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Adventures in Working Wood

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#1 ·
Planes and sharpening...so much sharpening

So I've picked up quite a few tools at auctions to start my adventures into woodworking with hand tools (or woodworking at all). Right now I'm focused on cleaning up and sharpening the many hand planes I've purchased. Some will stay with me in my shop but I'll likely end up reselling the others to offset the costs of this decidedly expensive hobby.

Wood Musical instrument accessory Bumper String instrument accessory Auto part


That's two #3's (one not pictured), #4, four #5's, #6, #7, #110, #220, #80 and I can't remember the model of the two shaves and the other block plane. The #3 on my bench (not pictured), a #5, #6, #7, one of the block planes, the shaves and the #80 will stay with me. The #4, three #5's and two of the other block planes will be resold.

I started with a Stanley Bailey #3 that seems to have been restored. The blade was in pretty bad shape with a bunch of nicks and gouges so I thought, "hey, this will be pretty easy. I'll just fix up this blade and have a nice #3 ready to go." Well, I'm discovering just how little I actually know about things. I've got probably 6 or so hours into this blade and it's finally almost perfect. I should have taken a picture of the blade before I started and where it's at now but I didn't think to do that.

I started off with my oil stones (the 3 piece set from Woodcraft) and discovered after about an hour that my Wa********************a wasn't anywhere near aggressive enough to start. So I found some 80 grit sand paper and went to town. I then had to pick up some Aluminum Oxide paper from Lowes because whatever I had wasn't really cutting much faster than the Wa********************a. Through all this I also discovered the primary bevel on the plane iron was something other than 25 degrees. After many hours on the AlOx paper, I got the primary bevel established and was able to get the edge clean of all gouges. A little while longer on the oil stones setting the micro-bevel and I discover about 1/8 inch on the very edge of the blade is off. It slopes from the cutting edge down into the blade maybe 1/64 inch or so. So when my shop time came to a close, I had reduced the width of that slope from 1/8 inch to about half that (does any of this make sense?). Before closing up shop for the night, I decided to take a few shavings off the edge of a 1Ă—12 board. Pretty fun stuff!

Here's a few pictures

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Wood stain


Hand tool Tool Wood Auto part Metalworking hand tool


Smoothing plane Plane Table Wood Rebate plane


After moving from the Wa********************a to the Soft Arkansas stone I discovered the Wa********************a wasn't flat. Either that or the Soft and Black stones are slightly concave. In any case, this issue along with the expense involved in buying packs of AlOx paper lead me to the conclusion that I needed a coarse diamond stone. With that I could ensure my stones are flat and flatten and get a rough bevel on my plane irons and chisels pretty quickly, then move to the oil stones to finish up. The diamond stone won't be here until Wednesday and I probably won't get shop time again until Friday so I think I'll take this time to read the many great posts and blogs detailing how to clean up hand planes.

Thanks for reading.
 

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#2 ·
Planes and sharpening...so much sharpening

So I've picked up quite a few tools at auctions to start my adventures into woodworking with hand tools (or woodworking at all). Right now I'm focused on cleaning up and sharpening the many hand planes I've purchased. Some will stay with me in my shop but I'll likely end up reselling the others to offset the costs of this decidedly expensive hobby.

Wood Musical instrument accessory Bumper String instrument accessory Auto part


That's two #3's (one not pictured), #4, four #5's, #6, #7, #110, #220, #80 and I can't remember the model of the two shaves and the other block plane. The #3 on my bench (not pictured), a #5, #6, #7, one of the block planes, the shaves and the #80 will stay with me. The #4, three #5's and two of the other block planes will be resold.

I started with a Stanley Bailey #3 that seems to have been restored. The blade was in pretty bad shape with a bunch of nicks and gouges so I thought, "hey, this will be pretty easy. I'll just fix up this blade and have a nice #3 ready to go." Well, I'm discovering just how little I actually know about things. I've got probably 6 or so hours into this blade and it's finally almost perfect. I should have taken a picture of the blade before I started and where it's at now but I didn't think to do that.

I started off with my oil stones (the 3 piece set from Woodcraft) and discovered after about an hour that my Wa********************a wasn't anywhere near aggressive enough to start. So I found some 80 grit sand paper and went to town. I then had to pick up some Aluminum Oxide paper from Lowes because whatever I had wasn't really cutting much faster than the Wa********************a. Through all this I also discovered the primary bevel on the plane iron was something other than 25 degrees. After many hours on the AlOx paper, I got the primary bevel established and was able to get the edge clean of all gouges. A little while longer on the oil stones setting the micro-bevel and I discover about 1/8 inch on the very edge of the blade is off. It slopes from the cutting edge down into the blade maybe 1/64 inch or so. So when my shop time came to a close, I had reduced the width of that slope from 1/8 inch to about half that (does any of this make sense?). Before closing up shop for the night, I decided to take a few shavings off the edge of a 1Ă—12 board. Pretty fun stuff!

Here's a few pictures

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Wood stain


Hand tool Tool Wood Auto part Metalworking hand tool


Smoothing plane Plane Table Wood Rebate plane


After moving from the Wa********************a to the Soft Arkansas stone I discovered the Wa********************a wasn't flat. Either that or the Soft and Black stones are slightly concave. In any case, this issue along with the expense involved in buying packs of AlOx paper lead me to the conclusion that I needed a coarse diamond stone. With that I could ensure my stones are flat and flatten and get a rough bevel on my plane irons and chisels pretty quickly, then move to the oil stones to finish up. The diamond stone won't be here until Wednesday and I probably won't get shop time again until Friday so I think I'll take this time to read the many great posts and blogs detailing how to clean up hand planes.

Thanks for reading.
Pretty quickly you figure out to start with the most aggressive and work until you have an edge then switch to sharpening supplies. In my shop it would be grinder - 120 grit disc sander - 240 grit drum sander - honing. For plane bottoms I start with 80 grit sandpaper glued to my tablesaw top.
 

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#3 ·
Planes and sharpening...so much sharpening

So I've picked up quite a few tools at auctions to start my adventures into woodworking with hand tools (or woodworking at all). Right now I'm focused on cleaning up and sharpening the many hand planes I've purchased. Some will stay with me in my shop but I'll likely end up reselling the others to offset the costs of this decidedly expensive hobby.

Wood Musical instrument accessory Bumper String instrument accessory Auto part


That's two #3's (one not pictured), #4, four #5's, #6, #7, #110, #220, #80 and I can't remember the model of the two shaves and the other block plane. The #3 on my bench (not pictured), a #5, #6, #7, one of the block planes, the shaves and the #80 will stay with me. The #4, three #5's and two of the other block planes will be resold.

I started with a Stanley Bailey #3 that seems to have been restored. The blade was in pretty bad shape with a bunch of nicks and gouges so I thought, "hey, this will be pretty easy. I'll just fix up this blade and have a nice #3 ready to go." Well, I'm discovering just how little I actually know about things. I've got probably 6 or so hours into this blade and it's finally almost perfect. I should have taken a picture of the blade before I started and where it's at now but I didn't think to do that.

I started off with my oil stones (the 3 piece set from Woodcraft) and discovered after about an hour that my Wa********************a wasn't anywhere near aggressive enough to start. So I found some 80 grit sand paper and went to town. I then had to pick up some Aluminum Oxide paper from Lowes because whatever I had wasn't really cutting much faster than the Wa********************a. Through all this I also discovered the primary bevel on the plane iron was something other than 25 degrees. After many hours on the AlOx paper, I got the primary bevel established and was able to get the edge clean of all gouges. A little while longer on the oil stones setting the micro-bevel and I discover about 1/8 inch on the very edge of the blade is off. It slopes from the cutting edge down into the blade maybe 1/64 inch or so. So when my shop time came to a close, I had reduced the width of that slope from 1/8 inch to about half that (does any of this make sense?). Before closing up shop for the night, I decided to take a few shavings off the edge of a 1Ă—12 board. Pretty fun stuff!

Here's a few pictures

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Wood stain


Hand tool Tool Wood Auto part Metalworking hand tool


Smoothing plane Plane Table Wood Rebate plane


After moving from the Wa********************a to the Soft Arkansas stone I discovered the Wa********************a wasn't flat. Either that or the Soft and Black stones are slightly concave. In any case, this issue along with the expense involved in buying packs of AlOx paper lead me to the conclusion that I needed a coarse diamond stone. With that I could ensure my stones are flat and flatten and get a rough bevel on my plane irons and chisels pretty quickly, then move to the oil stones to finish up. The diamond stone won't be here until Wednesday and I probably won't get shop time again until Friday so I think I'll take this time to read the many great posts and blogs detailing how to clean up hand planes.

Thanks for reading.
I'm with Rick. Buy a grinder and an aluminum oxide wheel. Save yourself a lot of pain. I restore a lot of planes, but I would have quit a long time ago without my grinder.
 

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#4 ·
Planes and sharpening...so much sharpening

So I've picked up quite a few tools at auctions to start my adventures into woodworking with hand tools (or woodworking at all). Right now I'm focused on cleaning up and sharpening the many hand planes I've purchased. Some will stay with me in my shop but I'll likely end up reselling the others to offset the costs of this decidedly expensive hobby.

Wood Musical instrument accessory Bumper String instrument accessory Auto part


That's two #3's (one not pictured), #4, four #5's, #6, #7, #110, #220, #80 and I can't remember the model of the two shaves and the other block plane. The #3 on my bench (not pictured), a #5, #6, #7, one of the block planes, the shaves and the #80 will stay with me. The #4, three #5's and two of the other block planes will be resold.

I started with a Stanley Bailey #3 that seems to have been restored. The blade was in pretty bad shape with a bunch of nicks and gouges so I thought, "hey, this will be pretty easy. I'll just fix up this blade and have a nice #3 ready to go." Well, I'm discovering just how little I actually know about things. I've got probably 6 or so hours into this blade and it's finally almost perfect. I should have taken a picture of the blade before I started and where it's at now but I didn't think to do that.

I started off with my oil stones (the 3 piece set from Woodcraft) and discovered after about an hour that my Wa********************a wasn't anywhere near aggressive enough to start. So I found some 80 grit sand paper and went to town. I then had to pick up some Aluminum Oxide paper from Lowes because whatever I had wasn't really cutting much faster than the Wa********************a. Through all this I also discovered the primary bevel on the plane iron was something other than 25 degrees. After many hours on the AlOx paper, I got the primary bevel established and was able to get the edge clean of all gouges. A little while longer on the oil stones setting the micro-bevel and I discover about 1/8 inch on the very edge of the blade is off. It slopes from the cutting edge down into the blade maybe 1/64 inch or so. So when my shop time came to a close, I had reduced the width of that slope from 1/8 inch to about half that (does any of this make sense?). Before closing up shop for the night, I decided to take a few shavings off the edge of a 1Ă—12 board. Pretty fun stuff!

Here's a few pictures

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Wood stain


Hand tool Tool Wood Auto part Metalworking hand tool


Smoothing plane Plane Table Wood Rebate plane


After moving from the Wa********************a to the Soft Arkansas stone I discovered the Wa********************a wasn't flat. Either that or the Soft and Black stones are slightly concave. In any case, this issue along with the expense involved in buying packs of AlOx paper lead me to the conclusion that I needed a coarse diamond stone. With that I could ensure my stones are flat and flatten and get a rough bevel on my plane irons and chisels pretty quickly, then move to the oil stones to finish up. The diamond stone won't be here until Wednesday and I probably won't get shop time again until Friday so I think I'll take this time to read the many great posts and blogs detailing how to clean up hand planes.

Thanks for reading.
Thanks for the suggestions. That's inexpensive enough to be my next purchase and it was on the list anyway.
 

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#5 ·
Planes and sharpening...so much sharpening

So I've picked up quite a few tools at auctions to start my adventures into woodworking with hand tools (or woodworking at all). Right now I'm focused on cleaning up and sharpening the many hand planes I've purchased. Some will stay with me in my shop but I'll likely end up reselling the others to offset the costs of this decidedly expensive hobby.

Wood Musical instrument accessory Bumper String instrument accessory Auto part


That's two #3's (one not pictured), #4, four #5's, #6, #7, #110, #220, #80 and I can't remember the model of the two shaves and the other block plane. The #3 on my bench (not pictured), a #5, #6, #7, one of the block planes, the shaves and the #80 will stay with me. The #4, three #5's and two of the other block planes will be resold.

I started with a Stanley Bailey #3 that seems to have been restored. The blade was in pretty bad shape with a bunch of nicks and gouges so I thought, "hey, this will be pretty easy. I'll just fix up this blade and have a nice #3 ready to go." Well, I'm discovering just how little I actually know about things. I've got probably 6 or so hours into this blade and it's finally almost perfect. I should have taken a picture of the blade before I started and where it's at now but I didn't think to do that.

I started off with my oil stones (the 3 piece set from Woodcraft) and discovered after about an hour that my Wa********************a wasn't anywhere near aggressive enough to start. So I found some 80 grit sand paper and went to town. I then had to pick up some Aluminum Oxide paper from Lowes because whatever I had wasn't really cutting much faster than the Wa********************a. Through all this I also discovered the primary bevel on the plane iron was something other than 25 degrees. After many hours on the AlOx paper, I got the primary bevel established and was able to get the edge clean of all gouges. A little while longer on the oil stones setting the micro-bevel and I discover about 1/8 inch on the very edge of the blade is off. It slopes from the cutting edge down into the blade maybe 1/64 inch or so. So when my shop time came to a close, I had reduced the width of that slope from 1/8 inch to about half that (does any of this make sense?). Before closing up shop for the night, I decided to take a few shavings off the edge of a 1Ă—12 board. Pretty fun stuff!

Here's a few pictures

Wood Gas Hardwood Machine Wood stain


Hand tool Tool Wood Auto part Metalworking hand tool


Smoothing plane Plane Table Wood Rebate plane


After moving from the Wa********************a to the Soft Arkansas stone I discovered the Wa********************a wasn't flat. Either that or the Soft and Black stones are slightly concave. In any case, this issue along with the expense involved in buying packs of AlOx paper lead me to the conclusion that I needed a coarse diamond stone. With that I could ensure my stones are flat and flatten and get a rough bevel on my plane irons and chisels pretty quickly, then move to the oil stones to finish up. The diamond stone won't be here until Wednesday and I probably won't get shop time again until Friday so I think I'll take this time to read the many great posts and blogs detailing how to clean up hand planes.

Thanks for reading.
I have belt sander that I perform the same tasks on. Its not better, but you can use it for many other things.
Also I work at an auto body shop and we use rolls of psa sandpaper that is about 2 1/2" or 3" wide. Perfect for sticking to the t-saw. The other good idea is (if you have one there) go to a home resource center. The one here has granite shorts for 2-3 bucks a sq ft. 2 sq ft is a plenty good size. You can even stick the psa paper to it to flatten the stones if you want to. Now if only my planes were sharp….
 

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#6 ·
Updates 'n stuff

It's been a pretty good while since I've posted anything to LJ's so I thought an update was in order…

Well, let's get it out there right now. I haven't been in the shop since just before Christmas. Between the holidays, visiting family, hunting, and general responsibilities, I just haven't had time to get to the shop.

Prior to my hiatus, I'd cleaned and organized my shop a bit so I could move around and find things easier. I had finished sharpening my plane irons and chisels and began working on a project…a saw bench. I've also made a few tool purchases and sold a few (as originally planned). I was both happy and sad to sell my (Stanley) North Bros. Yankee 2100-12 brace. Happy because I sold it for a profit (which was my intent when buying so many tools up front at auction - reduce my total out of pocket cost to get into woodworking by as much as possible) but sad because it was by far the nicest brace I had. I sold a couple other things which has helped, as well.

I put that on hold, though, because I had an opportunity to do some traditional bow hunting with my dad a few times and have been teaching my oldest (nearly 4) to shoot a bow (which, right now, amounts to him having a pretty good understanding of safety concepts, holding the bow, nocking an arrow and then flinging it in the general direction of a target). Lot of good family time and memories being made right there.

Once the weather warms up a bit here in Northern VA and the snow melts, I intend to get back to my shop. It's way too cold in there right now, even with the space heater. The thought of trying to handle cast iron in below freezing temperatures isn't appealing.

So there you have it.
 
#7 ·
A hobby should not cause discomfort, ...hunting on the other hand is a different mindset. ;-)

Work Safely and have Fun. - Grandpa Len.
 
#12 ·
Shop time again...finally!

After a couple months of extreme cold (extreme for Northern Virginia, anyway) and a lot of snow, ice, rain, sleet, etc. I've finally been able to make it out to the shop again. I'll start from the first bit of shop time and work my way forward…

I think it was the first weekend in February when we had temperatures in the 50's and 60's. It only lasted for two days but I made sure to take advantage of them. The first day I started off by taking apart a Disston D8 rip saw to clean up. I sanded off a bunch of paint and what remained of the finish which took a lot longer than I expected. Probably because I decided to try a few techniques that didn't work. After a short while doing all that, I collected the brass nuts and headed inside. That evening, I got out some ketchup and got a bunch of the crud and a lot of the tarnish off of the nuts, then washed them in some soapy water. The next day, I got out to the shop, addressed some areas on the saw handle that I wasn't satisfied with, then put a coat of danish oil on it. I set that aside to dry and started taking apart my Stanley 358 mitre box. I didn't get very far into it due to a lot of rust and some seized screws. In spite of covering in in copious amounts of penetrating oil and letting it sit for a short while, I managed to snap a thumb screw. At that point, it was getting late and I was doing more harm than good so I coated it in more oil and called it a day.

The following week (this past weekend), I picked up a sheet of plywood and 2Ă—4's from Lowe's. Spent a few hours on Sunday and a couple hours Monday night building a general purpose bench. Behold, a spectacle:

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Lumber


It measures 8' long by 2' wide by 30" high. Prior to this guy, my only work surface was a workmate which, while certainly useful and better than nothing, was pretty limiting and sometimes frustrating to use. The new bench, though very utilitarian and not the prettiest thing, is probably the biggest improvement to my shop situation second only to actually getting the shop. I've now got a very large surface to work on, a place under the bench top to store some tools, and it's not going to walk around my shop anywhere near as easy as the workmate. I had a lot of fun building it, I'm excited to be able to use it and even happier it turned out as I planned without running into any "oops, didn't think of that" sort of problems.

I also underestimated the amount of crap I have that still needs to find a home. Looks like shelves/cabinets are in my future.

Table Window Computer desk Desk Wood


Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Wood stain


And, for fun, here's a shot of some of my tools:

Wood Tool Hardwood Audio equipment Hand tool


Hand tool Bottle Wood Set tool Metalworking hand tool
 

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#13 ·
Bought some lumber and started some projects

Well, as the title blatantly states, I bought some lumber and started a few projects (in addition to the other projects I've got going). I made a trip to see a local guy that owns a sawmill. He mills and kiln dries the lumber the puts it up for sale. He only has local species available but he makes up for that with really great prices. He's got cherry and walnut for 3.75/bf! The only other places I know of that sell hardwood in my area sell each for $5.00/bf or more so this is pretty fantastic. I ended up walking out of there with the following:

Wood Wood stain Floor Flooring Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Building material Composite material Hardwood


I think I need to add "lumber rack/storage" to my to-do list.

That's two 4/4 cherry boards about 6 or so inches wide and 7-8 feet long, 5 reclaimed oak boards (some quartersawn), a few small oak boards with a walnut one thrown in there and a cherry board that's about 14/4 and maybe 4-5" wide and was 4 feet long. Only cost me $40. That's a good deal in my book!

Now for the projects - I've started a chisel rack (which is rife with terrible craftsmanship) and a mallet. The chisel rack is being made out of oak bought from Lowe's. I saw Lysdexic's chisel rack build and liked his idea for through tenons so I thought I'd give that a shot. It's the first time I've attempted any sort of traditional joinery and…well, you can probably guess how the mortise turned out.

The front…

Wood Table Rectangle Wood stain Plank


The back…

Brown Insect Wood Arthropod Pollinator


Wood Natural material Hardwood Flooring Wood stain


Airframer and Don W offered some helpful advice to prevent this in the future as well as how to repair this, which I greatly appreciate.

Then there's the mallet. I'm making that out of cherry with an oak handle. Here's where I'm at on that…

Wood Hardwood Tool Lumber Wooden block


Wood Shelf Table Rectangle Floor


A pretty awesome first for me was that I planed that cherry almost perfectly square. The oak isn't planing particularly well. It's like the grain changes directions about 2/3rds the way down or something because it planes nice and smooth, then all of a sudden there's terrible tear out. I might end up going with a different piece of oak or another species entirely for the handle.

I also built a general purpose bench from 2Ă—4's and a sheet of plywood:

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Lumber


Oh, one more thing, my first project made it to #1 lol

 

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#14 ·
Bought some lumber and started some projects

Well, as the title blatantly states, I bought some lumber and started a few projects (in addition to the other projects I've got going). I made a trip to see a local guy that owns a sawmill. He mills and kiln dries the lumber the puts it up for sale. He only has local species available but he makes up for that with really great prices. He's got cherry and walnut for 3.75/bf! The only other places I know of that sell hardwood in my area sell each for $5.00/bf or more so this is pretty fantastic. I ended up walking out of there with the following:

Wood Wood stain Floor Flooring Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Building material Composite material Hardwood


I think I need to add "lumber rack/storage" to my to-do list.

That's two 4/4 cherry boards about 6 or so inches wide and 7-8 feet long, 5 reclaimed oak boards (some quartersawn), a few small oak boards with a walnut one thrown in there and a cherry board that's about 14/4 and maybe 4-5" wide and was 4 feet long. Only cost me $40. That's a good deal in my book!

Now for the projects - I've started a chisel rack (which is rife with terrible craftsmanship) and a mallet. The chisel rack is being made out of oak bought from Lowe's. I saw Lysdexic's chisel rack build and liked his idea for through tenons so I thought I'd give that a shot. It's the first time I've attempted any sort of traditional joinery and…well, you can probably guess how the mortise turned out.

The front…

Wood Table Rectangle Wood stain Plank


The back…

Brown Insect Wood Arthropod Pollinator


Wood Natural material Hardwood Flooring Wood stain


Airframer and Don W offered some helpful advice to prevent this in the future as well as how to repair this, which I greatly appreciate.

Then there's the mallet. I'm making that out of cherry with an oak handle. Here's where I'm at on that…

Wood Hardwood Tool Lumber Wooden block


Wood Shelf Table Rectangle Floor


A pretty awesome first for me was that I planed that cherry almost perfectly square. The oak isn't planing particularly well. It's like the grain changes directions about 2/3rds the way down or something because it planes nice and smooth, then all of a sudden there's terrible tear out. I might end up going with a different piece of oak or another species entirely for the handle.

I also built a general purpose bench from 2Ă—4's and a sheet of plywood:

Wood Floor Flooring Hardwood Lumber


Oh, one more thing, my first project made it to #1 lol

Hey Ninja, I see from your latest post you're in NoVa, as am I. What's the local sawmill you're using, and where is it located? I'd love to be able to use local woods.
 

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#18 ·
It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've made a post regarding my adventures in working wood. I frequently get distracted by shiny objects so I expect it'll happen again.

Well, after several months of using my bench I've grown frustrated with it. It really doesn't support planing the faces of boards very well. I've wanted to build a super awesome, too cool for school Roubo style bench ever since I spent two weeks going through the entire Workbench Smack Down thread. On Father's Day weekend I went to the local saw mill to buy a few boards and ended up coming home with four pine beams and two oak beams for $60. The pine is about 5 inches thick and I think about 5-7 inches wide (a little more than 24 inches wide in total). One oak beam is about 4.5Ă—4.5 and the other is about 5 or so by 4.5. All are cut to about 8 feet long though the finished length with be around 6.5 feet because one of the pine beams has some issues at its end. I've got the bulk of the lumber needed to build my bench!! I didn't go there even to look for that stuff. I happened to mention it to the guy in passing and he showed me a pile of beams and giant timbers he said was taking up too much space and he wanted to get rid.

Outdoor bench Wood Outdoor furniture Road surface Table


Black Road surface Rectangle Wood Line


For $60, I wasn't turning that down. The downside (if you can call it that) is that the stuff is still pretty green so I can either let it sit for half a decade to air dry or I can build a small solar kiln to speed that process along. We all know what the answer is. Just working on coming up with some scratch for the materials. Nothing big or fancy. Basically, it's going to be a small, right triangle with a 2×4 frame, panels of foam insulation (stealing that from a MattNC's recent post found here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/102725) and the solar collector from…maybe 6 mil plastic or something. Need to keep it light and costs low. The biggest expense, I imagine, will be the solar panels and fan or two. Anyway, while I'm gathering the funds, the stuff is air drying in my shop with one of the beams drying outside, high off the ground and in the sun (it's got some pine borer larvae in it). Until I get this stuff dry, I've got to use my current bench and make the most of it.

I need to keep a project list or something because I've got all kinds of projects I want to do and can't keep track of them all. First, I'm making a turning saw for the saw swap. Something along the lines of this:



I want one for myself and decided a joining the swap would help me keep focused on it, force me to commit to a time frame and put some pressure on me to avoid accepting quality poorer than I think I can produce. I also want to make a frame saw for resawing lumber so that'll be going on at some point in the future, too.

I'm in the process of making a small drafting compass right now, too. It's mostly finished right now. I just need to get the brass hardware then put it all together. Here's what it looks like so far:

Wood Wood stain Hardwood Varnish Font


Wood Rectangle Wood stain Material property Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Wood stain Material property Hardwood


It's made from cherry and walnut. I'm not sure I'll do any more shaping to it. I'm not totally satisfied with it's "blocky" form but I haven't thought of any modification I'd be happy with, yet.

The drafting compass idea came about when I was drawing up a rough template for a semi-hollow guitar I was designing. I initially used a scrap length of wood with a nail through one end and a hole bored through the other fit with a pencil. That worked for one of the curves but I had several more to do and ended up using cylinders of varying sizes to complete it. Then I managed to destroy it and decided I didn't want to try to go through it all again. Besides, the attention to detail necessary for making small tools like this would benefit me when it comes time to build a guitar (I think, anyway). So the small compass is first followed by a larger one. Then I'll eventually get on with designing and building a guitar. Perhaps several. Eventually.

I've also been getting a little tired of having my tools sitting on the shelf below my bench (the ones I use most, anyway). They always get covered in saw dust and shavings and bending over just gets old. Some days I want to put up a couple french cleats then make some tool holders and plane and saw tills (because Red's looks so nice: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/89950) or perhaps a tool cabinet (there are several LJs who have really great cabinets). Other days I want to build a tool cupboard or armoire along the lines of what Paul Sellers has (in the background below):



Until I figure out what I want, I deal with the dust and shavings.

In addition to all that I want to make a new mallet, I've been seriously considering making a hand plane and I'd like to make a couple pieces of furniture(a morris chair for myself and a computer/executive-ish desk for my wife).

If that's not enough, I've purchased a Husqvarna carpenter's axe (the head of which is supposedly made by Wetterlings), a froe, some splitting wedges and a drawknife to do some green woodworking. Splitting and rough shaping with axe is coming along. Riving, on the other hand, is not easy. I need to make a riving brake, still. Then, I've recently purchased a chip carving knife and have been watching tutorials on that so I can enjoy woodcraft when I'm not on my shop. Maybe I've taken on more at a time than I should. Then again, it's my life and my hobby. So long as I enjoy what I'm doing, who cares? Now, if only I can find a way to set up an area to get into blacksmithing…
 

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#19 ·
It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've made a post regarding my adventures in working wood. I frequently get distracted by shiny objects so I expect it'll happen again.

Well, after several months of using my bench I've grown frustrated with it. It really doesn't support planing the faces of boards very well. I've wanted to build a super awesome, too cool for school Roubo style bench ever since I spent two weeks going through the entire Workbench Smack Down thread. On Father's Day weekend I went to the local saw mill to buy a few boards and ended up coming home with four pine beams and two oak beams for $60. The pine is about 5 inches thick and I think about 5-7 inches wide (a little more than 24 inches wide in total). One oak beam is about 4.5Ă—4.5 and the other is about 5 or so by 4.5. All are cut to about 8 feet long though the finished length with be around 6.5 feet because one of the pine beams has some issues at its end. I've got the bulk of the lumber needed to build my bench!! I didn't go there even to look for that stuff. I happened to mention it to the guy in passing and he showed me a pile of beams and giant timbers he said was taking up too much space and he wanted to get rid.

Outdoor bench Wood Outdoor furniture Road surface Table


Black Road surface Rectangle Wood Line


For $60, I wasn't turning that down. The downside (if you can call it that) is that the stuff is still pretty green so I can either let it sit for half a decade to air dry or I can build a small solar kiln to speed that process along. We all know what the answer is. Just working on coming up with some scratch for the materials. Nothing big or fancy. Basically, it's going to be a small, right triangle with a 2×4 frame, panels of foam insulation (stealing that from a MattNC's recent post found here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/102725) and the solar collector from…maybe 6 mil plastic or something. Need to keep it light and costs low. The biggest expense, I imagine, will be the solar panels and fan or two. Anyway, while I'm gathering the funds, the stuff is air drying in my shop with one of the beams drying outside, high off the ground and in the sun (it's got some pine borer larvae in it). Until I get this stuff dry, I've got to use my current bench and make the most of it.

I need to keep a project list or something because I've got all kinds of projects I want to do and can't keep track of them all. First, I'm making a turning saw for the saw swap. Something along the lines of this:



I want one for myself and decided a joining the swap would help me keep focused on it, force me to commit to a time frame and put some pressure on me to avoid accepting quality poorer than I think I can produce. I also want to make a frame saw for resawing lumber so that'll be going on at some point in the future, too.

I'm in the process of making a small drafting compass right now, too. It's mostly finished right now. I just need to get the brass hardware then put it all together. Here's what it looks like so far:

Wood Wood stain Hardwood Varnish Font


Wood Rectangle Wood stain Material property Hardwood


Wood Rectangle Wood stain Material property Hardwood


It's made from cherry and walnut. I'm not sure I'll do any more shaping to it. I'm not totally satisfied with it's "blocky" form but I haven't thought of any modification I'd be happy with, yet.

The drafting compass idea came about when I was drawing up a rough template for a semi-hollow guitar I was designing. I initially used a scrap length of wood with a nail through one end and a hole bored through the other fit with a pencil. That worked for one of the curves but I had several more to do and ended up using cylinders of varying sizes to complete it. Then I managed to destroy it and decided I didn't want to try to go through it all again. Besides, the attention to detail necessary for making small tools like this would benefit me when it comes time to build a guitar (I think, anyway). So the small compass is first followed by a larger one. Then I'll eventually get on with designing and building a guitar. Perhaps several. Eventually.

I've also been getting a little tired of having my tools sitting on the shelf below my bench (the ones I use most, anyway). They always get covered in saw dust and shavings and bending over just gets old. Some days I want to put up a couple french cleats then make some tool holders and plane and saw tills (because Red's looks so nice: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/89950) or perhaps a tool cabinet (there are several LJs who have really great cabinets). Other days I want to build a tool cupboard or armoire along the lines of what Paul Sellers has (in the background below):



Until I figure out what I want, I deal with the dust and shavings.

In addition to all that I want to make a new mallet, I've been seriously considering making a hand plane and I'd like to make a couple pieces of furniture(a morris chair for myself and a computer/executive-ish desk for my wife).

If that's not enough, I've purchased a Husqvarna carpenter's axe (the head of which is supposedly made by Wetterlings), a froe, some splitting wedges and a drawknife to do some green woodworking. Splitting and rough shaping with axe is coming along. Riving, on the other hand, is not easy. I need to make a riving brake, still. Then, I've recently purchased a chip carving knife and have been watching tutorials on that so I can enjoy woodcraft when I'm not on my shop. Maybe I've taken on more at a time than I should. Then again, it's my life and my hobby. So long as I enjoy what I'm doing, who cares? Now, if only I can find a way to set up an area to get into blacksmithing…
Wow you've been busy. Axe, froe, chip carving, turning saw, compass, shop, holy cow. But you're right it's a hobby so have fun.
 

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#28 ·
Ah, life and stuff...

Well, all those projects and new endeavors I had on my list got put on hold for a bit. Haven't had much time in the shop in the last few months (I think a total of 4 or so hours since about August or so) primarily due work and family things. There's been a lot going on for me and I'm not yet certain when things are going to slow down. Anyway, on to the update…

I let those pine and oak beams sit all summer in my shop and the pitch in the pine didn't run. I cut them close to the length I want for the bench and began the process of truing faces for gluing. No pictures as it's pretty boring but I've learned that 6+ feet long beams that are 5+ inches wide are a chore (that I've still not gotten right). So, that project is slow going because A) not much shop time and B) I'm basically terrible at this.

In other news, our back yard had 2 young trees in it right against the back fence (literally about a 12 or so inches from the fence). In 2013 I cut down the smaller of the two, a poplar, with the only tools I had on hand that would work - a husqvarna carpenter's axe (well sharpened, I might add) and a cheap combination hand saw from Lowe's. The tree wasn't more than maybe 8 inches in diameter just above the root flare but it was a chore to cut down with those tools. A few days ago I cut the other tree down, an oak (no idea what kind), that was about 10-12 inches just above the root flare with the same tools. The poplar was added to the firewood stack (the grain was all kinds of twisted) but the oak was pretty straight and big enough for something else. I'm in the (very slow) process of making a shave horse with the oak. The log's length is a little more than 10 feet and mostly clear (on the outside)...

Road surface Asphalt Wood Grass Tar


Felling that thing was no quick or easy task but it fell where I planned without incident. After it was down, I cut it about three inches or so below the first branches to get what you see above. That thing is heavy. By the time I had done that, the wife and kids had returned from church so my "fun" was done for the day. A couple days later, in the evening after work I got out a cheap hatchet, some splitting wedges, the Lowe's saw and my sledge hammer. I cut a 5 foot length off of the log and set to split it. You can't tell in that picture but the pith is off center and the log is actually a bit ovular. I used the hatchet and a small hand sledge to score a line across the widest points which, fortunately, was in the same plane as the pith then used my wedges to split that thing open. It was nowhere near as easy as it looks when people split larger logs on YouTube videos. Either that or I'm a sissy. Anyway, after taking much longer and using much more energy than anticipated, this is what I had…

Wood Natural material Composite material Road surface Tints and shades


From the top of the picture to the bottom, the log was pretty straight to a little more than half way down. From that point to the bottom it had a slight twist. Either that or there was a weaker area in the grain that the split followed. Anyway, I'm very satisfied with it. Tonight I picked out the side that would be the bench, got out the drawknife and cleaned up its face a bit…

Wood Natural material Metal Soil Event


The kids will be with their grandparents for most of Saturday so I'm hoping to get a chance to break out the froe and rive some legs. It'd be great if I could use all that kid-free time to finish this but there are 4.52325 * 10^2387 leaves in my yard and I intend to get rid of them if they're relatively dry.

So, there's the update.
 

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#29 ·
Ah, life and stuff...

Well, all those projects and new endeavors I had on my list got put on hold for a bit. Haven't had much time in the shop in the last few months (I think a total of 4 or so hours since about August or so) primarily due work and family things. There's been a lot going on for me and I'm not yet certain when things are going to slow down. Anyway, on to the update…

I let those pine and oak beams sit all summer in my shop and the pitch in the pine didn't run. I cut them close to the length I want for the bench and began the process of truing faces for gluing. No pictures as it's pretty boring but I've learned that 6+ feet long beams that are 5+ inches wide are a chore (that I've still not gotten right). So, that project is slow going because A) not much shop time and B) I'm basically terrible at this.

In other news, our back yard had 2 young trees in it right against the back fence (literally about a 12 or so inches from the fence). In 2013 I cut down the smaller of the two, a poplar, with the only tools I had on hand that would work - a husqvarna carpenter's axe (well sharpened, I might add) and a cheap combination hand saw from Lowe's. The tree wasn't more than maybe 8 inches in diameter just above the root flare but it was a chore to cut down with those tools. A few days ago I cut the other tree down, an oak (no idea what kind), that was about 10-12 inches just above the root flare with the same tools. The poplar was added to the firewood stack (the grain was all kinds of twisted) but the oak was pretty straight and big enough for something else. I'm in the (very slow) process of making a shave horse with the oak. The log's length is a little more than 10 feet and mostly clear (on the outside)...

Road surface Asphalt Wood Grass Tar


Felling that thing was no quick or easy task but it fell where I planned without incident. After it was down, I cut it about three inches or so below the first branches to get what you see above. That thing is heavy. By the time I had done that, the wife and kids had returned from church so my "fun" was done for the day. A couple days later, in the evening after work I got out a cheap hatchet, some splitting wedges, the Lowe's saw and my sledge hammer. I cut a 5 foot length off of the log and set to split it. You can't tell in that picture but the pith is off center and the log is actually a bit ovular. I used the hatchet and a small hand sledge to score a line across the widest points which, fortunately, was in the same plane as the pith then used my wedges to split that thing open. It was nowhere near as easy as it looks when people split larger logs on YouTube videos. Either that or I'm a sissy. Anyway, after taking much longer and using much more energy than anticipated, this is what I had…

Wood Natural material Composite material Road surface Tints and shades


From the top of the picture to the bottom, the log was pretty straight to a little more than half way down. From that point to the bottom it had a slight twist. Either that or there was a weaker area in the grain that the split followed. Anyway, I'm very satisfied with it. Tonight I picked out the side that would be the bench, got out the drawknife and cleaned up its face a bit…

Wood Natural material Metal Soil Event


The kids will be with their grandparents for most of Saturday so I'm hoping to get a chance to break out the froe and rive some legs. It'd be great if I could use all that kid-free time to finish this but there are 4.52325 * 10^2387 leaves in my yard and I intend to get rid of them if they're relatively dry.

So, there's the update.
That is a hell of an undertaking Billy, good luck man. Looking forward to seeing the process.
 

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