A quick woodworking distraction...

Jean lost her mother this past Friday, at times like these, days are kind of blurry but you gotta do whatever you gotta do to move on.  I was glad she was there for me when I lost Heather, I'm glad to be there for her now.

All that to say that her brother Joe asked me for help on a small woodworking project he wants to do, a epoxy river small table.  So I took the board home with me and it stays there for a couple days.  I know very well we can both uses the distraction so today I went to it in my small hand tools shop.

I did not thought of taking pics until I started then I misplaced my phone in the garage, so there are a few steps missing.

The walnut board he gave me has a wane on both edges (live edge).  His intention is to rip the board in half and trim both ends as marked in pencil.

My first thought was, a quick  trip to the base shop rip, joint, crosscut.
But its a bit overkill and haven't had the time for that.
Plan B, I'll simply rip it with my ripping monster Disston D8 4TPI

Its irregular shape makes it a bit problematic in my leg vise.

Used a deep reach clamp to hold the side

He had two lines, I got confused as to which ones I'm supposed to follow.  

When I first looked at it, I thought, its obvious one is darker.  Really??

Back of my initial cut

Everything was going fine until there was a loud bang (well in this old Airman ears it sound like muffled, but :-)...  Wow, the clamp literally disintegrated from the D8 sawing vibrations.

Failed clamp.  I think its a Mastercraft (Canadian Tire brand)

but nonetheless that was a surprise.

The only deep reach clamps I had available were my shop made Toggle clamps 

That held no problems.

I thought I raised my board high enough to finish my mating cut in the middle... 

...Close but no cigar, need to re-position board to finish, oh well

One edge has a small hollow, the other a corresponding small hump.

They both sit flattish

Shot both edges separately with my LA Veritas Jack plane

The starting thickness of my shavings to get to a flat surface.

I then reduce the depth of cut.

Check out the tear out on this board. Hard to see with flash on

Same shot, no flash, much more visible.  Flip board over, good to go

Both edges have been shot together and checked for square.

Now having a square reference ready to cross cut

It's at that point that I misplaced my phone in garage :-)
You see, Jean came with a bench top 10 in table saw and a 10 in miter saw, so I thought now that my board is square and not as wide, should fit under the miter saw.
Long story short, move stuff around find a place large enough to handle safely boards on floor and voila!

One board was still too large on each ends, which meant I had to finish cross cutting by hand
Back in the shop, got the shooting board out, shot both saw edges, give all cuts surfaces a quick wipe with a hard block faced sandpaper

The anticipated look for his river table.

No idea how wide its going to be.

There, done, ready for delivery.
Quick distraction but a heart felt one.

Meanwhile, the dogs are settling in nicely. Rudy is now around his beloved Diva 24/7. 

Rose, Jean's mother, little dog Diva is now living with us

Bob, moving on to another helping project with my daughter

Doldrums...

Updated 07 Oct 21, correction  and pic

I still got lots of executor stuff to complete but in the mean time I try to keep myself occupied... To me that often meant, go find tools... Hours of distractions ahead, researching and evaluating my objects of desires AKA my new lumps of rust :-)

As the weather is finally showing strong hints of cooperation, the yard sales are starting to sprout along with my usual local tool enablers new inventory...

Well... so in between trips to and from, I brake for yard sales that appears promising for tools, I quickly scanned Kijjiji ads and visited my local haunts.

So today in my trip with Rudy to the city, to pick up yet another...gasp... miter box :-)

Rudy checking the loot we brought back

The saw has an etch on it. It is a monster 27in + (probably a 28)

X 4 in and 5/8 (was probably a full 5 in new) 

Only apology is the small curlie at the bottom of the handle is cracked.

 Easy fix.

Yes it is a Disston

And here is why I just had to have it... It is the elusive MF Langdon No 74 :-)

Type 2-1/2 Model No 74

I did a few pit stops at LV and Busy Bee. Also scored another Kijjiji find, a Yankee No 135A complete in the box with instruction sheet and spare bits.
Yah, I know, I don't need another one... except...

Also recently pick up a old Millers Falls No 12 Breast drill, a couple of Jorgensen hand clamps and a rarely seen AH Reid pushdrill model.

She has been degunked, had a quick bath in Evaporust and sprayed with WD-40,.

Ready for storage until she comes back for a final clean/tune-up.

I got two of these for $10

Here is something seldom seen. if you google AH Reid push drill you will come up with the more often encountered low knob design

I have yet to see one without this splitting crack on the spindle.

The usual repair found, is to wrap a string or wire around it. 

Perfectly serviceable.

That No 12 drill took a lot of my Evaporust so I bought a big jug this time, I have a few things cueing up in the line for a bath in it.

I meant to build a proper turning saw ever since Gramercy put out their kits, finally got around to buy it, a project for later.

Finally as I was moving around the Lagdon mitre box it occur to me that for its size, it is very heavy!!! No cast aluminum on this bad boy, all cast iron and steel.

In case you are wondering, it is missing both adjustable clamping rods

 and the front post is missing its sliding plate.

Heavy casting, weigh a few pounds...

That should keep me occupied for a little while: Research, evaluation, clean up, re-hab, looking up parts, sharpening etc...
Its a good thing.

Never cease to amazed me what I can unearth locally....

Bob, sipping wine, updating tool's files.

Make your own cam clamps

I think you will find them a very useful additions to your clamping arsenal. They are very easy to make so give them a try. I have no ideas how much clamping forces they provides, but they do work fine. I supposed the actual clamping forces varies a bit from clamps to clamps depending on how you make them ?

As with most project I make, I started by googling it up to see what is out there. Then I look around the shop and use whatever I can scrounge. In other words, I rarely, if ever build, something as per published dimensions. I simply make it fit whatever stock I have. Make it fit is my motto in the shop :-)


In this case, I had some leftover pieces of maple from the days I was building shadow boxes to present to retiring service members. Incidentally, I made my own shadow box to be presented to me when I retired :-)


There are 4 pieces to them; the 2 jaws (one fixed and one sliding up and down the post), the post flat bar (you can use metal for a stronger clamp if you like, I just used maple) and finally the pivoting cam.  I also added cork faces to the jaw parts, it gives some cushioning and help grip better.

You can make them to whatever size you need/want, I simply sized mine to reach inside the sound hole to be able to glue the broken ribs and glue the bridge. These were my only dimensions criteria's for this job.
So mine ended up with a flat beam length of 15-1/4 in long X 7/8 wide X 1/4 thick the jaws are 7-1/2 in long X 1-3/4 wide X 3/4 thick

Yes, I used Sketch-it-Up for my plans :-)

I used a 1in Forstner bit for the cam's finger clearance hole in the movable jaw. I tried using other sizes Forstner bits to make a clean round cut out for the jaws but in the end it was easier & faster to just mark my circle using the protective plastic cover of the 3/4 in Forstner bit and eyeball the cut with the bandsaw followed by a quick clean up with the Oscillating Drum Sander



Similarly the slot for the cam action to work, is cut with a bandsaw using a fence.  I then added a hole to prevent the piece to break off under pressure (a stop hole)
The through mortises are 7/8 X 1/4. The one for the fixed jaws are a tight fit, the one for the movable jaws are a looser fit, it must be able to cock under pressure to securely grip the works (similar action of a holdfast on the bench). If you use a metal bar, you should add 2 metal pin for the bar to bear against.

I used a dado blade in the tablesaw to cut the slot for the cam lever. On this clamp, I'm a bit off center, corrected on the others.

I epoxied glued the flat bar to the bottom jaw and reinforce the connections later by drilling and
epoxying 2 nails which I cut to make steel pins.

The cam action piece is 1/4 plywood, the only tricky part is the offset hole on it. It depends on this offset to push the bottom lip of the movable jaw. It is also secured using a steel pin carefully epoxied in place (try not to glue the cam in place.  Don't even ask) :-) If you want fix ability, uses a steel roll pin instead.

I looked at the dollar store to find some cork pieces, and came up with drinks coasters. The cork with its back up is 1/4 thick. It make a big difference on the clamps operation, Being faced with a solid base, it was too easy to glue the cork pieces using regular yellow glue and using the clamp pressure to do it.   And that is about it. Sorry I do not have any pics in progress, it was a quick project of necessity. If anyone needs more info, just let me know.


Bob, who played a bit with SketchUp, but find it a lot faster to just sketch it up on paper :-)