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12K views 23 replies 9 participants last post by  Dez 
#1 ·
Handplaning boards, Knot Repair & workbench stability

Yesterday, I took my lunch break and scooted off to the garage for a little therapy away from spreadsheets and financial forecasts.

There's a cherry board that I did a little knot repair to for practise. The board has some dry rot along one edge and I figured if I could fill the knot as per the technique in TWW episode 113, I could cut away the rot and salvage at least part of the board …

-Editors Note-I'm actually starting up my own blog page similar to EcoCandle (AKA ExtremelyAverage blog). They say that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I'll be doing that. If you want to read the rest, please visit my blog post here

I'm new to woodworking and even newer to blogging. I figure developing my creativity in blogging will help my creative skills in woodworking as well. So feel free to critique my site/style and whatever. Thanks.
 
#2 ·
Bench Stability - Part II

Tonight, as I write this, my wife is out with her sisters and I'm exercising my skills in fatherhood. I'm also watching my nephews. Currently, the boys are sleeping and my daughter has just finished her 8 PM snack. Yes, this means I'm not in the shop again tonight, but that's okay. I did spend a little time in the shop yesterday and as limited as it was, I did manage to work a little further on my knot repair exercise.

Welcome to Fight Club.
 
#3 ·
Managing Time

A little on my struggle to manage time, projects and patience.

>>May 25 Edit - I have gone back and copied the entire post over.<<

-
Time is a cruel task master. While most things happens in its own time, I remember reading that man has this obsessive need to compartmentalize it into many segments. Milena, centuries, decades, years, months, days, etc. It's been 3 hours since I had dinner. 16 days to the 5th year anniversary of meeting my wife. A sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.09054 seconds long. My cousin is getting married in 1 month and 3 days.

A month! Where does the time go? Too bad in our obsession to compartmentalize time, we can't actually put it into a compartment to save it for a rainy day (to quote a cliche).

Having a baby girl arrive in your world will make time seemingly move faster. There's more to do and less time to do it in. Between work, spring cleaning, night time meals and actually trying to spend some quality time with family, it doesn't leave a lot of shop time available. Not that I'm complaining. I'm very happy to have my daughter added into my life.

So, I need to start making more progress on the clock project that I've been working on as a wedding gift. While time is marching onwards, I can still finish it without compromising on the quality.

Today, I managed to get into the shop after getting home from church. That is, after an unanticipated nap and a check on how the grass seed is fairing in the spot that used to be covered by part of an old deck that was ripped out last year. My wife and daughter were out for the afternoon to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario with her sister and mother (hence the ability for the unanticipated nap).


This project is actually progressing nicely. I sanded all of the slats to 180 grit and did a dry fit of all the parts. The lower 3 slats were too long and had to be cut shorter and the tenons cut on one end again. Better too long than too short I say! With those 3 parts re sanded, I can begin applying the wiping varnish tomorrow. There was just too much dust in the air today.

So I laid out the parts and begin the hurry up and wait game tomorrow. Dust settled? Apply a coat, wait 1 day, apply a coat and wait a day. Yes, wiping varnish dries quicker, but I have this thing called a job during the week. If I can sneak out at lunch time, great. Or maybe before work in the morning if I'm not needed by my daughter.

In the meantime, I'll learn patience. At least until they invent the box that I can store time in.
 
#5 ·
Eureka!

Okay, it's not something I can gain a lot of prestige or money from, but it's a personal Eureka moment that I had to struggle with on my own to understand. Being of scientific mind, I couldn't let the issue lie from my last blog post on the shifting shades of my clock face.

If the hypothesis in my blog post is out to lunch, I would love to discuss it here or on my blog site.
 
#8 ·
If you can't stand the heat ...

also posted on my blog
...
My father was a Fin through and through even though. Like many who have chosen to find a new way of life in Canada, he was immensely proud of his heritage, loved all things Finnish. He would read Vappa Sana, eat pickled herring, drink Finlandia vodka and take a Sauna (not all at the same time though - although he had been known to sneak vodka into the sauna). He was my childhood hero.

Growing up, it was a requirement to take sauna (My dad always built one where-ever we lived). Traditional Finnish sauna meant dry heat to clear the pores. Sometimes it was just family. Sometimes friends were included. When it was family, we'd all be together. If friends were included, the women and men would take turns as it was done 'au natural'.


Occasionally, someone would throw water onto the heated rocks to create a blast of steam which turned the air from comfortably hot to lung choking, skin searing agony.

This very act would either send me to a lower bench or scurrying from the room in search of breathable air. I think Fins try to make bathing an act of bravery. If I left, my father would sternly say, "If you leave, you can't come back!" So I would hunch down on the lowest bench and hold my breath as I didn't want to be excluded or be less of a man (I was 12). The moisture would quickly dissipate either through a crack under the door or sucked into the dry ceder panelling on the walls. I would stay on that lower bench, but sit up a bit straighter. If I made it through the entire session without leaving, I would somehow feel like I had completed a step on the passage to adulthood. It didn't always happen.

25 years later, I can take the heat, but still hold my breath when the water is tossed onto the rocks. There's just something about hot humid air that I can't seem to handle.

This week, has been hot and humid. Not that clean heat of the sauna. The hot, sticky and nasty humidity that co-mingles with the polution in the city air. You can't cool yourself down by sweating as your sweat won't evaporate. The dirty, muggy air clings to you making you feel filthy just by being outside. Stain and water based finishes won't dry after the initial tack up because they can't push more moisture into the air. Seems many things had stacked up against me this week in making progress on the nursery cabinet.

My house has also conspired against me in the attempt to emphasize the discomfort I'm feeling. The air conditioner expired quietly on its own over the winter and was only replaced yesterday.

So, without a solace to retreat to, I decided against working out in the shop this week and hope to get back to it next week with a break in the weather predicted. This weekend is slated for garden work. It will be sweaty work, but at least I can retreat into air conditioned comfort at the end of the day and enjoy a cold beer and look forward to getting back into the shop.

Hopefully my tools haven't started to rust during this spell of humidity. Somehow, I think they'll handle it better than I do.
 
#17 ·
A new bench

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up the lumber for my workbench project.

Not maple, not beech, not birch, not even southern yellow pine.

That's right, I'm making it out of local SPF - Spruce/Pine/Fir.


You see, to make a bench out of hardwood, the top alone is going to cost over $300 clams. I just can't afford that right now, but I have a growing 'honey-do' list and I need something better than a piece of plywood on sawhorses because of my growing love of hand planes.

Searching around, I found a solution where a solid bench can be made from big box store lumber. Pop Wood has an article for a $175 workbench including vice hardware.

Tonight, my wife who is back home after surgery told me to go to the garage for a little while and that she would be fine. After making sure, and telling her I love her (ain't she great?), I zipped out and started milling the 2×8 lumber down to size which has been acclimating for the last 2 weeks.

I managed to get all of the boards milled down to thickness, but only 4 boards glued together. With all the humidity, the glue was still gooey after an hour. Over night it will sit for sure to ensure drying.
 
#18 ·
I have a workbench I built using a solid core institutional door. I bought it at a construction surplus warehous. It is heavy, flat, has a 1/4" thick birch surface. Cost - - -$10.00. You would be amazed at what treasures others call surplus.

Bill
 
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