Planer Lesson

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a planer with some money my parents sent to me for my birthday. Yes, my mom still does that.

I figured the planer would cut down wood prep time, especially since I use cedar for constructing my Adirondack Chairs. As most of you know, cedar is only roughly finished, especially on one side and the edges. I had been using a belt sander to prep the wood, but that was a two day chore.  the planer has cut that time down to a couple of hours.

The first lesson I learning was something called snipe. This happen to leading edge of a board, generally about the first two to three inches. I asked around some of my more experienced woodworking friends and they all said there isn't much I can do about this.  That section is basically wasted. So the lesson I learned was to NOT pre-cut the lumber prior to using the planer.  I still had to use the sander to smooth out the snipe so i could use the lumber.

So, yesterday I was planing my lumber and moving along nicely, creating all kinds of wood chips. But On one board I forgot to check for staples. Stapes are used to hold on the price tag on every board.  Normally this is not an issue because the staples are in the middle of the end of the board. On this occasion, the staple was right on the edge and the blades hit it. the edge is ruined. Fortunately, my blades are double-sided, so I just had to flip them around. But I have now cut the blade life in half, and the blades are NOT cheap. $30.00 for a new set.

Needless to say, every board after that had all the staples removed regardless of the location.

A Design Change

Hopefully, while you are working in your shop you are leaning or trying something new every day. Yesterday was both for me. This post will be about the trying something new, I'll do a separate post for a lesson learned.

Under the category of "Trying" I am attempting to come up with a new way to put my Adirondack Chairs together so that fewer screws are noticeable. On my latest set, I tried using a wood filler and I am not happy with the results. I have been kicking around in my head for a while now a different idea. Instead of putting the screws in front the front, I thought way couldn't I put them in from a different angle.

So I sketched out a few ideas and came up with the one I am going to try next. This new idea will mean a slight modification to the design, but not an overall re-work. The two locations I focused were on the arm rests and the back slats.

On the arm rest I am going to add a little material between the arm rest and the front legs.

I will then attach the new material to the leg and arm rest support with countersunk screws. Then the arm rest itself will be attached, drilling the screws from the bottom. This will make the screws not visible from the standpoint of the person sitting in the chair.

For the back slats I am going to use my newly acquired table saw to make dado cuts then drill the screws in from the back side.

This should make the screws invisible.  I have practiced several times with scrap wood, which I recommend anytime you make a modification or change to a design. The attempts have been very successful so I have a good feeling about this.