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Shed / Sidecar Cot / Woodworking / Workbench — No Comments
06
Nov 16

Small jobs again…

Just not a very productive Sunday really. Checked my squares, found one is so not square that I threw away the crosspiece and I’ll use it as a straightedge from now on.

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Then got on with building the jig. Laid out the geometry (a 10.3″ radius curve gives a 12″ radius curve and 15 degrees of springback).

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Shop cat is somewhat critical of the layout…img_9829a img_9831a

Laminating MDF to make a drying form (which will have the 12″ radius and the walnut gets clamped to this for a week after it’s had a day or so on the bending jig to cool).

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Lots of laminated MDF and 2×4 chunks. This is when you not only have insufficient clamps but also insufficient space to put the drying bits 😀

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I thought it was a bit of a gimmicky thing when I bought it, but those silicone glue brushes work damn well. Worth every cent (especially when buying them from Rutlands in the UK instead of buying the Rockler ones from the US).

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And last job, fixing and reattaching the vice jaws (finally – shop jobs seem to be cobbler’s children really). img_9843a

Simple enough job, just counterboring for nuts and ensuring they were below the surface of the face. Complicated only by not having a drill press or fostner bits, but an auger bit and brace and a little fustering sufficed.

Then went through the stock in the woodpile matching pieces to cutlists and finding that for the largest panel in the crib, I don’t have long enough boards to do lengthwise glue-ups in the panel. Hmmm. Is it okay to run the glue-ups crosswise I wonder….

Shed / Woodworking — 1 Comment
30
Oct 16

Tidying up and small jobs

Didn’t get the jig built. But did get the lawnmower and a lot of other annoying floorspace eaters cleared out to the garden storage box, so I’ve now gone from this:

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being under my feet to this:

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It’s a remarkable change 😀

Mind you, while getting that done other stuff had to be moved about so for a while, this was my bench…

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So not ideal. I finished breaking down almost all of the boards from friday (there’s still one 6’x6″ walnut board I haven’t cut yet) and stacking them and generally doing small bits of tidying away (like putting some mdf on the floor under the timber because that floor looks manky):

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So a little crowded again, but the dremel, the bench grinder and air compressor are all going up on french cleats on the wall or elsewhere in the shed, along with those clamps; and as to the wood, well, that’s three or four projects on the go so it’s not just sitting around taking up space, it’s raw materials. I can live with that.

Still way too small a shed though.

And then I started trying to get some more things off the bench to free up more space. So the holdfasts finally got storage holes in the legs…

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(I couldn’t drill a second in the right leg because there’s a tumbledrier in the way. Don’t ask).

And the scrapers finally get a small holder to get them out of the way and kept together.

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And last small job was to get the hammers off the bench and onto the wall. So a small lath of 2×1 and some holes drilled at a 15° angle and some 18mm dowel and glue gives this work in progress:

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I’ll let that cure overnight, then drill some pilot holes down from the top of the lath through the dowel centers, and drop a screw down the middle to add some strength, then chisel and plane the back flat and screw it to the wall. Then I’ll hang the hammers on it and hold my breath…

Woodworking / Workbench — No Comments
20
Sep 16

Veritas

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So. I was kindof impressed with the veritas end vice for surviving the wallop the way it did. I mean, “Must survive having 500lb of bench and idiot dropped on the handle by the idiot” can’t have been on the design specs after all, and yet it managed it. So I wrote off to Veritas just to say nicely done lads, that’s a nice bit of kit. Because that sort of thing ought to happen to engineers a bit more often.

Hi Mark,

Ouch! We hope you are OK? Definitely a good test for the vise!!

Please let us have your full postal address and we will be very happy to send a replacement main shaft and handle at no charge. It will be our contribution to  finishing off your bench as intended and having everything working and looking good. The shaft should be an easy switch by removing the spring pin in the handle and the two screws holding the end cap in place.

Regards,

 

They’re posting – unasked for and free of charge – a replacement screw shaft for the vice, so it’d look its best.

I mean, I know, cheap marketing and so on, but still. Deserves a bit of a thumbs-up I thought. Can’t see Bosch doing that because I dropped a drill and the casing survived the impact. And it’s kindof — not to be too much of a leftie pinko commie hippie about it — but it’s kindof nice when a manufacturer does that sort of thing, especially these days.

So there it is. A nice little postscript to the build.

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