A silver lining? Duck Off Episode 7

[AJB Temple]

Yes Mike, the belt snagged on a sticky up split in the oak and one second it was 4 " wide and then it became 3! This machine is one I bought new, for doing this exact job when I first started timber framing at this house a couple of years ago. It's a brilliant machine, capable of being used all day. The belts last well too.

I also have a 3" Elu belt sander which I bought 30 years ago and it is still going strong.

Not all Makita stuff is good, but their big belt sanders are amazing.

I am looking into a wider planer. Triton do a 7" one for about £240 which I am thinking about. My experience of Triton stuff is a bit patchy. I am on my second rebate plane as the predecessor to this one lasted exactly one weekend. I think they are more DIY than serious user. I am obviously DIY as I am working at home, but I don't think I am the target market.

 

[AJB Temple]

This is my superlative temporary workshop. It is adjacent to the kitchen and I built it out of blockwork. It's about 6m my 3m. The window is home made, in my proper workshop. Oak lintel 8)

The bench I bought for £100 from a local junk shop. It will get a refurb and new vices when I get round to it.

The photo is to illustrate my sophisticated 10 second sharpening set up. :roll:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I sold on a Makita hand planer with a 150mm cut a few years ago - I bought it second hand in 1990 - that was an awesome thing. It would have been perfect for that type of work. I've not seen another.

 

[AJB Temple]

I am not a tool collector

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Should have added - and now I need a long one.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Last night I bought a Festool electric plane off eBay. Allegedly used twice. It was very cheap so I will see what that is like in due course.

That's just piddling about at the job. You really need one of these ...

A snip at just ~£4,120, from here https://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/ ... n3QJoj7SHs ha ha. Slainte.

 

[rafezetter]

Last night I bought a Festool electric plane off eBay. Allegedly used twice. It was very cheap so I will see what that is like in due course.

That's just piddling about at the job. You really need one of these ...

A snip at just ~£4,120, from here https://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/ ... n3QJoj7SHs ha ha. Slainte.

Can't you just duct tape two or three side by side?

 

[AJB Temple]

As I am writing about tools today (as wood prep goes on apace and one lump of oak is much like another and just as heavy) here is an old saying:

Some people are enamoured with tools.
Some others are enamoured with process.
The others are busy with making furniture.

I made a crack about tool collectors above, and it was semi serious. Some tools I buy new, but very often I pick up stuff second hand. I really like tool collectors. They tend to baby the tools and don't use them much "I bought this for a project and used it twice". Then they upgrade. Currently I am finding quite a few people are "upgrading" from corded to cordless. There is a fair bit of Festool stuff being chopped out on eBay for these sort of reasons this year. Often it sells for under half the new price.

I used to be a bit anti Festool, as I thought the prices were bonkers. However, having used some of their gear, I must admit it is often very good,

Here is an example: this is my Festool vac. It's the trade version so has the hepa filtration etc.

No idea why this pic went sideways. Anyway, this came of the Bay and was £120. It had been barely used, was still on its original dust bag, and has been bought by a man who had decided to set up as a home handyman and found a) this thing is big to lug about b) he didn't have customers and (I suspect) c) even if he did have the customers he lacked the skills. It's actually a brilliant vac. Stupidly cheap second hand. Why pay more?

I use this, two cheapy ones from Lidl (one in stock as a spare) and a Nilfisk attached to my chop saw. Festool is easily the best.

 

[AJB Temple]

However, it turns out the thing has a major design fault. Somehow, it gets full.

Photo removed for security reasons. Sorry about that

I discovered this inside it today. It's ginormous. Amazing how full it gets before the little alarm things sounds. Now, even though I got chucked out of the Boy Scouts (it involved frolicking with a girl guide - we don't need to go there, I was her toy boy) I am still well prepared, so I had bought a box of spare bags at great expense.

Here is where the law of s.o. d. struck for the first time today. The ones I bought were about a quarter of this size. I managed to force one in, but FFX got some cash off me for 10 new ones being delivered shortly.

 

[AJB Temple]

How do I rotate photo's - they worked fine this morning?

 

[AJB Temple]

THE LAW OF S.O.D HAS JINXED THIS THREAD

:roll: :? #-o

No sooner do I write about the Axminster air helmet, than it gives up on me. a fully charged battery lasted 20 minutes. A new battery on the Axi site is a) out of stock and b) stupidly, shockingly, eye waveringly expensive at £112. They are also out of stock of the helmets themselves, and boy have they gone up in price. I bought mine for about £110 on offer as I recall. They are now about £260 and out of stock. I wonder if Axminster is heading for a fall with much of it's stuff coming from China?

So that was law of S O D two. I remedied by buying this:

This is a Trend pro shield. Comes with two sets of spare filters, peel off covers and two batteries for £269. I was amazed to find it and I bought the last one the supplier had in stock. I will report back on it when it arrives in a couple of days.

S/O/D 3 was I broke another sander belt. This was after Mike posting about catching splinters. In case you were wondering what I do with the No 5 plane, before sanding I use it to quickly skim the edge corners off the oak I am machining. I use the five because the 7 is too big to operate one handed. Must have missed a bit. So had to order another batch of 40 grit as I am getting low. These are actually quite reasonable at about a tenner for a pack of 5.

I experimented today with using the No 7 as a kind of scrub plane to run over the wood diagonally to take off the high spots etc before sanding. Worked very well (thanks Mike - I got the idea from you) and was almost as quick as the power planer but made a lot less mess.

Here is the weird sole that I referred to earlier:

 

[AJB Temple]

Almost finally on tools:

This thing will cope with over 4" thick oak. It's a Bosch 12" saw. The one with the articulated action. I've had it about three years. It's seen a lot of use. Very accurate, and very solid. Highly recommended.

I also recommend from years of use, these:

And finally on tools for today I think, in response to a PM query, this is the Sorby table attachment. I think I paid about £30 for this and it is very useful. It enables easy adjustment to get any blade perfectly aligned with the belt, and slides side to side so you don't end up with an out of true primary or secondary bevel. I use this all the time as I don't want to waste my time sharpening: I just want it done fast and accurately.

 

[AJB Temple]

Feel free to ask questions or give me tips.

I am heartily sick of prepping wood, so plan to take the weekend off from that. Episode 4 will be either about design, the shocking price of kitchens, or my unconventional views on kitchen builds.

Next week I will start making some actual joints. This will be proper. Ie, not dominos

 

[AndyT]

How do I rotate photo's - they worked fine this morning?

Apparently there's no consistency in how different software does or doesn't take account of rotation properties of photo files. So it's impossible to get it right at your end and always get the forum preview to work.

I expect a proper IT person could add more detail but I think it's all a bit broken.

 

[MikeG.]

The issue with a chop saw for use with big lumps of oak is do you have reference face? I tended not to, more often working either from a centreline and a plumb on the endgrain, or just offering-up-and-adjusting, making the shoulders at an angle if necessary.

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree Mike. At first I just cut roughly to length leaving a few cm spare. I am not sure actually, post Brexit whether to go fully imperial. Bearing in mind I have always been 6ft 2 1/2 " tall, I feel I visualise in imperial still.

Any squaring up and final dimensioning and semi final sanding is done on wood at close to correct length. Then joints are cut. Generally the cut ends are not that important as in many cases they end up inside a finished joint.

For my substantial legs for the island table and separate cooking panel on the North wall, these will need to be "fitted" to the slightly uneven black limestone floor. I have no intention of using adjustable feet.

 

[AJB Temple]

Apologies for lack of activity: I get hayfever quite badly and as a result have had conjunctivitis for the last few days so keep away from screens and wood dust.

 

[AJB Temple]

I have been making a bit of progress, but having to do some legal work for a case in early May as well, so writing time is at a premium.

Today I had a few bits of wood from my usual supplier. As I can't drive to my barn in the Midlands currently, I ordered some stuff last week. This has nothing to do with the kitchen units construction. It's actually to make a corridor to connect the new kitchen to part of the main house. This lot is all 6" by 6" at various lengths, all for doing plates. It is about a third of my order, made over the phone about 10 days ago. The delivery driver unloaded on his own as we observed social distancing ~ (laziness from me).

I will be getting a load of 8" by 8" posts next and a lot of 4" by 4" infills.

Some sawmills are still working, but I suspect they are only dealing with regular customers that they know and trust. They said they are being inundated with calls from the DIY market who want a bit of wood.

This lot was harvested last year in May.

 

[AJB Temple]

The whole order is 88 cubic feet, which will work out at about 100 cubic feet delivered (as my supplier leaves them long and often adds an extra or two).

 

[AndyT]

It's always interesting to watch someone working on a totally different scale - that looks like a lot of hard graft to keep you busy.