Weekly Blog - December 15

[john]

Winter arrived a few days early in the form of two snow storms in one week. The first dropped about 10 - 12 inches with some rain mixed in between coatings. Had to really work at opening the van doors. The second on Friday was nice and light and only about 6 inches. We got snow while those south of us got freezing rain and many are still without power. Did that in '98 and don't want that again.

I went to two stores today to buy a new snow scraper but they were all sold out. I guess I should have bought it BEFORE the snow came.

I made two more three way tic-tac-toe games for the show at the seniors residence which is on Wednesday. I also started a candle holder based on a design in Woodsmith magazine but altered to fit my wood dimensions and tea lights instead of votive candles. Yesterday I realized I would not finish in time so have switched to making a couple of bird feeders. The tea light holder may end up as somebody's Christmas gift.

My daughter ordered three card holders for playing canasta. She intends to use them as gifts. I will make them after the show and then that's it until after the holidays! Then the shop needs a good cleaning and the SS some TLC.

The family starts arriving Friday so, lots of fun, but no rest for the next couple of weeks.

Have a Safe and Fun week!

John

[pinkiewerewolf]

Have a great show at the senior residence John.
In the past I made the mistake of waiting to buy a scraper and found myself in the same situation.
Now I'm in a climate where it pours buckets of rain, then hail, then sunshine, then it starts all over again... for about 5-6 months.

[charlese]

Hi,all! John, back in the good ol' days, before I knew about commercial scraping cards, I used a plane blade. The hand held plane of course. If sharpened on a grinding wheel and leaving the burr, it will make a pretty good scraper. My High School woodworking teacher showed this method of making a scraper.

Have a great time at the Senior Center!!!:D

Sound like your shop has a full schedule pre-Christmas! Hope you don't have to take too much time out to shovel that white stuff!

Here's the story on the brass hammers. As said earlier, I made 4 handles from some scrap hard maple, while waiting for the 12" brass bar to arrive. The .875" (7/8") bar cost $27.50 plus shipping. When the bar arrived, I was worried about how to cut off 2 1/2" pieces. Finally decided to use the existing 1/2" blade on the band saw. It worked wonderfully well. The blade left small vertical ridges on the cut, and could have been used that way for the flat side of the hammer head. But later on, I decided to smooth it down with sandpaper on the lathe. (I'm getting ahead of my story)

After chucking up the first 2 1/2' hammer head, I tried the recommended method of rounding the protruding end with a double cut file. I would still be turning and filling, had I stayed with this method. Instead, I grabbed my Shopsmith lathe skew and went to work on the brass. To my surprise - it peeled off the ind quite well!:) So used that tool to do all 4 hammer heads. Also used it to put a bevel on the flat side of the head. I tried to use the parting tool to cut the recommended ridges near the ends of the heads, but found the brass only scratched and the tool came out worse for the wear. So only one of the hammers has one circumference scratch. The rest were left smooth.

[ATTACH]2548[/ATTACH]

[markap]

Nice lookin' hammers....and, you gave them names too!

[nuhobby]

Hey Chuck,
Nice hammers! Maybe it's been told before, but was it part of the design to have the "flats" on the wood handles? They look nice.

[beeg]

NICE looking hammers Chuck. I use the point of the skew to make cuts like that.

[Ed in Tampa]

Chuck
Great hammers! Was it my posting of the Highlands Hardware article or did you think this up yourself? If you hadn't seen the article I referenced it can be found at http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/w...asshammer.html

Nice work. How did you make the flats on the handles. Did you not turn them round or did you grind them flat after you turned the handles?

How long did it take to get the brass?

I love your work.
Ed

[tom_k/mo]

Chuck
Great hammers! Was it my posting of the Highlands Hardware article or did you think this up yourself? If you hadn't seen the article I referenced it can be found at http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/w...asshammer.html
Ed

Ed, your link doesn't work.... (not sure I'd want to make an "asshammer" anyway)

[beeg]

Tom, try the link in this post.

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=2583

[tom_k/mo]

Tom, try the link in this post.

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=2583

That works beeg, thanks...