saw donkey and more......

It turns out I didn't sleep very well last night. I kept being told to wake up so I could fully enjoy the muscle cramps I was experiencing in my right thigh. Repeatedly, all night long. As soon as one woke me up and faded, I would fall back to sleep, and another one would say hello. I think I stretched the hamstrings a lot more than they were used to on friday. I'm still on the sore side today and I moved over to the slow lane of travel.

it's proposed home

Out of the clamps and all the joinery is tight and I got no creaking or groaning removing the clamps. I still have to level it but I wanted to make sure it would fit here. I got my measurements right and it fits on the center of the miller dowels.

side shot

planing stops

Scrap plywood and scrap pine, poplar, and white oak.

my idea for a planing stop(s)

I went with three different widths on the stops because I won't know what size stock I'll have to plane. I will glue a scrap of wood on each end of the planing stop, each one a different thickness. This way I can pick the right stop for the thickness of what I want to plane. I glued them up and set them aside to cook.

sawing off the extra

I marked my line on the legs and sawed it off. One leg only had a whisker to remove and I did that with a block plane.

back leg needs some work

The back leg is the one I shaved with the block plane. The shelf isn't rocking but I don't like the slant/gap on this leg. I fussed a bit more with the block plane until I got it flat. That introduced a teeny bit of rocking that I corrected by shaving two other legs.

no rocking

I checked for rocking by pressing down on the opposite corners on the top of the ends.  I got no rocking here on the tablesaw nor on the bookcase where this will live.  It's almost ready to apply the shellac.

put a small bevel on all the outside edges

I didn't like the square edged look of this. The bevels softened it and I think they are better choice then rounding over the edges.

did the inside edges too

The only places I didn't bevel were the round cutouts on the bottom of the ends, the back of the bottom shelf, and the bottom shelf in the back.  All of these edges I broke with sandpaper. Once the books go in, these won't be seen.

chisel work too

I was able to get most of the bevels done with a small block plane except for this. I continued where the bevel ended from the plane into the corner with the chisel.

Hake brushes

These are the brushes that Paul Sellers uses. I don't know if he uses this brand but he has mentioned Hake brushes several times. I got these two from Amazon with a xmas gift certificate. I got a 1" and 1 1/4" size to start with to see how they work. These are supposedly made by hand the same way they have been done for over a 100 years.

handles are long

I'm not sure that I am going to like the length of these brushes. I can see why they need to be that long so I'll keep an open mind. My last set of artist brushes turned out to be crap. The metal ferrule that secured the bristles to the handle came loose. After fixing it a bazillion times, it finally said I quit and went south. For a $20 brush (1"), I expected it to last a lot longer than 6-8 months.

worked

In spite of the planing stop raising up at the end, it worked well.  It was a PITA to hold it down but I think I'm on the right track here. I don't mind having to clamp it to the bench. Using nails or screws would make life easier but that is not something I want to do.

I sawed it in half

The bow is gone and both pieces lay flat on the bench. I'll have to use it this way to make sure that they are long enough to clamp to bench and not interfere with the planing action.

the end of the road for me

The decision was made to haul the lunchbox planer up from the cellar out to the driveway. Haul up a small bench to set the planer on and then the eight pieces to be planed. Plane the stock and then repeat the hauling fun in reverse. I was ready to put on my pj's and go to bed after this adventure.

Instead napping and after resting for a couple of hours, I went back to the shop and planed all 8 pieces smooth. Every face had planer tracks in them (nicks in the planer knives) and a few had snipe that I had to plane out. I got the feet and the tops cut to finished length. These four pieces are the uprights. I have to cut these to final length but that will be done tomorrow.

I got the idea for this from a Richard Maguire blog post he did here. I'm looking forward to road testing my version of his saw donkeys.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
What is grammatical pedantry syndrome or GPS?
answer - an obsessive need to correct other people's grammar