Nothing Severed Yet

Read me, Seymore: "Understanding Wood Finishing"

A few weeks ago, my wife told me about this outstanding new service. It's like Netflix, except:

* They let you have 10 items at a time instead of 3
* They have outlets in every city, so you can pick stuff up and drop it off in person
* If they don't have the item you want, they'll special order it for you
* They have a pretty lousy selection of DVDs, but their selection of books is outstanding
* It's free!

So I went to check out this "Library". It was incredible! Dozens of books on woodworking! I've been pounding through some mediocre ones, but I found a real gem I had to share. It's called "Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish", by Bob Flexner. It's been out of print for a while, and copies were going for $30 and up, but it was recently reissued as a paperback.

It's a tremendous book that covers all sorts of questions in very practical detail. For example, just what grit do you need to sand up to? Which finishes are comparable to which other ones? How can you identify a mystery finish? What exactly is a gel finish, and when should you use it? (hint: not for any of the reasons listed on the can). It even gives you detailed, step-by-step finishing instructions for different woods using different finishes, with pictures of the results of each!

The book's only weakness is that it doesn't provide a lot of helpful brand-name detail. Since it was originally written back in '93, that's probably a good thing, since it'd be obsolete by now anyway. But I'm still looking for a source that will tell me, for example, what's in each "Tung oil finish" available and which one is superiour.

Go buy a copy of Understanding Wood Finishing (in the newly reissued, inexpensive paperback) right now. You'll thank me for it.

Dan got Rockhard for you

I've been preparing to finish my dining room table project -- finish in both senses of the word. While I did the coffee table prototype in nothing more than dewaxed garnet shellac, I wasn't happy with the durability of the final product. I poked around, and discovered Behlen's Rockhard Table Top Varnish. I gave the folks at Behlen a ring, and they were kind enough to provide me with a gallon of varnish and a quart of reducer. Sorry, no giveaways this time--I'm not shipping flammable materials across state lines no matter how much I love my readers.

In any case, the stuff arrived a few days ago, and I decided to play. A few observations first.
1) This stuff is THICK. We're talking maple syrup here, although more Aunt Jemima than Grade B.
2) It's YELLOW. Not "may slightly age and impart a tinge of yellow to your lovely antique" yellow, but yellow yellow. I won't say it looks like someone took a leak in a gallon can because that would be nasty.
3) It's STINKY. Varnish is a combination of natural oils, resins, and other smelltastic goodness. I could feel braincells committing harakiri as soon as I opened the thing. Use in a well ventillated place.

My first order of business was to figure out the finishing schedule. I started with the Product Data Sheet--Behlen sent me a copy and gave me permission to reproduce it here.

I'll share the first of my experiments with you today. Here's a piece of walnut that's a cutoff from the table. I put two strips of tape on it--those are the light spots where you can see the natural color of the wood.

The leftmost side is finished with one coat of Rockhard thinned 1:1 with Rockhard Reducer, then two coats of Rockhard with no thinning.

The center is finished with two coats of dewaxed garnet shellac, then one coat of Rockhard thinned 1:1 with Rockhard Reducer, then two coats of Rockhard with no thinning.

The rightmost side is finished by wiping thoroughly with mineral oil, then two coats of dewaxed garnet shellac, then one coat of Rockhard thinned 1:1 with Rockhard Reducer, then two coats of Rockhard with no thinning, then a partridge in a pear tree.

Major caveat: I didn't do any serious sanding or pore-filling on any of these, so the surface isn't near as silky smooth as it can be.

I like the rightmost. When oil is applied to walnut, it darkens and deepens it. The Rockhard by itself didn't penetrate deeply enough, even when thinned 1:1 with oil--that's why the left side is lighter. The center was sealed by the shellac so that no oil penetrated the wood at all, which is why it's lightest. On the right, the low-viscosity mineral oil penetrated fully, darkening the wood. Then the shellac sealed it, and finally the rockhard built up a deep finish. That's going to be the winner.

Oh, and the name isn't a misnomer. I haven't done full on testing yet, but this stuff is tough as a goat and it builds a thick coating fast. I'm not worried about my table if this stuff is on top of it.

Things I still need to experiment with:
1) I need to adjust the color just a bit to the red side to it to match the coffee table. The coffee table has a beautiful rose tint to it, because the shellac was applied with a red sock.
2) I might play with getting rid of some of the yellow by adding a tiny bit of contrasting tint (what is that, purple?). This might result in quite the disaster, but that's never stopped me before.
3) I need to figure out how I'm going to fill the pores. You may not be able to see in the picture, but the surface is far from smooth. I'll probably do a shellac-pumice filler, but there's some experimentation here to be done.

In the meantime, I'm pretty psyched about this product. Pick some up next time you're building furniture that will take some abuse--you'll thank me for it.

It's the little things...

Another tip from guest-author Brian. --dan

I share my garage shop with the washer and dryer, and recently my wife has been threatening to stop doing the laundry if she continued to find sawdust filling her laundry baskets. Figuring that I had a pretty good thing going and better act quick, I used part of my Christmas vacation to add a new wall to separate the laundry from the workshop. Seemed like a good chance to re-do the workshop to fit me at the same time. The wall is now up, and as I put the shop back together I'll try and share some of the goodies I find along the way.

First up are these magnetic toolbars from Lee Valley (one of the most dangerous sites you'll ever visit!) I recently picked a few of these up to have somewhere safe and handy to store my chisels. I hate to have chisels hidden away in a case or drawer out of easy reach. At the same time I cringe at sound of my beloved chisels as they are knocked onto the unforgiving concrete in my garage. With a few of these placed around my work areas, I'll have safe place in easy reach to put my chisels.

The bars themselves are solidly built with a nice thick mounting tab to drive a screw through. They have a nice coating on the magnetic surface to keep metal off metal and a solid grip on the tools that feels secure but lets go with a comfortable tug. Overall another great product from Lee Valley.

Another suggestion: my wife is a professional organizer (www.personworks.com) and an expert in such matters. She equipped my shop with magnetic knife racks from Ikea. They're not quite as nice as the Lee Valley version, but they're also only six bucks. --dan

On Lithium in Milwaukee (redux)

Kevin returns to point out that, when it comes to batteries, I have no clue what I'm talking about. Since he's built an electric rabbit (VW, not bunny), I'm inclined to believe him. --dan

Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents on Li-Ion batteries.

To sum it up, they rock. I'm pretty sure that current tools use Ni-Mh not Ni-Cad.
So the Ni-Cad argument is outdated anyway.

Well, the Ryobi's are still Ni-Cad (according to the warnings in the manual)... not sure about others. --dan

Li-Ion discharge is rated not in amps but in 'C'. A 1C discharge means the battery is
empty in 1 hour. At 2C, empty in 30 min. These days the top of the line
Li-Ions discharge at 10-15C while being 80% efficient. That means the Li-Ions are
dead in 4-6 minutes of use. Obviously any higher discharge rate and the tool would
be pretty useless.

The real question is cost. A case study: There is a 22.2V Li-Ion that dumps 25 amps.
That's 555 Watts or almost 1 HP. That's one serious battery operated tool. And the
battery only weights a bit over 1/2 a pound. The problem is the battery costs $145.

Also, don't miss Frank's helpful comments on the matter. --dan

A Great Little Finger Saver

And now I'd like to introduce another guest author. You can tell who it is because his name is at the bottom of this article, or maybe the top. I don't know because I'm editing this article in the authoring interface, which for some strange reason, DOESN'T INCLUDE THE AUTHOR.

I'm off to buy a Grip-Tite. --dan

Well, I'm a bit behind on Safety Month, but since every month should be Safety Month in the workshop, I'm going to share my favorite safety device to date: The Grip-Tite magnetic feather board. This little gem is the invention of Jerry Jaksha, a hobbyist woodworker like you and me who was willing to go through the hell that it takes to turn a great idea into a real product. You can find his humble home at http://www.grip-tite.com/.

The Grip-Tite is a very simple device consisting of a solid plastic block with a very strong magnet embedded in the base, a handle for positioning it sticking up from the top, a little 'wing' sticking out each side, and a lever on the back. Check out the web site as my description will undoubtedly fail you.

Operation couldn't be simpler. Place the wood at your tool of choice, grab the Grip-Tite, place it near the wood and shove it till one of the wings just flexes against the wood. That's it! In just a few seconds you've got a feather board that isn't going any where. Just try to lift one of these off your table saw! The lever on the back lets you break the magnet's contact with the table when you need to lift it.

The key to these wonderful devices is just how easy they are to use. Traditionally, setting up a feather board is a cycle of trying to find a position where you can place the feather board at the correct angle and offset and then trying to find a secure place that you can reach with a clamp and still have the clamp out of the way of the operation. For most woodworkers that means that they use fewer feather boards then they really should, or they cheat and end up with hands and fingers too close to hungry blades. With a few Grip-Tites around I'm never tempted to skimp on safety for even the smallest operations.

They are also magic on the jointer because they stick to both the table and the vertical fence. With one on the in feed, one on the out feed, and one on the fence just behind the cutter head you can easily get perfect results even on small stock and you're fingers never get within six inches of the blade. The Grip-Tite company also offers a steel face for your table saw fence so that you can use them as a hold down there as well.

At $40 for a feather board, most people experience a bit of sticker shock when they first go shopping, and I was much the same. I'm forever guilty of having a gadget addiction, but even my addiction couldn't over come the price tag at first. That all changed when I took a class at Woodworker Academy. Jerry had several of these around and demonstrated their use on jointers and table saws. After spending a couple of days using the Grip-Tite on most setups, I was sold. Almost nothing goes through my table saw or jointer with out one any more.

I really can't say enough good things about the Grip-Tite. The only minor issue I've run into is the rare occasion when the magnet lands on the miter slot on the table saw. In this case there is not enough steel for the magnet to grip and I have to either change the order I cut in or literally dust off a standard feather board.

Bookmatch on your tablesaw

When you get lots of lumber, you'll sometimes find small areas with really cool figure. I usually cut these out and play with them--split them in half and glue them back together to make bookmatched box tops, for example. Someday I'll get my bandsaw set up to resaw them properly, but in the meantime, you can do a pretty decent job on your table saw. Here's the steps:

1) Set the blade height to be just under half the height of the block
2) Calculate the thickness of the block minus the kerf (usually 1/8"), then divide that in half. Set the fence that far from the blade.
3) Run the block through, cutting almost-but-not-quite halfway through. Use pushsticks! I use a jointer-type flat pad pushstick on top, and a conventional one pushing in from the side.
4) Flip the block over, and keeping the same side against the fence, repeat.
During step 4, be sure that the blade isn't cutting all the way through. If it is, the risk of kickback is very high.
5) Mark the outsides with a pencil so you know which sides go together.
6) With a handsaw, cut the remaining splinter down the middle to separate the halves.
7) Chisel off the splinter that was holding the halves together, then sand it flat
8) Put them side by side and fiddle with the arrangement until you find a design you like best. Be sure to have the cut sides facing up, as the bookmatch is closest where the wood was next to the blade.
9) Douse it in mineral spirits or rubbing alcohol to bring out the figure, and call over someone to admire it!

Milwaukee tools: good news and bad news

Milwaukee Tools just issued an interesting press release. They are introducing a new line of 28 volt lithium-ion battery powered cordless tools. Now, many people have wondered why the industry didn't do this sooner. After all, li-ion cells are lighter and pack more voltage and capacity than their old ni-cad brothers.

Well, let me tell you why. li-ion batteries have more power, but ni-cads have always been able to deliver more power at once. In engineering speak, it offers better performance in high current draw applications. And if you're running a saw, it's all about dumping as much power into the motor as you can. Did Milwaukee get around this, or are their new tools going to be on the wimpy side? Here's hoping they got it right, because I'd love to shed a few pounds off my cordless drill.

The bad news is that stalwart Milwaukee is now another TTI brand. That's the same Hong Kong company that owns Ryobi. It's sad to see yet another US toolmaker heading overseas.

A great rotten finish

You can slap this on in a night. It's tough, scratch-resistant, alcohol and water resistant, and it goes on great over trouble woods like cocobolo. It's clear and adds depth to any wood. And you can get almost everything you need from the Jolly Orange Giant for under $20. Here's how it works.

1) Paint on a coat of dewaxed shellac. Fresh-mixed from flakes is best, but Zinsser's will do fine. This seals the wood, makes for nice adhesion, and (if you use a yellow or even better a garnet shellac) adds a nice color tone to the wood.
2) Spray on a coat of Deft spray lacquer. If your surface is on top, you can spray a heavier coat, since it won't drip. If it's vertical, stick with very light coats.
3) Wait 45 min or so and repeat the lacquer applications until you get a nice thick coat. I used a "gloss" lacquer with about 4 medium-heavy coats.
4) When it's dried completely, wet a rag, dump some powdered rottenstone on the surface and rub like crazy. Add more water or rottenstone as needed.

That's it. You will wind up with a gorgous, lustrous, clear, hard, beautiful, superlative coating. I did this to the top of my portable humidor (plans coming soon), and it looks amazing. To save a little time, by the way, you can rub with powdered pumice (which is coarser) before you go to the rottenstone.

Try some rotten polishing. You'll thank me for it.

Welcome Woodshop News readers

Woodshop News was kind enough to run an article on Nothing Severed Yet on page 12 of its January issue. Pick up a copy next time you're at the store--how else will you find out that Koa's up to $60/bf, or that KitchenDraw has a $4,000 kitchen design package that you can rent for $4/hour (and the first 30 hours are free)?

A little light reading

Woodworker.com's technical FAQ is excellent reading. Who knew that you could darken walnut sapwood with vinegar? It's still weaker than heartwood, but that tidbit may allow you to use a board that would otherwise go in the scrap pile.

Check it out.

Costco chisel deal

Just saw a very good deal on chisels at Costco. Many Costcos carry the same inventory, so there's a good chance you can find it too.

Normally, Marples Blue Chip chisels are four-for-$30 (at the orange giant) or 6-for-$50 (at Amazon). Costco has the 6 chisel set WITH a mallet for $29.97. It's not as good as the two cherries deal I mentioned a while back, but that wasn't going to last--the price on those doubled two days after I posted it.

Before you commit to any particular set of chisels, by the way, read the article I wrote on buying chisels. Even if you don't buy them as your main chisels, though, at this price you should pick up a set as your crappy backup chisels for when you're hacking away at MDF and such.

Swing by Costco and pick up a pair--you'll thank me for it.