Marking accurate mitres referencing face side - great tool

[woodbloke]

I disagree. Stock should always be machined roughly to size before a project begins assuming that it's down to the correct MC, slightly over length, width and thickness and then left to further conditions for a few weeks in the workshop (providing it's warm)....any final movement in the timber ought to then take place and it's only then that the final machining to exact sizes is done, followed by a very light skim with a hand plane to remove any planer marks. This is very important, 'specially if you're using a timber that is prone to movement like elm.

The classic mistake that newbies make is to machine to exact sizes straight away and take all the timber off one side instead of machining both sides - Rob

 

[Anonymous]

I disagree. Stock should always be machined roughly to size before a project begins

Er - but you can't do that "roughly to size" unless you have a project begun and have a cutting list cos you wouldn't know what the sizes were. Or you might find that you wished you had machined them roughly to another size. :lol:

assuming that it's down to the correct MC, slightly over length, width and thickness and then left to further conditions for a few weeks in the workshop (providing it's warm)....any final movement in the timber ought to then take place and it's only then that the final machining to exact sizes is done, followed by a very light skim with a hand plane to remove any planer marks. This is very important, 'specially if you're using a timber that is prone to movement like elm.

The classic mistake that newbies make is to machine to exact sizes straight away and take all the timber off one side instead of machining both sides - Rob

Wouldn't argue with that - depending on what you are doing and with what etc.

 

[woodbloke]

Mr Grim - agreed, timber needs to be prepared for a specific project.... not just planing up a whole lot of sawn stuff with nothing particular in mind for it, which is what I assume that your pal did - Rob

 

[Nick W]

Rob,

I think you ought to read Mr Grim's post again. You and he do actually agree. :shock:

 

[Vormulac]

As an aside, I think DCs hand planing and chisel sharpening DVDs are really useful but the shooting board one dissapointed me.

I'm lacking in experience and expertise next to you, Tony, but I would have to say I found all Mr C's DVDs to be immensely useful, especially the shooting board one!

V.

 

[Anonymous]

As an aside, I think DCs hand planing and chisel sharpening DVDs are really useful but the shooting board one dissapointed me.

I'm lacking in experience and expertise next to you, Tony, but I would have to say I found all Mr C's DVDs to be immensely useful, especially the shooting board one!

V.

H Vormulac

I 'talked' with DC about this a while back and he agreed that the shooting board one was not his best and said that it really was aimed at absolute beginners.

I have to admit to many years using a shooting board before seeing the DVD and so my perspective might not be as good as someone who has never used one before

 

[Vormulac]

Hi Tony,

That's a fair comment, I had never even seen a shooting board before watching that DVD, but having done so I feel I could build one and hit the ground running, so to speak.

V.

 

[Anonymous]

Is hand thicknessing a problem? Ida thought flattening the face of a twisty board is the hard part but after that taking off the back down to gauge lines is relatively easy.
Accuracy: IMHO accuracy itself less important than the appearance of accuracy, which isn't quite the same thing.
That's where woodwork is so different from engineering. There's a range of woodworky tricks to make things look right such as undercutting, offsetting to make shadow lines, mouldings to conceal joins etc. The main trick being the final fitting of pieces together by easing in with a block plane, or dropping a tenon saw down a gap etc.
Thats why a sliding bevel and a school protractor are good enough. The precision of engineering measuring devices is somewhat wasted as one can't in any case saw, or chisel precisely to the line accurate to .01 mm. You are back to hand and eye skills, like it or not.

Just remembered where I first learnt "the saw in a gap" trick. It wasn't when I was carefully joining some bits of ebony with secret dovetails etc,or anything like that. It was when I worked as a labourer for a fencing contractor in Wales.
To get a good fit between a post and a diagonal brace, I'd hold the brace in place whilst he ran a chainsaw down the gap between them once or twice, producing a perfect *** paper tight fit.

There were/are some expert historic timber frame restorers at Mapledurham. Church roofs etc. When splicing in new sections they did not like a gap that a razor blade would fit in. David Charlesworth

Very likely Davids timber framers did the same. They would achieve accuracy not by using an engineering measuring approach or device (from veritas covered in brass knobs etc :lol: ) but by measuring with ordinary tapes, or knots in a piece of string etc. Then bringing the pieces together they would drop a saw between them, a chain saw even, and get a perfect fit, perhaps tightening it with draw bored pegs.
Pity Mr Spanton is no longer with us as he'd expand knowledgeably on this.
These woodworking wheezes and wangles are not just ways of making a bad job better, or bodging after careless measuring: they are central and essential to the craft.
To try to reduce woodworking to mere engineering is to miss the whole point.

cheers
Jacob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very likely Davids timber framers did the same. They would achieve accuracy not by using an engineering measuring approach or device (from veritas covered in brass knobs etc :lol: ) but by measuring with ordinary tapes, or knots in a piece of string etc. Then bringing the pieces together they would drop a saw between them, a chain saw even, and get a perfect fit, perhaps tightening it with draw bored pegs.

Now, if Veritas would produce a chainsaw with brass knobs, we could all be happy :lol: :lol: All jesting aside, I reckon that dodge of dropping a saw between the joint and drawing it together is a great dodge. I've seen it done and in the right situation it really works.

Cheers :wink:

Paul