Popular Woodworking 2008-06 № 169, страница 7

Letters

FROM OCR READERS

Patching Article Evokes Memories of Navy Days

l n reading the article on "Perfect Patching" by Carl Bilderback in the February 2008 issue of Popular Woodworking (#167), I recalled that when I joined the Navy in 1956 and went to Damage Control School, we had to learn to do the same thing on wooden boats.

When we were repairing a boat and found a small dent or gouge in a plank, and it was not so bad that the plank had to be replaced, we would install a "graving" piece.

We didn't have to match the color of the wood; we just used the same wood species, and made sure the points of the graving piece ran with the grain of the wood to be patched. The size depended on the size of the damage. Most of the time we didn't make a repair larger than 3" x 6". And if we had to go deeper than 'A" of the plank, then we had to replace the plank.

The operation was about the same as in the patching article. We cut out the graving piece and laid it over the damaged area then marked around the edges. Then we chiseled out the damaged section for the graving piece. When the fit was right, we installed it with countersunk wood screws and bedded it in white lead. When it was dry, we sanded it smooth and filed over the countersunk screws. When all was done, we painted.

Somewhere in the early 1960s, the Navy began using fiberglass boats for all but the wooden mine sweepers (though they were phasing in fiberglass boats in the late 1950s, so we had to learn how to repair both).

After retiring from the Navy in 1976,1 worked for a small shipyard, where I used graving pieces many times. The United States Coast Guard would come to inspect a boat, find a bad place in a plank or keel, and want us to replace it. I would ask them if I could install a graving piece instead, and they were surprised that I brought it up, and always said yes.

I no longer work on boats but there are still a lot of old wooden boats around. By the way, they stopped making white lead years ago. Now the best product to use to bed a graving piece is 3M 5200 Marine Adhesive.

— Robert A. Witt, Summerdale, Alabama

You Can't Be Too Careful

I certainly agree with you on the importance of workshop safety and look forward to reading Marc Adams' columns on that subject.

However, Editor Chris Schwarz's statement, "... when you try these methods ... the chances of you getting hurt have dropped to nil," caused me to raise an eyebrow ("Out On a Limb," December 2007, issue #166).

In addition to being a professional woodworker, I've worked as a sheet-metal fabricator, welder and heavy-machinery maintenance mechanic. In each job, safety was paramount; I practiced it religiously, even serving on several safety committees. Yet I never reached the point where I felt I'd mas

tered safety techniques and that my chances of getting injured had disappeared.

Your statement may cause people to be less vigilant in the workshop. The chances of getting hurt never go away. Perhaps a better choice of words might have been, "the chances of you getting hurt will be greatly diminished."

On the subject of safety, 1 always find it ironic that tool manufacturers and tele-vision-show producers remind us ad nauseam that the most important rule of workshop safety is to wear safety glasses.

Of course, I am in complete agreement that eye protection is important. However, 1 have yet to meet a woodworker who has lost

an eye in a workshop accident, but I have met many scores of them who have missing digits and nasty scars, myself included.

To me, the most important rule of workshop safely - ir I were to condense all safety advice into one "golden rule" - would be to always think about what you are doing or are about to do. What can go wrong? Where are the potential dangers? Is there a better, safer way to do something? Think through every process before undertaking it. As my father once sagely advised me, "John, you need to keep your wits about you."

—John Koski, Mukwonago, Wisconsin

12 ■ Popular Woodworking June 2008