This video is interesting. They used a CNC Mill to mill out strips of plywood, then glued up the strips to make posts and beams. Their mortises and tenons were all created at the various depths of the plywood to make that relatively easy.
I am sure this lumber is incredibly stable, but I’m not sure I want to spend most of my time making glue-ups. I’d rather be cutting the joints, as that is what I enjoy the challenge of the most.
Something just seems odd. Take a tree, peel it into thin slices to make plywood, cut plywood to make thin strips for glue-up. Seems like a lot of energy spent going from tree to sheets to lumber when you can so easily go from tree right to lumber.
A while back I did a post on how I shave larger pieces of wood using the crotch of an oak tree Peter Follansbee has a great post on his blog about using a shaving ladder (paring ladder). I am intrigued by how it works. It seems to be used for thinner stock than the […]
I have contemplated the design of a dedicated sharpening station for over a year now. I have seen other examples of small benches used for this, and the idea made some sense. However, the thing that always struck me is that sitting out in a workshop a sharpening bench would get covered with sawdust and […]
A few years ago, I joined that club where I had to start holding things farther away in order to see them, or had to peer over my distance glasses in order to read something. I have also noticed I need more light, there just never seems to be enough light. Where I really noticed […]
I enjoy reading woodworking blogs. I find them a great source of information, ideas, and some personal tidbits that help give the rest some added context. I use Google Reader to read them all by way of their RSS feed. This lets me read the new posts anywhere in the world that I can login […]
Scrub planes are kind of interesting. Their main purpose is to remove stock rapidly in order to flatten a twisted or cupped board as well as doing rapid removal (almost ripping) of the edge of a board. The common scrub plane whether made by Stanley, Record, Lie Nielsen, Veritas or ECE is sort of short […]
I had a need to take relatively small diameter (~8″) logs and mill them into lumber. I have a lot of fallen cedar trees in the area and I wanted to be able to mill some logs for use. I researched a lot of bandsaw sleds for re-sawing, but they all seemed to have the limitation of […]
Sometimes we have these projects that just take longer than they should. About two years ago, my wife said she’t like to get a chaise lounge for our deck. I looked at a few designs and said “Bah! I’d rather make one.” So I started gathering some downed cedar logs from the forest near our […]
I have two kids to thank for me getting deeper into the galoot world of using mainly non-electric hand tools. My nephew, who gave me a book called Diary of an Early American Boy that showed how things were built in the olden days of colonial America. It lead me to start planning the timber […]
While doing the preparation for building a cedar double chaise lounge, I had collected several old fallen red cedar logs from the forest surrounding our home. It seemed that one of the logs turned out to be more than my bandsaw could handle (8.5" re-saw clearance) . The log was close to 14" in diameter. […]
I often need different ways to hold wood while working on it. Generally, the better it is held, the more accurate my work. Dog holes on a bench can be used to hold wood in a variety of clever ways, and here is another new addition. Handscrew dogs! Take two ordinary handscrews and add one […]
I enjoy hand planing a great deal. There is something very relaxing about it. Though every once in a while I have a piece of wood that is too small or oddly shaped and holding it still while planing becomes a bit of a hassle. It takes the fun out of planing, replacing it with […]
A year or two ago Roy Underhill had an episode where he looked closely at the contents of a Viking Toolbox replica. The actual toolbox was uncovered by a farmer back in 1930. It was an interesting look. I recently undertook a look at a bit of family history. My Great Uncle (Henry Budgen 1893-1985) […]
If I have to buy a new unpowered hand-tool (one I can't get vintage) I try, whenever possible, to buy Craftsman. The quality is usually pretty good and the convenience of being able to use the lifetime warranty at any Sears is worth it. There are other brands that have lifetime warranties, but none are […]
Highland Woodworking just had an “ask the staff” question in their recent newsletter regarding how magnetic tool holders affect sharpening. The staff member presented a reference to a sharpening book that relates that there is a “process called magnetic fluxing. This process relieves the stress level of the metal through magnetic bombardment and, as a […]
I’ve been reading as Christopher Schwarz and Peter Follansbee actively reconstruct the twin screw (double screw) face vise from Moxon’s diagrams. The most radical bit of thinking is that the vise is not permanently attached to the front of the bench. It is loose and can be clamped in a variety of positions. This arrangement […]
Thanks to TheWoodWhisperer.com for encouraging us all to re-consider woodworking safety. The elders in a shop, and especially the employers in a shop need to make sure their employees are actively practicing shop safety. The problem though with “enforced safety” is that it is an afterthought. Safety has to become a habit and in order […]
Somewhere in the past decade I have moved from enjoying new and shiny power tools into relishing quieter tools whose age alone commands respect. As I spend time using certain tools, I often wonder, who in my heritage would have used this tool when it was new? When I use my drawknife that bares a […]
Squaring lumber without the use of power tools. Sounds at first like a fool’s errand. Sure it is not as fast as using a Jointer and a thickness planer, but you aren’t limited by the widths of these tools, nor are you deafened by their roar. The process, as long as you are not in […]
Every time I start a “natural timber” project where logs and branches are used without flat surfaces, I end up dealing with issues related to cutting “square” to something that is round or at least round-ish. They are seldom perfectly round, and rarely straight. So when cutting them to length or cutting shoulders for a […]