On urning a living

Rennie Heuer

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It took a little while, but I finally sold the last of the first group of urns I made. I also learned a few things along the way. I had to play with the price point a bit to find a sweet spot. I also got some feedback from one of my wholesale customers about what his customers were looking for. He likes the style and sturdiness, but he felt his customers gravitated more towards "wild grain". As the style was essentially Greene & Greene, I had made the first few in mahogany. Too plain, it seems, for the uninitiated.

The next crop will be in several different woods. The purist in me is rebelling, but I need to always remind myself I'm not building these for me. So, I'm building a few in each - bubunga, ambrosia maple, jotoba, and walnut.
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Here's the jig I made to handle the finger joints. This is a step up from my original as it allows easier adjustments and can also be reconfigured for other projects.
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I also hit on a way to shave some labor time off the hundreds of square holes needed for the ebony plugs. Initially I would have laid out one and set up my mortiser with a fence and stops to mark the four corners, then used my handy-dandy Lee Valley square punch set to drill them out and chisel them square. Then, using a 1/4 chisel, go in and clean them all out.

What I do now is set up a fence and stops on the drill press and, using a 5/16" forstner bit, drill all the locations for the holes. This gives me a flat bottom hole which will minimize splitting when I fasten it all together with #6 pocket hole screws. The other method used a twist bit and left a concave hole.

Once the holes are done, I duplicate the fence/stop configuration on the mortiser and, using only the chisel with no bit, press the chisel in and square up the hole. Then its back to the drill press to clean out the waste. Cleaning these out with a 1/4" chisel was always dangerous as it was easy to split out the end grain near the hole. DAMHIKT :doh:
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This run should last a little while and give me several photos for a planned brochure. In a few weeks I'll start building a group in a different style. :D
 
Looking good, Rennie! I can see your urns looking good in western red cedar with its contrast of grain. Sounds like your wholesaler is suggesting something along that line.
 
Looking good Rennie. That Shop Notes version of David O. Wade's finger jig had me intrigued. I planned to make one before my next G&G piece to give it a try. Looks like the proof is in the pudding, your fingers came out great. I think the expansion of wood types is a good idea as far as appealing to others. Is it just the lighting or did you paint the jig white? Urns should be a likely business opportunity. Folks are dying to try them . . . I know, I know, that stunk but, considering the thread title I thought it was game-on in the pun department :rofl:
 
Looking good Rennie. That Shop Notes version of David O. Wade's finger jig had me intrigued. I planned to make one before my next G&G piece to give it a try. Looks like the proof is in the pudding, your fingers came out great. I think the expansion of wood types is a good idea as far as appealing to others. Is it just the lighting or did you paint the jig white? Urns should be a likely business opportunity. Folks are dying to try them . . . I know, I know, that stunk but, considering the thread title I thought it was game-on in the pun department :rofl:

I painted the jig white, yes. The fingers on the jig are Corian left over from our kitchen remodel. Having the ease of adjust-ability is great. I needed to ad a piece of paper between two fingers and all I had to do was loosen a screw, insert, and re-tighten.
 
I assume you're "gang profiling" the fingers for a whole bunch at once? Any observable variation due to the guides flexing?

The two part pass for the flat bottomed square hole is a good idea! Thanks for sharing that. I'm not as convinced on the third step of going back to the dp for cleanup but without trying it I'm willing to take your word for it :D
 
yeah as i saw ryan he could just cut his square hole with the mortiser and be done with it.. they will never see the screws anyway they are plugged right?

The mortising bit extends slightly beyond the chisel leaving a square overlaid with a circle. In other words, I get a cleaner hole this way. Because I am so close to the edge I can't force a large enough plug into the hole to push out the surrounding fibers and cover up the round part of the hole left by the mortising bit.

Clear as mud?:huh::rofl:
 
Because I am so close to the edge I can't force a large enough plug into the hole to push out the surrounding fibers and cover up the round part of the hole left by the mortising bit.

Clear as mud?:huh::rofl:

Clear as can be to me :). You only have to split one finger and take a do-over to learn that a snug fit doesn't mean you need a mallet :D.
 
Prettly clear. What you are saying is that you don't quite get a perfectly square hole with your mortiser. So you drill a slightly undersized hole, and square it up with the mortisers chisel bit. Easy peasy.
 
Glad to hear you're getting wood work, Rennie. :thumb:

Can you adjust the position of the drill part of the mortiser bit in relation to the chisel? In other words, can you pull the drill bit up a smidgen higher in the chisel? Seems that would deepen the square part of the hole. On my Shop Fox mortiser, the two components are independently adjustable. If so, I'd think you could tweak the bit a little to make a workable hole in a single operation.
 
Me Happy Happy Happy to see this happening.:thumb::thumb: (now you got to read that but with the Redneck Robinson voice from Duck Dynasty for sound) :thumb:

Me thinks an ICarver or some cnc should be in your future. Not a huge investment but a good way out of repetitive work.
 
Can you adjust the position of the drill part of the mortiser bit in relation to the chisel? In other words, can you pull the drill bit up a smidgen higher in the chisel? Seems that would deepen the square part of the hole. On my Shop Fox mortiser, the two components are independently adjustable. If so, I'd think you could tweak the bit a little to make a workable hole in a single operation.

I measured the bit and chisel. The bit diameter is indeed greater than the width of the chisel. Even perfectly centered and tight to the inside of the chisel it protrudes on all four sides. It has also been my experience that the auger style bit can claw and grab a little which can further distort the hole. I have used just the mortiser for plug holes before and it does work as long as you can oversize the plug enough to force the hole open to its extents. But on these boxes I've more than once blown out the side of the hole closest to the edge by making the plug too large. The forstner bit gives me a clean hole with no wandering or tear out on the sides. Just my experience which is, admittedly, minimal. I'll experiment with the next group and see.
 
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