Southwest Christmas Tree 2017

The earth has spun around the sun another year, carrying us all reliably through the winter solstice place on its orbit, caring not a jot about the tumult of the inhabitants on its surface:   the holidays arrive. We have lived another year, such a good thing, certainly another year wiser and why not happier too, yes, let it be. For the fourth year our Southwest Christmas Tree has traveled its short orbit from Arizona room to living room, and once again is festooned with many handmade ornaments, some of which are displayed in the Southwest Christmas Tree from 2015. Special this year is the lovely needlepoint ornament made by my lovely wife and pictured close up here:

Another ornament made of Baltic birch and using a stock scroll saw pattern was being considered as an item for our Etsy shop, but never made it into production...perhaps another year, angel with bugle:

Happy Holidays to all, and as my fellow Columbian said it, "to all a good night!"

Ultralight Coffee Table

If we reckon the coffee table the truck and the TV tray table the car, then the ultralight coffee table must be the crossover. Light enough to pick up with one hand but just large enough for a nice spread of hors d'oeuvres, this small table was designed to accompany my side tables called Three Easy Pieces. Just five pieces of wood, the coffee table is assembled in the same manner as the side tables with the black walnut legs embedded into mortises routed slightly more than halfway into the underside of the top. The tripod design make these side tables just precarious enough to be interesting and keep one alert.

The tops of the side tables are straight grain old-growth California redwood salvaged from architectural shelving in the home of an early Northern Arizona ranching family, a gift from them to me. The top of the coffee table, however, is actually old pine salvaged from a kitchen door jamb in my son's home by the Arizona Inn in Tucson. The jamb was cut into thirds, glued up and then stained to match the redwood using Mohawk Wiping Stains, one of my favorites. All the many nail holes both in the redwood and pine were filled carefully to make them mostly disappear. Finish for all four pieces is multiple coats of satin Waterlox, which provides an even wine-resistant coating.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Meyers Collaboration VIII - Framed Needlepoint

Marriage is often described as compromise, but why not collaboration? Our husband and wife collaborations of needlepoint and woodworking allow us to labor quite easily together without getting into one an other's hair. In this eighth collaboration it was necessary to turn the typical flat 2” cherry molding sideways in order to keep the overall frame size down due to location space constraints. In order to add interest to the perimeter two 1/4” square black walnut strips were embedded into the cherry. If any future refinisher wants to sand down this frame they will certainly never go through such so-to-speak veneer:

We are currently using a somewhat unconventional method of matting needlepoint. Our first collaboration, however, was mounted in the typical fashion of stretching the needlepoint canvas over a masonite board with heavy thread. Frankly we found this very difficult and required extreme care not to distort the canvas. Since then we have developed this cheating method which is much easier:

1. A sheet of thin cotton batting is attached to a piece of mat board, the same dimensions as the exterior of the cut mat board, using spray adhesive.
2. The canvas is then “stretched” flat over the cotton batting using one's palms. Interestingly the cotton acts as a type of weak Velcro and adheres to the canvas keeping it in position. Also the white color is an excellent background for visible holes in the canvas.  Furthermore the thickness of the batting (about 1/8") prevents knots behind the canvas from telegraphing to the front.
3. Lastly a couple of continuous strips of double-stick tape are attached to all sides of the back of the cut mat which is then placed carefully in position, centering the art piece exactly in the cut hole.

In none of our pieces using this method has the needlepoint slipped out of place or sagged. No promises, though, as to how long this will last.  Stretching with thread is still probably better.

I continue to be impressed by the enormous number of hours stitching a piece such as this still life demands. All things considered the extra detail inlaying black walnut into the frame may have raised the proportion of my work for one of these collaborations from the usual 2% to maybe 3%.

Notes: As usual the mat was expertly cut at Sarnoff Art Supplies & Framing in Tucson.  The glass was removed for the purpose of photography without reflections.  The frame is finished with multiple coats of  Waterlox Sealer Finish.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com 

21 Indelible Comments

They are like tunes stuck in your head but, instead, stuck in your life. Surely dear reader, you too remember comments people have said to you that are still with you. Can you at this very moment recall any? Yet these comments were not especially poetic, not necessarily aphoristic, not notably brilliant, not always true, not, in fact, even "memorable," but nonetheless they remain indelibly. I have searched for some commonality that unites them but find none:  not speaker, place, time, circumstance, age, etc. I can say, however, with some confidence, that they number no more than thee dozen or so. By opening myself up to their remembrance they have come back to me quite easily over the course of only a week or two. If I ever come up with 21 more I'll post a further collection.

Yes, indeed, a few tool tips are included for those of you handy with your hands, which turns out to be the case with me as I did follow my college professor's advice in the very last comment:

1) Washing Hands

To really clean your hands, wash something else. (J.M.)

2) Turds

If you are impressed with the size of your turds then you're getting enough fiber. (M.K.)

3) Marking along a Template

For real accuracy don't hold the pencil upright but keep the cone against the guide. (N.L.)

4) Spray Cans

Always ignored the cleaning advice about spraying upside down, and they work just fine. (M.D.)

5) Intersections

Look first to your left on account that vehicle will hit you soonest. (J.M.)

6) Finches

Lucky to have them move in as they will sing their little hearts out for you. (K.C.)

7) Sleep

Don't worry about not sleeping...just rest. (F.A.)

8) Jail

Spend some time in the slammer...it builds character. (F.A.)

9) Cookies

Broken cookies are healthier. (O.M.)

10) Early Days of Windows

I love how you can go in first thing in the morning and open all your windows. (B.C.)

11) Mental Agility

Avoid the calculator; doing math longhand preserves mental agility. (J.A.)

12) Hammering

Ear protection, of course, for the loud tools, but try it for ordinary hammering. (T.K.)

13) Chairs

You know you're getting old when you make noises rising from your chair. (N.B.)

14) Advice from our XT Builder (1984)

Just remember the first rule of using a computer:  always back up your work. (J.H.)

15) Right Color

Kurt, you don't look good in blue. (D.G.)

16) Coffee

For the perfect cup pour coffee and cream simultaneously. (D.K.)

17) Vacation

Sights are without end; a true vacation is dolce far niente. (F.A.)

18) Olives (Eyeballs) and Children

As soon as you eat ten, you will like them. (J.M.)

19) Speaking Your Mind

Now that I am old I speak my mind, a freedom I lacked in youth. (J.A.)

20) Meditation

Awaken yourself each morning at 3:00 AM, the ideal time for meditation. (A.L.)

21) Academics

Kurt, don't go into academics, it's a nasty business. (L.T.)


Readers are offering a few of their own "indelible comments" which I include below.  As with my own I am not providing a context, leaving that to the imagination, the important thing being that these words have stuck with the person:

22)  You can always go to the bathroom if you try.   (from D.&L. D.)

23)  Because I said so!  (from D.&.L. D.)

24)  Stick to theoretical work.  (from M.N.)

25)  Gotta eat.  (from S.T.)

26)  Has it changed?  (S.H.C. debating the merit of a second visit to the Grand Canyon)


Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Tapering Legs with a Miter Saw -- Woodworking Tip #20

To an open mind the woodshop is a cornucopia of novelty.  A new approach, an improved jig, a shift in methodology all provide considerable joy.  Tapering, as an example, is typically accomplished with a sliding jig on a table saw.  I would usually make a quick jig out of 3/4” plywood for the required angle...never did own one of those new-fangled adjustable tapering jigs. Given the commission, however, of making short solid maple tapered legs for a couch, the thought of pushing a small block of wood into a table saw blade set 4” high did not seem appealing. The idea occurred to me of using a miter saw to cut the tapers as shown below:

 

Rather than rotating the blade to the desired angle, cut a guide board to the correct angle.  Use the horizontal vice to hold this piece firmly. The saw blade is simply locked on a 90º cut (see above photo). The leg stock is then placed against the scrap wood angle and secured with the vertical vice pressing down upon a wooden bridge between the leg stock and another scrap piece of such a height that the bridge is roughly horizontal.  With this set up cut one of every pair of tapers for however many legs you need.

The next step is to rotate the blade toward the left the number of degrees of the taper angle.  By flipping the guide board forward to back you can use it to set the blade precisely.  Clamp the guide board back in its original position adjusting it left or right as necessary.  Place the cut side against the guide board and cut the opposite side of each pair.  Really, this is not as hard as it sounds and becomes obvious when you do the set up.

Voilà...you have a short tapered leg.  Do realize that a sharp blade on the miter saw really helps as your machine struggles to cut through some 8” or so of hardwood!

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Tool Bed Polishing -- Tool Tip #18

My clearest early memory of silicon carbide sandpaper, if such is the stuff memories are made of, is in the hands of a lovely female luthier as she gently hand rubbed the newly lacquered surface of a gourd-shaped Neapolitan mandolin. She used the tiniest piece of very fine grit black paper following the round curve of the instrument's back perfectly with her fingers until the entire surface was uniform powdery white and ready for yet another coat of lacquer. Few of my furniture commissions over the years required this type of mirror finish, and most of my uses for silicon carbide sandpaper, typically 400 grit, have nothing to do with finishing wood itself. I have already written about its excellent application in sharpening chisels when glued to a plate of plate glass:

Read more about this particular use at:  Fast Sharpening

Another blog post suggests silicon carbide sandpaper in order to prevent slippage between the surface of a miter gauge and a piece of wood:  Anti-Skid Miter Gauge

Today's tip is about yet another excellent application. Use 400 grit silicon carbide sandpaper attached to a hard rubber sanding block to clean, smooth and polish machine tool beds and tables as well as other machined metal surfaces such as the sole of a handplane. The block can also remove gunk, grime, high spots and burrs from the base plates of jigsaws, circular saws, plate joiners, etc.  Expect the sandpaper to load quickly and have extra sheets on hand.

You have a machine shop in your hand. Move with the grain of the factory machining. The few first passes immediately reveal low and high spots on a tool bed, such as at the throat of a jointer where you definitely don't want any miniature ski jump. Do stop short though of trying this on the cylinder head of that old Chevy V8 engine you're rebuilding.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

   

Glass as a Cabinet Scraper -- Woodworking Tip #19

I first encountered the use of glass as a cabinet scraper in the Chelsea studio of the Greek artist Michael Lekakis. Michael was a brilliant postwar abstract sculptor working primarily in wood, his works shown in preeminent galleries and museums on both sides of the Atlantic. The glass was a surprise to me. Its use often provided the final finish to his wood sculptures as he had an aversion to sandpaper as far as I could tell.

Scraps of glass are plentiful and easy to come by from framers, hardware stores, glass businesses, etc. I use pieces roughly the side of a 3x5 file card, big enough to put two thumbs on without having to worry about the precision placement required by texting. The glass is drawn toward one at roughly a 45º angle give or take. Few furniture makers have the skill to create that perfectly hooked burr on the edge of a metal scraper, but here 8 very sharp edges are immediately available. They make lovely curled little shavings. They do not dull easily, but once they are, toss the scraper into the recycling bin. The photo shows the glass scraper in use to trim the edge of a drawer for a good fit. If using a glass scraper on a large surface the corners will need be rounded, sandpaper works, thus preventing possible scratches.

I have used glass scrapers with great success most all of my career and am hardly the only woodworker to do so, though the practice does not seem widespread, deserving of further dissemination.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com