I have always wanted one of those little mallets like Glen-Drake sells but never wanted to spend that much money for it.

I started with a piece of 1-1/4 in (About 35mm to you Metricans) brass that I had picked up at work but never could get a good finish on. Well, I finally spent some time this weekend sharpening up a set of tools for cutting brass. Once turned to diameter, the rest of it was turned with regular wood turning tools.

After turning it, I chucked it up in a vise, milled a small flat on it, and drilled a 1/2in through hole. Then the fun began. I cut off a small piece of Texas ebony for the handle and thought I would turn it on my mini-lathe since I had already put my cheesy steady rest on and I didn’t feel like messing with the big lathe. Well, I got it chucked up and started to turn a cylinder. I had not been really thinking about the impacts from the interrupted cuts to get it turned down and all of a sudden it stopped spinning while the motor was still running. I had broken one of the plastic gears on my spindle.

Well, after a few hours disassembling lathe spindle to get to the gears and yup, sure enough, split the gear right off the jack shaft. Well, I could have just bought a new gear for $10 but I decided that I didn’t want to have to go in and ever change those gears again so I went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered a full set of gears to replace all the plastic gears with metal. Think of it as a lifetime investment.

After killing the mini-lathe, I moved on over to the big lathe. Of course most of my lathe turning tools were dull from my last time turning tool steel with them. I found enough of them that were usable and went ahead and finished up the handle. Finish is just beeswax. Right now, the handle is just driven through the head but when it loosens up, I will go ahead and trim it a bit and pin it with a piece of brass rod. I was just tired and didn’t feel like messing with it.

It feels really nice in my hand and surprisingly massive. I think I will be using it a lot. Total cost ended up about triple what it would have cost to just buy one from Glen-Drake but the new gears will be a nice upgrade for my metal lathe.

Update:

It was starting to bother me so I went ahead and drilled a cross pin and drove in some brass rod to pin it on. Chopped it off with a hacksaw, peened it over and sanded it flush. The head is not going anywhere.

Well, I finally got out the kit and put it together. The assembly was real straight forward.

This is a 1-1/2 in plane blade and a “seconds” body. The stock had a couple pitch pockets in it that mostly got trimmed off anyway so I can’t say that it made much difference. I am not put off by wood that actually looks like real wood instead of some perfect plastic version of wood.

The plane kit in itself is deathly simple to put together:

Line up the pieces of stock and clamp it together leaving one blade thickness between the blocks to form the mouth.

Drill some holes in the corner for 1/4 in dowels.

Draw the outline of the throat on the inside of the cheek pieces to know where not to put the glue.

Apply glue and put it together with the dowels in the corner to align things.

Clamp and wait.

Stick in the cross dowel.

Put the blade in to apply some tension.

Dress up the bottom with a plane (or you could use sandpaper on a flat surface)

Open the mouth a bit to expose the blade.

Trim and shape to taste.

Finish and get busy making stuff.

The only deviation I did from the instructions was to open up the mouth more with a file rather than from flattening as I did get things lined up well enough on the glue up to not need to remove that much from the bottom.

I traced an outline of what I wanted for a shape and cut out on the bandsaw. Then I went at it with a rasp to ease the edges and leave a bit of a non-slip texture on the body. A bit of clear Watco and a beeswax polish to make smell pretty and seal it up.

It was a lot of fun and I will definitely make a couple more.

This is based on the hardware from Grammercy Tools (http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com)

I had previously started making a saw totally out of Texas Ebony. Well, the twisty grain got me and it self destructed. This morning, I decided to put my new workbench to work and remake it. I ran up to get some Red Oak from the Borg and did a little shopping. I picked up the one straight 4’ 1×2 that they had and a 3’ 2×2 for the handles. I also picked up a can of Watco for finishing. Also stopped by HF to pick up a cheap coping saw since I can’t find mine right now.

I cut the 3 pieces for the arms and crosspiece and marked off for the mortises and the pins for the blade holders following the measurements from Grammercy’s plans. I chopped the mortises by hand for some practice and to test out my holdfasts on my new bench. Yay! Holdfasts are wonderful to have again. I cut the tenons with my other bow saw and trimmed the shoulders by eye with a chisel. Amazing how much easier it is with a vise that actually holds. I drilled the holes on the drill press.

I sketched out one stretcher to see how I wanted it shaped and cut it out with the coping saw. I hate coping saws. Especially cheap ones. Once I had the first one roughed out, I traced it on the second arm. Then I chucked the belt sander in the vise and clamped the two arms together and refined the shapes. After that, I worked them down with a spokeshave and rasps. I assembled it to shape the crosspiece.

The toggle is the leftover toggle from the self destructing saw made out of Texas Ebony. The line is 1.8mm Dyneema double braid. This time I will be careful not to crank it down too tight.

This time around, I pre-drilled the holes for the hardware in the handle blanks. Don’t ask why I didn’t do it last time. A quick sanding and the first coat of oil for a finish and I am all done except for gluing in the hardware. I will mix up a bit of epoxy tonight or tomorrow and put them in permanently.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Well, I finally finished the workbench I have been playing with.

The plan:

The product:

The legs are 4×4 cedar with 2×4 crossbeams through mortised into the legs.

The crossbeams are pinned with 1/2 in hardwood dowels.

I was particularly pleased with how all the tenons seated without gaps. I can occasionally get a bit off chopping the cheeks of the tenons.

I decided against making pads for the feet and just scabbed on another piece of 2×4 glued on with Titebond III. I figured that it was not worth the trouble to do it in pieces.

I am not sure yet on how I like how far the vise is inset. I set it in according to the included directions but I might set it back a bit further into the bench. There is enough clearance but I figure that I can move it in if I don’t like it. It will be a small job if I decide to change it. I figured that I would not mess with the manufacturers instructions until I gave it a chance.

The top is made of 3 layers of 3/4 hardwood ply glued with Titebond III and a floating tempered hardboard face that I can replace as it gets banged up. I have not decided yet if I will pin it down with either some hot glue or some countersunk screws in the corners to keep it from slipping. It is held in well enough for now by the edge frame. The top is lag screwed to the base with four 1/4×3 screws through the leg caps into the top.

I cut out the clearance for the vise on each layer of ply before glue up.

I left a bit extra clearance to be able to adjust the position of the vise after I get used to using it.

I might sand and paint the wood but I think for now, I am just going to use it as is. I still have to decide where I want to drill holes for my holdfasts and stuff but I will let that happen organically as I develop work patterns on the bench.

In case you were wondering, the goo that you see around the top and bottom of the leg beams is a thickened epoxy that I used to glue the cap pieces into the dadoes. The tenons are just pinned without glue.

Now to get to work.