The day before Christmas I ordered a set of 8 WoodRiver chisels from WoodCraft. They were on sale, I needed chisels, and they were offering free shipping. I really couldn’t pass them up. Well, they arrived today. I did not get them pre-sharpened, so I’ve got a little work ahead of me. But I think they will be fine. I get to practice sharpening soon!
We had Christmas with my side of the family this weekend. It was a great time. The highlight had to be playing with my new nephew. He’s just 3 months old. He was just a movin’ and a shakin’!
In our annual gift exchange, I had my sister-in-law. She’s into knitting. Somehow I got it into my head that I’d make her a yarn ball winder. I’ll have a dedicated post about it late, but let’s just say, in about 4 days, I designed it, put my table saw back together, and built a working prototype. I say prototype because I promised her a better one when we figure out what needs to change. hey, it’s my first try!
My Mom had me. She got me a small set of Legos (yes, the little plastic bricks that snap together. I LOVE those things. Can’t get enough of them), a Tool Shop vise bench, and two books. The first is The Complete Book of Woodworking
The bench would have come in handy while making the ball winder! I’m sure it will come in handy for version two.
The Complete Book of Woodworking is pretty cool so far. It’s go info on setting up shop, designing projects, info on types and grades of wood, how to prepare stock, basic joints and applying finishes. Of course there’s 40 project plans too. Looks like some good information.
The Complete Guide to Outdoor Wood Projects is all plans. It was actually my Dad’s. He used it to build a Boot Butler and a Yard and Gardend Cart (which was my sister-in-law’s present last year). I’m looking forward to making a few things out of it.
So, it was a good Christmas of woodworking. Both the giving and the recieving!
As my workshop (garage) is only partially insulated, and it got darn cold before I could complete it, my table saw rehab took longer than I expected. But my hand got forced today. I decided to try to make a Christmas present which will require the use of the table saw. So, since I’m burning the last of my vacation days from my 8-5, I’ve got the time to at least get the saw back together. So, I kicked on the kerosene heater and started back in.
I had to attach and adjust the front and rear fence guides and fence. This took longer than I expected. A lot of back and forth. Then I installed the Contractor Saw PALS. These are great! They are well worth the $20. As you can see, I really needed the adjustment too!
But, the PALS made easy work of it! Love them!
So, with the addition of a Rigid R1050C combination blade, I have a working table saw again. I even got the majority of the pieces for my project cut out as well.
You can see my supervisor in the background there. You can see how hard he worked!
My other supervisor (Ranger) was around to, but managed to stay off camera.
I got a new book today. And I didn’t even have to go to the book store. A while ago, Bill pre-ordered Made by Hand: Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop
directly from Tom Fidgen. Tom was going to self publish the book. Somewhere along the line, Popular Woodworking Books picked it up. I don’t know the whole story, but Tom still sent out the pre-order copies. Somehow Bill wound up with two copies being shipped to him. Both autographed to Bill even. Upon contacting Tom, Bill was told to keep the book and pass it on to someone who would find it useful. Somehow he decided I’d be a good candidate. How could he come to any other conclusion? 
I’m really looking forward to reading it. It’s just more to influence me towards hand tools. Yes, I know I just got a router!
As an added bonus, it comes with a DVD about hand tools and techniques. And an added, extra bonus (what?), a CD of Tom’s music …beyond before, was also included. I have no idea what kind of music it is, but I’ll give it a listen.
And take a look at the cover of the book. If I can make something like that table some day, I’ll be thrilled!
Stay Sharp!
So, this morning, shortly after 10 am, I broke out the router. Here’s what I did with it on my first outing.
Previously, I’ve read some reviews of routers where they say the bits are hard to remove. This wasn’t due to their awkwardness of using two wrenches, or that the arbor wouldn’t extend beyond the base plate. They just said the bit would stick. To me, that sounded like the packing lubricant was still on the bits or collets. So, I made sure to clean off the gunk from the bit , collet and collet reducer (for 1/4″ bits) before I did anything else. As you can see below, especially the bit, there’s a lot of lubricant on them. Actually, the bit had some sort of plastic type stuff on it. It came off easy however. I wiped as much off with a paper towel, then shot them with a bit of air intake cleaner (it’s what I had around) and then gave them a quick hit with T-9.
This is my first router, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. That not withstanding, I was fairly impressed with how easy it was to install and remove the bit. Just extend the arbor all the way through the base plate and it locks. Then it only takes one wrench to tighten or loosen the collet.
With the bit in, I installed the edge guide. It’s kind of an odd looking device. It’s just a metal plate held on with a couple of spring bolts. But it seems to do the job.
Since this was just a test run, I didn’t get specific with my bit depth, I just extended it an 1/8″ or so. The controls seem to be easy to use (at least in my 5 minute test). I just used it to run a groove on a short scrap of wood I had laying around. The soft start was nice, but not having used a router with that feature before, it scared me a little. When I first hit the switch, I thought it was a dud. I paused a second before it started to wind up. That seems to be a characteristic of at least this model.
I just made a couple passes. A couple using the fine adjustment between passes and one or two with the coarser adjustment. It seemed to work fine.
I didn’t use the plunge feature this time out. I’ll try that later.
I have to say, so far I like it. It’s quieter than I thought it would be. I didn’t grab any hearing protection before I went out and just didn’t think about it. When I flipped the switch I was quite pleased. It had a very smooth sound, compared to some others I’ve used in the past. For the size of the router, I expected it to be much louder. This will be especially nice as I intend to make a router cabinet for it where it will spend most of it’s time.
As I stated before, it everything seemed to be east to use. I didn’t use the plunge or depth settings, but those seem straight forward. In just attempting the plunge, it seems fairly smooth. I wouldn’t call it silky smooth as I can fieel some minor resistance in a few spots, but as I don’t really inted to use it much in that fashion, I don’t think it will be a problem.
I’m looking forward to using this thing for real.
I’ve got to build a cabinet!
Stay sharp!
I know I said that I wanted to focus on hand tools, but I do think balance can be struck. Today I made a new power tool purchase. A router. Woodcraft had the TRA001 on sale.
Triton’s 3- ¼ HP plunge router has several radical features that make it ideal for the router table. It’s through-the-base bit changing ability makes what has always been difficult and awkward simple and fast! Simply bring the router to full plunge depth for single wrench bit changes–the spindle rises above the base plate, locks automatically, and a safety lock-out switch cuts in so the router cannot be started. The plunge feature is a rack and pinion mechanism with an adjusting knob for accurate depth adjustments and a micro adjuster for super accurate depth adjustments. Twist an insert in the handle, and you have a standard free plunge mechanism, with a plunge lock lever right next to one of the grips. The plunge spring is easily removed for use in a router table. Turret stops are simple and quick to set, with easy to read calibrations. Front and rear full enclosure safety shields increase safety and aid dust extraction. Included is a cutting guide/fence that also incorporates a circle-cutting feature. Weight is 13-1/2 lb.
Ok, so the colored text aren’t my words. I copied them off the Woodcraft site. So far I’ve had it out of the box and played with the adjustments. I’ve not yet actually supplied power to it, but I hope to do that as soon as tomorrow. Yeah, I know it’s Thanksgiving day, but I’ll have some time in the morning with not much to do, especially if it’s raining. So, I’m pretty sure I’ll be giving it a try. It came with a strait cutting bit, so I’ll be able to do something with some scrap wood.
I’ll be sure to report how it goes.
Stay sharp…
When I got the table saw I also got a 12.5″ planer. They were both in a bit of dis-repair. Nothing serious, just a bit of rust. In a previous post I talked about working on the table saw. Today it was the planer.
I had previously worked on the bed of the planer with some steeel wool and gotten a fair amount of the rust off of it. But this is how it looked:
Still a bit of rust. Ok, quite a bit.
So, I used a sanding sponge on it. I don’t remember the grit, but it was fairly fine. Probably around 120? Anyway, with just a few minutes of work, it’s now looking quite nice!
Not bad hu?
I also cleaned up a couple of hand saws that a found in my Mom’s garage. I didn’t take any before pictures. Come to think of it, I didn’t take any after pictures either. I guess I’ll have to do that in another post.
Until next time…
Today my copy of The Joiner and Cabinet Maker showed up. I’m pretty geeked. As I mentioned in my About page, I’m heavily leaning towards hand tools as my preferred method of woodworking. This book is about a young woodworking apprentice in 1830′s England. Apparently, it goes into great detail about his duties and learning process. This reprint of it has additional chapters added by Christopher Schwarz (who signed the book) and Joel Moskowitz that detail the three projects the apprentice makes in the book. It also contextualizes the book and describes 1839 England. I also decided to get the companion DVD that has Sketch-Up drawings of all three projects as well as pictures.
So, I’m going to dive in. At some point, when I’ve built my hand-tool arsonal up enough, I will try my hand at these projects.
I can hardly wait!
Ok, last time I checked Norm Abram is not dead. He just decided to not to continue one of his TV shows. I’m sure the DVD boxed set will be available soon if it’s not already. What really torks me off about it all is that in the last week or two since it was anounced, I’ve seen more about that then the passing of James Krenov or Sam Maloof. That seems sad. But I guess that’s par for the course. I still find it very annoying.
Ok, I’m done ranting now. Maybe that was a bit harsh. I do like his show, even if he does stuff in a strange manner. I just think things have gone a bit overboard.
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine went to the WIA conference in PA. He had a good time, and it sounds like it was a decent show. Whished I could have gone. Anyway, while he was picking up a plane from the Lie-Nielsen booth, he was nice enough to pick me one up too! What a nice guy hu?
Here it is:
Sweet hu? I thought it was cool!
