Woodworking 101--Tools and Tips

[jimreed2160]

My favorite handplane

Well, it's 49 freekin' degrees in the workshop so production has slowed down substantially. Time for some tool talk where I will introduce my favorite handplane. It was one of my first rehab projects and it turned into one of my favorites.

I think this is a #4 size Type 11 Stanley Bailey bench plane that was made around the time of WWI. It arrived as a rusty mess with a sewing spool as a front knob. I knocked the rust off of it, paying special attention to the corrugated sole. I reglued the cracked tote and made a new knob from some scrap walnut. It has one of my first bench plane blades in it and I later replaced the lever cap with a user made brass one. My friend the engraver added a little bling to brass lever cap.

Original Stanley blades range from 1/16" to 5/64" thick. I make mine 6/64" so they are a little stiffer. It is a compromise thickness that does not require opening the mouth or fiddling with the adjuster.

The difference in thickness is hard to see at first, but it does make a difference to me. Thicker blades just work better because they do not vibrate and cause chatter. The problem is that Stanley Bailey planes are made specifically for thin blades. Some aftermarket blades are 7/64" or even 1/8" and require opening the mouth of the plane with a file. An additional problem is that the thicker blade sometimes keeps the adjuster yoke from engaging the chipbreaker. The solution, of course, is a custom chipbreaker. If you purchase an aftermarket blade, be sure to also purchase the chipbreaker with it.

But back to my plane. I like it because it works so well.

Who would not like shavings like that???

Do you have a favorite handplane?

 

[McFarmer]

This is the greatest toy for kids. When they are a year old they can stack them and have fun making towers, then they can identify the letters, and then go on to making three and four letter words.

Done well it is not an easy project. Two layers of birch or maple is what I find works best, no finish at all. Lots of sanding. Use a good sharp narrow bandsaw blade and the sanding is minimal.

 

[hunterguy86]

My favorite handplane



Well, it's 49 freekin' degrees in the workshop so production has slowed down substantially. Time for some tool talk where I will introduce my favorite handplane. It was one of my first rehab projects and it turned into one of my favorites.

I think this is a #4 size Type 11 Stanley Bailey bench plane that was made around the time of WWI. It arrived as a rusty mess with a sewing spool as a front knob. I knocked the rust off of it, paying special attention to the corrugated sole. I reglued the cracked tote and made a new knob from some scrap walnut. It has one of my first bench plane blades in it and I later replaced the lever cap with a user made brass one. My friend the engraver added a little bling to brass lever cap.

Original Stanley blades range from 1/16" to 5/64" thick. I make mine 6/64" so they are a little stiffer. It is a compromise thickness that does not require opening the mouth or fiddling with the adjuster.

The difference in thickness is hard to see at first, but it does make a difference to me. Thicker blades just work better because they do not vibrate and cause chatter. The problem is that Stanley Bailey planes are made specifically for thin blades. Some aftermarket blades are 7/64" or even 1/8" and require opening the mouth of the plane with a file. An additional problem is that the thicker blade sometimes keeps the adjuster yoke from engaging the chipbreaker. The solution, of course, is a custom chipbreaker. If you purchase an aftermarket blade, be sure to also purchase the chipbreaker with it.



But back to my plane. I like it because it works so well.

Who would not like shavings like that???



Do you have a favorite handplane?

My favorite is my Stanley #7. It's the first one I restored.





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[Teenager with old tools]

Is there anyone in the Southern California area that I can meet with to get a lesson on using a handplane? Mine is sharp but setting up and using it I just can't figure out from trial and errors. I've read about setup but just can't get it. Dad doesn't know but wants to stepdad works his *** off and I don't see him enough to ask because we have tons of stuff to do.
I have a project I'm going to be starting, storage for my micro chisels for my lathe and other things I use making pens because loosely stacking in Kennedy box is a pain do I will make a cAse to sit in top. Designing it now.


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[hunterguy86]

Is there anyone in the Southern California area that I can meet with to get a lesson on using a handplane? Mine is sharp but setting up and using it I just can't figure out from trial and errors. I've read about setup but just can't get it. Dad doesn't know but wants to stepdad works his *** off and I don't see him enough to ask because we have tons of stuff to do.
I have a project I'm going to be starting, storage for my micro chisels for my lathe and other things I use making pens because loosely stacking in Kennedy box is a pain do I will make a cAse to sit in top. Designing it now.


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Search Paul sellers on YouTube. Wealth of info!


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[rk5n]

I showed my dad the Stanley #78 rabbet plane I got. He said he had one just like it that I could have. I thought great, this will be like the time I got a Stanley #5 and he gave me an identical #5 a week later. Turns out this time it was something different, a Stanley #48 tongue and groove plane. He said he found it on a job site 20 years ago. This plane is pretty neat, it has two 5/16" cutters spaced exactly 5/16" apart to cut the tongue. Flip the fence around and it covers one of the cutters, now you can cut the groove. It's in decent condition for being in the dirt for who knows how long, then put away in a box for 20 years. All I needed to do was replace one of the cutters, sharpen them, then remove the rust from the sides of the fence.

 

[hunterguy86]

I showed my dad the Stanley #78 rabbet plane I got. He said he had one just like it that I could have. I thought great, this will be like the time I got a Stanley #5 and he gave me an identical #5 a week later. Turns out this time it was something different, a Stanley #48 tongue and groove plane. He said he found it on a job site 20 years ago. This plane is pretty neat, it has two 5/16" cutters spaced exactly 5/16" apart to cut the tongue. Flip the fence around and it covers one of the cutters, now you can cut the groove. It's in decent condition for being in the dirt for who knows how long, then put away in a box for 20 years. All I needed to do was replace one of the cutters, sharpen them, then remove the rust from the sides of the fence.

Jealous of the Stanley plane!




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[jimreed2160]

Teen--There is a Rockler store in Orange, just off Tustin Ave. that looks like it might be pretty close to you. I worked at a Rockler store about ten years ago and think it might be worth a shot to visit them. These stores are generally pretty friendly places to go and I spent lots of time teaching woodworking while I was there. I'll bet they would be happy to show you some things or else put you in touch of a local ww club.

 

[jimreed2160]

Hunter and RK--I love the plane stories and pictures. It is always good to see them put back to work.

 

[McBrownie]

My favorite handplane

Well, it's 49 freekin' degrees in the workshop so production has slowed down substantially. Time for some tool talk where I will introduce my favorite handplane. It was one of my first rehab projects and it turned into one of my favorites.


Do you have a favorite handplane?

Time to man-up Jim.

View media item 66938
Full transparency: No way I was going out there today.

As for the favorite handplane, my number 7 with a cambered blade straightens up lumber way better than a number 5 or 4. However, my number 4 with a Veritas pmv-11 blade is a pretty darn nice tool too. Hard to decide. It think that's why they make more than one type.

 

[McBrownie]

My favorite handplane

I think this is a #4 size Type 11 Stanley Bailey bench plane that was made around the time of WWI. It arrived as a rusty mess with a sewing spool as a front knob. I knocked the rust off of it, paying special attention to the corrugated sole. I reglued the cracked tote and made a new knob from some scrap walnut. It has one of my first bench plane blades in it and I later replaced the lever cap with a user made brass one. My friend the engraver added a little bling to brass lever cap.

Jim,

That looks like a Type 11 (three patent dates) and they were made from around 1910 to 1918, I believe. Nice job on the custom lever cap. For some reason, I have ended up with all Type 11's. These sites will tell you a lot about types and dates for Stanley planes.

http://www.hyperkitten.com/tools/stanley_bench_plane/
http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

 

[Teenager with old tools]

Teen--There is a Rockler store in Orange, just off Tustin Ave. that looks like it might be pretty close to you. I worked at a Rockler store about ten years ago and think it might be worth a shot to visit them. These stores are generally pretty friendly places to go and I spent lots of time teaching woodworking while I was there. I'll bet they would be happy to show you some things or else put you in touch of a local ww club.

There's one in Ontario too. Thursday or Friday after school I'll probably just drive over there and ask one of the guys then?


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[turbowoodworker]

Wow McBrownie. There is some fascinating reading in those two references. I will need to sit my planes next to the iPad and figure out what I've got.

 

[CSRPenFab]

CSR: WOW NICE LOOKING PEN!! any chance you could show us how you put the design on the pen? also did you make the case and how did you put the Fire Dept. logo on it (burned in?)?
!

Sure. The inlay kits are purchased from a supplier. You wind up with a barrel that has the outline laser cut, in this case made of curly maple, and then 12 to 30 tiny laser cut pieces that you have to assemble into the barrel. Some of these pieces are about 1/2 the size of a grain of rice. In the case of the Fire pen, the pieces are various dyed woods and even silver acrylic for the axe heads. Lots of test fitting and hand filing to get all the tiny pieces together.

Here is a picture of the kit:

Assembly is lots of tweezer work and soaking each step in thin CA glue to hold it all together. Lots of small rubber bands and CA glue help hold the whole puzzle together. Lastly you epoxy a brass tube inside the assembled wood barrel.

This CA glue covered mess is quite ugly at this point. Next up is mounting it on the lathe and using very sharp tools (I use carbide) you turn the barrel down to the pens final size. This exposes the inticrate design. The final step is finishing. I use a 24 step CA finish and polishing that produces the nice sheen you see.


The matching laser cut box was not made by me. I ordered that from a fellow woodworker who does laser work.

 

[jimreed2160]

There's one in Ontario too. Thursday or Friday after school I'll probably just drive over there and ask one of the guys then?


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I think it would be worth a visit. Take your plane with you. They should have benches and some wood to play with. The store I worked in had several geezer woodworkers like me. I'll bet you will find someone who would be glad to help you out.

 

[Knyte Tyne]

Sure. The inlay kits are purchased from a supplier. You wind up with a barrel that has the outline laser cut, in this case made of curly maple, and then 12 to 30 tiny laser cut pieces that you have to assemble into the barrel. Some of these pieces are about 1/2 the size of a grain of rice. In the case of the Fire pen, the pieces are various dyed woods and even silver acrylic for the axe heads. Lots of test fitting and hand filing to get all the tiny pieces together.

Here is a picture of the kit:

Assembly is lots of tweezer work and soaking each step in thin CA glue to hold it all together. Lots of small rubber bands and CA glue help hold the whole puzzle together. Lastly you epoxy a brass tube inside the assembled wood barrel.

This CA glue covered mess is quite ugly at this point. Next up is mounting it on the lathe and using very sharp tools (I use carbide) you turn the barrel down to the pens final size. This exposes the inticrate design. The final step is finishing. I use a 24 step CA finish and polishing that produces the nice sheen you see.


The matching laser cut box was not made by me. I ordered that from a fellow woodworker who does laser work.

Even at my young age I wouldn't have the stability in my hands (shake too much) to feel confident that I could put something like that together... Cant say pens have ever been one of those wonder things for me... But that truly is Incredible and great craftsmanship...

 

[acer66]

Sure. The inlay kits are purchased from a supplier. You wind up with a barrel that has the outline laser cut, in this case made of curly maple, and then 12 to 30 tiny laser cut pieces that you have to assemble into the barrel. Some of these pieces are about 1/2 the size of a grain of rice. In the case of the Fire pen, the pieces are various dyed woods and even silver acrylic for the axe heads. Lots of test fitting and hand filing to get all the tiny pieces together.

Here is a picture of the kit:

Assembly is lots of tweezer work and soaking each step in thin CA glue to hold it all together. Lots of small rubber bands and CA glue help hold the whole puzzle together. Lastly you epoxy a brass tube inside the assembled wood barrel.

This CA glue covered mess is quite ugly at this point. Next up is mounting it on the lathe and using very sharp tools (I use carbide) you turn the barrel down to the pens final size. This exposes the inticrate design. The final step is finishing. I use a 24 step CA finish and polishing that produces the nice sheen you see.


The matching laser cut box was not made by me. I ordered that from a fellow woodworker who does laser work.

That looks great, did you take any pics during the assembly process?

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS--Thanks for the additional picture. It sure takes a high degree of manual dexterity to pull that project off.

 

[jimreed2160]

Spokeshaves

The cold wave continues to mess with my quality shop time so today we are talking about tools, spokeshaves to be specific. They have been around for many years--I'll bet the ancient Romans even had a version. But modern spokeshaves are not like the tools of yore. Modern spokeshaves are more like handplanes. Here is a typical example.

OK. This is a really fancy example. It is more like a spokeshave with a college degree. This is a Stanley #67 with removable rosewood handles and replaceable bases. There is a round base as well as a flat base. The rosewood handles unscrew so the shave can be used for rabbeting.

This shave even comes with a removable fence. For all of its charm, it is still a little plane. The blade is bedded at 45 degrees like a bench plane.

It makes shavings that look like they came from a handplane.

Modern versions of the spokeshave tool all share this same heritage. They are more like planes than shaves.

This transition seemed to take place sometime during the industrialization of the 1880s. Toolmakers could not copy the sharp angles of traditional spokeshaves so they redesigned the tool. In addition, the role of the tool was in transition. Traditional spokeshaves were used for handles and for careful fitting of wheel spokes. Advances in boring made holes more precise and careful fitting requirements eased up. At least that is my guess. Anyway, here are some traditional spokeshaves.

The one on the bottom is the traditional tool. It is a simple stick body with a two posted blade. In use, the user taps the posts or the front of the blade for blade depth adjustments. Its body is beech. The shave on top was made by Bagshaw & Field of Philadelphia. They made tools from 1881-1931. This shave has a brass wear plate, brass adjuster screws, and a handsome Applewood body. Here is a close up of the bottom of the blades.

Notice the long and wispy shavings. It cuts more like a pocket knife than a plane.

Original spokeshaves are a joy to use and they produce outstanding work. You can make precise shavings in a very controlled fashion. Fitting a hammer handle with one of these tools is a snap.

First you have to sharpen the blade so that it is razor sharp. Then you set it into the body and adjust it for a fine cut. Notice that the blade is wide but most projects are narrow. I like to take advantage of that fact and make the cutting depth vary over the length. I set it to be close on one end and more open on the other. That means that it will not cut at all until I move the blade laterally over the project. In use, I move the tool laterally until I get the exact depth of cut that I am looking for. Sometimes on projects I start out aggressive and lighten up as I go. That is very easy with the spokeshave.

Of course, the Bagshaw blade is easy to adjust with the turnscrews. Traditional spokeshaves are pretty easy also. Just tap the blade post on your workbench. Tap the bottom to close up the cut and tap the top of the post to open it up. It sounds difficult, but is easy in practice. Shave, tap, shave, tap, tap. It is easy to get a rhythm going.

In use, spokeshaves would wear out through constant contact with wood. Woodworkers of yore were proud of their skills and made their own spokeshave handles. Some even let in bone or brass wear plates.

WW looking to add to their tool set would not be off base to add a traditional spokeshave. They are very handy for precise shaving work. And there is no better tool for making a spokeshave body than a spokeshave itself.

 

[CSRPenFab]

That looks great, did you take any pics during the assembly process?

Sorry, no pics were taken during the assembly process. I was too busy making sure I didn't lose a tiny piece! When I make another one, I'll try to capture the steps! Working with the thin CA and all those tiny pieces is enough of a chore. You wind up getting your fingers glued to pieces etc....

 

[jimreed2160]

Infill Plane progress

It is 50 degrees in the shop today so I am working in the laundry room. The finish has dried and it is time to secure the front knob. The original was set in plaster of paris. That was a good strategy 200 years ago, but now modern products prevail. I think I will bed it in glue.

The only properly sized flathead screws I could find were new. I filed the defects from them and ran the threads into a wire wheel to take off the zinc. While I was in the meat locker, I drilled pilot holes in the knob.

Here is the bed of glue.

And here is the finished knob--home at last.

I just need to find a way to put some patina on those screws. Maybe I will wait for summer and just sweat on them.

 

[ez-duzit]

White glue will likely make a poor bedding. You might try thickened epoxy, after waxing the metal part.

 

[Blue Frog]

I just need to find a way to put some patina on those screws. Maybe I will wait for summer and just sweat on them.

Jim,

Our friend over on Woodnet, The Cabinetmaker, ages metal, such as your screws, in the toilet cleaning product called The Works. This was reported also by Chris Swartz in one of his blogs.

Blue Frog

 

[turbowoodworker]

Jim,
A simple way to age that screw head is to put it head down on a sucer of vinegar then let it bubble away. It may take a few hours but it works just fine.
I soaked my galvanized pipe wall flanges used on my flintlock rack (see previous posts early in this thread) and it worked fine.

 

[cheechi]

Jim I see you have a bottle of Titebond III. When this bottle of Gorilla wood glue is done, I'm going back to Titebond. Do the I II III correspond to good/better/best like they claim or are there some situations (or woods, or joints) that you would choose one or the other?

 

[Alchymist]

Jim I see you have a bottle of Titebond III. When this bottle of Gorilla wood glue is done, I'm going back to Titebond. Do the I II III correspond to good/better/best like they claim or are there some situations (or woods, or joints) that you would choose one or the other?

II is yellow in color, dries almost clear. III dries to a light tan color, is is a bit more waterproof, with a longer setup time.

 

[ztorres]

Well used some advice you guys gave me and used some of the saw dust I have to fill in a gap in a project by mixing some fine saw dust with some glue. Titebond is the best glue


Zach

 

[jimreed2160]

II is yellow in color, dries almost clear. III dries to a light tan color, is is a bit more waterproof, with a longer setup time.

Exactly.

 

[schor]

A bit of woodworking the way they did it a couple years ago.

 

[jimreed2160]

Infill Plane testing

So the happy day has arrived and it's time to test out the plane with its new knob. I checked out the blade and it is razor sharp. Pull out a cherry scrap. Run down a few swipes. Hmmm...Not so hot. Mouth is clogged.

I remove the blade and things look much worse. Shavings are packed in.

I am not feeling good about this--I need to clean out those shavings and take a better look.

Arggggg! The new knob is too big. It creates an artificial shelf that traps the shavings. What the...

OK. I am putting this one squarely on the Engineering Department. Somebody up there was asleep at the wheel. Looks like we need to do a teardown. Put on the coffee, boys. This is going to be a long night.

 

[bj383ss]

Jim just wanted to say thank your for all your tutorials. Great pictures and explanations as well. I second Titebond glue II. It is all I have ever used. Also used the Titebond III for outdoor projects and have never had anything fail. I know some swear by gorilla glue but I don't like that you have to wet the wood for it to work.

Bret

 

[turbowoodworker]

Another Titebond II vote. I use it exclusively. TIII is good for outdoor projects (which I rarely do).
I was originally excited by the urethane glues (Gorilla) and used it exclusively for about a year. The only advantage it has IMO is the longer open time. Otherwise, after extensive personal testing (!) I see no other advantage. The big disadvantages for me is cost, and the problem that it stains your fingers horribly. I hate wearing gloves in the woodshop (except when staining) so PVA glues like Titebond gets the nod. They just wipe off the fingers.

 

[jimreed2160]

ZT--Your homemade filler looks great. One takeaway from my antique furniture refinishing days is that eyes hate a void. Fill in those voids and the defect vanishes. That is where the furniture retouchers live. Give them shellac sticks or wax crayons and they can rejuvenate any piece of tired furniture.

 

[ez-duzit]

...some swear by gorilla glue but I don't like that you have to wet the wood for it to work...

It is completely unnecessary to wet the wood. The glue gets its moisture from the surrounding air.

The reasons I don't use it are that most of my glue-ups call for better strength, WEST epoxy, and Gorilla glue goes off in its container long before I have a need for it again.

 

[jimreed2160]

Tools of yore

I began collecting woodworking tools in my late teens when I had some disposable income. I was most attracted to tools that were old and unusual and liked to speculate about their use. Over the years, I have collected a few OWT routers. Here is one of them made (or owned by) S. Kirkwood.

Here it is alongside a Stanley #71 router plane.

So what is an OWT plane? The traditional names, OWT, old woman's tooth, Hag's tooth, are all considered disparaging these days. To appease the PC police, I will use OWT. Most of these seem to have originated in the UK. Since this one is maple, I think its origin is US. Most of these tools were made to use plow plane blades. They were used as companion tools--a convenient blade holder for making stopped dados and stopped rabbets. Those were jobs that the plow plane could not do. Having this holder allowed the ww to use the same blade and finish the joint. As such, these tools are often found without blades and their wedge is made to accommodate a tapered plow plane blade.

But we must remember that tool writers of yore were writers and writers depend on their sources for accuracy. When it comes to unusual or special purpose tools, the old literature can be misleading or just plain inaccurate. Often writers will use the same primary source and propagate errors for years. I doubt the accuracy of the literature--it seems to me that this plane has been lumped into the OWT category because of the way the handle looks. But it is surely not a traditional OWT. Since I have time on my hands, I can do a little detective work.

To begin with, this OWT is different because it has its own blade that is set at a high angle.

By my measurement, it is about 67 degrees. That is more like a scraper for hardwood. Now I am puzzled. In addition, the blade is a wide 3/4"

OK. The blade had a folded over edge and several botched attempts to set the bevel. My first order of business is to grind off the folded edge and square up the blade. Then I sharpened it and polished the back. Now we are ready for some woodworking. First I try to use it as a plane.

That did not go well. With the blade slightly exposed, there is no room for the shavings and the plane quickly clogs. That means that this plane should be used with the blade extended from the mouth.

I made a shallow dado in a scrap of walnut and tried to open it up. Disaster. It was a rough tumble down a rocky road. Look at its tracks.

Now we know that this plane was NOT made for dado work. How about rabbets?

I grabbed my Stanley #289 skew rabbet plane and put a shallow rabbet on the walnut scrap.

Then I used the router to clean up the rabbet. OUCH! It dug in and chattered like a teenaged girl.

I used the #289 to clean that up. Here is what the floor of a rabbet is supposed to look like.

We have ruled out the most obvious jobs but how about specialized jobs? One thing that is hard to do is get a clean corner on a rabbet. I often use a shoulder plane for that task.

WOW! I am amazed.

The router is really easy to hold in this position and it scrapes a perfect corner. I think I have found its real mission.

So it looks like our ww, S. Kirkwood, had a very special scraper that he used for cleanup work. It makes sense because shoulder planes are expensive. This plane can also be used to clean up mouldings that are too tight for shoulder planes. It would make their transitions very crisp.

Now that I know what this plane is for, I can use it in my shop. I am declaring victory on this detective work. Thank you, Mr. Kirkwood. I know your projects had high quality because this tool is made for fine finish work. I will enjoy using your plane.

 

[HenryAZ]

A bit of woodworking the way they did it a couple years ago.

The millwork shop where I worked from 1970-1995 had four mortisers similar to the pictures. They were not as old as some, being metal framed instead of wood, but they had foot pedals. Most in the picture had the pedal in the center, which can be awkward for a lot of mortising. Our hollow chisel models all had a stirrup like foot pedal offset to the right. One of ours was a "chain saw" mortiser. The chisel apparatus was a chain bar. We only broke that out for a large order of doors. On the chain mortiser, the center foot pedal raised the bed, rather than lowering the chisel.

We mortised/tenoned all frame construction, and kept one chisel mortiser each with 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" chisels, for different thicknesses of millwork (cabinet doors, shutters, slat blinds, louver doors, interior and exterior doors of all kinds). The chain mortiser kept a 1/2" chain in it. Tenoning was done on two PowerMatic single end tenoners.

 

[jimreed2160]

Infill plane knob, continued

The project with no apparent end continues to march on. After our last engineering debacle, I have no choice but to bring out the big guns. Funny about that. I did an inventory on sanding sleeves after the last use. It turns out that the purchasing dept got cheapskate on us and went light on consumables. There were many grits and sizes MIA in the kit. I did an internet search and found suitable sleeves at a reasonable price at HD of all places. At the time I saw it as an exercise of bolting the barn door after the horse had already escaped because the sander has not been used in a few years. I had no other projects currently on the list but I wanted to be prepared.

And then along comes a big and bright opportunity because I needed a coarse 3" sleeve. Good news because I just picked it up yesterday.

Save those cotton socks, grasshopper. They will come in handy one day.

Here is a progress shop. Almost there.

Done. The coarse wheel made quick work of that.

Here is a shot from the top. Notice the gap. It needs to be filled.

I used a smaller 1" 240 sleeve to remove the sanding marks and to round off the transitions. And then I sent it to finishing to be stained and clear coated.

It turns out that the glue bedding was not an optimal solution because it shrinks too much. The gap in the rear needs to be filled or it will trap shavings. I plan to make a paste of glue and sawdust to fill that gap.

This is how many of my one off projects go. When I build or repair similar items, the engineering is already done. Those projects are mostly just following previous steps and taking care with execution. One off projects, however, have a higher degree of engineering. Sometimes I take a few steps forward and then a step backward. I think this is why many ww become frustrated with woodworking. Too many errors and too many reworks really ***** the juice and fun out of things in a hurry. When I get caught in a quagmire project like this one, I like to use it as a lessons learned case. My hope is that having a good understanding of failure points will help me to avoid similar failures in the future. And that will lead to more enjoyment.

 

[drivesitfar]

JIM: thanks for all the Tutorials. they really are showing me a lot of ways to do jobs i didn't have a clue how to do. it's also opening my eyes to a lot more tools i might need (damn you). i'm hoping to get my little wood shop set up in March so i can do little projects while I'm building a fence and re surfacing and remodeling our 20x50 deck too.

i know i'll just have to quit eating to save money for all the new woodworking tools i NEED.

KEEP UP THE GREAT STUFF

CSR: OMG i would have never realized your pen was made like that. you must have the patience of GOD. WELL DONE and thanks for sharing your skills and would love to see a little more play by play so to speak if you are able on the next projects. thanks

ALL: keep up the great posts and i'm sure i'll be referring back to many of them as i get to my wood projects.

cheers

 

[jimreed2160]

Remember that edge cleanup plane I posted earlier? I took a series of shots while I was fixing the blade edge. Here is the plane.

Here is the bevel edge. It is in bad shape. There are several bevels. The bevels are too shallow. The edge is not square to the sides. The blade is dull and has a folded over corner. In fact, the only defect it seems to lack is heavy rust and corrosion.

And here is the back of the blade. It is in pretty bad shape.

It is hard to see in the shot, but the corner is actually folded over. In addition, the blade is out of square and the bevel shows several botched grinder visits. I guess everyone needs to learn somewhere but learning is better on scrap steel. Anyway, here is how I fix an abused blade.

When the edge is out of square or when it has defects, it should be ground square at 90 degrees. I just jam it into a spinning wheel and move it from side to side while taking care not to ruin the temper. This operation requires a tub of water for frequent quenching. If the steel is too hot to touch, it is at a dangerous temperature. Make quick grinds of 1 or 2 seconds each and quench. If the water sizzles, then your blade is too hot. Quench before it sizzles.

You are finished with this step once you have ground at 90 degrees past the defect and when the blade edge is square to the sides. Don't worry about the bevel because you will re-establish it in the next step. Also don't worry because the existing bevel is almost always wrong. Here is a good rule of thumb--use 25 degrees for softwoods and 30 degrees for hardwoods. Get a bevel gauge or make one.

Here is the blade after I established the bevel. It is about 30 degrees. Notice that the bevel is only about 1/8" deep. There is no need to grind off any more steel. Why make work?

Next step is to polish the back. I start with 220 paper and finish with 800 paper. The back should look like a mirror.

Here is the back after polishing.

Here is the bevel after polishing.

I polish the back again to remove the wire edge.

And then I do a test cut just to make sure. It pulled some nice tiny curly shavings.

So that is a quick lesson on how to rehab a blade edge.

 

[Knyte Tyne]

Hi Guys, Just a quick one on the Glues... I use Primarily Titebond III in all my applications. (inside or Outside) Its waterproof, has a +- 10 min Layup time and is strong as hell. I make Longboards and Titebond is the only glue I've experienced so far that can Hold the laminates to the curve and Not de-laminate with the abuse that Skateboards take... I buy it bulk from a local supplier in a 5 litre Bucket... Lasts me a year on average... I haven't had any experience with it going 'bad' or anything over that period. Its a product that with my limited woodworking knowledge, I swear by...