I picked up the Microjig GRR-Ripper System after reading about in on their site and then seeing a great demonstration at the Moncton Woodshow a couple of weeks ago.

The GRR-Ripper is an enhanced ‘pushstick’ system that also works like a movable blade guard for your table saw or router. It’s great for those times when the blade-guard and anti-kick back pawls would interfere with your woodworking like during narrow ripping.

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Here are a few of the latest wooden pens that I turned. The one on the left is a Round Top European style made out of Spalted Birch and the one on the right is a Cigar style made out of Amboyna.

I find pen turning to be great fun. You can go out into the shop for an hour or so and walk away with a pretty nice product.

Back to the shop…

I decided I needed a spindle gouge and thought that instead I would get the Spindlemaster from Robert Sorby Tools.

The Spindlemaster is design flat on one side and oval on the other side. The idea is that this eliminates dig-ins. In addition to doing the job of a skew chisel it also is able to cut beads, coves, etc.

If you remember, last month I saw a great demonstration of this tool and a lot of the NWG members were quite taken with it.

Although I enjoy learning the intricacies of the skew chisel I thought having a combo tool would be beneficial no matter how I used it, whether as a skew, as a gouge or both.

We’ll see…

Back to the shop…

I got tired of all the fiddling around trying to keep my pen blanks straight that I opted for the Self Centering Pen Drilling Vise from Lee Valley. I built a couple of jigs but none seemed to give me the accuracy and ease that I was looking for.

What I like about this jig is that once centered on the drill press it allows all sizes of squares and rounds, up to a maximum of 2-5/8″, to be centered for drilling. The V-shaped channels hold both round and square blanks. Therefore it can be used for other applications, ie: drilling dowels.
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Tonight’s Nova Woodturner’s Guild meeting was on Lathe Maintenance and woodturner Don Moore gave us lots of tips!

1. Use a silicon spray on the lathe ways for ease of banjo adjustment.

2. File your toolrest smooth with a file and then sand with a fine emery paper to ease tool movement.

3. Round the edges of the skew. This will help when rolling over the tool when making beads, etc.
Continue reading 'Some Tips On Maintaining Your Lathe'

I went to the wood show in Moncton, New Brunswick today. This show is one of a few that runs across Canada. Other locations include Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa and London. The show runs for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and offers the latest woodworking tools and accessories as well as demos, displays, seminars, carvings, turnings and more.

I didn’t get a chance to sit in on any of the seminars this year but it looked like there was a good selection to choose from including router techniques, tuning up your bandsaw, hotrodding your table saw and finishing techniques.
Continue reading 'The Moncton Wood Show 2007'

The Atlantic Woodworker’s Association meeting tonight was held at our ‘club house’, a local Home Depot and the theme was sharpening techniques.

One of the members demonstrated the Work Sharp 3000. It was nice to see this in action after having posted the announcement of this new tool last month. Several members brought in tools for sharpening which gave a wide array of samples, from plane blades to carving chisels. The Work Sharp performed well on all of them giving a quick and easy sharpening. Very impressive!

Another member spoke on hand sharpening and the trials and tribulations of such. There was also discussion on various sharpening and honing options.

I was hoping to have a sharpening competition between man and machine but it was not to be.

As always, it was a great meeting. It’s nice to meet others from time to time that share a similar interest in woodworking.

Back to the shop…

I picked up the 3/4″ Henry Taylor Skew Chisel from Lee Valley today. It has 1/4″ thick blade and is about 16″ long with a 7″ blade.

The skew chisel is used in woodturning for paring surfaces, forming beads, and trimming the shoulders of square sinkings.

Back to the shop…

The Janka Hardness Scale is a measurement of the force necessary to embed a .444-inch (11.28 mm) steel ball to half its diameter in wood. It is the industry standard for gauging the ability of various species to tolerate denting and normal wear, as well as being a good indication of the effort required to work (nail, saw, carve, etc.) the particular wood.

The Red Oak, which has a Janka rating of 1290, is the industry benchmark for comparing the relative hardness of different wood species. Since the hardness of the wood varies with the direction of the grain, both side testing and end testing is performed on wood.

Here are some examples of various woods and their Janka Hardness Rating. Obviously, this is only a short list of all the available woods but hopefully will give a good representation of the most common ones.
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The most common complaint among Super Glue users today is that the bond is brittle, so repairs don’t last. No one likes to do the same job twice. Adding further to the frustration is the short shelf life the glue has after it’s been opened.

The Gorilla Glue Company has big plans to improve user satisfaction with the introduction of Gorilla Super Glue Impact-Tough Formula. The unique formula provides built-in shock resistance that allows glued surfaces to “give” while holding tight. Still the bond is instant — Gorilla Super Glue sets up in just 20 – 40 seconds.

“There is a chemical reason traditional super glue bonds don’t hold,” says Dr. David Dunn, a research chemist involved in the development of the new Gorilla Impact Tough formula. “When cyanoacrylates, (the technical name for super glue), dry, they don’t flex, so any movement or stress on the glued item causes the bond to crack at the glue line.”
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