Wood

The most important consideration in planning a new project has to be wood(s) selection.  You can start with the greatest design ever, construct it like an expert with 20 years experience, and finish it exactly by the book, and still end up with a flop if you use the wrong wood.  To select the correct wood for a project several things must be considered.  Serious woodworkers weigh the look against the performance when selecting woods.  It is a sad day when an item looks great but fails to stand the test of time.

When selecting a wood consider how much wear it is likely to be exposed to.  We like to use hard woods when the wood will be exposed to a lot of traffic.  You can search "Janka Wood Hardness Scale" to see a listing of woods and their respective hardness values.  Bear in mind that this scale is an average hardness.  We currently have some white oak in the bin that is the hardest wood I have ever used.  Our last shipment of cherry contained a few boards that were extremely dense and hard and a few boards that were well below the average hardness for cherry. 

Also consider elements the wood will be exposed to.  If it is going to get wet or constantly exposed to high humidity, go with something like cypress, cedar, or juniper.  These woods have been used by traditional boatbuilders for many years.  Our canoe outriggers are constructed from these woods. 

 Always check The Wood Database for Wood Allergies and Toxicity if you are not familiar with the wood you are working with. Some can be extremely toxic.  It is a good idea to wear a respirator and have a functioning dust collection system when using tools that make a lot of sawdust.

Make sure your wood is dry.  Many moisture meters are available on the market to test the amount of moisture in the wood.  Just remember, wood will absorb moisture from the air.  If it has been humid for the past week, expect the moisture meter to reflect this. Also, just because you buy the lumber from a retailer does not insure that the wood was properly dried before putting it up for sale.  If it feels wet, it probably is.

Most occasional woodworkers purchase wood from big box building supply stores.  The sooner you can get away from this the better!  Have you purchased several 3/4 inch boards and started on your project only to find that some of the boards were a little fatter than the others?  If this has not happened to you, it will.  Find a sawmill and have them plane the wood to the desired thickness.  You will get wood that is uniform thickness.  And, you will likely save a lot of money.  Better yet, if you plan on doing a lot of projects, get a band saw and a planer and dress the wood yourself.

We purchase the bulk of our wood from one of three local sawmills, all within an hour drive of our house.  Our wood is purchased rough sawn, we resaw with the band saw and plane it to the thickness that suits our project.  After all, 3/4 inches is not the ideal board thickness for every project!

The primary woods we use are maple, walnut, cherry, red oak, white oak, and ash.  We also use sassafrass, holly, cypress, cedar, juniper, yellow pine, white pine, poplar, birch, beech, and hickory.  When asked, we can get most exotics.

Customers occasionally ask if we use recycled wood, reclaimed wood, pallet wood, and bamboo. The answer to all is NO. First of all, bamboo is not a wood, it is a grass.  It is pressed and glued into something that resembles plywood.  I understand the economics and why it is used in the Asian world, but we can use real wood here a lot cheaper than we can get bamboo.

Recycled wood, reclaimed wood, pallet wood all fall into the same area in my mind.  To begin with, I don't know what kind of chemicals this wood has been exposed to, and, if they will leak and be harmful to the health of my client and their family.  I have some experience driving a big truck, believe me, no one cleans pallets and they are exposed to everything.  Pallet wood is the last thing you want to bring into your home.  And, I am aware of the argument that maybe the wood was not exposed to anything, maybe it is from a church that was demolished and not a formaldehyde factory.  Which brings up the second point, I want to protect myself and my tools.  More than likely, this wood was joined using nails and screws.  Both of these will damage tools, blades, and bits.  They can also send bits of these metal missiles flying around my shop.

Another note, in my area the sawmills run out of many species of wood around the end of the year.  New wood is cut in the spring and then it takes a little time to run it through the kiln for drying.  Try to stockpile wood in the fall that will last you until middle to late spring.

Remember, buy your wood from someone you trust, not a clerk at the big box store. Know the properties of the wood you want to use and fit it to the project.  Know the health hazards of the wood you have chosen.  Keep your shop free of dust and avoid recycled, reclaimed, and pallet wood.

Those Fabulous Ohm E's

I absolutely must have music in the shop.  When the music stops, so do I, at least until we get the music going again.  We won't get into what kind of music we listen to, only that it must sound good. I hate to sound like I'm bragging, but I do have a great sounding system in the shop.  It is nothing fancy, but it sounds like the band is right there.

I use a Zune 120 gigabyte mp3 player and a Pyle mini-amp.  Connected to the amp is a pair of Ohm Acoustics Model E speakers.  I know all of it is antique, but so am I.

A few days ago, I noticed one of the speakers was a little weaker in volume compared to the other speaker.  First thing I did was to swap the wires at the rear of the amp.  The same speaker was still weaker. 

Now I have had two pair of Ohm E speakers since the late 1970's, purchased new.  One pair is in the house and the other is in the shop.  These speakers have played daily for many years now. 

The Model E speakers are 2 way speakers.  They are of modest size for speakers produced in the same time period, being about 22" high, 11" wide, and about 5" deep.  They are heavy for their size.  Originally, in the late 1970's, the speakers sold for about $200 per pair.  They were rated for an amplifier up to about 60 watts.  Frequency response was 52 - 16,000 Hz.

I don't think anyone ever bought a pair based on the specs.  You had to hear these speakers.  The clarity and depth was and is amazing.  Over the years I have attempted to "upgrade" my system and have purchased speakers with better specs, in three or 4 way models, and with much higher price tags.  But none of them have sounded better than the Ohm E.

When I purchased the speakers, the owner of the shop told me they were the most efficient speakers he had ever carried.  He assured me that I did not need a whopping big amp and huge speakers to have great sound, and he was correct.  He had several systems set up in the shop, but these speakers were connected to an Onkyo amp of about 35 watts and it sounded better than anything else he had.  I bought two pair of speakers and the amp.  The amp speaker selector would play set A, set B, or set A and B.  We hooked up both pair and chose set A and B, we was rockin!

Over the years the little speakers have continued to amaze friends and guests.  I have some Bose speakers and some Cerwin Vega speakers, both much larger than the Ohm E.

But, back to the problem, one of them was a little weaker than the other and I was not about to bring the set in the house out to the shop.  I got on eBay and Craigslist to see if I could find another set.

Later on that evening, I found the Ohm website!  Yes, they are still up and running!  They would even give a person $200 for a pair in working condition towards a trade in.  Ah, a glimmer of hope.  I found that they offered upgrade kits for the woofer and a kit that adds another tweeter.  They also had parts!

I hit the Contact button and explained my problem.  Before I went to bed, John Strohbeen, Ohm's president, answered my email.  Now we were getting somewhere and getting there fast!

Mr. Strohbeen advised me to move the speakers.  Now, I did not understand this, as I had already switched the wiring, and being the kind of know it all person that I am, it really went against the grain for me to put so much effort into something that, in my opinion, held so little promise.  But, I figured that if the president of the company answered my email and this was his best advise, I would follow it.  It was a miracle!  Not only was the weak speaker back up to speed, but it seemed that both speakers sounded better.  I cranked the volume up and just couldn't stop my feet from moving. By the time Mama came in to see what was going on, I was in full blown dance mode.  No dear, I don't need to go to the doctor.  Yes dear, I feel fine.  No dear, I am not going crazy.  No dear, we don't need your mother. 

Mr. Strohbeen further advised that oxidation had caused my problem and that he recommended using gold plated terminals whenever possible.  I had never had this problem with any speakers or stereo equipment before, or heard of it.  It seems reasonable to me that the oxidation could occur in the shop environment much easier than in the house.  A wiring upgrade is definitely in the future.

Now the shop is happy, happy, happy again! The machines are humming and the Ohms are rocking.

CNC Machine Adjust and Fine Tune

As mentioned in the previous post, we recently added a CNC machine to the shop.  After viewing several tutorials and playing around with the software, we were off to make some things happen! For some reason, I expected to take it out of the box and start cutting and carving perfect objects right away.  Did not happen!

I looked around the shop and realized that out of 10 pieces of machinery, there were two that I did not have to tune before using.  They were the lathe and the planer.  All the other tools had to at least be squared.  If the unit has a table top, it had to be squared.  Saws have to be adjusted to cut square to the table.  The bandsaw has all kinds of adjustments.

Well, out of the box the CNC cut deeper on the left side than it did on the right.  I put the square on the table top and found that the top was bowed upwards in the middle, it dropped slightly on the left and right.  The top is made of multi-track t-track.  I took the top off and disassembled it.  I rearranged some of the multi-track pieces several times, but could not get the top level. 

After examining the multi-track pieces, I discovered that the edge where the next piece joined was not square, it had a small angle on it.  So every time I tightened the table top to the bracket on the bottom, it would pull the top in a bowed shape. 

I finally gave up and decided to "redneck" it by inserting shims at each corner and two other low spots.  The result was a perfectly flat table top.  I used plastic pieces cut from small retail packaging, you know, the kind you need tools to get in to. 

I put the top back on the machine and made a couple of cuts.  It was still cutting a little deeper on the left.  I loosened the table top brackets that connect it to the frame on the right side and inserted shims there.  After a few changes, I got it to cut evenly side to side. 

Finally, I used a sheet of plywood to cut a line around the perimeter.  This line came out just right.

The entire process took the better part of the day, but we now have a machine that cuts or carves perfectly flat.  We are looking forward to incorporating it into some of the products we offer.  If you see any items over at Lucy Hardware that you would like personalized, just drop us a line.

Busy Christmas

We would like to thank all our customers for the Christmas and after Christmas orders this year!  As far as we can tell, all of them made it to their destinations on time.  Now is the time to identify some goals for the coming year.

First, we will be expanding our shipping policy and opening the store to selected oversees locations beginning this month.  Later, if all goes well, we will add some more locations.  Initially, we are including Canada, Australia, US territories, and the UK.  Additionally, we are adding Alaska and Hawaii.

Sometime in the coming year we intend to open a sister store on Etsy and expand our product line to include mostly personalized items.  Some of these items will be cutting boards, signs, desk top name plates, and other items.

We have recently added a CNC machine to the tool shed and are learning how to use it, or, how to use the software.  The machine is pretty simple!  This equipment will also allow us to incorporate various designs in our existing product line.

Even though we had about all we could do the last two months, we did manage to add some clocks to our product line and hope to have some pop up cigarette dispensers ready by the end of this month.

Well, there you have it.  We had a good year and want to thank you very much.  See you on the disc golf course!