Saturday, March 11, 2017

More on Shop Changes

I worked on the new bench for several months until I found the perfect slab of Beech for a apron. Here is a photo of the newly added apron turning my bench into what I like to call "my cross Chanel" bench or English/French bench. It works so well when I turned the older bench into a planning bench I added an apron to it as well.


The shop stayed reasonably stable after building the current work bench until I decided to turn the second bench into a planning bench and moved it off the wall to a central location. Here is a photo of the current arrangement. 


Looking South with current bench in foreground and planning bench in background. South of the planning bench arranged close to the door are the machines with the exception of the jointer to the right of the bench and a small lathe in the "tool room" aka Fibber McGee's closet. 

BTW, a sure sign you are too old to live is when folks no longer understand your cultural references. The other day one of the crews I was working with did a near perfect 45 degree bank steep turn, never losing or gaining a foot of altitude. In the old days before "glass" as a sign of respect and acknowledgement of the pilot's skill you would ask the co-pilot to tap the altimeter to see if it was stuck or broken.  I let it slip out and both pilots looked at me like I had two heads, as if to say "what is this old coot talking about, why would we do that".

Damn that was a tasty rabbit....back to the shop. The jointer is to my right and the sharpening bench is to the left, just off the working end of the primary bench. behind the primary bench is the tool chest and on the wall the open tool cabinet, saw and plane tills, and chisel racks. 


Notice the martini centered on the bench, work was over for the day. You can see through the door part of the tool room.

Next job is to cull the herd, of course I've been saying that for several years and it ain't happening. Anytime one tool leaves it is replaced by three. 

ken 
  


11 comments:

  1. Nice tour of your shop Ken. I see you are using the same culling system I used... one out, three in
    :-)
    That saw till is starting to burst at the seam, i can see a new one in your future....
    If/when you do I reccomend two slot bars to capture the saw plates, it keep the saw better and keep them straigth, easier removal and better protection.

    Here's to many more years of shop remodel, cause it never ends :-)

    Cheers, shaken not stirred...

    Bob with Rudy on his lap...getting some warm around here on the couch

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  2. PS the only place you are falling behind me is in the plane department, by the look of it we have about the same amount of saws and chisels :-)

    Bob, with a large assortment of users tools
    My story, sticking to it :-)

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  3. The 1 to 3 ratio seems to be bit low.

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  4. Very nice bench. I like that the vice is not flush with the bench face on the left side. I had to add a spacer to the face opposite the leg chop my Roubo vice as I got tired of pinching my fingers.Is that a Vesper on the bench?

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  5. Just an observation but noticed the Veritas hold downs and less of the wack a mole hold fast. I was passing thru Cincinnati yesterday and stopped at the Lie Nielsen event,Crucible tools had a bench with the 1 inch hold fast. It is a beast and Schwarz had to wack the crap out of it with a 2 lb maul to get it to hold. I think I might get another Veritas hold down, they are easier for me to position than the wack a mole.

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  6. Ralph,

    Occasionally I look up and MsBubba is reading over my shoulder, I expect you are correct :-).

    ken

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  7. Bob,

    Thanks, as you know the shop is always a work in progress. I work with it for awhile until something bugs me enough to tackle replacing or changing then usually that opens another can....It is never ending.

    If you get a chance post a photo of your saw till, I'm always looking for a better way.

    Yep all mine are users, needed to. There are a couple more shelves of planes, those behind me are truly the users.

    ken

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  8. One year for Christmas I had a ought my dad a new Stanley hammer with the anitvibrabtion tune ing fork in it when they were a relatively new think. It didn't fit in the pegboard slot where all of his other hammers were kept. It resulted in a two month shop reorg. We both to this day laugh pretty hard about it. When I see that hammer that's what comes to mind.

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  9. Matt,

    Thanks, the bench works for me, I've found less is more. I went back and forth on the apron for that very reason but after using the apron for awhile I don't think I would go back to not having one. If I did, the face vise would stand free of the bench and I would use spacers for clamping long boards.

    Yep I have a couple, one has the wide blade, the other keeps the narrow blade. They are great little squares.

    I use both traditional holdfasts and the Veritas version....each has its place, traditional for quick and dirty, Veritas when placement is important. I think the Crucible one is very nice but not having held one I expect I would find it too heavy and overkill for anything I need a holdfast for. The TFWW version work great, uses standard 3/4" holes and are cheap. Unless I'm trying to keep something from moving while I'm putting a lot of pressure on it I will just place the TFWW holdfast and set it by a little hand pressure, most of the time that is enough holding power.

    ken

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  10. As for the altimeter reference, I can't imagine how any pilot could not understand it, even if they had flown glass for their entire career. I like the traditional expressions a lot and think we should hold onto them. I get the same reaction sometimes. The other day I said, "rode hard and put away wet," and got a blank stare.

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  11. Have you tried "Balls to the wall" ? :-)

    Bob

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