That's always the reason for so little progress. This weekend I managed to steal about 2 hours to work on the boat.
An hour spent sharpening up some chisels. A flat waterstone grinder is the thing for flattening the back of your chisels. But the jig is really for planer blades. It's not great for chisels. A 120 grit Japanese Water stone will reshape your chisel in short order, and a set of Ice Bear Waterstones will get it silly sharp.
I cheat and use the Veritas Mk II sharpening Jig. Maybe with more practice...
All this sharpening was to allow me to spend the second hour changing the angle of some notches in the frames that join the transom. Of course if I had cut them right in the first place....
At any rate, it's kind of scary to see how easily a truly sharp chisel will cut through Solid Oak, even end Grain. Fingers Behind the blade and all that.
Showing posts with label Power Tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Power Tools. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, July 23, 2007
Rain, Interspersed with Heavy Showers and Occasional Drizzle.
I had great plans for this weekend. I long list of things that I was planning on doing. The weather had other plans. This summer has really not been suited to outdoor boatbuilding. It's been best suited to getting on a plane and going somewhere else.
I did get some work done, I had to plane a simple Oak batten to fit between two plywood gussets, The slats for the seats will screw into these battens. Given that I had gone to the trouble of buying some decent blades for my planes and some waterstones and then going to the trouble of reading all about sharpening, I thought I'd leave the Bosch in its box and break out the Stanley.
The blade was sharp, bald patch on my arm sharp. Gillete eat your heart out. I set the plane to take very thin shavings and started. I had to take about 3/16 of an inch off the batten to make it fit, and I had to square it up a little.
Damn, It's hard work. Oak is hard stuff, and I had the "benefit" of trying to do this on a fold up work bench, so I had to use my weight to hold the bench steady and my arms to plane. I gather that with a proper bench you get to use your body weight to do the planing.
I found that Oak will blunt a blade quite quickly, you can feel it getting harder and harder to push the plane, and you find the shavings concertina. This is a good indication that 30 seconds on the waterstone is required, sacrifice some more hair from my arm to the Sharp Gods, and off we go again.
It was a great experience to square and thickness the wood the old fashioned way, but I will admit to dragging out the Bosch in order do the second batten, in about 1/10th of the time.
When you look at pictures of old wooden sailing ships, and think that they didn't have Bosch, Makita, or even Black and Decker, you start to look at them in a different light.
Oh yes, and never try a crushing handshake on someone who actaully uses a hand tools for a living.
I did get some work done, I had to plane a simple Oak batten to fit between two plywood gussets, The slats for the seats will screw into these battens. Given that I had gone to the trouble of buying some decent blades for my planes and some waterstones and then going to the trouble of reading all about sharpening, I thought I'd leave the Bosch in its box and break out the Stanley.
The blade was sharp, bald patch on my arm sharp. Gillete eat your heart out. I set the plane to take very thin shavings and started. I had to take about 3/16 of an inch off the batten to make it fit, and I had to square it up a little.
Damn, It's hard work. Oak is hard stuff, and I had the "benefit" of trying to do this on a fold up work bench, so I had to use my weight to hold the bench steady and my arms to plane. I gather that with a proper bench you get to use your body weight to do the planing.
I found that Oak will blunt a blade quite quickly, you can feel it getting harder and harder to push the plane, and you find the shavings concertina. This is a good indication that 30 seconds on the waterstone is required, sacrifice some more hair from my arm to the Sharp Gods, and off we go again.
It was a great experience to square and thickness the wood the old fashioned way, but I will admit to dragging out the Bosch in order do the second batten, in about 1/10th of the time.
When you look at pictures of old wooden sailing ships, and think that they didn't have Bosch, Makita, or even Black and Decker, you start to look at them in a different light.
Oh yes, and never try a crushing handshake on someone who actaully uses a hand tools for a living.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Planing Oak
I actually got some work don on the boat today. I took some of my rough Oak boards and planed planed and thicknessed them ready to mark and cut Frame and Frame 4.
It takes a lot of passes to get the cup out of the boards, but at least I can record the exact setting of the thicknessor so that each piece is the same thickness.
When running 7 inch wide oak through the thicknessor (A Woodster pt85) I can turn the handle about 1/8 of a turn each pass, and take off about 1/4 mm. Any more and the machine grinds to a halt. (Previous Posts)
I guess it is a little unfair asking a hobby machine to deal with 7" wide oak boards. But if I go slowly it copes. The finish would drive a cabinet maker to drink, but then I'm making a boat to sail, not to stare at.
I've sort of decided to redo the transom frame. Now that I have a table saw I reckon I can do a better job of the bevels. But that's another day.
I set up the table saw fully last night. The Easiest way of getting the side extension tables level with the main table is to take off the guard, lower the blade right inside the saw, flip it upside down on a large table and attach the side extensions there. They cannot but be level with the saw table. Worked a treat.
The forecast is poor for tomorrow, so I will probably settle for simply marking out the frames and then try to cut them after work during the week.
D
It takes a lot of passes to get the cup out of the boards, but at least I can record the exact setting of the thicknessor so that each piece is the same thickness.
When running 7 inch wide oak through the thicknessor (A Woodster pt85) I can turn the handle about 1/8 of a turn each pass, and take off about 1/4 mm. Any more and the machine grinds to a halt. (Previous Posts)
I guess it is a little unfair asking a hobby machine to deal with 7" wide oak boards. But if I go slowly it copes. The finish would drive a cabinet maker to drink, but then I'm making a boat to sail, not to stare at.
I've sort of decided to redo the transom frame. Now that I have a table saw I reckon I can do a better job of the bevels. But that's another day.
I set up the table saw fully last night. The Easiest way of getting the side extension tables level with the main table is to take off the guard, lower the blade right inside the saw, flip it upside down on a large table and attach the side extensions there. They cannot but be level with the saw table. Worked a treat.
The forecast is poor for tomorrow, so I will probably settle for simply marking out the frames and then try to cut them after work during the week.
D
Sunday, March 04, 2007
More Toys - A drill driver
I have lived from some time with a cheap and cheerless 18v portable drill. Pretty good when the battery was charged, but the battery didn't last very long, and I drained a battery just doing the floor of my "boat shed".
Then I came across this Makita cordless impact driver set
. It's a world apart from my old toy cordless. The quality is obvious in just handling it. The impact driver easily belts screws into solid oak without any of the usual ruining of the screw heads. And I got it up in the US for less than half the price of buying it in Europe. Add a €20 transformer and off you go.By the way - why are power tools so much cheaper in the US? Who's making a small fortune on the ones sold here in Ireland?
Friday, February 09, 2007
On Power Tools
How woodwork has changed since the time of my grandfather. He would have cut lap joints with a saw and pared them to an exact fit with a small rabbet plane. The process would have taken less time for him, with his years of experience, but would still take more than a few moments.
Finding my collection of power tools expanding beyond the space to store them in my back yard shed, I was faced with obtaining a half height tool shed to place in some space under the kitchen window. Unable to find one to suit, I thought – I’ll build one.
In making the frames I needed to cut some lap joints. Since I was working in rough treated timber, a rough lap joint was more than adequate, so out came the Black and Becker Router.
I set up a batten to guide the router on a scrap price, and this gave me a marker for how far from the batten the cut would be.
I set the router depth to approximately half the thickness of the wood, and a few moments later I had half the lap joints cut.
In order to get the thickness right for the other sides, you must remove exactly the thickness of wood that remains on the first pieces. Place the router on a piece of board. Sink the router until the bit just rests on the board and lock it in place. Place the tongue you have just cut on top of the depth stop, and slide the depth pin down to rest on it. Lock the pin in place. You can now unlock the plunge on the router and reset it to the pin.
Routers may be noisy, dusty, dangerous things that can ruin a piece of wood in an instant, and ruin whatever flesh gets to near the whirring bit in less time still, but they do make life quick and easy.
Wear a dust mask and eye protection. Really Do.
Finding my collection of power tools expanding beyond the space to store them in my back yard shed, I was faced with obtaining a half height tool shed to place in some space under the kitchen window. Unable to find one to suit, I thought – I’ll build one.
In making the frames I needed to cut some lap joints. Since I was working in rough treated timber, a rough lap joint was more than adequate, so out came the Black and Becker Router.
I set up a batten to guide the router on a scrap price, and this gave me a marker for how far from the batten the cut would be.
I set the router depth to approximately half the thickness of the wood, and a few moments later I had half the lap joints cut.
In order to get the thickness right for the other sides, you must remove exactly the thickness of wood that remains on the first pieces. Place the router on a piece of board. Sink the router until the bit just rests on the board and lock it in place. Place the tongue you have just cut on top of the depth stop, and slide the depth pin down to rest on it. Lock the pin in place. You can now unlock the plunge on the router and reset it to the pin.
Routers may be noisy, dusty, dangerous things that can ruin a piece of wood in an instant, and ruin whatever flesh gets to near the whirring bit in less time still, but they do make life quick and easy.
Wear a dust mask and eye protection. Really Do.
Monday, January 29, 2007
A table saw
I started out trying to mount my circular saw upside down to a piece of plywood. That has a few problems.
Given that you can buy a cheap circular saw for about €150 it makes little sense to try to save money this way. Sure it will have limitations, it's not a precision high end machine, but neither is your circular saw mounted through plywood.
I eventually settled on the SIP 01321 for €150 form McQullians in Dublin (no web site). The one I bought comes without a stand.
So far I have simply assembled it, but there is one or two things to be aware of.
Adjusting the blade to make it parallel to the mitre slot
The saw is held in place by 4 bolts. You loosen these, with a socket wrench, it's inaccessible for spanners, and then you move the blade, and then you tighten them. It's very hit and miss. I was expecting some manner of screws or micro adjuster. But then this is a €150 saw.
The mitre guide is a little sloppy
You can move it about 1/2 a degree either way. I see a few grub screws in it's future. Tap holes into the side of the mitre bar, place grub screws in, and adjust them to get a perfect fit for the mitre bar.
The Fence is not rigid.
The fence locks parallel to the mitre slots. This is GOOD. But a small amount of force can move the end of it up to 3/4 cm (1/3 of an inch). I imagine the simplest solution to this is to place a piece of wood perpendicular to the fence, and clamp it at the edge of the table.
The table is not flat.
If you place a straight edge across the table, there is light visible in the middle. Not a lot, but light none the less. I'm not sure how much trouble this will cause. I'll update this as I start using the saw.
The angle guide is a gross approximation
But I kind of expected that. It just means that I always need to check the actual angle of the blade, even for vertical. The stops for vertical and 45 degrees are too coarse to be useful.
Once I start cutting things, I'll post a little more about how many of these short comings are problems in real life and how many are just niggles.
D
- No mitre slot
- No parallel guide - you can clamp a piece of wood in place, but that's fiddly
- No blade guard - That's a biggy. I'm fond of each and every one of my fingers..
Given that you can buy a cheap circular saw for about €150 it makes little sense to try to save money this way. Sure it will have limitations, it's not a precision high end machine, but neither is your circular saw mounted through plywood.
I eventually settled on the SIP 01321 for €150 form McQullians in Dublin (no web site). The one I bought comes without a stand.
So far I have simply assembled it, but there is one or two things to be aware of.
Adjusting the blade to make it parallel to the mitre slot
The saw is held in place by 4 bolts. You loosen these, with a socket wrench, it's inaccessible for spanners, and then you move the blade, and then you tighten them. It's very hit and miss. I was expecting some manner of screws or micro adjuster. But then this is a €150 saw.
The mitre guide is a little sloppy
You can move it about 1/2 a degree either way. I see a few grub screws in it's future. Tap holes into the side of the mitre bar, place grub screws in, and adjust them to get a perfect fit for the mitre bar.
The Fence is not rigid.
The fence locks parallel to the mitre slots. This is GOOD. But a small amount of force can move the end of it up to 3/4 cm (1/3 of an inch). I imagine the simplest solution to this is to place a piece of wood perpendicular to the fence, and clamp it at the edge of the table.
The table is not flat.
If you place a straight edge across the table, there is light visible in the middle. Not a lot, but light none the less. I'm not sure how much trouble this will cause. I'll update this as I start using the saw.
The angle guide is a gross approximation
But I kind of expected that. It just means that I always need to check the actual angle of the blade, even for vertical. The stops for vertical and 45 degrees are too coarse to be useful.
Once I start cutting things, I'll post a little more about how many of these short comings are problems in real life and how many are just niggles.
D
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Routers and Tearout
And I really should have known better. Really. This is starting to read like a "Mistakes not to make when building a boat." - Actually I may use that as a title if I ever write a book. I certainly won't be short of material.
I forgot that Routers like to cut the grain, but they really like to lift the grain. So the bottom peice here has nice big lumps missing.
When you find that the direction of spin of the blade will lift the grain - see diagram opposite.
Flip the thing over so that the as the blade of the router rotates, it cuts the grain, rather than trying to lift it.
Of course the really annoying thing is that I knew this, I really did. In my hurry to finish the frame, I forgot. And then when cutting seemed not to be working quite right, rather than take five and put my brain back into gear, I pressed ahead and messed up.
The damage is done to the part of the frame that sits on the keel.If you can't be a good example, be a dire warning.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
The Bosche GST 135 BCE / 1590 EVSK
It's wonderful.
I could stop there, but, specifically,
The pendulum setting cuts through 1" oak planks as though they were soft pine. (Remember to turn down the pendulum if you are cutting curves.)
The base plate angle can be set without tools, and you can set it consistently to reproducible angles.
I think that the best all round blade that I have tried so far is the bosch T144DP. Since it has a set to it's teeth, it follows a jig well. It will also cut a bevel and cut curves. I think I'll order a few packs.
Incidently, I got it from The Tool Man in the UK. Ordered Monday, arrived Wednesday. Nice helpful people.
A simple Jig saw Jig
To cut a straight line with a jigsaw is remarkably easy. All you need is a simple jig made from a straight batten of wood, and a piece of 1/4" plywood.
First screw the plywood to the batten and counter sink the screws.
Clamp the batten down and saw along the batten as shown.
Place the plywood exactly along the line you wish to cut, and place a sceond scrap piece of the same plywood beside it to support the Jigsaw. Run the Jigsaw along the batten and it will cut your line exactly.
There are two caveats.
1) Always use it in the same direction, the distance from the side of the base plate of the jigsaw to the blade may be different on the left and right of the jigsaw.
2) If you want to cut a bevel, you need to make two jigs for each angle, one sloping away from the batten, the other sloping towards the batten.
Friday, November 17, 2006
If only I could get to work on the boat.
I have to work out side as I don’t have a workshop. It gets dark here before I get home from work so I have a 500W site lamp. I can’t work in the rain, but the dark is no problem. The real problem is that there’s always so much to do in the house. So last night instead of cutting out frames, I was installing a panel in front of the bath. This should be a fifteen minute job, but as usual it’s not. The walls are not square, the bath fits in an alcove, and the walls slope in as you come away from the bath. Suddenly a simple job becomes a bit of work.
I like this thing.
I like this thing.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Ordered a new Jigsaw
Since I busted my toy jigsaw, I need a new one. It appears from reading across three forums, that the bosche GST 135BCE is the one to get.
I'll let you know how it works out..
I'll let you know how it works out..
Saturday, November 11, 2006
My Poor Jigsaw....
Never send a boy to do a mans work, neither use toy tools to cut hard wood. A little 400w Jigsaw intended for home use is no good for cutting 1" thick oak planks with a bevel.
Since I knew that many cuts would be bevelled, I set the blade to 72 degrees, put on the jigsaw fence and tried to cut a straight line parallel to the side of the board.
Not a hope. The blade cut the bevel to within 1 degree, but would not follow a straight line for love nor money.
Primarily I think the problem was trying to get the blade and the base parallel. The blade would always pull the cut to the left. I tried setting the fence on the far side of the plank to prevent this and I ended up overheating the blade and breaking the locking mechanism.
So a cheap jigsaw can cut pine, or thin ply, but forget trying to cut hardwood.
Time to go shopping.
Since I knew that many cuts would be bevelled, I set the blade to 72 degrees, put on the jigsaw fence and tried to cut a straight line parallel to the side of the board.
Not a hope. The blade cut the bevel to within 1 degree, but would not follow a straight line for love nor money.
Primarily I think the problem was trying to get the blade and the base parallel. The blade would always pull the cut to the left. I tried setting the fence on the far side of the plank to prevent this and I ended up overheating the blade and breaking the locking mechanism.
So a cheap jigsaw can cut pine, or thin ply, but forget trying to cut hardwood.
Time to go shopping.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Today was a good day
I planned and thicknessed a few boards today, and I'm ready to start transferring the traced frames to the boards. Hopefully I'll start cutting frames this week, and see how my little Black & Decker Jig saw holds up.
I suspect that it will fail on one or more of
D
I suspect that it will fail on one or more of
- it's only 400 watts
- I bought it or about €50 so I don't hold out much hope for the blade running true when I set it at an angle.
- It has no pendulum cutting feature, so I'm a little concerned about how fast it'll be cutting oak.
D
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Planed and Thicknessed
After a little more setting up, I am now happy with the Woodster PT 85. So I ran some good wood through it. I have to say that I am impressed. I have pretty good results . I measured the thickness on both sides at both ends, and it is consistent. The scale on the Woodster is a little off, but I sort of expected that - I must actually figure out how much off for the future.
I ran a short board through and a longer one. No sniping and a nice finish. Though the longer board was a handful.
I think before I run any more long planks through I will invest in a roller stand.
Incidently the two tools on the short board
are Veritas Cornering Tool. I tried it out on a scrap peice of oak and the results were OK. But as there is no breaker, you must be careful to cut across the grain at the corner, if you cur under the grain, then it will lift the wood and ruin the corner. My Scrap peice of Oak was scrap due to a nasty knot. This mean the grain ran every which way. A lot of care was required to use the tool.
I think that I will try a Radius Plane and see if it's any easier to use.
I have a question, you can see the Oak board above has a lighter strip on the right hand side - is that sapwood. And if so, does that mean that I need to just use the darker wood. Bear in mind that I'm using this for the frame of a small sail boat. I'll post this question on a few forums and summaries the replies in another post.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Stepped Drill Bits
To join two bits of wood with a Bronze Screw requires a lot more work than you might think. Bronze screws will not go into oak without the proper pilot hole.
Ideally you want a pilot hole, an shank hole and a countersink hole, which all have to be concentric.
Since the screw is free to turn in the top piece of wood, the screws pull the second piece of wood tight to the first in a way nails just can't.
Not wanting to drill three holes per screw, I searched the 'net and found Fuller. They produce an array of drill bits and other accessories, but of primary interest to me was the stepped drills.
Combine these with a countersink and a drill stop and you can in theory drink your three holes in one fell swoop.
As none of their distributors had the particular drills in stock that I needed, they kindly shipped the drills directly to me. The drills arrived promptly, in little envelopes, with each one coated in a plastic that peels off easily to protect them from damage in the post.
It will be a while before I get to the stage of screwing things together. I have to cut the frames first, but rest assured that I will post the results here. I may even go overboard and cut a hole in half to show a photo of a hole with a screw inserted.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Setting up the Planer
In order to start cutting the frames, I needed to turn sawn oak into planed oak. Time to break out the Woodstar PT 85.
First I had to replace the power plug. Annoying but trivial. The PT 85 is small enough to put on a standard Black and Decker WorkMate and there are holes in the base of the machine to clamp it down. (Do set it up along the length of the bench to give yourself a longer base.)
Then I ran a scrap piece of Oak over the planer. Very nice except for the ends which suffered horrible sniping. The result for the middle of the board was excellent.
Time to break out the articles from old woodwork magazines about setting up a planer.
The Woodstar is really quite simple to set up for planing. There are two settings
The infeed table
This is set up by twisting a knob at the end of the table which moves it up or down. Moving back down is by means of a spring, which tends to catch and then slip. So to get any sort of accuracy, bring the table lower than you need, and then adjust it back up.
The Cutter Blades
These are held in place by four allen bolts perpendicular to the blades. The are adjusted by two more allen bolts which are parallel to the blades. Here, the manual is less than helpful. What you need to do is to loosen the allen bolts holding the blade, and then adjust the blades so that they are exactly level with the outfeed table. then tighten the bolts. This is fiddly and time consuming, and will probably require a number of iterations. And each time you sharpen the blades, you need to re-adjust them.
In order to align the blades, get a straight edge and run it from the out feed table over the blades. Each blade should just touch the straight edge as you rotate it. See the diagram opposite. You may find a little bit of trial and error is required here. Patience and small adjustments is the key.
Take Good Care
There is a push stick provided. Use it. In spite of the gaurd, and through my own foolishness, my push stick already has a nice little notch in it. Had that been my fingers, typing would now be somewhat difficult.
Unfortunately about now, it started to rain, and since my "workshop" is out of doors, that necessitated a quick cover and tidy.
Next time, I'll play with the thicknessor function. I plan to thickness all the peices for a given frame in one session so that they are all done with the same machine setting.
So far I'm happy with the Woodstar.
Incidently I bought this in McQuillans Tools in Blanchardstown shopping center. They don't appear to have a web site, so I can't provide a link. If anyone has a link, stick a comment in and I'll add the link here.
First I had to replace the power plug. Annoying but trivial. The PT 85 is small enough to put on a standard Black and Decker WorkMate and there are holes in the base of the machine to clamp it down. (Do set it up along the length of the bench to give yourself a longer base.)
Then I ran a scrap piece of Oak over the planer. Very nice except for the ends which suffered horrible sniping. The result for the middle of the board was excellent.
Time to break out the articles from old woodwork magazines about setting up a planer.
The Woodstar is really quite simple to set up for planing. There are two settings
The infeed table
This is set up by twisting a knob at the end of the table which moves it up or down. Moving back down is by means of a spring, which tends to catch and then slip. So to get any sort of accuracy, bring the table lower than you need, and then adjust it back up.
The Cutter Blades
These are held in place by four allen bolts perpendicular to the blades. The are adjusted by two more allen bolts which are parallel to the blades. Here, the manual is less than helpful. What you need to do is to loosen the allen bolts holding the blade, and then adjust the blades so that they are exactly level with the outfeed table. then tighten the bolts. This is fiddly and time consuming, and will probably require a number of iterations. And each time you sharpen the blades, you need to re-adjust them.
In order to align the blades, get a straight edge and run it from the out feed table over the blades. Each blade should just touch the straight edge as you rotate it. See the diagram opposite. You may find a little bit of trial and error is required here. Patience and small adjustments is the key.
Take Good Care
There is a push stick provided. Use it. In spite of the gaurd, and through my own foolishness, my push stick already has a nice little notch in it. Had that been my fingers, typing would now be somewhat difficult.
Unfortunately about now, it started to rain, and since my "workshop" is out of doors, that necessitated a quick cover and tidy.
Next time, I'll play with the thicknessor function. I plan to thickness all the peices for a given frame in one session so that they are all done with the same machine setting.
So far I'm happy with the Woodstar.
Incidently I bought this in McQuillans Tools in Blanchardstown shopping center. They don't appear to have a web site, so I can't provide a link. If anyone has a link, stick a comment in and I'll add the link here.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Power Tools
Some tools...
Planer Thicknesser
Since it's difficult to get planed oak here in Ireland. I am buying rough sawn planks. In order to plane and thicnkess these, I bought a Woodstar PT85 Planer / Thicknesser - Planer Thicknessers
It's still in it's box, but it looks like it will cope with the job, I'll update this as I start using it and let you know how it goes.
JigSaw
I have a Black and Decker 400 watt JigSaw, I am not sure how well this will cope with cutting 1 inch thick pine boards. I have my eye on a Bosch BCE 135, but we'll see how B&D copes first.
BandSaw
I cannot justify a band saw. And from what I have heard, I would probably be better off spending €200 on a good jigsaw rather than wasting €200 on a cheap band saw.
Planer Thicknesser
Since it's difficult to get planed oak here in Ireland. I am buying rough sawn planks. In order to plane and thicnkess these, I bought a Woodstar PT85 Planer / Thicknesser - Planer Thicknessers
It's still in it's box, but it looks like it will cope with the job, I'll update this as I start using it and let you know how it goes.
JigSaw
I have a Black and Decker 400 watt JigSaw, I am not sure how well this will cope with cutting 1 inch thick pine boards. I have my eye on a Bosch BCE 135, but we'll see how B&D copes first.
BandSaw
I cannot justify a band saw. And from what I have heard, I would probably be better off spending €200 on a good jigsaw rather than wasting €200 on a cheap band saw.
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