In the shop today

  Since everyone knows I do wood work for a hobby they also know that projects progress through my shop in a non-linear fashion.  I have the elm glued for the jewel box but today only touched it to move it out of the way.

  A couple of weeks ago I brought this piece of cherry home from my friend's place. It has been sitting in the garage, in the way since then. Today I got fed up and set to work making it manageable and useful in my shop. This tree trunk is nearly at the limit of what I will lift now days and so I opted to bring the shop to it instead of haul it down to my basement wood shop.

  I brought my saw bench and its helper bench up from the basement and strapped the log down so that I could cut it safely.

  I cut a limb and the big end off of the trunk and was able to carry it down to the workshop with little effort.  I don't have a chain saw, they scare me and I leave that sort of cutting to the folks that are trained for the job. The 'swede saw' (bow saw) did the job just fine.  A hand saw like that is low tech enough that I can get it started every time and not have to worry that it will get away from me and make a big mess.

  Notice that the saw bench 'helper' is in the photo.  Here it is after I remembered that I wanted to paint the legs.  The little bench looks pretty good.  Once the legs dry and I am going to do something (?) interesting and unnecessary to the top, maybe wood burn it or something.

  As I cut up the limb I got the brain wave not to turn all of it on the lathe but to cut 3/8 slices off and make coasters. I soaked the slices heavily with shellac and will come back and sand them smooth.  The shellac raises the grain and seals the wood and that makes sanding end grain/rough lumber quicker and easier. 

  I am working on making some small things for my friends from their tree and all houses need coasters.

cheers, ianw

Shop Stool, a supporting member of the cast

  A couple of weeks ago a video showed up from the Samurai Carpenter, showing him building Crib Ponies. If you don't know what a crib pony is you'll need to watch the video, I didn't know either. It turns out a crib pony is a sort of stool.

Making Cribbing Ponies

   I liked the design and have been thinking of making a stool/chair for my grandson's new bedroom. He and I would be able to make and finish something as straight forward as a Crib Pony. 

  Than as usually happens I got thinking about the project, the time line and the available materials.  Also a funny thing happen a project ago when I was cutting up the long plank for the garden support. I opted to take my circular saw out side instead of trying to bring the 16 foot plank inside. I have a saw bench that I made last last year.

  But the plank was so long that I ended up having to support one end on a lawn chair, only moderately successfully, while I cut the plank to length.

  What I needed was a supporting character to hold up the other end while I worked.  A small light bulb went off and I thought of the Samurai Carpenter's video.

  I decided that I would make my supporting stool as tall as my saw bench, which is 21 inches tall. Taller than the ones in the video. Other changes were made in the process too. In fact my pony is much more like a stool.

12 x 18 x 21 inches

  I had a wide softwood board that I used for the top and rounded one edge to make it nicer to sit upon.  The legs are 2 x 3s attached at a 3 degree angle, with a corresponding 3 degree cut on the bottom so it sits flat on the floor.  I opted for 3 degree to broaden the stool's stance.

   You can see that the stretchers are attached with pocket hole joinery, and the whole unit is very stable and sturdy.

  The plan is to paint the legs but put a nicer finish on the seat since it is a very nice piece of wood.  

  I think I may still make a pony (5 pieces of wood) with Kieran if he wants a seat for his new room.

  As well as working on the stool yesterday I finished a boot clip and cut up some cherry ready to be turned.  Like in a kitchen there is chopping and prepping that needs to be done before the fancy work happens.  I will have to dimension and plane a bunch of elm for the jewellery box I plan to make next too. (maybe this evening if things cool down a bit.)

cheers, ianw

Hand Saw Bench

   This morning, once I cleaned up the shop from the weekend's boat* production I began a larger project for myself/my shop.  About this time last year my shop work went off the rails with a serious back injury, and to get working at all I created raised tables to sit on top of my desk, and benches.  Standing very straight enabled me to get back to work with reduced pain.  High standing desks work OK, my computer desk is 48 inches off the floor. A work bench for carving, or using a Dremel tool that is that high off the floor is OK too, but it is no good for any sort of large scale work.  I don't know about you but I am not comfortable with real power tools that close to my face.

  

  The project I began is morning was a saw bench, a saw bench is traditionally used with hand saws and is designed to be used alone, were as 'saw horses' are used in pairs.  The bench will be about 23 inches off the floor 32 inches long  with a broad stance for stability.  

  My inspiration for this project is Tom Fidgen's latest book:

  I have both of his books and recommend them highly.  Hand tools have an important place in my shop but, my shop remains a hy-bred with both power and hand tools used on nearly all projects.  My saw bench will be used with all sort of saws, jig and circular saws need a solid, stable, reliable platform upon which to work just as much as a handsaw does.

   As with so many things that I make I am only using the plan as a guideline.  

  Tom's bench has a very good design, I think and the idea that one sent of legs is vertical while the other is splayed out is genius.  The top boards on my bench are 1 1/2 inch spruce rather than hard wood, I had some stud lumber and I know that it will get beat up and so will need replacing.

  The legs are going to be made from 2 inch poplar that is left over from previous projects.  I find that some poplar can be very heavy, straight grained and dense making it a useful, low cost 'hard wood'. 

   

    In the next blog I will show a hy-bred technique that I used to rip the poplar board down from 9 inches to 6 before it was planned.

cheers, ianw

* Kieran was here on the weekend and he collected a bundle of off cuts in the shop that we turned into two river barges and a submarine.  He did some cutting with a small hand saw and used the cordless drill to help me drill holes.  Kieran also has begun driving nails, he likes screws and nails better than glue, glue takes too long. I think he has wood worker genes in there some place.