You have probably heard about all the rain here in Las Vegas yesterday, actually made the national news! Well, at this end of town things were under control but the dramatic spike in our humidity did its thing to wood -- mainly, expanded it the wood across the grain. Usually that's not much of an issue here in the desert.
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| Still Looks the Same! |
The one part of the design I wasn't too sure about was the little Oak button that goes between the threaded lock and the beam. It's purpose was provide a barrier of the brass rod to the Canarywood of the beam. It was what I thought to be "the weakest link". The humidity caused that to swell and resist tightening up. I know that ivory was used for that in the past but there's a ban on that. I thought of a button but ruled it out as too weak. Then it hit me, I love using that ultra high molecular weight polyethylene when making sleds for the tablesaw. Here's what I tried, first I cut a small piece on the chop saw to the approximate size of the Oak button I'd made. This was then stuck to the UHMW with double back tape and by nibbling off the corners with a chisel it eventually became a rounded button.
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| From Square to ...... |
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| Round |
Put it in and the last minor adjustment was to file down a little bit of the brass so the beam is square to the holder part of the gauge. Now it's even better than before and I really can't wait to use it tomorrow with my student that's learning the art of hand cut dovetails.
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