Whew! Made It!

No, the title doesn't speak of some grand project completed, but more of my complete avoidance of the cursed Black Friday. Not once did I step foot outside the shop to venture forth into an unknown world of crazier than normal folks. It just didn't sound like a good time to me, so I didn't do it. Nor last year...or the year before that...

I figure I can buy the stuff that others and/or I need at any time, so why would I try to wrap that up all in one day? With thousands of other people--who all want the latest electronic toaster that emails you when the toast is done more than I do--I'm just not sure that I could compete. Oh well...

So instead I puttered around the shop and practiced. I've been somewhat tired of the same projects, so I glued up a couple more and set them aside for the day. Today I was going to practice grooves and dovetails. A box it is then.

I already had some pieces cut from last weekend while I was waiting for the glue to set on the gift projects.

Then marked the grooves that will hold the bottom. I didn't have a grooving plane, so this will all be done by hand.

Chiseled the waste and evened it out by hand to get it close.

Then cleaned it all up with a router plane. Oh, and these are stopped grooves, so nothing shows after the box is assembled.

All four pieces all came out better than I thought they would.

Now it was time for the dovetails. The pins are lying. I actually do tails first, but I forgot to to take the pic, so this was just an afterthought.

They fit together pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised. This was done with the "new" saw I just tried to sharpen. Seems to be working pretty well and I like the way it feels.

And the grooves line up, too, with no major gaps from the inside. Yippee! Two for two!

The rest of the dovetails went pretty well. I noticed my saw has a little wider kerf than I'm used to, so there were some adjustments to be made, and I improved with each cut. I also improved quite a bit on my chiseling. The bed of the tails and pins all came out pretty square and flat. Much better than my last attempts.

Then it was ready for gluing and clamping.

And now it just needs to finish curing and will be ready for planing down the proud pins and tails tomorrow. All-in-all a good day of practice. Even got another of the gifts glued up and ready for shaping tomorrow.

And another Black Friday insanity avoided.

Josh

And Then There Were (almost) 7

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first project is always fun. The second?...not so much, if it is a copy of the first.

To that end--as you can see on the left--I've decided to make them all a little different and using different tools to achieve the end results. to get the basic shapes, I have to admit that the first one was nothing but playing with planes. There was no plan going in, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

For the rest, there has been a little bit more planning, but not a whole lot. There were a couple napkin sketches of the basic shapes, but that was about it. From there it has been pretty much more along the lines of..."I'd like to do some curves"...and so I broke out the coping saw and rasp. Another was "I'd like this one to look like the first one...but rounded..." and so I played with the planes to set the basic shape and then a rasp and file to get it all smoothed out. I have no idea what I was thinking on the others...I'll make something up later...

So here are the basics...I actually remembered to take a few pics along the way...

Sawed all the parts. Surprisingly, my cuts are getting much straighter...








Not all of them were this straight, so I ran most of them across the shooting board...








And I decided one of the projects at the end of this will be a new shooting board...

Then laid them all out and made sure that they would glue up without gaps...then glued them up...

And then sketched out the shape I wanted for this one. This one will be made with the coping saw and rasp...

Started cutting...For some reason I actually be seeming to follow the line...huh...

And then kicked myself for rushing and thinking "oh, it's going so well!"

And after quite a bit of work with the rasp I was able to smooth both sides out...and they even look even...

Oh, and a hand-stitched rasp is now on my list, by the way...

Decided on some harsher angles on this one, so this will be almost all saw work...




Well, that was about it for today. I figured my wife would like me to leave the shop for a bit and unwind a bit since she just got home from work. Overall, not a bad afternoon. I was able to keep the projects interesting and all different enough that they don't look like they rolled off an assembly line, so we'll call it a success! Only a couple more to do...

Josh

And Then There Were More...

Well today was a little more of the same. It's kind of strange doing several projects which are all the same concept. Normally, I have just one project for a specific purpose or person, and then it's on to the next one. I may make another version at some point in the future, but usually there are several projects between. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, so I decided to make it a little more interesting.

These little "vases" are all based off the same basic design and start out just as blocks with a mortise in the middle. This mortise is made during the glue up in order to make it quite a bit simpler and faster to assemble. This gives me a nice quick blank to work with.

The original I made was done with hand planes only and was based on lots of angles. This one starts out exactly the same, and even has the same overall design, but uses curves instead.

I messed up on the glue up...need to do something about that...

The freshly sharpened #4 does quick work with this. Just planed in from both sides.

Sawed the major angles/tapers for each side...

Then marked and planed as much of a curve as I could. 

Then took rasp/file/and sandpaper to move the shape into a nice, smooth curve.

And then took a different approach with the other one...and now have two new thingies...

And now I need to sketch up some more to see what else I can do to keep them interesting...

Until next time...

Josh

the Christmas Rush

Christmas is always a tough time for me. I have to be one of the worst procrastinators I know. Last year I had big plans with some dovetailed boxes for some special ladies and some old style tool boxes for the little men that I know. The bad part was, I rushed the ones for the kiddos and then couldn't get my mom her dovetailed box until several months later.

Oops. Awesome planning on my part. I'm a big boy, I can admit it! I'm not quite sure how to change 37 years of behavior, but at least the special women in my life tell me they understand...not that they accept it... but they understand!

This year I'm changing it up a little bit and working on several projects at the same time, and keeping them very similar. This allows me to do a little bit more of an assembly line type of process. Hopefully with so many projects in work at the same time I can keep from getting distracted with something else...it's worth a shot..

Drama of Workbenches (part 2)--Not really

So here is Josh's workbench version 2. I guarantee there will someday be a version 3. Why? My style of work has changed over the past year or so, and I would be naive to think that I would not change again in the future. Besides, I've already admitted I like my original bench's solid/laminated top. I'll be honest with myself (and to everyone else)... it just looks so much cooler...

This bench is based on Tom's Torsion workbench, which you can find all over the Web. It's a fairly straight forward build, and if you want, it can be really inexpensive (much less than $200) if you select your lumber carefully and then build your own vises.

I won't bore everyone with details on the build (other sites have done that for me and much better than I could). What you have are 4 torsion boxes all bolted together and supporting each other. This thing is heavier than my other bench (I used particle board for the the panels on the legs and back stretcher). This created the mass I was looking for, and the torsion design means I have NO movement or sway in the bench. It is definitely rock solid.

The only thing I will say is there is a LOT of lumber to cut in a design like this, and I did it all by hand. If you want to learn to cut a straight and perpendicular edge? Try a project like this or do a dog strip by hand. Cut after cut after cut...all the same thing... Either A) you'll get pretty good and finding what works and creating nice cuts by the end, or B) you'll get so fed up with it that the next time you look at a hand saw you'll scream and curl up in the corner. I won't tell you which corner I hid in...

The things I modified are fairly straight forward. I love my holdfasts, so those HAD to stay. I actually built a solid block underneath the top that I bored a hole though for my holdfasts. Each block is held in place by other bracing, and after a few months, I haven't had any issues in regards to the holdfasts not holding. If it ever comes to that, I'll just figure something else out. I NEED my holdfasts.

The other modification is the shoulder vise instead of a traditional English style face vise. This is mainly due to the fact that I REALLY got tired of the bars in the way, but I explained that in a previous post. I used a press screw I bought off Amazon. It gives me plenty of travel and pressure. Someday I'd love to have a wooden screw, but not until I can make my own, which is part of the reason why this one looks temporary.

The final change I made was the end vise. Where the original version of the bench called for a wooden handscrew to use as the end vise, I've modified that as well (though only after trying out the handscrew for a couple months first). For this vise I also used another press clamp from Amazon. I didn't want the screw to move in and out on the outside of the bench, so I used the clamping piece that you're supposed to use on the handle to attach the dog block and firmly attached the end of the screw to the dog in front of it. This limits my travel to only a couple inches, but I've drill two dog holes in the vise to compensate for the overall lack of travel. I've seen other versions of this that allow the screw to move in and out of the bench, but all I could
imagine was me running into it on the way to my plane cabinet. Not good.

So that's about it. I'm still working on my old bench to see what I can do to make it more stable and still able to move when I need to pack it up (for future reference). It will be some kind of monster by the time I'm done playing with it. Also if I find a new vise idea, I can easily try it out there first, and for now, it makes a great assembly table or extra work surface when I need it. I enjoy making them a whole lot more than buying them, that's for sure. Until then!

Josh

Pencil Holder/Vase Thingee...

I saw something similar in the current issue of Woodsmith magazine, and I figured this could be a fun project. I'll have to take some better pictures when everything's dry, but my wife says she wants it, so I guess that's a good sign...

In Woodsmith, they called it a bandsaw project, but of course, you kind of have to have one of those in order to call it that...There's also had some really nice curves to it that I liked, and may try out on another one using several handsaws, rasps and files, but not today. I had another idea.

Started out by gluing the pieces together. It's essentially 3 pcs of 3/4" stock glued together. Nice and simple. Instead of a solid piece in the middle, it's just sectioned like you were making a mortise. Since I also don't own a tablesaw, it was extremely important that I kept everything nice and square on the bottom. Having to flatten out a whole big section of end grain doesn't sound fun, so each piece nice and square on the glue up is my plan.

Once that hardens a little, it's on to the plane to square the sides up.

Sawing the angles is the next step. I don't know what they are...I drew so many lines and sketches on this thing it was almost a graphite finish...

All of the major perpendicular cuts were done by hand. That gave me the general shape. After that, it was on to the planes again, giving it a little more shape.

And then it was on to the finish. A nice little project that my wife loved, which is always a good thing. Now it's on to make a few more...and adding the cleat to the new shelf...

Josh

Several "to do's" done

Well, it's been a very productive weekend in the shop. Not knowing what the next project was going to be when I first walked out, a new shelf for the shop became the next batter up.

I had built a shelf a few weeks ago to store some of the finishes and glues that I generally keep around, but for some reason I needed a new horizontal service on my wall. Besides, I can practice trying to make it prettier than most of my other shop "furniture". Practice is good, and the shelf would be useful, so therefore I can call the time in the shop "productive".

And then I got distracted...

My rabbet plane was still sitting on the bench after I'd cleaned up and when I went to put it back in the cabinet, I realized that I was sick of only my bench planes having a home. So I spent a few minutes and made use of some of the empty space in the upper part of the cabinet.

Ah, much better...and now back to the initial project...








So I decided this would be a smaller shelf in order to give me a little extra flexibility on where to put it on my wall of cleats. 16" sounds good.

Sawed, chiseled, and routed the dadoes for the supports. Not sure if I needed it, but it was fun. Like I said--practice.

Then sketched out the pattern for the support. Only on one though. I'll use this one as a template once I get it where I like it.

Sawed out the support with the coping saw...

Then used my cheap rasps and my spokeshave to even it all out.

Yup, looks just fine. Much fancier than I'm used to...

And now on to the other one. I'll use this as the template.

Somehow they match...cool.

Eased some of the edges a little with the block plane and then it was time for glue up. (Always keep offcuts from angled or contoured cuts to use as cauls later)

And here is the "finished" product. Not too bad. Much better than my usual shop fare...