied – to the point that they were never going to fit back in their respective boxes. So we sat down together to design a storage system that would, at least temporarily, solve the problem. Basically it would be a cabinet with drawers – lots of drawers, but it needed to be able to sit beside her chair, be accessible, and be compact enough to enable a coffee to remain in easy reach.
I had never made a drawer before, and my woodworking skills are … well… not those of a cabinet maker. So I set to work to come up with a simple enough design to provide a workable storage system. It took me about nine months to complete it, as I wrestled with the design brief. Aiming for simplicity, I looked at how chipboard furniture was assembled, but decided that I also wanted real strength (who knows when the threads might become beads – which are much heavier!).
This was a good chance to test the dovetail jig I had not yet used. I found that by cutting the two sides and the top and bottom as pairs, then they would at least start out at the same length. I also wanted the top few drawers to be in pairs, rather than full width, for added visual interest. I dovetailed the top and bottom to the sides, making an open box. But before installing the top, I decided that the divider between the top pairs of drawers should literally hang from the top board. So I ran sliding dovetails the full width of the top and centre divider, figuring I could conceal any minor tearouts (the damage) later with some beading.
Next came the drawers – a real challenge! How do you hang drawers so that the hanging device is not intrusive, and that leaves a bit of room for the intended contents! This took another month or so to figure out. Once I had made the drawers (really just trays with handles) I found that if I started from the top, then screwed in the drawer runners (inset slightly to allow the same quarter inch square dowel to be glued to the front to provide drawer dividers). With the drawers cut to size, I realised that the very top pair wouldn’t fit, so I cut them down on the saw bench, claiming this was a design feature to hold scissors, thimbles etc – you won’t tell will you? 😉
Oh the other consideration is that I like to contrast different timbers, so some of the drawer fronts are in a red maple, the white drawers are in pine and Tasmanian oak, and the sides are in pine. And I arranged them to make three bands of contrasting colour. Finally the handles – I thought I’d surprise Sharon by giving the handles a sewing theme, so I contrived, cajoled and persuaded Sharon to make a trip to Spotlight – a little spot of textile heaven – so that I could side-track her among the fabrics while made a subversive dash to the dolls craft section where I found miniature darning mushrooms, miniature thread bobbins and a tiny teapot and coffee mug – all in wood. I had excused myself saying I needed to check out the boy toys in Supercheap Auto Parts next door, and with that I scurried unseen to the checkout with my gains and so to the car where the handles-to-be were safely stashed.
I think Sharon liked the result – because next thing, I kept finding woodwork magazines casually left open to articles on designing whole rooms of storage systems…
The finished cabinet
Cheers
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Posted by Jerry on May 2nd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
I’ve mentioned my daughter’s fire twirling before (more on making firestaffs later) but this weekend’s project was to make a portable tightrope so that my daughter’s circus skills could be extended a little. For those, like me, who searched the net in vain for instructions on making a tightrope, here’s the way I made one. First up; the disclaimer – if you follow these instructions I take absolutely NO (zero, zip) responsibility for anyone hurting themselves or their property – I have no control over your standard of workmanship, the quality of materials or the manner of usage – so you do this entirely at your own risk (so don’t sue me okay?).
Now the fun stuff. Take 9.4 metres of 50mm square section galvanised steel tube. Add one 10mm turnbuckle, one 10mm ring bolt with 2 washers and nut, 2m of 5mm wire rope, two 5mm rope thimbles, four 5mm U-bolts, two 2½-inch three-eighth inch bolts with nuts and washers; twelve 2½-inch quarter inch bolts with washers and nuts; and finally, six plastic end-caps for the 50mm square tubing.
Tools: one angle grinder with metal cutting blade (you could use a hacksaw, but it would take a lot longer) one portable drill with three-eighth and quarter inch drill bits; a pair of pliers; spanners for the various bolts and nuts; and a small lump hammer – for added persuasion.
Safety gear: full face mask, hearing protection, leather gloves (or wet cotton ones while cutting) and a leather apron (you don’t want to cook your privates!) and leather safety shoes – this is serious metal fabrication!
Time: one weekend.
Instructions: First, cut the steel tube to the following lengths:
one at two metres
four at one metre
two at 70cms (0.7m)
four at 50 cms (0.5m)
Take the two 70cm bits and cut out opposing sides leaving two legs long enough to fit over one of the 1m pieces at the halfway point so that they meet like a T. When it is snugly mated, drill through and fix with a quarter inch bolt. Do the same with the other 70cm piece and attach it to another of the 1m pieces. This gives you two T-shaped parts which will be the uprights and the feet.
Next do similar cutouts at both ends of the 2m part, then attach it to the uprights just above the feet.
Now do similar cutouts at each end (but only one side) of the four 500mm (0.5m) parts -these are the triangulating braces for the uprights. Make the cutouts deeper at the lower end to allow for a shallower angle (about 30 degrees). Drill and bolt these to the side of the uprights and to the feet.
Now for the longer braces that make the truss structure. Make these with cutout as as for the braces supporting the uprights, but these 1 metre pieces will extend form the inner side of the uprights to near the centre of the 2.0 metre base. And drill and bolt these when they are in position. Now add the end caps to the four feet ends and the two uprights – this will make it much safer if you fall against one of the uprights.
The finished structure should look like this:
Now for the wire rope.
Drill three-eighth inch holes through the two uprights near the top. Attach a ring bolt to one end and the turnbuckle to the other, ensuring that you have washers on the outside where the nuts are to ensure a strong anchor – this is important, beacause you will be applying around three tonnes tension to the wire.
Open up the rope thimbles and insert them so that they straddle the eye of the eye bolt at one end and the eye of the turnbuckle at the other.
Feed one end of the rope through the eye of the eyebolt so that it sits in the channel of the rope thimble and clamp it with TWO U-clamps of the correct size.
Then do the same at the turnbuckle end, ensuring that the wire rope is pulled fairly tight.
Now tension the wire with the turnbuckle until you get a nice deep bass note – now that is tight, and you should be able to apply weight (gently at first) to ensure that everything is taking the stress okay, then do a test walk along the tightrope!
And here is the finished tightrope. Do use marine quality materials for the rope attachments – they might be a little more expensive, but you want to minimise the risk of things breaking at inopportune moments! Enjoy – and good luck 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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