Sharpen Those Dividers

Several months ago I decided on purchasing a set of dividers for laying out my projects.  I noticed immediately that very few manufacturers still produce dividers.  Those that do have them tucked away as either some form of machinist / engineering tool or they are with the turning tools, along with inside callipers, etc.

I got the second kind since they are reasonably priced at Lee Valley.  LV also sells the more expensive Starrett dividers, but from what I can tell they are different versions of the same type of tool - namely a spring divider. According to hand tool users these are the inferior types.  The good ones are friction dividers or "wing" dividers of old.  I can't find anyone who sells those, and I didn't feel like buying an old one on Ebay only to spend huge amounts of time fixing it up.

I bought two of the small 4" ones for dovetail layouts and small joinery, and have since purchased the larger 6" version (or is it 8"?  I can't remember.)  I have no point of reference since I never have owned a "wing" type divider, so in my opinion these are pretty good and accurate, and I have no problems with them.

The only criticism I have is when I purchased them originally I noticed that two of them (the small ones) had one leg that was slightly longer than the other, and that all of them seemed to have a burr from the milling process on the inside of the points.  The different length legs and the burr made for sloppy measurement at times since the dividers would rock on their tips.






I looked online for ways to sharpen dividers and was greeted to a 1945 US War Office document which indicated to use whetstones to sharpen the points.  Simply awesome in every way.

I set my dividers together and while holding them at 90 degrees to my stones I rubbed them back and forth until the tips were even. I started on my soft Arkansas (image left) but stepped down to my medium India stone when it was taking too long.  Fifteen to twenty strokes on the India stone got them all equal length quickly.








I sharpened the tips much like any plane blade or chisel.  These dividers have one flat edge meeting an angled edge.  I honed the outside bevel on my India Stone, then followed it up with the soft Arkansas.

I then turned the leg over and polished the inside point (the flat part.)  That got rid of the annoying burrs.  Now my dividers are super sharp and even more accurate.  Tuning up the dividers was a lot easier than I had expected.

I'm sure that there are better vintage dividers available out there, but for the money and ease of tuning them up, the LV dividers are so far a great buy in my books.

-Lucas in BC

When metalwork cannot be avoided

Every now and then I am forced to put on a metalworking hat, and I don't like it.  I have nothing but respect for metal workers.  And even though I know we woodworkers are better off knowing basic metal working skills, I get no enjoyment out of it.

So this week I received a really nice Stanley No. 3 smoothing plane in the mail.  Unfortunately, in a freak shipping accident, the lever cap screw snapped in transit.  Not only that - the bottom half of the bolt was stuck inside the frog, with no bits sticking out which I could use to unscrew the bolt.  I think the photo below does a better job of showing my predicament.

As you can see on the right side of my bench vise, the top half of the screw is shown clearly broken off, with the bottom half stuck in the frog.



















After my initial 20 minutes of panicking and cursing, I decided to surf youtube for methods of removing the offending screw.  After skipping on the more extreme methods (involving welders, torches, and all manner of metal working magic) I decided on what appeared to be the simplest- a left handed (or reverse) threaded drill bit.

The idea is pretty simple, if you drill into the broken bolt using a reverse threaded drill bit, with your drill in reverse, the bit will eventually catch and unscrew the bolt.  I bought this screw / bolt extraction kit from KMS Tools which came with both left handed bits as well as special extraction bits.  Super good idea.

I then used a centre punch to mark the middle…which turned out to be a pretty difficult thing to do with the rough, uneven surface, but I needed something for the bit to catch on.

I then drove the reverse bit, in reverse of course, in my hand drill.  This was nerve wracking.  I kept drilling deeper into the broken bolt, not knowing how much metal there was left.  After about a quarter inch, the bolt caught onto the bit and began slowly turning out.  Eventually, as you can see, the bit had spun out enough that I could remove it with my fingers.

And there it is on my bench - the extracted, broken screw part

Here's the frog with the screw extracted.  No damage was done to the frog.

And there she is - reassembled, with a new screw.  Perfect condition, and after a few quick honings on the blade, ready for use.

So if you ever find yourself in my situation, don't panic.  Just find yourself a vendor of left-threaded drill bits.  It will get you out of trouble in a hurry.

Cedar, deck stain, and the controversies of outdoor woodworking

This is definitely not the time of year to be talking about or working on outdoor projects. Even here in the "warm" part of Canada it's freaking cold. And by that I mean it has been consistently around -1 celsius for at least seven days in a row. This is no time to be thinking about your patio. But I started this project last November and I just finished it the first week of January.

 I had been putting it off for a while but the short version of the story is this. We have tons of summer and spring type items and nowhere to put them where we can access them in short order without moving boxes, camping gear, and a bunch of other things first. I'm mostly talking about summer toys (balls, frisbees, kid pools, etc) as well as gardening stuff. These are things that we would like to access when we need them, but we just don't have the space in our small family home. I got the idea last year to build an outdoor box that would house all the items and look nice on our front porch.

 I actually found a great plan from the plansnow.com website and purchased it. I think it was in Wood magazine or something like that. Little did I know that I was signing myself up for a load of woodworking controversy.

 Outdoor projects of all types are an anomaly in woodworking. It's something almost all of us need to tackle from time to time but it's almost taboo to talk about it unless you are doing something artistic or outlandish, like a bird house in a weird shape made from recycled wood that you donated to a local club or something like that. Aside form that, outdoor projects tend to live on the wrong side of the woodworking tracks. They are made of softwood. They use butt joints, wood screws, polyurethane glues, and are generally painted or "stained." Truly no woodworker worth his salt engages in this sort of activity.

Controversy Number 1 - the species of wood
The plans that I purchased recommend using Douglas Fir for the outdoor bench/chest. The reasoning by the author of the plan was that Douglas Fir is very strong and looks nice. That is true. My workbench is made of Doug Fir. But it's inside. As far as I know it is not resilient outside. So I made the decision of using Western Red Cedar instead. Why? Cedar is rot, mildew and insect resistant. It tends to do well outdoors even without any protection. And unlike Cypress, White Oak, Teak or Mahogany, I can afford Cedar because it is readily available in BC where I live.

So Cedar it was.

That in itself was a controversy. I was given lots of advice not to use it. "Cedar dust is toxic." "Cedar is hard to work." "Cedar is never straight." "Cedar dents easily." "Cedar doesn't finish well."

Nice clear cedar - looks pretty good but dents easily.

Well I went with it anyway. Am I disappointed?

No, the cedar looked great and smells awesome. I have to say that it is likely the most soft wood I have ever worked with in my life however. At least the stuff I bought was. It dented at the slightest touch. I had to be really careful about not bumping things into it or putting it down to hard on my workbench. I hope, however, that the decision to use a wood that fares well outdoor will make my project last longer.




Controversy Number 2 - the finish
How to finish an outdoor project is mind boggling enough. Everyone has their own opinion and none of it seems to be based on fact. Some people say oil is the best. Either teak oil, danish oil, tung oil, linseed oil, or variations of these. Oh yeah, those are the best. Others will say the opposite. Oils are horrible, they ruin the wood and clog its pores. They will not protect it. Use something durable like a spar varnish or a marine finish for boats. Still others will say forget finishes - those never work. Don't use anything that produces any kind of film or sheen. Use a paint or a solid stain.

Of course, the fact that I was using cedar made it even more troubling. How do you finish an outdoor project made of cedar? Well all the above arguments were mentioned again, only this time there were many proponents of just leaving the cedar alone. Don't even finish it - it will do fine outdoors because cedar doesn't rot. It doesn't need a finish. I really didn't know what to do because I have never finished anything for outdoor purposes before. I am a fan of oil I have to say - oil, shellac and wax are my favourite finishes by far. Yet I know that they probably wouldn't work outdoors. So I caved and got some deck stain.

Ok so here was my next big question. What the heck is deck stain? I'm used to having "stain" mean something that colours wood. How come you can buy "clear" deck stain?? That makes no sense. Well it turns outs that deck stain is actually not a "stain." It's actually more like a paint. Like some sort of latex paint. And the clear form is not actually "clear" - it's a brownish colour. Go figure. Anyway, I put it on my project because almost everyone agreed that deck stain would preserve just about any outdoor furniture.

Yep.  Looks like paint.

So stain it was. I put it on with a brush just like paint.

The small block of wood is Western Red Cedar unfinished.
It is sitting on top of the "clear" finished cedar.

I have to say that it doesn't look bad, but it definitely doesn't look like cedar anymore. Or rather, it looks like the colour we generally think cedar looks like (overly reddish brown) but as my photos show, it does not actually look like cedar. Anyway - I'm happy the project is done and I hope it works well. I'm also hoping that in about two years when I have to re-coat this thing that I will have some better information regarding outdoor finishes - mostly hoping I'll find out whether or not deck stain is really all that it is cracked out to be.