Steven Kennard Turning Blackwood Boxes

Steven Kennard is not an easy man to pigeonhole. Born and raised in England, where for many years he built furniture and restored antiques, he also lived for nearly a decade in France, where he turned wood and took photographs. Now he and his Canadian-born wife, Ellie, live in Nova Scotia and work in a renovated barn on their property.
Kennards earliest woodworking included building sets for theatrical productions. Along the way he also built kitchens, French-polished pianos, and ran a successful business building portable tables for physical therapy and massage. In the late 1970s he bought a lathe so he could replace broken parts on antiques; within a few weeks he had turned his first box, and since then, he says, amidst the wide array of work hes done, one constant has been his passion for turning boxes.
These days, in addition to photography--a blend of fine art photos and shots of work by other artists and craftsmen--Kennard devotes much of his time to box turning. In this slide show, he talks about turning and presents several dozen of his remarkable boxes.

Kennards work was featured on the back cover of Fine Woodworking #220.






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Rough Cut Director Gets Emmy Nomination

Tommy MacDonald and Rough Cut director Laurie Donnelly
Photo: Courtesy WGBH Boston
Rough Cut--Woodworking with Tommy Mac is getting some attention from the TV industry. The show just won a Bronze Telly Award, which honors the best local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs. But thats not all. Director Laurie Donnelly has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Directing in a Lifetyle/Culinary Program category.
The show, produced by WGBH Boston and sponsored by Woodcraft, features woodworker Tommy MacDonald, a North Bennet Street graduate and pro woodworker, who demonstrates traditional woodworking techniques in a truly Bostonian manner--wicked accent and all.
Donnelly, who is executive producer for lifestyle programming at WGBH, is not new to industry accolades, having won both Emmy and Peabody Awards in the past. "It is a great honor to be recognized in this way. Rough Cut has come together, thanks to the hard work of our host, Tommy MacDonald, and an amazing production team,” Donnelly said. “Together weve aimed to push the envelope in the world of woodworking as its presented on-air. We are also deeply committed to delivering something meaningful for anyone who has the passion to pick up a tool in their workshop---or to be an armchair participant watching and learning from home."
Rough Cut begins its second season in October. Emmy winners will be announced June 17.
I wonder if the statue is available in mahogany...

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Eugene Landon

A profile of Gene Landon appeared in the 2004/2005 issue of Tools & Shops.
Photo: Michael Pekovich
I regret to have to announce that my friend and long time author for Fine Woodworking magazine, Eugene E. Landon has passed away after a heart attack. My condolences go to his wife Jane, and son Ben.
Gene first appeared in Fine Woodworking when a Queen Anne chair he made was on the back cover or the March/April 1980 issue. From then on he was a regular contributor of articles on various aspects of making period furniture. Like many period furniture makers, Gene gained a lot of his knowledge from restoring antiques. By taking apart original pieces he could see how they were made, and examin minutely the tool marks left on the piece. His goal was to try and replicate an original as closely as possible and he claimed that a couple of his chairs had sold at auction listed as 18th century originals.
I was a little nervous before my first visit to see Gene at his shop in Montoursville, PA. A colleague who had previously worked with him described him as difficult. Gene was certainly not lacking in strong opinions on politics, furniture designs, and even his fellow period furniture makers, but  apparently he had mellowed considerably after his first heart attack (before I knew him), and like his two German shepherds, Chippendale and Queen Anne, he was all bark and no bite. Gene was economical with his words when it came to manuscripts - an outline on a postcard was often the limit. Therefore, as well as taking photos, I asked a lot of questions and kept copious notes. After writing the article, I faxed it to Gene for him to look over. The fax was Genes only concession to "modern" communication. It still used thermal paper, and when Gene learnt to his dismay that the company was discontinuing this paper he bought every box his could find. Luckily Gene liked the manuscript, commenting "Youre observant arent you!"
A few years later, I got to see another aspect of Genes life when he generously invited me as a guest to one of the classes he regularly taught at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in York, PA. Most of the students had taken numerous classes and regarded Gene as something closer to a furniture guru rather than a mere teacher. One of his students, Rick Vannan, recently published a book about Gene entitled 18th Century Cabinetmaking: A forgotten art. You can purchase a copy by calling him at 330 705 2827 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            330 705 2827      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.


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Unisaw Completing the Arbor and Tables

So a few days ago I got busy completing the arbor rebuild and starting the tables. The first thing I needed to do was address the big piece of the table edge that was missing (broken off - see the first post images and youll see what Im talking about). Ideally this would have a new piece braised back in, but frankly, Ive yet to find anyone locally who I felt comfortable with doing the work. Cast iron is rather finicky - the technique requires heating the metal up to cherry red before welding so that the metals interlock, then allowing to cool slowly (like it sand) so you get a strong joint. When talking to any of the welders around here, the only process they know is to immediately start going at it with rod - after thinking about this a while I decided to just fill it as best I could with JB Weld. Since its not a load bearing surface and wont be under any stresses, metal-filled resin just seemed easier to me (to work, particularly). I cut a few pieces of hard plastic and made a small form, mixing up the two parts and laying it into the void. The stuff was pretty much self leveling.

JB Weld within Form

Cardboard palette and Popsicle stick applicator

Allowed to dry and harden over-night

As you can see the color approximated the raw, cleaned cast iron. I continued to work down the resin using rasps, files and finally sandpaper

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for Paint!

While I starting taping off the tables and wings for paint, I also finished up the arbor rebuild. The first time I put the arbor together I wasnt happy with the result - the pulley could slide back-and-forth along the shaft about 3/32" - the threads on the bearing side were also a bit buggered so the retaining nut wanted to cross-thread. So before I torqued everything down and screwed something up, I took it all apart and made a few posts on OWWM to ask for some opinions. I knew I would need to chase the threads so with it apart it would be easier to get things to go together when assembled. One idea I got from the forum was to put everything together sans bracket so I could see how it would fit - that way I would know how much room I would have for the final nut and belvedere washer. While taking things apart the far bearing nearly fell out of the bearing - so I knew that was probably part of the problem. It was too loosely pressed in (the retaining nut wasnt applying enough force), so apparently what happened was that when I applied pressure on the arbor to press everything into final assembly, it loosened the far bearing - that was the slack I was seeing (understand there was so much slack that the spaces would slide - thats where I got my 3/32" of looseness). The second time was the charm - this time I applied a drop of blue LockTite to the far bearing, then made sure I got the retaining nut very snug. I did have one mishap - the punch slipped and hit the plastic bearing sleeve hard enough to scrape the coating, but not hard enough to puncture (luckily) so I went with the same bearing with the hope that it wasnt bad enough to warrant a replacement (only time will tell!).

Starting to press the bearing

Watch the spring washer so it doesnt get caught

You can see the small spot of coating where I slipped

TIP: Place small screwdriver blade under belvedere washer until nut is tightened

Slightly pry upward then go to a larger screwdriver (careful not to hit the bearing sleeve)

Final step to add the pulley lock (with a drop of blue LockTite)

Completed Arbor Rebuild!

I tried to group the photos together a bit, but in practice I actually went back-and-forth from inside to outside while I hit the wings with primer, then two coats of paint (if you look at the camera times you can see the order). I also got two coats on the underside of the table.

Primer

Paint

Table after Second Coat

Wings after Second Coat

In all I feel pretty good about where I am thus far. I still need to finish painting the cabinet, plus the motor cover, cranks, feet and pan, but those will need to wait for a clear day. Im going to start the sub-assemblies and probably get the motor apart so it can be cleaned, potentially turn down the commutator and fit new bearings (may get new brushes as well).

-- John

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Unisaw Prepping the Table and Rebuilding the Arbor

My next steps were to both start the preparation of the table/wings, and rebuild the arbor with new bearings. Heres a shot of what the table wings looked like - note the multiple coats of paint, rust and marred surface.

You cant see it in the photos but if you look at my first couple of Unisaw posts youll see that theres a big chip missing from one edge. Initially I was going to abandon the use of that wing by using an extension table for a 52" fence. Ive since decided to go with a shorter fence as the width of the previous would make it too cumbersome to walk around in my tiny wood shop.

I cleaned all surfaces as best as I could using a twisted-wire cup brush mounted in an angle grinder. I then media blasted using Black Diamond abrasive purchased from Northern Tool (great stuff and only a little more expensive than sand, and the threat of silicosis is minimized). Heres the table after blasting and shown with a coat of primer. Done with this for the day (trying to prune up the yard to get ready for the Friday yard trash pickup).

I had already started the arbor dissembly using my bearing puller:

I finished cleaning up the rest of the gunk on my grinder equipped with a brass wire wheel:

And a few days later pressed on the new extended-race bearing purchased from Accurate:

I had already pressed on the other bearing into the arbor bracket using my thumbs:

And then supported the hollow area between the two ears using a twobafore and a couple of cedar shakes (the taper let me sneak up on a tight fit), tapping in the bearing with a soft-faced hammer until flush:

Its suggested that the threaded retaining ring be installed with a drop of blue Locktite:

And that a punch be used instead of a screwdriver:

At this point both bearings have been seated and the arbor is ready to be inserted.

I set everything down and prepared for the next phase - finishing up the arbor rebuild and completing the tables. Sorry about the disjointed chronology - all this stuff was going on in between other projects and demands on my time so its a bit spotty (didnt remember to take shots of the table underside, for instance).

-- John

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