It’s time once again for the Lumberjocks Summer 2009 Awards so get out your tools, get your toolbelt strapped on and get your wood ready! This is one fun project competition, open to all and it’s free to enter!

This year’s theme is a Garden Bench, one of summer’s great resting places. Build a garden bench for your backyard or patio and show off your creation to the Lumberjock community!

Not only can you be the envy of your buddies when they see the fantastic work that you have done there’s a whole slew of prizes up for grabs too! Check these out:

1st place – Picture Frame Bit Set and Build-A-Box Package by Eagle America
2nd place – Archive DVDs by Fine Woodworking
3rd place – Stock Electric Branding Iron by Custom Branding Iron
4th place – SkilSaw by Skil
5th place – Home Run Pak and Maple Marking Gauge by Major League Woodworking
6th place – BowlSaw by Steussy Creations
7th place – $75 Certificate by Lee Valley
8th place – Lit-ion Power Cutter by Skil
9th place – Lit-ion Screwdriver by Skil
10th place – $25 Certificate by Lee Valley

There’s also a random draw from all entries with a fantastic set of DVD’s from Passion for Wood so you get a chance to win just for entering!

Contest runs from July 1st to the 31st with voting between August 1st and 7th.

Click here for more information.

So get out into the shop and get working on your Garden Bench!

Back to the shop…

Here’s a few woodworking tips related to clamping, setting workbench heights and one for getting accurate chopsaw cuts. Read on:

1. Have a project that needs a lot of small clamps? Use clothespins! They don’t have much clamping power but you can use a lot of them. They come in handy for a lot of situations.

2. When setting the proper height for a lathe use different thicknesses of plywood on the floor or under the lathe and try each height for a while to determine the most comfortable position to use.

3. Consider the height of rubber fatigue mats in your calculations for work bench and lathe heights. These mats really reduce back and leg strain but can add 1/2″ or more to your height.

4. You can ’sneak up’ on a cut using your chop saw by butting the end of the workpiece against the body of the blade (not the teeth), while the blade in NOT running. Then hold the piece in position, and raise the blade. Now power up the saw and make the cut to remove just a sliver of material.

5. When clamping something on an angle and the clamp slips try using a folded piece of sandpaper between the clamp face and workpiece to give the clamp some grip.

These are just a few tips that I picked up lately. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Got a woodworking tip that you want to share? Let me know and I’ll add it in a future issue of Tips and Tidbits!

Back to the shop…

The fourth and final plate of my Incredible Plate Day is a plate (actually it’s sort of a bowl!) made of Ash that is a lot more robust than the other three. It is also around 7″ in diameter and 1″ high. It too was finished with the Beall Buff System.

This piece of Ash was just on the nigh side of spalting so the grain has a much deeper color to it, almost orange.

This plate, or bowl, is the fourite of all four plates among friends and family. When asked why each of them answered it was the size, the thickness, the weight.

Here is a view of the side showing just how thick it is:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 4'

This third plate in my Incredible Plate Day series was one that was done for shear fun. It’s a very ‘plain jane’ piece, about 7″ round like the others but it is a lot thinner. Although I didn’t get it as thin as I wanted I noticed that after it was finished that light shines through the very bottom! A couple of more passes with the scraper would have like punched it out.

This plate also had a few wormholes and it was finished with the Beall Buff System.

The top of the plate is not as thin as the bottom. It developed a flutter when I was doing the outside edge. It seemed like this was caused by the predominant grain variation of the Ash. I’ll have to try it again sometime.

Here’s a photo showing a side view:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 3'

This second plate that I turned on my Incredible Plate Day is one that, because of it’s shape, I refer to as a pie plate. It too is just over 7″ in diameter and 1″ high plus it comes complete with worm holes!

The opportunity that I have with all these blanks is to be able to play around a bit with different shapes. I am limited, of course, only by thickness. It’s also a great change to practice and hone my skills easily and inexpensively.

The lid is a bit less than a 1/4″ and the sloped side is less than that. The bottom is flat, again, like a pie plate. It is finished with the Beall Buff System.

Here are couple of more views:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 2'

I’m not sure if you remember or not but last September I lucked into a fantastic windfall of wood. In it there were lots of blanks, predominantly Ash, that would make great plates. I have been puttering with them, a piece here and a piece there. Well, the other day I decided it was time to get serious, kick some butt and start turning some of it. (According to my wife, “You can’t get anymore wood until you turn what you already got!”) So, putting the pedal to the metal, or rather the gouge to the wood I turned four plates that day. Here’s the first one:

This plate is made of Ash and is approximately 7 1/2″ in diameter and 1 1/4″ high with a 1/4″ thickness. It has a bowl-like center which my wife is now using to hold a large candle. It was finished with the Beall Buff System.

Here are a couple of more photos:

Continue reading 'An Incredible Plate Day – Plate 1'

Here’s a hollow vessel that I recently finished that sports some burned arrow-like embellishments. The vessel is made out of Maple and is about 5 1/2″ tall, 3 1/2″ at it’s widest and 2 1/2″ at it’s base. It was finished with the Beall Buff System.

The burned rings were done using wire on the lathe and the ‘arrows’ were made freehand using a skew-shaped tip on my burner.

Although I’m not completely satisfied with the freehand burning of the long sides of the arrows I am happy with it for this first exercise. It will take a bit more practice to ensure an even burn. Also, I believe a thicker tip will eliminate my attempts to make a thicker, darker line. Doing so gave rise to some irregularities.

Here’s a closer look at the pyrography:

Continue reading 'Hollow Vessel With Burned Arrows'

Here’s a couple of small turned boxes made of Cherry. They are approximately 1 3/4″ round and the taller one is 2 1/4″ tall and the smaller one is only 1″ tall. Both are finished with just a bit of beeswax.

The sides of the larger box are slightly concaved while the lid is convexed with a couple of decorative tiers. The smaller box is straight sided with a slightly concaved lid.

Like the small boxes of Ash I did back in April these turned Cherry boxes take no time at all and are fun to turn.

Here’s a photo of them with the lids off:

Continue reading 'A Couple Of Small Cherry Boxes'

Last night’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners’ Guild was the final one for the season and it was also our Annual General Meeting.

We met in one of the classrooms, upstairs from our usual meeting place in the Carpentry Room, of the Nova Scotia Community College on Leeds St.

The meeting began with plaques being given out to a few past NWG Woodturning Competition People’s Choice Award winners. Plaques for this award were just instituted with this year’s turning competition so not only was this year’s winner presented with one but past winners as well.

We then heard from the Competition and Exhibition Committee regarding some proposals on the length of service for committee members, the competition structure, financial concerns, entry fees and how the entry fee is to be used. There was great debate on these issues and motions were passed in favour of the present committee staying in place for two years and one member being replaced each year, two competition categories; faceplate and spindle will remain, the entry fees will remain the same and will continue to be donated to charity and an increase in dues will begin in the 2010-2011 season.

This was followed by a financial report and audit which, after a couple of inquiries, was subsequently approved.

A preliminary report was given about the possibility of having a ‘junior membership’ where a member will be able to bring a person under the age of 18 that they are legally responsible for (ie, son, daughter, grandchildren, etc.) to our meetings. The purpose of this would be to share our woodturning knowledge as well as interest young people in turning. There will be more on this in the future.

Continue reading 'Notes On The AGM Of The NWG'

This month’s Atlantic Woodworkers Association meeting, the last one for the season, was a mix of reports, questions and answers, show and tell, a draw and an excellent presentation on Wood Toxicity called ‘Wood – Friend or Foe’.

The presentation on wood toxicity was given by AWA member Dr. Gene Nurse. Yep, that’s right, Doctor Nurse. Gene is a long time woodworker, a past president of the club and is now retired from the medical field.

Together with his nine year old granddaughter he put together a fabulous slideshow for us that included graphic anatomy shots and cartoon dancing dogs (mmmm… we’re still not sure who did what ). Using the anatomy shots Gene clearly explained irritants and sensitivity issues with working with wood.

Several points of note were how dust particles, because of their small size, can easily clog the smaller bronchi and bronchioles and the even smaller alveoli where the gas exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen takes place. Also, the fact that not only do irritants enter the body through breathing but through our skin and eyes (yes, our eyes!) too.

Of course, what made this presentation not only entertaining and informative was the fact that Gene spoke from experience as both a woodworker and a doctor. So not only was he able to relate medical mumbo-jumbo to us on our terms he also focused on what cautions were specific to us as woodworkers. These were emphasized through personal stories and vivid analogies, like when speaking about working with spalted woods and cautioning us about the fungus he said, “Once inhaled it will grow inside of you. It will be like having athletes foot in your lungs.” This image certainly drove the point home!

Continue reading 'Wood Toxicity Talk At The AWA'