davepolaschek

Approximately 600g net carbs per recipe

Ingredients

• 2 C (8 oz by weight) chopped or crushed cranberries. Fresh and frozen are both OK.
• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 6 oz (¾ Cup) orange juice

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• 2¾ C flour
• 1-1⅓ C granulated (white) sugar
• 2-4 tsp molasses
• 3½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

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• 1 large egg
• 1 C milk
• 3 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp orange extract

Directions

• Peel and chop the apple and place in a small mixing bowl.
• Add the orange juice to the apple.
• Crush or coarsely chop the cranberries. Mashing them between two cutting boards works pretty well. Add to the apple pieces.

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• Mix the flour, sugar, molasses, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.

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• Mix the egg, milk, oil, and orange extract in a large measuring cup.

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• Mix the liquids into the large mixing bowl, stirring just until blended.
• Fold in the fruit and orange juice.
• Pour into two greased 4x8 inch loaf pans, or four (five if you want to frost them or put lids on) greased mini-loaf pans.
• Bake at 350F for 50 minutes, until golden brown and delicious, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If you have a larger apple, it will take longer to bake. The toothpick test is your best guide.
• Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool on a wire rack.

You can frost these with an orange-flavored frosting if you desire (sprinkle some extra orange zest over the frosting if you do), but we like them plain, or with a little butter.

Frosting ingredients (optional)

• 1 C confectioners (powdered) sugar
• 3 Tbsp orange juice
• ½ tsp orange zest
• 1 tsp Cointreau, Triple Sec, or orange oil

#recipe #dessert

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I recently had our HVAC guy out to clean my shop mini-split. He commented that it really needed the cleaning, and he was surprised it was still working well. And that I really ought to keep it cleaner. So I decided I would built a box to hold some filters to clean the air going into the split, so it would be happier in the future.

First step was building a frame to hold two of the filters I’m going to use. These are the filters I already use in my Rikon 62-450 air cleaner, so I generally have them on hand.

With the frame built, I measured the mini-split and the space between it and the ceiling. My goal was to put the filters sitting vertically, rather than the horizontal filters built into the mini-split, which sit horizontally at the top of the split, and catch dust even when the split isn’t running. I figure the filters will last longer if they’re only collecting dust when the split is running.

Everything looked as though it would fit, so I built two frames for the box. The one in the left had to work around the mounting system for the post for my post drill, which I needed because it was impossible to buy a straight 6x6 during the early COVID days, so I got a twisted one and figured a way to make it work.

With the side frames built, I cut panels to fit on them from a scrap of MDF I had. Then I used more scraps to connect the two side frames together and provide an opening for the filter holder.

Next up was to seal up the large gap between the mini-split and the filter box. But I couldn’t build anything rigid here, since the front of the split pivots up when it opens so you can clean the filter. My solution was to tape in a piece of ¼ inch MDF. Hopefully the tape will remain flexible enough that I don’t need to remove it, but can simply flex the piece out of the way.

With that, it was time to put the filter carrier in place. I had hoped that it would stay with no attachment, bu it wanted to tip forward, so I put a single screw in to hold the top of it in place.

And with that, everything was done except inserting the filters. With them in place, it’s done. The filters don’t seem to hurt the airflow from the split when they’re clean, but I’ll need to keep an eye on things as they get dirtier. It wouldn’t do to burn out the fan in the split.

#project #woodworking #airFilter

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While working on the Altai Project Logo carving, I discovered I needed a narrow skew in order to get down into some of the corners. I have a handful of ½ inch wide unground blanks I got from the Mountain Woodcarvers clearance page, so I got busy.

First step was grinding it down to 2-3mm wide. Then I skewed the tip, and put a rough edge on with the grinder. That’s the rough outline of the tip made.

Then I had to re-harden the steel, as the grinding had wrecked the temper. I heated it bright glowing red with a MAP gas torch, and plunged it into a jar of canola oil I keep for hardening tools. Then the blade went into the toaster oven to temper it. I’m aiming for a hardness of 60 or so, which will work well for a carving tool.

With the blade in the oven, I turned to the lathe, and converted a small piece of granadillo into a handle. I also drilled a 3/16 hole for the tang. Because it’s a tapered tang, I drilled a short bit wider with 7/32 and ¼ inch bits. Then I added a ferrule from some ½ OD brass, and filed it smooth.

By this time, the blade was done cooking, so I pulled it out and let it cool, then pounded the handle onto the blade. A bit of hand sanding and a couple coats of tung oil, and it’s ready to go.

#woodworking #tool #project

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Based on the basic recipe from Southern Living, this is pretty tasty, and as a bonus, you get a good cup of pot-likker to give a boost (and some added vitamins) to some other recipe down the road. Switching Spam for ham will require tweaking the spices, but is not a horrible substitution.

Serves: 4 Active time: 15 minutes Total time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 slices bacon, chopped, or 1 Tbsp bacon grease
• 2 Tbsp diced onion
• 2 (3 if using bacon grease, rather than bacon slices) slices ham, chopped
• ½-1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp apple cider or red wine vinegar
• ½ tsp sugar
• ⅛ tsp chile powder (I prefer Chimayó)
• ⅛ tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp black pepper
• ½ lb collard greens

Directions

• Sauté the bacon and onion until the onion has gone translucent.
• Add the garlic and ham, and get everything mixed together.
• Add all the other ingredients and bring to a simmer.
• Simmer for 2 hours, or a little more, stirring occasionally.
• Fish the greens out with tongs and serve, and save the pot-likker for something else. It’s tasty and full of nutrients.

#recipe

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I’ve been needing a single place to store my files, rasps, and floats for a while now. They were stored in two older tills, one of which had been repurposed from a saw till, and another which used to be something else that I don’t remember. Plus I had a number of files laying loose on various flat surfaces around the shop.

I started by building three racks to hold the files of various lengths. The largest holds 12 files, the middle holds 15, and the shortest rack can hold 20 files, though only the shortest in length will fit.

The racks are made of ⅜ inch thick oak, either 1 or 2 inches wide. Each rack has a bottom piece with indentations drilled in it, and a cross piece with magnets embedded to hold the files in place. They all pivot on the dowels that mount them (though this isn’t an especially useful feature) so they can be tipped forward or backward to access the files without knocking the ones in the rows in front. The racks were treated with iron acetate to ebonite them, though the solution was a couple weeks old, which is, I suspect, why I got a dark brown rather than a black finish.

The carcasse is built of ¾ inch thick pine, and dovetailed together, with the shelf above the drawer resting in a pair of ¼ inch deep dadoes. The drawer is also dovetailed, with half-blind dovetails holding the drawer front in place. This is the first time I’ve built half-blind dovetails, so it was good practice. The drawer-front is also carved with a design I made up over a few days of carving.

The pine is all finished with a coat of kakishibu. It’ll get a few coats of tung oil once it has had a little time to darken, unless I decide it needs a second coat of kakishibu first.

The drawer hold spare file handles, file cards, and needle files. A couple weeks of construction, the added carving on the front of the till makes it feel a little special and I also got to practice barrel and bead moulding which came out nice.

#woodworking #project #woodCarving #shopFurniture

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This is a moulding for the edge of a piece of wood that livens it up, and is fairly quick and easy to do. Working in pine, I can create a linear foot of beading in about ten minutes, including time for stropping my gouge.

For reference, here’s what I’m referring to as barrel moulding.

The barrels in this case are three times as long as they are wide. Beaded moulding is typically the same length as width, and bead and barrel moulding alternates the two, but the technique is the same for all of them.

First you need to make a bead on the edge of a board. I generally do three beads, and then cut the interruptions in the middle one to make barrels, which I think looks pretty good. I make these using a Lie-Nielsen #66 beading tool with an appropriate blade, which in my case is a double reed profile, set up so one of the reeds is right on the edge of a ¾ inch board. I repeat the profile going both directions on the board to make a total of three reeds, with one in the center of the board. Note that multiple manufacturers make beading tools, but you can also make a scratch stock that will do the job.

With the beads or reeds on the edge of the board, mark off the length of your barrels. As I said earlier, I like a 3:1 ratio if I’m going to make them uniform length, but other ratios work. Just set up your dividers and make marks a consistent distance apart down the length of the board.

With your marks made, you’ll need a #11 gouge the same width as the beads or reeds you’ve made in the board. This is also known as a veiner and has a u-shaped profile. My ¼ inch veiner that I use for making these beads has been modified with rounded wings or edges so that it doesn’t cut as far into the wood as it would with square edges.

I start with the gouge almost flat on the bead, with the cutting edge about a sixteenth of an inch (or a millimeter) back from the mark for the edge of a barrel.

Then I rock the gouge forward and into the wood, ending with it fully vertical.

Repeat this down the board, and you’ll have something that looks like the following.

Now go back and do the same in the other direction. As you rotate the gouge up, you’ll get a small amount of wood pushing to the sides. If it’s too much, start a little closer together for the two cuts. After you’ve gone both directions, use a #1s or #2 gouge (also known as a skew) to clean out the waste.

Here’s a photo showing all the stages from start to finish of making the barrels.

From left to right, that shows: cut one direction; cut both directions; cleaned out the corners with a #2 (skew) gouge; cut the second time from the left and right; and finally, cleaned out the second time.

I find that I have to go along the length of the board twice. If I try to do it all in one pass, the edges will be rougher because I was taking “too big a bite” at once.

Once I’ve been up and down the length of the board twice and cleaned out the waste with a skew, I use a chip brush I chopped shorter so the bristles are fairly stiff. This one has also been used for applying kakishibu, which further stiffens the bristles and gives them a reddish tint.

Once all the waste is brushed out, you’re ready to finish. Thanks for looking!

#woodworking #techniques

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A friend wanted the dimensions of handscrews of various sizes. I took measurements of the four I have, and photos to show what the dimensions measure.

The dimensions are the following measurements:

And the four handscrews are shown together:

Beginning in the top left, an unknown Chinese handscrew, all measurements in inches.

Tall: 1¾ Thick: 1⅝ Long: 10 Jaw: 5 Screw: 9½

Top Right, a large Miro Moose handscrew

Tall: 2¼ Thick: 2⅛ Long: 14 Jaw: 7 Screw: 14½

Lower Left, a medium Rockler handscrew

Tall: 1¾ Thick: 1½ Long: 8 Jaw: 4 Screw: 8

Lower right, my smallest Miro Moose

Tall: 1⅜ Thick: 1¼ Long: 6 Jaw: 3 Screw: 5½

The free jaw measurement is, in every case, half of the total jaw length. The height and width of the jaw are nearly equal, but the measurement I have labeled “Tall” is always slightly larger than the jaw width (or thickness). And the free length of the screw is typically about the same as the total length of the jaw.

The Miro Moose clamps are a brand of Dubuque Clamps, and are made in Iowa.

#woodworking #tools

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It was the last farmers market of the year on Friday, so I was walking around talking to various vendors, and ended up getting a bundle of rhubarb from La Capilla Hop Farms because I didn’t make many desserts this summer, and wanted to end the season on a high note. This is more or less my standard crumble recipe, with a little added sugar to offset the rhubarb’s tartness.

Fruit Ingredients

• 1 pound bunch of rhubarb from the farmers market, cut into 1 cm or ½ inch long chunks. In this case, it was 7 big stalks, and made about 3 cups chopped.
• 2 small apples, cored, sliced and chopped into similarly sized chunks. You can peel them or leave the skin on, as you like.
• A dozen strawberries, chopped into chunks
• ¼-½ cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like your desserts

Fruit Directions

• Chop all the fruit into chunks about 1 cm or ½ inch in size.
• Put in 8 inch square glass pan, and sprinkle with sugar.

Crumble Ingredients

• 150g all-purpose flour
• 100g butter
• 85g sugar

Crumble Directions

• Cut butter into flour until it looks kinda like bread crumbs
• Sprinkle sugar over mixture and cut together until it looks uniform
• Sprinkle mixture over fruit in pan

Baking

• Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 400°︎ oven
• If the top doesn’t have a few brown spots, put it under the broiler for a minute or two. See the photo above for how I think a finished crumble should look.
• Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

#recipe #rhubarb #apple

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I’ve been needing a strop that I can use to touch up my gouges for a while, and have been mostly getting by with a flat strop. Last week, I grabbed a piece of ash from the scrap pile, and shaped it with the bandsaw, gouges, and spokeshaves. Yesterday I formed a piece of leather to it (but forgot about the clamps marking the leather). Today I contact-cemented the leather in place. It works pretty well for sweeps up to a seven.

I’ll probably wet the leather again and see if I can get the clamp impressions out of the leather, but it’s working well enough that I may not bother.

#HandyTools #woodworking #leatherworking

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A while ago I read about kakishibu, a traditional Japanese finish mostly used on softwoods.

Since the one English-language book on kakishibu is out of print, and the author doesn't have any more copies, I decided to order a bit of the fermented persimmon juice and see what I could see.

I had a small box I had built to hold some clamps. The box was made with poplar sides and a birch top, and the poplar had an unappealing shade of green that I wanted to modify. I left the bottom of the box untreated, so I could look back to compare that with the sides that I treated.

Immediately after painting the box with a layer of the kakishibu, I noticed two things. One was that the reddish tint did a great job of modifying the greenish cast. I like it! The other thing is that, being water-based, it raised the grain of the box.

So I sanded the box lightly with 400 grit sandpaper, then applied another coat of the kakishibu, and set the box outside in the New Mexico sun for a couple mornings while I worked on other things in the shop.

That was quite a difference! They say that kakishibu will continue to darken for a month, but after just two mornings (about 6 hours) it looks a lot more appealing than the plain poplar (scroll back to that first image...)

And after two more mornings of sunshine, the color of the box has darkened a bit more, but it seems to be slowing down. I'll keep an eye on it for a couple more weeks, and maybe add another photo, but I'm sold on kakishibu, at least for covering up the green that poplar shows. And it looks pretty good on the birch top of the box, as well.

#woodworking #finishing #techniques

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