The Proof is in the Pudding

This is my idea of time well spent in the shop.

Today in my shop, I realized that I was proving the point that I made yesterday about when I choose to use power tools over hand tools and vice versa. Today I was preparing legs and aprons for finish and I chose to do this with hand tools rather than power. 

Here is what I did:

• removed all the machining marks with a smoothing plane
• removed the arrises on the corners - effectively applying a 1/16" round over
• applied the first coat of linseed oil to all the parts

Parts are oiled and waiting for more. 

All of this took 90 minutes to complete. Now had I decided to do this with power tools things would have been different. The sanding alone would have taken 1.5 hours and I would have filled the shop with dust and noise. Not to mention the challenge of sanding narrow surfaces like the tapered legs without ruining the facets by rounding them over. If I used the router to put a round over on all of the edges, I would have had to set the router up, did some test cuts and then shape the edges - the whole time hoping that the router bit didn't rip out a huge chunk of wood that could ruin the piece. 

The legs are made from cherry with an edge band of hard maple seen in the shavings. Ever seen someone taking pictures of sanding dust?

This is why I do the last 40% of the work at the bench with hand tools instead of with power. It's faster and the surfaces are superior, letting the chatoyance of the cherry through - not to mention the lack of dust in the shop and the only noise was 'The Black Keys' coming from the stereo. 

 - To understand, you must do.

V

Workbenches - they're not just for hand tools you know?

I know...I know. The last thing we need right now is more written word on workbenches. I mean, aren't two volumes and a bi-monthly magazine full enough? ;-) I promise not to discuss the origin of benches through the ages and I certainly won't try to convince you that 17th and 18th century technology is the way to go. In fact, I want to shed a bit of light on using a workbench with power tools, specifically a router. 

There is no doubt that the router is one of the most versatile power tools in the modern shop. Today I was using one to cut floating tenons in a set of legs and aprons for a display table that I'm working on. As far as I'm concerned, chopping out mortises by hand is right up there with thicknessing a board with a jack plane. If you have the power tools to do it why wouldn't you? As my friend Ron has always said "If the Shakers had plywood you would have seen it in the bottom of their boxes". Don't get me wrong, some people enjoy working solely by hand. In some cases like my freind Tom, you have no choice but to only use hand tools because your shop is 12' x 12'. Personally I think you can be much more efficient and accurate if you blend a little from the power side and a little from the hand side.

Every solid-wood project from my shop gets surfaced with a hand plane and the joinery will have been tuned by hand. You will never see me sanding solid wood. Why? Because it doesn't make sense to take the long way with a sander when I can get a superior surface in less time with my trusty bevel-up smoother. 

Ooops...went on a bit of rant there....I apologize.

Anyhow...instead of buying an expensive jig or worse yet, making one, I use my bench to hold the work. Check out the photos below to see what I'm talking about.

The router is guided by the fence and the two Bessey clamps are acting as stops.

I always want to reference the same side of the apron, in this case the outside. Note the registration mark on the bench that I use to center the apron between the stops.

No fancy fence system here - just a piece of Baltic birch hot glued to the router base. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

I've never been a huge fan of jigs. I tend to prefer making temporary work holders that are held together with hot glue and brads. In this case, the tear down was simple: remove the fence from the router and put the clamps away. It took me about three minutes to set it up and about five minute to cut all the mortises. Perfect. Nothing worse that spending more time setting up for a cut than actually making the cut. 

 All that is left is to hand plane all the surfaces, apply an oil finish and do the glue-up.

I use my machines for the grunt work which adds up to about 60% of the work. The remaining 40% gets done at the bench with hand tools. Even though building furniture is a hobby now, I still don't enjoy wasting time. For me the work is a means to an end...after all, my calling card says 'Furniture Designer/Maker' not 'User of Tools'.

V

Oooops!

Just wanted to apologize for the almost imposible to read text on my last entry. It's fixed now so give it another try. 

Woodworker I am...tech savy?...it's hit or miss.

V

Skate or Die - At Lee Valley?

So recently I had a chance to teach a seminar at the Ottawa Lee Valley store on making skateboards. The class was attended by eight eager skate builders and in the case of some younger makers, they where joined by a 'helper' to give them a hand. This was the first time that the course was offered and it was a hit.

We started on Friday night with a two-hour glue-up session to make sure that everybody had a deck pressed up for the next day for shaping. We were using kits from Roarockit including a hand pump vacuum press system, forms and pre cut lams. I discovered these kits about a year ago and love them. The kits are a great way to get into vacuum bagging and into making skate decks at a reasonable price. Roarockit is a Canadian company operating out of Toronto, Ontario and is owned by two awesome folks - Ted and Norah. They are deep in the Canadian skate scene and have been teaching kids all around the world how build skateboards. Despite having eight glue-ups to do, we got through it without any problems...not a single swear word was uttered.

Saturday was a full day of deck shaping. Armed with block planes, rasps, files and sandpaper, the makers and their helpers worked hard to get all of their lams evened up and the bottoms preped for art and/or finish. We took a break from all the hard work to talk hardware. We looked at different types of trucks and wheels as well as bearings and different set ups for different types of skating.

Once everyone had their decks shaped, we moved on to grip tape. The makers really challenged my gripping skills by coming up with some cool designs for me to grip their decks with. I hate to brag but not one grip job needed to get redone…I'm not sayin'…I'm just sayin'.

The makers with their newly made decks - sorry for the shaky photo

All in all we all had a great time learning how to do bent laminations. It's always a lot of fun teaching a challenging technique like vacuum pressing bent lams by doing a cool project like a skateboard deck. It was also a great chance to meet some great folks, young and old, and to spread the stoke in the nations capital.

BTW ~ I composed this whole bog entry on the tiny keyboard on my HTC Desire...and boy do my thumbs hurt. The pics were done on my phone too...sorry for the shake. I also shot some video but my galoot skill set is slowing down the posting process (read - don't know how yet)

V

Woodworks 2011-Woodworking Conference

So what are you doing April 9^th, 2011?

Nothing?

Great!

Why don’t you join us for Woodworks 2011? Woodworks is a one-day woodworking conference that is hosted by the Ottawa Woodworkers Association. This year we have a great line-up of topics given by some great presenters. We have topics on everything from machine techniques to design to hand tools.

We also have a Tool Bazaar featuring a couple local antique tool dealers for you to check out. Come in and buy some vintage tools or just ask questions and get answers from two very knowledgeable guys.

We also have some cool prizes this year and a ‘name that wood’ competition with the winner walking away with a gift certificate from a local wood seller. There are also some early bird prizes to be given out for those who register early on the Friday prior.

Visit the OWA site to get all the deats on the conference (including the topic schedule) and come on out and spend a day immersed in woodworking. There is even talk of a pub night...nothing better than spending a day talking shop and finishing it off with a BEvERage.