My fist commission

People loved the tea candle holders I posted last time, in fact I was actually commission by several friends to make some for them. I learned an important thing while making them, You have to be really careful pattern routing end-grain Purpleheart.

The one hour project

A project that I have in the works, is going to require some routing with a guide bushing. Back when my only router was PC 890, I picked up a nice guide bushing base that centers with a locator pin. About a year ago I switched to a Bosch 1617,  and sure enough when i checked the other night, none of the mounting holes lined up. The first thing the came to mind, was “crap I need to buy a new base“, but then I remembered I have a set of counterbores, after about an hour of marking, drilling, & counterboring I was back in business. I guess one of the benefits of being a woodworker & metalworker, is having the tools to make or modify other tools.

Wine Rack Pt. 4

I spent very little time in the shop over the last week, because it was the hurry up and wait time of the project. Since my shop is a garage with no real climate control, I have to take my time milling up lumber. My routine is strait forward, and starts by flattening a face, and then letting the boards rest for 24 hours.  The next step is to thickness plane the boards, I don’t take them down to final thickness, just down enough to make them uniform across the entire board. I then let the boards rest for 24 hours. I then repeat this the process on the edges. I run through the entire process one more time to bring the boards to finished thickness & width before I start cutting joinery. It takes a long time, but it guarantees my boards stay strait and true.

Since I spent most of the week doing nothing, I was itching to get into the shop over the weekend and start doing something. As I stated in an earlier post, this is my first project I’ve made that used mortise and tenon joinery, so I took my time and set up the router table to rout out the waste. One thing I have to admit, is buying the spiral up bits was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Once I got the waste removed i set to work squaring up the ends using my chisels. I think for a first attempt, I did pretty well. The following photo is inspired by Chris schwarz, and all the black & white photos he posts on his blog.

Wine Rack Pt. 2

I have been channeling my inner David Marks recently, by making routing templates from MDF. They aren’t anything special, just 1/2″ MDF that I rough cut with the jig saw, and then sanded fare with flexible sanding sticks. I have one template left to make, and that’s the one for the “racks”, and it’s going to be the hardest, because it doesn’t have a single strait surface on it. Check in next time to see how i did.

Solid carbide joy

So what do you do when you when you have a project that requires mortises and pattern routing in a splintery wood? You buy yourself some solid carbide joy. Seriously, spiral bits do an excellent job at taming chip out, they work just like a helical cutting head in a planer or jointer. They attack the wood with a shearing action, so they remove material quietly & gently.