A complete stranger might think I’m bitter about being treated for drug dependency or something…no, no, not that kind of rehab…
Today I glued up the block that will eventually be the new head of my old screw. Just for fun, I decided to laminate a piece of pine in the middle of two pieces of kapur. I don’t know what this might do as far as wood movement, as far as laminating softwood in between hardwood – I have no idea but I don’t care! It’s fun to try and like I said earlier, if something goes horribly wrong then I’ll just make a new screw with my new threading kit.
Then I trimmed the ends. The next step is to drill the hole in one end to receive the shaft of the screw. This actually scares me, because this wood (the kapur, that is) feels incredibly hard and dense. I really don’t think that I’ll be able to bore a 3″ to 4″ hole in this end grain with my bit brace and expansive bit. So I’m thinking about going to the hardware store to try to find a 2″ bit and borrow our office’s electric drill to take care of business. You can’t use an expansive bit in an electric drill, can you?
With my threading kit coming soon, and knowing I’ll have to do this several more times in the future, maybe I ought to pick up a 1 1/2″ bit at the same time…
Adventures in Woodworking 
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June 6, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Gye Greene
Eric,
Sorry — you mean “side grain” for drilling in to, not “end grain” — right?
Wood movement: not sure if it’s hardwood vs. softwood, or just species vs. species (e.g. would hemlock and pine move differently? pine and cedar?)
I don’t see why a power drill couldn’t use an expansion bit: works in drill presses, eh?
Consider making a (simple) long wooden (T-shaped) handle, for lotsa torque? Kinda like this – http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii105/shepherd1857/Evanstangedauger.jpg (Although, I don’t know how you’d lock the end of the bit into the handle…)
–G
June 6, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Eric
No, I do mean “end grain” boring – I have to bore a hole in the head into which the body of the screw will be attached. After doing that, I’ll also have to drill holes cross-grain for the handle as well as for the two dowels I’ll use to support the epoxy.
I guess I’m afraid that using an expansive bit in a power drill will go too quickly, but without a doubt I’ll test it out first regardless of what I use.
I like that t-handle idea!
June 7, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Gye Greene
Eric,
Hm! Sorry — I’m not visualizing it. (A quick sketch for me?)
BTW — I forgot to commend you for the stripey look of sandwiching in the contrasting wood color. Way to add some art/aesthetics to the pure functionality!
–GG
June 8, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Eric
Think of this head as being upside-down. The hole in the middle is where the screw body will be epoxied. The hole on the front is where the handle will go. The little holes are where the pegs will go – one on the top left and the other on the bottom right (the other two will just be plugs because I like symmetry!).
I'm not 100% on the hexagon shape for the head but I was playing around with something other than round and octagonal.
June 10, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Gye Greene
Eric,
Ah! (Picture, 1k words, etc.)
But: Why not just rotate the block of wood (as it sits in your photograph) by 90 degrees, and **then** hexagon it? (Granted, I can’t tell for sure what the dimensions are, from your photograph.)
–GG
June 14, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Eric
Well it seems that if I did that, the handle would go straight through the pine, and with the glueup right around the vicinity of the hole, it seems the handle over time would stress the glueup since the cranking of the handle would in essence be attempting to pry apart the lamination. I don’t know if I’m right or wrong on that though.
June 14, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Gye Greene
Eric,
Hm – now I’m back to not following you (but that’s OK).
I think it was FWW magazine a year or two ago where they tested wood glues by gluing two blocks of wood. As I recall, none of them failed **at** the glue joint.
But, that’s from memory…
–GG
June 14, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Eric
Well does it matter which way that stripe is oriented? What made you suggest it to begin with – aesthetics?
By the way, I’ve already made the big 2″ hole straight down the center (stopped, not all the way through) so that one’s non-negotiable at this point. But I’ll have to think about the orientation of the stripe in relation to the handle hole.
June 15, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Gye Greene
Orientation: Just that if you have a block of wood, it’s stronger to drill through either of the two side-grain dimensions, than to drill into the end-grain.
Or, so I’ve heard.
–GG
June 15, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Eric
Ah. I see what you mean. Well I had to drill both ways – one way for the shaft of the screw and one way perpendicular to that hole for the handle. And I’ve done drilled the hole for the shaft of the screw – into about 4″ of end grain. Post with pics to follow. So the side-grain hole will be for the handle. I guess that’s a good thing? It’ll have to be!
July 20, 2010 at 12:00 am
Trevor Walsh
I like your bench drawing, the one without vises. It’s similar to something I have rolling around in my brain. I’m trying to source some large timber for it while I finish my current project (you can read about the coffee table on my site) I’m not opposed to a pine glue up, but I really do like the look of Chris’ cherry 18th C. Roubo. We’ll see how that goes.
Trevor Walsh
July 26, 2010 at 11:37 am
Eric
Hey Trevor, thanks for popping by! I like following your coffee table progress and would definitely love following yet another person’s bench journey too! Keep me posted…