My latest adventures in the shop
Last night, I made my second attempt at an apron for the coffee table. Its got haunched and split offset tenons. (If you get American Woodworker, you know which one I’m talking about) This time I got everything perfect except that I cut the split tenons so that they were backwards from one another. There’s supposed to be a 1-3/16″ gap before the first 1-15/16″ tenon. Well, I made it so that the gap wasn’t on the same side. Damn if that isn’t frustrating! It was all I could do to keep myself from cursing so loud as to wake people up and spiking that piece on the shop floor. So today, I’m going to give it another whack.
Before that, I discovered that my Shopsmith tablesaw wasn’t aligned right and wasn’t cutting square using the miter gauge. (That was my failed first attempt) It was a result of a Stanley “Contractor’s Grade” combination square, which I used to set up my machines. Now I have a Starrett and all is well and suddenly my stuff all fits better with fewer attempts. Lesson learned: I can’t afford cheap measurement and layout tools.
Before I do any of that, I’m going to take the motorcycle (Suzuki SV650) out for a few hours. It’s finally getting somewhat friendly here in Chicago. I’ll probably go for at least 100 miles and I won’t come back until my prostate hurts from that stock seat. (I’ve been spending my “Corbin seat money” on woodworking machinery lately…)
Still waiting for the damn motor mounting bracket for the brand-new, mostly assembled Jet tablesaw. I called them first thing Monday morning and ordered that, some straight wings, and the rip blade that should have also been included. They don’t seem to have a part number for the stamped steel wings that I’ve got, so they’re sending a pair of cast iron ones. Darn. I was expecting them by the end of the week, but it was not meant to be. So, I’ll make due with the Shopsmith for another week or so. It’s not so bad, now that it’s calibrated…
Replies
Maybe there's an alternate universe somewhere that whenever you drill a hole, it lines up with whatevers beneath, that miter corners come together perfectly every time, that whenever you make a cut on a board you don't cut on the wrong side of the line. Or whenever you pick up a chisel or a plane, it's always sharp. Or someone like me, who is thoroughly convinced that he owns the worlds most extensive collection of utility knives, can actually find one when he hunts for it. Maybe, but I ain't living in it. (;-)
I'll I can say is that everyone screws up those left/right and top/bottom pieces once in a while. Last time I did it was on a set of arms for 4 craftsman style chairs as seen way back when in Popular Mechanics. Anyway I got in a rythm and puched all the 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" x 1/2" mortises and ended up with 8 lefts and 0 rights. I got lucky, well sort of, and converted them to thru mortises since I hadn't cut the front leg tenons yet. Of course I didn't figure this out until after the arms had been curved (in plan) and profiled. So instead of just flipping 'em over and punching on the HC mortiser, I had to rig up a router jig. I probably would have just made 4 new arms but my supplier was out of 5/4 quartersawn white oak and I couldn't see all the waste in using 8/4. Now I layout or at least mark the parts (e.g. Yes or No) because those fences and stop blocks just won't do the thinking for me.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
I hate it when that happens. Ive been working on a project thats been fighting me the whole way. Even the most elementary things have been messing up. Just keep at it and it will all of a sudden click for ya. Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
Keep it up, unless you keep doing it you'll never succeed. I'm fairly new also to woodworking (5 years or so) and many of these problems sound all too familar to me. I may create a post about my first furniture project (it involves trying to smooth a roughsawn 1x12 with a block plane and #80 scraper). But thats for when I need a laugh.
Matt
When people 100 years from now see my work, they'll know I cared. --Matt Mulka
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