01-01-2016, 10:43 AM
This relates in part to the discussion of tools for smoothing and shaping that followed C. Warner’s recent post (“What’s next” in Hand Tools), but I think it’s far enough afield that I’ll post it separately.
Last week two of my grandsons and I played in the shop making wobblebots. These passive rampwalkers require feet with wobbly bottoms. An article I read suggested turning a large-radius spherical cap onto a small square of wood and cutting it in two to yield a pair of wobbly feet. I don’t have a lathe, so instead of turning, I started by cutting intersecting cylindrical surfaces of the desired radius onto the face of a square piece of wood using the bandsaw. I did that before the boys got there. Here’s a photo of the setup.
After that it was hand tools. The next task was to remove the diagonal arrises where the cylinders meet. The spokeshave can make quick work of that. The raised arrises made easy targets for the boys to try out the shave, and Grandpa then blended the surfaces close to spherical.
Finally, to smooth and unify the surface as spherical, we used an LN pull-float. The float zipped away any remaining bandsaw marks and other irregularities. We matched the shape of the workpiece to a cardboard radius-template we cut. The float can cut aggressively, but it’s also easy to control, safe for the kids with supervision, not easily damaged and easy to sharpen. Plus I really like it for shaping and smoothing. It works well on many things, and it’s fun to use.
Part of the fun is that the float looks so crude and menacing, like something liberated from a Medieval dungeon, but it can deliver a highly refined surface almost like magic. The photo shows an example of our results.
I’ve done shaping like this by myself with Auriou rasps, a Japanese milled-tooth file, and sanding, all mentioned in the discussion following C. Warner’s post. Each has its strengths, and they all can be made to work well. But the tool I prefer to produce an almost flawless surface quickly, time and again, is the float.
The grandsons, ages 6 and 9, attend a school where woodshop is part of the curriculum, starting in kindergarten. They are taught basic skills. Then they are encouraged to conceive of things and make them using the skills they've learned. I was pleased with how comfortable each one seemed with the tools I gave him. They knew what to do with their hands.
When I demonstrated squaring a board, the older one said he did that in school. So I handed him the block plane and try square, and he proceeded to square the edge for his happy grandpa. That really warmed my heart. I wish such training could be part of all kids’ education.
Happy New Year to all.
Last week two of my grandsons and I played in the shop making wobblebots. These passive rampwalkers require feet with wobbly bottoms. An article I read suggested turning a large-radius spherical cap onto a small square of wood and cutting it in two to yield a pair of wobbly feet. I don’t have a lathe, so instead of turning, I started by cutting intersecting cylindrical surfaces of the desired radius onto the face of a square piece of wood using the bandsaw. I did that before the boys got there. Here’s a photo of the setup.
After that it was hand tools. The next task was to remove the diagonal arrises where the cylinders meet. The spokeshave can make quick work of that. The raised arrises made easy targets for the boys to try out the shave, and Grandpa then blended the surfaces close to spherical.
Finally, to smooth and unify the surface as spherical, we used an LN pull-float. The float zipped away any remaining bandsaw marks and other irregularities. We matched the shape of the workpiece to a cardboard radius-template we cut. The float can cut aggressively, but it’s also easy to control, safe for the kids with supervision, not easily damaged and easy to sharpen. Plus I really like it for shaping and smoothing. It works well on many things, and it’s fun to use.
Part of the fun is that the float looks so crude and menacing, like something liberated from a Medieval dungeon, but it can deliver a highly refined surface almost like magic. The photo shows an example of our results.
I’ve done shaping like this by myself with Auriou rasps, a Japanese milled-tooth file, and sanding, all mentioned in the discussion following C. Warner’s post. Each has its strengths, and they all can be made to work well. But the tool I prefer to produce an almost flawless surface quickly, time and again, is the float.
The grandsons, ages 6 and 9, attend a school where woodshop is part of the curriculum, starting in kindergarten. They are taught basic skills. Then they are encouraged to conceive of things and make them using the skills they've learned. I was pleased with how comfortable each one seemed with the tools I gave him. They knew what to do with their hands.
When I demonstrated squaring a board, the older one said he did that in school. So I handed him the block plane and try square, and he proceeded to square the edge for his happy grandpa. That really warmed my heart. I wish such training could be part of all kids’ education.
Happy New Year to all.
