Rick, Paul, Shawn, Keenan, Jim Hiltz, Arno were in attendance tonight.

Rick brought a guest: Bastien Pinot. Bastien is  Rick's neighbour on the New Boston Road. He is from France and enjoys woodwork.

This was a fun evening for all hands.

Paul worked on laying out mortices for a child's bed and then drilled out the mortices  on Leo's  Morticer machine. It is important to lay out the mortices on each piece accurately, using a good square . The side rails of the bed should be positioned toward the outside of the posts rather than centered. The mortice width should be slightly smaller than the width of the side rails so as to hide the mortice recess.  Make sure that the mortice on one face does not interfere with the adjacent face mortice; i.e pay attention to the depth of the mortice.

Keenan is also in the process of making a bed for his brother and was interested in the morticing methods.

Shawn is still experimenting with chucking methods for the lathe. He had a nice oak piece that was securely mounted to his faceplate and turned nicely.

Rick worked on his "birdseye maple" bowl. It is quite beautiful. It is almost finished and  in record time for Rick--about six months!

Arno had some plates he made for the MicMac game Waltes , and he turned the bases off on the lathe to get rid of the foot.

This is a picture of the plate used for the Waltes game of dice. Arno has been making these on request from Membertou .







Jim Hiltz quietly observed the proceedings with a critical eye.

Below-The Morticing machine

The important aspect of this machine is the rigid , adjustable , rock solid base . This allows one to move the stock forward and back accurately  and to secure the stock firmly .  Of course it is Leo's design. Each mortice is done without disturbing the settings so as they all are accurate. The first cut is challenging as there is nowhere for the shavings to escape. It can be difficult to raise the cutter from the stock as the cut is pretty tight . Once the first cut is done, one takes a subsequent cut no more than half the width of the chisel(cutter), depending on the hardness of the stock being cut.

Keenan, Paul, Rick, Jim Hiltz, Arno, Shawn, John

Leo is back in production!

Started with a demonstration of how to divide a line into a set number of equal parts. This is useful when you have  an odd length eg 6.75 inches that you want to divide into equal segments
Draw the line
Lay out another line above  at any angle
Mark the diagonal with the number of divisions you need eg make a mark every 2 inches until you have the correct number of divisions--in this case 7 segments
Use a bevel to connect the marks on the diagonal to the base line
Your line  will have 7 equal divisions



Rick worked on a bowl
Paul worked on placing small hinges for a novelty box, using the marking tool and chisel to remove the wood so as the hinge sets in perfectly.
A sharp marking tool is essential. Be sure the bevel of the marker is correctly orientated so that you get a sharp cut on the INDIDE of your hinge marks

Leo spent some time discussing Chucks and helping the others choose a chuck to suit their lathe

John, Paul, Rick, Arno, Keenan, Shawn, Miles, Jim Hiltz

Paul worked on the vase project

Rick worked on his bowl

Leo discussed using shellac for finishing
Use 280 sand paper  and methyl hydrate to rub the dry shellac. The shellac will roll off a little. Keep rubbing this material into the wood to fill the grain.
Paint thinner can work as well.

Bring a piece of mahogany next session to practice finishing

Fall Start: September 4/18

Paul, Jim Hiltz, Shawn, Robert, Arno, Jim MacNeil, Miles

Shawn brought the completed shelf project: sliding dovetail joinery: no glue or nails
Miles brought some wooden toys he made

Leo Helped Paul mount the vase blank, pine.
The blank was trued to some extent
A round was created near the tailstock end to place the steady rest wheels
A Machinist end mill was used to start a tailstock hole
Then gradually larger bits were used to enlarge the hole to a good depth
Forstner bits were used for  the larger diameters

Jim MacLean is selling a Lathe  with a duplicator

Planing Basics: Large Vase turning:

(The Constellation Orion was beautifully  visible tonight , facing south,  right over Leo's house )

Attendance:

Lawrence Martell returns to the Fold! We welcome back the Fiddle Prince
Arno, Shawn, Keenan, Jim Hiltz, Miles, Paul, John, Rick

Leo discussed the basics of planing , explaining how the "angle of attack" is what make the difference in proper planing technique. A Jack plane can be made to act like a low angle block plane by skewing the plane at an angle. Wooden planes are superior because of their light weight and the fact that they can be tuned quickly and accurately with slight taps of a mallet. Of course a few years of practice makes perfect.

Rick worked on the bowl lathe
Unfortunately, Jim Hiltz brought the wrong chuck and had to be disqualified tonight.
Miles arrived late and his hair was in a shamble , rivalled only by Keenan's--no surprise there!
Lawrence was present but had no purpose..seemed lost, but at least he found us again!
Arno showed up having missed the last session--his excuse was  acceptable

Paul prepared the screw bolt for the large vase by painting it with Parting agent. Three coats are needed and then a coat of wax is applied to the bolt. Fill the hole part way with the epoxy/ wood dust mixture.  (You should have drilled some epoxy release holes at the edges of the main center hole).  Place the bolt in the predrilled 3 inch hole and get it as solidly and squarely perpendicular as possible using wedges.  Let it set for however long your epoxy is designed to set. Remove the bolt and coat the remaining part with parting agent. Screw the bolt back into the hole. Then fill the rest of the hole with the epoxy (Making certain that the parting agent has been well applied first).

When the blank is mounted on the lathe (using the screw bolt in the head stock), there will invariably be a wobble as it turns so that the old center (tailstock end) will not register properly with the tailstock pin.. Glue a small block of wood onto the tailstock end of the blank and use the tailstock point to get the new center of the blank so that you can start turning.

Photos demonstrate some of the points discussed tonight.


Puzzle:How was this turned?            Keenans sanding gadget for the lathe(Antique?)

Arno's identical turnings: pretty good!                                     Leo's vase

Screw chuck dropped into the 3 inch deep hole
Note that the "reduced" end of the bolt is on the outside. Note the nut assembly . Spacer makes it possible to get a wrench around the bottom and top nut separately(need both wrenches applied to lock the assembly)

Leo demonstrates how to add a block of wood to the tailstock end to get a new center. The end is pared off smoothly and a small square block glued on so as a new center can be found. He just nailed this piece of wood in place to make his point.


Have an idea of the intended shape of the vase so you can turn down a section to a small enough diameter for your steady rest.

What's Leo up to here?

Leo is cleaning up a drill attachment that Paul macerated. The mechanism was badly scored and required re-machining and we all know who is the King of Re-machining!

Reamer to drill out the scored hole

Proof of the success of the plane lessons

Shelf Project

Router plane

Large Router Plane drawing. A-A is if you cut the drawing “A” in half and turn it on end.

Use two pieces of wood..a hard wood for the sole such as service berry, white oak, hornbeam and another wood for the rest of the body eg maple, walnut etc

Glue up the pieces

Do the above drawing on graph paper carefully and Lay this out on the wood.

Drill the holes..make sure of what size cutter will be used.

Saw out the slot

Router the top profile

Sand up

  Large Router Plane

Small router plane 4 1/4 inch x 2 3/4 inches  7/8 inch diameter hole.The depth is 1 1/2 inches
Use  a hard wood for the sole to resist wear : Hornbeam, Serviceberry, Ironwood,

Below photos are a Steady Rest 


Steady Rest Jig   (Jim Hiltz)
3/4/ threaded rods, bolts, square bar, wheels ( from a skate board)
Hardwood

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