Oh yeah baby...

... I finally got a new...


wait for it....

... vehicle! No pics yet, but here's Honda's site.

Bandsaw...

So I watched the Wood Whisperer episode on band-saw setup and tuning. So, I decided to try and tune up my 10" Rockwell. Yeah, the wheels were WAY out of plane, by about a 1/2", so I fixed that. I also replaced the steel guide blocks. I read an article that rated "Cool Blocks" as really good, but they're around $15. That same article said that if you had some hard maple laying around you could make your own. Well I had hard maple. I made 2 blocks for the top guides and left the steel bottom guides. The top thrust bearing was fine, but the bottom had seized up and had a groove the size of the blade. So I need to get a new thrust bearing before I finish tuning.

Planing technique....

As I mentioned before, I read an article on surface planing boards. I've never had luck planing a board by hand, but I decided to follow the advice in the article. Wow, what a difference. I was able to flatten the board out with only about 1/64" of deviation lengthwise. Yeah, it was a 2' piece of poplar and I was using a freshly sharpened blade. But still, it was an achievement for me. While I was at it I jointed one edge. Ended up being able to get the edge and the face square. All that wanting a power planer... pfffftt! Ok, that's a little too far. Being able to do it by hand is cool though.

Got lumber?

I decided to take a trip to a local sawyer this morning. He's about 30 minutes away, so I stopped at a coffee shop on the way and read a Woodworker's Journal article on surfacing boards with a hand plane. Hmmm... more about that later. After my morning refreshment I went to the sawyer's place and talked to him about lumber & furniture, etc. I told him I was looking for maple and walnut for my workbench legs. He said he had plenty of 4/4 and some 5/4 but nothing thicker. I told him I didn't want to use select grade walnut for workbench legs. I think that gave him an impression that I wasn't just throwing some boards together. He then told me he had 3 or 4 walnut logs ready to process, and that he would cut out the legs for me if I could use them "wet". We got to talking, and I've read in various places, for things like workbench legs it probably won't make too much of a difference. Even old chairs had the stiles wet and the rails dry. That way when the stiles dried out and came into equilibrium they would shrink around the rails' tenon, making an extremely tight joint. So, he took my name, number, rough dimensions I wanted. He then told me he'd give me a call when he cut up the pieces.

Got halfway through...

I only got to read half of "Workbenches". It is very well written, and very informative. Schwarz's writing is like listening to a friend describing his experiences with workbenches. Schwarz states upfront that this book is different from the other workbench books, and he is right! Schwarz tells you what he likes, and doesn't like about all aspects of a workbench. The man should know, I believe he stated he as built 10 over the years. I couldn't imagine. It's taken me a year to build 1!

The Workbenches book....

just arrived at my desk. It's got a huge dent in the side of it. Thanks USPS, you suck. I didn't realize it was hardcover. It's a very nice book, autographed even. I'm firing up the included CD-Rom right now. I'll report back later on it. It'll be difficult to get work done today with this book at my desk. I'll probably have the whole thing read by tonight.

Thinking about woodworking...

I thought about doing some woodworking today. Does that count?