About 2 years ago, I went out and got a “real” soldering iron under the supposition that the crappy Radio Shack (or “Shack” as it is now known) was the cause of much of my bad soldering both electrical and plumbing. Well, this was the first time that I had a need for electrical soldering [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Skills’
Dovetail Practice – an update
OK, I’ve been practicing…and practicing…and practicing…and… Here are some of my test samples: I’ve tried both tails first and pins first. Pins first is frustrating. I find that I make many more errors with pins probably due to assumptions and skipping steps. For instance, when I make tails first, I mark the waste before I [...]
Dovetails – Tails vs Pins
As I noted in a previous post regarding my Handcut Dovetail Hopechest class, we learned about cutting tails first. I came into the class with no opinion on the old battle about cutting pins vs tails first. Even if I had, I would have probably gone with the direction from the class. What’s the point [...]
Hand Plane for shooting board
As I mentioned in my last post regarding the Lie-Nielsen Tool Event, I was thinking about a dedicated hand plane for the shooting board. I’m currently using my Lie-Nielsen Jointer Plane which is set up for medium planing work (versus rough/aggressive or smooth/fine work). This works though I’ve found that the plane should be set [...]
Off to Port Townsend
Today and Tomorrow Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is at Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend. They are supposed to be showing attendies how to use and tune our tools to make us better woodworkers. I own a few Lie-Nielsen tools so I felt it was worth the long drive time (and a ferry ride too) to see what [...]
Finished – Shooting Board and Bench Hook
OK, after my initial hick up. I’ve created 2 shooting boards. The first is a 90 degree shooting board. This is probably the one that I will need the most often. Notice the high fence and the runners that the hand planes can ride. I also created one type of 45 degree miter shooting board. [...]
Bench hook vs Shooting board
OK, in my previous post on Shooting board, I said I was putting runners for the hand plane to ride against. That worked well. My issue came when my plans called for me to lower the fence on the shooting board. The reason for this idea was to combine the notion of a bench hook [...]
Handcut Dovetail practice
At the class on Handcut Dovetails that I attended at Northwest Woodworking Studio, for the first half of a day, we used a simple technique to practice cutting dovetails. Gary, the instructor, used the analogy of a muscisian or a runner warming up and I think that fits well. All that is needed is blocks [...]
How to determine how much finish is needed?
I’m working on finishing the Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest that I discussed several posts ago. In class, we used Shellac to finish the interior (ok, pre-finish). I’ve not used Shellac really. It seems like a really interesting finish and can provide some color to the work without the over powering nature of some dyes and [...]
Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Hand Tool Event
I just received an invitation to the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Hand Tool Event in Port Townsend, WA. I suspect that this could be a selling event more than a learning event but if the schedule (at least the one they show for Saturday), is accurate then maybe it is a significant learning event. Lie-Nielsen seems to [...]
Katz Roadshow
Tomorrow, I’m attending the Katz Roadshow at the local Dunn Lumber. The 1 day class covers finish carpentry and my main interest in it is that there are supposedly tips and tricks using Festool Tools (probably the circular saw and rail system). While, as I’ve indicated in previous posts, I’m including more and more hand [...]
Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest – Wrap Up
See my previous posts giving updates from my Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest from last week (I did 5 daily updates). This post is to give you some progress pictures and show you what happened. Here is Gary, the owner and teacher of our class at Northwest Woodworking Studio: Here are a series of shots that [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 5 (last day)
OK, this was the last day. With all the work to do, I didn’t truly expect to get finished. I didn’t get to the following: Put a coat of finish on the outside (this would have been the last step and would have been done an hour before leaving). Put the hinges on the top [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 4
It was a big day. We prepped our pieces (cleaned up the interior for pre-finishing) and taped off the glue joints so that finish didn’t cancel out the glue. We adjusted a dado (for the top and bottom) so that the pieces didn’t need a hammer to go in. We pre- finished our pieces – [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 3
Today, I finished all the dovetails. According to Gary (instructor and owner of school) “it looks good, except that it doesn’t.” He’s a funny guy and makes many “smart” remarks throughout any day. From this statement, I read that it’s good that I have the dovetails done but that there is a lot of work [...]
