I've been spending WAY too much time this past week cleaning and organizing the shop. Winter is coming and I need to wind the toy back up again. Should be able to keep it up for about a week or so!

Part of this cleaning is finally getting my DIY thickness sander painted, using Chestnut Green, of course!  Yes, this an old Delt radial arm saw re-purposed. I picked it up at the municipal dump, the motor was toast and I already repaired another radial arm saw that I picked up at the dump, so this was surplus.  Works great as a thickness sander!

 

After restoring the 1920's and the 1930's Bailey handplanes, I began to feel that my 198's Record handplane could us a little upgrade.  The handles never really felt comfortable or solid so I made some new ones from some White Oak that I had around.  I also repainted the metal body a deep red to go with the Oak.  That old Record blue was kind of meh...

 

 

 

After a lot of research on the current offerings of sanders, I decided that my new work horse sander would be the Bosch 1250DEVS.  However, the best price that I could find in Canada was $365.  The very same sander is being sold in the US at $230.  Go figure.  I have no idea how the difference in price is justified.

Anyway, as we are planning a week trip to Minneapolis between Christmas and New Year, I decided to pick one up while travelling.  However...I still needed a sander right away as both my main sander and the stand-by had packed it in.  So I picked up this Bosch ROS10, and for $79 its a great little sander.  Little vibration, easy to control, good dust collection via either the little filter or hook up to a shop-vac.  If you need an affordable sander, I have no hessitation in recommending this one, but go for the ROS20 variable speed if its your only sander.  Same unit, but variable speed.

 

I use my sander extensively in my work, and it works hard.  My trusty old Porter-Cable 7336 packed it in a couple of weeks ago and I had to rely upon a little Ryobi that I picked up a few years ago as a standby.  This Ryobi is not really up to the task of real shop work and it was not very precisein its handling.  But it worked just well enough to cover until I could replace my PC sander.

That is, until its bearings seized up!  Nothing quite like being dead in the water.

 

 

One of the two old planes that I've been cleaning and fixing was missing the screw that holds  the front of the handle.  Searching for a replacement, upon reccomendation, I came across this bit of history:

 http://www.tttg.org.au/Content/Stanley%20Planes%20and%20Screw%20Threads%20-%20Part%202.pdf

Its a fascinating read about the history of industrial machining standarization over the last 150 years.

Stanely, in all of their wisdom, chose to continue using an obsolete screw size/thread count combination for a good number of years.  Simply put, if you have on of these old planes and its missing the screw, you cannot just go to you local hardware store and buy a replacement.

Thanks to the connections that I have been able to make over the years using the internet, I received a replacement screw and the old plane is now complete and ready for action.

 

 

I canvassed the Huron last Friday, and as I was cleaning up my filler brush, I realized just how much use this old brush has had to do.  I thought that i looked pretty cool, so here it is!

 

After cleaning up the old Stanley 5 1/2, I felt inspired to turn my attentions to an even older 5 1/2C (C for corrugated bottom).  The 5 1/2C is the one in the forground of each photo.

So, some sanding, some stripping of old paint splatters, welding up a serious crack in the bed, and unbending a bent iron, the old plane looks pretty good!


 

 

I found this Baily 5 1/2 hand plane at a local old stuff store, got it for $8. I would have paid the $10 asking price but I felt like making a low offer. It is sitting beside my trusty block plane to show scale. Yes, it is pretty rusty and needs some good TLC!

Here is the same plane after this mornings ministrations. I expect to get a lot of use out of this old workhorse! Cleaned up real nice.

Wondering if I should do more...repaint the bed, sand and re-varnish the tote and horn...won't make it work better, just look "nicer". As it is it really has a "been there, done that." kind of look which has a certain value. I think that I'll leave it alone. Life is too short to get hung up and precious about these sorts of things. This plane has work to do!  

 

 

I thought that you might appreciate seeing some of the tools used during planking.

I have an old wooden container that I like to keep my tacks in. There is nothing special about it other than I like it.

Everyone who comes into the shop seems to find my hammer appealing. I started out using a small-medium weight basic hammer from the hardware store. You have to choose your hammer weight with care-too light and you can't drive in the tacks well, too heavy and you will exhaust your arm in no time. Plus a too heavy hammer is just overkill! Over time the handle wore out where it joined the hammer head. After living with loose head for too long (take that however you like!) I decided to replace the handle. Being left handed I decided to dedicate the handle to left hand use, so it fits the shape of my hand. I also was tired of the my hand sliding up too close to the hammer head, so I made a stop for my thumb. And, while I was making a nice handle, I decided to use curly maple.

My spiling marker is made from an old aluminum meter stick. For those of you in the US, its just like a yard stick, but is a meter long on the metric side. It folds nicely and you can still use it for measuring!

Even on a new build there are still occasions for removing tacks. Trust me. I have tried many tools but the best for me is a sidecutter with the sharp corners of the working end ground round. This allows the cutters to roll the tack out without crushing the cedar (much).

I started a new project. I've wanted a thickness sander for quite awhile, but could never justify the cost for the amount of use that I would put it to. So, that left the option of making it myself. There are quite a few plans around for these DIY machines, and I was set to make one. That is, until I found this old Delta radial arm saw at the dump last fall.

I figures that it had a solid column with a perfectly good raising and lowering mechanism. So I had a bar made to hold the pillow blocks which will support a 6" diameter steel drum. Abrasive paper will be wrapped around the drum. You can see the steel shaft which is a little long just now.

Still need to set up the motor, make the dust collection shroud, mount the drum, and make a proper table. But it's a great start!