Mini Square from woodpeckers

This is the new mini square from woodpeckers, I picked in up at wood craft. I need a small square I could use to square up my scroll saw blade with and this was perfect. The inside dimension is 1 1/8" by 2". Fits under by blade and make alignment easy. I also do alot of small projects like model ship building and doll house furniture, so this is great. Looks like it will work well squaring up a chisel as well. Its made in the USA, but plus.

This will be a handy addition to my shop. I have been cutting out puzzles on my scroll saw and having a squad bade is essential when making cuts or the parts will not slide in and out making the puzzle unusable. I use a Dewalt scroll saw and have been scrolling for about 7-8 years now. Scroll sawing is a relaxing form of woodworking. It takes my mind of my hectic days. Easy way to sit in my shop and enjoy life. If does not take up a ton of room and the clean up is easy. 

Here is one of the scroll saw puzzles i just did, it is from the book, 

Animal Puzzles for the Scroll Saw (Scroll Saw Woodworki) by Dave Peterson (Feb 1, 2009). 

GREAT BOOK FOR SCROLL SAW PUZZLES.

Tibbie Alabama Arts and Craft show October 2011

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES FROM THIS YEARS ARTS AND CRAFT SHOW IN TIBBIE ALABAMA.

It was a great show with 36 booths plus food and music.
A good time was had by all.

Here a couple of pens I had for sale.

Turn lidded boxes on the lathe

This blog is about turning lidded boxes on the lathe.

I mounted a 3 X 3, 6 inch long pieces of spalted maple. I turned this round to about 2 1/2 inch diameter. Turned round using a roughing gouge. The block is held in place by a spur center and a live center on the other end.

At his point, I start to shape the lid and mark the lid location.

I use a parting to to cut a grove, where my lid will later be cut off.

Here the lid is being shaped. I used a skew to do most of this shaping, You can also see, I have made a indented grove on the top to be held in place using my four jaw chuck.

I use a four jaw chuck from Teknatool.

I have remounted the lid after cutting it off using a parting tool.

I am using the mini sorby hollowing tool for hollowing out the lid.

This is a great little tool and the handle is inter changable to use a skew and a spindle gouge.

Here is where I hollow out the body and size the opening for the lip to fit just right. I use both a caliper and trail and error to get the perfect snug fit on the lid.

I latter turn an ebony knob and glue into the top. This a nice little afternoon project. I use semi green wood. My lathe is a teknatool Nova. Most of my tools are sorby.

JET Slow Speed Sharpener Review

On my birthday this year, I received something I really need in the shop. I needed a way to sharpen my tools that was effective and easy. While I got a JET Slow speed sharpener. I got the master woodworker set which included jigs for sharpening just about every tool in the shop. It does, knives gouges, turning tools, chisels, plane blades, axes and scissors. The only thing I have found so far that I have to go back to sharpen on a flat stone, is to sharpen the flat side of a chisel to plane blade. The wheel turns slow and is covered in water so, there is no chance of burning the tool blade. Since it is slow speed, it does take some time to re grind and edge, but touch ups go pretty fast. There is a gauge that comes with the tool to help set the correct angles on tool sharpening.
This very helpful in getting correct angles on the tools as I sharpen. I have seen some reviews where the the major complain was how strong or steady the jigs holding bar is while sharpening. I have had no problems with this. It seems to be very steady and works fine for me. My wife got this at woodcraft. So far I am very happy with the sharpener. It comes with a dvd which shows in detail how to use the jigs and set up the tool. Since it shows you instead of telling you, it is a great aid in setting up and using the sharpener. Please feel free to ask any questions.
Please visit my website at http://nokeswoodworks.com/

Microwave drying wood pen blanks

The method I use to dry green pen blanks is microwave drying of the pen blanks.

When I need to dry pens blanks in a very short time, I use the following method.

I have a small Microwave oven I use only for drying wood. I do not use the microwave in the kitchen. I don't think my wife would be very happy if I did.

1. I cut the blanks into blank size usually 3/4" X 5" long.

2. I stack these in a way the air will flow freely around the blank.

3. I weight each blank and write the weight on the side of the blank. I use a digital postal scale. I picked up a scale off ebay for about $25

4. I place 8-9 blanks in the microwave in this fashion.

5. I microwave the blanks on low heat for 2 1/2 minutes.

6. I remove the blanks and the set on top of the microwave to cool.

7. They need to cool for 7-10 minutes.

8. I then weight the blanks again and write new weight on side

9. I go through this process a minimum of 3 times or until these is no longer a weight lost.

10. At this point I let set over night before processing the pen blanks.

Note; the microwave will set the blanks on fire, from the inside.

As you can see from the picture at the right. This blank caught on fire from the inside. I cut it apart and you can see how it burned.

Microwave drying will work must be done with care.

I used this to dry wood for 200 pens. I used this on maple wood blanks that had just been cut.

Please visit my web site for more woodworking infromation. http://nokeswoodworks.com

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/

Sedona Pen Kit made with Gemstone Blank

Sedona Rollerball Pen Kit

This is a silver plated rollerball pen kit. I used a Turquoise with black web Gemstone blank. I am please with how it turn

ed out. The Gemstome black was easy to drill and easy to turn. There are a little on the expensive side $8.99 per blank, but in this case well worth the

money. The blank was finished using micro mesh sanding pads up to 32000 grit. I then used a light coat of wax. This makes a great pen.
Please visit my web site : http://nokeswoodworks.com/