Blog Series

Making Dowels

8 entries

Part 6: Router Method

There are two ways of making dowel on the router.  Using a fence and round over bit or a jig /die setup similar to the Table Saw method. USING A ...

Part 7: My Current Method

My current method is using my Dowel Maker . Please follow this link and feel free to make comments. Stock is cut just slightly larger than what y...

Part 8: Conclusion - Which is the best IMO

Here are the methods of making dowel 1. Drill and push through steel flat bar 2. Hammering through a holed plate 3. The Chisel Method 4. able saw ...

Vises

Part 6: Hi Vise - Body

I'm making the body out of an ash 2x4. so cut to size and square up. [20230915_162313.jpg] [20230915_163836.jpg] Drill and tap the main hole [20230...

Part 7: Hi Vise - Finish

Make the handles for the fixing screws.  [20231001_160522.jpg] [20231001_161419.jpg] Just rasp into shape and add a bit of walnut to the end to hi...

Part 8: Mini Hi-Vise version 2

  Well, the mini vice mount Hi-Vice gets pretty much constant use, so it’s time to make a nicer one based on the prototype.  Pretty happy with the ...

Handy Tools

Part 1: Skew carving gouge

While working on the Altai Project Logo carving, I discovered I needed a narrow skew in order to get down into some of the corners. I have a handfu...

Part 2: Handle for LAP engraving tool

I bought a Lost Art Press engraving tool a while back. The short metal handle works fine for putting it into a compass, but for freehand use, it’s ...

Part 3: Sharpening shelf for sharpening carving gouges

A while ago, I read Dave Fisher’s post on his Souped-up Sharpening Shelf and thought that sounded like a great idea to get some consistency in my g...

Replacing a Chair Back Molding

Part 1: Let's do this the hard way -- Designing for the CNC

My sister asked me if I would be interested in repairing the back of a barstool.  The stool is metal but has (had) a piece of wood molding on the b...

Part 2: Wood prep and milling on the CNC

A couple of years before my sister asked me to make a new chairback molding.  I had collected the trunk of a dead redbud tree from her yard with th...

3-Arm Kerfing Plane

8 entries

Part 6: Open letter to Brent Hull

I sent an e-mail to someone that I admire. He responded, which is amazing. His response was short and sweet: Good stuff!   Thanks for sharing. B ...

Part 7: Little details

These are words I tell myself in the throes of the process: Any fool can put something together. It takes a special kind of fool to design somethi...

Part 8: Blade cover

My town has a store that only sells imported Japanese hand tools. I only recently heard about it this year, but I wouldn’t doubt it if it has been ...

Traditional Portuguese Rajao

Part 10: Soundboard finished and installed

Fitted the braces and reinforcing ring to the inside of the soundboard. [IMG_2648.jpeg][IMG_2650.jpeg] Fitted the soundboard to the body. I suppose...

Part 11: Odds-n-Ends

Taking care of the other details now that the main assembly is complete. Added the binding at the soundboard. Started out as 1 x 5mm Black Walnut. ...

Part 12: Finished

Fretboard and bridge are Black Walnut, Finished with shellac. [IMG_2694.jpeg][IMG_2696.jpeg]

Shop storage

Part 4: Box clamps box

Another storage box, this time from ¼ inch poplar and Baltic birch ply for the top. Treated (this morning) with kakishibu, which darkens with expos...

Part 5: Small parts organizer

[IMG_7711.jpeg] Just a quick and dirty project to use up some smalls and keep this organized when I’m doing something like this morning’s bench gl...

Part 6: Things fall down 2

My cheap-ass Harbor Freight dust collector has picked up a bit of a vibration. Enough so that last Sunday, it vibrated itself right off the French ...

Shaper Origin

1 entry

Part 1: Chair Seat

The neighbor restores furniture and sells it at fairs. She picked up some ratty rattan chairs where the webbing was gone. I said I could make her ...

Jigs

1 entry

Part 1: Bandsaw Cork Cutting Jig

  This is a tutorial on making a simple jig for cutting wine corks in half, along their length. The jig requires only simple scraps to build and is...

14” Rockwell Bandsaw

Part 1: Initial testing

Before testing I took the covers off. Tires were pretty gummed up. So I grabbed my Red Devil scraper and spun the wheels while holding the scraper ...

Part 2: Replacement trunnion knob

It’s clear in retrospect looking at the initial photos of it in the salvage yard, taken moments after arrival that it was always missing one of the...