newbie to site and woodwork

[alun Gru]

Hi!!!
its my first time making anything out of wood well out of anything, so i have started to make a foot stool out of an old pine bed but i can not get a straight edges i am using a saw and a files but thats all the tools i have help!!!

 

[Ian down london way]

I think you either need to get more tools, or become at peace with the absence of straight edges.

 

[caroleb]

I think you either need to get more tools, or become at peace with the absence of straight edges.

:lol:

 

[Ian]

Welcome Alan - perhaps your first purchase should be a good book on working with handtools - it won't break the bank!

Ian

 

[John15]

Hi Alan,
There are books on most aspects of woodworking on ebay at very cheap prices.
Cheers,
John

 

[RossJarvis]

Hi!!!
its my first time making anything out of wood well out of anything, so i have started to make a foot stool out of an old pine bed but i can not get a straight edges i am using a saw and a files but thats all the tools i have help!!!

Welcome to the site Alun.

I'm thinking you mean the edges you are cutting either aren't straight along their length, or are not at 90 degrees to the edges. How are you marking out for the cuts? I found that it takes a bit of practice to learn how to cut straight. Also when marking out you need to use a good "try-square/carpenters square/engineers square" holding the stock/handle firmly against the edge of the wood, ensuring the "blade" is flush to the surface. Use a sharp wooden pencil and carefully mark along the "reference edge", angling the pencil into the edge, don't hold it vertical. Then when sawing, take slow long strokes and carefully look at your mark, blowing the sawdust away ensuring you are following the mark. Looking vertically down the blade is often helpful to keep it all in line. Also if you're cutting thick lumps of wood you need to be careful when marking out and mark both the "edge and face" (two surfaces, front and top). With both faces marked it's easier to get a square cut.

Hope this helps

Ross

 

[RossJarvis]

Hi!!!
its my first time making anything out of wood well out of anything, so i have started to make a foot stool out of an old pine bed but i can not get a straight edges i am using a saw and a files but thats all the tools i have help!!!

Welcome to the site Alun.

I'm thinking you mean the edges you are cutting either aren't straight along their length, or are not at 90 degrees to the edges. How are you marking out for the cuts? I found that it takes a bit of practice to learn how to cut straight. Also when marking out you need to use a good "try-square/carpenters square/engineers square" holding the stock/handle firmly against the edge of the wood, ensuring the "blade" is flush to the surface. Use a sharp wooden pencil and carefully mark along the "reference edge", angling the pencil into the edge, don't hold it vertical. Then when sawing, take slow long strokes and carefully look at your mark, blowing the sawdust away ensuring you are following the mark. Looking vertically down the blade is often helpful to keep it all in line. Also if you're cutting thick lumps of wood you need to be careful when marking out and mark both the "edge and face" (two surfaces, front and top). With both faces marked it's easier to get a square cut.

Hope this helps

Ross

 

[Reggie]

Get a square, learn how to do your marking out with a square, a knife and a chisel, I use a sharp craft knife to mark the lines, then use a chisel from the waste side to take make a groove upto the knife mark, this will leave you with a nice straight edge for your saw to follow making it much easier to saw.

If your cuts are still a bit wonky after that, you're probably going to need a plane of some description, a no.4 or 5 will do, once you have a plane, you can use that to flatten along the length of whatever it is you're working with, if the ends of your wood are wonky, I'd suggest making a 'shooting board', this will allow you to straighten up any end grain.

 

[Zeddedhed]

I think you either need to get more tools, or become at peace with the absence of straight edges.

I love the idea of becoming at peace with an absence of straight edges.
I'm slowly becoming at peace with a presence of gaps around some of my joints. Gaps have a right to be there you know!!

 

[Grahamshed]

I'm slowly becoming at peace with a presence of gaps around some of my joints. Gaps have a right to be there you know!!

:lol:
Welcome to the forum. You are a sane thinking man.

 

[alun Gru]

Wow thanks for the information and the warm welcome. Managed to get my hands on a mitar saw for a couple of hours. Will look at the books and will be looking at getting at least some chisels

 

[alun Gru]

this is looking better than i thought it would. top has to be screwed together and the slates for the base fits. Is there a standard size for the feet?

and whats the best basic woodworking book to get?

 

[carlb40]

Wow thanks for the information and the warm welcome. Managed to get my hands on a mitar saw for a couple of hours. Will look at the books and will be looking at getting at least some chisels

Welcome

If you have a quick search there have been a few chisel threads within the last week. Both contain various recommendations. As to learning, try youtube, plenty of useful tips/hints/tutorials etc

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Alan
You are at the start of a very dangerous slope. Turn away now!
When I was young and starting work, my dad gave me a bit of advice. Buy one tool every week. It doesn't matter whether it is a tablesaw or a carpenter's pencil, buy one tool a week. Now in those days there were plenty of tool shops and dad was paid weekly, so it made sense. Perhaps a little less so now. But the principle applies, decide on what you need and build up your kit regularly from that list.
For advice on exactly what to buy, that is a bit more difficult, as it depends on what you want to make, but whatever you buy, buy the best you can afford. There is something intrinsically wonderful about handling a well-made tool and you will get better results more quickly too. Learn how to sharpen your edges. Practice sawing to a line. See how thin you can make a shaving. All these are basic skill which will make your woodwork more enjoyable.

FWIW my starter kit would be:
Workmate
Combination square
Marking knife
Hardpoint saw and tenon saw, or a pair of Japanese saws
Combi Japanese water stone
Small but good quality set of chisels
No 5 plane

Other suggestions, guys?
S
PS You might find John Brown's "The Anarchist Woodworker" a good primer on kit.

 

[KevM]

PS You might find John Brown's "The Anarchist Woodworker" a good primer on kit.

Steve, were John Brown's columns from British Woodworking published as a collection, or did you mean Chris Schwarz's 'Anarchist's Tool Chest'?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Ooh, now you have me there. I think the former. I'm pretty sure JB wrote a small book about starting up and using minimal kit, and I thought that is what it was called. I have his Welsh Stick Chairs book somewhere but not the one to which I'm referring. It enjoyed a good reputation though.
You could try PM Nick Gibbs, he knew JB quite well, I'm sure he would remember.

 

[KevM]

Well, a quick Google brought me back to this site (centre of known Universe or what?) the-unedited-john-brown-t74126-30.html where Nick Gibbs posted in October last year that he was preparing an anthology of John Brown's articles.

I am currently working on an anthology of John's articles, trying to fit them into a outline he'd devised for a book, called The Anarchist Woodworker. He had intended the book to be called the Self-Sufficient Woodworker, but had changed the title for personal reasons. The interest here will get me going with the book of his articles. It's up to my daughter typing them in!!! I promise not to publish any white text on black. Actually I suspect it's the width of the column on Tony's site that makes it difficult to read as much as anything.
Nick

Nick, put me down for a pre-order if you read this. I all-so have grate prof-reeding skills if kneaded. :wink:

 

[KevM]

http://cornishworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... in-uk.html

John Brown's Anarchist Woodworker Tool Kit - Autumn 1997

Saws
26in Rip Saw
26in Crosscut
22in Panel saw
8in Gents saw
Coping saw
12in Turning saw
Junior hack saw
8in regular taper saw file
6in slim taper saw file

Hammers
20oz Claw
12oz Crosspein

Planes
Jointer No 7
Jack No5
Smoothing
Block 60 1/2
Rebate 778
Router 71

Chisels
1 1/4in paring
1/2in paring
1in register
1/2in register
1/4in bevel edge

Boring Holes
10in Brace
Hand drill
1in Jennings bit
3/4in Jennings bit
5/8in Jennings bit
1/2in Jennings bit
3/8in Jennings bit
Bit roll - 9 pocket
1 1/4in centre pattern bit
13 piece twist drills, IMP
Countersink

Measuring and Marking
36in Rabone Blind Man's Rule
5m Tape
12in Try Square
10 1/2in Bevel
Mortise Gauge
Cutting Gauge
Knife (Sloyd)
2in Bradawl - square blade
Stanley Knife 199

Miscellaneous
8in Screwdriver
4in Screwdriver
6in Pliers
10in Pincers
12in Wood rasp
Adjustable mouth spokeshave
Cabinet Scraper
Burnisher
Handgrinder
O'Donnell Tool Rest
Fine Bench Stone - 8in x 2in Norton India
Slipstones

Holding and Cramping
Vice - Record 10 1/2in plain screw
Vice - Mechanic's - Record 4in
G Cramps
Sash Cramps - Paramo box section 2 x 36in
Sash Cramps - Paramo box section 2 x 72in

Add to this list such items as pencils, chalk, masking tape, rags, brushes, Danish oil, paint etc. Also, a 36in (or better, a 48in) metal level, useful as a straight edge.

 

[Steve Maskery]

You can see why you might want to build it up over a period of time...

 

[custard]

I all-so have grate prof-reeding skills if kneaded. :wink: