Maple Mania part 5

Now that the aprons are made I need to get the top section done. First I needed to flatten the glue up that was to be come the top. Even though it is made from two sections and each of those were flattened before gluing them up, the final glue up didn't turn out perfectly flat. And since it was now a 21" wide panel I couldn't run it through my planner.  I decided to use my hand plane and make it flat enough. I used my aluminum saw guide to check my progress.

Flattening the top section

Next the top section was sliced into 2.5" strips and was glued back together like a very large cutting board. 

Next I will flatten both sides and true up the sides.

 

Diamond Edge No 5

I like to use hand planes some along with my power tools.  I've wrote about the other plane I tuned up that my wife bought at a antique store for me. Over the weekend I bought a new to me plane. It's a Diamond Edge No 5 plane. It is in good shape and just needs a little tuning and the blade sharpened. From some quick research the plane appears to be a WWII era plane.

Sharping made easy

I had been trying to sharpen my plane irons and chisels free hand which wasn't giving me the results I was looking for.  So I finally broke down and ordered a honing guide.  I ordered a simple one that clamps onto the sides of the plane iron or chisel.  I also ordered some 1200 and 2000 grit sand paper. I use spray adhesive to attach the sand paper to a large piece of glass. With the honing guide holding the blade at a constant angle it was fairly easy to get the plane iron very sharp.

Here is the sharpening set up.

I think this is the sharpest I've ever been able to get any blade.  The plane worked very nicely with a sharp blade.

New to me, but very old

I went to my parent's house to get a jointer that they had been storing for me, it was my grandpa's.  I will write another post on the jointer soon, but what else I received while there is what I am sharing now.

While Dad and I were working to get the jointer out of the garage Mom came out from the house with a old wooden hand plane and showed it to me. 

After moving boxes of canning jars we got to the jointer and pulled it out of the garage, then it was pointed out that a wooden box sitting next to the jointer was my Great-Grandpa's tool box. I moved a few more things and peaked inside.

The tools inside belonged to my Great-Grandpa, but there is one saw in there that was his Dad's, and one that was my Grandpa's. I was thrilled when Mom and Dad said I could have the toolbox and the tools. When I got home I took all the tools out to study them more and make note of any markings I could find on them so I could try and see how old these tools are. 

 The lower saw was my Great-Great-Grandpa's and the one above that one was my Grandpa's

 The larger of the two planes and the one picture above were both made by Scioto Works, which was a company owned by Ohio Tool Company, and were produced between 1893 and 1907.

 The smaller of these two was made by the New York Tool Company. On the side of it is stamped "Boston Navy Yard Oct. 1870".  So I believe that this tool is around 142 year old.

 Here are two saws that were Great Grandpa's.

 I plan on getting some brass tags made for each tool to mark who it belonged to.  I also am going to be doing some more research about these tools.

I finished Rehab

Well I finished rehabbing the old plane. I worked my way up through 400 grit on the bottom of the plane. And I spent a little time sharpening the blade.  The plane works a lot better now.  I think the blade could be sharper but it cut nicely on all the boards I tried it on.

I took some of the shavings, some sawdust, and some paraffin and made fire starters. I cut the large one into 8 wedges and 1 wedge worked very well for lighting a fire in the wood stove.  This will be a good way to use the shavings and saw dust.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's....

Just a plane.  I have been working on tuning up a old bench plane my wife bought me a few years ago. Back in my post Flat Sole I started flattening the sole of the plane.  I have made it through 80 grit and moved to 150 grit.  I will contiue working with 150 grit until all the 80 grit scratches are gone. Then I will work my way through to 220 and 400 grit.

From what I can find this plane appears to be a Stanley Defiance #3, which was made post WWII.

After I get the sole flattened I am going to be sharpening the blade.  And possible refinishing the tote (rear handle) and the knob.

Rainy Day

Managed to get some shop time after work yesterday since it was raining I couldn't do yard work. One day last week I cut some blanks/boards from some more fire wood pieces. Yesterday I started working to flattening the surfaces. Right now I don't have a jointer or a planer so that means I have to use a bench plane to true up surfaces. The bench plane I have my wife got me a few years ago from an antique store. I have done a little work on it , but it needs tuned up.




Even in it's current condition it works for smoothing and flattening boards. Here is a piece of apple I was working on yesterday.



The side I am working on flattening here was concave, so most the work was one the ends.

Bandsaw Box

I was inspired by a few videos on you tube to try and do a few things with the bandsaw. One of them is to do some small scale saw milling from firewood pieces and trees from our property. The other was making a bandsaw box.

One problem, I don't have a bandsaw. However my dad got some of my grandfather's tool when grandpa passed away. So I have brought grandpa's bandsaw to my shop and have been putting it back to use.

I have some walnut that the power company cleared at our old house that I had been saving because I wanted to mill some boards from it. And I saw some nice looking pieces of apple wood while I was splitting fire wood (apple is a very good wood to smoke with.)

So after I did some cleaning and tuning on the bandsaw it was time to try and cut some planks. I cut one of the smaller piece of walnut at around 1" (4/4 for the wood workers reading this) and then just made a squared up blank of the apple wood. I set the walnut aside and then used a hand plane to smooth up the apple blank. Now I had a apple blank that was roughly 2" thick and 8" long and 3" wide. I knew I wanted to make a bandsaw box but had to stew about what shape to make it and where to go from there. I ended up making a oval shaped box. I will do a how to write up next time I make a bandsaw box. I applied several coats of boiled linseed oil to the box before putting 4 coats of spray on poly on it. For my first attempt at a box I am happy with how it turned out.