Sandal Woods

Woodworking with passion

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Archives for October 2010

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I caught the bullet – literally

I am not an expert with guns, nor with ammo. But I believe I recognize a bullet when I see one.

I was getting some sycamore and walnut ready for resawing, with all the boards destined for a bunch of small boxes I am making. I had already machined the boards on the jointer and on the planer; left to do was to square the ends, and trim to width prior to resawing. I have done this many times; it is easy, and totally routine. I started to cross cut the ends, to minimize the risk of surprises while resawing. I always square off the ends for resawing.

Routine stuff. Except this time I heard a loud noise as I cross-cut one of the walnut board ends; it was a muffled, but loud noise. It was muffled because I was wearing hearing protection. At the same time I saw a chunk of walnut fly off toward the back, and to the right of the table saw blade. I didn’t now what to make of it; I stopped everything, took a deep breath, and took my time to inspect things.

I did not find anything on the walnut chunk that flew off. It just seemed odd. Next I checked the blade; one of the carbide teeth had an irregular leading edge, but it was not chipped. So I checked the end of the board I was squaring. This is what I found:

Shop safety is not optional.

Fortunately, I was wearing goggles, to minimize the risk of eye injury in the event of flying debris at the table saw. This is the *one* time I was glad that I put on the goggles routinely. A close-up look shows the following, in the photo below – is it a 22-caliper bullet?

Bullet in walnut board.

I never found metal in any lumber I buy at the local saw mills. I bought a metal detector years ago, so I can inspect lumber I suspect of having nails or other metallic debris, such as the boards I kept from the old deck we removed recently. Those will get 100% inspection.

I will also conduct 100% inspection of the remaining 4/4 boards, and all the 8/4 boards I bought during my last trip to the saw mill.

— Al Navas

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Boxes, boxes, boxes – just the thing for the F3 template

It is funny how some things happen. I needed to make some boxes. That is not quite accurate – I needed to make a LOT of smallish, rustic boxes. Size needed: less than 9 inches long, about 2.5 inches tall, and less than 5 inches wide. I was ready, with the Leigh F3 finger joint template in my arsenal; here are two of the prototypes, on dry fit:

Rustic boxes on the Leigh D4 F3 jig, using the F3 template.

For stock thickness of around 1/4″ to 5/16″, the 5/16-inch template area of the F3 was perfect:

The machining on the F3 finger joint template is flawless.

The two little boxes fit well on the D4, with plenty of room to spare:

The boxes sitting on the D4, with the F3 template in place.

I will show more of this work in a future article. I wanted to share with you as soon as the prototypes were done – the F3 template makes easy play of making these boxes.

The wonderful thing about this work: Sandy told me just tonight she has an order from our daughter for a large, durable box to store her knitting supplies to take to ice skating lessons, and to guitar lessons, while she waits for the girls to finish their lessons. I must get to that one after this large bunch of boxes is done!

— Al Navas

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Woodworking in America video: Dovetailing drawers – tails or pins first?

Frank Klausz and Roy Underhill show how each cuts dovetails; each starts with a different part of the joint. This has been a perennial issue with these two amazing craftsmen. Klausz always starts pins first (with one exception, the hidden mitered dovetail), while Underhill always starts tails first.

I have watched both in every Woodworking in America conference – and every time I am amazed not only at their skill at making this joint, but also their teaching ability. They are ageless.

  • Which do you cut first, pins, or tails?
  • What type of saw do you use?
  • Do you have to do a lot of paring to get good fit?
  • Or are you good enough that the joint fits right off the saw?

— Al Navas