Search results

Tom, that’s a really interesting topic. Usually I do my amateur “heat it tills it loses its magnetism, dump it in chip fat and put it in the oven for a bit” process. But it needs the right hardness because it needs to be hard but sharpenable by file - and straight of course. But all that is...

Next step, mill the teeth on the skews…. Same procedure as before. result, my first ever skew float :-) I realised I didn’t take account of the fact that the skew would effectively shorten the float, due to the reduction in thickness. Never mind, in practice it will be fine. By the end of...

I settled on a 12 degree angle for the skew. I recently acquired a new vice - a “sine vice”, which is a super-accurate tilting vice. The way it works is that a little tower of precision metal blocks (gauge blocks) is used to set the angle. This can be seen under the vice in the next pic.. It...

Some more on my little float project today…. Obviously this is more about metalwork and machining than woodwork. I realised a couple of years back that to make the woodwork tools I wanted to make, I’d have to learn machining and get some machines, so i ended up down a very deep rabbit hole...

Next step, blue them all up on both sides…. Now to scribe some lines. My little vertical mill doesn’t have a proper vertical scale, so I will need to work by eye to some extent. 2 lines needed… one for the 12 degree skew, and a second for the tooth gullets. It just so happens that 50 thou...

Ok here’s a little project that may be of interest to someone. I want to make a new clutch of planemaker’s floats. I want some for skewed mortises, such as rabbet planes and frankly most moulding planes. I am not aware that any modern moulding plane makers use skewed wedges in their planes...

Get a cheap stick welder. Mine is ROHR brand, was cheap and has been great. Tricky at first but a great skill to have. I’ve made no end of stuff with it, saved me a fortune. By the way, dare I mention, a #5 hand plane would do the entire job. No I won’t mention that.

What’s the actual project you are trying to do?

Does anybody have any ideas about machines for engraving brass? I’d love to play around with one of those old pantograph things, but I don’t have the space for it. But if I could find a cost-effective and small machine that could do some basic brass engraving, that would be great.

That’s a really good idea. The problem I had was pulling it tight enough without the cord breaking. Recently I have commandeered a washing up brush from the kitchen to burnish end grain. It has hardish bristles. Looking at the pic below you can see there’s almost no difference in colour...

Pair of giant #18 hollows and rounds ready for finish today. It’s not easy putting profiles on planes that big without having a #18 already. Took much of a day and will need tweaking later, the hollow sole isn’t perfect.

Just for a laugh…. I 3d printed a rabbet plane today. I was making some templates based on a Tyzack plane I have, so I can easily mark up nice teardrop escapements and skewed mortises etc. Then I thought, well why not give it a try. I’d worked out all the dimensions for the template. I fear...

Aha… yes and indeed thats what I would use them for, as you’ve probably guessed! May as well explain. No point in trying to explain to my wife. Someone may be interested. I was working on a pair on #18s this afternoon. I have made this new gizmo that sits on my pillar drill and uses a milling...

Hi Does anyone have any experience with shell bits for a brace? Pros/cons, tips, etc. I might get a couple. Thanks Steve

What’s that then?

I am not worried about the lateral load on my pillar drill. My pillar drill is the Godzilla of pillar drills. It is taller than me. Just to illustrate, here is a pic of it drilling a hole in the end of a milling machine table. Rather, I’d like something dainty and small that I can whip out and...

Hi - yes I’ve seen those, the one you found is too short, but longer ones can be found I think. I’d have to make a little table for it, and my pillar drill is foot operated, so I’d kind of have to balance with one foot on the floor, one one the drill depth control, and two hands moving my work...

Happy new year To be clear, I don’t really want an oscillating spindle sander. I don’t have much space and I really don’t want something heavy I have to move about, plus I have way too many tools and not much money at the moment. But, for some minor but important details on recent projects, I...

I can’t really advise because I inherited mine, but if there’s any feature that helps reduce PLA tangles then that’s the one to get. Nothing more frustrating than setting off a long print at bedtime only to find it still going trying to print in thin air in the morning. The prints take such a...

I have a clone of it (I think) which is a Voxelab something. It is my son‘s (but now it is mine 💀) I’ve been using it to make no end of templates for woodworking. It has been very useful. It can make templates accurate to a few thou. I’ve been using Onshape for CAD, which is free for personal...