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

My son's tools kit

A while back I asked my sons Tim and Matt if they would be interested in having a hand tools woodworking kit.  Since then, with Jean, came one more son, Levy and one daughter Opal.
So, my tool kits requirements has changed somewhat.  Need more tools :-)
Oh and I also picked up 4 grand kids, 3 girls and a boy :-)
Yes, they are keeping me busy :-)

I have been accumulating tools for them all, time to see where I stand with my supply and start (?) figuring out how I am going to fit them all into suitable containers.  Said containers must fit into my car for delivery.  2 in Ontario, 2+ in Nova Scotia.

So during the holiday break I started to gathered the tools I want to put in inside to get some ideas of the size I would required.

It kinda makes a big pile... :-)

Once I had my first pile of tools put together, my first thought was like that Chihuahua from a Taco Bell commercial of long ago "I think I need a bigger box" :-)
Yeah, a tad overwhelming, but the show must go on.

First I checked my list twice, being so close to Christmas and all, it was only natural :-)
Then I reasoned that some of my tool's choices could be changed.  Remove, add, change etc.
If you never tried to come up with a minimalist list of tools, go ahead and try, not so easy, heh?
So many choices, so many wants mixing in with needs.
My starting point was my last Minimalist tool list I made years ago, March 2016.
I stayed pretty true to it, but made some modifications as I went along.  Will update my lists as they are completed, but for now this is were I stand.

The Measurements and Marking section.

I since dropped one marking knife.

Both the trammel bar and pinch stick would be smaller, I just grabbed what I got.

The setup block set and the dial caliper made it.

The plane selection.

Trying both wooden and metal planes selection to gauge the size requirements.

I ditched the block plane, and rethinking the small plow plane

Sawing selection

I am still on the fence WRT the fret saw??

Wondering about the hacksaw?  I still think that it is needed in a well rounded kit.

And it MUST be of a high tension frame, compound lever action.

Bang Bang section 

With maybe one more nail set size and another Vix bit??

The small Warrington hammer (8 Oz)  double as a wooden plane hammer

Chisels and gouge selection

Still on the fence regarding the appropriate size of gouge, but it is representative

The boring pile.

Only one size of Yankee screwdriver will make it.  I got two sizes I'm mulling about.

The brace countersink bit is out, replaced by the hand held countersink with three sizes bits, 

very handy, I used it often.  The Yankee to 1/4 in Hex bit adapter, with a good set of 1/4 in Hex bits , should handle most everything in the fastening department.  The hand drill comes with a set of small brad points bits, 1/16 to 1/4 in in 1/64 increments.  The brace with only a few bits, about 4.  The small push drill has its complement of 8 bits, inside the handle

The scraping section.

Tought about putting in a No 80 Cabinet scraper, but a tad challenged for space 

For my first attempt, I'm trying to see how big of a wall cabinet that would required.  Next I'll see about some sort of tool box storage.   Although they all get similar tool's kit, space will dictate how best, to accommodate them for their requirements.  The next and biggest challenge would be to accommodate a proper bench to use them.  That is where a Morovian  design will undoubtedly shine.
Tim, living in a high rise apartment in a city (Hamilton Ontario) is really crammed for space.  That would be trickier, but I got some ideas.

After some measuring, came out with the following dimensions:

Starting point for sizing cabinets.

I quickly ditched the 30 inch wide cabinet as being too unwieldy for the space, 

and settled on 24 in wide cabinet 7 in deep and doors of 5 in deep. 

The box sizes below are the required real estate to fit the specifics tool sections

First iteration came up as such: The chisels, rasp, files on the RH door 

and all the saws in the LH door.  But no room for any planes?? humm

Top is the RH door, bottom is the LH door with the saws, which don't quite fit, hum...

Unless I stacked them all, but not very practical, so I went back to the drawing board.

Stacking the saws side by side takes up a lot less space

Adding the planes

Then trying the metallic planes, gave me a bit more room,

 can squeeze in the router and No 78

These experiments led me to redesign the space of the cabinet as such:

I shifted the boring tools and bits on the LH door were the saws were to go

That fits pretty well everything with the following exceptions:

- Hacksaw (keep or leave out?)

- Coping saw (should be able to hang it up somewhere)

- Fret saw (leave out)

- Router plane (must fit)

- Duplex Rabbet plane No 78 (must fit)

- Small plow plane (would like to fit it in)

That is a lot better than my first iteration were I was going to store the three amigo's planes (Jointer, Jack, Smoother) on top of cabinet, for lack of space.

What is not apparent from these trials is that the cabinet depth allowed for the stacking of some tools.
The long narrow tools (Winding stick, Pinch stick and Trammel bar) all are set on the inside of the cabinets vertical sides.  So based on my experiments, I think it is doable to fit the projected 24 wide X 30 in tall,  7 in deep cabinet with 5 in deep doors.

Now time to muck up some holders and see how my bright ideas shakes out.

Happy New Year everyone

Bob, with limited shop time but using the dining room table for his experiments.
Yap, all cleared now, apparently it is needed to eat, go figured :-)