Just a note

Just cannot keep a woodworker down..

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>Give him a saw and he will start cutting on wood. Glad you found a project.

Re: Just cannot keep a woodworker down..

Ron in Kokomo

>Oh I have projects.... I just do not have a shop. and I was sort of spoiled.. For example I built a pretty nice bench... years ago.. but I can't get it into my basement at my new home without dismantling it and taking off the tool tray. Oh well.... enough whining... I probably have gotten enough of a fever that I'll try to get my bench downstairs. I really can't handle too much more of rummaging around in big Rubbermaid crates looking for my moving fillitster plane :)

Ron

Re: Just cannot keep a woodworker down..

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Ron,

I'm not really aware of the changes in your life, and if I was I forgot them, but it is good to see your name on the boards again. what with your electron eaters in storage this is a PRIME time to see what you can do without them. Nothing like Nessesity being the mother of invention. gotta get yourself some type of a bench tho. dosen't need to be anything fancy, just a stable flat surface.

Todd O.

Good to see you... *LINK*

Steve Kubien

>...show your face around these parts again. Not sure what kind of bench you have/had but have you considered building a new one? Keep it really simple: no vises, wide apron, some holdfasts? Easy to build a new, temporary one with a plywood top and some laminated 2x-stuf for legs. Check out the one Chris Swingley's site (Some other good stuff to be had on the site as well).

Take care,

Steve Kubien


Christopher Swingley's site

Re: Just cannot keep a woodworker down..

Ron in Kokomo

>Todd

I have my old assembly table.. (Oak Library table) pretty flat and stable and I have my old Rou--r table---- minus rout-- that I use for sawing and chiseling. I could get these down in the basement. I am gonna figure out a way to get my bench down there soon. I really miss it!!

Got out and used my 45 and my Grove and Sons tenon saw last night

Got my face frame glued up and started carcase assembly. I have not used the tenon saw much because I have a matched set of Independence Saws ( drive by gloat) But the tenon I was cutting needed more length than my Independence saw would give me. so I got oot the Grove. Pete Taran sharpened it for me before he sold his saw business to Lie Nielson. What a sweet cutting saw!!! Gotta remember... let the saw do the work just glide it throught the cut. The 45 was used to cut the rabbet in a picture frame. OH BTW anybody know of a good plan for a hand tool made jewelry box???

Re: Good to see you...

Ron in Kokomo

>Thanks but I have a sweet bench that I made 6 or sebven years ago. Laminated beech and white oak top. It is a much better bench than I am craftsman. So, I just gotta figure out how to get it downstairs. I think all I have to do is remove the tool tray from the back.

Ship carpenter's cabin

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I always remind myself, when I start whining about my small shop, of the ship carpenter's cabin on one of the ships down in San Francisco (the Balclutha, for anyone who's headed that way). It's nearly big enough to swing a cat through 180 degrees if you keep your elbow in, but you'd still better be dressed in good armor, because that cat's going to be really mad from being bashed against everthing on the way around. And, operating out of this little space, the carpenter kept the ship from sinking, going rudderless, repairing it if it lost a mast, etc.

Re: Ship carpenter's cabin

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>But most of his work, he would have done out on deck, or down in the hold, or up in the rigging. Whatever he made, he had to fit it to the boat. For the most part, he could not just take a simple measurement or two, go back to the bench and make the part, and come back and install it. He would have spent most of his time running back and forth. This need to not run around sunk home several years ago, when I was taking a course at Penn's Landing. They were building a large wooden catboat. As soon as they got a bit of decking in place, they moved one of the bandsaws off the shop floor and into the middle of the boat, right where they were cutting and fitting pieces. That cabin was probably used mostly for tool storage and maintenance. Ron probably wouldn't be able to fit just his block planes into the carpenter's shop on the Kalmar Nyckel and still have space for the cat to nap.

Re: Ship carpenter's cabin

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Got to agree that the cabin would mostly been used for tool storage, and probably as living quarters for the ships carpenter.

Yreas back I read a book titled "Away All Boats". It was avout the mother ship of the troop carriers that took the combat troops to the beaches. There was a section where the Captain decided that he wanted a little sail boat, so he called the carpenter, showed him some plans from a magazine, asked him if he could build that, in which the carpenter said yes. The Captain then ordered the carpenter to do nothing else than to make his sailboat. That really stuck with me, and I decided right there that one should have a very portable tool chest. I haven't achieved just such a chest, but I'm working on it tho mostly in my mind. Anybody know of any good Shops Carpenters too chest websites?

Todd O.