Silicone Bench Mat from Woodcraft

I was having trouble with glue on my bench, I was always trying to put down wax paper to protect my bench. I was at Woodcraft dtore the other day and saw this bench top silicone pad. Glue does not stck to the pad.
The come in three sizes, I bought the middle size.
Hopefully, now I wont always be cleaning my bench.

Wood River Chisel Plane

Just purchased the small chisel plane from wood river at Woodcraft.
I wanted to use this to clean up glue joins, so I bought the wood river as apposed to spending more money on the LN. The wood river is about half the cost. I bought mine on sell for $ 59.99. Out of the box there is a good feel to the plane and fits my hand nicely.
I tried it straight from the box and although it felt good in my hand, but I can tell it will need some tune up work, to get it where I want it.
I will updated after I do a tune up.

Pen Project with Cross Clip for Church

I just finished doing a project for a church. The church was expanding and had to cut down a Maple tree. They contacted me and wanted me to make 200 pens for them.

I used a slimline kit for the base. I added a fancy center band and a cross clip from Woodcraft.

I made a sample and we agreed on a price, the church shipped the wood to me. It arrived on a banded pallet, which consisted mainly of cut up logs. I had to take the logs and cut the logs into pen blanks.

As you can see from the picture at the right, the shipment basically looked like a load of fire wood. Some of the logs were pretty big. I split the logs and then used my band saw to cut the wood into rough pen blanks.

The rough pen blanks were dried by stacking them and air drying along with the use of a micro wave oven to air dry the blanks.

Once the blanks were dry, there were cut, drilled and turned to shape. There were sanded and finished with a protective coating.

The pens were assembled and packed in plastic pen cases and shipped to the church.

The church was very please upon receipt of the pens. There was a lot of work involved in making 200 pens at one time but I enjoyed the project.

If you have a project you would like made from a special piece of wood or any custom project, please contact me.

Also visit my web site at http://nokeswoodworks.com/

Nova 1624 Lathe from Woodcraft

I got a new Nova 1624 Lathe from Woodcraft about a month ago. I have nothing but good things to say about this lathe. The 1 1/2 hp motor has more than enough power for this weekend woodworker. It came with steel legs which I am currently using. They seem to keep the lathe very stable. The motor is smooth and powerful. Belt changing is easy, which is a plus. I have already turned several projects on the lathe. I will be sharing some of these projects, here on my blog as well as my web site. The woodcraft people were very helpful went I went to the store to pick it up. I also have the Nova G3 chuck, which I used on my Jet mini lathe. I may want to pick up a bigger chuck in the future but for right now, this chuck has worked well.
This lathe is great for wooden bowls, Pens, spindles, small table parts and anything you can turn in the 16" round by 24" inches in length. You can see a picture to the right, click on the picture for more infromation.
Please visit my website http://nokeswoodworks.com

Pen Making The Wall Street II Pen kit

Wall Street II Pen kit from Woodcraft.

The following pictures may be helpful in understanding the steps needed to build the Wall Street pen kit that I purchased from Woodcraft. The finished pen is illustrated here to the right. These are easy pens for the beginner and fun for the experienced turner as well. I used my Jet mini lathe and Robert Sorby turning tools.

The picture to the left shows the pen kit parts, drill bit 27/64 , the wood blank and the epoxy used to make the pen kits. The first Step is to cut the blank to length. Use the brass tube to measure and mark the blank for cutting. Cut the blank a little longer than the brass tube. It will be made to length later. Mark the center of the blank on the end before drilling. Drill slowly and clean out drill bit often. If you get the blank too hot or do not clean out the bit you will get a blow out on the blank. As you can see in the picture I have a home made pen vise that I have used successfully for years.

After the pen blank is drilled. I sand the brass tube lightly before mixing epoxy to glue the tube inside the blank. I like epoxy more than CA glue, but CA glue will work fine also. After the pen blank has dried I then go to the sander to square up the ends. A picture of this process can be seen on my web site: http://nokeswoodworks.com/

Once the ends are square, It is ready to be mounted on the lathe using a bushing and a pen mandrel. The picture to the right shows the pen blank mounted to the lathe .

Once the blank is mounted to the lathe, and everything is tightened up. The blank is then ready to be turned. Refer to my blog on lathe speeds for correct turning speed for pens or other projects. There are pictures of the actual turning process on my web site. A gouge is used to reduce the pen blank to a rough round size. A skew is then use to take the blank to proper size. I use the spindle master instead of a skew. This smooths the blank and gets it to the right size ready for sanding. I use a range of sand paper from 120 to 600 and then use micro mesh to 6000 for the sanding process. Once this is complete I use a finish of my choice. In this case I used Hut crystal coat to finish this pen. This is a friction polish and is applied with a cotton cloth and rubbed into the wood while the lathe is running. Once the finish is complete the pen blank is removed from
the lathe. It is assembled using a pen vise. Please visit my web site for more pictures and more information on pen making. http://nokeswoodworks.com/

This kit can be purchased from Woodcraft. See link to the right.

Building a Woodcraft 68 point skinner knife kit

Woodcraft Skinner knife kit

This past week I bought and assembled the Woodcraft 68 point skinner knife kit, using Bocote wooden knife scales.

The kit did not come with instructions, but I found a set I could down load at the Woodcraft web site. I used the knife as a template and marked the handles for cutting.. I drilled one hole and placed a brass pin thru the hole before drilling the next hole.

After the holes were drilled, I checked alignment and cut the handles out on the bandsaw. I cut on the out sides of the lines. So the handles were a bit over size. I then shaped and sanded the part of the handle near the knife which was not mounted to the blade. This was done so the finish on the knife blade will not be damaged. After this I used one hour epoxy to glue the handles to the knife blade. I then inserted the brass pins with epoxy also. The brass pins had to be cut shorter to fit the handle and knife. I clamped handles and blade together with several clamps and wiped away the excess glue. I let it dry over night. Once it was dry, I removed the clamps and finished shaping the handle to match the knife outline. Once I had this shaped and sanded ending with 600 grit sand paper. I applied a wax finish. Buffed and finished the project. Please visit my we site http://nokeswoodworking.com/ For more on knives or other woodworking information.

The project turned out great. Now I will have to build another since I have two sons. This will make a great keepsake gift for them. You can visit Woodcraft by clicking on the link at the right column. The knife scales (wood for handles) are purchased separate from the kit.