Saturday, July 04, 2009


I enrolled in a woodworking class at Cerritos College. Apparently, woodworking classes offered here are very respected and highly sought after by people throughout the Southern California area.

For the first project, we started with an "unfinished" piece of rough wood (in my case, walnut). "Unfinished" means that none of the surfaces are smooth. You start your project by using a radial arm saw to cut the long piece of lumber to a more manageable size. To make one face of the wood flat you use a jointer. Then you get the desired thickness (3/4") you want and a parallel face (to the one made by the jointer) using a planer (with many passes through it). Finally, you go back to the jointer to create a 90 degree edge.

posted by Bill Lee @ 9:21 PM 0 comments


From here, you pencil in the shape you want and cut the rough shape out with a band saw. Next, you smooth out the edges using a sander (either wheel or belt). Now, using the drill press, you drill out two holes in preparation for the handle. Drawing a tangential line to the two holes, you use a jig saw to cut out the handle. Using various roughness of chisels and spindle sanders, you smooth out the inside of the handle. Finally, using a router, you put a quarter round edge all along the outside edge and handle.

Now, we are ready to sand -- using 7 grades of paper -- each time with a finer coarseness. This is estimated to take 2-3 hours. After which, we oil the darn thing. I'll post the finished product (and tell you what it is) when I'm finished sanding and placing a few coats of oil on it.

posted by Bill Lee @ 9:15 PM 0 comments