A much needed diversion.

This post will be a first for me.  Rather than begging the readers' pardon for a lack of posts based upon a lack of shop time , I will now note that I have actually been able to spend a great deal of time in the shop working on numerous small projects and experiments.  I've actually been so busy working, that I've had little time to report on my progress here.  Needless to say, I'll try to catch up in the coming days and weeks.

This post however, will be  about a little diversion that my son and I embarked upon a few nights ago.  And in the process, I was reminded how a little work time can bring the generations together.

My son received a wonderful gift some time ago.  It was a kit to build a wooden monster truck.  At six years old, he was excited to get started.  Being slightly older, and very busy at work, in the house, and in the shop, I was less enthralled.  But finally, my son won me over and we decided that we would open the package and read the instructions and plan our strategy.

Work begins on our "workbench", the dining room table.

I am embarrassed to admit, the project turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated.  I had assumed that the kit would require painting, but lo and behold, stickers were provided to complete the truck.  And so, as I am wont to do, I got a bit carried away and our planning session became a full blown construction session.  He was very excited, and insisted that mama and sister not look until we were finished.

The kit was perfect for the younger, aspiring woodworker. 

Everything but the hammer was included and all of the holes were pre-drilled.  As a result, the project progressed quickly.  I did start most of the nails for him and held the pieces while he hammered.  I wanted his first real building experience to be positive.  He can learn about the fun of hammer meeting thumb sometime down the road when he is a little less pain averse.

The finished dalmatian monster truck, complete with ears and tail.

All in all, it was a great project for father and son.  It was a learning curve for me, as I had to tread the fine line between "helping" and teaching.  In the end though, he was a great listener, and was able to learn some beginning lessons in woodworking despite my shortcomings as a teacher.  We were also able to bond over my hobby, and hopefully one that we will share again in the future.  I see a birdhouse in our future this spring. (As an aside, mama and sister were duly impressed with his craftsmanship.  Sister will however, not be allowed to touch the truck without permission.)  Thanks go out to my parents for providing the gift, sorry it took so long.

The proud carpenter and his first project, gotta love the urban camo PJ's.

This Day in (Mostly American) History

1783: Congress ratifies the peace treaty with England

1865: Abraham Lincoln dies the morning after being shot by John Wilkes Booth

1894: Bessie Smith is born

1912: The "unsinkable" Titanic goes down in the North Atlantic

1947: Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball

2013: Three parish and hundreds are badly injured in the Boston Marathon bombing

Necessity is the mother of invention (learning something new)

I had mentioned last week that a new project had moved to the front of the line.  Last night, after I finished up some work on another project, I got started.

My next project.

I hesitate to call this chair an antique, well-used would probably be a better description.  My wife and I purchased this chair a couple years ago because it loosely matched our dining room set and we were guessing that we would eventually need more than our six existing chairs.  It came as part of a pair. We knew at the time of purchase that we would eventually reupholster the pair. But when catastrophe struck last week, eventually became now, at least for this chair.

Joint failure.

Certainly, I am no Don Williams, and this chair is definitely not among America's treasures.  But it is a useful and necessary seat.  So down to the shop it went.  My first step was to remove the seat.  It was an extremely easy job as three of the four screws holding it to the glue blocks were overly loose.  The fourth was a Phillips head replacement.  That accomplished, the chair frame will be more accessible for gluing and clamping.

The seat.

At this point, I decided to continue along and remove all of the old upholstery from the seat board. The embroidered cover, a muslin lining, horsehair fill, burlap underlay, and finally the webbing straps gave way to a very loose seat frame.

Some of the layers.

The frame discovered.

Factory made and doweled together.

The loose frame, will probably require some work before I reupholster it.  As it is so far, I have already glued a chip back into place.

The chip.

The treatment.

Now on to more decisions.  How much work should I put into the chair.  Aside from the structural issue and the upholstery, there are several additional issues with the chair, including sloppy repairs and some more than average wear to the finish.  I'll be discussing this with my wife over the next few days and coming up with a plan get the chair back into service.

Wear and tear.

Excess glue from a repair made by a previous owner.

More wear to the finish.

And a plea to all of our readers: Any suggestions as to books or videos on upholstering?  I'd like to have it be as close as possible to the original, but being a newer reproduction, we will be willing to make some compromises for cost an comfort.

And finally, I hope that all of our readers who observe Easter had a warm and joyous holiday with their families.  

The candy binge commences.

This Day in (Mostly American) History

1776: The Continental Congress opened all colonial ports to international trade.

1830: Establishment of the Mormon Church.

1832: The Black Hawk War Began.

1841: John Tyler Inaugurated as 10th President.

1862: The Battle of Shiloh began.

1896: The first modern Olympic Games began.

1909: The expedition led by Robert Peary reached the North Pole.

1917: The United States entered World War I.

The search for tools continues.

While my shop time has been limited, and several projects lay languishing on my bench, I have found some time to be a be a seat of the pants woodworker.  I've been keeping up with all of my regular blog reading.  One thing that has become obvious from that, is that if you have contact with enough other woodworkers, you're bound to be working on some of the same or similar projects.  It's nice to get other woodworkers input either before or during a project.  You have all been very helpful to me.  Especially the non-professional woodworkers who's thoughts and issues often mirror my own.

The other aspect of virtual woodworking that has consumed some of my time, is expanding (or trying to) my tool collection.  Since I tend to rely on vintage tools that I rehab myself, I try to look down the road and anticipate what tools I will need in the future.  This allows me to hunt for favorable prices on users that won't take weeks to rehab.  It also gives me the time to work on them before they are needed.  It's not always easy to get into a good work flow, so once I do, I hate to break it to work on a tool for the next step.  My luck in this pursuit is streaky at best, but I am always grateful for what I am able to acquire.  Lately, I've had a mini-streak of good luck.

I've been searching for some time for a brace.  My antique store finds have either been junk or priced beyond what I thought was reasonable.  Same thing on EBAY, especially considering the addition of shipping.  But I finally found the right deal, an old Millers Falls.  It's definitely a user, but it's fully functional and the price was right.

This one won't require too much cleaning.

My next two finds are based on my spring cleaning.  One of the old projects I'd stowed out of harm's way prior to my hiatus from woodworking came to light.  And I couldn't resist putting it on my to do list.

The beginning of the base of a tall case clock.  

When my grandfather passed away, I inherited a set of plans for a tall case clock that he had built for my mother.  After living with that clock on a daily basis for more than a decade prior to leaving home for college and work, that clock came to symbolize my grandfather's craftsmanship to me.  So when I felt able, I began to build my own.  The plans are a "traditional" design, probably from the 1970's   I didn't want to build the clock exactly to the plans, I envisioned something that was influenced by historic examples that abounded in my new home state.  When I began the clock, I was almost exclusively a power tool woodworker.  Switching to hand tools really won't have too much of an affect on my plans, but I know that I'll have to find a way to make the mouldings for the transitions from base to waist, waist to hood, and on the hood.  I got a copy of "Mouldings in Practice" by Matt Bickford for Christmas and realized that hollows and rounds would be my best bet.  My search is not limited to any particular sizes (I hope to build the vaunted half set) but the mouldings around the waist are going to require some larger coves.  Enter my first stroke of luck.

My first set of hollows and rounds.

I found these beauties on EBAY, and I'm guessing due to the larger size (16), I had no competition and was able to acquire them very reasonably.  They are in fantastic shape, even sharp right out of the box.  A huge thank you is due to the previous owner.  I also bid on some additional sets from the same seller, but as those were more commonly used sizes, i bowed out of the bidding well before my competition.

Mere days later, my luck was still in place.  I found a usable set of 18's, also on EBAY.  Again, no competition and another addition to my growing collection of hand tools.  

The 18's just out of the box and in need of some work.

The shipping of these planes provides an odd and (for me) unsettling story.  I received an e-mail while at work that they had been delivered.  When I got home that night, I had forgotten about them, until my family and I were out for dinner.  When I remembered, I asked my wife, but she said they had never arrived.  It really ruined my night (Wednesday) and most of the next day, but I held out hope.  By Friday night, I had come to the realization that they were probably stolen off my front steps.  When the thief of thieves opened the package, I was sure that one more set of planes would be bound for the landfill.  But surprisingly, early Saturday afternoon, the package mysteriously appeared on my porch.  The box was pristine, completely unopened.  I still don't know what to make of it, but I am very thankful that they finally found their way to their new home.

The second set of planes was in need of a lot more work.  I won't go into that here as +William Lattanzio did an excellent job documenting his work on a set of these planes here: https://confusedwoodworker.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/rehab/.  Thank you for your help.

I have a long way to go to complete the set, but at least I've ticked two off the list.

This Day in (Mostly American) History 

1513: Ponce de Leon reaches Florida.

1777: Ebenezer Learned promoted to Brigadier General.

1863: Riots in Richmonnd , Va. over food shortages.

1865: The Army of the Potomac captures the Confederate lines surrounding Petersburg, Va.

1902: The first female judge passes away in Wyoming.

1917: Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war.

1941: Erwin Rommel recaptures Libya.

2005:Pope John Paul II passes away.

So busy doing nothing, I haven't had time do anything at all

While the title is more than a little bit of an overstatement, it seems like the time that I have in the shop has been diffused into small projects too numerous to mention.  Many of the projects have been either underwhelming, not very much fun, or covered on other blogs (probably better than I would be able to).  Also, using the last of my vacation time before the end of our fiscal year yesterday has led to activities outside of the shop.  But today, good readers, I would like to update my work and also pledge to update this blog more regularly (hopefully with interesting content).

Spring appears to be on it's way here in drab New England.  I can tell from the weeks of fighting the tide of snow melt into my basement shop.  I have not however, been able to discern it's arrival either by the thermometer, or by looking out my window.

Could this finally be winter's last gasp?

This past Saturday brought snow flurries all day.  Sunday morning dawned to reveal a dusting, and more disappointingly, a thin layer of ice covering almost everything.  The heavy snows this winter wreaked more than the normal amount of damage to my yard.  Now if the weather would just cooperate, I could begin the repairs.

In my last post, I had mentioned working on some of my planes.  As is often the case, I got a little carried away.  I had set out just to sharpen the blades.  But maybe in an effort to put off more difficult tasks, I ended up doing a more thorough cleaning of all of my planes and a more serious rehab of a block plane that I had inherited from my grandfather.

Flattening the soles a couple weekends ago.

Another continuing theme in my shop has been cleaning.  I have made major progress in reclaiming the majority of my basement as shop space.  The more I do however, the less satisfied I am with the way things are currently configured.  I want to create a better workflow, introduce some better storage methods for my now growing compliment of hand tools, and just create a more inviting space.  Unfortunately, this generally results in a lot of time holding my shop stool down, or on the computer looking at other people's shops for inspiration.  The goal is to transform thought into action as we emerge from the winter season and lower heating bills result in more disposable income.  A new bench remains a priority for this year.

One bright note from the cleaning is the discovery of several projects that I had begun many years ago, before life changes forced me to take a break from the shop.  Some tinplate and some wood, several are worth taking up again, and I will mention them in a post later this week.  They will be joined by another project that necessity has pushed to the front of the line.

And finally, the biggest project on my plate at the moment is the renovation of my first floor bathroom.  It is not a full gut job, but a previous owner had done a fairly poor job of installing a toilet.  The slow leak that resulted was nearly imperceptible.  That is, until the day a footfall crumbled the wood floor under the linoleum.  I have put this off for a while, but this past weekend, my beautiful wife intimated that my grace period had expired.  Fortunately, the floor was composed of three layers and the bottom one was intact.  Replacing the sub floor was an adventure though.  Metric and imperial, nominal measurements, changes in sheet products over the years, and the settling of the floor led to this past weekend being one of trial and error until I found the right combination of thicknesses to match the existing floor. Fortunately I can report that the floor is patched, level, and nearly ready for tile.

Patched and leveled.  To speed this project along, I will be utilizing power.

In the coming days, I'll be mentioning some older projects long forgotten, some ongoing projects, and some "new" tool purchases.

For the future, I will be closing posts with a new feature, This Day in (Mostly American) History. Occasionally, I will probably include some related items on events that interest me.  Thanks for visiting and for bearing with me.

This Day in (Mostly American) History:

1621: A peace treaty between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in the Plimoth colony.

1700: April Fools' Day popularized in England.

1789: The first Speaker of the House is elected.

1865: The Confederate defeat at the Battle of Five Forks leads to Gen. Robert E. Lee's withdrawal from his Petersburg, Va. lines.

1984: Marvin Gaye shot and killed by his father.