Woodworking on Holidays: Queensland Museum

Next door to the Queensland Art Gallery is the Queensland Museum. The Museum had a very extensive collection of natural history (including Dinosaur fossils discovered in Queensland) and human history (including household items from before Christ). It also had a number of wooden items.

Woodworking on Holidays: Queensland Art Gallary

Just a few photos from our recent trip to the Queensland Art Gallery. On display was a variety of wooden pieces representing several eras of Australian history (pictured below) as well as some historical international pieces. The Gallery itself was easy to access and quite pleasant to stroll around.  

Experimental Filling...

The first thirty minutes of shop time I've had in 6 weeks was spent reviewing the pews. It gave me an opportunity to see the results of various filling experiments I tried on the project. (Of course it's recommended do technique 'experiments' on scraps prior to the actual project, but this time it's on the project.)

The first 'filling' job was the plugs to cover the screws. Made with the Veritas Snug Plug cutters from Indian Ebony these proved to be highly successful. (But ebony is not cheap). The plugs simply tap into to place and hold with glue. To finish simply flush trim and sand.

 

The first Epoxy experiment was done using the west system microfiber system. The microfiber in fine powder forms acts to thicken the glue and allow better filling properties. However, this also tinges the filler white... not such a good look.

Next up with have microfiber with fine saw dust. Allow I've had success with this technique in the past this time it made the filler appear heterogenous (ie. tinged white with flecks of reddy brown). Better but not there yet.

My final option was black oxide. This carbon like powder is designed to colour concrete and is dirt cheap. Used with or without microfiber it made a solid homogeous filling agent. Perfect... well if your wanted black any way.

Defects that were exposed to the element while the tree was standing often have a black edge. I presume this is related to oxidation within the wood. Filling these gaps with black filler is effective. 

For other colours, such as to match the reddy brown, I would try even finer saw dust (such as that out of the sander) or turn to dyes and stains to turn that white tinge what ever tinge you want. 

Epoxy has a significant advantage over water based fillers such as 'putty' - strength. Epoxy can seep into the defect, completely fill it, then set harder than wood, holding the defect together. This strength is essential to fill large defects and stablise burls.

Woodworking on Holidays: HNT Gordon Smoother

A smoothing plane is an incredibly useful tool for both hand tool and power tool enthusiasts. Presently I lack a dedicated smoothing plane (instead using a no 5, or abrasives.) 

After much inward deliberation and hands on comparison at the Sturt Open Day I decided the HNT Gordon a55 was the plane for me. (The other main option was the LN 4 1/2, however, the handle configuration was crowded and less comfortable and the cost greater.)

Unfortunately, the day I was passing HNT Gordon the shop was shut for Easter... so I'll wait for the next wood show...   

Hmmm. That wasn't the best of stories. Oh well... always happy to plug a quality Australian producer. 

Woodworking on Holidays: A tree house of note...

A four week break over the Easter period has enabled us to make a 2500km road trip around New South Wales and into Southern Queensland. Certainly more time was dedicated to building sand castles than woodworking but there were a few woody things of note.

The first wood object of note is this tree house found at the Macadamia Castle. A truly impressive multi-story tree house with multiple entry points and a upper tower fort. Although the tree seemed now deceased I was impressed but the amount of tree growth engulfing the added wooden structure. 

Phew those pews were long overdue...

Work, sickness, and family priorities have led to very little in the way of woodworking these past four or five weeks. Today however I had a break through in assembling the pews. 

The 5" makita ROS sander got a mighty work out. Prior to assembly all pieces went step by step through 120, 180, 240, shellac sealer, 240, and 320grit. It reads quickly, but it took several hours to get through all the pieces.

Repetitive drilling was made easier with a memory stick made from scrap pine. A drill press allowed me to form 90 degree holes at set points in the scrap. The scrap could then be moved along the board and used to guide a hand drill. A quick pilot hole with a twist bit followed by a counterbore with a forsnter bit.

After gluing and screwing the holes were filled with plugs. The plugs were cut using the vertias snug plug system (very nice), glued, tapped, and then flush cut.

There's still work to go; more sanding, and then the oiling begins.

Free Plan: Shaker Rocker

Given all the time in the world, one project I'd like to tackle is the Shaker Chair/Rocker. Fine Woodworking has published free plans for just such a chair on their website. I'll file this one away for later...

CLICK HERE to download the free PDF article and woodworking plan for Conover's Shaker rocking chair.

Site Statistics

I noticed today the site counter clicked over 25,000. In the past twelve months there's been a steady increase in visitors to the blog and I'd like to thank those people for supporting the site. 

The most popular posts in that time are the 6 Piece Burr Puzzle Jig, the Blackbutt Roubo, the Blog Roll, How I sharpen, various tool reviews and reports on wood shows. 

In this period although search engines became a prominent source of visitors (18%) the bulk of traffic (60%) came from referring. The most popular search was for 'table top construction' pointing to one of the earliest blog posts on the Blackbutt Table. Referrals from other sites included Lumber Jocks, Woodwork Forums, Woodworking Magazine, Cornish Workshop, Boutique Timbers, and the Flowering Elbow.

Once again thanks for the support, comments and feedback. Any suggestions or comments are always welcome. If you haven't so far, check out the The Love of Wood @ Facebook.

Up close with a pew: Joinery

Just a quick blog post to show some of the simple joinery that goes into making a pew.

With the seat removed you can see a stretcher that runs below. This stretcher joins the legs with three half-lap joints. The stretcher prevents racking (the legs rotating on the seat) and strengthens the seat.

The edging is combination of decorative curves and natural edges.

Around 1 cm of material is removed from the leg piece for the back rest to sit in. This is deliberative left short to allow the back rest to run the height of the round over above the leg.

The last few days have been spend filling in checks and cracks with epoxy. After final shaping and sanding the pieces will be connected with glue (titebond III), screws, and ebony plugs.

Wax Melter: Operational

The 8 Frame Wax Melter has been delivered and is now sitting proud next to my Dad’s vegie plot. The wax melts by the sun’s energy and drops through a filter into a collection tin below. The filter and tin can be accessed by a back door. The top is two layers of 1/8” plate glass. The timber is 3/4” Radiata pine. Up to eight frames are hung vertically. Due to the weight of the lid the hinges need upgrading.