Take a look at the May issue of The Highland Woodturner – it’s got some great stuff!

Curtis Turner is helping his friend Pete turn a large oak bowl. And we mean LARGE! Read about their stumbling blocks and successes in Curtis’ monthly column.

We’ve also got a piece of history this month – a 1987 article from Wood News about a Holtzapffel Lathe. Tom Frazer met Ed Hernandez, a Metairie, LA woodturner who owned one of the few active Holtzapffel lathes in the world.

Add to that a useful tip from Phil Colson on how to improvise a lathe-powered sanding drum and a beautiful series of woodturnings by Dean Griffith in our Show Us Your Woodturning column, and you’ve got a great issue of The Highland Woodturner! And don’t forget about our great deals on woodturning tools!

Check out the Highland Woodturner here!

Click below to take a look at the second episode of The Highland Woodworker! Charles Brock takes you to visit woodworking shops of well-known woodworkers including chairmaker Brian Boggs and planemaker Ron Brese as well as Popular Woodworking editor Matthew Teague.

And keep your eye out for Episode 3 of The Highland Woodworker – coming early September 2012!

Having a slow Friday afternoon? If so, you should make the time pass by reading the May issue of Wood News!

This month we’ve got some great entries in our Show Us Your Shop, Show Us Your Woodworking and Show Us Your Carving columns. Matthew Curry’s Bainbridge Island workshop will inspire you to start checking the real estate listings for something like this for yourself! Tyler Stokes is only 18 years old and is crafting beautiful woodworking pieces, and Richard Cheek displays a very diverse range of carving skill, including a replica of his own left hand!

J. Norman Reid unlocks the mystery of hand planes and how to incorporate them into your woodworking – if you’ve ever been unsure about using hand tools, definitely give his article a read!

Steven Johnson, our Down to Earth Woodworker, has an informative review of the Festool CT Boom Arm Set, as well as a trick for cutting dados with your Festool router. Then he has some fun with a couple pieces about how to get through a discount big box store unscathed (think woodworking) and the development of a line of specialized woodworking shoes.

We’ve also got some new video product tours by Morton, and much more. Go take a look now, and have a great woodworking-filled weekend!

Recently, I wrote an article primarily focusing on using free-hand scrapers. In this article I’ll talk about the other main scraper category, Scraper Planes, where the scraper rides in a plane body. In the Scraper Plane category, there are multiple types, but the commonality rests with most excelling at retaining a flat surface. The free-handed style scrapers require more focus and skill to obtain similar results. In this article I’ll focus on two specific scraper planes.

The first scraper plane is the model 212-Iron scraping plane, which is based on the Stanley No. 212. This is a small format scraper plane, and the Lie-Nielsen version has a plane body made of ductile cast iron. The blade is 1/8” thick A2 steel, which is thicker than the original Stanley irons, and helps minimize chatter. The iron’s adjuster, on this plane, allows the user to change the angle at which the iron sits in the plane, and dial in the sweet spot. I set my iron so it leans forward (away from the wooden handle) approximately 15 degrees, which seems to be the optimum angle. If the wood I’m working doesn’t cut well with the normal setting, I’ll carefully take the iron out of the body. I always remove the iron through the sole of the plane, to reduce chances of dinging the sharp iron. By holding the iron as if it were a card scraper, I can quickly find the angle where the wood cuts best. There are three options I’ve used to transfer the new angle to the plane. While holding the iron at the new angle, I can either: move the plane body up beside the iron and adjust the frog so it matches this angle; grab my protractor, so I know the angle that works with this wood; or instead, put a piece of light colored scrap wood against the edge of the iron, and draw a line I can again reference when I replace the iron in the body. To replace the iron in the body, I always come up through the sole of the plane body, again working towards saving my sharp edge. I choose the No. 212 when I’m working small flat pieces, like one might expect in boxes, picture frames or even small tables. There is nothing to prevent one from using the No. 212 on a larger flat surface, like a large table, but it would just take more passes with the smaller width of this iron. There is something about this sized scraper plane that just feels good in the hand, much like reaching for that favorite block plane.

The other scraper plane is the model 85, which again is based on an original Stanley model; The No. 85 Cabinet Maker’s Scraper. This plane body is also made of ductile cast iron, which strengthens the body, and will likely save the tool from the accidental fall to the floor. The iron again is 1/8” thick A2 steel, but it is shaped somewhat like an upside down “T”. There are some unique features in the No. 85. First, this plane has a full width iron, so it can work against an adjacent vertical surface. Another unique feature, which dovetails with the first, is the handle adjustability. Both the front and rear handles can rotate (after loosening) either left or right, to help prevent the user’s knuckles from contacting adjacent wood. The No. 85 does not have the angle adjuster for the iron, and with the iron’s angle hardwired, can be a bit easier to set up.

The irons on both of these scraper planes are quite a bit easier for most beginners to sharpen, at least compared with the hand-held scrapers. This is due to almost identical techniques as are used to sharpen a regular hand plane’s iron, and a light camber is also an option on both. As a matter of fact, the primary difference between the scraper iron and the hand plane iron is the angle of the bevel. Most scraper planes have a primary bevel angle of 45 degrees, and as I do when sharpening my bench plane irons, I use an additional 5 degree micro bevel, to expedite the sharpening process. In order to allow the honing guide the ability to reach these higher angles, it is important to modify a section of its body. A quick suggestion, when working a bevel with this high of an angle, is to only use pull strokes on the water stones. You might get away with a light push stroke, if you already have great skills and a light touch, but I find it’s not worth the chance of digging into the stone. User beware! I prepare the back of the iron exactly the same as when I prepare a hand plane iron, using  David Charlesworth’s ruler trick to hone out at the very tip of the iron, rather than spending unnecessary time honing a large section of the back. I hone both the bevel and back of the iron to 8000 grit. I get questions from someone at almost every training session, as to why I’m not turning a burr on the scraper’s iron. I find the scraper planes are aggressive enough as is, without the addition of a burr, but this is ultimately up to the end user. Besides that, the lack of what I tend to describe as an inconsistent burr reduces any tweaking needed between sharpenings, to again find the sweet spot.

To set the shaving thickness, I place the plane body on a known flat wooden surface, which for many may be your workbench. I loosen the thumb screw, disengaging the iron. While holding the plane body flat on the bench top, I apply light to firm pressure to the midpoint of the iron’s back, and while holding this pressure, re-tighten the thumb screw. Similar to the method used when setting the iron in a bench plane, I test the iron’s setting on scrap wood, prior to using the scraper plane on my project wood. If the iron needs some tweaking, laterally or deeper, I tap the iron very lightly with a small hammer. This usually works easier if I just slightly reduce the pressure on the thumb screw. Once I find my setting, I’ll again snug up the thumb screw. As a reference, I am usually looking for a very wispy shaving from my scraper planes. If I’m working (or fighting) some difficult wood, I find most will give up their best surfaces when stressed the least.

Now go make some shavings! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for future articles.

Take a closer look at the Lie Nielsen #85 Cabinetmaker’s Scraper and the Small Cast Ductile Iron Scraping Plane.

To see Highland Woodworking’s entire selection of Lie Nielsen hand tools, click here.

Lee Laird has enjoyed woodworking for over 20 years. He is retired from the U.S.P.S. and works for Lie-Nielsen Toolworks as a show staff member, demonstrating tools and training customers.

Over the years, I’ve owned a couple of band saws, but getting the saws to work at their best was always questionable. I started with a Delta 14” from the around 1990, new in the box. It worked ok, but it didn’t quite do what I’d both expected nor truly wanted. I started out going through all of the setup processes, to make sure the saw itself was tuned properly. After that, I tried different types/brands of blades, in an attempt to find the missing piece to my puzzle. Some of the blades were better than others, but even the best I’d tried was still not providing what I was after. I transitioned towards working with some larger pieces of wood, and finally decided to move up to a larger capacity saw.  My new saw had the ability to properly tension all the way up to a 1” blade, which was completely different than my old Delta.

The blade that came with my MiniMax was just something to allow it to cut, but wasn’t providing super results. After trying a number of blades, I happened to be in Atlanta for one of our events, so we stopped at the Highland Woodworking store. Wow, what an amazing store, and a huge selection of band saw blades. I spoke with one of the folks working at Highland and asked for their recommendation on a band saw blade. After finding how I was intending to use my saw, they suggested I try one of the Wood Slicer blades. I had read about this brand of blade, but since I’d never used one, I decided I’d just get a single blade to try it out. I picked up a 1/2” blade with a 3/4 teeth configuration, which would allow multipurpose use. I wanted this for both some curved work (not like a scroll blade, think more like the gentle curves on a guitar), as well as taking small log sections and cutting them into bowl blanks.

When I got back home, I set the new blade to the side, as I was doing some ripping operations and my 1” blade was doing OK. Well, that didn’t last too long. My 1” blade is the one that came with my saw. It was cutting very similar to how it had always cut, since I’d purchased the saw. All of a sudden, there was a bang, and the blade was gone from sight. I’d actually broken it. After pulling the old blade from my saw, I made sure there was no damage to the saw and especially the tires. Luckily, all was fine. Time to try out my new Wood Slicer blade. After installing the blade, and tensioning it properly, I was ready to finish up the ripping. As soon as the blade touched the wood, I knew I’d received some great counseling from Highland’s staff. This Wood Slicer was completely amazing. I was cutting some 8/4 maple and then some 6/4 oak, both of which the blade treated as if it was cutting butter. Seriously. I was completely dumbfounded. I’d never experienced anything like this on either my 14” or my 16”, no matter what blade I’d used. I was having one of those moments, when I sit back and wonder where a tool has been all of my life. This Wood Slicer blade absolutely fit into one of those moments.

There is no doubt I’ll continue to buy the Wood Slicer blades for my saw, for all but possible super specialized cutting. I wish I’d tried one of these in my Delta, as I’m sure it would have elevated its results as well. Just in case someone reading this article also has a MiniMax 16, the info on the blade wrapper is as follows: 154 1/2 022 3/4T HP #51004002.

I hope to see some of you at our upcoming events, listed on the Lie-Nielsen website. Feel free to come up and say hi. Also, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you have suggestions for future articles you would like to see.

If you are in the Atlanta area this weekend, we’d love to see you at our Spring One Day Sale! This time we’ve got Mike Morton, our video product tour specialist, on hand to provide demos of his favorite hand and power tools as well as offering woodworking tips and techniques throughout the day.

We’ll also have Curt Jarrell demonstrating our new Masterpiece Wood Finishes as well as our Sculptured Chair parts kits. Dan Durant from Festool will be showing off all the Festool machines and Jim Dillon will demystify the Leigh dovetail jig and the Leigh frame mortise and tenon jig.

And if you’ve never seen the SawStop hotdog demo, well you’ll have two opportunities to witness it in person, at 11AM and 2PM.

So come join us on Saturday, May 5th from 9AM to 6PM. We hope you can make it!

Some things don’t need fixing.  Witness “New Coke” in Atlanta about 25 years ago — somebody thought they could fix Coca-Cola.  Duh!!  How would you improve a ’57 Chevy?  Did anybody give Elvis singing lessons?  Who would have stopped Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and said “Wait, you’re doing that all wrong: you dance backwards and let her dance forward, and by the way, lose the top hat and cane.”?

I have been working on a Shaker Candle Stand the last few days and I Googled it for some reason.  Do you know how many people think they can improve on the original?  Listen, Homer, it is done.  It is completed.  Do not sit down and say, “I think I will re-design the Shaker Candle Stand — I can do better.”

My Candle Stand

You cannot add ball and claw feet to this thing.  You cannot carve deep philosophical thoughts into the top of it.  Do not add fancy gingerbread brackets to the underside of the table.  If you simply cannot resist, then go carve clown faces in your hope chest.  The candle stand was completed 200 years ago and it is done.  I don’t have a problem with trying to improve your technique, make the dovetails better, upgrade your skew skills on the post, that sort of thing.  But nobody has improved on it in 200 years and I can tell you, Ralph, you are not going to help it.

Go watch the Roy Underhill video on making one of these babies and listen to St. Roy expound on the shape of that marvelous center post.  I love this little table, it is probably my favorite thing to try to make and I have parts of one going nearly all the time in my shop.  The dovetails are difficult for me, but I will get better.

Hancock Shaker Village Table

A couple of years ago I went to New England to take a class and while there I went by the Hancock Shaker Village for a tour.  They have a beautiful Candle Stand there and it is the one I try to make each time.  If my effort does not match this beautiful example, it is a lack of skill on my part, not because I think I can improve on it.

What do you think?  Let me hear from you.

This month Curtis is turning miniature vases in his woodturning shop, and he writes about it in his monthly column in April’s edition of The Highland Woodturner.

These projects are quick and would make a great Mother’s Day gift!

CLICK HERE to read how Curtis turns a miniature vase.

Read the rest of this month’s Highland Woodturner by CLICKING HERE!

The April issue of The Highland Woodturner is now available!

This month we’ve got a great column by Curtis Turner on turning miniature vases – just in time for Mother’s Day! And if turning vases isn’t your cup of tea, check out Terry Chapman’s article about his process and inspiration for turning a spoon.

A new featured turning by Bill Stephenson and a great woodturning tip from Highland woodturner Phil Colson plus a couple great woodturning tool deals round out this issue. We hope you like it – go take a look!

In this month’s Down to Earth Woodworker…

After making a tough decision to part ways with his trusty old radial arm saw, Steven Johnson, our Down to Earth Woodworker, is making himself feel better by spending some time contemplating the design for a new stand for his miter saw. And he is asking for your help! Read on to learn more about his extensive design wish list and where to send your great ideas:

Design Criteria

When designing anything, particularly a utilitarian piece, it is critical to establish the basic criteria for the design…functionality, dimensions, etc. So here is my design wish list:

1. Mobile but solid… The stand for the miter saw must have positive locking wheels. I would like the unit to be heavy, but also able to be broken down into component parts should the need ever arise. An upper component, where the miter saw will be mounted, that could in a pinch be moved to a job site would be great.
2. Storage…In a small shop every inch counts, so the base of the miter saw stand should include lots of storage. The next question is, drawers, doors, or open shelves?
3. A long worktable…Many boards I work with are 8 feet long, or longer. I need support, at least at one end, for these longer boards.
4. Ability to make repetitive cuts without measuring each board…With a long table, I would also like a way to quickly and accurately place stops that will allow me to cut identical-length multiple parts.
5. And speaking of the table…A “longish” work surface on either side of the saw might also make a good additional shop work surface when horizontal space is at a premium, like when assembling multiple drawers. The work surface will have to be and stay flat, and it needs to be able to be cleared easily of fences or other obstructions.
6. Future proof…My new miter saw is good…in fact, very good…but is it really top-of-the-line? Who knows? I do know it is not a Festool, and unless I win the lottery, it’s not likely to soon be a Festool. But someday, right? One can always dream. And engineering progress marches on. Who knows? The next generation of miter saws may be even more rigidly accurate. I would like the design to be able to accommodate a different miter saw in the future without starting over from scratch.
7. Dust mitigation…Catching the dust from a miter saw (or a radial arm saw for that matter) is, at best, a sketchy proposition. I would like to design-in dust collection in order to keep the air in my shop as clean as possible.
8. Overall footprint…Obviously there would be little point in this entire exercise if the footprint is not less than that of the combined space now occupied by my RAS and miter saw.

With these things in mind, I am gradually noodling out a design, but could use your help. Have you designed and built a miter saw workstation? If so, send me your pictures and/or description. You can email me at: downtoearthwoodworks@me.com

I will then promptly steal, uh, borrow, any great and innovative ideas for my own design. Of course I will give you credit and maybe even include a picture of your design in an upcoming article. That, coupled with just $1.99, will buy you a cup of coffee at the local doughnut shop, so send in those ideas!