WOODWORKING (Woodworking, Turning, Carving Etc.)

[Clipper]

I do basically the same thing with the mineral spirits thinner, and then spray with WD40, but I leave it on the blade until I am ready to use it again, then I do thinner again, and cut a piece of soft wood scrap before using it on cabinet quality wood.

The oven cleaner thing is something new to me. I have never needed something that strong to clean a blade, but then I don't do as much woodworking as you do. I have used lestoil and Mr Clean, as well as the orange citrus cleaner and mean green from the dollar store. Goo Gone will also take off plywood glue, sap or pitch if it sticks on the sides of the blade.

I built a box to keep my extra blades in when they are not in use. I do the WD40, and then layer them between paper toweling, and I throw in the little moisture preventers out of my prescription bottles.

I also keep the router bits oiled with WD40, and I keep those little things from my pill bottles in the router bit case.

[wilum47]

No, I ain't talkin about oil changing! If I remember, I paid less than $10 for this guy on sale at Pep Boys or Parts Automotive a couple of years ago and was one of my finer purchases.


Every time I wanted to clean my blades I either threw out the paint can lid I was using or some other dumb thing. AND being a slob, I was looking for something I could use like a sink as I have no plumbing fixtures in the shop and I needed to stop from making a mess on my workbench. I thought about bringing them up to the kitchen........Naahh!

This guy just happens to nicely fit any 12 inch or smaller blade on top and you can spray and soak to you hearts content as the reservoir collects the solvents, 15 gallon capacity. There just happens to be a crease that will hold the blade up on one side so you can pick it up.

For the smaller stuff you plug the reservoir drain until you're done. Can also be used as a parts washer.

When you're all finished, just empty the reservoir with the convenient side drain.

[Clipper]

Wow, that is really a neat idea. I have one of those in the garage that hasn't been used since I got lazy and started taking the truck to the dealership for oil changes. They send me a coupon to do an oil change on the hemi for 14.95, and the truck takes 7 quarts.

Thanks for the tip Willum. The oil change pan just found a new life, haha.

[wilum47]

Clipper, Great, glad you liked it.

That is what I was hoping for this thread. Ideas using simple cheap alternatives for the shop.

So com'on gang what's your favorite little shop trick?

[dgriffin]

Good go, Wilum. I have used carburetor cleaner for tough jobs on my presses. Not only is it a good solvent, but I can shoot it through the tiny "straw" and that helps to remove material as it is loosened. Takes away everything, including the paint, so I have to be careful. Not to mention its volatility, so I only clean parts with it that can be removed and taken outside. I treat it like gasoline. I also have an old 6 foot basement, but I wouldn't use the stuff inside, anyway. Wood in the beams and subfloor gets pretty dry after 150 years and I'm careful with open flames.

I did a huge wood project 5 or more years ago and only bought a carbide tipped blade toward the end of it, when I got fed up with the cut I was getting with my old blades. So I'm a long way from even needing to clean them. And I haven't done much woodworking since. Sort of burned out on it for now.

[wilum47]

Sort of burned out on it for now

I had about a five year period myself where I just couldn't get back to it. Then Dad passed away and he had full military honors from the 10th Mountain Division (he would have killed me for that) and Mom wanted me to make something for the flag.

So I breezed through my Meisel catalog, a favorite of mine for ideas, and purchased a pattern for a flag display and made it for her.

Took two weeks for me and a good friend to clean up the shop so it was usable and have been using it, mostly during the winter season, since.

[dgriffin]

I just ran out of things to build. I did a big project for an addition we put on the house, a 22 foot book and cabinet wall. I made cabinets for a bathroom and some fly-tying small drawer sets for materials. I have an unfinished cupola I want to finish and put on my small barn. I suppose I should finish that, because I may be moving this year or next and obviously won't have a use for it. The cupola is hip roofed and I'm having trouble with the curved rafters. I can't seem to figure the geometry for upper face of the rafter so that the actual roof pieces (of plywood) will perfectly mate with the rafter surface and with each other. It sounds easy, but when you look at it, it's not.

[wilum47]

Dave,

Do you mean measuring to fit the curve of the roof?

[dgriffin]

No, not the curve of the roof alone, but also the chamfer on the top face of the rafter to match so that the roof piece sits firmly on it. If you were to look at a sectional end view of the rafter, the angle off the horizontal is not standard, eg., 45 degrees.

[Clipper]

I had the same problem in making the roof for a lighthouse years ago. I ended up fabricating a full size mockup of the roof from cardboard, assembling it with tape, and measuring the angles with a protractor. Kind of the long way around, but I was never any good at geometry and such. I don't know if that idea would work for you. You might get away with a miniaturized mock up made to scale. I have done the same thing on other mitres that I could not figure out. I used scraps of wood and cut and held them together until I struck the right angle for my particular application at the time. Many times I have substituted ingenuity for education in my years of life's little experiments, haha. I have never been capable of figuring compounded mitres unless they are listed in a plan, or I find them by trial and error. A bevel guage has also been my best friend on occasion, in enabling me to "draw" and experiment on paper drawings until I find the correct angles.

[Ralph]

When I was with the woodworking company I used to work for, we made a large 16 sided die that Corfu gaming used to use out at Darien Lake for one of their tossing games.

It was hollow and made of individual pieces glued together.
Take about a nightmare!!! Not just to make, but to design and fabricate the jigs to keep making them year after year.

[wilum47]

16 sides?

I had a hell of a time with six on a clock face.

Did you just strap it or did you have a gluing/clamping jig for it?

[dgriffin]

I finally found a tool I'd been looking for ... one large enough ... up on the back shelf of the hardware store. Not a draw knife, but you do pull it toward you and it was a common tool at one time and, damn it, my mind's gone blank again. You know the tool I mean? Anyway, I'm going to try just shaving it by eye.

Later: Spokeshave!

[Clipper]

Oh wow, that is great, and that will allow you to "fine tune" and shave a little at a time until you have it perfect. I bet if you walked into Home Depot and asked for a spokeshave, they would say "WHAT? LOL

I think I have one in the shop. It is a elongated wooden implement with grips on both ends and a plane- like blade in the center? Hell, I would never have thought you would still find one in a hardware store. I would have bet on having to order it from a specialty catalogue, LOL.

[wilum47]

Dave,

Just remember your bevel angle, a spokeshave can pull a pretty good size chip; but I'm sure you know that. Nice tool to have around.