New Sjoberg shop workbench

My wife and I visited an estate sale recently and picked up a new bench for the shop. It's an older Sjoberg but is in great shape. These are normally fairly expensive benches, enough that I can't afford one so I jumped on it given the price.

It has all of the basics I like in a bench, front and side vises, a good row of bench dog holes and a tool tray in the back. The only real complaint I have is that it's lighter than I would like, I can see it easily moving when planing on it. But, there are several ways we can remedy that over time. I suppose worst case we just bolt it to the floor right?

The other part that annoys me a bit is that all the dog holes are square instead of 3/4" round like my other benches. I realize these are popular in european style benches and from what I've read the more traditional sort of bench catch. In fact, if you watch any amount of Roy Underhill you'll notice all of his benches are built with the square style. It only came with 2 dogs as well but we can take care of that easily enough.

 A couple views of the front vise, I'm going to add some dog holes in it so it can be used to secure work pieces and other accessories. Not sure if I'll do that on the original front piece or make a new one. Keep them square or go round? Guess we'll see in a future post!

And the side one... I think it needs another dog hole or two as well. And again, hmm... Square or round?

Decent size tool tray in the back, plenty of room to store my stuff. There are many people out there that are REALLY against having a tool tray in their bench, they say it promotes being disorganized. Not me, I like it.

And some underneath storage that's just begging for drawers or cabinets. There's one little drawer under there in the middle but I think that one's going to go away for a couple down lower. I don't want to lose the clamping space where that drawer currently is.

Now we must remedy the dog situation... On the left is the original one (plastic), in the middle is a hardboard template I made from it and on the left is my shop made version. I had some spare 3/4" beech around which should be hard enough to not break under pressure. Trace the template on the stock then cut it out on the bandsaw. A little work on the orbital and belt sanders and it's good to go. Finish up by gluing a bit of leather to it to help hold the material against it.

Now I just need to make another dozen of them...

I think I'm going to add another row of dog holes in the rear near the tool tray, I'm debating if I should drill 3/4" round ones like my other benches or mortise out additional square ones to match what's already there. Drilling 3/4" holes is certainly the easier solution but the square style would match. Since I want to add another dog hole to the side vise I think I'll try adding a square mortised one there first just to see how it goes. If it doesn't work out that's easy enough to either drill out or just replace.

All in all it's a decent addition to the shop, I'm going to start using it for our upcoming projects so I can see what it's good (and not good) for. That'll probably also help guide where and how those new dog holes will be made.

Making a new kob for hand planes - Part 1

Most, if not all, of the vintage hand planes I pick up have front knobs that are in decent shape but from time to time, and for various reasons, there's a need to make a new one. The most common reason, as you can guess, is that it's either missing or broken and can't be repaired. Another reason, and the more usual one, is that the rear tote is either missing or broken beyond repair. I don't know about you but I am picky enough that I want the knob and tote to match on my planes, both the ones I use as well as the ones I sell. If you buy from me you'll get this as an option.

I am definitely not the first person to write on this subject and the article at timetetedtools.com was my starting point for turning my first knobs. The method there produces a bit of waste at the bottom of the knob and I was unable to get my drill press to center correctly on the ones I turned. That method also requires you to sand off the lathe mounting marks on the top rather than round over the top on the lathe. I modified the method into my own, that's what I'm going to describe here.

After reading how pens are made, I set off to develop a method to use a mandrel to turn the knobs. Nothing against the other method, I know the author successfully makes tons of knobs that way but I wanted to present an alternative method that required a little less finishing on the top of the knob. That and I wanted to present a method using a mandrel as an option. Those of you that make pens should have one around already.

My method will require a mandrel that allows the shaft to go all the way through the mandrel base, I purchased this one from Woodcraft and thus far it has served me well. I would imagine it cane be done with a mandrel where the shaft can't go through but I have not tested it.

One disclaimer before I start: I am very new to wood turning, in fact at this point I think I have been turning for maybe 3 months. One of the first "real" things I produced on my lathe were plane knobs and I might go so far as to say I purchased the lathe to make them. So bear with me where I might use incorrect lathe/tool terminology and might do something inefficiently. And by all means post comments with corrections, suggestions or ideas on how to improve the process.

Make a template

Before you start turning you're going to need a template to work from. The example used in here is a taller knob for a Stanley Bedrock 605 plane but the process remains the same regardless of plane. You will, of course, first need a knob to start with so beg, borrow or buy one to use as your source. In my case a regular Stanley Bailey no 5 tall knob is the same as a Bedrock 605 so I started with that.

I purchased a 5" copy gauge at Woodcraft to steal the profile from the existing knob for a whopping $10.99. Either visit one of their stores or purchase one online here. I would imagine there are other versions, perhaps even metal ones, of these out there but this one was sufficient for me.

I started to create the template profile by pushing the knob into the copy gauge half way in, to the center of the hole.

I used a scrap piece of 1/4" hardboard I had around and on the side of the copy gauge opposite the template knob trace the profile on the hardboard. Why the opposite side? Well, you need the mirror image of the knob to check against as you turn the new one. Cut the template on the band saw, or using a fret saw if you're the unplugged type then sand it smooth to the line. Every once in a while place the source knob in it as you're sanding to make sure you're getting the profile correct.

In hindsight I should have used a larger piece of hardboard but I'll make another later. I also cut a bit too far on the bottom so I had to mark where the bottom of the knob should start.

Remember to mark/label this template so you know what it's for later. As you make more you will amass a pile of templates and to be honest, they all look about the same.

Create a turning blank

Next up will be creating the blank you'll turn your knob from, in my case I needed a 2"x2" square that is 2 5/8" long. Your mileage may vary on your plane but the previous dimensions are for a Stanley tall knob for a no 4 and 5. Maybe one day I'll put up a page that lists the necessary blank sizes for each Stanley knob (yea, right). Or, if you'd like to help the cause, feel free to come up with all of those dimensions and send them to me to post here.

Pick whatever wood you like, the originals were a type of Rosewood called cocobolo which, while it can be obtained today, is thoroughly expensive. I heard that at one point Stanley had their own plantation in South America where they grew and harvested their own cocobolo from. When I'm in an extravagant mood I'll use that. Otherwise, any good rosewood will suffice and will be an almost identical replacement, I also have come to like walnut and even beech. They're both relatively low cost, turn nicely, finish well and have a great feel (and look) to them. The most important part of the selection is that it needs to be a hardwood, don't use pine or fir.

As mentioned before, I like the knob and tote to match and if you're in the same boat, remember to keep that in mind for cost. You'll need enough to make both the knob and the tote. Walnut is extremely cost effective for this as are some of the more common rosewood species, yuccatan comes to mind.

I started with 12/4 walnut from the lumbar yard and milled the material to 2" thick with my Dewalt thickness planer. Why 12/4 you ask? That provided just enough extra to mill both sides without wasting a ton of material. After that I ripped that into 2" wide pieces, each one was around 16" long from the piece I bought at the yard. After checking for square I set the miter gauge on my table saw to 2 5/8" and proceeded to cut out 4 blanks. Check for square again, at this point it really does matter before you proceed to the next step.


Using whatever tool you prefer, mark the center of each side of the top and bottom of the blank. I use my combo square as you can see in the image. I use a sharpie to mark with, especially on darker wood; pencil lines just aren't easily seen. Once marked punch a hole in the center using your favorite awl, this will be the starting point for the next step where you drill the holes. Punch the hole centered, it makes a difference later when you drill. At this point you have a basic blank, I take several of them to this point so they're ready to go whenever I need.

Drilling Holes

I experimented drilling the holes in all sorts of orders, before, after, in several stages and discovered that the simplest and most accurate method is drilling all of them first. This is also precisely why I went down the mandrel path to start with, drill everything centered first (like with pens) then attach it to the mandrel and turn.

With the other method you need to flip the knob over to the top side to drill the bottom hole which, in my case, was never centered. I know many of you out there won't care if it's not completely centered, I do. I'm sure it's not perfectly on center all the way through but it's dang close. And again, that method works great for some, not so much for me and in all things woodworking there are at least 236 ways of doing things.

Drill the top hole first using a forstner bit, this is the hole where the brass screw cap will go. I measured the depth of my sample knob and marked a dowel rod with it. As far as I know many Stanley brass caps are 7/16" which is what I used, check yours first. Drill a bit then check the depth against the dowel rod. Drill a bit more and check again. You get the point. The depth here needs to be fairly accurate since the top of the brass cap is of a certain length. You can adjust a bit later if you go too deep but if you're going to err on the side of caution on the top, go a little shallow, you can deepen it later if necessary.

I used a caliper to check both the base of the 605 Bedrock this knob would go on as well as the sample knob I was using, in both cases I came up with 5/8". Using the same method as above, use a forstner bit to drill out the bottom of the blank. I used the same method with the dowel rod to check the depth but it doesn't matter as much on the bottom, you won't see it. At this point you can test it on the plane to make sure it clears deep enough.

The last step is to turn the blank back over so the 5/8" hole is on the bottom of your drill press table. Load up a 9/32" drill bit and starting on the point left by the 7/16" forstner bit drill all the way through. This is where it's critical that you squared your drill press table against the chuck on all sides and it is critical that the blank you made was square on all sides. If either of those things weren't done correctly this hole will not go through the center. If for some reason it doesn't, flip over the blank and starting on the point left by the 5/8" forstner bit drill halfway through that way. I can guarantee you if you have done your due diligence to this point it will drill through point to point.

If you have a bolt and brass cap around you should be able to test out the fit through the hole at this point. This is also the point at which you could drill the 7/16" hole a bit deeper if necessary if the brass cap extends above the top a bit. The brass cap should fit snugly inside that hole but if not then
I'm guessing you have one either earlier or later than I do which I would love to hear about. This information would be great on that table of blank sizes mentioned earlier, whether or not the various types have the same diameter brass caps.

Mandrel Setup

Now that you have a blank all ready to go it's time to setup for turning. This is the point in which the mandrel method starts to show its advantages. However, it does have one downside here: you'll need bushings to secure it to the blank. With samples and caliper in hand I visited my local Woodcraft and tested every pen turning bushing set I could get my hands on. Not a single one was either 7/16" or 5/8" and I checked probably 50 bushing sets. Luckily I have this lathe thing at home in which I can make my own!

I tried the plastic "universal" bushings that essentially fit themselves into any size hole. I initially started making knobs using those and found several downsides. They take quite a bit of time to fit themselves, you'll spend hours compressing them into the holes until they hold the blank securely. They also need to be considered sacrificial so you'll need to replace them from time to time. I'm guessing you're like me and have lots of scrap material around that you can use to make your own. It honestly takes less time to make your own than it does to get the universal plastic ones to fit and hold correctly.

You'll need to make 2 bushings, a 7/16" one for the top and a 5/8" one for the bottom. I used scrap material I had around, some of them are walnut, others are maple and I think a few are beech. I turned the largest part first then with a parting tool turned the other bit down to the required size, constantly checking with my caliper. I took them to the exact measurements, 7/16" and 5/8", and counted on sanding to take a little off so they wouldn't be obscenely tight in the blank.

When they're all done attach them to the blank you made and slip the whole thing on the mandrel. Slide the mandrel shaft all the way down and tighten the nut on top. In the end here's what you have that will go into the lathe for turning:

At this point you're probably thinking "dang, this is a lot of prep work just so I can turn a knob" and you're pretty much correct: it is. Remember this the next time you think about complaining about the price you're paying for replacement knobs when you buy them.

Remember this though, making templates is a one time thing for each size knob and from what I can tell, the bushings can be used on many Stanley planes. The 7/16" and 5/8" sizes, from my testing, fit on many planes from no 3 to no 8. They're also simple to make if your plane differs, I'll post another article that shows you how to make a dozen of each size at a time. They should be considered sacrificial so make several of them.

Up to this point I have spent $36 on bits and pieces from Woodcraft. If you're willing to wait and search around you can probably find the copy gauge and mandrel at a lower cost than Woodcraft.

Now we're ready to move on to actually turning the knob which I'll post in part 2 of this series.
Why a part 2? I need to go out and take some pictures as I turn one.... More to come.

Harbor Freight 'Legends of the Air' wooden aircraft kits.

Well, 3 weeks of post-op recovery have yielded the Willow Springs 'Civil Air Patrol' squadron built from all 6 of the Harbor Freight kits. Now that I know how to build all of them I think I'll build more but this time paint and detail them.

I'll get around to a blog post of how they're built one of these days...

Work Sharp 3000 Intro

I recently added a Work Sharp 3000 to my sharpening kit so I thought I'd share my initial experiences with it. I've had it for a week or so and have run it through the paces enough to be able to speak to its strengths and weaknesses. I also picked up the wide blade attachment at the same time, I'll share my thoughts on that after I get more time with it.

First and foremost the kit comes with everything you need to get started out of the box, setup instructions were clear, easy to use and got me up and running in less than 10 minutes. After getting it spinning I watched the DVD that came with it and again they did a fairly decent job. It's good quality video (not an iPhone 2 on YouTube), gets to the point quickly and goes through all the basics of using it. I spent maybe 30 minutes of time on setup, configuration and watching the DVD and I was on to sharpening.

Setup

I applied my paper using their recommendations, wheel 1 has 100 and 400 grits on it, wheel 2 has 1000 and 3600 on it. The hardest part there is getting the backing off the paper, perhaps someone with fingernails would have a better time. It was actually a frustrating experience for me but I figured it out.

You then adjust the angle on the sharpening port you desire, in my first test 25 degrees and set the fence to the tool width. All in all, 60 seconds max. 

Finally attach the wheel with the desired grit pair, face the lowest grit side up so you can stet on flattening the face.

Getting to it

The first tool I sharpened was an old garage sale chisel, a 1/2" Craftsman one and even for my first one I went from dull old junk to scalpel sharp in less than 30 minutes. And that includes cleaning up the face as I sharpened. From 0 to a sharp tool took an hour, far less than my sandpaper/granite and diamond/wet
stones, like 1/4 of the time. And that was just my first one!

At that point I went and found any tool that I thought needed sharpening: chisels and plane irons. After spending another few hours with it on several other tools I got the entire procedure down to less than 10 minutes. And that's for a really old, beat up, early 20th century Stanley no 3 plane iron. By the end of the day I had sharpened around 10 tools, mostly chisels but 2 plane irons as well.

Nothing is perfect...

It comes with locations to screw the unit to a jig, bench or the like but I'm not sure how well that would work out. When you exceed the width of the sharpening port on the front you need to move to the top of the unit to sharpen. The problem there is if it is screwed to your bench you'd need to somehow stand sideways to it so you can get to the top correctly. As a result I don't have it screwed down however it doesn't move around while you're sharpening which I thought it would. I bet the shorter height and decent rubber feet allow that. So, at least for now, it's not getting permanently mounted anywhere.

The 2" width limitation on the sharpening port is annoying, I really wish it would go up to the largest plane iron widths. Being able to do a no 8 using the port would be immensely handy. But... It's not that bad to switch to the top, especially with the wide blade attachment.

5" Replacement discs

The Work Sharp 3000 uses common abrasives to sharpen, so common that I bought 5" orbital sanding discs from my local Menards and am using those now. You'll save some cash by using something like this instead of the Work Sharp brand abrasives. If you want the Worksharp brand coarse discs, they're not that bad either and are easily obtained from Amazon. You'll also get a larger selection of grits, basically whatever you can find. All you'll need to do is cut a hole in the center of the disc if it doesn't have one already so keep a sharp X-Acto hobby knife in your sharpening station. I put this as a con, the usage of abrasives that is, since over time this is what's going to pull money from your wallet. The real question is how long that period is before you're at the price of a Tormek. For me that's several years which I'm ok with.

Along the same vein are the micro-mesh abrasives they use at the higher grits, 3600 and 6000. I have been unable to find a suitable replacement disc at a lower cost than the Work Sharp brand replacement honing kit. I used up the 3600 one that came with my original set, though that was from a mistake in my initial sharpening technique. No matter, how it happened aside, replacement mico-mesh abrasives will run you around $14 for a new pack. And that's for just 2 discs in the kit, a 3600 and a 6000. On the flip side under normal conditions these should wear down slowly since they're just for honing.

I love their heat sink idea on the bottom of the sharpening port but in reality there are times you'll need to dunk the tool in water (or other) to keep it cool. This is highly dependent on how hard and for how long you push the tool into the port, I found that 1-2 medium pressure pushes keeps overheating to a minimum. Remember this is sandpaper spinning at high speed against steel, the stuff gets hot so keep a glass of water at your sharpening station.

Not tested

There are still a couple bits I have not tested but hope to at some point. The first thing is the "see what you're doing" sharpening setup, I haven't tried it out yet. This is the rig that allows you to see through the top of the system at the tool as it's sharpened. It's supposed to allow you to readjust the tool on the fly as you follow the sharpening.

Second, I have not wear tested it over a period of time. I've had it a short while so only time will tell. If it stops working tomorrow I'll let you know.

In closing: go get one!

For the price tag of $199 I must say, I have absolutely NO idea why I didn't buy one of these sooner. It worked out of the box, was super quick to setup and learn and for what it really does: make any tool razor (if not scalpel) sharp. Here's a link to get one for yourself on Amazon. While you're at it, pick up the wide blade attachment as well.

I have yet to find a tool that you truly can't sharpen on it. Gouges can be done on the top though it's probably not the best tool for sharpening these, that's what a Wolverine jig is for. And on that note, I'm off to the shop to build a mounting jig for my Wolverine...

Happy (sharp) shavings!

Wooden tool cleaning

Some of my first hand tools were planes, block and bench planes and all were made of metal. Many of the garage and estate sales I frequented had wooden planes and either my wife or I purchased a couple. After joining the Unplugged Woodworkers group on Facebook and seeing the plethora of wooden wonders other people were using I decided to up my game.

I am fairly well versed in metal plane restoration, from both the more minimalist preservation method to the full-blown, ground up, make the plane like new technique. Once I started using wooden planes, AKA "woodies", I realized my metal plane process wasn't going to work so I started looking around and asking what others do. My approach here is absolutely a more minimalist one, the goal is to clean off things like dirt, paint, glue, oil, tar and all of the other types of gunk an old woodie has gathered over a century while maintaining as much of the patina as possible.

There are many commercial cleaning products around but I wanted something a bit more natural and far less caustic than the options at the store. After much research, debate and testing I came up with two basic recipes for cleaning up woodies. But, before diving into details, a couple quick notes. I am not going to dig into the complete plane restoration process, that's for another article, the purpose here is to present options for cleaning the wood itself. It should also be noted that these recipes and techniques can be used for cleaning nearly any old wood, furniture, etc, not just hand planes.

The Recipes

The first recipe came from a gentleman, Bob Page, and consists of equal parts Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO), Pure Pine Turpentine (PPT) and Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). After searching the 'Net for this mix I discovered similar recipes here and here. The former link is dated 1988 and calls it his "magic formula". Bob had mentioned that he learned it from someone else and that it is a very old recipe for cleaning furniture, this small finding seems to back that up. From here on out I'm going to call this one "Bob's Magic Formula" which pays homage to the original recipe and gives kudos to Bob for introducing me to it. And since I'm in IT and LOVE acronyms, it's BMF.

The second recipe came from another gentleman, Jim Hendricks, in England and consists of equal parts Raw Linseed Oil (RLO) and Pure Pine Turpentine (PPT). His recommendation was to mix that up and use a cotton rag wrapped around cotton balls to wipe the tool with. Well, there were many other instructions provided so I've translated his supply list from English English to American English. :-) We're going to call this one "Jim's Woodie Cleaner", or JWC.

I tested both recipes and modified them a bit to what I think works the "best", here are the results.

BMF (Bob's Magic Formula) 

BMF after mixing

Stanley no 31 before cleaning

Here's the mark for testing this mix: a Stanley no 31 transitional plane that has most of the gunk elements I mentioned earlier: dirt, oil, tar and some paint. It was very, very dirty when I started out as you can see in the picture to the left. Mix equal parts of BLO, PPT and ACV in a quart
canning jar (or similar) and shake vigorously. To the right is an image of what it will look like after mixing. The ingredients separate quickly so you will need to shake the jar periodically as you use it. I started the cleaning process using just a cloth rag but that didn't take off enough of the dirt as I wanted. Yes, the goal was minimalist, but at the same time I wanted to remove enough of the grime that it actually looked cleaner. I switched to 0000 steel wool and ultimately found a 3M Scotch-Brite pad to be the ideal cleaning tool.

For the stubborn dug in dirt and grime like this one had, don't be afraid to scrub, just pay attention to leave as much of the patina as you'd like for the tool at hand. After cleaning for a bit use another cotton rag to clean the liquid and dirt off the tool. Alternate between scrubbing and cleaning until you've reached the state you want. Continue until you think you're done at which point give the tool one final wipe with a dry cotton rag then coat the whole thing in BLO and let that soak in. The wood on the old tools is usually dry, sometimes extremely, and will soak up the BLO. Keep applying BLO until the wood just won't soak in any more, many times this will take several days. This step is critically important for your tool to survive another 100 years, the BLO prevents additional shrinkage of the wood which is the leading cause of cracking and ultimately breaking and failure. Once that's done wipe on a coat of wax, I prefer Renaissance Wax but any other paste wax should work as well.

And the final result of this method:

Before cleaning

After cleaning

Overall the recipe extremely well as you can see, the one con is that you won't be able to do the work in batches due to the boiled linseed oil drying. Once the BLO in the mix has dried any remaining dirt will be trapped underneath it. So, if you do a bunch of cleaning and let it sit overnight to come back to it, you're done.

JWC (Jim's Woodie Cleaner)

This recipe starts out with equal parts of RLO and PPT mixed the same way as the previous one in a canning jar. Why the raw linseed oil instead of boiled? Well, remember the primary con I mentioned above in that the BLO dries and essentially gives you one shot at cleaning? Raw removes that limitation, it takes significantly longer to dry (if ever).

For this test I used a really old clamp from a garage sale, I didn't have another wooden plane handy so this will have to work as a stand in. As you can see in the image to the right, this particular clamp was fairly filthy, it had to be at least 50 years worth of dirt on it. Add to that some cracks and non-functioning screws.

I used the 3M Scotch-Brite pad as before and went to town on it, in order to get most of the grime off I had to scrub pretty good and constantly shift between a wipe-down rag and the scrubbing pad. This one took long enough that I had to make another batch of the mix to continue. So, when I did that I decided to experiment and basically take the previous recipe of BLO-PPT-ACV and turn this into RLO-PPT-ACV, or a hybrid of the two. This made a quite noticeable difference in the quality of the cleaning the mix did, I would say it was twice as effective. I continued cleaning until I reached the state in the picture on the right at which point I started the final BLO soak/wipe process for what turned out to be all day Sunday. Last thing was a coat or Renaissance wax, final results below.

Final results of the modified JWC mix

The only real con to this recipe, either in the original or modified mix is the fact that it uses raw linseed oil. This proved difficult for me to source locally, I eventually ended up buying it from Amazon.

Conclusions

Overall I ended up preferring the modified JWC mix of equal parts RLO-PPT-ACV, it cleaned the fastest and provided the best final result. Not only that it allows you to work in stages on really dirty items, do some and come back later. That alone puts it over the edge as the winner in my mind.

Now that it's a hybrid of the two recipes I need a new name for it, at the moment it's "Woodie Cleaner #3", suggestions welcome.

And a special callout to the Unplugged Woodworkers members that provided assistance in this endeavor, I hope that I captured all that I learned from you here so others can benefit from it.

About me

Hello and welcome to my new woodworking blog!

Since this is my first post here I thought I would start out with some background about me and maybe a bit about what's to be in this blog. At some point most of this might end up in the "about me" thing but I thought it would be appropriate as a first post. So, let's get on to it...

I grew up in a very rural small town Ohio outside Dayton, we had a KMart and a McDonalds, a couple pizza joints, a couple drive-thru's, maybe 2 gas stations, several bars and perhaps 2 dozen churches. My high school graduating class was small at 85 people and about the only thing I wanted to do after high school was get out of that small town.

My father was (and is) in computers so I was exposed to them at a very early age, and by early I mean punch cards that led to 8" floppies, CP/M and early UNIX. My mom grew up on my great grandparents farm, grandpa ran a greenhouse and sold fresh fruits & veggies to local markets and right out of his barn. This was of course "organic" but it wasn't called that then, it just was. As a result I have one foot firmly planted (hah) in the old ways of farming and the other stuck right in technology. I'm glad I had both, I am still quite fond of the smell of manure but also love the smell of a freshly printed circuit board and solder.

Neither of my parents were woodworkers, my first hammer came from my great grandfather and he's probably the one that got me started pounding nails. I still have that hammer, when I find it I need to build a shadow box to put it in for safer keeping. The first woodworking experience that I can actually remember was building forts with my brother and friends out of wood we found laying around, they weren't great by any means but they stopped the bullets when we had "wars"!

I started playing guitar around 13 which is what led to my first "real" woodworking experience. I had a Strat like guitar and being the 80's I HAD to have a humbucker in it. Two would have been better, but one was (and still is) the minimum to rock with. I remember mom taking me to Sears where I bought a Craftsman router, that was still the time when Sears was THE place to go. I of course had no idea how to use the router, so I threw good sense to the wind and proceeded to route a hole for that 'bucker.

Well, it's a good thing it wasn't a real Strat 'cause I messed it up pretty good. I traded something for another body, managed to figure out how to make a template from another Strat at a music store and routed the next one. I don't remember how I figured that part out, we certainly had no Internet then, I must have gone to one of those "library" things and read one of those "books"? But son of a ... It actually worked! I took all of that electronics theory my dad somehow passed into my brain and soldered in the new pickup. Rock on.

Fast forward a few years, after no woodworking, to where I bought my first house, I don't know the style the house was, but I do know it was built in 1918. You know what a 2x4 was in 1918? An ACTUAL 2"x4" piece of wood! Not this 3 1/2" x 1 1/2" stuff we have today, but 2"x4". Oh.. And not only that, after sitting around for 80 years they're a real bear to get a nail into. At that point I set up shop in the basement, jumped head first into woodworking, and started to fix that old house up. I started out with lower end tools in that shop, a Delta bench saw, benchtop drill press, a small bandsaw and a really cheap miter saw. Despite all being lower end gear I did some decent work but this was around 2000 when Internet based shopping started becoming "the thing". I was soon exposed to stores like Rockler, Penn State and Lee Valley which taught me what decent tools actually were.

Unfortunately I lost pretty much that entire shop to unemployment, divorce, foreclosure and bankruptcy, everything except for the Delta bench saw and the drill press. This set of circumstances and setbacks forced me into a long woodworking vacation. Eventually I landed a really good job, met a new girl, got remarried, had a beautiful daughter and started a now defunct business. None of which were conducive to a hobby, especially woodworking. A decade went by and eventually the bills were paid down, the daughter grew up and we were able to buy a house. No sooner than we moved in and I got the itch: I had to make shavings and dust... I invaded the 2.5 car garage and started shopping for tools.

The first order of business was a decent miter (chop) saw and having learned a thing or two perviously, I bought a decent DeWalt. I dug out the old Delta bench saw and drill press and built stands for both of them. The next order of business was another shop necessity, a workbench. It's sort of a catch 22 though isn't it? You really need a workbench to build one right? I turned some 1x10's into saw horses, 2x4's on top with some plywood and badda-bing: temporary workbench! I must say, the one I built isn't the greatest workbench but it works. You know I said it would be "temporary" until I built another one right? And you know what happens with the word "temporary"? Yep, it's been in the shop nearly 3 years now. I should have known better, really, I've learned there's no such thing as temporary in a shop.

As you follow this blog in the future you'll hear me say one thing over and over about tool purchases, buy the best you can afford but don't overbuy, do it based on your skill level. At the time I started woodworking in the 90's, that Delta bench saw was at my skill level. It probably cost under $100 back then and I was able to turn out some decent projects with it. When I began setting up my current shop I started with that now 17 year old Delta bench saw but I quickly outgrew it.

In June of 2014 I was cutting dados for a plywood cabinet that would go under the drill press and all of them were chipping out. I had a decent dado set (Craftsman) but not matter what I did they'd chip out. When I first bought that saw I didn't cut rabbets or dados much and when I did I was probably ok with a bit of chip out. I've gotten pickier and more demanding as I've grown older, I want things to look good now, not just be functional. I was getting better at cutting dados so it comes down to this: my skill level had outgrown the tool. After searching the Internet and reading reviews, I settled in on a Craftsman 10" contractors saw, model # 21833. It met my general rule: the best tool for what I could afford and not above my skill level. I'd probably love a Powermatic cabinet saw but let's face it, I'm not good enough to warrant a $2-4k table saw. I might be in 5 years, I guess we'll see. I have been using the Craftsman saw for a year now, I love it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable quality table saw.

About the only thing left to mention is that woodworking is still a hobby for me, my day gig is for the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business in the IT department. I started there in 2003 as a UNIX sysadmin, was promoted to System Architect in 2007 and have just recently taken over the CTO role for the school. I have been a professional computer hacker/geek for around 25 years now and given the number of hours I've put in, by all other tradecraft measures, I would be considered a "master". But have I mastered the craft? I generally think so.

Well, that's it for this post and I hope you've learned a little something about me. With this out of the way I can move on to REAL posts about woodworking.

Peace, love and sawdust!