Softball Bats, Almost Done

Last spring the guys in my woodworking class got into making baseball bats. I'm not sure how it started, but 5 people including the instructor cranked out at least 1 bat. Towards the end of this the instructor mentioned that I was the one who should be making a bat since I actually play softball. At the time I was busy with other things.

Usually I take the summer off from class since I spend so much time with softball (playing, umpiring, scheduling umpires). This summer I decided it was worth the fairly low cost to have the shop available for as many nights as I could get there, so I signed up for the class. I spent most of the time working on Hiker Boy's advent calendar. I finished up the tasks I wanted to do on the advent calendar and still had a class and a half left. I didn't want to start another project, I've got more than enough waiting for completion, so I decided to give turning a bat a try.

First step was to mill blanks. This started with big slabs of ash about 4" x 10" x 3'. With help, that sucker was heavy, I cut 2 blanks about 4" square by 3' long. To make things easier on the lathe we set the blade on the table saw to 45 degrees and cut off the corners on the long edges.

This left something that looked like this:

Before heading to the lathe we used a saw to cut shallow grooves on one end of the blank, where you see the lines in the picture.





First step on the lathe was to create a cylinder. This is fairly simple but messy work. I ended up with wood chips, and saw dust everywhere including down my shirt. Once I had the wood worked into a cylinder it was time to start the real work. First step was to mark the locations of diameter changes. Using my favorite aluminum bat I measured out where the barrel ended and the taper began, the length of the handle and the width of the knob. I had to shorten the wooden bat slightly because the piece of wood was slightly shorter. It's only about an inch difference, not a major issue.

Using a parting tool I made incisions to mark the transition points. Then using a variety of tools I set to work on trimming the barrel to the desired thickness, and creating the taper. I ran out of time partway through. The picture on the left is the first bat with the barrel created and the taper roughed out and a lot of wood left to remove on the handle (left) end.


It was about two months before I got back to the bat. During week one of fall classes I finished off the first bat. After finishing off the construction - thinning out the handle, creating the knob and rounding over the edges of the knob and the end of the barrel - it was time for smoothing. A short round with a couple of files, and three grits of sand paper and the bat was almost done. (I thought I was a mess with all the wood chips I acquired it the turning - sanding just took that to a whole new level.) The knob is a little small, and there are a couple of nicks in the wood but it turned out (no pun intended) pretty good for my first try.

I had made 2 blanks, so I set off on bat number 2 as soon as bat 1 got to this point. By the time I left class on that first night of the fall session I had not only the mostly complete bat 1, but the cylinder for bat 2.

Thursday night I got back to work on bat 2. The steps were the same. The difference was a little more confidence and a little more patience. Bat number 2 is a little better than bat 1. The knob is the correct size, the handle is a little thicker (on purpose) and there are no nicks.

Next week I'll work on burnishing and finishing the bats, and separating them from the excess bits that allow them to be inserted into the lathe.



This is the knob on bat 2.






The two bats resting in my wheelbarrow. The lower bat is the first bat. If you click on the picture you can see one of the nicks near the taper.



Here are both bats sitting next to the aluminum bat they are patterned after. Bat 1 is in the middle.











Glossary (definitions from dictionary.com)
lathe - a machine for use in working wood, metal, etc., that holds the material and rotates it about a horizontal axis against a tool that shapes it.

Gouge - a chisel having a partly cylindrical blade with the bevel on either the concave or the convex side. Note: the link is to a stone for sharpening a gouge but it includes a good picture of a gouge.

parting tool - a thin tool, used in turning or planing, for cutting a piece in two.

Here is a picture of a small collection of turning tools.

Summer Woodworking

My last post was over 2 months ago. Sorry about that. I have done a bit of woodworking since then, although not a lot. Among the other things taking up my time were:

• We dropped off Snowflake's nightlight and met the man himself - he's a real cutie.

• I spent a couple of days on the Cape with my sister, her family, their friend and her son. One afternoon I supervised the boys D and JT making stepping stones (concrete, ceramic tiles and glitter). JT was particularly excited about the glitter. I didn't stay long enough to see the hardened stones, but word has it that the boys were fascinated by how the gloppy concrete turned into solid stones.

• We spent the last two weeks of July in the Adirondacks. We've vacationed there all but 2 of the last 12 years, the last 8 in Owl Cabin at Wakanda. Although I took some things to sand with me they never got pulled out. I did take photos and dimensions of an end table (a new addition to our cabin) which will likely end up as a project soon.
• Like too many other houses, our bathroom has a window above the tub. Since the tub is also used for showers the window gets wet. Over the years water has undermined the window framing, and the wall behind the plastic tub surround. The surround on our tub is several panels rather than a single piece. Over time the seams have lost their integrity and water has infiltrated. As embarrassing as it is to say this, the wall board behind the surround has been falling apart for years. After replacing the toilet and floor, we finally couldn't take it anymore. So in mid-August I carefully removed the surround and replaced the outside wall. Note to anyone reading - cardboard is not an acceptable shim in a bathroom wall! The job proved a little bit more involved than anticipated because the window trim was glued to the framing which meant that it all had to be replaced.
  
• Since returning from vacation work has been taking up a lot of time and more energy.
• I have been giving the kayak a good amount of time in the water.

There has been a bit of woodworking as well.

Hiker Boy's Advent Calendar

The stock for all parts has been milled, and I'm ready to start joinery. The drawer stock still needs to be cut to final dimension. The picture above is the corner of one of the doors.

Softball Bat
This is a new addition to the list. Last spring many of the guys in my woodworking class made baseball bats. One evening as I was leaving the instructor commented that I was the one who should be making a bat. He's aware of my participation in the softball league at work (I help run our team, play, umpire and coordinate the umpires for the league). And when he found out that I'd never used a lathe he was even more convinced that I should give it a try. I didn't have anything else to work on for the last class, so I decided to give it a try. Here's the progress so far. I should have it mostly finished next week when class starts again.



Workbench Top

The new top for the bench is almost complete. I used mahogany to edge the plywood. It's attached using biscuits which gave me an excuse to use my biscuit joiner. I attached it so it was a little higher than the surface of the plywood and then planed it down. The only thing left to do is to apply a finish to it. I'm leaning toward using boiled linseed oil.

Footstools
I filled the grain on the footstools with a mixture of pumice and boiled linseed oil. They look great, but need a lot of sanding. I've got the top of one done and it feels great after the sanding.

Ornament

Almost every year for the last 10 I've made a window hanging/Christmas tree ornament using my scrollsaw. The one pictured above is from 2005. Much to Amy's amazement I have already got the first pass of this year's design done. I'll try this one out and then make adjustments before starting in on the production run.

New Bench Top

I've been frustrated with the top of my primary workbench for quite a while. (I have a second bench but it serves as a storage area and will soon be leaving my shop.) The frame is functional, but the top which consists of 6 2X6s is not meeting my needs. I'd long ago decided that replacing the top with a double layer of 3/4" plywood would greatly improve it. I acquired the plywood back in April and it's been sitting in the garage since. A couple of weekends ago Amy helped me cut it down to the necessary size.

Last night I decided that this was the weekend to tackle the benchtop replacement. This is what it looked like when I headed to the shop today. The clutter on the top is normal, although the exact composition changes.


Step one of the process was to clear the bench. A number of things were put away, the rest were stacked in other places - on top of the other bench, on top of the router table, on the floor... The attached items - drill bit holder, vise, the screw from which my brush hangs and the doorbell light* were also removed. Here's how it looked at that point.


After removing the back splash, the boards of the top were removed, a fairly straight forward operation. Here's a look at the frame. The bright colored squares are rubber floor mats. I've had the floor padded for a while. I started with a small number of colored mats. When I expanded the padding all I could find were slightly larger black mats. I used both the colored mats and the new ones, but they don't interlock and this left edges to trip on which is definitely not a good idea. So, I took this opportunity to replace the colored mats with more of the black ones. This will give me fully interlocked padding.


Next step was layer number 1 of the plywood. I screwed this layer to the frame, and drilled pilot holes to attach the two layers together from below which will leave no screw holes on the work surface. After screwing down this piece, Amy helped me spread glue on it. Then we added the top layer.


The two layers were clamped together, and screwed together from below. The pieces are attached with 5 rows of three screws. I reattached the original back splash. I'll add hardwood edging once I get some milled, probably in class on Thursday.


I've already put the new top to use doing the final work on Snowflake's nightlight. The light panels and the track they ride in were sanded and the track was waxed using a birthday candle - it's almost the perfect size to fit into the 1/4" wide dado. I added the light holder, and the felt which covers the bottom. A light sanding and another coat of wipe-on polyurethane finished up the work. We'll be delivering it tomorrow.

* The doorbell light is an architect style lamp which is attached to a plug which is activated by a doorbell. The doorbell is installed next to the door to the shop. Visitors to the shop can get my attention when I've got my back to the door and ear plugs in by pressing the doorbell, which makes the light blink. I acquired this from a vendor specializing in equipment for the deaf. I highly recommend it. Amy likes it because she can get my attention without coming into the shop thus avoiding the dust and some of the noise.

Current Work

I haven't been spending quite as much time in the shop since the challenge table was completed. What I have been working on is getting finish on the other projects which are ready for it.

First up is the nightlight since we don't want Snowflake to be a teenager before he gets it. I'm finishing it before I assemble it. I've got stain on all the parts. Next up is the finish coat. I'm going to go with polyurethane for that. I should get to this on Monday.

I've also done a little final sanding on the wall cabinet. I've also decided one of the doors needs a slight adjustment - it's rubbing on the bottom. That'll be a round of planing. Then I'll stain the walnut panels on the doors and the shelves which are also walnut. I think I'm going to finish it off with shellac.

Next up will be the foot stools. I've found a recipe for grain filler that uses pumice and boiled linseed oil. I've got the ingredients, just need to find a time to try it out. The grain needs to be filled because the hickory has open grain. Stay tuned for progress and pictures.

In class (Thursday nights till mid July) I've been working on hiker boy's advent calendar. Last week I remilled/recut the wood for the case. The design of this was still evolving at that point (I finished it last night) and when I first cut the case parts I forgot to leave room for drawer handles inside the case. Last night was more milling and a little bit of cutting.

• planed the stock for the drawer fronts
• jointed, planed and cut the stock for the door stiles and rails
• I may have to repeat this since some of the pieces sprung into a lovely curve after cutting
  
• jointed, planed and resawed (explanation below) stock for the drawer sides

Resawing
When looking for a thin piece of wood there are basically 3 options - buy thin lumber which is expensive, plane a thicker piece which can waste a lot of wood, or resaw which maximizes the use of the lumber. Basically what a woodworker means when they saw they resawed a piece of lumber is that they cut the wood into thin strips. A lot of times this is done on a band saw which has a blade that is a loop (think rubber band) with teeth on one edge. This can also be done on a table saw - usually by raising the blade to 1/2 the height of the wood and running the wood through twice. Or a combination of table saw and band saw can be used - run it through the table saw to get most of the wood cut away and finish up on the band saw.

The reason the band saw is the preferred method is the blade is much thinner so there is less waste. But because the blade is thinner it is harder to get a straight cut. It's a trade off and there are lots of products to help.

Since the piece I was resawing was not very wide (2") I just cut it in one pass on the table saw. Yes, I used a push stick! Next time I'll run the cut pieces through the planer to even them up.

On tap for next week -

• recutting the pieces for the door frames
• cutting plywood panels for the doors, drawer bottoms and back
• milling and cutting pieces for the drawer supports/dividers

Challenge Table: Plug Jig

The original version of the Thorsen House table, and the version published in Popular Woodworking magazine (which was the inspiration for the challenge) both include square plugs on the legs, breadboard ends, and stretchers. I had intended to include plugs on my table but time got the best of me and the plugs did not happen.

I did, however, cut the plugs. (Now I've got a pile of plugs in my shop. I'll have to find another use for them.) To ensure that the plugs were equal in size I made the jig pictured above. This jig isn't perfect, I'll get to that in a minute. First a description of this jig.

The plugs for the table are square. So I needed a way to hold the small (1/4" square) rod while accurately cutting 3/8" long plugs. I decided the safest way to cut them would be with my Nobex miter saw, which is human powered. There are two pieces which support the stock - one on each side of the saw blade, a sliding stop which runs in dadoes in side extensions, and a base.

To ensure that the holes in the support blocks were aligned I used double-sided tape to join them. Then a 1/4" hole was drilled through both. The hole was squared up with a chisel. Then the support blocks were screwed to the base, and the extension wings were screwed to one block.

To use the jig the stock is pushed through the two support blocks with the stop in the closed position (it's in the open position in the picture above). Then the plug is cut. Once the cut is complete the stop is raised and the plug is pushed out.

What I'll do differently next time:

• the jig is much taller than necessary - the next one will be shorter
• there isn't enough size in the base to easily clamp it to the saw - the base needs to be longer and deeper side extensions wouldn't hurt either
• aligning the two support blocks for screwing to the base was tricky - next time I'll make a shorter support block from a single piece of wood and cut it in two after the jig is assembled.
• chiseling the square hole accurately was difficult - next time I'll cut a 1/4" x 1/4" dado in the bottom of the support block before the support block is attached to the base, and before it's cut in two. This will also provide better support for the plug stock and limit vibration.

The bottom line is that the jig worked but could have been better.

Challenge Table: Pictures

Well, here it is my take on the Thorsen House side table for the LumberJocks challenge.

The top, shelf, inlay and drawer handle are walnut. The breadboards, aprons, stretchers and legs are cherry. The walnut was stained using a gel stain to even out the color. Then the entire table was covered with two coats of amber shellac.

The drawer is aspen, and the drawer runners are maple.

The aprons and stretchers join the legs with mortise and tenon joints. The top and breadboard ends are also joined with motise and tenons. The stretchers have dadoes into which fits tenons on the shelf.


The table is 22" tall and the top is 17" square.

The just stained top.

To see the other challenge entries click here.

Challenge Table: Complete

I'll be posting more about the construction of the table when I get some time, and more than 2 brain cells to rub together (I had vicious insomnia last night and didn't get much sleep). In the meantime head on over to my LumberJocks project post to see pictures of the completed table and a description of it.