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