I've been lurking about for a couple of months, but have neglected to
submit a bio, so here goes.
I'm a 33 year old father of three (6 week old girl, 3 year old boy, 6 year
old girl). I spend most of my waking hours under the employment of
Tektronix. I grew up in south western VA, but relocated to OR three years
ago after receiving my Masters of Computer Science from the University of
VA.
I have always been interested in wood working but have never really done
any major projects. Over the last year, my interest in wood working has
increased dramatically. I have bought and read several books on wood
working and was almost sucked into the Normy mentality. I believe it was
Peter Korns book that set me straight. He compared hand tools to machine
tools as walking is to driving an automobile. You can get to the same
places by walking, you can even get to some that you can't get to in a car,
it just takes longer.
After reading his book I bought joiner and a jack plane. I have not
bothered to date them as I'm really not interested in how old they are only
in how well they work. I immediately planed a couple of pine boards just
for kicks, and fell in love.
Christmas vacation got me started on my first "real" project. I'm building
the bench described by Tage Frid in Fine Woodworking in the Small Shop. I
have to admit that I'm using a table saw to rough cut the lumber, but I am
hand planing every piece to width and thickness. I would appreciate any
pointers from others who have built this bench. I have already rough cut
everything except the pieces for the vises. I have planed most of the leg
pieces and am in the process of chopping the mortises and cutting the
tenons now. Of my two planes, one has a busted tote. I currently swap the
good tote between the two planes as needed. I hope to resolve this
situation shortly.
I also picked up a couple of other goodies at Christmas time: In addition
to getting the hardware for my new bench, I got a set of sharpening stones
and the Veritas sharpening jig. I also bought myself the Marples chisels
at Costco (what a bargain). My mother-in-law who stayed with us other
Christmas found out I got the bug, and offered my her deceased husbands
tools. She's sure he has a brace and bits, and some planes, but is not
sure what else. I'm anxiously awaiting that package!
After finishing my bench I hope to sell my benchtop table saw and buy a bow
saw with the proceeds. I'm sure I'll have some questions for the group as
the bench proceeds.
Bob Lockwood
PS: Is there a such thing as planing elbow? I really aggravated mine one
day after several hours of planing. I'm hoping this is due to working on a
bench which is to high and that when I get the new bench done this won't be
an issue.
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