Discussion
I just wanted to express my admiration of this thread and the pieces of work posted. I tripped over this thread when it happened to sit alongside the “tools you wish etc.” and after flicking back a few pages, I read it start to finish.
Keen amateur woodworker, although I ought to work “lapsed” into that description. I hand built our previous kitchen in ash, including laminating up iroko worktops, and I also made the window frames for house extension number 1. Children and long working hours put paid to that sort of thing, and my bandsaw probably didn’t see action for over a decade. I retired at the end of 2023 and the completion of house extension number 3 (I had the windows made!) is in sight so hopefully some woodwork can be squeezed into other retirement plans. I’ve placed a few orders with Axminster, and taken the first steps into Festool tartdom with a plunge saw purchase.
Embarrassingly the most important lesson I’ve learned from this thread relates to my Elektra Beckum planer thicknesser. I purchased it around 1997 and I purchased the wheel kit at the same time. It was only spotting someone else’s EB planer in a workshop photo I realised I had attached the handle wrongly (it was attached beneath the fixed outfeed table) and all those years of struggling to move it while twisting my upper body out of the way made sense. I swapped the handle yesterday and did a few victory laps of the drive to celebrate the ease of movement.
Keen amateur woodworker, although I ought to work “lapsed” into that description. I hand built our previous kitchen in ash, including laminating up iroko worktops, and I also made the window frames for house extension number 1. Children and long working hours put paid to that sort of thing, and my bandsaw probably didn’t see action for over a decade. I retired at the end of 2023 and the completion of house extension number 3 (I had the windows made!) is in sight so hopefully some woodwork can be squeezed into other retirement plans. I’ve placed a few orders with Axminster, and taken the first steps into Festool tartdom with a plunge saw purchase.
Embarrassingly the most important lesson I’ve learned from this thread relates to my Elektra Beckum planer thicknesser. I purchased it around 1997 and I purchased the wheel kit at the same time. It was only spotting someone else’s EB planer in a workshop photo I realised I had attached the handle wrongly (it was attached beneath the fixed outfeed table) and all those years of struggling to move it while twisting my upper body out of the way made sense. I swapped the handle yesterday and did a few victory laps of the drive to celebrate the ease of movement.
akirk said:
I have just used those in a shoe rack…
Wood on workbench clamped down
Metal edge (track saw track) clamped on top
Ran router along and took off 2mm at a time…
Easy and six done within a few minutes…
Chisels will work but are hard to get accurate unless you are expert with them…
I’m thinking about a tool for rebates/grooves etc.Wood on workbench clamped down
Metal edge (track saw track) clamped on top
Ran router along and took off 2mm at a time…
Easy and six done within a few minutes…
Chisels will work but are hard to get accurate unless you are expert with them…
I’ve had mixed luck with power tools for finesse.
On fixed installations (ie, workshop bench tools) then yeah great, fixed cutting and move the work.
But moving the power tool over work can require so much setup and inprecision.
Then hand tools can really be great but as you say, they need practice to be good, and come with all the setup/sharpening/use idiosyncrasies.
I’m limited on space so for me it’s hand power tools, or hand tools…
I keep flip flopping from router/plough plane to a router and jig type setups.
I’ve got other hand tools and power tools and neither have been a panacea… I often think they’re best used together.
Ie, power planer for fast prep, and hand planer for finishing.
But that’s twice as expensive and even more space needed!
Sorry, had a bad day with my oak shelf projects. Every cut I make, or mm of material planed off, seems to end in movement.
Then when they’re near flat, the grain seems to run in both directions in places, with no way to get it flat without a fraction of a mm divots forming which only a cabinet scraper will fix… another tool I need… or ironically the brutish power planer which leaves it like glass… but also leaves tracks in the board at the edges of its cutter (oh for cambered blades!)
I swear I bought the two worst rough sawn oak boards possible
A new project is taking shape in the Shed of Wonders (House of Blunders).
A lady friend has asked for a pine blanket chest.
I have noticed that pine T&G flooring is pretty accurately machined and fits together well with minimal if any correction needed to flush the joints so here goes.
If I don't cock it up I'll show you who wins.
Might take a while because of my fixation with hand tool only working, and because I have other work to do resurrecting a dead engine in a fishing boat.
Retirement can be fun after all.
A lady friend has asked for a pine blanket chest.
I have noticed that pine T&G flooring is pretty accurately machined and fits together well with minimal if any correction needed to flush the joints so here goes.
If I don't cock it up I'll show you who wins.
Might take a while because of my fixation with hand tool only working, and because I have other work to do resurrecting a dead engine in a fishing boat.
Retirement can be fun after all.
By the way I have previously noted that the #80 cabinet scraper is worthless on softwood but I have to add a caveat to that opinion, following my recent learning on how to set it up and sharpen it.
It's still next to useless for broad surfacing on softwood but I must say it's great for cutting down knotwood on white pine, as long as you don't overdo it.
I don't know why it's called a scraper, it's actually a crossbreed species of half spokeshave and half plane.
Nice tool, I'm getting rather fond of it.
It's still next to useless for broad surfacing on softwood but I must say it's great for cutting down knotwood on white pine, as long as you don't overdo it.
I don't know why it's called a scraper, it's actually a crossbreed species of half spokeshave and half plane.
Nice tool, I'm getting rather fond of it.
Edited by Error_404_Username_not_found on Thursday 21st March 22:39
gtidriver said:
We needed a new knife rack so I made this recently, the magnets are set in the wood but im not happy with it, mk2 coming in a few weekends. 
I think that’s a good idea. Any way you could get some Uber powerful magnets and the put them in a piece of wood with a veneer covering them so they sat against wood alone? I’d quite like one of those! Edited by gtidriver on Thursday 21st March 23:52
Austin_Metro said:
gtidriver said:
I think that’s a good idea. Any way you could get some Uber powerful magnets and the put them in a piece of wood with a veneer covering them so they sat against wood alone? I’d quite like one of those! 
Austin_Metro said:
gtidriver said:
I think that’s a good idea. Any way you could get some Uber powerful magnets and the put them in a piece of wood with a veneer covering them so they sat against wood alone? I’d quite like one of those! Error_404_Username_not_found said:
A new project is taking shape in the Shed of Wonders (House of Blunders).
A lady friend has asked for a pine blanket chest.
I have noticed that pine T&G flooring is pretty accurately machined and fits together well with minimal if any correction needed to flush the joints so here goes.
If I don't cock it up I'll show you who wins.
Might take a while because of my fixation with hand tool only working, and because I have other work to do resurrecting a dead engine in a fishing boat.
Retirement can be fun after all.
Cock ups on this thread, are you sure?A lady friend has asked for a pine blanket chest.
I have noticed that pine T&G flooring is pretty accurately machined and fits together well with minimal if any correction needed to flush the joints so here goes.
If I don't cock it up I'll show you who wins.
Might take a while because of my fixation with hand tool only working, and because I have other work to do resurrecting a dead engine in a fishing boat.
Retirement can be fun after all.
Opportunities for correction, I think you’ll find. wolfracesonic said:
Austin_Metro said:
gtidriver said:
I think that’s a good idea. Any way you could get some Uber powerful magnets and the put them in a piece of wood with a veneer covering them so they sat against wood alone? I’d quite like one of those! And be very accurate on depth.
Test pieces, calipers, and a pillar drill would make it a nice task.
But doing 20+ holes just right would be hard work… one wrong and it’s start over again
But yes that’s what I thought would be the way to go. Nothing like making a job harder for yourself
Acquired a box of bits from a friends garage clear out (all of which will be handy I'm sure at some point in the next three decades).
Anyway; in the box was a marking gauge which had seen better days.
A very pleasant hour or so listening to Radio 4 in the shed whilst it was dismantled, cleaned up and oiled to become a thing of beauty again.
Anyway; in the box was a marking gauge which had seen better days.
A very pleasant hour or so listening to Radio 4 in the shed whilst it was dismantled, cleaned up and oiled to become a thing of beauty again.
crmcatee said:
loughran said:
I may just do that this weekend; good tip. Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff