Village Idiot

Did I say "must do better"? Ha hum, If ever there was a case of do as I say, not as I do... Once again terrible blogging inertia struck last week, which is odd 'cos all sorts of things happened I could have blogged about.

On Tuesday I picked up a fascinating book - Amateur Work, Illustrated. Essentially a sort of early Woodworker Annual (1881) except it covers all sorts of things like making and repairing shoes and boots, making telephones, electroplating, all sorts. Extremely galootish and lots of info on "new tools" like the recently introduced Starrett Combination Square! I really must do some scanning and share a few bits.

Then on Saturday everyone but me was out, so I made actual woodworking progress. I know, I could hardly believe it either. Better make the most of it while I can 'cos the old man's getting his other hip joint replaced in a few weeks so I'll be shuttling mum hither and yon for a while which'll cut into the spare time rather severely. Anyway, to overflow my cup of happiness all of said woodworking was 100% honest to goodness hand toolin' goodness. Viz; out came my favourite rebate plane, the red Marples:

Now why that plane is a favourite, I know not. The casting is cracked at the fence rod point, the fence rod isn't original, the spur cutter's still waiting for me to get a new screw to hold it that doesn't foul the side, the sole isn't flat, but nevertheless I always pick it up in preference to either of the other two. And before the cries of "collector!" ring through the comments box, it should be noted that all three are halt and lame in one respect or another so between them they barely make one functioning #78-alike.

Anyway, I also did a little of this:

Gads, but pine is the total pits for getting a clean chisel cut isn't it? And yes, I know that's a saw... I was getting away with murder on supposedly difficult hardwoods in comparison. The bevel angle on the LNs really didn't do at all, so I switched to the plastic-handle Berg I got last year for 20 new pence and that did better. There may be a moral there somewhere, or there may not - I'm not touching that issue with a ten-foot pole myself...

So the pin boards are still waiting for their big moment, but progress of a sort is slowly being made. Of course that's what I should have been doing yesterday, but instead the car boot sale sang it's siren song. Well my excuse was I need the driving practice. You know how I worry to the Nth degree about woodworking projects? Translate that to me behind the wheel of a car. Get the mental picture? Yes, I'm really not one of nature's drivers and have managed to successfully avoid having to do so for some years. But as mentioned above, the transformation of the old man into the Bionic Man ("We have the technology") requires me to step into the breach, so it's common sense to get some practice in while I can. This noble action was not without reward; not only did I finally glean The Tall Scotsman's name (Ian), but I got a spiffy Marples 1/4" sash mortise chisel for a not unreasonable figure.


Easily the nicest looking chisel I've seen for months and months. Of course the reason it was a not unreasonable figure was probably because the seller was hugging himself in secret delight that he'd found some village idiot to take this off his hands:


That's not strictly true. I did apply for village idiot once, but they said I was over-qualified...

Poor Person's Plano Clamps

My apologies for leaving you all to talk amongst yourselves - not much to report and somehow blogging seemed too much effort. Must Do Better.

Yes, I'm afraid I'm falling out of love with this saw till in a Big Way. When exactly does wood cross the line from "characterful" to "what a mess"? I'm seriously contemplating paint, to be honest. Heck, I was seriously contemplating biscuits and have done with the thing yesterday. Maybe I need a break to do something else? Ah well, January is never a good month for feeling positive, is it?

Anyway, enough folks have expressed interest in my Poor Person's Planos for me to give a brief explanation of them. The background is simple; I've long desired a couple of the rather spiffy "Plano Vertical Glue Press", but unfortunately only have a budget for the rather less spiffy "Four Way Clamping System". Nowadays I don't have enough wall space for the Planos either, but that's by-the-by. Now you're s'posed to use these things on the bench top, but who can afford to tie up bench space with glue ups? And anyway in my experience they squirm about like a greased eel. So I had a Brainwave, and decided to hang them from a batten on the wall instead. Out of the way and reduced squirming - excellent. I've only got two; if I need more clamping pressure I just add an ordinary sash clamp. Being in the corner like this is Not Ideal btw. You really want to have the 4-ways evenly spreading their usefulness.



So, how are they hung on the batten? Well first an orientation picture - you're looking at them from this side, and in fact you can probably see the bolt head in the rear bar, right in the middle of the picture.



So here's a drawing I did a couple of years ago to try and explain it clearly. I may have failed...



One bolt is enough per clamp it seems, and gives you a little leeway where a more rigid fixing could give problems. You can, in theory, have as many clamps in a row as you fancy, but in practice I wouldn't want to have to deal with more than three I think.

One of the drawbacks to this system is that while the rear bar is held up by the bolt everything else is gravity's plaything and thus you need three or four hands to hold everything up and stop the bars slipping out of the notches. It's a pain, but have I done anything about it? Hah, "if it works don't improve it" could be my motto... But an email from a reader about them got me thinking and it could be there's a simple solution. Viz; take a simple swivelling toggle or two, like these rather rugged examples:



... and fit them so they can be swung over the notches and hold the head cross-bar doodah so it won't slip out any more.



The only drawback that's just dawned on me is that they're needed on the notches on the back bar too, which might be tricky not to say finicky. Hmm, s'pose the only thing to do is try.

Bother

Right, where was I? Oh yeah... Bit of cleaning up and jointing later...



... and some, at least, of the boards are glued or gluing up to make the carcass.



The bottom board's just a spacer, btw. Well it's now obvious I don't have enough wood to make the carcass deep enough for tambours. Phew... Er, I mean, erm "Bother". Yeah, that's right. Bother. It's also going to look like the worst sort of "pine board" - all knots and nail holes. Heigh ho. If it keeps the saws in good nick, everything else is just icing.

Back to the drawing board

Well folks, don't hold your breath. Today I paid a once in a blue moon visit to the local House of Horrors - aka B&Q - and I did not furnish myself with sundries suitable for making tambour doors. Plus The Powers That Be are more or less forbidding me to do it on the basis that they can't take the stress. They can't? Waddabout me?! So it's all on hold until I can make a final decision (yeah, right) except I'll need the carcass whatever I do, so I'll finish up cleaning and jointing the chapel boards.

Meantime it dawned on me that I never revealed what the Christmas pressies were that I was working on. Well the last recipient has had their's (sorry if you were crossing your fingers and just hoping yours was delayed in the post) so I can safely blog the result. Although actually I told all elsewhere well before Christmas, so this won't be new to some.



Cunning use of offcuts not big enough for chisel handles, eh...?