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

Woodworking? Really?

Seeing how the title of this blog seems to indicate some sort of tie to woodworking I thought it would be nice to at least mention that I'm trying to set up a small workshop in our one car garage in the house we're renting.

I've been pouring over internet articles and Chris Schwarz's "Workbenches" book for a few days and have settled on an idea of what my new workbench will look like. After applying for another job and taking a 5 mile jog this morning, I headed to Home Depot to pick up lumber.... What a workout! After picking through the whole bin and heaving split, warped and other undesirable boards to the side I ended up with ten decent 2"x12"x12' planks of southern yellow pine and a gallon of Titebond II. I think each board weighs around 60lb. By the time I had my stuff picked out, I had literaly left a puddle of sweat on the floor by the lumber bin. Eww. Labor of love I suppose.

Loading 600lbs of lumber that is 12' long into a compact pickup with a 6' bed and driving down the interstate back home seemed a bit dicey, but I took great comfort knowing that the load was secured with ten dollars worth of the finest Chinese ratchet straps you can buy from Harbor Freight. A free-body diagram and summing the moments about the CG of the goodies in the truck bed would have looked pretty ugly but I got home without issue and stacked the boards in the garage. They're now resting comfortably separated by 1/2" square stickers to allow them to acclimate to the garage, essentially being outdoors. I figure I'll give the wood a week and start milling stuff down to size.

The bench, when finished, will have a leg vice on the front left corner and a nifty wagon-style vice on the right side. It should weigh around 300 lbs when its complete. This one shouldn't not rock and scoot across the floor when I'm using the hand planes. If so, I could always throw bags of concrete on the bottom shelf... :)