Monday 27 April 2015

Monday again!

"Why is Monday so far from Friday but Friday so close to Monday?"

Another weekend is over. Just a quick update this Monday.
A small unboxing feature and a quick project update.






But first of all I would like to clarify something.
It is not that I don't like Mondays. It is as good as every other day. But Monday means that the weekend is over and my main shop time is at the weekend. That's what bothers me every week.
As I'm a project manager in my day job, I like to have a moment in the week to summarize, rethink and organize the things. The Monday morning traffic jam is a good moment to recap where I am in the project and what has to be done next.

Here are the Monday morning thoughts of this week.

Mid-Century Table


I made good progress with the table mock up this weekend.
My thoughts about the table frame and the leg angles are pretty right. 

Mock up table legs


Just had to figure out the round over of the legs. 
As soon as I got it, it's time to lay out the cutting scheme onto the boards and to rough cut the stock.
But more on that on Wednesday in my weekly project report.


Unboxing


Just before the weekend the postman rang (don't know if he rang twice) and brought a nice packet.


The packet

Even if it looks like a big box, there were just a few spare parts or supplements in it.
First of all this nice blade. It is a 5 point rip saw blade and I will use it for a frame saw.
More about this in the next weeks.


Rip saw blade

Another item is this small plough plane blade. I needed a 3 mm blade but that isn't available. So I have chosen the 1/8" blade which is approx, 3.2 mm. I guess that doesn't make any difference.


1/8" Plough plane blade

I'm making a few small boxes at the moment. And it will be helpful to have the right tool for the job.

As my shop is hand tools only I am sharpening my tools by hand too.
I don't know how it could happened but I sharpened one of my plane blades out of square over the time.
Now I want to bring it back and I have to remove a lot of material. Not so easy without a grinder.
So I ordered an extra coarse diamond stone. Still a bit of work, but much easier than using the finer stones for it.


Sharpening stone

And last but not least a very narrow chisel for some detail work at the boxes I mentioned above. It is a 2 mm chisel made by MHG which is a German manufacturer. I like their chisels. They are well made, easy to sharpen and they hold their edge for while. The handles are ash or beech depending on the series you choose.

2 mm Chisel

What else?


There wasn't any interesting flea market in my area this weekend. I guess next week is one a few minutes walk away from our home. There I will continue my search for a hand grinder.

On the other hand I'm trying to concentrate on the table build at the moment. As less side projects as possible. I have to do a small packaging box and I will do it every time when I don't know how to proceed with the main project.

But as May is coming soon probably I have to switch the projects because I have to do some birthday gifts until end of June.
That said, has anybody experience with Paulownia? Is it as easy to carve as I believe and hope?

Okay. As mentioned just a quick update. If there are any remarks or questions then let me know.


Keep on making.

Stefan

4 comments:

  1. How do you plan on fixing the out of square on the plane iron? I've kind of given up on honing jigs and I've been sharpening by hand. It's only a matter of time before I am faced with the same situation.
    My thoughts would be to square the edge of the iron by holding it at 90 degrees straight up to the stone. Then use the difference between the bevel and the edge to sharpen and hone down to. I've used this on my plow plane irons but nothing big like a plane iron.

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    1. Hello Ralph,
      to be honest, I haven't got a real plan. My first try was to use the honing guide again and add some pressure on the affected side. It kinda works. But it came to my mind that the blade is out of square although I've used a honing guide. So I think it isn't a good idea to use it for such an operation.
      My second try was to grind it free hand and mostly at the high point of the blade.
      Afterwards I started the normal sharpening and honing process.
      The blade is better now, even if it is not perfect. But with the next time of sharpening I think I will come to the right angle again.
      If not I will do it it like you have described. I will file it down at 90° and then grind the difference down.

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  2. Paulownia is really fun to work with. It splinters a bit, but your rip saw will fly through it like styrofoam. I like to use it for quick and dirty projects that need to be light in weight. It does dent easily. I haven't tried to carve on it, but it is fun to experiment with. I get it as leimholz from the baumarkt.

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    1. Hi Brian,
      thanks for the information. I have to build a surf board for decoration purposes and I've read that the surf dudes are using Paulownia for building massive boards.
      And then I saw that the Baumarkt has got Leimholz. Next time I'm in the Baumarkt I will buy a board and give it a try.

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