Syzygy ... » Surfing the Web

Turning coves and beads on a bedpost

Keith Larrett — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:58:07 +0000

There is something intoxicating about the process of turning — part by-the-book technical, part a fluid freestyle dance. Join Keith Cruickshank on one of his WoodTreks videos, where he visits The Irion Company Furniture Makers, and films Johnathan Sanbuichi, an accomplished cabinetmaker and turner. In this video, Johnathan demonstrates his approach to the turning of flats, beads and coves, the core design elements found on many styles of beds, chairs, tables, and cabinets —— especially 18th and 19th century furniture styles. In this video, Johnathan explains how to use a “story stick” to lay out and create “elevation” guides that mark key points in these types of designs, how to use calipers and a parting tool to rough-in depth cuts on the lathe, and how to work with a skew or spindle gouge. And along the way, we get a few thoughts on Johnathan’s life in woodworking. Now, how’s that for a deal?

Click here to go to WoodTreks and view the video.

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Uphill and downhill – cutting with the grain on a lathe

Keith Larrett — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:33:29 +0000

Uphill or downhill. Cutting with the grain or against the grain. Understanding how the grain is orientated on the lathe and which direction to cut in order to get the smoothest cuts possible can be confusing.

Brian Clifford has a great article on his site The Woodturners Workshop which illustrates these concepts very clearly. Here is an brief extract from the article. To read the full article please visit Brian’s site here.

7.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter, in thinking about the way the tool cuts, three important factors were temporarily ignored. These are :

the question of grain and its direction

the rotation of the work-piece

the fact that the cutting edge is often held at an angle to the direction in which the wood is moving (the slicing cut)

7.2 The concept of grain

The cells of the wood, which take the form of hollow cylinders, join together to form strands of fibres which lie in a uniform direction which is more or less axial either to the trunk or to its offshoots. The lay of the fibres is commonly referred to as the ‘grain’.

Diagram 7.1 Primary forms of cutDiagram 7.1 shows a block of wood in which the grain is running longitudinally. Three tools are shown as if about to make cuts in the directions indicated by the arrows. These illustrate the three primary forms of cut; as defined in the common expressions of:

cutting along the grain (A);

cutting across the grain (B);

cutting end grain (C).

In practice of course, particularly in woodturning, there is an infinite range of variations on these cuts. Not only can any number of intermediate positions between those shown be taken up but the edge of the tool does not necessarily have to be held at 90 degrees to the direction in which the wood is moving. It should be noted that in Diagram 7.1 the wood is assumed to be stationary and the tool to be moving. Often, in woodturning both the wood and the tool are moving, but with the wood moving faster than the tool. For the purposes of analysis, in this particular context, this does not matter; all that we are concerned with here is the movement of the wood and the cutting edge in relation to each other.

7.3 Cutting along the grain

Anybody who has worked wood with a hand plane will know that it is desirable to plane with the grain. Diagram 7.2 illustrates the common situation in which the fibres of the wood lie at an angle to the edges of the wood block.

Diagram 7.2 Planing with and against the grainWhen the wood is planed with the grain any splitting between the fibres takes place above and in front of the cutting edge, which subsequently severs the fibres neatly, so leaving a clean surface, as shown in Diagram 7.3.

Diagram 7.3 Cutting with the grain
Based on: Bruce Hoadley, Understanding Wood, The Taunton Press (1980) – p150

If an attempt is made to plane against the grain the cutting edge picks up the ends of the fibres, lifting them out of the wood, so that they break off in an irregular manner leaving a rough finish. This is illustrated in Diagram 7.4.

Diagram 7.4 Cutting against the grain
Based on: Bruce Hoadley, Understanding Wood, The Taunton Press (1980) – p150

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A tour of the blog

Keith Larrett — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:41:26 +0000

A recent comment by a reader made me think it might be helpful to describe some of the features here on my blog. I’ll start with a definition of a blog:

From Wikipedia:

“A blog (a contraction of the term “weblog“)is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”

To put it in simple terms, it is a list of entries that have been made with the latest entry at the top. My blog currently has about 75 entries and displays the latest 5 entries on the home page, so when you get to the bottom of the page feel free to click on “older entries” and you will see the next five on the list.

Use this button to search the entire blog. Simply type your search term in the box and hit "enter"

Because of the way a blog is structured finding certain information can be difficult. I am working on an index of entries but until then you can search the entire blog by using the search button found in the top right hand corner of each page.

Subscribe via RSS or e-mail

Because the content of a blog is updated every couple of days it’s often convenient to subscribe to a blog and have the latest content delivered to you rather than having to revisit the site. You can subscribe by clicking on either of the three buttons in the top right of each page.

Clicking on “Posts” will subscribe you via RSS. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. I’m no technical guru, but basically you use a feed site (I use Google Reader) and that site will collect the latest content from all the sites you have subscribed to and deliver it for you to read in one place. It works really well if you follow a couple of blogs, as you can just go to your Google Reader page and any new content from the sites you subscribe to will be waiting there for you. A lot more convenient than having to go to a bunch of different sites.

Clicking on “By Email” will allow you to subscribe via e-mail. You simply enter your e-mail address. You will receive an email asking you to click on a link to confirm your subscription. Once you do that your subscription is activated. You will receive an e-mail with the latest content each time it is posted on the blog. If you wish to cancel the subscription there is a link in each e-mail allowing you to do so.

Follow the blog on Face Book

Another convenient way to access the content if you are on Facebook is to click on the “Follow this blog” button found on the left side of each page. It will open a window allowing you to sign on to your Facebook page. Any new posts made on the blog will then automatically appear on your Facebook homepage.

Share a post

At the end of each post you will see a group of buttons as shown in the image above. These allow you to share a post that you think your friends might find interesting on a number of different social networking sites, Stumble Upon, Digg, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. I would certainly appreciate it if you shared any posts like that.

The first of this group of buttons allows you to print an article for future reference. It will allow you to print just the article without the various header and sidebar information shown on the site. It will also give you an option to save the article as a PDF on your computer.

Social Bookmarks

The Social Bookmark buttons found towards the top left of each page are simply another method to share an interesting post on various social networking sites. The subscribe buttons are another method to subscribe via e-mail or by RSS reader of your choice.

Comment on a post

At the end of each post there is a box where you can leave a comment or question about the post. It will not show up immediately as the comments are moderated. I don’t moderate them in order to just choose comments that I like, I moderate them because a lot of spam gets posted and that is deleted. Any constructive comments, regardless of whether you agree with me or not will appear on the site. It would be really great to see more comments posted and to get some feedback !

Interesting Links

At the top of the left side bar you will see a “Interesting Links”. They are links to the following sites:

Zambezi Exotics is an online store that I own. I carry a range of bowl blanks, spindle stock and pen blanks in Southern African woods. Species include black stinkwood, olive ironwood, red milkwood, Zambezi teak and many others. The site is secure and payment is possible via Paypal or credit card. There is also a newsletter subscription.

Syzygy Pens is the online store where I sell my pens. I will also be offering other turned pieces in the near future.

Works of Art is the gallery in Jacksonville, FL where I am showing my work along with a group of friends from my woodturning club.

Exotic Blanks is an online store operated by some good friends of mine. They offer a huge assortment of pen blanks that are out the ordinary, unusual …. exotic!

Visual Expressions is a blog showcasing some of my skydiving photography. Totally unrelated to woodturning or woodworking, but you might find it of interest.

Navigation Tabs

The navigation tabs at the top left of the page will take you to the following pages:

About - A little bit about me.

Gallery - Images of some of my work.

Contact - A contact form should you wish to get in touch with me.

Show your Support - I have created an affiliate store with Amazon. In this store you will only find books and tools that I have purchased and used. If you purchase any of the products here I will receive a small commission and it won’t cost you anything. I don’t expect to be able to retire from the commissions I receive, but it would be nice to cover the hosting fees of my website. If you enjoy the content on my Blog it would be great if you make your Amazon purchases through this page.

Woodturning Online

Keith Larrett — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:27:16 +0000

A recent article I wrote on Making a Board Game on the Lathe is the featured article for this month at Woodturning Online. Another article, Turn a wooden mallet with an oval handle has been added to the Turning Projects.

For those of you who are not familiar with Woodturning Online, it is a great resources for woodturners. It features numerous projects and articles from a wide assortment of woodturners.

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Bandsaw Magic

Keith Larrett — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:16:59 +0000

What this guy is doing with the bandsaw can only be described as magic!

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Turning Wooden Flowers on the Lathe

Keith Larrett — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:26:07 +0000

A very cool video by Stuart King showing how he turns a wooden flower on a foot powered lathe.

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Cutting Board Design Software

Keith Larrett — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:29:14 +0000

A while ago I wrote about how I made an end grain cutting board. One of the difficulties was trying to visualize what the final pattern was going to look like.

Well I was looking around on The Wood Whisperer blog and came across a link to a great piece of software that really helps with the design of both end grain and edge grain cutting boards.

The program, CBdesigner, was written by “jayman7” and you can download it here.

I will be making some more cutting boards as Christmas gets closer and this program will make it a lot easier to come up with some new designs.

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Turning a Cowboy Hat

Keith Larrett — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:11:09 +0000

A nice photo slide show of Chris Ramsay turning a cowboy hat at the Georgia Association of Woodturners.

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Why Buy Handmade?

Keith Larrett — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:06:49 +0000

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The Spar Shop

Keith Larrett — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:23:23 +0000

Here is a neat video of a wooden mast being turned for the reproduction vessel of Columbus Nina.

The mast is being turned by The Spar Shop. From their site:

The Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport custom-builds wooden masts, yards, booms, and gaffs for large sailboats, yachts, and sailing ships, as well as custom-turned wood poles and columns. Our tracer lathe can turn logs up to 40 inches in diameter and 122 feet length.

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