Lots of things were different when your grandparents were young. Woodworking was extremely popular back then and most men had the abilities to make something with their own hands. Most people had their own woodworking projects which they worked with whenever they had a while to spare. Things look a lot different now. Few people can handle their own woodworking projects and many people should call in a specialist if they want to have several nice wooden furniture for the dwelling. Furniture made from wood are trendy and classic and loved by many people but it would certainly be a lot easier if all people could make their own furniture. Woodworking is a lot easier nowIts truly quite easy to get knowledge nowadays and woodworking knowledge is not an exception. The internet is a good source where you can find out a lot about woodworking and how to begin with easy woodworking projects. Youll have to practice what you learn to be able to become skillful certainly but that will be lots of fun. Purchase what you need to begin withTo be able to begin woodworking youll need several tools. Its alchoices best to purchase as good tools as possible since that will make it possible for getting real accurate final results. It all depends upon how much money you can spare although and you should alchoices stick to your funds since woodworking is supposed to be fun, not supposed to destroy you. The internet is good since youll be able to purchase all the tools you might need there. The prices are generally much lower than in the stores youll be able to get if youre out shopping on the street. Create a listing of all the tools youll need for your woodworking projects and order them from the best e-shop you can get. Make sure to compare prices before you purchase anything since several web shops are a lot cheaper than other ones. It can be hard for a rookie to recognize precisely what tools you will need to begin with but youll be able to get guidance if you learn on-line articles. The first thing you must purchase is a great saw. Basically youll need a few saws since there are different types, needed for a variety of moments. Youll also need a good jig. Go ahead and find out all you want and need about woodworking. Youll soon be able to work on your own woodworking projects and you will soon discover how fun it is.
Ive been very busy lately, so havent posted in a while. One thing that has had me busy is work on a new EurekaZone video. I released it today. It is an introduction to EurekaZones EZ Smart Woodworking Systems basic components.
Some people on the EurekaZone Forum have shown an interest in my PBB, so Im doing an article on it. Back in February/March 2007, I discovered EurekaZone. At the time I was looking into buying a cabinet table saw to replace my nearly 30 year old Craftsman 10 contractors saw. I had beefed up, tuned up, and decked out the saw so that it was as good as I could make it, but I still wasnt satisfied. Among others I was thinking about the SawStop, having read about its invention several years earlier, and being impressed with the safety aspect. I even traveled a couple of hundred miles to watch a demo of the SS. I was impressed and considering purchasing one when I found EurekaZone. I spent about three months researching and considering the EZ Smart system, until I decided that EZ was probably the choice to go. I was impressed with safety aspects of the Dead Wood concept, the versatility of the system, the ease with which I would be able to break down sheet goods, the enthusiasm of the EZ users on the forum, and very much by Dino. So in June 2007, I purchased the Smart Guide System 100 kit (SGS-100) and Smart Table Kit (STK). I quickly discovered that what everyone was saying about EZ was true, and I was satisfied for a few weeks, until I got the Power Bench and Bridge (PBB) bug. I had read so much about all the custom PBBs that had been built that I started thinking about and designing one for me. Among my goals were; Replacement of most if not all of the functionality of the table saw Replacement of some of the functionality of my radial arm saw and compound miter saws Replacement of the router table Replacement of the vertical panel saw I was planning to build for break down of sheet goods My design began with the standard simple PBB on a heavy roll around cart. I have lots of shop space, so size and portability were not much a factor. I like my tools to be heavy and sturdy (I sometimes stand on them when working on something at ceiling height). Burt Waddells EZ Uni design inspired me to use a table saw fence on my PBB. Initially I planned to remove the fence from my TS, and replace it with the original that came with the saw. I came up with this design. I also wanted to be able to rip or cross cut full sheets of plywood, without having to change the configuration of the bench. This is the next design. I posted the following on the EurekaZone Forum to get some feedback from other users: It is large because I have the room and I foresee it being used for most of my straight line cutting and routing needs. There are two base units that will normally be attached to create an L shaped PBB. They can also be connected to create a square PBB if the need should arise, and could be used individually with the addition of a second side rail for the bridge. (I later decided that one of the modules should be 36 X 72) The side rails will be attached to one long side and to the counterclockwise short side. One base could have a 24 rail attached to the long side adjoining the short side with the rail to allow that end to have a short bridge attached so it could be used like a miter saw. I plan on using my Incra miter gauge with a connector attached in one of the SMEs that will be mounted on the top. The SMEs will allow for the use of stops, additional fences, the miter gauge, to secure the free end of the fence that will also be attached, and to provide sliding surfaces to assist in supporting large sheet goods. The fence I will be attaching is a VEGA Pro 50 that will come from my TS, as I will no longer be using the TS to cut sheet goods. I will attach a ½ X 7 X 48 piece of UHMW horizontally to the bottom of the fence to act as a fence extension under the bridge. This will be for cutting strips narrower than the bridge and still being able to use the fences scale. This is possible because, with the fence set to zero and the UHMW will be trimmed to the EAC. I plan on using the far SME with a piece of connector, bolt and knob attached to the bottom of the fence, to secure the free end of the fence if necessary, although I have never found it necessary on the TS. (This idea was also abandoned.) With the mounting of the bridge, I hope to have the beginnings of the most useful tool in my shop. Storage and other details will evolve after I begin to use the PBB. (I later posted the following in response to another post.) This is a preliminary redesign of my workshop. I have inherited some additional equipment and have find a useful place for it. I also have become aware (after 12 years and retirement) that my original layout was not very functional, and need to move things around a bit. Also the discovery of the EZ system has changed my thinking on much of what I do in the shop. Sooooooo, it is time for a little furniture moving... As you can see, I have a relatively large if not uncluttered area. There are columns everywhere that I have to deal with. I also intend to use the PBB as a out-feed for the TS (if I continue to use it). I have a central dust collection system, so moving things too much is more difficult than it should be. The wasted space will probably wind up with something in it that is lower that the PBB. Possibly a downdraft sanding table Im designing. I want the space open at PBB height for situating full 4X8 sheets along either major axis. I can then either rip or crosscut first with the same setup. I have a sheet goods cart that allows me to move full sheets about nearly vertical and then tilts down so they can be slid on to the PBB, thus reducing the lifting of sheets that get heavier every year. (Someone mentioned that some sheet goods (i.e. particle board and MDF) were longer that 96. This is my reply.) Thank you, I had completely forgotten about those over-sized particle board and MDF sheets. I have been considering putting a hardwood band around the torsion box for esthetic purposes. If I keep the torsion box at 24, this added ¾ all around will give me enough length for these monsters. I also had not considered cutting narrow strips from full sheets. I assumed that with sliding modules to extend the table top to the cut-off side of the bridge, I should be able to rip narrow strips without much problem. I have thought about this, and my solution is additional support in the form of a sheet goods cart I built. The cart allows me to transport those bulky, heavy full sheets about the shop nearly vertically, and then can be tilted and locked in a horizontal position at my standard work surface height. I can slide the sheet from the pickup bed to the cart in horizontal mode, tilt the sheet vertical, and transport to and slide into my vertical storage rack. When I need a sheet, I slide it onto the cart vertically, move it to the work area, tilt and lock it horizontal, and slide the sheet into position. I never have to lift whole sheets (something that gets more difficult every year). Cutting those narrow strips can be accomplished from the back side of the table. Since the table is only @24 wide, I can easily cut while standing behind the bridge. With a 36 table, this would be too much of a stretch for me. I may have to start the cut like normal and then shift to behind the table. A picture is worth As you can see, I have already incorporated suggestions made earlier. If I move/replace the scale on the fence guide, I can re-orient it so as to save some steps in normal usage. Incorporating Burts EZ Uni, I came up with this design. Then I remembered that the old TS fence was a piece of junk, so I started looking for a new fence for the PBB. Someone on the forum mentioned a sale on the Biesemeyer fence that sounded great, so I bought one and added it to the design. After much re-thinking about ergonomics, work flow, and the features of the new fence, I settled on the following design. It still incorporates the L design I like for the normal setup, but allows me to reconfigure for special needs. This is the L configuration. The fence rail is inboard of the edge of the bench to allow the fastening of the bridge and other fixtures anywhere around the edge of the bench. Here, the L configuration is set up to make a cross squaring cut on a full sheet of plywood. My plywood cart can still be used to load the plywood onto the bench, but is no longer needed to support the sheet once it is loaded. Once that squaring cut is made, the sheet can easily be rotated to make the long side squaring cut. This gives me two square, straight, and clean edges to work from. I can then make either rip or cross cuts using the fence to get exact sizes without having to measure. If making cross cuts, an additional support can be used to support the plywood that extends off the table. This can be either the plywood cart or roller stands. With an extension on the fence, I can cut strips narrower than the rail width. The extension is 1/2 MDF that is attached to the fence (see my post on this here). Without the fence, this setup can also be used to straight line hardwoods up to a little more than 9 in length. If I have to straight line longer pieces (up to 12), I can use this configuration. To save space, I can go to a square configuration, but it is not very functional. And there is this configuration that also is not very functional, but does save on space. With any configuration of the moduals, the bridge can placed anywhere to meet special needs. Next time, I will talk about details of the PBB and post some pictures as well drawings. The Episode is here.
If the projects I currently have on my plate were actual food, Id be a bloody glutton. Here is what I am milling wood for today...
This is a remake of the plans for a portable vise that I have been mucking with for the past few months. As you can see, I never know when to leave things the hell alone.
First, thanks to Anonymous, whoever and which one he is, it is now being made of red oak, recycled red oak to be exact. As it turns out, it is surprisingly light for its strength and ability to take a beating.
Second, the vise bed hasnt changed much except it is now going to be constructed out of ¾" stock because that is what I have a ton of in my little material stash.
Third, I am adding a shoot board to one side of it. Only time will tell if this is brilliant or idiotic, but I came up with this because of a revelation I had the other night - Im getting seriously lazy in my old age. I expect to use this vise as much as I do my makeshift shooting board, so if I make two separate units, I would have twice as much to carry.
Forth, because I have learned the hard choice that shooting boards require some sort of adjustment ability on their fences because, for a multiple number of reasons, they get out of whack occasionally, Im adding one here. The three items at the bottom-left of the line-drawing show three views of the adjustable fence. It is a pretty simple design, actually. This mental-midget brainwave has six parts.
Two brass pins that match the dog-holes in the vise, made out of brass because a leap of faith told me they might last longer than wood pins, but also because I can drill down their length and tap them.
Two bolts; one that will act as a pivot for the adjustments and another to hold the adjustment for, hopefully, longer than one or two plane runs.
One 1¾" x 1¾" strip of oak that has the brass pins attached to it so it acts as the anchor for the fence.
One 3" x 2½" strip of oak that has a wedge shaped cut-out that fits over the lower strip of oak, giving a ½" of adjustment at one end while being fixed in place at the pivot end.
The only other thing I can add to it is the vise will have 2-across dog holes from the head of the vise to just beyond where the screw and stabilizers end. From that point to the end of the vise there will be 4 dog holes across the width of the bed. While these holes may be used to secure stock, they are really there for the fence, allowing me to move it quite a bit forward so the plane has travelling space after the stock and I wont have to reach as far while using it. It also allows me to move the pins that hold the fence outboard so they can better take the beating I am expecting to give them. Also, the bed that the shoot plane will travel along is ramped downwards 1¼". Research has told me that there isnt any advantage to a ramped shoot board but I am going to ramp this one simply because I think it will allow the blade wear to be spread over a wider area, increasing its use between blade sharpenings.
Lastly, the plans do not show any bench hooks but that is because I havent quite finalized how Im going to add movable hooks. If I can move them, I can set the thing up to work from either side or end of the bench.
Only time will tell if this is brilliance or bullshit, so we will have to see. Im heading to the outside bench today to freeze my butt off while ripping a bunch of 5" wide oak down to 4". Hopefully this project wont take as long as those damned blade retainers I am also currently making for a frame saw. I thought I could bang them off quite quickly, but it isnt quite the job I thought it would be. So far I have the threads cut on the blade tightener, but that is about it. Because my lathe isnt set up yet, I had to hand-file ???" square brass stock down to ½" round...
I finished the second drill index the other day. Im happier with this one than I am with the first one, but Im still not thrilled with my abilities for "staying within the lines". Sadly, the beading is no more accurate on this second attempt than it is on the first, but the finish is much better, so things are improving for me. This second attempt at French Polishing was done using the "true" process, unlike the first one which was done in what I call a "faux French Polish". You can quickly see the difference in the colour between these two types of finish, the latest one being darker and browner than the first
Stephen over on The Full Chisel Blog has a couple of great articles about French Polish and what he says is completely on the money, "It can be a finicky finish to master but it is actually an easy finish to apply once you understand the principles". As he further states, this finish is difficult to apply on pieces that are intricate or on molding, and I can assure you, that is an understatement. To me, these pieces are not intricate at all, with only two little beads running around each edge. Those two little beads, however, are enough to cause you to pull your hair out when you have a polishing pad in your hand. What happens is that you cant get the pad tight into the corner and because you cant get the pad into that corner, you cant rub it out, and because you cant rub it out, you cant get an even coloured finish, a statement borne out in the image.
While Stephen explains the process of French Polishing well, gives the reader some good advice and warns them about some of the pitfalls, he does miss one very important point. The term "French Polish" is an acronym for the word, "Patience". The process is soooooo monotonous until that shine starts to creep in, I think that only those on a daily dose of about 50mg of valium can handle it. Lacking this calmer in my daily chemical mixture, I found that "staying with it" is the hardest part of the whole exercise. Doing this one index took eight days, each day involving activating the pad, charging it and spending about 10 minutes rubbing that pad in circles on the wood. Calling for forty minutes of prep and post time to spend 8 to 10 minutes applying the finish, is it surprising that this finish fell out of favour when labour costs rose above a buck an hour?
While I can tell you about the hassles, problems, mess, aggravation, extended time-frame, repetitions and frustrations involved in applying this finish, I cant begin to explain the silky soft smoothness of its incredibly deep, lustrous surface once its on.
I recently tried to run with the big boys. Scary stuff!
If you cruise the web looking for information on vintage tools you have probably come across David Stanley Auctions. It is probably one of the premiere auction sites for vintage tools out there. The tools they consign for auction are notably far and above the average. Their recent auction included both private and museum collections which meant some pretty amazing stuff. I got hooked on this company and signed up for a years worth of their catalogues.
Their last auction was held on March 26th and on the 24th I received their catalogue in the mail. Thinking, "In for a penny, in for a pound" (little did I know), I figured I would give them a go. Not knowing how all this worked, I picked three lesser valued items to start; a 5" Brass Protractor, a Marples 15" Square and a Pair of Dowel Rounders.
The Protractor was listed as, "A 5" combination brass protractor and scale rule G++ (30-50)". The image supplied in both their printed and online catalogues showed a nice looking example so I listed my maximum bid on their Absentee Bidding Form as 50?. It sold for 60?.
The Square was listed as, "A 15" brass faced rosewood handled try square by Marples with bench stop G+ (15-25)". Knowing that their grading system was as high or higher than those The Best Things uses, I felt confident placing a bid for it at 30?. It sold for 32?.
Finally, the Dowel Rounders were listed as, "A pair of handled beech dowel rounders G++ (30-50)". I placed a top bid of 50?, which is exactly what they sold for.
Here is what my single winning bid got me...
They are really a nice pair of cutters which look as though they didnt cut very many dowels over their lifetime. They are stamped with a previous owners name, "J. Harvey". They also have size stampings; one stamped "8" (¾") and the other "9" (1"). The "MES Howarth, Warrant Cast Steel, Sheffield" blades are probably very close to their original length, based on the very little amount of play below the mounting screws when the blade is set. As a result of all of this, I have no complaints about the tools purchased.
Now lets have a look-see what these tools actually cost me.
The invoice I received had the listed lot and selling price of 50?.
There was then the "Premium", which I expected, of 7.50?
Following this was a Credit Card charge of 1.98?. I didnt see this one coming.
Then the shipping charges were added, the 17.58? charge being one thing, but added to that is a VAT charge of 3.52?.
Insurance was additional, which was 0.50?, and again the VAT charge reared its ugly head to ding me for another 0.10?.
Now Im not blaming David Stanley Auctions in any choice for these charges. Other than the Credit Card charge, I was well aware of them before placing my bids. In actual fact, David Stanley Auctions didnt charge me the 3? handling charge they were supposed to, according to their literature, so they treated me more than fair.
All told, though, my 50? ($78.50 CAN) bid for these two Dowel Cutters ended up costing me 81.18? ($128.00 CAN), which means landing the tools on my desk cost more than 60% of their purchase price.
I should have expected this. When I was in London, England a few years ago, my first purchase was from a chip vendor on the street, and was just a can of Coke. When he asked me for 5?, I didnt think twice, and just handed it to him. As I popped the tab on that can walking achoice, though, it hit me that I was about to drink an $11 can of pop.
England. You have to love it, but I guess only the big boys can afford to live there.
Peace,
Mitchell As an aside, I will mention that while David Stanley Auctions is a spectacular company that deals in better than the best in vintage wares, they are a tad lacking when it comes to communications. Two emails that I have sent them asking for clarifications have been left hanging. As an international company dealing on the Internet, I was quite surprised at this revelation.
Wood Turnings, Web Sites and Low-Angle Block PlanesThe first week of 2010 has come and gone and Im happy to say that the world didnt end. Whew~ Happy new year indeed! Things around the wood shop have been as busy as ever with cut lists being assembled and designs coming out of the wood work. Im working on a few new commissions and have been ordering some wood and finalising my designs. Its been an exciting few weeks and I cant wait to start making some shavings! In my last post I featured my new treadle lathe from CME Handworks Inc. in Palos Heights, IL. and Im delighted to say that Ive been turning achoice. Just with some practice cuts, getting the feel and the rhythm of the process Ive been walking around with a bit of a limp lately! The lathe is quite comfortable and no issues at all to report. Ill post some new information on the lathe again in the coming weeks but wanted to let you know that Ive asked a close friend of mine from Cape Breton to write some articles on wood turning for me. My first official guest blogger is Mike Morrison and hes just finishing off his first article for you. Mike and I have been playing music together for almost 20 years (jumpins how time flies) and he too is a very accomplished craftsman. He builds custom furniture and turns beautiful wood projects so instead of me trying to fake my choice through the learning curves of wood turning, Ive asked him to share some knowledge. When people search the internet looking for information on wood turning theyll no doubt stumble over here and I wanted to be able to present some viable and accurate information about getting started in wood turning. Ill share with you my own developments as I go but felt there should be content here from someone with experience in the field. I hate it when I visit wood working sites and watch some guy pretend to know what hes doing with a certain hand tool or technique. I dont ever want to be that guy so thats why Ive asked an experienced turner to share some thoughts. Mikes first post should be up in a day or two so stay tuned for that. In other wood shop news I just finished an article for Canadian Woodworking Magazine- I reviewed four low-angle block planes and if youre interested in finding out my thoughts on them youll have to pick up issue #65, the april/may issue. The four planes reviewed were the new Stanley SW 60 1/2, the Veritas low-angle block plane, the 60 1/2 by Lie Nielsen and the new DX60 by Veritas. It was fun test driving these tools and you may or may not be surprised at what I found. Besides that, the new web site ( www.theunpluggedwoodshop.com ) is almost complete and will be launched very soon. There youll have access to all of my blogs with additional content from Made by Hand. Expanded galleries, full Sketch-up models and free down-loadable bench plans of all six projects will be available. Well also have a Readers Gallery where people can share pictures and thoughts of their own on the book projects. Im looking forward to another busy year and I hope youll be a part of it to share and enjoy all of these things working wood. Cheers!
I can hear it now, What the hell is that boy on about now?
I can tell you that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing; sometimes it proves that nut-jobs like me can often be correct.
A while ago I was thinking about having a plane built, even though the five grand cost was giving me heart palpitations. The problem I had was that I dont like the ergonomics of a regular plane. I think the tote is set too high and isnt cocked forward enough. I wrote about this a while ago and got the usual responses yawns.
I took this further and emailed two well-known plane makers asking if they would consider tilting the tote forward and making it lower. The first wrote back explaining to me why planes are built like they are, like I didnt know this. I wrote back and explained the theory behind my thoughts; the higher totes give a higher centre of gravity and result in more difficulty keeping it square to the board edge and the considerably upright tote causes the wrist to be cocked at an unnatural angle when the plane is held at the correct height, again adding to the difficulty in keeping the plane properly square, especially when planning a lot of board feet. He never replied a second time.
The other plane maker I wrote to didnt even bother to reply the first time. Go figure.
So I decided maybe all of you were right, I was a nut-job, so I forgot about it and went back to my books on wooden planes.
Lucy, you got some splainin to do.
Did you know that totes are a relatively new addition to planes? They werent very popular until metal planes came around. As far back as the 16th century, woodworkers were holding their planes pretty much by their bodies, as no tote existed. Son-of-a-gun if holding a wooden bench plane by its body suddenly brings your hands down much lower than when you are holding a contemporary Stanley. Even a 22 to 28 wooden jointer came toteless, but if the wuss pushing it was worried about breaking a nail, the maker would add to horizontal handholds to the sides of the body, again choice lower than the totes on contemporary planes.
So why did the plane evolve in this choice?
Personally, I think they ended up with a high tote simply for ease of manufacturing. Show me an item that has been produced for years and Ill show you an item that was redesigned simply to reduce costs. This is what New and Improved is all about you know. Change something that will trim a quarter of a cent off of the cost of making each widget and it truly is new and improved. The manufacturer has improved profits and a new cash cow.
Some may say, if it wasnt right, no one would buy it. Oh boy.
The truth is, many items are not accepted right achoice. Plastic is the main one that I can think of right now. It was first invented in 1862 and was called Parkesine. It then evolved into Bakelite around 1897. Tell me, how many 100 year old items have you seen on the Antiques Roadshow that are made from plastic, and costume jewelry doesnt count, as that was about the only commercial application for this stuff for years?
PVC was introduced in 1926, but how many pre 1950 homes have you been in that have plastic pipes?
Plastic has been used in auto production pretty much since their inception, but not where the buying public could see it. Up to the late 1940s most car heaters were seen under their dashboards so the manufacturers had their outer cases made from steel. As soon as the design of the dash was large enough to hide them, poof, they became plastic components.
So why would making the tote more upright help reduce production costs?
If the tote tilted forward more, it would have to be mounted further back as the frog has priority for position. Add an inch or two to every plane Stanley made over the years and you just spent the equivalent of Rockefellers wealth. Now add the cost of increased material for the tote because tilting it forward slightly means it has to be longer. If you think about this idea from this angle, you can quickly understand why they would push for a more perpendicular tote.
It also boils down to the purpose of the tool as well. A cabinetmaker that never left the shop bought the same planes as the house carpenter who moved from job site to job site. That meant that the limited number of plane styles had to be as versatile as possible.
Dont get your knickers in a knot as Im not knocking the contemporary plane. I can understand why it exists in the form that we know today. I just think we should be allowed to question their design without feeling the need to head to the confessional afterwards and the need to make amends by saying a few hundred Hail Marys.
So while Im being sacrilegious, let me discuss my new thought about Shooting Boards.
When the machine took over from the hand tools, the biggest difference was the choice the stock was worked. With hand tools, the stock remained stationary and the tool was passed over it. With machines, the tool remained stationary and the stock was passed over it. A novel idea? Not really.
Everyone knows about the Coopers jointer. A behemoth plane that came in different sizes up to 6 in length with up to 4 wide blades. Some of these monsters tipped the scales at 125 pounds or more. Some were equipped with clamps to clamp one end to the bench and others were fitted with legs on one end. Whichever style, the blades edge alchoices pointing towards the high end. The cooper would pass the stock over the plane to get an even fit, although not necessarily a tight fit.
To explain my comment, not necessarily a tight fit, there was a fellow who was rebuilding his wood boat at the same time I was rebuilding mine. As the boats were very similar, we used to compare notes. One day I noticed how tight he was setting his bottom planks together and mentioned that he should leave a small space, about a 1/16th of an inch between them. It was the last time he really talked to me as he thought I didnt have a clue what I was talking about.
When it was time for him to float, I quietly mentioned to my wife that we should keep an eye on it over the next 48 hours as I felt it was going to sink. Sure enough, the next day, the alarms were sounded and there was a big rush to get the boat lifted out of the water, not a task that can be done quickly with a 40-foot boat. They managed, and I give the guy credit because he came around the next day and apologized to me for thinking I was an idiot.
The bottoms of these boats are planked with 1-inch thick by 6 to 8-inch wide mahogany. When mahogany gets wet, it expands, as does all wood, but mahogany expands much more than others. It is the reason they use it to make boats. The mahogany expands, forcing the edges of the planks together tightly to make a watertight hull. Because this guy didnt leave any allowance for that expansion, the planks expanded and with nowhere to go, they sprung their fasteners and opened huge gaps in the hull.
The coopers jointer wasnt the only tool made that remained stationary. The lowly Spill plane was another. Often fixed to a bench or hearth, stock is pushed across its blade to produce tightly coiled shavings that were used to light the fires for cooking and heat.
One feature of old wooden planes that isnt acknowledged much these days are the jigs and soles of some of the specialty planes. When using a Slat plane, the rough sized stock was placed in a trough that was attached to a bench. A special plane that had its blade and sole profiled to the final lines of the venetian blind slat was then used to bring the stock into shape. When the plane bottomed out on the edges of the jig, the first side was completed. The stock was then flipped, but before it was placed back into the jig, an insert was added first to keep the stock level and to raise it slightly. The plane was employed again, and once it bottomed out the second time, the slat was finished and ready to be cut into lengths.
Another plane similar to the blind slat plane was the Tambour plane, another specialty plane that again worked within a jig and held a profile to make tambour slats for roll top desks.
You dont read much about jigs and specialty planes these days, do you?
So finally realizing that I wasnt the first one to come up with these crazy ideas, I went back to the drawing board regarding my shooting board.
One of the problems I have had with all the boards I have played with is keeping the side of the plane against the runner. Because the resistance varies as the plane moves across the end grain, keeping the plane square to the stock is sometimes a chore. So what if things were reversed? Would it be any easier to move the stock across the plane, rather than the plane across the stock?
I think so.
I base this idea on the panel sleds I used to build for my table saw. Laying a large piece of stock on a sled allowed for far better control for the cut. I think that same concept would work well for a shooting board as well.
By fixing the stock to a sled that is controlled by guides that allow it to neither move laterally or vertically, the end of the stock remains at right angles to the bed. If the plane is also fixed so its blade is square with the bed, you cant help but produce a perfect cut. Tilt the entire table and you now have no need for a birds nest as the stock will be presented to the planes blade at whatever angle you choose. You could shoot short boards for joining with something like this, as well as true up cuts. I think you could even add moulding blades to a setup like this to make mouldings.
At issue right now is that this setup would require a feeding mechanism, and that I havent figured out yet. A machinists feed is far too heavy for this application, and would make the feature of a tilting table difficult, if not impossible, just by their sheer size alone.
Im working on it, though, and if I get one that works, Im going to call it a Boarding Shoot.
Last time I finished up the apron and drawer assembly and putting the taper on the four legs of the new coffee table. Now that the apron was finished, I could fit the legs to each corner. This involved sizing the thickness of the sides of the apron and transferring the measurement to the legs, then removing that with the big saw: Then came the fun part: working the tabletop. I started with the aforementioned big ole slab of oak...
...and cut it in two...
...jointed the adjacent edges and glued them together: Then I just used the circular saw to cut the length and width that I needed:
A lot of planing later, the top was smooth, flat, and showed a fair amount of figuring in places:
Jointing the edges of a slab this big is a little more difficult that most pieces. Planes are meant to be used at belt height which wasnt really doable here: I then started putting the bevel around the underside; heres one edge complete: The process starts by using an angled fence on the skew block plane to establish the angle of the bevel.
The jointer and fore plane then taken that bevel even further down...
...which provides a good foundation for the scrub plane to come in and hog out lots of stock. I then come back with the jointer and then the smoothing plane to finish the edge. I couldnt wait to see what the stained top would look like, so I went ahead and put on a coat or two. It became obvious that the surface wasnt quite smooth enough yet. If you look closely at the above photo you can see plane tracks running across the top. Only one thing to do... ...plane it down and start over. The next time I finished it off with a cabinet scraper and it worked out well. Next I made the brackets that hold the top to the apron. This just involved planing a rebate into a piece of wood...
...cutting that wood into little blocks...
...and installing them in the groove running around the inside of the apron. Screws driven through these blocks and into the bottom of the tabletop hold everything together firmly but still allow for seasonal wood movement. Here you can also see how the legs are attached...glue is involved too. The oak is stained with Minwax "Chestnut Red" and the tabletop has some polyurethane on it. The maple is rubbed with Watco Danish Oil in "Golden Oak." In situ: With the installed drawer pull. Really ties the room together, does it not? Or could that just be the rug?
I cant believe tomorrow is the 6th of November already. The main shipment of books should be in Ohio and Ill be receiving my copies asap! Ill be signing them and sending them off in the next two weeks. If youd still like to pre-order your own signed copy, today and tomorrow is the cut off. Youll still be able to order a signed copy after its in stores but shipping will unfortunately be more expensive. Ive managed to get the shipping costs down to about a third of what it would be if I shipped them all from here in Toronto- this lower shipping rate will be my own time of packaging the books up and driving to the USA ! Again Id like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has already placed an order and Im looking forward to hearing some feedback from you. The new site is still far from complete but should be feeling a little better in another week or two. Ill keep you posted on the details and will also be announcing the winners of the Book BoxesCheers!
My old man was a gardener. When I was a kid, he bought a house that sat on a huge parcel of land and turned half of it into a vegetable garden. The property came with a bunch of apple, pear and cherry trees, as well as trestles full of grapes, raspberries and blueberries. He then added just about every type of vegetable that would grow in this climate.
I cant tell you how much I hated that garden. Every spring he would push me to till the damned thing, and every spring I would have to hear the, "When I was your age working the farms..." yarn that drove me nuts.
Fast-forward fifty years and there I was, willingly hanging on to a rotor tiller, whacking up the sod in my back yard, merrily turning it into a vegetable garden. I removed the sod, broke up the hard clay earth, mixed in sand and added sheep and cow shit to make it as comfy and cosy as I could for tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, corn and carrots, including a bit of a herb section to round it out. I weeded that bugger two or three times a week, spent a fortune watering it, spent hours trimmed things, staked others, and even made a couple of very cool looking tomato cages to make it all look more interesting and inviting. By the beginning of August we started to get a few juicy samplings as the plants started to come into maturity. This, of course, only served to make me work harder at it. I started pulling weeds more often, turning the soil between the rows bi-weekly and even started talking to them, although none of the rude buggers answered.
Come mid-August, I looked out the window overlooking the backyard and saw this...
I had noticed before I started that our property sat lower than our two neighbours, but didnt realize how low until we had a horrendous rain one Saturday afternoon. When the 5" of water finally disappeared, only two tomato plants and the impatiens that bordered it all survived.
I remember standing there, looking out that window at this lake that was once my garden patch, and hearing my old man laughing...
Sharpening tools is time consuming and because my time for workin wood is limited, I often hold off sharpening a tool that could use a touch-up. The reason for this is that I simply would rather spend the time actually workin wood than pushing a chisel across a hunk of sandpaper. I know this isnt smart, so I started looking at many of the commercial blade sharpening machines available today. Two things struck me about these dedicated machines; a) they are all choice too expensive for what they do, and b) the work they can do is limited to the finer points of sharpening on a single horizontal wheel. This is ok for new tools, but it seems like every hundred-year-old tool I have bought, the last one to use it didnt have a clue about angles, flat backs and micro edges. The result is that the blades often require considerable work before they can be finely tuned.
As I did my research, the Delta Sharpening Centre kept popping up all over the place. As this machine offers up two wheels; one vertical and a fine one on the horizontal, I gave up on the other $300 machines and started researching it. I discovered it was one of Deltas usual offerings; a sound idea made so cheaply, it crashed and burned.
From all the complaints about the machine that I found, which were too numerous to count, the base machine was fine, as was the vertical wheel. Where the problems developed was balancing the horizontal wheel so the machine wouldnt vibrate. Downloading all the different machines explosive parts drawings that I could find, I soon learned where the problem lies in the Delta machine, or at least I think I did. In fact, I am so confident that there is a choice to fix this issue, I started looking for a machine to purchase.
Heres the problem with the machine
All of the dedicated horizontal-wheel sharpening machines have a balanced metal plate under their entire sharpening surface; whether that surface is a grinding wheel or proprietary plates or sheets. The Delta 23-710 Sharpening Centre machines do not have this. To keep the costs down, they used something that is more or less an oversize washer that is about 3-inches in diameter. Expecting something this small to balance an 8-inch wheel is more than just wishful thinking; its dumb.
Solution
Re-jig the wheel mount by adding a full sized, balanced aluminum plate that will fully support the soft, 1000 grit, 8-inch wet wheel.
How to do this was something I couldnt answer until I bought one and had it sitting in front of me.
Enter MJDtools.com
As Delta no longer makes this machine, I had some problems coming up with a good one in the used market place. One or two came up on eBay, but there was alchoices something that kept me from buying them. The most common reason is my most common irritation with eBay sellers; being that many American sellers wont ship to Canada. I guess turning achoice a potential 33-million bidders that could drive up their selling price isnt worth the added shipping hassles. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I subscribe to Martin J. Donnelly Antique Tools Auctions newsletters that arrive in my inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. I do so because they list some pretty incredible tools in their auctions, although I have yet to come across anything made by H. E. Mitchell. Damn!
A while ago, a Delta 23-710 was listed in one of those newsletters so I entered a maximum bid of $150. I won the machine for less than that, and with MJDTools.coms usual professional choices, they charged my Visa for the purchase price plus shipping, and within days the machine was delivered to my door.
Oh, oh
I didnt have time to open the box right achoice but finally, a week later, I went through my unpacking ritual. As I got everything out of the box and laid out on the floor, I discovered that the machine had been shipped with the knife sharpening attachment still attached to the machine. This attachment is a wide adjustable flat that you use to rest a jointer knife on. During shipping, the post office had thrown this heavy box around so much that they snapped the casting. Every time they threw it after that, the resulting large, untethered hunk of metal thrashed around inside the box, taking out the plastic water spray guard and gouging the horizontal wheel.
Given the similar experience I just went through with the infamous Miller Falls tool restorer that will still rename nameless (email me if you want his name), I had some serious concerns about this problem which were further exasperated by discovering that the total cost of the damaged parts was $146.60 plus shipping.
I took a couple of photos and sent off an email to Martin listing the costs of the damaged parts.
This is the choice a pro handles these situations
Yesterday, I received an email in response to my claim from Kathy at MJDTools.com. In it she stated; I made a credit on your charge card today for the full amount that you paid.
I was astounded, astonished, dumbfounded, stupefied and literally blown achoice. They just didnt reimburse me for the damaged parts. They reimbursed me for the total amount that I paid for the machine plus the shipping. In other words, I got the machine for free, and now I have to just pay for the replacement parts out of the full credit.
In this day and age, who the hell treats their customers so well?
Peace,
Mitchell A follow-up about trying to replace the broken Delta machines parts...The one thing I didnt check before purchasing this machine is the availability of Delta/Porter-Cable parts in Canada, something I usually do before purchasing anything like this, new or used. While this shouldnt be a concern for this type of thing, and I hope my American readers wont be offended by reporting this, but the norm with many of these larger American-run companies is that they want to sell in the Canadian market, and actually buy up smaller Canadian manufacturers to do so, and then leave us hanging for support with the purchases afterwards. Delta/Porter-Cable is one of those companies that fall into this category. In this case, Delta has an online parts site called ServiceNet. I went on it, found the parts I needed and ordered them. When it came time to pay the bill, their shopping cart form wouldnt accept Canadian addresses. There is no site like this for Canadians and the American site does not even include a Canadian Service Centre location finder. I sent off an email to Delta which included a screen capture of my Shopping Cart list. Ill keep you posted regarding the results.
Do you keep a 6? inch metal rule close at hand while in the wood shop? I do, every minute. Theres one in my tool tray, one in my apron pocket, another one over on the sharpening bench for the Charlesworth Ruler Trick. Point is I have more than one and I keep them handy for all sorts of quick little measurements and the like. This week I started using the new Veritas Precision Square and I think its my new favorite steel rule. ( er, square..) It is milled with the same accuracy of an engineers square (0.001? per inch of length). All four edges are ground, and both faces are graduated on the inside and outside edges. The Imperial version which is the one I have is graduated in 32nds on the 3? leg and in 16ths on the 6? leg. Its convenient to keep close at hand and would imagine it convenient for setting up or adjusting power tools. If a small steel rule was on your list of things to get then you may want to consider this one as well. Available from Lee Valley Tools for $24.50. Cheers!