Woodworking 101--Tools and Tips

[schor]

ez, awesome shop!

 

[Shiftless]

EZ
I'm drooling over all your space and all your stuff and all your obvious skills.
Next time I'm at Tony P's we should grab a beer.

 

[drivesitfar]

VARTZ: welcome to the group and your project looks like it's going to work out fine and congrats for hand making a Christmas present for your niece too.

CRS: i think you just went through 100 years of woodworking in a paragraph with all your relatives. WELL DONE SIR!!

EZ: sorry if it sounded like i was defending Jim's messy benches because it sounds like you were sincere and not trying to be picky or mean. i don't know you yet as well as i'm getting to know several of the guys on the thread, but hoping to in the next few months or years to come. GREAT LOOKING SHOP and is that where you built a ship or two or do you make the parts there and then go to a dry dock or marina to install or put things together? thanks for sharing and it looks like a good working shop.

ALL: so i have a lot of tools as i mentioned and here's just a few of my really old clamps and some are like the one Jim posted earlier today. i have a few that are 6.5 feet long and several that are 5, 4, 3 in the old style. i might have some longer ones, but not sure exactly cause i haven't seen them in a while as they are sitting in the back of my storage unit.

they seem to work fine without any grease and all the surface rust so if i spiff them up i'm guessing they'll work even better.

i did have a Bessy and it's one of the German clamps i own. are all Bessy clamps made in Germany?

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: a few hand tools i picked up this weekend just because I'm involved in this thread. i probably should have grabbed the 4x4 that was cut so it held old saw blades just to show the storage idea even if the blades didn't look great the idea did.

I think one tool is a scraper or not sure what it's called and i think PLEXO was the maker's name.

a few other tools and if any of you want to say what the best use for them are please do. i don't know for sure on a couple

 

[CRSINMICH]

Drives: That first picture is a drawknife. Look closely. It probably says PEXTO. The company was originally Peck, Stowe & Wilcox. When Wilcox got muscled out the name changed to Peck Stowe = Pexto. Some of my favorite chisels are Pexto. That small saw is a dovetail saw. The straight handle makes it a Gent's Saw. It looks exactly like my favorite small saw. If so, it's a Disston. Well worth having it sharpened. Don't do it yourself until you have some experience. Check out the name on the hatchet head. Also check to see if it is a hewing hatchet. From what I can see it has all the marks of a good one.

 

[drivesitfar]

CRS: i'm guessing you are correct about PEXTO cause i took those pics a few hours ago and finally was able to sit down to post them.

ok so know I (we) know that is a draw knife and thanks for calling it by its proper name. Can you or anybody say what is it's highest and best use is? does this take the edge off the side of a board, remove bark or do tell?

thanks

 

[ez-duzit]

Thanks fellas.

My specialty is customizing yachts. Much of what I build I prefabricate in the shop and deliver partially knocked down to the boats, where I fit and install. Though I have extended the lengths of some hulls as well. Built flying bridges, etc. And all manner of repairs. Additionally I have done complete yacht rewiring, plumbing, etc. But the bulk of my work is designing and building. This is some of the most demanding work imaginable, as expectations for fit and quality of workmanship are far beyond what is acceptable in even highest end homes.

SL--Tony P's is a great restaurant. For nearly 10 years I kept my boat docked directly behind it.

Because there seems to be some interest also in my metalworking machines, I'll add photos of the very first piece I made (last year), from scratch, on the mill. It is an aluminum end fitting for a 4" diameter sailboat boom. Sheave axle I made from stainless. The plastic sheaves were purchased.

 

[turbowoodworker]

EZ,
Love your shop. Looks like there is not much you couldn't do there. Nice!

 

[CRSINMICH]

Drives: Here's a Pexto catalog page. I think your knife is one of these three. They can be used for debarking but that kind of knife is quite a bit more stout. Notice that these say "Carpenters"

 

[jimreed2160]

Vartz--Love your sander. Very clever. I will remember that one.
EZ--Thanks for the shop pictures. That is a great place you built and quite a collection of hardware. I cannot think of a missing tool.

I have some minor procedures which will reduce my shop time, but I hope to crank out some ww joints in the next few days. Thanks to everyone for your posts. We all need to liberate this knowledge from our heads and pass it on.

 

[ztorres]

One of the things that I've noticed not only in woodworking and in engineering is the disappearance of hand drawings. I personally use CAD everyday at work for designing parts for engines, but when it comes to wood working I like to pre-sketch things out by hand. I think it's a big thing that can help you visualize your plan and really get a grasp of the outcome. Plus it's an art that needs preserved. Even my newer ww books have CAD models in them verse hand drawings. Here is just an example of a dresser that I am designing for my wife.




Zach

 

[CRSINMICH]

ALL: I found this while I was looking through the PEXTO catalog for Drives. We have touched on chisels in this thread so I thought it might be useful.

 

[jimreed2160]

Drives--Your drawknife is a woodworking tool of yore and has many uses. Most commonly it is used to shave bark from a tree but can be used to shape wood round. It was often used on a shave horse--a small bench where the user would sit astride and operate a deadman with his foot and use it like a vise. Shave horses, or bodger's benches were used to make chair legs and rungs as well as tool handles. Think of it as a large whittlin' blade. The operator would wear an apron and draw the knife along the workpiece toward his chest. Skilled operators could knock out dozens of chair rungs in a day.

 

[drivesitfar]

ALL: for making cuts the same length on your miter saw Thumper put this method in one of his videos that looks pretty simple and i hadn't seen it before. i'm going to use it on my next multy cuts of same size while using my chop saw and see how it works.

look at about 40 seconds into the video and he measures, and screws down a scrap piece of wood on his bench with the point of the scrap at the mark he wants to cut each piece at. then he proceeds to cut maybe 16 pieces of 2 by material in rapid fire.

pretty good idea if you ask me, but maybe most of you know about it already. here's the link to Thumper's video and he's making a new stand for his anvil.

JIM: i won't be de barking anytime soon, but this tool is built to last so i might spiff it up and sharpen it and put it in a drawer just in case. any tips on sharpening tools might be a good lesson or did you mention it already in your chisels and plane posts and i already forgot?

CRS: love the old catalog pages and thanks for posting them.

ZT: i've never had a CAD program, but i've had computers since about 1990 and i still like writing things on paper. my TO DO LISTS were always on spiral notebooks even when i had hand held computers for contacts and work. ALSO IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE A PLAN!!

EZ: I have no idea how you made that piece and just want to say you must have some serious skills and cool machines to make one like that.

 

[ez-duzit]

...
EZ: I have no idea how you made that piece and just want to say you must have some serious skills and cool machines to make one like that.

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest.

That boom end fitting I hogged out of a block of aluminum, to my own design. It was made on the manual vertical mill (an ancient Index Super 55). The large, rounded feature was produced with the piece mounted in the rotary table, shown in this photo, where I keep it stored close by the mill.

 

[CRSINMICH]

Drives: Jim mentioned a shave horse. Just to put a visual to that, here is one that I made a few years ago from one 2x12, one 2x4, and some scrap hardwood. I used the horse with this drawknife, this spokeshave, and assorted files and rasps to make the handle for this hexagonal headed brass hammer. The hickory for the handle was locally sourced (a neighbor cut down a tree).

EDIT: That drawknife is Emergency Room sharp! It's hollow ground on the back and I worked the edge to the point that a razor would be jealous. Even looking at a picture of it makes me want to count to see if I still have all my fingers.

 

[drivesitfar]

EZ: thanks for posting up the tools to give us a visual, but i'm sure it took a lot of skill. WELL DONE!!

CRS: that is one cool hammer handle and would love to see a branch turn into something like that. i do have some fir outside i can practice one.

so are you sharpening with files, grinder or do tell?

i also have several spokeshaves so i could maybe start spending the evenings on a bench i cleaned off last night maybe sharpening up a few of my tools.

thanks for the picture of the bench and i have those materials at DIF'S Hardware store here at the house, but sadly no space to put one after i make it.

ALL: so does any of you have tips and tricks for cutting boards for projects in a quick manner sort of like the one in Thumper's video that they want to share? i can't tell you how many times i've used a cut board to remark, or re measure on multiple cuts and mainly because i don't have a good bench miter saw set up.

do tell??

 

[Shiftless]

Drives:
When working in the field with a chop saw, I have temporarily screwed my saw to a length of 2x12 and screwed a scrap of 4x4 to the plank at the appropriate distance to form a "stop". After spending a few minutes on this set up a guy can quickly make many identical length cuts. HINT: Do a quick check with your tape to make sure your settings haven't wandered off the mark. A few weeks ago I made 20 identical cuts for a shelf project. They didn't vary more than 1/32nd. For many of our projects that is, as my now departed machinist FIL used to say..."close enough for a carpenter".

edit: Maybe not for jewelry boxes or yacht interiors, right?

ps. After writing that I remembered a job many years ago where I was helping a relative frame up a geodesic dome house for his family to live in. He was up high on scaffolding calling out measurements to me on the floor in order to cut 2x4 blocking between the crazy compound angled struts of the inside skin. I would cut one, throw it up to him, he would fit it in. Even though they would be covered with Sheetrock, he insisted on uniform gaps and matching angles without noticeable deviation. Mass production didn't work. IMO, we wasted a ridiculous amount of time.
Moral of the story...try to match your level of desired precision with your time expectations, what is actually needed, and the patience of your helpers. OCD can really stand in the way of getting finished.

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS said, "That drawknife is Emergency Room sharp." Ouch. If you have a drawknife, it should be sharp because it will work better that way. Storing this sharp knife is another story because it is just waiting to slice your fingers. Users of yore developed many types of blade guards--mostly leather. Unfortunately, the drawknife can outlive its guard and most are found denuded. I had the same problem with mine and decided to make my own guard. But I am a woodworker, not a leatherworker. I have lots of wood, but not much leather. Here is what I came up with to keep that sharp blade at bay.

As you can see, it is a box with a lid that covers the blade. The two pieces are held in place with a tapered dovetail key. That is our joint of the day. No, I am not a ww genius. I copied this clever joint from a Victorian wardrobe that knocked down for transport. The male part of this joint is the box. It has a dovetail on each side and is tapered. The female part of this joint is also tapered. It gets tighter as it slides. When it reaches the middle, it holds the box tight.

Making it was pretty easy. I split a furring strip on the bandsaw, glued two strips of walnut on the pieces and made an open ended box. Then I cut the dovetail taper on the tablesaw and finally cut the top off of the box. Making the dovetail key was simpler. I split a 2x4 scrap with the bandsaw, cut the tapers on the tablesaw, and then glued them to a piece of the 2x4.

Dovetail joints often require precision and detailed chisel work. Think drawers. This project, however, was easy because precision was not the real driver. All I needed was something to keep my blood on the inside.

So remember the dovetail when you are building your projects. They get their strength from that dynamic triangle that my granddaddy talked about so much. Add a dovetail or two to your next project and make it stronger.

 

[jimreed2160]

Our next topic of the day is edge treatments. My last post on the drawknife case began with a class picture of tools. All have one thing in common--they can be used to create chamfers. The chamfer edge treatment is descended from ancient ww times. Early woodworkers saw 90 degree corner edges wear over time. Often this wear created large splinters. Ouch. If only there were a way to soften that edge. And thus the chamfer was born. Chamfers soften those edges to both our eyes AND our fingers.

Chamfering with a drawknife is quick and easy. Hold the drawknife on a skew because it slices easier that way. Whittle away until you have what you want. The drawbacks are lack of control and the haphazard appearance of the finished joint. It is possible to make or buy chamfer guides for the drawknife, but precise control is necessary and that takes practice.

Another tool for chamfers is the block plane. Set the cutting depth and plane away. Again, slightly skew the blade for a smoother cut. The block plane is easy but does take practice to make consistently uniform edges.

Understanding these issues of control, Preston and others manufactured chamfer shaves. Just take a spokeshave, which is a small type of drawknife, and put guides on the bottom. Here is a Stanley #65 in action.

Here is a close up of the guides.

Chamfer spokeshaves work well and I keep one in my shop ready for action. But if you want the ultimate in chamfered edges, get a chamfer plane. The chamfer plane makes great chamfers with ease. Here is a Stanley #72 working on the walnut.

For my money, the #72 is really the way to go. It is the easiest and leaves the best looking edge. It even leaves a nice edge treatment on raw lumber.

So don't forget chamfers when you are working on your projects. Almost every project has a rough edge that could be improved with a chamfer.

 

[Shiftless]

Another EXCELLENT tutorial, Jim...thanks!

 

[drivesitfar]

JIM: AGREED that is a great tip. i was thinking of using a router to round off or eliminate the edges on my fence boards and should have done so with my Pergola, but i think i like your idea better.

ALL: of course YouTube has a few tutorials and as i was looking up how to sharpen a draw knife and watching a guy grind on an open bench grinder's stone without safety glasses or a full face shield i still learned something.

i also saw this other guy restore a draw knife that we see so many like this witn a handle missing or stuck in a corner rusting away and thought all the skills in this quick little video was worth posting. i'm thinking very hard about where to set up my shopsmith after watching the wood on the lathe.

i'm also wishing i would have kept the Burr King i helped an old friend buy cause using a belt grinder to sharpen or spiff up old tools has to be maybe the best way to do so. of course i know a few members on GJ that can make a mirror finish with hand filing and sandpaper so all depends on time and skillls.

have a great day and i'm back to ORGANIZING AGAIN.

cheers

 

[ez-duzit]

The low angle block plane is my go-to for quick chamfers, whenever a router with bearing-guided chamfering bit is not practical. But a solid wood block with self-adhesive sanding disc is also very handy for this.

 

[CRSINMICH]

ALL​

I bought this Stanley No.6 plane at an estate sale last week. In case you haven't noticed - it's YELLOW, bright canary yellow. That's not a usual color for a plane. I've looked it over and discovered some other, less obvious, oddities. The adjustment knob is what is called in plane lore "hard rubber". That would put the manufacture date in the war years. If you look closely behind the frog you won't see a frog adjustment screw. That would set the manufacture date a long way before WWII. Perhaps it was a wartime economy measure. "Save your screws for the Boys!" or something like that. Here's my question for anyone who would like to chime in: "What is this thing?" I know that some tool manufacturers made lines of tools specifically for Manual Training classes and that they were often painted different colors than their regular line (I have a 1970's No.4 plane with a turquoise handle). I'm leaning toward this theory on the No.6. The shop class theory is supported by the peg hole in the toe of the bed. Alternate theories? Comments?

 

[ez-duzit]

Woodworking projects--

Here is a desk I built into my 1967 24' Silver Streak travel trailer. Drawers have yet to be built. The inboard top hinges up to access an electric piano. Outboard is a laundry hamper. On top, and to one side, is a a color photo printer. Suspended above are entertainment center, on the left, and flat-screen TV hinged on the right. The top sections are Formica'd lumber-core plywood with solid oak trim. The cabinet is oak-veneered plywood.

 

[Shiftless]

EZ:
Wow! Boats and an airstream...very impressive
Some readers might not know Airstreams by their "other" name...Land Yachts

CRS
Excellent detective work as usual

Drives:
As I recall, Burr King is the top of the line for those belt sander /grinder type machines. Stay on the lookout for another. Might replace your Craftsman Block Grinder for many purposes.

 

[ez-duzit]

Actually Silver Streak was started by ex-Airstream guys.

Here is a curved bed frame being laminated. One can never have too many clamps.

And the setup for routing a bolt-rope groove in a curved teak molding I built. The molding is about 7' long. The vertical piece of plywood served as a fence for the router.

And a fold-down desk. In the background can just be seen a white panel with curved door frame I made to match the existing interior design.

 

[ztorres]

I finally got around to making a bench dog so thought I'd share how I did it. I took a 2x4 and cut it to 1/16" smaller than the holes in both directions, so for me that's a 1"x 1-7/16" piece. Then I cut a 5° piece off from 3/4" on the 1" side to create an angle. Then I took a piece of 1"x4"X1/8" hardwood and offset it about 1/2" from the bottom on the angled face. I put a small screw in there to hold it in place. This creates a "spring" to hold the dog in place.






Zach

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS--nice plane. I agree that it looks like a type 17 and made from 1942-1947. Characteristics are the hard rubber adjuster wheel, beechwood tote and knob (originally painted black). The castings were also a little heavier due to less surface grinding of the sole. The blade should have a three digit date code, where:
First digit (1-4)--indicates quarter of mfg
Next two digits (35-48)--indicates last two digits of year of mfg

The yellow paint and hang hole were probably added at the school shop. I am cleaning up two Morgan ww vises and they were painted the same butter yellow. Did schools get yellow paint at a discount?

Ztorres--Nice doggone work!

 

[CRSINMICH]

Jim: My 7th grade shop teacher was Mr. Stolpe (long e sound at the end) so whenever I refer to an anonymous generic shop teacher I think of him as Mr. Stolpe. I couldn't be sure that Mr. Stolpe had painted this plane because it was such a good job. Not that Mr. Stolpe couldn't paint well, but it didn't seem likely that someone who had 30 planes to paint would take the time needed to produce such a good finish. As far as the color, I think that yellow was used because it's distinctive. That makes it a lot harder to do anything with a purloined plane. I looked but there is no number on the iron. It just says Stanley Made in USA. I looked for a No.6 for a long time but they just don't turn up very often. As luck would have it, this is the second one I bought in the last two weeks. The other one is much nicer. Rosewood and Sweetheart. No pictures yet.

CORRECTION I do have pictures of the other No.6

 

[CRSINMICH]

Jim: Here are your chamfering tools from a 1902 catalog. Think how much money you could have save if you had only had the foresight to be born a century earlier. Those chamfer spoke shaves only cost $6 - a dozen!

 

[schor]

I had some maple and was thinking of making a live edge base for a wood lathe. This little vid is of me trying to remove the bark. Very often on live edge you want to remove the bark because if you don't it will fall off at some later date when you don't want it falling off.

Usualkly if a tree is cut in the summer the bark will eventually fall off. But that does not mean it will happen all the time or that it won't happen to a tree cut in winter.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Jim,
I was going to ask about that adjustable chamfer plane before you posted the catalogue description. I thought it looked like a "Frankenstein" that you built. I've never seen one like it, and I've seen lots of planes.
Tell us more about yours.

 

[Shiftless]

Wow, this thread has been alive for only 6 days and it is past 230 posts"

 

[WVBrady]

Drives:Moral of the story...try to match your level of desired precision with your time expectations, what is actually needed, and the patience of your helpers. OCD can really stand in the way of getting finished.

Perfect is enemy of good
Perfect is the enemy of good is an aphorism which is commonly attributed to Voltaire, who quoted an Italian proverb in his Dictionnaire philosophique in 1770: "Le meglio è l'inimico del bene".
https://www.bing.com/search?q=perfe...g=C1A0E8C88C5FC&form=CONBDF&conlogo=CT3210127

 

[jimreed2160]

CRS--I love your #6 with the decal on the tote. It looks brand new. Thanks for the catalog shot of Stanley's chamfer line. Sure wish I had a dozen of those shaves now.

Turbo--The Stanley #72 has a frontpiece that holds the blade against a sole. That whole assembly adjusts for width of cut. There is an optional frontpiece for bullnose work and an optional piece for scratching a bead on the chamfer. Beaded and incised chamfers were popular on table legs, bed posts and case goods posts.

Chamfers with the #72 come out nice and are just quirky enough to look handmade. I know electric routers make a more uniform cut, but those look like factory furniture to me. Anyway, when you have the width of the cut set, you plane the edge. The back part of the plane is a vee and that helps guide the cut. I like to use the top edge of the plane as a reference and plane thin shavings until the side of the plane bottoms out on the edge. Once you get the hang of it, things go quickly.

Thanks for your interest. I will post pictures of the accessories later.

 

[schor]

Wow, this thread has been alive for only 6 days and it is past 230 posts"

I can probably dig up more content, I just never thought much about my woodworking stuff.

 

[drivesitfar]

EZ: I'd love to be ORGANIZED and with all the cool ideas you have for storage i know this thread will help me get there some day. there doesn't seem to be a lost inch in a boat and i feel sort of the same way in my 10x15 portion of our 2 car garage at home. i bet i have 500 drawers and shelving in my space and finding a way to find stuff is the key.

with all those machines and tools in your shop/garage do have a good system for finding your nuts, bolts, parts and bits? also thanks for the pictures on some of the stuff you have and maybe are building.

Schor: if you had to do it again would you tear off the bark off that nice piece of maple from the other side and would you still use a hammer and sharp chisel? yes please do dig up some old pictures of projects you've done in the past or take pictures of them now and we'll see the patina and how they age.

ZT: can you maybe take a few more pictures of your new dogs showing the full bench and maybe from under neath if possible cause i couldn't tell how they are held in place or what keeps them from falling through? thanks

CRS & JIM: great stuff on planes and history.

WV: we all love that kind of stuff to enrich our minds. got any woodworking pictures or tools to post pictures of or tell us about too? thanks for dropping in.

ALL: I'm looking forward to many more pictures, processes and stories so if you have some to post feel free to add to hopefully the one stop WOODWORKING thread for GJ.

cheers

 

[ztorres]

Drives:

I will add more pictures later, but it is held in place by that "spring" because it is on an angled plane. See pics 1&2 in post #228. There is a small gap between the spring and the main body. Since the body is 1/16" smaller than the hole and the spring is an 1/8", when you tap the dog in that spring has pressure and that's how it stays in place.


Zach

 

[CRSINMICH]

Drives: Here are some pages from a 1909 L. & I.J. White catalog. It shows just how important draw knives once were. I know that some of them are labeled "shaves" but the difference between draw knives and shaves is lost on me.

Leonard & Ichabod Jewett White by the way