One benefit of being off the bike and taking up a new hobby, woodworking, is that I can fairly quickly do crude work now. Something like a bike workstand becomes very simple. I am not going to claim I busted this out in 30 minutes, but it took less than 2 hours from brainfart to bike holding

Construction materials:
1 – 2×4x12ft
1 – 3/8in T-nut
1 – 3/8in eye bolt
20+/- – wood screws
2sqft – scrap mdf 3/4in
3 – Washers
1 – 3/4in oak dowel approx 8in (for leverage on eye bolt)
3” – 3/8in steel rod for alignment (so the jaw can’t rotate)

Build is simple. Double up the 2×4, or just start with 4×4. Use the mdf to make corner braces. I then used a scrap of poplar to create the clamp jaw. I use an eye bolt and T-nut to create the clamp pressure and a 3/8in steel rod to keep it from rotating. I mounted that up and then drilled through the middle of the clamp joint with a 1in drill bit. After drilling I relieved the outer sides to make getting the bike in and out quicker.

Now of course you have to have a vise that is strong enough to hold the stand. I suppose you could build this stand off of a wall stud or clamp/screw it to something as well. I have a twin screw wood vise on my bench. I can raise and lower the stand in the vise. I can also angle it in the vise to rotate the front wheel up if needed.

And a shot of the whole bench set up in bike wrenching mode:

Then of course there is Zoe, shop helper. She is cool with bikes and likes to hang out in the garage.

Take a look at these 2 chisels. The smaller one shows a very nice mirror polish. It was taken up to 6000g king waterstone, the polish appears almost as good off the 4000g stone though. The larger chisel was prepped using a black Arkansas stone. It has a dull appearance, but still some amount of mirror to it. The finish is less uniform.

This is a stupid thing to split hairs over, but it has bothered me. My first sharpening tools were waterstones. At this point my skill level has improved, yet I can’t get my oilstones to produce a sheen like that of the waterstones.

I am starting to think it is just a result of the slurry that builds on top of the waterstone. The fine abrasive that breaks loose must be of a finer particle size and leads to a higher polished appearance than an equivalent oilstone. Does this agree with anyone else’s observation? Or am I just stretching here?

The funny part is that the blade is just as sharp if not better off the oilstone. It just doesn’t look as pretty. Off the 6000g king the blade still needs a stropping. I used to go straight off of an 8000g norton to work, but since I started stropping me definition of sharp has changed slightly :D

So at the end of the day the blades are sharp. I have gotten decent enough at freehand to be able to freehand on my waterstones. I found that the quality of the cutting edge is about the same despite looks of the entire bevel and back being a bit different. So I guess I just have to be content knowing that despite the lack of mirror polish on my oilstone-sharpened tools they are still very sharp. Oh, and of course I still think waterstones are a mess to work with :p

my LumberJocks workshop:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/dsb1829/workshop

The dirty side of the shop. This counter is a magnet for clutter. The cabinets house finishing products, house paints, power tools, router bits, carving sets, and extra hardware. High speed grinder and the air compressor are in here somewhere. The mower is in for service, usually it lives outside.

The drill press, nothing new here. Steel shelves for stuff.

Steel storage cabinet and the sliding miter saw. I am really stoked on the new saw, much more capacity and easier to adjust than my old makita chop saw.

Tablesaw and router station.

The new workbench. Lumber storage. Clamp rack.

Jointer and the bandsaw just hanging out.

The sharpening station. I am enjoying the station. It is much more efficient having the large granite surface plate. I can sharpen several blades in about the same time that I used to take for one. The wet-stone grinder doesn’t see much use, generally I go from the slow speed grinder to the stones or skip the grinders entirely.

A shot of the cabinet workbench. I still spend most of my time here. I think eventually my woodworking bench will be in this position under the peg board and the cabinets will move over to where the mess is and replace the lower wood cabinets. Still working out the details of that with the boss.

and a youtube video I took this evening…

Nothing too fancy, just wanted to get a new tour up for friends and family to see what I have been up to. Hope you enjoyed the tour and feel free to ask questions.

Well, today I had a silly notion to just string them up by their knobs and be done with it. A few nylon zip ties later and I can happily say that it works great and was very easy to install.

edit 1/21 okay, I managed to dig up a partial before image
Here it is in the Evapo-rust and it gives some clue what I mean by crusty…

Okay, on with the show…

This afternoon I prepped a blade for it. It isn’t vintage. In fact the blade is from a type16 plane. But since I am cambering it heavily and using this No6 as a true fore plane I figured this is a moot point. The later planes have thicker irons which will work out adventaegously. Here is a shot of the cambered and sharpened blade. I may need to open up the mouth a bit to accomodate the thick shavings.

It didn’t clog with my testing this afternoon. If it bugs me I will adjust it. As it is I am impressed with the workings of this plane. It cleans up like a scrub, but has a lot more mass and stability. I think I will be spending plenty of quality time with this plane in the near future.

Near as I can tell this is a type6. I have restored it to close to mint parts and function.

Hopefully this tool will last a few more generations…

Adhere some sandpaper to a flat surface. I prefer 3M super77 and a granite surface plate for the substrate.

Use 60-80g until you have a uniform scratch pattern. I prefer Norton 3X 80g at this phase. It is a fast cutter and the paper is thick, so it is easy to install and remove from the granite.

Next comes the 220g w/d. Generally I can get away with using it dry. Again, go for a uniform scratch pattern. I typically try to rotate 90 degrees from the previous pattern, so I know when I have removed all previous scratches.

Onto 400g w/d. Again, remove all previous scratches. I will start to do random motion at this point and lighter pressure once the 220g scratches are worked out. At this point you will begin to pick up a mirror finish.

Next comes 1000g w/d. You know the routine. Remove the scratches. At this time you will have a decent mirror polish going. It is about equivalent to my hard black Arkansas stone.

At this point I will go back and work over the primary bevel. On a new Hock blade or a previously prepped blade I usually can go to the 400 and back to 1000g.

Black Arkansas back, secondary bevel, then strop using green rouge.

Going freehand and by this routine doesn’t give as pretty of an edge as going up through 8000g waterstones using an eclipse jig. But you know it is pretty liberating to ditch the training wheels. I have noticed no decline in cut quality or sharpness of the finished blade. This method is also fairly easy to apply to heavily cambered blades, just add a wrist roll to the regime.

At the end of the day I still need more practice. But I am looking forward to the day that I don’t feel attached to a sharpening jig.

Check this out
Grizzly Shop Planner
It is a fun little flash layout tool designed to help you figure out where you can stuff more tools in your shop. It can also be used for home layout as well. Fun stuff. Very quick and easy.

Here is what I worked out from memory on my shop.

What else is new?
I managed to sand off the tip of my thumb again. Seems like every time I have to prep a new blade for a plane that I end up sanding off a bunch of skin. I haven’t gone to the point of bleeding, but it sure feels bad for a few days after the fact. I posted over on woodnet and apparently I am not alone in this minor oversight. It is weird, because I don’t feel any abrasion while doing it but later when I clean up it hurts. Live and learn.

I have been testing out silicone carbide loose abrasive in the shop. This stuff is fun. Cuts like nobodys business at first and over time fractures into smaller less abrasive particles. I am using it on the bottom of my granite surface plate. It would work better with a cast iron or mild steel substrate, but honestly it works pretty well on the granite. I have a bit more playing around before I have this lapping method dailed, but for now I can say that it is faster and cheaper than sandpaper for flat lapping the plane blades.

That’s all I got for now. Probably starting a couple new furniture pieces here in the next week or so, so stay tuned.

First item of the day, hand plane the legs, vise mount, and apron flush. Minor issue, this bench is getting heavy. I managed to get it down without much strife. I went to pick the thing back up when done and failed. Took 2 more attempts to right this beast. Amazingly enough I have managed to move this bench around without assistance through the entire build. But gravity almost won today ;-)

So I ran the block plane over the legs to flush them up and remove the glue squeeze-out. I then used the no608 to run everything flush. I will use that term lightly. It isn’t perfect, but it will do.

My biggest flaw:

Yep, ended up with one of the feet off by over 1/4in. Oh well, call it a learning experience and move on. I may fix it at some point but the only real reason to do so is for vanity-sake.

Here is what it should look like, not a prefect mate but much better…

I added a t-nut and 3/8in bolt for a leveler on the rear foot. Nothing fancy, just makes life easier with an uneven garage floor. So now I can tripod and then use this screw to locate the 4th foot.

The twin screw is back together. I flushed the top with the bench top. Here you can see the mounting blocks and leg flushed as well as the carrier pins.

The end vise:

I think I will make an oak chock for it out of the mistake chock from the twin screw. Maybe later, I am going to use this one for a bit longer first. Here is a birdseye view of the end vise dog holes stretching the entire bench. I can handle up to just over 9ft boards between the dog holes, that should hold me for now.

Remember that sand used for the top lamination??

That is mass that we can use. Put it in tubs so it doesn’t continue to leak sand in the shop. Then put those tubes on the shelf.

Instant 200+lb to the bench. It is pretty good without it, but that mass really anchors the bench and gives it a rock-solid feel. Only dissadvantage I see is that you have to remove the tubs to move the bench around the shop. No biggie.

Parting shot, smile and wave…

Time log: 41 hours

Nothing too noteworthy. Chop, hand plane, bandsaw to width, clean up by plane, bandsaw to thickness, clean up with hand planes. Sorry, didn’t detail that out. I kind of cover most of that in my rough lumber posting
The hole bored near the bottom is a clearance hole for the shelf hardware.

After resaw we have something that looks like this.

I remove about 1/16in by hand plane so that the apron is just thicker than the legs. In theory this will make flushing out everything a bit easier tomorrow.

Okay, final dry fitting.

I crept up on the length with my block plane. I am really becoming fond of that little bugger for end grain. With gauge lines on the part I can actually stay pretty darn square. Without gauge lines I am still a bit rough around the edges. Hopefully my skill there will improve.

Glue it up, clamp it, and call it a day.

time log: 38hr

Stay tuned for flushing out the front of the bench tomorrow and hopefully a completion of the workbench series.

I went ahead and split the vise. I decided that the front leg lamination should run top to bottom. So I pulled the vies and split the block. I mentioned slipping in my last entry. So when I remounted the blocks I used a liberal coating of 3M super77 spray adhesive. Seems to have done the trick. Now the blocks are rock solid to the bench top, yet if need be I can still remove them.

Next detail to attend to is the taper on the chock. I placed a thin scrap at the top of the vise and closed it down snug. I measured about .10” deflection top to bottom on the chock. So I transfered that measure to the bottom of the chock, struck a line, and then used my hand planes to remove the material.

I started with my no78 rabbit to establish a good depth on the low end. Then I swapped over to the no5 for bulk removal.
Winding sticks are your friend for an operation like this. I imagine it is pretty easy to introduce a twist doing this taper.

After getting roughly where we needed to be I pulled out the no608 and evened it all out.

Next up was the carrier pins. Not sure if that is what to call them or not. Basically a borrowed idea from the Veritas twin screw. These 3/8in steel pins keep your work piece from coming in contact with the vise screw. I had to run mine inboard of the screws, they would be better served outboard but my mounting bolts were in the way. Who the heck is in charge of this design anyways???
Note: I used the drill press to make the mounting holes. These holes should be tight tolerance so the pins press fit into them. They are also perpendicular to the tapered face. The easiest way for me to achieve this setup was to put the chock taper down on the DP and drill all the way through it.

I then used a transfer punch to mark the mounting block. I used an oversized brad point drill to make the mating clearance hole in the mounting blocks. Easy peasy.

That pretty much wraps up the twin screw. I will flush plane the mounting block to the leg and apron tomorrow. As it is, it is up and operational. The flush trim is for improved grip, aesthetics, and just a finishing touch.

time log: 35hr