The Morning Woodworker

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Being that I am 14 hours ahead of most of you, I have already partied, got drunk, slept, and spent the first day of the new year being lazy.

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Trip to Nagoya Castle

Finally had the chance to see Nagoya Castle last week. From the outside, it was very impressive. Inside, however, it was just a bunch of mock ups and pictures of what Nagoya Castle used to look like before it was destroyed in World War 2. Most of the pictures had English as well as Japanese writing on them. The pictures that showed the castle being destroyed by fire were in Japanese only…

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First day off in Japan

Finally got a day off while working in Japan. Took a walk around the city to see what is around. Came across what we would call a “Historical District”. It had several shops and a couple of shrines. Pretty cool stuff. There is so much to see. Hope I have time to see much more. This picture is taken from what appears to be restaurant of some sort but I thought is was cool.

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Made it to Japan

Finally made it to Japan after spending 22 hours of traveling hell. I don’t know about you but I can’t stand to sit that long. Anyway, decided to try the local transportation. Having never step foot on a subway or train before, this was a daunting task to say the least. Add to that, the signs are all in Japanese. Only got lost one time. Stopped to ask a local where we were and she pointed to a place that was off the map.

This should be fun…

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Guess the woodworking is a wash

I was really hoping to set up a shop but it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen any time soon. I know that there were some of you who were looking forward to it and so was I . Unfortunately with my work schedule, I have had to put that on hold as there just isn’t enough time in the day. Add to that, I am being sent to Japan for about 6 months. I hope to one day get back to it but for now…

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Lack of posts

I just wanted to say thank you to all af you who have written me and asked “What the Hell, Man. Why haven’t you posted anything”?  I have been extremely busy at work and to be honest just haven’t had the time or energy to do anything related to the “new” shop. As soon as things cool down I will get back to it. Thanks for the interest and concern. It’s really great that you guys are interested in what I am doing.

Eric

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Woodworking Workbench Construction Pt. 1

In earlier posts I had talked about getting the “Bench Horse” from Blum Tool Co. I also considered the “X-Bench” from Skil as suggested by my Dad. While both would have served my purpose in the apartment, I decided to build my own. I have to say, however, that I was ready to buy the “Bench Horse” because that I thought that it would handle hand tool work better than the X-Bench and that I would be able to use it when I go back home. But… being that I am a “woodworker” and I should be able to build a workbench instead of taking the easy way out and buying one, I decided to build one.

After making a rough plan of the kind of bench that I wanted I went to Lowes and purchased 6 2×10x120 in. Southern Yellow Pine boards and had the guys at Lowes cut them in half so that it would be easier for me to load and carry them through the stair cases at the apartment. They were still “wet” of coarse so I bought some furring strips to use as sticker boards to dry the pine out. Once I loaded them into my bedroom I got started cutting the furring strips to length. I used a Japanese pull saw to cut the strips into 10 in. length. This was my first time using this saw and I have to say that it worked quite well. I half-assed cut them and they came out square. Nice!

I had to turn the ceiling fan off so that I didn’t get sawdust everywhere and I promptly vacuumed up the sawdust after cutting the furring strips. After cutting the furring strips I stacked the board up to dry.

I haven’t quit made up my mind as to what style of bench I am going to make but it will be very simple. I don’t even know if I am going to install a vise on it. I may just use a couple of Bessy’s to clamp any work to the bench. So whatever style of bench I choose to make, it will be very “clamp-able”.

I don’t know how long it is going to take for the boards to dry but I sure wish they “wood” hurry up. I need to get this bench built so I can do other stuff. While I am waiting though, I will be surfing the web deciding on what kind of hand tools I should get. That should keep me busy.

Posted in Projects, Shop | 12 Comments »

Pocket Hole Joinery by Kreg

In January I bought the Pocket Hole Master Kit by Kreg. I never used it until I started on the wooden platform in my bedroom, where the new”shop” is going to be.

I was trying to decide on how to attach all of the pieces to the grid work that would support the platform.

Should it be angle braces? Way too expensive.

Deck screws? Probably split the wood.

Nails? Hell no!

Then I remembered that for some reason I grabbed the Kreg Pocket Hole Master Kit from home on my way to South Carolina. Why not?

So I went to Lowes to grab some pocket hole screws. The longest ones they had were 2 1/2 in. blue ones, about $5. The instructions don’t cover how to join anything thicker than 1 1/2 in. so I had to play around with the settings. After a couple of practice pieces, I found the perfect setting for what I was going to do, then went to town on joining the pieces of the grid work  together.

I am not going to go into detail on the specifics of using this system. You basically clamp the hole drilling jig to the piece that you want to join and use the included “special” drill bit to drill the pilot hole into the workpiece. There three different hole spacing setups to chose from. I just chose the one that best fit the piece.

After that you put the two pieces of wood that you want to join together and use a modified “vise grip” clamp (included in master kit) to hold the two pieces together in perfect alignment. There is no need to drill a hole into the mating piece.

After that you simply drive the screw into the two pieces. The screw will draw the two pieces together like a clamp so if you want to further strengthen the joint you can apply glue before screwing together. I chose not to glue because I will eventually be tearing this setup down and probably be throwing it all away. After screwing together, remove the vise grip and you are done. It could not be simpler.

You could get away with just buying the Mini Kreg Jig® Kit and do everything I did with the Kreg Jig® K3 Master System but I think that if you plan on doing any amount of work with this system, go ahead and get the Master System. The Benchtop and Portable Bases along with the Dust Collection attachment are well worth the investment. I used the benchtop base without attaching to any sort of panel for support and it worked flawlessly. It held up a 6 ft. 2×2 firring strip vertically without tipping over, and that was on top of a carpet floor. The benchtop base also sped up the time in making the joints tremendously. I had to make 32 joints in all and it only took about 30 minutes, and that included screwing them all together. The dust collection attachment worked great as well. the only thing that came out was a few chips of wood that fell out of the flutes of the drill bit.

So while I don’t think that I would use the Pocket Hole System for any “fine” woodworking, I do know that it will find a place for any utility  furniture that I need in a hurry.  And, if you place your joints (hole) in an inconspicuous location, nobody would ever know that you used it. I will be definitely be using this while I set up my shop for making  utility  shelves and tables.

If anyone has anything else to add about this system I would love to hear about it, especially if you have made any furniture with it . So just leave a comment and say what you have to say about it.

Eric

Posted in Tool Review, Tools | 3 Comments »

Apartment Workshop has begun

Today I started on my new home away from home workshop. The new shop will be in my bedroom of the apartment that I will be staying in for the next year or so. The reason the new shop is in my bedroom is because I will be sharing the apartment with a coworker and his family. A challenge to say the least.

What I have decided to do is use the space right next to my bed. It has a large window so light will not be an issue. I did hang a warehouse type light right over where my workbench will be in case I do any work at night. You never know when that late night craving for wood might strike you. There is a good possibility that I will be on night shift in the near future as well.

There are several challenges that face my in this situation. The big one of coarse is dust. Seeing that my bed is right next to the shop and my computer and entertainment system is just feet away, there just isn’t any room for dust. Because of that I have decided to make this a handtool only shop. I figure that this is the only logical choice because of the dust, noise, and cleanup issues.

Since trying to clean up wood shavings would be a real pain in the butt, I decided to make a wooden platform where the bench will be so that all I have to do is sweep up the shavings. To build the platform I chose to make a grid work sub floor using 2×2 furring strips. Because the wood is still “bleeding” I stapled a sheet of plastic sheeting so that the sap would not stain the carpet underneath. Next I simply cut two pieces of plywood used for flooring and screwed those to the frame underneath. I was wanting to use something nicer than plain plywood, maybe birch or oak but at $50 a sheet I just could see it happening. Not for a temporary shop anyway.

I haven’t decided on what kind of finish I want to put on the floor. It is still kind of “wet” and sticky so I think I will wait a week or so to put a finish on. I don’t know if I want to paint it or just put a clear coat on. Whatever it is, it will be water based as I don’t want to deal with the fumes.

So what do think? Do-able or  just plain crazy?

Posted in Projects, Shop | 6 Comments »

The Space I Have

Haven’t posted in what seems like an eternity. I have been caught up in the new job, finding a place to live, moving into that place, figuring out all of the stuff that I forgot to bring with from home and then making multiple trips to the store to get those “necessities”.  I never realized how much crap I needed for just a minimal existence. I mean, all I do is go to work, come home, eat, then sleep. When you fail to bring things like pots, pans, dishes, eating utensils, soap, laundry stuff (oh how I miss having a washer and dryer), ect. it gets kind of annoying. I did, however, bring the important stuff like: computers, speakers, xbox, bass guitar and an audio mixing board. Hell Yeah!!!

I do miss my woodworking tools and the smell of all that woodworking goodness that comes with it. I was so close to getting my shop complete in Alabama and ready to get building stuff, it was getting exciting. Then BAM! I was pulled away to this job in South Carolina. I have to say though, it is really nice here. The weather is great and the area is beautiful. Wish I could enjoy more of it.

But anyway,

Back to the point of the post.

Here is the place where I am thinking of placing my future workbench.

As you can see there is not much room. Also, I have the carpet issue. I can’t put the bench anywhere else in the apartment as I am sharing it with my coworker who is bringing his family here to live. I was thinking of laying a wooden platform so that there would be a place for the wood shavings/chips to fall, that could easily be swept up.  I am not sure how well this would be for any kind of sawing.  I do have a screened in porch if I needed to do any sawdust intensive work.

I have replaced the air mattress, on the floor, with a real twin bed so I did gain a little more room from what you see in the picture.

The window is huge so lighting is great.

What do you guys think?  Should I just wait until I get back home or should I go for it and piss off the neighbors with a couple of late night mortise and tenon sessions?

Eric

Posted in Shop | 6 Comments »