The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Six months after her surgery and a grueling therapy schedule, my wife has returned to work at a new job closer to our home.  She is loving the work, but it is a change for both of us.  Yesterday began week three and little by little, we are acclimating ourselves to our new schedule.  Couple that with spring break for the children, (very different form my last spring break: rumor has it that I had a great time) and spring bringing a tremendous laundry list of outdoor chores and repairs after our harsh winter, and we have the makings of a dead period here on my blog.  I have been finding shop time where I can, finishing some small projects that have been languishing on my bench for some time. That said, I have a decent amount of material to share here if I can only find the time to sit down at the computer and write.

So today, I would like to post my first completed project, just to prove that I am in fact, still alive and mostly well.

My Grandfather's block plane, finally reassembled and ready for work.

I began work on this plane hoping to do a very basic job of cleaning it up and returning it to work.  I had inherited the plane at a time when I was either not capable of, or unwilling to use it in my work. Roughly ten years of Rhode Island moisture in my basement had taken its toll.

A picture from an older post showing the before.

Some would say that I have a serious problem with OCD, I just think I get enthusiastic about positive results.  Long story short, the plane ended up completely disassembled, paint and rust stripped, repainted, sharpened, and honed.  As you can see in the first picture, I've got the plane adjusted to take a nice fine shaving out of a nasty piece of scrap pine.

Inspired by my results, I have started down the same path with a vintage Stanley #4 that I ran into at a junk store.  I'm working on it slowly, as I also have a couple of small woodworking and a finishing project that I am alternating on (which is to say that I am creeping along on all of them).

As we continue to get used to the new rhythm of life and spring yard work gives way to summer, I hope to get back to more regular posting here on the blog.  Thank you for for your patience and I hope you will keep reading along.  I have some bigger projects on the horizon.

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.

Pressing Business

Some jobs are clear priorities.  One of those crossed my path this weekend.  My wife and I sent the children upstairs to clean and neaten.  Several trips later, all of the trash had been collected and we had a new candidate for the" Isle of Misfit Toys".

Flight grounded indefinitely.

My wife had purchased this plane used some time ago.  It wasn't terribly well made, and while not one of our son's favorites, I guess I had a soft spot for a wooden toy that required more imagination than most toys on the market today.  Besides, it was an excuse to putter around in the shop on a day when I didn't have the ability to work on something more involved.  At a glance, it looked like an easy fix, just glue the wing back on. Off we went to the hangar for some much needed maintenance.  

Once in my shop, lucidity (and a cup of coffee) kicked in.  Not only was the wing broken free, but the entire tail section had been snapped off along the grain line.  Judging by the wood color, my son had never enjoyed the plane in it's entirety.  Looking further, on the bottom of the wing, there had once been landing gear.  Now, being something of a perfectionist, clearly, just gluing the wing on would not be an option.

My first order of business was to glue the wing back on.  I figured that if he enjoyed the plane in that state for so long, he would continue to, at least for a while.  Then I would assess what more could be done.

A little closer to air-worthy.

Next, I sawed the remaining tail section back to a 90 degree angle to the sides of the plane's body. That would give me a solid surface to glue to.  The body of the plane was slightly thicker than  the one inch stock that I had in the scrap bin.  So I planed down an off-cut from one of the bedside table legs I had on hand.  Once I reached the proper thickness, I drilled both pieces for a dowel, as the curved bottom of the plane would not allow for proper clamping.  I rough cut the tail piece and glued it up, using a rubber band to hold it in place.

Once all of the glue had dried, I cut a new rear wing in a profile to match the main wing.  I attached that with glue and brads.  I'm hoping to keep this plane on the flight line for some time to come.

The plane, waiting for a little blending on the tail section with chisels and a rasp.

Over the next few evenings, I hope to shape the tail section and figure out what to do about the landing gear.  I was going to cut the wheels with a plug cutter I had, but as with many tools, it seems to have gone missing for a time during my on-going shop reclamation project.  I'll keep looking as I also work to remove the growing pond of snow melt from the shop.  

Thanks for visiting, and I hope to see you again soon.  I'm off to bail more water out of my shop.

A Weekend of Odds and Ends

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.

It's been too long...

It's been too long since I last posted, but hardly due to inactivity.  If I were smart, I would have used the long weekend to finish some of the ongoing projects around the shop.  But being more eager than logical,  this weekend I began a pretty involved, project.  I expect that it will take me awhile to complete, even though it's a fairly small scale project.  I'll write more about that as the week progresses, but I thought I'd tease it here a little.

My stock awaits...but coffee first.

And just to round out this post, I'd like to finish up the Christmas post.  Last week, I shared some of the gifts I was fortunate enough to receive.  This week, I'll share a couple of the projects I gave as gifts.

My daughter had been asking for a dollhouse, and we weren't thrilled with the plastic options available, or paying a great deal extra for the privilege of working with pre-cut pieces.  So of course I built it from scratch.  We based the design somewhat loosely on a small house at a local living history museum.  We gave it to her Christmas morning with only primer so that she and mom could paint her color scheme of choice together (I'm assuming a lot of pink and purple).  Below, you can see it with the painting begun.

Proud owner of a brand new house.

We had to have a homemade gift for our son as well.  After hours of watching The Woodwright's Shop and seeing daddy with his tools, he's been dying to have some of his own. What better gift than a place to store those tools as he gets them.  So I began a miniature traditional floor chest.  He and I will add some tills together as he needs them.

Can you guess his favorite guest on The Woodwright's Shop?

The tool chest was a bit of a pain.  I decided to repurpose some "solid" oak from an old entertainment center we no longer needed.  Of course that meant it was mostly plywood, and old and warped plywood at that.  But I managed to get it together, and I'm sure it will outlive me.  Of course it had to be the same color as mine.

Next time, some real woodworking.