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27 July 2012

Salvaging a gynasuim bench part I

Gooday ! Today's post begins the series on a bench that I am working on. When I was in school there were several of these benches used in the gym. The benches are made from oak and and 12' long by 9 1/2" wide. Four plywood legs were secured to the seat and with a single piece of 3" wide oak tying the legs together on the floor. A small crack in the seat rendered this particular bench scrap.

My guide line for using this hardwood is to leave the holes and dadoes in the wood that were left from screws, bolts and legs. I want the new bench to look like it was made using salvaged wood, but not like I just slapped the boards together.

I am using all the oak to make a new bench based on the White Water Shaker Bench that was featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine( before it became Popular Woodworking)

Jointing the apron board
  • Step one: scrape off all the gum wads on the boards. In this picture the boards that will become the aprons are edge jointed using hand planes. Repair cracks in seat board with glue.
You might notice the blue holdfast in the foreground, click here for an explanation.


Salvaging a gymnasium bench  part 2

After milling the boards to the correct thickness and size , I assembled the bench with square nails.
This is my first project with square nails and it was a good lesson for me. Square nails probably work
better in wood that is "greener".  All wood hardens over time and maybe more so with oak.

The wood did split in a couple places and part of that was incorrect installation of nails and part old wood.  I found that countersinking the pilot hole was very good to seat the nail flush and minimize splitting.  Take a 1/8" mortise chisel and relieve the hole edges in line with the grain.

Beware of old glue lines in salvaged wood. Sometimes the glue lines will give up when fastening the boards together.

The next step is sanding and finishing.
 

15 July 2012

Making a raised Diamond panel

Here is my first kick at the can on making a diamond panel. This video explains my thoughts on this project and new theory for diamond panel part deux. 

UPDATE : I think this pattern would work for a diamond panel that had equal sized diamonds on it.
The layout here would have panned out if the diamonds were smaller.

14 July 2012

More hand saw sharpening......


One antique Canadian rip saw

This post is the second in a series I am publishing on hand saw sharpening. Now I know what what you are thinking, "why is the saw post on this blog and on not Arm Strong Tools?".  I don't have a good reason for that suffice it say the saw posts will remain here. Okay, enough jibber jabber - here is the meat and potatoes of what transpired tonight.

My new favourite rip saw , a 25 " saw manufactured in Canada by Shurly-Dietrich-Atkins. identified as having 5 1/2 ppi at the factory and Shurly-Dietrich-Atkins named this saw the Maple Leaf No. 152.  I don't know how to date this saw so if someone has some info I would love to hear about it.

Sharpening this saw proved to be a little easier because the teeth were very coarse and in pretty good shape to begin with. I followed along with Tom Law once again and took this cutting tool through the steps of jointing,shaping,setting,filing, and side dressing.

Eager to see this saw in action, I cut a 1" piece of fir and watched as the saw dust spilled off the saw teeth. Saw dust is a bit of a misnomer in this particular job. The "saw dust" should not be dust at all, rather very tiny chips of wood that you can see with your naked eye. If there is real dust left after a cutting operation the saw teeth are dull.

This is now a good sharp saw that will cut in a straight line.

01 July 2012

Cutting my teeth with Tom Law

Gooday !   Happy Canada Day !  Or if you are old enough to remember... Happy Dominion Day

So this past Friday night found me in my workshop, I had finally bought two saw files and was ready to get to work sharpening an old rip saw.  My saw vise had been ready for working action for some time and now I was going to take it for a test drive.  Earlier in the year I bought a 26" D-8 Henry Disston and Sons rip saw - now I was going to learn how to tune it up.

 The instructional video I purchased was hosted by Tom Law. This is a good DVD. The video contains good instructional content with demonstrations of an automatic saw sharpening machine and a dedicated machine for punching out new teeth. I wished I had him in the workshop in person so I could ask some questions.

As the night was getting later I was having some mixed results with my saw teeth. I need a lot of practice. I was literally cutting my teeth by shaping the teeth of ol' reliable(my saw). Overall, I had fun eating the best landjaeger and listening to Mr. Law and pushing my new file across some really old tool steel.

 My work is not done on this 8 point saw by any means ,(notice I did not include a close up picture the the teeth!) I will be going back and finishing the job. My saw vise will be modified to accommodate a saw from either end.

Stay tuned....