The Woodshop Shed

Baluster Design

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I'm working on a staircase project in our home and considering using thedesign linked below for the new balusters. We have an Arts and Craft theme and the LOML and I like the way this looks. Material will be QSWO. I do not have any dimensions on the design of the balustersbut am guessing they are 5/8" to 3/4" thick and the holes look to be ~1/2" square.

Question is: What is the best, quickest and easiest way to make the 4 hole pattern? Obviously there will be quite a number to make, i.e. staircase handrails and bannister on landing/loft area.

Baluster

Options I've thought of:

1) Hollow Chisel Mortiser - I have a Delta 14-651 Hollow Chisel Mortiser and have made some test cuts. The quality of the holes doesn't seem to pass the quality test. A little ragged and some tearout on the bottom, even with a backer board. I'm using the original chisel that came with the unit.

2) Make a "perfect" pattern out of wood, overlaying it on to the work piece. Drill out each square with a 7/16" Forstner bit and then trim the perimeter andcorners with a corner chisel.

3) Considered a router solution (after drilling out primary hole)but not sure bits with bearings would work well enough in such a confined space to be productive and/or accurate.

Is there a better solution I'm not thinking about?

Thanks,

Doug

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Dining Table Finished

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Brother came down this past weekend to pick up the table I built for him and his wife.

This is the table assembled in their dining room.


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  Table 02.jpg (Size: 158.34 KB / Downloads: 152)

I built that side board inthe background several years ago.

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Finger pull dimensions

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I have another thread going mistake correction but decided to go in a different direction and felt it is more clear to start a new thread.

Building a set of drawer boxes as part of a built-in credenza Madeof oak ply with solid oak fronts and edging. I'm going to create an integrated finger pull detail across thethe top of each 30 wide drawer (some of which will be lateral file drawers).The goal of the pulls is to clean up the look and lines of the drawer fronts and also correct a mistakes I made in sizing the solid oak fronts.

In thinking about the finger pulls, I want to minimize the amount of projection and am also concerned about the strength of the integratedfinger pulls given the weight capacity of the file drawers.

The finger pull profile will be routed into a piece of oak 1x board attached across the full width of each drawer front. See attached hand-cad.

Questions:

1. Because the pulls will not be easily visable, is a simple round nose profile good enough or is therer a functional advantage to a more exotic finger pull profile?

2. Thinking about the dimensions of the profile that would be strong, functional and minimize projection:

• Can the height of the profile (C on the diagram) be as little as 1/2?
  
  
• Can the depth of the profile (B on diagram) be 1/2 or is 3/4 the minimum?
  
  
• How how much meat should be left on the leading edge (A on the diagram)?
  

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Calling all woodturners for a turning challenge

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https://forums.woodnet.net/showthread.php?tid=7378513

Hope you accept

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Log Milling

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Since several folks seemed to enjoy seeing the equipment I use to move logs around, I thought I'd show some more photos, focusing more on the mill. After bringing a log to the mill with the log arch and ATV, it gets rolled up the ramps using a cable and winch by a technique known as parbuckling. That simply means that the cable goes over the top of the log, then under it and back to the mill. Here's another walnut log with the cable over it, ready to roll up the ramps. The ramps rest on the side rail and index into the bunks; no other attachment.



The ramps are rated for 4000 lbs, as is the mill,but I see some bow in them and haven't had a log over maybe 3000 lbs on them. Still, they are pretty strong for their size. I have a remote for operating the winch, and that's important because with only one cable the log can and does often walk sidewaysas it goes up the ramps, in which case I have to steer it back on track. Often, this means using a 2 x 4, etc. to lever one end of the log up, or blocking the low end and then letting out some cable so the high end slips back down to straighten out the log. With even, round logs, it's an easy process, but with bent logs, or ones with big knobs on them, it can often be quite an ordeal. Worst case, the log slides off one of the ramps. I've had that happen a couple of times. Of course, two winches and two cables would solve that problem, but I haven't done it yet.



This log was nice a round and went up the ramps w/o issue.



If the log has a large difference in diameter from one end to the other, I lever up the small end and slide a block of wood underneath so that the centerline of the log is parallel with the bunks. You'd be surprised how large a log you can handle with just a 4 x 4 lever, easily 800 lbs if you are 6 to 8 ft beyond the fulcrum, with 2 ft going under the log. To check if the top of the log is parallel with the bunks, I raise the mill head up until the blade is on top and then roll it down the rails to see how large the gap is. If you want to get the centerline of the log parallel with the bunks, you just measure down from the blade to the center at both ends. There's a debate as to the best approach. You will get the greatest lumber yield if you put the centerline parallel with the bunks. But if the log has defects on one side, for example, but is clear on the other, then you will get the most high-quality lumber by putting that face parallel with the bunks.

Dirt is the enemy of saw blade life, and logs almost always have some dirt in the bark. I use a small spud to remove the bulk of the embedded dirt on the front side of the log, where the blade enters the cut. I don't worry about it much on the back side.



The mill itself is from Woodland Mills, a Canadiancompany, bought before we suddenly got the notion to treat them like something other than a friend.It's a kit with literally 1000 nuts and bolts to assemble, but the well written assembly manual is easy to follow, and the mill has given me essentially no trouble in the 5 or 6 years I've owned it. I've cut 10's of thousands of BF with it. Itis a horizontal bandsaw that rides on a vertical carriage, and the carriage rolls along the rails on wheels.



You can see the water tank on top, which provides lubricant for cutting. I never use it while cutting because it will leave black streaks in the wood, especially oak. But I do use it to clean the blade after a cut if I see junk sticking to the blade. Because the blade on my millrides on rubber tires, and one is the drive belt,you can only use water with dish soap in it for lubricant. On some mills, the blade rides on the metal wheel directly, and they can use petroleumbased lubricant, often diesel fuel. You also see a torque wrench hanging on the end of the blade tension mechanism. With my mill, you set the tension to 25 lb-ft of torque. I measured what that means in actual blade tension, and found it was 24 ksi. That's the same as I run on my large shop bandsaw for resawing. The blade on the mill is a 1-1/4" x 144" x 0.042" blade with 7/8inch/tooth, or about 1.1 teeth/inch.



Here you can see the throttle handle and elevation crank. You can just see the battery box, too, next to the 14 hp Kohler motor. I bought the model with an electric start motor; glad I did. On the green metal plate on the back of the mill you can see a valve. That controls lubricant flow to the blade. The lube flows out of a small tube fixed to the right side blade guides, where it falls onto the blade. It works OK, but only puts lube on the inside of the blade, which is the most important side. But some other companies have systems that apply lube to both sides of the blade, which takes care of buildup on the outside of the blade, too, which makes cutting more efficient. The elevation crank turns a screw mechanism that wraps or unwraps the cable you see going up over the pulley, on both sides, to raise or lower the mill head.




Here you can see where the lube hose connects to the back of the right hand guides. On the left you see my kitty litter bucket, used to catch sawdust. It's much easier to deal with it straight off the mill, than to shovel buckets of it later. One large log will easily fill a 40 gal garbage can with sawdust. On the left side of the mill head you can see four bolts going into a piece of square tubing. Those are used to adjust the drive wheel to be coplaner with the driven wheel. If the wheels aren't coplaner the blade will not stay on. It might be OK on some bandsaws, but not on this one. Also on the back of the mill, you can see the taillights on the trailer. The trailer is street legal and, surprisingly, needs no license plate to take down the road in NYS.

Running a sawmill involves adjustments every time you use it andsome sort of maintenance at short intervals. As such, you need a fairly well-equipped tool bag.



The business side of the saw head shows the blade running over the 19" cast iron wheels. The drive belt also serves as the tire for the blade on the drive wheel, which is darned clever. The engine has a centrifugal clutch and there is an idler wheel to tension the belt. The idler wheel has a polyurethane tire on it for the blade to ride on.



When either tire wears too much, the blade will start to contact the cast iron wheel itself and jump off the wheels. That, as well as when a blade breaks, makes quite a noise and often ends up as a twisted mess inside the blade covers. You can see the blade guides, too. They are similar to what's on a cast iron Delta bandsaw. There are steel blocks on each side of the blade, and a trust bearing behind the blade. You also can see the lube tube on the left side, on top of the right guides.

Blades last anywhere for one cut, if you hit metal, to maybe 500 bf of lumber before they get dull. It's easy to tell when they are getting dull, as it takes more effort to push the sawhead through the cut. You can feel that atooth doesn't catch your fingernail anymore either. I sharpen my own blades; the subject of another post.

Milling lumber means racking lumber to dry, unless you put it directly into a kiln. I use simple drying racks made of 4 x 4's on top of cinder blocks or larger blocks of wood. You want the racks to be high enough so the bottom row of lumber is far enough above the ground so that air can circulate underneath to dry, and you want the cross beams to be in the same plane so the lumber stays flat. I shim the main beams or cross beams, as needed, to get the cross beams aligned.



The lumber sits on narrow stickers. I used to use wooden ones that I made, but then I found a guy who makes all things PVC, and he made me a bunch of stickers for $0.50 each from his off cuts. It seemed like a lot of money at the time, I think I bought at least 1000 of them, but they can sit outside in the weather year-round w/o a problem. With wooden ones you have to keep them dry between uses.





You place a sticker close to the ends to help prevent splitting, and every 18 to 24" in between, depending upon how thick the boards are. Once you have a stack built up as high as you care to lift the boards, you cover it to keep the rain off. I use 12 ft long corrugated metal roofing, as you can see on the stacks in the background. When I have gaps between the boards, like in the photo above, the red squirrels will get in there and build a nest. Last year in the Spring, I opened up a stack to find a family of babies in one of those gaps. I had to wait a couple of weeks until they had grown up enough to leave the nest before dismantling the stack.

John

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Mistake correction / Design dilemma *revised attachment*

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I added a more legible attachment/diagram.

I've resurrected a long dormant project and realize i made a calculation error thatnow requires a creative solution. I have an idea but want to get the forum opinion on whether the aestheticscheck out.

The project consistsof (4) oak plywood boxes that will be fastened together to creat a built-in credenza that sits on the floorbelowan existing built-in bookshelf system. The credenza will consist of (2)bookshelfboxes and (2) drawer boxes with inset drawers. which is where the mistake occurred.

Originally the drawer fronts were going to be oak ply with 3/4 square edging to finish the ply edges. Midstream, I decided to simplifythe front building and I purchased and cut solid oak boards.

The inside height of the box's are 23.5.

Box #2 is loadedwith(2) file drawers requiring (3) reveal / gaps between drawers and the carcass.. The drawer front boardis 11.25 x 2 drawers =22.5 leaving 1 divided by 3 reveals = a bit more that 5/16 per reveal.

Box #3 is loaded with (1) file drawer and (2) smaller drawers. The file drawer front is 11.25 x 1, small drawer front is 5.5 x 2 = 22.25, leaving 1.25 divided by 4 reveals = .3125 = 5/16

i was originally planning on 1/8 reveals .

I see 2 solutions (see crude, not to scale diagram attached):

A. Simply Make up for the short fall by adding a strip of oak board to the top of each drawer front thatwould be uniform thicknessfor all file drawers. At minimum it would be about 5/16 but could be more if aesthetic call for it (and I would rip the existing front slab to accommodate).


B. Integrate an oakdrawer pull across the entire width of each drawer that sitsproud of the top of the front (and makes up the shortfall). See cross sections diagram.This would replace the original plan for shop-madeoak pulls that would have been roughly 1/3 the width iof the drawer, centeredand located in the typical vertical position.

Appreciate any thoughts about A or B or perhaps something else.

Thanks for looking.

  IMG_1109.jpeg (Size: 485.04 KB / Downloads: 123)

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Mistake correction / Design dilemma

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I've resurrected a long dormant project and realize i made a calculation error thatnow requires a creative solution. I have an idea but want to get the forum opinion on whether the aestheticscheck out.

The project consistsof (4) oak plywood boxes that will be fastened together to creat a built-in credenza that sits on the floorbelowan existing built-in bookshelf system. The credenza will consist of (2)bookshelfboxes and (2) drawer boxes with inset drawers. which is where the mistake occurred.

Originally the drawer fronts were going to be oak ply with 3/4 square edging to finish the ply edges. Midstream, I decided to simplifythe front building and I purchased and cut solid oak boards.

The inside height of the box's are 23.5.

Box #2 is loadedwith(2) file drawers requiring (3) reveal / gaps between drawers and the carcass.. The drawer front boardis 11.25 x 2 drawers =22.5 leaving 1 divided by 3 reveals = a bit more that 5/16 per reveal.

Box #3 is loaded with (1) file drawer and (2) smaller drawers. The file drawer front is 11.25 x 1, small drawer front is 5.5 x 2 = 22.25, leaving 1.25 divided by 4 reveals = .3125 = 5/16

i was originally planning on 1/8 reveals .

I see 2 solutions (see crude, not to scale diagram attached):

A. Simply Make up for the short fall by adding a strip of oak board to the top of each drawer front thatwould be uniform thicknessfor all file drawers. At minimum it would be about 5/16 but could be more if aesthetic call for it (and I would rip the existing front slab to accommodate).


B. Integrate an oakdrawer pull across the entire width of each drawer that sitsproud of the top of the front (and makes up the shortfall). See cross sections diagram.This would replace the original plan for shop-madeoak pulls that would have been roughly 1/3 the width iof the drawer, centeredand located in the typical vertical position.

Appreciate any thoughts about A or B or perhaps something else.

Thanks for looking.

  IMG_1107.png (Size: 21.96 KB / Downloads: 27)

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Members in North Georgia?

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Hello All,

Due to a stroke and inexorable age, my serious woodworking career has about ended. Meanwhile, I have a good supply of usable lumber and plywood available for anyone who can pick it up.
I hate to see it go to waste, and my daughter who will inherit it will not know, or care much, what to do with it.
Includes good supply of prox 1x8 walnut.
When enough is gone, there will also be an excellent wood rack which breaks down into manageable pieces.
May also include some small tools for an aspiring woodworker.
Post here for details or email: rwalden@rwalden.com

I live in Forsyth County, Georgia. ZIP 30028

Regards,
Russ Walden

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Walnut Score

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I bet this is going to yield some nice lumber, especially the 30" diameter butt log on the trailerwhich looks perfectly clear.



I had to have them cut to only 7 ft long to keep the weight within the limit of my 2000 lb trailer. I think these are going to yield around 400 bf of lumber.

John

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Corner Workbench Completed!

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Not my work, but Randy's!


Enjoy.

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Campaign style desk finished

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Finally finished a desk I've been making for my daughter. Campaign style (think British Military from late 18th and 19th century), allowing the furniture to collapse for transport. There are blocks on the underside to keep the side aprons from collapsing. The plan is from Chris Schwarz's book, but I added the sliding bolts to the base because 1) I had slight twist in the top and this helped stop that, 2) I know my daughters are going to move it around the room and will probably not remember to pick it up by the apron.

The base was definitely a bit of a challenge compared to a normal "M&T in each apron" kind of thing. Getting everything lined up well was tricky, and there is no "clamp across the diagonal" to square everything up. Mine is decently close, but not perfect. Definitely need to work some more on making M&T joints by hand. Slight errors were magnified with this desk.

Base is soft maple, top is purpleheart (daughter's favorite color). Finish is the Osmo UV-resistant finish.


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More Cheating

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A friend is just starting the build of a Thorsen sideboard, shown in FWW 125, 126, and 127. It's quite a project. The author used classic drawer and guide/glide construction, but my friend is planning to use Blum undermounts. The author makes it pretty hard to ferret out the dimensions of all the parts, but my friend and I managed to figure it all out, and I drew it up in SketchUp for him.




The darker color represents plum pudding mahogany, of which he has a single large plank. Some will be cut into veneer, and some will be the parts that have to solid, like the breadboard ends of the top and doors. The lighter color is plain grained Africanmahogany.

The drawers have half blind dovetails to join the sides to the front. When I looked at them,I thought it would be a nice challenge to see if I can do them on my CNC.So yesterday I gave it a try with a generic design. Using the undermount slides adds another element to the joint. There needs to be a 5/16" rabbett on the back of the drawer front for the required clearance of the slides, when using 1/2" thick stock.

You can go about this a couple of ways on a CNC. If you want sharp corners then you use a DT bit. The problem with that is you are limited to the bits that are available, and not many can produce the look of a handcut one. If you can accept rounded corners then you can create any size and shape DT you want. I showed some through DT's I did on this little project a few months ago, from a project by Michael Pekovitch in FWW.



I was able to use a 1/16" bit in the corners of the tails,so the DT's are about as close as you can get to what Pekovitch did by hand. I had hoped to do the same with the drawers on the Thorsen cabinet, but the need for that rabbett complicates it because of how deep the cuts need to be to make the pins. A 5/16" deep rabbett plus a 1/2" drawer side means the bit has to be able to reach 13/16". That's no problem for a 1/8" bit but I don't have any 1/16" or similar sized bits that have that much reach. They may exist, however, so I'm still looking. But for this test I used a 1/8" bit, so the corners look machine made. There are a lot of mistakes in this, but it's still not bad for the first attempt. This isn't glued, just fit together.



The V's are out of place, but easily fixed. They are inlays and represent my friend's last name. I forgot to round over the outside corners of the pins when I did the CNC drawing, so I did those by hand.

If I can't find a small diameter endmill to get really sharp corners then I may consider using a different shape altogether, like the dog bone type, or another that purposely hasrounded corners.

John

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box store 'cabinet' plywood?

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Have you ever used the box store hardwood cabinet plywoods for kitchen cabinet boxes? How did that turn out?

I remodeled my kitchen in my previous house back in 2018 using better grade hardwood cabinet plywood from places like Hyde Park Lumber and Paxton Lumber (both aroundCincinnati, OH).
Back then the cost per sheet (49x97) was a god $80 or so. Now that same stuff runs from about $115-200 per sheet depending on what you want.
Now in my current house of three yearsI'm getting ready build a new kitchen again.
My income hasn't gone up 25-100% in the past 7 years, so those box store prices look appealing, but I think I'm just gunna bite it and pay the extra for what I know has (better have) the best quality.

Your thoughts?

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A Vancouver Island vacation home serving tray

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Building a serving tray featuring my aunt and uncles vacation home in Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island.
The 11 by 22.5in tray is made from a piece of Honey Locust I had milled from a large tree branch I cut down. On one side, the island surrounded by the text "Vancouver Island" and "Fanny Bay". On the other, their house in a fashion to match a wall hanging quilt my mom made. All cut out using my FoxAlien 4040 XE-PRO CNC Router. The cutouts were filled with Alumilite Clear cast. The tray also features a midnight blue, black and purple river on the live edge bottom of the board which was poured with Aluimilite Deep Pour Resin. After sanding the tray was finished with Myland's sanding sealer and final finish of lacquer.


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