easy wood projects - Beer and Getting Rid of Machine Marks

easy wood projects

Im sitting here enjoying my beer and thinking about the mess I just had to clean up. Most of the woodworkers I know drink beer in the evenings and think or talk with friends about woodworking.

I have a couple of frame and panels Im almost ready to finish and when I took a closer look I found that they had been run through a surfacer that was either not set properly, the blades were dull, set to cut too deep or all of the above. I was not there and it goes to show you just because it went through a fancy machine does not mean it came out fancy. In-fact when wood comes out of a machine it always needs to be scrutinized; I dont care if the machine has helical blades and they are sharp and new. Wood is not all even like. The grain runs all over the place sometimes the prettier the figure the harder it is to finish. So you will need a card scraper which is very useful but it needs to be sharpened and will probably need to be re-sharpened during your finishing. You want it to produce shavings not sawdust. Of course every wood you work with will be different so for example pine shavings you get from a card scraper will be smaller and more crumbly than hardwoods but still it will be a feel of taking shavings versus a dull scraper will be the feel of making dust and not cutting. My panels looked like the ocean when I inspected them closely. You could see where the surfacrer went in and then caused ripples. I planed them again with my wooden smoothing plane set to ultra fine and then finished them off with a card scraper. I will also hit them with 320 before I finish them.

Panel and card scraper

Ripples and waves like the ocean left by the surfacer.

You can make a simple jig to hold the file square to the card scraper by running a kerf large enough to hold a file through a piece of 2x4

The jig will hold the file square to the scraper so you can file the edge clean

Or you can just file the card scrapers edge clean with a file by hand.

Next run the card scrapers edge on an 800 grit stone until smooth.

Next burnish the sides with a hardened burnisher. I got this from Ron Hock.

Next polish the edge with a 4000 grit or fine stone. You can use a block when you grind the edge of your scraper on a stone for support and to get a flatter more even edge. The order you stone the scraper should be course med and fine.

Then burnish the sides again.

Then polish the sides.

Then burnish the edge. You should do this a few times to turn the bur. Some people say only use as much force as if you were spreading peanut butter.(How to sharpen a scraper)

Find the correct angle to make shavings.

You should make shavings not sawdust. This wood is poplar so if you scrape poplar your shavings should at least look like this if not better.

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