Heavy Duty Stress In Wood

While ripping cedar boards yesterday I encountered heavy-duty wood stress. So much so, the board pinched between the table saw fence blade and splitter enough that I couldn't advance my 8’ board through the cut. Notice the gap under the board resting on the saw top. You should have seen the 1”x 1” strip that I was attempting to cut. It came off the blade “C” shaped and twisted from the wood tension.

Safety First

If this happens to you immediately stop feeding the board hold your board firmly in place, shut the saw down remove the board when blade stops spinning.

MLCS Matched Miniature Rail & Stile Router Bits

The online Shaker Clock video over at Charles Neil Woodworking, Charles used the Eagle America/Price Cutter miniature “round” matched rail and stile bit set for the clock doors. As I write, the lower priced Price Cutter bit set is selling for $89.99 and not sure if the shipping is included?

So last week I was looking around on the Internet and found a Company called MLCS Woodworking. They sell router bits and other woodworking goodies and have the miniature “round” rail and stile matched bit set for $49.95 with free shipping so for you value seekers, that's a $40.00 savings.

Worked Great!

Found a little shop time, milled some pine to 9/16 and ran the MLCS Woodworking mini round rail and stile bits. It didn't take long to dial in the setup. This joint is not glued only pushed together by hand.

Kehoe Jig Sled Setup

Here’s where you begin to work a little, the cool part. Now I didn’t pay that close attention to Charles in the Kehoe video (but I should of... I wasted a lot of time here where to start the index) but he did say it. Notice the picture and note the alignment of the stop (the thing with magnet attached) the sled and your wood. That is key, its your index point, you should now be ready to make your cut.

Here you will be making multiple test cuts to adjust your spline fit. First, set your blade angle as Charles instructs in the video. This is blade angle on your saw in relation to the angle of your dovetail cut, meaning insuring a proper fitting spline.

Second is the width of the spline. Set this up as Charles instructs in the video. I made a test cut using the pencil line which resulted in too wide of a spline. Note how I have moved away from my pencil line on the sled, this allows for a narrower spline. My goal is to have the spline centered in the dovetail cut.

Here the sled is through its full rang of motion. The sled must stop at the magnet or you will cut through the sled base! Cut and test cut and test!

Kehoe Jig Adjusting The Cut

Oops, the first cut is too deep which causes the top portion of the cut to tear out from the rotating shank passing through the wood instead of the cutter surface. Too deep because I adjusted my router so the dovetail bearing was tracking or following dead center along the finger or slot of the jig.

My second cut (one on the right) was set with the bearing riding high enough on the finger (about half the bearing) with the top of the cutter just kissing or passing through the top of the cut. Just perfect! My pencil line is to help with the visual and not an aid for cutting or set up. Nothing difficult here at all.

The Kehoe Jig For Making Spline Dovetails

In December 2008 the Kehoe Master Jig was a Charles Neil Contest prize which I was fortunate to win. Recently I had time to learn the basic jig. Before doing so, I suggest you watch the Charles Neil demonstration video first and along with the directions supplied with your jig.

I’m telling you this jig is super easy! Even easier if you already have experience machine cutting dovetails. The spline setup on the table saw was the most time consuming. But I would expect under an hour is probably about average for a first time . Next time I bet my setup should take less than 10 minuets. It’s the getting use to it part and test cuts making sure of a perfect fit.

Frankly, the supplied splines used as a gauge will get you as close to your fit as possible like Charles describes in the video. The two (2) setup cuts most time consuming will be table saw blade angle, necessary for a tight fit without gaps. The other is width of cut so splines center within the grove of your dovetail.

Kehoe Jig in position. If you have additional spring clamps in the shop, use them. I have four (4) holding the Jig down. Rather have a wee bit more holding power.

Speed Up Re-Coats Of Shellac

So you just sprayed an awful looking first coat of shellac, orange peel you name it! You put down too heavy a coat. You don't have all day to wait for the shellac to completely dry and you want to get another coat on to build your topcoat. However, first, you will need to knock down high spots of orange peel to level out your surface before a re-coat.

Ok we all know the rule, a topcoat is dry when sanded, a white powder comes off the paper, (in this case I'm using amber shellac so it will be an amber color powder). Now my shellac only has about an hour of dry, my sandpaper is still digging into the shellac and loading up. The shellac is dry, just not dry enough to "dry sand."

Solution, I know this sounds crazy, wet sand with soapy water. The soap provides lubrication. In this case, I'm using a foam backed 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper from Mirka. Great for scuffing between topcoats. The foam backing helps keep even "light" pressure that can actually help you from sand-thru. The bonus is the papers wet/dry performance!

Refinishing In Shellac A Veneer Table

Working on refinishing a teak/veneer coffee table that a friend purchase many years ago in the discount section. I suspected the veneer just de-laminated. However working on the table it was apparent while heating (after stripping the finish off cover the spot with thin cardboard and use medium heat from a household iron to warm the spot, this sometimes reactivates the glue) it wouldn't stick down. So I took a razor blade and slit into 2 of the bubbles and hit it with more heat then while pressing with my finger I could definitely feel something firm. Obviously, some crud must of been trapped underneath the veneer from the factory. The dents and deep scratches have been removed with a hot steam iron along with the alcohol water trick. I think our friends are going to be very surprised. Because of the thin veneer, I didn't want to take a chance of sanding through with my random orbit sander ("ROS") so I block sanded with 220 by hand instead.

Last week, one day our weather hit in the 60's (did you know... shellac isn't temperature sensitive and cold weather even under 40 won't affect the cure, that's a good thing to know way up here in the cold North), so I set up the garage to spray. I used the Zinsser Bulls Eye Amber Shellac 3 pound cut straight from the can (don't forget to strain your shellac it does contain lots of junk,chunks even bug parts) and put down a heavy coat or two. Sanded back with 320, then I decided to have some fun and hooked on to my ROS the Mirka Abralon 1000 and 2000 grit sanding pads to figure out my sheen. Wet the table top with soapy water and WOO HOO. No I didn't electrocute myself, but don't you do that, water and electricity DON'T MIX. Do not use an electric sander for this operation.

I want to achieve a satin finish and get that "close to the wood" feel as possible. I didn't really pile on that much shellac. Just enough to rub. So first, it's necessary to remove the gloss from the grain pockets to match the satin sheen of the higher top surface. To do this, I used 00 steel wool (didn't have any 0000 steel wool) and scrubbed (not hard) in the direction of the grain, then went over the entire top with maroon scuff pad.


Using the 1000 grit Abralon pad will give you approximately satin sheen. Using soapy water as a lubricant, hit it ACE! I Keep the ROS (sander) moving using light pressure (the weight of the sander is all that is necessary)





All done! It's that simple and looks great as is. But! I went ahead and put a coat of wax on to shine things up just a wee little bit....It's so easy guys and gals...you just can't mess up with the Abralon pads. Try them they work great, just as easy using by hand.