What’s getting by your Danger Radar?

It’s safety day!

I have to say one of the biggest fears I have as a woodworker involves lobbing off a finger. I feel superstitious even writing those words! I’ll stop to knock on wood – there that’s better. But the point is, I think I know enough to be afraid of tools that could accomplish such a feat. However I feel that many dangers go overlooked. The ones that live under the radar are far more prone to lead to accidents.

I’ll give two such examples from accidents that occurred at work recently. One was a router accident. I consider palm routers specifically to live under the danger radar. They are so easily manipulated- heck you can be charmed into using them one handed when you see how well they fit in the hand, and how well they perform at so many tasks. Palm routers at my work are used almost as frequently as you might use a utility knife.I think this breeds the complacency that allows a dangerous tool to slip under our danger radar. Imagine how shocked everyone was when what was supposed to be a routine procedure led to 30 stitches.

The person involved had set up a straight edge and their router with a flush trim bit. The problem was that they had failed to notice that their cutter was out too far which meant that instead of the cutter riding up against the straight edge guided by the bearing, the cutter sunk right into the straight edge because the bearing had nothing to register against. This led to problem number two. Because we are taught to either have someone hold a vacuum hose while we cut, or hold it ourselves- which was the method used at the time of the accident- the person only had one hand free to deal with a router kick back. The router wrested itself from that hand and skipped over the other arm cutting a jagged path over the forearm.  The wound, I was told, was 1/2″ wide by 1/4″ deep and roughly 6″ in length. Someone told me it looked like the work of an animal. Thankfully the story ends well in that there was no serious damage done to tendons, nerves, or arteries. A full recovery is expected. Yes this mainly happened due to lack of attention, but also due to giving a palm router less credit than it should have as a danger in the shop. This thing has a cutter on the end that spins at 30,000 rpm why do we think one handed operation will suffice? Because we are convinced it’s manageable.  I have since decided to at all costs avoid holding my palm router with one hand- much like we are taught to keep both hands on a chisel to avoid terrible results.

The next tale is a bit of a surprise frankly. Even the most savvy woodworkers may not have seen this coming. We use super glue very often at work. It’s a staple. We fill syringes with the glue to apply it with perfect accuracy and also in the hopes of better controlling the volume of glue to be applied. Everyone knows to be very careful not to stab themselves with these syringes, and we certainly know to be careful with the glue itself, as it works in an instant, and is super strong. We have solvent for the super glue, but it takes a lot of persuading to properly UN-glue something- even with the solvent.What flew under the radar, then you ask? When getting the bottle out of a storage cabinet, a co-worker had failed to notice that the bottle’s top was not on properly. I don’t know the exact circumstances that followed but what I do know is the bottle spilled down the person’s shirt. The shirt then began to smoke! That’s right it was in the early stages of combusting! Someone had to use an extinguisher to remedy the situation. I don’t even know if there were further complications from the accident- like did the glue manage to contact the person’s skin etc. I have to say even after that accident, I have still found bottles with their tops not properly fastened.

How’s your danger radar? I say we all have to think hard about what it is that our danger radar isn’t picking up on a day to day basis in the shop. I realise we can’t stop to analyse every little thing we do for the danger in it, but there surely are a few things that once upon a time were on your danger radar, and have since fallen by the wayside. Maybe it’s a simple matter of not using personal protection equipment, or using short-cuts that are higher risk just to avoid setting up another machine. It’s different for everyone. And no one is perfect. That’s the reason we need to stay on top of shop safety. Safe woodworking to all!

Here are some links to other posts I’ve written on shop safety:

https://warpedboards.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/safety-week-at-work-13/

https://warpedboards.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/lessons-from-woodworking-school-part-2/

https://warpedboards.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/cowboy-carpentry-a-confession/

https://warpedboards.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/the-thorn-in-this-lions-paw/

I have a tool habit… and I work with geniuses

Hey friends! I have more on tools today! I bought a little box of goodies from Lee Valley again. I also worked on my dust collection system, and I have a little bit of genius jury rigging to share with you from work.

First up; dust collection! I am a little annoyed to admit that I’ve bought a bunch of dust fittings that for some reason are not made to fit to standard sized vac hoses or the dust ports of my machines. Even the dust separator lid I’d bought had some weird sized fittings. So I finally had it out with all these fittings and cobbled together solutions for ALL of the machines I’d bought them for!

I’ve been carefully avoiding large chips with my vacuum because they clog the 1 1/4″ hose very easily.

Well after a near melt down, I came to  a solution and cleaned the entire shop.

I bought this dust separator lid a while back and have finally got it hooked up. The fittings were stepped and I had to cut off the smaller steps to get my hoses to fit. I used my  bandsaw to slice the steps off, then followed up on the edge sander. Now everything fits!

It’s hard to make out but there are all kinds of debris in here that easily would have clogged my vac hose! Now I have to come up with a solution to keep the bucket from tipping over every other second. I’m thinking of making a rolling base that will hold my shop vac and the separator.

And here’s a bit on what I bought from Lee Valley:

I finally bought a set of guide bushings for my router, and an inlay kit while I was at it.

I was rather disappointed with the small size of these veneer sheets, but at least it will give me a start on practicing my marquetry. And I have a lamp shade project in mind for this that I’ll start on soon!

Can’t say I’ll buy these scraps again though.

Okay so ever since I saw a video of Frank Klausz cutting a mortise with one of these I knew I would need to try it myself.

And finally I was at work yesterday and I was simply dazzled by a jig my co-worker had made. I asked him if I could take photos and he was happy to share his idea. EVERYONE should build one of these!!!!

Check out this edge trimming jig! There is even thought put into deflecting the chips with a piece of plexi-glass

Here you can see the router bit, which has a bearing and is lined up just a hair below the surface of the mdf fence.

From the side you can see that the mdf is relieved with a groove right where the edging rides up against the router base

So if you didn’t already notice the last photo shows it very well, the whole jig is made with the edge guide that comes with your router! Simply screw on a piece of mdf that you’ve made a hole in for the bit, and a groove in that allows the edging to pass freely by the fence, and voila! The perfect edge trimming jig. I couldn’t get enough of his demonstrating  how easy it was to use, he barely had to lift a finger and his edge was knocked down to a hair above the surface.

Woodworkers are a clever pack of friendly creatures.

The mock up… rebuilding my pride

So I wanted to dust this blog post under the rug because I messed up (to a degree) on some of my table joints.  My execution was darned sloppy and I was a little frustrated because technically speaking it should have worked. I set up my table legs at the drill press with stop blocks and clamps and drilled for the mortises.

A mortise should live within these lines

So far so good

And somehow my set up let the forstner bit travel outside the lines. I’m still trying to figure out if my setup failed, or if my drill press is somehow out of alignment.

The perfectionist in me wanted to reverse time and/or restart from scratch. But alas I just had to deal with it. So I did my best to square them up with chisels

As it stands now I still have quite a bit of fitting left, but the good news is that the shoulders of the rails should cover up any trace of the misshapen mortises! Hooray for that!

I was glad that I’d only tackled the joints for one table and so I can try to better my performance on the next two tables! After I fit the disgraceful batch of joints I’ll address these dovetail joints next.

Since I need a little motivation to get over my goof I decided to roughly assemble the table to see how it will eventually look. oooh I can’t wait! I DO look forward to getting on with it now.

And finally here is the view from sketch up that I originally planned. Looks good so far, but I still have a lot of joints to figure out as I go. Not sure how I want the top to attach or even the drawer!

It’s funny how something that actually won’t end up effecting the finished piece and won’t be seen can really nag at a woodworker. I feel like a soccer player who has built up their performance and then ends up scoring on their own net. Boo.  Thankfully I conclude this blog post with a positive mind. Everyday at work I take pride in making the least amount of mistakes possible. But when I do make minor slip-ups I work my hardest to rectify matters and move on. So I will try to do the same here! I look forward to completing this table and NOT pointing out any of the mistakes future onlookers when they view the finished piece.

Norm Abram and his dadoes…

I’ve been watching a lot of New Yankee Workshop of late. The show is addictive. I admit I really only watched it back in the day, so I have tons to catch up on. Lucky for me! I would LOVE to own the complete series, but it costs 3K. All of us Norm lovers should get together and find a way to get a box set in production for the average consumer’s budget.  I think if it was available it would fly off the shelves. After rekindling my love for the show decades later, I also found a second New Yankee workshop book at a thrift shop to add to my library;

http://www.amazon.ca/Mostly-Shaker-From-Yankee-Workshop/dp/0316004758

if you’re interested this is the first book I acquired a year or so ago:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Yankee-Workshop-Norm-Abram/dp/0316004545

All this to say- I’ve been watching Norm work away and I noticed that dadoes are a favourite of his. And I can’t fault him on that, dadoes and grooves are very useful in so many situations. I’d actually like to incorporate more of them into my projects. Usually I’d use a router, simply because I don’t yet own a dado set. But I have to admit I envy the simplicity of dadoing on the table saw and I recall how useful dado sets were during my schooling. I think a dado stack is in my near future. But of course because I have a SawStop I also have to factor in the cost of a dado brake cartridge and a zero clearance insert. It will be a costly addition to the shop, but I’m certain I won’t regret it. Now the question is which dado set should I go with? I want to make sure I have a good set that doesn’t leave steps in the cut, or tears through the cut resulting in excessive blow out.  Anyone know of a reliable set for clean flat-bottomed  dado cuts?

The long lost project

I headed back to the shop this weekend as planned and worked on an ongoing project. A project that keeps getting set aside! So much so that I realized the other day that I started this project about a year ago! Wow. I feel terrible! Oh well, life goes on, and this project is back in my life, so there’s hope for it yet!

I found a proper storage place for my workpieces out of harm’s way under my bench. My intent was to keep them from getting dinged, but I also kind of forgot about them- oops!

My shop is currently tucked away under a hefty amount of snow. The layers have some ice mixed in, so I didn’t even bother shoveling a path, I just slid into the shop and climbed out.

My goal for the day was to dive back into the table project. Three in total. Specifically to continue marking out joints. I had drawn up some sketchup plans of the tables, with rough measurements- but still had to calculate where each tenon and mortise would go.

And a dovetail in the example above! I found my toolclad table saw cover came in handy during this stage of my project! I was about to draw out a dovetail and needed the angle to set my sliding t-bevel to and voila!

I also used the grid and scale on the toolclad cover to help me orient my parts and keep them square . I’m a fan of relative measurements as they really help to keep things fool-proof.

By the end of my visit I was successful in marking out at least four joints on each table- many more to go- but honestly I have yet to decide what some of the joints will be! I’ll start with the ones I do know.

Next visit I’ll be working on cutting all of the joints I marked out. I’m excited to see these parts come together! I’ve known them for so long in their flat-packed state that I was beginning to think they were going to remain that way! Piles no more I say- time for these sticks of wood to transform into furniture! Stay tuned for more joinery magic. ‘Til then, happy woodworking.

Home is where the heart is

This winter hasn’t been the best for visiting my shop. I’ve been tired, a little blue, and distracted by work, car troubles, and family obligations. I’ve been longing for my shop to be CLOSER. A thirty minute drive can be a huge deterrent to just popping in and tinkering on this project and that. Add to that the fact that winter makes me want to hibernate, and I’m left with very few shop visits. I hope to move into a house in the next couple of years, and one of my priorities will be to have a shop space attached. It’s a very exciting thought- to be just steps away from resuming a project. Ideally I’d like to find a basement workshop or even a garage, either would probably be just as large as the shop I currently have. I have a real estate listing or two on the fridge that I consider dream options- but I’m willing to compromise!

All this to say that I visited my shop for a second or two while visiting my mom yesterday, and I miss it! I went in on the pretense of checking for leaks etc., but I really just wanted to be in the shop. I suddenly realized that part of the reason I’ve been feeling a little blue of late is that I haven’t had shop time. It didn’t occur to me because I basically woodwork all day at my job- so how could I be missing woodworking? The answer is simple, work is not the same as time in my shop, doing what I want, how I want. I really want those two things to mesh into one eventually. But for now I have to recognize that I haven’t been fulfilling a need. So starting this weekend I will head back to the shop and kick up some sawdust.

Here are a few pictures of a little reorganization I did over the holidays.

Before shot:

When I suddenly added this sander to the shop I had to think quick and come up with a stand for it to sit on. I happened to have a workmate lying around so I used it for this end, but as you can see it was a clunky affair, not really a permanent solution.

After pic of sander:

While this stand may also just be temporary, I find it much more easy to tolerate as it has opened up loads of space that I frankly wasn’t functioning well without!

Before pics of fastener storage:

Top left you can see my previous fastener storage system on the end of my bench.

In this photo you can just barely see the back right corner held blue bins along the wall for fasteners. It worked for a while but eventually the racks failed and the bins would drop off the wall spilling their contents all over the floor.

After pic of fastener storage:

This storage solution, which incorporates my paper dispenser for protecting my work-surfaces during glue ups, has me wondering why I didn’t think of it sooner! Ah what a difference!!

Yesterday I noted how much this reorganization session had changed my space for the better. My previous setup had created a lot of frustration from tripping over the workmate, and from searching for dropped/ spilled items on the floor. I’m certain that the current state of the shop will improve how productive I am in the shop.

As an aside, I recently had to suffer through a bout of  second hand car shopping, as my car (that I recently posted about!) needed replacing much sooner than anticipated. I had been wanting to change up from a sedan for quite a while as I found it was a rather formidable limitation to woodworking. I couldn’t pick up machinery, or transport furniture that I’d built with a sedan, although picking up boards of wood was surprisingly possible. Because I wanted to purchase a car outright rather than be tied to payments, I went with a second hand car. And because I wanted more flexibility to transport woodworking related items, I went with a hatchback. And finally because I was worried about day to day fuel consumption I compromised a bit on size. The car I went with has 64 cubic feet of cargo space.

I just thought it was interesting to mention that woodworking can even influence a car purchase! Also I figured out that in a few years when I might need a “real” woodworker’s car, with more cargo space I might want to get a Honda Element- the cargo configurations were made for surfers and mountain bikers, but they also would work perfectly for woodworkers!

Happy woodworking!

Hand-me-down tools!!

This weekend I scored some nice hand me down tools! My grandmother was holding on to my grandfather’s tools for quite some time it seems! I had no idea, and was ever so delighted to receive the “treasure”.

The new to me tools even came in a tool chest. It was too heavy for one person to lift!

What goodies live in here?!

Some rasps and files in pretty good condition.

Some tins full of drill bits.

Some nice hammers and wrenches.

This spoke shave which is in better condition than the one I got from my dad.

hoo boy I will need to tune these up quite a bit, but I look forward to finding out if they keep an edge well!

For my fine measuring and hole tapping needs.

Super pleased with the sliding t-bevel as I only had a cheapo plastic one from my dad. The tightening lever isn’t optimal but I can live with it.

I’ll need to tune the drill but it came with a wide assortment of bits- very interested to see how well it works when it’s tuned.

I really needed these!

I’ve been wanting a rebate plane like this for a while- who knew my grandfather had one! I feel like it was meant to be! I have to buy a knicker for it but it seems to have the other parts

I heart all three of these lovelies. My aunt had dibs on the other saw that went with this one- I wish I could have kept them both!

My grandfather kept a bag of something in the tool box that prevents rust, so I’m pleased that most of the tools are in good  condition especially for having spent years/decades  out in a humid/unheated  shed. I feel like a kid in a candy store. I don’t prefer tool chests, but I will probably find a place to keep this one simply because it was my grandfathers and it’s instantly sentimental for me. Who knows maybe the tool chest idea will grow on me as I use this one.

Verdict is in…

….annnnnnd I have a white card! As of yesterday I accepted the offer to become a permanent worker- I’ll sign officially in a week or so.

Yehoo! For the first time in my life I have a secure job with benefits- for as long as I want it. Although most of my artist friends look down on my “factory job”  in Aerospace, I can’t help but feel proud of the accomplishment, and feel a bit giddy at some of the freedoms it will give me. It’s no ordinary factory job, there are no conveyor belts etc., we’re doing custom work in a more cozy setting . I have a calm and safe workplace, I build something that I’m proud of, and I’ve made some good friends.

What will become of me now!?

My original plan was to work at least two different jobs in the woodworking industry to diversify my experience and I’ve done that.

I also planned to work to buy tools. And I’ve done that. (and frankly there’s no end to the tools, but I have a great foundation now)

Next I planned to slowly but surely build a customer base by making furniture on the side. I wanted to start my business with the least amount of risk. That’s where I’m at now.

The goals stay the same but some are gaining priority…

The problem is that the third and final phase of my plan I’ve found to be a bit flawed in practice. I don’t have the energy to tackle full scale furniture projects on a deadline. I need to work at a leisurely pace, and still have time to live outside the shop. My first commission was a trial run that proved difficult on my everyday life. To make matters more complicated some of life’s other priorities have crept in- having a family and home-ownership are bumping my woodworking business plans down a peg or two.

The revised plan

I still plan to start my own woodworking business, but I want to put less pressure on myself and say that it happens when it happens. I need to actually discover what my niche will be- which I’d like to come to in a natural way by experimenting. I would hate to start hastily by doing the first thing that comes to mind and then get pegged into making a particular product that I didn’t even feel passionate about. The world feels full of possibility again!

Let the experiments begin!

Hard copy Magazines and Online Subscriptions

Hey friends! I’ve been thinking of subscribing to one or two new woodworking magazines/websites to diversify my woodworking fount of knowledge.

Currently I only subscribe to Finewoodworking online. Once upon a time I received hard copy of the magazine but I hate storing them and finding info in the stack is painstaking. I much prefer searching a database of articles and printing out the ones that are pertinent to the task at hand. Or flipping through the magazine online so that I don’t have to store the thing afterwards.

So here are my questions to you:

Do you prefer hard copy or online magazine subscriptions?

And most importantly:

Which are your favourite subscriptions? (I could use the advice before subscribing willy nilly!)

 

 

Klingspor to the rescue… again!

As I mentioned earlier, I bought a Ridgid combination spindle sander/ belt sander recently. I had decided that it was a necessary tool. I’ve worked with belt sanders at both of my jobs in the woodworking industry and they shave so much time off of certain tasks that I finally convinced myself to just make room in the shop for it.

So I made the room.

While I was at it I picked up replacement sanding drums and belts. That way I’d be prepared with different grits, and fully loaded for my upcoming projects. I’ve already used it so much that I feel the tool is worth it’s weight in gold.

To my chagrin the belts that I bought at Homedepot (Freud Diablo brand) were loose even after sliding the tension lever all the way home. This led to the belt flapping about and then sliding down and sanding the inside of the machine! I promptly turned off the sander and adjusted the knob that repositions the belt up or down the assembly. This didn’t help the situation at any point because the belt was too loose. The package said it was the right size 24″x4″. Yet when I put the original belt(that came with the sander) back onto the machine it tracked perfectly with no problems- I knew then that it wasn’t my machine. So back to the store the belts went for a full refund.
I recently bought sanding discs for my ROS (random orbit sander) from Klingspor so that’s where I turned next. I did some quick internet research to see if other Ridgid belt sander owners had used Klingspor belts successfully. I did find confirmation of that so I ordered some belts. I received the belts a week or so ago and tried them out- worked perfectly!

The most amazing part is the deal I got! I’m glad the first belts went back to the store because  just 2 belts had cost $12. Klingspor offers a deal on a combo pack of  30 belts for $20 (6 assorted grits). I still can’t believe what a great deal that is! I’ll be sanding for a long while on those 30 belts! They appear to be better quality than the belts I got from Homedepot, plus I have a crepe stick to clean the paper with, so I’m all set. Thanks Klingspor!

Now I have 5 of each of the following grits: 60,80,100,120,150,180.

Next thing this sander needs is a dust shroud,  which the machine doesn’t come with, nor does the manufacturer produce one. Luckily I found one that Kevin May made here. It seems perfect so I’ll probably just model mine after his as closely as possible. Kevin’s shroud design is easily removed, and also has a hinged part that swings out of the way to access the spindle end of the edge sander without removing the shroud.

On the job front I am sill twaiting for the final word, things are tense. I should know sometime this coming week- possibly Monday- but I’m trying not to hold my breath!

P.S. Klingspor  sells more than just sandpaper!

Finally, my shop has a dust separator! I bought one that fits regular sized buckets because I happened to have one on hand. I wasn’t ready to fork over $60-$90 for a Dust Right or Oneida version, so this $15 lid fit the bill very well. Can’t wait to try it out.