The Boston Diaries

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Overheard conversation from a garage turned into a woodworking shop

VRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

(Over the noise of a vacuum cleaner) BRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

(Sounds continue for a few seconds, then over both the following is heard)

“Ow! XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX of a XXXXX XXXXXXX that hurt! XXXX!”

(From inside the house) “Did you say something, dear?”

[No one was seriously hurt in the making of this post, but do read this followup. —Editor]

Don't call me Knuckles McStubbyfingers

Despite the impression the previous post might have given, the injury I sustained isn't life threatening, there was no blood spraying all over the garage, and I still have all my fingers and eyes. Heck, my clothes didn't even get bloody. It just hurt.

A lot.

So, with that said …

I decided to attempt another wooden box. After work today, I found another piece of wood—this time a nice plank of ash.

[Today on “Sean Attempts Woodworking,” we will turn this plank of wood into a lovely box.]

It's not as wide as the last piece, so only two passes with the table saw are required to resaw this into some thinner wood.

[Much easier this time, and I didn't have to use the deadly ryōba!]

The wood got a bit burned while cutting on the second pass through the table saw, but a few trips through the planer and all is good.

[That black mark gives it that home made character.]

I then glued them up:

[Clamps to apply presure to the actual glue joint, and several heavy jugs to keep them flat.]

And a few hours later I had a nice thin plank from which to make my box.

The resulting board was 11″ by 19″. From this, I need a top, bottom and four sides. Since I want the resulting box, when open, to lay flat, both halves need to be the same height, so I need enough height on the box to form two halves. And instead of trying to form a box and then cut it, I wanted to cut the sides now, so I really need eight sides. I figured that the top and bottom could be 7″×7″, leaving me with enough material to make eight 7″×1″ sides.

The top and bottom pieces were easy to cut.

It was the sides that proved to be rather painful.

Now, on some previous images, you may have noticed the surface of the table saw had a wood inset around the blade. The table originally came with a red plastic piece that fits there, but Bunny's brother, when he was here helping Bunny set up the saw, said that it wasn't worth using and that she could get better results with a custom wood inset, which he made himself and trued up perfectly. Unfortunately, over time, the wood apparently shrank a little, and said insert was no longer quite flush with the surface. Not much, just a hair, but it was enough that when I was cutting a side, the piece got caught right at the far end of the inset. I lifted the Micro Jig, probably too much, as I tried to negotiate the wood across the inset when Newton's Third Law of Motion kicked in. The spinning blade o'death caught the piece and accelerated it to warp 7, shooting it into my right side.

I think it says something when I was more upset over ruining the piece of wood than I was of nearly having my eye shot out.