Back in February 2022, Tony, the Gr8Hunter sent me a Keystone Iron City hand-cranked grinder he had scored in Pennsylvania. It was pretty rusty (but just surface rust – no pitting I could see) and would barely turn, so I completely disassembled it, soaked everything in Evaporust, chased the threads on all the nuts and bolts with taps and dies, applied a coat of linseed oil to the wooden handle, then reassembled everything, oiled the moving parts, and gave it a test drive. It worked great, but there was a deep (maybe 1/16 inch) groove worn in the wheel from something, so I trued that up and took out the gouge. Now I've got a nice grinder I can use for things I don't want to grind on the 3600 rpm electric grinders. As another one of my buddies says, Don't work faster than you can think!

I thought about repainting it, but it works fine, and I think I'd rather be using it than fussing with repainting it.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Building drawer boxes, I'm working on small dovetails on relatively thin stock. I don't need a big square for marking lines, and given how cluttered my bench is at the moment, a small square seemed like a good thing to have.

I took a scrap of sycamore and planed it so the sides were flat and parallel.

Then I cut a slightly oversized dado in one of the pieces, glued a cross piece in, pegged it with a piece of bamboo skewer, and made sure it was actually square.

Looks close enough for my needs. I'll clean it up and give it a coat of oil at some point, but for now, I'm back to marking and cutting dovetails.

With some shaping to make it more comfortable in the hand, and a couple coats of oil, it's looking pretty good to me.

After a year of use, this little tool is still always within reach. I did shorten the upright on it so I could mark dovetails on some box sides that were only about 2 inches wide, which meant only about 1½ inches stuck out of the vise when I was marking them. So now it's a much shorter T than previously, but it's still long enough to mark a pair of ¾ boards when I'm marking and gang-cutting tails.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Not all of my handy tools are commercial tools. Looking back, about half are shop-made tools to help me get something done. This is one of those.

I've been wanting to film videos in the shop (not too much, but people seem to like them…) but never had enough hands. I took two pieces of scrap pine, and a couple wood screws, and made this. It did the job pretty well.

I just clamp it in one of my vises, or screw it to the bench, adjust the aim, then snap my camera into the case and film. Easy-peasy!

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Yesterday I decided I wanted to make a bowl, so I went digging through the wood horde and found a chunk of elm that looked as though it might want to be a bowl.

I rough-turned it yesterday and soaked it pretty well with linseed oil. This morning, the oil had firmed up the spots in the grain that were giving me trouble (likely because I haven’t sharpened my bowl gouges in a while) and I got the bowl cleaned up and finished. I really like the way ulmiform grain looks when everything goes right.

I think it came out fairly well. Finished by sanding to 400 grit, then a coat of linseed oil, a couple coats of shellac, and finally a coat of paste wax.

#woodturning #woodworking #bowl

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

A while ago I got a dowel maker. Got it up and running, and made a video of making a ¼ inch beech dowel.

And here's a photo of the instruction sheet.

---

Stanley No. 77

DOWEL AND ROD TURNING MACHINE

With this machine you can cut dowels when you are ready to use them, and cut them from the same material as the wood being worked.

It not only cuts dowels of various sizes and lengths to perfect dimensions, but with it you can form rods of practically any length.

One cutter head complete for making dowels or rods ⅜ inch in diameter is furnished with each machine.

Additional cutter heads with blades, sizes ¼, 5/16, 7/16, ½, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16 and ¾ inches can be furnished, if desired. The blades are adjustable so that the dowels or rods can be made for a tight or loose fit.

Directions for Use

Saw the stock square for the dowels or rods 1/8 inch larger than the diameter to be turned. Chamfer the end of the stock for an easy start. By means of the left hand clamp screw, secure the stock guide plate with the proper opening in line with the cutter head.

The cutter heads have a right hand thread and are screwed to the hollow spindle of the machine, allowing them to be easily attached or removed.

If a tight fitting dowel is desired, loosen the screw that holds the blade to the head and slide it back slightly. Make a trial cut.

For a loose fitting dowel reverse the operation, sliding the blade forward. Be sure to fasten the screw after the blade is adjusted.

When resharpening the blade be sure to preserve the original contour. We recommend honing in preference to grinding.

The extra power required for turning large rods is provided for by the adjustable crank which can be lengthened by shifting the locking position where it is attached to the speed gear.

---

I have cutters for the even sixteenths, which I think should cover my needs pretty well. Anything larger than that, I can make on the lathe. And if I should need one of the odd sixteenths, I can chuck a dowel of the next larger size in a drill and sand it down until it fits.

I also had a buddy ask how I have the cutters set up. Here are a couple pictures.

The left half of the blade is exposed over the edge of the cutter body. The right half isn't. Note that on mine, the blade can pivot a little, and it's very sensitive to pivoting, but it looks like years of sharpening has also made the edge of the blade kinda curved.

This one also shows just how little of the blade is protruding beyond the body of the cutter. I can back it off a hair and get an even better finish, but I suspect the real trick is that the blade is skewed a bit from a straight peeling cut, and that improves the finish, just as it would when using a skew on the lathe.

Set up like this, the dowels end up being about 1/128 inch oversized, but a quick wipe down the length of the dowel with some 60 grit sandpaper makes them fit the holes drilled by my auger bits perfectly. I would rather have the dowels slightly tight than too loose, since it's much easier to make them looser than tighter.

I also bought three brand new blades, and as the blades are identical across all the cutting heads, that should be a lifetime supply for me.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

I got an Ixion eggbeater drill. It was in slightly rough shape, with everything working, but some surface rust, and the original finish mostly chipped off. Also, the wooden handle on the crank was gone, and the metal shaft that held the crank was nasty with rust.

So I gave it a good bath in citrus degreaser, then cleaned it up. Turned a new handle on the lathe from a scrap of apple wood I had left from another project, and used an 8d wire nail as a new shaft for the handle. Primed the metal that originally had enamel on it, then gave it four coats of shiny new enamel, and a little oil on the moving parts. I figure the bright yellow finish (instead of the original black) will help me find it on my messy bench. The main gear appears to have been red from the factory.

Ixion was, near as I can tell, a small manufacturer in Hamburg between the two World Wars. And a manufacturer of bigger fancier machines more recently.

I initially thought this drill would spend most of its life with a countersink bit in it, but instead it carries a 3/64” drill bit for drilling pilot holes for number 2 through 4 wood screws.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

I wanted to do some kolrosing (or kohlrosing) on my baby bow saw but the coffee grounds I got from my sweetie were far too coarse. So I whipped up this quick mortar and pestle from a piece of ash and a pine board. The pine board is awfully soft for a mortar, but it did the trick today. The pestle works pretty well, and I expect the end grain to get awfully brown since I'll only be using it to grind coffee grounds to powder.

It's pretty handy having a lathe around to knock out other tools like these when I need them.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Simple, but for every bookcase I built, I needed to cut a dozen 3/8” wide & deep rabbets. Which means marking two dozen lines 3/8” from the edge of a board. And I made a total of 70 bookcases to hold all my books.

I was initially using my fixed fence kerfing plane, but then I broke that by knocking it off my bench, which gave me an opportunity to rethink things.

Since I've been practicing turning things with my lathe, I've got a bunch of round things. I took one of them, put a fence on it (another scrap) and then put a brass brad through it 3/8” from the fence.

Now I've got a marking gauge that won't get accidentally set to some other distance, and it fits in my pocket, rather than sitting on the bench where I might damage it. And since I resaw a lot of ¾” boards into two pieces, I'll probably continue needing a 3/8” marking gauge enough to keep it around (I did – it still gets used often enough that it's not buried in the other stuff on my bench).

Another note: about every hundred lines or so (8-10 cases), the brad will get a little dull and bend. Glad I didn't glue it in, so I can relatively easily replace it with a new brad. I probably should have used hardened steel, but I have a couple hundred brass brads around, so when it gets dull, I'll file it sharp again, and when it bends, I'll replace it.

I also got asked by a woodworking buddy what kind of a tip on my marking gauge is my favorite. I replied:

the round discs that are on my fancy marking gauges seem to be the best for all-around marking. Next is a pin. And when marking end-grain for dovetails, I will either use a spear-point marking knife or a pencil. For my pine bookcases, I'm marking all the dovetails with a pencil, and getting reasonably good results.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

Found a guy on eBay who was selling a bunch of maroon #3 Stanley “Global” planes for $37.50 each. They were $31 in early 2019 when I bought one to try it out. At the time, I flattened the sole, decided it was a cheap plane and if I wanted to improve it, I'd probably need to buy a Hock plane blade at minimum. (Note: I later did this with another of the #3s I bought, and with the Hock blade, it's a decent performer, but still not great)

Today I decided I was going to repurpose it as a scrub plane. I pulled the blade and walked over to the grinder. I freehand ground something between a 4” and 6” radius on the end of the blade. Between ten or fifteen minutes elapsed. It's not exactly circular, maybe more parabolic from the look of it. Then I spent ten or fifteen minutes sharpening the blade on my coarse sharpening stone and called it good.

I adjusted the frog back a little to open up the mouth on the plane, and popped the blade back in the plane. Took it to the fir 6×6 I'm turning into a post for my post drill, and it does a pretty good job. For a shaving between ½ and ⅝ inch (yes, I'm only using between a half and a third of the blade, but it's easy work this way), it's around 1/16 thick, which is how I have my other scrub plane adjusted. It's small enough that I can take off shavings like that for almost an hour before I need to take a break, and on the post, that translated to knocking one of the corners of the post down by ¼ inch, tapering to nothing at the other end of the 8' long 6×6.

Not bad for about $30 and less than an hour's time. And a lot cheaper than buying a Lie-Nielsen 40½ scrub plane for $175. Well, unless my time is worth more than $140/hour.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange

I moved in 2019, and it was going to be spring of 2020 before I had a shop, so I decided to build a shave-horse / bowl horse as a way to keep busy and be able to do some woodworking.

The first step was building the horse itself. A couple 4×4s, a 2×8, and a couple 2×4s. I bought the fake redwood pressure-treated stuff at Homer Depot because it was the straightest of the various tubas they had. Course it was basically saturated with water, so it's interesting watching it move as it dries out in the desert air here.

Anyway, I sandwiched the front leg between the two 4×4s, with a piece of 2×4 on either side of it. Pounded some 5/8” dowel into 5/8” holes drilled in the wet wood with an auger bit, and as the wood dried, the holes tightened down around the dowels nicely. No glue or fasteners on that joint.

Next was using my branch saw and a chisel to make mortises for the rear legs. I eyeballed the angles. They feel about right. The legs are screwed on with deck screws.

Finally, I shimmed the bench level, and then trimmed the legs a given height from the floor. Ended up taking a couple inches off every leg, but got the bench sitting level. Then I made a seat.

Then it was time to build the bowl head. I took a couple pieces of 2×8, and sandwiched pieces of 2×4 vertically between the ends of them, and screwed them together with more deck screws. Then I drilled a hole in each 2×4 just below where it stuck out below the bottom of the bench, and carved a wedge by hand to fit in that hole. With both wedges in place, the bowl head is locked to the horse very securely.

I screwed a couple chunks of 2×4 to the back of the bowl head. This forms the stationary part of the clamping mechanism. I'll probably tweak the shape later, but the deck screws come out pretty easy, too.

Then I made the clamp. It's a 2×4, shaved down a little so it will fit freely between the sides. I made a platform for the bottom of it by cutting a 2×4 mortise into a piece of 2×8 and putting in a 9/16 hole. A half-inch carriage bolt slides through to hold the platform on. Then I set the clamp in place and drilled a hole through everything so it could pivot. When I determined that my hole was the right height, I added a couple more holes so I can work on different sized parts.

And there it is. I didn't carve any bowls on it, but it was handy for holding all kinds of projects before the shop got built.

---

Contents

#woodworking #tools

Discuss... Reply to this in the fediverse: @davepolaschek@writing.exchange