Topics

121

Brag Forum / Tai Chi practice sword

« on: March 30, 2013, 09:08:31 am »

This is a request from the instructor after I brought my crooked sword to class.

Overall 43" long. Blade is 1 1/4" x 3/8" black walnut; handle is aspen. Near as I can tell the symbol says "Tai Chi".

122

Brag Forum / Sheila's Crosses

« on: March 27, 2013, 03:55:22 pm »

Very delicate. I like them both.

123

Brag Forum / Friendship Bowls

« on: March 24, 2013, 04:09:57 pm »

These bowls are cut from the same pattern using an Aspen board and a Red Oak board, then swapping the top ring during the glue-up. They are 7" wide at the top with a 20 degree taper. The rings are 1/4" wide. I plan to bill these as "Friendship Bowls" that are made in pairs. Buy two, then give one to a friend. Kind of a gimmick, but what the heck.

The spindle sander really helps with clean-up since the two woods sand very differently.

124

Brag Forum / Red Oak Easter Basket

« on: March 23, 2013, 04:50:11 pm »

This basket is cut from 1 x 12 red oak. It is 10 7/8" (10.875") wide at the top and 3 3/4" tall, with rings cut at a 15 degree angle. Rings are 3/16" thick. There are 12 lobes. Finished with 3 coats of Howard Butcher Block Conditioner.

The Pattern PDF has a numeric scale that can be used to expand or shrink it.

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Brag Forum / Aspen Bowl

« on: March 21, 2013, 07:17:40 pm »

Here's a bowl similar to one of Carol Rothman's designs. I't cut from 7.25"x8"x3/4" Aspen. I got a Ridgid spindle/belt sander to try bowl making. It did a great job. I found it easier to hold the bowl in place on the spindle or the belt manually rather than try to sit the bowl on the tilted half table, so IMHO the tilting table is not needed for bowl making.

Carol recommends gluing up the rings and sanding the inside before gluing the bottom on the bowl - that's a great help in getting to the bottom of the bowl and being able to see what you're doing. Her book "Wooden Bowls from the Scroll Saw" is full of advice like that - well worth the cost.

Scroll saw bowls and baskets are such an efficient use of wood - the whole bowl is cut from that single flat board. I like it.  

126

Brag Forum / St. Patrick's Day Musical Spoons

« on: March 16, 2013, 11:50:05 pm »

These are "wooden spoons" used as percussion instruments. They make a nice instrument for the less talented among us to play along at the St.Patrick's Day parties. The pattern is for the 1x10x3/4" oak spoons. The other in the photo is a piece of black walnut split from a log on our wood pile and cut by eye. If you save the cut-out it makes a good counter click to the spoons by beating it against the upcoming spoon. The black walnut sounds incredible - too loud to play without a loud band next to you.

Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9pMIcRlLvw

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.

127

Brag Forum / The sword almost made it into the stone

« on: March 10, 2013, 02:27:32 pm »

This is my Tai Chi practice sword. It is cut from a maple sapling that had grown around another fallen tree. It has a 36" blade with an 8" handle. The blade and hand guard were cut on my EX-21 then sanded and waxed. The end of the handle is where the tree entered the root at ground level. It looks a little like an antler.

Yet another use for the scroll saw. Excalibur!

128

Brag Forum / Letter Opener #44 modified

« on: March 08, 2013, 10:16:19 pm »

This started as Steve Good's Letter Opener #44. It's a nice pattern and calls for 1/4" lumber. I had a small piece of 1/4" thick Zebra Wood (I think that's what it is). When it was done, it felt too light and too thin in the hand. I added 1/4" red oak planks to each side of the handle to give it more of a knife feel. The Zebra makes a nice full tang, and the oak is a good contrast. The planks were stack cut using a part of the scroll from the original pattern. Maybe next time I'll put initials instead.

129

General Scroll Saw Talk / Food-Safe Finish

« on: March 08, 2013, 11:04:49 am »

FYI - Here' the response from Howard's about Feed-N-Wax:
Hello Ray,

Although the Feed-N-Wax is made from some natural ingredients, like beeswax.  It also has a solvent in it that is not food grade.  Feed-N-Wax would need to be mixed and poured on a sanitary/clean machine and mix tank?it is not.  The good news is, we do make a product very similar to Feed-N-Wax that is food grade.  It is called Howard Butcher Block Conditioner.  It contains food grade mineral oil and beeswax?mixed and poured in a sanitary environment to ensure quality.  Please review Butcher Block Conditioner on our website,   www.howardproducts.com   The conditioner is available at the Home Depot and many other retail outlets.  If you cannot find one near you.  Call us and ask one of the girls where it is sold in your zip code area.
I hope this helps.
Eric

I've seen that Butcher Block product listed from Amazon Prime.

130

Brag Forum / Basket #1

« on: March 08, 2013, 10:59:17 am »

Here's my first attempt at a  basket. It was cut from a 3/4" oak stair riser at a 15 degree angle. The rings are 3/16" wide, with 9 lobes. Finished with Feed-N-Wax.

BTW - I'm waiting for a response from the Feed-N-Wax folks on whether that product is food-safe. I'll post their reply when I get it.

131

Brag Forum / 2x4 Cups

« on: March 07, 2013, 03:19:27 pm »

These little cups are cut from a scrap of 2x4. They make good nut and bolt holders or desktop paperclip cups. Quick to make and interesting coloring from a crappy piece of wood.

The left cup has a 3" outside diameter vertical outside wall, 1/4" ring width (2.5" I.D.), and a 10 degree tapered inside.
The right has a 3" O.D., 2.5" I.D., with a 27 degree taper inside and outside.

Laying the internal waste plug on its side makes its bottom surface parallel to the blade, so it's easy to slice off the bottom section to fit back into the cup to make a bottom. On the right cup, the bottom was glued in then sanded flat. On the right cup, the bottom was glued in and the slight extension (1/8") below the bottom of the cup was left as a small stand-off.

These are rubbed with Feed-n-Wax for a finish.

For the pilot hole, note that most 1/16" bits are too short to drill through a 2x4, especially at an angle. For these cups I cut off a 4" length of 3/32" steel welding rod and sharpened the tip like a pencil on a belt sander, then chucked it in a hand drill. The welding rod drilled through the pine 2x4 with no trouble, but it gets very hot in the process (let it cool before trying to remove it from the drill or you'll get burned).   

132

Brag Forum / Happy St. Patrick's Day

« on: March 04, 2013, 05:14:50 pm »

This is courtesy of http://www.coloring-page.net/ (I asked and got permission to post this as long as I cited their URL). It is on 8.5x11 1/8" BB Plywood with a black cardstock backboard.

The paint is a light watercolor wash, then a few coats of clear lacquer.

If you cut it, look for the places to cut through to the backboard (legs and arm/fiddle spaces).

133

Tutorials, Techniques and Tips / Snug fit tapered wall box

« on: March 03, 2013, 02:48:24 pm »

I posted an article a couple of weeks ago on a small box and asked about cutting the top and bottom walls as concentric rectangles. The books and videos I'v seen show the two cut from two different pieces of wood then sanded to fit. Cutting concentric rectangles in a single blank will leave a clearance of the kerf width between the two walls, so picking up the box by its top will let the bottom slip out. That's OK if the box is meant to sit on a dresser or counter - in that case you want the top to slip off the bottom. But if it is meant to be carried around, you might prefer they stay together until you pull them apart.

The tapered wall box shown below will grip like a tapered shaft (but comes apart easily). The PDF has drawings and instructions, but be warned that some simple trigonometry is mentioned. Trig is not needed to make the box, but I thought some people might be interested in the math. If not, the pictures should do the job. 

134

Pattern Requests. / Bowl Making

« on: February 25, 2013, 09:02:46 am »

DWSudekum posted a bowl last week with the following dimensions: the original board is 14 mm thick (T=0.551"); the walls are 3/8" thick (W=0.375"); the blade size was not provided, so assume #9 blade thickness for the kerf (K=0.018"). Blade angle was reported at 34.2 degrees.

I interpreted this to mean that the distance between cut lines on the surface of the board was 3/8" (not the wall thickness, which would be 0.375 * cos(34.2) - .018 = 0.292").

The trig for a 3/8" wall looks like this:
sin(blade angle) = (W+K)/T = (.375+.018)/.551. angle = 45.5 degrees.

If we want a measured wall thickness of 3/8", distance between cut lines on the pattern would be (.375+.018)/cos(45.5)=0.561".

Does this look about right? Is there a posted app note on making these calculations, or are they usually done trial and error?

(corrected 2/26/13 AM)

135

Brag Forum / Easter's on its way

« on: February 23, 2013, 08:14:13 pm »

Here's a little pattern for a compound-cut bunny. It fits on a piece of 3/4" lumber about 2"x1.75". Orient so the grain runs parallel to the ears for greater strength. The dashed line is the fold around the edge of the board.

Cut the side profile first then tape it back together. Turn on end to cut the front profile, but watch your fingers - with the block turned on end to cut the front profile, your fingers might get between the wood and the top clamp screw.

You can go back to cut around the cotton tail if you like. I didn't try to cut between the front legs as you can maybe see.