Welcome! And, great work thus far. Impressive.

Archie

--- On Fri, 7/2/10, Adam R. Maxwell  wrote:

> From: Adam R. Maxwell  Subject: [OldTools] bio To:
> "porch"  Date: Friday, July 2, 2010, 12:09 AM Hi all,
>
> I've posted a couple of times without introducing myself, so I figured
> I should do that before posting again...=A0 If you're easily bored,
> quit now because this is too long.
>
> Without further ado, I'm a hydraulic engineer by training, but mainly
> work as a computer nerd in a research lab.=A0 I have a wonderful wife
> who allows me to buy tools, two sons (6 & 7) and two daughters (1 &
> 5). I'm probably in the lower end of the porch age distribution.=A0 We
> live near Port Angeles, WA, where an old tools are things like a 1960s
> circular saw, or maybe a rusted falling axe.
>
> My folks have a small farm, and I grew up helping with animals, car &
> tractor repair, firewood splitting, fencepost splitting, and other
> miscellaneous things. Using axe, hammer, hand saw, brace and other
> tools was typical, although the only time we used a two-man saw was
> the day the chainsaw died.=A0 This all came in handy in grad school,
> as I had the run of the shop in the hydraulics lab after our
> technician retired, since I needed to build or modify physical
> models.=A0 The tools were older and fun to use, (e.g., [1]) but were
> mostly 3-phase and thus off-topic.
>
> I started getting into woodworking to build stuff for my wife (read:
> have an excuse to buy power tools), but also ended up with a couple of
> hand planes that had belonged to a family friend's father (a Stanley
> type 11 #4 smoother and a Millers Falls bullnose).=A0 The #4 seemed
> useful for cleaning up the marks left by my jointer, although first I
> had to learn how to sharpen it.=A0 Two years ago, I picked up an old
> toolbox full of hand saws that had belonged to my grandpa and great-
> grandpa.=A0 That included an Atkins 401, Atkins 70, a Millers Falls
> (Disston) mitre saw, and a DCH rip saw.=A0 I naturally started trying
> to figure out how to sharpen the saws, mainly out of curiosity, which
> led me to Pete Taran's site and the purchase of a few files.=A0 From
> there it was a short step to my first fleabay purchase, a Stearns No.
> 3 saw vise for $10. Trying to find out more about that "DCH" saw led
> me to the porch archives [2], and subsequently lurking here to pick up
> tips. I've since swiped most of my dad's old hand tools and fixed them
> for my own use, although he still has a few timber framing chisels
> with badly beaten sockets.
>
> A few projects I've completed in the last year or so:
>
> http://gallery.me.com/amaxwell/100071
>
> The stool & saw till (both Borg white pine) and bookshelf (Eastern
> hard maple) were hand tool projects, except for the rip cuts to get
> rid of the rough edge on the maple boards.=A0 None of it is show
> quality, but the pieces are functional and I learned a lot. Thanks to
> Derek Cohen for his sliding dovetail tutorial!
>
> http://gallery.me.com/amaxwell/100079
>
> As usual, each project provides motivation to get more tools, some
> from internet auction, some from old tool merchants, and others just
> purchased new when I need to get something done (or want to support
> one of our smaller toolmakers).=A0 The current project is a chest in
> bubinga, patterned after Roy Underhill's tool chest.=A0 It's for my
> wife to put fabric stuff in, and is coming along slowly because of a)
> lack of time and b) pushing my skill limits. So far it's all been done
> with hand tools except for the rip cuts on the rough-cut edges.=A0
> Plowing a 3/4" groove in bubinga with a #45 combination plane is no
> joke, and it's a good thing those will be hidden.=A0 I'm currently
> doing half-blind dovetails to join the ends.
>
> Anyway, if you made it this far, you obviously have too much time on
> your hands, and should be out in the shop!
>
> [1] http://www.olivermachinery.com/ReferencePhotos/MachinePics/34.jpg
> [2] http://tinyurl.com/2dvcrym
>
>
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