My barber is a comedian...

I had a meeting this afternoon to go to and when I got done with it, I picked up DS and took us both to the barber shop for a shearing. When we arrived at the barber shop the staff were paying rapt attention to the television.

Fox News was on.

My barber's first comment? "We don't normally watch Fox, but we couldn't find any news on."

"What's going on?"

"Yeah. I'm looking out for you. I'm checking out what happened to your 201K.", he replied.

"201K? Don't you mean 401K?"

"Not anymore."

Ouch. The graphic says it all.

Gettin' jiggy wit it...

Every year at the beginning of the school year, I look back at last year's canoe building class. I try to find those things that slowed down the progress of the class or were difficult for students to do. I then sit down and design jigs and fixtures to improve things.

The first year I taught, I made some thin patterns out of Masonite, featherboards for ripping strips and a router table for molding strips.

The next year, we added thicker patterns and a pattern bit so that we could make exact copies of patterns very quickly. We also added a Freud thin-kerf blade (.093" thick blade) for ripping strips and new patterns for another canoe design.

The third year, we added a "type setting" board that aids in the assembly of feature strips.

This year, we'll add a gang-sawing assembly so that two strips can be cut at the same time. I'm also working on in-feed and out-feed tables for the strip ripping operation. A third canoe design is being added to the livery as well. Before the end of the year, I hope to have an improved design of my router table.

When you do the same thing again and again, jigs and fixtures don't just make your job easier, they also make it safer and more accurate.

Wordless Wednesday

Tech Tip Tuesday

Freud Diablo. A hell of a blade. No pun intended.

I'm picky about my blades. I've learned to be.

Why?

We use Western Red Cedar. It's not cheap and it's not as easy to get as it once was, so we can't afford to waste it. A typical table saw blade is 1/8" wide. That's half the width of the strips we're trying to mill. So, for every two strips that we cut, we'd blow one away as dust.

We started using a "thin kerf" Diablo blade - that was 3/32" thick. Better, but we're still blowing away a strip as dust for about every 2 1/2 strips cut.

This year we're moving on to use a Freud Diablo circular saw blade. It give just enough exposure above the saw's table to cut stock that is about an inch thick. However, the saw blade is only 1/16" thick. Now, we're only blowing away a strip as dust for every 4 strips we cut. Not bad at all, really.

To put this in perspective, typical blades are .125" thick. If you are making about 20 cuts from an 8" wide board, that is 2.5" of stock that you are losing from the board. If you're making 20 cuts with a .093" wide blade, you're losing 1.86". If you're making 20 cuts with a .062" wide blade, you're losing 1.25".

I really like the Diablo blades because the carbide teeth are wider than the Teflon-coated body of the blade with gives less contact with the wood, burns less, requires less horsepower and tends to stall less, giving you more consistent results. The blades also have laser cut dampening and expansion slots which reduce vibration and "cupping" of the blades as they warm up from use. The other advantage is that it's a fairly inexpensive blade at around $14 each.

I'm also having a spacer made so that I'll be able to mount two blades at the same time so that I can cut two strips at the same time. This should save a lot of time in the milling process. More on that at a later date.

A new challenge...

Tonight was the sign-up for a new session of my Wee Lassie canoe building class. It's not usually a dull time. I've been put in with three other instructors who teach what are primarily furniture-making classes - by far, a more popular set of classes. When the doors open, it must have been what nylon stocking sales must have been like at Macy's in the 40's.

It's a bit zooey, to be honest.

Three of my students are new. New students are always an unknown quantity - one of them I know but his experience is as a professional cabinetmaker - he should bring some interesting things and interesting questions to the class. Three of the students have taken the class before. Two of them missed a lot of classes and need to complete their boats. I know them fairly well and know how to help them best. The last is the builder of the Blue Streak. I've posted some of his work here before (A little bit over the top). His work is good and fairly meticulous. His comment to me tonight? "Now I've got to think up a better feature strip."

Apparently he's thrown down the gauntlet for himself.

No guts, no glory, no brains, no problem and no excuses.

This is going to be interesting.

Final Saturday

The last day of class was a bit of a blur. We fitted the scupper blocks, inwales, thwarts and outwales on the three canoes in one morning. To say that we were all elated to get the canoes finished would be an understatement. The end results were very good.

The canoe in the foreground is the Wee Lasse II and the two in the back are both Wee Lassies. I don't know if you can see in the picture, but the deck shapes, accent stripes and deck stripes on each canoe are unique. By the time the picture was taken, we were just beginning to realize how sunburnt we all were. We'd been working outside all morning and hadn't put on any sunscreen.

OOPS!

When we got done, and got the canoes loaded on the cars, I had my first opportunity to get out on the water - I took the school's Charlotte out for a paddle on Blue Hill Bay. As you can see from the picture, the day's weather was gorgeous. I got in maybe an hour and a half paddle. It was wonderful.

I had a quick errand that took me into Blue Hill and I stopped for a few pictures near Blue Hill Falls (AKA the Reversing Falls) which were on my way there. The falls are the exit of a salt water pond. As the tide rises and falls, the water entering and exiting the pond produces a pretty impressive flow.


Nearby there were some very picturesque sights - I'll post them later for Wordless Wednesdays. I felt that each of the shots was worthy of it's own posting.

That night, I was taken to dinner at the Brooklin Inn by two of my students who were still at the school on Saturday evening. A wonderful time was had by all!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Somebody posted this one today at the WoodenBoat website on a thread about International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Time to clean my monitor now...