Happy Birthday, Munchkin!

Its official! When someone asks how old Norah is, we can quantify in years!

Norah turned one yesterday and had a poorly attended but fun birthday party. She got a few new toys, a cool couch from the Schuler clan and some great stuff from Grami and Gramps in Kentucky and she loves all of it... but her favorite are the cool party lights Dad bought and hung up on the light fixture.

Birthday dinner consisted of homemade pizzas (Norah loves pizza!), cheese, and strawberries! Norah messed around with her cake a bit but wasn't really excited about it. Weirdo.







A couple random pics of the previous day. Norah and Nisha made paper hats and ponchos. Weirdos.

What goes around...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nisha's Dad, Bro, and our two neices drove down to spend Thanksgiving with us and brought really chilly weather!

How chilly?

Well, sufficiently chilly to produce near white-out conditions:





Yep. We got TP'd.

When we moved in, I noticed there were remnants of a past TP job in the trees. The story was that the previous tenants (one, at least) were high school teachers at a local Christian school (gotta watch them Christians) and as a senior prank their students decided to TP them, saran wrap their front porch, etc. And it looks like their knuckleheaded students don't know that they don't live here anymore.

Or maybe it was just karma working itself out. I took part in some pretty epic TP'ings in high school... Perhaps the universe is back in balance.

I filed a police report but I'm sure nothing will come of it. They weren't even interested in coming out and taking a picture or actually seeing it.

Thankfully our out-of-town guests chipped in and helped clean up what we could. We got 90% of it but will have to endure the rest until the leaves are back on the trees.

On the plus side, several neighbors stopped by while we were cleaning and introduced themselves... so maybe some good will come out of it.

Assembly/Electrons are for Sissies

*** Begin no new kiddo pic warning ***
As a courtesy to those interested in only cute baby pics, there are no new pics of squirt in this post. Much to our amazement, she just hasn't been very cute the past few days. Nisha and I confronted Norah and made it very clear that her only contribution to the household is not something that can be freely withdrawn. She apologized and promised to make a genuine effort over the coming days. We'll post updates as they're available.

Other than Norah's to-improve frumpiness, everyone is healthy and happy and looking forward to gorging on turkey over the next couple days.

Those without time or interest in some unemployed knucklehead's woodworking exploits can close the browser and return to their other pressing matters.
*** End no new kiddo pic warning ***

The bench looks like a bench!

Progress! I assembled the base (this time with glue!) and had to get Nisha to help heave the top up on it. That sucker is heavy!

Though it was fairly close after glue-up, I flattened the top with my Stanley #5 jack and #608 Bedrock jointer plane. You can see the plane tracks left as intersecting diagonal lines in the following pic:

Once things were sufficiently flat, I pulled out the smoothing plane (thanks Pops!) and made a big pile of shavings and left the finished surface flat and smooth as glass:

Time for vices! Er, vises.

Seeing that the bench is one huge expanse of yellow pine, I figured I'd add a little bling to gussy things up. The fact that I've got a huge pile of cherry boards that I regularly trip over may have had something to do with it as well. I sketched up a couple ideas of what a well-blung leg vise would look like and started hacking.


Having settled on a design and assembled the vise chop, it was time to bore the 2.25" diameter through hole for the vise screw/thrust plate. I don't have a 2.25" hole saw (and probably wouldn't have tried to use one anyway), but I do have a bit brace and a 2-3" expansive bit. The cherry board I picked for the vise was a particularly hard example; boring the one hole wore me out. I couldn't imagine having to many of them everyday day. Don't get into a fight with an old-time woodworker. They'll kick your butt.

Followed up by drilling pilot holes for the vise mounting screws:

Et voila! Only things left to do are to install the wagon vise and board jack and bore bench dog holes. This project has been really fun!

Getting Close / Stupid Hurts

There's a glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. And routers are nothing but raucous, 30,000 rpm implements of death and destruction.

I spent a good part of yesterday laying out and drilling holes to for the draw-bore pins in the 12 mortise-and-tenon joints and routing the tracks for the wagon vise and a sliding jack located on the front of the bench. Things were going swimmingly until my lack of an attention span bit me.

I had layed out a 5/8" wide by 1" deep by 42" long track on the underside of the benchtop and just finished setting up my plunge router (which I hate using due to noise, mess and just being a general hazard to anyone within a 15 foot radius) to make the cut. I went through the mental checklist I run through when using these cursed machines...
-bit/chuck tightened correctly?
-cord out of the way?
-guides set up correctly?
-unobstructed path?
-saftey glasses/ hearing protection? / respirator? (yeah, I wear a respirator when I make a significant amount of sawdust as I'd like to continue woodworking down the road)
-router positioned correctly?
-good grip on machine?

Looks good, lets do this. Turn it on... Click - Whhhiiinnnneee - CHUNK - JUMP - "%&?! %##&*! !@)#!"

Next I went through the mental checklist I go through when I do something incredibly stupid:
-concious?
-tool turned off?
-feeling in extremities?
-bloody spray/gushers?
-digit count?
-what hurts?
-what did I just muck up?

Nothing huts. All digits accounted for. No new red stains on the workpiece or myself.

Thankfully, I was able to get through the "did something stupid" checklist with the only consequence being a chunk cut out of the front face of the bench top. When adjusting the depth of cut prior to switching on the tool I must have gotten a little bit of grit or dust in the plunge mechanism and the router didn't fully retract prior to me beginning the cut. When readying things for the operation I had placed the machine down onto the workpiece, resting on the soon-to-be spinning bit instead of the bottom of the router base. When it was switched on, the bit spooled up, dug into the surface of the bench, and skitted the machine across a path of destruction before I had realized what was happening and able to turn the thing off. Good thing I had a good grip on the tool prior to switching it on.

I've only had to go though this checklist a couple times and hopefully don't need to in the future. I was pretty steamed at just putting a giant idiot mark on the front of the bench as I'll be looking at it for the next couple decades, but perhaps it will serve to be a constant reminder to slow down and focus on what's in front of me. Ugh.

After I had cooled down and thanked my stars that the chunk was taken out of the benchtop and not my person I assembled the base as a trail fit. Looks pretty good!

I spent an hour last night cutting oak pins to assemble the base and hope to have the bench fully assembled, minus the vises, by the end of the weekend!

Apparently, a review solely of woodworking activities is insufficient in a blog post. The fam is doing fine. One of Nisha's work colleagues loaned us a walker type thing while squirt transitions from quadraped to biped. She's really starting to get the hang of things... this stuff happens so fast!

We're looking forward to seeing everyone over the holidays!

Nice Legs!

I've been making gradual progess with the bench over the past couple days. Trying to take my time (I've got plenty these days!) and get it right as I plan on using this contraption for the next couple decades.

I got the legs and strechers glued up over the weekend and then trued up on the jointer/planer... and once again I sing the praises for Harbor Freight and their almost reasonable quality tools. My full fleet of Chinese clamps, and the few nice Besseys I own, were employed in the glue-up. I've gone through 2/3 of a gallon of Tite-Bond so far; should have bought stock prior to buying the 8 barrels of the stuff.

Next was to start drilling all of the square holes (not easy!) for the leg/top mortise and tenon joints. Being the case that I don't have a workbench yet (issue being addressed) or a real drill press/mortising machine or the desire to cut 2.5"x5"x2" mortises by hand, I had to cobble together a solution involving a relatively flat concrete floor, a couple stacks of offcuts from the bench parts, and my trusty $25 mini drill press sourced from Tractor Supply Co.

In the end, it actually worked well and left the underside of the benchtop with four massive mortises somewhat resembling the silouette of a block of Swiss cheese from the deli counter. The liberal application of my butter soft Sorby mortise chisels squared the mortises nicely and I was able to trial fit the legs. I need to trim a bit of length off of the tenons, but things fit up nicely.



*** Begin Sorby chisel rant ***

About a year ago I was trolling the aisles at a Rockler store back in Cincinnati and noticed that they had Robert Sorby bench and mortise chisels on clearance for 75% off. Having the tendency to sometimes buy things I don't absolutely need just because "its a good deal!", I pieced together a set of 6 or so bench chisels and a set of 4 or 5 mortise chisels. At full retail, the combined price of these dudes would have exceeded $500... I left $135 poorer, but the victor (so I thought) as I just scored a great set of chisels relatively cheaply. And my other set of Marples chisels, though they sharpened up nicely and held an edge pretty well (my set was still made in Sheffield, England) looked just too crude with they're big goofy blue plastic handles.

I got home, admired my victor's spoils, honed an edge or two and put them away. I used a couple here and there while wrapping up Norah's crib and thought they seemed to work admirably.

Then came the baby, Nisha wrapping up her PhD, fixing up the house, moving, etc. They didn't get used much for about a year.

The Sorby chiels, though beautiful, suck. They sharpen up nicely but a couple whacks with a mallet into the Southern yellow pine benchtop to clean up the mortises typically resulted in a dinged up, folded over edge. Say what?! Pine!

A bit confused/frustrated at these events, I searched the internets about others' experiences with these quickly dulling finger nickers and found many similar gripes. Bummer. Theories abound regarding as to why these things won't hold an edge, everything from bad materials to intentional weak heat treatment to keep the steel somewhat ductile so they don't shatter when some numbskull uses the chisel to open a paint can. Ick. Anyway, it looks like others have luck hardening the Sorbys with the liberal application of a MAPP torch and quenching in oil. I guess that'll be the next project... unless anyone in blogdom wants to buy a set of lightly used Sorby chisels! :)

*** End Sorby chisel rant ***

Next is to continue the mortise-a-thon and cut motises in the legs for the strechers, cut the ends of the benchtop square, fit the face and wagon vices, et voila! I can start woodworking! Wait. That's what I've been doing.

Well, its already 9:30am and I haven't applied to any jobs yet! Better get to it...

Justin

Tarnation! Lamination!

*** Begin Baby Update ***

Whatever Norah had, which we think was the H1N1 thing, she's over it and back to her chipper self. She came home early on Wednesday with a 103 degF fever. After two visits and being poked and prodded with nearly every pointy instrument at the disposal of her new pediatrician, no one was able to tell us what was wrong with her (and according to the doc the flu test they have available is of very questionable accuracy). Poor kid. Whatever it was, she (and her parents) didn't enjoy it.

*** End Baby Update ***

More workbench stuff... and maybe a couple baby pics if you suffer through the post...

On Saturday I glued the 21 benchtop boards to each other, ending up with five large blocks that I squared up on the jointer and planed to final thickness. The original intent was a 3.5" thick top but when I was ripping things to width on the table saw the wood bowed and bent all over the place, thus requiring lots of attention on the jointer/planer.

Today I squared and trued up the five blocks, test fit a few times, and glued the top together. Woodworking is fun. Big glue-ups, especially with fast-setting glue, aren't fun. No matter how many times you think about how to tackle it, run through the process and sequence and stage the work, it seems like some hiccup will suface and a few choice words will be uttered. This glue up went ok, but not without spilling big globs of glue, tripping over stuff (did I mention I need more space) and bouts of dizzyness/nose blowing due to whatever disease Norah passed on to me. Here's a couple shots before and after.




Final thickness will end up around 3 3/16" or so; should be plenty thick and heavy enough to sit still when I want it to... and maybe sit still when I try to move it!

Ok, ok, enough rambling. Here's what you're after:


"I want strawberries and nothing else!"

Chicken / Egg? ... Woodworker / Workbench?

To do much woodworking, one needs a bench. But if one is building a workbench that requires a bunch of woodworking... You get the point.

Today really highlighted how important a workbench is. Today also highlighted that cutting down a stack of 12-foot-long 2"x12" boards in a one car garage, chock full of junk that used to live in a basement, is a royal pain in the neck. It was a bit like playing chess as you had to plan a couple steps in advance so as not to trip over something and let loose a string of profanity. I can't wait for us to get into a place with more garage/shop room... Now if only I'd get a call back about a job. (that's not in Indianapolis)

The day's activities consisted of many hours making long wide boards into shorter thinner boards. Lots of shorter thinner boards. To make the chore a bit safer I made a nifty collapsable (see above comments about limited space) outfeed table for the table saw.

I got a pretty early start this morning so I started off with sub-120dB tools. Yep, handsaws. Its no wonder that people, myself included, are generally "huskier" than people were 50-100 years ago. Besides the lack of garbage processed food and General Tso's chicken, you really had to expend effort to accomplish something.

I spent a couple good hours cutting boards to length with my trusty,70-year-old Disston crosscut saw. Once everything was cut to length, I briefly considered grabbing my 90-year-old Disston rip saw and starting to cut boards to width. Really briefly. By this time it was 9:30am and the romance of using only antique steel and physical exertion had waned and I fired up the table saw.

The end result is was this larger stack of boards, stickered and resting comfortably. And sore arms.

Norah's 1st art project and cute Old Navy hat/gloves

Norah made a trick or treat bag at the daycare.

This is the front of it.

This is what she actually painted.

If Norah was a little older and actually went trick or treating, we thought she could be little red riding hood in this poncho/coat and Casey could be the big bad wolf.

I don't have the Gap stock or anything, but if you have little girls, go to Old Navy and get these hat/glove combos. They're too cute! (I didn't see what the boys had, so I can't comment there)

...oh and yeah Carrie, that is the super cute jacket that your parents bought. It's 3/6 months, but I still manage to squeeze her in it.


The back is super cute too!

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