Maple Mania part 5

Now that the aprons are made I need to get the top section done. First I needed to flatten the glue up that was to be come the top. Even though it is made from two sections and each of those were flattened before gluing them up, the final glue up didn't turn out perfectly flat. And since it was now a 21" wide panel I couldn't run it through my planner.  I decided to use my hand plane and make it flat enough. I used my aluminum saw guide to check my progress.

Flattening the top section

Next the top section was sliced into 2.5" strips and was glued back together like a very large cutting board. 

Next I will flatten both sides and true up the sides.

 

Cutting Board production, Follow Up

Back in January I posted about making some cutting boards to sell and I just wanted to share how those cutting boards turned out. Two of the cutting boards sold and I gave one away as a gift. Here are the pictures:

Cherry and Maple bread/cheese board

Cherry, Maple, and Walnut bread/cheese board.

Maple and Walnut end grain cutting boards, both are 1.5" thick

Here are the price tags I made from maple

I built a simple display rack with some walnut scraps and some dowels

Maple Mania part 4

I got back to working on the butcher block island over the weekend and am pleased with how things are looking.  In the last post Maple Mania part 3 I had glued the two laminations together that will create the top.

This large slab will become the top of the island.
First it will be cut into strips and then glued back together exposing the end grain.

 This weekend I milled the stock for the aprons and got all four glued up.  The thick/wide aprons are what will give this island the look of a traditional butcher block island.

One of the aprons in the clamps

The other three aprons

 After an initial clean up of the apron faces I wanted to see how they looked together. So I did a dry assembly to see how it was looking. I really like the color variation in the maple and think it will really pop with some finish.

Diamond Edge No 5

I like to use hand planes some along with my power tools.  I've wrote about the other plane I tuned up that my wife bought at a antique store for me. Over the weekend I bought a new to me plane. It's a Diamond Edge No 5 plane. It is in good shape and just needs a little tuning and the blade sharpened. From some quick research the plane appears to be a WWII era plane.

A awesome week to get wood working

Its been a great week of articles for get wood working week. I want to that Tom from Tom's workbench for putting it all together. I read that Tom said yesterday his site had the highest traffic ever in its five year history. I know this blog had a lot more views than normal. Get wood working week has been a good time and I added several new to me blogs to my RSS reader. Looking forward to next year.

Get WoodWorking 2013: Be smart about dust

Safety Day

I am going to combine Get Wood Working Week and Safety Week.

When using a powered sander it is easier to remember to put on the correct safety gear. They are loud and they make a lot of dust. But say you were going to hand sand an edge or a detail you can't handle with the sander would you think to put on a dust mask?

I didn't one evening last summer and ended up with one of the worst sinus infections I've had.  Prior to then I always used the simple paper dust mask. Since then I have upgrade to a half face respirator that I use with dust filter. I don't use the cartridges that are used for fumes because I am just trying to keep my lungs and sinuses free from the dust. Looks silly but it works good for me.

So get out there and get wood working, and make some dust. But try not to breathe it.

Check out my post from last years Get Woodworking Week: Get woodworking: Shellac, this beginners favorite finish.

Edit (4-29-13):  adding the safety day badge.  Please be safe in your shop.

Separator update

This weekend before I started working in the shop I emptied the dust collector and replaced the bag. This gave me a good idea on how well the separator worked. I was very pleased with how well it worked.

Here is after I replaced the bag, the dust in here fell from the upper bag.

After using the table saw and planer

Inside the separator

I was very happy with how well this worked and look forward to easier disposal of the chip and dust without having to deal with the dust collector bags.

Get wood working week 2013

Get wood working week is here again. Check out Tom's workbench for all the action.