Further Adventures in Workholding, Episode IX

Ms. L. is returning to work for another school year, so it's time for me to write a brief essay on "What I Did over Summer Vacation."

We spent each weekend

New Video: Torsion Box

Not a detailed how-to tutorial, just a quick check. We've heard they're rigid, and they FEEL rigid, but can we measure it?

https://youtu.be/2JkNi7jIkRE
I compared a very simple torsion box to a pine 2x10 by putting them across a 30" span (one at a time) with a dial indicator underneath, and stood right above the indicator.

Results? Torsion box deflected .03 inch, 2x10 deflected .1 inch. So yes, torsion box is nice & rigid.

In case it matters, the skin of the box is 1/2" plywood and the core grid is 3/4" plywood on 8" centers. The box was assembled with glue, plenty of clamps, and 16 gauge brads shot in with a pneumatic nailer.

I like torsion boxes.

Bench Risers Video

A revised video about the bench risers is on YouTube:

Four-plus minutes of pure joy. Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQY5q00EsW8

Quick Finishing Tip

Just because two finishes are from the same manufacturer, and just because their labels say they are "compatible" with each other, you shouldn't

Finishing Cabinet Doors: One Quick Tip

The sooner you start finishing, the easier and neater the job will be.

Sometimes I'll put a

Iron-On Veneer

Here's a simple technique for applying veneer to flat panels. I have used it with bandsawn veneer I made myself, with paper-backed commercial veneer, and this week I'm doing it with some camphor burl veneer purchased from an online supplier. 

These particular panels will be

Wall Shelf Build-Off

I think of Chris Wong, of Flair Woodworks and Time Warp Tool Works, as one of a very few people I have interacted with online whom I feel I'd consider a real friend if I met them in person. Lots of folks I've only encountered online provide valuable information, or giggles, or inspiration. In addition to his design sense, industry, and craftsmanship, Chris conveys a strong sense of humanity, kindness, and likeability with his online presence. 

So I was delighted to see this on my Twitter feed:

I participated in #SSBO two years ago and had a great time; in the process I built myself a piece of shop furniture which is not only supremely functional, it's also the envy of my woodworking buddies. In fact it's out on loan right now, in the shop of a budding young carver.

Here are details about #WSBO:
 https://flairwoodworks.com/2016/12/27/the-wall-shelf-build-off-january-28-29/

As luck has it, Ms. Lee and I are updating the master bath at Chez Lee, and we could use a wall shelf as we button things up. A wall shelf to coordinate with a frame we need around the wall mirror . . . so there's a chance I'll participate in this Build-Off, too. We'll be brainstorming this weekend, to see if we come up with anything worth entering. Ian Kirby comes to mind; we'll see what Ms. L. thinks.

IWF 2016

Today I attended IWFS 2016 just a few stops down MARTA from where I lay my head at night. Here are a few photos and a few thoughts.

Approaching the Georgia World Congress Center from the closest MARTA station. I had to chuckle at the obvious out-of-towners who piled onto my train car at Five Points, quite wary of their reputedly dangerous surroundings. When I attended my first IWFS in 1998, I was the same way. I thought my adopted town did a good job of welcoming the visitors today. 

I don't think there's any one spot where you can see the entire expanse of either Building A or Building B. This was the closest I got to an overlook. In this shot you're seeing about 5% of one of the two halls. If you walked all through the whole venue without stopping, it would take several hours. And it's packed. And it's loud - - after all, machinery is being demonstrated all over the place!

I was struck by the fact that some of the vendors who made their names selling traditional machinery like bandsaws, tablesaws, jointer/planers, etc. now have booths totally dominated by CNC equipment. That was the case with Laguna, which had a couple of dust collectors and bandsaws off on the periphery, and Felder, which had a few more non-CNC machines (including the awesome 16" Format 4 jointer/planer), but still were both clearly there to sell CNC.

Kreg was there to unveil new products that we can't have yet! They have revamped their slide installation jigs, and I can tell you they'll be in use in my cabinet classes as soon as I can get a pair.

Kreg also had a very promising-looking jig for doing Euro hinge holes with a handheld drill. When I was told the price I asked "That doesn't include the drill bit, does it?" It does. And the drill bit is carbide. Again, I will have one of these for my classes to try out ASAP.

This makes sense too, why didn't they think of it before? Starting in November, you'll be able to make your own Kreg pocket hole plugs in scraps from your own lumber, so your holes can be concealed with matching wood. They wouldn't let us try it ourselves, but the samples they had on display were fantastic.

What would a woodworking show be without a bit of carnival huckster action? It slices! It dices! It makes julienne fries!

Of course the Stiles guys were doing their own huckster routines too, just hawking higher-priced goods. It's not a product, it's a relationship!

Why so serious? It's only a sander.

Keep the damn robots behind glass.

I heartily recommend you take a look at this video, which I find fascinating and horrifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAmyZP-qbTE Yes, I know it's a parody.

Edgebanding.

Many of the new pieces of equipment have touchscreen rather than levers or wheels. Equipment operators are flying by wire these days.

A gigantic dust collection system that dominated several rows of booths.

Another sander.

Rikon was there with what looked like a new jointer-planer, no doubt sourced from the same factory as the Jet and Grizzly versions; I happen to like this color scheme better. They also had a 24" bandsaw which I hadn't seen before. Perhaps they've had it a while already and Highland doesn't carry it?

Plenty of software suppliers were on hand.

Lee Valley/Veritas were there with the same display they have had at every show I've seen them at, ever.

 One nice change since I had last seen this booth is that they give you a chance to feel all their knob and tote offerings side by side. The differences are quite subtle, but real. Walking away, I thought of how many other hands had grabbed those knobs, and it gave me the willies. Maybe Veritas should offer hand sanitizer.

Makita's cordless sliding compound saw. Am I the last person to learn about this? Makes sense to me, but I am committed to a different brand of cordless tools for family reasons.

Today was also the first time I saw the Bosch "REAXX" system in the wild. Carry it home for slightly less than the equivalent SawStop.

I couldn't get close enough to actually see the demonstration. People seemed impressed though!

The student furniture is always among my favorite things to visit.

This chair seemed to be the most proficiently executed of all the pieces. Great design, flawless workmanship. Not very groundbreaking, not very flashy, but it was my choice for "best in show" because the design will fit with almost any decor and the workmanship is inspiring.

Why would you go to the car show without kicking the tires on the Ferrari? If I won the lottery I would have a shop full of Martin equipment. My student Mike and I talked to one of the salesmen about the big shaper. A good guy, with lots of experience running Martin shapers and lots to say about them.

I have been to IWFS in boom years and bust years. This year wasn't really either, but the place was packed with people who seemed like they were there to either spend money or make serious decisions about mid-term spending.

Not shown in photos: Lignomat had a small, low-key booth but I got to speak with a charming employee who knows more about wood and drying it than I ever will. My favorite new CNC maker is Axiom: their smallest unit has cast iron table and frame, and all three axes of movement are via ball screw, not stepper motor. I have a fascination with ball screws. You should too. Byrd Tooling is always fun to visit; everyone working in that booth seems like a down-to-earth, small-town person even though they know they're all rock stars in the woodworking world. I had big doubts about Blum's motor-driven door openers and slides, but they are just plain seductive in person. And Knape-Vogt: I always thought of them as second tier. Their booth today changed my opinion.

I'm very glad I went, even though I left with aching feet and knee. The day was inspirational and I got to meet a couple of old friends. This industry is full of good people working very hard to get good ideas out to us makers. 

Backlighting Helps Prevent Finishing Flaws

No, not black light. BACK. As in, if you put a work light behind the surface you're applying finish to, at roughly the same height as your eyes or perhaps a bit lower, that light will reflect off the wet finish into your eyes, so any spot that you've missed will show up darker, and any little piece of sawdust or hair will distort the liquid surface of the finish and distort the reflection.

Try it! you'll see a difference right away.

How to Sharpen a Veneer Tape Trimmer

I don’t use veneer tape very often. When I build frameless cabinets, I usually face the exposed edges with solid edgebanding cut from leftover wood, so my edges will match the drawers and doors. Once in a while, though, it makes sense to take advantage of

Bench Risers: A Simple, Versatile Woodworking Accessory

These bench accessories are something that most woodworkers should make for themselves. They're easy to make, and they come in handy in unexpected ways.

I think I got the idea from one of

My Day Job

Here's a quick job I knocked together for one of our instructors. This sort of work is fun for me. Instructors at the science center often need or want to do something in the classroom or lab requiring parts that aren't available off the shelf. Being able to understand what they want, then translate it into something that  A) can be made, and B) will work, is key to this job. This one was easy, because as I talked with the instructor about what was needed, we were able to pretty much design it and sketch it on the spot.

So if you need a way to fasten an old pin-style poster holder to vertically mounted unistrut without having access to the end of the strut, here you go!

Next up: a portable outdoor summer cage for our tortoise & box turtles that will keep the chelonians in and the kids out!

Stocking Stuffers for Woodworkers

Once in a while someone asks me for advice on what to give their woodworking loved one for Christmas. In the past, my standard advice has been to get a nice honing jig, or better yet, a class on sharpening. Those remain very good gifts, because sharpening is fundamental to enjoyable working, and neglected by a large percentage of us working at all levels.

About a year ago, though, I decided that one of these might help

PVA Resist Finish, or "Do You Think We Can Tell the Homeowner Batik Is Coming Back?"

I found this photo a few moments ago in a folder of files from the first digital camera I owned, about 12 years ago. I'm glad I found it, as it's an excellent illustration of something I tell my students all the time:

Cabinet Installation

When woodworkers take my basic cabinet class, we don't have a chance to install cabinets during the class, so we take some time to discuss installation on the last night of class. Here's a short version of what I say in class, and what Mark Duginske and I will cover in the Installation chapter of our cabinetmaking book:

35mm hinge boring jig . . . without a drill press

The easiest way to bore holes for 35mm hinges (a/k/a cup hinges, concealed hinges, or Euro hinges) is with a drill press, and one of my other posts shows a great drill press jig for making sure all your hinges are in consistent locations. A drill press is great to have, and I think it's one of the first machines you should get, BUT it might not be something you buy with the first $1,000 you spend on woodworking equipment. Most of us will want a tablesaw or bandsaw, a router, and perhaps a planer first. 

The 35mm hinge is the standard for kitchen cabinets because it's affordable, it's durable (if you buy a good brand), and most of all, it's adjustable, so that when you put the door in place and it's not quite parallel with its opening, or a bit higher than it's supposed to be, you can adjust it with the turn of a couple of screws, while the door remains in place.

The hinge fits into a hole of 35mm (1-3/8") diameter about 12mm (1/2") deep, bored in the stile of the door. The hole is best bored with a "forstner" bit, or other bit that leaves a flat-bottomed hole, since you don't want the pilot of a spade bit or auger bit to poke through the face side of the door. And forstner bits are notoriously tricky to use with a handheld drill, especially in larger diameters, because of their extremely short pilots - - the very feature that makes them good for this job. So what to do, short of going out and buying a drill press?

Give this jig, or one like it, a try. It's simply a good, thick slab of flat material with a 35mm hole bored in it.* Actually, the hole in this one is 1-3/8", but that's close enough for Euro hinges, just a hair loose but it works fine.

If you're going to use it with a handheld drill, the jig needs to be at least as thick as the body of your forstner bit, plus the pilot, so probably around 3/4" thick. If you're going to use it with your router and a pattern cutting bit, the thickness needs to be enough to let the bit spin freely while the bearing is low enough to follow the edge of the hole. So if the cutting length of the bit you're using is 1", you should use a jig around 1-1/4" thick. The one in the photos is 1-1/2" thick, which is a bit too thick for the bit I used, as you'll see.

Position the hole so that it's around an inch in from the long edge of the jig. That will leave room for a fence, which will determine the distance between the edge of your door stile and the hinge hole. This distance is critical for determining how much your door overlays its opening. In the next photo you can see the fence, which is made of nice straight wood that's thinner than any door I'll ever bore with this jig:

The fence is positioned to put the edge of the hinge hole about 3mm in from the edge of the door stile. This distance works great for the hinge I use most often, Blum's Clip-Top 120.

Using the jig is simple: clamp it down where you want your hole, carefully put the drill bit into the hole, spin it up to full speed before it hits wood, and drill until you're deep enough. The sides of the hole in the jig keep the bit square enough to the stile for your purposes.

(Safety notes: you see those safety glasses on the bench? Those are extras. I was wearing mine but you can't see them in the picture. For real! Safety glasses aren't optional when you're drilling a big hole. Also, you nitpickers have already noticed I need to replace the power cord on this drill. This is a 5-minute job and will be the subject of a subsequent post, because most power tools need a new cord every few years.)

Here's the resulting hole:

You can also use this jig with a plunge router and a pattern following (bearing above cutter) bit:

Notice that the jig is thick enough for the bit to spin freely (not cutting wood) while the bearing is low enough to be guided by the jig. This is important. On the other hand, with this bit I think a thickness of 1-1/4" instead of 1-1/2" would work better.

And here you see why: notice how the columns are bottomed out? I could barely plunge a hole deep enough for the hinge without starting to rub the bottom of the collet on the jig.

Using this jig with the plunge router is easy. Clamp jig to workpiece at a comfortable height, plunge bit to within 1/8" of workpiece surface, turn on motor, and rout around and around the hole while gradually plunging to the full depth of your hole. Most pattern bits aren't designed to plunge straight down to full depth, so you have to keep moving the router and let the side of the bit do the cutting instead of the end.

Routed hole on the left, drilled hole on the right. The routed one is slightly cleaner and doesn't have the dimple in the middle from the drill pilot - - but all this is covered up once the hinge is installed. The router takes about the same amount of time as the drill, but throws the dust around more violently (and grinds it finer). 


*I hear the objection: how can I make this jig if I don't have a drill press? I have several suggestions.
1) make friends with someone who has a drill press, and show up at their house with your prepared jig stock, the 35mm bit you'll use to bore your doors, and an appropriate gift.
2) buy this jig from me. Oops, sorry, my son asked if he could have it. I'm not sure why. 
3) pay me to make a new jig. Oh, did I just say that? I guess I could. I'm kind of busy, though.
4) make your jig out of mdf, like I did. It cuts like cheese. Try your hand at using the forstner bit freehand. Your first try won't go well. Your second try might go better. Once you finally get a sort of clean hole (typically, they have messy beginnings and neat endings, the opposite of love affairs), use your best hole as a jig for making a better hole. Use that hole as the jig for making this jig.
5) buy a 1-3/8" spade bit, a good one with spurs on the edges, and use that to make the jig.
6) buy a 1-3/8" hole saw, and use that to make the jig. (Note: I don't know if this will work. Just an idea. The resulting hole might be way too big!)