1. Remove pencil marks on your wood with lacquer thinner. It is easier and more effective than sanding and it works in tight corners.

2. When you need to enlarge a tablesaw dado just a bit tape a piece of paper to the fence and run the wood through again. You can vary the adjustment with different thicknesses of paper.

3. For a quick lubricant for tool miter slots try scribbling on the bottom of the slot with a pencil. The graphite will make things slide more freely.

4. When using wood filler mix in saw dust from the wood you are working on to make the filler a better match.

5. When making wooden toys with wheels use a sharpened piece of copper tube to punch small washers from a plastic coffee can top. The washers make good spacers and the wheels spin better.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and some from 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…

Here’s a bowl that I turned made out of West African Zebrawood. Zebrawood, also known as Zebron, has a figure that reminds of a Zebra with its contrasting light and dark coloring.

The bowl is almost 5″ at the top and tapers to 3″ at its base. It is about 2″ high and is finished with Ultrashine and Shellawax.

There is a dark spot near the bottom of the bowl that gives it a bit of a focus point. This might have been a branch at one time.

Here are some photos of different views:

Continue reading 'West African Zebrawood Bowl'

Here’s a Maple cutting board with Walnut accents that I recently did. It’s about 7″ square and the Walnut strips are 1/4″ wide. It’s finished with beeswax.

This was a cool exercise in creating a different pattern with the contrasting woods and something that I will be exploring more of in the future.

Back to the shop…

1. Coat screws with little bit of beeswax to make them easier to install, especially in hardwoods.

2. Sometimes masking tape will dry out over time. You can renew it by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds.

3. In addition to frequently filing your lathe toolrest smooth rub a piece of paraffin wax along it. This will allow your tools to glide more easily.

4. Use cooking oil to remove spots of polyurethane from your hands. Rub a small amount on your hands and scrub. Finish up with soap and water.

5. Household vinegar (acetic acid) makes an excellent rust removal agent. Soaking a rusted tool for a couple of hours will chemically dissolve the rust. Follow this by wiping with a neutralizer like baking soda.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and some from 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…

Here is another collection of wine stoppers that I turned recently. As you can see, woodturning is quite addictive! It doesn’t take much time to complete a project, these taking less than a half hour to turn and finish.

Items like this make great gifts. When taking a bottle of wine to a dinner party or a barbeque I plan on taking one of these to leave with the hosts.

The process for making them is quite easy as explained here in this post.

Here are closeups of the individual wine stoppers:

Continue reading 'Another Collection Of Wine Stoppers'

In between other projects I’ve been puttering away at making a variety of wine stoppers. Using scrap pieces of wood and the tricks I learned at the wine stopper course I took last month I am getting into the habit of turning one as a bit of practice. Here’s four that I did recently:

These are great little projects to make. They don’t take much time and are an excellent exercise in spindle turning. They also make great use of small scraps of wood that may be lying around.

Here are closeup photos of each of the stoppers:

Continue reading 'A Collection Of Wine Stoppers'

Here is a couple of pens that I just turned. The pen on the top is in the European Round Top pen style and is made out of Buckeye Burl. The pen on the bottom is in the Slimline style and made out of Tulipwood.

Buckeye is a beautiful wood available throughout North America, specifically the US state of Ohio where it is the State Tree. The burl has a terrific swirling grain with multi-colored layers. I find that it looks like some varieties of animal horn.

Tulipwood is an exotic wood from northern Brazil, not to be confused with Poplar which is also referred to as Tulipwood. The heartwood is a beautiful pink-yellow with a pronounced striped figure in varying shades of salmon pink and rose red. The grain is straight but more often irregular, with a fine texture.

Both pens are finished with the UltraShine and Shellawax combo.

Back to the shop…

1. To get a better grip on the round, twist-type clamp handles drill a hole through the side of the handle and insert a dowel. This will give you better torque and not cause your hands to cramp.

2. When you only have one hand available and no magnetized screwdriver tip just slip a short piece of plastic tubing over the screwdriver bit to hold a screw. This works well when installing screws with an electric drill too.

3. To stop a hole saw from clogging and burning first score the wood with the hole saw to outline the hole. Then drill a 3/4″ clearance hole through the wood along the inside edge of the scored circle. Then cut the hole as normal. The 3/4″ hole allows the sawdust to escape eliminating the clogging and burning.

4. If you store your waterstones in water, add a few drops of household bleach to the water. This will prevent algae from growing in the water and it will not harm the stones.

5. Foam water-pipe insulation makes a great cover for your pipe camps. It’s inexpensive, comes pre-split and will protect your work. Shower curtain rod covers work well too!

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and some from 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…

No, it’s not Christmas! And not that kind of goose! This is a flying Canada goose that I carved a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift for my wife. It was a whimsical project in a folk art kind of way that was fun to do.

It was based on an article in Issue #4 of the Carving magazine. I was intrigued by the way that the wings were done so I thought I’d give it a try. It was also my first time at painting a piece.

The project was quite simple. Basically cutting the pattern out for the body and a bit of carving around the head and beak. The wings were cut out and feathers carved using a V tool. It sits on a wooden shaft and base and stands approximately 22″ high.

Here is a close up of the wing. You can see where it was carved to give a layered look:

Continue reading 'A Carved Flying Canada Goose'

Last nights meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was an informational and entertaining one. We were treated to the seemingly endless wisdom of Mel Larsen, the Canadian representative of SIA Abrasives.

SIA Abrasives, with their head office in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, is the oldest manufacturer of coated abrasives in the world and a popular choice among woodworkers. Their noticeable yellow sandpaper is commonplace in many home workshops as well as widely used in industry applications including wood, automotive and metal.

Mel took a different approach for this presentation than he has taken in the past. Instead of focusing on the SIA product line and its use he took a broader view and spoke on wood and the steps to take to create a quality finish as well as the pitfalls and concerns.

Here, in point form, are the notes I was able to make from this fast-paced, tip-laden presentation:

Continue reading 'A Sand Storm Sweeps The AWA'