Winding Sticks

[ken hatch]

After finishing a several month or even a several week project I'm usually a little slow starting another. I've been in one of those in between times for a few weeks now. Usually I'll do tool maintenance and other shop projects to keep me in the shop and somewhat productive. Well just about all the iron is sharp, I've a assigned project to finish by the middle of the month, SWMBO wants a small table and chair for the new and only grandkid's first birthday. I'll start tomorrow but in the mean time I did a fun little shop project.

I had a hunk of Mahogany that has been following me around for a little over 40 years. It wasn't big enough to do anything with but too big to throw away. Bubba cut to the chase and stop the OF babbling. Anyway it was just long enough for a pair of winding sticks. What a nice little project when you don't want to do a lot of thinking or work. It requires a good number of the hand tool skills but each can be done quickly. One of the hangups was finding a light colored insert, I found some Holly pin turning blanks at Woodcraft and as I was paying for them one of the guys brought up a package of table saw inserts. The saw inserts followed me home as well as the Holly. BTW, the saw inserts were great, pure white and easy to work, now the only question is will the glue hold, if it doesn't I'll clean the mortices and replace with the Holly.

I spent the day working on the winding sticks, stop to geek, more work on the winding sticks, a trip to Costco, winding sticks and sharpen some iron, and so on. What a great day in the shop. Photos to follow.

ken

[Frederick Skelly]

Sounds like a good day Ken!

[Christopher Charles]

I use a silver and a black set of aliminum art frame pieces. my set is both exceedingly functional and completely aesthically uninspiring. Will look forward to seeing yours.

[ken hatch]

Frederick,

It was, but any day you spend most of the day piddling in the shop is good.

Here is a photo of the finished sticks. The table saw inserts were a disappointment. They absorbed any dust that got on 'em. I tried several things to bring them back to white but no joy. The next time I will use the Holly.



ken

[ken hatch]

Christopher,

I've a couple of metal ones as well as several different sizes of shop mades. They all do the job but I must say the wooden ones are better for my soul.

One more photo because I can:



ken

[David Dalzell]

Those winding sticks look really nice. I don't have dedicated winding sticks, although winding sticks are on my never-ending list of things to make. I usually just use scrap MDF and mark one edge black for visibility. I have a question about stability of mahogany since I have a fair amount of it in my wood stash. Is there any concern about warping/movement of the wood that might effect truing/flattening of a board?

[Pat Barry]

Christopher,

I've a couple of metal ones as well as several different sizes of shop mades. They all do the job but I must say the wooden ones are better for my soul.

One more photo because I can:



ken

Very nice Ken! Dumb question though, did you put the holly inserts into both of them or just the one? Thanks

[ken hatch]

Those winding sticks look really nice. I don't have dedicated winding sticks, although winding sticks are on my never-ending list of things to make. I usually just use scrap MDF and mark one edge black for visibility. I have a question about stability of mahogany since I have a fair amount of it in my wood stash. Is there any concern about warping/movement of the wood that might effect truing/flattening of a board?

David,

Shouldn't be a lot of worry about movement, the Mahogany blank had been in my shops for years. I understand Mahogany is pretty stable and being shop made if there is some movement it's no big deal to fix.

ken

[ken hatch]

Very nice Ken! Dumb question though, did you put the holly inserts into both of them or just the one? Thanks

Pat,

Thanks,

Just the one. I've made some with the insert on both sticks and find there is no advantage to doing so.

ken

[Phil Mueller]

Well done Ken. I'm waiting for some longer "scrap" to make another pair myself. Current ones are about 20"...I think the longer length like yours would be helpful.
thanks for posting.

[Michael Ray Smith]

Dumb question: Are the holes near the ends just for hanging, or do they have another function? And what are the light colored circles at the middle? At first I thought they were holes, too, but I see they're not.

[ken hatch]

Dumb question: Are the holes near the ends just for hanging, or do they have another function? And what are the light colored circles at the middle? At first I thought they were holes, too, but I see they're not.

Michael,

Ain't no dumb questions, only dumb unasked ones.

Yep, just hanging holes as there isn't a flat surface in my shop that is not covered and I like to keep my straight edges and winding sticks close to the bench. The "dots" are to mark the center of the stick, makes it a little easier to place the winding sticks and as a secondary function they mark the face side and bottom of the stick. You can't see it in the photos but the back side is beveled so the bottom is thicker than the top. The reason the hanging holes are at opposite ends is because I like to hang the sticks face to face.

ken

ken

[ken hatch]

Well done Ken. I'm waiting for some longer "scrap" to make another pair myself. Current ones are about 20"...I think the longer length like yours would be helpful.
thanks for posting.

Thanks Phil,

I have winding sticks as long as 1200mm and as short as 450mm. These are close to 750mm which I hope will be a good size for use both as a straight edge and winding sticks.

ken

[Bill Houghton]

Very nice, though I must confess here that my winding sticks are two garage-sale cheap aluminum levels (vials knocked out so I don't mistake them for real levels). Eventually, I'll paint one shiny and the other flat black to improve contrast. Straight, stable, easy to store.

But yours are a lot purtier.

[Phil Stone]

Similarly, I use two Harbor Freight (red anodized) aluminum straightedge/levels, about $12 a piece, iirc. Nothing beautiful like the ones Ken has made here, but functional.