February 2008 Volume 19 No. 3 Hand Cut Sliding Dovetails

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Founded 1990 www.gnhw.org The Newsletter of the Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers

mock-ups calculating board feet sculpting a contemporary leg Feb 2 BIG finishing for woodturners Feb 16 Guild Meeting three phase motors … Homestead in Newmarket, NH beginners corner Mar 15 Guild Meeting shellac … New Event … Sylvania in Danvers, MA Mar 9 … New Date Mar 22 GSWT Apr 5 BIG Apr 19 Finishing Symposium May 10 Period Furniture May 18 Luthiers May 24 GSWT Jun 7 BIG Jun 14 Summer Trip Jul 26 GSWT Aug 2-10 NH Craftsmen’s Fair Building a Guitar

John Whiteside – lessons in lutherie and life

photo by John Whiteside president’s message by Dave Anderson Day Dreaming

t times we all have an idea or two Do some of the following behaviors license, birth Athat rattles around in our heads half seem familiar to you? certificate, or formed for months and which seems to last year’s tax return if your life come back to us at the strangest times. 1 You spend days, weeks, or even depended on it. Every design note, You know what I mean, you’re supposed months debating which $25 measurement, users manual, to be paying attention to something else widget to buy – Yet and copy of The Old is filed but the train of thought keeps persisting. you pick out your spouse’s $500 and indexed neatly. When it is about woodworking it’s mostly Christmas present in about half 6 You have a lot of yard work to considered harmless day dreaming. Such an hour. do, but you’re hoping it will rain is the case here. 2 You silently debate with yourself so you can spend the day in the My train of thought was really a over whether you should spend shop. series of questions about why we do the $5 per pull for the drawers or 7 Your spouse is afraid to take you strangest things related to working with whether you should get the out looking for furniture. By in relation to our everyday life. I expensive ones at $7.50 each for previous experience she knows guess I should start out with a personal that high chest. You already spent your going to embarrass her by example. My wife has trouble getting $400 for the wood and have about stating that “you could build it me, and I have trouble getting myself, 200 hours in the project. better and cheaper” and then to go shopping for clothes – even for 3 You can’t find time to take out the you’re going to get down on all something so simple as a few pairs of trash for pickup, but you can find fours and crawl around looking at socks where I could be in and out of the time to spend most of a day at a the underside of the piece. store in less than half an hour. Contrast guild meeting without feeling the 8 The mailman arrives and drops off this with the fact that I drove three hours slightest bit of guilt. the day’s mail. After you go get up and three hours back to attend the 4 All of the , blades, it, you ignore the bills, what you Lie-Nielsen 25th Anniversary and spend carving , and in your know is a birthday card for you, a whopping $100. The absurdity comes shop are razor sharp – sharp and dive immediately into the when I know that I could have spent the enough for use in surgery. Your latest woodworking magazine. same amount for the same tool (also a kitchen knives would have trouble 9 Your wife pointedly mentions Lie-Nielsen) locally with a short round cutting through a marshmallow. to the folks touring your shop trip of an hour. 5 You couldn’t find your marriage Continued on Page 3

Steering Committee President Dave Anderson 603-887-6267 [email protected] Vice President David Frechette 802-633-2561 [email protected] SubGroups Secretary Caleb Dietrich 603-556-1629 [email protected] BIG Bob LaCivita 603-942-1240 [email protected] Treasurer Peter James 603-435-8133 [email protected] Granite State Woodturners Jon Siegel 603-768-5882 [email protected] At Large Peter Breu 603-647-2327 [email protected] John Whiteside 603-679-5443 [email protected] At Large Jon Siegel 603-768-5882 [email protected] Period Furniture Mike Noel 603-744-3821 [email protected] At Large Bob LaCivita 603-942-1240 [email protected] Period Furniture John Faro 603-968-9800 [email protected] At Large Andy Young 603-672-9558 [email protected] At Large John Whiteside 603-679-5443 [email protected] Volunteer Positions At Large Ed Orecchio 603-542-0322 [email protected] Old Saw Editor Jim Seroskie 603-673-2123 [email protected] Books Tony Immorlica 603-673-9629 [email protected] Past President Roger Myers 603-773-9634 [email protected] Membership DJ Delorie 603-463-5996 [email protected] Programs Sal Morgani 603-772-1006 [email protected] Old Saw Mailing Syd Lorandeau 603-542-5295 slorandeau@verizon. net Shirts/Hats Peter James 603-435-8133 [email protected] Scholarship Committee Small Meetings Ed Orecchio 603-542-0322 [email protected] Chairman Peter Breu 603-647-2327 [email protected] Sunapee Fair Coordinator Open Position Member David Frechette 802-633-2561 [email protected] Sunapee Raffle Coordinator Jim Dimick 603-228-1131 [email protected] Member Ed Bartlett 603-364-5242 [email protected] Video Librarian John Pitrone 603-894-5893 [email protected] — Please send all applications to Peter Breu, Selection Committee Chair Video Recording Peter Bloch 603-526-6152 [email protected] In addition, Peter Bloch and Bob Jarrett are non-voting members Web Master DJ Delorie 603-463-5996 [email protected]

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers – Bringing together the diverse interests of the New Hampshire woodworking community. “The Old Saw” is published five times per year. To join the Guild, go towww.gnhw.org and click on “Membership “ to download an application form.

2 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers announcements

The meeting will begin at 9:00 am, th th with the lighting presentations starting Februrary 16 , 2008 – 10:00 am March 15 , 2008 – 9:00 am around 9:30. There is plenty of parking available on site, and a large area where February Guild Meeting March Guild Meeting you can eat your lunch between the morning and afternoon session. You at the Homestead at the Sylvania Corporate should bring your own lunch or there School in Newmarket, NH Headquarters in Danvers, MA are several nearby places to grab a bite. Topics for the afternoon session he next Guild n Saturday, March have not yet been determined. You are Tm e e t i n g O15, the Guild will also welcome and encouraged to bring will be held have a special meeting on samples of your recent work to display. February 16 at the subject of lighting for There will be plenty of chairs, so there is the Homestead the workshop and studio. no need to bring your own. Woodworking This meeting will be held in lieu of If you have any questions or topics School in the small group meetings that would you would like to see addressed, feel free Newmarket, normally be scheduled in March. to contact Roger at 978-239-7654 or by NH. The session The meeting will be hosted byosram e-mail at [email protected]. will run from sylvania at their North American 10:00 am until Headquarters in Danvers, MA. The Directions to Osram noon, followed meeting, which will be hosted by Roger Sylvania in Danvers, MA by lunch from Myers and will take place in Sylvania’s noon until state of the art “Lightpoint” customer • Interstates 93 or 95 south to Rt 128. 1:00 pm, then a continuation of the education and meeting center. Presenters Take Rt 128 North to the Endicott St presentations. will include Bob Nigrello, Group Product Please bring chairs and don’t forget Marketing Manager and Jeff Waymouth, exit. your lunch. Do to the tremendous Senior Applications Engineer. Topics • At the end of the exit ramp, turn success at the last Guild meeting, we ask will be product and technology specific left and Osram Sylvania is the first you once again to bring a project to the and applicable to all brands of lighting building on the right. meeting, either one you are working on – although Roger appreciates when you or one completed. It was a great way to purchase Sylvania. • Park in the main parking area and see what others are doing and to give us The lighting presentation will enter the building through the front some inspiration. focus on lighting topics of interest to (100 Endicott Street) entrance and Continuing our theme of workshop woodworkers. What type of lighting is related lectures, our main presenter for best? How much lighting should I have in follow the signs to “Lightpoint”. this meeting will feature Casey Hallowell, my shop or gallery? How do the different a representative from Lie-Nielsen who types of lighting affect how colors look? will discuss . These are subjects that seem to generate Pr e s i d e n t ’s Me s s a g e – continued a lot of questions from woodworkers in Directions to Homestead discussions on on-line forums and in for the first time that your shop magazines, and the subjects are generally cabinets are better than the ones Woodworking School not handled very well. Here, you will she has in the kitchen. Ouch!! in Newmarket, NH have the chance to listen to lighting 10 Then finally there’s that small experts explain the facts about different matter of the table, or other piece • From Rt 125 north, turn right onto types of lighting and lighting design, of furniture, you promised your Rt 87 in Epping. After 3 miles, turn and ask questions. You will also be able wife you’d build her three years left onto Bald Hill Road. The school to see many different types of lighting ago. The first piece of wood has is 1.1 miles on the left. displayed in room settings and observe yet to be purchased. the differences between different types • From Rt 108 south, turn right onto of light sources such as incandescent, Well friends, you get the general idea Rt 152 in Newmarket. Go past the halogen, fluorescent or led. You are I’m trying to convey. I’m sure that you high school and turn left onto Grant encouraged to bring samples of finished all could come up with a list of your own Road. After 3.5 miles turn left onto to observe them under different which would tell tales on yourself. Isn’t it Bald Hill Road. The school is 0.5 light sources and see why sometimes amazing the kinds of things we do and what you saw in the shop looks different the way we have these fun foibles. Work miles on the right. when it is in the living room. safely folks. The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 3 Write to [email protected] with your questions 4

La t h e Al i g n m e n t – I have a Marty Milkovitz replies: It will not Ma h o g a n y – I understand Q rotating head stock. How do raise the grain when applied, basically Q that is considered I ensure alignment when I rotate it it’s not water based. an oily wood. What is the best glue back to align with the bed? – David to use for joints in mahogany and Belser Re m o v i n g Ac e t o n e St a i n – is special cleaning needed before Q How do I get an acetone ( gluing? – Bob Jarrett DJ Delorie replies: The most reliable polish remover) stain off of a cabinet? easy way is to chuck a length of wood – David Belser Terry Moore replies: I would not into it, and turn on the lathe at low consider mahogany an oily wood. speed. You’ll be able to see the center of Terry Moore replies: Acetone is not and , yes, but not mahogany. rotation on the free end, and decide if it a stain, it is a solvent. Unfortunately, it For interior work such as furniture and needs further adjustment. has not stained the cabinet in question, , regular yellow such However, you can also experiment it has melted the finish. The acetone is a as Titebond works well. For exterior work with various “push here” techniques strong fast drying solvent that will attack such as or say an entrance to see if one of them just works. For any finish such as lacquer, urethane, oil door, epoxies or urethane (gorilla) glue example, on my lathe, the back edge or . If you know what the finish would work better. In either case, no of the slot guide is properly aligned, so is, you may be able to spot sand it and special preparation is needed beyond if I push the headstock away from me re-apply some new finish. Good luck! sanding and dusting. while tightening, it tends to be properly aligned. Marty Milkovitz replies: You don’t. Jon Siegel replies: Mahogany is not You can also purchase alignment jigs, If the blemish is not too deep, you can an oily wood and requires no special like a rod with a Morse #2 taper on both try rubbing it out with emery paper glue or methods. ends, to help align the headstock to the progressing to smaller and smaller grits. tailstock. If you happen to have a pen Marty Milkovitz replies: Mahogany turning , or three-buff mandrel, Va c u u m Ba g – Is there a is probably the least oily of the oily woods, those can be used as well. In that case, Q simple, cost effective vacuum It glues well with any glue intended there’s often no need to turn the lathe bag process for gluing and clamping? for wood and other than making sure on if the are accurate enough – Harvey Best the surface is dry, bare wood does not and properly seated in the taper. require any sort of cleaning. Of more Terry Moore replies: The question concern is selecting the right glue for NGR St a i n – Please explain is gluing what? Gluing veneer is best the job. For general indoor projects I use Q NGR stain. – Bob St. Laurent accomplished using a vacuum bag. an Aliphatic Resin glue (Yellow glue); Some curved forms can also be used in a outdoor or marine I’ll use a Resorcinol Terry Moore replies: Non Grain vacuum bag for re-sawn lamination work. Resin or Urea Resin glue. If you are a Raising stains use a different solvent Most of the guitar making factories use a purest period furniture maker, use Hide for the pigment. Water based stain uses small vacuum press to glue the braces to glue. The book Gluing & Clamping by water as the solvent for the pigment, and the top and back of the guitar. In certain Patrick Spielman is probably the best applying water to wood raises the grain circumstances a vacuum bag is fine, laymen’s guide for the different types of and makes it rough to the touch. Alcohol but it is not an economical alternative glue application. base stains use alcohol as a solvent, but to a pipe for pulling together a there is still a percentage of water in the joint. Di v i d i n g Bu rl – How should alcohol solvent, so it will also raise the I made my own first vacuum system Q I divide a burl into sections for grain slightly when applied. by gluing together a vinyl bag, and using bowls. I want to maximize the burl NGR stains use a lacquer thinner an old hospital vacuum pump. It worked especially the large circumferential base, or similar solvents that make up ok. I finally broke down and bought burls. – Ed Orecchio what we commonly call “lacquer thinner”, a commercial system from Vacuum and these carry the pigments, dry faster Pressing Systems of Brunswick, Maine. Graham Oakes replies: Burls can be and do not raise the grain because there It is an investment, but it is also a much very difficult to divide into sections. The is no water in the solvent. better system. Continued on Page 7 4 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Ted Blachly makes furniture in Warner, New Hampshire Mock-ups by Ted Blachley

I have been involved with generating furniture designs that are personal in nature for a number of years now. The shapes and forms in the pieces appeal to me.

I notice certain elements or details that keep showing up in the sketch papers – and maybe evolving there. The influences at this point are sometimes hard to track. Sure I appreciate certain styles or techniques – Japanese woodworking, Danish furniture or New England furniture for example. These things may come into play when designing and making a piece, but there is so much more. One quote that sticks in my mind from an early Guild meeting on design was from my good friend Jere Osgood. He This is not, at least for me, an A B C…1 2 3 sequential was talking about the sketch book and said “It was a place process. I work all four at the same time until I get the final to record things that were important to you…which could be design. Typically it starts with a sketch and then a scale drawing. anything from a Hepplewhite leg design to the Wind blowing But if I get to a point where the drawing isn’t answering a around a corner’’ — Well there is a wide range of things question, I’ll switch to making a full scale mock-up to really let between those two ideas! me see what’s going on. For the joinery and details I’ll go back to the drawing board. If a complicated drawer hanging detail What I want to talk about is the design process. There is a crops up, out comes the sketch papers to help me see it. It’s all class that is run at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in about getting your questions and concerns answered as you Rockport, ME that I have been co-teaching for a number of make your way through. years called Design and Craftsmanship. I first taught it with Sometimes I’ll have some nice wood that I’ve paid a few John McAlevey, then Ross Straker from Tasmania, David dollars for. If I first make a full scale mockup of a leg, section, Upfill Brown and most recently with Jere Osgood. or even the whole piece in inexpensive or pine, I can It’s an interesting approach because the students get check the shape and scale of the piece. Mock-ups are fun and viewpoints from two makers which sometimes makes for a go fast. Forget the joinery. Pull out the glue, screws and nails lively discussion. For the design section, we relay our individual and render the thing in an afternoon. It’s better than building process and help the students to develop their own from the whole project in your beautiful wood then stepping back conception to building a piece of furniture. Generally we and saying “I wish that table apron was 1/2˝ narrower”. highlight the sketch book, scale drawings, mockups and a full- Below is a sequence of mock-up and “real life” testing of a scale shop drawing to get them building the piece. 5´6˝ diameter dining table.

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 5 by Joe Barry Calculating Board Feet how the James Bond formula can help terminate calculation problems

alculating board footage is one of the biggest headaches in woodworking. Many he James Bond formula is an easily Cof us have just gotten fed up with it and gone to the lumberyard and guessed at Tremembered formula that provides a how much we’ll need. quick and easy way to calculate board The inevitable result is either too little or too much material. Buy too much and footage. you can have some very pricey material collecting and representing capital that could have been better utilized. Too little material presents issues with availability • All dimensions (thickness, width and length) are and matching what you already have. Commercial grading of the , for example, expressed in inches. This reduces the chance for considers fourteen different species of as Red Oak. If the last load was mostly error and is easily remembered. Northern Red Oak and the new load is Black Oak you may well have matching issues. • Multiplication is by 0.007 (thus, James Bond The board foot is the measure used to sell wood. It represents 144 cubic inches formula). There is no confusion of whether of material. The basic board foot is a piece of wood 1˝ thick, 12˝ wide and 12˝ long. division is by 12 or 144 or any other number. A 2˝ x 6˝ x 12˝ piece is also just one board foot because it has the same volume. You Use of 0.007 is easily remembered. By the way, calculate this by multiplying the thickness by the width and by the length. multiplication by 0.007 is the equivalent of The headaches come from the formulas for computing board footage. They mix division by 144. inch and foot measurements in a manner guaranteed to produce both confusion and • The calculations are easily done with a hand error. The standard formulas are as follows: calculator with simple multiplication. The Engineers among us would also note that an Method #1: Board Feet = Thickness (inches) x Width (inches) x Length (feet) Excel spreadsheet could also be set up to do the 12 calculations once you put in the dimensions.

Note the use of feet in the length dimension. The following formula eliminates I like to take the next step and make the need for that confusing mix of dimensions. my cut list to include the board footage calculations. The table below shows an Method #2: Board Feet = Thickness (inches) x Width (inches) x Length (inches) example of a cut list for a simple cherry 144 table. Once the dimensions are filled in There are a couple other formulas for computing board footage that get even more (inches only), you just need to multiply complex with the dimensions expressed as feet. Having to use either a fraction or decimal equivalent to express measurements of less than a foot seems to be excessive from my point of view.

Cherry Table Example — Cut list & pricing

——— Multiply for Total BF ——> Part Name Qty T˝ W˝ L˝ Multiplier Total BF Plus 20% 4/4 5/4 6/4 8/4 A Top 1 1.5 24 72 0.007 18.14 21.76 21.76 B Legs 4 2 2 30 0.007 3.36 4.03 4.03 C Apron, short 2 1 3 20 0.007 0.84 1.00 1.00 D Apron, long 2 1 3 68 0.007 2.85 3.42 3.42 Total Board Feet 4.42 — 21.76 4.03 Cost per Board Foot – Cherry $4.50 $4.85 $5.15 $6.50 Total Cost (Total BF x Cost per BF) $158.14 Total $19.89 — $112.06 $26.19

6 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Ca l c u l a t i n g Bo a r d Fe e t – continued across to get the board footage per piece. tallied when computing what you need cost you about $35 less and walnut will The right hand columns allow you to to buy and bid on this job. almost double the materials cost.” tally the total number of each thickness Some woodworkers will further use Given the go ahead, you can now go required. this number to price the job by either to the lumberyard with your cut list in In doing drawers and other pieces multiplying the total by a factor of 3 hand knowing that you need about 5 BF that require less than 1˝ in thickness, ($474.42); 4 ($632.56); or 5 ($790.70). of 4/4, 22 BF of 6/4 and about 4 BF of I usually cheat on the calculations This method is simple but fraught with 8/4. It should cost you $150-$200. and treat it as if it were an inch. Since the possibility of under pricing. It doesn’t If this still seems to be too much work multiplication by 1 doesn’t change take into account your overhead (heat, there is a book of tables on the market. anything I usually will skip that step and lights, rent, etc.) or how complex the job Simply Board Feet: The Definitive Guide only multiply width, length and 0.007. may be and the total hours required. to Calculation by Douglas E. Of course we don’t live in a perfect In bidding a job, having these numbers Maxwell is available in paperback for world. There will be wastage as we select does make it easier to present a bid with $9.95 at Amazon.com. It has tables for for figure and defects. Generally, a 20% alternatives. You can easily calculate the material ranging from 1 to 25 inches wastage is used in planning. You can add same total price using the current prices wide; 1-20 feet long; and 1-4 inches a column to the table or just multiply for other species. That would allow you thick. That should meet the needs for the Total BF column by 1.2 to arrive at to answer your customer’s questions with almost all woodworkers. the total number. alternative prices for a change in species. The above information can now be “Well, oak is currently cheaper and will

As k Th i s Ol d Sa w – continued reason for this is that no two burls are wood. Your bowls will come out much Scholarship alike. Some burls are a lump on the side better if the burl is cut lengthwise thus Committee Report of the tree, and others wrap all the way eliminating the pith. around the tree and these are the kind Another point to remember is that he scholarship committee that give the most problems. The key to burl wood is highly reactive and can Trecently approved three dividing a burl into sections is to keep crack, split and warp in a matter of scholarships and one grant. two things in mind. seconds. When people ask me about A $200 grant was made to First is that you cannot have the pith turning burl, I tell them two things the Period Furniture group to of the tree in your finished bowl, unless – don’t get discouraged and just keep defray some of the costs of a the burl is completely dry, which takes turning. Happy turning. special guided tour of Strawbery a very long time. The second is that you Banke. Three scholarships of $400 never know what you are going to find All e r g i e s – With specific each were made to John Keeling on the inside of the burl. Taking apart Q allergies aside, are there (working with Garrett Hack at the the burl requires a person to visualize species of wood that are known to Shelburne Art Center in VT), Phil where the bowl is inside the burl and cause more serious acute and/or long Gamache (to study with luthier then make cuts to extract the piece. term health issues? – Caleb Dietrich Alan Carruth) and Donna Zils Something I have noticed about Banfield (to work with JoHannes burls is that most have natural veins Marty Milkovitz replies: Many of Michelsen learning to turn a running through the wood that help a the tropical exotics contain resins that wooden hat). person decide where to cut. When I cut are irritants to the mucus membranes By the time you read this, the a burl, I strictly follow these veins which and respiratory system. In fact OSHA scholarship information and can usually be seen on the surface of the considers air-born wood dust above a applications should be on our bark. certain level to be a carcinogen. Of all website. Please check it out and One mistake many people make the ones that are commonly used, I have consider taking a class! when trying to turn large burl bowls is found that the fine dust from Applications are now due a week they cut the burl directly in half sideways to be the most irritating. In fact it is the following any regular guild meeting. and turn a large bowl that has the pith of only wood that I have any reaction too, Peter Breu – Chairman: the tree running through it. This kind of including poison ivy. [email protected] or bowl looks great but it most likely will 603-647-2327 crack badly because of the pith in the Continued on Page 13 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 7 by Bill Thomas

have about a one in six , which translates to approximately nine degrees. This bevel is made with a dovetail plane. When I wrote the original article in FWW, they also published a sidebar article on making a dovetail plane. A dovetail plane is the essential tool to cut this joint. I made mine from an old skew plane. A matching angle guide block is needed, and this is made by transferring the bevel angle of the dovetail plane to a bevel and then a long edge of the block to that angle. The other side of the block is planed square and is used as a for planing the dovetail on the end of the shelf. The original shelves in question were about 3´ square and 6˝ deep with the parts made from stock 9/16˝ thick. Hand Cut The design was very traditional with the widest shelves at the bottom and two step backs with narrower shelves towards the top. I have since made Sliding Dovetails several sets of a reduced size – 2´ square, 4˝ deep and 1/2˝ stock. This is the size of It is faster to cut sliding dovetails by hand than with a and a . the shelves we will make here. These shelves are the perfect use for ay back in 1989, I wrote an article on cutting sliding dovetails by hand. It was that one highly figured board that you Wpublished in issue #79 of Fine Woodworking Magazine. A companion article have been saving but isn’t enough for a on making a set of hanging shelves was not published, even though it was the original larger project. In this case I had a single genesis for the topic since the shelves were held together with sliding dovetails. board of blistered that was just I had been asked by a client to copy a set of shelves. At the time there had been enough stock for the shelves. I started by very little written about making sliding dovetails. So I felt that it was time to remedy everything to 1/2˝ thick. I did that the situation. One of my main contentions when I wrote the original article was that it is faster to cut sliding dovetails by hand than with a jig and a router. In over twenty years of using the joint, I have never found any reason to change that opinion. I will be clear that I use a router to cut the basic dados for the shelves, but the beveled side of the is trimmed by hand with a and guide block. I have done it with a router and dovetail bit, but in this case the dado is so narrow at the front that it is impractical. There are dovetail bits made that are that small, but they are expensive and break in a very short time. Dovetail plane and guide block Sliding dovetails, like other types of dovetails generally 8 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Routing dados

Smoothing front edges

Finished tapered dado Paring bevel with chiesel

Finished paring Cleaning dado with

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 9 Finished ends

Difference between tapers

in several stages because removing on the end of the shelves for the that much thickness from a 4/4 male part of the dovetail, and a board is an invitation to bowing. cutting will make that line The stock could be re-sawn from cleanly. Next, I scribe the lines of thicker planks, but again, giving it the top edge of the shelves across time to settle is important. the inside faces of the ends to the Scribing for the dovetail Once the pieces are milled to front. Then I carefully bring that dimension, they are sorted into line across the front edges to the shelves and upright ends. I like to 5/16˝ depth remembering that if I match the ends if I can. The two run over the end of the line, it will ends are ripped to final thickness show. and the details of the decorative The angle is scribed with a step backs are scribed onto their bevel square onto the back edge faces. After sawing out the profiles of the stock for each dovetail. The they are clamped together and lower bottom corner is set at 1/2˝ – the front edges are smoothed the thickness of the shelves. together to ensure uniformity. The next question is how much At this stage, the inside faces of do the dovetails taper from the the ends are scraped and sanded back to the front? In this case there smooth because any change in the are three different shelf widths thickness of the ends after doing which means there are three the joinery will make the dovetails different tapers. This is actually loose. irrelevant. As I pointed out in the First trial fit Now it is time to lay out the original article, the advantage of dovetail dados on the two ends. I planing the dovetail to fit is that start by scribing a line across the different tapers are not a problem. back edge of the ends at the top As a rule I leave the narrowest line of each shelf. Then I decide part of the dovetail-at the root how deep the dovetails are going of the front edge-at least half the to be. In the case of 1/2˝ stock, 5/16˝ thickness of the shelf stock. In this is about the right depth. I set a case that is 1/4˝. I mark out the 1/4˝ cutting gauge to this depth and width on the front edge and then scribe a bottom line on the back of lay a straightedge across each end the stock extending 1/2˝ down from and carefully scribe the taper line the top line. I use a cutting gauge for each joint. to lay out the dovetails because The dados can now be routed. the same gauge at the same setting I have a T-square router fence will mark out the cross grain line which I butt up against the back Beginning cut 10 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers side of the stock to ensure good up. I carefully set the router plane square dados. All my routers have to exactly the final depth of the rectangular bases, so it is easy to dado and this also cleans up any measure from the edge of the base possible depth questions left from to the 1/4˝ bit to establish how far the original routing. The ends are the fence needs to be from the now finished. scribed line. I am very fussy about The shelves can now be fit to setting the bit depth and the the end dados. The shelves must fence position because accuracy be all exactly the same length is essential. I rout all the dados and the ends have to be perfectly square first, 1/4˝ wide and 5/16˝ deep. square. It is a wise idea to leave I am very careful not to go over them about 1/8˝ wider than final Planing the dovetail the depth. If anything I will shade dimension however. This allows the cut to be too shallow because I for the shelves to be driven home can deepen it later. with a bit of allowance in case any The second stage is to rout the dovetails are slightly loose. With taper. Again, this is a square cut the cutting gauge I scribe the with a 1/4˝ router bit. I set the fence depth line across the underside of the correct distance from the taper each shelf end. It is not necessary line and rout to that line. This to scribe the top edge. involves clamping the fence at an It is worth pointing out that angle to the edge of the stock. I the shelves have a dovetail at make sure the fence will not move both ends-a right and a left. One during the cut. end will be planed going uphill The ends are now ready to have and the other end will be planed the actual dovetail bevel cut. I do downhill. What this means is that this by clamping the end vertically the downhill cut will be exiting in a with my dovetail block the stock at the front and there is clamped along the taper line a danger of blowing out the front that I just routed. With a chisel I corner. This is prevented by using pare the bevel down until the flat a backup block. back of the chisel is resting on I clamp the shelf I’m working the guide block. Inevitably there on flat on the bench with the are a few fibers left in the inside bottom side up. In the photos I Test fitting corner of this paring cut. I clamp had the stock on a piece of thicker the end flat on the bench and use stock to extend it out away from a small router plane to clean these the bench edge. The end of the

Backer clamped to shelf

Fully fit dovetail The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 11 Tearout

Setting the bevel angle Finished dovetail

shelf needs to hang out clear of joint and one that is too loose. I obstructions so that it can be test know the fit is correct when I can fit. I start with the widest shelf push the shelf in by hand and it and work on the uphill dovetail comes to rest about 1/8˝ back from first. I clamp the square edge of being flush with the front edge of the guide block on the scribe line the end. All this takes longer to and then begin to plane the end write about than to do. of the dovetail that needs the most The procedure to cut the stock removed. The initial aim downhill dovetail on the other end is to establish the correct taper is the same except a backer needs angle. I take several passes with to be clamped on to protect the the dovetail plane until it will fit front edge. I make this backer out partway into the dado. of a cutoff from one of the shelves I fit the end over the shelf dado so that it is the same thickness. and push it on as far as it will go. The backer is planed right along I then rock the end to gauge how with the rest of the dovetail. It can the angles compare. If it is tight at be left in place almost up to the the inner end, I need to increase end when it needs to be removed the angle. Loose at the inner end to check the close to final fit. I put and the angle is too steep. I then it back in place before resuming take a few more passes until the planing and it protects the edge dovetail is bearing evenly all along until I’m done. Otherwise the the beveled side of the dado. process is the same as for the other Once I have established the end. correct taper, I continue planing Once the first shelf is fit I the entire length of the dovetail proceed to the others. I like to start stopping often to check the fit. As with the widest because it gives I get closer to the final fit I check me the most leeway for getting more often (after a pass or two) to my head into the process. The make sure I am maintaining the narrower the shelf the shorter the correct angle. It is important to be dovetail is and the quicker it gets Finished joint careful because one pass can mean cut down to thickness, so there the difference between a well fit is a need to establish the correct 12 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Sliding Do v e t a i l s – continued

taper before getting very far. In this way protect the back edge of the shelf I drive of sawdust and glue. Then it is time for I work until all the dovetails are fitted. the dovetails home with a . I aim finishing. Once the joints are fitted the rest of to make them perfectly flush with the This small shelf project is a good the job follows quickly. Some method front edge of the ends. I add the shelves way to get comfortable with the use of for hanging the shelves must be devised. one at a time until they are all installed. sliding dovetails. They are an important I typically use a keyhole router bit to I usually have a bar clamp and some joint to understand because any shelf to make slots in the back of each end for blocks handy in case the ends need to case end dado is a poor glue joint that hanging on screw heads. be pushed in against the shelf shoulders. needs mechanical enhancement. Sliding The parts are all sanded and then With care the joints all seat well and the dovetails are the best way to achieve that. it is time for final assembly. I lay the shelves are tight. In larger projects the dovetails may be sides front edge down on a smooth Just a bit more work is needed to longer and thicker. Often they will be surface and insert the bottom shelf from finish the job. The shelves are planed off blind in the front which necessitates a behind. No glue is necessary although I flush with the back of the ends. Then notch in the shelf. I use tapered dovetails will swipe a bit on the tapered dovetail the front edges are carefully leveled to join the legs to the pedestal for tripod just to assist in preventing the dovetail with a scraper and fine . Any tables. Regardless of the application the from backing out. Using a scrap block to small gaps can be filled with a mixture process is the same.

As k Th i s Ol d Sa w – continued

Sc r a p e r Pl a n e – What angles Jon Siegel replies: The most accurate of the outfeed table correctly. If it snipes Q work best with a scraper way is with a dial indicator. No at the end, the table is too low, if the plane? Where do I start? – Joe Barry woodworker should be without one wood rides up, the table is too high. A because they have countless uses in few Craftsman and other small Terry Moore replies: The common the woodshop for setting up machines. do not have adjustable outfeed tables. practice for sharpening a scraper plane Thanks to global trade, the price of dial On these machines, set the height of is to file the blade at approximately 45 indicators has gone down to a starting the knives about 0.003 inch above the degrees, hone the file marks off, and point of under $20 for an indicator and height of the outfeed table. turn a hook on the edge by using a magnetic base combination. If you don’t Planer knives are set parallel to the . This works well and produces have one, stop procrastinating! head, that is, each knife projects the an aggressive cutting hook. Set your indicator base on the outfeed same amount. This is measured with a However, you can also refine the table of your , and rotate the head dial indicator in radial orientation, and cutting edge and make a less aggressive until the edge is at the top. This gives the measurement should be written with cutting edge by filing and honing it the maximum reading on the indicator, black marker on the head itself. Each like you would a regular scraper, at a and all knives must be measured in time you replace the blades, use this 90 degree angle, or slightly less, at an this orientation. Now set the first knife same measurement for the projection of 80 degree angle, or indeed, any angle parallel to the outfeed table. Set the the edge above the surface of the head. between 45 and 90 degrees. Experiment remaining knives so they have the same This way you will not have to readjust around until you achieve the right reading as the first knife. If you can get any other part of the machine when you cutting edge for the job. them to within 0.002 inches of the same change blades. reading, this is close enough. If not, then If the head and the bed are parallel, Se t t i n g Jo i n t e r Kn i v e s – possibly only one knife will be doing all then this gives good results. If not, then Q What is the easiest way to the cutting, depending of course on how the work may have uneven thickness from set jointer or planer knives? – Roger fast you feed the wood. Anyway, minor left to right. It is usually recommended Bradley adjustments of one or two thousandths to correct this by adjusting the bed, but can be made later by hand honing. This if this not possible, it can be corrected Marty Milkovitz replies: I use should be accomplished upon subsequent by installing the knives at an angle to the magnetic jig that came with my hand sharpenings: only sharpen the compensate. Powermatic planer. For the jointer I use knives which measure high. Fine tuning of this type can only be a height micrometer which will measure After you are satisfied with the accomplished with a dial indicator. to 10,000, set in on the outfeed table placement of the knives, whether you and rotate the knife under the feeler, set have hand-honed or not, you now need to a tolerance of +/- 3/10,000. to take some trial cuts, and set the height Figure 5 – Plan B is best for beginners The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 13 1

lessons from the luthier’s shop By Paul Miller Preparing Thin Stock

hen you make cabinets, furniture to be very thin and is most often made its final thickness. Very often highly Wor other larger items from wood, from quartersawn such as figured are used for the backs you generally use wood that is 3/4˝ or spruce. For the same reason but also to and sides, and a jointer or thickness more in thickness. Because the wood is reduce the weight of the instrument, the planer would cause unacceptable tearout. relatively thick, glue joints are seldom back and sides also need to be thin, but A well-tuned thickness is an a problem as they are nearly always for strength reasons, are usually made acceptable substitute for the thickness stronger than the wood itself when from strong and dense hardwoods. The planer and is used by some individual properly executed. soundboard and the back are often also luthiers and probably all guitar factories. After selecting the wood and cutting called the top plate and the bottom plate, It is important to realize that for it to rough length, you usually surface respectively. many people, a hand-made guitar is one side flat on a jointer, thickness Thicknesses vary depending on many a precious possession. Anything less the material with a , factors. The species of the wood and than perfection is unacceptable for a clean up the edges with a jointer and the acoustical properties, which relates musical instrument which is held and tablesaw, and glue up your panels. Then to the stiffness, of the particular piece examined closely every time it is played. it is off to making your joints, gluing being used are important. The kind A huge effort was made to build it and a up subassemblies, cleaning up surfaces of instrument and the tonal qualities customer likely paid a large price for it. with planes, scrapers or sandpaper and desired are also factors. For example, a applying finishes. small classical guitar is substantially Selecting the Stock With musical instruments, such as different from a large steel-string Any of several varieties of guitars, the basic flow of the work is the dreadnought guitar. A general range quartersawn spruce are used for the vast same but the techniques used can be would be from 2 to 3.5 mm (0.08 to majority of guitar soundboards but cedar, very different. There are several reasons 0.14 inches) in thickness. redwood, mahogany and other woods for this. Because the material is so thin, and are sometimes used. The soundboard flexible softwoods are being used, it is is quartersawn for added stiffness and Why Guitars are Different impractical to use a jointer and thickness strength which allows the soundboard to Because the acoustical properties of planer to process the material all the be made thinner, enhancing the acoustic the wood are paramount to making a way down to its final thickness. The quality of the guitar. Soundboards are fine instrument, the wood for the top of thickness planer, in particular, would most often purchased from a supplier the guitar, known as the soundboard, has likely destroy the piece before it reached who specializes in musical instrument 14 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers woods because the quality of the you with more thicknessing to do than The bookmatched halves are placed instrument is so dependant on the a purchased set but at a huge savings in on the shooting board as they were quality of the soundboard material. It is cost. situated in the tree. After they usually not practical to find your local After resawing the back halves, it are “unfolded” into the bookmatched spruce tree in the woods and harvest it is best if some preliminary flattening orientation they will assume in the for making a quality guitar. is done with a handplane prior to guitar. Because they are jointed by the Backs and sides are made from a jointing and gluing up. The ends of the plane in this way, the angle of the plane large variety of hardwoods, from local backs should be marked so they can blade does not have to be at a perfect woods such as figured maple and cherry be placed in the correct orientation as 90 degrees to the surface of the shooting to almost any of the exotic tropical bookmatched halves after the surfaces board since the two halves will be cut hardwoods you could name. have been planed. at complementary angles. The shooting are predominant as is mahogany but board ensures a consistent angle, close blackwood, bloodwood, bocote, bubinga, Jointing the Bookmatched Halves to 90 degrees, along the entire length of jarrah, lacewood and are just a few Photo 1 shows the shooting the joint. of the other varieties available. These board setup used for jointing the two It is difficult to make even a large woods are available from the same luthier bookmatched halves of the soundboard. plane cut a perfectly straight joint over suppliers that provide the soundboard The identical setup would be used for the a 22˝ length. The shooting board does material. Prices for a set of the two sides back. Initially, a couple of passes over a not attempt to provide a straightedge and a bookmatched two-pieced for the plane to ride against. back range from less than $50 The edges of the panels being for a common species to almost jointed actually in space as $600 for a highly figured set in the plane runs along it. We rely koa wood. on an iterative process of cutting Backs and sides are also often the joint and testing the fit and quartersawn but sometimes are then refining the joint until we not. The sides are bent using heat have it right. As we approach and moisture and care must be perfection, we lower the plane taken with the exotic hardwoods blade so it is taking only the as many of them are not well finest of shavings. suited to being bent. Woods Photo 2 shows a setup that that are good for bending tend makes testing the fit predictable to have straighter grain with less if not easy. It is substantially figuring and no defects on the better than trying to hold the surfaces. For aesthetic reasons two pieces in your hands up this if often contrary to making to a light. A sheet of plastic is attractive guitars. Our local 2 set up over saw horses with a hardwoods such as maple and bright light underneath to act cherry are often better suited for as a makeshift light-table. Any this purpose. deviations in the joint will show up readily so we can concentrate Making Your Own on correcting them. Photo 2 Backs and Sides shows a joint that has not yet It is practical and far less been prepared but is only roughly costly to create your own backs and jointer would be done to straighten the straight. As we repeatedly test the joint sides from thicker boards as long as you joint, but this is not sufficient for joining and then replace the panels in the have access to a well-tuned the pieces as it would be for a furniture shooting board for further refinement, with at least an 8˝ resaw capability. It is panel. The rotating nature of the jointer we make sure that the panels remain in more difficult to find wide quartersawn knives leaves a rippled effect at the joint, the same alignment. boards so you may have to use flatsawn reducing its strength. or riftsawn boards for the sides and back Because the pieces are so thin the Gluing Up of your guitar. That is less of a problem joint must be perfect. Anything less Photo 3 shows a setup for gluing the than it would be for the soundboard, will result in a weak joint. If these joints two bookmatched halves together. A which should be accurately quartersawn. came apart in a finished guitar it would sheet of waxed paper would be placed Depending on the accuracy you can be very difficult to repair. A very sharp under the joint to prevent gluing the achieve, you might resaw the stock to well-tuned plane will leave a very clean surfaces to the jig. Wedges provide 1/4˝ or less in thickness, which will leave surface for a stronger joint. pressure to the glue joint while cauls The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 15 clamp the joint down flat to the table. There are many other ways of doing this; the important thing is to be able to glue the joint solidly and to keep the joint flat. We have had mixed results using hot hide glue for this joinery and, since there is little reason to be able to undo this joint on a finished guitar, I will continue to use Titebond III glue for this purpose.

Surfacing the Plates Once the glue is sufficiently dry we can start hand planing the surface of the plates. It is important that the joints be completely dry before starting both 3 for strength and to ensure that the joint will not shrink from further drying and create a depression after the plates are surfaced. Photo 4 shows a soundboard ready to be surfaced. It is being clamped to a very flat table. We use a sheet of MDF for this purpose and clamp it at one end, generally with two clamps so it can not rotate as we are planing. Because the plates are so thin the weight of the plane and the pressure applied to planing will flex the underside of the plate and flatten it to the MDF table. It is necessary to be aware of this and be very sensitive to the movement. Using a straightedge, find the high spots on the surface and mark them with a soft pencil. Concentrate your planing only on the high spots, at first. To flatten the panel, we plane the surface at a 45 degree angle diagonal to the grain followed by 4 reversing and planing orthogonal to the first pattern from the other edge of the plate. We are very sensitive to the grain direction and take care that we don’t the one that will show on the outside grain runs in opposite directions on each cause any tearout. A very sharp plane is of the guitar. Once the side opposite to half of the plate. Also, especially with set to take as fine a cut as necessary to the best surface is flat, so it will rest on figured woods, there may be areas where ensure this. Occasionally, we will even the MDF table without flexing, we then the grain reverses and you have to plane plane totally across the grain or reverse concentrate on making the best surface that area from a different direction. the planing direction in one area when perfectly flat without tearout. we find especially difficult grain. After Using a straightedge, we continually Thicknessing the Plates planing for a short time we reclamp the test the surface in all directions, Once you are satisfied with the quality plate at the other end to plane the area lengthwise, across the grain and diagonal of the surface, it is time to thickness where the clamps were initially. to the grain, looking for any high spots. the plate. There are several possible We then turn the plate over and Once satisfied, we then make a few very techniques for doing this. As mentioned repeat the process on the other side, light passes along the length on the grain before, you could use a thickness sander especially trying to lower the high spots. looking to make an absolutely smooth if available. You can also continue with We have decided by this time which of surface. It is important to realize that, planing the back side and complete the two sides will be the best surface, because the plates are bookmatched, the the task strictly by hand. This would be 16 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers appropriate if you are already close to but that is a less accurate and more time the final dimension. consuming technique. What we have generally done is to use a Wagner Safe-T-Planer mounted in Final Cleanup a press to thickness to near the final We stop planing when the thickness dimension. It is a somewhat fearsome over the whole panel is just slightly larger tool to use and some experience is than our desired finished dimension. necessary before using it on a guitar We then use a hand-held cabinet scraper plate on which you have already spent to do the final cleanup, trying to make considerable time. You need to know as fine a surface finish as possible. No how close to final dimension you dare sandpaper is used at this stage. Once to go with this tool as the surface is the guitar is assembled and ready for fairly rough and it is possible to have finishing a final light scraping is done the plate raise up off the drill press table where needed. Finally, just before the and gouge the surface if you are not very finish is applied, we sand the guitar with attentive. fine grit . Once roughly dimensioned, final If you have read this far, you realize planing is done, being very careful to that there is considerable work done constantly check the thickness over and time spent to reach this stage. All the whole surface with calipers. We use we have done, so far, is make a few a special dial caliper for this purpose thin flat boards in preparing to do the appears to be a simple task. It is also one which has a throat large enough to reach more difficult tasks of making the guitar. of the most satisfying and rewarding everywhere on the panel. You could use Much time, patience and attention to woodworking experiences you may ever a regular dial caliper and straightedge detail was required to accomplish what have.

Reprinted with permission – Gallery M in Half Moon Bay, CA – www.gallerym.net Protect Furniture From Ultraviolet Rays

Bright summer sunlight slanting in through to filter out ultraviolet rays. Marine finishes Heat, humidity and light are all enemies of your windows can damage furniture just and spar are made to withstand fine finishes. In the summer, open windows as a sunburn can damage your skin. It is weather but often are unsuitable for formal or fans used for breezes which put moisture a good idea to take protective measures, furniture. The way furniture stands up in the air that can swell wood and contract especially for valuable or heirloom pieces. to sunlight also depends on factors like it as it dries. Polish will peel, crack or become the position of the house, orientation of opaque and dull under such conditions. The only real solution is to place furniture windows, wood types and construction away from direct sunlight. Many polishes methods. Fragile pieces should be away from say they have ultraviolet protection but entrances and exits. Opening and any layer of polish applied is so sheer that A solid wood piece may be able to closing doors twenty times every day has it will not have that much effect. It is like withstand some temperature and humidity temperature and humidity fluctuating wearing sunglasses that are 3% darker than fluctuations, but the goal is to make the effects. your regular glasses and assuming you have range of changes less broad and not as protected your eyes from the sun glare. abrupt. A piece with a veneer surface or Do not put a console table under a window delicate mother-of-pearl and metal exposing it to light because it will degrade If moving the pieces is not an option, put pieces that expand and contract at different over time. Try to plan ahead. a protective layer of film on the windows rates make things more problematic.

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 17 by Brian Sargent sculpting a Contemporary Leg

his article will show how you can stock and keeping the pairs of each leg mortise for the stainless steel stretcher Tmake a contemporary sculptured leg together. I mill the two halves to 17/16˝ that connects the four legs together at by using some of the methods used to thick x 31/4˝ wide x 29˝ long. the base. make a cabriole leg. I then glue up the two halves as I use a machine called a multi-router The process starts by designing accurately as possible. I’m already at my that uses templates to cut the round the leg itself. This leg evolved from an finished thickness after the gluing up. tenon. The placement of tenons on the elliptical leg that I used on a chest of So now I only have to joint one edge top of the leg is determined by using the drawers in 2003. The sculptural element square with the top surface and rip the leg profile template. was inspired by a client that wanted me width to 3˝ wide, square one end, and The round mortise is done on the to design a pair of night stands for him. cut the leg to the finished length of the drill press using the bottom of the leg This client had some very free as a reference. The depth of this form sculptures throughout his mortise is critical. So again by home. So for the night stands to using the leg profile template work in his home, I felt the need we can see how deep to drill the to have a sculptured element in mortise in the 27/8˝ wide surface them. using the glue seam as a center I use 1/4˝ thick and 3/4˝ wide line. wood of varying length to come Now comes the fun part. We up with shapes that I design in need to trace the profile of the my furniture. All we need to leg on to the 3˝ wide face of our get started is a one dimension leg blocks. The reference points shape or the profile of the leg in for the profile template are the this case. The profile shape will backside of the leg at the bottom be used to make jigs and as a and the top. We are going to template to bandsaw out the legs. bandsaw off the inside of the leg. This leg basically tapers in two We need to bandsaw to within a plans, both from top to bottom. 1/16˝ of the line. The leg has an inside and outside. Next we have to make a The inside is concaved and the template that will help clean- outside is convexed. up the bandsaw marks and be Now that we have the basic used as a guide for making the design, we have to plan out how concave inside of the leg. This to make the leg. Just as with the is done by cutting two pieces of cabriole leg, there is a sequence scrap MDF or 3/4˝ thick to cutting this sculptured leg out, by 3˝ wide by 27˝ long. so one must think through the Now trace the inside leg tentative process of making the profile only onto the two jig leg. This is not always completed boards using the same reference in one sitting. Sometimes one point as you did on the leg has to sleep on it. blocks. Bandsaw out the inside The leg will come out of a 27/8˝ leg profile. Then screw the leg thick by 3˝ wide by 27˝ long block. template onto one of the jig The legs for the night stands are blocks. Use a router and a bit Marado, which is only available in 4/4 leg template using a stop so all the legs with a bearing to give you a jig that and 8/4, so I had to glue up two pieces are the same length. At this point, we matches your template exactly. of 8/4 to get my 27/8˝ thickness. It is very are ready to machine any joinery into You will then use this jig to clean up important to select the wood for color the leg while everything is square. the bandsaw cut on our leg blocks. You and grain as this seam runs down the On this leg we need a round tenon for will need a router bit with a bearing that center of the leg. After the selection of attaching the leg to the top and a round has at least 2˝ of cutter length and a 18 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers router table. You must screw one of the inside of the leg must be tapered from a little getting use to having the front of templates that you just made to the leg top to bottom. The finish width of the the router base in contact with the jig. I block referencing the back side of the leg is 23/4˝ at the bottom and 13/8˝ at always make up one extra leg usually out block. Place the screws near the edge the top. So we need to lay this out on of poplar to make sure the taper depth of the backside of the leg, so the screw the inside face of the leg so we can see is right and to get comfortable with the holes don’t end up showing in the finish this taper. You will need a router and a jig. leg. You should only be taking off the fence that mounts to your router and a After all of the legs are roughed out 1/16˝ that you left when you bandsawed 11/2˝ diameter cove bit. The depth of the on the inside, it is time to shape the back out the inside of the leg. It will take two concave is 1/4˝ at the bottom and a 1/8˝ at side of the leg. I used a French curve to passes to clean up one leg because your the top of the leg. make the template for the shape of the leg is 27/8˝ thick and you only have a 2˝ This translates into a 43/4˝ radius that back of the leg. By tracing the template cutter. needs to be drawn on the bottom and onto the bottom and top of the legs, I Now we are ready to set up our jig top of the leg so you can line up your have a guide to remove the material for convexing the inside of the leg. Take router and fence to know the depth of with my spoke shave. the two jig pieces you made and a leg the concave radius across the width of The next step is to bandsaw the taper block and make a sandwich with the leg the leg. on the leg. By placing the back side of block in the middle. Line up the back The trick to getting the concave the leg on the bandsaw, the inside curve and the bottom of the leg just like you taper is elevating the top ends of both will be face up. The line that was used did when you routered the inside of the of the jig pieces 13/64˝. This set up is for for the tapered concave jig should still leg. Lay the back side of the leg and jigs roughing out the inside of the leg. You be visible. Just leave the line when you on a 3/4˝ piece of plywood and clamp only need to reset your router fence bandsaw the taper. your sandwich together at the bottom three times and make a total of five Next flip the leg on its side and trace only. At the top drill a small hole large passes per leg – one down the middle the curve of the back of the leg onto the enough to get a #6 screw through the and two passes down each side. You will leg and bandsaw it out. round tenon and screw the top of the also have to adjust the depth three times. Now for the hand work. To hold the leg block to the 3/4˝ piece of plywood and When you run the router on top of the leg for the hand work, I use a bar clamp clamp the plywood to your bench. jig, the fence runs on the outside of the and a hand screw clamp. The bar clamp Now as we said earlier, the leg is jig and you press the front of the router holds the leg and the hand screw clamp tapered in two planes so the concaved base down as you push forward. It takes holds the bar clamp. I then clamp the hand screw to the bench. I like to start with the inside of the leg. First, I grind a scraper to 41/2˝ radius. Just a little smaller than what I roughed out the leg to. I do this because when you tip the scraper to cut it matches the finished radius. The secret to shaping the inside of the leg is to stay focused and keep your awareness on the outside of the leg because this is your guide. I use a spoke shave to do the back of the leg. The key to this is remembering that the leg is tapered and there is more stock to remove from the bottom than the top. Keep looking at the bottom of the leg where you traced the template. This will keep your mind focused on the shape of the leg. You will find that you can easily get lost in the process. When you get close to your desired shape with the spoke shave, I use 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around a 1/4 “ thick piece of cork to smooth everything together. My final sand is 220 grit. Free-form inlay jig (left) & jig detail (right) Now you have a sculptured leg. Just remember to enjoy the process. The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 19 lessons in lutherie and life by John Whiteside

part one of a two part series

ith wood you can build a house to live in, a chair The day we arrived at Alan’s shop, Wto sit in, a bed to sleep on or, as a departure, an everyone was very friendly except instrument to play. That’s versatility. Does any other for one student, a grim middle material even come close? aged man who did not say hello. A couple of years ago, my wife bought me a music He had glued the two halves of stand, some guitar lessons, and a capo (a device for his soundboard together, inlaid raising the pitch of guitar strings). I have played guitar his mail order rosette, and was since childhood but had lost interest in recent years hand planing the back of his and her thoughtful gift reawakened that interest. So glued soundboard to make the thought occurs to build a guitar. I place an ad in the finished thickness The Old Saw asking if anyone is interested in joining about 2.5 mm thick. the adventure. Two Guild members respond – Franz To get to that Summers and Paul Miller. So we find a teacher, Alan point, it is necessary Carruth in Newport, NH and start classes in August, to edge glue two 2006. The Guild awards us a scholarship to help with thin but rough some of the expenses. surfaced, book In December, 2007, I put strings on my first matched pieces. guitar and hear its first notes. You can hear a sound The edges have clip of it on the Guild web site at www.gnhw.org. A to be absolutely rough estimate of the total building time to date is straight, which can around 1000 hours. Now that is a little misleading be done with a really because I decided to build two guitars at once. The good hand plane. I idea was to perform a series of operations on one, ended up making a simple noting the difficulties and mistakes, and then to redo planing jig and also a light table the operations better on the second one in order to to view any gaps in the seam As unfortunate as this incident reinforce the newly acquired skills. This has worked between the two boards. Once was, it taught me three valuable very well and is to be recommended for anyone the boards are glued together, it lessons – stay lighthearted, think learning something complex and new. Also, the 1000 is necessary to smooth plane one through what you are doing, and be hours includes the time to research and build or side and then rout out a circular very patient. purchase all the tools and jigs needed to make more channel for the rosette. Next the guitars. Bear in mind also that I spent 200 of those rosette is glued into the channel Plates and Braces hours making the twenty jigs necessary to make a and then the soundboard is turned The top of a guitar (the side-grain inlay rosette. over and planed to thickness. soundboard) and the back are The instrument, to my ear, sounds beautiful, far In any event, this individual collectively called plates. Each exceeding my expectations. The appearance, while was planing away with grim plate is typically made of two it has imperfections, is far above what I would have determination not checking what (sometimes three for backs) thought it possible to achieve. And the 1000 hours he was doing. Alan, who had thin edge-joined book-matched have been among the most enjoyable I have ever given him explicit instructions, boards. The soundboard joint is spent in my life doing anything. got to him to follow up quickly obviously an especially critical In this article I will share some of the high and but not quite quickly enough. The one – two boards joined along a low points of the process, emphasizing things that sound board was now less than 2 2.5 mm edge. What glue to use? might be especially startling to woodworkers or that mm and had to be redone from Some authors advise yellow glue, particularly caught my imagination. This is mainly scratch! The grim man left sullenly but traditionally the choice is hide about my building experience but I also talk a bit and never returned. glue, because it is reversible when about Franz’s and Paul’s guitars. repairs are needed. Hide glue also 20 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers has the advantage of drawing the fairly stiff nylon bristles proved to components of a joint together as be the ideal way to apply it evenly it dries. to surfaces. A warning though – 3 Our experience with hide glue mixed hide glue has limited shelf was mixed. First, one has to find life and weakens if repeatedly a high quality glue of the correct reheated. The three of us had some strength. Then it must be dissolved joint failures and this may have in water and heated to the correct been the cause. temperature of 140 degrees. It is Once the top plates are glued possible to buy an expensive glue up, the rosette is applied. My pot but I had good results with a hand-made rosette is described heating plate, a cheap saucepan, a in a previous article (Old Saw, candy thermometer, and a glass Feb ‘07). Very nice pre-made jelly jar in a sort of double boiler rosettes are readily available or one configuration. The instructions call can make them of materials other for careful measuring of the glue than wood. Photo 1 shows Paul’s crystals and water but it turns out rosette which contains mother of that after a short time in the glue pearl. pot, water evaporates and the glue The next step is to glue the becomes too thick so you have to braces onto the back of the top add more water. What I ended up plate. The design of these structural doing was ignoring the suggested elements varies greatly from maker measurements and simply making to maker and they must perform a and maintaining the mixture to real feat of engineering. They must about the consistency of molasses. simultaneously prevent the guitar Artist’s brushes with short, from collapsing under the several hundred pounds of pressure from the strings on a steel string 1 guitar and also must be as light as on that particular piece of Engleman spruce. I should possible to allow the top plate to mention that Alan keeps a meticulous log book of the resonate. physical properties of every piece of wood that goes Photo 2 shows my braces. They into every one of his and his students’ guitars. form a Double X pattern designed Franz is building a flamenco guitar which uses by Alan Carruth. The upper X is nylon stings that exert much less force than steel set at 90 degrees but the lower X is strings. Photo 3 shows his bracing pattern which is splayed out an additional 5 degrees. completely different. That was Alan’s suggestion due to The face of each brace that is glued onto the plates his measurements of the ratio of is not flat. This is because the top and back plates of transverse to longitudinal stiffness a guitar are not flat. Instead they are slightly domed. The extent of this doming can be varied, but on our three guitars the top dome is a section of a sphere 2 with a 25 foot radius, whereas the back dome has a 15 foot radius. So the brace faces must be slightly curved where they glue onto the plates. Alan makes curved braces by hand but I make a simple jig for use on a router table that greatly speeds up the process. Once the braces are shaped, they must be glued onto the plates. But remember, the plates are domed. To achieve this, one needs to construct a dish that is hollowed out according to the correct radius. Photo 4 shows Franz and Paul making a dish out of 2 foot diameter pieces of MDF. They are using an ingenious jig loaned to usby Alan. A router is mounted on a carriage over the dish. The carriage is on wheels that ride along two tracks curved to the correct radius. The MDF dish blank The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 21 small diameter ones. The best shape which will provide the advice I can give is that if you least possible mass, sufficient use gobars, use a lot of them. strength, and just the right Redoing the braces is tonal qualities. almost a disaster. In theory How is this achieved? the hide glue braces can be Beats me. All the sources removed by heat. When we say different things. One try this, they come off all right, (controversial) source even but the center seam sound recommends evaluating the 4 board joint (also held by resonant frequency of each hide glue) also starts to come brace using an expensive apart, threatening the hand- piece of equipment called a made rosette on which I have strobe tuner. Instead, I carve is fastened to a Lazy Susan not vary with the degree to spent 200 hours! In despair the braces until they look mount underneath so it can which they are bent! I ask Alan to make it right, good and seem right. I also rotate. In the photo Paul is I can’t believe this which, bless him, he does by hold the plate up with two pushing the router back and when I hear it, so I make planing off all the braces and fingers lightly near the edge forth whilst Franz is rotating measurements with a postal repairing the center seam. So and rap on it. It actually the blank slightly after each scale and it turns out to be as a consequence, I now use rings and the quality and pass that Paul makes. It takes true. At the same time, as yellow glue for the center pitch of the ring changes a them about half an hour to mentioned above, they seam joint. In theory, next bit with each shaving I take complete a dish. We made exert more force the shorter time I have to take off braces, off a brace. I even try to get six – two for each of us. they are. For the life of me heat will loosen their hide the pitch of each plate close Photo 3 shows how the I cannot understand this. It glue bond before it affects to notes that appear in the curved braces are glued onto would suggest that a given the center seam yellow glue musical scale. But I know the plates. The plate rests bow shoots an arrow the bond. enough about acoustics to on the newly manufactured same distance regardless of The back of the guitar is know that the resonances dish and the braces are held the degree to which is it bent, built in similar manner to the will change drastically once down by devices known as and that short bows should top, except there is no rosette the plates are glued down to “gobars”. These are simply shoot further. But Franz, and there is the possibility of the sides. under tension – one who knows about such including a decorative stripe end of each rests on things, assures me this is not down the center. Photo 5 Sides the brace to be clamped, the the case. Paul, an engineer, shows the back of my second In parallel with the top other end on the ceiling, or makes an effort to explain guitar (photographed much and back, the sides need to be rather, a “gobar deck” which but it turns out that physics later in the process) with made. For these there is need is a surface dropped from the was one of my worst subjects the center stripe made of a of specialized equipment and ceiling. The photo shows my in school. One thing that strip of ebony flanked by two jigs. My particular guitar has gobar deck and Franz’ top. does make intuitive sense is strips of holly. Indian rosewood backs and The deck could be that larger diameter gobars Once in place, the braces sides which come from the improved. The downward exert much more force than are hand-carved to just that supplier as slightly oversized force is inversely proportional blanks, rough finished to to the length of the gobar, so about 4.5 mm thickness and by lowering my deck I can bookmatched. My particular achieve greater clamping 5 design calls for the finished force. Indeed, my first attempt at brace gluing was a failure. There were parts of the braces under which one could slip a piece of paper. So it needed to be redone. Gobars, which are nothing but long dowels, have nonetheless the most astonishing physical 6 properties. For example, their downward force does 22 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers sides to be about 2.5 mm thick. Removing 2 mm I decide to make a jig based on easily. Once in place, I let it cook thickness may not sound like much but it takes the kind Alan Carruth uses. Of for a few minutes and then turn an astonishing amount of time using a hand plane. course, I could use his, but part of off the heat, only removing the The ideal solution for thinning the sides to rough the exercise for me is to acquire clamps when the whole apparatus dimension would be a thickness sanding planer, but everything I need to make guitars has completely cooled. such a tool is beyond my budget at the moment. There in my own shop. There are many The kraft paper is an example exists a poor man’s alternative, somewhat dangerous models of guitars. I chose what is of an interesting general lesson. to use, which is a rotary planer head that fits on a drill called a 12-fret 000. These models There is no single source that press, shown in photo 6. have more or less a standard shape. contains all the information that This device has teeth on its surface so that by sliding I copy my shape from Alan’s is needed or even helpful. None the wood underneath it (and keeping it absolutely template. The resulting jig, shown of my sources mention wrapping flat), one can reduce its thickness much faster than in photo 7, is heavily constructed the sides in kraft paper. I find that with a hand plane. The finished surface is rough, so from layers of 3/4˝ baltic ply on top tip on an excellent series of videos hand planing is necessary anyway, but that is needed of which I have fastened a stainless on the Taylor Guitar Company to give a really smooth surface regardless. The danger steel sheet. website (www.taylorguitars.com). lies in getting your fingers too close to the spinning head. To use it, I lightly spray the side The advantage comes from the Franz does this and suffers a nasty cut. Consequently, I with water, wrap it in clean kraft fact that heated wood (especially cannot recommend this device though I admit to using paper, place a thermostatically exotics) gives off oils. When dry, it myself. controlled rubber heating blanket these oils stick to the surface of One of the most the interesting and challenging over it, and then a stainless steel the wood and are quite difficult to aspects of guitar making to me is the need to think sheet on top. The pad is very scrape or sand off. The kraft paper many steps ahead. There are a lot of operations that powerful, capable of reaching soaks up most of these oils and cannot be done in sequence and that nonetheless 500 degrees, though such a also keeps the jig clean. are dependent on each other. Consequently, I temperature would scorch the OK, so the sides are bent. Now find it impossible to make a simple ordered list of wood. Naturally, this operation another jig is needed – the female tasks. A flow chart might work but it would be very is done with heavy gloves. I use version of the bending jig. This is complicated. You have more or less to keep the whole my leather motorcycling gloves. shown in photo 8. It is made of thing straight in your mind. Indeed, prior to each Within minutes the wood softens. two layers of 3/4˝ baltic ply with work session, I find myself spending thirty minutes I use the dowel that you see in spacers in between the layers. Its to an hour just thinking things through and double the photo to press and clamp the shape, naturally, corresponds to checking them. waist down. Then I use clamps to the shape of the side bending jig, The next step with the sides is a case in point. fasten the ends to the form. I find plus an allowance for the thickness Once they are bent, it will be more difficult to saw that if you press the wood too hard, of the sides. Its purpose is to hold them and so it is helpful to saw them to approximate too quickly, it splits. Its a question the sides in the proper shape until dimension whilst they are still flat. The top and back of waiting until it gives relatively the back and top are glued on. of a guitar, when viewed from the side, do not lie on the same plane in most models. So the side widths taper from bottom to top. To saw the blanks to even approximate dimension (leaving plenty of extra) it is necessary to make a geometric projection of the bent side onto a flat surface. Bending the sides is fun. Basically they are moistened, heated, forced into shape, and allowed to cool. Studying how to do this teaches me what turns out to be a general rule. There is no standard method of guitar making. All the teachers use different methods, as do all the factories, and all the books are different. Some authorities have you do the bending freehand, bending the wood around a heated pipe, with a blow torch as the heat source. Others recommend building a form. It is also possible to buy pre-bent sides as part of a kit. At the high end, it is possible to buy or make a form that is adjustable. Professional violin maker Jim 7 Robinson has made one of these in his shop which he uses for bending violin sides. The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 23 Notice that it is necessary to know what the correct angle have different jigs for every is for your guitar until it is different model of guitar you completely assembled and intend to make. strung. Photo 8 was taken after Now imagine hand a number of additional cutting a tapered dovetail steps. First, the bent sides joint so that sits absolutely are joined together by the solidly in its tapered mortise, headblock and tail block. to within a fraction of a These have to be carefully degree of an unknown angle. designed and planned out The so-called “bible” of beforehand. More on this guitar building (Cumpiano later when I discuss the neck and Natalson, Guitar Making: joint. To join the curved sides Tradition and Technology) 8 together into the shape of a recommends a different, guitar, they need to be cut to but equally difficult pinned length so that they meet at mortise joint. the ends of the body. So I was cruising the I think at first that these web for an alternative and joints have to be absolutely discovered that Cumpiano seamless. Not so. Where the himself came up with a sides join at the head gets better solution after he completely cut away to make published the book (www. room for the neck joint. cumpiano.com/Home/Articles/ At the bottom of the Special%20interest/headblock. guitar, there is generally html). The solution is a an inlaid decorative stripe straight-sided mortise and which similarly covers that tenon joint where the neck joint. Photo 5 shows this is held in place by barrel tail inlay on my second bolts where the barrels are guitar (obviously this photo embedded in the tenon and is taken much later in the secured with bolts that enter construction process). It through the neck block and should be pointed out, are accessible inside the 9 though, that Paul Miller’s guitar. bottom joint is so perfect How this works is that he can dispense with a shown in photos 9 and 10 tail inlay if he chooses. How (photo 10 taken later in the he accomplishes that, I have building process). Alan is no idea. so impressed with this joint that he is considering using Neck Joint I it, as is Terry Moore. Now I need to jump This joint simplifies life out of sequence and discuss enormously. The straight the neck joint. This is mortise in the headblock traditionally a tapered can be cut with a router and dovetail. Now it turns out template and the tenon on that the ultimate playability the neck can be cut to match of a guitar is crucially exactly on a using dependent on the angle the a tenoning jig. Not only that, neck makes with the body but it is a breeze to attach and (see www.buildyourguitar. remove the neck to measure 10 com/resources/tips/aangle.htm). and adjust right up to the It needs to be accurate to point where the fingerboard within a fraction of a degree! gets glued down to the body. Not only that, but you don’t Even after that, assuming 24 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers one has used hide or fish glue floor whilst the pencil point, leave just a couple of 64ths of having glued any part of the on the fingerboard, removing which rides a bit higher, an inch of material left to kerfing below the sides, as the neck on the finished transcribes the line onto the allow the kerfing to remain that would leave a gap. guitar is relatively easy in . in a continuous piece. Photo 8 shows one other the likely event that the neck The only difference here The exact amount of wrinkle Alan has us do before needs to be reset down the is that pencil lines cannot be material to leave depends on applying the kerfing. He has road. And barrel bolts are seen on dark Indian rosewood, the wood and on the shape us glue strips of sewing tape available at Ace hardware! so I have to use a white pencil. of the guitar. Too little left on the inside of the sides, as a Once these lines are scribed I and the pieces break off. Too precaution against splits. Gluing the Body work around the edges with much left and they do not Later, I will address the Headstock digressions a small plane, cutting the bend without splitting. Franz complex topic of guitar aside, back to the sides sides down to the line. To get Summers makes us a simple acoustics. As a preview, it in their form as shown in the final fit, I place a piece of jig that allows the kerfing to occurs to me that the fabric photo 8. Recall that the back sandpaper right on the dish be made using repetitive cuts strips inside the guitar and top are not flat – each and rub the whole frame- on the bandsaw. Notice also probably have a diffusing forms a section of a sphere. and-side assembly over the that a large number of closely effect on how the sound The edges of the sides need sandpaper until the fit to the spaced clamps are used to reflects and resonates inside to be shaped to match so that dish is as perfect as I can get. hold each section in place the body chamber. On they intersect this sphere. To Returning to photo 8, it whilst the hide glue dries. a future guitar I intend achieve this, I get out the shows the shaped sides in The purpose of the kerfing to experiment with thin MDF dishes I made with their jig. The next step, shown is to provide a gluing surface wooden strips in place of the Paul and Franz and place the in progress in the photo, is to for the top and bottom. So its cloth. Whether or not it will sides in their form on a dish apply kerfing around both the contour has to match exactly make any difference to the – the 25´ radius dish for the top and bottom perimeters. the finished contour of the sound I will probably never top and the 15´ radius dish In my case, the kerfing is sides. The final fit is achieved know, since any two guitars for the bottom. I find myself made from mahogany with by planing and sanding. A differ by an astonishing becoming very confused cuts in it about every 1/4˝ that good fit also depends on not Continued on Page 27 because the larger number (25´) actually corresponds to the shallower curve. So I label the forms top and 11 bottom. The general rule here is to label everything! The whole guitar-making process has a number of irrecoverable mistakes that can be made. Using the wrong jig or measurement can ruin hundreds of hours of work and hundreds of dollars of materials. Putting, for example, the top of the sides face down on the top dish, I can draw right around the perimeter of the sides a line whose height corresponds to the surface of the dish. You have used a similar procedure if you have scribed a cut line onto a piece of baseboard that you wanted to sit flush on an irregular floor, using a pencil in a . The bottom of the compass rides along the The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 25 Frank Wooley is a member of the Eastern Massachusetts Guild of Woodworkers (www.emgw.org). Although first appearing in the EMGW guild newsletter, Frank has revised and expanded upon his original article for inclusion in The Old Saw.

by Frank Wooley

(rings). Natural shellac solutions have a fairly short shelf life – a few years at most if stored where cool, only months if warm. Dry flakes can be stored indefinitely if kept cool, and at least a few years at room temperature. Zinsser sells a dewaxed premixed shellac called SealCoat™, which eliminates the preparation chore. I have been told that SealCoat™ has a shelf life of over five years, although Zinsser does not claim that much. Zinsser clear shellac in spray cans also is dewaxed. Amber and clear Zinsser Bulls Eye shellac carried by Shellac many local stores is not. If you are not certain whether a shellac solution is dewaxed, simply stir it up and observe the opacity. Natural shellac solutions hellac is a very convenient furniture is unaffected by oils and hydrocarbon have a milky appearance, since the wax is Sfinish for a small shop. It is easier to solvents ( thinner, naphtha), so not very soluble in alcohol and is left in apply by hand than any other finish, and hydrocarbon-based glazes can be suspension. Dewaxed shellac solutions is extremely easy to repair. applied, worked, and even completely are clear, with no hint of haziness. removed. Its water resistance allows Shellac has some weaknesses. It is less shellacked furniture to be safely cleaned Dissolving Flakes resistant to abrasion than varnishes. with mild soap and water. A worn or Until recently I mixed all my shellac It softens at high temperatures, so a lightly scratched surface is immediately from flakes because I use shellac at shellacked tabletop can be marked if restored by simply wiping with a pad irregular intervals, and because dewaxed unprotected from hot dishes. Shellac is dampened with thinned shellac. Deeper shellacs were only available as flake. readily attacked by alcohols (drinking, repairs are easier than varnishes, because Freshly dissolved shellac dries very patent medicine, rubbing, some it bonds well to any original finish rapidly (it can be sanded in less than cosmetics) and by alkalies (ammonia (except wax) and is easy to color. 30 minutes) and is a real joy to use. To and strong cleaners). speed up the dissolution process, I chop Grades the flakes into a coarse powder in a small These disadvantages are easily outweighed Natural shellac contains 4-5% wax, coffee bean mill, and then agitate the by its ease of application and repair for which has a strong effect on the physical flake-alcohol slurry frequently while it finishes that will be treated with care. High properties of the coating but little effect is dissolving. It takes about a day to get quality finishes can be produced by on the method or ease of application. all the flake into solution, and there is brushing, padding, French polishing or Nearly all the wax can be removed, and usually some insoluble matter that must spraying. The finishing area does not the resulting product is sold as dewaxed be filtered out. I have had occasional need to be dust-free because it dries so shellac. Natural shellacs are available in problems with the flakes caking fast. Ventilation of the finishing area is a range of colors, obtained by removing (sticking together in one large clump), less critical than with all other finishes or bleaching part or all of the colorants but they dissolved satisfactorily once (except water-borne), because the in the natural lac resin. broken up. The darker natural grades of solvent is less toxic and the fumes are I have a strong preference for shellac often contain pieces of bugs and less flammable. Shellac is easy to sand dewaxed shellac over natural (waxy) bark, but those are filtered out with the and polish with to any sheen. shellac, since varnishes and all water- undissolved resin. Dewaxed shellac is very resistant to borne finishes adhere better to it, and it I have started using SealCoat™ water, so it can be wet-sanded. Shellac is more resistant to white water stains for most of my applications because 26 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Sh e l l a c – continued covered in books, not short articles. Three Sources of Shellac it eliminates the process of chopping, books are suggested below. The method I have had satisfactory results with dissolving and filtering flake. It does I use depends on the trade off between unbranded flake from www.shellac.net, not dry quite as fast as freshly dissolved drying time and my time. Drying time JT Moser Super Blonde flake ordered shellac, but usually that is a minor for finishes generally increases with the from Woodworkers’ Supply and Zinsser disadvantage. It only comes in one square of the finish thickness, but my Bulls Eye liquid shellac from Home color (light amber) but it can easily be time is proportional to the number of Depot and other local stores. For dry colored. layers it takes to build an adequate finish flake, www.shellac.net offers a wide thickness. For example, twice as many variety of grades and has very good Coloring Shellac half-thickness layers can be completed prices. Jeff Jewitt’s Homestead Finishing Shellac solutions are colored by in half the total elapsed time, but with Products (www.homesteadfinishing.com) intermixing the variously colored natural twice as much of my time. also has a good variety of grades of flake, shellac resins or by adding dyes and I generally apply shellac with a fine- and I have found him to be a reliable pigments. Dyes may be added as liquid bristle brush when I am trying to save supplier of good quality products. dyes in glycol (like TransTint™ or other my time but can afford to wait the NGR dyes) or as dry alcohol-soluble dye longer time that thicker layers need Sources of information powders (after dissolving in alcohol and for the alcohol to evaporate. Sanding The best book I have found on filtering). Pigments may be added as dry between coats removes the dust and finishing is Bob Flexner’sUnderstanding powders (after dispersing in alcohol) or brush marks. For a quicker finish (but , Readers’ Digest as powders predispersed in a glycol base with more of my time) I apply shellac in Assn, 2005. Flexner gives very clear (like Universal Tinting Colors). thinner layers with a pad. Some sanding explanations for the nature and behavior Shellac lightly colored by these is necessary to remove dust and streaks. of finishing materials. He gives you a methods is very useful for subtly A final coat of very thin shellac leaves a real understanding of the materials and changing the color of wood, since the gloss surface, and duller sheens are then finishing processes, rather than just a color can be added and corrected layer obtained with abrasives or steel wool. collection of recipes and techniques to by layer. It is only a partial substitute For a fine high-gloss finish in a short be blindly followed. for staining before finishing because of time (but with even more of my time) Jeff Jewett’s Hand Applied Finishes, the difficulty of obtaining a finish coat I use the French polishing technique, Taunton Press, Newtown, CT, 1997, has of perfectly uniform thickness. Shellac in which very thin layers are applied excellent instructions for application deeply colored by these methods is to produce a high-gloss finish without of shellac and most other small-shop excellent for touching up dings and abrasives. finishes. deep scratches and for blending in wood I shellac all surfaces of fine furniture Sam Allen’s Classic Finishing patches in colored finishes. except tops of tables and case pieces. To Techniques, Sterling Publishing, 1994, improve heat and solvent resistance, I has excellent detailed instructions for Applying Shellac finish these with varnishes which I color French polishing. Although out of print, This is a very large subject, best and rub out to match the shellac. used copies are readily available.

Building A Gu i t a r – continued making uses both metric and imperial Good old Alan has been experimenting number of sound-influencing variables. measurements, so I need two complete with a solution ­– fish glue! In fact, one Existentially, this groping about in the sets of dial gauges, feeler gauges, and of his students has recently completed unknown and unknowable is part of rulers of varying lengths. With careful an entire guitar using nothing but fish what gives lutherie its great fascination and iterative measuring and trimming, I glue as the adhesive. The great advantage and charm. get the top and back to the point where of fish glue is its working time of 40 Once the kerfing is all in place, I they, as it were, snap into place. Now it is minutes! It does not have to be heated cut rabbits into it that accept the ends time to glue the body together. or mixed, comes in squeeze bottles from of the braces on the top and back. This Photo 11 shows this part of the Lee Valley, and does not smell. I make has to be done very precisely with no operation. It uses a lot of specialized some test glue joints on scrap wood gaps. The end of each brace has to be spool clamps, which take a fair amount using yellow glue, hide glue, and fish precisely supported by the bottom of of time to put into place, far longer than glue. All make joints stronger than the the gap in the kerfing. A loose joint the 10 minutes open time for yellow wood itself. The big disadvantage of fish means structural weakness and possible glue, to say nothing of hide glue. What glue is that it readily dissolves in water, buzz or rattle in the finished instrument. to do? Well I could practice to become so a fish-glued guitar will rapidly come I find I need a dial gauge to measure very fast. But I don’t like to hurry and apart if submerged. — to be continued in the cut depths. Parenthetically, guitar don’t like to work under pressure. the April, 2008 issue of The Old Saw. The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 27 beginner’s corner fast & clean by Bob Oswald Half Lap

hirty two half lap cuts to First, with the bandsaw, rip Make the first pass Tmake. The typical tool in a cut slightly shallower than the forward near the end of the many shops will be the tablesaw final dimension cut in from the piece with a miter gauge. with a dado blade. I don’t like the end. Stop short slightly before the The final pass is a backwards rough surface left by the dado final length of the cut. Use a stop climb cut to prevent tear blade. It’s a fine choice in many board clamped to the fence to get out on the back side of the applications but for this joint, a consistent depth of cut. And drift shoulder. smooth flat surface was necessary. angle, while small on this short cut, So the router table makes that needs to be considered. possible and makes a beautiful, Then to the tablesaw for a square finish to the shoulder and crosscut to trim off and release flat. However, it’s a slow process to the little piece. Use a spacer block hog out all the material, and prone on the fence (not shown here) to to tear out, requiring diligent use prevent the off cut from rocketing of a backing board. out of the saw. The shortcut is not rocket Finally, make the cleanup pass science. Use the bandsaw and on the router table. Here a 1˝ table saw to eliminate the bulk of router bit makes quick work with the material. minimum passes and swirl marks.

Saw Blade Solutions by Bob Oswald

had a chance to learn a few and burning. The blade will appear less waste. It’s less mass, less wear on the motor at I tidbits about saw blades to be dull. How many dull blades startup, more power cutting rather than overcoming from the Freud rep recently. have been sharpened by cleaning? inertia. For 1/32˝ narrower cut, the body of the blade is Thought I’d pass them on to you. Change blades for the even thinner. A thin kerf blade will weigh almost half In answer to questions about application. It’s easy to be lazy as much. It increases the sweet spot, the trade off in what blade to choose, what and run a combo all the time. feed rate between going slow and causing burn, and diameter, best use of dado blades, You’ll get cleaner cuts and better pushing to fast and causing a stall. a lengthy discussion about these performance on a small saw by An 8˝ dado is often too big for a smaller saw. Drop and many subjects ensued. Here using a ripping blade to rip. This to a 6˝ blade. You’re typically only cutting a half inch are some interesting high points, summer I observed OCAC folks deep or so. You don’t need a monster blade. Low especially for people with smaller changing blades all the time. It horsepower will handle the smaller blade better. tablesaws such as the table top gets easier as you do it. On that What’s the difference between a 10˝ 50T Industrial variety. note, tightening the new blade is Blade and a less expensive Home Depot version? The For stalling or burning not a contest of strength. OCAC industrial blades have more steel, bigger carbide teeth, problems, go to a smaller diameter technique is to put the wrench better stabilization with more complex tuning cuts, blade. It takes less horsepower to on the nut and rest it against the and therefore more cost. Use what’s appropriate for spin it up and keep it moving. You table. Then with two fingers, pull your application. don’t have to be driven to maintain the blade tight. It works, it doesn’t Use an out feed table to take stress off the saw a 10˝ blade. slip, it’s safe and it’s much easier system. A roller drifting sideways against the blade Clean your blade often. Resin to get off. increases the torque required and puts a greater load buildup will cause overheating Thin kerf blades are not about on a small saw. 28 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Using by Norm Brewer Three Phase Motors Three Phase Power Phase Three have recently been looking at Static phase converters do not have Ipurchasing some older commercial any moving parts as the name implies, Three phase motor stator has three windings woodworking equipment. A major but contain phase shifting capacitors impediment to using this type of and switching circuits. These devices about 1500 watts with no load. Keeping equipment is that it often comes produce an artificial third phase for it on all the time could be expensive in equipped with three phase electric starting the motor and supply two of the a small shop. motors. I’ve been investigating options motor’s windings with the two separate A one HP rotary phase converter for dealing with this problem and found 117 volt sides of a single phase 220 volt costs less than $200. One good place to that there are several good solutions. circuit. The net result is that the motor start investigating rotary converters is First of all, most residential electric develops 1/2 to 2/3 of its rated horsepower, www.phaseconverter.com. service is 117/234 volt single phase. but the unbalanced power can cause Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are a The two separate 117 volt lines are in overheating if the motor is heavily loaded. third class of converters. These devices phase with each other which makes the Static converters are cheap, small and convert incoming single or 3-phase power voltage of the two lines additive. Three lightweight, and a separate converter is into DC, and then synthesize 3 separate phase power is usually only available often used for each piece of equipment. AC phases from the DC. Motors run to commercial or industrial users and Static converters work only for motors from VFDs will develop full power. This getting three phase power is not an and not other 3-phase equipment. A 3/4 type of drive can create power at varying option for most homeowners. to 11/2 HP converter costs $147 from frequencies, which allows motor speed Conceptually, you can think of a www.phase-a-matic.com. to be varied. The Powermatic lathe used three phase motor as having three Rotary phase converters are special at a recent Robert Sorby demo had separate stator windings. Each winding three phase motors that have additional a 2 HP three phase motor controlled is connected to one of the three phases circuitry added to start and run the by a VFD. It provided soft-start and supplied by the electric utility. These motor on single phase power. Rotary speed control. One source I found three windings produce a rotating converters act as rotating transformers is www.driveswarehouse.com/Drives/ magnetic field, and the motor’s rotor and create true 3-phase output power AC+Drives/Phase+Converter+VFD/ chases the rotating field providing for use by 3-phase equipment. Motors L200-015NFU2.html. A 2 HP Hitachi rotating power. running from a rotary phase converter VFD drive costs $216 from these folks. Three phase motors have several develop full power and there should Call them to discuss various design advantages over single phase motors. be no overheating problems. Multiple options available. They can be simpler since they don’t need pieces of equipment can be run Norm Brewer is a member of the capacitors for starting, or centrifugal simultaneously from a single converter Washington Woodworker’s Guild switches to disconnect starting windings if it is properly sized. Rotary converters (www.washingtonwoodworkersguild.org) once they start. They also can provide will also power non-rotating three phase located in the Washington DC area. This dynamic braking to stop rotation quickly. equipment like welders. article is reprinted with permission from the The rotation of a 3-phase motor can be Large rotary phase converters can guild newsletter – The Wooden Word. reversed without stopping the motor. consume a significant amount of power This is important in some applications. while idling. A typical 10 Finally, 3-phase motors produce a more HP converter consumes even torque than single phase motors, so devices using them run smoother. In many cases the simplest option may be to replace the three phase motor with a single phase one of equivalent power and speed. Whether this is feasible will depend on how the motor is mounted and whether or not the equipment uses any of the special capabilities of 3-phase motors. Also, replacement cost for larger motors may be prohibitive. Rotary Converter Static Converter Variable Frequency Drive

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 29 Our Video by John Pitrone Lending Library

istorically, the Guild has always members. We are also able to do a better I sometimes wonder Hmade the video library available to job of replenishing missing videos. In w h a t happened members and had loosely kept track of the very near future, we will provide you to those that I no longer see who had videos. This was done using the with a list of videos sorted several ways, at the meetings. I am sure honor system by leaving a notebook for i.e. by category, by date, and alphabetical. that some have chosen to move on, or members to sign out videos on their own. These lists should be available in the to pursue other interests. This brings to Since I have taken responsibility for the form of PDF files downloadable from mind that the videos are an important library, I have made a number of changes the new Guild web site. Having the list legacy of the Guild. They are a good to how the videos are signed out and allows members to plan their borrowing method of capturing and sharing the tracked. Initially, I made some of these or purchase ahead of time. This reminds knowledge and techniques of the changes because I had difficulty reading me to mention that the videos are also demonstrators, members and non- the member names in the notebook. I available for purchase for just $10. members alike. also wanted to keep better track of the Good statistics require a high degree It is important to capture that videos. Of course, the growth of the of data accuracy. So, if the following list knowledge before it is lost. Time and Guild membership has also necessitated doesn’t look right, it may be because again, I read articles in woodworking the changes to the procedures. magazines talking about Now, when members techniques that were used borrow from the library, I Current 10 Most Popular Videos hundreds of years ago that have write down the member name been lost due to the fact that the and stock number of the video. knowledge was never passed on. While my writing is also pretty Title Code# Times Out Just recently, I was watching poor, I can read it! So, please Inlay 99-I 7 a program on TV about NASA be sure to see me to sign out engineers combing the rocketry Christmas Ornament (project) 00TS3-4 5 your videos, so that I can keep junk yards for parts from the better track. I try to make the Natural Edges from Green Wood 03TS4-4 5 rocket that was used to land videos available at all Guild Hand Cut Dovetails 05-JS10 5 men on the moon. Apparently, meetings as well as all the the information for that rocket Sharpening Day 95-SD 5 GSWT meetings. had been lost, or was never fully Sometimes videos are kept Bowl Turning 00TS3-6 4 documented. Now that there out for an extended period of Bowl Turning (2 disk set) 00TS3-7 4 are plans to go to Mars, the new time. Some have been out for engineers need that information, Intro to Veneering 01-IV 4 the better part of a year. I know and they are looking for that it is occasionally difficult Planing Wood by Hand 03-PWH 4 parts so that they can reverse to get the videos returned, but Sharpening for Turning 04-ST 4 engineer them! The videos are perhaps a friend could return our (the Guild’s) method of them for you if you can’t make fully documenting our rockets the meetings, or maybe they (or tables and chairs, etc.)! As I could be mailed back. I am open to videos were not signed out properly. remember it, passing on information is suggestions on how we could get these Please help us to maintain the needed one of the Guild’s basic goals. I think it’s videos back and into circulation sooner. accuracy by signing out all videos. This a great goal. We wouldn’t want to have Now that we have more members, it is is especially true for those that are more to reinvent the wheel! becoming more important to return the popular. I look forward to continuing to videos in a timelier manner. As I occasionally view a video, I am provide you, the members, with access Now that we keep better track, reminded of how important they are for to the Guild’s legacy of knowledge in we can identify which videos are the passing on information. In many of the the form of the video library. most popular and can make additional videos, the audience is panned and I like Thanks to all for sharing that copies, so that they are available to more to see who I recognize and who I don’t. knowledge. 30 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Nov 17th, 2007 at St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH

Guild Meeting by Sal Morgani

he November general The other projects ranged Tmeeting was held in the from turning pieces such Captains room in Coit Hall as candlesticks, to checker on the campus of St. Paul’s boards, benches, windsor School. chairs and a tea table. There Dave Anderson started was such a great interest in with the Guild’s business seeing what others are doing report. Then in a departure that we will continue this from our normal format we feature in future meetings. had some of the members The main presenter discuss the projects which of the meeting was Web they brought to the meeting. Andersen. He is an engineer John Whiteside brought his and has been working with photos by Jim Seroskie guitar which is a work in dust collection systems progress. He shared with us in various size shops. He the various aspects of guitar discussed and had drawings making with emphasis on of dust collection solutions the rosette and the dozens for dealing with today’s of jigs required. DJ Delorie vast array of power tools. A brought in a completed table general question and answer clock which he discussed and period followed. answered members questions. After lunch this author This beautiful piece will be gave a lecture on debunking entered in a contest (we hope finishing myths. Topics you win DJ). discussed were linseed oil, varnish and shellac finishes and ranged from “replacing the natural oils in wood” to “wax build up”. Between the great location, the large member turnout, the questions and enthusiasm of the attendees, we had a wonderful meeting. Web Anderson Web

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 31 November 24th, 2007

by Jon Siegel

Granite State Woodturners regular turning. Things must be planned out ahead of time. Starting with a round at Fred Armbruster’s shop in York, ME turned object, the decoration is made on the surface with cutting frames (attachments which hold a rotating cutter) secured on a slide rest. The process relies on the spinning tools to produce the finished surface (no sanding) so sharp tools, and good materials are necessary for success. In Victorian times, the material of choice he November meeting of the Granite lathes that he produces in his extensive was elephant ivory. Now African TState Woodturners was held at the machine shop. blackwood is preferred and probably the workshop of Fred Armbruster in York, Fred told us that he was initially most popular. But any kind of very hard Maine. Fred is an eye surgeon who has exposed to OT by the series of articles wood can be used, or even plastic, such been intensely involved in the art of by Frank Knox that appeared in the as Corian, etc. ornamental turning (OT) since the late first four issues of Fine Woodworking Fred’s antique Ornamental Lathe 1980s. magazine. Fred was not inspired by the was made by the machinery designer He not only restores old ornamental objects, but he was very excited by the George , who manufactured lathes and collects original tools and tools. engine lathes, planers, and shapers in accessories for them, but also has Fred gave us a capsulated history of Manchester, England in the period 1880 designed and built dozens of ornamental OT. He said that embellished decoration to 1900. Birch also made and patented produced by complex mechanical means many devices for OT. Fred obtained his first appeared in Germany in the 1500s. antique OT lathe after it had been in a John Jacob Holtzapffel is best known for fire. He had to make many new parts, the many books he wrote on OT and the and he modernized his machine with lathes he manufactured which were very variable speed motors, to avoid relying complex. Holtzapffel’s books are still the on treadle power only. best reference on the subject, especially Next, Fred demonstrated the Rose volumes 4 and 5. Engine of the type he makes and sells. The Victorian tastes required complex While there is a lot of tedium in OT, embellishment, and these lathes fit in with the times while the Industrial R e v o l u t i o n b r o u g h t a d v a n c e m e n t s in production so that the machines became available to more people. As Fred started his demonstration of the Ornamental Lathe, he explained that OT is not as “spontaneous” as 32 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers photos by DJ Delorie unless otherwise noted

Rose Engines produce work much more quickly, which Fred compared to “putting up wallpaper”. On this lathe the entire headstock rocks back and forth as the rotates. This motion is controlled by a series of built-in cams. Fred’s lathes have a lever on the cam follower (a special feature which he invented) that allows you to adjust the amplitude of motion, both above and below 100%. This invention vastly increases the versatility of the cams. Fred explained a little of how he got involved in manufacturing the lathes. At the American Ornamental Turners Symposium in Portsmouth last year, “I hoped to sell ten lathes but I sold twenty- four”. Clearly Fred has been hard at work for the last year, making all the parts for these machines. He now has about 80% of the parts made, but all the assembly still lies ahead. Before we left, we toured the huge machine shop where this project is in progress. Since each lathe comes with a complete compliment of about ten cams, we observed stacks of brass cams all over the place. The quality of the brass turning was amazing and reminded me of Victorian microscopes and telescopes. This was a fascinating meeting for anyone interested in mechanism, lathes, antique tools, or machine shop methods. Fred’s knowledge of machinery design, his ingenious creations, and his industrious pursuit were impressive and inspiring. A DVD of this meeting will soon be available from the Guild video library. photo by James Forbes

bottom three photos by Ed Bartlett The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 33 Jan 12th, 2008

Period Furniture by John Faro at Jim Seroskie’s shop in Amherst, NH

piece of furniture is going the draw slides. He finishes the piece to be restored to museum putting the proper original hardware quality and just admired back on the drawers. his month’s meeting started the or if it is going to be an Harvey brought in some pictures Tnew year off in spectacular fashion. every day functional piece of furniture of the 1800s Georgian oak table that Harvey Best was our guest speaker with to be used daily. Then the process begins he restored. He talked about how he the topic of antique furniture repair and either keeping all parts and repairs went about that project and how happy restoration. The meeting was hosted by and finishes as authentic as possible or the customer was when he delivered it. Jim Seroskie in his beautiful shop in reproducing parts with new materials Details of the table restoration are in the Amherst, NH. About twenty members and using new finishes. April, 2007 issue of The Old Saw. were in attendance. He showed us how he approaches The following list details the purchase The meeting started out with John taking apart chair stretchers and information for the supplies Harvey Whiteside giving a brief safety topic on spindles using a spreader clamp to apply uses when restoring furniture. This is far router table and shaper safety. Then our slight out ward pressure to the piece. If from a complete list: host Jim Seroskie, talked about his new it doesn’t come apart easily, he will drill shop and some of his projects he was a small hole then inject vinegar with a • Scalpel, for surgical cuts in veneer – Van working on making custom small syringe into the joint to loosen Dyke’s Restorer Catalog for his home on the Williams & Hussy up the glue inside the joint. It usually • Syringe – for injecting glue, vinegar molding machine. comes apart. If the spindle is broken, he • NGR Stain (non grain raising) – Woodcraft Then the meeting took off with will drill out the stuck piece of wood in • Spray bottle, disposable Preval – spray Harvey Best, sharing some of his trade the hole, thread in a small screw then small quantities of shellac or lacquer on secrets he has used over the years. He pull it out using the screw as a puller. He small areas of woodwork explained to us that before he starts any also showed us a tool that he made by • Shellac flakes, super blonde – Woodcraft restoration or repair, he or his customer cutting a “V” notch in a block of wood • Thin bladed spatula – Lee Valley has to make the decision as to if the and inserting a small piece of hack saw Continued on Page 35 blade on each side of the “V”, then using it as a to rub back and forth to clean the glue off the end of the spindle. Harvey then talked about repairing veneer tops. By using small pieces of veneer that match the top as close as possible, he will align the patch to match the grain and cut it into place using a surgeons scalpel. He then glues it in. Once glued in place and sanded he finally applies his finish. Harvey talked about the shellac he uses mixed with grain alcohol to get a one pound mix which he puts into a spray bottle then applied as many coats as needed to make his finish match. Harvey also brought in a chest of draws that needed repair and . He talked about how he strips the finish Harvey Best off and how he repairs the drawers by re- gluing the dovetail joints and replacing Jim Seroskiephotos by 34 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers Nov 18th, 2007

Luthiers by John Whiteside at Jim Robinson’s shop in Nottingham, NH

ur new Lutherie group held violins to look old. If you are interested made. Members of the New England Oits third meeting on Sunday, in violin making, Jim offers individual Luthier’s Guild (based in Southern November 18, 2007 at master violin, instruction (www.renstrings.com). New England) have been invited to viola, and cello maker Jim Robinson’s The meeting provided an opportunity participate in what I hope will be a long shop. Our group is growing rapidly with for Roger Myers to get some advice on and fruitful exchange and collaboration. 25 members, about half of whom were repairing some violins he inherited and That meeting, scheduled for late January at this meeting. also for Ed Bartlett to get some feedback is, not surprisingly, “sold out”. For the Jim gave an interesting presentation on the sound qualities of a violin he March 16 meeting, about how he builds instruments and built. In the photo you can see Jim test- Steve Connor emphasized, at our request, some of playing Ed’s violin. maker of the the business aspects. One difference At these meeting we play our renowned Connor between violin making versus guitar instruments as well as discuss building line of classical making is that the market expects them. Paul Miller, Steve Marcq, Phil guitars (www. Gamache, and Ray Sanville all played for connorguitars.com) us. I got to fulfill the dream of a lifetime, will demonstrate which was to do a duet with a really jigs and fixtures his good violin player. The photo shows company uses. Keri-Ann Price and myself performing. To get on the Everyone agreed that is was a really email list for times fun meeting. Our next planned meeting and directions, should be astonishing. We have invited contact John Emmy-Award winning, master steel Whiteside at string guitarist Ed Gerhard to attend johninfremont@ photos by John Whiteside for the purpose of test playing and comcast.net or call Jim Robinson giving feedback on guitars we have 603-679-5443.

Pe r i o d Fu r n i t u r e – continued Mike Noel and myself John Faro. John • , Zip-Strip – hardware store has done an excellent job with the group • Denatured alcohol – dissolves shellac making it what it is today and also with • Lacquer thinner – dissolves lacquer the help of its members. John has a large • Wood glue – Titebond Type III pair of shoes to fill but with the support • Lemon oil furniture polish – lubricate of the group and John as a mentor, I think wet-dry 400 paper to rub-out finish we will do just fine. On behalf of myself • Reference Books: and the Guild – Thankyou John for all The Furniture Doctor by George Grotz the hard work you have done and the Understanding Wood Finishing dedication you have given to the Period by Bob Flexner Furniture Group and to The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers. We would all like to thank, To get on the contact list for the John Whiteside, Jim Seroskie Period Furniture Group, or if you have and Harvey Best for making this any ideas on a interesting topic or a shop meeting another success. where we can meet, please contact one As some of you have heard through of us. e-mail or from being at the meeting • John F Faro: [email protected] or Saturday, John Whiteside is stepping 603-968-9800 down as chairman of the Period Furniture • Mike Noel: [email protected] or Group. He has turned the group over to 603-744-3821 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 35 bulletin board

Wood Days space for demonstrators will members know that Wood 9:00 am to noon. The location I am reviving Wood be limited – first come first Days is back. and topic is TBA. Days the last weekend in served. I rent one 20 x 30 tent Dave Emerson: 603-783-4403 Contact DJ Delorie June at my place, Old Ways and there’s room for another or [email protected] to be added to the e-mail Traditions in Canterbury if donated. I have several 10 notification list. (www.oldwaystraditions.net). x 20 tents available. Beginner & Intermediate DJ Delorie: [email protected] Shaker village didn’t want it. Pre-registration is not Group It will be as much like it was required but necessary BIG, the Beginner and Granite State Woodcarvers as I can make it, depending if you want to be sure of Intermediate Group, meets This small group of on who wants to participate space. Any volume of Guild the first Saturday of the even dedicated woodcarvers meets and how much help I get. participation would need a numbered months from Thursday nights at Rundlett Old Ways Days, the Guild coordinator to help October to June. Feb. 2nd at Middle School in Concord, third weekend of October find tentage and parking 9:30 am is the next meeting. NH. Meetings are 6-9 pm last year, went well and will help especially. At the very I will continue to make during the school year. For be repeated at the same date. least, I want to let Guild the apple wall hung cabinet. info or directions contact… (350 people came.) Covered Starting in April, I will Lou Barchey: 603-753-2708 or begin a series on drawer [email protected] construction and hanging drawers. We will explore a Luthiers Discounted Taunton If you wish to number of ways to build and Our next meeting Magazine Subscriptions take advantage of this hang drawers. This will take will feature Chris and Once again, we are opportunity, send your place over a year or so. Stephen Connor, makers making subscriptions name and address, the This year will be a little of fine classical guitars to Taunton magazines magazine(s) and term(s) different. BIG will be (www.connorguitars.com). To available at special group you want. Specify if meeting at Steve Colello’s accommodate our invited rates. Discounts are this is a new or renewal shop at 119 Flynn Road, speakers the date has been available on any magazine subscription – I do not Sanbornville, NH for the changed to Sunday, March 9, Taunton offers, and are need your current label for short term. 2008, 1-4 pm. (ordinarily we applicable to both new renewals – Taunton will would meet on March 16). and renewal subscriptions. search their database using irections – Flynn Rd. is in Our speakers will be Since we do this only your name. Send a check DNorth Wakefield off of demonstrating the jigs and once a year (right after the made out to the Guild for route 16. It is 6.0 miles north fixtures they use in guitar February Guild Meeting), the appropriate amount, of the intersection of route making. Since the date you may wish to renew to: 16 and 109 and 5.7 miles conflicts with our sister now, even if your magazine south of the intersection of group, the New England expires mid year – Taunton Tony Immorlica route 16 and route 28. Going Luthiers, we have invited will simple add to your 6 Purgatory Road north, it is a right hand turn them to attend the meeting, current term. Mont Vernon, NH 03057 and going south, it is a left which will be at Ric Miller’s hand turn. shop in Eliot, Maine. The table below shows Orders will be accepted Once on Flynn Rd, go Our meetings are open the group rates offered to up to the February Guild 0.25 mile and the shop is to anyone interested in the Guild. meeting. on the right. The name and making stringed instruments, number are on the board. regardless of level of expertise. Magazine Subscriptions 1 year 2 years 3 years Please contact me if you Besides presentations and plan to attend. discussions, we like to play Fine Woodworking $27.96 $47.96 $67.16 Bob LaCivita: 603-942-1240 or our instruments at each [email protected] Fine Homebuilding $30.36 $52.76 $75.16 meeting, so bring them along. Fine Cooking $23.96 $39.96 $55.96 Granite State Woodturners To sign up for the meeting Fine Gardening $23.96 $39.96 $55.96 The next meeting of the and receive directions, Threads $26.36 $43.96 $63.16 Granite State Woodturners contact: will be March 22nd from John Whiteside: 603-679-5443 or [email protected]

36 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers bulletin board

included handouts covering day we were all treated to his topics of discussion and home made muffins and how to tune each tool. coffee supplied by his lovely Period Furniture In addition to a very and gracious wife Verna. – In case you didn’t make informative, enjoyable Fall Ned Gelinas our excellent January, 2008 Peter James hosted a Small Meeting meeting, there is news. I on Saturday Buy have decided to step down October 20, 2007 on Tuning To o ls & Lu m b e r … set available Neat as chair of the Period Woodworking Machinery. Stuff Jet (HTC) mobile machine base for extra cost. Furniture Group. In the past Needless to say, the five JMB-JTAS excellent condition, Excellent three years, our membership of us Guild Members in never used, main base will beginner lathe. has doubled to almost 50 attendance enjoyed the “done accept a machine base as large Old but loved. – Let’s Talk people and we routinely right Yankee ingenuity” Peter as 24˝ x 52 3/4˝ also has 36˝ T Rockwell/Delta Super 10 attract almost half of these staged for three plus hours at extension – $125 tablesaw – $100 to our meetings. Thanks to his workshop in Barnstead. great participation, we have Peter discussed Porter Cable biscuit cutter Model 22˝ by 24˝ cast iron top with # 555 excellent condition – $40 extension on factory stand. consistently high quality everything from cleaning Original documentation. Great events and presentations, of and conditioning to the Kuntz scraper plane – $50 for job site or small space. – which Harvey Best’s talk on importance of true alignment All wood has been air dried and Let’s Talk furniture restoration is but of motorized woodworking stored indoors min of 5 yrs… one example. tools. Included was the Guy Senneville: gsenn@ 4/4 Black Walnut rgh – $4.50 BF comcast.net or 978-423-7827 Many generous members tablesaw, utilizing Peter’s 4/4 Red oak – $2.50 BF are willing to host meetings custom made alignment tool 4/4 #2 common cherry rgh – Ta bl e Sa w s … and have shops large enough for checking the accuracy of $2.50 BF Pinkerton Academy has to hold 20 or more. And the blade, the miter slot and 4/4 soft maple 8´x10˝ – $2.00 BF replaced the tablesaws in our we have established a new fence. Also included was 1/2” aromatic red cedar – $1.00 SF woodworking and building precedent, with the Guild the jointer and thickness Marty Milkovitz: construction programs with being willing to pay for us planers as well as various 603-878-3591 or SawStops. Two of the old saws to visit the Strawbery Banke belt and thickness . [email protected] are for sale. museum. We all enjoyed his attributes Ta bl e Sa w … Delta UNISAW, 3 hp(?), three So, on a high note, I am applied to the sharpening phase with uniguard and Delta happy to turn the leadership and setting of jointer and Craftsman 10” Tablesaw – extension table and fence. $250. over to Mike Noel and John thickness planer blades. Model 113.298032 in excellent Although this a three phase saw Faro. They will be contacting In general, Peter’s condition. Has a cast iron table, it might be worth investing in you shortly with their contact well equipped workshop a 1 HP motor, and casters – a new motor or a converter at information and their plans consisted of any “wish list” $195/BO this price. for the future. Please give tool sought by all of us. Of Tony Immorlica 603-673-9629 Delta Tablesaw (13/4 hp?), single them the same excellent course in Peter’s process of or [email protected]. phase with uniguard and delta support and enthusiasm you acquiring many of his “used Sh a r e En d Co a t i n g … extension table and fence. $750. have given me over the years. tools” (that look new) we Looking for a couple people to Jack Grube: jgrube@ To sign up for the meeting, were given the in-sight of share a 5 gallon pail of the white pinkertonacademy.org contact: his 40% rule philosophy. End Coating (has anti-freeze). or 603-437-5200 x1176 John Whiteside: 603-679-5443 or Although it appears he [email protected] slipped when a noticable Jerry Burt in Plainfield: Sh o p Sm i t h … 675-6141 or new 17˝ floor drill press with Real Old ShopSmith – Seems [email protected] laser and a mustard colored to have all the attachments & a Small Meeting with Peter James lathe were seen. Peter also To o ls … wooden base it sets on. Runs OK. Craftsman Lathe – $100 Make offer. Local pickup. 9˝ Swing 30 inch between Real old Craftsman bandsaw – centers. 1/4 hp Century motor. Runs fine. Comes with six extra Extras include multiple spur blades. – Make offer. Local centers and drill chuck. Bench pickup in Claremont. top model but mounted Syd Lorandeau: on sturdy cast iron legs. [email protected] Documentation included. Chisel or 603-542-5295

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 37 Finishing Symposium … April 19th, 2008 Steering Committee Meetings

e will be holding an all day Contact Peter Breu with questions he Steering Committee usually meets Wfinishing symposium at Pinkerton or suggestions. Volunteers are always Tsix times per year about two to three Academy with some of the best finishers greatly appreciated! weeks before each major guild meeting. around. There will be four rotations Meetings are open to any members. with several choices on each rotation Gary Wood – Different ways to use shellac Current scheduled meeting dates are: Tom McLaughlin – Traditional varnishing and a trade show with many important March 19, 2008 Jim Morris – Waterborne finishes vendors. Guilds from throughout New May 21, 2008 Terry Moore – Spray lacquer England will be invited and we can August 20, 2008 expect a great turnout. Admission is Marty Milkovits – Staining and dying free. Some of the scheduled presenters Bruce Hamilton – Repairing finishes Meetings are held at The League of and their topics will give you a sense of NH Craftsman’s offices in Concord from the day – put it on your calendar and Peter Breu: [email protected] or 6-8 pm. League offices are located at 205 come learn from the best! 603-647-2327 North Main Street, Concord, NH.

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38 The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers MILL OUTLET STORE • 10% DISCOUNT FOR GUILD MEMBERS The Wood Finishing School Furniture Making Classes Northern and Appalachian Hardwoods Enjoy a mini 978-363-2638 apprenticeship Ash • Basswood • Birch • Cherry • Maple • Mahogany • Oak • Poplar • Walnut www.patinarestoration.net with some of America’s best 4/4 - 16/4 Rough or Surfaced Kiln Dried Lumber Learn wood finishing woodworkers! Fixed and Special widths • FSC-certified wood from well-managed forests individually or as part of a group Twenty-seven years experience Come into the woods... www.experiencewoodworking.com

10% Discount for Guild Members Teaching & Class Instruction Only 336 Baptist Road visit www.northlandforest.com for stocking info Canterbury, NH 603-783-9700 Bruce Hamilton Antique Restoration 36 Depot Road,Kingston,NH • 603.642.8275 10% annual discount for GNHW

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10% Discount on Stock Items to Guild Members Read Mike Dunbar’s Weekly Blog www.thewindsorinstitute.com CLASSIC DESIGNS by MATTHEW BURAK e SOLUTIONS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL WOODWORKER Windsor Table Legs, Columns, Cabinet Feet Institute Kits & Parts – HARDWOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTER – 10% Discount to 10% Discount for Sack Back Class & GNHW Members Supplies Purchased During that Class Route 125 • Brentwood, NH P.O. BOX 426, KINGSTON, NH 03848 1.800.843.7405 44 Timber Swamp Rd • Hampton, NH 03842 • 603-929-9801 TEL 1-800-442-1812 • 603-679-1230 • FAX 603-679-1960 www.tablelegs.com

e ® Contractor’s Tim Corcoran ROCKLER Choice!™ Store Manager Wolfgang’s Wood WOODWORKING AND HARDWARE 10% Discount to Guild Members Specialty Native Woods 373 S Broadway (Rt 28) 10% Discount on Non-Powered Tools Salem, NH 03079 Manchester, NH store only 603-898-5941 to Guild Members Low Prices – Guaranteed Strafford, NH 2154 Massachusetts Ave 29 Andover St 603-664-7691 Cambridge, MA 02140 Danvers, MA 01923 100 Cahill Ave • Manchester, NH 617-497-1136 978-774-0241 Off South St. in front of Home Depot 10% Off to GNHW Members Class schedules on rockler.com • Instructor inquires welcome www.westerntool.com • 603-627-4957

10% discount to members! 52 BALD HILL ROAD The Breed School NEWMARKET, NH 03857 603-798-5135 American 18th Century Furniture Sawmill & Lumber www.goosebaylumber.com HOMESTEAD By Hand 83 Dover Rd (US Route 4) WOODWORKING SCHOOL Chichester, New Hampshire 13 Liberty Street, South Berwick, ME 03908 Alan S. Mitchell (10 Minutes from I-93 Concord • Take exit 15 east) 15% Discount to GNHW Members! Director Specializing in Bird’s Eye & Curly Maple 10% Discount to GNHW Members Green & Kiln Dried Bowl Blanks & Turning Squares www.allanbreed.com • 603-749-6231 email: [email protected] PHONE: 603-659-2345 Email: [email protected] Rare & Hard to Find Domestic & Imported Hardwoods TOLL FREE: 1-888-659-2345 Web: www.woodschoolnh.com

The Guild of New Hampshire Woodworkers 39 by Ernie Grimes

e all have seen it. A table, a craft items, you have more leeway. These We all know that sharp tools are the Wgrandfather’s clock, a bureau, etc., items can use a finish that contain oil best way to a great turning. Then the use all made out of wood that probably has a and varnish. For years, most turners used of sanding up to maybe a 400 grit will nice grain and was carefully constructed a combination of linseed oil, varnish and be the frosting on the cake. But many with good joints. But when it came to thinner in one third proportions of us forget to dampen (wet) the wood applying a finish, it was rushed through each. This can be applied with between grits. Do that and sand with and ended up looking like the maker a cloth or paper towel. A major the grain where possible. used dirty water or something similar. drawback will be the fact that Bill Frost of the CNEW Woodturners can fall into the same trap. depending on the conditions in group demonstrated to It is not difficult if the proper your shop, several days of drying some of us years ago. preparation and sensible choice is made. are required between each He finished platters The first question is, does the turning coat, followed by a light some of which were need protection and from what. sanding before the next sanded with the If it is going to be used outside, it will is applied. In spite of grain and some without. need protection from the elements. In this, most turners He held the turning on his this case, paint or maybe a finish that is producing items lap with a lamp shining across the used on boats will be a good choice. for sale in gift shops work and dampened the turning If it is used to hold food, then you prefer this finish as it is the between grits. The difference was will want to have a finish that is food most durable because it soaks into the obvious. safe. Even though most manufacturers fibers of the wood. When given a coat of Buffing the finish using what will claim that their finish is safe once wax and then buffed, you have a finish most of us call the Beall system will it has dried or cured, some of us prefer that is hard to beat. pay dividends. You start with Tropoli to use something different. What finish For some of us, a shellac based finish compound and linen buff, the White is the most popular around the world is the way to go because it can be applied Diamond compound with a linen and where bowls and plates are made of while the turning is still on the lathe. cotton buff and lastly with Carnauba wood? Believe it or not, it is no finish When a paper towel is held against the wax and a cotton buff. This will provide at all. It is not only the easiest but the turning as it spins around, the friction a final sheen. If you have ever held a safest as tests on wooden cutting boards heats the finish drying it and the process turning that used this three step system, have proved time and time again. is complete. Simple and easy. The only you will caress the piece and will find But if you want some finish, a safe drawback is that shellac has a limited yourself touching it over and over. There bet will be to use Butcher Block Oil shelf life. But in most cases, because it is nothing like it. such as sold by Craft Supplies USA. is so convenient, most turners will use What is the best finish for you? The Another way is to use a wax but one that up the bottle before that happens. This one you feel most comfortable using contains no contaminates. If you cannot finish is popular with many turners and the one that gives you the result you determine what the ingredients are as because it is so easy to repair if the want. For me, I use the one that suits when you order from a catalog, a good previous finish needs a touchup. what I have turned and what it will be clue will be if it contains citrus oils like While all these ready mix and ready used for. Some will be complicated and lemon or orange. to use finishes do a good job, for a some will be as simple as a rubbing of When what you turn is to be used for perfect finish, good preparation before it walnut or maybe peanut oil and a coat non-food use like small boxes, pens and is applied and buffing after is necessary. of wax. MINUTEMAN 40 PRESSThe ®Guild“The of OldNew Saw” Hampshire is printed by MinuteManWoodworkers Press • 88 Main St, Nashua, NH • 603-883-4890 • www.nashuaminuteman.com