Labelling my saws

I'm guessing that most hand tool woodworkers don't have any trouble keeping track of which of their saws are rip-filed, and which are crosscut.  But I've always had a problem with it.

Yeah, I know that you just sight down the teeth to tell -- but my eyes are old and weak, so I keep second-guessing myself.

My old way was that I'd write on the side of the sawblade with a permanent marker:  either "RIP" or "X-C" for "cross-cut". But I didn't like the look -- and besides, after a while it would wear off.


But today I'm trying a new way:  I bought five bucks of yarn -- a skein of red, and a skein of blue.   "Red" is for "rip", and "cyan [blue]" is for "crosscut" (or just "not-red".


We'll see how it goes.


Yeah -- most of my saws are filed for "rip".  I'll explain some other time.  (And:  these aren't all of my saws...)   ;)


--GG

Bench grinder bases

This is the third of three "quickie" projects that I turned to near the end of my week-long vacation, once I realized that my "main" projects weren't going to get finished.


So:  I have two "bench grinders" (as they're called locally; in Seattle they might just be referred to as "grinding wheels").  One I received as a gift (birthday?  Christmas?  I forget) from BrotherDave; the other I picked up used from a pawn shop.  One has a coarse and a medium wheel; the other has a coarse wheel and a wire brush.

(Update on 11 Aug 2014:  I've since replaced one of the coarse wheel with a white, aluminum oxide wheel -- to minimize the burning (i.e. ruining the temper of the metal) when I sharpen blades.  So now each of the four wheels has a different purpose.)

Previously I'd clamp the base of the grinders to a saw horse or my little sawbench.  However, there wasn't much surface to clamp on to, and occasionally the clamp would slip off.  I've been meaning to bolt the bench grinders to a slab of wood -- so that I could then clamp the wood, not the base of the grinders.


I rummaged through my stash of scrap lumber.  These two pieces are marked as "wet", because for a while they were stored outdoors, in the weather -- so they got rained on a bit.  There **could** be some minor rot -- so wood from this stash may not be not suited for load-bearing applications.

My thought was that I'd clean up each board (with a handplane), then cut each in half and glue it side-by-side.  This would result in a platform that was half as long as the original piece of wood, but twice as wide.  (Of course.)

In the above photo, the top board is mostly cleaned up, but the bottom one needs tidying.


The below photo shows my set-up on my workbench.  I have a series of large screws in the surface of my workbench.  Usually they're recessed, but I extend them as the need arises, to serve as planing stops.  You can also see the scraps of wood that I'm using as cleats, to bridge the gaps between the screws (and also prevent the screw heads from digging into my workpiece).  The scrub plane that I'm using is above and to the right.

Cleaned up a little more:

Same thing, different angle (and the workpiece pushed more firmly against the rear cleat):

By the way, note that I've painted one of my cleats purple:  this indicates that it's a piece of wood that I use for a particular purpose, not just a "scrap".  (In other words:  "Don't cut this up!  Leave it as it is!")

So, "day 1" of this project included cutting the wood, preliminary planing, and then gluing.



The below photo shows the wood after I joined the two halves together, and cleaned the seams up a little bit with a handplane.  I also flattened them a little, since the wood was a little cupped.

The photo is a little dark, since it was taken very late in the afternoon. I haven't yet wiped on the tung oil (which is pretty much the same as Danish oil).  Note that I've already marked out, and drilled, the mounting holes.

So, "day 2" was tidying up a little with the handplane, drilling the mounting holes, and then wiping on some tung oil.


And, here's what it looks like after the oil has dried:  I **do** like the look of oiled wood that's been handplaned.

So, this is day 3:  now that the oil has dried, it's time to mount the bench grinders to the wood.

One of them was pretty easy to mount, because the mounting holes were on the corners of the base.  But the other one...

...urgh.  I had to remove the safety cowls, just to gain access to the holes.  Above you can see the Allen wrench that I used to tighten the screws.  Note that I've painted it pink -- and also put a "flag" of red electrical tape on it.  This helps me find the darned thing when I accidentally drop it into the grass.


And, here's the final product!

A **lot** easier to mount to a sawhorse or (as pictured) my sawbench.




--GG

Spacers

Here's the second of three "quickie" projects that I turned to, during my week's vacation -- when I realized that none of my "larger" projects would get completed.  I wanted to have a sense of accomplishment -- of actually **completing** something.  :)

I made a series of "spacers" for my vice.  The screw for my workbench's leg vice is in the middle.  When I'm clamping something short, it's easy to center it across the width of the jaws, so that the left and right side of the jaw share the load.

However, when I'm clamping something vertically that is fairly long, it has to pass to one side or the other of the screw.  This means that half of the jaw is clamping, but not the other side.  This is bad for the vice, as it causes twisting pressures:  the formal term is "racking".

The solution is to hold a spacer in the other side of the vice.  The space should be pretty close to the thickness of the actual workpiece -- although it doesn't have to be exact.

The photo above shows a top view of my vice.  My hand represents the workpiece that would be clamped only on one side of the jaw.  The bits of wood on the other side of the vice serve as the spacers.

More specifically:  I've drilled holes in the corner of many different scrap pieces of wood.  I then mix and match the thicknesses, to approximate the thickness of the workpiece.  Then I thread a bamboo chopstick (disposable!  but salvaged) through the holes, and pass the chopstick from the top of the workbench to the top of the vice jaw -- with the pieces of wood dangling.  This balances the load on the vice jaws.

(Note that this isn't my own invention:  it's a variation on a design I've seen elsewhere.)

As you can see in the second photo (side view!), I have -- as I usually do -- noted the date of completion of the project.  I also painted sections of them purple -- to indicate that these are **not** simply scraps of wood:  they now have a specific purpose!  (Otherwise, I might mistake them as simple scraps of wood, and accidentally throw them out or use them for other purposes.)


Nothing fancy:  given the purpose and function, it wasn't worth the extra time to make it purty.  But, as with the "splitter" rack, I've been meaning to do this for a while.


--GG

Splitter stand

Here's one of the "quickie" projects that I turned to, when I realized that I wasn't going to complete any of my "big" projects during my vacation.  It's a holder for my roofing hammer (or is it a crate hammer?).  I use it to split wood when I need it to be riven -- i.e. split along the grain, which is stronger than if it's cut "not quite with the grain".


This first photo shows the results of a few different sessions.  This was constructed completely out of offcuts from the "Bretz steps" -- the free-standing outdoors steps that (once completed!) will be part of my fitness regimine. I had two large-ish triangular pieces of wood.  I "jointed" their mating surfaces and glued them.  (Wait a day.)

Then I cut them to approximately a rectangular shape:  the wood wasn't quite long enough to span the width (see lower photo), so I had to allow a void at two of the corners.  I also clamped it in place and marked the location for the holes for the mounting screws, and drilled those holes.  One piece was slightly thicker than the other, so I used my scrub plane to reduced its thickness.

Then I constructed a pair of dowels:  I used the crating hammer to split some rough blanks from the offcuts from the original pieces; whittled them down a bit using the pliers-multitools that Old Roommate sent me; and drove them through one of my dowelling plate.  Then I drilled a pair of holes for the correct size, spread some glue, and drove the dowels in.  (Wait a day.)

Then I wiped on some tung oil, and let it dry.  (Wait a day.)


Then, install it.  Here's where it goes, prior to my installing it:

It's right at the end of my workbench that I do most of my work.  And it's adjacent to my doweling gear, which I keep on the top shelf, just to the left of that black tool tote that you see on top of the metal shelves.


And, here's what it looks like, after it's installed.  Note my green lines and the "Room for expansion" note:  I intentionally mounted it to the far right of the board, to allow room for other tools -- as the need occurs.

Note that a long while ago I painted the head of the tool with pink spray paint.  It may look a little sloppy -- but it's a lifesaver when you're working outdoors and you lay your tools down on the ground -- and then can't find them again!

I've painted my pruning saw and my hatchet with pink, as well.  Also a few of my pruning shears.  I've spent too much time searching for tools among fallen dried leaves...


Anyhow, that's one of my "quickie" projects.  :)  Been meaning to do it for a while.

--GG

The world is your workshop

Tomorrow is the final day of my eight days of vacation.  I got a lot done -- although (of course!) not as much as I wanted to get done.

One thing that this vacation has reinforced for me is that projects that don't take a lot of person-hours can still take several days -- because every time you glue something, or paint/varnish/oil something -- that's it!  Shift's over!  Time to stop work!


For example:  one of my projects -- which I'll discuss tomorrow -- is two pieces of wood glued together, with two dowels sticking out of the front, and then rubbed down with some finishing oil -- and then screwed to a rack.

But!  Prepping the two pieces of wood so that I could glue them together took maybe half an hour to an hour (I didn't keep track).  Then I glued them -- and that was it for the day!  (On to other tasks...)

The next day I handplaned them (mostly) flat, created two dowels, laid out and drilled the holes, and glued the dowels in -- and that was it for the day.

On day three (today), I oiled them.  OK, end of that segment.

And finally, on day four, I get to actually bolt it to the rack.  Whew!

The other thing I've learned is that, when you're fortunate enough to live where the weather is pretty mild -- that the whole world can be your workshop.  Or, at least your back yard can.

Here you can see three different projects glued and clamped.  My workshop space is pretty small -- and my workbench is (unfortunately) pretty cluttered, so I don't have a lot of room at the moment for bulky things.

Part of the clutter is due to various partially-finished projects -- something I tried, unsuccessfully, to address this vacation


To bring the message full-circle:  my primary project this vacation was the Swamp Guitar (basically a cigar-box guitar).  But because I'd have to keep stopping due to glue-ups, I also worked on a custom tool caddy, and a little bit on the Bretz steps, as well.  Once I actually finish any of these three projects I'll post some photos.

But, about two days ago I realized that there were just too many stages remaining for those three projects, I changed my focus to three fairly quick tasks -- such as the one I described above.


Tomorrow is my final day of vacation, and I post some pics of the projects I **did** finish.   As for the three "main" projects -- well, I'll keep picking away at them, an afternoon or two per weekend.  In among my other duties.  :)


--GG

The type of rag

During the weekend I like to accomplish things -- tasks large and small.

One of the things I did was to re-organize the rags in my shop.  Yes indeedy.

Previously, I had two categories of rags:  "large" and "small".  But, upon reflection, this didn't correspond to how I actually use my rags.

So:  I dumped them into a pile, and sorted them into three categories.

In the photo, the shoe is just there as a size reference...

-The yellow and white yogurt container is an example of what I keep the rags in.  Once container per size.

-The largest rags are for covering -- that is, as dust covers.  For example, when my electric drill isn't being used, I place a larger rag over it -- just to minimize dust getting into the vents.  I figure, "why not".

-The medium-sized rags are for wiping:  for example, when I'm doing a lot of sharpening with waterstones, I wipe the chisels off with a rag of this size.

-The smallest rags are for applying finish to projects, such as paint, boiled linseed oil, or tung oil/Danish oil.  I tend to fold it in half the long way, then fold it over once and dip the folded end in the liquid.


Ahh... yep.  :)


--GG

Minor progress

In addition to working on those Taiko drumsticks, I also tried cleaning off my workbench a bit.  I came across two packets of drill bits that I'd bought on sale. 

Figured I ought to put them away properly.

Pondered for a bit (no pun intended), and ended up mounting them on the right-hand end of my tool rack behind my workbench.  I tend to stand at the left-hand side when I work:  that's where the main vice is, and therefore my main "daily" stash of tools.

I figured that this was a good compromise:  close enough that I can easily access them -- but far enough that they're not in a place of prominence.


A minor accomplishment -- putting them away -- but an accomplishment nonetheless.


--GG

Differing visions

On Friday, during her lunch break, a co-worker was looking at a real estate listing for a house she was thinking of buying as an investment property:  buy it, remodel it, sell it as a profit.


From memory, this is what it looked like:

Single story; open carport; laundry through the kitchen.  Note that in a lot of older (1960s and earlier) houses around here, the toilet room is separate to the sink-shower-bathtub room.


Her vision for remodelling was something like this:

Knock out the wall between the kitchen and laundry room, to make a larger kitchen; put a deck off the back of the kitchen; enclose the carport for additional living space; and put a carport in front of the old carport -- I forgot to draw that.


But -- that's not at all what **I** saw when I looked at it.  My first thought was what a single person who was waaaay into woodworking would do:

Enclose the carport -- for extra workshop space.  Make the former carport area your handtool space (smaller then the old living room), and link it to the laundry room (for the shop sink).  Use the old living room as your "power tool" room -- bandsaw, table saw, etc.  Put a door on the kitchen, to keep the sawdust out.  Eat your meals in the kitchen.  Use the larger of the "bedrooms" for your wood storage.  Use another bedroom as your "living room" -- you should be able to fit a t.v., sofa, and comfy chair in there.  And that's all you need.


My second vision is what a recording musician would want.  Again, one who lives alone:

The former carport is enclosed and merged with the former living room to create a "tracking room" where the instruments are recorded; probably have the drum kit in the center, guitar amps around the periphery of the room.  A few sofas and such in the room, so it can double as a living room or lounge: the components of a living room actually have fairly good acoustical properties.  The laundry room gets a double-thickness window and becomes an isolation booth for recording vocals or solo instruments -- although it would still retain its "laundry" functionality.  Meals can be eaten at the kitchen table, and the kitchen can serve as a breakroom and lounge.  A door is added to the kitchen, to isolate it from the tracking room (e.g. refrigerator hum, people talking while in the kitchen).  A door is also added to the hallway, to help acoustically isolate the other rooms from the tracking room.  The larger bedroom has a double-thickness window added (to allow visual contact with the performers), and becomes the control booth, with the mixing board, signal processing gear, playback and etc.  The middle bedroom is still a bedroom -- because this is someone's house.  And the top corner bedroom becomes a guest bedroom with four bunks, in case the band that's being recorded is from out of town.


Different eyes, different visions.  :)


--GG

Some woodworking shop tours

Last night I took a hankering to take a look at other people's small woodworking shops.was inspired to do a bit of a web search. Below are the ones that caught my interest.

For comparison: my workshop is about 3m x 8m (10ft x 20ft).  I have two shelving units for various parts (rope; hinges; many jars of bolts and screws; S-hooks; etc.).  I have a big long lumber rack.  My most-frequently-used tools are on a rack and/or shelves above my workbench.  My infrequently-used tools are on a surplussed wooden mail cubbyhole unit that's about shoulder height (used to be from the Marine Biology department, I believe).


This guy is in a 10ft x 16ft outbuilding.  I thought it was interesting that he puts his frequently-used tools in the old-timey woodworking chest next to his workbench, whereas I have mine above my workbench.  Different approaches.




This guy has a 10ft x 10ft "garden shed" that he converted into a woodshop.  His tool storage system is a bit more similar to mine, in that he puts his hand tools on the wall above and behind his workbench.  His shop is much more similar to mine -- although I wouldn't have most of the power tools that he has:  probably just a drill press and a lathe.




This guy's workbench is the least like mine -- partly because it's "medium-sized" (IMO), not really small.  But I do like his large workbench, and also his "hewing bench" (clever!).  He has waaaay less stored lumber than me.  :)




Here's a woodshop in the bathroom of a studio apartment.  Although, it's a power-tool shop.  Seems like he'd be better off going the hand-tool route.

Here's a guy who has his workshop in a storage room, down an access hatch behind his parking space in a Tokyo apartment building.  A secret lair!!!  Way more power tools than I would use -- but neat-o none the less.



 This guy converted an 8ft x 30ft camping trailer into a workshop.  Pretty sweet (although, again -- I'd have fewer power tools).

Here's another one-car garage workshop -- 9ft x 18ft.  Nice set-up -- although I'd personally ditch the table saw and use that space for lumber storage, put a lathe where the jointer is, and put a grinding wheel, and maybe a shop sink, in place of the chop saw.  But, different working styles.

 This one is -- I'm inferring -- 6ft x 6ft.  It's in a guy's Japanese apartment.  I'd actually be setting it up in more of a "Western" way:  maybe a four-foot workbench, with tools on a free-standing tool rack behind the workbench.  But, that's my style.

This guy's shop is in a spare bedroom.  His tool set-up looks similar to what I would do.  His blog had a lot of good entries (many of which I've linked to below), so I ended up subscribing to his blog.

And, this lady does her work out on her deck (the photo is the storage bin where she keeps her tools). This overlaps with my own approach:  I do a moderate amount of work outside.  This is partly because my workshop is a little cluttered, but also because the weather is pretty mild.  I tend to cut my large boards, and do a lot of assembly, out on the grass near my shop.  If it's rainy I'll do it under the carport, which is connected to the back of my shop.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS:

Here's a guy's tool storage in his workshop.  He explains the French cleat tool storage system that he developed above his workbench.  He includes a substantial "How To" component.  Not the direction that I've headed, with my own tool rack -- but I still thought it was worth sharing.  Plus, I appreciated his observation that there's a few tools that you use a whole bunch (so, keep 'em handy!), and then others that you rarely use.





Here's a good article -- and another good article -- about setting up a small, mostly hand-tool shop.

This article discusses the sawdust issue of having a workshop inside the house.  The author has a handtool-based shop, in the "spare" bedroom, and he says sawdust isn't a problem because handtool woodworking tends to generate coarser sawdust (and wood shavings, and chips) -- compared to power tool.

And here's an article on which tools to start with, when you're just starting out in woodworking.  Basically, don't feel like you need to go out with a shopping list and buy a whole list of tools before you're "allowed" to start woodworking.  Instead, choose a project, and buy tools on an as-needed basis.  Makes sense.

A downside, of course, to a small shop is wrangling large boards.

An article on one advantage of doing mostly hand-tool work.

He also discusses how thin handplane shavings are over-rated.

And how you shouldn't work tired.

And how to saw long stock using a pair of sawbenches.


Ayep!


--GG

Tip for many small parts

If you're assembling thing and you have a zillion small parts that are all the same (e.g. some Ikea kit), I recommend using a doggie bowl.

It has a wide base, so you're unlikely to knock it over.  It has a large opening so you can grab the pieces easily.  And the sides are tall, so the items are unlikely to get knocked out of the bowl.

--GG

The best part of my vacation

Although it was indeed good to go off an a (short!) road-trip with my family -- I gotta admit, the best part was getting to spend three full days whipping the shed into shape.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday -- July 2nd through July 4th.

By ''shed'', I mean the three-car garage-sized outbuilding, which will never house a car.  Here in Aussie-land, we call that a shed.  About one-third of it is my workshop, and two-thirds of it are storage (bikes, suitcases, etc.).  We don't have a functional attic, nor a basement, so all the misc. ''guff'' deserves to be out there.

The problem is that I've been busy for the last few months -- with the chicken coop, plus other things -- so items have just been shoved into the shed around nightfall, then never properly placed.


My main goal was to put my workshop area into functional shape -- and I achieved this.  Photos below.  My secondary goal was to tidy and organize the ''storage'' area.  I improved the order -- but I simply ran out of time.  So, it's better -- but not how I'd like it.


Here's a few ''Before'' and ''After'' photos.


The main entrance -- Before...

 ... and After!

The difficulty was that this main entrance to the shed was where I'd stash all my frequently-used tools while I was building the chicken coop.  But they needed to be put away.  So, I did!


The nuts 'n' bolts shelf -- Before...

...and After!

The main problem with this area is that the blue ''bloodletting chair'' (long story; had for years but no place for it in the house) was in the way -- I always had to lean over it to reach these shelves.  The green up-ended table sitting on it was also in the way.  I moved the blue chair from this ''prime location'' into the deeper reaches of the shed (i.e. against a back wall), and moved the green table into a less-intrusive location.  (It has a bad leg: I'm going to repair it, and The Girl will use it as an art desk.)

I also was able to use up a fair bit of my stash of jars and containers in the process of sorting my nails, nuts 'n' bolts, and etcetra.  If the photo was less blurry you'd be able to see that all the boxes, tubs, and jars are labeled clearly.


My workbench -- Before...

...and After!

Woo-hoo!!!  Actual cleared **benchtop** **space**!!!

A lot of people hang tools off the wall behind their workbench.  I don't want to permanently attach anything to the wall -- it's just sheet metal -- so for the moment I'm using a small shelf which I (of course!) rescued from the side of the road.  Instead of hooks on the wall, I just lay my tools on the shelf.  Works well.



BONUS:  Working at night.

Here's the view -- post-tidy -- from near our back door:

And, standing in the shed doorway...

Because the shed doesn't have power running to it, I could only really work on things during the day -- which meant ''weekends only''.  Occasionally I'd try to do work at night -- but I'd have to hold a flashlight or wear a headlamp. 

BUT!!! -- I've now set things up so that I have two lamps permanently plugged in to a power strip, and an extension cord permanently coiled up near the other door.  Now when I want to do work at night, I just throw the cord out the door and plug it in to the nearby outlet on the side of the house.  Takes me about 60 seconds.

UPDATE:  Yep!  Have made use of being able to things at night about twice a week during the following four weeks.  Good stuff.


(Pre-emptive note:  Because we use 220 Volts here in Aussie-land, it's illegal to do your own home wiring, unless you're a licensed electrician.)


So:  I didn't accomplish **all** that I wanted to do.  But, by the end of this process, I could actually walk between each of the three doors without stepping over things!!!  And, I had a useable workbench.  And can actually find nuts and bolts, screws, and nails.

So, mission accomplished, really.


--GG

Tool storage ergonomics

This is a good article (short and punchy!) on efficient tool storage, relative to your work habits. The author focuses on woodworking -- but I think it would apply to any hobby, craft, or occupation where you have tools that you store, yet need to access them.


--GG