Posted by Jerry on January 14th, 2006 — Posted in Woodwork
I love recycling timber – especially from old brick pallets. Some time ago I built a garden table from pallet timber – you can see the step by step instructions here.
I had finished it in oil as a quick’n’dirty finish as I was in a rush to take it to a folk festival the next day. Months later and several folk festivals later the surface was marked with cooking grease, soil, coffee and soot from cooking pans at the campsite. The poor old thing was beginning to resemble the original timber!
Time to re-finish it – this time with a durable polyurethane varnish. The thing about varnishes is that I’m basically lousy with a brush – everything I paint leaves brush marks, and that is why I mostly use a simple wipe on and sand-in oil finish.
That’s when I heard about a gel varnish (Cabot’s Gel Clear) – it doesn’t work like most finishes – you don’t stir it or shake it or thin it – you just brush it on and each coat is like 10 coats of normal varnish. That sounded like my kind of technology.
So after a thorough sanding to remove the grime, and de-nib the wood grain, I brushed it on and waited for it to set. Well, the grain came up and the brush marks stood out like Saharan sand dunes – I had over-brushed it. So it was back to the internet for answers. That’s when I saw some readers wood projects, and a few talked about the finish as gel varnish wiped on with a rag – just like French polish!
More sanding to remove my disastrous finish, and then a finish sanding to 1500 grit and a wipe with talc to fill the grain, followed by three light coats of gel varnish wiped on with a soft rag – allowing 6 hours in between coats, and given a light sanding between coats with 1200 grit sanding discs on my Triton orbital sanding attachment.
The final coat I applied with a rag and then wiped it over with a fresh rag dipped in turps to ensure a really even coat.
Now this is looking more like it – the white stripe is the reflection of the flouro light – and no brush marks!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on January 9th, 2006 — Posted in Technology, Woodwork
Happy new year everyone! Time to review one of my new toys – the GMC 1HP dust collector.
I was due to run some fence palings through the Ryobi 13″ thicknesser for a friend who makes picture frames, so it seemed a good test for the GMC dust extractor. My earlier attempts to keep the dust and chips from the thicknesser from forming a large pile of chips on the floor and a thick cloud of dust in the workshop had only met with marginal success.
My Ryobi thicknesser did not come with a dust extraction port (the new ones do from last year). So I had fitted the dust port from a Sherwood 13″ thicknesser – it fits perfectly (purchased from Timbecon as an accesssory at last year’s Working with Wood show in Canberra). And I had cobbled up an adapter to the shop-vac but that had been only partially successful – when the bin filled all dust extraction ceased!
Enter the GMC dust extractor. It came in large box with some simple assembly to do – fit the handle, the casters – which do help with moving the 20kg machine around – and the collector hose and bag.
First the good points – set up was easy with a clear well illustrated instruction booklet. The construction seems pretty solid – although the 4″ (100mm) hose seems very thin walled and looks as though it would hole easily on a snag. The induction motor is very quiet compared with the shop vac, and there was little discernable difference in sound whether the motor was under load or not – ie whether or not the hose was constricted. The bag is a good size for hobby use and is made from a tight weave polyester, and is rated for 30 micron particle size.
What this means is that it will do a great job of clearing the chips and coarse sawdust, but the fine stuff that damages your lungs will go straight through the bag – you can see it as a fine cloud when you start the machine up – so keep the mask on for personal protection. GMC would do well to offer a 4 micron felt bag as an accessory – but I suspect the carbatec or sherwood ones would fit perfectly – and will be on my shopping list.
The hose was a good fit on the 100mm extracator port on the thicknesser and the machine did a very respectable effort at capturing probably 98 percent of the dust and chips – and it did so for a good hour without getting warm.
Summary – this is a good hobby machine for those with limited workshop space who need a solid, but light and portable dust extractor for occasional hobby use. It does not have the capacity or airflow (measured in cubic feet per minute – cfm) of a 2-3 horspower machine, but it represents a good effort for GMC’s entry into dust extractors. I would definitely fit a carba-tec or sherwood felt bag to capture the finer dust, and contrary to the brochure I would not be using this for more than one machine at a time. But at half the price of its competitors (under AUS$100), this is a great accessory for any hobbyist woodworker.
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Posted by Jerry on January 8th, 2006 — Posted in Journal
This morning we had a surprise visitor in our garden – it was about 9.30AM and we heard some commotion from a local magpie. On further investigation it appeared that a rat – an escaped pet by the look of it – was trying to make off with one of the lovely juicy peaches frm our peach tree!
The poor thing was clearly hungry, and out well past its bed time! The rat was quite scared of the magpie but hunger made it persistent and in the end it managed to make off with one of our peaches.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on January 7th, 2006 — Posted in Journal
The 18 January 2003 bushfires had razed the forest to the ground. Since then it has lain fallow pending redevelopment decisions and the new Canberra Plan. A quick walk around the local area a couple of days ago showed that new growth is afoot!
Just a few weeks ago strange green plastic triangles started springing up all over the old forest – presaging a new planting
The area is currently high with weeds – like this delightful Scottish thistle – a curse in the garden
But is it going to be just a plantation of native eucalyptus trees? Time to venture closer to investigate…
Ah! the are is divided into regions – some planted with oaks, some with sycamores, and some with gum trees – so we will have a variety of foliage at the end of our street
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on November 24th, 2005 — Posted in Journal
Today and tomorrow I will wear a white ribbon in honour of the campaign for the elimination of gender-based violence. 25 November has been designated UN International Day for the Elimination of violence against women. White Ribbon Day is the largest effort by men across the world, working in partnership with women, to end men’s violence against women.
White ribbons are worn on November 25 by men in countries and cultures across the world because violence against women is men’s problem. The White Ribbon Campaign is the first mass campaign by men against violence in the world.
It should of course be extended to all forms of domestic violence, in support of the vulnerable members of our community irrespective of gender or age.
Cheers
Jerry
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