Saturday, February 13, 2010

Saw Bench

One of the "secrets" of fast hand sawing is having your work elevated at an optimal height. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really makes a difference. This is my saw bench I made out of construction lumber. The short bottom stretchers are drawbored, and the long stretchers are wedged through tenons. The legs slip into the top, and are pegged with 1/2" oak dowel. Note the artistic license I took by creating the two saw cuts on the left. The top has a 3/4" hole drilled for my gramercy holdfast. The hole is situated so that the pad falls on the top of the leg, which is the strongest part.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Infill Plane Blade

I got the blade and cut it out, using a carbide-grit hacksaw blade, and refining the shape with my diamond stone. It took a long time. The blade has a 25 degree bevel, with a 30 degree micro bevel. It was slightly wider than 1.25", so I sanded the sides down to be slightly less, in order to allow for lateral adjustment.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Fillister Plane

I bought this plane a while ago, but haven't gotten around to posting it here. It is a wooden Hoey and Taber skewed fillister plane. This means that it can cut rabbets, and rabbets across the grain. The blade is skewed to make it cut smoother, especially across the grain. It has a strip of boxwood at its long edge (called "boxing"), a brass depth stop adjusted from above, an adjustable fence, and a nicker to score the grain prior to cutting it when planing cross-grain. So far I've only used it one project, and it works pretty well, but I'm still getting the hang of using wooden planes. This plane was the reason I made my plane adjusting hammer. Here are some shots of what it cuts:


I also looked up the planemaker's adress, it appears to be a HSBC bank. Too bad it's not still a planemaker's shop.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Tissue Box Cover

Last Christmas I made my sister a small box. I also made my aunt, uncle, and cousin a cover for a tissue box. It's all 1/4" thick quartersawn red oak, all from Lowes. In the second picture you can see where the sides were glued together to make a wide enough piece. The top and small sides are glued down the middle. Here are the pictures of the box in its new home. Thanks for the pictures Victor.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Plane Drilling Jig

I made this jig to accurately hold the plane parts together as I drill into the sides for the screws that hold everything together. The sole goes on the top, the sides are clamped to the sides. The middle piece is exactly the same size as the interior if the plane.


The base piece gets clamped into the drill press vise like so: