OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

251385 Jeff Oberg <jaoberg@g...> 2014‑10‑25 Greetings and a Bio
I signed up to do Galootaclaus this year and discovered I haven't submitted my
Bio. Here for your consideration, because I would like to participate.

I grew up in the Midwest, Texas and Minnesota. I live in Miami, Florida now.
Miami is a strange place and if you have a few hours I'll be happy to tell
stories.

I grew up with a couple of grandfathers who liked to make things. One was a
serious wood worker and made furniture and whirligigs.  He also made some wooden
toys that survived myself, my cousins, and now my children.

I have always enjoyed working with my hands. I am, by training and vocation, a
chef. I don't cook professionally right now because I have young children.
Restaurant life and family life don't mix well. So now I am a stay at home dad
and spend more time as a taxi driver than as a cook. I returned to wood working
because I need something to do that works out the nervous energy that
accumulates when I don't make things.

I found my way to hand tools because of my grandfathers also. One managed to
shorten three fingers on his right hand with a table saw. I have and use a
contractor's saw. I respect it, knowing from the kitchen that fear gets you cut
as surely as inattention. Still, there is the young children thing. I'd rather
enjoy the work and have my kids able to work with me. That and frankly I hate
sawdust like vampires hate the sun.

I watch woodworking shows and for the longest time Woodsmith was the only one on
my local cable system. I discovered St. Roy and his chapel online. One of the
first few episodes I watched was Chris Schwarz singing the praises of the
traditional English floor chest. So I bought "The Anarchist's Tool Chest" and
enjoyed the read. I'm still on the fence about what I increasingly see as
hipster woodworking. I'm sure my opinions are poorly informed.

I have accumulated most of the recommended tools at this point and use them less
than I would like. I recently found a sawmill about half an hour from my house,
so good lumber has become much easier to find. I have accumulated a small
library of Hayward books, which recommend a tool set remarkably similar to the
one outlined by Mr. Schwarz, and raided the Gutenberg project for old
woodworking books. In most cases I prefer to refurbish old tools rather than buy
new. When I can, I enjoy making tools rather than buying.

I have managed to source a 6' long, 6" thick, 23" wide slab of live oak. So my
next project is likely to be a Roubo style bench made of live oak. I'm not sure
where this is going to take me. I'm considering vice hardware for the bench.

Projects currently on deck:
- Clean and rehab three Disston 12s and one 112 recently acquired from eBay. 
- Complete my tool chest, a Dutch chest built to live in my shop
- Clean the garage so I can start on the cabinets my wife wants in the laundry
room.
- Plane down a gate so it stops sticking. 
- Complete the transitions for the hardwood floors 
- Adjust the wide gate in the fence. 

All of that before I get to building my work bench. There are about a hundred
household things waiting for woodwork after those are done. As usual I have
taken a very large bite. I'll try to update this now and then as the project
list and my work evolves. For now I'm trying to speak when I have something to
add and otherwise listen. I've enjoyed the discussions so far and look forward
to many more.


Jeff------------------------------------------------------------------------
251387 "Adam R. Maxwell" <amaxwell@m...> 2014‑10‑25 Re: Greetings and a Bio
> On Oct 25, 2014, at 08:31 , Jeff Oberg  wrote:
> 
> I grew up in the Midwest, Texas and Minnesota. I live in Miami, Florida now.
Miami is a strange place and if you have a few hours I'll be happy to tell
stories.

No need. Just look for "Florida man" in the news. Hours of super-disturbing
entertainment.

> I'm still on the fence about what I increasingly see as hipster woodworking.
I'm sure my opinions are poorly informed.

Fortunately, there are never any opinions shared here, only ironclad facts.

> I have managed to source a 6' long, 6" thick, 23" wide slab of live oak. So my
next project is likely to be a Roubo style bench made of live oak. I'm not sure
where this is going to take me. I'm considering vice hardware for the bench.

In line with my previous remark, bench vises are waaay overrated. All you need
is a crochet and planing stops. At least if you build a real bench (English, of
course). Vises are for people who are unimaginative or don't have holdfasts.

On the other hand, I want to see pictures when that bench is done, because that
is a monster chunk of wood!

> Projects currently on deck:
> - Clean and rehab three Disston 12s and one 112 recently acquired from eBay. 
> - Complete my tool chest, a Dutch chest built to live in my shop
> - Clean the garage so I can start on the cabinets my wife wants in the laundry
room.
> - Plane down a gate so it stops sticking. 
> - Complete the transitions for the hardwood floors 
> - Adjust the wide gate in the fence. 
> 
> All of that before I get to building my work bench.

Whoa, there, buddy. Your wife wants cabinets? You need to acquire all the needed
tools, rehab them as necessary, and get that workbench built before doing
cabinets! The only reason a galoot takes on a spousal furniture commission is to
justify more and better tools. So let's see this list rearranged in proper
galoot fashion, eh?

All that aside, welcome to the porch!

Adam
Port Angeles, WA
251388 David Nighswander <wishingstarfarm663@m...> 2014‑10‑25 Re: Greetings and a Bio
Snip
From: Jeff Oberg
 I have managed to source a 6' long, 6" thick, 23" wide slab of live oak. So my
next project is likely to be a Roubo style bench made of live oak. I'm not sure
where this is going to take me. I'm considering vice hardware for the bench.
…I get to building my work bench. 
Unsnip

If I may offer a bit of advise, build the bench first. Roubo is a great choice.
With a 6” x 23” x 6’ slab to start with solid will not be a problem. Will it be
perfect? Perhaps not. But it may be the first of many with each being slightly
more like what you really need. Currently I have four made to fit different
needs, mechanical, fabrication, machine tool, and wood working.
I recently completed a dedicated woodworking bench for my son and another for
myself. It makes everything else so much easier. Nothing like working on a
proper bench with proper methods to hold the wood in position.
Vise hardware is a personal decision. I went with leg vises on both. I like hold
downs for versatility but left the position of the holes up to Ryan for his.
The rest of the list will still be there. Mine has never gotten smaller. As you
skills improve your project list will expand at the rate of your families
imagination.
251393 Jesse Walker <jwalker147@h...> 2014‑10‑26 Re: Greetings and a Bio
Jeff,

Thanks for the bio, I enjoyed reading it.  That's an impressive piece of
live oak!  How many growth rings are there per inch?  What cross section of
the tree was the board taken from?

I made a mallet out of live oak, and it has held up better (in timber
framing abuse) than my previous ash or bodark ones.


Regards,

Jesse
251406 Thomas Conroy <booktoolcutter@y...> 2014‑10‑27 Re: Greetings and a Bio
Jeff Oberg wrote: "I have managed to source a 6' long, 6" thick, 23" wide slab
of live
oak. So my next project is likely to be a Roubo style bench made of live oak.
I'm not sure where this is going to take me. I'm considering vice
hardware for the bench..."


A couple of thoughts which you are free to disregard. With this rare a slab you
won't want to trim off anything beyond what you absolutely must. I know I
wouldn't. But 23" is very wide for a bench top, maybe too wide if you end up
liking a bench that sits up against a wall. I'd say, don't cut it narrower now,
but don't choose a design that makes it hard to cut it narrower at some future
date. A full-details Roubo design with massive legs morticed through the top
will be hard to re-do. If you choose a simple, fast, cheap undercarriage with
the top held in place by its own weight and by a couple of dowels sticking up
half an inch, then it will be easy to re-do in future and it will be ready to
use sooner now. And you will always be able to do the massive Roubo legs at a
later date if you want. The simple undercarriage also means you won't be stuck
forever with an uncongenial bench height.And don't plan permanently attached
under-bench drawers;
apart from the fact that they don't go with holdfasts, they too would get in the
way of modifications.

Its great to have the 6" thick top, but its also going to restrict you in a
couple of ways. Most styles of vise aren't going to work well with a 6" thick
top, so you would either have to cut away most of the thickness in the area of
the vise, or you would have the vise screw so low that it would rack unduly. You
will probably find that a leg vise is about the only built-in style that will
work well without massive surgery. However, a leg vise has the advantage that it
can be added with relative ease long after the bench is made (especially if you
plan in a leg wide enough to accept one), and this too will help to get a
functional bench into use as soon as possible.


A natural choice for a massive-top bench would be a "Moxon vise" (I hate that
deceptive name, but that's another  matter) or better yet a selection of them in
various heights, widths, and lengths. The (very modern) design which has spread
recently is basically a dovetailing fixture, very tall to get the dovetails
close to the eye (and notice that Chris Schwartz, who has done so much to spread
the modern version with all its faults, is an uncommonly tall man). A lower,
wider design (say, cheeks of 4" square rather that 1.5" x 6") will be more
versatile and also easier to make, and won't tend to rack the way Chris' tall
design does. Don't forget that you can use a clamped-on vise entirely on the
benchtop if the workpiece doesn't stick out below the vise cheeks. And you might
find that other clamp-on styles are useful, like the gunsmith's vise that Bill
Ghio recently posted about.

With a massive top, holdfasts will be one of your mainstays for workholding.
Remember that a holdfast depends for its grip on being at a certain slant when
tapped into place; and that if it is slanted too much or too little it won't
grip. Most recommendations for holdfast holes seem to assume a bench around 2"
thick. For a 6" thick top you will probably need a larger hole, ind it isn't
clear just how much larger. It will be a lot easier to make the holes the right
size from the get-go, than it will be to enlarge them later on. So don't make
lots of holes in your top in places you think may be useful; make one or two,
use them for a while, and then you will have a much better idea of where you
want more holes and what size they should be.

Wow, its a lot more fun planning someone else's bench than it is to actually go
and make something for myself. Ask again in a couple of weeks and I'll have
another, completely different, set of suggestions for you, all of them worth
exactly what you paid for them.

Tom Conroy
251417 Michael Suwczinsky <nicknaylo@g...> 2014‑10‑27 Re: Greetings and a Bio
Nice bio, welcome aboard.  If time and technical inclination permit, I
would love to pics of toys that have survived generations of abuse.  I make
a lot of toys and some of them are starting to come back for repair as the
toddlers grow into larger children.



On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 7:16 PM, Jesse Walker 
wrote:

> Jeff,
>
> Thanks for the bio, I enjoyed reading it.  That's an impressive piece of
> live oak!  How many growth rings are there per inch?  What cross section of
> the tree was the board taken from?
>
> I made a mallet out of live oak, and it has held up better (in timber
> framing abuse) than my previous ash or bodark ones.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Jesse
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-- 
Michael-Frightening the neighbors since the year Four

Recent Bios FAQ