practice run #2........

Run #2 was almost as good as #1. I didn't completely brain fart and forget everything I did last night. I am still not where I would like to be, but you have to crawl before you can walk.

starting point-setup on the plane hasn't been changed

my homemade grippy hockey pucks

This stock doesn't reach out over the edge of the bench so I needed to raise it up a tad. The pucks worked well here.

one done - one to go

I did ok but not as well as I had hoped to do. I felt the depth stop bottom out and the plane stopped cutting on both boards I did. My rabbet wasn't exactly square and either was the second one. It was a few degrees off but the joint went together flush and would have worked.

spill plane like curls

two day pile

I've offered to save these for my brother in law who heats with wood but he says newspaper is better for starting a fire.

knot #1

 The plane ran right through this knot like it was even there. Amazing. Sir Chris is right - sharp beats all.

knot #2

knot #2 not a problem

not bad for a rookie - practice will make it better

second practice run put together

joint is a tad better

The joint went together and it was more than adequate for the floor boards for the tool chest. However I wanted it be better. The half laps are hidden and won't be seen but the joint between the boards will. I used my record 073 to dead nuts square the rabbet. That only took a few swipes.

Next up I used the straight edge to mark the high spots on the edges and then I planed them off  first with my #7.  Once they were gone I took a few continuous runs end to end and got a better fitting joint.

I am going to do another practice run because I am not entirely happy with what I've done so far. It's encouraging that I do see an improvement over the preceding day. I'm in no hurry here.

accidental woodworker

dowel plate update......

I recently made a holder thingie for my LN dowel plate and I'm happy with how that turned out. I'm less then happy with the dowels I'm making with it. You'd think you could just pound a hunk of wood through the hole and you're done.  It ain't so sports fans. You get much better results if you closely approximate the size of the dowel before you beat it into the hole.

this helps

I made this jig to hold my square stock so I can then plane it into an octagonal shape close to the dowel size I want. I routed four different depths for what I think will help me do dowels from 1/8" up to 1/2".

vee grooves

I used my router and an old formica flush trimming bit that has a vee on the end of the bit for making a pierce cut into formica. It was the only vee shaped bit that I had. It made these two deep vees ok but the shallow ones aren't so great. They're fuzzy, have lots of tear out, and aren't well defined. They were adequate for making the 1/8" dowel I made.



1/8" dowel almost done



a four penny nail (pointy end)  is small enough to punch the dowel out



much better then the last time - round and straighter

10-32 bolt works for the 3/8" dowel

3/8" dowel

This 3/8 is a lot better then the last one I made. This one isn't perfectly round because I was in a hurry and I didn't plane the facets on it the right way. Still it's a usable dowel that shouldn't cause any problems if you used it as a pin.

The vee jig is something that you need if you are trying to make your own dowel pins. Using the jig doesn't require you to have a ten foot piece of stock so you can play with one end to get a rough dowel shape. The jig allows you to shape a size much closer to what you need - in my case the 1"-3" range. The size of the jig is based on the size of your required pins.

I've got two options for my next vee jig. Find some better vee router bits or pony up on my chiseling skills. I'm leaning toward the chiseling bit.

accidental woodworker

my new mallet......

I recently read a blog by Paul Seller about the mallet he uses and has been using for years. He uses it for everything from chisel work to persuading things into alignment. I had broke the mallet I had gotten when I was 18 (I know - nothing lasts forever) and the replacement piece of cheap imported chinese crap I bought lasted about a week before it went south.

I had looked at Lowes and Home Depot for a mallet but I was not happy with what they were selling. I wanted something along the lines of what I had been using for years. I wanted to hold it in my hands and swing it through the air. I wanted to bang it on something and then whack the bejesus out of it. Before I pony up anymore dollars I want to see, feel, smell, and hold in my ham hock hands the mallet I am going to buy.

Along comes the Paul Sellers blog entry and I am willing to give his recommendation a try. I blogged about where to get it here. I don't know if I got the exact mallet that Paul uses but I got one that I thought I would like. It's got 1.5" faces, it's got some heft, and a wooden handle. Not fiberglass or some kind of poly resin crappola but wood. It looks like it's ash or maybe some kind of oak. Could be english or american, I don't know for sure.

my new mallet and two extra screw on heads Hammer Source P/N NT150

The first thing I did with my new toy was to remove most of the finish on the handle. I dislike shiny finishes on wooden handles. I think that they make the handle slippery if you have sweaty hands. I also used a spokeshave on the handle at the bottom to put a little flare out there. Next I'll have to remove the stickers, sand that out, apply some BLO, and finish with a coat of shellac.

feels more secure in my hand now

ouch

I made this wooden mallet in 03/11 and it is/was RIP in 12/11. The crack has now gone completely around the head. I don't know what is holding the two parts onto the handle. I never really warmed up to this wood mallet. I am not shedding any tears over it's demise and I won't be replacing it. I prefer to use the what's on the right.

I've had this for a couple of weeks now and I haven't been gentle with it at all. I have used it mostly for tightening/loosening my bench hooks. I also recently used it on my latest dovetail practice box. I dropped it on my foot and it didn't bounce, but I did a little.

new home

I had to make a new holder thingie for it because it wouldn't fit in the last one. I also have to replace the holder for the hammer because the left side of the holder is split and hanging on by a thread. I made the new mallet holder by hand. The bottom and back is 1/2" plywood and the rest is 3/8" poplar I think. Cutting plywood with handsaws sucks. It's impossible to do and get clean cuts. 60 grit sandpaper works wonders cleaning them up.

mallet's new home - new hammer holder coming on the right

So far I'm a very happy camper with this mallet. It's heavy but it has a nice balance to it. It has beat the snot out of everything I done with it so far without crying. The two faces don't show any battle scars yet. The advertisement said these were the toughest faces for this hammer. We'll see about that. I'm sure they didn't have me in mind when they wrote that.

Paul Seller made a good recommendation for this brand of mallet (Thor). I don't have the years of use he has but I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone. Look over the hammer source site, you'll go numb with the endless choices that they offer.

accidental woodworker

practice makes ok......

After work tonight I got my rabbet plane out and got some practice in. Still practicing, still not perfect but definitely ok and getting better. Initially I was a little disappointed in what I was doing but the final result went together like it should.

shavings look good

used a brass set up bar to set the depth and distance from the edge

I think I figured out the depth stop and how it works. It depends on how you are holding the tool. If you are not cutting squarely the depth stop will never work. At least that's the impression I got tonight. I first cut to a depth of a 1/4" and got my usual slanted dovetail looking rabbet.

As I was correcting for this faux pas I was tried to remember exactly how I was holding the plane and my body posture. I got the slant corrected and the depth stop worked.for me. I ran a rabbet on another test board and got good results. A square rabbet and the depth bottomed out and the plane stopped cutting. All is well in Disneyland again.

my two test half laps

I'm happy with this joint

joint line looks good

I wouldn't have any problems using this pair as bottom boards in my tool chest. In fact I just might. I'll have to thin these boards down because they are about an 1/8" thicker than the ones I'll use.

new edges for tomorrow

I am going to half lap these two edges tomorrow. I still don't have the warm and fuzzy feeling about doing my tool chest floor boards yet. So I might even try to get in a few more practice runs after I do these. I did good today and hopefully I'll be able to reproduce the same thing tomorrow night.

accidental woodworker

cabinet #7 update.......

I made a decision on cabinet #7 and it's not happening. I decided to make a small tool chest instead of another cabinet. I already have 3 cabinets in the boneyard that no one wants. I don't need to add another to keep them company.

nice size for a tool chest



ready to flush the pins/tails


I tried to cut my dovetails so that they would be flush and I'm not quite there yet. These are about a 1/16" proud. A sharp plane, a couple of minutes, you burn some calories and end up with flush 90 degree corners.

my bench stop pole

I used my #3 to flush everything up. I tried to clamp this to my bench but it wasn't happening today. Too big and I couldn't get it in the vise and still turn the handle to lock it down. I could have used clamps across the bench but this pole isn't moving and it's handy.

When I was done planing and I was brushing the #3 clean I noticed that the edge of the blade  looked funny. I could see a couple chips were taken out of it. Mind you I had just sharpened this blade the day before and this was the first use since then. This is the original SW stanley iron that came with the plane. It's just as sharp and works as well as my A2s from LV and my Hocks. What I have noticed with these irons besides requiring more sharpening, is that the edges are kind of fragile. I'm going to have to look into getting a replacement iron for this plane. This is one plane that I use more then any other one I have.

all flushed

 

next up on the hit parade

I'm going to use these random width boards for the bottom. I'm going to ship lap them and nail them in place with no glue. This way if I have to repair/replace one or more it's an easy fix. I also get to practice the up coming half lapping with my rabbet plane.

I have a hit or miss affair with the rabbet plane. Mostly I plane these horrendously angled rabbets that look like dovetails. The last time used the rabbet plane I did alright except for the depth stop. I got a nice square rabbet but I went pass the depth stop without even feeling it.

If I use my record 405 combo plane, I don't have a problem with the depth stop.  I don't have any problems with it bottoming out and not cutting. Nor do I have a problem with getting a sqaure cut. The depth stops between the two are similar. I'll have to spend some more time on pond to get the hang for both.

No matter which one gets the pole position,  I'll get some practice making rabbets for sure.

accidental woodworker

New sharpening stones......

It was a kind of ho-hum day. I didn't do much in the way of woodworking, instead it was a maintenance kind of day. I did some sharpening, made a tool holder, picked up a saw, and wasted some gas trying to get an estimate on an upholstery job. Nice to have one of these days once in a while.


First up on the hit parade is a toy I got after watching the sharpening DVD by Paul Seller.  In it he uses 3 diamond plates for his sharpening followed up with some stropping. He said he has been using them for years and is happy with them. You can use them wet or dry. The stropping you can really go nutso on with grits available all the way up to 10000 and beyond. And they come in rainbow colors too.

 I got the fine (600 grit) and extra fine (1200 grit) diamond stones from DMT.  As soon as I get enough pennies in the sock drawer I'm adding the extra extra fine (8000 grit) . I'm undecided about the coarse one (325 grit). That would be used for chip removal and reshaping a bevel. I have a Tormek so I really don't need it, for now.

diamond sharpening stones - 8x3 size

I tried to free hand sharpen my plane iron from my #3. It didn't go well for me. I tried but I just couldn't get the feel for the bevel. I tried back and forth, figure eight, and sideways. Nothing worked and I only accomplished totally screwing up the bevel.

 I ended up sharpening it with my water stones and honing guide. I had to re-establish the bevel and once that was done, ten minutes later I had a bevel shiny enough to shave from.  I also sharpened my LN chisels, 9 1/2 iron, and the iron from my LV edge plane. 


When I got done with my LV iron and I was admiring the nice shine, I noticed that there was chip on the edge. All that work and I only noticed it when I thought I was done. I got rid of the chip on the blade with my coarsest water stone and then used my two diamond stones next.

LV edge plane  -  it's a small blade

 I didn't have any problems feeling/finding the bevel. The diamond stones cut a tad faster than the water stones ever thought of doing. The shine and bevel off of the 1200 grit looked pretty good. Not as good as off the 8000 waterstone but decent.  I finished with my 8000 water stone and polished a nice shine in the bevel. This time without a chip.


I sharpened my 1" and 3/4" crappy chisels on the diamond stones to get some more practice with free hand sharpening. I tried to do it the way Paul Seller did in his DVD but that's going to take a little more time on the pond before that happens. I was able to find the bevel by push/pulling the chisel without any major hiccups. 


I used one diamond stone dry and other one with some water. Of the two I couldn't see or feel a major difference in using either one. However, with the the wet one the metal being wasted away was visible and easier to clean off the stone. Of the two I prefer to use water on them. Paul Seller uses window washer fluid instead of water.

 I really like the diamond stones over the water ones. Less mess is the first big pointer. The second is they cut faster. Third, there is no prepping necessary before using them.  I can't sharpen free hand like Paul Seller does (yet), but I was able to get a decent edge off the stones and after stropping, a decent looking shine on the bevel. 


My crappy chisels were sharp and they did cut end grain very easily. However, comma, slant, back slash, ditto marks, they don't hold an edge and they dull incredibly quick. This is why they are crappy chisels and why I use them for crappy jobs. But with the diamond stones sitting on the bench and being able to sharpen dry, I can restore the hone pretty quick.

I have these chisels and couple of spare plane irons I practice on. My goal is eventually to be able to do all my sharpening free hand. As of now, I freehand my LV edge plane iron because it won't fit in my honing guide. I also free hand my LN 9 1/2 iron and today I did my LN chisels freehand also. I got a good start today in that direction.

 The only negative comment about these diamond stones I can think of is that they are heavy. I got the 8x3 size and all my water stones combined don't weigh as much as these two diamond stones. Even this is a positive because once you put some non skid shelf liner beneath it, it won't move as you use it. I hope that this is the last of the sharpening stones I'll upgrade to.


accidental woodworker

I'm a publisher.......

I got the book that I had submitted to Lulu and it came out much better then I expected. After all this was a PDF of book printed in 1878. That's a couple of centuries ago. I can't take credit for it, that has to go to the bride.

The bride cleaned it up so that all the pages were aligned r/l and top/bottom. She also took some pictures from the book and put them on the covers. Along with the pictures she also put some random quotes from the book on them too.

front cover



sample page done by the bride made a tad bigger than the original



back cover

This book is over 300 pages and I only had to pony up $7.00. I haven't read it yet but I have done a quick perusal of parts of it. I don't think this is something I will read in it's entirety. Why? It's not want I thought it was going to be. And the last thirty or so pages are all math tables.

I expected this to be a detailed accounting of the tools and how to use them for pattern making. Instead the first chapters briefly talk about some of the tools a pattern maker might use. Not a lot of verbiage on how to use them. That is reserved for how to make patterns for wheels, gears, gate valves, along with determining shrinkage rates for various casting metals. Also determining how lay up the wood in pieces to make the casting patterns.

I read a few paragraphs from the book and my respect for what patternmakers did went up several notches. I knew that these were skilled craftsman but they had to know so much more than just the best way to make something out of wood.

There are several chapters at the end of the book that deal with the math involved in pattern making. Pattern making at this time was not for someone who didn't understand Algebra or Geometry. I don't think that using a pair of dividers and square was enough to get by. Reading, measuring, doing a lot of math, were a continual way of life for these guys. This comes from reading only a small portion of this book for pattern maker's assistant-not a full fledged pattern maker.  I may eventually slog my way through this if I have the urge to make a pattern for a.........

One last point: this book is typical of "technical" manuals/books of this time era that I have read so far. That means that this book is one sentence from the start to the end. No paragraphs, no quotes, no single sentences, no breaks, just one continuous group of words from page one to the end.

accidental woodworker

it finally happened.......

The day that I have been dreading has finally arrived. I can't do anything with my blog at work other than look at it. For now. I think the next step is going to be that I won't be able to view my blog at all. There are 4 blogs that I used to read at work that I can't anymore. The IE version in use at work is 7 with the XP OS and the new blogger interface won't/doesn't support it.

Tomorrow will be a full week I couldn't blog from work(friday) . I have already started to adjust but not willingly. I will have to get use to writing and posting from home and not editing at work. And if that is going to be how it is, I might as well update to the new blogger interface.

Another thread: My link to Flickr went south a while back. I found a work around for it and installed it. That worked for a couple of days and the fix today has now go south also. This time it's a Flickr badge that's toast. They can't pass the buck on this one.

And it bit me on the butt again. I just checked it to see what the error was called (so I could blog correctly about it) and it's working. Again. I now have nothing to rant about.

accidental woodworker

PS  It's friday morning and I'm at work. I can access my blog to edit and publish etc etc. I wonder what was causing this faux pas? I'm betting the ranch on the filters and such the network here has. They were recently updated. I wonder how long this will last before the next SNAFU and FUBAR.

It's a nice roller coaster ride of working, not working, maybe working, and when do we start the cycle again.....

doweling jig.......

All done. I went ahead and put a couple coats of shellac on it. That put a nice shine on the padauk trim.

ready for a test run

The scrap I grabbed determined the size of my test run dowels. In this case 3/8 and 1/8.

shaved down the ends to the approximate the size

pounding the 1/8 size through

finished 1/8 size

 finished 3/8 size

I learned that making dowels is a tad harder than just beating the snot out of a hunk wood. There is more to a square piece of stock going through a round hole then meets the eye. I should have done it the way John wrote about in his blog. However I was in hurry and I own a sheetrock knife and a block plane......

I am going to do this again but first I'll make something resembling the "vee" jig that John blogged about. His dowels came out dead nuts on.

accidental woodworker

maybe cabinet # 7.........

Started another cabinet project. Maybe.  This was a hand cut dovetail exercise/practice more than making a another cabinet. I am at a crossroad as to what I want this project to be. My first thoughts were a cabinet with a door. Or a door with a drawer at the bottom.
If I go with the door/drawer I could practice cutting dadoes for the bottom shelf. Then there would be more dovetail practice making the drawer. I could practice making a rabbeted bridle jointed door or maybe a half lapped rabbeted door.

That is one scenario. Another one is cutting the cabinet in half and ending up with two cabinets. I could then do the scenario above on two cabinets or split it and do one one way and the other, another way.

How about a chest? Maybe a tool chest with a locking lid and a lift out tray? Or maybe one with a sliding till and saw storage in the lid. Plenty of time to make these decisions.

dry run

By the time I thought to take pics I had already cut out the tails. Here I'm doing a dry run to figure out the top/bottom and to number my corners. Doing the dovetails was the primary focus for this, not what it will be become.

got my pins laid out

rough cut on the pins done

I am still having problems using the coping saw to cut out the pins/tails waste. I can't make one continuous cut to remove the waste. Instead I make one cut going right and another cut going left. I have watched Paul Sellers do this operation a billion times. I've tried to gleam something from watching him but so far it escapes me. I have even watched it in slow motion without success.

chopping out the pins

I chisel first about a 1/16 from the marking gauge line about half down. I do both sides the same way first then I flip the boards and do the other side.

second chiseling on the line

I tried doing my chiseling a new way this time. I had watched a video on you tube by John Bullar on hand cutting dovetails and he chops the tails/pins with two cuts. The first about a 1/16 away from the gauge line and the second right on the gauge line. I tried it and it worked for  me. There are two key points and the first is having a super duper sharpened dovetailing chisel. The second point is getting that first chop as close to the gauge line as possible without actually touching after you chop.

The next time I do dovetails, I am going to make the first chop closer to the gauge line. When I chopped the second time here, I noticed that the chisel went backwards every so slightly. Even doing it the way I did it, the line at my tails/pins came out the best I've done.

first trial fit off the saw

all boards are bowed

I am going to have to use clamps to glue this up because of the bowed boards. It's going to have to wait until I decided what the actual project is going to be. Once that decision is made I can then cut any rabbets or dadoes I need before glue up.

Didn't I say I wouldn't use bowed boards to do dovetails?

the only gappy pin/tail

I only had two hiccups this time. This one gappy joint and one tail that has chip gone right at the bottom point of the tail.

nice tight half pins

no gap here - it's a pencil line

another tight half pin - and the chipped tail

last corner half pin

I am so happy about how my half pins came out I could wet myself. Doing these consistently has been a tad problematic for me. I might get a couple to look alright, but not all 8 of them. I am not at the point where I can just saw these out. I am still using my knife, making a vee channel, and then sawing.

I credit watching the Paul Sellers DVD series and his you tube videos. I knifed the line gently at first and then a little more heavily and then more forcefully. I cut out my vee and sawed out the waste. As to what I did previously - knifed the line as heavily as I could the first time with a sheet rock knife. Because of the bevel on the sheetrock blade, my line would move. Result would be a sloppy fitting half pin.

I approached this dovetail exercise differently than I have in past efforts.  I cut the dovetails one day and the next day I did the pins. A rather drastic change for me. I would try my hardest to get everything done at once. I took my time and before each step I thought about what I was about to do. It paid off in the results I got. 

Another payoff for me has been where I position my thumb to guide my saw. I used to put it at the front and then saw. This time I put it at the back of the saw cut. I see more of the cut line, the thumb isn't in the way, and I was able to saw a straight and square line.  Simple point that I totally missed even though I had seen it a billion times in various DVD's.

What's next? I want to attempt to do a dovetailed box without doing any layout. Paul Sellers does it with his small shaker box. The only layout is a pencil line. He cuts the tails/pins by eye - no layout or knife lines to saw by. This isn't too far off.

accidental woodworker