David Barron Furniture

Final Fitting

2012-02-27T11:53:00.005-08:00

Here I'm chopping out the mouth opening by dropping a chisel into a knife line. I mark the line with a square which should line up with the blade if everything has been done accurately. I creep up on the mouth openning to avoid going too far, after a few years of practice this usually only needs two marks with the square to locate the mouth position. The paper pad provides support but is forgiving enough to not dent the wood.

Here is a typical mouth openning, just enough to let a shaving through. The blade angle on this batch is 52 1/2 degrees so it is designed to plane without tearout on most woods.

Here is a picture with the wedge installed. You can see it is curved which provides two points of contact on the flat underside of the cross pin, this is an important detail which makes sure the blade is held very tightly in place. You'll also notice I've chosen a different wood for the wedge which has much more spring than the very dense Kingwood. This spring is also important in ensuring a tight fitting wedge. The wood I've used here is Lacewood (London Plane) but Oak, Ash and Walnut are all good alternatives.

Blades

2012-02-24T13:52:00.004-08:00

The blades for these planes are taken from 100 year old cast steel irons by Herring who were well known for their carving chisels. Although the blades were only hardened for part of their length it was too far up to be cut with a hack saw. I had to resort to hitting them with a lump hammer in an engineers vice to crack them in the right place (ish!). The backs were initially flattened on a linisher and the tops were rounded on a disc sander.

The Herring logo.

The blades were unused and had a shallow 20 degree bevel. I straightened the edge and then hollow ground them at 25 degrees on my high speed grinder. The final honing was done at 30 degrees which can be seen as the fine polished narrow edge.

I've recently been sidetracked with a Norris A6 recently purchased which has multiple cracks to the rear handle. Thankfully the cracks had not been repaired which makes things a lot easier! I filled the cracks with epoxy and clamped the handle as tight as I could. The handles need refinishing but hopefully by the time I've finished the repair it will be invisible as well as strong.

Pocket Plane Shaping

2012-02-17T11:43:00.007-08:00

Here I'm using a plug cutter to form the round tenons on the ends of the cross pin. The Flip Stop arrangement on my drill press is very useful in keeping things steady. I always make a few extra cross pins especially with such a small plane, the cross pin is 8mm square and the round pin is 6mm diameter which leaves very little margin for error.

Here are some blanks glued up, remembering to put put the cross pin in of course!

This is the first shaping cut on the band saw using a 6mm blade and with the blank laying on its side.

The front and rear then get three shaping cuts on each corner, freehand on the band saw.
Although this technique advocated by James Krenov and Sam Maloof is very useful, it is also potentially very dangerous, so no pictures!

Here I'm using the spindle sander for cleaning off the marks left by the band saw. I also use it for refining the curves on the front and rear, the disc sander tends to burn this dense wood.

The last stage is with the Kirjes pneumatic sander which is a wonderful little tool for finishing curved surfaces. I start with 80 grit and work through each of the grits up to fine finish with 400 grit. It doesn't take very long for each plane but with 21 to do its about 90 minutes of fairly boring work.

Hand cut dovetails made easy

2012-02-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

At last the You Tube film is available!

Pocket Planes

2012-02-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is a new plane which will be 5 1/2" long with a 1 1/4" wide blade. Its made from 2" turning blanks which are quite reasonable and also allow me to pick defect free quatered stock. The 21 blanks have been accurately planed to 49mm square.

A nice piece of Bocote also known as Mexican Rosewood.

Most blanks are from Kingwood a rare and beautiful timber. It's also very hard and dense and will sink if placed in water, perish the thought!!

This is my little marking out kit with 2 sliding bevels set at 52 1/2 degrees for the bed and 60 for the escapemnet. The perspex allows me to set everything out including the hole for the cross pin.

Before I separate the blank I drill 6mm holes for the dowels as well as the cross pin. I'm pictured here doing the last step of putting a small chamfer on the cross pin hole, it leaves a nice finish.

I'm now cutting each side from the blank with my home made fence. The blade and the fence are set dead square to the table, the secret to everything running smoothly is accuracy at every stage.

I use a carbide tipped blade on my band saw which gives a very clean finish. Here I'm using a Stanlet no 81 scraper to smooth off the band saw marks. Fitted with a Hock blade this is a formidable tool!

Wokshop Floor

2012-02-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

To complete the re arrangent of the workshop I've re painted the grubby floor a nice bright yellow, it hasn't been done for 8 years and it looks a million times better!

Workshop re organisation

2012-02-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

I've been rearranging my workshop to add in two more workbenches in preparation for teaching. The benches are both ones I use to demonstarte at shows and they were taking up valuable room in the wood store next door. The photo above shows my 'make up' table which I've moved across to use as my sanding / grinding station.The shot below shows how it was before, the crappy old stand has gone to the dump!

This is my make up table before the move, the wide top you can see has been reduced in width to fit in its new home.

The bench below is now doubling as my new make up table. This hasn't been out for a while as its a bit heavy to take to shows, I overdid things when I made it!

Below is my old sharpening station, this too has gone to the dump.

It has been replaced with my current mobile bench, which is my best design yet, although I over compensated on the size of the top which is a bit short. I can feel another bench making project coming!

Just for good measure here is a shot of the bench I use in the workshop, it is definately not portable!

You may notice that all of the benches have a leg vice fitted. The top one is a metal one by Veritas, the one above is a large wooden one which I made myself (my favourite), and the one below is a very sweet running version by Benchcrafted.

cutting gauge

2012-01-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

It's time to install the threaded inserts for the locking nut. It would work just as well with the thread tapped directly into the dense ebony but as I had to use an insert for the blade nut (best not to tap into end grain) I thought it would look better to be consistant. The M5 inserts are from Lee Valley (their shelf support inserts) and the M4 inserts were bought on E Bay. The photo shows me using a lip and spur bit which is the same size as the slot to locate the exact centre of the slot in the head below.

Now the 7mm outside diameter insert requires a hole of 6.75mm to give a nice tight fit, that is unless you are using ebony or something equally as dense. This wood has no give and a trial fit as suggested simply split the wood. So the only choice was to drill a 7mm hole and glue it in with a dab of epoxy resin. The rather nice knurled nuts I'm using were made by Phil Edwards of Philly Planes. Phil can make various sizes and the prices are very reasonable even for small orders.

Here are the inserts installed, they look very neat although in use they are hidden, shame!

With the blade prepared and honed here is the finished gauge, sorry about to poor picture! The concave notches on each side are not just for show, they are there for your second finger to drop into and provide lateral pressure keeping the head agianst the work. The left hand notch is for lefties.

The giudes were finished with two very thin coats of Osmo Matt Hardwax Oil which gives a nice looking durable surface which feels good in the hand. With batch complete they are ready to box up.

cutting gauge

2012-01-26T14:29:00.001-08:00

Here I'm routing a housing for the cutter in the end grain of the stock. I'm using the sliding fence on my Veritas router table with a clamped on backer board to avoid tearout. This is safe if you hold the stock firmly and move things slowly. Reversing the stock keeps the housing dead central but it takes a bit of fiddling on scrap to get a nice tight fit.

Here's the result, a nice friction fit leaving the blade flush with the stock. I tried a test model without this housing and the blade had a tendancy to skew when tightening up the screw (not yet fitted) or making a heavy cut.

Band saw update

2012-01-25T13:21:00.001-08:00

The motor for my band saw has returned. The diodes needed replacing, whatever they are!

The electrical company charged £109 in addition to the labour costs for the two visits.

I've had my vintage Minimax bandsaw longer than the Startrite and its been faultless. It cost me less to buy than this latest repair bill, they don't make 'em like they used to!

Cutting Gauge

2012-01-22T11:43:00.001-08:00

In the November 2010 issue of Furniture and Cabinetmaking I wrote an article on the making of a small cutting gauge. Until now I haven't actually had time to make any to sell! The wood I'm using is Macassar Ebony which I've had in stock for a few years. The picture shows the wood for the head stock which has had a 20mm wide groove to a depth of 3mm.

Here I'm starting to rout the grooves in the stems. This is a lot easier and safer to do before cuttting to size.

All the grooves have been cut. Note the backer board, which was attached with double sided tape, to prevent tearout on the underside.

The heads were cut up on the table saw and then rough shaped on the band saw (that's the Minimax, still no news on the Startrite). The curves were refined with two different sized bobbins on the spindle sander

The completed heads and stocks ready for final fitting.

Dovetails on U Tube

2012-01-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

The filming for my third DVD ran into a second day, as we thought it might. So while the cameras were on site we shot a little film for U Tube on hand cut dovetails. It's amazing how a video lasting less than 10 minutes took nearly two hours to shoot! I decided not to join the latest film craze to see who could cut dovetails the fastest but hopefully the little extra time produced a better result. Anyway you can see for yourself in a couple of weeks.

Hand finishing DVD

2012-01-18T00:55:00.000-08:00

Here are the two cameramen, they don't like the tables turned! I thought I'd get this one in before they subject me to a days filming.

Here are just some of the props I need for the film, I could fill this table twice over with the rest of them!

Here are two consecutive boards of highly figured Madrone, the one on the left is finished with shellac and the one on the right has been oiled. The shellac board has a much more even colour and there is real shimmer to the finish. The shellac has sealed the pores of the undulating grain whereas the oil has just sunk in leaving a much more blotchy finish.

Here is a set of sample woods to show the difference between water based finish (front), shellac (middle) and oil at the back. Different woods react in different ways and one finish is more pleasing than another depending on the wood and your taste!

The birds eye maple showed the most marked difference, the oil on the left was the darkest and was a bit blotchy around the 'eyes' (I know how that feels!), the shellac was darkened but really popped the figure and the water based acrylic was almost unchanged in colour but left a flat surface.

Startrite Bandsaw

2012-01-11T15:47:00.000-08:00

I have fallen out of love with my Startrite band saw! The first 18 months were fine and we were good friends, plenty of power and 16" depth of cut to match my planer. However 4 months ago a blade broke and ripped half the tyre off the top wheel. Annoying but not too much problem, just get a new tyre. Wrong! you have to buy a new wheel at a cost of £250! Unlike every other manufacturer Startrite machines have flat wheels with the tyre crowned after fitting. In the old days the tyres were welted on (a heat treatment process) but for the last few years they are simply glued and can be pulled off.
After pleading my case the cost was drastically reduced to £86 but they didn't have one in stock! Ten days later one arrived from Italy on a neat little pallet. There were no instructions but after a phone call I was told the wheel should just slide off after removing the locking nut. The nut came off easily but the wheel would not budge. I even drilled a hole in the back of the casing and hammered a tommy bar against the wheel but to no avail. An engineer had to be called, more cost! He couldn't move it either. He returned with a 'puller' but it was too small and came back with a larger one. Eventually with enourmous effort the wheel was finally removed. The new one was fitted with a lot of help from a lump hammer and all was well.
I have to say Startrite were helpful all the way, but surely a cost of £120 and my main band saw out of action for 6 weeks is a bit excessive for the sake of a new rubber tyre!
As all this happened last year I had put the experience behind me but guess what? When I was cutting out some hammer handles (below) the saw died on me. It is currently standing lifeless in my workshop minus the motor which has been taken to an electrical repair shop. I will report on progress.

Dovetail guides

2012-01-11T15:15:00.001-08:00

I use a little jig on the drill press to bring each side back to horizontal for drilling the holes for the magnets. The magnets are 20mm x 5mm and the hole is drilled to 5.5mm deep to allow some room for the epoxy glue. The magnet must not protrude atall as this will effect the saw angle in use.

This picture shows the other components of the jig. The squares are low friction or slick tape which is cut slightly smaller than each face and its edges are bevelled with the very useful little Bridge City finger plane. The two riding surfaces are faced with 100 micron 3M paper which helps maintain the position of the guide whilst cutting the dovetail. A bit like the old trick of gluing sandpaper to the back of a steel rule. The 3M paper and slick tape are attached with super glue, using an accelerator on one surface to speed the process up.

The batch of guides is now complete and is ready for boxing up.

Dovetail Guides

2012-01-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

The batch of hammers is complete. The last job was to square the protruding end on a disc sander and seal with a dab of super glue. This allows the hammer to stand on end. It can also sit on its face or on its side, one things for sure it won't roll off the bench!

The next job is to make some more magnetic dovetail guides. I take a 2' long x 60mm square blank of Concalo Alves and cut the profile on the table saw. I then carefully cut the blanks at 10 degrees each side using a cross cut sled on the table saw to give the guides in the picture.
I try to use blanks with the grain running at 45 degrees to reduce the risk of breaking with weak cross grain.

Chisel hammer

2012-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

This picture shows the cross pin in place, this prevents the head from twisting and makes sure that the head will never come off! I like to chamfer the hole and put a small chamfer on the pin, which leaves a neat slightly recessed finish. The pin is 1 mm smaller than the diameter of the head to achieve this.

This picture shows the blackwood wedge set at right angles to the grain direction, to prevent any risk of the wood splitting. This is how wedged joints should always be done. The wedge is in line with the head for neatness. All little details....... but they matter.

Here is the batch with the heads all wedged, ready for the cross pins to be drilled. The holes are drilled with a 4.7 mm drill bit and the pin measures 4.76 mm. This ensures a tight fit!

If you want to see a more comprehensive description of the making of my hammers see my article in issue 162 (Jan 2010) of Furniture and Cabinetmaking Magazine. There are many of my articles on line at http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/

Chisel Hammer

2012-01-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Over Chritmas I've been making a batch of my chisel hammers which should last a while. The work is enjoyable but fairly repetitive, I prefer smaller batches but a run in December cleaned me out!

The wood in this batch is particularly nice rippled ash which really shimmers. I take extra time when finishing ash as the open grain is a magnet to dirt which really shows up against the light wood. The first two coats are a heavy cut shellac which seals the wood nicely. This is followed by two satin coats of Osmo Hardwax Oil and finished off with a hard carauba wax blend.

All I need to do now is put them together!

Jewellry box

2012-01-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the box glued up, it's the first time I've used 'hounds tooth' dovetails and I think they look good. They were a little more trouble to cut, but worth the effort. Using hard maple for both sides of the joint needed extra care, this wood splits for fun if the joint is too tight and the light colour makes sucessful gap filling difficult.
The curly maple was discovered amongst a pile of ordinary maple at Yandles wood yard and was a real bargain. Luthier suppliers would charge a fortune for wood this nice. This will be a jewellry box with a few lift out trays and I'll be showing this at Celebration of Craftsmanship later this year. For now I will be concentrating on building up my stock of tools ready for the new show season.

Barr Quarton Chisels

2012-01-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog, I've been meaning to do this for a long time! My Christmas present (to myself) was this fine set of chisels made by Barr Quarton in America. They came razor sharp and I used the 1/4" and 1/2" to chop out the waste on 36 dovetails in hard maple (see below). The edges stood up extremely well and were still sharp enough to pare end grain, impressive!

The set of four comes with a very sturdy leather tool roll and cost $335 + $50 postage. I've ordered the 1/8" and 3/8" sizes which will complete the set.

A more comprehensive review of these chisels will be published in the March issue of Furniture and Cabinetmaking Magazine