Tag: Lathe

2018 News Year’s Resolutions:

/ Matt Talley / 3 Comments

A year ago, to the day, I said that I would do a bunch of stuff in 2017.  I did OK, but not great. I could blame it on my old man hip, the surgery, or the recovery time, but mostly not getting stuff on the list done was all me. All my own laziness, stuborness, or my A+ skill level of procrastination. These are the promises I made to myself that I kept:

Take a pottery class
Take a Blacksmithing class at the Pratt
Read 1 book every 2 weeks – minimum
Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
Make movies and post: Adventure, craftsmanship, and family.
Make Stuff!!
Ride my skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA more
Take my wife on vacation
Plant a spring garden
Fix up the front and back yards

The following is what I am committing myself to do in 2018:

  1. Organize my chaos in the shop and basement.
  2. Sell, donate, recycle, or throw away shit that I do not use.
  3. Use my planner and notebooks as tools not as something that I “have” to use.
  4. Eat my veggies.  Seriously.  Salads in my future.
  5. Take my desk at home back and make it a conducive writing space.
  6. Cut WAY back on sugar and carb intake!
  7. Lose weight – back to 175! and put on 5-7lbs of muscle
  8. Go to the gym 3-4 time a week – minimum.
  9. Box more at the gym and at home
  10. Write more: Blog posts, REAL letters, Thank you notes, fiction, and non-fiction
  11. Take more great pictures
  12. Fly my drones more
  13. Take at least a 45 minute lunch at least 4 days a week at work
  14. Show up to yoga at least once a week
  15. Take another pottery class
  16. Finish my CJ-7 Jeep restoration
  17. Look into getting back into the judo dojo
  18. Sign up and compete in the Gambler 500 car race
  19. Sign up for a letterpress class at SVC Downtown
  20. Take another blacksmithing class at The Pratt
  21. Read 1 book every 2 weeks!
  22. Learn how to play the mandolin and banjo better!
  23. Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
  24. Build a skin-on-frame canoe for two
  25. Road and mountain bike
  26. Take the puppies to Lincoln Park for a walk at least once a week
  27. Ride the living shit out of my Single -Speed
  28. Bike to work at least 5 times this year (12 miles each way)
  29. Volunteer more at the Center for Wooden Boats
  30. Pay off all credit cards
  31. Go sailing in Puget Sound
  32. Turn some amazing and useful stuff on my lathe
  33. Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
  34. Make at least 1 movie a week for YouTube and post: Adventure and craftsmanship
  35. Monetize my YouTube account and increase my presence and standing in that community
  36. Lessen my Twitter and social media activity…
  37. See my kids and grandchildren more
  38. Be involved in politics more: financally and with a time commitment
  39. Work on my Genealogy database and organize all my info.
  40. Finish the house remodel –  even if I have to pay a contractor to do it (…shudder…)
  41. Finish the garage/shop/GROP build
  42. Make.More.Stuff!!
  43. Ride my snowboard and skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
  44. Road trip in WA and on West Coast more
  45. Have two hives of healthy, happy bees
  46. Kayak lots!
  47. See my friends more
  48. Take my wife on vacation
  49. Plant a spring garden and have a really bountiful fall harvest
  50. Have an awesome Griswald-like Christmas light display!

I am printing this list out and pasting copies in my notebook, work planner, in the shop, at my desk at work, on the fridge, and in the basement above my warranty voiding workbench.

My Own Personal Take on Hand-planes: Buying Recommendations to Use

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I use the bejesus out of my power tools.  I LOVE my SawStop, my Bosch compound miter-saw is scary accurate, and my band-saw is magic, but there is room in my life and in my shop for lots of hand-tools.  I am a child of both Norm Abram and Roy Underhill.  I watched them both on PBS every Saturday after cartoons as a small child in 1981 until I was 44 or so.  Their combined influence has made me value the old way of doing things without being a Luddite and I can appreciate modern cabinet shop/woodworking tools.  Case in point: I have a 3HP Powermatic 3520 lathe and would not even want to think about turning a bowl or platter on a pole lathe with a forged hook knife. On the other hand, while I have not given up a single one of by 5 routers, I found years ago that it is sometimes faster to grab an old wooden molding plane from a shelf and take care of an edge detail or piece of trim.  I can be done and dusted with the plane in the time it would take me to find the right bit an set up the router.

Because of my vocal love for hand planes, I get questions all the time from friends and acquaintances about what they should buy, where they should start, how to set something up, sharpening, truing a sole, etc…  I thought I would take a minute to go over those things, stand on my soapbox a little, and give the world my opinions concerning hand planes.

.. Ascending my soapbox…  Ahem…

  1. Buy a quality block and #4 smoothing plane – Lie-Nelson, Wood River,  or Veritas are great options.  Stay away from used hand planes or classics until you get used to how a hand plane SHOULD work.  Setting up an older Stanley or Bailey plane, sharpening, replacing parts and flattening the sole will drive you insane if you don’t know exactly what you are doing and will make you want to throw the thing and swear off hand planes forever.  Start with the known good and once you know how it should function, then you can pick up a  used #2 bench rabbit or a #8 corrugated bottom jointer and tune them sweetly – maybe.  I would go over any prospective purchase with a scornful eye and replacement the blade and/or chip breaker on an old plane is required about 50% of the time, in my experience anyway.  

Here is my list of the initial planes and accessories you will want/need ( I like the low angle but to each his own):

  1. Stanley Low-Angle Block Plane
  2. Shoulder plane
  3. Smoother plane 
  4. Plane chip-breaker Screwdriver  I swear to God you need this, really!  When you mare the screw an a $200 plane because you didn’t listen, it is your own fault for not listening.
  5. Sharpener: get two…
  6. Buy a nice set of Japanese water stones 1000 to 8000 grit.  Watch the videos and keep your blades sharp.
  7. Also, Japanese planes, like Japanese pull saws and water stones, are FANTASTIC.  They deserve their own diatribe, but for the purpose of this post I will stick to western planes with the exception of an edge-rounding plane.  I use mine constantly.

Nice to have once you get serious about using hand planes:

  1. Jack Plane
  2. Jointer planeSpoke shave  Get the flat first then the curved.  You probably wont ever need the concave one.
  3. This Router plane  but, if I were in the market for a new one, this Walke Moore version is the nicest I have ever seen!
  4. Scraper plane –  get the toothed blade
  5. A combination plane, but be wary of used Stanley Record #45/#46s.  They can be a beast to swap around and if they come with all the original parts they are spendy!
  6. if you are going to be doing a lot of drawers or insets, then both a Left and Right Plow Plane are really nice to have
  7. Wooden molding planes : See below…

Once you have been bitten by the molding plane bug, you will want to run right out and buy a 1/2 or full set.  Good luck.  There are not a lot of makers out there and the ones that are doing it have a long wait list and are not cheap.  Some people, like myself, invest is an older set.  My molding planes include a 3/4 harlequin cove and round set (mixed from various makers and time periods) that I have carefully built over the last 9-10 years.  The dates for my planes run from 1956 to 1930s to 1850s/70s and I have one from the 1790s that has an uncommon roman ogee shape that I use on boxes and 6-board chest lids. This collecting takes time as there has never been a set standard for what a #8 is, for instance, so there is a lot of variance in sizes between makers.  I have replaced a few irons as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I often defer to people that are smarter than me and Matthew Bickford and Chris Schwartz recommend a set of #4 and #8 and a set of #6 and #10 hollows and rounds as an initial starter set.  I would add that a 3/16 beading plane is a wonder to have as well if and when you start down this road.

To my own set, I have added some additional beading planes – up to 1/2″, tongue & groove planes for 1/4″ – 1″ stock, specialized profile molders, 1/4 rounds, scrapers, etc., but those is my own personal obsessive tendencies.

I failed miserably at finding a classic matched set of snipe-bills and half rounds (NEEDED for linen-fold panels).  I have resigned myself to buy new ones from Old Street Tools, but I have to warm my wife to the idea of me spending serious cash on blocks of wood and iron that I will use 5-6 times a year.  I have been working on her for 3 years and they are on my Christmas and birthday list every year.  No luck yet.

Read Bickford’s Moldings in Practice (if you have bled with me or we have swapped spit, you can borrow my copy) and take a look at the video of the same name before jumping in.  Molding planes can be sourced from the following, in no special order:

New  planes:

Classic:

…and now I will dismount my soapbox…

 

 

Weekend in the shop

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I got some serious crap done in the garage and at home this weekend:

Cleaned, swept, and put away tools for over an hour Saturday morning
Added wheels to my screw-clamp stand
Built a hammer stand – I have a lot of hammers
Organized 4 drawers on my tool cabinet
Organized a drawer for just camera mounts and cables
Hung 22 small blue U-Line organization bins
Cleaned off table saw
Installed new table saw blade
Re-tensioned bandsaw
Cleaned off bench for 1st time in MONTHS!
Put all the miscellaneous screws, bolts, and hardware in the proper organization bin
Sanded the carcass for a bathroom cabinet installation
Moved some angle-iron into the metal storage rack
Carried 2 of the 3 cabinet sections in the house
Cranked on the lathe to reduce the diameter of a dowel
Blew 30 amp breaker
Said the f-word at least 3 times
Took a look and original electrician did not fully terminate one of the “hot” wire legs, which led to the failure.
Said dirty words
Drove to Home Depot and back for breaker
Swapped out a blown breaker
Ran 75 linier feet of 12-2 Romex wiring
Installed 12 electrical boxes
Only dropped 1 on my head/face
Installed a couple of runs of CAT-6 ethernet cable for the PoE camera system
Jesus, CAT-6 is expensive!!
Moved some firewood into the house
Built and installed butcher paper roll noteboard on a cabinet front
Re-set wall clock
Worked on chipping hammer re-build
Shot a couple of videos
Sanded a couple spots on the jeep under windshield
Wished I had a bathroom in the garage at 3 different points during the weekend
Started on pizza peel build for Father-in-law

New yellow Mustard-Monster Lathe up and running

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

When building The F-Bomb Garage, I bought some new tools in which to fill it.  One of those hunks of iron delight was a Powermatic PM3520b wood lathe with a bed extension and lots of accessories.  It was a replacement for the three lathes of varying sizes I had sold before the original garage was torn down. I didn’t have the room or desire to store equipment that I wanted to upgrade anyway.  The new lathe had been boxed up for 4 months waiting for me to clear some room, unpack boxes, and for the power to be hooked up.

I spent all of Saturday afternoon, the weekend after power was finally turned on,  putting together my sweet lathe. The thing is a beast, so I had to start out with the bed upside down and install the legs.  I carefully rolled it on its side after all the leg bolts were torqued down and girded up my loins for some heavy lifting.  Now, what I should of done was hook a block and tackle to the rafters and pulled it up right, but I am hard-headed, so I put on wrist straps and dead-lifted the bed onto a 2′ wood block.  Then, after psyching myself up a little, I lifted it the rest of the way vertical.  If my sweet wife would have caught me, she would have said dirty words and i would have been in serious – grounded form the shop – trouble.

Anyway, after the base was upright, the head-stock/motor, banjo (tool rest holder), and tail-stock went on.  I installed the 18″ bed extension while I was at it and made sure to check everything over one more time.

It is 710lbs of mustard-yellow sexy.

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What I Want Thursday – Febuary 2016 Edition

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Below are the things that I really want and that are present for me today:

More time with my children and family.
I want to stick to my diet and workout schedule and not fall off the wagon and back into the cookie/café Mocha/lethargic/big-belly/back-hurting abyss.
For the house remodel to be done
For my Garage build to be 100% and my new lift and tools installed and waiting for me.
Growler or two from West Seattle Brewing Co.
Letters – written on actual paper – from my kids.
A longboard skateboard
I could stand a new Kindle
A handsome tweed vest – or two
Brown Redwing Engineer’s boots
Huge antique pattern lathe found in a barn or a PM4224 with all the add-ons.
A pair of 1/2 round and a pair of Snipe Bill molding planes
A 1.75 – 3Hp SawStop Table Saw
One fine compound sliding miter saw
>8″ joiner/planer
A Grizzly G0752 Benchtop Lathe and G0801 Vertical Mill

Another one has left the nest…

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I sold my midi lathe last week. It was the last one of 3 and I am now lathe-less. It made me more than a little sad. We made such cool shiznit together, but I am making room for the new shop build where I will have a huge 3HP gap-bed pattern lathe with +26″ swing ad huge bed.  I won’t have a place to turn and have zero room left in storage.  It was time to let it go to a good home and get many more years of use.  That is a better life for a lathe then sitting is a dark storage room surrounded by boxes and plastic containers. It still makes me sad to both see it go and to not have another yet.

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Getting a new garage in 2016!!!

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Woohoo!!  It looks like we are a go for a new garage and some needed updates to our heat, plumbing, and wiring at the house.  I am meeting our builder this weekend and passing him a check (two checks actually, one is for the City of Seattle permit office…) and I will have a real garage and wood-shop by spring.  I will have room for a big lathe, cabinet saws, wood storage , my joiners workbench, room to assemble projects/furniture, a real dust collection system, and all my planes/saws/chisels/hand tools on one side.  On the other side of the shop will be a mini-machine/fabrication shop with a two post lift, lathe, end mill, welder, mobile paint booth, and work table…

I cannot tell you how stoked I am!  Seriously, I am all giddy about it.  I plan to make cool stuff, descend into super-nerdy, and will be voiding the shit out of warranties!

Here are the prelim drawings that are being submitted and a lay out of the shop floor.

Garage floor 3 Garage Floor 1 copy Garage floor 2 copy

Update:

Drawings sent to the city. Cross your fingers and pray with me that Planning is having a good day/week/month and these babies get a stamp.

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Christmas list for Santa – 2015

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I already have a bunch of crap, so my first request is that people give to a worthy cause and send me a note about it.  My three favorites and where our charity funds go:

  1. Heifer International:
  2. Doctors Without Borders/MSF
  3. Go give blood and send me a post card
  4. Habitat for Humanity
  5. Diabetes Research

Books:
Campaign Furniture by Chris Schwartz
Theodore Roosevelt: a Strenous Life
A copy of Chris Schwartz’s The Anarchist’s Tool Chest GOT A SIGNED COPY!!  I have a fantastic wife!
I could stand a Kindle Paperwhite
Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America by Jennifer L. Anderson
A volume on handplanes or a tome on traditional woodworking
Twilight at Monticello
Bees of the World by Mitchner
A Lost Art Press volume of The Essential Woodworker
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
James Krenov’s Cabinet Maker’s Notebook
Two Classic books on Shaker Furniture: here and here.

Stuff:
Growler from West Seattle Brewing Co.
Letters from my kids – written on actual paper.
German Wheat Beer is always welcome
A fine bottle of Anejo Tequila
Porto, a good bottle of Porto – Tawny or Ruby.
a Beekeeping Smoker
Zombie shooting targets
An iPad mini – lots of storage (with this you can delete the Kindle)
An Ash Pack Basket (Sling-style harness)
Permission to buy a sweet Faber-Castell Classic fountain pen/Perfect Pencil set
Amber 2ga. Plugs
2ga. Dark Jade plugs
A longboard Skate Board
A handsome tweed vest – or two
Tiffany blue silk tie and matching pocket square
An Electric Violin
Brown Redwing Engineer’s boots
These new bad-ass cufflinks
A Global Chef’s knife, Sashimi knife, and bread knife
Classic Cartoon DVDs (Wanrner Bros., Tex Avery, Bugs, Tom&Jerry, Loony Toons, Road Runner, etc…)

Tools:
A huge antique pattern lathe found in a barn on a dirt road 🙂
A pair of 1/2 round molding planes
A Pair of Snipe Bill molding planes
A 1.75 – 3Hp SawStop Table Saw
A Grizzly G0602 Benchtop Lathe

12/28/15 UPDATE:
I had a great Christmas: A full stocking, books, beer glasses, stuff from my list (noted above), my family got great stuff, I got to see the kids and my grand-daughter, we were all warm and safe, and I gave a little to charity. I couldn’t have asked for or hoped for more.

Wood Lathe for sale in Cornebarrieu – SOLD

/ Matt Talley / 1 Comment

The move is ON!  we have two weeks until the packers and movers get here and Stamps-With-Foot and I spent the morning and part of the afternoon going through stuff and listing stuff for sale  the largest of which is my lathe.  It hurts me a little to see it go, but I know that a huge old gap-bed lathe waits patiently for me in Seattle.

Below is the add that my wife is posting on the local English-speaking forums here in the Toulouse area:

FAR TOOL TBF 1000 Wood Lathe for sale in Cornebarrieu: 

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I bought this lathe brand new from a local shop 18 months ago.   Since it came unassembled, I reinforced the standard steel base with additional shelving, cross-braces to remove any possible flex.  I then sheathed three sides for extra rigidity and added a strong bottom platform for ballast.  I have turned everything from honey dippers, to bowls (large, small, & huge), stools from tree trunks, stair balusters, platters, furniture feet, tiny wooden and acrylic ornaments, lids, etc.  It has been a great lathe and has NO PROBLEMS or “small issues.”  The bearing are true and tight and there is ZERO rust on the ways/bed.  This lathe is in perfect shape and the only reason I am parting with it is because we are moving back to the US and the power there will not work with the lathe’s 240/50Hz motor. 

 Here are the details and specs as well as a couple of links to shops that sell it:

  • Cast iron variable speed lathe features a 360 degree swivel headstock.
  • Solid cast iron headstock and lathe bed construction.
  • Extra bed extension for outboard turning.
  • Speed is fully variable between 450 – 2100 rpm.
  • Weighs ~120 kilos
  • 300mm width capacity over bed and 900mm between centers.
  • Have turned 600mm platters with headstock swiveled 90 degrees
  • 550W enclosed fan-cooled motor
  • hollow self-ejecting tailstock with #2MT
  • Cast iron offset tool rest and extension arm
  • Head Stock has MT2 Taper and 25.4mm (1:8TPI threading – industry standard for lathes this size – easy to find chucks and accessories
  • Includes reinforced/enclosed steel base, added powerstrip for lights and hand sanders, a 4-prong drive centre, bowl/platter faceplate, live tail center, 4 wrenches, knockout-bar, shop-made stead rest.

It will be perfect for your garage or shop or for your partner’s Christmas present since it is ready to work and you just have to plug it is.  I paid 520 Euros for this lathe 18 months ago and it currently lists for 550 – 745 Euro depending on the shop. I am asking 375 Euro.  Please give me a call if you have any questions and the lathe is available for demo if you would like.

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UPDATE:

I sold the lathe to a nice English gent, who got a smoking deal. I helped him take it all apart and put it in his car. The rear springs were seriously loaded, but he looked happy as he pulled out of our drive.

Puttering around in the shop

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I had a super shitty trip home from Morocco and was stressed out & pissed off when I got up Saturday morning.

First Coffee.

I then decided that and working on some current projects, a couple of little things on the lathe, and making lots of sawdust and wood shavings would make it all better.

I am in the process of building an old-school 6-board chest (now 8-board as I added a skirt to front and rear…)  and had some white pine scrap sections left from the two sides and the bottom.  I glued them up before I left for Casablanca and when I got home I decided to turn a quick fruit dish for the kitchen/my wife.  It took all of about 20 minutes and is 10.5″ in diameter and 2″ tall.  I am pretty happy with the results.

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Blanket Chest Rebuild

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Early last year, Stamps-With-Foot and I bought a few pieces of furniture from an English couple moving out of France.  One of the pieces was a pine drawer-front blanket chest that someone in the UK had built in their garage out of decking material.  It was constructed with dovetails, screws, and lots of glue, so it was a stout little piece and for $50, I couldn’t pass it up.  The finish was originally 1980’s fabulous stain and it was semi-sloppily finished with a brushed on polyurethane topcoat, but all and all not so bad as to ruin the chest.  Just right for a little refinishing.

It sat in the house for a year or so, covered with a runner, before I dragged it into the GROP and tore into it.  I cut the funky curved feature off the base, added some corner reinforcement, re-worked the drawer slides, removed the fat awkward drawer knobs, turned and added bun feet to the front, and installed square feet on the rear (going for the 17th century Furniture of Necessity look).  I sanded the whole thing down to remove some of the gloppy poly and painted it with an undercoat of red and an overcoat of flat black – also period appropriate.  When the top coat gets a ding, the red shows through.  I have a number of chairs and other chests done in the same manner.  I added brushed antiqued solid brass handles and called it done.

The chest now sits behind the couch, near the door for the back garden and holds a couple blankets for TV watching comfort and two cotton hammocks for lounging the yard.

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Musée du bois et de la Marqueterie in Revel, France

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Last summer My Father-in-law, my son, and I made a road trip to the Musée du bois et de la Marqueterie (Museum of Wood and Marquetry) in Revel, France (about an hour from our house if you don’t get lost or almost run out of gas…).  The town is one of the noted centers of high quality furniture production and has historically specialized in wood marquetry.  It goes back to 1888, when Alexandre Monoury – a master cabinetmaker – left the workshops of Versailles and settled in Revel.  Under his influence, several workshops were set up there and many of those origional shops are still going strong today.  

The museum highlights the work of the area, new and old, and we spent a couple of hours marveling at the tools, example pieces and shear artistry of furniture, sculptures and marquetry examples on the second floor of the facility.  

As a note – this part of France is stunning with sunflower and wheat fields(the Tour du France rides through or by every year) and the town has an stunning 13th century market square and a beautiful central market hall with a quadrangle of historic buildings around it that are home to restaurants, a fabulous bakery/pastry shop and antique shops.

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Lectern rebuild and re-thinking the plan

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Early last year, I picked up an antique copyist’s lectern (the top part only) that originated in a French Abby.  The lectern was riddled with worm holes, a couple pieces were missing, and there was some damage to repair, but the first thing was to make it bug free so not to infect all our other furniture with wood worm.  The thing spent a couple of months in a plastic bag full of insecticide and chemicals that makes for square babies. According to the interwebs two months bathing in said concoction would make the piece safe to bring out see the light of day again, so after fumigation, it sat in our living-room as decoration for 12 months before I started the rebuild in earnest.

Initially, I sketched up a few column profiles in my ubiquitous little black notebook and settled on a somewhat simple design that matched the overall style and period of the piece.  Next, I spent a little time one Sunday turning a new pedestal out of beech scraps from my workbench build. I glued them all up into a single 5″ X 5″ x 32″ hunk of wood. I then measured and turned matching intermediate supports from a scrap oak rolling pin with curves to match the column.   A couple of weeks later, I used the last of the beech scrap and turned the pedestal base, which ended up 16″ in diameter and 3″ tall.

After gluing it all together, applying matching stain, and putting 4 coats of polyurethane on the base, it was time to start on the lectern top.  All was going to plan right up to the moment that I removed a damaged shelf and saw what looked to be fresh wood damage… In one of the joints there was a small white bug larvae…  Son of a bitch…  I immediately put plastic on my bench top and took apart another joint.  I found more LIVING wood worm. I started picking at the capped holes here and there and more worm…  Shit!!!  I wrapped it up in a trash bag and out to the street it went.  It would seem that my lethal chemical treatment wasn’t that lethal.  Just REALLY, REALLY happy that the hatch hadn’t started and that my house was no full of bugs that would lay word worm eggs all over our other furniture. I took pictures and measurements and I am now planning on building a copy of the top over the next month or so and I will post the finished product here when I am done and it is installed in the living room.

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Kitchen Island – Update

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It has been almost a year since I built (with help from The Ruminator) Stamps-With-Foot a kitchen island and she has loved it (so I am told) and used the bejesus out of it.  I made a couple of additions and there are a a few observations:

  1. The wood I used as the base platform shelf was REALLY wet and I put 1/16″ spacing between the boards.  WAY too much.  I should have wedged them in as tight as possible because they have shrunk and now I have 1/8 gaps in a couple of places.  No big deal since it is tongue and groove, but I don’t like spacing that large.
  2. I installed an Arkansas Razorbacks bottle opener on one of the legs.  It was required.
  3. I had used a hunk of cherry tree trunk/firewood and turned it down as a lid/plug for the scrap hole.  I turned it too large since it was really wet and was bound to shrink/warp/crack.  My best guess is that it is done moving, so I put it back on the lathe and turned it down to size and changed the profile a little.
  4. The rolling pin is a great towel holder, but I should have/need to stop it from rolling – the towel slips off and onto the floor occasionally.
  5. I also originally finished the plug with walnut oil, but it gets handled a lot by wet hands and I had to oil it every couple of weeks.  This time I finished it with 3 coats outdoor polyurethane and then added a coat of wax.

 

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Matt Talley - Projects 2015_02

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Some small projects around the house

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I have been swamped with work and travel for the last couple of months, so my shop time has been very limited. I have mostly been puttering around with my workbench, getting the last bits and bobbles done before calling it done and I have spent the off hour here and there on the lathe and doing stuff around the house:

  1. I had to fix a dishwasher leak and do some painting in the kitchen – still hate plumbing
  2. We did some re-arranging, so I had to fill some nail holes and then make new ones.
  3. Glued a cutting board back together after it split – craptastic glue didn’t hold, so it is back in the to-fix pile and will get some dowels this time
  4. Made a pot lid handle out of some scrap cherry.
  5. Tackled the jungle that was once my yard – twice
  6. Sharpened the lawnmower blade
  7. Turned the compost
  8. I bought a sheet of plywood and built a DVD shelf and a 8′ bookshelf for the lending library we run.
  9. There was been an oak log in my shop for months so I cut it in half and made a couple of stools for my office.
  10. Our puppies play a game called “run away from Mommy” when she takes them out, so I built two small fences to keep them in the back yard and away from the front gate.

I have do a few things in the shop just for organization and am working on a couple of little projects:

  1. We got a huge free wardrobe that I put in the GROP to organize non-tool/shop related items like climbing gear and life jackets
  2. My battery operated tools need a home, so I put together an organization center for them that mounts on the French cleat board
  3. I hung up my 6 heavy panel clamps to get them out of the way
  4. Made a Lathe chuck and tail-stock tool organizer for the French cleat organizer
  5. With a bonus from my J-O-B, I bought a few more molding planes, but they arrived in sad shape. I spent 6+ hours one Saturday cleaning, sharpening and fixing them.
  6. Started work on a blanket chest rebuild: cut here, snip there, new runners and new feet. Will get new milk paint finish when complete.
  7. Working on a copyist lectern rebuild. I made the base, pillar and other bits from some scrap beech left over from the bench build.
  8. Built a wooded top for the puppy Kennel so it blends better with the furniture in the Living Room.
  9. Putting together a 6-board chest for molding plane storage.  Will get re-purposed forged hardware and a Barn Red milk paint finish.

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New stools from an oak tree

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This weekend I finished up a “little” lathe project I started in early February – I made a couple of stools out of a hunk of oak tree that was cut after a storm in our village. They are about 15.5″ (39cm) tall and 10″ (26cm) around and getting it that way pushed my Chinese lathe to its absolute max. It walked all over the floor when I first started it up – hence the kettle bells thrown on the middle shelf to add mass. It super did not like the out of balance logs. It would have been fine at a slower speed, but the slowest my lathe goes is 400 RPM and that is too fast for this size project. I managed, but there was lots of starting and stopping.

I really like both how the turned out and how comfy they are to sit on – just the right height for a quick stop-and-rest. I will add bow-tie joint if needed as they dry out and split, maybe out of some walnut that I have. They will make a nice addition to my home office.

Oak stool 23-2015 (2)

Oak stool 23-2015 (3)

Oak stool 23-2015 (1)

Oak stool 23-2015 (4)

The contents of my checked luggage

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Every time I come back to the US for work or vacation, I go back to France with maxed-out checked luggage.  Not smuggling contraband or anything, just comfort food, hand tools, and stuff we cant get there. I have only been stopped at customs once and it was an hour long “what is this” game.  All sorts of fun explaining what an 8TPI lathe chuck was….

If customs decides to stop me this time they will find the following in my 2 huge duffle bags:

1 thermarest mattress pad
4 bags of Vashon Roasters Coffee
2 Starbucks mugs from home
1 giant 5/8″ bowl gouge (lathe chisel)
3 sets of Queen sheets
1 end grain lathe chisel tool
New snowboard boots.
Found pocket knife
2 jars of Coconut oil
Multi Vitamins
1 ziplock bag full of shelled pecans from my aunt.
Bottle of Tums
Christmas presents from my mom for my wife
A new hat (Heisenburg-ish and green)
17mm combo wrench and 17mm socket
2 sets of workshop/garage plans
Specialty hardware from Woodcraft
A second notebook computer
4 months worth of mail
7 books
End grain specific lathe chisel
75mm bowl jaws (for previously mentioned lathe chuck)

2014: My year in Review

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Moved into house in small village near Toulouse France
Started running and lifting again
Set up office at home
Had to deal with broken furniture from move – Insurance company was fairly easy to deal with
Fixed some stuff, got other new stuff
Flight to Florida for work
At least 10 hours a day spend at J-O-B
Work Laptop stolen in Paris hotel Room – Super pissed!!
Met friend both new and Old in and around Toulouse.
Trip to China for a week
More work, more coffee
Cut down a deceased cherry tree and made 3 big bowls
Gave two away
Played Pétanque with the old guys in my village
Built 5 benches for the house over a 5–week period
Work crazy hours
Flight back to Seattle for 2 weeks work/vacation
Visit to Carcassonne and Limoux
Found amazing French junk shop in the middle of nowhere
Joined a French beekeeping group
Bought a wood Lathe
Worked more crazy hours
Rode my bikes a little – not enough.
Made stuff for house: instrument hangers, book shelves, lids, kitchen island, etc…
Running and lifting again somehow stopped and work increased…
Got a new Banjo
Horribly addicted to coffee
Blogged a good bit
Started setting up small hand tool work shop in garage
Son in France for 2 months
Got a canoe for Father’s Day
Bastille Day in Carcassonne
Began building 450# traditional work bench
Quit Facebook
Spent way too much at local wood supply house
Made 4-5 small pieces of furniture for the house
Father in law in France for a month
Fixed some furniture for a co-worker and another piece for a neighbor
Adopted new puppy – Truffle
Flights to Germany, Marseilles and Paris
Super stressed – J-O-B
Getting fat(er)
41st Birthday trip to Porto, Portugal
Got an awesome watch as a gift from sweet wife
Trip to Morocco for J-O-B – bought 2 fantastic carpets while there
Thanksgiving in Turkey – sort of funny sounding. Was working
Grew a beard – wife disgruntled
Flight to Arkansas
Became a Grandfather!!
A beautiful baby girl!
Feel super-old
Tried to bribe a Friend’s parents into selling me his old jeep
Enacted a diabolical plan to make the jeep mine
Spent 14th Birthday with Son
Got most of Christmas shopping done in US
Came home to France with new mandolin and vintage violin
Cut down another cherry, and apricot and a plum and started making bowl blanks
Back to work and back to more 10-12 hour days and calls until 10pm
Christmas snuck up on me again.
Read 20 books in 2014 – almost shameful. Will read more next year
Spent holiday in Pau, France at a friend’s parent’s place and ate and drank until I was ready to pop
Finished top for new work bench – only took six months
Had two friends from London come over for New Years
Spent first weekend of 2015 snowboarding with two friends in Andorra

Chinese Lathe Build Update – Pimp My Lathe Edition

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As mentioned in a previous post, I purchased a Chinese manufactured wood lathe shortly after moving to France. Putting it together and getting it running true was not a Herculean task, but it wasn’t a plug and play affair either. In addition to the initial setup, I have taken an hour here and there to make it bit more ridged and add some features that did not come stock, just to pimp it out a little:

  1. The base is now sheathed in 1/2″ plywood, glued to the wood supports and screwed into the sheet metal legs.  It makes the base a LOT stiffer and clean-up is much faster.
  2. After 4 months of weekly run-time, I have had to replace a couple of set screws and re-tighten the short bed extension outboard of the head-stock. The clamp bolt holding the head stock shattered and caused me some grief.  Chinese bolt quality sucks.
  3. The bottom of the base was finished with 2″ thick scraps and I added a couple hundred pounds of pavers, gravel, and crushed brick to add even more stability.  It is not enough when I try to turn a 15″ hunk of cherry outboard,  It still wobbles and jumps around a bit.  There is just no way to make the sheet metal frame more ridged.
  4. On the French cleats above the lathe, I added a tool holder and chuck/drive center/tail center tool mount for convenience.
  5. I hung a long compact florescent over the work area and on the side there is an IKEA floor lamp/spot light that I can move about.  Scored it used for $8.00!
  6. A tool grinder the I picked up for about $45 is mounted are the end of the lathe on a small table for easy mid-project tool sharpening.
  7. The capacity is only 12″ and that is not the magic number.  16″ – 18″ would be perfect for the bowls and bases and platters that I am doing here.  If I added 2″ iron risers to the head and tail stocks, then it would give me a 16″ turning capacity (swing).  I have thought long and hard about doing it, but haven’t yet as it might be a complication that is more headache than useful AND I don’t want to put anymore time or money into the thing.  I just want it to work.
  8. I designed a steel bed extension – modeled it in 3D and everything, but I am not going to have it made… I would be trying to turn an under powered Hyundai into a V8 4X4 Toyota Truck.
  9. For tuning large objects with the head swiveled, I designed a sweet swing arm tool post as well.  I modeled it up too, and decided not to have it built for the same reasons.  I will use the tool post arm that came with the lathe with a wood post under for support when I turn bigger stuff outboard.
  10. This Lathe will get me by for the next couple of years and I will go over it and repair/replace any worn parts before we leave France to ensure the next owner has relatively trouble free tool, but This is my last “cheap” lathe.  I am going to plop down some funds and get a Robust, Vicmarc, a huge Powermatic, Oneway, Oliver, or a Stubby – Something with power, mass, lots of heavy cast iron and reliable parts that I don’t have to screw with.

 

IMG_3410 Lathe Chisel rack 2014 Lathe clean aug 2014

 

 

Rainy Day Projects

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I spent a few hours this past Saturday cleaning up and re-arranging the GROP. I had bits and pieces of projects strewn about everywhere and I had to wiggle my way in through both the garage door and the door from the house – like I was in need of a hoarder intervention. It just took a couple of hours and only two utterances of the F-word to make sure that my on-going and future tasks were staged for completion and arranged in an orderly fashion.

Months ago, I picked up an antique copyist’s lectern (the top part only) taken from a French Abby. It was in ruins and the wood was full of worm holes, but I saw treasure and have planned on rebuilding it “…when I have time...” This is what rain days are for! Running and biking would have beeen cold and muddy, the dogs wouldn’t budge from the warmth of the pillow filled couch, I had already slept late and there was serious wife snuggling, so might as well make some wood shavings!

I sketched up a few column profiles in my ubiquitous little black notebook (currently a Rhodia Webbie) and decided on a somewhat simple design that MIGHT have been found when the piece was made. It is not some object of high art – no Gothic arches, no carvings and it seems to have been made for a specific task which didn’t require flourishes. I tried to follow that ascetic and kept it all fairly simple, only using a gouge, parting tool, and skew to work the column. While my lathe is modern, the tools are the same that have been used since the ancient Egyptians turned on their horizontal lathes, so I figure that the re-made version would be recognizable to both the maker and user of the original piece – that and it feeds my own mild form of wood working OCD.

The lectern top is now stabilized and bug free after months of treatment and I spent a little time on Sunday turning a new pedestal out of beech scraps from my workbench build that I had. I glued them all up into a single 5″ X 5″ x 32″ hunk of wood. I then measured and turned matching intermediate supports so that it all blends in as one piece. I need to give it a good all-over sanding before I remove it from the lathe. What I have left to do before I call it done is to replace one book ledge, rebuild (or find at junk shop) the second tin candle holder to match the single original that is left, turn and fit the pedestal base plate, and then everything gets stained and oil-finished to match.

It will look amazing in living room next to the book press with a reprinted copy of one of the four volumes of Roubo’s L’Art Du Menuisier on one side and Viollet-le-duc’s Dictionary of French Architecture from 11th to 16th Century on the other side, tall beeswax candles in the holders… Jesus, I am getting nerdier with each passing year!

Lectern rebuild 11-2014 (1)

Lectern rebuild 11-2014 (2)

Lectern rebuild 11-2014 (3)

Lectern rebuild 11-2014 (4)

Four days in the US: lots of work, frenzied shopping, and severe jet lag

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I just spent 3.5 days in the US. I had to go over for a bunch of meetings that I just couldn’t do over the phone and this is how trip started…

Woke up at 04:00 and hopped in the shower.

Had 06:30 flight to the U.S. 

Caught female French Bulldog chewing wife’s $400+ retainer in our new bed.

Took retainer away and scolded puppy. 
Went to get tooth brush. 

Walked back by bed while brushing teeth and headed to get dressed.

Caught a sideways glimpse of the same dog peeing between our pillows and switching to the “I gotta shit” hunch. 

I LOST MY MIND!!!

Grabbed dog, wife put robe on me (was still naked at that point) as I marched dog to the door in righteous fury. 

Wife stripped bed – no pee on pillows or new mattress.

After completing her business, dog went into the kennel. 

She did it because she was pissed at me for taking her “new yummy toy” and for scolding her so early.

It is official, she is getting fixed next week.
No way we are passing those genes on to continue her line of un-smart and passive aggressive Frenchies.

Our other Frenchie (the smart and well behaved one) watched the whole affair with a dual look of “Wasn’t me!” and “Damn girl, you got in TROUBLE…”
As dessert, I got my balls manhandled by security at the Toulouse airport in a cup and smush maneuver that they must teach to the French equivalent of the TSA as this is not the first occurrence.

Work was work and there were lots of meetings and calls, but I had a couple of hours at night to run some errands. Anytime we go home, there is a list of stuff to get that we normally can’t find in France or if we can, it is crazy expensive: 12oz jar of coconut oil at Trader Joes is $4. Here it is the equivalent of $15.50. Really. You don’t want to know what vitamins cost and forget finding “your brand” of tooth paste.

My sweet wife, Stamps-With-Foot, gave me a list. A very exacting list and below are the places I went to check everything off:

Target
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Starbucks
Ross
3 different Walgreens
Ye Olde Vitamin Shoppe
Woodcraft (that was for me and I got in trouble)
GNC
West Marine
FedEx
CVS Pharmacy
USPS
Guitar Center (again me, but I only dropped $6)
Academy Sporting goods
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Barnes & Noble
Petco
Pets and More

I had to get the puppies new coats for winter ( on the list) and I had an arm load of pink frilly sweaters when a woman from my cooperate office walked by me in Petco and struck up a conversation. I felt especially manly standing the in the dog outfit section, deciding on which pink heart-covered puffy knitted number our female Frenchie would look best in. The lady may have snickered a little. Her husband was standing a few feet behind her – 6’2″, ~240 pounds with a large beard – he was holding a chihuahua mix with a purple harness and gave me a look of shared shame and defeat.

Free Wood is the Best Wood!

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Prospects for Fall wood-turning are looking up!  I am 98% done with the Chinese lathe build-up into a proper tool. I am waiting on the arrival (had to resort amazon.uk.co as there are not turning shops in a 100 mile radius?!) of two huge bowl gouges and I will be set up to make shavings all winter. I was also given a free electric oil-filled heater for the garage, which should keep things toasty!  On the raw material front: I am taking an old apricot tree out of a small orchard for some friends a few villages away tomorrow (National Holiday) and I am really excited to turn some bowls and jar tops out of it.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned the project to a friend of my wife’s and a couple of hours later she called and said that her husband was cutting an old ornamental cherry down and would I like the wood? Like the Pope wants Jesus, I did!! I went over with the chainsaw and helped him take it down and to cut a few larger limbs and the trunk into sections.  Some of the images below are what it looked like inside the tree just after my chainsaw went through. We were stunned. Not just the center was beautiful – a fire purple, but there are bright reds and oranges in the outer wood as well. The tree had over 70 rings and grew next to a couple of big cedars so the rings are real tight and as I had to sharpen my chain twice during the cutting, the wood is VERY hard and dense.

It took two loads in the car to get it all home.  I sealed the ends right away and stacked everything in the GROP near the lathe. They had cut a plum down earlier this week and I scored two 12” rounds from that as well – the ones with the flame purple center in the pictures below. I told the couple that I would make them a vessel or large bowl out of a hunk of the tree in trade for the lumber.

Fast forward to this past Saturday: I rough turned 6 bowls (one not pictured) in about 2.5 hours from the large limbs. The trunk sections will be cut into starting next weekend.   I will let the small pieces dry for 4-6 months and then finish turning them. The larger bowls from the trunk will take a year to dry.

Am feeling reasonably optimistic about upcoming projects :-)

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Update 11-9-14:

Well, the apricot tree wood harvesting didn’t quite go as planned. I had chainsaw issues right away – needed to tear it down before the first cut and unclog the chain oil hole. Holy crap the wood was hard. It had 65+ growth rings that were stacked in tight. It was slow going with a couple stops to sharpen my chain. The clincher though was that there were two twisting veins of rot that went from crown to root ball with lots of bug damage spidering out from the rot as well. Dammit! There was was maybe 12” of trunk that I can spin a bowl out of. Per my agreement with the owner, I cut up the other trunk & big limb sections to a length that will fit in a fireplace and stacked it up for them. You win some you lose some. If not for this tree I wouldn’t have the amazing wood from the ornamental cherry and plum tree and maybe karma will smile on me the next time I lug my saw into a field.

Apricot Tree 11-2014 (3)

Apricot Tree 11-2014 (1)

Apricot Tree 11-2014 (2)

What I Want Thursday – 11/6/14

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Below are the things that I find are present for me today:

1. More time with my children and my mom.

2. I want to stick to my diet and workout schedule and not fall off the wagon and back into the cookie/café Mocha/lethargic/big-belly/back-hurting abyss.

3. For my wife to finish some long ago promised sewing tasks for me – I would really like those shorts, pants, and shirts back…

4. a Fine large set (only 2) of Easy Wood carbide insert lathe chisels for all the fall and winter bowl work I have planned

5. For my proper car camping/glamping kitchen set up to be finished – it is about 1/2 the way done and sitting in the GROP.

6. A leisurely trip to Rome and Venice with my wife – no puppies, no family, no friends – just us for a week or so.

7. For my Joiners workbench to be done and set up and in use.  I am only about 1/3 of the way done and only have 8 of the 17 sections of the top laminated up.

8. A few books: Franklin Bio by Wood,  Paris Between the Wars 1919-1939: Art, Life & Culture; Ernest Hemmingway bio and a two books of his letters (1&2), A signed hardbound copy of Campaign Furniture 
Theodore Roosevelt: a Strenuous Life,  The Anarchist’s Tool Chest etc…

9. A whole Metric crap-ton (my favorite unit of measure) of wooden wine crates for a couple of open projects at home.

10. To give Heifer International a menagerie of animals for Christmas – That is my charity goal for the year.  We give monthly, but I would like to be able to do more this year.

11.  For our 2015 French Visas to be finished so we can get on with plans for next year.

Making Little Stuff Around the House

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I have been remiss in posting for the last couple of weeks – my J-O-B has been sort of nuts and I have been trying to stay on top of things and stay employed 🙂 I have been putting around in the shop here and there at night before and after dinner though.  Recently I have completed:

  1. A salt cellar for my wife made from scrap red and white oak because I was tired of seeing the IKEA glass dish on the table.
  2. A jar lid or two for the kitchen.
  3. There have been a couple of honey dippers for turned gifts.
  4. Specifically for my wife, I made rolling pins for fettuccine and ravioli pasta (or pie crust if my sweet bride happened to want to bake me a lattice top apple pie…)  We had a friend who is a food blogger come over that LOVED them and I think that I am going to do one or two for her as well.
  5. I added some wood-bling to a plunger handle – Why have mass-produced stuff sitting around like everyone else when 8 minutes of lathe time and a little oil/wax turns the mundane into the custom.
  6. A glass bottle cutter so I can take the pile of bottles we generate and make candle covers, tumblers, and glass funnels for my wife and for Christmas gifts.  It was a non-specific request from her that has won me brownie-points.
  7. A book shelf made from a small 1931 cast-iron lathe and a hunk of reclaimed barn/house beam from here in France.  I cleaned both the beam and lathe up a little, added a little stain to the wood, light sanding, and a coat of poly.  I mortised in a couple of reclaimed oak runners to serve as feet and the keep the ends of the beam from splitting.  The lathe was then bolted down and I added one of my bowls to give the books a proper purchase.  The tool rest is turned and mounted on the other side to keep the books upright.  I think it looks awesome and everyone who have come over in the last month has either asked where I got it of how I thought of it.  Make my ego swell a bit….

 

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Inaugural Hand Tool Tuesday Post

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Being a child of the 1980’s, my early tool and joinery education from my own father was augmented by two TV craftsman – Norm and Roy. I have a foot in each of their worlds: My table saw, miter saw, and lathe get the lion’s share of work done in my shop, but I am giddy whenever I can whip out a chisel, Japanese saw, or molding plane. My lathe gets a lot of press as it is my only power tool here in France and I recently realized that I am not highlighting hand tools enough in my shop work posts. Additionally, I see a lot of very cool old tools here in France that need to be shared. I will be posting pictures, videos, details, openions, thoughts, etc… here.

For today, enjoy Roy and Norm

Disclosure Note: The choice of the Roy video was solely due to the heady mix of Jefferson and Roubo. In the future, I will include more videos of people actually using the tools 🙂

Small job for the neighbors

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Just finished a curio cabinet rework/repair for my next-door neighbor. It was the husband’s parents and as best as I can tell/find it is from 1910ish. It was really well made and a fine piece of small furniture to display dolls, tea cups, and such. At some point, 2 shelves were added and the corner trim blocks were lost. I turned some 7/8″ X 7/8″ X 3/8″ blocks down, and added rosettes with a skew chisel point. As my neighbor was handing me the cabinet to install the blocks, he also asked that I put in a third shelf. OK… I used an old fruit crate bottom for the shelf material and planed it down a touch to match the thickness of the other two. I then cleaned up the front edge of one of the “original: shelves so it matched the other and the new.

After the repair and rework, I mixed and fiddled with 3 different stains I had to color match the original finish; I didn’t want the rosettes looking out of place. After touching-up all the dings and scrapes, I added an oil finish and 2 coats of wax. It only took 10 minutes or so to buff it up to a high shine.

I took it over to his wife Monday morning and she was thrilled at the transformation. The Talley motto (at least my house-hold) is “Be Helpful when you can” and I feel this qualifies. I am glad I could do this little thing for them and hope they continue to use it and pass it to their kids.

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Rosettes for neighbor