Nothing Severed Yet

Humiliating yourself with mineral oil

Sanding is always a pain in the neck for me. I've already talked about the best general-purpose sander and the best sandpaper, but I haven't shared the ultimate secret to fabulous finishes, not to mention saving a bundle on sandpaper: mineral oil wet sanding. Here's what you do.

First, finish your surface to however you normally would, minus the last grit. For example, sand with 100, 150, 220. Then get ready for amazement. You can even put a coat of finish on first to seal the pores; it won't clog the sandpaper!

Go buy yourself some mineral oil. Now, if you happen to have the simultaneous personality defects of being easily embarrased and constantly feeling like you have to explain yourself to total strangers, this may be a bit tricky. You see, while you can buy mineral oil at any place that carries wood finishing supplies, the most convenient and inexpensive type of mineral oil is good old Johnson and Johnson, sold at the supermarket. Unfortunately, it's labeled for other uses.

You walk up to the checkout counter and carefully arrange the carrots, frozen pizza crust, and swiffer mop refils to fully surround and hide the mineral oil on the checkout belt.
Ted, the checkout clerk, picks up the mineral oil.
You: I'm a woodworker, you know. Stuff's great for woodworking. Helps to lubricate... ah, helps to extend the life of your sandpaper.
Ted, the checkout clerk:
You: It's funny how it's cheaper to buy the medicinal stuff than it is to buy the industrial stuff. You'd think that if you were actually going to swallow it as a laxitive, they'd have to charge more for it. Because it's medicine and stuff.
Ted, the checkout clerk:
You: I mean the stuff is really cheap. Too bad I'm not constipated. I'm not, you know. Totally regular. Every morning, like clockwork.
Ted, the checkout clerk: Will that be paper or plastic, sir?

In any case, back to my point: stick some 320 grit sandpaper on your Sander of Ineffible Delight, slather the whole surface of your project with mineral oil (enough so your hand "skates" along the surface when you rub it--use plenty), and sand it to holy heck. Not only with the surface be far smoother than you could have done dry, but you'll be able to do an entire tabletop on just one sheet of sandpaper--it lasts virtually forever when you're using this trick.

Actually, you can use mineral oil from the start (and make the lower grit sanding easier too), but when I'm planning to fill the wood pores with pumice, I find it makes that step more difficult--I fill the pores after I sand with 220, then use the mineral oil sanding trick.

By some mineral oil, and keep your mouth shut when you do. You'll thank me for it.

Halloween special: what do you do with your old chisels?

My new Two Cherries chisels arrived today, and I'm excited to give them a go. Unfortunately, I had a more pressing project--and the medium was not wood.

Now, my friends know that I'm apolitical. The last thing I ever want to do is argue with someone about politics. So if you're a supporter of the current administration, please regard this as an homage to our president.

If not, please regard this as the scariest jack-o-lantern that I was capable of carving.

Lights on:

Lights off:

For step-by-step "how to" instructions (and see far more impressive examples of the art than my humble attempt), check out this article.

'On building humidors (part III)

When we last left our intrepid humidor, he was about to discuss issues of joinery. This is even more important than in a regular box, because as our brighter readers will have already gleaned, the whole purpose of a humidor is to be humid. And as any reader paying even the slightest bit of attention will now realize, humidity and wood are a trecherous combination.

Basically, when wood gets humid it swells up. This is the reason for kiln drying--if you don't, it will dry out naturally over a period of years, and the resulting size changes will cause the wood to split. Well, you should still dry your humidor wood thoroughly before use, but the difficulty isn't done yet. The interior of your humidor will hopefully always be at 70% relative humidity, even as the outside approaches the humidity of the room (which is often closer to 50% or lower). This means that there is going to be incredible stress on the parts of your box, and you have to design for parts of the box to move.

From a practical standpoint, that means you want strong, well-glued joints on the sides (dovetails or fingerjoints are a good idea), and you don't want the top and bottom to be glued in--better to slot them in, raised panel-style. That way the box can grow or shrink slightly, and the top and bottom will grow and shrink along with it.

As for actual wood choices, I made my sides out of walnut scraps from my dining room table project. The top is grade AAA curly maple, and the bottom is spalted maple. While curly maple of that quality is expensive, I used less than two board feet of it which keeps the price way down.

I finished it quickly; I'll probably go back later and refinish it more carefully. I used Bull's Eye Shellac for everything. I've never tried premixed before, but I was out of flakes and they carry it at Depósito Casero. It worked fine, although it doesn't dry quite as quickly or nicely as the DIY stuff. The key thing to remember is that you have to finish the top and bottom before you assemble it. Otherwise, you'll waste all your time with the raised-panel stuff, because the finish will lock everything in place, preventing movement.

More soon, including pictures!

On building humidors (part II)

My humidor is finished, but it's taking a while to get all the information up--unfortunately, the computer with all my blueprints on it went to that big server farm in the sky. Until my new hard drive arrives, I don't have the dimensions or blueprints. That's OK--today's post is going to focus on humidor design. Don't miss the previous article on the subject, which mostly covered the ins and outs of spanish cedar and how not to make your humidor smell like a habitrail.

So, humidor design. Basically, a humidor is a box within a box. The exterior box is something pretty, structurally sound, and moisture-proof. The interior box is made of spanish cedar, and is designed to keep water vapor from escaping through the gap between the lid and the box.

The most important consideration is that when the lid closes, the outer box should overlap the inner box. That is, you need a lip of spanish cedar that slides against your exterior wood, making a basically-moistureproof seal. You don't actually want the thing hard-sealed, by the way; sure, it'd hold its humidity better, but cigars release a tiny bit of ammonia as they age, so a little air exchange is necessary or your cigars will pick up that distinctive eau de micturation. If you are using a Tupperdor, for example, you need to open it every week or two for this reason. But I digress.

One good plan has you make the box with all six sides intact, then cut off the top. I wanted something different, so instead I made the box, then made the lid, then lined the box with cedar, then put cedar on the underside of the lid such that it snugly fit into the box underneath.

It's important to get the sizing right. Remember that no matter how big you make this, it's still not very much wood, so you might as well make it big. For length, look at various cigar sizes and decide what you're likely to buy (remembering that you can place the occasional monster oddball sideways). I went for 8", which means I can fit nearly anything, but most of my cigars have some slop-room at the top. Next figure out the height. 4" will hold many cigar boxes whole. If you're going to build trays, this is a good time to design them. Also remember that the humidifier and hygrometer will portrude downward, so account for them in your height count. Finally, consider the width. This is mostly a judgement based on aesthetics and desired volume. If in doubt, use the golden rule, and make it as wide as someone else would want it to be. Er, use the golden ratio, and make it 1.61803399 times as wide as it is long. Since the golden ratio is for aesthetic purposes, make the exterior dimensions conform to the golden ratio, not the internal--that means taking the thickness of the humidor walls into account.

Ah yes, wall thickness. I'd recommend at least 1/2 inch of exterior wood, and 1/8 inch of spanish cedar, minimum. You can go much higher--my buddy made his out of 3/4" of spalted maple (see the warning here!) and 1/2 inch of spanish cedar. This makes his humidor excellent for storing cigars, and for protecting fragile objects from a direct nuclear strike.

Coming shortly: joinery techniques needed to contain a lush cuban tobacco field in a box.

Another reader question: dominoes on the table

David Stahl gave me permission to reprint and (hopefully) answer his question here:

I like to play games, pariticularly dominoes - Block Style of course.
I had an initial idea to make a table like this one. I wanted to expand the edges so they could have chip racks, and I'm still not sure what to do about cup holders. So I got the great idea that I'd make a top with a clear coat of laquer over "stuff" I'd shellac inside - like pictures perhaps (if you've ever been at some cheesy bar that has all kinds of old pictures sealed in the bartop or table you'll know what I mean).
So I'm looking for a good, strong, clear sealant. You can see a blog post about it here. I've found Kleer Koat which is an epoxy and pretty strong. I also found this table which uses this stuff.

Throughout your course of woodworking, have you found or used anything similar?

You've done your homework on this, so I can only add my personal experience with a few finishes.
* Shellac is too soft. You might manage it if you use natural (not blonde) shellac that's freshly mixed, but even then, I think you'd dent it with your dominoes. Also, it will yellow, and spilled alcohol damages shellac finishes.
* I have experimented with exactly the goop you link to above, and it's tough stuff. You'll probably dent it and scuff it, but not break it. It's also not difficult to refinish if it gets too beat up. You can lay your trinkets down directly under it before you apply it. I do not believe that it will yellow.
* Water-based varnishes, like Minwax Polycrylic, are too soft and don't build well.
* Behlen's Rock Hard Tabletop Varnish might work, although I suspect you'll have trouble getting it to build to the thickness you want. It's a classic varnish, and is extremely yellow-orange tinted, but the tint should not change over time. This will affect the appearance of stuff underneath it. But it will harden up as much as you could want. I'm likely going to use this over shellac for my dining room table.
* If it were me, I'd get a sheet of thick glass, and use the epoxy stuff underneath it to fuse it to the table & buffer it underneath. You won't have much effect on a 3/8 sheet of glass when you slam a domino into it, if it's well supported underneath with something conformant.

Good luck with the table!

Drop everything and buy these chisels, now.

First, read up on my chisel shopping backgrounder. Note the link under the second option, and how much the Two Cherries chisels cost.

Next, go and see how much a gift set of four of these chisels usually sells for. You save a little money off buying them individually, although they don't polish the backs for you. They're still sharp, just dull on the face instead of shiny.

Now go here and buy the same set of four Two Cherries chisels for under $60.

You'll thank me for it.

"Micro Mesh": A little something different

It's hard to find super-high-grit sandpaper. This company is selling "micro mesh" abraisives, designed for polishing violins. Sounds promising. I haven't purchased yet; post a comment if you give it a try.

--dan

More sawdust does not mean less wood

I made a stupid mistake recently, so of course I am coming to you to share. I accidentally made a part about 1/8" too thick (on my humidor) and needed to get it down to size. Normally I would use my random orbital sander for this, but it wouldn't fit into the space--I had to fold up some manual sandpaper and get it in there. I only had high-grit sandpaper handy, since I normally powersand everything except for the final finish, so I decided to give it a quick try with some of the lowest grit I had handy... 400. Yes, yes, stop laughing. It was a soft wood, and I figured I'd try it for a few minutes and then go buy some real sandpaper if it didn't work.

Well, I got faked out. I was generating HUGE quantities of sawdust, so I figured I must be making progress. An hour (and a sore arm) later I realized my mistake. Higher grit means more cutting surfances means more particles of sawdust... they're just really small particles. It looks like you're hogging off a ton of wood, but of course you're not making much of a dent at all.

So today's obvious advice: use low-grit sandpaper when you have a lot of work to do. You'll thank me for it.

And now, a power tool you don't need

You don't need it, but you know you want it anyway.

Dan Recommends

I added something new to the right hand side... basically, I took the most expensive, yet ineffective items from Amazon's tool store, and recommended them to you. That way you'll buy them, I'll get a five percent commision, and then they'll break, and you'll buy more! I'll be rich in no time!

Actually, everything there is stuff in my shop. I'll try to keep it updated, which is Dan-speak for "I will never touch it again".

Coming soon (where "soon" is "however long it takes me to figure out cafepress"): Nothing Severed Yet T-shirts and thong bikinis!

Finish with microfiber

When I was finishing my coffee table, I had all sorts of problems with the cloth I was using to apply shellac. I tried old T-shirts, socks, just about everything, but kept having problems with lint and pilling, which would show up in the finish.

I recently was wandering the aisles at Costco, with that typical look of fear, determination, and opportunity that one gets at massive consumer warehouses, when I stumbled on a five-pack of microfiber towels. Microfiber is a cloth made from tightly-woven polyester or nylon fibers. I've played around with it before, and it seemed like a great candidate for applying finishes--car detailers use microfiber cloths specifically because they tend not to leave behind lint. So I tried it on my humidor.

The results were excellent, with one catch. As with many things, the dye used to color the microfiber is slightly alcohol-soluble. The cloths I used were yellow, so the shellac took an a (slightly more) yellow color than before. Not a big deal for my purposes, but something to keep in mind.

Get some microfiber cloths. You'll thank me for it.

What is crappy, really?

I went some detail on this before, mostly specific to battery-powered tools, but I got a few questions about it, so here I go again. By the way, in this post I'm referring to hand tools, corded and not. I'm not tackling stationary tools, although the same theories tend to apply.

I divide tool brands into two categories. These are, roughly, "cheap and crappy" and "good and expensive".

Good and expensive tool brands are almost always expensive, and almost always good. That means that, without a bit of research, you can saunter into Home Depot and pluck forth a Dewalt Drill, a Milwaukee Sawzall, or a Porter Cable Router without doing any research at all, and be guaranteed of an above-average experience. Now there are exceptions; Porter Cable, for example, put their name on a lame little $20 screwdriver that is a piece of absolute crap (while the Ryobi one is much better). You can guess the rule for "Good and Expensive" brands here: if it ain't expensive, you shouldn't count on it being good either, even if it's from a "Good and Expensive" brand.

Now, "Cheap and crappy" brands are not, as you might expend, universally cheap or univerally crappy. These brands are generally manufactured overseas, and QC is often not as good as their brethren in the upper echelons of price. That means you're more likely to get a dud. They're often less durable; for example, until Home Depot complained, Ryobi tools used plastic gears instead of metal. They also typically offer less oomph. To see this in effect, just fire up a Ryobi 18-volt drill and a Makita 18-volt drill and feel the differences in torque.

But none of these are for sure. The one constant thing about C&C brands is their variability. For example, Skil makes some top-of-the-line circular saws (they do call them "Skil Saws" for a reason). Craftsman makes some excellent stationary power tools, but they also make a lot of plastic junk.

The key thing to remember about a C&C brand is that you have to do your research. Check google for reviews about the specific C&C tool you're considering and read with caution. Many people are so euphoric about getting a whole set of 18v tools for $150 that they don't evaluate the quality of the things honestly, or they just don't have the experience to know how mediocre they really are.

More about C&C vs. G&E later--if you haven't yet, read the original article to get more of my thoughts on the subject.

New info on an old topic--the boys at Ridgid

In this old post, I let you know about the decline of Ridgid. Specifically, how they slashed their warranty and outsourced tool production to the far east. Well, "someone" anonymously took issue with that, so I updated the article. Take a look to see the latest.

Router bit update

A quick update to my earlier post about router bit reviews. I got one of the Oldham Viper bits that was recommended there--a nice fat 3/4 straight bit. Used it to trim some 5/4 walnut, put rabbets in maple, and a few other tasks. The bad boy makes sawdust like a woodchuck. It gives a noticably better finish than the El Cheapo Grande carbide bits I have already, too.

Pick up a few. You'll thank me for it.