Oven Tool Lesson Plan
Oven Tool Lesson Plan By Horace T. Ponii Copyright November 2012 Horace T. Ponii Smashwords Edition Smashwords Edition, License Notes Thank you for downloading this ebook. Although this may have been a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
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The Oven Tool The oven tool is simply a thin piece of wood that can be used to pull oven racks in an out. It’s useful and easy to make. With or without a finish, it is a simple project that teaches a lot of basic skills, but is quite forgiving. Read through the entire project and understand the concept before beginning.
Start with a piece of hardwood that is ¼” x 1-1/2” x 12” long. (For softwoods, increase thickness to 5/16” or 3/8”.). If using rough cut wood, run it through a table saw to clean
up the rough edges. Knots can be a problem, but take a look at where they fall to see if they can be lived with. The grain should go the full length of the piece, if possible. Use a scribe to find the center of the width and mark the full length.
Use this setting to mark one end. This will be the center of the hole drilled for the ‘push’ cut.
A hanger hole can also be marked on the other end at this time or done last. If you do it now, plan for a 1/2" hole 3/4" from end, on the center.
Measure 3” from that same end and mark it on the center.
Drill a 1/2" hole on the two marks.
The hanger hole can also be 1/2", but looks better a bit smaller, 5/16” or 3/8”. Mark the push end with lines at about the quarter mark. Draw lines from the outside of the hole to the quarter marks.
Use a square to draw lines for the pull hole to the lower edge of the tool. You can also just do this with a straight edge and eye or with a template. You can cut both of these out. Both are straight cuts. Be careful to stay just inside the lines. A little extra wood inside the hole is easier to sand flat than if you go outside the hole and have to reshape it instead of the flat line going to it. Lay out the handle end. There is no need for the 4 ½” mark. Pennies are used to draw the round corners. A 1/4" looks like quite a deep cut for the handle and it is, but the wood is thin and oven racks can stick, so a very positive grip is important.
When cutting the handle, sneak up on the straight part, don’t try to just cut down and turn. If you’re using a scroll saw or coping saw, you don’t have to angle as much as I did with a ½" bandsaw blade with almost no kerf, though.
It is best to cut the long part with the grain first and then cut across the grain as it supports the wood better with power tools. With hand tools, cut across the grain at the end first or you run the risk of snapping off the end if your saw binds.
You don’t have to cut exactly on the line. You will be using a rasp or sandpaper to take down the last bit to the line. A little extra wood is easy enough to take off, but you can’t put it back on.
A round wood rasp is perfect for cleaning up concave curves.
A flat rasp is perfect for rounding convex or outside corners into smooth curves. Use it and the round rasp to soften the sharp edges. Don’t go too wild with it as the sandpaper will take off even more. Don’t worry if there are some bumps left behind on ring porous woods such as ash or oak. This is normal and those areas will be taken off by the sandpaper.
Then sand the rest with 100 grit sand paper. Use a quarter sheet folded on itself 3 times. This way none of the grit contacts any other and it stiffens itself. Sand with the grain where you can. Depending on the wood, you might want to go to a lower grit sandpaper. This oven tool is made out of white ash and 100 grit is all you need. Tighter grained woods such as maple, walnut and pine will benefit by sanding with 150 grit and then 220.
Finish with 2 light coats of some clear finish. Remember, it’s going to be contacting hot metal, so you don’t want much finish (none?) on it to burn off.
Notes for the teacher:
Do not print for the students.
Working with a scribe, isn’t hard, but takes some practice. To find center, open to about half the width. Mark short lines from both sides, making sure to keep the same attitude on the scribe in both positions. Then just adjust it to split the difference.
This teaches thinking of the project overall, not fussy measurements, but measurements can be graded. The child can mess up almost every single task and still have a working project to take home or sell. Except for a table saw for cutting out the blanks the rest can be done with hand tools. Note that when drilling, a clean piece of wood under the project and a Forstner bit on a drill press makes the cleanest hole with no tear out. That’s what I used. Blanks can be pre-made by the teacher out of scraps from any construction site, although if you use SPF 2x4’s, you might even have to go up to ½” thickness since
they’re mostly balsam fir and are very soft. If you buy lumber, yellow pine or hemfir might be your bet pricewise. Oak fence boards would also work. They’re currently only $7 for a 16’-1”x 6” and you could slim this down to 1-¼” wide, if you had to. Cut the board into 11 ½” sections (to get 16), clean the edges, rip those to 1 ¼” or a hair more (4 per section), then rip those in half (2) for 128 blanks. You’ll probably have to toss or not bother with a bunch due to knots, but you’ll certainly get 60 out of it. That should do 2 classes. They’ll be green, but should dry pretty quickly or dry them in the microwave. Lay them out individually with good air circulation when done. I’m not sure how long, but don’t do more than a few minutes to start or you might get a hot spot (smoky, flameless fire) going in some. Using a rasp rather than sandpaper and power tools is a good lesson. They’re handy and don’t hardly wear out. Old blacksmith rasps work great for flat ones. I have several from our blacksmith that I’ve been using for years. You might want to pull what I said about the sandpaper in the instructions out and deliver that verbally. If you have questions or comments, contact me through email, [email protected] ###
****
The Oven Tool The oven tool is simply a thin piece of wood that can be used to pull oven racks in an out. It’s useful and easy to make. With or without a finish, it is a simple project that teaches a lot of basic skills, but is quite forgiving. Read through the entire project and understand the concept before beginning.
Start with a piece of hardwood that is ¼” x 1-1/2” x 12” long. (For softwoods, increase thickness to 5/16” or 3/8”.). If using rough cut wood, run it through a table saw to clean
up the rough edges. Knots can be a problem, but take a look at where they fall to see if they can be lived with. The grain should go the full length of the piece, if possible. Use a scribe to find the center of the width and mark the full length.
Use this setting to mark one end. This will be the center of the hole drilled for the ‘push’ cut.
A hanger hole can also be marked on the other end at this time or done last. If you do it now, plan for a 1/2" hole 3/4" from end, on the center.
Measure 3” from that same end and mark it on the center.
Drill a 1/2" hole on the two marks.
The hanger hole can also be 1/2", but looks better a bit smaller, 5/16” or 3/8”. Mark the push end with lines at about the quarter mark. Draw lines from the outside of the hole to the quarter marks.
Use a square to draw lines for the pull hole to the lower edge of the tool. You can also just do this with a straight edge and eye or with a template. You can cut both of these out. Both are straight cuts. Be careful to stay just inside the lines. A little extra wood inside the hole is easier to sand flat than if you go outside the hole and have to reshape it instead of the flat line going to it. Lay out the handle end. There is no need for the 4 ½” mark. Pennies are used to draw the round corners. A 1/4" looks like quite a deep cut for the handle and it is, but the wood is thin and oven racks can stick, so a very positive grip is important.
When cutting the handle, sneak up on the straight part, don’t try to just cut down and turn. If you’re using a scroll saw or coping saw, you don’t have to angle as much as I did with a ½" bandsaw blade with almost no kerf, though.
It is best to cut the long part with the grain first and then cut across the grain as it supports the wood better with power tools. With hand tools, cut across the grain at the end first or you run the risk of snapping off the end if your saw binds.
You don’t have to cut exactly on the line. You will be using a rasp or sandpaper to take down the last bit to the line. A little extra wood is easy enough to take off, but you can’t put it back on.
A round wood rasp is perfect for cleaning up concave curves.
A flat rasp is perfect for rounding convex or outside corners into smooth curves. Use it and the round rasp to soften the sharp edges. Don’t go too wild with it as the sandpaper will take off even more. Don’t worry if there are some bumps left behind on ring porous woods such as ash or oak. This is normal and those areas will be taken off by the sandpaper.
Then sand the rest with 100 grit sand paper. Use a quarter sheet folded on itself 3 times. This way none of the grit contacts any other and it stiffens itself. Sand with the grain where you can. Depending on the wood, you might want to go to a lower grit sandpaper. This oven tool is made out of white ash and 100 grit is all you need. Tighter grained woods such as maple, walnut and pine will benefit by sanding with 150 grit and then 220.
Finish with 2 light coats of some clear finish. Remember, it’s going to be contacting hot metal, so you don’t want much finish (none?) on it to burn off.
Notes for the teacher:
Do not print for the students.
Working with a scribe, isn’t hard, but takes some practice. To find center, open to about half the width. Mark short lines from both sides, making sure to keep the same attitude on the scribe in both positions. Then just adjust it to split the difference.
This teaches thinking of the project overall, not fussy measurements, but measurements can be graded. The child can mess up almost every single task and still have a working project to take home or sell. Except for a table saw for cutting out the blanks the rest can be done with hand tools. Note that when drilling, a clean piece of wood under the project and a Forstner bit on a drill press makes the cleanest hole with no tear out. That’s what I used. Blanks can be pre-made by the teacher out of scraps from any construction site, although if you use SPF 2x4’s, you might even have to go up to ½” thickness since
they’re mostly balsam fir and are very soft. If you buy lumber, yellow pine or hemfir might be your bet pricewise. Oak fence boards would also work. They’re currently only $7 for a 16’-1”x 6” and you could slim this down to 1-¼” wide, if you had to. Cut the board into 11 ½” sections (to get 16), clean the edges, rip those to 1 ¼” or a hair more (4 per section), then rip those in half (2) for 128 blanks. You’ll probably have to toss or not bother with a bunch due to knots, but you’ll certainly get 60 out of it. That should do 2 classes. They’ll be green, but should dry pretty quickly or dry them in the microwave. Lay them out individually with good air circulation when done. I’m not sure how long, but don’t do more than a few minutes to start or you might get a hot spot (smoky, flameless fire) going in some. Using a rasp rather than sandpaper and power tools is a good lesson. They’re handy and don’t hardly wear out. Old blacksmith rasps work great for flat ones. I have several from our blacksmith that I’ve been using for years. You might want to pull what I said about the sandpaper in the instructions out and deliver that verbally. If you have questions or comments, contact me through email, [email protected] ###
