Food
Safe Finishes for Wood.
Now this subject seems to invite a lot of
opinions. If you ask me, Mineral Oil is the ONLY
acceptable finish to treat food surfaces with.
Others claim any finish is safe after it's dried
but it seems to me that slamming a knife into a
chopping block must release small particles of
these other substances. I also offer three other
possibilities:
1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest
Products Laboratory suggests melted paraffin wax.
2. Rockler offers a nice Food Safe Fine
finish set including a walnut oil Utility Finish Oil and a Wax Finish (made from beeswax,
carnauba wax and walnut oil).
3. According to Wood Magazine, any commercial
finish is safe, once it has dried and cured.
The last one leaves me wondering the most...... |
Sharp tools
make the job much easier.
You must take the time to keep all your tools
sharp and discard any you can not resharpen.
Dull saw blades burn the wood and do not cut
straight and true.
Dull lathe tools 'chew' the wood while the wood
will curl right off like peeling an apple when
using sharp tools. Also, the wood is far less
likely to chatter with a sharp lathe tool.
Dull drill bits are deflected much more easily by
the grain in the wood and they burn the wood much
faster.
It's often hard enough to prevent burning wood
with your router/shaper but dull bits are a sure
way to burn the cuts.
Now that all your tools are sharp as a razor, be
extremely careful to avoid cuts to you. |
Print drawings
to scale.
Download the drawing from a Woodcrafter Page
project by right clicking on the picture(s). You
will get a ‘drop-down’ box where you
need to choose ‘Save Link As’ or
‘Save Target As’ (depends
on your browser program). Now you can save
the file anywhere you wish and you can rename it
here too. Just make sure you remember where you
save it and what you name the file
Open MS Word and clear all the margins as
follows:
1. Hold the control key (Ctrl)
and press the Home key.
2. Click on File (on
the menu bar at the top) and select Page
Setup.
3. Press 0 (zero) then Tab
seven (7) times.
4. Click on OK then select FIX.
5. Click on OK again.
Set the view to page width by clicking on the
list arrow (the arrow pointing
down) in the Zoom Control
box (the one showing what % zoom
you are presently using) on your Standard
Toolbar at the top of the screen and by selecting
Page Width.
If you do not see the rulers to the top and left
of the page, turn the rulers on by clicking on View
(on the menu bar at the top)
and selecting Rulers.
Click on Insert (on the menu bar
at the top) and select Picture.
Locate the folder where you saved the picture and
the file in that folder.
Select the file by clicking on it then click on OK.
Click on the picture to select it. You will see
the sizing handles (small dark
squares) on the corners and on each side
of the picture.
Use the corner handles to stretch or shrink the
picture, while watching the rulers, to get the
picture to the proper size. Do not use the
handles on the sides as they do not change the
height and width at the same time and will leave
you with a distorted picture. The corner handles
perform a ‘proportional resize'.
Print the picture and check the sizes with a good
ruler. You may find your printer does not print
true to size. If your printer does not print
correctly, you will need to ‘play around and
experiment’ to find the right proportions
for your printer. Write them down for future
reference. |
Print drawings
on multiple sheets (too large for one).
1. Insert the drawing into MS Word (see
Print drawings to scale, above).
2. Select the picture and CROP it down until you
have a small enough piece to print on one sheet
of paper.
. . . ***** Check Word help to
learn how to crop pictures in your version.
*****
3. Print the section then unstretch it (shrink
it) back to the original size.
4. 'UnCrop' the picture to show the entire
picture.
. . . ***** (When
you CROP a picture, Word saves the whole picture
and simply displays only the part you have
cropped for.) *****
5. Select the picture and CROP it down until you
have another piece small enough to print on one
sheet of paper.
Repeat this process until all sections are
printed. |
Dull Your nail
points to minimize splitting.
Simply turn the nail over (point up) and place it
on a hard surface then tap the point with your
hammer to remove the sharp point. The very sharp
point on nails greatly increase the likelihood
you will split the wood. OK.... I know this does
not seem logical but it's the absolute truth. Try
it and you'll see. So... why do nail
manufacturers go to so much trouble to make their
nails so sharp???? Who knows. |
Viewing
Graphics.
All the graphics on my page are protected from
sites trying to use them improperly. This was
necessary to prevent other WEB sites from slowing
down access to The Woodcrafter Page. The graphics
displayed on the pages are all in one of three
standard graphics formats: JPEG (*.jpg), BITMAP
(*.bmp), or GIF (*.gif). Larger versions are
often available by clicking on the picture. A
larger file is available if your cursor changes
from an arrowhead to a pointing hand when you
point at the picture. You can view the larger
version if the correct software is installed
properly on your PC. Adobe Acrobat documents
(*.pdf) often do not show because the Adobe
program is not installed to work with your
Internet browser (such as Internet Explorer).
How to view the larger version:
1. Point at the picture.
2. If your cursor doesn’t change from an
arrowhead to a pointing hand, a larger version is
NOT available.
3. Check the filename in the status bar at the
bottom of your browser window. If it ends with
.pdf, it’s an Acrobat file and you might
have to download it.
4. Click on the picture to open it in full-size
view.
5. If it opens a blank page and it’s a *.pdf
file, you must download it.
6. Click the BACK button to return to the page.
7. If the BACK button is disabled (faded out)
simply close the page. The project page is open
‘behind’ it.
***** If it is a (.pdf) file, you
must have Adobe Acrobat reader properly installed
to view it. ***** |
Downloading
Graphics.
The graphics displayed on the pages are all in
one of three standard graphics formats: JPEG
(*.jpg), BITMAP (*.bmp), or GIF (*.gif). Larger
versions are often available for downloading. The
larger version may be in Adobe Acrobat format. A
larger file is available if your cursor changes
from an arrowhead to a pointing hand when you
point at the picture. You can always download the
larger version to your PC but you might need to (a free program) to
view the file(s).
How to download the larger version:
1. Point at the picture.
2. If your cursor doesn’t change from an
arrowhead to a pointing hand, a larger version is
NOT available.
3. If you see the pointing hand, you will also
see the filename on the status bar at the bottom
of your browser window.
4. Right-Click (click the RIGHT mouse button) on
the picture.
5. If it ends in .pdf, select "SAVE TARGET
AS" or "SAVE LINK AS".
6. For all others, select "SAVE PICTURE
AS" or "SAVE IMAGE AS".
7. Save the file in any location you wish and
rename it if you want.
8. Use your graphics program to view and print
the picture or see Print
drawings to scale using MS Word.
***** If it is a (.pdf) file, you
must have Adobe Acrobat reader properly installed
to view it. ***** |
Setting Your
Screen Resolution.
This site is best viewed with your
display set to: 1024 X 768 and (16 Bit)
HighColor.
Follow these steps to set your screen:
- Close all program windows you
have open.
- Point at a blank spot on the
desktop (on the screen).
- Right-click (click the right
mouse button).
- Select PROPERTIES
from the drop-down menu.
- Select the SETTINGS
tab.
- Click on the ADVANCED
button.
- Select the Apply the new
color settings without restarting
circle in the Compatibility
window. (If you
have this option.)
- Click on the OK
button.
- Select a 1024 X 768 Screen
AREA.
- Select High Color (16
bit) or true color (24
bit).
- Click on the OK
button.
|
|
Can't See
Graphics.
The only reason I have discovered for problems
with seeing the graphics on The
Woodcrafter Page is personal firewall
protection on individual PCs. I have had to
add programming to my site to prevent other sites
form stealing from it or abusing it. This
sometimes does not work with individual firewall
protection setups. You may have to disable
your firewalls to view the site properly. Also,
at times, the servers the site is hosted on may
experience temporary problems. Be sure to try
again later if you encounter problems. |
Can't Download
Graphics.
There are a few reasons I have
found for problems with downloading graphics from
The Woodcrafter Page. First, the servers
the site is hosted on may experience temporary
problems. Be sure to try again later if you
encounter errors.
Next, you might be trying to download a picture
or it might be a .pdf file. See downloading pictures from The
Woodcrafter page for
help here. |
Graphics Too
Big.
Many graphics must be saved in
high resolutions to provide good detail for the
user. To resize the pictures, you should use a
good graphics program if you have one and know
how to use it. However, you can use MS Word to
view and print the pictures. Print drawings to scale using MS Word. |
