Cleaning up the pinching rods

All that was left to do on the pinching rods was to deburr the metal collars, find a way to hold the fixed part of the collars and bevel the ends of the sticks.

Deburring was done with a few passes on a belt sander, I drilled a 3mm hole through one side of each collar until it just started hitting the wood, drove a nail through the hole and across the fixed end of the stick. This doesn't move anymore.

A few seconds of chiseling later, the pinching rods were finished.

I'll make pinch rods using hardwood next, as this one is just a bit too short for the ATC :)

Making pinch rods

Start with an appropriate section of mild steel square tubing, I have bought a 1 meter long square tube with an outside dimension of 20mm and a wall thickness of about 1.3mm. I also got a small bag of 20mm M8 bolts.

Cut two 1" pieces off the tube with a hacksaw and drill a hole of the correct size for the bolt you have (6.5 or 6.8 work for M8). Tap that hole.

Let's check that the bolt fits, it does...

Now find a piece of wood with straight grain and plane it until it's about 20mm by 20mm. Resaw it and check the fit in the metal parts.

The stick was originally longer, but it snapped at a knot when I cleaned up the saw marks.

Here's the almost finished pinch rod... all in, less than 30 minutes work. I still need to taper the sliding ends.

Quick turning project

As Brian from Toolerable was having fun making chisel handles, I decided to quickly make a London-pattern chisel using some leftover quarter-sawn oak. It won't be the most solid handle in the world, but I will probably use it for a paring chisel.

I started by ripping a long enough square section from some leftover oak, planed it perfectly square and marked the center on the ends. I then picked my octagon marking gauge and laid out the lines. Years back, I had made a template/pattern for the London chisel so I used it to mark the transitions.

Unfortunately, I didn't think about taking pictures until it was already mounted on the lathe. The pictures start with the extremities getting roughed out

 A couple minutes later, the turned parts are done... I just need to plane the octagonal part and add the finish. Here's the handle on top of its template.

 Before adding the finish, I switch the late to spin backwards and sand the turned parts to 600 grit. My usual finish for turned items is 2 coats of BLO, 2 coats of shellac and one coat of beeswax paste. Being lazy and in a hurry, I apply the finish on the lathe... it takes seconds and dries in seconds.

 I cut the handle from its spindle with a saw and clean-up the ends with a sharp chisel before adding the same finish on the butt of the handle. The finished item on top of its pattern:

Building a warping frame - part 3

Let's check we didn't mess anything :)

 Dry fit test for a row of dowels

 Assembly time, let's start by glueing the dowels

 Just a smidge of glue spread around the bottom of the dowel, then twist/hammer it into place until it bottoms out.

 One long side done

 The second long side done

 BLO on the short sides, drying off

 A long side with BLO freshly applied

 Apply glue to the half laps, check for square and clamp... wash, rinse, repeat until the 4 corners are done. Check once more for square to be on the safe side

Let it dry fully before applying the next coats of finish... I'll add another coat of BLO and follow it up with shellac.

Building a warping frame - part two

I used the carcasse saw and a stop block in the miter block to cut the shoulders of the lap joints and free-handed the cheek. I used a router plane to clean up the cheeks when necessary, using another piece for support.

And the joints on all pieces were ready in short order.

 Somehow I had messed up my calculations for the short sides and the dowel holes would have interfered with the lap joints. I made new marks 8 inches on center and that was that.

14 holes left to drill before the next post :)

Building a warping frame with hand tools

Wanting to kill several birds with one stone, I decided to build a proper warping frame. I was pretty sure I had enough hardwood left and would only need to buy the round stock. It turns out I was mostly right.

Dimensions and cut list of sorts:

two 1" x 3" x 6' boards, cut into 38" and 34" lengths
1 1"x10ft hardwood rod, cut into 20 6" dowels

General idea:

half-lap joint the long and short sides
have 6 dowels evenly spaced on the long sides (5" on center)
have 4 dowels evenly spaced on the short sides (9" on center)

Dimensioning the flat stock:

I started with two 18x70x1820mm boards of unknown hardwood that I found in the house when I moved in. I rounded the long sides down to 960mm, and cross-cut the board which conveniently left me with short sides just short of 860mm... close enough.

Marking the dowel locations:

Start by finding and marking the center of the board along its greater dimension. Make a mark 2.5 inches on each side, then mark your board at 5" and 10" from those marks. Using your square, draw a line across at each of the 6 evenly spaced marks. Find the center of the two outside lines and use a straight edge to draw a line along the length.

Repeat for the short pieces, marking at 4.5" and 13.5" from the center of the board.

Next up, the dowels:

So it turns out the store didn't have 1" round stock... I could buy either 22mm or 28mm. As I read that 1" round stock was already a bit flimsy for the application, I chose the 28mm stock which came in 2700mm length (as opposed to the 22mm which came as 2000mm length).

Use a stop block in your mitre/miter box, at the appropriate distance from your square cut. I placed my stop block at 130mm of the square cut and cut the first dowel. Spot the error:

I didn't pay attention and put the block on the wrong side of the mitre box for a push saw. Let's correct that and reset the stop block exactly at 130mm this time.

Wash, rince, repeat until you have a nice pile of 20 identical dowels.

Drilling the dowel holes:

So... you remember I said the store didn't have 25mm round stock right? It turns out that metric forstner bits are usually sold in 5mm increments... 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 mm diameters. While I have found 28mm forstner bits online, there were none in the store and I had none in my kit. I drilled a 30mm test hole in an offcut to see if that could work with wedging, but the gap was annoying.

Luckily, I had a 28mm jennings bit for my hand brace. Of course, the shank was too big for my drill press chuck... and the bit itself was too long for the neck of my hand cranked drill press. Hand brace to the rescue!

Start by using a birdcage awl to mark the starting point for the drill, push the screw in that nice starting point and start swinging the brace :)

 Halfway through, flip the board when the screw breaks through the other side.

 Drill until you're through and test the fit

Let's check if we drilled plumb and square

 After a small break to hone the bevels of the bit, let's start the second hole:

 Way better!

 Test fit, it's tight enough to hold the dowel upside down

That's it for today!