brianhabby
Established Member
Yes flying haggis, that is exactly what I am talking about.flying haggis":1rpida6y said:
regards
Brian
Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls
- Thread starter Steve Maskery
- Start date
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regards
Brian
Steve.
The Thein-type seperator I made a few months ago maybe of some interest.
Half way down page 2 + page 3.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/extraction-lvhp-chip-hvlp-dust-or-both-t56466-15.html
With the duct setup I had it initially robbed far too much suction but after rationalising the ductwork and plugging every single leak I've got the system back to about the same suction level as before I introduced the seperator. The beauty of it is that I no longer have to clean the filter out at all - which is what I was trying to achieve in the first place
Mark
The Thein-type seperator I made a few months ago maybe of some interest.
Half way down page 2 + page 3.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/extraction-lvhp-chip-hvlp-dust-or-both-t56466-15.html
With the duct setup I had it initially robbed far too much suction but after rationalising the ductwork and plugging every single leak I've got the system back to about the same suction level as before I introduced the seperator. The beauty of it is that I no longer have to clean the filter out at all - which is what I was trying to achieve in the first place
Mark
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Hi Mark
Yes, I did see that when I was exploring the idea. Great job, there.
S
Yes, I did see that when I was exploring the idea. Great job, there.
S
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Winding sticks are an essential tool for any woodworker. So how have I got to this advanced stage of life without ever having made a pair? Well for years, decades, actually, I have made do with two spirit levels, a blue one and a white one. They worked very well, until someone stole the contents of my workshop. I now have a selection of spirit levels, all of them bright yellow!
So for the last couple of years I have had Winding Sticks on my to-do list. Last weekend I visited the workshops of Peter Sefton, who has a beautiful woodworking school and tool shop in rural Worcestershire. I was there to demonstrate his new range of router tables, but also on display was the work of his students in their first term of furniture-making tuition. The workmanship of some of the pieces from guys less than half my age put my work to shame. One of the projects Peter gets them to make is a pair of winding sticks, and so I determined to make myself a Rolls-Royce pair.
Winding sticks are two very precisely made pieces of wood. They are dead straight and there is a visual contrast between the two. They will tell me whether my piece of wood or frame is properly flat.
Any piece of wood that we plane up usually has to be true and flat. Unfortunately, wood has a tendency to move as its water content changes and that means that it may not be as flat as we would like. The consequences of this manifest themselves further down the line when we join components together, such as in a rail and stile door, or a face-frame. If it is not glued up planar, then doors do not close at both top and bottom and frames of any kind have one corner which kicks out. We don't want that. We want Flat. Very Flat Indeed.
Winding sticks help because they exaggerate any deviation from flat. We call this Wind (that is Wind as in Clock, not Wind as in Hurricane). Winding sticks are our friends, because they warn us of problems further down the line.
Traditionally, winding sticks have a wingtip at each end of the rear-most stick, which is a contrasting colour to the main stick. That is fine, provided that the background against which I view the wingtip is clearly defined against the general background. But my background consists of a bandsaw and a couple of wall-hung storage boards. So why not make the visual contrast an integral part of the device? So I have inlaid a strip a little down from the top edge, where it would normally be. This gives me a dark background to the white line and has the added bonus of me not having to bend down quite so low to use them. And, as I get older and more decrepit, that begins to matter!
To make my winding sticks I have chosen American Black Walnut and English Sycamore. Sycamore is part of the Acer family (Acer Pseudoplantanus), so it is really a type of soft maple. It is nice and white and makes a good contrast to the walnut. You can use any two contrasting woods, as long as one is dark and the other is light. The only problem with walnut is that it is soft to the touch, it is easy to ding with even a fingernail, so if you can find something physically harder, that would be even better.
So I started with a piece of American Black Walnut and planed it up with my sharpest plane and my most accurate try square. This is an exercise in hand-tool precision. It has to be straight and square. It was, for a while, and then I had to do it all over again because it moved. Twice. I did end up with something with which I was happy but I am assuming that it will be a compromise for ever.
Its final dimensions were 520 x 55 x 34mm.
I want to keep both sticks together, so I bought a length of brass rod, 6mm diameter, and drilled a pair of holes for them. I stopped about 6mm short of going right through.
The shape of winding sticks is also traditional rather than functional. We are viewing two edges, one against the other, and it is traditional for those edges to be thin. So I marked a couple of bevels and set my tablesaw up to cut them.
Now my tablesaw is a version of a very old, American, well-established, design. That means that the blade tilts towards the fence, and that is a bit of a problem, as it increases the risk of the workpiece getting jammed between the fence and the blade.
More modern designs have the blade tilting away from the fence, so that nothing gets trapped at all, so I reduce the risk by moving my fence to the left of the blade. The only problem for me now is that my SUVA guard no longer fits, but I have a stand-alone magnetic guard which keeps my fingers away from the blade.
So I bevelled both sides to 16 degrees.
So for the last couple of years I have had Winding Sticks on my to-do list. Last weekend I visited the workshops of Peter Sefton, who has a beautiful woodworking school and tool shop in rural Worcestershire. I was there to demonstrate his new range of router tables, but also on display was the work of his students in their first term of furniture-making tuition. The workmanship of some of the pieces from guys less than half my age put my work to shame. One of the projects Peter gets them to make is a pair of winding sticks, and so I determined to make myself a Rolls-Royce pair.
Winding sticks are two very precisely made pieces of wood. They are dead straight and there is a visual contrast between the two. They will tell me whether my piece of wood or frame is properly flat.
Any piece of wood that we plane up usually has to be true and flat. Unfortunately, wood has a tendency to move as its water content changes and that means that it may not be as flat as we would like. The consequences of this manifest themselves further down the line when we join components together, such as in a rail and stile door, or a face-frame. If it is not glued up planar, then doors do not close at both top and bottom and frames of any kind have one corner which kicks out. We don't want that. We want Flat. Very Flat Indeed.
Winding sticks help because they exaggerate any deviation from flat. We call this Wind (that is Wind as in Clock, not Wind as in Hurricane). Winding sticks are our friends, because they warn us of problems further down the line.
Traditionally, winding sticks have a wingtip at each end of the rear-most stick, which is a contrasting colour to the main stick. That is fine, provided that the background against which I view the wingtip is clearly defined against the general background. But my background consists of a bandsaw and a couple of wall-hung storage boards. So why not make the visual contrast an integral part of the device? So I have inlaid a strip a little down from the top edge, where it would normally be. This gives me a dark background to the white line and has the added bonus of me not having to bend down quite so low to use them. And, as I get older and more decrepit, that begins to matter!
To make my winding sticks I have chosen American Black Walnut and English Sycamore. Sycamore is part of the Acer family (Acer Pseudoplantanus), so it is really a type of soft maple. It is nice and white and makes a good contrast to the walnut. You can use any two contrasting woods, as long as one is dark and the other is light. The only problem with walnut is that it is soft to the touch, it is easy to ding with even a fingernail, so if you can find something physically harder, that would be even better.
So I started with a piece of American Black Walnut and planed it up with my sharpest plane and my most accurate try square. This is an exercise in hand-tool precision. It has to be straight and square. It was, for a while, and then I had to do it all over again because it moved. Twice. I did end up with something with which I was happy but I am assuming that it will be a compromise for ever.
Its final dimensions were 520 x 55 x 34mm.
I want to keep both sticks together, so I bought a length of brass rod, 6mm diameter, and drilled a pair of holes for them. I stopped about 6mm short of going right through.
The shape of winding sticks is also traditional rather than functional. We are viewing two edges, one against the other, and it is traditional for those edges to be thin. So I marked a couple of bevels and set my tablesaw up to cut them.
Now my tablesaw is a version of a very old, American, well-established, design. That means that the blade tilts towards the fence, and that is a bit of a problem, as it increases the risk of the workpiece getting jammed between the fence and the blade.
More modern designs have the blade tilting away from the fence, so that nothing gets trapped at all, so I reduce the risk by moving my fence to the left of the blade. The only problem for me now is that my SUVA guard no longer fits, but I have a stand-alone magnetic guard which keeps my fingers away from the blade.
So I bevelled both sides to 16 degrees.
Attachments
Steve Maskery
Established Member
The sawn edges needed cleaning up with a plane, and the triangular off-cuts from the bevelling cut helped me to keep the workpiece nice and level.
My workpiece now needs to by sawn down the middle. I had visions of it moving into two banana-shaped pieces, but, although there was some movement, it wasn't too bad. Nothing that a couple of passes with a sharp plane couldn't sort out.
Now it is time to sort out the contrast. I found a piece of sycamore. English sycamore is a type of maple, American sycamore is a type of plane tree. They are not the same family, it is a linguistic nightmare. Sycamore is very white, or at least, it should be, but it is prone to blue staining and discolouration. This was pretty bad, but with some care and a lot of wasted wood, I was able to produce a strip which was white rather than blue.
I set my router table up with a half-inch cutter (12.7mm), a feather board and a push stick. I also have a “plug-hole” dust extraction port for situations where I cannot suck out the debris from the rear. Just like now.
So I routed out a groove and very carefully prepared a strip of sycamore to fill it. The strip is ever so slightly proud of the surface, so I was able to use the other half of the unit to clamp it in place with a few spring clamps.
Once cured, I cleaned up the sycamore to be be flush with the walnut.
The brass rod needs to be just about 25mm long, so I cut a piece 50mm, chucked it in a drill and polished it with some diamond files and wire wool. Beautiful.
Of course, I want a snug fit in one half and an easier fit at the other, so for the second piece I drilled it out at 6.35mm, which is 1/4”. I rather wish I had a proper set of engineering drills, as, although it is tolerable, it is a bit too easy a fit. I would have preferred something bit tighter; 6.1 or 6.2mm, perhaps.
The last job is to drill a hanging hole. I meant to do this before I separated the two halves, but I forgot, but once the brass pins were installed, then alignment was assured and as I hadn't altered the drill press fence, then the hanging hole was still aligned with the pin holes. I didn't quite get the centre of gravity right, so the whole thing hangs with a bit of a tilt, but it is generally OK. I eased the edges of the holes with a 45 degree router cutter.
They are finished with a few coats of blonde shellac.
My workpiece now needs to by sawn down the middle. I had visions of it moving into two banana-shaped pieces, but, although there was some movement, it wasn't too bad. Nothing that a couple of passes with a sharp plane couldn't sort out.
Now it is time to sort out the contrast. I found a piece of sycamore. English sycamore is a type of maple, American sycamore is a type of plane tree. They are not the same family, it is a linguistic nightmare. Sycamore is very white, or at least, it should be, but it is prone to blue staining and discolouration. This was pretty bad, but with some care and a lot of wasted wood, I was able to produce a strip which was white rather than blue.
I set my router table up with a half-inch cutter (12.7mm), a feather board and a push stick. I also have a “plug-hole” dust extraction port for situations where I cannot suck out the debris from the rear. Just like now.
So I routed out a groove and very carefully prepared a strip of sycamore to fill it. The strip is ever so slightly proud of the surface, so I was able to use the other half of the unit to clamp it in place with a few spring clamps.
Once cured, I cleaned up the sycamore to be be flush with the walnut.
The brass rod needs to be just about 25mm long, so I cut a piece 50mm, chucked it in a drill and polished it with some diamond files and wire wool. Beautiful.
Of course, I want a snug fit in one half and an easier fit at the other, so for the second piece I drilled it out at 6.35mm, which is 1/4”. I rather wish I had a proper set of engineering drills, as, although it is tolerable, it is a bit too easy a fit. I would have preferred something bit tighter; 6.1 or 6.2mm, perhaps.
The last job is to drill a hanging hole. I meant to do this before I separated the two halves, but I forgot, but once the brass pins were installed, then alignment was assured and as I hadn't altered the drill press fence, then the hanging hole was still aligned with the pin holes. I didn't quite get the centre of gravity right, so the whole thing hangs with a bit of a tilt, but it is generally OK. I eased the edges of the holes with a 45 degree router cutter.
They are finished with a few coats of blonde shellac.
Attachments
Steve Maskery
Established Member
In use, I put one behind the other and bend down.
As the front strip eclipses the back strip, the white line of sycamore begins to disappear. If one end goes before the other, the workpiece is not flat and needs planing.
When both ends disappear at the same time, then the surface is flat and true.
Winding strips can be used in the same way when gluing up a frame, to ensure that it, too, is properly flat.
Really, you do need to make yourself a pair. You'll wonder how you ever managed without them.
As the front strip eclipses the back strip, the white line of sycamore begins to disappear. If one end goes before the other, the workpiece is not flat and needs planing.
When both ends disappear at the same time, then the surface is flat and true.
Winding strips can be used in the same way when gluing up a frame, to ensure that it, too, is properly flat.
Really, you do need to make yourself a pair. You'll wonder how you ever managed without them.
Attachments
Halo Jones
Established Member
This article is one of the best I have read on making winding sticks and you are posting it free on ukworkshop - thank you.
(Pssst. what happened to your business plan?!)
H.
(Pssst. what happened to your business plan?!)
H.
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Thank you. Yes I really am that stupid.Halo Jones":el0anfa4 said:
Well I have to write and there is no-one to publish me here at the moment, although it will probably get published in Italy at some point.Halo Jones":el0anfa4 said:
It's coming along very very slowly.
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Pictures, Pete, Pictures!
brianhabby
Established Member
Surely the winding sticks themselves (being wood) will move, won't they? Or am I missing something?
Brian
Brian
Steve Maskery
Established Member
They are cut from the same piece, so they are, as near as dammit, identical. If one moves, the other moves, in the same way, by the same amount.
It works.
S
It works.
S
John15
Established Member
Fantastic Steve. Extremely well explained and photographed.
John
John
brianhabby
Established Member
Okay, thanks Steve.Steve Maskery":eybshb63 said:
regards
Brian
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Although I've tried to hide it, there are enough pictures of my back garden for you to see that it is a tip. Horrible at the mo, it's just been a dumping ground. It makes Steptoe's back yard look like Versailles.
It is almost entirely topsoil and firewood.
Now that the patio is (sort of) finished I can build a log store. I found this on the Popular Mechanics site, which I quite like:
It's too high and appears to have no segregation for different batches of timber, but it is a start.
I have a few lengths of 4x2 and quite a bit of shiplap left over from the workshop build, so I'm going to use what I already have as much as possible.
I'm going to M&T the frame, so to start with there are quite a few mortices to cut
The feet have a bit of shape to them. Just because it is a firewood store doesn't mean it can't be a posh firewood store. Even in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. One has one's standards, one knows.
Then there are the corresponding tenons. This is my Ultimate Bandsaw tenon jig in action. Actually it is a very long time since I have used it. I've not done much ww at all over the last few years, and the few tenons I have cut I have done on my tablesaw with the Ultimate Tablesaw Tenon Jig. But some of these tenons are 4" long and so are too long for a 10" TS blade. And having a 2.1m length of wood upright over the TS is not exactly clever.
This is the setup from the operator's POV. I didn't realise, until I took this photo that it looks so complex! It isn't, I assure you, it's quite simple, actually. It's just that I'm using it in conjunction with my BS Fine adjuster, and the two together do make quite a structure.
I still have the tenons on the bottom ends of the uprights to do but life stopped play.
It is almost entirely topsoil and firewood.
Now that the patio is (sort of) finished I can build a log store. I found this on the Popular Mechanics site, which I quite like:
It's too high and appears to have no segregation for different batches of timber, but it is a start.
I have a few lengths of 4x2 and quite a bit of shiplap left over from the workshop build, so I'm going to use what I already have as much as possible.
I'm going to M&T the frame, so to start with there are quite a few mortices to cut
The feet have a bit of shape to them. Just because it is a firewood store doesn't mean it can't be a posh firewood store. Even in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. One has one's standards, one knows.
Then there are the corresponding tenons. This is my Ultimate Bandsaw tenon jig in action. Actually it is a very long time since I have used it. I've not done much ww at all over the last few years, and the few tenons I have cut I have done on my tablesaw with the Ultimate Tablesaw Tenon Jig. But some of these tenons are 4" long and so are too long for a 10" TS blade. And having a 2.1m length of wood upright over the TS is not exactly clever.
This is the setup from the operator's POV. I didn't realise, until I took this photo that it looks so complex! It isn't, I assure you, it's quite simple, actually. It's just that I'm using it in conjunction with my BS Fine adjuster, and the two together do make quite a structure.
I still have the tenons on the bottom ends of the uprights to do but life stopped play.
Attachments
monkeybiter
Established Member
I think I've spotted a patch of dust on your work light in the last piccy. [Just ribbing]
It goes without saying that it is going to be good work, and I understand that a workshop is the sum of it's products/contents, but IMHO you could do to be starting [several] new threads because you're actually past the build, you are now into the enviable stage of using the workshop THAT YOU BUILT and making things in it.
Celebrate the fact!
It goes without saying that it is going to be good work, and I understand that a workshop is the sum of it's products/contents, but IMHO you could do to be starting [several] new threads because you're actually past the build, you are now into the enviable stage of using the workshop THAT YOU BUILT and making things in it.
Celebrate the fact!
Bluekingfisher
Established Member
Perhaps going for the worlds longest thread with anything wood related in it?
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Perhaps you are right. This is about what I'm doing in the workshop rather than to the workshop. Maybe it's time to retire the thread. I'll ask the Mods to unstickificate it.
S
S
