Unskilled woodworking

watt

watt

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I told the story of warming up to DIY in spite of not being a DIY guy here. And then I tried to build some speaker cabinets here.

The results of those experiments weren't perfect, but they were satisfying. So I read some; I watched videos online. Somewhere along the way, my dad gave me a bunch of his Lost Art and Taunton Press books.

Anyway, it's hard to plane wood without something to hold it. So I built this mini-bench. It has stops and a vise. That's my great-grandfather's No. 3 on top of a practice piece of maple. Clearly a posed photo, as the bench isn't clamped to the table. :)

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We all start somewhere, just keep practicing and you will get better with time. The one thing in knowing you are doing it right is that you are happy when you are doing it (minus during mistakes; we all make them) and that you feel good about what your hands produced (regardless of how simple or flashy the project is).
Woodwork for me is therapeutic and very satisfying.
In my youth I took wood shop in high school and it’s the best elective I ever took (except home economics/cooking, but that’s a story for another day). Now there’s a bajillion videos on how to do this or that, with endless project ideas and thorough walkthroughs.
 
watt said:
I told the story of warming up to DIY in spite of not being a DIY guy here. And then I tried to build some speaker cabinets here.

The results of those experiments weren't perfect, but they were satisfying. So I read some; I watched videos online. Somewhere along the way, my dad gave me a bunch of his Lost Art and Taunton Press books.

Anyway, it's hard to plane wood without something to hold it. So I built this mini-bench. It has stops and a vise. That's my great-grandfather's No. 3 on top of a practice piece of maple. Clearly a posed photo, as the bench isn't clamped to the table. :)

View attachment 50372
Click to expand...
That’s fantastic, my grandfather influenced my interest in Hand planes and woodworking, but I don’t have any of his old tools…..

Very fine bench, and you could certainly expand it if so desired. Keep up the good work (-:

Here’s a photo of mine, built with wood from our old house we remodeled, it’s 10 feet long, split top, weight is around 1200 pounds, mostly done with hand tools.
VR
Andy
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Damn @watt, that's a nice mini-bench! Have you considered putting legs on it and making a "Roman bench"? It's an idea that intrigues me... I intend to build one, someday.

My woodworking skills suuuuuuckk!! But I am getting deeper into the craft, and have adopted a couple of guiding principles:
  • Invest in good tools. Old tools are often better made -- sturdier, better steel.
  • Learn how to sharpen your tools. I'm still learning, but there's a HUGE difference between sharp and proper sharp!
 
adnick said:
That’s fantastic, my grandfather influenced my interest in Hand planes and woodworking, but I don’t have any of his old tools…..

Very fine bench, and you could certainly expand it if so desired. Keep up the good work (-:

Here’s a photo of mine, built with wood from our old house we remodeled, it’s 10 feet long, split top, weight is around 1200 pounds, mostly done with hand tools.
VR
Andy
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Andy, this is inspirational. I absolutely love everything about your setup, here.
 
Audionut said:
In my youth I took wood shop in high school and it’s the best elective I ever took (except home economics/cooking, but that’s a story for another day). Now there’s a bajillion videos on how to do this or that, with endless project ideas and thorough walkthroughs.
Click to expand...

In my mid-90s rural high school, they scheduled calculus and wood shop at the same time. Given my experience in calculus, I would have been waaaaaaaaay better off taking shop.
 
adnick said:
Here’s a photo of mine, built with wood from our old house we remodeled, it’s 10 feet long, split top, weight is around 1200 pounds, mostly done with hand tools.
Click to expand...

That's an incredibly beautiful bench. Wowzers.

Because Redboy mentioned Roman-style benches, I thought to say that I learned a lot from Christopher Schwarz's The Anarchist's Workbench, which gives a pretty cool anthropological/historical primer on woodworking benches while telling the story of how he came to build his preferred style. (The "anarchist's" of the title isn't about sewing seeds of chaos, btw, though it is a little misleading. If I remember correctly, he means it as a way of thinking about labor, time, exchange that runs counter to contemporary culture.)

Between altering my bench or building another one, I'd likely just build a big honkin' immovable one, not unlike adnick's. Why make it easy on myself if I ever move? :)

Redboy said:
My woodworking skills suuuuuuckk!! But I am getting deeper into the craft, and have adopted a couple of guiding principles:
  • Invest in good tools. Old tools are often better made -- sturdier, better steel.
  • Learn how to sharpen your tools. I'm still learning, but there's a HUGE difference between sharp and proper sharp!
Click to expand...

I dunno, man, somehow I doubt that your woodworking sucks. We've all seen your amps. Hard to believe that some of that skill wouldn't translate.

I do have sharpening implements, though I need to get some better stones. You're definitely right about the difference.
 
I also like to use hand planes, the smoothness that can be achieved is amazing. Quiet and relatively safe also. I have found that it helps to clamp a board to the edge of the bench and have it stick out the end a foot or two. Then you can use the end of the board against the brick wall to keep the bench from moving when you plane. Hopefully this made sense, if not I can try to get a photo.
 
adnick said:
That’s fantastic, my grandfather influenced my interest in Hand planes and woodworking, but I don’t have any of his old tools…..

Very fine bench, and you could certainly expand it if so desired. Keep up the good work (-:

Here’s a photo of mine, built with wood from our old house we remodeled, it’s 10 feet long, split top, weight is around 1200 pounds, mostly done with hand tools.
VR
Andy
View attachment 50375
Click to expand...
Beautiful bench and workspace!
 
Our son's reaction to the COVID era was to take up woodworking. As is his wont, he threw himself into it with a vengeance. He got pretty good at it very quickly, too, and is continuing to hone his skills building (mostly) furniture (tables and shelves) and some housewares kind of stuff.

Now he's getting a bit distracted by the siren song of antique/vintage tools -- the apple, perhaps, having fallen none too far from the tree. :rolleyes:
 
watt said:
I do have sharpening implements, though I need to get some better stones. You're definitely right about the difference.
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Check out SharpeningSupplies.com, but be prepared to do some research before purchasing anything -- it's a wormhole. My favorites so far are some Japanese water stones from the Naniwa Professional line (used to be called Chosera). They're a "splash and go" stone with really nice feedback...

mhardy6647 said:
Now he's getting a bit distracted by the siren song of antique/vintage tools -- the apple, perhaps, having fallen none too far from the tree. :rolleyes:
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I love picking up a 100yr old chisel and marveling at the fact that it's probably going to outlive me by another century.
 
Appreciate all the positive comments:)

If I can do it almost anyone can with a little information/instruction, and time. I’m disabled so one has to be clever in approaching big heavy objects. However my bench comes apart, just jack the tops off the legs, note the dovetails that the top slide into…

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And here’s some of the tools, but don think you need all them, it only takes about 3 handplanes, , a few clamps, couple of saws and some marking tools to build such a bench

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adnick said:
Appreciate all the positive comments:)

If I can do it almost anyone can with a little information/instruction, and time. I’m disabled so one has to be clever in approaching big heavy objects. However my bench comes apart, just jack the tops off the legs, note the dovetails that the top slide into…

View attachment 50378

And here’s some of the tools, but don think you need all them, it only takes about 3 handplanes, , a few clamps, couple of saws and some marking tools to build such a bench

View attachment 50379View attachment 50380
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Wow on these hand tools! I don’t think I’ll get into a full blown “hand built” (no power tools) project till I’m retired. But I appreciate the craftsmanship with which these tools were constructed. They were definitely overbuilt and will last several lifetimes if taken care of.
 
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Redboy said:
Check out SharpeningSupplies.com, but be prepared to do some research before purchasing anything -- it's a wormhole. My favorites so far are some Japanese water stones from the Naniwa Professional line (used to be called Chosera). They're a "splash and go" stone with really nice feedback...


I love picking up a 100yr old chisel and marveling at the fact that it's probably going to outlive me by another century.
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Recommend watching Rob Cosman’s video on sharpening, like Rob, I only use 2 stones when sharpening my planes and chisels. My preference is a 300 grit then a 16000 grit, however an 8000 grit will suffice nicely.

The only time intermediate stones are used is when I’m getting a new chisel flat.


VR
Andy
 
oh, speaking of vintage tools... and of the titular workbenches -- I think I've shown youse guyses this vintage Hammacher Schlemmer tool chest/workbench that lives at our house. This was my wife's grandfather's. It was in a rather poor state of repair when it came into our possession ca. 35 years ago, but we had it restored when we moved to MA. That is a story in and of itself... but I digress. :confused: :o



I don't have a photo of the innards ATM, but it's a pretty neat piece. Here's a catalog scan that our aforementioned scion/son ;) unearthed a month or so ago.

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Sorry for the semi-hijack of this thread! :(
 
Redboy said:
Check out SharpeningSupplies.com, but be prepared to do some research before purchasing anything -- it's a wormhole. My favorites so far are some Japanese water stones from the Naniwa Professional line (used to be called Chosera). They're a "splash and go" stone with really nice feedback...


I love picking up a 100yr old chisel and marveling at the fact that it's probably going to outlive me by another century.
Click to expand...
I feel that way about, e.g., the EICO HF-81 that lives here and is roughly (perhaps exactly) the same age as me. :o

Oh, speaking of chisels -- my son made himself, and me, a matching pair of hammers (mallets, I suppose, more accurately*) earlier this year.

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He's doing most of the shaping and rounding of things like this by hand.

I'm sorry, I am not adding any value to this thread at all...
but I do love all of this stuff, too. I just have zero skills in terms of using any of it.
_________________
* not maillots :confused: :rolleyes:
 
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