Fixing an Air Nailer - 23 Gauge Pinner
- Read Time: 6 mins
- Hits: 6331
Part of being a woodworker is being able to fix, adjust, sharpen and re-utilize. All of these take a certain amount of talent, a little of common sense and a whole lot of self confidence. When ever I find my self embarking on some new repair or method, I always tell myself that whatever I do wrong, it can all get fixed.
And so it was when my inexpensive 23 gauge air pinner died on the first nail on a recent project. The pin jambed in the pinner as it entered the wood and hand to be pulled free. As luck would have it, I have an 18 gauge pinner that finished the job, but that still left me with a broken 23 gauge pinner and the one I seem to use the most because is uses very small, headless pins that once driven into many woods, the nail and hole virtually disappear so it's perfect for temporarily holding pieces together while glue dries and you often don't even need to worry about filling the tiny holes.
Upon putting the pinner back in it's plastic case I noticed there was a spare piston that I had long since forgotten about. There was even 2 Allen Wrenches just the size that fits the pinner, so it looked to me like someone expected this pinner would need to have it's pin-driving-plunger replaced at some point in time. Nice of them to add this component as part of the purchase.
Making A Kitchen Knife Block using Bamboo Skewers
- Read Time: 5 mins
- Hits: 7319
I love innovative ideas, especially when they can enhance our lives, and what better place to do this than in the kitchen. I wish I could take credit for this neat idea, but I suspect it has been around for many, many years it countries where bamboo grows quite prolifically, and has been in use for a variety of building needs for centuries. Building this knife block has been on my list of things to do for about 2 years. So much so that I even went out and purchased (what I thought) would be more than the correct number of packages of bamboo skewers to build this unit. That shows you how wrong I can be sometimes - I had to go out 2 more times to purchase more. The block that I made has take about 20 packages of bamboo skewers. Next time I will be a bit more careful on the size.
To start off, I search through my somewhat extensive collection of cut-off pieces of wood and came up with a few likely suspects. One piece that I like was both figures and somewhat spalted, and it was even a live edge piece. I decided to plane it down enough to see the grain and then to determine if I would have enough wood left if I were to split it into 2 halves, which in fact worked out fine.
Finishing Tips and Techniques
- Read Time: 3 mins
- Hits: 7226
For new woodworkers, and even some of the more seasoned ones, finishing their woodworking project can be agony. It certainly was for me for many, many years. It seemed no matter what can of varnish I purchased, the projects that I worked so hard to make them as perfect as I could, ended up looking like crap after the finishing was done. I always read the directions but never really had much success, in fact sometimes woodworking got very discouraging when I seemed to be able to predict that the end project would look like.
Then I met someone who began to give me some finishing tips and techniques. I started to realize that my impatience with the finishing step was part of my problem. I could make a furniture piece in a few days, then it would take a few more days just for the finishing. Waiting for anything to dry ... for me ... is pure agony, but as I started to see some real changes in my finished, I began to have much more patience.
He taught me a number of steps that I still use today, steps that help me not only in the build, but also in finishing. Here are the steps that I learned
#1 - Think about what you want your project to look like when it is done and what will it be used for. Knowing what I want my project to look like was a big step for me. Often I would pick a species of wood at random and build something with it, then think about what I was going finish it with.
Building and Arts & Crafts Style End Table
- Read Time: 4 mins
- Hits: 7443
I have always loved Arts & Crafts (A&C) style furniture. I love the dark colors and the bold, simple designs. I am particularly fond of the Gustav Stickley furniture and especially like the designis of one of his workers who, sadly, left us at an all-to-young age of only 51, of heart disease, and that was Harvey Ellis. He only worked for Stickley for 7 months but during that time he was clearly in his element of design and produced some timeless furniture creations are are still being duplicated today.
The piece I am making is a more modern re-creation of what and Arts & Crafts piece in what the 21st century would create with the addition of the storage / magazine rack under the table, making it far more useful while still retaining the design elements of A&C. I have had the good fortune to see a very few original pieces of the Stickley furniture and have been able to do some reading about their methods and have a bit more knowledge in how the factory made their furniture and what methods they used.
My version of this table is 21 inches high, by 14 inces wide and 20 inches long. The legs are 5.5" x 1.5" laminated boards for both strengh and stability. The storage area is 1" off the floor and is comprised of dado lwer of 2" x 3/4" and a dado upper of 1.5" x 3/4" and pickets are 1" wide by 1/3" thick a,d 5" high. Apron pieces are 3" x 3/4"
The Ultimage Router Jig for Dados & Slots
- Read Time: 5 mins
- Hits: 19730
When I look around at the jigs I have been amassing it's a bit frightening. So much so that I recently discovered that I have made 2 jigs that do exactly the same thing. One of them I made about 15 - 20 years ago, and for the life of me, I do not know where it went for most of it's life and I needed the same functionality about a year ago, so made that same jig again and soon after found the original ...
Maybe if I had made a dual purpose jig back then ... a jig that did more than one job I might got a bit more use from it and maybe used it a few time over the years instead of squirrliling it away in my wood storage room where is eventually got forgotten about. Well, time to make another jig, this time a dual purpose, and maybe I can even get it to do more?? Wouldn't that be nice, a multi purpose jig ... I must work on trying to make more of my jig do more kinds of things.
This router jig for cutting dados is something I have been meaning to make for a long time. I often need to cut one or two quick dados and setting up my dado blade on my table saw, making test cuts etc. Is a lot of time for what should be a short process. The other thing that I need that is along the same vein is a jig that I can use to cut slots ... in even more jigs I want to make, so why not make a jig that does both?
Installing and Tensioning a Bandsaw Blade
- Read Time: 5 mins
- Hits: 13257
I can understand why some people leave dull blades in their bandsaws. If you are uncertain on how to install and tension a new blade, it can be a bit daunting to re-set all the guides, bearings and other setting on a bandsaw, but after you have done it a few times, and you understand the process, it's really not a hard thing to do.
The reason it is so important to know how to change bandsaw blades is because they do become dull quite readily owing to the fact that most of them are made or steel because they need to flex around the bandsaw wheels. Most bandsaw blades for smaller saws, 10, 12 & 14 inch are pure steel blades. These blades heat up during use and over time become dull, and as they become dull, we push harder on the wood, making them even duller and eventually they need to be changed.
The most important step in changing bandsaw blades is to unplug the power to the bandsaw. Some saws have switches in weird and wonderful places that can easily be flipped on by accident when working on the saws. Next the blade tension needs to be released so that the blades is quite loose. At this point you can open the wheel doors to look inside ...
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