Workshop storage

While I was away in Holland I bought a large tool cabinet on E Bay which I picked up yesterday. Even though I had the measurements it still surprised me how big it was in real life. These are the cabinets used in car workshops and I was surprised to learn that each mechanic had to buy their own. The young man who sold it to me was emigrating to Australia and it was obviously his pride and joy, it wasn't cheap but it was a third of the new price.

I was fed up of having my tools spread out all over the workshop, in shelves, boxes, drawers, cupboards etc. This tool box is big enough to hold everything in one place with each drawer labelled with its contents. As I started to fill the cabinet it became obvious how useful this was going to be, I should have done this years ago!

Netherlands

At last something woody! This guitar shop was in the capitol of Zeeland, Middleberg.
The shop declared itself as having hand made and antique guitars and they must have been worth a fair bit as I was followed closely around. I don't know too much about musical instruments but I did see some incredibly fine grained spruce it these guitars.

The shop assistant didn't seem to keen on me taking photos see that's all I could manage before being ushered out!

No trip to Holland would be complete without a shot of one of these. There were surprisingly few around especially considering the force of the wind off the North Sea, in fact there seem to be far more giant wind turbines, a sign of the times.

This country is very clean indeed and I've never seen so many perfectly clipped hedges and neat gardens. The style of the houses is also distinctive and even the newer ones were sympathetic in style, take note England.

Many of the houses are very small although they seem to give the impression of being larger, maybe it's the large windows and bold roof lines. The older villages had a church at the centre, again immaculately tended, with a circle of old cottages and shops going right round, very picturesque.
We'll be back in the UK tomorrow, it's been a great break but I'm looking forward to seeing my workshop again, England isn't all bad!

Cycling Holiday in the Netherlands

On Friday we drove through the channel tunnel and on to the Netherlands for a cycling holiday. Saturday was a wash out and so we went shopping instead. We were discussing what typified Dutch food when we passed this shop!

Next stop was the supermarket and it was great to see some consideration given to the male of the species, every shopping trolley had a retractable rack for beer crates.

There was also a 'man bench' near the entrance.

The second day started much the same as our first, but we got the rain gear on and went out anyway. Here's my wife and son at the bottom of what classes as a hill in the Netherlands.

The day quickly brightened up and we were soon in T shirts cycling along the top of some lovely sandy beaches. Over here bikes seem to take priority over cars and they are very well catered for with excellent cycle paths everywhere.

The beer crates are even a good fit for bike racks. The local Amstel lager is lovely.
I've been keeping my eyes open but there's nothing woody to report.

Japanese Dovetail Chisels

I ordered a set of dovetail chisels made by famous chisel maker Tasai from http://thebestthings.com/newtools/tasai_japanese_bench_chisels.htm
They have a very understated all black appearance. I will be making a special box to house these chisels and I'm very much looking forward to putting them through their paces.

The sides are very thin and ideal for dovetailing, the blue steel is tough and best for hard woods.

The Tasai stamp within a diamond shaping on the blade.

Here is the 3/4" chisel next to a top quality mokume chisel by Tasai senior, this one is definitely not understated!

Here is a picture of one of my standard chisels I use at shows, although the profile is dovetailed the sides were quite thick and required grinding down to make them suitable for fine dovetailing.

Dovetail Guides

I've had a real run on dovetail guides recently and my stock is dangerously low so I'm doing a large batch which I hope will last to the end of the year. I start with 60mm square stock of Goncalo Alves which is put through the table with four separate cuts to achieve the profile shown below. Above is the waste that came off the end of the table saw. I've never found a use for this, so with space tight it gets cut straight up into firewood.

The ten blanks were cut on the table saw using an dead accurate cross-cut sled with a backer board to minimise tear-out, this stuff splinters for fun!
I haven't shown a picture of my set up as it requires the removal of the guards and I don't want to encourage anyone to work unsafely.

Here's a couple of shots of 137 guides produced, this took a days very boring work to get the guides from rough stock to this stage. It was also quite tiring as you cannot afford to loose concentration on the table saw  if you want to keep all your fingers!
There is a lot more work yet to be done.

Walnut wall cabinet

The wall cabinet started last week is finished and I'm very pleased with it.

The walnut is just fantastic and reminds me of chocolate being poured. But it was a pig to work, the grain kept reversing and tearing out and even my scraper plane didn't work as the wood was too soft. My random orbit sanders earned their keep! I finished it with shellac to hold up the background colour, oil would have made the wood too dark.

The door panels were carefully book matched to give the piece balance. For stability the panels were veneered, these were cut on my band saw to a thickness of about 1mm. Both doors were shot (on my shooting board) to fit at both ends, they also had to be a perfect fit at the middle which all took care.

The back panel was also veneered and book matched to correspond to the door panels.
The routed door pulls were nerve racking to produce with the doors being lowered onto a coving bit on the router table and then moved between two pre-set stops. All went well although there was more tear-out which needed patient hand sanding.

The client had particularly requested dovetails as a feature of this piece, although in practice the black lines and swirling grain prevented them from standing out. They were however totally necessary from a strength point of view as the cabinet will be hung with a hidden French cleat.
An article with dimensions and full construction details will be appearing in Furniture and Cabinetmaking magazine in the coming months.

9" Smoother on E Bay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300735838760?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649


Just a quick post, I've been told that one of my high angled smoothers is being sold on E Bay if anyone is interested. Just type in David Barron on the search box and it should come up.