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Wood Workers Safety Week

May 8, 2008 by Bob Easton 1 Comment

\Marc Spagnuolo, the Wood Whisperer, instigated “Wood Workers Safety Week” as the first week in May. Many folks have rallied round offering all sorts of useful advice. Unfortunately, much of it was learned the hard way. Being relatively new to woodworking, I recently mentioned to Marc that quickly learning about the dangerous techniques was difficult. Yes, they’re “out there” but in many scattered places. This week’s focus has brought many tips, stories, lessons, and bits of advice together.

Following is the collection I’ve found. You, or I, might not have a particular piece of equipment now and think the tip irrelevant, but the safety tips are valuable to have in mind when we do acquire that equipment. Read them all.

  • The Inspiration for Safety Week – Brent’s Injury- The Wood Whisperer
  • Episode 49 – Safety Week – The Wood Whisperer
  • Danger of Fumes- Furnitude
  • SawStop Prevents Stubs – Toologics
  • Only You Can Prevent Forrest Fires – Kaleo’s Workshop
  • WoodShop Safety for Kids
  • Bandsaw Cautionary Tale- Sandal Wood
  • Kick’n Off Woodworking Safety Week- Kaleo’s Workshop
  • Safety Week-Sleepy Dog Woodworking
  • TableSaw Safety is Serious Business – Woodworker’s Guide
  • Hand Tool Safety Tips- Adventures in Woodworking
  • Woodturners Exercise Caution- SandalWood
  • Manual Handling – Stu’s Shed
  • Keeping a Shop Inventory – Modern Woodshop
  • A Safety Review of My Workshop – Woodworker’s Guide
  • Shop Safety – WoodZone.com
  • Electrical Safety- DIYAdvisor.com
  • The Safety Dance – Modern Woodshop
  • Safety Glasses for Us that Wear Glasses – TreeFrogFurniture
  • Tagline for Safety Week- Adventures In Woodworking
  • Safety First!- The Village Carpenter
  • A TS, a Carnation Flower and My Thumb – SandalWood
  • Safety Dealing with Big Cats – Skiving Off
  • Injury Stories – Fine Woodworking
  • Close Calls in the Workshop- The Craftsman’s Path
  • TableSaw Safety- Tony’s Woodshop
  • My Story and Others- Popular Woodworking
  • Minimizing the Risk of Kickback – SandalWood
  • Sawdust in Your Lungs – Matt’s Basement Workshop
  • FineWoodworking.com Safety Tips – Introduction
  • FineWoodworking.com Safety Tips – Hand Tool Safety
  • FineWoodworking.com Safety Tips – Jointer Safety
  • Episode 50 – What If?
  • FineWoodWorking.com Safety Tips – Hearing Protection
  • Episode 51- Tablesaw Experience
  • FineWoodworking.com: Avoid Kickback and More
  • FineWoodworking.com Safety Tip – Dust Collection
  • Wood Toxicity is Nothing to Sneeze at -Woodworker’s Guide
  • Noise in the Workshop – Stu’s Shed
  • Machinery Operating Noise – Stu’s Shed
  • What NOT to do with a chisel – Stu’s Shed
  • Tablesaw Kickback Demonstration
  • QuickClot – Interesting product for your first aid kit, brought to my attention by Tim.
  • Episode 52 – My Mistake a variety of mistakes with many different tools. All of these were within Marc’s first year of wood working. Newbies: watch this one!
  • Super Glue: Safe for Treating Cuts? – Adventures in Woodworking
  • podcast 264 – Safety Week – Eye Protection – Matt’s Basement Workshop
  • Woodworking, and staying in shape – Sandal Woods
  • Episode 4 Shop Safety – Kaleo’s Workshop
  • Oh S#!t Hurt Again (OSHA) – R Jones Woodworks
  • Stu’s Safety Devices
  • 2008 Safety Week Wrap – Stu’s Shed
  • Episode 53 – Miter Saw Safety – The Wood Whisperer

Filed Under: Woodworking

Just Plane Practice

May 6, 2008 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

a bucket full of shavingsIt was a simple job, the kind assigned to a newbie woodworking apprentice. Make this piece of lumber thinner. Use those hand planes over there. Don’t even think of power tools. We don’t have any that are suitable for this job.

The lumber was a two yard long stick of common softwood, 1 x 3. I intend to use it as a mounting strip for hanging the decorative oriental rug (a gorgeous red Chinese dragon) that our son gave his mother. I wanted to use something close to 1/4 inch to minimize how much the mount stands off from the wall. This was the perfect job for learning how to use two of my “new” woodworking planes.

Stanley #40 scrub planeThe plane to use for quick stock removal is a Stanley #40 “scrub” plane. My #40 has an iron with the very old “Stanley Rule and Level Co.” trademark, which dates the plane to about 1910. A scrub plane has an iron with a curved cutting edge which is helpful for scrubbing off thick shavings. Scrubbing diagonally across the lumber makes quick work of reducing thickness while affording a reasonable degree of control.

I scrubbed about 1/4 inch off one side and then smoothed up the rough furrows with a Stanley #5 “jack” plane. Old stories say it is called a “jack” because it is the workhorse, “jack of all trades” plane. My #5 dates to sometime between 1933 and 1941. Stanley #5 jack planeThis smoothing work went faster than I expected. The first dozen or so passes knocked the high ponts off the scrub furrows. It didn’t take long to work those peaks down and start producing long wide shavings. A few minutes work and the surface was plenty smooth enough for this purpose, actually a good bit smoother than when it came home from the lumber store. I also have a good smoothing plane, but this application doesn’t need to be smoother and I was more than happy using only these two planes.

Flip the board over and do the other side. Yes, I could have done it all from one side, but this was an intentional learning exercise. Think about the “Karate Kid” waxing those cars. Practice is good.

The work went quickly and easily (ok, an hour or so of learning and practice). The most important thing I learned was how well these tools work when they are well honed and tuned. The weight and momentum of the tool does the work. It was aerobic work, not strenuous work. The time I spent learning to tune up and sharpen the tools has paid off very well, but that’s a story for another post.

BTW, anyone interested in rehabilitating old planes can get excellent advice from a seasoned sawyer in the Northwest, Bob Smalser. See his “Rehabilitating Old Planes” article, and many other useful articles here and here.

Filed Under: Hand tools, Woodworking

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