April 28/26

Paul, Rick, Lawrence, Jimmy, Francis and Miles

The meeting started with a discussion on crown molding that Rick was installing on kitchen cabinets.

Lawrence then continued on the glued panel desk top. The two previously glued halves were planned down to 15/16. The panels were  then glued up , taking care to hand plane the edges that meet. Reposition the clamps if the  clamped panel does  not sit flat on the support sticks, moving the clamps up or down closer to the edges as needed.Stand the panel up on edge with clamps in place. Once dry, scrape and sand the panel before staining.

Lawrence then demonstrated some unique tools :

Scratch stock

Miniature instrument planes and Purfling cutters for making violins

scratch stock

scratch stock

Paul hand planes the edge!

Purfling cutter

Miniature plane

Miniature plane

This is the last meeting for the season.

We will reconvene this fall.

We thank Lawrence for the wonderful experience we have all had this year, thanks to the generous contribution of his time and workspace and the sharing of his knowledge and woodwork wisdom. Thanks also to the members for their contributions to the Blog.

April 21/26

Paul, Lawrence, Francis, Jimmy, Rick

Some discussion on the Radon gas detection. Lawrence pointed out that in some areas of Sydney River, there are large Gypsum deposits underground. This might have some effect on whether radon gas escapes into a basement. He reset Francis's detector to see how his workshop does over the next week.

Rick brought in two attractive bowls which he had recently finished. 

Lawrence proceeded today with the glue-up of the table top panel.

 The boards were arranged according to the marking lines that were placed after the planing step.

Yellow glue was used. This has a higher bond strength than white glue.
The glue was spread evenly on both surfaces to be matched and then the two boards were approximated and briefly rubbed back and forth to ensure a good glue bond
Small clamps were applied on the ends  where two boards met and larger clamps applied across the width, alternating positioning of the clamps on top and then on bottom of the panel
The bond takes 30 minutes or so and then the clamps can be removed.
Excess glue is scraped off the panel once the glue thickens  enough to peel off easily.

It is best to use a sharp plane to clean off the remaining glue once it is dry

Clamping method

Clamp the end joint

The bottom joints are clamped to maintain alignment

Best clamps

 April 14/26

Lawrence, Jimmy, Miles, Francis, Paul, Rick

Paul and Francis reported on the recent visit to Ranald Ross' in Margaree.

He has some wood that he offered for free for members

Lawrence continued to instruct on the glued-panel table top project.

He stressed the importance of sorting the boards  to maximize appearance and grain.

Trim off the edges on the table saw to eliminate bad spots

Mark the assembled boards with a triangle so that they can be properly re-assembled

Then joint one edge of each board on the jointer

Cut the opposing edge on the table saw

Once this is done, use a jointing hand plane to go over each edge, being careful to alternate the faces to the plane so that any angle discrepancy in the plane blade is compensated for.

Next step is to do the glue up, which we will cover next week.

Next Lawrence demonstrated how to use a coping saw to cut molding profiles. He used the Stanley miter saw jig to do the forty-fives. This is a sturdy accurate set up.

The visualization of the edge to be cut is critical. If necessary, mark the outside edge with a pencil so that you can properly see the line to be cut.

We then stopped for coffee and cookies, compliments of Karen , and had discussion on the State of the Union (USA politics)

Stanley Miter saw

Cutting 45s

Francis, Paul, Rick, Jimmy, Lawrence and Miles

Scraper sharpening Jig

Paul showed the finished birch bowl, made from the "Refrigerator-kiln" dried birch --thanks to Lawrence.

Rick brought some wood to finish the table top project but we decided that , although it looked like Butternut, it was in fact Elm so we agreed to wait until Paul gets more Butternut from Margaree. It was clearly much denser and heavier than the Butternut.

Lawrence went over the use of the grinder;

Wheels should be trued and balanced

Some  wheels should only be used to sharpen high speed steel as softer steel will leave particles embedded on the wheel, lowering is efficiency. In general soft steel should be sharpened on a hard stone and hard steel on a soft stone.

He demonstrated a diamond tool for truing the wheels.

He demonstrated the "Irish Grind" lathe tool and showed us how to adjust the grind with the specialized tool holder and an improvised measuring jig which allows one to adjust the distance from the grinder surface to the tool holding slot.

An Irish grind (or Ellsworth grind) is a specialized, swept-back sharpening profile for bowl gouges, featuring long, tapered wings and a nose angle usually between 

${55}^{\circ }$

 and 

${65}^{\circ }$

. This versatile grind allows for, shearing cuts, shaping, and finishing, often created using a jig to achieve a fingernail shape. 

This video explains the Irish grind and how to achieve it with a sharpening jig:

Irish Grind Jig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0g4V5P5KUA&t=277s

Lawrence showed another jig that is useful for mounting a scraper so that it can be sharpened on the grinder.

Lawrence helped Rick split a piece of 2 inch Poplar  down the middle to make two boards. He used the table saw to make a cut on each edge and the band saw to divide the piece.

When the 2 inch stock was run though the table saw, it was easy to see that there was "stress" in the wood as it seemed to bind a little half way through the cut and left burn marks at the bind site.