by via The Daily Sudoku
Thursday 31 January 2013
How-To Make Log Furniture #3: How-To Make a Puzzle-Cut Shelf or Panel
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/ScottShaeffer/blog/34263
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In this tutorial, Scott shows in much more detail how to craft the puzzle-cut shelf. This technique can also be used for dresser sides, door panels, or anywhere else you might need a really awesome panel.
See the full tutorial by following this link: http://logfurniturehowto.com/tutorial/learn-how-to-make-a-puzzle-cut-shelf/
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Compact size works well on smaller lathe
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/3231
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Easy Start tools are the entry level carbide lathe tools by Easy Wood Tools. With a 9” maple handle and 3/8” cutter the Easy Start are 3-1/2” shorter than the Mini series. The rougher comes with the Ci2 square cutter while the finisher comes with the Ci3 round carbide. Cost was $59 each + tax.
I debated which tools to buy for a long time, in the end two things swung my decision:
1) I wouldn’t have to sharpen another tool. I already have planes, chisels, knives, etc.; enough to sharpen. If I could get away with not sharpening I was going to try it.
2) Made in USA. I considered a number of alternate brands and even making my own but in the end I decided to support an American company.
The square tool is the rougher and it works well for that. In a month of use I’ve already dulled one cutting edge but I was pretty tough on it wanting to know just how durable it would be. I’ve debarked a few turning pieces, cut through knots and accidentally tapped the spinning metal stuff a few times (this chipped the blade). The round tool is supposedly a finisher but I can’t get a very smooth cut with it, that might be my inexperience. The round tool is fantastic at roughing though and peels away wood fast. An odd thing that happens once in a while, mostly with the square cutter, is that it stops cutting. I clear the dust from the tip, double check my angle is straight but it just rides the surface. At some point it will suddenly cut again. If anyone has insight on what I might be doing wrong, please let me know.
Many years ago I had a class working on Delta lathes with high speed tools, it was mostly spindle work but we did some end grain cutting. The neatest project I did was a balero, or cup and ball game, which included spindle turning, end grain cutting and turning a ball. Based on memory, the carbide cutters do not cut as cleanly as sharp HSS. I find myself doing a lot of sanding after the carbide cutters to remove tear-out. It’s possible the woods I have used are partly to blame… in the last month or so I’ve turned construction pine & fir, air dried spalted maple, green spalted maple, kiln dried padauk & walnut, and air dried holly. The maple and pine had the worst tear out but everything so far has required extensive sanding.
Summary:
Fit and finish: 5-Outstanding
Ergonomics: 4.5-Excellent, (size is good for my 7×12 lathe but the 9” handle is a bit cramped)
Cutter smoothness: 3-Good
Cutter durability: 3-Good
Unfortunately the detailer is not available as an Easy Start and they don’t offer a parting tool. I’m not convinced the detailer is worth $90 so I will end up buying a HSS skew and parting tool.
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Answer - Week 5 - Monday - British Mensa
from British Mensa Puzzles Answer - Week 5 - MondayCrafty Puzzles
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2612
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2612
Mensa Brainteaser - Week 5 - Thursday - British Mensa
from British Mensa Puzzles Mensa Brainteaser - Week 5 - ThursdayCrafty Puzzles
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2611
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2611
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Freezing Rotation Animation
via Mighty Optical Illusions http://www.moillusions.com/2013/01/freezing-rotation-animation.html
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(Animated #gif below may take a while to load, so please be patient until it full loads.) If you observe the rotation of the central text label below, do you see it turning smoothly all the time? Does it seem to “freeze” from time to time? If you manage to cover or isolate the surround (swaying dots), you can easily see that the text is really turning continuously!
One possible explanation of this phenomena states that “assuming a stable surround, our visual system probably uses the surround as a reference to measure motion of the included objects”.
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Laws
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/topics/46089
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On a lighter note.
COSMIC LAWS…...
1. Law of Mechanical Repair -After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.
2. Law of Gravity – Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe.
3. Law of Probability – The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
4. Law of Random Numbers – If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal – and someone always answers.
6. Variation Law – If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).
7. Law of the Bath – When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
8. Law of Close Encounters – The probability of meeting someone you know INCREASES dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
9. Law of the Result – When you try to prove to someone
that a machine won’t work, IT WILL!!!
10. Law of Bio-Mechanics – The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
11. Law of the Theater & Hockey Arena – At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
12. The Coffee Law – As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
13. Murphy’s Law of Lockers – If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
14. Law of Physical Surfaces -The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
15. Law of Logical Argument -Anything is possible IF you don’t know what you are talking about.
16. Brown’s Law of Physical Appearance – If the clothes fit, they’re ugly.
17. Oliver’s Law of Public Speaking—A CLOSED MOUTH GATHERS NO FEET!!!
18. Wilson’s Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy
As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
19. Doctors’ Law – If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you’ll feel better.. But don’t make an appointment, and you’ll stay sick.
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Tuesday 29 January 2013
"Best" way to make mortises?
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/topics/46061
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I make a lot of Arts & Crafts style furniture as you may have guessed by my pseudonym. I have been using a Jet bench top mortiser that has been okay, but the hold down is poor at best IMO. Today I tried to make some mortises 3/8” wide by 3”long by 1 3/8” deep. The hold down didn’t work at all even though I was only making a shallow cut, then trying to back the chisel out and repeating. I tightened the set screw as much as I could without breaking the allen wrench. I quickly tired of that game, so I drilled the mortises out with the DP, then back to the mortiser to clean them out. Still no joy in the shop. :(
Therefore, can anyone suggest a mortiser that has a great hold down? Which other options might you suggest? Chisel and mallet (I am too old to start using hand tools)? Router and jigs (a possibility)? Domino? Multi-router (home made variety)? Any other options I haven’t mentioned?
Thanks, in advance for any assistance.
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Walnut Aggravation Board
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/projects/78746
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So I made aggravation game boards for my kids and sisters kids this Christmas. This was the final one, the others I gave away… practiced on everyone else’s board so I worked out all the kinks by the time I got to the final board, so this one is perfectly flat works great. I used a template I made out of 1/2 plywood and used Rockler marble hole drill bit.
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Monday 28 January 2013
My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #945: The "Dud"
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/scrollgirl/blog/34200
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I suppose I could blame it on the previous week. My back was still sore. I was feeling poopie about some of the things with my job in general. The cats got me up early and I was kind of tired.
Whatever the reason, I would think it is pretty safe to describe Saturday as a “less-than-inspiring” day.
We all have them I suppose. But most people don’t put their creative lives out here on the internet every day for all to see. After almost three years of doing so, and nearly 950 posts under my belt, you would think I would be used to not only showing off my triumphs, but also my tragedies. But I don’t know if I will ever get used to that.
I hid out yesterday and couldn’t bring myself to post. I felt so crummy about the piece (yes – only one piece!) that took me ALL of Saturday to produce and I couldn’t even think of posting it here for all the world to see. Perhaps if I were still in 5th grade I would have had the right to be proud of it, but as a “professional designer” (and I use that term mockingly!) it just didn’t make the cut.
Perhaps it was due in part as to how well the scroll sawn masks came out. After hurting my back, it was much easier for me to draw on the computer and cut at the scroll saw than to paint. When my injury occurred, I was in the middle of making a set of Halloween masks (painted) for my painting customers and to hopefully offer to wholesale kits and add to that side of the site. The way I sit when I paint though proved to be painful and I was easier (for now) to switch to doing the scroll sawn version of the pattern for the scrollers and put the painting on the side for the time being.
But now I was feeling better, and unfortunately I lost that rhythm and wave of thought that I had regarding the painted pieces. I felt bland about the project in general, and the inspiration just wasn’t there. But I needed to push the pile forward, so I spent most of Saturday attempting to do so. The results I thought were somewhat of a disaster.
One of the first indications was how long it took me to get started. I milled around the house doing every chore I could think of from cleaning out the microwave to cleaning the cat box. I find that when I am unsure of my direction, I ‘notice’ things around the house that need attending. This busy work buys me a temporary reprieve from actually doing the task at hand and is a very effective (and somewhat justifiable) way to waste a day. After all, these things NEED to be done, don’t they?
I am almost ashamed to admit how long it took me to achieve the unimpressive result. Let’s just say it took much longer than normal. The amount of struggling with each stroke from my paintbrush only seemed to make that time longer, but I forged ahead.
When I was finished, I turned to Keith who was sitting across the couch from me drawing another remarkable design and asked what he thought.
The look on his face spoke volumes.
If your best friend can’t be honest with you, then they really aren’t your friend. I tried to remember that as I watched his face as he saw the piece. While we don’t always agree on what we like and dislike (opposites attract after all) there was no doubt in my mind that he was not impressed at all by this and that my first inclination was confirmed.
It was indeed ugly.
He was kind in his rejection. But I could see him searching for something positive to say about it and having difficulty. As a teacher, we are ourselves taught to always try to find some good in your student’s piece, no matter how hideous. For this piece, it was a particularly difficult challenge to do so. Finally, he muttered something like “Well, every hit can’t be a home run!” or something of that nature, and at that moment, while I was bitterly disappointed at the confirmation of the monstrosity, I truly admired and loved him for his honesty. For it is honesty that I needed from him, not appeasement. And I knew in my own heart that this piece wouldn’t even pass the “looks good if you are traveling past it at 20 miles per hour” standard that my painting girls used to use for substandard results. Even if you looked at it while flying by on the Concord, it would still look like crap.
So I put away my paints. And I sulked. And I played some games on my computer for the rest of the night. And I skipped writing yesterday because if I began typing, it may have been a sort of resignation from designing. (Not really, but I felt like it!)
But I am not a quitter. I have been through too much in my life to let a little thing like this defeat me. After all, it was a small 4 inch piece of plywood. And a couple of bottles of paint. And I like color. And I like pushing color around with a brush to make things look cool. So I wasn’t going to let this hiccup in my thought process stop me.
I got back on the proverbial horse and started over. And things got better.
It wasn’t easy to keep going, but I had to stop thinking of the past and move ahead to something completely different. I began with trepidation, but soon I began to feel that dread lifting and I began enjoying what I was doing again. I had a couple of scary moments, but I was able to push through them and in the end, I felt much better about what I painted.
After the first piece was done yesterday, I once again held it up for Keith to see, and this time his reaction was one of encouragement and approval. “Now that’s better!” he said. My heart soared. Not because I needed his approval, but because I knew within myself that it WAS better and more along the lines of what I was thinking.
I went on to paint two additional designs yesterday. All the while, I was planning the next several pieces. The floodgates were opening once again and things were moving in a positive direction. I finished the day with half of the set of 12 pieces done, but with ideas for the subsequent pieces pretty clear in my head.
I realize that everyone has different tastes, and I also realize that you may or may not like these designs. That’s OK. It is what makes the world so wonderfully diverse and beautiful. But as a designer, I think it is important to like our own work and what we are doing, or we will never be able to convince others that our work is good. It is difficult enough trying to ‘sell’ work that we like. Doing so with pieces we think are not up to our standards is pretty much impossible, no matter what others tell us.
I am glad Keith told me when he didn’t like the piece. It strengthens my trust in him and I know that he wasn’t trying to be cruel, but trying to help me do my best work. And that is the best kind of partner anyone could have.
As for the “dud” – I think I will keep it around, only to remind me that everything that I do isn’t always easy. Some things take a bit more work to make my vision become a reality. But ‘settling’ isn’t an option and when I fail, I need to get right back at it and try again. It is essential to grow and progress.
”The Dud”
Have a great Monday!
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Answer - Week 4 - Thursday - British Mensa
from British Mensa Puzzles Answer - Week 4 - ThursdayCrafty Puzzles
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2609
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2609
Mensa Brainteaser - Week 5 - Monday - British Mensa
from British Mensa Puzzles Mensa Brainteaser - Week 5 - MondayCrafty Puzzles
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2608
via Crafty Puzzles http://www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2608
Sunday 27 January 2013
First non-shop project
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/projects/78638
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This is my first actual (not a shop project) woodworking project. It’s a bridge used my members of a Masonic lodge. I built it at the request of my father in law, who is a Mason. It’s two pieces, held together with carriage bolts and wing nuts, making it easier to move by disassembling it. It’s about 8 feet long, 20 inches wide, and 6 inches high at the middle. I used 3/4 poplar, painted it white and then topped it with two coats of polycrylic. My father in law plans to add no skid stair tred strips to it. The 2o inch pieces going across sideways are glued and screwed, the screw counterbored and plugged. That turned out great, my father thought I had used glue since the plugs worked great at hiding the screws.
The toughest part of building it was that I was working off a set of plans that only noted the length and width of the piece. That was all my father law had, someone from the lodge left them lying around. Determining the slope of the support pieces that hold cross pieces on which people will walk, not to mention some of the other dimensions, was hard. I stared at the horribly done set of plans and a picture for weeks trying to figure it out. Design is not my thing. Neither is planning ahead. A few problems that arose during the build could have been avoided had I thought ahead. In the end, it turned out great.
By the way, I cut the long support pieces for one side on a Saturday, with a jigsaw. A few days went by and Santa (my wife) brought me a Rikon 14 inch bandsaw for Chirstmas. I have it for a month now and I can’t imagine how I got by without a bandsaw. I have a table saw, miter saw, radial arm saw, and of course the jig saw, but the bandsaw is a game changer. I can’t imagine going with out. I need to post a review of the bandsaw and my table saw. I’m very happy with both, and reviews I read on this site have been very helpful. I also need to post pics of my shop.
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Jorge Gs Challenge to Me Ha ha ha What a pathetic attempt for Notoriety
via LumberJocks.com RSS Feed - All Posts http://lumberjocks.com/topics/45965
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Jorge Gs Challenge to Me Ha ha ha What a pathetic attempt for Notoriety
As some of you may know Jorge has been slandering me for several days. He has said that I purchased tools off my disability check which is untrue and pure slander. He then challenged me to a contest to make a marking knife. I told him why would we do a build where there was no skill involved. So he said fine lets do a box build like Stumpy and Charles did. I told him fine and that the build would have to be witnessed so he could not pass off his bosses work as his own. He balked and then later he posted a challenge against me to do this build. I am game with the same stipulation. I don’t think Jorge has ever made anything on his own. What this all comes down to is Jorge is a Jealous little man who cant make it on his own. So he needs to try to bring down others. When he was confronted by Ted about challenging me to a box build to prove his greatness he blocked me from replying this is just more defamation of character. but ted was told that I was unblocked by Jorge this is a lie. as seen here. I am not afraid of this challenge but it is pointless he hates me I hate him he likes to bring others down then claims that is what i do . I don’t slander people. I will take the challenge as long as the build is witnessed by someone I trust not to help him. see this screen shot I am blocked and he continues to get away with slander.
MY Thanks to Ted for being a man who stands up to wrongs being done to others your a gentelman.
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