Demise of the 'Tool Wall'

You may remember that some time ago I collected a whole load of board material from a UKWorkshop friend who had no further use for it and in exchange for all this rather nice stuff I let Simon have a screwdriver that I'd just finished making. Part of that consignment though, was a lot of strip material only 90mm wide (by 18mm thick) which I've been looking wistfully at from time to time...well you can't throw it out, can you?

The penny, though, suddenly dropped the other night (as it often does)... with a bit of lipping on each side it might make the framework for a 'Tool Cabinet' with a couple of opening doors which could then be hung on French cleats over the bench.

Whilst the original 'Tool Wall' does have it's merits, the very great disadvantage is that you soon start to run out of space, particularly when other and more specialised hand tools start to be added. I don't intend to make this a hugely complicated piece or even a very large cabinet (there'll still be some room on the wall) more a 'work in progress' job that tools can be fitted into as an when they're acquired.

That's the plan anyway.

I ordered the Camvac the other night so I'm looking forward to receiving that sometime this week. I've even sold my original chip extractor for the planer/thicknesser to another member on UKWorkshop and that will be collected later on in July.

The only slight 'Spaniard in the works' is that the pics show the unit with a hose supplied, but a detailed examination of the small print tells you that it's not...bugger!

West Dean '09

Classic Hand Tools held the second hand tool event at West Dean near Chichester yesterday and all the usual suspects from UKWorkshop were in attendance. The group shot taken while we were all recuperating over a brew shows Pete (Newt) Tony (Escudo) Steve Allford (Promhandcam) Paul Chapman as himself and some bloke in a stripy top. If you look very carefully you can also see the top of David Charlesworth head behind Paul!
There were even more tempting stalls laid out this year with some truly eye watering goodies, not least of which were the planes made by Karl Holtey. Most woodworking nutters have heard about Karl, but to meet him and handle some of his planes (which are things of true beauty and absolute precision) has to be a privilege, as of course was meeting Bill Carter. Bill makes fabulous planes entirely by hand in a garden shed and uses no more than the occasional use of a pillar drill. I spoke at some length with his charming wife, and was invited to use some of his 'scraper' chisels that I was amazed to find work incredibly well on really hard timbers like box, rosewood and ebony...some will definitely find their way onto the 'Tool Wall'
I also had a very, very interesting discussion with Michael Huntley regarding all the devious schenanigans that have been occurring at F&C and I was intrigued to find out the real reason behind his imminent departure from the magazine.
All in all, a great day out.

Lying lens?

This table top has been causing me a few problems lately, not the least of which was that the last frame that I made for it ended up ignominiously being consigned to the bandsaw and ultimately the land-fill. The main difficulty (and this is something I should have taken into account before) is that it's just not been made accurately...all the flats are different sizes as well as being 'out' by up to a cm across the diagonals, so it's very difficult, if in fact almost impossible to make a standard 'square' frame of any sort and expect it to fit.

So how to get round it?

I decided in the end to make a much more simple affair (it's what SWIMBO wants anyway) that would fit the top accurately, so if you look at the pic you'll see that all the underframe cross members (dotted in red and black) are actually fitted at odd skewed angles...it's no fotographic distortion! Whilst this is going to be simpler in many respects, there will still be some tricky parts because of the odd angles in the underframe.

The next awkward bit would, I hoped, go without mishap and that was the consultation with SWIMBO over the proposed design. I'm happy to say that the design has been passed by the d' management as doable and so work needs to start forthwith.

The third and final obstacle to overcome was the choice of material...oak or teak and SWIMBO opted for teak, one of my favourite timbers. The only really annoying thing about it is that it can't be stuffed through a planer/thicknesser.

Strictly speaking of course, it can...but I'd need to hone the blades every ten minutes, which quite frankly, doesn't get me overly excited. It looks like the LA Jack is going to get some serious use over the next couple of months.

....could be a long, hot summer in the 'shop.

HPLV or LPHV and the 'Bay

I've been toying with the notion for some time now of changing equipment and have been browsing through various sites with a view to gradually upgrading kit so that by the time I finish work in a few years time I won't start to hyperventilate when I have to dip into the wallet.
So with that notion in mind I've decided to start with the extraction system and have been pondering over what to do...HPLV or LPHV? This alone is enough to severely overload the grey matter, but in essence, the first is vacuum sucker and the second is a 'air-pushing' system, which as far as I can make out, is best suited to single machines like planer/thicknessers.
However the vacuum system, whilst it doesn't produce as much air flow is better suited to an extraction system with smaller bore pipe work, even though it can still be used with the p/t and a 100mm hose. It's all very confusing but the machine I want to get hold of is a twin motor 2.2Kw Camvac GV386 which will produce a lot of 'suck', certainly more than sufficient to power a moderate 60mm bore system that I hope to link up to the rest of the machinery in due course.

Not being a collector of tools (ahem!!) I've decided to get rid of a few on the infamous Fleabay of dreaded ill repute, so last night saw the disappearance of three of my planes...admittedly they were tools that I never now use, so there wasn't much point in keeping them, and the money raised from the sale will go quite a long way towards the cost of the Camvac.

Rejuvination

I had a really good ride into town this morning on the 'Blokebike' and sorted out the last remaining couple of bits and pieces for the Frame Saw, namely a small bit of 4mm silver steel for the blade carrier plates and a length of 6mm studding. Once it was completed in the shop I wound on some tension...I'm now pleased that I changed the original material from mahogany to ash as the tension on the blade is quite surprising. I tested it out on a trial cut on some softwood and it did work very well. It's now racked out in a spare slot in the 'shop.
Amongst all the other bits and pieces on my expedition this morning, I bought a small pot of Vaseline as despite frantic searches in all the 'crooks and nannies' in the 'shop, my old pot has dismally failed to materialize and unless I'm very much mistaken, it's now sporting a 'Stars and Stripe' on the jar...

You'll note though, that I don't intend to let the new tub get spirited away......

Transmogrification

Never, ever, let it be said that I'm prone to the odd fit of pique, of going off half cocked or being a tad irrational so that the pill box is never out of reach...not I.
Oh, no not me...but there are exceptions to everyday and today was one of them 'cos I went on a bender! The pic says it all really 'cos it's what's left of the Cherry Table after I'd smashed it up on the 'shop floor and then passed all the bigger bits through the bandsaw.
"For God's sake...why?" I can already see you muttering, somewhat despairingly. The answer really is an accumulation of small incidents that gradually amounted to a complete and utter loss of enthusiasm for this project, not least of which was my total disenchantment with English Cherry, supposedly one of the cabinet woods...not in my 'shop it ain't! To be fair, it does plane beautifully, but that's about all. Take another piece from the same board and it works with the same sort of enthusiasm as the coarsest, roughest pine from one of the 'sheds, it's just a totally inconsistent material. Then of course, the bloody stuff snaps at the drop of a hat...pull a joint apart that's the teensiest bit too tight and the mortise will just disintigrate. In fact that's what happened this morning and was the sixth time that something had just broken...you can see from the pic that a couple of the rails were reinforced by lumps of strip steel, so this morning...I'd had enough. Finish. Kaput!!

On an entirly different note, the other day I was using my pot of Vaseline to lubricate the leather wheel on the Tormek...and now it's gone, vanished...no sign of it whatsoever anywhere in the 'shop.
By a truly remarkable coincidence though, just before this vanishing act, I'd mentioned the wonders of Vaseline to someone else. I have a theory, far fetched you might wonder, that my very 'umble pot of Vaseline has been transmogrified and is now residing in the US of A...Pennsylvania to be precise!

Socket to me!

I was pottering about in the 'shop yesterday evening as you do, having a bit of a tidy up, when I suddenly remembered something that I'd wanted to have a go at for a while. I see lots of references to other people cutting the waste from lapped dovetails with a router, which is a technique I've never done (as I've always chopped them out with a chisel)...so I thought I'd have a go! I hoicked out a bit of gash oak and maple from the oddments drawer under the bench and cut a couple of tails in the oak (which was about 10mm thick, so the sort of stuff used for drawer sides) marked out the sockets in the maple and set up the router. I decided to go straight in and remove the waste without sawing the socket profile (as normal) which in the event was a mistake...you do need to do the initial cuts to define the socket before the routing. All I did was to set up the router to the exact depth of the socket...I've found these invaluable (one of my Christmas presents last year) for setting the precise depth (other wise it's a bit of a 'hit and miss' affair on my router) and then I just nibbled away at the waste, plunging to exactly the right depth each time. Afterwards it was just a case of cleaning out the corners and I found a couple of fish tailed chisels (again, many thanks to Ian at Axminster for those) from LN very useful for that little job.
The advantage of using the router is that the distance in from the end of the pin board can be set exactly with the router fence so that you can plunge exactly on the knife line and finish at the right depth, which means that you've guaranteed a dead square socket...in theory!

I've also managed to get the Frame Saw pretty much finished over the weekend as well. As there's a lot of ash in it, I decided not to go for an oiled finish as over time it'll turn a sickly 'wee' colour, so I opted for a few coats of acrylic varnish with some wax over the top, with the centre stretcher polished with shellac. I just need to get hold of some 4mm steel rod for the retaining pins in the handel and a bit of 6mm studding from one of the 'sheds' There was a bit of accurate metalwork needed in drilling the blade holes at exactly 570mm centres but that all went hunky-doodly so I'm moderatly chuffed with the outcome...all that remains is to see if it works well when the tension is wound on.