Are winding sticks nothing more than 2 identical pieces of wood?

[Timothy MacMurtrie]

I own the same ones as you and they are great!!! I kept loosing my wooden ones😬 but someday I’ll make another pair and place them on the wall lol

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

Honestly I don't think you'll be satisfied unless you buy two 72" Starrett straight edges. Can never be too precise, after all.

[Noah Magnuson]

Aluminum angle is often bowed. Better to use a balanced shape.

I'm not sure what you are basing that on, and it is a bit of an extreme exaggeration -- maybe 'can occasionally be bowed' would be more appropriate. I have used quite a bit of extruded aluminum over the years in fabrication. 1" x 1/8" angle makes great winding sticks. If a long thin stick gets twisted or bowed, then yes, it will stay that way, but extruded aluminum angle starts out very straight and as long as you take the time to check if it is straight to begin with, it will stay that way at the lengths winding sticks are made. Of course, very long pieces can bow, but who is using an 8' winding stick out of 1/2" angle?

[andy bessette]

NM--angle is an exceedingly poor choice for a straightedge because of its unbalanced form. It bends very easily in more than one plane. Most other forms are superior: solid or tubular rectangle or square, I-beam, etc.

[Noah Magnuson]

NM--angle is an exceedingly poor choice for a straightedge because of its unbalanced form. It bends very easily in more than one plane. Most other forms are superior: solid or tubular rectangle or square, I-beam, etc.

"Exceedingly poor..." Again, gross exaggeration. I am a mechanical engineer. These are winding sticks.

1/8" wall doesn't bend "very easily" period. Yes, tubular, I-beam etc. is stronger, but angle is perfectly sufficient, not exceedingly poor, and gives a single narrow upper viewing surface to line up whether you use it on it's side or like a tent. This is a thread about the simplicity of what you can use for winding sticks...

[Marc Jeske]

Time for a Group Hug !

Marc

2 Richard hug.jpg

[Noah Magnuson]

I hear ya

[Warren Mickley]

I watched Tom King's video a second time. He was in the "whatever is lying around" camp. He gets a big stick from under the bench, then leans down again and gets another stick. He puts them at the ends of the board, but the one at the far end does not sit flat, it rocks. In fact you can see a gap on the left side because the hump tilts it to the right. He works the board some, but still has not touched the far end hump when he uses the winding sticks for the second and last time. He continues to work with the jack plane and eventually takes out the hump at the far end, but never again checks for wind, never gets a good reading. He then planes with a jointer plane and smoother plane and finishes without ever using a straight edge along the length.

Tom is making shutters; probably he knows from experience that wind is not very important. If he were making parts for a carcass and a paneled door to fit, this kind of clumsiness would make trouble. In such a case, care with winding sticks and straight edge pays dividends later when things have to fit together. And you want winding sticks that are a lot easier to pick up with one hand and place on the board, because for careful work they are used a lot more often. And for ease of sighting it is helpful to be looking at the same pair over and over.

In a pinch you can use broom sticks or pipes or scrap. But what is best is a matching pair of carefully prepared sticks. Inlays and exotic woods are not necessary and probably not historic, though they might help an older guy starting out.

[Marc Jeske]

My troubles will be over when Woodpecker's offers a one time set of sticks.

Marc

[Marc Jeske]

OMG !!!

They DO... Well, DID anyway !

And really, not too bad pricing comparatively.

Notice the nice contrasting sighting line.

https://www.woodpeck.com/ottwindingsticks.html

[Tom M King]

Warren is exactly right. That video was making shutter panels, that would have raised panels on both sides (it's a museum house, open only rarely, and the shutters are kept closed more than they are opened). They did not need to be perfect, like you would want for a piece of furniture, there was no need to worry about the edges that would have the panel bevel cut away later,and in fact, being made to more closely replicate what they would have been like for the 1850 house that they went on, were better off not so perfect.

Sometimes "clumsy" is good enough for the job. Smoothing plane texture actually matches other surfaces in that house, and is not as coarse as it looks in the harsh sidelighting- 4 thou shavings.

If you're interested, better pictures can be seen on the "Shutters" page of my website, but I've been too busy to work on the site in years, and it's accumulated a lot of formatting errors, so don't know if it will be even presentable on your computer. You should be able to click on any picture there, and get a larger, clearer picture though. www.HistoricHousePreservation.com

[Bill Houghton]

OMG !!!

They DO... Well, DID anyway !

And really, not too bad pricing comparatively.

Notice the nice contrasting sighting line.

https://www.woodpeck.com/ottwindingsticks.html

Or Lee Valley's, at a more affordable price: http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/pag...at=1,230,41182

[andy bessette]

Notice that neither Woodpecker nor Lee Valley chose extruded angles as the basis for their winding sticks.