Reading Unplugged Shop Posts

I’m on the road for the month of September with just an iPad for a computer. For some reason I can’t post replies. Whatever, Jonas’ post on cutting brass had me LMAO, wives are like that.

MsBubba and Maggie playing on the beach near Trinidad CA.

Ken

Blogger isn’t Letting Me Reply On The iPad

Blogger is being a PITA. If I can’t figure it out there will be no replies until we are back in Tucson.

Ken

On The Road

Posting and replies will be spotty for Sept.

ken

Levi's Chair

Progress is slow on the chair with most of my free time being spent on getting the motorhome ready to leave Friday/Saturday for Oregon.

I've turned a couple of sticks for the back to see which I like best. One is pretty thick but with a taper. The other is thin. Of the two I believe the thin one works best. The only question is can the thin one stand up to a growing four year old boy. I expect we will see.

BTW, I could turn the thick stick around and have the thick part of the taper on the bottom, and it is a thought.

I still haven't heard from the woodstore about my workbench Ash. I need to give them a call.

ken

Chair Bottom Finished

Levi's chair base is finished. I'll start the four sticks and top rail this afternoon after work, maybe, if it isn't too hot to work in the shop.

It may be a little high for Levi, if it is it is easy to cut down. I will include instructions on "how". If things do not get too crazy with work, critters, getting the motorhome ready for the Oregon trip and keeping Casa Chaos from falling down I could have the chair finished in a few days. Will not happen but I could.

Chair base, leveling the legs:

ken

One Key Installed One To Go

One key in place, working on second:

Once the second key is glued in I'll clean up the seat and fit, wedge, and glue the legs in place. If I can find a few free moments this week the chair will be finished. Only problem, finding those few free moments matching up with a shop cool enough to work in.

ken

Keys For The Seat Bottom

Because the seat is a glue up I'm keying the two halves, belts and suspenders dontchknow.

Next up after finishing the keys is cleaning up the seat and knocking the legs home. Once the legs are fitted the back slats and comb will finish the chair,

Work is trying to force my retirement or at least it seems that way. I've six days in a row starting Monday with one off followed by ten in a row. As much as I enjoy my work I don't enjoy that much of it in a row. I don't mail it in and after a line (usually three or four days depending on the Regs the crew is training under) I need a couple of days to recover. It ain't been happening.

All that is to say even though I'm near the short rows it may take a couple of weeks to finish the chair.

ken

Progress On Levi's Chair

The legs, leg tenons, and seat mortises are done and fitted, kinda of. The left rear leg is a little off, I should be able to go in with the reamer and fix it enough so it isn't too noticeable.

I need to shape the seat, make four spindles and a crest rail to finish. Here are a few photos of the progress so far:

Setting up to ream the seat.

Checking progress.

Seat and legs.

As always click 'em to big 'em,

ken

Chair Leg Blanks Finished

Four leg blanks finished and ready to shape the tenons on the lathe.

Even with the short legs and the woodie, it is a sweatathon this time of year. There were a lot of water breaks getting to this point.

I can't say I'm in the short rows but just four small back spindles and a crest rail to go before fitting it all together.

BTW, the little portable bench is amazing. Solid as a rock, perfect height for planing, and the wood screw leg vise holds better than any vise I've used. It is a joy to work on.

I haven't heard from the woodstore about the Ash for the new bench but Lake Erie Toolworks emailed the wood screw for the vise is on the way. We are only a couple of weeks away from the Oregon trip so even if the Ash shows up next week I don't expect the bench will be finished before the middle of Oct. or latter.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Ten Pounds In A Five Pound Box

In the never ending quest the move the deck chairs, to fit the ten pounds in a five pound box, I shoved the machines around the shop this morning.

A couple of things set me off. First the band saw and the planer are my most used machines and both had restricted movement areas. So all the sweating and huffing was to clear up the work space around the band saw and the planer. Also I expect to replace the Ricon bandsaw with a 18" Powermatic the next time the Powermatic's go on sale. If that happens, the table saw may go away fixing some of the space problem.

A couple photos of the new arrangement. Dust collection and electrical are not hooked up yet because I want live with the placement for a bit first.

I hate to give the table saw away but it is used very little and it takes needed space. The shame is if it is sold I might be able to take MsBubba out for a good dinner on the sale, maybe.

ken

Shaping The Legs

I'm shaping the leg blanks for Levi's chair before taking them to the lathe to turn the tapered tenons. I've found the best tool for shaping the legs is a ECE Jack plane with a light camber. It is light, easy to hold, and can be set to take good chunks of wood each pass without turning your arms to noodles.

I'm not sure how the chair will look when finished. The seat is near full size but the legs will put seat height at about 250mm vs. 460mm for an adult chair. Whatever, it should be bulletproof. 

ken

   

Tormek SE-77

Simple changes can make big differences. In my love/hate relationship with the T-7 sharpening system most of the hate came from the SE-76 jig. It would not handle thick irons or ones without parallel sides and if anything was out of alinement you just had to live with it. In addition it was (almost) impossible to camber an iron.

The new SE-77 jig addresses almost all of those difficulties. Best of all it makes putting a camber on your cutters very easy. Here is one of my Jack plane's iron fresh off the Tormek.

Most of the time I do not grind but this iron had a couple of deep chips and after few minutes on a 120 grit diamond plate and no real progress it was off to the Tormek. As you can see a nice smooth camber and was quick and easy. Also it gives a very good base for sharpening by hand until I do another deep chip.

For some time I've had one green eye and one red with the Tormek. Stop/Go, sell it or not. The Se-77 changed all that, it would be a hard job to pry it out of my cold dead hands now.

ken

New Welsh Stick Chair for The Grandpeanut

The boy child and his wife just had a new grandpeanut, a girl type named Abby Ray. She's a cute little sucker but I guess all grandparents say the same. Anyway the first grandpeanut isn't much of a peanut anymore. They grow fast.

With two of 'em they need another chair for the table and chair set I made a couple of years ago. I started on it this morning. This one will be a small Welsh stick chair. What I expect will happen is the old chair and table will be passed down to Abby Ray and sometime in the next year I will make a new table and a couple more chairs for Levi that are a little larger than the current ones.

Here are a couple of photos drilling the mortises for the legs.

Down the sight line:

The resultant:

Click 'em to big 'em.

I've really starting to like building vernacular furniture and even better I like looking at and using the builds. As a hand tool wood worker stick chairs, staked tables, and boarded chests just fit my house and my eye.

ken

12/4 Ash

I took the motorhome to the shop yesterday so they can look at a couple of squawks before we leave for Oregon. The woodstore is just a few blocks away from the shop so I stopped by to see if there was any word when my Ash would be delivered. They said maybe the first week in August. I'm not betting on it but if it is I may be able to finish the bench before we head to the PNW. If not then the bench build could stretch into Thanksgiving. I hope not but it could.

ken

Package of Love From UK

Several days ago the ten Marples bevel edge chisels from the UK showed up in the mail. They are pretty much what the photos showed and what I expected. The Boxwood handles are dark from use, there is plenty of blade life left, and the steel is in good shape. Whoever owned the chisels took good care of them.

That person was either or maybe both a carver and "old school". The backs have never been flattened. You can see a very slight bevel on the back of each chisel. Carvers are known to sharpen that way as are old school wood workers. I've heard Richard, The English Woodworker, talk about his father lifting the chisel a few degrees when working the back of his chisels. He usually says something like "I can't stop the old man from doing it".

I've a decision to make. Either I waste maybe a mm of steel to rid the back of the slight bevel or I just continue the practice. At this time I'm pretty agnostic. I will say I've plenty of flat backed chisels to use.

A photo of the ten:

Because I was out of chisel rack room I had to find someplace to store 'em. After a bit of butt scratching I figured if I moved the long chisel rack down a bit and the short chisel rack up just a little there would be room for another rack between. Because the racks were going to be so close I put a floor and guard on the two short chisel racks.

Photo:

A photo of the bench wall with the tool chest. I know it doesn't look like it but I've cleaned up the storage and moved almost all the tools that are not in daily or frequent use somewhere else.

As always click 'em to big 'em.

ken

Slab Is Done.

Damn it is a heavy sucker. I'm a few years older than when I made the main bench slab and with it I did the whole thing single handed. This time I had help and the two of us old farts wasn't enough I had to call on help from the neighbor. Even with three it kicked our butts.

Whatever it is done and stacked in a corner out of the way until it is needed to fit on the base. For now I'm dead in the water until the 12/4 Ash is delivered.

After this afternoons sweatfest a break may be good. I just hope it isn't too long.

A photo of the slab standing in the corner:

ken

Slab Glue Up Done

The last of the slats/slabs are in the clamps. Towards the end those suckers were heavy for just one old fart to move around. MsBubba made it home just in time to help with the final glue up and moving everything in place to clamp. What a difference four hands and arms make.

Tomorrow a friend will help me take the slab out of the clamps, check it for wind and run it through the planer until everything that is not a slab is removed.

In the clamps:

ken

Outer Slabs

One outer slab is out of the clamps and one is in until I return from my AM Sim. Those suckers are getting heavy, or at least they seem to to this OF. Truth is they are slightly less than 70 lbs. each.

This afternoon I'll join the two outer slabs with the middle slats to complete the bench top. Tomorrow I've asked a friend over for whisky and a little help running the joined slab through the planer to finish it off.

Now I just need to get my hands on the 12/4 Ash to start the base. I would like to finish before the Oregon trip but who knows, depends on the Ash and vise screw.

One glued up outer slab and one ready for glue up:

MsBubba leaves tomorrow for Houston to "help out" with the new Grandpeanut. The dogs and I will be without adult supervision for a few days. Extra dog biscuits for all and I might be able to have a big bowl of sticky rice :-).

ken

Slab Glue Up

I've started gluing up the slab. Because of the weight and size the 10 slats will be glued up 2 at a time. Once I have 5 sets of doubled slats I'll glue 2 of the doubled slats together to make the two sides of the slab and then finally use the remaining doubled slat to tie the two sides together. It will take longer but reference surface clean up will be easier and I will only have to deal with the full weight of the slab and a smaller reference surface clean up at the end. Doing it this way will also allow use of the machines with the exception of the last reference surface clean up. Once all the glue ups are together I will have to do the final reference surface clean up by hand but the top of the slab can be cleaned up and dimensioned with the planner. I expect I'll find a friend to help with the final passes through the planer. Hopefully a little single malt or some Jack will be enough to entice.

As I lay the slats out for glue up I check for grain direction and mark with an arrow. You may be able to see the arrow in this photo:

Next is about a 1/3 bottle of glue and clamp those suckers together, then walk away for a few hours:

Click 'em to big 'em.

In the background are the other 6 slats waiting their turn, One set is out of the clamps. It's slow going but for the most part easier on the back.

BTW, if it all fails and things get cattywompus I've 25mm to play with before reaching my desired minimum slab thickness. 

ken

Pre-WWII Marple Chisels

For awhile I've chased pre-WWII Marples chisels. That quest may be over. I've a full set of Boxwood handled firmer chisels, a near full set of Boxwood handled paring/pattern maker chisels and gouges, and today I whipped out the AmEx to pay for 10 beautiful Boxwood handled beveled edge chisels all pre-war.

If I could find a set of Ash London pattern handle firmer or bevel edge pre-war chisels I would buy but I feel no need to look. A stumble across would be nice but...

Photos when they arrive from U.K.