Move the tool rest out of the way, or better yet – remove it all together, before sanding and finishing your project. Not only will this give you better access to your workpiece but it will eliminate the possibility of getting your fingers jammed. “Ouch! That would hurt!” You’re right it would so say it with me again, “Ouch! That would hurt!”

And a related safety note, don’t use a cloth or a rag, especially ones with loose strands, to apply your finish. It can easily get caught on the wood then quickly get wrapped around it, usually with your fingers in between. Again, “Ouch! That would hurt!”

Likewise, don’t wrap the wire that you use for burning around your hand. It can easily get caught, quickly wrapping your hand around your workpiece in a very uncomfortable position. (Say it, you know the drill now ) A better solution and an opportunity to do some spindle practice is just to turn a couple of handles for the wire.
Continue reading 'Safety Tips For The Woodturner II'

Read your lathe’s manual for proper use and safety precautions. Real men, and real women too, do read the owner’s manuals! Read it! Understand it!

Always wear either safety glasses or a full face shield. Since my bout with a bowl I prefer a face shield… I like my teeth.

Remove any, and all, wrenches, chuck keys, etc. from the chuck and bed of the lathe before turning it on. You laugh, but it happens… a lot!

Always turn the lathe off when adjusting the tool rest. What will you lose, a few seconds? Better than finger or or a nose or worse, that beautiful piece of art that you’re working on!

Rotate your workpiece by hand before you turn on the lathe to ensure that it clears the toolrest. So simple that’s it’s easy to forget to do but don’t forget to do it or it will be quick to remind you!

Ensure that the speed of the lathe is set to it’s lowest setting before turning it on. Then ramp the speed up. If the lathe shakes, slow it down until balance is achieved. Shake, rattle and roll is cool when you’re dancing but not when your lathe is!
Continue reading 'Safety Tips For The Woodturner'

As you all know it is important that safety is on your mind every week of the year but Woodworkers Safety Week likes to put special emphasis on it.

Safety Week was started back in 2008 by Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer fame when he enlisted the help of the woodworking blogging community to focus their posts on woodworking safety. Each year since there have been dozens of posts added to the blogsasphere that deal with some sort of safety aspect to woodworking.

It has been a couple of years since we have participated and we’re looking forward to getting some safety related posts out over the next week. Keep your eyes open for these special posts as you visit Woodworkers Guide as well as other woodworking sites and please take a moment to read and understand them. Think safety!

To get you started here’s a couple of links to past year’s safety posts that are as valid today as the day that they were written:

Woodworkers Safety Week 2008
Woodworkers Safety Week 2009

Back to the shop…

Unfortunately, I find that the wood in my shop is so far removed from the forest. I know that’s where it comes from but still there seems to be a disconnect. Is the beauty in a piece of wood just something that I have come to expect?

Do I consider the beauty of the whole tree when I look at the subtle grain of a piece of Walnut, the rays in a block of Oak or the abstract design in a piece of spalted Sugar Maple or even the mesmerizing swirl in a Cherry burl? Sure I see the beauty in the piece of wood, I comment on it, gleefully show it to others and I even try to create something in the belief that I can enhance it but do I consider from where it came?

No, I don’t, and I doubt you do either. And that’s unfortunate because I believe that through this connection, if only in thought, we preserve and continue the lineage, the history and the legacy of the tree and that will show in our work somehow. I don’t know how, I just know it does. I really do believe this. Again, heavy stuff, I know.

I don’t think that we do this intentionally. I believe that we just forget. I believe that in our quest to create the most beautiful piece of furniture, home, bowl or whatever project we are working on that we just simply forget that wood comes from beautiful, living, breathing trees.

During my walk that day I was happily reminded over and over again of this simple truth. It was a beautiful day, me, my daughter, the trees. I guess sometimes it just takes a walk in the woods to get back to our roots.

Here’s some photos I collected that day:
Continue reading 'Get Back To Our Roots'

All three are made with the Sedona style pen kits. Each of them feature a different plate finish. One is in Gold Titanium, another in Black Titanium and the other is in Sterling Silver. They are finished with a CA finish and then buffed to a satin glow.

Here’s some photos of the individual pens:
Continue reading 'Three Segmented Pens'

The SplinterBike project came about after a casual bet between friends, Michael Thompson and James Tully, turned serious. The challenge was to design and build a 100% wooden bicycle. Read that again – one hundred percent wood! That means no bolts, no screws, no metal of any kind, just wood and glue. What developed was the SplinterBike, an innovative, new type of human powered vehicle – the Plicycle.

It took Michael around 1000 hours to design and construct the SplinterBike using wood such Lignum Vitae, a naturally self lubricating hardwood, which is included for bushings and bearings to minimize friction. The chain on a traditional bike has been replaced by connecting the power from the pedals to the rear wheel by the simple addition of a gear cog (pliCog).

Here are some more photos:
Continue reading 'The SplinterBike Project'

1. Keep your spare jigsaw blades together by using a shower curtain hanger as a ‘key ring’. It’s just the right size to fit the holes in most jig saw blades.

2. Use a hacksaw blade to make a quick trammel. Place a nail or pin through the hole in the end of the blade and into your centerpoint. Then place your pencil between two of the teeth at your distance point. Then draw your circle by rotating the blade around the nail.

3. When finishing or painting a chair use pushpins in the bottoms of the legs to raise them up off your work surface.

4. Stop your round pencils from rolling off your workbench by creating a ‘flag’ near the top with some tape.

5. If you’re gluing up irregular pieces of wood, use cellophane shipping wrap. It stick back onto itself and makes a great clamp!

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…

Here what the Easter Bunny left us:

These turned eggs are possibly not as delicious as the Cadbury chocolate eggs with the ooey gooey centers but I can guarantee that they will last a lot longer!

And speaking of chocolate here’s my favourite Easter cartoon:
Continue reading 'Happy Easter 2012'

Mastering Hand Tools will introduce you to the basic hand tool skills to turn you into a woodworker equally comfortable in either the powered or hand tool world — and offer the best results from each world. Host Christopher Schwarz starts off the video by asking the question, “Why use Hand Tools?” A fair question that he quickly answers by extolling the benefits of traditional woodworking tools — blended with some of the niceties of power tools. Those benefits include a healthier work environment, fewer jigs and test cuts, and accuracy to within .001″. Watch along as Chris offers advice on selecting hand tools, shares tips for set-up and puts the tools to work.

Learn About:
• Choosing and using marking knives and gauges and cutting gauges
• Sharpening and using Jack planes and Smoothing planes
• Selecting and using Handsaws and Rasps
• The benefits of Braces and Hand Drills
• and more about Chisels, Mallets, Scrapers and Router Planes
Continue reading 'Mastering Hand Tools DVD'

I don’t use a disk sander all that often but it’s certainly nice to have access to one when I do need one so I decided to build one as a lathe attachment. This way, I’m not taking up valuable shop floor space or have the expense that I would with a stand alone disk sander. When this unit is not in use I can throw it on a shelf, under a bench or hang it on a wall out of the way until I need it. Setting it up consists of screwing the disk on to the lathe spindle and clamping the table onto the bed of the lathe – it only takes a few minutes.

I made the disk and the table from plywood and the faceplate out of Maple. So that I can easily add and remove different grit sanding disks I incorporated SIA’s Siaklett Disc system, which uses a handy hook and loop method to adhere the sanding disk.

There are all kinds of plans on the Net for making a disk sander for the lathe. Here’s how I made mine:
Continue reading 'A Disk Sander For The Lathe'