Starting a Mook Jong project

An Impact Drill is designed for drilling into concrete/metal and harder woods, it has a better force/torque which makes that job easier and more efficient

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Oh THAT'S how that works!

Thanks. I'm going to go buy one along with a belt sander at a pawn shop tomorrow. There's this cool shop that deals 90% in tools.

Nick

Nick, Sorry to hear about the machining shop fiasco. Ill be standing by patiently to hear how this all pans out... =)

I know *nothing* of wood or what drills work best, but when I drilled my holes I used one of those real wide, bulky, old-school drills that plugs into the wall. I purchased a 1-foot long wood cutting bit for it and went to town, the drill, which is probably 15 years old, did just fine.

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

Aye, like I said.

Corded drills hold higher voltage, torque and power compared to cordless drills.

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Oh THAT'S how that works!

I was using a corded drill, albeit a cheap one. My dad says there's a place around the corner that rents heavy duty tools, and I might be able to get a hammer drill from them. I'm on my way to check it out.

Nick

Ok, haven't been on the site in a while, and I just got back to this project. Here's some new news:

My oak log opened up in too many places when the drill broke and I was between drills. It was so hard to find that log in Florida at the right size, I got really bummed and put the project to the side for a while. Then our neighbor across the street cleared off some of the property. There were plenty of pines for picking. I decided that in Florida, sand pines are so easy to come by, and 99% of them are already straight, so I'm just going to get one of those.

I bought a drill at a pawn shop for $50, and they will give me 25 back when I return it. So it's like a cheap rental. It worked great drilling the holes in this log, I already have the arms and leg holes done, and one of the holes for the slats. I'm going to wait until I have the dummy on the frame before I do the second slat.

The holes were started by my sifu's kung fu brother, who has made dozens of dummies. When I got there, it turns out that the practitioners in my lineage actually use the round backs on the arms rather than straight. We have always used them offset, but I thought the square backs were to help that as well. Turns out my sifu's dummy was only square because he bought his dummy from an outside manufacturer. Building dummies is part of our education in our lineage. Eventually we all do it. So he just said to round out the backs of the arms. That's going to be tough on the offset ones, but I think I can manage.

The slats are made round in my lineage as well. The one that helped me uses galvanized metal poles to hold his dummy up, and my sigung's sifu, Karl Godwin uses some kind of wooden rod. Looks like a broomstick. I wonder if pine would work, but I'm guessing that would be too flimsy. And it turns out that the hardware stores now sell the pine poles by the 8' section rather than by the foot. So I would have to buy TWO whole poles rather than the other way around, since my frame is 5' wide.

This week, I am going to try to sand down the log and laminate it so I don't have any cracking action any time soon. Very soon, I plan to have the arms finished (again) and have a fully functional dummy.

And here's a funny story about getting the right bits:

I only had a 16" long 1" spade bit for my oak log. I figured I'd cut the holes and then chisel out the squares. Jesse (my sifu's kung fu brother) told me to just do round. I am actually VERY relieved with this, since chiseling into a log is practically hell.

I trained WC in Jacksonville while I was at college. So I visited the area, my old roommates and whatnot so I can get this jong finished.

So I go to Ace Hardware. The largest spade bit that's over a few inches long is the 1" one that I already have. So I had to buy a 1.5" spade bit and a 12" extension.

I get to Jesse's house, and we get all set up, and put together the drill and bits. Turns out the extension, which the label said was compatible with the spade bit (both Ace Hardware brand) didn't fit. So Jesse helped me get the arm holes started at the right angles and I would finish them when I get the extension.

I went back to Ace, and it turns out the entire product line was like that. We tried every 1.5" spade bit with every extension on the shelf. Turned out some dummy at the factory frequently forgets to drill the holes for the extension large enough for the bits to fit in. I had to buy another brand at twice as much.

So I get back home to Central Florida, and ask my dad to help me out. He got impatient with me taking my time drilling the hole, and wanted a shot at it. He squeezed the trigger as far as it could go. Full power. First catch in the wood, and the extension snaps.

I had to take THIS one back to Ace, and they replaced it for me. I went to buy an Ace brand extension. Just as the cashier was about to ring it up, I remembered the defect, and said wait, can I check this first? She said yes, so I opened it up, and whaddya know? It didn't fit! 200 miles from the other store I found the defect, and it exists here, too! So the manager and I went back to the drill aisle and checked them out. The other brand had the exact same model at this store, so we opened it up and checked. Well, now we know that extension comes from the same factory, sells it to both companies, and Ace's label is a few dollars cheaper, because that one didn't fit, either.

So I got my replacement extension that fits (finally) and finished the holes. So, yeah, we're almost there.

Nick

New update:

The log is finished. I am going to put a third coat of polyurethane on it and that's it. I didn't feel like sanding it down to uniform color, so it's got many shades of browns and blacks all over it. It's already hanging on the frame. Looks great. I am going to treat the 2x4s with the polyurethane as well. I had to buy a galvanized metal rod myself. Turns out the pine sank the log all the way to the ground. I'm surprised it didn't break. I guess a five foot wide frame is too wide to use regular wood. But I needed to make it that wide so I had a sturdy freestanding frame and the support didn't get in the way of working the sides of the dummy. Instead of using a second slat at the bottom, I added a section of 2x4 to the backboard of the frame, to push the bottom of the log forward to be even with the top. Works great.

Took my arms to a woodturner hobbyist. The middle arm was fixed very easy by him, I could never have done so myself. Looks freaking amazing. The offset arms may be a little beyond repair, so I may have to buy another $20 worth of cherry. Not too horrible.

The leg plan I used was good, but I forgot to make the leg hole at a 15-20 degree angle. 90° was way too much, and the leg stuck out too far. I'm going to add an angle to the top of it and see if that fixes anything. If not, I may have to just add a metal leg instead.

So, all I really have left to make it functional, is two more arms and the leg. I can't believe I'm finally almost done! I can't find the pics I've taken so far, but I will borrow my parents' digital and take some of the finished product soon.

Nick

cooooooooool

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"...any theory that satisfies the facts demands assumptions which are completely absurd."

Aleister Crowley

Thanks!

Today, I'm going to a customer of my dad's who has a wood shop in his house. He's one of those super rich guys that lives on the beach. He said he could help me with the leg. He doesn't have a lathe, but he has everything else. So I can get the leg fixed and get the two arms ready for the other guy to turn, since everything HE has besides the lathe is covered up with junk in his garage. The woodturner is pretty nice. I called him out of the blue, after I found a website of the local wooturners club and saw that he's the vice president (the president had a different area code), and caught him WAY off guard. He said sure, so that's where I headed. After he finished the first arm, he asked for a ride to the bike store to pick up a new bike. This guy is a health nut and used to be military. He still works at the local air force base, where he is planning to ride the bike to and from every day. I told him of course, and felt that we are now even on favors.

So, here's some advice about the actual parts of the dummy that require skill: find a local wood shop or woodturning club. As long as you have the wood and aren't trying to take advantage of them, then they will be happy to help. I was told by the first guy that was helping me, who is a snow bird, that this area is VERY dry in the way of wood workers, so most areas should have someone to help. And, if you want to learn how to use a lathe, it actually costs just as much to hire a professional furniture maker to fashion you a set as it would to buy your own lathe. Then you can keep practicing and make your arms better and better over time. When I have my own house, I think I'm going to buy my own myself.

This dummy is going to be done this week. I really can't wait!

Nick

By the way: When I was working on the log, there was some kind of green fungus under the bark. I figured that would go away when I sand it down. It did, but now it's appearing inside the holes. Is there a way to kill it? Also, even though I tried to sand the ends of the log smooth, they were pretty rough, and I don't know if the polyurethane really took. Do the ends need to be smooth?

I made mine out of an old discarded guard-rail post that the road crew left. It was 6-ft. tall and already had a side hole drilled through for the steel-cable that linked the guard-posts together,..so, I used that hole for my support pipe that hammered through it nicely'. Then I took my Dad's good ole' Black&Decker and drilled four,1 inch and a half holes about 4-inches deep into the correct arm and leg positions and then rubber-hammered wooden table-legs into the three Arm holes, cut off the extra length. Then I took an old boat-oar cut it in half, drilled a small hole in the end of each one. I rubber-hammered one piece into the leg hole position, then took heavy metal wire and ran it through the two holes connecting the other piece to make the hinge(knee-joint),& wrapped about ten wraps of heavy-duty duct-tape around the hinge/joint connection, then hooked the whole thing up to my rafters in the basement. It works great and only cost me a total of $48.00! You can see most of it on my web-site 'gallery' Li Ma-Keh 2008 at; Coiling Dragon Kung-Fu/Wu-Shu Studio

Thing about old guard rail posts is, they are so heavily soaked with Arsenic that they're a death trap waiting to happen if you ever get a splinter or cut from the wood

yes,..I heard about that,..mine was,(at one time) creosote stained,..but it was old and well weathered, plus I sanded it down smooth. So mook jung builders be careful where you get your posts,...make sure they Aren't the arsenic soaked ones,(which they aren't allowed to do anymore).

They now do triple bromiated copper, which is just as if not more poisonous than arsenic, same goes with creosote