02 July
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It’s entirely possible only other people who do woodwork in tiny, tiny sheds will understand the unbelievable awesomeness of what’s on my bench at the moment.

I even gave it a coat of BLO&turps since I have no idea when I’ll next see it that clear again.

Now I just need to tidy up down by its right front leg so I can stand in front of the end vice and I might be able to plane the sides of the bookshelf project without swearing too much…

Also, I need to have a rule in the shed that I will never ever ever ever again put a box or box-like container on the bench for just five minutes to hold one or two small things out of the way.… Read the rest

10 June
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In Finishing, Japanese Toolbox, Locker, Woodworking
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So first things first, take the clamps off and see if the hide glue cured…

Not too bad, lots of squeezeout in places but I can deal with that.

Well, bugger. I thought I had that better aligned than that and there’s no real way to fix it now. Feck.

Clean up the squeezeout and smooth the surfaces. Mostly the #04 with a few pieces done by card scraper. Not too bad.… Read the rest

17 January
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In Baby blanket chest, Woodworking, Workbench
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The rails were all prepped and squared last night so today at lunch I hobbled out to the shed and started grooving them with the #044.

First off, checking the position of the groove and the shadow lines (if we have any) with the long rails.

Line up the reference face of the rail with the stile and nick the corner with the marking knife at the edges of the groove on the stile. Then use the marking gauge to run those lines around three of the four edges and reinforcing the lines on the edge with the groove using the cutting gauge.… Read the rest

10 December
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In Side Table, Tools, Woodworking, Workbench
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Last few days have been the first really cold ones of the year. -2C to -3C in the shed. And work was… somewhat excessive in the last few days so tonight was the first time in the shed in a few days and a to-do list was waiting. So…

Ran a slightly larger drillbit through the aprons to give some flex room for the bolts, and flattened the top of the aprons (I also spent a half-hour before this with the scrub plane and #5 flattening the underneath of the tabletop and hand-cutting the panel to width to trim out the worst of the bandsaw wobble).… Read the rest

09 September
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So I’ve said once or twelve times that I needed to do something about this stuff in the shed:

The little air compressor proved useless for shellac and stuff so it’s moved indoors to the lab for future mucking about with airfix models with junior and the like. The dremel, well, that’s handy for stuff so it still lives there, but the grinder was just a pain in the fundament.… Read the rest

06 November
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In Shed, Sidecar Cot, Woodworking, Workbench
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Just not a very productive Sunday really. Checked my squares, found one is so not square that I threw away the crosspiece and I’ll use it as a straightedge from now on.

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Then got on with building the jig. Laid out the geometry (a 10.3″ radius curve gives a 12″ radius curve and 15 degrees of springback).

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Shop cat is somewhat critical of the layout…img_9829a img_9831a

Laminating MDF to make a drying form (which will have the 12″ radius and the walnut gets clamped to this for a week after it’s had a day or so on the bending jig to cool).… Read the rest

30 October
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Didn’t get the jig built. But did get the lawnmower and a lot of other annoying floorspace eaters cleared out to the garden storage box, so I’ve now gone from this:

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being under my feet to this:

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It’s a remarkable change 😀

Mind you, while getting that done other stuff had to be moved about so for a while, this was my bench…

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So not ideal. I finished breaking down almost all of the boards from friday (there’s still one 6’x6″ walnut board I haven’t cut yet) and stacking them and generally doing small bits of tidying away (like putting some mdf on the floor under the timber because that floor looks manky):

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So a little crowded again, but the dremel, the bench grinder and air compressor are all going up on french cleats on the wall or elsewhere in the shed, along with those clamps; and as to the wood, well, that’s three or four projects on the go so it’s not just sitting around taking up space, it’s raw materials.… Read the rest