07 August 2009

A steal from Axminster

Having sorted out most of the ongoing smaller projects in the shop, I decided last night to do a bit more on the table project that was temporarily shelved whilst more urgent jobs were tackled. I also finished off the current bits and pieces (like making the wedges) for the Kell and will just need to order a selection of lapping papers from Matthew at Workshop Heaven after which I should be set up for a full scale test of the new system, which promises to be quite interesting.

Back to the table. I'm on the third of the four end frames and I sorted out the bridle joints so I just need to skim the tenons on the router table this weekend and check that they'll all go together squarely. I'm cutting all the joints by hand using the rip toothed LN dovetail saw, which is not ideal. What I should really do, is to cycle into town to PFT and see if they've got a half respectable old tenon saw that I could re-sharpen to a rip tooth pattern, but as I do this sort of joint in teak so infrequently, to be honest, it's not justified. Normally, I'd do bridle joints on the bandsaw, but as teak is so abrasive (and I have a nice new shiny blade from Axminster on it) I opted to do it this way. Surprisingly, it's good practise in sawing straight and to a line, but joints do need a little bit of a trim to get a really snug fit.

I'm going to glue them with Titebond III, having got hold of a bottle the other day in the delivery from Axminster...nothing exciting, just various bits and pieces that need to be replaced, such as discs for the sander (plus a large lump of rubbery stuff to clean out the accumulated gunge) and another couple of packs of P2 dusk masks, as well as a Stone Devil to true the dry stone grinder.

The only thing that I did treat myself to ( and something that I should have bought years ago) is a lovely little mitre gauge, which at the price Axminster are selling it for, has to be a bit of a steal!

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