Progress on a few fronts

The last couple days been helping a friend with his Christmas project for his wife.
Can't tell you what it is, it's a surprise :-)

Yesterday, end up at the wood shop from 10AM until 4PM, a long day, so I brought along a few tools rehab projects.

First up was my BBM crank handles refinishing
Long overdue, but very low on my priority list.  But its a quick job and it is taking room in the shop.
So out it came with me

Long overdue, it really makes a big difference

using a walnut stain, blending in the blemish and repairs

The next day, I gave it a coat of  feed N wax

I really like the final look

An old Smith of St-Catherine On. back saw got a quick clean up

A light scraping, sanding of the plate, followed by a wipe of WD40

The handle got a scraping, need a light sanding before being re-finished.

There is a very faint etch I want to preserve

The hardware as removed, before its bath at home

Last time I used it, I noticed a bit of rust was forming on both faces

 of my world famous Je Ne Sais Quoi Persuader, all the way from Namibia.

Gave it a light sanding to clean up the faces

What took me the longest was to shape my handle to fit inside 

the eye of my Campbell Hewing or Ship axe

As you can see it was still a tight fit

Before wedging

I am happy the way it came out

Now if I can just find my wedge kits ???

I have been working for a while on a Bailey Tool Co smoother

Body and parts have been de-gunked, de-rusted, started

 to address the sole and the blade

And yes that blade is pretty well used up

Also brought out a chisel to touch up along with a few other tools for my friend to use on his project

That was the scene Dec 10 in my yard.

In the last two days, it is pretty well all gone, but another storm is coming to replenished it.

That storm should be over Ralph as I type this

Accordingly, I better pick up my small logs to split before they get covered again.   

Forecasted up to 10 Cm of white crappola (Ralph's Tm)

And next thing you know, it was time for a visit to the WComd at home event as the Vice President of my Rotary club, so signing off

Bob, making progress on a few small fronts 

What is coming up next...

I have a few irons in the fire right now, hence not many posts lately.
We just finished March Break, so we had the grand peanuts over a few times and did stuff with them.

Will she get the snow ball or not...

Heh, she started it... :-)

The few times that I have been able to get a gander at my blog stats, I noticed some comments left on my post about the Buck Rogers Push drill.  Someone has a broken one (or jammed) and is having trouble taking it apart.

So I finally rounded one of mine (I have two) and figured,

I'll simply take it apart and take pictures...

 Well sports fans it is apparently not that easy...
I know it can be done, since I took it apart once and shown a pic of it a parade dress..

Pic from earlier post, 2015

 I am going to have to fetch the other one , maybe that was the one I took apart? If so, should be easier. Then I'll figured out a way to crack open the other one without damages.
So in order to answers the few questions he had, I'll take them apart and answer him in a upcoming post. One of a few drafts on the go...

Saturday, on St-Patrick's day, I worked a full shift at the Wood shop on the Wing.
We had a bit of blowing snow but still nothing much. Since my shift was from 1000 to 1600 I brought a few things along to worked on.

.

Rudy wondering where am I going without him...

Wow, look at these signs of Spring...

The Air Cadet's gliders launches are coming out of storage,

and you can see blowing snow from the snow removal in progress on the active runways.

Must be Spring...!!

The first thing I did was to take apart my beam Boring Machine to figured out why the frame is so crooked. And yes, I measured both sides they are exactly the same length.

Stripped apart to check on the frame

I did noticed earlier how these bored holes did not appeared to be flat,

some are obviously on a slant.

Perhaps some of the fibers got compressed after rotting and etc??  So figured I will drilled them flat on the drill press with a Fortsner bit. I only drill deep enough to ensure I had a flat surface all around.

With the pieces loose, I can make it lay flat.

So I'm hoping to get it flat tight by planning only the sides ??

When I was drilling I made sure the piece was as flat as possible on the drill press table. But there is obviously some rocking on the base, it is not flat. I hate to plane off the surfaces to fix it, so Ill try to take off the two bolts that hold the bottom pieces together. They are just mortised and tenon, loose, no glue.

Dome bolt head at one end

Square nut at the other.

Wont fit a modern Hex socket, and then there is the small space around it...

Removed the nut on one of then, see the lose fit around the bolt shaft?

Not anymore on the other end.

It is hard enough to remove the recessed square nut at the end of the dome bolt, 

but even with it removed, the bolt shaft has swelled from rust and wont move.

If I try to force it down, the wood is threatening to split around it, I will not force it...yet. 

Not without some re-enforcement, after some more rust loosening effort.

With one bolt slacked off, there is enough play to see its construction.

Cross piece M&T to side pieces and platform in between held by a rabbeted edge in a groove 

Whatever I do, I must make that surface lay flat, or at the very least coplanar where the uprights (2) bolted on.  Having a closer look at the mortise surface on top where the uprights goes, the one that was crooked, has definitively made a depression on the shoulder. May have to shim it a smidgen to stay straight. All that to say, my BBM is back in pieces... for a while

I then turned my attention to the Boring Till holders, brought my prototype holders, my blank hardwood pieces and a copy of my post that shown how I made my holders. Its been so long, some of my tools selections have changed, need to ensured I got it right before drilling.

That is when I noticed that my templates, which I had to recut to fit my till, were a bit shorter than my blanks..??? Huh??

So decided against drilling them, will have to cross cut to size first. Meanwhile I left the till up on the wall in my shop.

Had to make room on the glue table anyway :-)

I like these new Bessey pipe clamps we got with the built-in feet. Smart

Since I brought a bunch of tools to check on my holder fit, figured may as well take them apart then clean & oil them.

Everything was going fine until I got to my Scottish brace, Mathieson. There is too much play, almost a 1/4 in between the head and the shoulder on the frame. Easy fix, open cover, tighten or add shims to fix, replace cover...

Of course, I did not had any of the special spanner required (with two small pins).

What always works for me is to insert two small finishing nail that fit snugly in the holes, then using the pliers clamped across both, gently turn CCW. I pre-ably soaked the threads with WD40, but if avail would had used liquid wrench.

Brass plug cover removed. The threaded female parts are on the wood,

hence traditionally a hard wood, mostly rosewood etc.

Hum, this one got me temporarily stumped...

The metal ring on top was loose, the one left is round and does not appeared to be threaded on.

So How do I remove or adjust it???

A simple interference fit? If so I'll have to tap it down.

I dunno, this is a Mathieson, should be a good one, what kind of devices were they using to hold the head on, loose enough to turn freely? And be adjustable for the inevitable wear.  The previous ones I seen, used some sort of threads post.

If any of my reader has any idea's please chime in, appreciated

With these and in between helping the members that shows up (7) I managed to cover my shift and stay busy. I liked it that way, time goes faster...

In retrospect, I whish I had brought along my Boring till, which I left hanging on its French cleats in my shop. I could had trimmed my holder pieces to length and get on with it.

Oh, well, there is always tomorrow...

Sunday took a drive to mother in law, visit with her and Rudy's girlfriend Diva.

Rudy loves it there, between him and Diva they pester Mom for treats, they work as a team :-)

Here are the two love bird caught kissing on the couch, at Mom :-)

So coming up next would be the post on the oak 3 tiers plant light stand I'm fixing or the How to take apart the Buck Rogers No 100 push drill, whichever come first.

Then there are the post that still need to go up in my shop, and clean up then attach to it the Post drill, etc, etc...

Oh and almost forgot, I should really put this poor boring till to bed...

I also have to "help" built two small tables for a hallway, for Jean's sister, and Jean is starting to accumulate furniture pieces request, so I should be busy.

A few lectures/demos at the wood hobby shop, and, and

OH, yes my annual RCAF mess dinner on March 28th (RCAF birthday is April 1st 1924)

Yes time can fly pretty fast on retirement :-)

Bob, who is also a gentleman farmer starting vegetable from seed in his basement. Should be another good growing season.

Progress, small progress

With the BMM reassembled, I can now move around the shop easier.  So, next project to give me more room is to hang the Boring till. Ready or not, once hung, it will sure free up some space.

Some of these steps involved waiting in between, so.... make myself short daily list 4-5 items.

NO 1 Today was Finish the brace bits that soaked overnite in Evaporust.

I was so impressed the other day, how my BBM bit came out of the Evaporust, I have been dunking various bits in a variety of conditions from light rust mark to solid piece of rust. Pretty cool. Works great and practically sharphen itself in the process.

A very rusty Irwin type bit.

The other one still has plating

 but light surface rust

Two basket case nose bits?

The 4 bits out of Evaporust 

Top one was the rusty one.

Bottom one was the plated one after a few minutes with Rust eraser fine. 

Both bits after rust eraser 

That nose bit has a damaged edge but it makes no difference to its operations 

Nice edge were it matter

A good bit salvaged

NO 2 was to scrape the wooden balls on the BBM.  The nights before I put on some wood filler, yesterday put some gel epoxy in the crack, today it was time to scraped them.


Only thing left is a lite sanding, then decide on a stain (thinking darker color) to both hide my gap fillings and for esthetics ....

Wood filler for all the deep scratches and dings

That one is a deep crack

Used a 5 mins gel epoxy

Scraped, ready for a

light sanding, then stain

NO 3 was to attach the upper part of the French cleat. It is to be screwed and glued to the main carcasse.

Carcasse empty, all the brace bits are removed, some of the bits took a bath in Evaporust

Prepare to trim pieces to length

Used my Sweet Sweden Miter box

Yes, im working on the floor...

And done. Now we wait again

In between, took some time to investigate the frame....

Square up front

Same here 

Hum my eyes were not lying...

I can squeeze it almost square

That side is definitively bowing out

That one straight up

Hummm definitively got some butt scratching on that one.  All the tenons are sitting tight in their mortise??

It is now time for a coffee break, last part on my list is clean up....

Bob, making small but steady progress...