Making Sawdust

3.1.14

"Making Sawdust"

At this stage in the game our Etsy shop is generating right around 3-4 sales a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  Generally though, for the ~4ish weeks we've been open we've gotten 16 sales.  Fortunately for us things are paced well enough that we can both fill the orders and fine-tune the manufacturing process.   

Long story short, we have to make the two pieces of rough wood on the left look like a product we're proud to sell.   We get all of our lumber roughsawn, which is just a fancy way of saying "not square".   I usually purchase the wood and let it sit in the shop for a week or so, but since the lumberyard is literally five miles from the shop the wood is pretty well acclimated to the humidity of my shop.  Still, a week or so doesn't hurt anybody and I haven't had any problems with this process yet.  

The milling process consists of squaring up one face and edge of the wood with a jointer.   If you don't know what a jointer is it looks something like this: 

Beneath that big, flat red thing are a series of blades that spin incredibly fast.  The whole point of the machine is to take a rough piece of wood and run it through the infeed table (on the right in the picture) so that the blades shave off the necessary amount of wood and when it reaches the outfeed table (on the left) it's square.  Of course, this is all in theory.  These things have to be tweaked and fiddled with and if having your fingers only a few feet away from a spinning blade of death isn't enough you have to calibrate these things more than NASA space shuttles.    Anyways, after we square a face and square an edge we head over to the planer and run in through (good face down on the bed) so that we get a nice parallel surface.   

The planer doesn't square a face, it just makes the face parallel to whichever side is face down.   So if you're throwing in some crappy wood that's all cupped and twisted all the planer will do is make the other side parallel to these cups and twists.  Some people might like this.  Tim Burton, for one, would probably enjoy wood that looks straight out of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".   Also, planers create a lot of finely shaved sawdust.  If anyone has any pet gerbils and have been spending cash on those bags of noodly-looking sawdust STOP.  I have plenty I'd be happy to give to you.  Upcycling is the future, people. 

After we've got our wood square and parallel it's off to the tablesaw.  This is where the fun starts.  We rip our walnut and thin strips of maple for the inlays.  I use a Grr-ripper to ensure my fingers stay in tact.  Seriously, if you rip narrow inlays (inlays is just a fancy word for those small strips of wood between the walnut) you NEED to get a Grr-Ripper:

Gives you a peace of mind to know that you're not going to be toting a cooler full of sausage fingers to the ER.  

Now that our wood is cut it's time for the glue-up.  At this point the wood is looking pretty good so with an ample amount of clamps (which you can never have enough of, by the way) it's time to glue these things together.  

What a lovely sight to behold.  Things are beginning to take shape now.  A thin bead of glue and enough force and these things won't break even if you throw them against a wall (which we at WoodEyes don't recommend).   After they dry it's time to sand the faces with 80 grit to get rid of the glue that's dried.  Dried glue + planer blades don't mix well.    When the sides are glue-free it's another trip through the planer and then a chamfering of the edges.  Chamfer is just a fancy term for a 45-degree angle at two perpendicular points:  

Then it's time to use a Forstner bit (1/2" & 1") to route out the holes for the magnet.  We use JB Weld to get these magnets in.  DO NOT USE HOT GLUE.  IT WILL WEAKEN THE MAGNET.  

We usually dry-fit the magnets to make sure they're flush and then set them aside.  If we put the magnets in before we finish these pieces we've found that they have a tendency to just be a major pain in the butt.  Screws start flying off the shelves onto the magnets.  The mounts start sticking to one another.  It's chaos and pandemonium.  So we usually save the actual gluing of the magnets for last.  It preserves everyone's sanity that way.

With the holes routed we sand 80-120-220 and then start our finishing.  First it's a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil followed by a coat of clear shellac before a final sanding of 2000 grit automotive sandpaper.  

The linseed oil really brings out the espresso look of the walnut and makes for a rich, handsome result.  The pieces on the right are eagerly awaiting their Linseed Oil / Shellac bath but already you can tell how well these pieces take the finish.   Once the 2000 grit is applied these pieces are phenomenal to behold.  

The over-enthusiastic seal of approval when all things are done.  A job well done. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this.  As things progress I'm sure I'll spend more time on each step.  This was just the rough-and-dirty look at how we make these mounts to both meet our high standards but also keep an efficient flow of production.  

Until next time.

Tootles,

Nick