The Morning Woodworker

Popcorn Anyone?

Would somebody please tell me why you would want to put popcorn texture on a garage ceiling.

When I first moved into my house 8 years ago, I thought it was odd that the previous owners put the popcorn texture  on the ceiling of the garage when it was added on. I could understand if it was going to be a livable room, but it is not. The walls aren’t even insulated or drywalled. I never really gave it much thought all of these years. I would occasionally look up and just kind of shrug and think “whatever”.

It wasn’t until I started my woodworking hobby that I started to worry about it. I guess it was just coincidence or maybe fate. My first project was refinishing my wife’s table. After I put a couple coats of paint on the table, I come home one day to find a big ass chunk of popcorn that had fallen from the ceiling right next to the table. Then I thought, “Hell no, that has got to go!”

So here I am, finally scraping the popcorn off my garage ceiling. In case anybody is interested, here is how I am doing it.

First I spray a small area with a warm soap water solution. You have to spray it lightly or it will drip off. I spray two coats ’cause this stuff absorbs a lot.

Then, using a drywall scraper, I just skim the surface of the drywall and the popcorn just falls into the dustpan. If the popcorn is resisting too much, you need more soapy water on it. It should come off fairly easily. Oh, and wear a dust mask or respirator. This stuff is messy and dusty.

Well, here is what I have so far. It doesn’t really take that long to do but I had other stuff to do tonight. I just wanted to get started so I could hang a air cleaner that I had just bought.

Posted in Shop | 4 Comments »

Discovered Handtools

I have had this MillersFalls Jackplane for probably 4 or 5 months now. I bought it off of ebay for around $25. I have never been a big fan of hand tools ’cause they are slow and, well, they take some effort to use. But I thought that it looked kind of cool and “Old Timey”so I bought it anyway. I picked it up the other day just to see how this thing worked. I scrubbed this baby across a board that I had laying in the shop and I wasn’t too impressed. Click on the above photo and you can see why. The shavings that it produced were just plain sorry. Granted my technique is sorry too but this just sucked.

Well, when I bought this plane I had also purchased a book on planes so I could figure out what’s what. It is “The Handplane Book” by Garrett Hack, published by Taunton. I honestly tried reading that book in the past but the only thing that it accomplished was me seeing Mr. Sandman a little earlier than normal.

After my bad experience with the handplane I thought that I would give the book another go at it. I read the part about tuning handplanes and sought out to make mine work a little better. I have to tell you, I do not have an elaborate sharpening station nor do I have any fancy equipment. What I do have is a granite block some sandpaper and a Veritas Hone Guide. (I guess the Veritas is fancy) I believe this set up is called the “Scary Sharp” method but I’m not sure about that.

The first thing I did was grind that sucker on some 180 grit self sticking sanding pads that I snagged from work. That defined the angle pretty quick. The Veritas angle thing worked really well.

Next, I ran the blade over some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. I opted to go the wet route. I also honed the blade cap thing (excuse me if I don’t know the technical terms) to flatten and smooth the edge that meets the blade. The first time I used the plane, I had pieces of wood jammed in between the two and messed everything up.

Then I did the same thing again but I used 1200 grit paper. I did this until I had a nice little burr forming on the back of the blade then I turned the blade over and polished the burr down.

I put everything back together and adjusted everthing the best way I knew how. Then, by using my table saw as a reference, determined the high and low spots of the board by rocking it back and forth. I worked on those high spots until everything was level and as you can see, my shaving are a hell of a lot better than when I first started.

So after dogging the handplane book as a boring read, I have to admit that it does a good job of showing someone like me how to tune a plane. Now I just need to read the technique section.

Oh, and about using handtools. I can’t wait to get some more!

Posted in Learning, Tools | No Comments »

More Learning

Well it looks as though the new site is working. I just can’t seem to get it to look the way I want. There are many pre-made templates out there and some are real close to what I am looking for. I just don’t know how to change the picture or some crazy text that is on the template. On top of everything else that I am trying to learn, it looks like I am going to have to learn some HTML code as well. If anybody has any suggestions on some basic code, like how to remove and insert your own pictures into headings and the like, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Posted in Learning | 3 Comments »

Check, check… Is this thing on?

Just checking to make sure everything is working the way that it should. I just transfered my blogger stuff to this website. Now, to see if I can post something…

Posted in General, Learning | 2 Comments »

Problems with last post

It has been brought to my attention that there is a problem viewing the video from my last post. It seems that this only affects those of you who try to view the video directly from the email subscription feed. If you click on the blog title, ex. “Finally a video to post“, it will take you to the blog itself and from there you can click on the video to view. That is if you have Quicktime installed on your computer. If you don’t, you can get it here.
Thanks to those of you who brought this to my attention so quickly. I am looking to get a host site soon instead of just using the freebies. Hopefully this will give me a little more flexibility in my posts. (Although I foresee many headaches while learning this stuff)
Once again, I really appeciate all of the feedback with this. The comments and problems help me make the blog a little more enjoyable.
Thanks,
Eric,
aka MorningWood

Posted in Learning, Video | No Comments »

Finally a video to post

Click To Play

After many hours of agonizing frustration trying to learn a new video editing program, on a new computer, with a totally different OS, I managed to create a video. Granted the actual project is nothing to write home about. The real prize is the fact that I got the video together in the first place.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Posted in Video | 6 Comments »

I know, I know…

Give me a break. I do have a real job and I just got a new computer. So, I have been busy trying to transfer everything to the new computer and working more hours so that I can pay for the new computer. Be patient and give a little time. I have projects in mind and income tax refund on the way. Oh yeah, baby! Good times!

Posted in General | No Comments »

All tuned and ready to go!

On my last post I described how I was having a hard time getting the bandsaw tuned up after installing the 6 in. riser block, to increase the resaw capacity. Marc, at The Wood Whisperer, hinted to me that this was going to be a pain in the arse. Also, Brian, at Brian’s Garage Workshop, was curious as to how things worked out for me as well. Brain had gone through two bandsaws and didn’t get it to come out right.

The problem that I was having was I could not get the blade to be square to the table, front to back. The blade would track about in the middle of the top wheel but would track to the front of the lower wheel, looking like it would come off.

I don’t know if this is the correct method, but after going through all of the traditional tuning methods and still not having any luck with this thing, I was about ready to give up and just remove the riser block. But, as a last ditch effort, I just loosened the bolt that ties the upper and lower halves of the saw together and “twisted” the upper half until the blade was aligned with an engineers square that I had place on the table.
Then I went and adjusted the tracking knob, turned the upper wheel by hand to make sure the blade would track in the middle. After that, I turned on power and ran a couple pieces of wood through it. So far, so good. I’m glad that I didn’t give up now.

Posted in Tools | 2 Comments »

Bandsaw blues

Decided to put the riser block that came with my bandsaw on today. First off, have someone with you to hold the top of the saw steady while you put the riser block in between the two halves of the bandsaw assy. I used a block of wood to support one side. It worked but there was a hairy moment or two. Second, If you would like to learn how to setup (tune) a bandsaw, skip the books available and buy yourself a riser block. This will force the learning on you real quick. When you insert 2 more pivot points in the equation things get interesting. I’m still learning. Almost have it but I have to sleep sometime…

Posted in Tools | 1 Comment »

Time to get started

Got the bike back together today. Now it’s time to get started on my shop. Where to start? Oh yeah, I made a list on one of my earlier posts. Guess I will check that.

Played around with the bandsaw. Resawed a piece of red oak to 1/16 of an inch. That thing is going to be pretty cool. I need to get a different blade though as there was some burning going on with the stock blade.

Guess the next thing I do to the shop will be wiring, that is if I can stay off Guitar Hero. That is an awesome game!

Anybody have any suggestions as to how many 220V outlets I should have? Do they use a different plug for 220V. Some of my tools come prewired for 110V but you can change that to 220V. Do you need to chang the plug?

Hello, anyone out there?

Posted in Shop | 4 Comments »