Weekly Blog - March 10th

john · Post by **john** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:07 pm

It was a pretty slow week on the woodworking front. I cleaned up the workshop and waxed the old "510" so I could get started on a new project. I then pored over many of the magazines I have looking for inspiration. The only conclusion I came to was that I have too many magazines, books, and plans to choose from. Life sure was simpler when I had limited choices in life.

I had thought of making a rocking horse out of cherry. I figured this would be one fine looking horse until I calculated the cost. At the current local price of $7.40/ bdft for 5/4 wood, it would cost about $215 to make. I'm not sure I could get an acceptable price for it, and my grandchildren are beyond that age so I guess I will shelve that idea.

My daughter and granchildren left Niagara Falls one day early and ran ahead of the storm to get here safely. She really liked the Harvest Bin and is not sure about painting the sides so I will probably give them a couple more coats of finish for protection before they leave. I was worried about the screw holes showing but they seem to be well covered with a filler that blends in nicely with the wood.

As to the weather, we had another good 12" snowfall on the weekend but still have not reached the record of 382 cm, or roughly 152" for the season. We now stand at 347 cm or 139" and are expecting 5 - 10cm more tomorrow night. There is divided opinion on whether we should beat the record. Some people feel we have come so far, we may as well go all the way, others are so fed up with snow they just want to see it go away. Time, and Mother Nature, will decide which way we go.

Oh well, back to my magazines.

Have a fun and safe week!

reible · Post by **reible** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:34 pm

Hi,

I know I've had enough winter! Since about the second week of Dec. I have spent only a half day in the shop. We have two 50 deg. days coming so even if I'm still a bit under the weather with a cold (first one in about 8 years!) I still plan to get the door open and do a few things.

My brother sent me an email today that has been going around with his friends in northern WI and MI's UP. I'll post in lower in the page and warn you that if you love snowmen don't look down there.

The title is:

I can't take it any more!

Even the snowmen are sick of this Wisconsin winter...[ATTACH]1018[/ATTACH]

Ed

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:22 pm

That's clever Ed. Thanks for sharing.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:01 am

Careful here they are trying to make nooses illegal or the display of them a hate crime. I would hate to see someone sent up the river for a putting a hateful illegal noose around a poor innocent snowman.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:03 am

Ed in Tampa wrote:Careful here they are trying to make nooses illegal or the display of them a hate crime. I would hate to see someone sent up the river for a putting a hateful illegal noose around a poor innocent snowman.

Sounds too PC for me.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:52 am

It's only been one day short of two weeks since I bought the rest of the oak to build the tables I'm working on. Couldn't wait any longer! Just hate to be out of work!:o Did a few days of house improvement work, including painting and made that last as long as I could. BTW, no snow here, only sand, and it sweeps or washes out of the way.

So using the pinless moisture meter, (This is a wonderful tool - every one should have one) I rationalized it is dry enough! The moisture in the wood varied from 8% to 11%. Sorting the boards to select the driest ones, then sorting again for color, cut (rift, to flat) and grain, started cutting slightly over sized boards for the pieces. Today, all pieces except those for the top(s) and shelve(s) are sized and sorted. They are all 9% MC or less.

Now for what I think is the interesting (confusing) part. Most of the un-cut lumber sits at 9% to 10% MC. This is pretty good for new bought lumber. However I have found pockets within boards that are holding more moisture. So once again we realize lumber is produced from trees and is not uniform in structure, specific gravity and internal tensions. We should never treat it as mono structural. Machining it does not ever produce identical pieces. I can cut identical sized parts, but not identical pieces.

The thru tenons (from already sized pieces will be 3/8"X 4 1/2" and none of them quarter sawn. If the wood will get down to a solid 8% before cutting the tenons, I'm pretty sure there will be only negligible shrinkage when moved to Arizona. In the meantime, I plan to go ahead and make up the cross pieces with smaller (3/4") tenons. When trying to calculate the vertical movement of tenons when the rift grain is variable, I can only figure averages. To predict wood movement is pretty easy if working with either flat or quarter grained, it is pretty unpredictable with twisting, rotating rift grain. Most of the movement will be diagonal, across the tenon. Four inches + is a pretty wide tenon, even for a thru tenon. I plan to pin them for a little extra help. Hope it works.

Here is a photo of my moisture meter. This was taken a while back, on the shutter project.

[ATTACH]1022[/ATTACH]

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:49 pm

Chuck,
I do not have a moisture meter.

After reading about them on this forum, I think that it is something that I should use. Is being "pinless" a good thing? Are they available pretty much anywhere or a specific type of store? Looks like you banged your thumb pretty good there.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:34 am

Hi, Tim! Yeah! I think every serious woodworker should have a moisture meter. Using one is the only way you can tell how fit you lumber is to use. After all, a board at 15% moisture content doesn't feel any different from one having only 6%. Edge gluing these two will give you a very interesting step after a while. Some old timers will say the glue was the problem.

The meter I have is a Wagner L-609. It is about 7 years old and still on it's first 9 volt battery. When I bought it, I found it was the only one I could afford. Now it is sold by Rockler.

Meters with pins leave holes in the wood - something I didn't want to do to my wood. This one sends out a magnetic wave. Harmless they say.

I have used mine to detect moisture in Sheetrock walls, caused by a leak above a window. Also found the location of a water pipe leak in a concrete slab. These meters are not intended for those purposes however. Since the scale only goes up to 22% the wall pinned the meter.

The L-609 is set up to measure Doug. fir, so I have to use their tables (included with) to measure oak and poplar, and plywood.