Woodworking Tools

[JohnG]

I had this small press built for an R&D project at a window and door factory. The welded steel frame is heavily reinforced with 4" thick laminated strand lumber, a densified composite made from aspen fibers, which is also used for the platens. This came out of an immense press in Minnesota, the largest I ever worked with. I was developing millwork applications for this material in the early 1990's.



When we were done with the project, the maintenance manager tossed the press out; and I brought it home. The 20 ton hydraulic jack produces a glue line pressure of about 100psi over the 14" x 38" platen area. For comparison with a vacuum bag press, that is about 7 times atmospheric pressure. I hung the small space heater on one side. I cover the press with a tarp and heat it to about 90 degrees when I use thermosetting glues, which I prefer for curved laminations. In this picture the lower platen has been replaced with a laminating form to make serpentine drawer fronts out of 11 plies of 1/14" sugar pine millwork veneer.

The curved laminations were used in this walnut veneered dresser built from measured drawings in The Encyclopedia of Furniture Making by Ernest Joyce. I cartwheeled the veneer match; and I think the swirling, curly grain sways back and forth in a way that compliments the curved form.



The edges of the laminated drawers are concealed by a fine walnut cock bead.



Traditionally, the bead should cover the entire top edge, but I like to cut a recess that leaves 2 or 3 plies intact at the back edge so the bead is seated against a shoulder as reinforcement against being bumped loose. That requires a very accurate match between the curve of the draw front and the shaped edge of the bead. The laminating process produces uniform curved parts, but they spring a bit from the press block. I found it helped to make the machining form for this starting with a laminated part rather than right off the curve in the press block.

John G

 

[JohnG]

I built this little grinder to hone tools with curved edges that would cup my oilstones, which I like to keep very flat. It's built around a 2" pipe T fitting bored for the shaft bearings with the flat belt drive in the center. I made the 2 wheels as sandwiches with a stable wood composite core and 0.080" aluminum skins. I glued a scrap of rubberized conveyor belt onto the sanding belt contact wheel and a Goodwill store heavy leather belt onto the other, rough size out. I used West system epoxy, and it held to all those materials very well. I charge the leather wheel with very fine Clover compound.



I thought I might start carving with hand tools and use this to sharpen little gouges, but that hasn't worked out yet. I've used this to put the final edge on moulding knives for shaper heads.
The green plastic wheel is the type of jig I've worked out to grind accurate and identical curved profiles into knives which are used in pairs. The knife steel is held in a slot on the underside. The wheel is crowded to the grinder just a bit, and as material is removed it settles onto the table of the tool rest at which point material removal stops. The tool rest transfers from the bench grinder that removes almost all the steel.



This shows the underside of the jig with one honed knife in place and a matching knife on top. This type of cutterhead is used in left/right pairs on clockwise and counter clockwise spindles so curved edges can always be worked downgrain. The stop and clamp in the jig reverse to cut the second pair of knives which are shown mounted in the spindle in the middle. On the right is a curved knife in a vertical orientation. I usually make a double, overlapping cut with this, cartwheeling the work piece to get a wider cove profile than I could make in a single pass. I must caution anyone interested in cutters of this type that they have a well deserved reputation as hazardous tools and must be used with robust fixturing and safety barriers.

This door has raised panels with curved edges that would be made with the first set of tools. I built this a very long time ago with what I had a the time. I like the design, but I've never been completely happy with the quality of the details. I'll be building a replacement this winter with these new knives.



This buffet has a coved moulding in its base made with the vertical knives. It's veneered in quarter sliced cherry and has a top made from solid surface countertop material.



Thanks once more for looking.

 

[JohnG]

I built this little grinding fixture to sharpen 3 wing shaper cutters and 2 flute router bits on my surface grinder.



I turned and ground 2 spindles, one with a router collet and one with a 3/4" diameter shaft for shaper cutters. For small 1/2" bore shaper cutters, I use an auxiliary spindle in the 1/2" router collet.



The fixture moves on a dovetailed steel slide made out of 1/2" and 1/4" cold rolled plate. I didn't have a milling machine when I made this, so I rough cut the 45 degree dovetail surfaces with a hand hack saw and ground them on this grinder. The center slide is a couple of thousands thinner than the sides, so the table is supported at its outside edges for maximum stability.



The slide is set askew on the magnetic chuck with a 10:1 rise to run ratio, so moving it 0.001" gives a cut depth of 0.0001". I've been grinding steel cutters at 0.0002" to 0.0003" depth of cut. The fine thread feed screw runs through a long nut and will push or pull the slide. The dial indicator gives a direct read on the movement.
The spindle turns in composite pillow blocks that were unused spare parts for a decommissioned paint line. I don't think they were intended for high precision applications. The spindle is ground very slightly oversized, and I'm very happy with the feel as it is rotated. The knurled knob locks the spindle in place.



I have a lot of cutters to sharpen. The small steel cutters on the right are old, and I didn't have a good way to grind them before I built this fixture. Many weren't much good anymore due to poor sharpening, and I spent a very pleasant day restoring several. They aren't durable enough for long runs; but their small size lets them get in and out of quick little cuts, and now they do that very cleanly.




The curved feet on this cherry buffet were cut in a box jig using small diameter steel shaper cutters. It takes a rapid in and out motion to not burn the cut on the way in--cherry is prone to this--or tear things up by cutting past the point where the grain reverses at the bottom of the curve. The little lancet points on the bead moulding need a small diameter cutter to get a distinct return detail.

 

[JohnG]

Chinese joinery makes extensive use of tenoned miter joints. I made this matched pair of 45 degree miter gauges for my table saw to cut these.



Each steel angle iron has its outside faces milled flat and square. The top surface of the bottom leg is also milled flat and parallel to the underside of the bottom so a triangular steel plate can be solidly bolted and pinned to it. This assembly pivots on a ground shoulder bolt threaded into the slide bar. The long base between the pivot and the screw adjustment at the back end of the slide bar sets the angles very precisely.

The shoulder cuts for the tenons are also made on the table saw.



I've used commercial tenon jigs for table saws. The Delta Rockwell jig is very solid, but I never liked having my hand over the saw blade to tighten the clamp. This jig slides against the rip fence rather than in the miter gauge slot. I use a stop on a magnetic base against the back side of the rip fence and make fine adjustments with feeler gauges. The clamp screw telescopes into a steel tube, and the clamp handle is way back from the blade.
The jig shields my hands from the saw blade, which can be set quite high; and I feel very safe using it.



Since I wanted to cut shoulders for mitered tenons, not just square ends, the clamp pad can be swung all the way around to cut left and right miter cuts. The jig face and clamp pad are aluminum plates secured with brass machine screws. There's no steel to nick the saw blade.




This is a corner joint for the legs on the Ming table I showed above. 2 mortises are cut first on a hollow chisel mortiser. Then the miter cuts have to align with the bottom ends of the mortises and meet exactly along the diagonal line of the leg. Finally the shoulder cuts are exactly even with the inside edges of the mortises and make a corner right at the diagonal in line with the miter cuts.

I started out admiring this furniture for its looks. When I started to make it I found the geometry of these joints disorienting at first. Then I found out how unforgiving they are since neither the tenons or the miters have any give to them. Finally I saw how this combination made the joints very rigid. Hopefully some will share my enthusiasm for this furniture tradition. Thanks for looking.

 

[JohnG]

This band saw fence has a dovetailed steel slide with rack and pinion adjustment. When I'm setting it up for very accurate resawing, I use the same magnetic base and feeler gauges that I use with my table saw fence. The fence is attached to the band saw table with a single ground shoulder bolt in reamed holes so it can pivot to exactly match the saw line of the band blade. Thin kerf resawing blades have very little set and will rub and drift if the fence is off in the least.



The slide is made of ground steel plates bolted and pinned together, except the fence plate itself is aluminum attached to the steel angle behind it with brass machine screws. The 2 knobs turn bolts against the side edge of the saw table to pivot the fence into alignment with the blade.



The saw is a 20" Davis and Wells from the 1950's or 60's--a simple, sturdy machine. I set it up primarily for resawing by increasing the motor to 3 HP, slowing the blade speed down to about 3,000 fpm, installing Wright guides, and adding the small cyclone for dust collection.



The front and top of this birch chest with swirling grain are resawn veneer. A 1" board gave me 5 pieces of 3/32" veneer and a 6th thicker piece for the edge bandings. The drawer sides are also resawn just over 5/16" thick. The open frame shows the drawer sides as inset panels. I'm very fond of yellow birch, both as a tree and as wood. There's a bit of it in my woods.

 

[JohnG]

I have several ways to make slot and tenon corner joints. This setup on a shaper is the most accurate and reliable, but it takes a while to set up.



It uses 1/4" chipper cutters from an 8" diameter, 1 1/4" bore dado set. These stack on a spindle I made for this small Yates American shaper. It's a heavy machine for its size. The spindle is steadied by an outboard bearing in an overarm support. I run this cutterhead at 3600 rpm, as slow as I can get this spindle to run, with 3hp behind it. The sliding table is 1/2" steel, 18" x 18". It's very heavy, which inspires confidence that it's not going to kick back on me. I've found the pneumatic hold down is less likely to vibrate loose than a mechanical clamp.

Here's the setup with the hood removed. You can see the end stop which sets the depth of cut behind the cutterhead. The machine is not run like this.



This is the complete set of tools I made for this operation: On the left is the spindle which sets into the taper and drive lugs of the machine spindle. Next is the overarm turned over to show the bearing pressed into it. The rear support post is salvaged and reworked from some scrapped old machine. The end stop rides on the right hand fence guide pinned to the machine table. There are 3 shims matched to the 0.270" cutting width of the dado cutters and some thin shims to fine tune tenon cuts. These are sitting on the sliding table which has a guide bar in the miter gauge slot and thin plastic slides under it. The back stop pivots for miter tenon joints.




There is extremely accurate face registration and depth of cut. There can be some tear out at the back shoulders, so the parts are still about 1/8" wide when the joints are cut to allow for a clean up pass on both edges.



The joints in the birch chest in the last post were made this way.
I hope you found this interesting and useful. Thanks for looking.

 

[JohnG]

The tool perched like a propeller on top of this set up stack is an old style 2 wing panel raiser which cuts the beveled edge on door panels. The body of the tool is simply milled out of cold rolled steel bar stock, and 2 hss cutting edges are braised on. They aren't made like this anymore. I've always liked the results I got with this tool. It cuts very cleanly when it is sharp, especially on the end grain bevels. I've always hated sharpening this tool, and I'm here to put an end to that using the small CBN dish wheel mounted on the grinder shaft. I've turned the riser block under the cutter to get clearance for the grinding wheel and bolted cutter and riser to a sine plate. With all kinds of squares I'm going to align the edge, which has both shear and rake angles, square to the table and in line with the feed motion.



I'm only going to use this set up once to make a permanent angle block. I rough cut the bevel in this steel block on the horizontal band saw with the block screwed to a piece of wood miter cut to the tilt angle. I had to grind it down about 0.015" on this setup to get the face smooth and flat.



Here's the grinding setup with the cutter and riser block bolted to the bevel block set square across the magnetic chuck. One wing is done, and years of haphazard hand sharpening is replaced with a single clean face. The 150 grit CBN wheel cuts like a dream. I did a post a few years back when I rebuilt the cross feed screw on this grinder to get the action very tight, and today is payday for that.



I made 6 of these birch doors when I remodeled the house a few years ago. This is a European style of panel door, and I think it is a more contemporary look than stile and rail doors with lots of little panels. The larger panels need the wide edge bevels that this cutter produces for visual balance. Birch takes a beautiful polish when it is very smooth, especially on molded details; and that's where all this work ends up. Hope you found something you enjoyed here.

 

[JohnG]

I had to back up a bit to start this project. I built up the rim of this honing wheel with 2 layers of thick leather, rough side out. Now I'm turning it to a bullnose edge with a 1/2" radius router bit in the tool post grinder. The back edge is done, and the wheel has been turned to do the front edge. I wasn't sure this would work. The grinder had to work hard, but it cut the leather cleanly. I expected the cloud of leather dust but not the odd smell.



Here the bullnose wheel is mounted in the buffing machine and charged with 280 grit clover compound. The flat wheel on the right will do convex knives but can't get into the hollow of a concave knife. The bevel edge knife steel fits snugly into a dovetailed slot on the underside of the jig which rocks back and forth in its cradle. Most of the material is removed on a bench grinder, then the setup is transferred to the buffer to polish the edge. This type of setup has produced very accurate knife profiles for me.



The knives are mounted in matched pairs in the cutterhead. The outfeed hold down is pulled back to show the knife profile.



I built this fence 30 years ago to make small moldings, and it is one of my most useful tools. The incline is 4:1, so 8" travel of the lead screw moves the fence sideways 2". I'm making about 60 feet of birch molding with a lozenge profile, convex on both sides. After the first pass I added the auxiliary wood guide to match the molded profile and then turned the pieces end for end to mold the second side. Each side then got a finishing pass taking off 0.015". The cross section must stay very consistent for this to work, and this easily holds plus or minus 0.005".



Before I started the joinery I honed this hollow chisel to cut many little mortises.



The lattice pattern requires 4 different corner joints, lots of each. The curved faces can rock a bit in the fixtures when the end work is done, and I haven't figured out how to keep little twists from creeping in; but they also turn the mitered corners from flat lines into little folds with a much richer look.



The completed project is this lattice headboard. I took the pattern from a 400 year old couch shown in Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture by Sarah Handler, and my hat is off to those old Chinese guys who did this with hand tools. I built this room and the Palladian window behind the bed in 1987. I'm no longer up to large projects like that, but I can still manage small and fussy.



Thanks for looking. Hope you found something you enjoyed.

 

[middle.road]

Amazing...!

 

[.LMS.]

Speechless at the beauty!