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epswing posted:I’ve gotten the sense from this thread that planes are worthless unless they’re older than my grandfather and can only be found at garage sales and estate auctions. As someone who knows nothing about planes, why is that? It's because there was something of a dark ages for tools. Post WWII, people came home and suddenly woodworking was a hobby, tools were marketed and built towards that end. Instead of handplanes (and related) being built for professionals, they were built for the far larger market of hobbyists. Power tools like the Shopsmith became popular, things got cheaper, castings were worse, steels were worse, etc. Eventually (1990's, I think) companies like Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley/Veritas popped up and started making new and far improved versions of the old pre-war tools. Some time after that, overseas manufacturers popped up and made knockoffs of modern high end tools (as well as many companies still pumping out garbage). Now the split is restoring good quality pre-war (or a bit after) hand tools, or buying modern versions from Lie Nielsen or Veritas (or the overseas companies like Woodriver).
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Apr 4, 2021 01:35
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epswing posted:I’ve gotten the sense from this thread that planes are worthless unless they’re older than my grandfather and can only be found at garage sales and estate auctions. As someone who knows nothing about planes, why is that? Cheap metal, poo poo quality control so that nothing is flat or square to anything else.
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Apr 4, 2021 01:38
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I love my veritas low angle jack and am thinking about adding a bevel up smoother or small bevel up smoother but do not really know which one to get. Also maybe a jointer plane with a fence, but that's just a maybe, idk, maybe I'll just get a fence for the jack, or do nothing
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Apr 4, 2021 02:46
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I've got the bevel-up smoother and it's incredible. The little 'low angle smooth' is great, but it's worth getting the big bevel-up. Blade is the same size as the jack too, so you can swap blades between the two if you ever need to (you won't, but it's still cool).
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Apr 4, 2021 03:01
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For me, restoring an antique plane is about these factors:
I could afford to replace all my antique planes with brand new ones of equal or even better quality, but the above factors all play into it. I'm sure it's not for everyone, and it probably sucks away time that I could have spent actually making something out of wood, but gently caress it, it's not like anyone's measuring my "productivity" besides me. Someday I'll be dead and hopefully most of the things I made will still be around, but these tools will be too, and I hope most of both give someone else some satisfaction to own.
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Apr 4, 2021 03:30
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NomNomNom posted:Goons! Should I poly the top of this end table or just leave it as oil with some wax. My vote is oil and wax. If it’s a pain to maintain, you can always remove the wax and do a film finish later on. I’d also support lacquer over poly, but poly has its advantages too. E: handplane chat: my favorite tools I own are my half set of hollows and rounds made by Varvill in Norwich in the late 1800s and proudly stamped by their owner D. CALEY. Old tools are cool Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 03:58
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I am super novice but I went for Japanese woodworking stuff specifically because I like the calm and the feeling of connection I get from stuff like filing down the high spots in a block plane. There's something really cool about knowing whatever busted up piece of wood and steel is potentially very useful with a little work. Can't say this doesn't annoy me though 
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Apr 4, 2021 04:30
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epswing posted:I’ve gotten the sense from this thread that planes are worthless unless they’re older than my grandfather and can only be found at garage sales and estate auctions. As someone who knows nothing about planes, why is that? That's when it comes to the modern stanleys and others in that price range. New modern planes that are good are made, Veritas and Nielsen for example. The new stanleys and other stuff produced in india and china are the junkers that you avoid, generally anything found in a hardware store is gonna be junk.
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Apr 4, 2021 06:07
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Also from last night, what happens when you take sawdust and throw it in the fire https://i.imgur.com/0vTR0MA.mp4
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Apr 4, 2021 06:11
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Tfw you bought the wrong crucifom plates and now you don't have that sweet easy +2mm up/down adjustment and instead have to unscrew everything and lump it manually.
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Apr 4, 2021 13:35
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His Divine Shadow posted:Also from last night, what happens when you take sawdust and throw it in the fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chfbRFJbuGQ  It's surprisingly amusing
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Apr 4, 2021 13:55
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Bloody posted:I love my veritas low angle jack and am thinking about adding a bevel up smoother or small bevel up smoother but do not really know which one to get. Also maybe a jointer plane with a fence, but that's just a maybe, idk, maybe I'll just get a fence for the jack, or do nothing The Small Bevel Up Smoother is one of the best planes ever produced by anyone imo. Smaller no3 sized planes have a much easier time getting "into" a trouble spot than big 4-1/2 sized planes. Remember a smoother's job is to make it smooth, not to make it perfectly flat. A smaller smoother, esp bevel up, will also let you work with a higher angle of attack without wearing yourself out. I have the veritas fence that attaches via magnets. It is "ok" but requires you to have your blade perfectly square to the fence which can be a bit fiddly. If you are able to get a board edge straight and just need help getting it square to the face then an edge trimming plane is supposedly the ticket according to Schwarz, Fitzpatrick, etc. But I dont have personal experience with one, I do plan on buying one however. I'm with folks to a point re:old planes and some of my favs are an old V&B drop forged jack plane and a Stanley Transitional fore plane even if they aren't as objectively good as modern premium planes. BUT: the covid hobby-pocalypse has really distorted the used market for hand tools and finding "$20-$30" good restorable planes is much much harder than it was a year ago (and that was much much harder than it was in the 00's). The value prop is definitely shifting. GEMorris fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 14:52
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I need more clamps, I have a cheap set of spring clamps from one of the box stores. I would like to be able to clamp some bigger pieces down, so I am thinking 6" to 12" inches. Do I just buy a a couple of cheapest bar clamps I can find online? Is there some super value brand out there?
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Apr 4, 2021 17:35
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I seem to pick up a bessey bar clamp or two most times that I'm at the store. If cost is a concern definitely check Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Clamps haven't changed much in the past hundred or so years and many of the older ones are straight up better
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Apr 4, 2021 17:43
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Maybe a few pipe clamp kits and then whatever length(s) of pipe you need to accomplish the job?
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Apr 4, 2021 17:55
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Harbor Freight. While they sell a lot of crappy tools (and some surprisingly good ones), they're cheap. I've found their clamps to be excellent, both in selection and price.
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Apr 4, 2021 17:57
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Calidus posted:I need more clamps
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Apr 4, 2021 18:26
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F-clamps: for 12" ones Home Depot often has a Bessey 4 pack that is at or near the price of HF, otherwise HF is a good budget option here especially for 18-24" ones. Pipe clamps: HF has these but the Bessey's are absolutely worth the premium imo Aluminum Bar Clamps: Dubuque is the gold standard here, but the HF ones are cheap and work pretty good, especially if you reinforce them like Paul Sellers advises. Parallel Bar Clamps: No good cheap options, and expensive. Pick them up as you can/must but of you are on a budget pipe clamps (especially the Bessey's) will be a reasonable substitute most of the time. Wood screw clamps: Again Dubuque is the gold standard but HFs are perfectly functional. Can be repurposed for a lot of workholding tasks, not just clamping glue ups. Start with 2 of 4", 6", 8" and see what is most useful to you.
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Apr 4, 2021 18:27
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I have a few HF wood screw clamps and they're really handy for just about everything. Stick them on the bottom of a leg of something so you can work it standing up, among other things. I don't use them much for clamping though. Their ratcheting and their quick-release clamps kinda suck (if you aren't careful it's really easy to bend them), but their aluminum bar clamps are totally fine even when you get up to 36". Past that I think I'd be a bit suspicious though. I have a couple HF corner clamps too. They're not as good as Rockler's corner clamp jig but they cost $10 and each Rockler set cost $40 so you take what you can get. tracecomplete fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Apr 4, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 19:12
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The bessey 4 pack at home depot is a phenomenal value. The 6 and 12 inch are just so useful. The bessey parallel clamps are great too, I use my 24 in ones all the time. Here's a finished shot of my two end tables. 
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Apr 4, 2021 21:34
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The taper on those legs is really satisfying.
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Apr 4, 2021 21:39
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Oh also for F clamps there are two main types, the clutched type are more common and are excellent for 6"-18" The non clutched heavier duty kind come with a deeper throat and are good from 12"-24" lengths. These can put down a lot more force due to their construction and clamp screw being much heavier duty. Above 24" I'd switch to Pipe, Parallel Bar, or aluminum bar.
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Apr 4, 2021 21:54
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On round 15 or so of helping clean out my mom's garage I finally cleared off this old cabinet, and it turns out the awkward piece of equipment mounted to it is a jointer. Mom says dad used it quite a bit back in the day, and it started up just fine for the few seconds I ran it. It's only a 20" long, ~4" wide bed so not the biggest, but it's this worth tuning up and using? I couldn't find any brand info on it. 
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Apr 5, 2021 01:41
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I have no insight into jointers generally but that thing looks terrifying.
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Apr 5, 2021 04:50
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oXDemosthenesXo posted:On round 15 or so of helping clean out my mom's garage I finally cleared off this old cabinet, and it turns out the awkward piece of equipment mounted to it is a jointer. How do the blades on it look? Some jointers have more easily replaceable blades than others.
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Apr 5, 2021 12:57
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Hello thread, I built a stepstool for my toddler, fairly improv-style, it's very simple but I'm proud of how it turned out    As you can see, I don't have a very fancy setup, just some hand tools and a chair (drill is my only power tool). I also really need to get my handsaw sharpened Anyway, e: just as I posted this KS gave more info on paint in the other thread alnilam fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 16:10
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This is awesome, and more importantly I love your "clap poo poo to a chair" work bench
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Apr 5, 2021 16:32
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I also would like a good answer to #1. I've done a combo of trying to saw half a blade width, sanding, using a file, and running it over my dad's grinder. All have their drawbacks. Yeah, I've used regular latex and polycrylic (NOT polyurethane). It's a bit of a pain getting a lot of coats and making sure it doesn't run, but it feels like a fairly sturdy finish.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:37
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Check and mark where the high spot is, clamp a waste piece behind it to prevent blow outs, and plane it down. Keep checking and repeat until sufficiently flat. Planing pine endgrain ain't the most fun, but with a shallow setting and a sharp iron shouldn't be too much of a problem.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:47
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alnilam posted:Hello thread, I built a stepstool for my toddler, fairly improv-style, it's very simple but I'm proud of how it turned out I'd scribe all 4 legs (on a flat surface) at the bottom with a pencil, eyeball which one is the offender, and use that coping saw. Table saw is a nope unless you can disassemble it. Also before painting, I'd round those corners a bit more because toddlers. Painting typically you want to use a primer, then sand that. You could just use your paint as a primer if it's a budget thing. Interior latex trim paint is fine, and it toughens up pretty well. Idk if I'd even bother with polyurethane. Check with the paint store whether that and poly play nicely together. I forget which one doesn't go on the other. oXDemosthenesXo posted:On round 15 or so of helping clean out my mom's garage I finally cleared off this old cabinet, and it turns out the awkward piece of equipment mounted to it is a jointer. My first jointer was similar to that, and that screw-lock handle is a pita. It was a 2-tool combo iirc, maybe attached to a table saw.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:57
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alnilam posted:Hello thread, I built a stepstool for my toddler, fairly improv-style, it's very simple but I'm proud of how it turned out The right solution is what Just Winging It posted. The easiest solution to wobbly things is those self-adhesive felt/plastic pads. They make thick ones and thin ones and the thick ones you can cut down thinner with a razor if you need to. Not as great on carpet, but good on hardwood/tile.
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Apr 5, 2021 16:59
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Rutibex posted:How do the blades on it look? Some jointers have more easily replaceable blades than others. I didn't think to check that when I had access to it but I look into next time I do. Can they typically be hand sharpened or are the dimensional accuracy requirements too high?
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Apr 5, 2021 17:20
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The felt pad solution is also good because as soon as you satisfy your woodworker perfectionist brain and have all four legs perfectly coplanar and flat with no wobble on your reference surface you bring it into the house and set it on your floor and it's a loving seesaw, because there is no such thing as a flat surface in a house.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:28
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oXDemosthenesXo posted:I didn't think to check that when I had access to it but I look into next time I do. They can be honed lightly by hand with stones/diamond files, but if they need grinding send them to a sharpening service. Or buy new ones that will likely be better steel anyway. It's a cool little jointer. I imagine you could mount the motor underneath it for a much smaller footprint.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:28
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Rather than felt I was hoping to use something non-slip on the feet, like soft plastic or rubber pads, since she will be standing on it and leaning against e.g. the sink and I don't want it to slip back on her. But regardless those should still be able to be trimmed by razor blade to even it out. Maybe I will try that before I spend ages with a coping saw or a plane trying to get it perfect 
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Apr 5, 2021 17:35
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alnilam posted:Rather than felt I was hoping to use something non-slip on the feet, like soft plastic or rubber pads, since she will be standing on it and leaning against e.g. the sink and I don't want it to slip back on her. But regardless those should still be able to be trimmed by razor blade to even it out. I made a few stepstools a while back and used this on the feet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SL0KJM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They have enough cush to them that unless your wobble is crazy, it'll probably just disappear entirely when you stand on it.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:39
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:They can be honed lightly by hand with stones/diamond files, but if they need grinding send them to a sharpening service. Or buy new ones that will likely be better steel anyway. It's a cool little jointer. I imagine you could mount the motor underneath it for a much smaller footprint. Good to know about the blade sharpening. I was thinking about the motor relocation as well but the cabinet underneath is useful storage. First I have to figure out if I can shoehorn it into my tiny shop space at all though.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:45
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alnilam posted:
I am a fan of sandpaper taped/glued to a flat surface and sanding the legs till the wobble is gone. Just make sure to only hit the high legs till its even with the short before a few more passes or you end up with a slanted stool.
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Apr 5, 2021 18:14
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Is there anything specifically wrong with making a screen door out of 2x material if I can’t find something a bit thinner?
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Apr 5, 2021 19:14
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KKKLIP ART posted:Is there anything specifically wrong with making a screen door out of 2x material if I can’t find something a bit thinner? As long as it has the aesthetics you want and fits in the space you have, I can't think of any issues.
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Apr 5, 2021 19:43
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