Shop Therapy

For me there is something therapeutic about spending time in the shop, even when I am not working on anything in particular I enjoy just being out there. It helps to melt away stress and calm me.

I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten some new tools. My new chisels needed sharpened and the new block plane needed tuned up and sharpened. This was a good chance to relax in the shop.

I used some 80 grit sand paper on a piece of flat steel to flatten the sole of the plane. Once all the milling marks from the factory were gone I worked my way up in grits. I used 80, 150, 220, and 400 to bring the sole of the plane to a almost mirror like shine. I would have went finner yet still, but 400 grit was the highest grit sandpaper I had on hand.

After I flattening the sole of the plane I cleaned up a few other milling marks on the plane body, then sharpened the blade. I need to get a new sharpening stone and a angle guide, but I did a decent job sharpening the plane iron free hand.

To sharpen chisels you first polish the back of the chisel, then polish the bevel. The chisels like the plane iron would benefit from a angle guide and a new stone, but they still cut nicely in some walnut scraps I had on hand.

This all took place in a couple of therapy sessions. I think I am due for another round of therapy.

New tools!

My birthday was last week, I am lucky enough to have family that cares and supports my hobbies so that means I got some new tools to play with. My wife and I keep a list going of things we would like to have so that when Christmas and birthdays come around and people ask for gift ideas we can share some things we would like. For years now my list has had different tools on it. Some I will get for gifts, others I will eventually buy. Since I am trying to advance my wood working beyond screwing together 2x4's I needed some different tools.

I ended up getting a block plane, chisels, pipe clamps, and a pack Bench cookies.

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.

Project Wish List

I have a long list of things I want to build. Some I don't have enough experience to build, others I don't have the tools to build. I know that sounds like excuses but for now I have to work with the skills I am comfortable with and the tools I have.

There are a few projects that I am wanting/going to build that will be gifts, so those can't be discussed. But here are some things I would like to eventually make.

• pie safe


• Morris chair


• a large book case/display cabinet


• a dinning table and chairs


• a large outside dinning table and chairs

Wood Working on TV

I believe the gold standard for woodworking TV shows is "The New Yankee Workshop." I watched that show from childhood until a few years ago when the shop stopped. Norm made it all look so easy and the show has always inspired me to do woodworking. Some PBS channels may still show reruns, but our local one does not.

There are few shows that are trying to fill the gap such as "The Wood Smith Shop" and "Rough Cut." "The Wood Smith Shop" is pretty good but is more like a cooking show where they show you a few steps on one piece then pull out a piece that is more complete, just like how they can put something in the oven on a cooking show and then pull one out and try it all in the same take. "Rough Cut" to me seems to be more about showing the final project and less on how to get there.

You Tube has some very good wood workers on it. Charles Neil builds beautiful furniture and has very good free instructional videos on you tube. He also has a site that you can pay for other videos and offers classes. Marc aka The Wood Whisperer has a good You Tube channel and a very informative site. Another good one is Wood Working For Mere Mortals. Which can also be found on you tube.

Wood Working For Mere Mortals is where I learned how to make a bandsaw box. Charles Neil has a series going on right now on building pie safes which is very informative and is teaching a lot more wood working technique than just showing how to build the pie safe but how to build anything. These are just a few of the things that inspire me and make me want to become a better wood worker.

Spring

Spring was a bad time to start this blog. I will do my best to do some wood working and write about it, but spring time is very busy for me.

The grass is growing like crazy, it is about time to start working in the garden, and like most home owners I have a to-do list of things on the house that seems to grow daily.

We had a severe storm come through on Tuesday so that meant I got to do some gas powered wood working. Over the winter our large sycamore tree lost a large limb, while cutting up other storm debris I cut some rough boards from sycamore. I am not sure how the boards will turn out, I cut them with the chainsaw and placed them in the wood shed to dry. It will probably be next year before they are usable.

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.