Link of the week

Link of the week

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Build and use clamping cauls

In my last article, I mentioned that I may have to use clamping cauls to get flat panel glue ups.

Of course, I never mentioned what they were, how they were made or the right way to use them. Fortunately, there are plenty of places where you can go to get information.  A very good one at New Woodworker, run by Tom Hintz. gives you the step-by-step directions on selecting the wood, making the cauls and using them to get flat glue ups.

For a small investment in wood and common hardware, you can improve the quality of your glue ups.  Definitely worth a look.

Joinery

Panel psychology

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No doubt you have heard about star athletes who, after tremendous success, suddenly have issues doing some of the more basic tasks.  The golfer who suddenly can’t putt straight.  The basketball player whose free throw percentage drops through the floor.  The baseball pitcher who has trouble finding the strike zone.

When something like that happens, the athlete’s livelihood and career are instantly threatened.  And, given the severity of the downturn, these athletes will try just about anything to get their performance back to the top.  Some will try different equipment.  Some will start carrying a good luck charm.

And, others will seek the help of a sports psychiatrist to get their mojo back.

Maybe I need to see one who can help me with my panel glue ups.

I’m not sure what’s happening lately, but my past two projects that required edge-to-edge panel glue ups have not been very successful. The cradle I donated to charity was the first sign I was having issues.  The project I am currently working on is the latest head scratcher.

My method is pretty simple.  I flatten the face of the boards I’m working on with a jack plane, whacking off the high spots until the board sits on the bench top with no issues.  I then run that face down through the thickness planer to get the boards to an even thickness.

For edge jointing, I’ve been using a Veritas bevel up jointer plane – the same one I’ve been using since 2005.  I sight down the board, level the high spots, continue until I get a continuous shaving and check the side-to-side for square.  90 degrees spot on.

It’s when I glue that things get sideways.  I glue the edge, get everything set on my clamps then tighten them down.  One edge might rise up.  I put a handscrew on that.  Another edge pops up.  A few mallet taps to get it down.  I’m happy with the left side, but then the right is messed up.  Back and forth until I think it’s OK, and then – CRAP! – not another stepped glue up!

I know I have to improve my technique.  My guess is that I am putting too much pressure on the clamps, or maybe not tightening them in the right order. Or, maybe the clamps aren’t 100% square to the board edge when I tighten them down? Not sure.

I know the glue makes  the boards slippery, so any quirks in the clamping process will totally mess me up in the finished product.

Until I can get this hitch out of my technique, I’m going to start relying on two ‘insurance policies’ to give me an advantage.

First, I’m gonna bust out the biscuit jointer.  No, I know it’s not going to add any strength to the joint, but they will certainly help with alignment.  The other is to cut some 2 x 4’s down to make cauls.  If I can pinch the entire glue-up under the cauls, I’m certain it couldn’t hurt.

How am I fixing the stepped glue up I have now?  Well, I after further review, it wasn’t quite as bad as I had thought.  Maybe 1/16″ of a step.  To remedy, I clamped the panel on my bench and started planing.  I got my bevel up jointer and planed across the grain from side to side.

I know what you are thinking.  “DANGER, TOM!  You’ll tear your boards up doing that!”  That’s what I thought, too.  However, with a freshly-honed iron, a coat of wax on the plane’s sole and a light setting, I could hear the long plane slicing down the high spots as I went back and forth over the board.  Eventually, I started getting full-width shavings.  Snick.  Snick.  Snick.  That side is flat.  I flipped the panel over and did it on the back.  Beauty!

The shavings I am getting kind of look like – well – shavings you would expect from a jointer plane.  Not too thin, but not gouged-out chunks.  Just a good set of shavings.

There were some rough tracks, so I leveled most of those out with a smoothing plane.  It’s a Stanley No. 4 – terrible for final work on highly-figured wood like this curly maple, but enough to take down the plane tracks.  Before I did any tearing-out, I turned to a belt sander to further smooth the surface.

I’ll sand some more to refine the scratch pattern and then do some through dovetails.  Finally, I’ll scrape the final piece down before the finish.

But, that’s a long time off.  I have a lot of shavings to clean up before then.

Maybe all of that cleaning can serve as a good way to meditate and reflect on the errors of my technique…

Experiences

Jim and Tom’s excellent adventure

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This past weekend started just the same as many others.  Everyone at the office was talking about their plans for the two days off. My wife called and asked if I could stop on the way home to pick up a few items at the grocery store. I finished a little paperwork and headed out to the car to make my way home.

But, that’s where the similarities ended.  I was actually on my way home to cook dinner for the arrival of a special guest. The Woodworking Show was in town, and Wood magazine’s Jim Heavey had accepted my invitation to come to my house for dinner.

I had made the offer to Jim last year.  “The next time you get to Tampa with the show, you have an open invitation to come over for dinner.”  Just a few words to him last year, but now he was actually coming over.

Unlike other visitors, I knew that the shop was going to be one area that was going to get a visit.  I had spent the past few nights straightening up the shop. Tools that were lingering around from previous projects went away. Wood I was milling was stacked into piles on the bench. The broom and vacuum made an appearance and took care of all of those plane shavings and the sawdust from a busy last weekend of planing and jointing.

That night, after Jim had called to say that he was on the way, I was cooking dinner and starting to fret.  After all, Jim is a very talented woodworker.  He has contributed articles on how to organize shops – what if he looked at my shop and shook his head in disgust? What if he looked at the stack of lumber I was working on and said something bad about the way the work was coming out?  Was I going to get a lecture about my insufficient dust collection setup? I mean, this guy makes DVDs about how to woodwork and set up your shop!

“You are nervous,” my wife observed. Yes, I had become nervous, thinking Jim was going to be critical.

But, I then took a deep breath and thought about Jim’s demeanor.  He’s a really down-to-earth kind of guy who teaches woodworkers to stop talking about every single goof up on a finished project. The nerves faded away just before he had arrived, and when Jim pulled up in his rental car and came in.

It was a great visit.  I resisted the urge to walk Jim out to the shop immediately and get it ‘over with’ Instead, I got Jim a beer and introduced him to the family.  We talked about his flight, the shows, Jim’s service as a firefighter and as a school board president, his grown kids and his grandkids. Both of my sons wanted to tell him jokes.  We laughed politely as the silly grade school humor poured out.

After the dinner plates were put away and while the cherry pie was baking in the oven, the moment of truth came.  I gave Jim a tour of the projects in the house.  The front and back entertainment centers.  The unfinished desk and storage unit in my son’s room.  The Contemplation bench I had built a few years ago. “I remember reading about that on your blog.”

The trip to the shop was just as pleasant.  He told me about how he had set up his shop and mentioned that he liked the way I had mine set. He liked the workbench and was impressed with the two vises I had in the shop.  He was impressed that I had the blade guard and splitter setup on the saw. “This place is definitely you, Tom.  You must have a lot of fun out here.”

Later than night as we ate dessert, we shifted gears to the great basketball games in the NCAA Men’s tournament. Everyone was cheering as the action was taking place, and I was duly impressed by Jim’s knowledge of the game.

At last, the evening had to come to an end.  After all, Jim had to teach the next day.  As Rhonda and I waved goodbye while Jim backed out of the driveway, I had a sudden realization.

Woodworkers are just regular guys and gals.  Each of us has our skills and gaps that need to be filled.  Each of us  has our strengths and weaknesses.  And, we all face our common challenges.

Link of the week

Link of the week

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Regia Anglorum – Viking Ship Construction

The fierce warriors who terrorized large areas of Europe during the middle ages are commonly known today as Vikings.  What made them so noteworthy?  Their awesome fighting ability?  The fear they struck into coastal communities?

No, it was their ships.

Viking longships were skillfully built in order to be tough and flexible.  Their shallow drafts allowed them to navigate up rivers, yet their broad beams made them stable enough to cross large areas of the north Atlantic.

This web page covers in detail the processes used to build these amazing craft.  From the log to the final product, you can see each detail of the construction.

Experiences

More monkey business

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He’s short. He’s furry.  And, he’s a fairly decent writer.

For all of you Wood Magazine subscribers (and those who may like to get the occasional copy at  the news stand), the Shop Monkey returns!

Be sure to check out page 20 of the May 2010 edition.  There, I have written an article about woodworking plans – and those who take those plans and resell them at rock-bottom prices for their own benefit. While it may seem like a good deal, many of these plans feature poor quality scans of projects that are nearly impossible to read and offer limited step-by-step instructions for the woodworker to follow. Also, by taking these projects from commercial sites, they offer a strong disincentive for woodworkers to design and seek to publish new and exciting furniture designs.

If you want to read even more Shop Monkey input, why not check out my blog over at the newly-revamped Wood Magazine forum website?  The new forum software makes it easier than ever to navigate the content and read the input from your favorite bloggers.

Yes, you can even read my content if you have nothing better to do…

The current schedule for the Shop Monkey right now is that the columns will appear in every other edition (the next one is scheduled to appear in the spring).

Now, no more monkey business… back into the shop!

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