Elm Cabinet MkII

Have completed the full size drawings this morning on the new cabinet, designed to hold some of SWIMBO's fossil collection. The whole thing should be quite good I hope, it'll sit on a stand about 700mm tall, cabinet with Golden Mean proportions, glass panelled door, glass shelves. Stand will be very slightly tapered, most of the joints will be thru' mortice and tenons with ebony wedges, exposed and rounded over same as the last one...bit more shaping on this one so may need to get hold of some rasps as well as a couple of 'shaves.

Here's a pic of a well known planemaker slicing up a bit of elm for the panels, which will be the first thing I need to get cracking on. All the elm needs to be shoved through the P/T now to come down to size...shouldn't take too long, and then it's on to the benchwork.

I Hate Boxes....

I seem to have been making nothing but boxes recently. Firstly there was the Teak Casket that's doing nicely in the UKW Competition, then there was Meg's box in spalted sycamore and I'm just about to finish a small pencil box in the same timber for Gareth as one of his presents. I rang him up and he said he wanted one to go on his desk in the flat, so with all that lot I'm pretty hacked off with doing small, fiddly boxes and am itching to get into something bigger, so next week I'm going to start the Elm Cabinet MkII, which should hopefully be good and more complex than the last one. The timbers' been rough cut and drying out now for a few months now so I can't wait to get going on it. Will definitely need to get a couple of the Veritas 'shaves for the stand as well as some LN mortise chisels for both bits...cabinet and stand. Need to do a full size drawing of the cabinet and stand as I fancy that the stand will have a bit of 'splay' to it...should be very interesting.

Progress on the Big Woodie

The Big Woodie is making steady progress...can't you just tell I used to write millions of reports! I bought the studding for the adjustment mechanism from B&Q the other day and Pete Newton very kindly machined a little off the chip breaker bolt for me as it was a fraction too big for the routed groove in the plane body. Needless to say, it's a perfect fit now, so many thanks Pete. I have to start the brass cap very shortly, which is probably one of the most unpleasant parts of the whole project. Sawing through 8mm thick brass by hand is just plain hard work....shouldn't take too long though and once that's done the mouth adjustment mechanism needs to be made and then it's just the final assembly and finishing.
Then I have to start the write up for F&C on plane making.

It was a snip really....

Someone missed a good plane the other day as I tried to sell my No4 that I'd completely refurbed back in the Spring....which is a great shame as I only wanted£100 for it.... what an absolute snip! Never mind. I think what I'll do is to replace the existing Record blade (not the one in the photo) with a Hock one at some later date and then hone a 20deg back bevel on it to use as Mr C has suggested on very difficult timbers.

Onwards and upwards...

Making Progress

The big woodie has been started and so far it's coming along quite nicely. I've managed to re-saw the greenheart this morning, which wasn't quite such a trial as I thought it might be and then putting it thru' the PT wasn't too bad either, end result is that it's now glued in place so next job on the 'morrow is to bearing cut off the waste down the long sides. I used my new Veritas jointer to plane the underside of the gluing surface...fabulous plane. You can see from the pic that the slot has been machined for the adjustable mouth mechanism and the round hole immediately in front is for the locking bolt that drops down from the top. It's absolutely essential that it's kept dead flat so that the sole is then flat and needs the minimum amount of work later on. I did have some trouble with the size and shape of the tote but managed to sort it out after the third go, which I have to say was a bit of a pain. I based the shape and design for the tote on my Norris A1 as shown in this pic.

Had a bit of good news this morning...I'm going to receive a small payout from and old pension later on, so what with the Competition prize and the monies(s) from F&C publications I ought to be able to get the odd shiny trinket or two for the workshop...most of it tho' is going to have to go on paying the CCards, never mind, should be able to get rid of a fair wedge.

A Grand Day Out

I haven't done an entry for a while, so apologies...must try harder. A fair bit has happened since the last entry really. I had a great day out with Martin, Waka and Philly in Dorchester last Sunday. Martin's garage workshop needs to be seen to be believed....if you think Philly has got some tools you need to redefine the definition of 'collector'. Martin let me have a fabulous lump of greenheart for the bottom of my long woodie that I'm just about to start, works out at 70lbs/cu' which is about as hard as it comes, apart from Lignum. In return, I'm going to refurbish an unusual spokeshave that needs some metalwork done and new handles made...more later. Martin also let me have a rather tatty, non descript infill jack that he bought from a boot fair so that will be my next plane project...I'll do the work on it, then it'll go on the bay and we'll divi up the spoils. This should be quite and interesting one to do as I quite enjoy taking a tool from something that looks like you wouldn't give it any house room and bringing it back to a decent working condition.

F&C are going to publish the Teak Casket in the Christmas edition which will be good. I rang up CE-E the editor the other day and asked him if he wanted another article(s) on plane making, Woodbloke style. Affirmative. Not wishing to steal any of Philly's thunder as I make mine in a significantly different way so that should be good as well...OK then, back out to the 'shop to do a detailed drawing and then I 'spose I'd better get sawing out some timber.