Weekly Blog - February 18th

[john]

Work is still progressing on the "Harvest Bin". Notice the name change? I was looking at the plans and that's what they call it and since it is a much more elegant name than "potatoe bin", or "veggie bin", a "Harvest Bin" it will be!

I lost a bit of momentum this week, partially due to the drawer sides being in the press, and partially due to other things like snow shovelling and watching hockey on tv, etc. (watching Montreal beat Philly twice in two nights almost made me forget about woodworking). Almost all of the other pieces are cut and I have started finishing the bottom trim, drawer fronts, and the top.

When my wife suggested this project a couple of years ago, I took one look at it and said "no-way", it will cost too much. Well I am proving myself right. I have calculated material costs and am up to $87 without the handles for the three drawers. The plans recommend some from Lee Valley at a cost of $7.30 each, plus tax & shipping. I have looked at several local stores for similar ones but have not found any that are as attractive. In the end I will probaly go with the local ones at about $5.00 each but with no shipping charges (only the cost of gas in my search!). I guess I can't win, it's going to be expensive.

The defining moment will be when I release the sides from the press and find out whether they can be used or if I need to purchase new BB plywood to complete this project.

The saga will continue next week.

Have a Safe and Fun week!

John

[charlese]

Hi! Got a little more time in the shop this past week. It is warming up a bit days and not quite so cold at night, so the total mass in the shop is slowly warming. The result is I can get into the shop about 9:30 to 10:00 mornings at 45 degrees and the little radiant heater is enough to allow some work while stuff is warming up.

Finished up the Daughter-in law's play blocks (photo in last week's blog). Now I'll say some words about my first experience in actual pin routing. Don't know if I proceeded according to recommended methods, but it made sense to me. First band sawed out all of the blocks, leaving about 1/16" to 3/32" to rout off. Then took the cut-outs to the pin router. The Pin Router mechanism performed admirably!

Started with a brand new Freud 3/8" down cut spiral bit. (as this lifts the chips up toward the router and out the dust collector) I was surprised at the resistance I felt against that bit. Resorted to routing only 1/4" around the pieces per pass. These hard maple blocks were a full 1 1/4" thick, so it took 5 or 6 passes to form the entire edge. The spirals on the bit only reaches barely 1 1/4" from the tip so I was using the entire length of the spiral cutters.

I switched to a 1/4" up cutting spiral, thinking this would run a little smoother. I was right! It also seemed sharper. However I broke this bit and had to go back to the 3/8". After giving the 3/8" bit a few strokes with a diamond board, it seemed to cut some smoother. It became obvious to limit the depth of cut to where the cutting action made a singing sound. As soon as I could hear a slight chatter, or sour note, it was time to back off.

This was also the first time I had worked with hard maple. Also learned this is much more difficult to work than oak. Guess you could call this 'curly maple' as the grain was pretty wild. There was a bit of chipping, but sanding after routing removed all of these.

Ran the belt sander for an entire day finishing the edges of the blocks. It did a wonderful job of maintaining smooth, square faces/edges of these curved blocks. Then used a 1/16" R round-over around all edges. Couldn't avoid some chip-out, but hand sanding fixed that.

Then spent the better part of a day servicing the sander. After seeing Nick's video on servicing the belt sander, I figured it's gotta be time for mine. (no service for a decade:eek: ) I had almost exactly the same problems as Nick while servicing. My shaft pulled out of the drum, just like his. Gotta say I chuckled as I watched Nick reassemble his, but now there are no more chuckles. This operation took me about an hour!

Serviced the Mark V today and cleaned shop some. Now It's time to start on my daughter's Mission style end tables.

John - Hang in there - Spring is coming! I have confidence you'll be able to handle that plywood.

[Ed in Tampa]

Hi! Got a little more time in the shop this past week. It is warming up a bit days and not quite so cold at night, so the total mass in the shop is slowly warming. The result is I can get into the shop about 9:30 to 10:00 mornings at 45 degrees and the little radiant heater is enough to allow some work while stuff is warming up.

Finished up the Daughter-in law's play blocks (photo in last week's blog). Now I'll say some words about my first experience in actual pin routing. Don't know if I proceeded according to recommended methods, but it made sense to me. First band sawed out all of the blocks, leaving about 1/16" to 3/32" to rout off. Then took the cut-outs to the pin router. The Pin Router mechanism performed admirably!

Started with a brand new Freud 3/8" down cut spiral bit. (as this lifts the chips up toward the router and out the dust collector) I was surprised at the resistance I felt against that bit. Resorted to routing only 1/4" around the pieces per pass. These hard maple blocks were a full 1 1/4" thick, so it took 5 or 6 passes to form the entire edge. The spirals on the bit only reaches barely 1 1/4" from the tip so I was using the entire length of the spiral cutters.

I switched to a 1/4" up cutting spiral, thinking this would run a little smoother. I was right! It also seemed sharper. However I broke this bit and had to go back to the 3/8". After giving the 3/8" bit a few strokes with a diamond board, it seemed to cut some smoother. It became obvious to limit the depth of cut to where the cutting action made a singing sound. As soon as I could hear a slight chatter, or sour note, it was time to back off.

This was also the first time I had worked with hard maple. Also learned this is much more difficult to work than oak. Guess you could call this 'curly maple' as the grain was pretty wild. There was a bit of chipping, but sanding after routing removed all of these.

Ran the belt sander for an entire day finishing the edges of the blocks. It did a wonderful job of maintaining smooth, square faces/edges of these curved blocks. Then used a 1/16" R round-over around all edges. Couldn't avoid some chip-out, but hand sanding fixed that.

Then spent the better part of a day servicing the sander. After seeing Nick's video on servicing the belt sander, I figured it's gotta be time for mine. (no service for a decade:eek: ) I had almost exactly the same problems as Nick while servicing. My shaft pulled out of the drum, just like his. Gotta say I chuckled as I watched Nick reassemble his, but now there are no more chuckles. This operation took me about an hour!

Serviced the Mark V today and cleaned shop some. Now It's time to start on my daughter's Mission style end tables.

John - Hang in there - Spring is coming! I have confidence you'll be able to handle that plywood.

Chuck
I don't have the OPR but I do rout maple a lot. Two things I learned. 1. I only use Infinity bits, these bits happen to be made here in Tampa and when I started routing maple I was having a terrible time with chip out. I went down to see the president of the company(really a nice guy). After listening to my story he sold me a bit (which was on sale for half price) that allowed me to finish my routing with absolutely no chip out. None! I had tried two other bits before both cost far more and both caused chip out. I really can't say enough about Infinity Router bits, they saved my bacon and the price was far less than the more costly "famous" bits.

2. Make the last cut a finish cut, by that I mean cutting as little wood as possible off the entire profile. Not sure how you would do this using a Pin router but on a router table it is matter of moving the fence.

Incidently when I visited the Infinity they gave me a tour of their operation and a demo of some of the new products they were going to be selling. I think everything I saw is now listed in their catalogue. Really nice people!
Ed

[a1gutterman]

Way to go Ed! Buying American from independant companies is what I'm talking about!:D

[charlese]

Thanks Ed! I'll give Infinity a go when I order new bits. Like I said - had never worked maple before. When this wood is used again - I will have Infinity! Thanks again!