Even before I could begin today's work I had to clean up last week's left overs. Building in the shop with my Grand Children tends to be messy. I used these two tools to roughly shape the hull of our latest boat. For years the blades have been projected by card board and duct tape. This morning I decided that they deserved more respect than that. Especially the draw knife, it is many many years old and was made for my late Grandfather by a local smith in Bracebridge, Ontario. As tools go it is excellent, razor sharp and remarkably easy to control for its size.
Today I took the few minutes necessary to make proper guards for these tools . I ripped some 2 x 3 spruce and used my table saw to cut a slot in the guard. Unlike a stop gap job of cardboard and duct tap, I made the guards fit properly, not just adequately. Once made I went the extra step to sand the work and break all the edges. I have a supply of bicycle inner tubes on hand, they make excellent heavy duty elastic bands.
A couple of silly little jobs like this can be done with very limited available tools. When you have a shop it is amazing how many tools come into use, cause they are available. I used my table saw, my band saw, my 6 x 24 inch belt sander, glue and clamps as well as hand sand paper. Don't forget the drill press and drill bits and block plane. All those tools aren't necessary but it makes replacing card board and duct tape easy and rewarding. Each time I reach for my draw knife and push knife I will know the blades were safe and will be sharp. These guards will also serve as a lesson to my Grand children to take proper care of their stuff.
Yesterday's project was filling in the crack in my ash wood round. I used a variety of power tools to flatten the round first. I began with my power hand planer to knock the roughest stuff off. I find the power planer pretty aggressive, or at least that's how I use it and it survives the treatment.
I next moved to a 5 inch grinder with a 36 grit disk and then my 4 1/2 inch grinder with a 100 grit disk.
The next challenge was fitting a wedge into the big crack. I decided there was no way the repair would be invisible so I didn't even try. First I traced the crack onto a bit of paper then transferred the shape to a piece of spruce and cut it out, (more or less) on the band saw. Then it was a trial and error, fit and fuss process until I got the wedge shaped more or less to match the crack.
I used Gorilla Glue and some filler putty to firmly install the wedge. Then I did some extra sanding and it looked better than I had planned. Originally the round was destined to be a three legged stool, now it is going to be a side table in our living room.
The change in plan for the round of Ash means that today I was gluing up some wood to become four legs.
After facing the boards on my jointer I glued them together in pairs. I will cut them into squares and turn them on my lathe. One pair of boards couldn't be glued to day, they were wet, my out side lumber stack cover leaked. No trouble I will not have time to turn all four legs in one day. My back is getting better, or I am getting better at coping. I can work in my shop for 3 or 4 hours in a day now, which is not perfect, but it is much better than no hours a day which it has been in the recent past.
While I was gluing wood today I also re-sawed some spruce to 1/4 inch for a tea box that I plan to make. I squared the board on my jointer, then re-sawed the boards on my 14 inch band saw and then planed them to thickness with my 12 inch planner. If I were doing lots of thin board, small projects I would like to have a thickness sander. At this point I'm set for tools, but...you never know the future.
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