Sunday, July 16, 2017

Back From Several Days In The Motorhome

We, MsBubba, Sam the Wonder Dog, Sweet Maggie Dog, me Ugly Dude, returned from several days visiting one of Southern Arizona's State Parks in the motorhome. It was a nice place with a small lake and good views of the mountains. Waiting back home was a package from Ralph of the Accidental Woodworker blog.

In it were two Smith's Arkansas oil stones, a hard white and a soft. I refreshed and flattened both on a diamond lapping plate before taking steel to stone. The soft stone raised a burr quickly as did the hard white. A few strokes on the strop and I had a very sharp chisel.

Thanks Ralph, as you know, I loves me some Arkansas oil stones and these two have a very good feel and did a great job on the chisel.


As some of you may know I've been trying to figure out a portable workbench for the motorhome after watching Will Myers' video building a Moravian work bench it is the one. Most benches I've looked at or designed in my head always had a "yes but".  If this bench has a "yes but" I haven't found it.

Anyway on to the chase....I've started the build. I found a 8/4 European Beech slab that is just under 280mm wide and will end up 1800mm long. The legs are DF as are the long stretchers. I found scraps of Cherry and Sapele in the wood pile for the short stretchers. The legs and stretchers, except for the long stretchers, are dimensioned and marked up. I would have started chopping mortises and sawing tenons except this is Arizona in Aug. Monsoon is here so not only is it well over 100F the RH's are also high.  By 10:00 AM shop time was over.

Photos to follow,

ken

7 comments:

  1. I would rather someone used them then have them sit in a drawer. I can't believe how white that stone looks. Enjoy.

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  2. Welcome back, care for some landscaping work? I could always use a hand :-)

    Bob, taking a short break from today's projects in the yard...

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  3. Anonymous4:29 AM

    To transport a 1.8m Moravian workbench in my car, my wife would have to sit behind me and she could not take all the dresses she usually want in her big suitcase.
    Then where to put the lumber or worked parts?
    I think, if I were to do some woodworking while traveling, I should limit myself to spoon carving.
    Sylvain

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  4. Ralph,

    Thanks again, I expect they will be used.

    ken

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  5. Bob,

    You sound like MsBubba. Of course I would help if you were just a little closer, BTW is there any chance you need a bridge.

    ken

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  6. Sylvain,

    That would not make a happy wife.

    All the workbench will do is fill some empty space in the motorhome's external bins. That part is not a problem. MsBubba is the driving force for the work bench. She figures by giving me something to do I will not fuss too much about sitting in a camping spot while she and Sweet Maggie dog do their walkabouts. Smart woman because what I really like to do is move on down the road.

    ken

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  7. You still make yourself hard - to contact, that is. And yet such sensuous woodwork described. My number has not changed

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