42 minutes ago, steven newman said:

Needed to get a dry fit done

Hope you plan to do a PIP thread. Project for May, Part Deux?

A friend asked if I could make her a "loom", at least that's what she called it. Basically, a long board with a series of dowels every 2" to hold the beginnings of a "bulky blanket". The "yarn" for these blankets is as big around as a finger, and is woven manually, so not really a loom in the usual sense.

 

The base is composed of three sections, with a 4" overlap, each held together by two removable pegs.

 

Had a problem finding 3/4" dowels that were actually 3/4"! Tried four places, and they were all undersized, with the ones at the big orange store even being oval instead of round! Her husband finally found two lengths of dowels in his garage, really old stock, that fit perfectly! Got 31 pieces out of those, but needed 33, so I turned down a short piece of 1" broomstick, and called it a day. I'll take the outfit over tomorrow, and see if she wants a clear finish on it.

24 minutes ago, HARO50 said:

Had a problem finding 3/4" dowels that were actually 3/4"!

Cool project! 
Same problem here. I have to wonder if they are metric but labeled imperial. 

Good on you @HARO50 John. Very nicely done.

 

So how does it work? Does mount to a wall or clamp to a bench or table?

 

BTW, great to see you working some projects too.

10 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Does mount to a wall or clamp to a bench or table?

I've been wondering about that myself! I ASSUME it will be clamped to a table, since she didn't mention hangers of any type. I'll be asking questions when I take it over, and report back.

10 hours ago, lew said:

I have to wonder if they are metric but labeled imperial. 

That's possible. I should mention that the full-sized ones both had labels stating "Made in Canada". I didn't see any origins on the ones I tried in the stores. The oval ones at HD made me think they might have been turned when still green. Could that also account for the undersized ones?

I was just working on something yesterday and needed to put a 1/4" dowel into a 1/4" hole. That dowel was to large, I wound up re drilling the hole to 17/64" to get a good fit. It's very seldom I've seen current production f dowels be as advertised...kind of like 3/4"plywood that's really 23/32".

They make 23/32" router bits to compensate for the thin plywood, but I've never seen 23/32" Forstner bits!

Product delivered and accepted, no finish required. Apparently it simply lies on the table, but she will put non-slip shelf liner under it. It sounds (to me at least) as if this is more like macrame (Remember that?) than weaving. Further details to follow, as they become available.

Currently sitting on my bench..

4 Maple and 4 Ash boards..

Apparently Soft Maple....this is after all the bad spots and all the wane has been removed.. Have nine more boards to "process" through...these are all 7/8" thick....will need to thin them down a hair...or 2...

On 5/28/2025 at 7:23 AM, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I was just working on something yesterday and needed to put a 1/4" dowel into a 1/4" hole. That dowel was to large, I wound up re drilling the hole to 17/64" to get a good fit. It's very seldom I've seen current production f dowels be as advertised...kind of like 3/4"plywood that's really 23/32".

Same here, but I attributed it to various causes like die wear on the dowel machine or really being metric (not in this case obviously, 3/4 and 19mm are nearly the same).  Or it could be that twist drills don't actually make a round hole.  It's kind of a tri-lobe looking thing, even in wood.

 

Come to think of it, when I lived in Tucson I wanted to use some 1" dowel to go through forstner holes in a bending jig I was making.  Dowels from Home Depot didn't fit, but I went up to the Woodcraft we had in town and bought a poplar dowel that was exactly 1".  So I have seen some that were true to dimension.

Edited June 2, 20251 yr by JWD

9 hours ago, JWD said:

Same here, but I attributed it to various causes like die wear on the dowel machine or really being metric (not in this case obviously, 3/4 and 19mm are nearly the same).  Or it could be that twist drills don't actually make a round hole.  It's kind of a tri-lobe looking thing, even in wood.

 

Come to think of it, when I lived in Tucson I wanted to use some 1" dowel to go through forstner holes in a bending jig I was making.  Dowels from Home Depot didn't fit, but I went up to the Woodcraft we had in town and bought a poplar dowel that was exactly 1".  So I have seen some that were true to dimension.

Remember they are made of wood and wood moves , not much in a 1 inch dowel but it does move. Another consideration is storage conditions not only in the store but also in the mill that made the dowel.

On my bench at the moment? 

 

A big, old mess.... 

 

Cherry China cabinet. Working on top with glass doors. Sketched drawing and glued panels together for top cabinet. 

Water. Water is on my bench, lol.

 

Love the dovetails and full extension drawers!!

Sweet build @Steve104c

well its been a hell storm of activity here at the jones joint, SIL was here on leave and we built a couple challenge coin cabt, i'll try and post some pics, am renovating my office in shop to acccomodate the new omtech 100 wat co 2 laser, and move the 3 d printers into another cabt in office. to make room. 

just today picked up a delta 10 inch uni saw, needs some TLC, two delta 6 inch older jointers, a craftsman radial arm saw and a duracraft band saw thats missing the table, so gonna be on look out for a delta 14 inch clone table, and some misc. hardware. probably a phoenix bird like hunt, i believe, worst case is i make one out of mdf and laminate it on top and bottom and make do, hate discarding a pc of equipment that someone can use. I have a few places i can donate this to some boys and gals, 

only got to 112 today, slight breeze, so my heate induced wind burn is not so bad, lol, any howz, i tend to not do a lot of wood working in the summer months, its real hard on teh ac filters, well really its hard on me to clean them, haha.

happy thursday, i'll finger out how again to post pics and see whuts up, best to all for up coming weekend

rj in az

So, what is sitting on my bench, right now?

Just a glue up...

Had the tail end of a EF-0 go through the area Saturday evening....just now cleaning up all the twigs and branches it left behind....when you look out a window, and can't even see 20 feet from all the crap swirling around....yep

 

Went to check on the shop this morning, floor is drying out SLOWLY....decided to at least get things ready to fit a lid...

All clamps are put away...

Needed to level the 2 sides to the top and the front bevels...meant doing End Grain Plane work..