Greetings!

This newbie is pleased(?) to announce the crossing of several important
milestones as a woodworker recently:

First damaged tool
First injury with a woodworking tool
First thoroughly botched finishing job and...
First lesson(s) in patience learned the hard way.

Best part is that they all happened with the same project!

It all started with a desire to put a bunch of scrap to use with a
useful practice project. Looking around at some free plans online I
came across a page on building a music stool
(http://www.geocities.com/wefnut/plans/mustool.html) that I thought
would make a fine shop stool. I had just enough wood at my disposal to
follow that design.

For legs I used some 2"x2" white pine left over from building the frame
for a utility storage unit for the closet in my shop (spare bedroom) a
few feet of 1" poplar square I'd used for filets on the coffee table I
posted about here and finally some 2"x4" stock left over from when I
built my workbench. The 2" stock became the legs, and part of the
seat, the 2x4 made up the bulk of the seat and I used the poplar for
the stretchers.

Doing it this way I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I
sufficient stock to leave myself a comfortable margian of error for
cutting. Things were going well at first - perhaps a little too well -
and I was able to make the slab for the seat easially enough. However
that all changed when I started trimming the legs down to their final
length.

There I was sawing away with my brand new dozuki -- fresh from the Lee
Valley box in the corner -- trimming the ends off the legs when on the
third leg I high pitched pinging sound coming from the saw. I had
forgotten to pull out a staple in the end of the wood broke off about a
dozen teeth in the center of the blade. Doh! Oh well the saw only set
me back $22 as it was the Lee Valley generic starter dozuki, not one of
the super-sweet ones they carry. Removed the staple, finish the cuts
with my dovetail saw and call it good.

Several days later I'm working on the motises in the legs (my first
ever attempts at mortise and tenon joinery) when I hit my next
milestone. Specifically I hit my thumb, with a chisel. A very sharp
chisel. After thirty minutes of blood and bandages -- good thing I was
Boy Scout as a child and accustomed to bandaging self inflicted cuts on
my hands thanks to being allowed to play with pocket knives
unsupervised -- later I'm back at the bench. Didn't really feel like
doing much more that night, but I had to finish the mortise that got
me.

Finally when I get a few days off from work when Rita started rumbling
up toward Houston (I work in Clear Lake, an evacuation zone, but live
in Meyerland which is "safe" so I had time to kill in the shop) I
finish assembling the stool and over that weekend finish sanding
everything nice and smooth. Sanding when well, no injuries or damaged
property. I intended to use some Minwax "Early American" oil stain that
had been in my closet for about six months (when my wood working odessy
began.) Despite the fact that it was midnight on the day before I
needed to go back into work I figured "What the hell this stain only
needs to sit for 15 minutes I can be done in a hour!" Yeah right.

I did test on some scrap and it looked fine, but just a little too
light after a five minute set time so I decided to give it ten on the
stool. I quickly learned, around all those tight joints, the value of
finishing (esp brushing) before you assemble a piece. Some dripping and
swearing later I finish brushing the whole thing down and proceed to
wait for ten minutes. When trying to wipe it down the stain had
congealed to a sticky, gummy mess and wouldn't rub out at all. Panic
time. I break out the brush thinner and start wiping it down with that.
It helped a lot. Then I remember I was inside. In the spare room of my
apartment. Good times with the fumes. I press on as long as I can stand
the fumes and salvage the mitigate the worst of the damage.

I let the stain dry for two days and then started sanding down the
worst areas I didnt' get to with the thinner. In the end it turned out
OK. Not something I'll keepin the living room but decent enough at the
work bench.

The really surpising part came a few days later. When I showed it to my
SO she looked at it, said nice things, sat in it and immediatly
declared that it would be perfect to play guitar in and would I please
make one for her. Cool! A girlfriend sanctioned woodworking project!
Even bigger suprised came when another friend stopped by a couple days
ago and after giving the stool a test drive declared that a stool just
like that would be much more comfortable to practice the bass in than
his current chair and would I please make him one!

So now I get to make the cursed project twice more and appply the
lessons learned in the first one :-)

I'll try to post links to some pictures of the carnage this weekend and
of course will crow about the new ones when they are finished

Cheers,

Josh

"FunkySpaceCowboy" wrote in message
oups.com...
Greetings!

This newbie is pleased(?) to announce the crossing of several important
milestones as a woodworker recently:

First damaged tool
First injury with a woodworking tool
First thoroughly botched finishing job and...
First lesson(s) in patience learned the hard way.

Best part is that they all happened with the same project!

Congratulations on your milestones. Good luck and please, never come visit
me in the shop.

Fun description, Thanks. Good luck with the follow on projects.

One question though, how did you cut your thumb making a mortise?
That takes exceptional talent.

TWS

Try Grizzly for luthier (instrument) parts and info.
www.grizzly.com
Good luck Lyndell

"FunkySpaceCowboy" wrote in message
oups.com...
Greetings!

This newbie is pleased(?) to announce the crossing of several important
milestones as a woodworker recently:

First damaged tool
First injury with a woodworking tool
First thoroughly botched finishing job and...
First lesson(s) in patience learned the hard way.

Best part is that they all happened with the same project!

It all started with a desire to put a bunch of scrap to use with a
useful practice project. Looking around at some free plans online I
came across a page on building a music stool
(http://www.geocities.com/wefnut/plans/mustool.html) that I thought
would make a fine shop stool. I had just enough wood at my disposal to
follow that design.

For legs I used some 2"x2" white pine left over from building the frame
for a utility storage unit for the closet in my shop (spare bedroom) a
few feet of 1" poplar square I'd used for filets on the coffee table I
posted about here and finally some 2"x4" stock left over from when I
built my workbench. The 2" stock became the legs, and part of the
seat, the 2x4 made up the bulk of the seat and I used the poplar for
the stretchers.

Doing it this way I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I
sufficient stock to leave myself a comfortable margian of error for
cutting. Things were going well at first - perhaps a little too well -
and I was able to make the slab for the seat easially enough. However
that all changed when I started trimming the legs down to their final
length.

There I was sawing away with my brand new dozuki -- fresh from the Lee
Valley box in the corner -- trimming the ends off the legs when on the
third leg I high pitched pinging sound coming from the saw. I had
forgotten to pull out a staple in the end of the wood broke off about a
dozen teeth in the center of the blade. Doh! Oh well the saw only set
me back $22 as it was the Lee Valley generic starter dozuki, not one of
the super-sweet ones they carry. Removed the staple, finish the cuts
with my dovetail saw and call it good.

Several days later I'm working on the motises in the legs (my first
ever attempts at mortise and tenon joinery) when I hit my next
milestone. Specifically I hit my thumb, with a chisel. A very sharp
chisel. After thirty minutes of blood and bandages -- good thing I was
Boy Scout as a child and accustomed to bandaging self inflicted cuts on
my hands thanks to being allowed to play with pocket knives
unsupervised -- later I'm back at the bench. Didn't really feel like
doing much more that night, but I had to finish the mortise that got
me.

Finally when I get a few days off from work when Rita started rumbling
up toward Houston (I work in Clear Lake, an evacuation zone, but live
in Meyerland which is "safe" so I had time to kill in the shop) I
finish assembling the stool and over that weekend finish sanding
everything nice and smooth. Sanding when well, no injuries or damaged
property. I intended to use some Minwax "Early American" oil stain that
had been in my closet for about six months (when my wood working odessy
began.) Despite the fact that it was midnight on the day before I
needed to go back into work I figured "What the hell this stain only
needs to sit for 15 minutes I can be done in a hour!" Yeah right.

I did test on some scrap and it looked fine, but just a little too
light after a five minute set time so I decided to give it ten on the
stool. I quickly learned, around all those tight joints, the value of
finishing (esp brushing) before you assemble a piece. Some dripping and
swearing later I finish brushing the whole thing down and proceed to
wait for ten minutes. When trying to wipe it down the stain had
congealed to a sticky, gummy mess and wouldn't rub out at all. Panic
time. I break out the brush thinner and start wiping it down with that.
It helped a lot. Then I remember I was inside. In the spare room of my
apartment. Good times with the fumes. I press on as long as I can stand
the fumes and salvage the mitigate the worst of the damage.

I let the stain dry for two days and then started sanding down the
worst areas I didnt' get to with the thinner. In the end it turned out
OK. Not something I'll keepin the living room but decent enough at the
work bench.

The really surpising part came a few days later. When I showed it to my
SO she looked at it, said nice things, sat in it and immediatly
declared that it would be perfect to play guitar in and would I please
make one for her. Cool! A girlfriend sanctioned woodworking project!
Even bigger suprised came when another friend stopped by a couple days
ago and after giving the stool a test drive declared that a stool just
like that would be much more comfortable to practice the bass in than
his current chair and would I please make him one!

So now I get to make the cursed project twice more and appply the
lessons learned in the first one :-)

I'll try to post links to some pictures of the carnage this weekend and
of course will crow about the new ones when they are finished

Cheers,

Josh

TWS writes:

Fun description, Thanks. Good luck with the follow on projects.

One question though, how did you cut your thumb making a mortise?
That takes exceptional talent.

Really? I'm pleased to hear that I am exceptionally talented...

--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
CERN: Phone: +412276 76461 Fax: ..77930 Bat. 892-R-A13 CH-1211 Geneve 23

Juergen Hannappel wrote:
TWS writes:

Fun description, Thanks. Good luck with the follow on projects.

One question though, how did you cut your thumb making a mortise?
That takes exceptional talent.

Really? I'm pleased to hear that I am exceptionally talented...


Me, too. I've got a small hook shaped scar on my right thumb that's
nicely faded after about 35 years, but it came from a chisel that
bounced out of a mortise when I wasn't doing what I should have been
doing--paying attention.

On 8 Oct 2005 03:08:04 -0700, "Charlie Self"
wrote:


Juergen Hannappel wrote:
TWS writes:

Fun description, Thanks. Good luck with the follow on projects.

One question though, how did you cut your thumb making a mortise?
That takes exceptional talent.

Really? I'm pleased to hear that I am exceptionally talented...


Me, too. I've got a small hook shaped scar on my right thumb that's
nicely faded after about 35 years, but it came from a chisel that
bounced out of a mortise when I wasn't doing what I should have been
doing--paying attention.
Well, there ya go, since you are both exceptionally talented, you've
proved my point ;-)

I would still like to know (since I'd rather not learn from my own
experience) how you can cut a thumb cutting a mortise. I can
understand how it could be done if the workpiece is not clamped down
well enough and slips. If the workpiece is clamped down then I see
two ways to cut the mortise:
1) you are slicing the mortise so you are guiding the chisel with one
hand and driving the chisel with the other - I can't see how the
fingers get in the way in this case.
2) you are chopping the mortise so holding the chisel in one hand and
striking the chisel with a mallet of some sort. Charlie mentioned
bounce so I suppose I could visualize guiding the blade of the chisel
with one hand, the chisel bouncing out of the mortise AND his hand,
and then falling back and cutting a finger. Is this how it occurred?

Trying to learn from the 'masters',
TWS

My claim to fame is on injuring my thumb when making a mortise is when I
pulled the safety cap off the chisel after installing it in the mortiser.
My hand hit the table hard, I reacted late to the hand hitting the table,
and instead of using the muscles to stop the hand from hitting the table, I
fired the muscles after the bounce off the table and proceeded to accelerate
my hand back into the chisel.

What takes real talent is injuring yourself within a nano second of removing
a safety device.


"TWS" wrote in message
...
Fun description, Thanks. Good luck with the follow on projects.

One question though, how did you cut your thumb making a mortise?
That takes exceptional talent.

TWS

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 12:31:52 +0000, TWS wrote:

I would still like to know (since I'd rather not learn from my own
experience) how you can cut a thumb cutting a mortise. I can
understand how it could be done if the workpiece is not clamped down
well enough and slips.

This is close to how I did it. But replace "not clamped down well" with
"was holding the piece with right hand while wielding chisel with left*"
See I was trying to clean up the mortise because the tenon just wasn't
fitting right and it hadn't yet occurred to me that it would be easier
(and safer) to pare down the tenon instead. In any case the chisel slipped
out of the mortise and smacked into my thumb.

I'm just glad I've learned this lesson with hand tools now, instead of
waiting to learn it with a table saw :-)

Cheers,

Josh

------------
* I'm a southpaw

D Steck wrote:
My claim to fame is on injuring my thumb when making a mortise is when I
pulled the safety cap off the chisel after installing it in the mortiser.
My hand hit the table hard, I reacted late to the hand hitting the table,
and instead of using the muscles to stop the hand from hitting the table, I
fired the muscles after the bounce off the table and proceeded to accelerate
my hand back into the chisel.

What takes real talent is injuring yourself within a nano second of removing
a safety device.


I did almost that exact same thing a couple of weeks ago. I had gotten a
1/2" chisel clamped down a little too good in the Veritas honing guide (the
older one), and was fighting with the knob. It suddenly loosened, my hand
hit the workbench and jerked back towards the chisel. Nice clean cut on the
back of one of my fingers. Fun times.

-John