Monday, May 10th, 2010
This 3rd annual Wood Workers Safety Week was organized for the community by the ubiquitous Marc ‘The Wood Whisperer’ Spagnuolo.
What I want to actually show you all today are the dangers of wearing baggy or loose clothing while operating a table saw. I realized that this would be a great subject while filming the next video that will come out later this week.
So, here we have a dummy with a single arm that should be a good representation of a left arm too close to the saw blade while wearing a baggy long-sleeved shirt. Yes I understand that the dummy is mostly positioned in front of the blade, but this could also happen with a right arm too. Just watch…
I’m showing the ‘naked’ dummy so you know how solid the structure is. A human would be constantly moving, while this dummy is solidly constructed and won’t move unless about 100 pounds of force push or pull it.
You might be able to make out that the cuff of the sleeve is already caught in a tooth of the blade. This is for our safety. If I were to pull the sleeve into an already spinning blade, the results would be very unpredictable. Here, we’ll start the blade with the shirt already caught in it.
Make him a little more human with a hat … and a face… And, let’s go.
OK, let’s look at what happened. In two frames of this film, the blade tore the cuff of the sleeve down into the saw. A third frame, and enough of the shirt was grabbed to lift off the zero clearance insert and destroy it. 4 more frames and the saw blade is so caught up with the shirt that it won’t turn anymore. So, that equates to 7 1/100ths of a second to destroy a shirt, a zero clearance insert, and possibly your arm.
Regardless of my initial observations, my zero clearance insert was not the only thing damaged. While removing the shirt from the blade I noticed the shirt shoulder had been ripped by the wooden arm’s sharp rear corners. I’ll show this later.
Let’s do another run with no insert.
This time, with no insert, the shirt was pulled in even further and almost completely around the blade. Let’s look at the aftermath.
A length of shirt about equal to my entire forearm was pulled down to where the dummy’s ‘hand’ was. Meaning, an entire forearm could have been damaged in this kind of an accident. I totally do not advise sawing without a zero clearance insert if this is the case. And, I think I’m making my next one out of hardwood instead of hardboard…
Joey, as my kids named the dummy, doesn’t look too happy here, huh?
Here’s that shot of the shirt ripped off the shoulder. And this was a pretty tough shirt to begin with…
Let’s gear up for a final test.
This time I moved the arm closer to the blade and stapled the shirt to the arm. I originally intended for the wooden arm to fall into the blade for the extra gore factor, so here I’m trying my hardest to get this to happen.
OK, looks like Joey’s ready…
OK, so no wooden arm or hand splinters flying, but still a good example of how fast an accident can ruin your day.
This split in the wood is not from the blade hitting it. The arm was made up of 2 3/8” strips of lyptus screwed together.
Here you can see that my once nice-looking shop shirt is trashed. And so is Joey…
I want to thank my kids for help with this demo and to my baby for napping long enough for us to set up and shoot it.
Stay tuned for my second video later this week.
Tags: Rick Waters, Safety, splintered board, Table saw, wood, woodwork, Woodworking
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
So, I finally put the workbench together.
It’s 4 slabs of MDF with 1/2″ of solid Oak on top.
The carriage is 2 legs of 4×4 Pressure Treated pine beams.
In blood, I anoint thee 'The Crappy Workbench'
Top will be Oak, not Maple
Tags: MDF, oak, Rick Waters, splintered board, Workbench
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
I had the pleasure of interviewing a modern day renaissance woman, Carole Rothman, author of Wooden Bowls From the Scroll Saw. We discussed how Carole got into woodworking, and scrollsawing, her challenges and triumphs in perfecting the scrollsawn bowl, jar and vase.
Tags: bandsaw, bowl, Carole Rothman, Fox Chapel Publishing, jar, Rick Waters, scroll saw, splintered board, vase, wood, woodwork, Woodworker
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
I received my issue of The Rookie, by Scott Sigler, today. Join me as I open it.
Tags: Rick Waters, Scott Sigler, splintered board, The Rookie
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Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
Day 1
Met Al Navas – Sandal Wood Podcast – Talked about his ailing shoulder
Met Mike Brady – Fox Valley Woodworkers Club – Glen Huey came over and showed us the Blue Spruce mallets that will be awarded as prizes of the Hand Tool Olympics
Watched Jameel – Bench Crafted – Demonstrate leg vice to spectator
Met Mark Hockstein – Loogie – BS’ed
Presentation – Anatomy of a Masterpiece – Jeff Greene
Very concerned with examining furniture design within the context of the historical period – what was going on at that time.
Styles migrating (over time) France – England – Colonies
Oscar Fitzgerald – 20th Century American Furniture and Why You Should Like It
Anyone who has an interest in furniture would like this session. Of the 7 sessions that I went to, Mr. Fitzgerald’s was probably the most energetic. I described it later to several people as if we were shot through a cannon made up of 100 years of American furniture. I was especially pleased to see some of my favorites included in the fast-paced presentation, such as Jere Osdood, Hopkins and Wendell Castle. But he didn’t limit it to my prefences, he also included several pieces from Maloof, Frank Lloyd, Wright, many other Arts & Crafts designers/builders, and reproductionists.
Immediately following, I got a semi-private interview with Mr. Fitzgerald which I’ll be sharing on The Sawdust Chronicles and the Splintered Board Podcast.
After the interview I wolfed down a $9 lunch, that I vowed to not be forced to eat again, and in only 5 minutes! I befriended Dale Barnard of Barnard Woodworking School, and was off to another session.
Presentation – Jim Tolpin – Measure Once, Measure Not at All
Jim Tolpin’s talk, about how specific imperial measurements aren’t always needed for every project, was pretty refreshing. I’ve always wondered what the ancient woodworkers and stone masons used to measure their work pieces, since there was not always been an established, recognized, and accepted standard unit of measurement.
Mr. Tolpin showed how he loosely uses body-size comparisons to get dimensions. Then he uses story sticks and templates to record the project’s actual measurements. Not once was a protractor, ruler or tape measure used, and he never wrote down any numbers.
During the Q&A Session afterwards Jim cut the parts of the project out of cardboard and assembled them within minutes.
Don Williams – 19th C. Joinery, The Transition From Hand to Power
Don was probably the most consistently entertaining presenter that I saw at WIA. His accounts of personal experiences and jokes about how woodworker apprentices must have always gotten the wrong end of the stick, were just hilarious. Don’s comparison of hand tool use today to Ghandi ‘getting back to basics’ and rejecting his modern life, was very profound and thought provoking.
Mixed in with the levity was a ton of tool history. The fact that the first known powered saw (water powered) was built and used in 1337, was just astonishing. At least, until we found out that they had chop saws and wind powered table saws in the 1500’s. The 1700’s brought us water powered vertical gang saws with 10 blades, jointers and planers running on steam and veneer saws.
We didn’t see bandsaws until the 1800’s, which totally amazed me until I talked with Don alone the next day. I sat down in a Q&A session where he and I were the only people there. When I walked in I thought he was sleeping.
We discussed finishes, advancements in technology from machines to medicine, and of course tools. He said that I shouldn’t be so amazed that the bandsaw didn’t exist before the 1800’s, because the machine may have been dreamt up, but it may have been shelved until people were able to produce a strong thin band of steel that would not break.
Day 2
Got a late start because through an amazingly crazy series of events, at 3am I discovered that our water heater had sprung a leak. That led to me deciding to go to the conference late – if at all. At 7:30 we got on the phone with the water heater replacement guys and scheduled them to come out to the house that day. Phew!!
Anyway, I got to the convention late and missed the Greene & Greene session. So I decided to go to reproductionists Jeff Headley and Steve Hamilton’s Casework and Detailing session. I jumped in a few minutes late and found an open seat in the back near Matt Vanderlist. About 2 minutes later Shannon Rogers came in and took the seat next to me.
Jeff and Steve’s presentation was great!!! Each piece they showed us was knock—downable. The first piece they put together was a Chippendale chest, but it almost didn’t happen. They spent an exaggerated 5 minutes trying to figure out how the sides dovetailed into the bottom panel. Turns out they’ve been showing this knock-down Chippendale chest for 7 or 8 years. And their instruction on how to create each decorative piece and functional joint was excellent.
Take aways from this session were:
A new way (for me) to create a splay foot on a case.
Glue blocks constructed from smaller blocks with alternating grain directions.
On dovetails, use your mortiser to cut the pins. Stay 1/16 or less from the line, and pare away the rest.
Woodworking Workshops of the Shenandoah Valley
wwostv.com
540-955-2022
They have workshops schedule once a month, at least through July of 2010.
Afterwards, I got to meet up with Shannon and Matt in the Marketplace and BS a bit. Matt and I ran into Al Navas, while Shannon traded a prize that he won at the Hand Tool Olympics for another recently highly valued item, Chris Schwarz’s Hand Plane Essentials.
I’ve got to give credit to Megan Fitzpatrick and her administrative crew at the show. Every time I’ve had a question, they’ve been right there to answer it or help out when needed. I’m starting to think that I’m bothering them, though…
Brian Boggs – Composing with Wood Grain
Not only does Brian talk to us about the positives and negatives about displaying and working with wood grain and figure, he relates about experiences when the grain in some pieces would not be fully appreciated.
Brian touched briefly on how consideration should be given to the structural strength of different directions of grain.
Matched 4 boards together to look like 2 boards on a table top. Two sequenced boards from a log were book matched then the next board in the tree went thru the center of the tree, meaning it was ¼ sawn. Took ½ of the ¼ sawn board and placed it on the outsides of the book matched boards. Came out looking like a 2-board table.
Keynote Speech – Thomas Moser
I had just concluded an interview with Mr. Moser when we all filed… I’m sorry, when we all gushed into the dining hall. After settling down at our table I saw that I had probably sat with some of the most well-known people in online woodworking that were in attendance – outside of the Pop Woodworking crew themselves.
The table included Shannon Rogers, Matt Vanderlist, Bob ___ from Czech Edge Tool, David from Blue Spruce Tools, Ron Brese from Brese Planes, and Jameel Abraham from Bench Crafted. We quickly ate and sat through about 19 hours of Glen Huey giving away prizes to people who’d competed in the Hand Tool Olympics.
Finally Tom Moser took the stage and presented a wonderful account of his life, not just his woodworking career. I couldn’t do it justice to recount it here, nor do I think my voice could hold out if I tried. Rest assured, the man has furniture design and woodworking skills. Admittedly, I went into the conference having a completely different opinion of Thomas Moser than I did after that night.
Day 3
Bob Lang – Arts and & Crafts – The Unadorned Truth
There’s not much that I can say about Bob’s session. I’m not a real fan of Arts and Crafts furniture. And I probably went into this session with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Mr. Lang at least gave us a thorough history of the Stickley Brothers. But, there wasn’t much more than that. I found it interesting, but maybe it was because I didn’t sleep well for the previous 2 nights – I found myself falling asleep 3 times. Sorry Bob.
Today was my day to buy stuff, and before I knew it I was out of money. I expected to see wider discounts on items while vendors were contemplating boxing their wares up and dragging them back to their stores. Unfortunately, the discounts I saw weren’t great enough for some of the items I really wanted, but didn’t really need. I really would have preferred
Tags: Al Navas, bencrafted, blue spruce tool, brese planes, Brian Boggs, Chris Schwarz, Dale Barnard, Don Williams, dovetails, Fox Valley Woodworking Club, FVWWC, Glen Huey, jameel abraham, Jim Tolpin, mallet, marc spagnuolo, mark hokstein, Matt Vanderlist, Megan Fitzpatrick, Mike Brady, Oscar Fitzgerald, Popular Woodworking, Rick Waters, Shannon Rogers, splintered board, Thomas Moser, Woodworking in America
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