Respirator question and seeking information about a table descrbing various woods

[James Edward Benson]

HI,

I am trying to find the brand of a repirator mask that I saw once in a wood safety class.

It was a cloth mask with a pocket in which you could put replaceable filters.

While I have a PAPR it is not always convenient to have at the various locations I work at.

As best I recall it had three letters in its name.

I currently use a 3m with the two rectangular filters, and I think that the other one would be as effective and more comfortable.

*********

Also, I think I once stumbled across an excellent wood table that listed nearly every wood, their hardness, workability health issues and just about anything you would wqant to know.

If I did, I was never able to find it again. As it stands now, I have to go to a supplier's website and and jump back and forth between differrent woods. If I could simply look at one page life would be a lot eassier.

**(***

I'm concentrating on spindle turning at the moment.

I started turning maple, found that walnut an Mahogony were much easier to work with, and then discovered Black Limba, which was like getting a cheat sheet.

I'm beginning to get the shapes I like consistently, so it's great to learn on.

But, it's I can't think of any better word for it, it's kind of porous.I'm still just turning, not finishing right now, but I'm wondering how to overcome that aspect of it.

Thank you for any advise or help you can provide.

Jim Benson

 

[Roger Wiegand]

Bruce Hoadley's two books "Understanding Wood" and "Identifying Wood" are the best resources I know of for, well, understanding and identifying wood. Not as compact as a wall chart, but easily kept in the shop.

 

[John Dillon]

HI,

I am trying to find the brand of a repirator mask that I saw once in a wood safety class.

It was a cloth mask with a pocket in which you could put replaceable filters.

While I have a PAPR it is not always convenient to have at the various locations I work at.

As best I recall it had three letters in its name.

I currently use a 3m with the two rectangular filters, and I think that the other one would be as effective and more comfortable.

*********

Also, I think I once stumbled across an excellent wood table that listed nearly every wood, their hardness, workability health issues and just about anything you would wqant to know.

If I did, I was never able to find it again. As it stands now, I have to go to a supplier's website and and jump back and forth between differrent woods. If I could simply look at one page life would be a lot eassier.

**(***

I'm concentrating on spindle turning at the moment.

I started turning maple, found that walnut an Mahogony were much easier to work with, and then discovered Black Limba, which was like getting a cheat sheet.

I'm beginning to get the shapes I like consistently, so it's great to learn on.

But, it's I can't think of any better word for it, it's kind of porous.I'm still just turning, not finishing right now, but I'm wondering how to overcome that aspect of it.

Thank you for any advise or help you can provide.

Jim Benson

I like this poster from the Wood Database

Worldwide Woods, a Poster on Janka Hardness | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

 

[Rick Moreton]

For the mask maybe it was RZ mask? It was trendy for a few years, I used it too. It doesn't seal very well and I wouldn't recommend it. A little bit better than nothing but I wouldn't depend on it.

 

[John K Jordan]

Also, I think I once stumbled across an excellent wood table that listed nearly every wood, their hardness, workability health issues and just about anything you would wqant to know.

If I did, I was never able to find it again. As it stands now, I have to go to a supplier's website and and jump back and forth between differrent woods. If I could simply look at one page life would be a lot eassier.

Hello James.

Sounds like that chart/table would be useful. I personally go too one of two web sites for most of that info.
One is the Wood Dababase. There is a page with common names, or simply type in a wood name in the search field. Each entry has characteristics such as hardness, density, health issues, common uses, end grain for Id,and more.

Browse by Common Name | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

The articles are quite useful:

Wood Articles | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

And the new Wood Filter section seems valuable, although I haven't tried it yet:

Wood Filter | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

I also like this web site:

http://hobbithouseinc.com/

It also has a lot of information, but one especially useful thing is the numerous photos of each wood species, nicely showing the wide variation is color and look. I think of this site when someone posts a photo of a board or chuck of wood and asks what wood it might be.

I'm concentrating on spindle turning at the moment.
I started turning maple, found that walnut an Mahogony were much easier to work with, and then discovered Black Limba, which was like getting a cheat sheet.
I'm beginning to get the shapes I like consistently, so it's great to learn on.
But, it's I can't think of any better word for it, it's kind of porous.I'm still just turning, not finishing right now, but I'm wondering how to overcome that aspect of it.

I applaud your tackling spindle turning. Some people start with but seldom get past the bowl, some get stuck on the the green wood path. Nothing wrong with those but there's a world beyond. And, according to several well known experts (and me, FWIW), spindle turning can teach the fine tool control that will let you turn anything.

Are you working with the skew? I'm a skew evangelist - I start every new turner with the skew even if they have never seen a lathe before. I a way of teaching it that, so far, has not failed and no student has gotten a dreaded skew catch, at least while in my shop. (Knock on Bubinga.) After planing with the skew, we do shallow v-grooves, switch to the spindle gouge for coves, practice with the spindle roughing gouge, back to the skew for deep v-grooves and peeling cuts, then work on beads and more coves. I have a couple of tubs full of practice pieces:


I basically learned woodturning from two books, Turning Wood by Richard Raffan, and Fundamentals of Woodturning by Mike Darlow.

One of my personal favorite things is turning long, thin spindles.

I turned spindles from many species and I find that the harder the wood, the better I like it - some favorites are dogwood, ebony, persimmon, osage orange, cocobolo, sugar maple, purpleheart, guatambu, etc. The harder woods can take detail better, finish nicely, and are general stronger for functional things. I found black limba looks nice but is way too soft for my tastes. And note that there are various types of maple with different properties - sugar maple is the hardest, red maple and silver maple are softer. I also love to turn black cherry, somewhere between hard and soft - takes detail and texturing well.

BTW, I almost always turn dry wood. When I get local green hardwoods I use a bandsaw to cut up log sections into turning blanks and dry them. After years of this, I have enough dry blanks for two lifetimes! I made a video on this if you might be interested. It's quite long, made specifically for a covid pandemic era zoom meeting for our Knoxville club.

View: https://youtu.be/4Rbdas-jtD0


I do turn bowls, platters, vases, etc, but in case you are interested, here are a few of the kinds of things I've made in spindle orientation. Many are functional, some just for fun.



Many lidded boxes are also "spindles", as in "not face turning."

Sorry, I'm addicted to photographs!

The best advice I can offer:

• Find a local turning club if you haven't. Clubs provide great resources and let you meet wonderful people. By "local" I don't necessarily mean in the neighborhood - some of us travel over an hour to meetings, sometimes carpooling with turners close to home.
• Find a local mentor or two, perhaps through the club. Watch them, and let them watch you work and make suggestions. Classes are OK but one-on-one with a helpful experienced turner can be far better! I've taught many in my shop.
• Attend woodturning symposiums if close enough. Lots of good demonstrations, meet tool/wood vendors, meet up with other turners. I'm heading to the NC sysmposium soon, then the TAW in a few months.

BTW, I've spent time in Providence, mostly 30-40 years ago when I was working for a living. Used to ride motorcycles around in and out of town. Found some great restaurants.

JKJ