The Workshop

My workstation for grinding and sharpening.

2011-08-11T19:41:00.143+01:00

This post will consist of six parts .

1 The turntables. (triple) completed.

2 The bridge and universal tool rest. completed.

3 The jigs. completed.
4 Planer blades grinding set up.

5 Planer blades Honing Jig.

6 Scary sharpening.

Turntables.

The main grinders will consist of two grinders, 1. Creusen NS5125 T which includes a wet-stone to cover all grinding for chisels and plane irons, (note) not the final honing/sharpening. 2. a small Power devil set up with a wire brush on one side and a buffing pad on the other side.

The turntables (triple) will be situated in an area of 800mm, hmm, I here you say he's gone nuts, hmm maybe I am, The second machine will be mounted off centre on the third turntable for two reasons, sorry guys you'll have to read on to fine out why.

I have a Dakota planer knife sharpener it will be fitted to the left hand bench of the workstation. The right hand bench will be used for all my Scary Sharpening Workshop Heaven. I use this system for ease of use to get exact cutting angles correct each and every time.

The corner workstation bench the creusen wet-grinder and the small Power devil.

I intend to add new jigs to the right hand wet-stone that are similar to the tormex system. The creusen as seen here when I refurbished it early in the year. I have purchased a veritase grinding jig from axminster for use on the smaller 150mm left hand dry stone grinding wheel.

The washer spacer in the middle is approximately 2mm thick, I wanted to bolt the Creusen to the MDF I did not want to rely on screws to hold it fast, I ground the heads on four coach bolts to just under 2mm thick as seen in Photos so they would not interfere with the easy glide of the turntable.

Photos showing coach bolts driven into the underside of the top section , cradle to hold water bath, turntable reassembled, plus locking bolt fitted.

The wet-stone fitted so now I can take accurate measurements to work out the height and spacing required for the manufacture and fitting of jigs.

Seen here on the left 150mm wheel for quick fast grinding assembled with a veritas jig for plan irons and chisels etc.
On the right with a 200mm wet-stone fitted and shown turned ready for easy access to the side of the wet- stone more on this later.

Next I cut the disc for the turntables machined the ball bearing channels and assembled them.

Below Left. The cruesen in it's main working position.

Middle. Turned at a 90 degree angle, drill sharpening Jig on order also showing the two new turntables with the Power devil fitted off centre of the small turntable which will be made clearer very soon.

Right. Turned at 180 degrees with the Power devil mounted in it's position for smaller pieces to be polished etc, all indication marks lined up and the securing bolt dropped into it retaining hole to lock the turntable in it's required position

It's seen more clearly here below, now, turn the the top turntable about 30 degrees to the right and lock it, shown in front of the machine, all three turntable are now locked and the buffing wheel is now swung out over the edge of the work bench giving you access to buffing longer or irregular shaped items, hence why I set it off centre on the third turntable.

Switching back to the creusen just reverse the operation, the third photo on the right above showing turning handle just crab holds, I fitted two of these one each side on the base turntable pull or push in either direction, I did this because with glass sheeting fitted on both side benches right up to the turntables circumference , whilst turning I kept catching my finger on the edges of the glass, ouch!! not nice.

I am really chuffed with the way this sharpening workstation is coming together in particular the way the two grinders revolve around each other in a space of less than 800mm square, a neat use of space.

The bridge and universal tool rest.

The jigs for the wet-stone are along the lines of the Tormek universal support tool bars, I bought two support holders to attach my jigs earlier in the year, I had hoped I could self tap then straight on top of the creusen but, the metal casing on the Creusen proved to be to flimsy allowing to much flexible movement and the pre-drilled hole in the support tool holders were in the wrong places.

Next I built a bridge to go over the gearing housing in two parts, I built this from off cut on ply, the main support pillar was just glued and pinned together with the vertical holder screwed to it, this pillar is fitted at the rear of the creusen next to the water bath, I secured this with just one screw for now as when the universal arms are made and fitted they will need squaring with the outside edge of the wet-stone, I will then secure the main support pillar with two other screws. (more later)

Below, The main support pillar showing at the base on the left a screw hole to act as a swivel screw until the universal tool rest are fitted and squared with the edge of the water stone then secure in position with right hand screw holes. Middle, Support pillar with vertical tool holder secured and base screwed in position. Right, Showing bridge over the creusen gearing housing and horizontal tool holder fitted, this also has to be squared (same as the rear) when both front and rear universal tool rest holders are squared with the wet-stone then screw both front and back sections together via the bridging plywood locking front and back together all is now secured and solid.

The only downside of the ply bridge over not being able to screw straight to the cruesen is the universal tool rest are now slightly higher up the side of the wheel than i would have liked but, I feel this is not going to be a problem, only time will tell on that one.

Next the preparation for the universal tool rest, I refused to pay some £37.00 for each tool rest with just over 24 " of silver steel to each rest. These tool rest must be absolutely square with no twist in them. I decided to make a rough form-work to hold all the steels while it was being welded.

Now finished the universal tool bars in there holders its beginning to take shape, before I finally decide on what types of setting tool jigs I intend on using, down to Axminster next week to have a look at some of there setting tools. I am contemplating extending the tool bars around and along the edge of the wet-stone hence why I have left them long for the moment.

As shown here Both Universal tool Bars welded and fitted, The more time spent here now fiddling the better, they must be 100 percent spot-on square to the grinding wheel, this applies to both tool rests front and back, It's most important and will prove time well spent in the end.

I mentioned earlier in the post the swivel screw, now it time to lock the tool rest square to the grinding wheel. You need a large square you know you can trust, Now just simple place the square on the tool rest as shown twist the pillar arm till the square touches it entire length along the edge of the grinding wheel (as shown) and screw in the locking screws, now repeat on front jig and lock it as well. with this is done, screw the bridge on top and lock the two together, done.

As seen above on the left, bars to be shortened to come inside the sweep of the circumference on the base turntable to clear the corner wall as it swivels so they can be left on the machine at all times.

Finally below, looking from the front through to the back tool rest you see both are square and there is no twist in the bars both run level and both run parallel with each other, I want to design another tool bar along the side of the grinding wheel but at a lower level, maybe connecting with both front and rear tool bars but, first a trip to Axminster Tools, just to dot a few Is and cross a few Ts in my minds eye.

Once I am sure it will all connect up as I want the tools bars to, then that will cover all the different styles of wet-stone grinding that I need from plane blades to chisels gouges scissors etc plus all my turning tools as well.

updated

Well , I thought now that the universal tool rest were fitted it would be straight forwards get the jigs that I required and away we go, oops I soon found out, not so.

I set up my first jig, I am going to grind all my hand plane blades and most of my chisels from the side of the stone, To be honest I'm not really a big fan of hollow grinding although I will if I have to, While I was dressing the stone I noticed an amount of flex in the front and rear universal tool rests which for me was unacceptable with just the weight of my hand resting on the end of the steel 12mm rod you can see it flex , I know at the moment they are longer than required but, even when shortened to there final length they will still flex.

This has forced me to rethink the way I want to set up my jigs, I want to eliminate all flexibility in the tool rest, I now know when I originally dressed the edge of the wet- stone the bar was flexing with ever turn of the screw meaning the stone is not perfectly square, getting fussy in my old age.

Left, original dressing in progress. Middle, cross side tool bar for plane blade jig to hang from, it is to short it needs to be longer and cross over the front tool bar for more support plus it needs to be locked into place to stop any sideways or vertical waggle when under pressure from movement. Right planer jig hanging on the tool bar set up to grind at 25 degrees more on setting the angles later.

The next problem I have is to get a longer cross over side tool bar which are not made to the length I require.

As yet I don't have a metal workers lath only my trusty old M950 axminster so, I though I would have a dummy run on a short off cut of steel bar I had left over. I really surprised myself here with the results.

Now I'm not condoning anyone should try doing it this way , in fact don't, unless you feel really comfortable with your tools and your own abilities. Bear in mind this was machined using tools like junior hacksaw to cut the shoulders and several different files to machine file it down to the right diameters required and a 8mm thread cutter and that's it with the lathe set at the slowest possible speed.

Left, shop bought cross side tool bar, the two part screwed together. Middle, two part separated showing shoulders required. Right, My attempt using the tools mentioned above, done myself proud I think by any standards, not so good as if it had been done on a metal working lath but, still acceptable compare middle photo to the right photo.

Now tomorrow get some longer 12mm silver steel and start all over again.

Phew that took some doing preparing the second one, anyway it's now done, Must get myself a small metal workers lathe it would make life so much easier, so OK onwards.

Next, before I go mad and start slapping jigs on it all over the place it time first to check all three tool bars are level. I cut and shaped two tool bar pillar supports from oak, these are to support the end of the bars to stop any flexing downwards movements and a small pillar support sandwiched between the front bar and the side crossover tool bar secured as seen in photo, it just snaps into position.

Seen here the bars pillar support, they simple slip under the bars and lock into the half cut 12mm hole to stop any downward movements. To fit the plane blade jig simple slacken the two locking hand nuts located on the rear bar and lift the front end of the side bar, simply slip on the jig with blade attached to it, push down and it clips into the small pillar support then lock the two hand nuts now grind your blade.

Now that's the universal tool bars are fitted I'm more than happy with the amount of bar flexibility the pillar supports have removed, excellent, the bars are also cut to length and finished, the whole turntable can now be revolved around 360 degrees without removing any of the tool bars or jigs.

The Jigs.

OK here are the jigs that I already have and the link to another that I still need to get.

I decided to buy the tormek turning tool setter jig and the tormex angle master jig solely to be able to set up the angles for chisel whether it was for wood chisels, or turning chisel, with all there various angles to get them correct each and every time + also for the plane blades for the same reason to be able to get the angles set very quickly and accurately for all of my cutting edge tools.

I still have to get the tormex multi jig . all other jigs after that will be nice to have but, only when finances allow.

Mods to a Record T5, with Lie nielsen Blade

2011-07-31T16:02:00.061+01:00

I've decided at long last modify all my Stanley Bailey planes, I'm upgrading them with Lie Nielsen blades and this time I'm also replacing the old Stanley chip breakers with the new thicker Lie Nielsen chip breakers.

I did do an earlier upgrade on a Stanley Bailey No 5 the post found here in my blog which I will supply a link to a little later, I did not at that time up grade the chip breaker to the No 5, that one will also be included in these up grades, to that plane there will be an alteration that I did to the sideways lateral movement that I'm not happy with, it didn't work quite as I had hoped so that modification will be removed from the plane and a another y lever fitted to accommodate the extra thickness with a new Lie Nielsen chip breaker being fitted.

Lucky for me as seen here to save a lot of time I already have some spare y lever that I previously lengthened when I did the original Stanley upgrade.

The y lever was fitted into a spare frog from an old Stanley No 5 that's among my spare parts so it was easily remove by tapping out the securing pin then doing the same to frog on the T5 and then refitting the frog into the T5.

Above showing the record y lever before removal after fitting and a comparison with a second T5 showing the difference in the two lengths to cope with the new Lie Nielsen blade and chip breaker.

Next comes the alteration to the mouth of the plane body to allow the extra thick blade to slip through the body to be able to plane timber .

Shown here partly altered, I filed out the mouth to allow the blade to just slide through it for now, the blade as yet unsharpened.

The mouth showing daylight, after the blade is sharpened this may still require a final adjustment.

The blade just showing through the sole as yet still unsharpened .

Finally the blade and chip breaker fitted, the first of many planes still to do, the next one will be to do the alterations on the No 5 after that next the No 3 But still have to order the blade and chip breaker for that one.

I still have to sharpen the blade an do the complete refurbishment of this plane but as you have already guessed those will be other posts.

Plane blade now sharpened grind angle 25 degrees Scary sharpened 30 degrees , shaving in my palm are from end grain and in the micrometer, down the edge curly shaving from the same piece of oak now set to take shaving at 0.01mm, I'm chuffed.

ENJOY. Martin

Pillar drill adjustable floor stand

2011-07-10T22:57:00.002+01:00

Seen here with adjustable machine feet from axminster bolted through 25mm MDF with the four securing bolt poking through all adjusted and level in both direction, and then screwed down through with 4" * 12 screws into the floor boards and joists.

My new drill arrived on time as Axminster had promised then delivery here five days later, and went back the following week, changed with no problem at all, second one arrived Saturday morning, all assemble to day. Then I set about making this adjustable stand to bolt it to the workshop floor I made it adjustable to allow for any floor settlement, it now mounted and secured. My advice to anyone owning a floor standing drill, secure it, they can easily be toppled over.

Timber storage + corner workstation

2011-07-10T17:12:00.201+01:00

Hi, I soon realised when I started machining my wheel marking gauges brass bits (still on going) that I had to have a more accurate drill press, + more importantly a dedicated section in the work shop a for metal working section, this section has to include a sharpening section, a pillar drill , small lathe, large metal vice, grinders, metal working tools storage, and of course timber storage + ply sheeting storage .I forgot to say I have also to include my axminster belt sanding station as well into this corner. Hmm interesting it's going to be tight.

The storage racking section built all from 50mm x 50mm prepared mortice and tenons wedged glued and pinned with 100mm *50mm prepared cross section housed framing to support the work surface of 18mm MDF .

I have also decided to build into the bench top a turntable to make it a centre for the grinder, polishing machine and Dakota plane blade sharpener so there all together, select anyone with the turn of a wheel. Next to come will be the framing to form a narrow bench over the top of this.

The turntable cut from from half sheets of 18mm MDF. Machined with two circles cut at approx 6mm depth to house the 12.7mm ball bearing as seen below.

In the next three pic it show all three machine placed on the turn table, but this is now to be reduced to two machines only As I really don't like the Dakota wet wheel, to be disposed of. the scary sharpening you see on the turn table is now longer use there and has increased in size as well.

Turn table has now been machined, and fitted along with the left and right hand bench work surface shortly after I fitted a wrought iron angle iron to the bench edges on both work surfaces. On too the left end of the left work surface a I fitted a very large metal working vice, To the rear of this vice as seen in pics this is where I will hang all my files and hacksaws etc. The right hand surface this has become my hand sharpening area as seen below.

The bench now built meant I had time now to plan ply storage, over head storage and a place for my sanding centre.

Basically what you see here is half the metal working area , over in the left hand corner will be another cabinet for a small metal working lath to sit on and store all the necessary tooling , plus my new Axminster floor standing drill to complete the metal working area of my workshop , but that will be another thread. Martin.

creusen bench grinder

2011-07-09T17:50:00.014+01:00

This old bench grinder a Creusen NS 5215T: I have had now for more years that I can remember , bought from axminster tools in axminster when they were in there original shop in the high street. Its never hand a great deal of use most of it's use was in my jobbing days where it was set-up in the back of my van. Since I retired it's hardly seen any use at all, in fact the right hand wheel which is the water stone had seized up with rust from lack of use.

I have managed to free up the spindle so at least both wheels are now turning, Thought it's about time this machine had a complete strip apart and complete rebuild before I bring it into workshop use as I remember it was not a cheap grinder, seen here before work starts.

The above Photos show the grinder before during and after stripping, with one knackered wheel.

Below Shows grinder, stripped gear box reassembled temporarily + part awaiting reassembly and paint

I have now been trying to source a new aluminium oxide wheel of 200mm x 40mm with a bore of 15mm with a grit of 220. after a lot of searching and and questions I didn't find many that were 40mm wide and all had a different bore size which in turn meant either use a spacer to make up the difference on the spindle or have the spindle turned down in size to fit the smaller bore, but more surprisingly the cost of the wheel varied from £62- £82 wow. On the cheaper end of the market you can buy the entire machine for under £40 complete with wheels.

I have now been forced to rethink this refurbishment entirely, however I have placed a bid on a Dakota wet stone grinder on e-bay, I still have a few options left open here but lets Waite to see how that goes.

Well I've had the Dakota wet grinder know for some time , I am very disappointed with it not what I expected at all, Just not my idea of a wet grinder.

So back to my creusen time now to source another wet stone for that instead.

Here it is freshly painted,now awaiting a new wet wheel. I have decided to do away with the original grinding jigs it came with to much flex in them to hold the plane blade square to the grinding wheels, so have just ordered some new ones, but that another thread.

Ha ah finally it's taken me over a year to track down this wheel, while on holiday here in Holland with my daughter I mentioned to Edwin her partner that I was still looking for my water-stone he very kindly rang cruesen, I had told him I had rung Creusen a year earlier only to be told sorry sir there obsolete, he rang them and was told certainly sir we have them in stock, Grrrrr, but a very good price 37.50 euros it arrived yesterday, they also supplied an address in England who I have also contacted, I have now placed an order for a second stone as well.

When i get it home fit it dress it off to get it true balance and then start to build all the new different grinding jigs around it, but as I said that's another thread.

There it is fitted, awaiting some more jigs for completion, but as you have already guessed that another post. enjoy.

Martin

chute shoot shooting- board mk1

2011-07-06T16:27:00.007+01:00

Hi guys, spent the afternoon knocking up this. I have never used one nor owned one either, built it primarily to help with the sliding trays that will be built into my drawers on the new tool cabinet, so thought just in case I don't like using it just a quicky to start with, maybe build a better one later, seemed a bit strange to start off with need to practice a bit with this just to get the hang of it. just wondering those of you who have them and use them what sort do you have? and did any of you make any alteration to yours as you went along .

Well here goes mk2.

MK1 scrapped well not entirely the over hang of 1/8 " has been removed and an Oak edging strip glued in it place, an oak 10mm running strip was also glued on late last night, this morning set the T5 and remove a few shaving to form the running edge then squared up the fence and screwed it on permanently. last but not lest, using scotch tap glued onto the edge of the fence a strip of sandpaper to add that extra grip to the edge of the work pieces.

Well so far so good, I just spent a lot of energy preparing the blade using the scary sharp method, first getting the basic angle at 30 degrees and then adjusting my Veritas sharpening jig by 2 degrees to get the the finished cutting angle all highly polished but it don't seem sharp enough , hmm maybe it the steel quality of the record blade or maybe I got the cutting angle totally wrong for planing end grain ?.

To adjust the Veritas plane sharpening jig ,select no 2 and set width to no 2 being it's a 2"blade then set standard length at 30 degrees as seen in pics set lower brass roller wheel at 12 : O clock, remove gauge and grind away till grinding angle is completed, then set lower roller to 6 : O clock and proceed to set sharpened angle till completed.

Have I got the angle wrong, bear in mind it is a record T5 it's not a low angle plane , so what is the correct angle for planing end grain , what do you set your iron at to get the best results?

From this to - ?

2011-02-01T19:17:00.007Z

I have been sourcing materials these last few days, this is what is sourced so far, most of the materials are surplus from the workshop.

Materials purchased is the steel rod 8mm, two cutting wheel from axminster tools, two 3mm metric counter screws from Euro fasteners.

The two knurled nut shown and the 12mm brass bolt from theworkshop. I am still not sure about these maybe I will use them, hmm, or try and source new but in steel.The timber is an off cut of Bali.

As above possible materials , 8mm bar cut to 225mm and drilled with 3mm drill, + m3 tap

Below cutter end with 4mm shouldered flange, back end Screw storage, countersinking back end.

I decided to drilled the back end of the 8mm rod as shown to add a spare screw holder, head screws get worn or lost so thought it would be a good idea to add this little extra.

Above back end with spare screw fitted , front end Cutter fitted, + completed rod 225mm.

well that's the simple bits done,stayed tuned, feel free to leave any comment here, or on the forum thread. Martin

Marking knife

2011-01-16T16:58:00.176Z

I bought a Ashley Iles right handed marking knife several years ago from Workshop heaven but never used it, when it arrive unpacked it, handled it and decided it was too short to use and could be deeper in it's depth, put it back in the wrapper and stored it away.

Well now it time to use it as I now have a load of dovetails to cut, my old Stanley marking knife is now getting a little short in the length of it's blade I only have the one a right hander, so time to retire it.

I decided to make a handle for it as it's just a flat piece of steel to make it more comfy in the hand whilst using it between the thumb and index finger so you actually had something to hold onto. I also decided I would like a matching pair this time around a left hander and right hander to mark flush with the edges of the dovetails for more accurate cutting, so an order went off yesterday for a left hander.

I felt by adding a handle to the exiting blade I now could extend the blade cutting length giving the whole knife more length so in my design I have allowed from the front edge of the brass ferrule 60mm of steel blade that is usable, I have not altered the depth of the steel blade that is in front of the brass ferrule at all, nor it's thickness, the only grinding done was to the remaining 68mm of blade that was ground down to slide and fits snugly into the internal diameter of the brass ferrule but only for the depth of the ferrule, then it's ground down to a 5mm depth for the remaining blade length.

I am not a professional turner, in fact I have only resent purchase a new second hand lathe back last year, the last turning I did was back in the seventies and then only a very little, before then when I was at school some 45 years ago, so you will see from here on is from memory or I make it up as I go.

Below a dummy run a temporary handle for now, I decided to play around with the design for a while to see if I can improve on it whilst waiting for it's left handed partner blade to turn up. This handle is just an odd off cut from an old broom handle.

Today the left hand blade arrived, I cut off a slice of Bali from a large chuck I bought back last year.

Here is shown the dummy run on the right hand blade plus the new left hand blade yet to be altered along with the first attempted handle for the left hand blade.

Showing left hand blade ground to allow brass ferrule to slide up to the set 60mm shoulders, setting depth of drill to 70 mm to take the remaining 70 mm of handle,plus turned handle ready to have the interior tang hole drilled.

Whilst the turning was successful, when it came to fitting the blade I started to have problems as shown here with the third and fourth attempt splitting the handle when they wear very nearly driven fully home, in fact the fourth attempt split on the very last tap of the hammer, fiddlesticks, so back to the drawing board time to redesign.

Finally as seen here in the last photo, I added extra bulk directly behind the brass ferrule plus gave the handle a little extra girth and shortened the tang inside the handle down to 40mm,success. Now I have a matching pair, I am really chuffed with the them in particular the finished burnish,just ordinary sanding and burnished with shaving. ENJOY.

Triton cross cut attached - sip table saw

2010-12-22T18:43:00.001Z

First let me apologize for having to restart this thread right the way back to square one, seems like a plip this afternoon remove the entire thread.VERY STRANGE.

I brought this thread forwards as it will help me in the construction of my other on going thread ( my new tool cabinet.)

I use a SIP 01332 table saw which does not have any cross cutting facilities with it, which retails at about £360, I still had my old Triton ETA300 cross cutting sliding table attachment, so though I would try to attach this to the end of the sip table to see how it worked out, nothing really to lose, I paid some two years earlier about £160 so if successful quiet a saving, as I knew this attachment is very accurate.( if set up correctly).

My plans for the saw which I have been planning for some time now were to have a sliding table and a router station fitted into it as well, another reason for purchasing extra extension beds.

I have already fitted the extension bed leaves to the saw one on each side of the original table top my reasoning behind this is to be able to cut full sheets of material either way, on my own, with out an extra pair of hands to help steady the sheet as it come through the saw whilst being cut. I still have to build an out feed table ( but that's another thread).

As my table saw sit on a turntable, I wanted it to be able to either have the sliding carriage removable or if I choose leave it attached to swivel around with the saw, this would depend on what other work was going on in the workshop at any given time.

First I had to find a way of attaching it so it could be easily removed or re assembled with ease and very quickly. I decided to copy the way Triton attached it to there own work-centres. luckily I still had the brackets to do so.

If it was to at times remain attached but temporarily not use I needed it to fold down so I sourced some folding shelf brackets, very strong one's, but I am disappointed with the amount on slack in the design of these, they allow the shelve to dip just under 90 degrees when under weight, which I will now have to make allowances for as I design the rest of the project.

Now I needed to attach the second slide bar to the shelve so I use the same principle as Triton did on the first bar. I used flat steel bar 25mm * 5mm cut and bent it in the workshop vice with a small mortice and tenon cut into them. Then I had to think of a way on fixing them to the slide bar. As seen in the pic here to the right two centre pops already marked ready for drilling.

I used this method of fixing to the bar two pop rivets and one thread counter sunk bolt till I was satisfied I had both brackets set up correctly so that both bars were running spot on parallel with each other, to remove any side ways slack on the carriage guilds, so that each and every cut was cut square. Once I had this set up and correct I still had a very very minimum rocking movement on the bars, I can remove this once I take the bar to a welder this will remove all movement keeping the slides snugly fitted to curve of the bars.

Now that the two slide bars are fitted and secure, time to give thought to the sliding carriage itself. (shown here before reduced in length). I mentioned above I had previously added two extra extension beds, this now moves the sliding carriage further to the left, so the original measuring scale is no longer accurate. I decided to shorten the carriage down in length,

It's now a 702mm square which is it's original width, I decided to board over the carriage and ignore the old built in measurements.

This was done with 6mm ply and stainless steel self tapping screws , now it was time to make sure the ply top came level with the steel bed on the table saw this was easily adjusted on the two chrome brackets securing the slide bar as the top screw holes were elongated, with a slight adjustment this was soon achieved.

The two slide bar are now parallel with each other and parallel with the saw blade as shown here. ( spot on)

Now the fence it self, I wanted it to include a sliding stop, plus new self adhesive measuring tape which was sourced from axminster I used Kreg slide rail, self adhesive tape, and a sliding stop.

The fence it self is 56mm * 19mm *1.830mm hardwood screwed and glued with a softwood backing board secure to the sliding carriage.

The fence I kept short by 2mm from the edge of the blade, to stiffen the the fence I used a 19mm * 100mm softwood and the Kreg slide bar once these were fitted the fence is now ridged with no flexing in it length.

To cut in the cross cut position, I can cut just a little over 605mm in width.

To cut across a full sheet simply pick up the slide carriage and turn the hole thing 180 degrees replace it on the slide rails and push till it reaches the stops on the far end, this will give you a ripping depth of just under 1300mm.

I sourced two toggles hold downs from axminster yesterday afternoon shown here screwed down with heavy gauge self tappers.

Here is shown the completed fence with the second self adhesive measuring tap attached to use when in panel ripping mode. and also showing attached to the face of the fence self adhesive sand paper to add some extra grip to larger panels when cutting, for this I simply used self adhesive round sanding disc and cut them in 45mm strips.

The completed sliding carriage and fence with one coat of sanding sealer still drying.

ADDITIONAL WORK

additional work I added to the table saw an OUT FEED TABLE I added this to help stop the ply section to the right of the saw blade from tipping when I cut an 8 * 4 ft sheet in half, length ways, When the cut is fully cut at that point, the left section was fully supported by the sliding carriage, To the right of the blade there was more of the sheet overhanging the back of the table saw bed than was actual still on the saw table bed, this I found to be very dangerous.

The out feed table its also of fold down design using the same type of brackets I used on the cross cut table.
I can now cross cut a full sheet, with 50" to the right of the blade , to the left infinity.
I can cut up to 630mm cross cut in front of the blade.

Sliding Carriage LEG MODIFICATION.

On the Triton eta300 sliding carriage the legs are detachable but in one continues length shown here with folding foot, I decided mainly as my table saw site on a turntable, when I want to turn the table with these legs attached they had to be removed first then set up again,( time consuming), these legs are necessary to stop any flexing in length of the slide bars when in the rip mod as the weight of the sheet transfers past the back edge of the saw table.

To be able to do this I needed to redesign the legs to remain attached at all times, I used the same design shown here. When in the cross cut mode, when cutting narrow timber or sheet material then the legs don't need to be folded down for extra support.

It's so simple I'll let the picture speak for themselves.

Over head Storage .

ENJOY.

plywood sheet support jig .

2010-12-01T19:31:00.311Z

I felt one of these were necessary as moving 18mm sheeting about ready to cut on your own can be very difficult, and at times dangerous, I wanted this jig to give that bit of extra support whilst manoeuvring the sheet material for clamping with the two toggle hold downs and to help keep it balanced while doing this, like an extra pair of hands really, extra support till you pass the point of balance on the leading edge of the plywood till your table saw takes all the weight of the sheet being fed through the cut.

I have previously used the roller type free standing material supports but these tend to steer the materials where you don’t want it to go, hate that.

I wanted this jig to be permanently attached to the saw main body and easily accessible with ease of assemble which would only take seconds to do , not minuets, and not get in my way when in or out of use. This meant that no shop bought one would be any good to me so set about designing my own design.

I had left over from my Triton ETA300 sliding carriage a support leg with its balance foot which is 30mm steel square tubing , I decided to use this with one rollerball I also had left over from my turntable thread.

For this thread I decided I wanted to use as much bits and bobs around the workshop as I could, (recycle) so I came up with this idea.

This gave me my first problem to solve how to fit a round peg into a square hole. Square tubing, with a round roller ball attached.

Here I use a short 100mm piece of ordinal sink waste 1/1/2” PVC which has enough elasticity to be tapped on to the 30mm square tubing easily and it is a very tight fit, when on the roller ball fits snugly into the other end, both ends will be glued using araldite later.

Now I had to come up with how do I keep it out of my way when not it use and easily accessible, and it had to be assembled/disassemble very quickly. I eventually decided sliding bar and fold up/down arm, with roller ball attached.

The support leg I had with bracket had to be altered as I could see no point in having a length of square tubing stuck out which has no purpose. As seen here before and after.

Now to work on how to attach it up under the saw beds, remember I want it permanently attached.

O n my saw I have already attached two extra side bed extension leafs, one either side, the one on the right to give extra support primarily for cutting 8*4 sheets in half across the sheet, this also applies to the one on the left , but the left one will also house a router station as well as the sliding carriage attached on again for cross cutting purposes.

When the sliding carriage is set up, a full sheet when let go of will tip backward, as there is not enough of the sheet from the saws front cutting edge to the front edge of the table on the right of the blade to keep the sheet balanced, this is where this sliding extending arm come in.

Luckily for me the extension bed comes with pre drilled hole to bolt straight to the original saw bed, so from here underneath this is where I will bolt on the housing for the sliding extension bar.

Again using bits & bobs from around the workshop I cut a piece of MDF:-

1) 800mm * 300mm * 25mm. HOUSING BACK PLATE

2. 800MM *30mm * 25mm European oak HOUSING RUNNERS

1). 800mm * 80mm * 80mm *25mm MDF HOUSING FRONT PLATE.

As seen here.

As can be seen in the photo on the right the arm is now extended and locked with the vertical arm in the raised position, I must point out here until I have the back plate mounted under the saw beds the raised arm cannot be cut down in length. which has to be able to fold down as well as being raised this is why I cut the back mounting plate at 300mm deep just in case I need to adjust it up or down to allow the arm to swing equally in both directions, so the arm when lowered does not hit the floor.

Now the locking devise is simple a furniture locking nut with an 8mm bolt and turn handle as shown.

As I was building the housing box I realised I will need some metal plating screwed to the face side of the backing MDF plate with a hole pre drilled through it, as the hole is quite close to the edge of the MDF to rely solely on the MDF strength, so this is where I had to stop for the day as I need to pop into town tomorrow to get some metal plating to do this .

To fix the sliding arm box underneath I simple used flat bar screwed to the face of the MDF, with one hole drill through it, I then removed the two end bolts that bolt the extension bed to the table saw bed replaced the bolt with longer one and bolted it on.

These photos showing position, extended and raised , closed and tucked away. and it now full height cut to length.

The final photo showing it all set up ready, unfortunately I don't have a full sheet to demonstate it better but I think you'll get the idea .

I place a piece of MDF in front of and to the right of the blade flush with the sliding fence the far end represent the end of an 8' sheet . the sliding stop adjuster is set to 4' to the left of the blade this giving you the full length of the sheet to be cut in two equal halfs.

To see the width of the sheet better I placed a rule in the photo where it rest on the rubber support from the sliding carriage it measure approximately 30" now with the slid out bar fitted on the right of the saw table bed, Now slide it out in line, raise the arm and locked it, Now I have the full length of the sheet supported and balance evenly down it's length so it wont tip backwards whist I manoeuvring it into position to lock the hold down handle before cutting.

Now where that araldite, I'm fed up chasing that bloody roller ball around the workshop.

ENJOY.

PS Remember you seen it here in theworkshop first.

tri square refurb

2010-11-26T12:28:00.008Z

An old W J Henderson Tri Square in need of re-squaring, I do like to use this square but it was not quite accurate enough to use on accurate marking out as I need it to right now.

Luckily for me the blade had a haunched double mortice and tenon joint simply held together with four very small dowels and very minimal glue.

Easy enough to remove the dowels with a very small size m6 bolt tapped gently till the dowel started to move outwards then repeat to the rest of dowels. Next tighten blade in a vice and with a small off cut of wood and a mallet gently tap the handle till it slides off the blade.

Now before re assemble make sure both edge of the blade are parallel with each other with a nice sharp jack plane or bigger if you wish shoot one edge straight, then set up a marking gauge and mark a parallel line then shoot down to this line .

Now because the square manufacturers before had only used small dowels and very little glue is one reason why it was out of square, I decided here to add wedges to add extra strength to the joint. This meant I had to chop out to allow for the wedges to grip the sides of the original tenon, as shown here .

I had to think of the best way of getting it all square again whilst I was gluing it together so I decided to use my old Stanley site roofing square with sash cramps as shown here just gently cramped together as the glue dries.

It wasn't till I got to this stage that I realised I had no small dowels by then to late to glue them in, I would normally do this at this stage, but ha ho never mind, I,ll have to make some later and glue them in and allow to dry before removing cramps and then clean it all up.

Glued and waiting to dry, I leave the dowels for now till all glue is dry and set hard. Please don,t allow these lovely old tools to be thrown away refurbish them and keep them going. hc

New tool Cabinet

2010-10-28T18:15:00.430+01:00

Stage 1 Carcass assemble. Completed
Stage 2 27/10/2010 MDF drawer spacer and Metal drawer slides. Completed
Stage 3 1/11/2010 securing framing to carcass. Completed
Stage 4 1/11/2010 adjustable feet. (to be modified)
Stage 5 7/11/2010 carcass prep , sanding sealer and 1st coat polish. Completed

Stage 6 Coming Soon. Drawer construction.

I've been planing these tool cabinets now for a long time.

Please bear in mind these cabinets are middle of the road , all ply wood which will be glued and screwed, ain't no posh job like others before me ,These are aimed at what most I hope should be able to cope with skill wise , and cost has been borne in mind as well .

This is the first of two different cabinets, this one is the first ,(the other to follow as and when) This one will house my numerous hand tool I have accumulated throughout my working life.

Size wise most of you will find this one quite large , it has to house all my hand tools not just my joinery tools but also my electrical, plumbing mechanical and decoration + my general building tools .

It will be built as one unit but designed with three differing sections .

DIMENSIONS D=600mm * W=1200mm * H=err um ? I've forgotten I'll check on that and get back to you all , sorry .

BOTTOM SECTION

this will be a full width drawer of various depths yet to be decided , some will have sliding drawers/trays internally .

MIDDLE SECTION

this is to house my many battery drills + chargers.

TOP SECTION

This is solely for all my Joinery tools which is still expanding hence why I have chosen the size I have to allow for future expansion of tools that I still have planned .

The design is continually being altered as I go along , the upper section depth wise is considerable deeper that most wall hung cabinets , as mine is an all in one floor standing unit this will not cause me any concern weight wise, I still have a few thoughts/concerns about the upper doors design which I'll get solved before much longer . So hear goes .

first photo show template tacked on and router used to cut shape of side panels
cutting out toe space in main base section

ply shelving cut and sanded up awaiting assembly

cleaned up housing and chopped square at end

both ends completed awaiting assembly

showing assembled lower half

again showing assembled upper half

back tacked on and cutting to length

Assembled and stood up for the first time

just a little clean up in the corner where the router can't go

OK now you have seen the size of it , that's the basic shell put together , a little clean up in the corners but not a lot, now I have to source some oak timber for a framework to go on the front edge to form the framework on the carcase.

Euro oak purchase from Yandles last week nice timber , moisture meter arrive a few day later from Hong Kong had a few days play with it just to get the hang of things, So this morning decided to start rough cutting frame work to go on the front of cabinet which will be glued with biscuits as well to secure them , First re-planed face side and also one edge as well . Now it was time to use my Axminster SBW 4300 band-saw for the first time , hm (nice like slicing butter, )(love it when a plan starts to come together ) really happy with it . all face frames are now rough cut and stacked with spacer to allow some more moisture reduction .

I'll leave the timber now for a few week, and start the adjustable legs section to go under plinth hc. stay tuned guys loads more to come.

Stage 2 Drawer spacers and metal drawer slides. 27/10/2010

First I cut and prepared the spacer from 25mm * 75mm MDF these were simply screwed and glued using PVA glue and 6 by 4.0 * 35mm screws to each Mdf spacer. I decide to use 600mm black metal drawer runner, primarily because I already had these, they had been bought several years previously from an auction, cheap from memory just over £5 for the lot, 600mm runners 22 in number, secondly because I wanted the drawers to pull out to there full depth, these will support I believe somewhere in the region of 100 Lbs weight per runner.

Photo showing Mdf spacers and metal drawer runner glue and being screwed.

The base unit to the tool cabinet will house three drawers
1. 150mm . Hand planes
1. 225mm Sliding tool trays (variouse)
1. 300mm Power tools

Stage 3 1/11/2010 securing framing to carcass

I have fitted a framework to the plywood edging of the carcass which is glued with biscuits they were used to give it extra holding capability to allow for the extra depth of doors still to be made and fitted later, hopefully enough to allow for the weight of the doors and tools to be hung in them.

As can be seen in the last photo in stage 1 the framing was rough cut back late last year, It shows it stacked with spacers and stored to be able to season and dry a little more over the summer months, when purchased from Yandles the moisture content was 12.5 now a recent reading shows 9.5. First job will be to re-machine it to finished sizes and remove any warping, then machine to finished, framing is
45mm * 20mm European oak , next mark out and cut all biscuit slot glue each surface place into position and cramp wipe away any surplus pva.

Here in these photos it shows framing glued and cramped to right and left side of the base carcass.

Here these photos show cramps holding edging to upper section on cabinet.

Stage 4 adjustable feet.
These were bought cheaply from e bay, they are adjustable kitchen cabinet leg made by IKEA all aluminium . I bought four extra long bolts with furniture locking nuts these work as you tighten the bolt down the spikes dig into the wood and lock the nuts.

I place one nut either side on the plywood and tighten them first till both the nuts were embedded into the plywood, with the thread protruding through the bottom of the cabinet I then hand screw the leg barrel onto the the thread till it tightened securely. Now the legs are secure thread in from the bottom end of the leg the adjustable foot and adjust to required height.

Stage 5 sanding sealer and polish.

This has taken some time to get to this stage, I have applied two coats of Mylands Sanding sealer rub down between each coat and also today applied the first coat of Mylands pale polish, which I will leave now for a week to harden and rub down later before I apply the final polish coat later in the construction.

Next to come will be the drawer construction, but before that I need to make some alteration to my table saw to add cross cutting facilities to assist in the drawer stock preparations, this will be shown in another thread here on my website.

Here is shown to the left old tool box and new tool cabinet with edging all fitted and polish still drying with drawer runner fully extended.

On the right the upper wall section and middle section to house all the batteries and battery drills etc yet still to have the doors made and fitted .

Upper wall section which will probable house all my chisel etc , that's still to be decided .

Stage 6 Drawer construction .

Right here we are again its been nearly nine months since I last worked in the workshop back at the beginning of last October , I haven't been able to spend much time in the workshop as it had to take second place in my life, delayed by an operation on my liver cyst which failed then my wife's breast cancer scare false alarm (thank god) and then sadly the death of her mother Lilian in late may this year and the disposal of her belongings & home, now the pressure is easing off a good time to get back into the workshop and restart this thread so hear goes.

The drawer are constructed from 18mm Chinese ply, after using it's OK it did the job but it wasn't a good choice of ply the face veneer is far to thin to be able to work properly. the slightest mistake and your through the face layer . apart from a couple of dummy runs I did these are the first full set of dovetails I have cut in seventeen years since leaving the joiners shop.

Shown left all dovetails cut by hand. Middle all cut . Right middle drawer assembled and fitted.

left view into middle drawer. Middle all fitted. Right a temporary play moving planes around .

Top drawer will house all my present planes and has to find room for a few infill planes the first carcass can be seen in the above pics, middle drawer to have built in sliding trays to house many of my other tools. Bottom drawer to accommodate all my power tools.

Tomorrow make a few adjustments to one of the drawer runners one seem s to stick when not quite fully open on one end only for some strange reason, Then add an oak strip across centre of top drawer to lift end of planes up off the bottom of drawer at one end. add some temporary handle. then for the rest of the day play with a design for the saw till, next step will be (drawer fronts).

Back in the workshop today, moved the planes around a bit, then move a bit more tweaked it here and there to get a little closer added an uplift strip diagonally across base of drawer to raise the front end of the planes by doing all this it gave me enough room to add my saw till as seen below.

I have one week left before I take my wife away on a long over due holiday , so think I'll leave the Oak machining for the drawer fronts till I get back . Stay tuned.

turntable

2010-07-22T18:52:00.449+01:00

Hi all

OK here goes ,it's made from 25mm MDF , first rip the sheet in equal half across it’s width this gives you two pieces roughly 1.2m square turn one end over by folding end – end length ways and square up and line up the two machined cut edge’s . Be careful 25mm MDF is extremely heavy.

First measure in 600mm from left hand machine edge along the front edge and repeat along top edge and mark a pencil line , now repeat 600mm up the left and right hand sides and mark a line , you have now divided the sheet into four 600 mm squares . This is then giving you the common centre point where the lines cross each other.

Next measure the foot print of the base of your saw. mine was 540mm across the front * 680mm in depth if my memory is correct , (adjust measurements for your own saw size), so now half these measurements , starting from your vertical centre line at the common centre point where the lines cross mark up 340mm and down 340mm and on the horizontal line mark 270 mm in both direction from the centre line , when line are drawn in, this is gave me the footprint size of my saw .

On my saw I have four feet 100mm Square * 30mm wide (L shaped) if you have something similar draw these onto the board as well (it’s important later) OK once you done that you need a large compass, or a set of trammels, measure about 25mm inside the inner edge of the four feet by about 25mm set trammels or compass and draw your first circle this is the first groove for your ball bearings now do the same about 60mm outside the corner of the feet and mark the second circle (second groove for ball bearings) , this now places your saw directly between the two grooves which will displace the weight evenly between the two ball bearing runs , right now strike you outer finish circumference from centre common point - to the left hand edge of the 1.2m square sheet and mark the circle , It’s important to do this I cut mine circumference on the band saw , it’s so simple, honest.

CUTTING THE CIRCLE.

Now whilst both sheets are still together depending on what size dowel rod you have drill a hole of same diameter through both the sheets at the common centre point , this hole will first be used as the centre swivel point whilst cutting the out diameter on the band saw and whilst routing out your grooves for the ball bearings also now whilst the new circular base is still at the band saw remove the surplus off cuts from around it , (cut one sheet at a time NOT both together as they are much to heavy to handle for safety reason) when both circles have been cut the centre common point will need to be drilled larger 12.7 mm or there a bout’s to accommodate the bolt to bolt the two section together which you’ll need to chop the hexagon head flush into the underside surface before the lower circle is secured to workshop floor first before final assemble .

MAKING THE JIGS TO CUT THE CIRCLES

You’ll only need scrap timber don’t use any thing expensive. Find something wide enough to balance a half sheet of 25mm MDF on it only need to be about 300mm. I think at this time I let the picture explain how it’s done quite simple really. Jig clamped to band-saw. Photo showing centre swivel pin. That’s your first jig done.

OK, all I can show you here because I didn’t take any photos of the circle being cut but what I can show is the waste material left in position which I think you’ll get the idea how it is done , with the half sheet in position with the end of sheet resting against the band saw blade and the centre common swivel dowel through the hole you previously drilled in your half sheet of MDF when machine is running just feed the sheet through your hands from right hand to left hand with a steady flow of movement your band saw will cope with the full circle easily , I used a ¾” blade with no problems at all , there as I said simple, any way a photo.

Please bear in mind this photo was taken as a mock up for this post only normally the blade height would not be set that high up when in use. Now repeat again for second circle.

2nd JIG.

OK again just scrap wood In this case I used hardboard only because that’s all I had.

Remember this Photo is also a mock up for this thread only. Here I’m sorry you have to use your imagination that the circle of MDF is there the swivel dowel is in the inner hole to cut the inside groove for the ball bearings , the other hole you see if for the second groove for the ball bearing. Once you cut the two grooves into both circle your now ready to start assemble, (but don’t forget to enlarge the centre common hole to take your centre bolt and also cut the hexagon bolt head into the underside of the bottom circle), do that and then secure bottom circle to the workshop floor (hope your floor is level) if not you know what to do .

OK so now the bottom circle is secured to the floor , I used 12.7mm ball bearing with the grooves cut to about 5.5mm in depth on both circles this left a space between the two surfaces of about nearly 2mm ( now you need a 2mm washer slip it over the centre bolt roll all ball bearing into the grooves, I bought 250 in all which to be honest was not quite enough, so buy about 300 in all this should leave just a few over , but don’t do what happened to me when opening the box the inner plastic bag split open and yes all over the workshop floor, oh bugger it took hour finding them all , What joy. Now slip on the top circle and the set of grooves will mate up with the ball bearing and gentle tighten down the centre bolt , there you go it’s ready to lift and position your saw to it .

This shows the legs of saw sat between the two ball bearing grooves finally the turntable still not yet finished or secure more to follow as soon as possible .

One of the reasons it's taken some time to finish is now it's mounted on the turntable as seen opposite and is when I turn the saw I wanted the extraction to turn with it which it now does only a few minor things to finish to get it completed, things like a couple of fittings to reduce down from one pipe size to another size on the extraction, I order a couple of roller ball bearings as well , oh and apply a second coat of wax to the machine beds as well .

This photo show saw in its normal position facing across the workshop with over head extraction

Photo show saw turned 40 degrees to the right so if I want to cut long length of timber open the workshop door and feed timber out through the opening

This photo shows missing connection and the arm that supports the the over head extraction piping which is screwed to the turntable, directly under the stanchion poll I fixed an old chair caster (temp) two new roller balls bearings were ordered today to go under there so when turned it just swing round with the saw .

This one showing electrics, plugs at both end, so I can disconnect which ever end I like and it move round with the turntable

last photo showing locking bolt turntable now has pre drilled drilled degree holes all I need to do is pull the bolt and with one finger push and the saw glides around to where I want to position it .

I know my life is much easier now with this turntable no more struggling to move the saw when it in the way just turn it in a jiff for that I have to thank Wellswood over on UKw who did a thread on his turntable. hc

setting tool

2010-07-22T18:37:00.131+01:00

Hi all

I bought these magnets from flee bay I had been looking for them after I'd seen these planer setting tools being made somewhere else on the net.

I cut and prepared two length of oak 18*50*600mm yours may vary depending on the model planer you might have, place the two together place one end flush with the far end of the out feed table and marked in from the end 50 mm, then marked in 50mm from the other end of the out feed bed as well and then marked a third position directly above top dead centre of the cutter knives and screw all magnets in position.
As seen in these three photos.

(WARNING) These magnets are very strong be careful I found out to my cost when trying to separate two which snapped back and removed a large lump of flesh from my finger

I then made a small curved wedge to slip in between the cutter roller to lock roller with no movement and the in feed table as seen in the following two photos .

First turn the roller cutter by hand till one of the blades reaches it top dead centre and scribe a line on the frame work adjacent to the cutting edge (top dead centre) whilst in this position lower the in feed table insert curved wedge and tighten the in feed bed to stop any rotation of the cutter roller keeping it at (top dead centre ) .

Now slacken all bolt that hold the blade securely and remove and refit a new blade , now pick up one oak jig with magnets attached, line the end up with the far end of the out feed table and the third magnet will sit directly above top dead centre pushing down the blade to the correct height of the out feed table repeat with second jig and blade will be at correct height tighten all securing bolt then repeat to the other two blades .(three blade cutter roller.)

Enjoy . hc

New lathe chisel handles

2010-05-17T13:50:00.048+01:00

I finished setting up the lathe when the new rubber feet arrived which are self adhesive pads I purchased these to help absorb sound through the rubber feet instead of hearing noise on the bare floor boards . After my little oops (first attempt)of turning I decided it was through picking up the wrong turning chisel , I decided to put a few away for now till I have practised a lot more and regained my skill seeing it's many years since I did any turning. Most of the scrapper chisel I have are quite big from the two shown in the photo in another post here.

I decided to reshape the two chisels that were home attempts of turning by someone else although the steel tangs were Robert Sorby's, I ground one into a scrapper and the other reshaped into a gouge chisel and turn up two new handles.

Hunted round for some suitable timber to make handles then realized I had stashed away, above my head some old curtain poles they could have been a bit bigger in circumference but never mind the first of the two handles has turned out not to bad at all see photos. any comments welcome .

First photo show from left short length of pole before turning The new handle when finished in the middle the pattern which I copied from and on the right the two chisel which are to have the new handles fitted . the second photo showing pattern and new handle . The last two photos showing the finished handles and with tangs fitted as there are today and being used.

Axminster lathe M950

2010-05-17T10:10:00.026+01:00

Bought this from e Bay , The seller lived in Truro Cornwall, and I live in Weymouth Dorset luckily for me he works near Exeter and I have friends who live in Exeter so we met there.

Just wondering what you guys thought of it for value for money . I bought the complete lathe for £225

This is the Axminster M950,I paid £225 for it and the contents of the following four photos.

When he turned up he had further extras with him as well, so lucky for me I had extra cash on me , he then offered me all the following chisel that you will see for a £160 making a grand total of £385. We settled for £380.

hamlet,Henry Taylor, crown chisel, Home made attempts and a set of hamlet chisels

This is the only damage I could fine , I can't imaging why the gearing indicator plate is bent up and bugled like that? think I need to investigate further inside the head housing , apart from that slight damage I got it all bolted loosely back together at the moment just to get the motor running which it does gears all seam to be OK , so guys honest opinion please

Old planes - Infill Planes

2010-04-26T19:51:00.024+01:00

As some of you will know I am going to try and make an infill plane not as most do manufacture the complete body, but using old planes as the donor body for the infill body. The first plane will be a 2" smoothing plane I am using a Record T5 for this plane ,the second one is to be a 2" jack plane and this one will be from an old Bedrock 605.

This is going to take some considerable time to complete so those of you that may be interested stay tuned , I have now sourced all the raw materials to make a start on manufacturing the blade , cap irons , lever cap , lever cap bolts , cap iron bolts lever cap swivel bolts and grub screws plus a lump of Bali hardwood for the totes and handles.

Seeing there a lot of metal working involved I decided to get most of it roughed out first , before i start assemble , when assemble actually starts then I'll put the finishing touches to the metal work as the work progresses,
so here go's a few photos to bring you up to date.

Pic1 showing the dismantled bodies of the donor planes .

Photo 2 showing lump of timber from Yandles of Martock as I am not that far into hardwood's they tell me it Bali , as yet I don't know what it like to work but it does have a very nice grain run which I hoping it will give the tote and handle the effect on the handle that I'm looking for .

Seeing I wanted to make all components my self and don't have a lathe making the lever cap bolt and cap iron bolt at first seemed like a problem , so I decided to use my Axminster sanding machine in conjunction with a battery drill , the drill when switched on is turning inwards towards the direction of the sander pulling in a downward direction so the body of the drill was force to rest on the guard of the sander keeping it a steady position I was really surprised at the results I got , In fact I'm really chuffed with the bolts, I did both the lever cap bolts and the cap iron bolts as well , I cocked up the first cap iron bolts first time around they need to be longer so I could grip them more securely in the chuck to centre them more accurately.

Pic3 showing the bolt after grinding them this was done to the brass lever cap bolts and the cap iron bolts .
MISSING PHOTO

Pic4 These photos shows the original cap iron bolts + the hexagon bolts before grinding started on the sander and the finished bolts ground down to the size required to fit snugly in to the Norris adjuster .

Pic5 cap iron bolt cut to length and snugly fitted into Norris adjuster

Pic6 cap iron bolts before and after

Pic7 Brass bar drilled and lever bolts in position brass ready to be cut to length to form lever cap at a later date .

Pic8 Lever cap bolts all buffed up

Photo 9 & 10 the next two photo shown I bought this knurling tool from e Bay clamped in to the vice and again used the battery drill and it did the job OK .

Pic11 this photo shows the swivel bolts for the the lever cap itself the bolt will have the heads cut off to length and slot cut into end at a later date during assemble .

Plane irons phew a lot of work still as yet unfinished still to be ground for angles on the end and to be hardened and tempered and then have there final polishing to a high finish standard .

iron cap showing bent to shape

well guys that about it for now , hope you enjoyed and didn't fall asleep half way through the post , stay tuned more as soon as I can . hc

Dust extraction system DX5000

2010-04-26T19:50:00.229+01:00

Hi all

This is my extraction system started last yr, now just about finished all but for crossing the t.s and dotting the I.s

I wanted to get the best from my system, I didn't want to spend a heap of money and time fitting all this equipment and then not to be able get the best from it , I first spent a heap of time planning where machines and pipe runs would go then slowly a plan came together, first I wanted as much suck as possible so decided to keep pipe runs to a minimum , but with each machine requiring a piped run to the blast chamber at first it was a nightmare I didn’t want all those pipe running over head like a spiders web going off at all different directions from one blast chamber that you see in so many workshops. I decided on one hard pipe run feeding all machine , which in turn had to feed the two system that I had decided on, it would also mean a long length of pipe connecting all machine possible running from machine to machine, this I didn’t like either.

The system incorporates two sizes of pipe work.

50mm for dust, 100mm for machinery.

50mm for hoovering and hand held power tools to cope with MDF dust, MDF is lethal, hence why I decided to design my own system in the first place.

This bought about my final plan to keep hard pipe runs to a bare minimum I decide to split the workshop down the length with machinery on one side and working area on the other, giving me what I wanted the shortest possible hard pipe run of 1.9m including the blast chamber, the air/lift for all debris/dust being a short distant of 800mm to the inlet port on the extractor.

In the blast chamber there are three blast gates, the blast chamber is 600mm long from the left black blast gates to the right steel blast gate and there is one 50mm blast gate connected via the 50mm pipe work which is 300mm above the 100mm hard pipe work , plus one 50mm Hoover point .

I also designed it for a minimum lift for all wood debris & dust hence why I didn’t want to go overhead unless I really had to , and then (only) if it was to be sucking dust, so decided to drop as much pipe work to within(600mm) from the floor level.(Minimum lift).

After I got to this stage I could not find a blast gate to fit the 50mm pipe work So I set about designing and making my own blast gates, this is a good starting point for this Post.

50MM PVC BLAST GATES

All the 50mm blast gate were made from PVC piping which all came from a company called FLOPLAST here in Weymouth on the trading estate as did all the material for the 50mm and 100mm. I’m sure this product can be purchased elsewhere from your local dealer merchants.

The blast gates are made from two straight couplings, two short length of pipe, glue together and then glued into some off cut of 3/8” plywood left over from when I constructed my workshop, the short lengths of pipe are first glued into one end (only) of both couplings and then the coupling glue into the suction hole in the ply wood which are shown as follows.

The glue used is just normal PVC piping glue (as shown below) the sort used to glue a sink wast or plumb in a washing machine, (don't let anyone tell you it wont stick, believe me it does)on plywood, not sure how it would work on MDF seeing that a bit oily, try it and let me know if it's OK.

LHp showing short length of pipe work before gluing. RH photo Showing suction hole

LHphoto Showing glue bottle and hand grips to be glued. RHphoto The dark areas are wet glue before hand grips were glue

LHphoto here shown with a double hand grips (inner)open/closed stops (outer) push/pull hand grips glued in position , but that was changed , I didn’t like it, so I cut off the outer hand push/pulls grips and combined the two remaining open/closed stops into hand grips as well, dual purpose, all the other gates were then made this way.

Metal strip shown on edge of a completed blast gate so it can be fixed to wall and secure pipe work in position.

These two photos here show the blast gates in the vertical position closed and opened , just kept simple with a length of cord and a screw, or dowel rod glued into MDF.

These shots are showing the assemble blast gates from various views.

That just about covers how I went about making these blast gates.

The 100mm blast gates I decided to buy only because I could not find 100mm straight couplers at the time , and partly because of so many other thing going on in my life at that time , but in hindsight I wish I had researched for them a little longer.I used 100mm black plastic ones from AXMINSTER which also can be purchased from just about any good merchants , these get blocked with saw dust in the corners and then the gate won’t close properly so you lose suction, three has broken all replaced with metal blast gates.

50mm and 100mm ducting.

As mentioned, the main hard pipe machine ducting run is a total of 1.9m including the blast chamber of 600mm, so let’s start from the chamber and inlet pipe to the extraction inlet pipe which is 1.4 mm above floor level.

The three photos show the entire length of hard pipe ducting run (left) 1.1m. (Middle) is the blast chamber 600mm width 800mm height. (RH ) the entire lengths of hard pipe ducting run 1.9m including blast chamber.

FLEXI pipework.

From the blast gates these run to all machines independently in 100mm Flexi .

Circular saw.

I have the saw mounted to on a turntable so no matter what position I lock the turntable in the Flexi remains connected at all times along with the overhead saw guard.

LHphoto 90 degrees across workshop. Rhphoto turned90degrees to the right

Planer

This again has a 100mm pipe fitted permanently so I can easily change from overhead planing by simple opening the Planer beds and changing to thickness mode the Flexi length is 2.5m. I have stated that I split the workshop down the length with all machine to one side of the shop, not quite correct with the one exception of the band saw 100mm and 50 mm Hoover point which I had to go overhead with both pipe runs, this pipes can be seen rising vertical in the centre of the right hand photo of the ducting hard pipe.

50MM DUCTING

I fitted this for the extraction of dust from all power tools i.e.: router sanders and of course a Hoover system so I could get rid of all portable Hoovers and dust bucket plus leads and flexing pipes everywhere, I found this company CVCDIRECT and bought three Hoover socket and a seven meter hose which when I plug into two of the sockets I can reach all corners of the shop from both sides of the shop for cleaning dust , the third socket still to be fitted which will be used outside the shop but plumbed through the wall into existing pipe work , so on those warm sunny day when I get to work out side to work I can Hoover all the decks and keep them clean as well .

Showing pipe runs crossing the shop.

Bits and bobs

Still to complete, the placement of a couple more roding eyes in the 50mm system and the fitting of one more Hoover point.

Well guys and girls hope you have enjoyed and it may be of help to someone out there, I know I enjoyed putting it all together, it’s taken a long time and a lot of money but well worth the effort it’s now finally has come together.
Now what do I do now, ah yes complete my infill planes, my tool cabinet, and then ah yes, start my new bench. hc

Hi matt

As promised , some photos of the parts you wanted to see ,

You will need the pipe shown on the (right) which is glued into the holder pipe (centre) which in turn is glued into the white 50mm ducting pipe

length of hose with some brushes

with face plate fitted , it just a tight push in with screw hole if needed, face plate fitted to hose connection just a push fit remove face plate to back holder and throw away

first hoover point fitted into 50mm ducting run
in this photo it shows two brass electric 12v point so if you want to connect it up , it will switch on motor of hoover these were design for when you plug in hose to socket .

and finally hose plugged in . Hope this of some help to you .

My old tool chest

2009-11-02T18:50:00.105Z

Made ooh , well back in the early seventies when I first went into the joiners shop at Portland Naval Base clearly seen to be now overflowing with so many tools, so many in fact I've had to place others elsewhere in the shop to make room to close the lid.

It has three sliding drawers which has so many tools jambed into them that they no longer slide any longer , it was designed with a lower section to house my many planes, The upper drawers two on a top level that is supposed to slide over the middle section single drawer. Upper left showing all my numerous Marples chisel which consist of sets of firmer , bevel edge , bevel edged paring chisel , mortise chisel, and gouges.

This photo shows the lower section which houses all of my Stanley planes ranging down from no 7 , 6, 5.5, 5, 4.5 4, & No3 + a 10.5 rebate plane, no 71 , no 55, no 112, no93 shoulder plane, no 130 and two No 60 .

LH photo one of the upper drawers with mortise and marking gauges, pliers , pincher's and callipers plus many other tools. As can be seen in centre photo from this top drawer full to overflowing with all my Marples chisel sets of mortise , paring, bevel edged, firmer and a small set of gouges . RH photo Middle drawer again full with other tools.

Finally last photo showing saws hanging up for now .

As your now probably well aware I have no space left in My old tool chest .
I simple have out grown it , hence I have been designing My new tool cabinet please keep visiting my blog as I am to shortly do a post here on the construction I have in mind and do feel free to leave any comments good or bad .hc

It all started here.

2009-04-21T20:57:00.036+01:00

It started as an apprentice carpenter and joiner back in 1964 I served a five year apprenticeship with a small building firm here at Portland in Dorset.

I was taught ever thing there was to know about woodworking in house construction.

We constructed our houses from the ground up, we did it all, my boss would not use contractors so all the apprentices where taught about ever thing. This included digging the footing and concreting them as well. I did all the marking-out with site square & dumpy level plus height levelling rods for the foundation,then it was all hands to pick and shovel, till concrete was mixed, poured & levelled, then back to your own trades.

There where five apprentices myself the carpenter/joiner ,1 bricklayer, plumber, painter, electrician.

I was taught by the boss his self Nobby Clark, nice old guy now dead and gone (Sadly), anyway as i said, I was taught everything from marking out, hand saw cutting and pitching all roofs including felting battening and tiling. first fixing , second fixing, the first & second fixing would also include manufacture of all exterior & interior door, windows frames ,staircase and then fix all on site we also manufactured all our own kitchen units as well in those days mostly wooden t/g floor boarding upstairs and oak floor down stairs so all in all a good all round trade training, we had to learn all other trades as and when we wear needed else where .

Shortly after completing my apprenticeship i left and went into Portland dockyard to join the joiner shop there where I spent seventeen years , worked on all sort of ships joinery mainly the back up service to the Royal Navy R.M.A.S. Royal Maritime auxiliary Service and the R.F.A. Royal Fleet auxiliary, plus on the odd occasion when she visited Portland The Royal Yacht Britannia.

Then two sets of promotion first to TG1 officer whilst still working for
P.A.R.U. Port Auxiliary repair unit which was basically to clock in and out all my work force which consisted of the shipwrights painters and joiners all in all about 60 tradesmen which I had to record all time worked on all there individual jobs for costing of refits and payment of wages which I did for two years.

My second promotion was as the assistant Property Manager working for the navy in there Property managers department for F.O.S.T. ( Flag officer sea training) F.o.s.t was the main employers of all civilians employed in the dockyard The property manager where employed to run the naval base whilst F.O.S.T. controlled all Naval ship movements in the Western world and played there war games giving vital training to naval personnel .

My job was day to day maintenance of the entire NATO naval base and all of it individual departments within it.

When I first started this job property managers were phasing out term contractors which basically was just one large contractor to do all maintenance which proved to costly . when I arrived we switched over to self employed contractors usually one man and his van , this is where I came in .

It was my job to liaison with head of departments and the captain of the naval base to arrange for any day to day maintenance work to be carried out as not to interfere with fleet operational requirements and to ensure work started on time but most importantly finished on time and to my required standards.

Once the new system was up and running it proved to be very successful with some really good contractors working under my control , I had two budgets to work from one being £250,000 for day to day maintenance and one for £2.5 million this was for much bigger jobs up-to £2,500 or more for each individual job worked.

This was the highlight of my working carrier I enjoyed ever single solitary second of it , right up to the closure of the base in April 1997 when every one was made redundant, by then I had served there for 22 years.

My ancestors where there when it opened back in the early 18Th century it was then known as Portland roads an anchorage for the old sailing galleons and then the new metal battled ships names like HMS Hood the prince of whales this was when it became HM Dockyard not till much later was it known as HM naval base Portland , I was the fifth generation of my family who help close it. (sadly)

Now with all my trade training and now five years in management after redundancy I went self employed so started my own company MJM Property Maintenance Ltd. which I ran successfully up-to early 2004 for nearly eight years , when both my wife and myself decided it was time for me to retire after spending nearly two years popping in and out of hospital with a recurring kidney infection which has eventually come under control .( thank god)

Now at last my workshop construction is completed which I had to keep abandoning because of my illness, so here we are now in April 2009 and this year I hopefully intend to start fitting it out with my own machine so I can at last start completing my own home and just potter about enjoying life.

I joined this forum just out of interest and to help kill time when I was recovering from my many hospital visits and now I really enjoy trying to help other workers of wood if I can , so if anyone needs help, please feel free to contact me either post here, or PM me, or e-mail , can't guarantee I'll know the answers you wish to know but if I can I'll try. hc

upgrading a Stanley planes No 5

2009-03-26T15:02:00.155Z

Hi

I did this to my planes IMHO it's was needed for this particular plan a newish jack no 5 which had a lot of slack around the y lever and pin which was bent and out of square with the frog gullets there was also slack on the adjuster wheel nut as well.

Primarily I wanted to remove as much slack from the plane as possible , I wanted to adjust my plane whilst using it with the slightest touch in either direction , when I took the frog to pieces it was easy to see what the problems were, bent securing pin ,out of square with the frog gullets , and a lot of slack around the y lever hole where the pin slips through, and slack in the yoke lobes.

So i sat and thought about how to remove as much slack as I could . The two other threads on this subject dealt only with the nose of the y lever to take into account the extra length needed to cope with the thicker blade from lie Nielsen, which in itself is fine, as I know works OK .

When you look at the y lever it like a nodding donkey in an oilfield with three point of contact
1. the nose 2. the pin 3. the yoke lobes on the y lever poorly engineering)

The main work will be to the y level it self , which the metal quality to it in itself is very poor so do be careful how you handle them whilst working on it , First i started by drilling the hole through the new larger centre pin to accept the old style centre pin which has to be a snug fit.

LHphoto This is the offending plane. RHphoto old chuck set in vice whilst drilling .

LHphoto the y lever before and after being drilled

MIDphoto drilled with new short centre bar still to be drilled

RHphoto assembled temp in Y lever

Both LEFT & RIGHT PHOTO temporarily assembled in frog in these two photos , here the y lever is still to be lengthened to fit the thickness of the lie Nielsen blade .

Photo showing y lever recess in old Stanley chip breaker , with new thicker lie Nielsen blade behind , it can clearly be seen the y lever nose now need lengthen and made slightly thinker to fill recess in chip breaker to eliminate any judder or backlash in blade movement.

Preparation of the y lever , its fiddle buy can be done by now you should be asking your self do i have the skills to do this if you don't feel right about doing it your self then ask someone else .

Be very careful with the heat you wont need much , flux the job well and the solder itself, it will help it to run easier, I couldn't manage to solder and take a photo at the same time so I'm sorry no photo of the job being done .

various stages of construction of new shape to nose on the y lever .

LHhoto This Photo showing fine shavings coming from the plane which I'm sure i can improve on a little more.

RHphoto offending plane AFTER the finish plane with the lie Nielsen blade fitted.

my workshop

2009-03-25T21:52:00.027Z

Hi all

This is my workshop ,which I built with my son Ian, a lifelong friend Pip, and my future son in law Edwin a Dutchman who all helped me get it all erected in one day with tarpaulin covering the roof . My daughter Louise, Wife Pam , Annie Pipes wife and little Ryan my Grandson all helped with the bacon sandwiches and kept the beer coming all day long .

looking down to the decking area where we spend the summer months with security light on these also double up when were there in the evenings, nice place to barbecue and just general hang out,sun trap,lovely, still got to run an extra power line for the fridge for those lovely cool beers on the long summer days till you gentle nod off in the sun.

Showing water butts that catch all our rain for those long summer days when my plants need a nice cool drink and an over flow when full returning all excess water to the ground soak away . late September with the wisteria in full leaf it's beginning to get well established now in it third year, with hanging basket of fuchsia gone past there best.

Just finished the roof in green fibreglass and all the exterior feather edge boarding coated with thee coat of natural pine Sadolin. I located it as far from any neighbours as i could so it's not close enough to cause a nuisance with the noise from machines.