My final walnut dowel rods lowes github will be 1. The result will be four interlocking - nested - spirals, pretty incredible! By rschoenm Follow. The manual specifies different paint colors depending on the ammo. The one exception is I decided not to retest with acetone; only the lacquer failed last time, so it seemed unneeded. When my daughter asked if I could build a baby doll bed for her doll, ,owes, I was thrilled.

On each end drill a hole pattern as shown in the pictures. A pattern template is attached. The plywood strip is attached to the two gantry plates with 15mm long low-profile M5 screws. The two gantry plates and the plywood piece form a sled for moving the dowel-turning assemblies along the actuator.

Attached to the plywood sled is a motor mount assembly to turn the dowel to be cut while the gantry moves forward. Let's call this the headstock. Mount four corner connectors with M5 - 8mm low-profile screws and Tee-nuts to a 10" long V-Slot 20x40 extrusion. The corner connectors should be mounted mm and mm from the end of the extrusion as shown in the pictures.

Then attach the V-Slot extrusion to the plywood sled with 8 wood screws. The V-Slot extrusion should be perpendicular to the linear actuator when installed. Install a second identical V-Slot extrusion on the other end of the plywood sled.

This is for the tailstock assembly. These dimensions allow for up to 14 inch long spirals. If you want to cut shorter lengths of spirals you can always move the second V-Slot extrusion and tailstock assembly to a new location on the plywood sled.

Templates for the mounting plates are attached. You need two each for the headstock and tailstock. The two herringbone helical gears were 3D printed. Specs are 20 teeth, 1. Files for the gears are attached.

If you don't have access to a 3D printer you can redesign the headstock assembly with a belt and pulley system. This is the 'drive center'. Mount the headstock and tailstock assemblies to the V-Slot extrusions on the plywood sled with M5 screws and Tee-nuts. To do this put the linear actuator onto a flat surface and use card-stock to lift the assemblies slightly off the surface - for clearance. Then tighten the M5 screws. Run the linear actuator back and forth to check that everything moves properly.

This would also be a good time to calibrate the x-axis stepper motor linear actuator settings. See below for software and hardware settings. My system calibrated at This means I have to enter desired spiral length in mm times 2 into the software. Its a little awkward to remember.

This is useful for future reference. For the y-axis - which is the rotation of the dowel - calibrate how many mm are needed for one revolution. For my setup it is 20 mm per revolution.

Make a note of that: millimeters to enter into software equals number of spiral turns desired times For example, mm yields 5 turns. Your numbers may differ. Finally, you need to make some brackets to attach the entire jig to the scroll saw table. I made some 3D printed angles and hooks that slide into the C-Beam extrusion. Detach the actuator end cap and slide the two angle brackets and two hooks into the appropriate slots as shown.

Later on use C-clamps to fix the jig to the scroll saw table in the desired position. The CNC shield should come with instructions. You need to set the micro-step jumpers for the two stepper motors. Connect the linear actuator stepper to the x-axis motor driver. Connect the dowel rotation stepper headstock to the y-axis motor driver.

Do not use the homing command in GRBL unless you install limit switches. To be on the safe side I installed an emergency cut-off switch into the 24V power supply line to the CNC shield. It can be very useful to avoid crashes. Use GRBL control software to cut your spirals. First you should test the setup by running each of the two motors separately. Remember that the x-axis is the linear actuator advance, the y-axis is actually the rotation of the dowel.

First of all, you should only use hardwoods for any spiral. Softwoods like pine, fir, etc are simply too fragile. Prepare a round, hexagonal, or square dowel up to 1. Anything thicker than that will challenge either the scroll saw or the stepper motor or both. If the blade bends while cutting the spiral will not unscrew and separate. I glue up square dowels from walnut, cherry, maple. Oak will work but tends to yield a rougher cut. Hickory and pecan are very hard and tend to burn the blade.

Make your creations interesting by mixing different hardwoods in one dowel. Leave it square, or trim to hexagonal, or round on a lathe. Trim the ends square. You also want to sand the dowels now to your desired finish, e. Mark the center on both end faces of the dowel. Drill a very shallow hole on the other end for the dead center and put a little bit of hand soap into the hole for lubrication.

With a powered sander or a handheld sanding block start at grit, then go to , , and The legs from Osborne actually come sanded to already, so I just went to right away on them. So I went to For the finish, you have a ton of options available. After two coats of the finish had fully dried, I applied wood glue to the tenon and inside of the mortise, assembled everything, and clamped it in place. Mark pilot holes, and use a hand screwdriver or battery screwdriver not a drill!

Turn the table top upside down, place the hinges on there so that the back will overhang by one inch. Pilot holes, and screws. I also decided to add one of these brass lid supports to hold the top open. I may add a second, but one seems to hold well. Well, the end is nigh! In a good way though.

Start by using a chamfer bit to get a 45 degree profile on all of the corners. This will reduce the sharp edges, and give the table an elegant edge profile. I used this great cordless trim router I got for Christmas, but literally any router will work. Sand everything down to a universal smoothness, starting with 80, then , the either or grit this will depend on wood type and stain type, a whole separate blog post on its own….

Vacuum everything, then apply stain. I used General Finishes Antique Oak , in a water based formula. You can either 1 wipe the whole table down with a damp cloth, let dry, then sand to final grit again essentially pre-raising the grain or 2 apply the stain, apply sanding sealer, then sand. I went with 2. The shellac based sanding sealer does two things; it helps protect the stain from being removed when I lightly sand the raised grain off.

It also keeps the Aquacoat see below , which is water-based, from reactivating the stain. For the finish, I elected to do multiple steps, in an attempt to reduce the rough texture you can get from the coarse grain of oak. To do this, I opted to use Aquacoat clear grain pore filler. Lightly scuff sand the table after both coats of shellac go on with grit sandpaper. Apply Aquacoat to directions on the container.

I did two layers. After the Aquacoat, allow to dry for a minimum of 72 hours before applying an oil based finish. Finish with a three coats of General Finishes Arm-r-Seal. These clips allow the table top to move freely as the seasons cause it to expand and contract. Predrill holes, and fasten them to the table base and table top!

However, this part was by far the most intimidating part of the process for me. I sent the two pieces I made in the previous post off to a local lumber yard that let me use their drum sanding services. For a fee, they took those pieces and sanded them down to an even 1. Once I got them home, I glued the two pieced together the same way we did in the last post. Before you glue, though, take this opportunity to start your final dimensions of the table.

Use a straight edge guide and cut this out with your circular saw. Confession time? My table is a quarter inch narrower than it should be. The MDF edge guide I used flexed in the center of the table length while I was cutting and took more off the center than it did the ends.

So, having learned my lesson, I reset the straight edge of fix this, but this time I added a clamp in the center of the guide too. When I got halfway down the table, I moved the clamp behind my saw so I could finish the cut. Learn from my mistakes! Even though the top two pieces should have basically been exactly the same thickness, I did have a slightly raised glue joint on one end. I was able to clean this up with my hand plane. BIG mistake. I ended up gouging a few spots, and had to belt sand them out.

Sharp tools are a godsend, dull ones make everything harder. Lesson learned. Essentially, the table top is going to want to expand and contract from side to side as the seasons change.

As the pieces expand at different rates and in different ways, the table could warp or cup. The solution it to fasten to boards on the ends to hold everything flat. This will, inevitably, cause cracks and damage to the table.

The solution? A tongue and groove joint with haunched tenons! Set a guide on your table so that it will take 2 inches off each side. A really handy trick I found was to use scrap pieces as the spacers between two pieces of plywood. Glue them together so the spacers are exactly as wide as the table. Mark and cut out the tenons. Leave a little extra and fine tune as needed. I used my block plane and chisels to tune everything up. Mark two hole locations on each breadboard where the tenon will enter the mortise.

I went 1. The walnut will add a really nice contrast. You could use any hardwood, really. You want the other tenons to be able to move back and forth and float. That means the glue is only sticking the dowel to the breadboard, not the tenon. Cut off the dowels with a flush cut saw, clean up with a chisel and sand.

Watch the video! I chose white oak, in part because of the cost relatively less expensive and in part because I am a big bourbon drinker, and like the idea of using its signature coopering wood in my build! I was shooting for 1. My final thickness will be 1. You want them as flat and squared as possible. This will ensure a solid glue joint. I made some custom 48 inch sawhorses to support the whole thing using this guide.

I then put some duct tape on the top to keep the boards from sticking to the sawhorses. While my pipe clamps are five feet long and I could technically clamp the whole table top in once piece, I decided to do it in two pieces. Spread a good, quality wood glue like Titebond 3 on the edges, using an acid brush or foam brush to make sure you get a nice, even layer.

I used cauls to help keep the top as flat as possible. Then, clamp them down to the table top to keep everything flat. Pipe clamps do the majority of the work providing pressure for the glue up.

The guild also has a bunch of clamps I could have used. Follow the directions on the glue bottle, but leave this clamped for at least an hour, if not more. When the glue is kind of tacky, use a cheap chisel or metal scraper to remove the glue that squeezes out. I realized, afterward, that part of why I started to write this blog was to make these projects more accessible.

So, I have now added italicized instructions which clarify how to accomplish these items without access to expensive machinery. First and foremost, sorry for the long delay between posts. I used several different styles as the overall inspiration for this table. We want a table that can regularly seat 8 people, but could expand to 10 when necessary.

To make sure this was the right fit, I cut a sheet of plywood and placed it on some sawhorses in the room. But in a good way. And, actually, it fits pretty well within the normal spacing parameters.

I have been very, very lucky to be paired with Donald Turner as my woodworking mentor through the St. Don has been a great resource for design, construction, and technical advice. The entire frame building process took place at his shop, which makes mine look puny!

The top of this table is going to be solid white oak, 1. My best estimate is it will be about lbs. I could use oak for the frame, but the grain would be difficult to hide. Once we established a flat side, we can use the planer to make the opposite side completely flat and parallel. We took the thickness down to 1. We then ripped the pieces to 2. This will make a strong frame that can be easily assembled.

Set the table saw to exactly half the width of the board, then cut through it in multiple passes pictured below. Use a miter gauge or crosscutting sled on your table saw to do this. You could also cut it with a handsaw, bandsaw, or even a jig saw. Use a chisel to remove the waste.

To cut the taper, we marked the line with a pencil based on the design Don drafted. I forgot to get pictures of the next step, but hopefully a written explanation should suffice. With the frame on a table, bottom side up, place the pedestal bolt side down onto the frame.

Align the pedestal with a square so that the sides are flush with the frame, then mark where the bolts touch. Using the smallest bit you have, drill a small pilot hole through center of the spots where the bolts were marked. Turn the pieces over, and using a forstner bit on a drill press or spade bit on hand drill , make a hole large enough to receive the washer that came with the kit, and drill about halfway through the wood.

The picture below is how it looks when assembled. I sat on it, and it had no problem handling my weight. My grandfather grew up during the Great Depression, served in the military until retirement, and raised a large and loving family. This was really something I did for my family and myself, but I also know my grandfather would be proud to know that I made this and would want me to share the process as well.

Well, when you make mitered corners for any sort of box, the corner ends up becoming two pieces of end grain that are joined together. End grain glue ups are substantially weaker than long grain face grain glue ups. How do we improve that? Well, one way is to add a spline. For a picture frame or small box, you can accomplish easy splines by creating a sled for your miter saw that you set the frame in which will cut a slot perpendicular to the miter.

For a big desk like this, though, it becomes a lot harder. One solution is to use a biscuit joiner on which you create a jig that attaches to the joiner. All I needed was a perpendicular reference point; I could use the fence on my joiner to adjust the height, and use the alignment points to make sure I got the corner on center. In woodworking, you do your own cutting and gluing so that you can finesse your project together just the way you want. Fortuntely, if you have the tools to cut, shape, and manipulate wood, you can create the sizes you need.

All of our lumber is stocked surfaced on 2 sides - which means the face and back of the boards are good and smooth and the edges are rough sawn. A straight line rip puts a true edge on the board so you can run it against a table saw fence and cut the width you need. A straight line rip is also performed after measuring the board. You will recieve wood that is larger than you request What we do is select wood to exceed the dimensions you need - that way you can cut it down to what you want.

For example, if you request a minimum of 4" wide, you will receive boards that are wider than that. You will be able to yield 4" widths. Likewise for length requests. You'll receive boards that are longer than your request.

You may be charged for more wood than you order The boards we select may compute to more footage than you anticipated. You will be billed for the actual footage that we ship. We always contact you first to discuss and make sure you get what you need and are not surprised by additional charges. It might take longer Please be patient. Selecting wood takes time to do it right. Looking for material to meet your size demands will add to the amount of time it takes us to pull your order together.

But we promise to do it right, and to do it well. No problem. Please call or email us to get a custom cutting quote. We'll be happy to help. Due to the limitations of website software, we can't provide a price for custom cut wood without discussing with you first. Elliot Road Tempe, AZ tempe woodworkerssource. Palo Verde Tucson, AZ tucson woodworkerssource. The Janka hardness test is the international standard for measuring the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear.

It's expressed in psi, or pounds-per-square-inch. The test measures the pressure required to embed an The measurement was developed to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring; however, we include it here and compare it to the rating of red oak to help you make a buying choice.

There is a difference between hardness and being difficult to work with. Generally speaking, the harder the wood the easier it is to finish and polish. Harder woods create good, solid long-lasting joinery in furniture. The hardness of wood varies with the direction of the wood grain, and varies from piece to piece.

So a Janka rating is an average of numerous tests performed on all directions and numerous pieces. Use the Janka hardness rating as guide, not a definitive answer. We display the specific gravity for each of our woods using it's kiln-dried measurement instead of the non-dried measurement.

The trouble with this number is that the specific gravity of a wood changes with its moisture content. So use this number just as a ballpark guide to estimate how dense a wood is. We've also compared the number to that of red oak, as red oak is the most commonly used hardwood in North America. Most of the time, the higher the specific gravity, the more abuse your tools take. Conversely, woods with low specific gravity don't make good choices for furniture and are more difficult to create nice, strong joints with.

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