Lee Harps

I can hardly believe it either! It has been nearly TWO YEARS(!) since I’ve made any new blog entries here! Much has happened in those two years, and my resolution for 2009 is to share some of my activities with you. The reason for this entry (aside from its being EXTREMELY interesting subject material) is to permit me to once again learn how to use this communication vehicle. 

Tonight’s entry revolves around a structure I first built back in the early 90’s when it was described in Fine Woodworking magazine (Fine Woodworking, August 1992, No. 95, pp. 40-41, by Pat Paterson). It is one of the most well-designed and most useful sets of saw horses (the article calls them “saw ponies”) I’ve ever seen. I have built quite a few sets of them, some as gifts, and have most recently built myself another set. Here is the article and the accompanying diagram. These are built from short 2×4 cutoffs and plywood scraps – items usually available around every garage or workshop!

I’m hoping that anyone wishing to build a set of these will be able to discern the measurements from the article scans I’ve included. 

Here is a photo of my old, original worn set of sawhorses and the new set I’ve built in the last few days. Note how “stackable” they are, and in doing so, one can use them stacked to make the working height user friendly. With their solid, no-wobble construction and the splayed legs, these ponies stand solid! Unlike most saw horses, there is no movement whatsoever where these stand! They are wonderful to have around as standing stools to repair a ceiling fixture or do high painting, they make a great paint can stand, or legs for a temporary tool stand. I’ve used them for thousands of things!

You may notice that, while I have sized my sawhorses to the measurements of the diagram, I’ve made a few modifications that I am finding most helpful. I am just beginning the construction of a full set of kitchen cabinets for a house I’m rehabbing, and with my workshop being situated on the second floor of my garage, it is quite difficult for me to deal with full sheets of plywood (particularly the weighty sheets of 3/4 inch birch ply) upstairs, so I needed a means to safely and easily saw my sheets of plywood into more manageable sizes for this project. I recently read an article describing the use of stud hangers to suspend 2×4s between  regular, all 2×4 saw horses for this purpose, and in thinking about it, I decided to modify these “pony” horses to do the same thing. 

I have never used the hinged top for my saw horses, but have always made openings into the plywood sides for the purpose of utilizing that space to stash tools and the like.

On this set, I decided to create a notch in the plywood that would support a 2×4 suspended between 2 horses.

In the house I’m working on, I removed some original 2×4s which, amazingly enough (duh!) were actually 2 inches by 4 inches in size! They really did make lumber the size they said it was at one time!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, when I modified the set of sawhorses, I used “modern” 2×4s to size the notches.  I decided this would be a good opportunity to put the old “odd sized” 2×4s to good use. Great idea, but they would NOT fit into the notches I had made. Easy solution: a few moments at the band saw and, voila!, they fit!

How one chooses to lay out a frame for sawing purposes depends a lot upon how small pieces of plywood one is planning to cut in this manner. Mine will be rather large, so I made a simple frame of the old 2×4s thusly:

One could easily add more cross pieces were it indicated for the cutting one needed to do. At some point in the future, it may be necessary that I make this structure more complex.

Above, the frame is laying atop the double-stacked sawhorses, the ends not yet inserted into the notches. In the photo below, the ends of the 2×4s have been inserted into the notches, thus creating a very solid, flat surface for me to use to cut the plywood.

Below, you can see a full, 4′x8′ sheet of 3/4 inch birch ply leaned against the structure, waiting to be placed on top for cutting.

Here, the plywood sheet has been placed horizontally on the frame, ready to be cut. A nice feature of the stacked horses in this application is that it really creates a comfortable height for this job. I am no longer young enough to be comfortable doing a lot of bending over, so this height is ideal!

I have made plywood guides for my saw that I clamp in place for cutting. This guide is about 5 feet long for horizontal cuts; I also have an 8 foot guide for lengthwise cuts. Here is mwah making the first cut on this sheet of plywood.

Here is that same sheet of plywood, now cut into smaller pieces, all ready to be carried to the second floor workshop. Cutting plywood in this manner using a makeshift arrangement of unsecured 2×4s, etc. can be dangerous. With this frame, the “table” on which the cutting occurs fully supports the plywood and there is no pinching, bucking, etc. at all. I have admittedly made cuts on a less than ideal surface, and have fortunately NOT lost any digits or other body parts to date.

At day’s end, after having cut several plywood sheets, it is a simple matter to remove the frame from the notches, stack the saw ponies, sweep up the sawdust, and head for the recliner!

This is the recliner! More on that later….. Zzzzzzzzz

A week or so ago, I was informed by my wife (she who FEEDS and waters the birds), that the bird feeder was no longer in good health and it might be good of me to replace it. A new feeder has been built, MOSTLY for the birds, but also in response to my wife’s request.

When my father was still living, he always had a round, squirrel resistant bird feeder just outside his front door, the construction of which always fascinated me. In the past 10 years or so, I’ve tried to copy his ideas for our bird feeders. This is not a great photo, but this is a distant photo of the one that was “failing”.

Here is the one I have spent the past week building as a replacement for the one above:

In this one, I have again used redwood for the shingles, pressure treated southern pine for the post mounting, fir sheathing plywood for the round base and roof bottom, maple for the ball on the top, a bit of cedar for the round piece under the ball, 1×2-inch wire for the squirrel barrier and copper tubing for the posts and the circular perch. I have recycled the bird seed bin in the center from the original feeder. Here you can see some of the detail of the construction:

Corresponding holes in the two plywood circles permit the ends of the 1 x 2 inch wire to create a fairly successful squirrel barrier. In the past feeders I’ve built, the 8 vertical posts around the outside were made of wood. Seems the squirrels felt that, if they chewed them off, they could access the bird feed inside. I had to replace them several times! I’m waiting to see if they have copper filings on their teeth now that I’ve used copper tubing for the posts on ths feeder! I have also replaced the original round wooden “perch” with a circle of 3/8″ copper tubing. The shingles are made of redwood, all cut out with a taper on the bandsaw, then the widths tapered to fit the cone shape of the roof. I have used building cement (in a caulking gun) to install the shingles. Here is a photo showing the interior of the lid:

Having also learned from past feeders that the squirrels will chew their way into the interior of the feeder by removing the shingles, I have installed aluminum over the “rafters”, to which I have glued the shingles. There is NO WAY a squirrel can chew thru that! If they decide to try, I’ll just have to install more shingles, I guess. If you notice, the seed bin extends up into the roof, thus making the filling of it a less frequent necessity. The roof hinges at the back and the lower ends of the “rafters” rest on the upper sheet of plywood when the lid is closed, thus keeping the lid flush with the body of the feeder. Also a new addition to this feeder, I have installed eyelets and a chain to act as a “stop” when the lid is opened for filling the feeder:

On the previous feeder, the roof overhang simply rested on the vertical posts in the back, and consequently damaged the shingles and the posts.

And, there you have it: probably the most brief entry I’ve made to date.

Now you can understand why the French Harp is on hold. Winter is coming….

I was asked by fellow harpmaker, Al Winter, of Silvershell Musical Instruments, to join him in presenting a program about using vacuum to accomplish veneering and as very effective clamping device. We had presented it some time ago to our local woodworkers’ club, SAW-PA, and were asked to repeat it for the York club, the Susquehanna Trail Woodworkers’ Guild. As a hobbyist woodworker, I must admit that I personally felt a little intimidated by the task ahead, knowing that many of the York club are quite skilled craftsmen. I’ve learned that, at my age, one just barges ahead and hopes for the best. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the reception we received and the interest shown by the group!

The setting was just wonderful! The York group meets on Princess St. in York in the lobby of the Industrial Museum. Here is a photo of president, Ray Parson, leading the preliminary club business meeting.

It was a wonderful space for the meeting and the attendance was quite good. Early on, I noticed a man taking lots of photos. I learned, as the evening progressed, that his name is Bob Aspey and it just so happens that their club has an official photographer and HE IS THAT MAN! At the end of the evening, he offered to send me some photos by email and, with some arm twisting, he generously agreed to mail a CD of ALL his photos to me. A few days later, the CD arrived with 62 photos on it! Bob further gave me permission to use them here, so the remaining photos in this entry are thanks to you, Bob! I hope you don’t mind if I did a little cropping along the way to make the photos best fit my narrative.

Vacuum clamping is probably one of the most effective methods available for applying even, intense pressure over a given clamping area. Both Al and I have “gerry-rigged”, home-built suction devices that we took along. This was mostly a show-and-tell event, with Al and I sharing some of the devices and procedures we use in our own shops.

Here are photos of our vacuum pump setups, first mine:

and then here’s Al Winter with his ELEGANT vacuum pump (he takes great pride in telling how, at a yard sale, he only paid $5.00 for the little pump on the bottom — clearly worth many many times more than that !)

Here are Al and I about to get started with the demo – here, Al’s “spiffy” vacuum unit has not yet been lifted to the table. You can see some of the props we brought along for the demo.

To demonstrate the primary reason I have developed a vacuum veneering setup for my workshop, I brought along the harp I have built of eucalyptus wood which has a rounded back, formed with the vacuum bag technic.

In the “rough”, here is how the rounded back looks “right out of the bag”, so to speak, the “bag” being the vacuum bag!

What you see here is a fiberglass-covered foam form over which is formed a combination of two inner layers of 1/8 inch bending plywood and an outer layer of veneer of choice; in this instance the veneer is of PURPLEHEART wood, a somewhat rarely used wood from South America.

Here I am holding a photo which shows the various ‘layers’ that are necessary to perform a vacuum-veneered round-backed harp shell.

Before I permitted Al to have the floor, I described the components of a veneering operation and actually did a small demo veneer glue-up to show the group. It would be drying throughout the remainder of the demonstration. First, I showed them the components needed: a substrate, pieces of veneer, glue, waxed paper, a caul to make the surface flat, a piece of wire screen to permit distribution of the vacuum, a vinyl vacuum bag, a bag closure device and the vacuum pump connected to the bag with the white hose.

The blue tape in the photo above is used, in addition to veneer tape on the underside of the veneer, to keep the veneer pieces tightly together until the veneer is glued in place.

Here I am applying veneer glue to the substrate (plywood) over which the veneer will be applied.

A wooden layer (caul) is placed over the veneer to provide equal distribution of the pressure over the entire surface, thus assuring a very flat finished product. Since veneer glue is “squished” out from the pressure, a sheet of waxed paper is applied immediately over the veneer to prevent the caul from being glued to the finished product.

Here, the glue has been applied, all the layers are in their proper places, so the entire “stack” is then positioned inside the vinyl bag in anticipation of the application of the vacuum.

Using a special wooden closure device and Quik-Grip clamps, the vinyl bag is sealed, the vacuum pump is turned on, and the air has been evacuated from the interior of the bag. The vacuum applies, at 20 inches of mercury, about 1200 pounds of pressure per square foot, evenly distributed across the surface of the item being veneered.

At this point, I turned the program over to Al. Al described in some detail the components necessary to make a functional vacuum setup, including the valves, reservoir tanks, gauges, tubings, vacuum switches and, of course, the CHEAP VACUUM PUMP!

Another function that a vacuum pump is excellent for is that of holding one’s workpiece for other functions such as routing, sanding, etc. Some wood turners, I understand, are also using vacuum to chuck their wood to the lathe for turning.

Here Al is showing a vacuum system that does not use a CHEAP PUMP, but rather attaches to one’s air compresser and uses the Venturi (fly sprayer) principle to create a vacuum. This is probably one of the most inexpensive approaches to vacuum veneering, provided one already owns an air compressor. Here is a closeup of the Venturi device.

Al also described how one constructs the vinyl bags, the special vinyl glues one uses and the precautions one must take in doing so in an effort to prevent liver damage from breathing the fumes. He showed how leaks may be sealed in the bags by applying liquid vinyl glue to the leaking areas while under vacuum so that the vacuum will draw the glue into the leaks, thus creating a seal. A very complete resource for all supplies needed (and pages of very valuable advice) can be found online at Joe Woodworker, a supplier who is in the Baltimore area if I’m not mistaken.

Al then gave a very neat demo on the use of vacuum as general workshop clamping device. Here he has constructed a special vacuum jig which he uses in forming his harp necks. The plywood center has foam window stripping both on the perimeter of the under surface and, on the top, in the shape of the harp neck.

By applying vacuum to either of the brass fittings to the right of the photo, the board is “sucked” firmly to the table top and the harp neck is firmly drawn down to the top surface, all at the same time! When one side is completed (sanded, routed or whatever), he releases the vacuum, reattaches the vacuum tube to the opposite side, flips the harp neck over, and once again, draws the workpiece tight for finishing on the other side. This is very efficient and such a reliable and rigid clamping device!

Al also demonstrated a handled device he has made which, unlike the neck device which attaches itself to the table, holds the workpiece in a more portable manner, this way giving the workpiece a temporary handle for machining or shaping. Here he is with the workpiece firmly “vacuumed” to the handle:

Do you think it’s very tight? (Sorry, Al, I had to include this photo!)

There was considerable interest in the harp I had brought along, so I spent some time describing the challenges of building a harp that is both structurally sound enough to withstand the constant 1200-plus pound tension of the strings, yet to make it light and delicate enough to have a decent tone.

I described how the two narrow glue joints, one at each side of the soundboard, must be durable enough to remain intact with the string tension tugging at the center of the soundboard 24/7!

At this point, an hour and a half had passed very quickly and it was time to remove the sample veneer project from the vacuum press.

The blue tape had to be removed. In some cases, the tape, even though it is supposed to be a low-tack tape which comes off easily, took some wood fibers with it on removal. A man who was present who does veneering for a living told me afterwards that his shop never uses tape on the surface for that reason. Here is the finished product:

Both Al and I were most gratified by the way we were received by the Susquehanna Trail folks and received a great deal of enjoyment in doing our presentation. We learned much ourselves from those present. Thanks for the invitation and, once again, thanks Bob for the use of your photos.

Another regular feature for woodworker events is that the membership do a bit of show-and-tell. Here is an item that was brought in by Dean:

This is quite a work of art. Dean is a master wood turner (meaning he works on wood that is spinning around on a lathe). This piece began as a most interesting piece of 3/4 inch wood with a very unusual and unique burl pattern. Somehow, Dean managed to turn a 1/4 inch circle on each side of the wood, leaving the remaining center section 1/4 inch thick as well. He is most adept at doing lathe projects that seem impossible and we always look forward to see what he has along for each meeting. Thanks Dean for sharing your talents with us!

I received an email from a friend this week who happened to mention that he has not seen any entries to my blog recently! Well, I guess it is time for me to explain why.

First of all, there’s this matter of the local temperature:

I’ve purchased a new digital thermometer for the kitchen window. It didn’t focus well, but in the photo it is reading 101.8 F! (Okay, so what if the sun was shining on it and, if you will look above that figure, it says the maximum temp for the day was 115.9. Shucks, it wasn’t anywhere near that. It was only about 99.6 in reality!). SO, with temps like that, there isn’t a lot being done by this person who would prefer to find a cool place and wait for cooler weather. ALSO, wife and I have been enjoying cooler parts, having just returned from a couple of week drive thru Canada, more specifically, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There, the weather was GORGEOUS!

I took hundreds of photos on our trip (and will not bore you with ALL of them), but for this entry will simply give you an overview with a few photos, hoping to revisit the various stops in detail at a later date.

Our trek began with a drive to Kingston, Ontario, where we revisited some old haunts we learned to love when we used to take our children there for a music camp. Beginning with Kingston and continuing throughout the trip, we were awed by the beautiful flowers everywhere.

In Kingston, Ontario, we joined up with good friends from Bermuda and enjoyed the remainder of the trip with them as a foursome. We enjoyed some excellent eating and shopping in Kingston, I managed a trip out to old Ft. Henry, where I got to see the goat:

lots of “toy” soldiers

a bagpiper

and some kite flying.

After spending two nights in Kingston, we proceeded on to Quebec City, Quebec. We spent three nights in the old city of Quebec, staying at the Alberge du Tresor hotel.

There we saw many wonderful sights, ate more delicious food, saw more “toy” soldiers at the Citadel, and enjoyed the craftspeople, musicians, actors, artists and performers who graced the streets of this fine city.

Here is a photo of the changing of the guard at the Citadel:

Here is a photo of the Hotel du Frontenac which was located just across the green from our hotel:

Up the hill from the hotel, there was a flattened area where street performers do their thing. This photo was taken, I would guess, on a Wednesday evening and, as you can see, this is quite the tourist mecca.

While in Quebec, there was again much good eating to be enjoyed, and one of our most enjoyable meals there was at the Restaurant aux Ancient Canada.

You’ll hear more about this later as well.

I have many more photos I could share with you, but will do so at a later date. From Quebec, we drove to Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, which is a lovely little fishing village sort of area, very quaint and picturesque.

Here is the famous Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse, famous because it houses a real live post office in the first floor and people send postcards to their friends postmarked “Peggy’s Cove”.

We spent two nights in Peggy’s Cove, then continued on to Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Here we stayed at a very lovely bed and breakfast called “Duffus House”, located right on the water in Baddeck, Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is a wonderful get-away island with the St. Lawrence Seaway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Here we enjoyed many more wondrous sights, more delicious eating (surprise, surprise), and some really unique experiences. This was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell and we not only were able to visit the museum in his honor (hardly anything about the telephone exhibited there…) where I enjoyed seeing his huge, propeller driven hydrofoil boat:

Also, via connections of our Bermuda travelling partners, we had the honor of receiving a private tour of the Bell estates which are still used by the family and which are not generally open to the public. Our tour began with Bell’s first home, “The Lodge”,

and I will have much more to show of the tour later. We also drove the 180+ mile “Cabot Trail” which goes around the perimeter of Cape Breton and saw sights such as this:

From Cape Breton, we headed west once again, returning our friends to Ottawa where they planned to remain an additional week, spending time with friends there. In Ottawa we enjoyed seeing the Rideau Canal.

Along the way, we enjoyed some very good food, and some that was a bit more marginal. This, for one, tasted good, but was a bit lacking in quality and nourishment. Having heard about it from our son who recently “enjoyed” it in Montreal, I ordered a hot dog with POUTIN.

French fries with gravy and CURD? Sounds awful, but it really is edible. We had much better food at a lovely new restaurant in Peggy’s Cove called “Rhubarb”.

For my wife and I, it was a rather pleasant, however long drive from Ottawa to Pennsylvania. It took nearly 10 hours and, having been away for 16 days, it became immediately evident that my work was cut out for me on the home front, what with the grass being very tall and the weeds having had a real heyday growing while my back was turned. We did have some rains in our absence, so the corn was tall:

The tomatoes had gotten some size, however NONE were yet ripe:

My soy beans were ready to yield some delicious edamame:

The zucchini had grown a bit larger than it should have:

The cantaloupes were really looking good:

and the potatoes were overdue for digging:

Other activities that awaited our return were a lovely wedding:

Repair of a friend’s harp:

repair of a hammered dulcimer:

And repair of, yes, a didgeridoo! I was shopping in Kingston, Ontario, found this item standing upright , in a basket, saw that it was badly broken and, before I knew it, I was being told by a sales clerk that I was welcome to take it if I wanted it. I was not anxious to drag it along for the whole trip, but decided the price was right.

This week I used a bit of epoxy and some plastic wraps and, here it is, all ready for some Austrailian aborigine to play:

Remember the French Repro Harp? Well, there hasn’t been a lot of progress, but there has been SOME! I am attempting to give myself some feel for the perspective of the 3-D carvings by using modeling clay (a first attempt with chisels and wood helped me realize I have a few things to learn before wasting more expensive wood). Here’s my initial feeble attempt; I feel there may be hope.

Sometimes one needs to “smell the roses” and enjoy things that lie before you that have charm but that you take for granted. The events of the past couple of weeks have been one such example. It all began as I enjoyed a cup of delicious, fresh-brewed coffee at church. Remember the church with the spire extending up thru the falling snow a couple of weeks ago?

This is Market Square Presbyterian Church, the “Beacon on the Square” located on the square of downtown Harrisburg, PA, diagonal from the Hilton. This church serves up the best coffee in town, thanks to a lady who both attends church there, but who also just happens to own and operate a very quaint coffee, tea and spice shop across the river in Lemoyne called “Kauffman’s”. Her shop is an experience in times past and offers a certain serenity of friendliness, space and delightful aroma. As you approach her shop, you will see TWO signs hanging from the building:

To the left is her shop, Kauffman’s, and immediately on the right is Fraulie’s German Deli, owned and operated by a very German lady named Margot. The two shops are separately owned and operated, but with respective entry doors facing each other, the ladies who operate these two shops have become great friends (they even choose the same colors of dress for each day – yesterday it was cranberry!) When you enter Kauffman’s, first you notice the aroma of freshly ground coffee, then you see the inviting store interior.

You will be greeted by Betty, who, with her warm smile and manner, will make you feel welcome.

Around the walls of the room are slate chalk boards which list her menus of goods.

The shelved cabinets (originally pharmacy shelves) have rows and rows of containers of spices, nuts and dried fruits. When Betty moved the business to Lemoyne from the Shipoke community in Harrisburg, she had to find quarters that would accommodate the extreme height of these shelves.

In the rear of the shop, stacked 6 high, are dozens of bright green metal cans with lids (as a boy, we always called these “lard cans”.) Within these cans are Betty’s stock of wares. She takes considerable pride in being unlike what has become the “norm” for Yuppie coffee shopes these days. She has no espresso machine, she makes no lattés, and she carries no pre-packaged, commercial versions of her wares! When you ask for a cup of coffee, it is freshly ground and served to you in a coffee press.

In the cabinets to the left are burlap bags with tops rolled down, each containing a different variety of whole roasted coffee beans.

Note the wooden paddles which label the coffee varieties. More about them later. We’ll come back to Kauffman’s, but first I’d like to move next door to Fraulie’s.

As you enter the doorway of Fraulie’s Deli opposite Kauffman’s, you will first see wall shelves of German products: cookies, marzipan, mustard, candy, flavorings, etc.

To the right is her display cabinet of meat and cheese items.

Since there is almost always a line of customers ahead of you, one will find the aisle standing with people, mostly speaking German, if not steadily, sharing a few German phrases with Margot who is the only person in the shop and who will most likely be seen at the register.

As you wait and slowly work your way, in turn, toward the register to be served, one has plenty of time to enjoy the banter of conversation and to peruse the purchase possibilities of the deli cabinet. Shall it be German sausage (wursts), Bavarian salami, havarti cheese, or Black Forest country ham?

One of my favorite things to do is to arrive at the shop around lunch time and to have Margot create for me a delicious sandwich like none one can find anywhere in the area. First, she will have you choose the bread you would like.

Then you choose the “innards” for the sandwich from her deli offerings, choose a mustard, and your sandwich awaits. Mine was a rye bread with German hot mustard, Leberkäse and Danish cheese. As you leave, Margot bids you “auf wiedersehen”.
What I like to do, then, is take sandwich in hand, return to Kauffman’s, have Betty prepare for me my coffee of choice in the coffee press, and enjoy lunch there in Kauffman’s.

As you can see, the coffee in the coffee press is timed with a sand timer — four minutes, if I’m not mistaken. While having lunch, it is common for local postal deliveryman, Jerry, to stop by with Betty’s mail, to sit for a spell, and sometimes having a cup of Betty’s coffee as well.

I said I would return to the subject of the paddles and labels in the glassed-in cabinets. Betty happened to mention to me, as she shared a cup of coffee with me, that she was no longer able to find the wooden paddles she used in her display case and would like very much to find someone who might make her some more. I guess she presented her case properly; at any rate, I found myself saying to her: ” I could probably make you some of those. How many would you like?” She replied, “Oh, I could use four or five of them.” That was 17 paddles ago. I knew they would be within my capability, and would probably be fun to make, so I proceeded. Using some of the sycamore lumber I had around the shop, I resawed it into 1/4 inch stock, cut them out and adorned them with the wheat chip carving “trademark” that adorns most of the things I make.

Assembled, they look something like this:

I hope I’m not stealing one of Betty’s favorite stories, but she and her son (who helps her in the shop when available) have come up with a very interesting coffee blend. First, you have to understand that Betty’s late husband was a Presbyterian minister, making her a preacher’s wife. Here is a photo of a bag for their famous blend perched under the grinder:

Note the name. The ingredients of the blend, if I’m not mistaken, are the following: Sumatran, House Blend, Italian, and Tanzanian coffees, hence the unusual name. Betty loves to tell the story of the local minister who wanted to purchase some of this delicious mixture as Christmas gifts, but to prevent his giving “S.H.I.T.” to his staff, they decided to rename the blend as “Special Blend #2″ for his use. Imagine its name if they also add Yrgacheffe coffee to the mix….

It’s always a pleasure to visit both Kauffman’s and Fraulie’s.

We’ve been having very mild weather (temps in the 60’s ?!) here in Pennsylvania — almost unheard of for January! The other day my wife mentioned that her mother has difficulty climbing our deck stairs when she comes to visit and we ourselves aren’t getting any younger, so would I consider adding stair rails to the deck? It sounded like a good idea to me, the weather was mild for working outdoors, so, for the NEXT snowstorm, we’ve got RAILS!

Here’s the BEFORE:

Here’s the AFTER:

And, if you want a bit of detail, here’s what I came up with:

Some pressure-treated 2×4s, a couple of 3/8″ galvanized lag screws and washers, some gray stain and VOILA, it’s done! Not ALL projects need to be lengthy and complicated!

Applying a finish to a newly completed project, I must admit, can be a scary proposition. What happens if I had gone to all that work, and then really screw it up with the finish?! I’ve been pretty consistant with using nitrocellulose lacquer as, I guess, my favorite finish material, but decided to try out the more environmentally sound water-based Target finishes on my instrument cases to see how I like them. I’m following the steps of Larry Fisher, who told me about Target, and am trying to emulate his really fine finishes.

First, one needs the material and the equipment.

Here are the items I’ve acquired to date: an Astro HTE Conversion Spray Gun, a pressure regulator (the little cleaning brush comes with it), and a few small cans of Oxford water-based finishes just to try. The small jar on the right is the nozzle soaking in acetone — a practice recommended to me by the Target sales person.
The Astro spray gun is a gravity-feed unit with the can on top.

This was recommended for these finishes and it is powered by an air compressor (which I just happen to have sitting in the floor below). It is supposed to be of a design that minimizes overspray much like HVLP but gives good atomization. I’ve found this, indeed, to be the case.

Not wanting to have overspray flying thru my shop, I decided to make a poor man’s spray booth. By doing surgery on the carton that my Festool vac. came in, I came up with a spray booth that was just the right size for this project.

In it, on blocks, you can see one of the box lids that needed spraying. If you look to the left of the photo, you can see a small squirrel-cage blower that I’ve placed beside my “booth” to draw air thru a furnace filter to help “collect” the overspray.

With the small wedge to help keep it in close proximity to the hole I’ve cut into the box, it did an amazingly good job of limiting the amount of circulating overspray while keeping the room heat within the room. It is recommended that one use these water-based products in 70-degree temps.

With my past experience of using highly volatile and flammable nitrocellulose lacquer, it was such a pleasure to use something that I knew would not ignite! It had very little odor (if any), and was quite easy to apply. I began with plain water to be sure the sprayer was working and quickly changed to the real thing.

For this project, I initially applied with a cloth pad, a sealer coat of Oxford garnet-colored water-based, dewaxed shellac (yep, water — no alcohol), after which I sanded and chose to use the Oxford water-based polyurethane for the ourter finish on these cases so as to get good durability. After the shellac, I applied, I would guess, 3-4 good coats of polyurethane over a period of several hours. AFTER having done so, I read the can to learn that, unlike the water-based lacquer, the polyurethane is supposed to dry for 3 HOURS between coats. Too late. I had already applied it in MUCH lesser time. The end product really does look nice and I’m hoping I won’t go to the shop tomorrow or the next day to find that my finish has begun to flake off or something.

Anyway, I’m now planning to give it a day or two to dry thoroughly and am eager to see how the finish rubs out. Until such time, here’s what they look like at the moment:

I actually think they look darned nice! As per usual, now that the finish has been applied, I realize I should have used a wood filler on the teak. But, hey, it’s an instrument CASE, not an instrument and it’s still going to look pretty snazzy!

Applying a spray finish mid-winter here in Pennsylvania is a luxury I have never experienced before. My mode of operation was to construct things during the winter, then move to the driveway to do my spraying in the sunshine when spring and summer arrive. Not a very efficient way to run a workshop (and there are insects outside in the summer who LOVE to walk in paint and lacquer)!

This project seems to be dragging on a bit, but next week I hope to rub out the box finish, reinstall the hardware, and proceed with finishing up the interior, making the fake-fur and/or velvet covered inserts for the respective musical instruments the boxes will house. With fingers crossed, I can say at the moment that I think I like the Target finishes!

Back in October, I happened to hear Russian mandolin virtuoso, Tamara Volskaya, in concert with the Abaca String Band. I guess I had never seen/heard classical mandolin and, since the mandolin is very much like a plucked, fretted violin, I decided I needed to have one (I play at the violin on occasion). As luck would have it, a lady by the name of Tanya was selling her late father’s instrument collection on eBay and was selling a mandolin just like the one I had heard Ms. Volskaya play! I placed bids, I won the bid, and amazingly, I received a Russian mandolin a few weeks later from Cherkasy, Ukraine!

Unfortunately, while lovely to look at, it is not in the best of shape, so I will need to do some work on it to make it fully playable (subject for a later post…). A short time later, I received from a friend another mandolin/banjo type instrument, the name or origin of which I am still trying to find out.

It has Oriental writing and design on the skin head and back,

but I have not yet found out if it is Japanese or Chinese writing. When the case is finished, I plan to show it to the Japanese lady, Yoko, who runs our favorite local sushi restaurant to tell me if she can identify the writing.
Neither instrument came with any sort of instrument case, so I’ve decided to make each a protective case before working on the instruments themselves. Part of my incentive for making these is that I am planning to use these wooden cases as practice pieces for using Target water-based finishes. I hope eventually to use these finishes for my harps.

For the Russian mandolin, I decided to use some 1/8″ cherry plywood I’ve had for many years, and for the banjo-like instrument, I’ve used some 1/4″ teak-clad wall paneling that had been given to me by a friend, Rob Howe, at least 20 years ago.

First, I made simple boxes of appropriate sizes. It was simply a matter of cutting the 6 pieces to size for each box, then edge gluing the pieces all together in the shape of a box using Titebond III yellow glue.

Here you see the Oriental instrument lying atop its future teak home. Notice that the corners are still exposed and the lid and body have not yet been separated.

To finish the corners, the router is used cut a square groove, then to inlay a square strip of hardwood in all 8 raw corners of the box.

The corner inlay, being nearly as thick as the box material, it is necessary to enhance the corner joints so that the box pieces will not fall apart when the inlay groove is cut out. To prevent this from happening, I first of all used the table saw to separate the lid portion of the box from the lower part of the box.

ADVISORY: In separating the lid, it is important to have both opened surfaces very neat and straight. As one makes the saw cuts, it is particularly difficult to keep the saw-cut opening immobile so as to not have the saw blade damage one side or the other. My way of preventing this was to tape small pieces of thin plywood over the end cuts, thereby preventing the sawcut space from closing onto the blade.

After having cut the lid from the box, I reinforced the inside corners with fillet of thickened West System Epoxy (see diagram above).

This epoxy has a slow setup time (45 minutes to an hour) and I choose to use this particular type epoxy so as to give myself plenty of time to apply it.

The grooves were then routed for the corner inlay.

Depending upon the size of groove needed, it is sometimes difficult to fine-tune the router depth of cut. Here is the system I’ve come to use, wherein I can adjust the size to the router roller by applying plastic tape.

Having applied the epoxy fillet and having glued the hardwood inlay into the corner grooves, it is then time to consider how to deal with the raw edged between the lid and the box bottom. I chose to make finish trim for the opening as follows:
The trim pieces were formed using the table saw and a round-nose router bit.

Here are both cases with inlays and box trim applied and the corners having been rounded with a 1/4th round router bit. The teak case is on top, the cherry case below it.

Next, it is time to install the box hardware.

With the box being essentially finished, it is now time to remove all the hardware, do the finish sanding, and begin application of the final finish. This will be an activity for the upcoming week.

January 3, 2006

I’ve heard it said that the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Last Thursday I received a fun toy shipment from the UPS deliverer that looked like this:

I am a member of the SAW-PA (Susquehanna Area Woodworkers of Pennsylvania) which meets at the Woodcraft Store in Harrisburg, PA, and each time I have gone there, I have drooled a bit over the German-made, Festool line of shop tools. Having a bit of Christmas cash at my disposal (and being a fool for new toys), I placed a tool order. Here is what came out of the boxes:

What you see here is a WONDERFUL vacuum unit on the bottom and, latched to the top of it, neat plastic containers which house different tools that go with the vacuum. Those tools are lying atop the unit and are an orbital sander

and a router.

A persistent problem in a wood shop is the ever constant presence of sawdust. I have invested in Festool as a way to get around constantly dealing with a dusty workshop. The German makers have very carefully crafted their tools to have very effective dust collection ports. When coupled with the dedicated vacuum, it virtually eliminates sawdust in most shop operations (and it also does a great job of vacuuming the floor and the surfaces of the workbench and stationary tools.)

I have decided that the vacuum unit is the core of the entire Festool line. In the several days I’ve had it, I’ve used duct tape and other modifications and have now used the Festool vacuum with my Ryobi drum sander, the Laguna band saw, the Makita palm sander, and have used it with a magnetic collector on the table saw and with other operations.

The tools themselves are quite well made and lots of detail has gone into their design. When using a tool,

pressing the “on” switch of the tool automatically switches on the vacuum unit (with vacuum hose attached to the tool). Using the sander this way, there is NO dust during use and when switched off, running one’s hand over the workpiece yields NO residual sawdust! Totally amazing. Power for the tool comes from an electrical outlet located right on the vacuum.

The large green dial chooses from “auto”, “manual” and “OFF” modes. The tool is plugged into the outlet (I’m holding the cover open with my left hand.) “Auto” makes the vacuum turn on and off as the tool is turned on and off. The vacuum also has variable speed, so one can use the smaller green dial to choose how much vacuum one wants to use with a given tool. At high speed, it makes what I would consider an average vacuum cleaner noise; no high-pitched sounds. Inside the vacuum is a 5.8 gallon paper vacuum cleaner bag that holds a LOT of shop dust and shavings! It has nice wheels that make it roll around the shop with ease.
HERE’S THE BIG SURPRISE I DISCOVERED TODAY: I was of the impression that, in order to avail one’s self of Festool’s automatic vacuum on/off feature with tool usage, one had to use the specially wired, Festool components. Looking at the power cord on the Festool sander and router, I could see no difference from any other power cords in my shop, so I plugged my Makita sander into the vacuum outlet. I turned on the sander switch and VOILA! THE VACUUM WAS ACTIVATED!! This turkey will work with ALL my new AND old shop tools!!! It apparently senses the flow of electricity to the tool which activates the vacuum! Totally amazing! When I discovered this, I was HYPED!! The only drawback is that the Festool cords are 11 feet long (or whatever) and most of the cords to my non-Festool tools are much shorter, so I’ll probably have to use extension cords to make my old tool cords be as long as the vacuum hose. Life is good!