Replies

1. 
   dm | Nov 29, 2005 05:54am | #1

   Ernie:

   It is great to see your name come up on this forum.  I really enjoyed the turning class I attended last spring at Conover Workshops:

   1.  When will your 2006 class schedule be available? I want to try to come to the Shaker chair class this coming year.

   2.  Any more book plans for the future?

   3. What are you doing in the "off season" when the Conover Workshop classes are over for the year?

   Dan

1. 
   ErnieConover | Nov 29, 2005 10:43pm | #3

   The 2006 schedule was laid out over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. It will be posted on the Conover Workshops website soon. I do not have any books on the horizon, although an update to my Router Table Book is probably overdue. Currently I am concentrating on DVD production. I have done two on sharpening that will be offered through the mail, taking Conover Workshop’s curriculum to the correspondence level I suppose. I am also working of several DVD instruction manuals for power tool companies. We do not run classes between the end of November and the beginning of March. During this “off season” I work on our website, do work for various companies, build furniture and give talks to clubs and trade shows. My next gig is with the Cincinnati Woodworking Club on the 11th and 12th of February. For more information on this event go to http://www.cincinnatiwoodworkingclub.org/.

2. 
   ErnieConover | Nov 29, 2005 10:28pm | #2

   Dear Fellow Woodworkers,

   It is an honor to be moderating a forum on the exciting new Fine Woodworking Network. I will be checking in daily and will be happy to answer questions on all things Woodworking. As an avid turner I welcome questions on Lathes Tools, Materials and Techniques. I will be also happy to answer any question on General Woodworking Techniques and Tool Repair.

   Although I am well known as a turner I also love cabinetmaking. Further, I am an avid tool collector, especially planes. I do not know how many planes I own for I would not be able to plead ignorance to my wife. My collection is unique because all of my tools are in working condition with honed cutting edges. I like to balance my cabinetmaking between machine tools and handtools, using one or the other as best serves efficiency and my mood. I also try to have a turning or two in my furniture, even if it is only a knob.

   When my wife needs a new kitchen cupboard for next week’s family gathering; however, I get out the pocket jig, cut the drawers with a dovetail jig and buy the knobs from Amrock. When building fine furniture I use machines to get the wood to the size I need then hand tools, especially planes, to get the finish and look I want. While I cut most mortise and tenons with machines (who is going to see them once they are together), I cut all my dovetails by hand. I think that hand cutting dovetails in a stack of drawers with Mozart playing in the background is more therapy than work.

   I encourage questions and discussion on the balance between hand and power tools. When is best to use one or the other? I can tell you at the onset that the line is blurry but it will be great fun for us all to define that line in good hearted discussion.

1. 
   Samson | Jan 23, 2006 10:42pm | #7

   Ernie,

   I have a question about power jointing; but first a little background:

   I'm an intermediate hobbiest woodworker.  I grew up with a Dad and grandads who were very comfortable around shop tools, but did not often do "fine woodworking."  When I got my first house, I began to invest in tools, but had very little space to work.  Mostly due to that limitation, I invested in handsaws and planes, and learned to use and sharpen them.   I enjoy hand tools, and managed to get very decent results - albeit my pace of work was slower than it would have been with more tailed apprentices. 

   We rennovated a couple of years ago and added, among other things, a medium sized (20x22') shop space.  I quickly filled it with stationary tools I'd been wanting for so long:  a Powermatic 64A to replace my meager benchtop table saw - a 14" bandsaw - a 10" SCMS, - a Makita 12" lunchbox planer - router table for my loyal 3 HP router.  All of these tools, I've taken to pretty much like a duck to water as they were either straightforward to use or I was familiar with their operation from way back. 

   Then, several months ago I decided to finally buy a tool I had no familiarity with but which seemed to hold a lot of promise, and indeed judging from so many magazine articles, seemed a necessity:  a jointer.  Up to that point, I found that my handplanes and 12" planer did a reasonable job of stock preparation.  As I was running out of space and money, I decided on the Powermatic 54A 6" jointer (but with a longish bed) would be a good fit.  I've done everything I can possibly think of to tune this jointer - the beds a flat and in line, the knives are correctly positioned, fence is square, etc. according to every book and article  I can find on the subject.  Trouble is that I just cannot seem to get good results with the beast.  It more often makes a mess of the board than flattens it - leaving narrow edges wavy or heaven forbid I expect it to take out cup or twist ....  I always try to take off very small bites - less than a 16th.  I try to keep in mind that the outfeed table should be the main reference after the board gets started,  and to try not to press down to hard and distort the board etc.  But I still think it must be my technique that is giving me such poor results.

   So my question - nay, my prayer - can you give me any jointer use tips that might help me make some reasonable use of this expensive tool?  I've reverted to my hand planes and planer (scrub type set up to achieve one flat face for the planer / edge jointing with either my Forrest WW2 and my Stanley 7).  I feel like someone who's trying to learn to play the saxaphone by reading about it in a book - having never heard one or seen it played.  I'm embarrassed too, as I really feel like I am generally good with my hands, mechanical, coordinated, etc., but most of all a reasonably good woodworker.  Swallowing my pride, and on the chance I'm missing something obvious, or if you have any tips that might get me on the road to power jointer newbie success, I humbly beseech you for any thoughts or suggestions. 

   Thanks!

1. 
   ErnieConover | Jan 25, 2006 12:24am | #8

   You do indeed seem to well understand the mechanics of jointers. What I call the smart and dumb tables, the outfeed being the smart one and not pressing down too hard, etc. Once though the head pressure should be on the outfeed table and you are doing this. There are two further possibilities and you could could be doing one or both wrong. The first is the height of the outfeed table reference the cutter head. I have found that this setting often has to be tweaked. I suggest you try edge jointing about a 4' board, adjusting the outfeed table up or down until you get a straight edge. You can start by bringing the outfeed table to the height of the cutterhead with a straight edge (being sure the machine is unplugged). The cutter should just touch the straight edges as a starting point. The second thing I suspect you are doing wrong is too light a cut. (I bet your are taking lighter cuts that you think you are?) I almost never take less than 1/16", but on your machine you would not want to take more than about 1/8". Light cuts compound error and prematurely wear the blades. My apprentices are forever setting my jointer to very light settings in the 1/32 to 1/64 ranges. It really burns up the blades and me as well.

1. 
   Samson | Jan 25, 2006 12:36am | #9

   Thanks, Ernie!  I'll try all that this weekend.  If I've got anything useful to report, I'll post again. 

   I think you may be right about taking too light of cuts.  I get timid thinking I'll have more chances to make it right, when instead it just seems to be a slow road to making it really wrong!

    

2. 
   Samson | Jan 26, 2006 06:52pm | #10

   Hey, Ernie, I tried out your suggestions last night, and had a breakthough!  It turns out the machine does much better if the blades are just a touch higher than the outfeed table rather than perfectly even with it.  I still need to tweak it to eliminate as much snipe as possible, but with that slight adjustment (and making sure to take at least a 1/6th, the results were much better.  Thanks. 

1. 
   ErnieConover | Jan 26, 2006 07:51pm | #11

   One of the greatest features of an adjustable outfeed table (which you have on your machine) is the ability to tweak the height reference the cutter head. Even after setting with magnetic blocks I usually have to adjust the outfeed table a bit to get a perfect cut on my 8" Delta. Heavier cuts help as well. Glad I could help you.

3. 
   ErnieConover | Dec 03, 2005 03:39am | #4

   I am often asked to enumerate a startup toolkit for a beginning turner. My thoughts have changed on this matter over the years. For instance, I now consider a roughing out gouge (the bigger the better) a necessary where as I considered it an optional tool in the past. Here is my recommended grubstake for an aspiring turner.

   Tool
   1/2" Deep Fluted Bowl Gouge
   1/16" to 1/8" Parting Tool (sometimes called a Cutoff Tool)
   3/4" to 1-1/4" Roughing Out Gouge
   1/2" Round Nose Scraper
   1" or wider Skew Chisel
   1/2" Spindle Gouge
   3/8 Bedan, or better a Beading and Parting Tool
   1" or wider Round Nose Scraper
   1/4" or 3/8" Deep Fluted Bowl Gouge

   The bowl gouges are for all face plate work and the ½” size (which is the approximate distance across the flute) is the workhorse here doing most of the work. A bowl gouge in ¼ is great for fine work in jam, vacuum and plate (with rubber buttons) chucks. The parting tool should be a diamond shape as they cut better in spindle cutoffs (there is less surface area rubbing) and much better in face plate cutoffs (face on to the spindle they require less clearance hence cut a smaller groove).

   The roughing out gouge gets you from square to round in a hurry, but also if cocked about 45° to the tool rest and run sidewise will leave almost as good a finish as a skew. It is invaluable anytime you need to get rid of a lot of material. The spindle gouge is my most frequently used tool (but then I do a lot of spindle work) and I feel the shape of this tool is most important. It works best in 7/16” or 1/” sizing (again the approximate distance across the flute) and with a shallow flute that does not go down into the round bar it is made from very deeply. I grind mine to a long fingernail—what I call a high society grind.

   The bedan or beading and parting tool are priceless for sizing tenons. A common tenon length is ¾” and two strokes of a 3/8” wide tool gives you this dimension. I judge diameter by using an open end wrench of the appropriate size. When the wrench just drops over the tenon you are sizing you have a press fit with a drilled hole of that diameter. Scrapers are mostly a last ditch tool but when you need one they save the day. I will write more on scrapers another time.

   I believe high speed steel (HSS) is the only way to go in turning tools (except for scrapers). I have tried the new powdered metallurgy tools and do not think they offer sufficient advantages to justify the much higher price.

4. 
   loucarabasi | Jan 17, 2006 01:54pm | #5

   Mr B, Can you tell me where i can find specs for building resturaunt Booths.

   Thank You,  Louis M Carabasi

    

1. 
   ErnieConover | Jan 18, 2006 09:18pm | #6

   I started with the web and this page gives some basic spacing which is a good pace to start. http://www.kpetersen.com/upholsteredlayouts.htm. Smart Draw actually has a simple CAD package for designing restaurant floor plans, booths, etc. The URL is http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/restaurant-floorplans.asp?id=42447. You can download a trial package that may be of some help. Taking a tape measure the next time you eat at your favorite diner is always a good option. Sorry I can not be of more help.