As last weekend approached, I was greeted with some good news, and a dilemma. The dilemma, as I mentioned last week, was the water infiltration into my shop. I had worked hard to eliminate what had already gotten in, and to remove snow from around the house to a less threatening position in the back yard. I mentioned that, as I was writing my last post, the snow was falling. And it continued throughout the day and evening. The foot that we received quickly replaced all the snow I had removed and with more warm weather the last couple days, also replaced the water in the shop. So I once again took up my shovel to relocate much of the newest snow. We'll see how well that will worked in the coming days.
As for the good news, we are nearing the end of our fiscal year at work, and I have some vacation time leftover, so I will be taking Fridays off for the entire month of March and hopefully that will translate into some productive shop time, fingers crossed. Also, this past Saturday, my wife and children spent a good portion of the day with a friend and her son, so between Friday and Saturday, I was able to visit two antique stores for a little rust hunting. On Friday, I nearly purchased and old Miller's Falls block plane, but at the last minute decided against it. Something about the shopkeeper's attitude reminded me that somewhere in my shop, I had an old Stanley 9 1/2 that had belonged to my grandfather. It was gonna need some work, but I have nothing but time (tongue in cheek). Saturday's trip netted a couple small egg-beater drills. Both were small, one for me that needed some cleaning, and one for my son's tool chest. His was nearly pristine, but a brand I had never heard of. Off to the big box for some cleaning supplies.
So back in the shop, I spent about twenty minutes finding the block plane. Not as bad as I remembered it being, but definitely in need of some work.
 |
| A little rust and a couple non-moving parts. |
 |
| A little better from this angle. |
I disassembled the entire plane and the body and blade went into a rust removing bath. The bath made quick work of the blade, just a couple hours. It came out looking nearly brand new. Not bad for a plane that is at least thirty years old and has seen very limited use for the last two decades. The body was another story all together. Between two soakings, the total was about twelve hours in the bath. In addition to the rust, it also removed some loose paint, so I'll have to touch that up, hopefully some night this week. The blade will need some honing as well. The cap was easy. No rust, just a lot of dust and grime. A little WD40 and an old toothbrush and it's as good as new. I'll show the after photos as soon as the process is finished.
 |
| A much needed bath. |
While the plane was soaking, I took a look at my new drill. Nothing complex at all.
 |
| A "few" years of dirt and grime. |
One screw and a couple parts removed, and on to the cleaning. A few more minutes with the toothbrush, and reassembly, and the drill was ready to take it's place in my chest, and more importantly, go back to work.
 |
| One small project finished: a miracle. |
Also filed under odds and ends, I am continuing my sharpening odyssey. On Friday, my wife and I visited Michael's so that she could look at some much needed painting supplies. I figured she would be a while weighing her options, so I wandered the store for a bit with that classic "deer in the headlights" stare. I thought it would be a very cheap (read free) stop for me, but au contraire. In my wanderings, I stumbled across the leather section. Something unusual happened, a timely thought. While I stood there, I realized that I still didn't have a means of a final polish on my edge tools after sharpening. A couple bags of leather remnants later, and I avoided having to make a return trip. Saturday evening, I used a generous coat of yellow glue on some scrap wood, layered on the leather and covered it with plastic wrap and clamped it up overnight between two additional boards. Sunday morning, I cut the leather to the edges of the board.
 |
Another simple project, but at least it's completed.
|
It's just about time for work, so I'll leave the most "important" work of the weekend for tomorrow. Thank you for visiting.
No comments:
Post a Comment