Thoughts On The Shop and Sharpening

Small changes to the shop can make big differences in functionality. One of the greatest has been lowering the secondary bench and moving it off the wall into a central location in front of the main work bench. Several other changes have helped as well, the major one was moving the Moxon vise off what is now my planing and assembly bench to the back side of the main bench. All the changes effectively give much more room to work and things are set up for minimum monkey motion.

Here is a photo of the current set up:

Click it to big it.

That is a new pine box on the assembly bench, this has been the first use of pine in ages. I had forgotten how pleasant it is to work. 

The sharpening bench is off the left end of the main bench, convenient to both benches. Speaking of sharpening, Ralph over at "The Accidental Woodworker" has been exploring some sharpening issues and I have been  kibitzing from the sidelines. That of course has me thinking about sharpening, it doesn't take much because I'm one of those weird ducks that enjoys the process and sharpens to relax and for enjoyment. It takes all kinds, what can I say. 

First I think what got Ralph started was watching the sharpening series The English Woodworker is publishing. If you have any interest in having sharp tools the videos are some of the best I've seen. That could be because Richard validates all the things I've learned and/or suspected over many years and lots of money spent on stones and gear. 

For what is worth here are my thoughts: If you are physically able, freehand sharpening is easier, quicker and better than using a jig. If you must use a jig a grinder to set the primary bevel is a near necessity and then the jig can set the secondary bevel. All of this is unnecessary work for an edge that is not as strong nor as flexible in use as free handing and requires frequent returns to the grinder. 

Free hand is so quick and easy my irons are never dull, a short step to the sharpening bench a couple or three strokes on the stones and/or the strop and I'm back to work. There is never a backlog of irons that need sharpening.

Any stone that removes metal can give a sharp edge but the quality of that sharp edge depends greatly on the scratch pattern....how deep and how random. Shine doesn't mean shit, you can have an iron that will blind you with shine and it can't cut warm butter.

Natural stones, Arkansas oil or Japanese water will give superior scratch patterns, random and with rounded walls while man made and diamond stones leave steep walls and ordered scratch patterns. 

A strop will strengthen the edge as well as leave a polish.

I currently use a two stone system for day to day sharpening. A course (med. India or Washita) and a fine Arkansas (Translucent or Hard Black) along with a leather strop. It doesn't happen often but if I want the best edge possible I will go to the Japanese natural water stones.  

And last for now: There is no need to test an edge, if it feels sharp and looks sharp it is sharp. All testing does is begin the dulling of the iron that you worked to sharpen.  

As always with anything wood, YMMV.

See y'all on down the road,

ken  

 

Maggie's Rock

MsBubba, Sam the Wonder Dog, Sweet Maggie Dog and I spent the weekend on Tucson's Beach aka Rocky Point, MX.  As always a great way to get away, Good WX, clear sea, and I even allowed myself a couple of beers with some tacos.

Best of all Maggie found her "rock". Maggie will try to fetch anything that is thrown including rocks. MsBubba was walking along the shore with Maggie and occasionally chunking a rock into the sea. Maggie would chase it, dig at it when found, and then they would repeat the game. This went on for several iterations until on one of them Maggie found her "rock" while digging in the sea for the thrown rock. She dove underwater picked up her "rock" and carried it to MsBubba's feet to be thrown.  After playing this game for awhile MsBubba distracted Maggie and they went on walking along the water's edge leaving Maggie's "rock" under water. When returning, as they approached the area where MsBubba left the rock, Maggie dove underwater and retrieved her "rock" dropping it at MsBubba's feet.

Only one thing to do, bring the rock back to the motorhome and keep it. The rock is now back in Tucson with us, I weighed it this AM and it weighs in at a healthy 10 lbs.

A photo of Maggie and her rock:

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 

  

Shop Changes

James  over at The Apartment Woodworker started me thinking....I know dangerous when the few remaining brain cells start churning but it is what it is....about how my shop has changed over the years since settling in Tucson. For too many years everything was storied in a friends barn just south of DFW. Once we settled in Tucson and bought a house, I moved what was left of the earlier shop and added the power tools that did not survive the storage years.

Anyway here is an early photo while I was still using my old small work bench:

Even then it was 10 lbs in a 5 lbs bag. Stuff expands to fill available space. 

Next up was building a larger work bench to replace the one that had lived in storage for all those years. BTW, the old bench became my sharpening bench.

This was at the height of the Roubo craze and I fell for the hype. It made a good bench but over the years most of the Roubo things disappeared and I added an apron and lowered it to make a very good and solid planning bench. 

The tool cabinet, saw till, and chisel storage has changed a little over the years but all the original ones are still in use. 

The first appearance of the tool cabinet with Ugly Dude sawing in the foreground:

First appearance of the old work bench as a sharpening bench:

Starting to build the current bench, legs in glue up on the old/current planning bench and part of the slab on saw benches in the foreground:

Enough for one post, more later.

ken

Knew Concepts Saws vs. TFWW 12" Bow Saw

The Knew Concepts' saws are interesting and maybe a slight improvement over traditional fret and coping saws. Being able to turn the blade in the fret saw without using a pair of "dikes" to twist it is a great improvement but in use I find there is little difference between the two. Both use the same blades, both are slow cutting with a short throw. Breaking blades in either isn't a problem with good technique. Of the two, Knew Concepts fret or traditional fret saws, I will pick up the traditional about as often as the Knew Concepts, usually the one first on the turning saw rack is the one that gets the love.  

I do not have a Knew Concepts coping saw so I can't address if it is an improvement over a Olsen coping saw but with a few mods to the Olsen I can get all the tension needed and the blade will not turn unless I make it. With a coping saw the blades are too thick to fit in my dovetail saw kerf, it limits the saws use for removing waste from dovetails and as with the fret saw the throw is too short for efficient sawing. Whatever, the cost difference between the saws (Olsen $13 USD, Knew Concepts $149 USD) would make it difficult to justify the Knew Concepts for so little potential gain.

The jewel of my turning saws is the TFWW 12" Bow Saw. Its blade is almost as thin as a fret saw blade, it has a 12" throw vs. a 5" throw with either a coping or fret saw. The bow saw makes very quick work of sawing dovetail waste, much faster than either a fret or coping saw. Because of its narrow blade it is almost as easy to turn as a fret saw and much easier than a coping saw. At $169 USD vs. $95 USD for the Knew Concepts coping saw or $149 USD for the Aluminum fret saw the 12" bow saw is a better saw for little more money and is a bargain compared to the Titanium ones.

As always with anything wood....YMMV.

Much thanks to   Ralph over at The Accidental Woodworker for a very nice surprise package in today's delivery. I'm still speechless, once I recover I will post photos. Thanks Ralph, you shouldn't have but I thank you. BTW, the box is beautiful.

ken

Houston, TX

I've some PTO to burn before August, I figure at least one long weekend a month is the best use. This last weekend I used four of 'em. We had planned to go to Mexico, as we were loading the critters MsBubba said "let's go to Houston instead, you have been talking about seeing the Grandpeanut". Worked for me.

It was a good trip, I've always maintained with a large enough fuel tank I could solve the Grand Unification Problem. The motorhome only holds ninety gallons of diesel so the GUP will have to wait but some others were thought through, mostly what I'm going to do once I grow up.

BTW, a motorhome is the only way to travel, only one needed fuel stop from Tucson to Houston but many quick "rest stops" and not once in a public head. Food delivered when needed, coffee on demand, and once night fell pop into a parking area for a couple of drinks, a good dinner, and a night's rest in your own bed. It doesn't get better.

MsBubba walking the Galveston beach:

I'm working with some White Pine building a couple of large boxes, one I expect will end up being a traveling tool box. The other I haven't a clue because I think it will end up a silly little mm too short for its intended use. The older I get the more brain farts I have. This time I didn't allow for the thickness of the pin board. About as dumb as it gets and of course I've never done that before...anyone want to buy a bridge?

I haven't worked a softwood in ages, I must say it is interesting with the difference in feel and ease of working. Maybe some photos later.

Video five of The English Woodworker's sharpening series is up. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about sharpening iron I'll bet you could pick up some new tidbit from Richard's presentation....He is that good.

ken

Texas Land

Back in the day to finance the railroad the U.S. government gave the railroads government land (land taken from the Native Americans) on either side of the railroad right of way to sell as a means of raising money to build the road ways. My Grandparents purchased the family farm from the T&P Railroad around the turn of the Century.  They raised 6 kids sending all to college while farming a West Texas dirt farm. My guess it was tough. My Grandmother also raised me until I was old enough to go off to boarding school in San Antonio. Over the years I lost touch with the family for reasons. BTW, I will get to the chase.

A couple of days ago I received a phone call from an investor who offered me a sum of money to buy my share of the farm that I did not know I owned. Of course he was trying to "steal" it. After a couple of days on the phone trying to pin down ownership, it is looking like I may own 90 acres of West Texas. It gets even stranger: My clients this week were present when I received the call about the farm. One of the client's son is a "Land Man". For those of you not from the oil patch, a Land Man is an employee of drilling/oil companies whose job is to buy mineral rights and drilling permits from land owners.

Bottom line: He, the Land Man, is nailing down ownership and will buy the mineral rights if I still own them. He said there is good activity in the area and the property may have some value. That could be the best of all worlds, mineral rights go for about the same per acre as the land price. If everything works out I will keep the land and lease it to one of the local farmers and sell the mineral rights. Could be a nice unexpected chunk of change in my pocket and a good monthly income to help with retirement.

I'm not headed to the Chevy dealer to order my new diesel truck yet but it will be a nice surprise if it does work out.

On a totally unrelated note. MsBubba called me this morning in a panic, one of her friends said there were many house break-ins happening in our part of town and she is worried we do not have enough insurance to cover my shop and the contents of the house. The only answer is "yes Dear I will call State Farm about the house coverage". In line with the call she wanted an inventory of the shop, as she put it "what it really cost, not what you tell me it cost". The old gal is pretty sharp :-). The good news, we have $250,000 USD house hold goods coverage and a very generous accounting of replacement cost for everything in the shop is only around $60,000 USD and I want to see the thief that can pick up almost 2 tons of pig iron and run with it.  BTW, I've got to go out and buy more tools because MsBubba guessed there were more than $100,000 USD of tools in the shop, I've $40,000 to go because I sure do not want to disappoint the boss.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Texas Red

For every Texan worth his salt there are two truths: The only "real" BBQ comes from Texas and the best is __________ (fill in the blank) and they personally make the best Chili to be found anywhere.

What started me down this road today was making a pot of Chili this morning. BTW, Chili does not have beans or tomatoes in it, if it does it is bean or tomato soup. A proper bowel of red will have sliced and cubed beef not ground beef and never pork, turkey, or whatever other abomination non Texan and, I have to admit, even some so called Texans call Chili. In addition to beef, a mix of dried chili peppers. I like to use 3/4 Ancho, 1/4 Hatch, and 1/4 Chipotle peppers, a little Cumin and garlic with just enough water to process the peppers for the sauce. Add salt to taste, cook until the meat starts to "tender" stir in a small hand full of Masa de Maiz to thicken and simmer another 5 or 10 minutes. Serve with Saltine crackers, a big slice of onion, and some cheese on the the side. Close to heaven if there is one. Only beans and cornbread or BBQ from Luling City Market (I filled in the blank) come close to being as good.

One more thing to add, buy the toughest, cheapest meat in the market. The good stuff just falls apart and has no flavor. If done correctly the only water you need will come from the chili sauce. The reason for the chili selection is the Ancho are the major flavor, Hatch adds the heat, and the Chipotle peppers bring a wonderful smoky note. You can use nothing but Anchos and your Chili will be very good.

Paid off the mortgage today, Truck will follow in a few months. If anyone other than Trump, even another Republican, was in the White House I would retire....for now it ain't going to happen. Up until Shrub I alway maintained the President really couldn't do too much damage, the checks and balances were such they could constrain even the worst actors. Shrub proved that wrong, Trump scares me.

See you on down the road,

ken    

The English Woodworker

Richard Maguire has started an new video series on sharpening. Richard is a good teacher and is very entertaining to watch. In addition the first two videos validate my way of sharpening :-), so they must be good.

You can find the the videos on Richard's blog.

This and That

As sweet as the Japanese saws cut there is a deal killer to their use, the kerf is too damn narrow. I didn't realize how narrow it is until I tried to saw some dovetails. I've several "turning" saws, bow, coping, and fret, I use to saw out the bulk of waste on both the tail board and the pin board. None will fit in the Japanese saw's kerf.

My deep thought for the day: Why do we spend so little time talking and/or writing about sawing? I know planes are sexy and chisels are macho but saw skill is the base skill of woodworking, if you can saw, everything else falls into place. What the heck, I guess it is more fun to debate oil vs. water or Stanley vs. LN vs. LV.

Speaking of Stanley vs. everything else: I finally got around to changing all my user Stanley planes back to OEM irons and cap irons. Of course the biggest problem is finding usable OEM irons and chip breakers. The OEM irons and chip breakers make for a much nicer plane. The weight difference is very noticeable and the irons are easier to sharpen. It could be my imagination but I also think the OEM cap iron does a better job of chip breaking and ejecting than the aftermarket ones. The only downside to the Stanley cap iron is it does take a little fiddling to get it to work well.

Other things you don't learn in school, Last week I had the motorhome in the shop for some minor work. While there the shop allowed the "house" batteries to run down. That's a long pointless story as well, someone stole my surge protector through the fence of the maintenance shop and left the shore power disconnected which in turn allowed the house batteries to discharge. Anyway on to the original story, we do not have TV in the house, only in the motorhome and there was a program I wanted to watch last night. When I went to watch, the satellite was tits up, all I could get was the set up screen. After a call to tech support and 30 minutes or so of fiddling all returned to normal. I don't know this for sure but I'll bet the satellite box draws a small current to keep the box's memory chip working.

It was over 90F day before yesterday, there may be another cold front or two before Summer but Winter is over. Every Winter I keep threatening to move farther south but I'm just about as far south as you can go without moving back to Texas or to Mexico. Whatever the "sweats" are off and it is shorts and T's for another 9 months.

What is it with people, I have a box of motorcycle gear to get rid of. It is a great mystery box with lots of high end stuff.  My best guess is close to $5000 USD of motorcycle boots, electric heated pants, gloves, and jackets, helmets, motorcycle covers, and so on. Almost any one item, even used, is worth the $200 USD I'm asking for the whole box and I'm very clearly stating that, "I'll sell you anything in the box for $200 but you must take the whole box". I haven't put it on Craig's list yet but have told a few "friends" about it. The response: "I don't want the helmets, could you give me a list of the heated gear" or "I just want the Sidi "On Roads" how much for them".  My answer to both is the box will go to Goodwill first.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Japanese Saws....Western Saws

Unlike Ralph over at Accidental Woodworker, I'm not much of a woodworking animal. On days I go to the day job about the most I can hope for is an hour or two farting around in the shop sharpening tools, cleaning, or sometimes making practicing/warm up saw cuts or just shavings with the planes. Not much gets done on work days.

The last week has held to standard, I worked with an Initial Crew all week and a few days the week before. BTW what a great flight crew, both young, both sharp with great flying skills and very good SOPs and CRM. The time spent was a joy but as with all Initial training at the end of each day I'm ragged out as will be the flight crew.

There is a lot to pack into eight days of Simulator time. Many times the pilots will have never flown the aircraft and maybe have never seen this make and model close up. In just over a week of Sim training in addition to a couple of weeks of Ground School we may take a pilot who has never seen the aircraft to their legally sitting in the left front seat with a "green" First Officer and a butt strapped to every seat in back for his/her first takeoff in the real aircraft. Bottom line there is a hell of a lot to master in 32 hours of Simulator time. No matter how good the crew, everybody is drained out by the end.

Damn Bubba that was a long ways around to: The last couple of days I've been playing with some of my saws. With Western saws I have a tendency to drift right if I do not pay attention and have not sawn for awhile. Knowing that I will usually take a couple of practice cuts before doing any sawing where I want a first class cut if I haven't worked for awhile. I also know that I have a couple of saws in the till that will always drift right no matter how much attention or how current I am sawing. With my short attention span this last week I figured I could do a couple of things, sort out the "bad actors" and see if I could tune 'em up so the right drift isn't from the saw and get some practice in as it has been several weeks since I've sawed on a project. BTW I did get the drifting saws straightened out.

While farting around with the Western saws I remembered I had a new Japanese saw that had never been used. I thought "self, this would be a good time to give it a go". I've never really been comfortable using Japanese saws but I keep a couple around for the occasional time they are needed.

That may be changing.

This new "Z" saw cuts very straight, fast, and clean. I'm impressed. At this time I will not say I'm changing to using Japanese saws, I've spent too many years learning to use and maintain Western saws to change but....I expect I will add more and more use of Japanese saws to the mix.

Here is a photo of a mixture of saw kerfs, both Japanese and Western.

 I know....Really exciting. Here is a photo of the back side.

Click 'em to big 'em.

In the photo you can tell which kerf was from a Western saw and which was made by a Japanese saw. All the Western saw kerfs are "fuzzy", the Japanese kerfs are clean.

I've the weekend off, if I can keep out of MsBubba's line of sight I may make something even if it is just a cutting board or small box.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Pug Mill Table Finished

Title says it all. The table is finished, took longer than expected because of how wet the wood was/is. Anyway I expect it will support the pug mill and I should get a couple of at-a-boys out of it that might last 15 minutes or until I do something dumb, whichever happens first.

The best news is; it is out of the shop and I've cleaned up all the crap that comes with working very wet construction grade DF/mystery wood.

Here it is with the pug mill:

ken

 

Pug Mill Table

MsBubba had a pug mill shipped in a couple of days ago. That sucker is heavy, just under 300 lbs and she wants a table to set in on. As I ran through the options I decided this would be a great chance to prototype a small travel workbench. I wanted something quick to build because I can hear a tapping foot and the "where is my table, the pug mill was delivered yesterday" vibe from 50 feet.

I decided to do a face glue up of the slab and the legs but make everything where no cutting or chopping of joinery is needed. Also because of its intended use I didn't prep any of the 2X4s. The slab cutting and glue up took just under 2 hours. I expect the leg and stretcher cutting and glue up will be about the same.

Bottom line unless there is a major hiccup I should have MsBubba smiling and playing with her new pug mill before the weekend is over.

Here is the slab ready for glue up.

The slab glued up, I'll wait for about 45 minutes before knocking out the leg mortise plugs.

More Chopstick Maker

I cobbled together a chopstick blank jig. The workflow for now is thickness a sheet of wood with the planer followed by cutting out the blanks with the bandsaw. Then plane each blank to size in the blank jig.

It works well and at $3 USD for a pair of blanks vs. free scrap and a little farting around in the shop it is kinda a wash. Need to do a lot of sticks, buy the blanks. Have some nice, right sized scrap, and a little time, make blanks.

Anyway of photo of the blank jig:

MsBubba is a ceramist and I will occasionally throw a pot, she's good, I at best can throw a pot.

As posted before everyone we know has a small box or two and/or several bowls or plates from MsBubba. I've thought for some time we needed to change our stock of gifts and when I saw the Bridge Cities ad for the chopstick maker my thought was sticks and ceramics would be a perfect match. The plans are to make some small rice bowls and sushi plates to give with a pair of chopsticks.

A memo to record:

I have a Chevy truck that is a couple of years old. It had some pending recalls and needed an oil change so I thought: "Bubba why not let the dealer change the oil and take care of the recalls at the same time". Sounded like a plan. The service advisor suggested that the truck was also due for a coolant and transmission fluid change as well. I thought about it for a count or two then what the hell it needs doing and I'm there. The dealer gave me a ride home and I went on with my day while they took care of the truck. I had planned on picking up the truck the next morning but asked the service advisor to call once they finished. Later that afternoon He called, not to tell me the truck was ready but that they had found "water" in the transmission fluid that likely came from a faulty radiator. That was the bad news, the good was I still had a little less than a thousand miles left on the truck's warranty and the transmission and radiator replacement was under warranty. Damn Bubba you dodged a bullet through blind ass luck.

As said before, it is better to be lucky than good.

See you on down the road,

ken  

Chopstick Maker

Awhile ago I ordered a Chopstick Maker from Bridge City Tool Works. The UPS girl dropped it off the other night and I found a couple of minutes free tonight to try it out. It works pretty much as advertised.

When I saw it my thoughts were "what a great gift idea to make hand made chopsticks". Almost everyone I know, and a few I don't, have a small box of one kind or another in addition making a box takes time. I don't mind the time and I have a good number stored around the house but.....

I figured hand made chopsticks would be enough different from boxes plus a little more unique, it was worth a go. Also if it didn't work out then I would get a nice Bridge City apron block plane out of the deal anyway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it....truth is I'm a sucker for new toys.

On to the story: The first pair I made were from maple blanks and look pretty good for the first go. The kit has enough blanks of different woods to make 10 pair of chopsticks. The question now is: Order more blanks or make the blanks from shop scrap. I'm leaning toward ordering blanks but we will see.

Remember...click it to big it.

The Ebonized box lid finally dried enough to fit:

The same box with the Cherry lid:

I'm not sure which I like better but then it is not my decision.

That is one of the new style ECE Jack planes in the fore ground, it has been in the shop for several months and I figure it should be acclimatized to the desert by now. I put a nice camber on the iron and gave it a go this afternoon. Pretty sweet, it may become my go to Jack, a little smaller than English style Jacks and I really like the horn. As good as a #5 is as a Jack the Stanley is still heavier, the older I get the better small and light becomes.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

MsBubba's Disks

The things we will do for the love of our lives. MsBubba asked the other day "how big a disk can you cut?". My answer was: What kind of disk? What wood? What is it for? What size do you need? I'll bet you know at least one of the answers. "It's for a game for Levi (the grandpeanut) and I don't know".

Bottom line we worked out the size and wood and I cut two dozen 100mm disks out of Baltic Birch ply.

The cutting out wasn't much of a problem but sanding them was kinda a butt scratcher. How to hold a 100mm disk while sanding. Ain't no way to use an RO sander, I tried holding in my palm with a sanding block, ended up with non-skid shelf liner on the bench and a sanding block.

I'm always amazed at the uses for holdfasts. The sanding block is one of those "point of sale" gadgets I'm a sucker for. The good news it is very handy, it holds new or used 5" sanding disks with hook and loop. My guess is it is used for 90% of my hand sanding.

My understanding is the disks will be painted different colors and used in some kind of "matching" game. Whatever, I got my Ataboy for the day.

ken

Marking Gauges

Rob over at Heartwood is doing a very good series on marking gauges. I can't add much other than price doesn't always correlate to functionality.  I've several very beautiful marking gauges that were close to or over $100 USD that are unusable and several very plain and cheap gauges that I use often.

If you haven't, go read Rob's posts, there is a lot good information in the three current posts on marking gauges. About all I have to add are a couple of links to gauges I've found usable and cost effective.

One of the best gauges is a Ryuma screw lock from Tools from Japan that cost around $13 USD. A step up in quality and a little better functionality is also from Tools from Japan, a "Kegaki" double bladed mortise gauge for about $125 USD. The Kegaki is very similar to a Kinshiro gauge which will cost around $320 USD if you can find one for sale. I have both Kagaki and Kinshiro gauges and the biggest difference between them is the Kegaki is machine made where the Kinshiro is truly a work of art.

Another Damn Sharping Post...Just Walk On By

When between projects and with a little time to play in the shop but not enough time or energy to tackle one of the many builds in the queue I will usually spend it either cleaning the shop or tool maintenance. The worst is when most of the tools are sharp and the shop is in near working condition then I gravitate to the really boring "what if's" such as: "Are water stones really better than oil?". "What about diamonds?" Or even better, "Natural vs. man made?".

You know where this is going. Over the last few days I've had limited time in the shop but enough to get in trouble with the "what if's". I've used oil stones as my primary sharpening medium for most of my life. I've made runs at most of the other ways but without fail when adding up all the advantages and disadvantages vs. other ways Ark oil stones work better for me. Of course, as always, YMMV.

The last few days follow the script. It started when I wanted to take another look at sharpening Veritas PM on Ark oil stones vs. water stones as referenced yesterday. Today I decided to play with some O1 chisels on Shampton's vs. Ark stones.

The common thread is almost all water stones will give a very nice polish even at the courser grits, oil not so much not even on oil polishing stones. To get a polish if that is your objective, at least when I'm doing it, requires going to a strop charged with one of the compounds. While I like to see a well polished iron, that really is not the objective, what I want is a edge that is "sharp" (whatever sharp is) and will last pass the first touch of wood.

I've found the scratch pattern is more important than polish and I think that is where most man made stones lose. I've seen very polished irons, irons that will blind you they are so shinny but with deep scratches on the back and bevel. Most of the time natural stones will give a better scratch pattern.

The real test is not visual but how does the iron cut wood, that of course is subjective. I've yet to find any stone that gives a better working edge than oil stones. It could be because I know Ark oil stones better than water stones or I may be full of whatever and/or just do not know how to get the best out of water stones. Both are very likely.

Bottom line, Ark stones still rule my sharpening bench with Atoma diamond stones for grinding.

Ebonized Beech

Ralph asked for a photo of the ebonized Beech. It does not fit, closer to fitting but still about 1/2 mil too wide. I'm still surprised at how much such a small piece of wood expanded, guess I shouldn't be because a lot of water was used to ebonized it.

IIRC the Beech lid had three apps of tannic acid (boiled White Oak shavings), then one of vinegar and steel wool followed by one more app of both.

The box has a well fitting lid of Cherry that looks good, who knows other than MsBubba which one it will end up with.

On to other things:

The house, in other words MsBubba, is sleeping in this morning so I'm finding things to do that do not make too much noise such as sharpening iron. I have a number of Veritas PM irons both plane and chisel. I decided to A&B a couple of the PM chisels on water and oil stones just because. 

I'm still undecided if the PM is worth the extra cost and effort. After working several of the chisels on both oil and water stones this morning I have not changed my mind. PM is not a lot of effort to sharpen on oil stones if you start with a hollow grind. Problem is I'm lazy and do not like to take the time to hollow grind unless the iron is damaged or the bevel needs changing. Both oil and water on the hollow ground chisels quickly gave a very sharp edge, not enough different from O1 to change the world but I would not go to the effort to change from PM to O1 like I do with A2. 

Bottom line, for day to day work I'll stick with O1 and save the PM irons for use with things like Teak. BTW, I have most of a 8/4 Teak plank that followed me home back in the 70's. It's been around so long I hate to cut it up.

Enough free association for one morning, back to the stones.

ken 

Winter Solstice in Mexico

The title is not absolutely correct, the day of the Solstice was spent in Tucson getting ready to celebrate the most important day of the year, MsBubba's B-day, on the 22sd. After paying proper homage to TMIDOTY I loaded the RV with enough food, beer, and whisky to last a month along with the critters and MsBubba for the trip to Rocky Point, Mexico.

The trip down was "interesting". We knew leaving that we would drive through a line of WX that was moving from Rocky Point through Tucson. What we didn't know was how strong the winds would be. The steady wind was around 30 knots with gust of 50 knots or better. The motorhome did a great job but I didn't get to relax a lot on the drive. Once pass Lukeville, AZ the storm was over and it was blue skies and lighter winds for the rest of the drive.

As always, Mexico was great. The dogs swam their hearts out. I ate and drank until no mas, no mas, and MsBubba played on the beach. It doesn't get much better.

I made a separate ebonized Beech lid for last week's dovetail "test" box. It fit perfectly, maybe even a little loose, before ebonizing. When I tried to fit it to the box the lid was at least a mil or two too wide. It has been setting for a week and is still too wide. I'll give it another month before I take any off the sides. I didn't think that small a lid could move that much but it did.

BTW, the ebonized Beech is beautiful.

ken

Shop Dogs

Not much in life brings as much joy as a good dog. Sam the Wonder Dog and Sweet Maggie Dog are good dogs.

They know where I keep the rawhide bones and as with most of their treat patrols they work as a team. Rawhide bones are no different, when I see the two of 'em show up in the shop I know the drill....They have me well trained.

Today I happened to have the camera with me in the shop when they decided it was time for a bone. Maggie will usually let Sam lead the way unless she decides he's not being effective, then she will go into full "too cute for words mode".

Bottom line I'm a sucker for 'em and the treats are forthcoming.

I made a marking jig for dovetails the other day. I stole the idea from David Barron. This is the third one I've made, the first was ok but a little off square. The second was better but not dead nuts on. This one is as close to perfect as I can get. BTW, I used the previous jig to help mark each new one, so each got better than the last. 

The only way to know for sure if they are square is to make something, as usual a small box served to check the jig. 

Anyway a small box with no finish or lid:

ken

One More Atkins

I got around to sharpening another of the Atkins panel saws last night. I've been on what some call a graveyard shift this week with a 0100 show and a 0800 finish. While in many ways it is my favorite line, no suits to put up with, time off during business hours so things can be taken care of, but it can be hell on your sleep pattern and motivation for shop projects.

As usual, when working the early AM line, about all that gets done is tool and shop maintenance.  My chisels lose a few years of life, saws get sharpened, planes get worked over and I "test" them. There is just something very enjoyable about making a piece of wood smaller with a hand plane, hearing the snick and seeing the shavings eject from the mouth of the plane with no goal other than hearing the snick and seeing the shavings eject.

Last night as I stumbled around the shop doing random clean up and placing tools back into their assigned storage spot I noticed a couple of Atkins panel saws that needed rehab. One was 16 TPI with "0" set and so dull it would cut soft butter, the other was 7 TPI crosscut with just enough set left you could, with help, figure out where to mark the teeth for setting and sharpening. You can guess which one I picked to sharpen.

It had a small "wave" in the tooth line which I for the most part worked out followed by setting, topping and shaping, there were a few cows and calfs. After a final sharpening pass and stoning the tooth line I took it to the wood. It did not disappoint, it sawed true and fast. I've gone from having only a "hard point" panel saw to now having two very good panel saws, one cross cut and one rip both with comfortable totes in addition to the hard point.

Atkins Panel Saw

Several years ago a guy came through town with a trunk load of tools and a story. The story was he needed gas money to drive home to Montana. I'm a sucker for both old tools and a good story, either would have worked for gas money. I ended up with close to 100 saws, a tool tote, and a suitcase full of saw totes and parts.

For the most part the saws spent the next couple of years in the way and being moved from place to place in the shop. Several months ago I started digging through the pile and separating out the keepers from the junk and parts saws. Among the keepers I found a couple of Atkins panel saws, one filed 16 TPI and one worth the cost of the whole lot of saws filed 11 TPI.

The 11 TPI saw has been in the saw vise for several weeks waiting for me to clean up the tool room enough to get to the saw vise. Today miracle of miracles I finished a path and found time to sharpen that sucker.

What a sweet saw. The tote is still rough but that is minor. I cuts fast and true.

Another:  

And one of the cut line, you can't saw truer:

I wash I had sharpened it before I sawed the notch in the dovetail jig in the background. I've never learned to saw with a Japanese saw and as always the notch cut went off line. It's a shop appliance so not a big deal but.....  

ken

The Woodworkers

A while back Lost Art Press published a two volume set of Woodworker Magazine's articles during the Charles H. Hayward years with the surprising title; "THE WOODWORKER: The Charles H. Hayward Years".  The contrast between the re-published articles and those of woodworking mags of today is chalk and cheese.

The books have been my bathroom reading for most of the last year. It is like having the best woodworking magazine always available and with no ads for the latest and greatest dovetail jig. A third volume should be shipping this month. The first two are on tools and techniques and the third will be about joints.

You can't go wrong putting any or all the books on your Winter Solstice gift list.

BTW, I made a new dovetail marking jig last night. The old one worked ok but was just a thin red one out of square. I will not know for sure if the new jig is dead nuts square until I use it but by every measure it is dead on.

ken

Too Much Stuff

A week or so ago Andy over at Oregon Woodworker posted about culling his herd of bench planes. Ralph at the Accidental Woodworker wondered if Andy was coming down with something and I tried to sell him on buying another plane, the old one out one in thingy. Andy had a point, too much stuff just gets in the way of making things.

I'm lucky here in the desert there isn't much of a rust problem, if I had to do rust patrol my tool collection would be much smaller.

For sometime I've been trying to get rid of the truly unused tools with out a lot of progress although this week I did get rid of the last of the router bits and jigs. Problem is most of the stuff is very useable but not for the way I work. BTW, I will get to the point of this post.

Even tools for the way I work there are too many of 'em in the shop. There are planes out the kazoo, stuffed in every corner of the shop, in the plane till, the storage cabinet behind the joinery bench, and under every bench in the shop. I know some folks have it worse than I but..... and BTW, the chisels are another post.

The crazy part is eighty percent of the time I'm using one of four metal planes and/or one of the wood stock jack planes. The four are all type 13 or older Stanleys, I do have after market irons in them not because the thicker irons improve the plane but because it is hard to find good stock irons. The reason I reach for the old Stanleys is because the are light, it is the same reason I use the wood stock jacks. Light is good, with a light plane I can work most of the day. With a modern heavy plane I tire very quickly.

A photo of the four users, from left to right a #3, #4, #4 1/2, and a #5 sharpened as a jack:

The #3 and #4 are freshly sharpened and planed the White Oak like it was butter, the #4 1/2 and the #5 not so much. Gives me something to do tomorrow.

The plane till with mostly LN's:

We have truly been sold a bill of goods that heavy is better. That said, the new LN and LV planes are works of art and I like using them for quick jobs. I wish someone i.e. LN would make a modern Bailey pattern plane. Sigh, my guess it is not to be.

I guess the point of all this rambling is I admire folks like Andy that can keep their tool collection genes in check and even more someone that can sell off unneeded planes or chisels. To steal a line from David Bromberg when it comes to selling off tools I have one green eye and one red. It's "stop", "go", "stop", "go" with stop usually wining.

ken

The National Hamburger of Texas

One of the advantages of living past your sell by date is the smallest thing can send you back in time and mostly, except for MsBubba, no one wants to lock you in the looney bin. Week tea I know but that's part of being older than dirt along with senior discounts and the Golden Eagle National Park pass.

Last night I needed to grab something to eat before show time. There is a Whataburger on the way and close to the Center. Most of the time it is just a quick in, eat a hamburger, and out in less than 15 minutes. Last night the time table held but soon I was back in, I believe, 1957 and remembering the first time I had a Whataburger. At that time I was a student in a San Antonio, TX boarding school, one of my fellow students, Bob Shoop, invited me to spend a long weekend at his home in Corpus Christi, TX. Bob's dad owned a large restaurant in Corpus but all Bob could talk about was having a Whataburger once we were in Corpus.

I was not disappointed, with the first bite it was like a Disney movie with blue birds singing and angels descending from on high. It doesn't happen often, in fact the only other time I can remember was my first visit to Mama Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston, TX.

A true quote from their web site "This is where it all started, where Mama Ninfa first stuffed chargrilled sliced beef into a handmade flour tortilla and launched the national fajita craze...". It wasn't just her Tacos Al Carbon but everything I had that night, the refried beans, the rice, it all had me licking the plate and wanting more. Shortly after that first visit Ninfa's was discovered and lines out the door stretched around the block. All good things, except Whataburger, end or are loved to death and Ninfa's is not the place it once was but for a few short years it was the best not just Mexican food but food you could find at any price. It was even better than K-Paul's in New Orleans.

Unlike many shops that expand, while today's Whataburger will no longer call down the angels or blue birds it has remained very true to the original.

Enough old farting. MsBubba's Mahjong box ain't the best....The Ebonizing of the White Oak lid and base is very pretty but it didn't play well with the glue and the Cherry box. Also I'm not sure the iron/acid will not stain the Mahjong tiles. It is back to the drawing board for the Mahjong box.

As always....click it to big it,

ken

New Small Box

The rust it shows. The box parts shown in the T-Day post are history due to a mistake almost too dumb to admit. But what the hey, I can blame it on the three months spent in recovery....That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm sure none of you have marked and cut the pins on the the wrong side, like I said too dumb to admit.

The replacement box is almost finished (photos when done). This one is Cherry with a Ebonized White Oak slider top and base. Cherry is nice to work and beautiful when finished but, there's that damn but, at least for me it is hard to get perfect dovetails. I can almost never fit right off the saw, if I do they are either too loose or one or more will split. Even when I saw them tight and pare to fit, during the fitting process I tend to spilt at least one....This box was no different, I got a split, stop drilled it and used cyanoacrylate in the crack. I thought about making a new pin board and about painting to hide and rejected both. It is a utility box, MsBubba will not care if there is a crack, I'll bet she will never see it if I can keep my mouth shut, and it will have no effect on the strength of the box. That's also my story and I'm.....

Last Saturday we took the critters and the motorhome to Bisbee, AZ for the night. Bisbee is an old mining town 90 or so miles southeast of Tucson. On the way, about 20 miles west of Bisbee, you pass through Tombstone, AZ. Tombstone is more famous but Bisbee is a heck of a lot more fun.

The Bisbee RV park is on a hill overlooking the Copper Queen mine and a block or two from downtown Bisbee. Being a old mining town, set in a picturesque valley, Bisbee is a tourist magnet and full of "stuff to buy," ok cafes, and great bars, many with live music. Bottom line it was a great use of the motorhome and a wonderful way to spend a Saturday and Sunday.

Photos to follow....see you on down the road,

ken

T-Day

Happy T-Day y'all. There are only four days each year I notice in their passing. Starting with the first of each year the four are: Juneteenth (19th of June), Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and MsBubba's B-Day (December 22, the most important day of the year). Of the four Thanksgiving is the most enjoyable.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day.

This morning I found a little time for the shop in-between making dinner rolls for our contribution to the feast. MsBubba asked for a small box to hold her Mahjong tiles. How could I say no, besides it will be the perfect project after the long layoff.

After much laying out of tiles, butt scratching and, "whatever" from the boss I settled on dimensions and sawed the sides and ends to final size along with truing the boards.

You can't see much, they are stacked to the right of the #4. That may be all the shop work for the day. 

It is almost time to start getting ready for the turkey. I'll be social, may even put on a stain free and clean t-shirt for the big event.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Front Garden and Parking Finished

As with most things at Casa Chaos work expands. What was planed as a two day job took six. Whatever, the front garden and parking are finished and I have new rocks to yell at the kids to "get off'".

We removed a row of prickly pear along the curb and moved several other plants to make room for parking and graveled both the motorhome's parking place and the new parking area. As I posted the other day we had10 tons of gravel delivered. I had figured 8 tons were needed but the delivery was free for 10 tons. I figured I'd find some use for the extra 2 tons. Turns out I needed all ten to finish up the front garden and motorhome area.

Anyway photos of the new rocks:

ken

Odds and Ends

I'm back working....The suits are crazy. So what else is new.

MsBubba wanted to add parking space in front of the house. As always the answer is "Yes dear".

I had 10 tons of rock delivered yesterday. Of course everything had to be moved to make room. Here is almost 10 tons of rock, some of it has already been moved to the area beside the house.

Exciting isn't it. 

Here is some of the rock spread beside the house.

And Mark from the backside removing an Agave for transplant out of the expanded driveway.

And finally something almost woodworking. Several years ago MsBubba carried home a metal chair  from one of her dumpster diving adventures. The frame has taken up room in the shop for all that time while I occasionally tried to figure out how to make a seat. Anyway I got around to doing it a couple of weeks ago,  Cypress slats with screws through the metal rails. Looks better than I expected and is surprisingly comfortable. 

Sam the Wonder Dog is on his favorite patio chair and the motorcycle trailer is there until I finish spreading gravel. BTW, if anyone wants/needs a good motorcycle trailer this one is for sale as I no longer have a motorcycle or ride.

ken

There I Waz....

...with one burning and one turning.....Most aviation stories start that way and end up with "the only thing that saved the day was my great skill and knowledge".

Well, after 105 days of medical leave during which there was not a single thought about airplanes or flying I donned the monkey suit for a 0500 show. Today's show was for a prep flight so I might not embarrass myself too badly when I take my FAR 135.297 flight check Saturday morning. For me there were two take aways from the whole exercise. The first was: After 105 days out of the cockpit you can be a little rusty or in other words, buttons? What buttons? Where in the hell are my buttons? It wasn't pretty.  The second was: Damn technology has come a long ways and if you let it (can find the damn buttons) the airplane will almost fly itself. The aircraft I instruct in is several generations from current technology but it is still an amazing aircraft with auto throttles where you push a button (there's the damn buttons again) and the power levers advance and set correct power for takeoff, climb, cruse, decent, and approach. At 50 feet AGL they close for landing. With the FMS (Flight Management System) you are able to program the complete flight from takeoff to landing if you can figure out the correct buttons to push. The autopilot can fly the aircraft from a couple of hundred feet above the ground on takeoff to 100 feet AGL on landing, To land the aircraft you just have to push a red button to disconnect the autopilot and then don't change anything, if you do you will mess it up.

One of the best things when you are hand flying (not using the autopilot) is the HUD (Head's Up Display). With the HUD all you have to do is put the aircraft symbol in the "donut" and keep it there. The beauty of the HUD system is it is "predictive", in other words it tells you where the aircraft will be in the future unlike a Flight Director which is "reactive" and tells you where the aircraft has been. In addition all the information you need to fly is projected on a small transparent screen (the HUD) that is about 125mm to 150mm in front of your face and is focused at infinity.  You can see the instruments and the world in front of you with no need to change focus or shift your field of view.

After all that clock building I will finally cut to the chase, the there I waz story. The contrast between today's aircraft and the first jet aircraft I "typed" in is chalk and cheese. BTW, the instructor that typed me in Learjets is still teaching in Lears and came to our center several weeks ago to help out our Lear program. I will not go through the whole "I know you" routine but after we peeled off 30 some odd years and I would guess at least 150 lbs between us, it was "wow, it is great to see you".  I really will get to the point, maybe.

Back in the early days jets were not required to have a third attitude indicator. If you lost the attitude indicator you had to rely on the "turn indicator" aka needle and ball to keep your wings level or to bank into a turn. well there I waz in a Learjet 24 Sim, young, dumb and pretty full of myself. Knowing I could fly the box that Lear came in. There was some truth to it, the Lear and I were soulmates, for me it was love at first touch. I had never flown an aircraft that did exactly what I wanted it to do, nothing more, nothing less, and did it with the slightest touch instantly. Not only that but sea level to FL410 was less than 10 minutes and once at altitude the first thing you had to do was pull the power back so the aircraft would not overspeed. What a great little airplane.

Anyway on to the story. We had finished all the requirement and were just having fun before my type check ride and of course having fun for a Sim instructor requires engine failures at V1, fire, blown tires, or what other major failures he/she can think of. I was in a zone and at the top of my game, like I said I was feeling pretty cocky so Joe gave me his best shot. He failed the right engine just at V1 and failed my attitude indicator/flight director at the same time on a 1200 RVR takeoff. I was too dumb to know it couldn't be done, I just scooted down in my seat locked on to the needle ball and airspeed and came around for an instrument approach to a single engine landing.

Durning the debrief Joe told me the longest anyone had gone before without crashing was 20 seconds, as I said I was too dumb to know it couldn't be done. That's the "only thing that saved the day was my great skill" part of the standard aviator's there I waz story.

The point of all this other than an old fart's reminiscing is how much airplanes have changed in a very short period of time. BTW, not too long after my story the FAA required a third attitude indicator in all jet aircraft.

ken

Last Day of Freedom

The Doc signed the papers returning me to work on the 11th, better known as Remembrance Day (aka Poppy Day) in the UK and Armistice Day here in the US, WW1 hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918.

As expected work will start with a bang at 0500 with re-introducing me to the Sim, followed by a stint of flying FO with a client and a early Saturday morning FAR 135 flight check so I'm legal to instruct. Then the fun starts with my giving Check Rides Sunday and Monday....After that, who knows I haven't looked that far ahead.

On the recovery front....It's happening, just yesterday I went from only being able to move one plate at a time from the dishwasher to the cabinet to able to move three plates at once. Not just able to lift the weight but also with no pain. Other than getting strength back, my range of motion and use of the arm is near normal except behind the back reach. I keep stretching and it is improving but damn it is slow going and somewhat painful.

ken

Ebonising Test Strips

Per the English Woodworker's method of ebonising wood I did a few test strips. From left to right are: Poplar, Red Oak, White Oak, Cherry, and South American Walnut.

The "test" is quick and dirty, one application of tannic acid followed by the iron solution. For finishing the the tannic acid would require several applications before the iron solution but I have an idea of how the ebonising would work on different woods.

White Oak responded as expected, the Cherry was a surprise how well it worked. The South American Walnut was pretty much as expected, it will go almost black with just oil. Poplar might work better with additional applications of tannic acid prior to the iron and the same would apply to the Red Oak but as tested they were both disappointing.

ken

I'm Not Sure There Is Enough Whisky

What can I say other than I'm sorry world.

ken

LED Lights

MsBubba's studio has lights. For awhile I had doubts I would be typing that line any time soon. We celebrated the completion by sitting in the studio with Whisky and Wine while a great thunderstorm complete with pea hail raged around Casa Chaos.

I ran two 20 amp circuits with a total of eight outlets and a 15 amp circuit with 3 outlets for the lights. She is happy, you can't have a much better outcome.

BTW, LED's time has arrived, I found 4' LED shop lights at Costco for less than $30 USD. Not only do LEDs last longer and use less power they put out noticeable more light. Costco had replacement bulbs for my standard 4' shop lights for <$14 USD a pair. So in addition to putting LED's in MsBubba's studio I changed the bulbs in my shop lights and added an additional LED fixture over the planing bench.

The additional light sure looks good to these old worn out eyes.

Next up is a slow change out of all the house lights as LED lights become available.

ken

Another Day of Pulling Wire

Thirteen more days to go before I'm back in the monkey suit with a Sim strapped to my ass and I spent it pulling wires. I wish I could say today was the end but I'll still be working on MsBubba's studio's lighting tomorrow.

My shop is back to useable shape and I even found the Cherry table top I put in a "safe" place before doing the shop and electrical work. The "safe" place was really safe, I like to never found the top. Anyway, once I finish with the studio lighting it is back to my shop and I hope to finish the Oak and Cherry side table before going back to work.

Photos to follow and more when I have more,

ken

Shore Power

I've spent the last couple of days installing a 50 amp shore power station for the motorhome. As with all things electrical what should be a 4 or 5 hour tops job ends up taking all of two days and an additional couple of hours this AM.

The only logical source for power was the shop load center but there was just a small problem, there were not enough lugs for an additional 50 amp CB. So first order was installing a new load center, which of course required removing most of the storage shelfs, tools and clamps near the old load center.  Add in the required six trips to Home Depot for any project and the necessary doggie butt scratching and ball throwing for any day at Casa Chaos and a four hour job turns into a two day slog.

Anyway here is the 50 amp shore power service center, exciting isn't it:

I must have been working in "imperial" as the conduit ended up about 40mm too long, love flex hose. I know a real craftsman would have taken the conduit apart and cut off the offending 40mm. As I said I love flex hose.   

I figure there are another couple of days work before I can go back to making things in the shop because the new load center is larger than the old one and none of the old shelfs fit. Oh well I needed to work on the west wall storage anyway.

ken

 

Finally

It's in the short rows. I will not be able to truly relax for another 20 or so days but....It's over.

I mentioned to MsBubba that this has been the biggest threat to the world since the Cuban Missile Crisis....Of course she looked at me blankly, getting old is not kind to your store of cultural references, and I ended up rolling her eyes to the back of her head.

Recovery from surgery and the disconnect of the GOP (Grabbers Of Pussy) during an election season has me at lose ends. I will be happy to get past November 8th (The Doc has signed me off to return to work on the 11th of November. Not a bad one-two for sanity) and return to the normal chaos of Casa Chaos with puppies, woodworking, RV's, and MsBubba taking most of my attention.

Speaking of woodworking and RV's, I'm replacing the shop's load center today. I needed a couple more slots in the load center to run shore power out to the Motorhome. A bitch of a way to spend the day but it needs to be done. Of course from MsBubba I hear "Why can you do the shore power for the RV and not install the lights in my studio for the past two years".  There is no good answer, I guess lights in her studio are next.

PS is doing a rocking chair build. I may follow along with a build of my own. I'll need to find some nice 8/4 White Oak, the last hunk of W.O. in my wood pile is being used for the current side table build. The two together might be nice, a rocking chair needs a side table.

ken    

Best of The Best

Like many big companies mine has an "reward" weekend where they bring the "Best of The Best" worker bees to the head quarters for a dinner and a "grip and grin" with the CEO. If you hang around long enough it will be your time in the barrel.

Well it is my time to waste a weekend. The best you can hope for is to not step on your dick too many times and get out of there before anyone knows your name.

Back Sunday,

ken

All The Whisky In Scotland

Can't make it all better. In the '60's we had a chance to end the power of the racist lizard mind. Nixon, damn his festering soul, I sometimes wish I believed, because if there were a god she would condemn him to the lowest level of hell for giving the racist a home and outsized influence for the last 50 years. Trump is the result, the end product of the Southern Strategy. All the ugliness, anger, entitlement, and know nothingism of the current GOP (Grabber Of Pussy) leader and base all flow from Nixon.

Because of the resultant pandering to our worst nature by the Republican Party over following years I have maintained there are only three reasons to be/vote Republican: You are Rich, a bigot, or just fucking stupid. Today I will change that to just two reasons.

I can't get a recurring thought out of my mind that while Clinton "won" the battle tonight even more important she won the war by not putting the stalking, abusing, man-child away. Of the three possible outcomes, Trump "win", Trump "knockout" by Clinton, Trump losing but muddling through. The worst for the Republican Party was the muddling through because it allows Trump to continue but still bleeding support. What I can't get out of my mind is Clinton played this to perfection, that she didn't want a knockout with either Trump quitting or being thrown overboard by the RNC. Either option would introduce too many wild cards, the old "better the devil you know than the one you do not".

If Clinton wins on the 8th the world will be in good hands, tonight just brought it home.

       

Finished The Planing Bench

The fat lady has sung her heart out. The planing bench is finished. I lowered it as posted earlier, added a apron, and a crochet. It will be interesting to see if I use it as much as I suspect I will. The few things I've planed on it, flatting the top and just did the edge of a 4/4 board just to see it work, seem much easier than on the higher joinery bench.

Anyway here is a photo, click it to big it:

ken

Apron Glue Up

There are two more things to do before the planing bench is ready. First is adding an apron to the front and second is installing a crochet.

The front apron is in glue up and will be added in the AM and the crochet is marked out and will be installed after the apron.

Get all that installed , drill the holdfast/support holes in the apron and the bench will be ready for work.

A photo of the apron glue up, I'm adding a 2X to the back of the apron for better holding by the holdfasts. Once the glue sets I'll glue the apron to the slab and put Spax screws down each leg.

Shoulder update; PT said "Hit the road Jack, don't come back no more" this morning. I see the Doc on the 18th. and expect he will return me to work sometime after the first of November. It has been a good run, now if I can remember how to run a Sim.

ken

Truing the Planing Bench

The planing bench hasn't been trued in several years as it was mostly used as a flat surface to glue and finish things made on the main bench. Now that it will be a reference surface it needed truing.

The first pleasant surprise was how little it was out of true with just a slight twist, high left far corner and low right near corner, and a small belly down part of the middle. I've removed the twist and the belly and now it is just a matter of digging out the #8 and finishing up.

One other, maybe not a surprise, but pleasant is how much easier it is to plane on a 800mm surface vs. a 900mm surface.

I will add a crochet planing stop to the left end and see if I can find the old deadman. If it is gone (I never throw anything away unless it is something I will need later :-)) I will make another for use with the crochet.

Back From Mexico

That woman is a traveling fool. I picked her up after she had spent 24 hours traveling from the UK to Tucson. On the way home I asked if she would like to go to Mexico for the weekend, with an aside that I would understand if she wanted to wait a week or two. Answer: "Sure, let's leave early AM". BTW, she knew there was a new RV in the drive but was skeptical about it, she thought it was too big.

About half way to Rocky Point she looked at me with the "damn I hate to say this but you were right" look and said: "You were right, this is really nice". I wish I'd had a recorder going because it doesn't happen often.

Anyway we spent four days and three nights on the beach in perfect WX watching the dogs swim, the pelicans feed, and the porpoise porpoise. In between I ate a ton of tamales, had a beer or two and napped when it all became too much.

Bubba 1 is a dream, set it on 1700 RPM (slightly over 60 mph) and I appear to get about 10 mpg, sometimes a little more and of course sometimes a little less. With a 90 gal. tank it has an effective range of about 600 miles. Pulling the 5th wheel most of the time a little faster than 60 mph but maybe only a mile or two better milage and the difference in comfort is an order of magnitude.  I should have lost the 5th wheels years ago.

See you guys on down the road,

ken