A Busy Week

Woodworkers Guild of Rhode Island monthly meeting at Keeseh Workshop.

Week before last was extremely busy. Saturday I finished up the shop work and photos for an article I'm writing for the Guild Of New Hampshire Woodworkers Journal. Wednesday after work I drove down to Providence, RI to do a demo for the Woodworkers Guild Of Rhode Island monthly meeting.

The next Saturday morning I was in Rollinsford, NH for the GNHW Period Furniture Group meeting with Al Breed. Sunday afternoon I taught a sharpening class at Woodcraft in Woburn, MA. All week I worked on the text for the article, finishing up while commuting on the train.

Whew! Plus my wife and I spent the first Saturday night at a small concert where the main act came on at 10:30, and then Friday night we did the 5k walk at the Electric Run held at Foxboro Stadium.

Journal Article

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Journal article is on breaking down and dimensioning stock with hand tools. It'll be spread over two issues due to length. I've been on a bit of a kick with this topic lately, since that was most of what I covered at my last Woodcraft class, and was my demonstration at the WWGRI meeting.

One of the main points I want to convey is that these skills allow you to setup a workshop anywhere. When you combine them with hand-cut joinery, the simplest space can become a workshop temporarily or permanently. No power required, no noise or big mess. They open the craft to a broader range of people who otherwise might not be able to participate.

The quarterly Journal is one of the benefits of membership. Soft copies of back issues are available online free to members. If you'd like to get this article in glorious glossy hard copy, along with other fine articles contributed by members, join the Guild here. It's open to anyone, not just those in New Hampshire, and the cost is very modest.

WWGRI Monthly Meeting

Woodworkers Guild Of Rhode Island Program Coordinator Bob Fontenault had contacted me a few weeks ago to invite me to be the guest speaker at their October meeting. I replied that I was happy to do so and suggested the stock preparation demo.

He asked for a brief bio to include in their newsletter, and Editors Ned Quist and Julian Peters spent some time here on the blog picking out some photos. In addition to the meeting announcement they always put on the cover, Julian did a very nice full page spread inside. They billed me as the busiest amateur woodworker in New England. I won't argue this week. Thanks, guys!

The Guild has recently started holding their meetings at the Keeseh Workshop in Providence. This is a very nice membership facility with lots of room and a variety of tools available for people to use. There were 32 people in attendance.

President John Heaney opened the meeting with general business, followed by brief show-and-tell. A young fellow named Suresh showed a hand plane that had belonged to his grandfather. One of the other members had shown him how to clean it up with electrolysis and other restoration methods. It looked brand new, ready to go to work, and Suresh said he really wanted to learn how to use it. It's great to work with a tool that has a family history.

During the break I got to meet a couple of people who are readers here. Thanks, Dave and Chris! I had also commented on Ralph Boumenot's blog that I would be at the meeting, and Ralph came as well. Thanks for coming, Ralph!

For my demo, I had my Queen Anne footstool to show the kind of work you can do with hand tools, my portable toolbox with saws, planes, and accoutrements, as well as saw bench, shooting board, and portable sharpening station. For lumber I had a length of rough milled pine from Parlee Lumber, marked up for a variety of rips and crosscuts.

I started off with the difference between rip and crosscut saws. I ripped a strip off the full length of the board on the saw bench, explaining how to steer the saw, then crosscut a few sections off. I ripped one of the smaller pieces in half in the main bench vise, then resawed one of the halves. In a few minutes I had a variety of pieces roughed out.


Starting a full-length rip. Photos by John Heaney.


Starting a crosscut.


Resawing a piece.

From there I talked about hand planes and proceeded to four-square one of the pieces. I showed how to shoot the ends precisely on a shooting board. Tico Vogt had been guest speaker at their August meeting, showing his Super Chute board, so they were familiar with the concept.


Shooting the end of a piece.

Everybody enjoyed the demo. After some question and answer, the meeting broke up and people came up to talk and try out the tools. I mentioned the upcoming Woodcraft class to John, and he sent out an email about it to members late that night.

GNHW Period Furniture Group Meeting

This was the first in the third series of bi-monthly meetings that Al Breed has been conducting for the group. In each series he's presented a number of specialized topics building various period furniture projects. First was a Townsend Document Chest, second was a Plymouth Federal Table, and this one is a Townsend Pembroke table (you can see photos of the Townsend pieces in the book John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker). He demonstrates, we watch, then a number of members build along at home.


Al Breed carving out the end of the flutes on a Pembroke table leg.

Al is a fantastic craftsman. A winner of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers Cartouche Award, he does museum-quality work. Where is he getting the details of the Pembroke table? Well, there are some measured drawings in the book Construction of American Furniture Treasures, but he's going straight to the source, making a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to take measurements from the actual piece.

They don't let just anybody touch their exhibits. It's the opportunity to spend time with people like this that make membership in organizations like the Guild and SAPFM invaluable.

I've shot video of nearly all these meetings. By now I've accumulated 2 years worth, which I'll be editing down to produce a DVD for sale. The main challenge of filming in this type of venue is there's a lot of start and stop as people ask questions. That makes capturing a linear narration tricky.

I'm also trying to capture detailed footage of what he does. Since some of the operations require repeated work, I'm able to get a couple shots of it. So I have a big editing job. Ultimately I want to have a video that's engaging to watch and conveys a lot of useful information. A huge thanks to Al for doing this. Yet another example of how generous he is with his skills.

As an example of what you can expect, here's a rough edit of one of the meetings, where he demonstrated turning a leg for the Plymouth table.



Woodcraft Sharpening Class

Sunday afternoon I brought a variety of sharpening setups and saw sharpening tools to Woodcraft in Woburn, MA. I had three students, one of whom turned out to be Suresh from the Rhode Island meeting. Thanks for coming, Suresh!

I went through my usual discussion of sharpening media and methods, bevel angles and shapes. I had a separate granite floor tile with various grits of sandpaper for back polishing for each student. I demonstrated all the procedures for freehand sharpening, then turned them loose.

They soon had their tools taking nice pine end grain test shavings. Suresh opted to try the convex bevel method, which I first learned from Jacob Butler, also promulgated by Paul Sellers.


Suresh flattening the back of a chisel.


Using the convex bevel method to sharpen the chisel on Norton oilstones.

One student had a large antique framing chisel that looked like it had been through a war. It had been so abused in a past life that someone had repaired it by filling the cracks in the socket with molten bronze. Made for an interesting look.

The student had done a good job hollow-grinding it, so I showed him how to register the two points of the grind on the stones and hone it. I tried it out, and wow! A chisel with this much mass moves through pine like it was butter.

He was unfamiliar with shooting boards, so since I still had everything in my van from Wednesday night, I brought one in and demonstrated it. He had an old low angle block plane that made a nice shooter.

I went over saw sharpening, explaining the difference between rip and crosscut teeth. I demonstrated the process, then Suresh filed the teeth on his backsaw.


Filing a backsaw.

My next class there will be mortise and tenon by hand, December 8.

Building A Moxon Double-Screw Vise

My Moxon double-screw vise, based on Chris Schwarz's design.

Chris Schwarz did several blog posts last year about building a version of Joseph Moxon's "double-screw vise". I immediately wanted to build one. He refined his initial design, resulting in an article in the December, 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking. The purpose of this vise is to secure and elevate the ends of boards when sawing dovetails at the workbench, so that you don't have to lean over. By now a number of people have built it.

I recently built a bench-on-bench, another solution to the same problem. So why build this one? I like to know the different ways of doing things. You never know when something will prevent you from working the way you usually have.

This can be made up from scraps around the shop. The hand-screws are turned on the lathe and then threaded with a thread-box. The corresponding holes in the vise rear jaw are threaded with a maching tap.

The screws were the main source of my delay in building this, since I had to work on developing my turning skills. I'm now able to rough a blank and smooth it, all with just a skew. I ordered the threading set from Garrett-Wade, using the gift certificate my parents had given me for Christmas.


This maple came from a co-worker's backyard along a stream in 2006. He had already cut it to firewood length. I split it with wedge and sledge, then quartered the halves on the bandsaw and stacked it in my basement. After 5 years, it's nicely seasoned. It's fun to be using wood I harvested.


Trimming up one of the quarters for a turning blank.


The blank mounted up. I could have put more effort into squaring it up for better balance, but there's really no need.


At lowest RPM, starting to rough it in with the skew.


Now at higher RPM, planing with the skew to smooth, uniform diameter.


The completed turning. Note the defect in the wood along the section to be threaded. This will cause some voids in a few threads, but shouldn't be a problem.


Using the thread-box.


The second blank did require a little more work to prepare. Using a jack to take heavy shavings and quickly square up the shape better. You can see the first screw finished, the defect in the wood wasn't too bad.

The second screw proved more difficult than the first. When I started the thread-box, it was too tight. I put some oil on the wood for lubrication, but it still took too much force to the turn the thread-box. It cut the first few threads, but then wouldn't advance. It ended up completely stripping out the threads.

I hadn't gotten the screw quite down to the proper diameter. Since I had already cut the ends off the turning, I had re-find the centers to remount it on the lathe. It had a bit of wobble, but not enough to be a problem. I took it down another 1/16" or so in diameter, then was able to thread it. So in general, it seems better to err on the side of too small.


The two finished screws. You can see the stripped out threads on the end of the one in front.


Ripping down some poplar 1 3/4" stock for one of the vise jaws.


Boring the 1 1/2" hole in the front jaw using an expansive bit and large Spofford brace. This worked fine...until the spur of the bit snapped off. The cutting edge still worked, but without the spur to cut the outer diameter, the cutter was gradually force into a smaller diameter with each crank of the brace. I had to switch to a forstner bit in a portable power drill.


Tapping the 1 3/8" hole in the rear jaw. The tap is lubricated with salad bowl oil. The gloves are necessary because this takes some force, and the small diameter of the cross-bar handle that provides the torque is hard on the hands.


Fine-tuning the first screw. It threaded into the jaws nicely with a little paste-wax on the threads, but the final unthreaded portion was a little too large in diameter. I rasped it down with a plane float as I rotated the handle.


With both screws in place and before adding the rear brace piece, planing the top of the jaws even.


Chamfering all the edges. Note the new pile of shavings!

I added the rear brace, secured with glue and screws, and tested it out. Secured to the bench with holdfasts, it works very nicely, holding the work piece solidly and presenting the end at a comfortable height.

However, the second screw continued to give me problems. It was much harder to turn than the first one. More paste wax didn't help. Looking more closely at the threads, I could see they weren't cut as well as the first ones; they were fatter, so bound up in the tapped threads.

I'm not sure why, maybe I was pushing down too much using the thread-box, making it advance too fast. Or maybe because I had reduced the diameter, the thread-box pitched a bit to one side as I turned it, leaving threads too wide.

I considered just making a new screw, since the end threads were already torn up, but I had an idea. Perhaps if I could file the threads down a little thinner, they would fit better. I mounted it back up in the lathe and used minimum RPM while running a triangular file down them. This worked great! After a few tries, the screw turned just as easily as the other one.


Chasing the threads with a triangular file to narrow them. As I run the file forward, the spinning threads carry it down the length of the screw in just a few seconds. It takes multiple passes, first angling the file to the leading face of the threads, then the trailing face. The file card sitting on the lathe bed cleans the file of dust and paste-wax.


The completed vise in action. Note my comfortable upright stance, with elbow just over 90 degrees. The workpiece is absolutely solid, no movement or vibration.

This was the last workbench appliance I've been wanting to build. Time to build some finished products! Unless Chris comes up with another gewgaw I just have to build...

A Visit With Ray Duffy, and A Little Magic Happens

Ray Duffy's three-level barn-style workshop.

One of the fun things about this hobby is that people love to share it. They're generous with their time and their knowledge. I've gotten several invitations to visit workshops from woodworkers in the area. Ray Duffy, a retired IBM software engineer, is one.

Ray is living the woodworker's dream. While I choose to use hand tools, it's  fun to see what someone can do when they can afford good power tools and the space for them. He's graduated from a basement workshop, to a good size shed, to the magnificent barn pictured above.

The main floor is the primary workshop space, well insulated and heated with a wood stove. Upstairs in the attic space is the lumber drying area. Down in the walk-out basement is dust collection, steam-bending, and forge. Yes, he does his own blacksmithing! He also has another shed for his end-loader and additional drying space.

Ray has eight acres of heavily wooded central Massachusetts property, now shared with houses for his son and daughter. Not only does that make for a beautiful setting, it also provides him with a private stock of timber.

Ray loves to make chairs. He's also an accomplished turner. That timber, and local selective logging, keeps him fully stocked. And these are good size trees, in a variety of species. No glued-up chair seats for him, they're all solid pieces, cut from massive pine slabs. A neighbor rough mills the logs for him. It's like he has his own personal lumber yard.

He works with a mix of power and hand tools. Chairs are like boats, he said. No straight lines, all curves. He's taken a couple of Mike Dunbar's classes and knows Peter Galbert.

He apologized for being a little messy. Hey, this is a workshop, no need to apologize, because there's definitely a lot of work going on. In addition to several chairs, he's currently building kitchen cabinets for his son's house.

On my first visit this past Sunday, he showed me several chairs and gave me a demonstration of turning a "bamboo" pattern leg. He also showed me a  Galbert caliper in action; quite a nifty device!

Then he gave me a maple blank and cut up a big slab of cherry for more, so I can turn the rest of the legs and stretchers for a stool. When those are ready I'll go back and we'll make the seat and "leg-up" the stool.

I ran out of time Sunday because I had to get my daughter to a birthday party, so I went back Tuesday evening to get pictures and see the basement level. He also showed me the "firewood pile", full-length logs.


Ray at his shaving horse, working on a chair spindle with a spokeshave. For his retirement, he does the work of ten men. The landscaping and vegetable gardens are just as nice as the shop.


The view from the entrance. The wood stove in back provides heat in winter. He's had the Grizzly power tools for 20 years.


The view back to the entrance. This is a very spacious shop, rivaling many professional operations.


The bench area. Hand tools are on the wall shelves.


The bench Ray built, and one of his stools.


The turning station.


The drawing and finishing room in back, out of the sawdust, with the setting sun streaming through the windows.


Some of Ray's chairs, including a three-legged Galbert Perch. He made several of the drawknives and inshaves in his forge. The photo on the wall is a fisher cat he saw robbing eggs from a mallard's nest.


Upstairs in the drying loft. Look at the size of those slabs! There are a lot of chair seats in those stacks on the left. The stacks on the right are cherry logs from the firewood pile. He stacks and stickers for a year, then stacks flat. That's some work, hauling those big boards up and down the stairs and around the loft.


The forge in the basement. It's piped to one of the chimney flues. Those are bending straps hanging on the pipe, for use in making chair backs.


The steam box. It slopes down a bit for condensation runoff. A radiator hose comes through the shop wall and into the back of the box. He runs the burner outside and sticks the spout of a big water can into the end of the radiator hose.


The dust collection system, controlled by radio keyfobs hung near the power tools.


The old workshop. What a gorgeous place! The tree frogs and birds were singing as the sun set.

About that magic. Remember I said Ray demonstrated turning a leg and gave me some blanks to do my own? Sunday afternoon after dropping my daughter off, I went down to the basement to check the bed length of my JET mini-lathe. The finished stool legs are 19" long. The mini-lathe can only handle 14".

Some quick checking online and a couple phone calls revealed a bed extension available at the Woodcraft in Woburn, MA. I made a mad dash to get there and back in time to pick up my daughter from her party. It attached easily. This really is a smooth little lathe.

Ray had shown me a few fine details. The first thing I realized was that I was being far too timid on the lathe. I tried what he had shown me, then watched a bunch of YouTube videos on lathe work.

While I have several books on it, it's such a dynamic process that static pictures and diagrams really don't convey it well. Watching several different people was key, each with his own particular details and emphasis on tool handling, placement, and movement.

These are the videos I watched:

•  JET videos on skew and gouge use and sharpening.
• Peter Galbert on skew sharpening, preparation, and use, and a practice exercise.
• Ron Brown on roughing down with a skew, and spindle practice.

I sharpened the skew chisel the way Peter Galbert showed, grinding a slight curve to the edge and honing on an oilstone.

And here's where the magic happened. I tried doing what I had seen, and it just worked! Suddenly, I was able to use either roughing gouge or skew to take blanks down to cylinders quickly, use the skew to smooth them to rolling-pin uniformity, and use the gouges to carve out coves.

You have to realize, up to this point my lathe work resembled the random gnawing of rodents. They were more like droppings than turnings. To suddenly achieve control like this was nothing short of magic. Ok, maybe it was a miracle. Either way, an incredible leap.

What changed? It's hard to say, but I think learning woodworking is an iterative and cumulative process. You try something a few times and it doesn't work well, so you spend your time on things you can do. Then you come back to it again, and suddenly the accumulation of skill reaches critical mass.

My control of hand tools in general has improved over the last couple years, and my sharpening has really improved. So the combination of good instruction, with better overall control, with sharp tools, finally pushed me over the hump. Thanks for the kickstart, Ray!


My JET mini-lathe with bed extension. That gives it 40" capacity. One of Ray's maple blanks is mounted up. It was cut from the edge of the board; after getting past the bark, it was too narrow to use for a leg, so I just used it for practice.


Ray's leg for me to duplicate, and the remaining blanks.

I spent 3 hours Sunday evening practicing my magically acquired skill on maple, pine, and poplar, and 2 more Monday night. It shouldn't be long before I can head back to Ray's with all the legs turned.