Steve york:
> 	My name is Steve York, and I have been lurking for a while, and I 
> thought that I should introduce myself. I am a novice woodworker, finding

Welcome from another newbie. I've been around old tools all my life,
but really only started using them myself this year. Quite a few of my
older relatives were woodworkers of a traditional sort.

> 	b) my ears are offended by these big monstrous machines.

The dust, even with a noisy icky p*w*r device collecting it, bothers
my athsma.

> 
> I talked to at least 3 amatuer woodworkers who work at my company, and they 
> told me I would not be able to build anything decent without t*bles*ws and
> other electical devices. 

I was at a local home-improvement sort of place with a friend last
week. He mentioned that he was going to get into woodworking and was
looking at, among other monstrosities, a p*w*r pl*n*r. It was rather
expensive, and I offered to show him how to use hand planes. He said,
rather condescendingly, "well, *I* plan to use hardwoods, so that
would be impossible".

Then a salesmen from the church of Norm showed up to reinforce this.

I did learn that the salesman wasn't aware that edged tools needed to
be sharpened. Ever. I was afraid to laugh, I'm not sure that those
Normites don't burn disbelievers. They get rid of them somehow...

> work solely with hand tools in his younger days. He told me that with
> practice, and patience, I could indeed build nice pieces of furniture without

I find the practice to be as much fun as the real work. I've been
practicing mortices, tenons, and rabbets (with a wooden rabbet plane
(skewed)) for a week or so (not full time, c'mon!) in preparation for a
project I'm starting. I'm having a great time, and have made lots of
really cool shavings. SWMBO has started to use them for garden mulch
(should be OK, all pine and oak).

I'm actually starting to get happy with the results.

> I also picked up the "Workbench Book" by Scott Landis. I am trying to
> modify a 30 year old garage wall bench for woodworking. It
> is very solidly made, but the top is 2X8 Doug Fir, and I think is not
> thick enough. Also, it has knots in it, so it might be hard to flatten
> with a jointer plane. But I could remove the top and replace it with a 
> maple top I make myself. The supports are very solid 4 X 6 beams.

I'm using a 3' x 8' plywood topped bench I built about five years ago
for general household repairs. It's "OK" now that I've added a leg
vise (first project, I'll make some improvements on the next, but it
works well). Still, it's too light, and too flexy (despite feeling
solid as a rock under my near 300lb weight). It also lacks a tail vise
and bench dog, which I really want. I think another bench will be
started soon. I think it will be in addition to this bench, not
instead of it. I will have to make some room, but I think it will be
worth it.

I'm reading the Landis Workbench book right now BTW. Lots of good
ideas.

Jim Buchanan        c22jrb@d...      jbuchana@e...
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