I've taken the advice of an experienced woodworker who recommends that woodturners keep their timber in log form as long as possible.  Sealing the ends won't completely eliminate, but it does seem to reduce, cracking and checking.  Then when you cut a turning blank, you cut off and toss the ends of the logs with the checks.

It is a lot of work, but, with the cost of waxed turning blanks from wood vendors being rather high, I can spend a little time processing free or inexpensive wood.  Perhaps your store purchased blanks are less expensive; please post the name of your wood source so that the rest of us can avoid the time consuming blank preparation process.  Then again, perhaps your pockets are simply a bit deeper than mine.

Woodworking is just a subset of "life" - - enjoy the journey and don't over focus on the destination.

Your Guide to the Coolest New Tools

The 2010 International Woodworking Fair (IWF) is in full-swing and we've dispatched crack tool sleuths Asa Christiana, Matt Kenney, Roland Johnson to report on the coolest new tools headed to the marketplace. Check back here often for the most up-to-date reports as our editors scope out what's hot and what's not.

DeWalt Router Combo a Real Show-Stopper! DeWalt's new trim router comes with a plunge base with built-in lights for inlay work. There is nothing like it on the market. Teeny-Tiny Router Bits from Amana Amana has a new set of very small bearing-guided router bits (the bearing is just 3/16 in. diameter) that cut profiles proportioned for boxes and other small pieces. Easy-Install Tail Vise Thanks to a steel mounting plate, Veritas' new quick-release tail vise can be attached to any workbench. Combo Blade for Cleaner Cuts Freud's popular Premier Fusion tablesaw blade is now available in a thin-kerf version for saws under 3 hp. Router Table Roundup New router-table systems from Woodpecker and Bench Dog bring convenience closer than ever to a full-fledged shaper.

Learning to sharpen has little to do with your sharpening stones. It has a lot more  to do with being able to see your progress and knowing when to stop.

Showing a class of woodworkers what a sharp blade looks like in the flesh (a real  poor choice of words) has proven to be tricky for me. So I've resorted at times to  line drawings, which helps.

Today a reader sent me some great photos he made using a scanning electron microscope,  usually called an SEM in the business. Want to read about how the microscopes work?  Brace yourself for some scary images of pollen.

The reader is a mechanical engineer working in research for a medical device company,  so these are legit. What you are going to see here are images of a Veritas spokeshave  blade. The images of the dull blade show what it looks like with the factory edge  on it after being used to build four benches. The blade still feels pretty sharp,  the reader reports.

The images of the sharp blade show the same tool in the same position after being  sharpened with #1,000- and #8,000-grit Shapton stones.

All of the images were taken from the same angle – 12° off of vertical looking directly  at the edge. As a result, you can see both the flat face, the secondary bevel and  the primary bevel all in the same image. The primary bevel is at the top of each image.  The secondary bevel is the stripe in the middle. The flat face (some people call it  the "back") is the bottom part of the image.


So let's kick this off with photos of the dull and sharp blade at 30x magnification,  which is about what I can see with my jeweler's loupe.

30x Dull and Sharp

         

         

You can see the factory scratches in the bevel on the dull blade, and you can see  them disappearing on the sharp blade. This is about all our naked eye gets to see  in the shop. As we zoom in, it gets more interesting.

500x Dull and Sharp

         

         

At 500x the differences between the two blades becomes quite evident. The scratches  in the dull blade stand out like canyons, and you can see them and how they fade on  the sharp blade.

1,000x Dull and Sharp

         

         

On the dull image you can see a torn bit of metal right on the edge, which the reader  reports as being typical of this edge. On the sharp edge, the little light-colored  spots are debris, not metal. The dark spots on the right of the photo are also likely  debris, not the wire edge of the blade.

2,000x Dull and Sharp

         

         

At 2,000x you can really see the rolled-over edge in the middle of the frame. That,  I suspect, is what reflects light when you look at an edge and see a glint right at  the tip.

The photo of the sharp blade at 2,000 power also has a dark line at the edge. This  could be debris or it could be the "wire edge" remaining after sharpening. It would  take more testing to determine exactly what we're seeing here.

So what do I conclude? Seeing is indeed everything. And is there an SEM section on  Craigslist.com? How many kidneys would it cost?

— Christopher Schwarz

Sharpening Stuff for Other Sharpening Nuts

Ron Hock wrote the book on sharpening, and I think it's worth buying. The Perfect Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Sharpening for Woodworkers

Brent Beach wrote the web site on sharpening, and I think it's worth exploring.  Be wary. It is a vacuum. http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/

You know you are a sharpening nerd if you've been to this  page. It's the rec.woodworking post that kicked off the latest sandpaper sharpening  craze. Note, I found an old Boy Scout reference to sharpening your pocketknife with  sandpaper.

I often hear turners talk about “free wood”.  To my mind there is no such thing as “free wood”.  Between the time and mileage spent driving to pick up the logs and the time and energy spent processing the logs into blanks, I often feel it would be easier and cheaper to just buy the bowl blanks!

Cutting your own blanks does have some advantages.  The primary advantage is that of re-using or recycling wood that would otherwise be destined for the chipper or the burn pile.  There is something very satisfying about holding a finished bowl and knowing that you were involved in the complete process from log to bowl, and you created a functional and beautiful object from some timber that could have just ended up in a landfill somewhere.

However, there is a lot of work involved in processing a log for blanks, and it is frustrating when the end results are just a bunch of checked and cracked blanks.  Two very important things that will help you avoid this are:

• Process the wood as soon as you can.  Ideally you will want to process the log the same day as you get it.   When this isn’t possible, try and at least get the chainsaw part of the process done as soon as possible, which will remove the pith and then seal the end grain with Anchorseal.
• Remove the pith, remove the pith!!

The picture below shows how I plan on cutting this small camphor log to yield both bowl blanks and some spindle stock.  If the log were bigger the spindle stock could be used for hollow forms.  This layout is just one possible scenario, the most important thing is that the pith, marked with a red x, is going to be removed and discarded.



Make two cuts down the length of the log, either side of the pith.  Don’t cut all the way through with the first cut.  In the picture below I have made the first cut and then paused towards the end of the second cut to take the picture.  Normally I would have just cut all the way through the log with the second cut.



Complete the first cut.



For the most part this is all that I will do with the chainsaw.  I then take the three pieces of wood inside to my band saw.  However, some of the cuts that I make with my bandsaw can be made with the chainsaw.  I just find the bandsaw more accurate, less wasteful and it’s in the shade



If the log is fairly straight, I set my fence and then cut off about an inch of the live edge.  If the log is not very straight then I will just free hand this cut.



Then using the flat section I just created, I will rotate the log 90 degrees and cut it to the desired thickness.  If you do not have the capacity to do this on your bandsaw, then this step can easily be done on the lathe when you first start turning the blank.



I have a set of 1/4″ plywood circular discs in 1″ increments which I use to gauge how large a bowl blank I can get out of the log as well as guide me in the cutting of the blank.



From this section of the log I’ll be able to get two small blanks, one 7″ and one 6″.  I draw around the discs with some white chalk and mark the circles to be cut out.  I could also just nail the disc to the log and leave it in place while making the cuts.





I would then process the other log half in a similar fashion before moving on to the slab I removed from the center of the log.  On this slab I cut off about an inch from both live edges.





Then I would set the fence to the same dimension as the thickness of the slab and cut out as many sets of spindle stock as I can, working towards the center of the slab from either side, being mindful of where the pith is.  In the picture below, you can set two pieces of spindle stock either side of the pith section which will be discarded.



Here is the yield from the log.  Three bowl blanks, two pieces of spindle stock and a section of questionable orientation that I will probably make a sphere from.



This is the reason why the one log half only yielded one blank and the piece of questionable orientation.  The chainsaw cut revealed that I had cut through two nails embedded in the log.  This illustrates the importance of inspecting the logs carefully before cutting with either the chainsaw or bandsaw.  It also confirms my theory about there being no such thing as “free wood”.  My chainsaw blade needs to be resharpened now and if I had not noticed these nails they would have trashed my bandsaw blades.  I think I may look into buying a metal detector!



The final step is to coat the blanks with Anchorseal.  I cut the entire blank, however many people will just coat the end grain and leave the face grain bare.





Source: Processing a log for bowl blanks

IWF 2010: New Tool Preview
12 August 2010, 2:48 pm

Tool makers are gearing up for the 2010 International Woodworking Fair(IWF) held in Atlanta, August 25-28. Fine Woodworking editors will be at the show throughout its run to see all the new tools and products making their debut at the show. We got a sneak peek at some of the new introductions. Here are some of the best.

Bosch MRC23EVS Router Combo KitBoth the plunge and fixed bases in Bosch's new MRC23EVS router combo kit are trigger operated for better control and safer operation. Other features include a soft-start motor that spins from 10,000 to 25,000 rpm, micro-fine depth adjustment, always-on LED lights for better visibility, and 3- and 4-hole router table mounting options for the fixed base.

General International 90-170 14-inch BandsawWith 12 inches af resaw and a 16- x 20-in. table, there's a lot to like on General's new deluxe bandsaw. Weighing in at almost 300 pounds, the new machine has a 1 1/2 hp motor and can accommodate blades up to 3/4 of an inch. It's also equipped with a Excaliber rip fence with built-in blade drift adjustment.

Version 3 Wood River Bench PlanesAfter a brief hiatus, Woodcraft's WoodRiver Bench planes are back. The maker took user concerns to heart and made several improvements to the Version 3 production run. Among other things, they made the rear tote more comfortable, increased the diameter of the blade adjustment wheel, improved the lateral adjustment lever, and boosted the quality of machining.

MagSwitchMagswitch has several new products. My favorite is the magswitch itself. The company is now selling them separately so you can use them in your own jigs.

Tormek DBS-22Tormek is introducing a jig to sharpen drill bits on their water-cooled sharpening machines. The new jig (model DBS-22) creates a four facet point on the end of twist drils sized from 1/8- to 7/8 of an inch.
 

Spalt Your Own Lumber: Lets Talk About Health
15 August 2010, 2:18 pm

Obviously, its been a while since my last post.  Spalting has a way of bringing people of strong opinions out of the woodwork and into the limelight of the internet.  Hence, I've needed some time to consider how to proceed with this blog since, quite frankly, its exhausting to continually have the same argument about health problems and spalted wood.

So instead of continually repeating myself, I think its best to have a new health post (apparently the last one wasn't enough) that can serve as a focal point for all future posts.  But first, I think we might need a little background on fungi.


What Is A Fungus?

A fungus is a filamentous organism, meaning it grows in strands.  The strands, called hyphae, are individually many times thinner than a human hair.  When a whole bunch get together, you can see the fungus with your naked eye (think green stuff on cheese).  In order to better colonize the world, fungi produce spores, which, in a very abstract sense, are kind of like little fungus eggs.  These spores come from special apertures on the hyphae, and are thus also very, very small.

Some fungi produce fruiting bodies, which is fancy scientist talk for mushrooms.  Mushrooms are just another way to distribute the spores.  So if you think about it, fungi all over the world are producing spores.  And because these spores are so small, they're caught up in the air.  And that means fungi are everywhere.  They're in the air we breathe, both inside and out.  They're in your food (blue cheese, anyone?), in your wood (wood decay is a natural forest recycling method), and even in you (yeast is within the Kingdom Fungi).



Chlorociboria delights in sending out its spores, but hiding its fruiting bodies.

So, Why Aren't We All Dead?

If fungi are everywhere, if the air we breathe is laden with fungal spores, why aren't fungi sprouting from us at every turn?  First of all, we have this handy thing called an immune system, which allows our body to recognize foreign material and destroy it.  This is one of the reasons why people with compromised immune systems (like those who have been through chemotherapy) get sick a lot.  When you read in the news that someone died from a fungal infection, its generally because their immune system was down, either because of a disease like AIDS, or because they were on immuno-suppresants. 

Another interesting thing about our bodies is that they have a very specific internal temperature - 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C).  Fungi don't like this high of a temperature, and have optimal growth rates around 27 degrees C.  Quite frankly, our bodies are not exactly paradise for a fungus.  There are a whole lot of nicer places to live than in a broiling hot place where you're constantly under siege.

 



Mycoacia fuscoatra is gonna get you!  Well, probably not, but it does seem to be reaching for something.


But Wait! What About Allergies!?

Ah yes, allergies.  Fungi do have a way of making many people sneeze, especially in developed countries where we keep our houses so clean that our bodies forget how to not overreact to foreign substances.  Fungi, primarily the spores from fungi, can really irritate some people.  Asthma suffers sometimes have problems with fungi as well.  But its important to remember that sneezing isn't going to kill you, although with the associated sinus congestion you may wish you were dead.  You have to remember that lots of things make people sneeze (dogs, cats, pollen, dust, grass, homework, etc).  I'm deathly allergic to cats, but I don't go around harassing cat owners about the dangers of having cats in their home.  I just stay away from cats, because I know my body reacts to them.  Hmmmm.

 

After All That, Couldn't You Conclude That Spalted Wood Is Dangerous?

Sure, fungi can be dangerous.  Some mushrooms are poisonous if eaten, some fungi produce toxic substances that can hurt your body, and some have been known to grown in the lungs of immunocompromised people, leading to serious health problems.  So certainly, those with health problems shouldn't work with fungi extensively.  But as we've already established, fungi are everywhere.  Not working with spalted wood isn't going to significantly decrease your chances of getting a lung infection if your immune system isn't doing its job.  Turning a piece of spalted wood is going to give you the same does of fungal spores as taking a hike in the woods in late summer, especially if you like to poke around the leaf litter and look at things.

 

Putting Things Into Perspective

Working with wood is inherently dangerous.  Not only are the machines capable of removing various body parts in seconds, but wood dust is a nasty carcinogen (it causes cancer!).  OSHA is pretty serious about the trouble you can get your lungs into if you're not wearing respiratory protection when you work with wood.  When I make the statement that working with spalted wood is no more dangerous than working with unspalted wood, you need to think about all the danger you have already put yourself in.  Even with clear lumber, you are subjecting yourself to potential impalement (nail from nail gun into a hand, perhaps?), dismemberment (losing a finger on a bandsaw), and a very debilitating form of cancer (lung cancer is hard to treat).  With all that going on, why in the world would you be worried about fungal spores floating around your workshop?

 



spalted wood - pretty and not inherently dangerous

 

Consider The Following:

Lets say you accidentally left a piece of wood sitting outside for a summer.  You pull it into your workshop in the autumn and it has miraculously spalted!  Woohoo!  But wait - how did this happen?  It happened because those spores in the air landed on your wood and started to grow hyphae.  The hyphae conglomerated into a mass and grew further into the wood, altering its structure and changing its color.  When you went outside to check your piece of wood, you no doubt got a lung-full of spores, although not necessarily the ones from your wood.

Now let's consider clear wood.  You bring home some nice, planed lumber from the hardware store.  That lumber has been sitting around, outside or in, for some time before being brought to your home.  Its been in circulated air.  The lumber was at one point wet (after the tree was cut), and may or may not have been kiln dried.  Regardless, there are still fungus spores on it.  The wood is dry now, so the fungus can't grow.  But that doesn't mean that those spores are sitting on your wood, biding their time.  Move the lumber around, and you kick up some spores.  Walk around a room and you kick up some spores.  Your nightly trip at 3am from your bedroom to the bathroom kicks up spores from your carpet.  Fungi are everywhere.

Those scary molds that everyone is so afraid of - how do you think they got on your walls?  That's right, the spores were carried there from the air.  How do I get a lot of my nice colored molds in culture?  I leave a wet piece of wood laying around in my office and let spores land and colonize on it.  There is nothing, nothing that you find on spalted wood (fungus-wise, insects are a whole other story), that is different than what could be in the air right now.  So take a deep breath.  Dead yet?  Nope?  Didn't think so.

 

I Was Too Lazy To Read The Whole Article - Give Me The Main Points

To sum it all up - get over it!  Fungi are everywhere.  You can't avoid them, so not working with spalted wood because you don't want to breath in fungal spores is asinine. Not working with spalted wood because fungi can be dangerous is downright silly.  Your table saw is much more of a threat to your health than your punky piece of wood.  Besides, how are the spores even going to get into your lungs if you're wearing a good respirator?  And if you're not wearing a respirator, you'll need to get that pesky lung cancer thing taken care of anyway, so who cares if you get some spores a-sproutin?

There will always be people who know people who worked with a guy who died because he turned spalted wood for 50 years.  There will always be people who see mold (mold is just a type of fungus, btw) and freak out.  Its important to remember that:

 

And Finally . . .

I always appreciate valid concern.  There are no dumb questions when it comes to fungi, but conjecture is not a valid way to back up an argument.  I don't expect to change years of internet and verbal folklore on fungi just from this post.  But I do hope that you, as a concerned woodworker, will take the time to actually look into fungi.  Spend some time on Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com).  Read some academic papers.  Or just chill, and consider the possibility that our bodies are incredible machines, able to protect us from repeated onslaughts day after day, minute after minute.  The human race would not have endured for this long if all it took to bring us down was a nose-full of fungal spores.

A nose-full of cat dander, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

 

http://www.northernspalting.com

Band Saw Blades With Carbide Teeth, Not Tips
20 August 2010, 11:50 am

In the world of woodworking band saw blades, you have regular-guy blades (the carbon steel blades used for everything under the sun), you can upgrade to a silicon steel blade at about double the price that has undergone induction heating (much like the teeth on a Japanese hand saw) or you have the opportunity to purchase carbide-tipped blades that usually cost four to five times more. The less-expensive blades do the job and last an OK length of time provided you don't hit a rogue steel fragment buried in your timber. The carbide-tip blades last longer, cut faster and will polish off a few errant gun shot slugs without problems. What do you do? 

If you are that regular guy, you stop by the local woodworking store or home center and shop price. Job done. But if you're more like a band saw fanatic, chances are you're going after a tipped blade and spending the extra cash.

We have another option. How about a carbide impregnated band saw blade. These blades ring up for only a few dollars more than the silicon steel blades do, and they last longer. But what is carbide impregnated? Well it's not like a carbide toothed blade where the extra piece of carbide is brazed to each tooth (now you understand why carbide-tip band saw blades cost so much more). These photos clearly show the difference between the tipped blades and the impregnated blades. The first photo shows a tooth on a carbide tip band saw blade – you can clearly see the added piece of carbide that's brazed in place. The second photo is the carbide impregnated blade.

We picked up a Premium Gold blade from Supercut Bandsaw Co., Inc. These blades are designed for vertical woodcutting band saws. The teeth are precision ground, not punched or milled like traditional band saw blades. During the manufacture of these blades, the teeth are impregnated with the carbide particles – a process the company discovered while developing the Woodsaver Thin-Kerf Carbide Resaw blades. In addition, the Premium Gold blades feature razor-sharp teeth that have an aggressive hook and set, rounded backs, and polished sides. Polishing the sides and rounding the back of band saw blades allows for quicker feeding rates and sharper turns without building excessive heat and chatter. (Chatter is vibration due to improper feed pressure that quickly ruins your blades.)

If you look closely at the teeth on the Premium Gold blade, you notice a bit of blackening at each tooth which would lead you to believe that these blades had been through induction heating. But when you get in close for a better look – I used a jeweler's loop – you see that small deposits on the teeth are the cause of the coloration. That's the carbide impregnating. As I understand the process, the thicker the coating, the more roughness you'll have at the end and the longer the life of the blade. To keep a smooth, clean and cool cut, the coating on the teeth on a band saw blade cannot be extremely thick – certainly not as thick as the pieces of carbide in tipped blades. When I get more information about Supercut's industry-exclusive carbide impregnation process, I'll update this post.

About this time you're wondering about the cut of these blades, right?. Here's my problem. When you decide it's time to change your band saw blade, the blade coming off the saw is older and dull. A new blade, right from the packaging, is sharp and much, much better as it cuts. So does carbide impregnating make this blade cut better. That's something that only time will tell. I can say that the cut is clean and relatively smooth, but it's not the cut achieved when using a carbide tip blade.

• Visit the Supercut Bandsaw Co., Inc. web site and download a free copy of the company catalog. It's full of great information about blades and techniques.
• And for less than $10, pick up a copy of Popular Mechanics Workshop: Band Saw Fundamentals from our Woodworker's Bookshop.

 

I received the following e-mail from a member of the Golden Triangle Woodturners (Denton).  If you need a dust collector, here's your opportunity.

Bob Loyd
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: gtw [mailto:gtw44@me.com]
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 11:21 AM
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Dust collector for sale

I just received a call from the widow of Wes Guyer.  She said he was a long time woodworker and wood turner in the area.  She is cleaning out their previous home and moving from the area.  She still has his Powermatic Dual dust collector with about 30 feet of 4” hose.  It originally sold for around $800.  She is asking $425.
Her name is Charlotte Guyer and can be reached at 512-810-0038 for more information or to make an appointment to see it.
 
Regards..
 
Mike Nelson

I remember the discussion at one of the meetings (that we have an account) but don't recall if there was a code .... I would guess that you should just be able to show them your membership card

Oshlun 8'' Stack Dado Set is a Great Dado set..regardless of the price!





So I went out and purchased another blank zero clearance insert to use with the dado set. I know alot of guys make their own from scrap..but I like the Leecraft inserts..they are well made, slicker and stiffer than MDF or plywood and fit perfectly. So the first task was to saddle up all the blades and cutters and cut the insert out. The blades all fit very snugly on the arbor but that’s a good thing…you just have to get them perfectly flat before they slide on. I ended up having to leave the washer off to get enough threads to tighten things down properly (the instructions advised doing this also..at least three full threads tightening). I clamped a board across the insert and slowly plunged the dado set up till it stopped. The insert cut perfectly…but it is a little scary hearing all those blades whirring around! So after I cut the insert I of course shoved some plywood right through the blades to see the cut quality. Here are some close up shots..

Here is a cut with and across the grain of some $50.00 a sheet HD birch ply, with a really thin veneer.



Overall, I think the cut quality is excellent. The bottom is flat with no grooves in it, the edges with the grain are perfect, and the cross grain edges are very good..a tiny bit “fuzzy” but definitely acceptable. The long horizontal crack is a plywood defect. You also see the score marks across the groove. The outside blades have an edge ground on them to help minimize tear out. These grooves were cut with the full stack of blades/chippers..and it measures 7/8” perfectly.

I then attempted to make a dado that a piece of plywood could fit into perfectly. I used a caliper to measure my ply and it was 11/16” thick. I then looked at the handy chart in the instructions and it told me to use the two outside blades, three 1/8” and one 1/16” chipper. I put this together and I could tell with my calipers that it was going to come up short..so I added a .015, and a .020 shim (a whole bunch of metal shims are included)  to the stack. That gave me a perfect 11/16”. Here are some close ups of that test dado..

This was a really tight fit..not so tight I had to force it, but tight enough that it will stay together..



Again the edge quality is excellent..I purposely cut this one long across the grain and it looks great. The bottom is flat, the outside corners of the groove are nice and square, no ridges..just a really nice dado.



Overall, I give this dado set 5 stars. I have used crappy wobbles, and I have used $300.00 Amana and Forrest sets, and the Oshlun set is up their with the high end sets. I have yet to try it in hardwood, but I suspect it will perform just as well…plywood is allot fussier to dado than hardwood. I am going to test this set out in the next months..I have to build a vanity for my bathroom and I am going to be taking on a large custom closet job for a friend…so I see allot of dados in my future!