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.

      

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.

Winter Doldrums

Having wandered around the blogosphere, (maybe more than my fair share) I know that there is no shortage of posts dealing with this extraordinary winter which just seems to keep on giving and giving.  In fact, big puffy flakes are falling as I type.  I hope that my readers will humor me as I add one more.

As always here in Rhode Island, we had a snow-less December.  The one day of the year I can be fully accepting of mother nature's winter blanket (Christmas) past with cold showers of rain and the sickening browns of dead foliage.  And then, without even so much as a few dustings to acclimate ourselves, we were welcomed to winter with the snowstorm of "historic proportions" in late January.  Since then, it's been a series of lesser storms, one or two per week, sometimes every other day, just to refresh any snow that may have melted in between.

I'm sure that I am not alone, but my house sits on a corner lot that even during the best of weather, seems impossibly small.  I am fortunate enough to have a large driveway, but also sidewalks on two sides of the property.  And so, every morning when I awake to a "winter wonderland", I have to do at least enough shoveling to get myself to work and our children to the bus stop.  At lunch, I often spend more time further cleaning up, and sometimes even more time at night.   It's a common occurrence to have to move snow banks as the storms progress.  My tiny yard struggles to accommodate the snow from the driveway and two sidewalks.  No big deal, I just work until I'm tired, take a break, and pick up where I left off.  But this year has been special.  This year, my wife hasn't driven since her injury in November.  And being the way of things, I allowed temptation to get the better of me.  I allowed the snow to build up on and around her car.  Oh yes, I've seen the warning signs.  Steadily her hand has regained function.  She has started doing things around the house that she had been unable to for quite some time.  Somehow, I managed to ignore the signs until they practically slapped me in the face.  Last week, my beautiful, wonderful wife took my car and went for a drive.  I savored the moment of victory for all of a few moments, before my gaze turned to the window, and the sight of the humongous snow bank that was, at one time, her car.  And so, fellow inmates of this horrendous winter, I picked up my shovel and went to work.  It didn't take me long to realize the cost of my lethargy.  Several storms and several freeze and thaw cycles had made my work all that much harder.  Now, I am relegated to removing the top layer and praying that the sun will loosen the next layer.  It seems to me a perverse form of archaeology.  With luck, by spring, I will be able to reclaim a past civilization from the grips of ice and snow.

Phase one of digging out complete.

And that is my first excuse for being absent from this blog for so long.  My second, is actually the opposite (yes, i know...I'm difficult to please).  This past weekend and earlier this week, the mercury in the thermometer stirred to a point slightly above freezing (although the difference was imperceptible in my frigid shop) and we had several days of bright, almost springlike sun.  And while all of that made my digging out far easier, it also presented a new problem.

The bench side of the shop, adjacent to the driveway, and the ever growing pond.

The far side of the shop, where the onslaught of melting snow has just begun.

I knew when I first toured the house that the basement was damp and probably had some water issues during heavy rains and spring thaws.  The furnace, water heater and storage being placed on blocks was a dead giveaway.  And in fact, I have gotten used to small puddles throughout the basement on occasion.  But never like this.  It's actually gotten me to thinking.  If I turn my basement into a reservoir, at least I could cut the city water bill.  As tempting as that might seem, I've decided that I'd really rather not sacrifice my shop for the cause.

And so, when I am not digging out the car, or pumping out the pond, I am willing myself to the task of moving snow away from the foundation of the house, and hoping the melting snow will find its way to the harbor, without a side trip to my shop.   At the very least, perhaps someone else's basement? (I know this is terrible, and I'm very sorry for the thought.)

I have, however, found the time for some mundane cleaning and repair tasks in the shop.  Most notable is the cabinet I am now using for my miter saw.

A photo from an earlier post.

I was able to find the time to remove all of the detritus that had found it's way into the cabinet over the last decade.  And I'm happy to report that I even managed to properly store, or throw away all of it (as opposed to my usual practice of piling for a later date).  I also was able to cut the back and secure it to the cabinet.  Lastly, I was able to rehab the slightly warped right side door and get it into place, although the effort was slightly greater than what it took to make it in the first place (in fairness, it was made with power tools, all of this work was done by hand, and my current mood may have played a role).

The cabinet is finished and ready to store a variety of saw accessories.

 

And life continues here in Rhode Island.  Certainly, it is not always as planned, but tomorrow will come.  It may even be a better day, with more time in the shop and hopefully here at the blog as well. 

Thank you for visiting, and I hope that wherever you are, spring is just around the corner for all of us. Please be safe and well as we "patiently" wait out the winter doldrums.