Woodworking Tip (Homemade Scraper)

I have made my own scrapers for a long time, all you need is a saw plate. I find them all the time at the flea market for a buck or two.

I used a roto zip with a metal cut off wheel to cut them, But I have cut them with a file or a hack saw. I like saw plate because most are made of good steel.


The larger of the three I will grind to fit a molding that I need the smaller one is for the insides of my flutes I make, and the last one I will make a sq scraper out of. Normally, I get a few more scrapers out of a saw, but I am going to use the shorten end of the saw to make a handsaw that will fit my grandson, since most are way to big for his little hand.

Lie Nelson Tool Event Cincinnati, Ohio

Sunday as you walked though the F&S Publications front door the first think that greeted you was this wonderful Demi Loom table with it wonerful inlay work. This was a display from the Society of American Period Furniture Makers or the SAPFM for short. Although I didn't get a chance to chat with the gentlemen at the booth because he was pretty busy with a group of men but I did get to talk to a very nice lady who was giving a demonstration on prepping satinwood stringing for inlay like the one in the photo below.


The guys at Pop Woodworkers had plenty of booths presenting lots of great information, along with the planes Lie Nelson had on display I was in tool heaven. This is great because I'm one of those kind of guys that needs to see and hold what I am buying, that is one reason I don't buy a lot off the Internet unless it is something that I have had a chance to check out. I got to hold all the tools I have been wanting to buy from the catalog and this in turn has caused me to reconsider a couple of them for another tool, mainly because of feel and fit.


I didn't really buy much, but I did pick up a couple of marking knife kits from Czeck Edge Tools one for my self, and one to make for a gift.
One of the best parts of the day was meeting and talking to Jameel from Benchcraft what a nice guy I really enjoyed talking to him. and his product is top notch I don't think there is any better on the market.

Another nice guy is Ron Hock from Hock Tools we talked for a little while and I got a couple of balsa airplanes from him for my grandsons. I do plan on ordering some new irons for a #6 and a # 3 Stanley from him later this year. Chris was showing his little girl how to plane wood in the fore ground at Ron's booth.
A big surprise was Bob giving pointers on low flow toilets in the men's rest room. I don't know where they had Norm hiding, maybe he was in the ladies room, who knows?

All in all it was a nice event for me and my wife. She wants to learn how to do inlay now so that's cool. I got to talk to a couple of the guys from the magazine and sneak a peek at Megan's LVL bench, talked to Glen Drake again he was great as always I really love his tools they are well made and comfortable.

I hope they do this again next year and maybe I'll have a little more time and money..
Be sure to check out Big Dave's Woodworking for his take on the event.

Joey

Flute Construction

This is a drawing of the lay out for the holes that need to be drilled. Pick the key that you would like your flute to play and follow that lay out. I drill my holes before I glue the two sections together, but I drill them under size then I enlarged the holes until I get the flute tuned.

One of the best resource I found online is a yahoo group called Native American Flute Woodworking

The craftsmen and women in this group have gotten flute construction down to a science. There is a wealth of information on the site that would take a forever for me to get across on my blog, so if you are serious about making a flute give this group a try, they are a bunch of friendly helpful guys that loves all things flutes.

My next post will have the finished flute with more construction details, and if I can swing it a recording of the flute.

Sorry about taking so long I have had both computer and camera troubles, but I have everything almost back to normal.

Safety First You Never Who's Watching

Lot of you guys have little people that come into your shops with you. They are like little DVRs recording all you do, so always set a good example of how to do things. Safety first all the time and they will work safe as they grow up without even thinking about it.

My Worst Woodworking Accident

When you do woodworking and carpentry for a living you live with the knowledge that you can be seriously hurt at any time if you aren't careful. Sometimes the pressure of getting work out the door or getting the house done on time can sometimes cloud your focus on safety, and when it doe's you could end up paying for that lack of focus. This is the story of my lack of focus and it resulted in the worst injury I got in my woodworking career.

It was about 4 pm and I was trying to finish up the base in the last bedroom of this 5 bedroom house I was doing the trim work on, I had already placed all the long walls with base and was filling the short pieces between the walls and the castings, I just back mitered the last piece and was coping the cut. when I lost my grip on the base and sliced into my thumb with my coping saw. It went through the skin and cut into the knuckle of my thumb very deeply,

I had to go the hospital and I ended up have surgery to repair the damage I did. the injury took a long time to heal and I still have problems with that thumb.

My point to this story is all tools are dangerous and should be used with care. I never in my life would expected getting should a bad injury from something that seems as harmless as a coping saw, but I did.

So keep your tools sharp and your eye on safety even sharper and be safe while working and enjoy the work.

Joey

Woodworking Tip

If you are like me you use a assortment of glues and solvents around your shop on a daily basis. I like to keep mine in a smaller easier to use squirt bottle that I picked up from the grocery store. I think I got mine at Walmarts for a buck or so, but they sell them all over. They come in a couple of sizes and have a small nozzle that lets you control where you put the fluids. I keep lacquer thinner and mineral spirits in there own bottle, glue in another, and I keep a couple around for wiping varnish and oil finishes. I find these keep their contents cleaner and they are always handy for when I need them rather than fumbling with a larger can or bottle.

Joey

Flute Project, part one

The first thing you need to think about when making a flute is what type of wood you would like to use. This is an important consideration because the type of wood you choose will dictate the sound of the finished flute. You also need to keep in mind the tools you are going to use, hand tools or power tools. Softwood like pine or fir makes a mellower sound and is easy to work with hand tools, while hard woods like walnut have a sharper sound and is easier to construct with router. Out of all the flute I have made, fir is my #1 chooses for the sound.

To start, I use a ¾ inch thick piece about 24 inches long 1 ½ inch wide, unless I plan to carve a birds head on the end then I go with a 30 inch piece. If I am using a gouge to rough out the inside I like a wider piece of wood so I can carve both sides at the same time, usually 3 1/4” or a little wider works fine.

First I lay out the two chambers as you can see in the picture. The flute has a 1 inch ID and 1 3/8 OD. So I start by laying out a line ¼ inch from the edge, then I scribe a line 1 ¼ inch, this will give me a 1 inch inside chamber, Then I start removing the waste between the two lines. I use a gouge the scoop out wood in a half round shape to a ½ inch depth so that when the two pieces are glued together it will be a 1 inch round chamber, there is a ½ inch block about 7 ½ inches from the end and then another smaller chamber this section is the mouth piece. This is an air diverter that redirects the air out of a hole on the mouth piece side and then across another hole in the long chamber this is what makes the sound. Try to get the inside chamber as round as possible as you gouge the wood out. The sand it as smooth as you can this helps a lot with the sound.

Those who don’t want to do this project by hand can use a router with a 7/8 inch cove cutter to route out the two chambers, then you can go back and clean things up with a chisel. Be careful not to cut though the block. I normally do this on a router table.

When both sides are dished out and it is all smooth I like to drill my air holes and the scale holes. I drill the sound holes with a ¼ drill and the scale holes with a 3/16” drill. I do it this way so I can clean up any tear out. After the two sides are glued together I enlarge the sound holes with a round file to match the scale or in my case, what sounds good to me.