Making a NEW MALLET! | Turning Tuesday #7

Around 7 years ago, I made myself a little dovetailing mallet that has since seen ALOT of abuse. With severe reluctance, it's time to replace it.

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My name is Matt Estlea and I’m a Woodworker from Basingstoke, England. My aim is to make your woodworking less s***.

I come from 5 years of TRAINING at Rycotewood Furniture Centre in Oxford, 5 years of experience WORKING at Axminster Tools and Machinery in Basingstoke, and 3 years TEACHING both day classes and evening classes at Rycotewood Furniture Centre. All while trying to get this YouTube thing off the ground.

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[MattEstlea]

If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to press the *LIKE* button. It really helps me out!

[j.davidneel]

I love your humility and ability to laugh at yourself. Most people wouldn't have the integrity to leave that in the video. Thanks much Matt.

[wortheffort]

Getting better. And you were on the right track seperating the two pieces, a V cut so that the two points don't wedge each other safe way to separate. You could do that between centers too. That last catch wasn't caused by the skew but how you are holding the blank in your chuck. Just as in a mortise and tenon joint the strength comes from the shoulder. With no shoulder registered on the face of the jaws there is very little strength in the blank holding. Twas exasperated by the distance from the chuck which amplifies torque working against it. (Simpler: a shoulder when clamping in the chuck gives it more strength, the farther out you turn from the chuck the more you torque the piece outa chuck.)

[ga]

Glad you are keeping the old one, nice to see a reminder of where you’ve been and compare it to where you are going.

[robohippy]

Oh, the agony of the skew!!! I saw that catch coming before it happened.... I am mostly a bowl turner. So, a few comments on your turning. For parting things off, I don't think any one parts some thing all the way off with the lathe at high speed, and most will part down to a very small tenon, then use a hand saw, especially on that box you turned. Might have to look that video up. For the end grain, a standard scraper can give you a good finish, but for very hard woods, generally they will hone/polish the burr off. Now days, many are using a negative rake scraper. The first version of this was a skew chisel, but you leave the burr from the grinder on. That burr is gone in seconds though. I have a bunch of them, ground to 30 degrees on the top, and 60 degrees on the bottom. Many will use ones with the same angle on each side. With mine, you can burnish a burr on it which makes it cut a lot longer. You can get 400 grit surfaces with one of them, and they are very handy in box making.

To grip an end grain piece in your chuck, depending on jaw size, I like some PVC pipe. Cut a ring, then cut a slot in the ring. I do like the thinner more pliable type rather than the schedule 40 stuff like used for heavy pressure lines. With leather, you can get dents from the jaws.

For sizing your tenon, use an open end box wrench. They are just a hair bigger than a nut or bolt head that size. It will actually burnish the wood down a bit, then you can fine tune it for the perfect fit. Of course the water in the glue will swell the wood a bit, but when the moisture dries out a bit, the fit can be loose again if you make it too small, but you probably already know that.

A quote I love to use, from the movie The Princess Bride, and no it isn't a chick flick, "Good job, sleep well, I will most likely kill you in the morning'. If you haven't seen it, you must!

[sickle]

“I have been wacking this thing for years.”
Nah. Too easy...

[captnsking]

Laughing my head off at 2:50 at your reaction when you realized you could spin the handle😂

[HWCism]

Thanks, love watching your screw ups along the way. Nice job. 😂

[chm]

Quite possibly the nicest thing you’ve done yet. So simple, but yet it’s ultra functional and a damn fine shape. Nice job, Matt 👌

[Cancun]

This reminds me of the short from that Finnish dude who turns a mallet with a roughing gouge in 56 seconds flat, with no poncy insert shots, no music and no talking at all.

[bobcharlie]

Had me squirming at the thought of catching your finger in the hole on the lathe!

[dbnoho]

The finger getting pinned bit made me lift my feet off the ground like a shark was under me.

[MJ-nbqn]

Good job ! I am glad you warned folks about the dangers of the hole and touching the blank when turning. You may have saved some digits. Also you figured out parting off. Good. You can “catch “ a piece like the handle being parted of with light hand gripping pressure around the handle. With only the chuck holding the piece, and tail stock away the piece really was no way to catch or pinch. Just falls in your hand, but you did it safe and to me that’s rule #1. I love Turning Tuesday’s.

[RetroAFCNicØ]

Loved this one matt. Especially love that you own your mistakes and demo how to recover which is always very helpful to the hobbyist.

Suggestion - now that game of thrones is coming back make a big gaudy goblet!

[wb_finewoodworking]

Great video. Your point about turning something with a hole drilled through it was excellent. That’s something I’ll definitely have to remember. That big catch in the handle actually caused you to make the handle a little smaller and it seems to fit your hand a little better. The end product looks fantastic.

[keirfarnum]

Nice little mallet. Thanks for sharing.

[meticulousvisions]

Awesome stubby mallet! Your absolutely right about keeping calm when things don’t go right. Easier said than done 😂

[stevecoster]

Hiya I've only one problem with your videos, I've watched them all!!! Found your channel about when you moved to your current workshop and binge watched your earlier content... now reduced to sitting on the edge of my chair... Thank you and keep up the great content... Take care...

[davegower]

I was just about to say "You're doing great with the skew!" when you got the catch. Tough one, but it all worked out in the end! Nice work!

[sapbuckets]

Very nice result, that mallet looks good and should serve you well. The only thing I'd have done differently in assembly is to avoid the glue, leave the handle long, cut a top kerf, and applied the traditional wedge prior to final top trim-up. Just to make it easier to re-handle if ever necessary. I've never turned on a lathe so your mallet beats anything I could turn out right now.