Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gorilla (or Monkey) Glue

I've been making cutting boards from scraps for a while. I generally start with 1x2x18-inch cutoffs, joint and plane the 2" sides, then glue them up to end up with something like this:


I have been using Gorilla Glue for these. It's strong (so I thought), has a long working time and expands to fill the small gaps between strips caused by snipe or other mishaps. However, one of the glue joints failed recently, which led me to further research different types of water-resistant glues for this application. It turns out that Gorilla Glue isn't the strongest. According to testing performed by Wood Magazine in the September 2004 issue #157, Titebond III produces a significantly stronger joint, is water-resistant and safe for indirect food contact. Many users at lumberjocks.com indicated a preference for Titebond III for cutting boards also, so I bought a bottle and tried it on a couple of cutting boards.

It is very strong, but the small gaps (< 0.5mm) were an issue, causing me to pay closer attention to surface preparation. I haven't made up my mind yet, and I've gone back to Gorilla Glue for the moment.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Clean(er) Workshop

I finally managed to clean my garage/workshop this weekend. It's still not totally functional, but it's much more usable. While I was cleaning, I found the box to a Groz #7 jointer plane I had bought a while back from Woodcraft for about $100. No other words can describe this tool other than "Complete Piece of Crap." Even after basic tuning, this made-in-India doorstop was completely unusable. I'm not sure why I didn't return it, but I figured they wouldn't take it back after modification. The problem stemmed from the chipbreaker, which was simply too long to adjust properly. At its highest position, the blade stuck out of the sole about 3/32" -- much too high to be useful. I salvaged it by grinding down the chipbreaker just enough to retract the blade into the sole. It's usable now, but I still don't recommend this product to anyone, especially at this price when alternatives like the Grizzly H7568 22" Smoothing Plane are available for half the price.

Also, I recently noticed that my dust collector wasn't drafting well, but I couldn't find any clogs in the (local) lines. I emptied and cleaned the bags but failed to check the turbine intake until I was rearranging the shop. Dummy me had run the collector hooked up directly to the planer without the cyclone separator--bad idea! It had completely clogged the turbine intake. Doh! Hopefully I didn't shorten the life of the collector.

I also managed to rearrange some shelving so I could use one for lumber storage. Now I just need to build some rolling carts for the few remaining tools without casters.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Cen-tech (HF) Digital Angle Gauge

I have been wanting a digital angle gauge to compliment my newly rebuilt tablesaw. The Wixey WR300 Digital Angle Gauge is $40 everywhere, so when I ran across the Cen-tech Digital Angle Gauge while browsing at my local HF, I figured "what the heck, it's only $30." Normally I am very wary about items purchased at HF. I think this was a good buy. It's simple, easy to use and dead-on accurate. My only complaint is that the magnets in the base of my particular unit are recessed too far to make a strong grip (it slides sometimes).

A new fence for an old saw

Last summer I bought a 25-year old imported tablesaw, equivalent to the Delta/Grizzly/HF of the same era, to replace my Ryobi BT3000, which is a fine saw, but it is too light and doesn't have miter slots. The new (old) saw is very heavy, has a cast-iron table and extensions and 3-HP motor,  but the fence was broken beyond repair.

After disassembling and thoroughly cleaning everything, I dry lubricated and reassembled it. Aligning the table to the blade was rather tricky. The trunnion castings were rather thin, causing the whole assembly shift out of place and drop when loosened for adjustment. I got it back together and aligned the blade to within .005" -- good enough.

Now that I had a "new" workhorse with miter slots, I needed a few accessories. I bought the Incra Miter 5000 Miter Sled -- what a gem! I also added a mobile base to it. They are indispensable when you are short on floor space.

I used the saw for several months until I actually needed a fence. I began researching fences, including building a Biesemeyer clone. I finally settled on the Shop Fox W2005 Classic Fence with Standard Rails because the price was right. The package arrived in rather poor condition, due to its weight, but the heavy-duty packing materials kept the contents safe. This beast weighs nearly 80 lbs! Each rail weighs about 25 lbs, so I was a little concerned about attaching it to the rather frail-by-comparison tablesaw.

Installation required enlarging and tapping existing bolt holes on the table with the included drill bit and tap. This was the most difficult part of the process. Once I mounted the rails flush to the table surface, the fence slid right into place, and it only took a few minutes of tinkering with the set screws to square it up. My only regret is that I probably should have purchased the 7' rails -- maybe when I have more space.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Handplane Revival

If you can afford the wonderful Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, or Stanley Sweetheart planes, then you know what a joy it can be to work with these fine tools. However, many new woodworkers might wonder, "Why do I need hand planes when I have a jointer, planer and/or router?" The answer is better precision and control, unmatched by any power tool, among other reasons:
  1. You can flatten and square the surfaces of a piece of lumber that won't fit through a planer or jointer.
  2. You can shave thousandths or even ten-thousandths off a workpiece one pass at a time.
  3. Hand planing produces significantly less sawdust.
  4. You can almost eliminate the need to sand by using a hand-scraper or scraper-plane.
So for those of us who cannot yet afford or justify spending $300-400 for a single, high-quality hand plane, cheap knock-offs of the original Stanley, Record and Bailey planes are widely available. However, these Chinese- and Indian-made copies often require hours of tuning before they're useful because they simply aren't machined to exacting specs and the soles frequently aren't flat.

My first hand plane was a Buck Bros. #5 14" jackplane from the local big box store for around $30. It was utterly useless out of the box. The blade chattered and wouldn't hold an edge, the sole was dished and the tote (handle) wobbled back and forth. After reading several articles on plane tuning, I spent a couple hours trying to lap the sole as recommended using a glass plate and various grits of sand paper. Seeing the futility of this effort, it occurred to me that I have a JET 6"x48" belt/disc sander, so 80-grit sanding belt and 5 minutes later, voila--flat sole! You can go finer to remove the sanding marks, all the way up to a mirror polish, but many don't recommend that for the sole, as it increases friction. I hardened the cheap blade (tip), cleaned the frog mounting surfaces and opened the throat a bit with a file. Now it cuts paper thin slices like butter.

If you take this DIY approach, you might also consider upgrading the blade and chipbreaker to a thicker Hock or Lie-Nielson combination. A good use for those cheap blades is to grind a cambered (convex) edge and use them for roughing*:

1/8" camber on a jack/scrub plane - good for hogging off large amounts of wood
1/16" camber on a jack/fore plane - removing saw marks from rough lumber
1/32" camber on a jack/fore plane - general surface flattening after saw marks removed
1/64" camber on a trying/jointer plane - trying (squaring) the face of a board
Flat edge with rounded corners on a jointer/smooth plane - finishing work on the face of a board; rounded corners help prevent gouges
Flat edge on a jointer/smooth/block plane - edge jointing or finishing work

I now have a few vintage Bailey, Record and Stanley planes, but the cheapo #5 is still one of my favorites.

* This information was taken from "Plane Basics" by Sam Allen.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hardening steel to hold razor-sharp cutting edges

Once upon a time, I had a beginner's set of turning tools from a reputable company. Although the tools were made from good steel, they just wouldn't hold an edge. Having read a few books and articles on blacksmithing, I figured I could harden the tool tips without much risk of breaking them, since I was only using them on wood. Using a propane torch, I heated the tips of each tool evenly to cherry red and maintained that heat for approximately 2 minutes, then quenched them in water. After sharpening and honing the edges, I found that they held much longer.

Now I certainly don't recommend trying this on your new $150 chisel, which has likely already been hardened, or cryogenically treated plane blade, but it is definitely appropriate for cheap (ala Harbor Freight) or questionable quality tools.

Hardening requires medium-to-high-carbon steel--the higher the better. To test whether or not a tool is made of carbon steel, hit it lightly with a grinder. If it emits a shower of sparks, it is likely good steel.

You may also want to use a different quenching medium depending on the grade of steel, if known. Check out the Tool Steel Reference at onlinemetals.com