Another jointing thread, wood that is not dimensioned

[Kees Heiden]

A few more notes. It is a lot of extra work to flatten the faces of both boards before gluing, then having to true up the face again after gluing. And usually more thickness is lost with all these extra facings. As you noticed the so called "match planing" needs a face on each board to be flat, so it is not really a help in this situation. Nicholson (1812) noted that two boards were shot together only if they were very thin. In any case the use of a square from a flat side is not nearly as accurate as winding sticks in making a flat joining surface.

While I acknowledge your much larger experience, I wonder if this is all correct. When you flatten one face of the boards first, make square edges for the gluejoint and then do a decent gluejob, then you do not need to deal with "having to true up the face again after gluing". Just a bit of scraping or work with the smooth plane on the glue line, and you are set. No thickness lost either. In contrast, juggling with cupped, bowed and twisted boards, without faceplaning them first is turning a simple job in a much harder one.

I suspect it is no wonder that the method of flattening one face and squaring the edge to this face, turned into the modern standard for glue ups.

[Brian Holcombe]

I'll throw in my 2 cents. I also put a contrast dowel dot in the lower center of each to easily place both in the center of the work piece. So Anal. Of course, Brian, you could certainly inlay some kind of compass with exotic woods if you wish

lol, this is fast approaching 'shop furniture'.

[Reinis Kanders]

I am not an expert, but I have tried it both ways and it did seem more efficient to do it the way Warren recomends. Especially for panels because one does not have to be perfect and boards can be arranged to minimize amount of work. In panel only edges really matter. If one is making shutters which are usually mechanically secured to the siding then some twist could be easily tolerated. Modern shutters are for looks and they are screwed down so the backside can be left as is.

While I acknowledge your much larger experience, I wonder if this is all correct. When you flatten one face of the boards first, make square edges for the gluejoint and then do a decent gluejob, then you do not need to deal with "having to true up the face again after gluing". Just a bit of scraping or work with the smooth plane on the glue line, and you are set. No thickness lost either. In contrast, juggling with cupped, bowed and twisted boards, without faceplaning them first is turning a simple job in a much harder one.

I suspect it is no wonder that the method of flattening one face and squaring the edge to this face, turned into the modern standard for glue ups.

[Kees Heiden]

Well I have a cabinet project underway and will for sure give Warren's method a try.

[Mike Holbrook]

Hi Reinis, true, except the shutters on the front of my house are actually on hinges, not attached to the side of the house. They were made, by the cabinet maker I believe. Unfortunately the "raised" panels were made with MDF vs real wood. A couple got water in the seams and need to be replaced.

The LV nesting winding sticks are made very close to the way Warren mentions: 18" long, a little less than 1 1/2" tall, with four contrasting, polished metal and etched black lines on one side and the back sides are flat black. If the rear winding stick has the side with the contrasting lines facing the user and the front winding stick has the flat black side facing the user, the contrasting lines show up very well if there is twist/wind. The set costs under $30.

[Brian Holcombe]

Handmade bacon strips;



Planing bubinga at 38 degrees, something I understand to be impossible;



And a movie;

[Mike Holbrook]

Very nice! The pieces of Purple heart I just found are not quite that thick. Might be a good test for a couple Japanese paring chisels I just received. Got to love a little tool porn. You don't work to rock & roll?

[Pat Barry]

I like the work Brian did and his new winding sticks look great of course, but with solid wood I worry that there may be seasonal changes and the sticks might warp. This might be one of those times when good old fashioned BB might be a better choice to help ensure stability / straightness with seasonal changes.

[Brian Holcombe]

Very nice! The pieces of Purple heart I just found are not quite that thick. Might be a good test for a couple Japanese paring chisels I just received. Got to love a little tool porn. You don't work to rock & roll?

Thanks Mike! Purple heart would certainly be a good test. When it comes to brutal woods, like the above and ebony/rosewood, etc, I just take really like cuts and keep my tools super sharp. It's small work so they'll get there eventually.

I listen to alternative rock (new generally, but sometimes 90's), classical music, Japanese flute, cello, classical Chinese music, 90's hiphop, Jazz (greats, not elevator jazz) and occasionally a few bands from the classic rock genre (stuff thats not just overplayed to death). I'm burnt out on classic rock, I can't listen to it, though my wife finds it hysterical that I know the lyrics by heart to practically every classic rock regularly played on the radio....which is strange for something she's never heard me listen to.

Trouble is, youtube flags anything with a conflict, so if I have music in the background that is copyrighted they'll either take the video down or play adds and give the proceeds to the musician (which is fine with me). To avoid this issue I just turn the music off and play some music that is 'approved' in the videos.

I like the work Brian did and his new winding sticks look great of course, but with solid wood I worry that there may be seasonal changes and the sticks might warp. This might be one of those times when good old fashioned BB might be a better choice to help ensure stability / straightness with seasonal changes.

Thanks Pat! Good point, for wooden reference material I check them every few months. I chose this wood because typically it doesn't move much and it won't ding up easily. Otherwise I would probably put it as my near last choice of material to use, hah.

[Kees Heiden]

Here are my winding sticks, made from padouk with maple accents. I made them many years ago. They are certainly not perfect, but they only need to be equal, which is easilly tested and quickly corrected with a few plane strokes. I always use them in the same orentation and the maple dots help to find that orientation quickly.

foto (26).jpg

[Steve Voigt]

Brian,
I imagine those will work well.
I did a little digging and found this article by Mr. Schwarz:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wo...ter-visibility

I'm thinking I must've read this before, and just not remembered it. Anyway it's interesting, he says the same thing I did about visibility. I'll be interested to hear, once you've had a chance to work with them, if your experience is the same.

[Steve Voigt]

I like the work Brian did and his new winding sticks look great of course, but with solid wood I worry that there may be seasonal changes and the sticks might warp. This might be one of those times when good old fashioned BB might be a better choice to help ensure stability / straightness with seasonal changes.

Pat,
My BB sticks have held up well, but that is not always the case with BB…it won't expand/contract the way solid will, but I've had other shop tools made of it that warped, quite badly. Perhaps there are stresses caused by the opposed layers (glued perpendicular to each other, as we all know) that cause it to warp and twist. Pure speculation on my part, but anyway I'm not sure it's clearly better than solid for this application. I made mine out of BB because it was handy, nothing more.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Steve! I think they'll do well and thanks for prodding me along a bit to build a pair. I'll report back with commentary about how well they work. I might have gone higher visibility, so if it doesn't have enough contrast I'll see about making a set in maple.

[Phil Mueller]

Here's the ones I made ala Schwarz...walnut with maple accent. 22" long by 2 3/8" tall.

image.jpg image.jpg

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Phil, those are gorgeous!