Vise installed

After the holidays I've finally gotten around to making headway on some projects. I'm gathering parts for an exciting project for later this winter, after the chair for the loggia. But everything depends upon getting the workbench finished.

I cut up a bit of ash countertop I had to make a new chop for the vise. Drilled 20mm holes for the threaded rods, and laminated the two pieces together up in the apartment.

The holes in the chop were made with a forstner, but to get the holes in the workbench face line up I chucked in this cheap 20mm spiral wood bit. That thing plus my 50m extension cord maxes this drill out, but it got the job done.

In situ. While I had power running down to the basement, I drilled a first holdfast hole. Sadly, the 1" hole was too small. I thought I'd checked this out with my calipers first! Anyhow, will need to plug that one with a bit of dowel in order to redrill it. Again, using forstners as that's what I have. My next size up is a 28.6mm, what is that, 1 1/8"? Will have to do.

New bench thoughts

I need a  new and proper bench for my workspace. The top could be sturdier and needs new work holding fixtures, and it must be angled to allow me to work in and out of the doorway without hitting my elbow on the doorframe. I will probably keep the twin screw face vise I made from ACME rod and machine handles, but some new ideas for the worktop are inspiring.

Roy's episode "viceless devices" showed some interesting solutions, and now I have seen some good ideas at WK fine tools. My new bench will likely include some of these ideas.

A wooden "moving fillister"

My selection of both bench and joinery planes has some massive holes that need filling, so I was glad to find this wooden "moving fillister" plane at my favorite flea market for 15 kr. It was clearly missing a bunch of parts, but for the price I could improvise replacements, especially considering what a Veritas or a 78 with all the trappings costs. Mr. Schwarz recommends wooden models over the Stanleys, so this seemed like a steal. But it truly is an odd duck with an adjustable mouth and a chipbreaker. And that wedge without corresponding shaping on the plane body?

An old jigsaw blade will make a fine nicker, and I have brass sheet to make a depth stop and fence with.

More problematic will be the screw cap, since the wedge the plane came with doesn't even belong to this plane. And the adjustable mouth and chipbreaker (and plastic handles)? It turns out this is a "Howal Universalhobel" from East Germany, designed and sold as eight planes in one. Huh. I wonder what happened to its scrubplane blade.

First impressions: Hultafors EDC chisel

While strolling through the hardware store the other day a new product caught my eye: The Hultafors EDC (every day carry chisel). The price was right, at about 100 kr, and I was lacking a 10mm chisel (about 3/8") so I figured it was worth a shot.

It comes in a smart holster, much like the traditional Swedish Mora knife popular with craftsmen. The coloful grips won it a design award aparently.

OK to hit it with a hammer!

As you can see, the blade is just basically stamped/forged out of 4mm sheet "Japanese carbon steel". Alarmingly, the back of the blade was coated with some sort of black paint as well as the top!

After some lapping it appears that I will be able to give it a good edge. I'll report later on its effectiveness.

For comparison with a traditional Mora knife and a "chisel knife" I found this summer. I like the fact that Hultafors is trying to sell the idea of a chisel as being a must-have tool to hang from the belt, alongside a Mora knife.

New bench appliances

An upcoming project is going to call for a lot of shooting board use, so I figured I should go ahead and make a proper one from the bench hook I've been using as a shooting board and some scrap.

Some thin plywood from a wine crate got laminated to the plywood base, and some piece of beech with predrilled holes from a forgotten piece of furniture do the trick.

This upcoming project also requires precision miters, so I scribed a line and chiseled a knifewall...

...and used a fence to aid in cutting, halfway on each side...

...and the finished piece can be used butted up against the fence.

While I was at it I made a small miter box to be used with the dozuki saw.

Inard CAD for Android

For the last few years I've been using the excellent Inard CAD program for Android on my phone and tablet. The app's ingenious and intuitive input system allows one to quickly create drawings of projects or spaces and share them either as printable pdf files or in formats that can be opened and modified in desktop CAD programs such as AutoCAD.

Here's an example, of a little nightstand project I have mocked up and will document in coming blog entries.

Day's haul

I had some time between a bank errand and an eye exam, so I stopped by my favorite flea market in town, and scored a few nice Swedish-made tools. I didn't need a pair of calipers, but these were pretty nice and only cost 30 kr. A good set of dividers has been on my must-have list for a while, and I scored these for 10 kr. Also 10 kr were the nail pliers from Eskilstuna. There's a nice little forged nail claw on one arm. 50 kr well spent!