Friday, June 09, 2006

Devilish Work

Well I'm glad I took time out to make the chair devil, 'cos it's doing a smashing job. Seriously, if you have need for a round spindle/dowel/handle and no lathe, this could save you a lot of grief. It's not just useful for chair-making.



Anyway the short spindles are more or less done, althought the fit of the tenons to the arm need a little tweaking before it'll come togther properly - as you can see. Still it's looking so-so, at the very least I can make a low back chair now, even if the back and comb is a disaster.



No one's going to take it for anything but handmade though...

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Further website updates

Added in some further information on hunting old tools in London courtesy of Mark on WoodNet (thanks, Mark), a link to Jarviser's site (at last, sorry, Peter) and the Shooting Gallery is finally open for business. Phew, I need to go and have a lie down now...

Flavour of the month

Seems us woodworking bloggists are flavour of the month with magazine editors. After an unexpected plug from FWW, Chris Schwarz's Woodworking magazine blog has now linked here (and to Phil as well - tarnation ) - 'bout time too, Chris! Anyway, a warm welcome to anyone finding these whitterings through that route. The next issue sounds promising, although trust a review of moisture meters to come out after I've bought one. Just one gripe; the "Autumn" issue out in August? Urgh. It's as bad as being faced with all the "Back to School" promotions on the first day of the summer holidays...

All of which I was going to say last night, except Blogger was not cooperative. Too much strain on the system with everyone blogging about The Toe? 210 blog entries about it in 12 hours according to Google's Blog Search. Honestly, I ask you...

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Slow and steady

Be warned, I'm drinking a tall, cool glass of Pimms while typing this, so if it ends up incoherant you'll know the ratio of Pimms to lemonade was on the strong side...

Right, I promised real pictures of the jig in use, didn't I? Well they're not as clear as they might be but I'll explain.

Most important bit was the use of "blue tak" in the countersink to hold the hemisphere in place. Also big gobs of it under the upper boring guide, which was also clamped in place with a soft-jawed clamp. First time those clamps have actually proved useful... Meanwhile on the backside, a couple of spring clamps hold a bit of lath to lengthen the angle sighting reference. All very colourful, confusing and cluttered. But it did work.

On the whole it'd probably have been easier to break out the 'leccy drill...

Anyway, I finished up the hole boring in the arm, as you may have gathered, and was able to bore the ones in the seat. This may have gone well, or it may not have - I won't know until I start fitting sticks.



Those'll be the sticks I haven't finished yet in fact. Okay, I know I said I wouldn't, but the bulk of the tenon sizing I've done on the lathe. Yes, slow and steady wins the race, but at this rate I'll be coming last in the next race but one so Things Had To Be Done. Still got all the shaping and arm tenon sizing to do on the long sticks though, 'cos a whippy length of 3/4" square stock is not particularly lathe-friendly when you're steady-less. Kinda wish I'd made a rounder now; I did think about it but it never got any further than that.



Anyway, that's the progress. At least it is progress!