Gayus Wood

Id like to recommend a fascinating book I picked up at the library last week: Old Ways of Working Woodby Alex W. Bealer. The author clearly states his position on modern woodworking in the opening chapter:

"The machine, not the craftsman, dominates woodworking today. The result has been an artistic tragedy."

Those are some pretty strong statements. Are we, as power tool enthusiasts fooling ourselves into believing that we are actually creative, let alone artistic? Are we merely button pushers and no longer craftsmen? Sadly, as a confirmed power tool user, I agree with  Bealer — to a point.

Push-button woodworking

It takes no particular skill to rip a board on a table saw. Im pretty sure monkeys could be trained to do it. My miter saw hacks out 45 degree angled cuts with a positive click stop on its table. I push a button and it cuts with relative precision. My benchtop planer is the ultimate example of push button technology in my shop. I stick a board in one end and it comes out flat and thinner on the other end. I dont even have to push the wood through: rollers pull it through at a constant speed. Its produces a loud, almost frightening scream letting me know whos really the boss. Most of the finesse required to use these machines involves continually tweaking them so that they run straight and keep doing what they are supposed to do.

In todays shop, we solve woodworking problems by making jigs and figuring out countless ways to best exploit the machine. In a sense, we are slaves to the capabilities and limitations of our machines. Moreover, if a certain power tool doesnt provide the results we desire, we go shopping for a bigger or better machine that will. If we want to create a certain router profile, we buy a pre-made bit that will suffice. Or settle for one thats close enough to what we envision. Want to make mortises? There are machines that bore perfectly square holes. At what point are we no longer working the wood, and just cutting out dough with cookie cutters?

Woodworking once required working wood

Bealer points out that all of this has, for the most part, come about within the past hundred years or so. Before the 20th century, a man literally worked wood, starting with the tree itself. He understood the growth of trees and had knowledge of the ones surrounding him. Building with wood began by felling the tree. From there the woodworker would hew and split the wood. Saw it, plane, bore it, chisel it, turn it, and cut joints. A craftsmans imagination wasnt limited to the tools he had on hand or could buy. If he needed, say, a specialized plane for something he dreamed up, he made his own. Woodworkers viewed their tools as highly personal objects and saw them as extensions of their own hands. Each project was unique because the craftsman was intimately involved with the wood.

Each chapter of Old Ways of Working Wood describes in great detail each of these traditional woodworking techniques. It is educational and at times, awe inspiring. Would you know how to correctly fell a tree with a single ax? Ever used an adz? Bealer has learned these methods from people who actually use them and manages to share it all in a lively, easy to read manner.

So where does this leave us?

Using power tools doesnt diminish my joy of building woodworking projects. In fact, power tools increase my pleasure, because I dont have to spend years as an apprentice honing skills that can only be learned through repetition. Power tools enable anyone to become a hobbyist and create things. In the past, I suspect woodworking want much of a hobby. People devoted their lives to it because they needed to. But are we artists? Most of us probably arent. But neither were most traditional woodworkers. They built things they required.

Old Ways of Working Wood makes me want to learn to use hand tools and really get in touch with the materials I use. Its inspiring. But the reality is, I dont have the time to start from scratch. I am a product of the 20th century. And here is where I find disagreement with Alex Bealer. My table saw may not be an extension of my hands, but it is an extension of my imagination. And Im perfectly cool with that.

In this case, I will give you a handout so you can pay attention to the demo without taking notes. Please read before Mondays class. I will make copies for everyone.

Shannon Wright
Woodworking 168
Project 1: Sample Joints
We are using 5/4 (Five Quarter) Poplar boards, 16 feet long.

Milling Your Wood on the Jointer and Planer

What you need:
Starrett combination square (never drop one of these!!!)
Two jointer-specific push sticks
Key to unlock the jointer “on” switch
Pencil for marking
Safety glasses or face shield

1) Cut a 36” length of poplar on the radial arm saw. Let’s save all the 48” pieces that remain, for another project.
2) Use the combination square to “square up” the fence of the jointer.
3) Set the infeed table to remove between 1/32” and 1/16”.
4) Assess “grain runout pattern”, cup and bow of your piece of wood, and joint one face using two push sticks designed for the jointer.
5) Move your whole body with the wood—do not stand in a fixed location and lean forward.
6) Put the letter “j” in pencil on the jointed face so you can identify it later.
7) Joint one edge of your piece of wood, considering the grain runout pattern to avoid tearout. Keep your wood very tight against the fence and do not rock the wood. Mark it with a “j”.
8) Measure the thickness of your wood at each end and set the thickness planer to 1/16” less than the thickest dimension
9) With the jointed side down, assess the grain runout direction by looking at the edge of your board.
10) Place your wood, with the jointed side down, into the planer. You will need to give it a solid push to engage the infeed rollers. Remove your wood as the rollers feed it out the other side.

Ripping Your Wood on the Table Saw
What you need:
Rip blade
Push stick
Yellow anti-kickback roller
Phillips-head screwdriver
Table saw arbor wrench
Starrett combination square
Safety glasses or face shield

1) Check that the power is off at the circuit breaker
2) Remove the table saw insert, then remove the nut and washer from the saw arbor and put the rip blade on, with the teeth facing you, making sure not to bang the blade against metal.
3) Put the washer on and tighten the nut.
4) Replace the blade insert
5) Raise the blade as high as it will go, and place the Starrett square tight against the right side of the blade. If you see light at the top or the bottom, adjust the blade tilt wheel below until no light is visible. Lower the blade.
6) Bring your wood up against the blade to set the height of the blade. Raise or lower the blade until it is ¼” or one carbide tooth’s height above your wood.
7) Lock the lock knob on the blade-height adjustment wheel.
8) Bring the blade guard down over the blade.
9) Attach the yellow anti-kickback rollers to the mounting plate and tighten the screws with the Phillips-head screwdriver. It should be situated immediately behind the blade guard.
10) Pull the rip fence away from the blade to allow you to place your wood under the yellow anti-kickback device. Adjust the pressure until it puts up good resistance, but will not require excessive force to push your wood through.
11) Move the rip fence to set it at 3.5 or 4” (dependent on the width of your board.) To do this, loosen the lock lever, bump the fence over with the heel of your hand until the crosshair reads the desired number on the ruler. Lock the fence-lock lever.
12) Adjust the yellow anti-kickback device side-to-side until it is in approximately the middle of the intended cut. It MUST be located to the right of the blade, or it will defeat its purpose.
13) Remove all wrenches and tools from the work area
14) Turn on the power at the circuit breaker.
15) Put on a face shield or safety glasses.
16) Make your cut. Then cut another piece the same width with the remainder.

Proper Form When Ripping Wood on the Table Saw

Make sure no-one is standing or walking behind you.

Stand to the left of the rip fence and slightly to the left of your piece of wood.

Don’t focus your eyes on the blade, but on the juncture between your wood and the rip fence.

Direct solid pressure forward and into the fence.

Never take your hands off your piece of wood; it can and will kick back at you.
When the end of your piece of wood is fully on the table, you may pick up your push stick, without letting go of the wood.

Keep the push stick close to the rip fence and push your wood ALL THE WAY PAST THE BLADE. If you stop pushing before the wood is past the blade, your wood can and will kick back at you. The anti-kickback pawls on the “splitter” will catch your wood, but you don’t want to make them do their job.

Do not attempt to push the “scrap” piece (left-side piece) of wood past the blade. Only push the piece that is against the rip fence.

Do not allow fellow students to “help” you by pulling your wood through at the other end. You are the only one who should be performing this operation. Helpers cause misunderstandings and dangerous situations.

Turn off the saw as soon as you have pushed your wood through.
Let the blade come to a complete stop before collecting your wood.

Good Morning Everyone,

I got up early today and re-started the coffee scoop project. Heres how it went:

I decided to remake the wooden base for the pvc collet chuck. The original one was made out of pine and it didnt look nearly strong enough to withstand the shearing forces produced by a lathe. So I discarded it and remade it out of some red birch:


Since it was rather rough on the edges, I decided to round it down and promptly broke it:



Good grief. Since the rest of it was in one piece, I decided to use it temporarily as a holder while I worked on the pvc portion of the chuck.  I inserted the pipe into the slot on the birch base and placed another piece of wood on top of the pvc pipe and placed the whole thing between centers to mark and drill it:


The walls of the pipe will have slots cut into them and also a large hole-slot drilled and cut into it to allow the handle of the scoop to protrude while the piece is being turned. So I marked and drilled and cut  into the sides of the pipe with a drill and a hack saw:



And here is a photo of the completed chuck with the hose clamp in place:


With that done, I removed the broken base and re-made it out of a piece of solid maple. Here is a photo of the completed chuck:


I glued the pipe and the base together and they are drying in the shop.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I turned our red oak scoop blank down more:


Hmmm...now it looks like a small lemon on a stick and the reason it does is that the x, y, z axis of the piece are not equal in length, or in other words, it isnt round yet. So back to the lathe we go for more turning, sanding and finally I cut it off:


...too soon. Its too large to fit into the pipe. So Im going to manually cut down the ends of the blank until it fits. Oh well, its a nice morning to work outside.

Now it fits, very tightly, but it fits:


When this is placed back on the lathe in a couple of hours, I will shave off the top of the scoop and then hollow it out. If all goes well, I should wind up with a scoop with the handle attached. The glue really needs to dry hard so Ive removed the blank and Ive set it aside. Ill go back to it later this afternoon.

In the meantime, I finished the first walnut bowl. Here it is:


And here is a side shot:


Its been polished and its ready for delivery. Ill have to plug the holes in the base where the screws for the faceplate were drilled but that will only take a minute. Im going to go and email the happy owner.

Ill be doing another posting later today so stay tuned.

VW