Rommy plan: making

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Overcoming Lifes Little Irritants And Making Bigger Ones In The Process

My ever beautiful, vivacious, kind, loving, but completely irrational wife insisted on “anything but an iPhone” when it came time to update her cell phone recently. This is probably due to my actions, more than hers.

Come on. Be honest with me. How many of you, while involved in something your really into, have either turned off your cell phone’s ringer, or turned the phone off completely? Then, when questioned by your wives why you didn’t pick up the phone when she called, you have answered with; “Gosh, it didn’t ring the whole time I was there. It must have been a bad signal”?

I used that con so many times, my wife believe the iPhones are crap. They are, of course, but don’t tell the members of the Apple cult that or you will be taking your life into your own hands.

So I bought my wife a Blackberry Tour.

If I were “joe-executive”, I would buy a Blackberry in a minute. Hands down, it is probably the fastest, most reliable cell phone out there that is configured and formatted with the businessman in mind. But I’m not joe-exec, so the thing is just a pain in the ass for me, but hey, it’s my wife’s phone so I don’t really care. Hers or not, it did presented me with a dilemma.

I started to write an explanation of the whys, hows and whatnots of this dilemma, but when I realized that I was typing away on page number 10, I wiped it all out and instead, will give you the abbreviated version.

Blackberry	Bluetooth equipped (as per all cell phones these days)
2007 Ford Fusion	Not Bluetooth equipped - became standard in 2008 (figures)
Pairing	To set up the common frequency between two devices and establish the encryption they will use to attempt to keep the contents of their communication private
Pairing Devices	Available aftermarket ranging from $9 to $1000
Suitability	None
Reason	Mounted by suction cups larger than my wife’s bra, clasps that scratch the dashboard piece just showing them to each other, or possible positions result in wiring hanging down in front of the driver
Conclusion	Make my own
Result	The following “hands-free” cell phone unit that will mount the phone without damaging the dashboard components and will allow the phone conversation to be heard through the car’s stereo

Material	Walnut
Product used	Griffith Hands-Free Microphone and AUX Cable
Connections	One wire from the phone to the mic, mic plugs into the auxiliary jack on the car’s stereo
Issue	Fusion has auxiliary jack buried in the console glove box
Design	Buried the wires between the phone and the mic in the phone’s mount pad, installed the mic in a tower beside the phone, allow the pad to swivel and make everything robust enough to take my wife’s abuse
Time	3-hours per day over a 4-day period
Last procedure	Drilled pad for swivel mount
Procedures remaining	None
Reason	Drilled through the damned buried wiring!!!
Results	None - its pure junk now!!!

Peace,

Mitchell

Making a Jarvi Bench video

I just came across this video on YouTube. Wow on so many levels.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Making Magic

Potter Style

My seven year old son Nelson, recently watched the final part of the Harry Potter movies. He’s a bit of a book worm to say the least and ever since watching the series, he has been determined to make a magic wand. Yesterday, we spent some time together in the wood shop and now young Nelson has his wand.The experience from my point of view, was magical to say the least.
To begin, he shaped a piece of curly maple using a spokeshave and then smoothed the form with some sandpaper. We held the thin piece of maple in place with some elevated bench dogs I recently made for holding work up off the bench top. He then cross cut the stock to length using a fine razor saw and after a quick rub of oil/varnish he was ready to make some magic.
Another young wizard is ready to take on the world~ Expecto Patronum !

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

A spokeshave forms the curly maple.

Sanding blends the shape.

Cross cut to length.

Expecto Patronum !

Making Handles for New Tools

Wow, the holidays sure are crazy! Ive been so busy that I havent done a post in almost two weeks. Ironically, Ive actually been in the shop quite a bit working on several projects. In the beginning I was taking pictures to use for a couple of posts, but by the end, I was so crazed trying to finish up two Christmas presents that I didnt slow down enough to even think about taking pictures. Maybe Ill do a short "final product" post on those gifts...

But today I could relax in the shop, and I used my time to make handles for three new tools my wonderful wife gave me for Christmas: two Japanese milled-tooth files and a Nicholson #49 pattern makers rasp. Yes!

I dug up some birch for the handles...

...and split it into rough blanks with a hatched and maul.

I cleaned up the blanks with a scrub plane and spokeshave. Then I found some copper fittings to use for the ferrules, and transferred the diameter to the handle stock using pencil graphite.

I carefully (sort of) sawed around the shoulder and then pared the tenon with a chisel. I did the final rounding with the rasp itself - it would have been much easier to use (safer too) if it had only had a handle - hmm...

I dont really have a "design" for my handles. I just make them feel comfortable in my hand. I tend to end up with some variation on a general theme of tapered octagonal prisms.

Heres a shot of the finished handle, with ferrule and final shaping complete. The chamfering of the end was done with a chisel, while the tiny chamfers on the shoulder (not visible in this shot) I did with a knife.

After making the first handle (for the #49 rasp) with the copper left bright, I decided to experiment with giving the next ferrule some patina. My attempt at using heated mineral oil created a mottled look that I actually like very much. Its different than the uniform black I created on the bolts for the turning saw project. Im not sure if its a result of using mineral oil instead of linseed oil, or if it has something to do with the copper.

Here are two final group shots:

Oh, and how do they work? Fantastic! Especially the rasp - what a revelation! Thank you for the wonderful gifts Sweetie!