Shopsmith Forums

Well it has been another rather unproductive week in the shop.

With the kids here and other things going on, all I managed to do was put some wipe-on poly on the sides of the Harvest Bin I made for my daughter.

Spent more time looking over ideas for projects and settled on two. One is a small wine rack that I will make out of a piece of oak I have on hand. I have done a couple of these previously and like them so it's time for another.

The second is a set of 3 cutting boards as featured in Woodsmith Magazine vol.29 / No. 174. I went out and purchased a 8/4" x 9" x 44" slab of maple today but will wait a while for it to aclimatize before starting to mill it. Meanwhile from the looks of the plans, I can start working on templates and jigs that will help in the building. It also looks like I will be learning a few new techniques in the making of these boards.

I hope some of you folks have been more productive than me.

Have a Fun and Safe week!

John

need help with ideas for baseball bat display rack. Neighbor boy is baseball collector of bats. I found one in Wood magazine but, otherwise not much. He wants to display them in the horizontal position. thanks.........

oldc6 wrote:need help with ideas for baseball bat display rack. Neighbor boy is baseball collector of bats. I found one in Wood magazine but, otherwise not much. He wants to display them in the horizontal position. thanks.........

Hi oldc6,
Take a close look at a gun rack. A simple design with some modification to accommodate bats seems like a simple yet useful solution.

Holy Cats! This will be a rambling blog! But it is what's happening here!

We had a wonderful visit from a very dear couple, at least to us. Both of us guys served as 'Best Man' for each other, and our wives were 'Maid's of Honor'. We were all school chums but he graduated in Geology and me in Forestry - so we went different ways. It is still always good, after 50 years, to get together again, even if just for a short time! We had a couple of days this time, so went to see the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, on St Patrick's day. Very nice day!!

In the Shop - during the past week I had fun by sawing the shoulders and over-sized tenons. The process will be continued this week to cut down the tenons to fit their individual mortises. Meanwhile, my wood is both losing and gaining back moisture. However, the overall trend is still proceeding downward.

RH here is low in the heat of the day, but gets pretty high during the cool nights. Daily temps ranging from 20 deg. to 70. My little out-building shop is not immune to rapid cooling and warming, although insulated. Once the interior mass of the shop warms up - enough heat will be retained during nights to keep the RH somewhat lower. My RH meter - not too accurate - reads near 70% in the mornings and near 25% in afternoons. If I could just get the RH to hang in around an average of 35% to 40% I think the moisture content will get stabilized at the desired level. The wood has now been in the shop three weeks.

Anyway, I this afternoon, got started into chiseling and sanding the short tenons to fit the mortises, milled a while back. Unfortunately the largest moisture content differences now exist between the legs of the table and the thru tenons. The legs are hanging in around 7%, but the apron's (tenon pieces) are still at 9%+ . I feel that the tenons need to get down a bit before fitting. Maybe they will by the time all of the short tenons (those boards are presently down to 7%) are finished.

These tables will be going to Phoenix and we want the thru tenons to stay tight. The calculated maximum shrinkage from 7% MC to 6% on these 4 1/2" wide thru tenons is .01782" or about 1/64". To me this is do-able shrinkage. More shrinkage might be a problem. This calculated shrinkage movement is over-estimated, as this is using straight tangential values. The real amounts will be less than this, but to be safe will go with the maximum movement figures.

I really wouldn't be fooling around all this calculating if it weren't for having such wide thru tenons. Now I know why 3 inches wide is the rule of thumb maximum. Especially, when the only choice is to use more or less flat grain, which isn't a good thing in the first place. Who? me worry?;)

I think I have been making up for Johns lack of progress this week. I have put in several late nights to finish the crib for my daughter. This has been a great project but I think I am going to take a break from mortise and tennon joinery as between my last three projects I have made approximately 300 joints. Sunday I cut out the pieces for my nieces to make birdhouses as they are comming to visit this weekend. What a joy to make a small project. Start to finish in an hour! I even made two boxes for raised garden beds. Another fast and easy project. This weeks project is to find quality lumber to start working on a high chair for my daughter.

Cadman84:

All I can say is WOW! That's another fine piece of furniture.

John

Ps: Is that you all pooped out in the chair?

I've spent the past few days modifing a kitchen cabinet to accomodate shelves that slide out. It's a more complex project than I first thought - lots of tedious math and measuring.

It seems as if my old Shopsmith has seen a lot of home improvement projects through the years.

john wrote:Cadman84:

All I can say is WOW! That's another fine piece of furniture.

John

Ps: Is that you all pooped out in the chair?

That would be me. I am still rather amazed by what can be done if you really want to put the effort into a project. I would like to note that I only did finish work late at night (sanding, triming tennons with a hand saw or utility knife). Since I am rather partial to all 10 fingers I have a strict rule about not turning on the shopsmith when I am tired. A simple rule everyone should live by. By the way my daughter is sleeping better than ever in the new crib.

Andy

Hi cadman! - You have done it again! Another beautiful piece! Looks like these pieces will be used and admired in your family for decades! Hope you dated them! Very nice work!

Incidentally, I looked up shellac and found that is is an edible substance. Although is is made from insect extractions, it is used even today for the glazed surface on pills and capsules. I guess it has earned it's slang name as 'beetle juice'. (although a mes-no-mer, because the insect isn't a beetle - it is a scale like insect - the Lac)

Started milling some oak last night to do a picture frame for a mounted tapestry. Haven't yet decided how to do the corners, so decided to do the rebate for the frame. I use the term rebate because rabbet seemed too informal for a 1-1/8" wide 1/4" deep rabbet. Used the jointer in two passes. Got a nice smooth cut with no burning, snipe or other problems.
The look I want is a shallow shadow box. I am thinking of miter cutting the face with a half lap or horizontal through tenon behind it for strength and craftsman appearance. I also thought of using a corner lock joint, just for practice.
Any other suggestions?

Spent this morning assisting our 5 year old grandson make a model wood tugboat from a kit. Looks like he did it himself. He's ready for the tank model next, but there are some pieces missing so I will have to make them first.