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Today I had a decent amount of shop time for a guy with two kids and an infant – a whopping four hours! I was able to put it to good use, and I made some progress on the Lego Table. So here are a couple pics:
First, here is the dovetailed frame with the center support piece. Those tenons will be double-wedged, and trimmed flush of course.
And then, after cutting the 1/2″ plywood to fit, here’s an idea of how it will look:
It’s no chisel box, but I guess it’ll do. :^)
Note: This post started out as a reply to this comment, but I felt it warranted its own blog entry.
I just received what I call my first “hate mail” here on Adventures in Woodworking. It’s actually not hateful, just insulting and mean. In short, Adam (not Cherubini) tore apart the workmanship on my chisel box (which even I said was shoddy), and said that the plastic packaging the chisels came in was better than what I did.
At first, I was angry, sure. And a bit defensive. But the more I thought it over, the more I realized that all we have is a simple difference of opinion. Adam apparently thinks that everything you make out of wood should glisten with craftsmanship. And I think that everything you make out of wood that is for use in the shop should work…and who cares what it looks like.
I don’t make shop furniture for people to see and appreciate (as Adam believes you should). I make shop furniture to make my woodworking easier. My chisels were rattling around in a plastic tub with hand planes, scrapers and saws. I needed them in a box that would keep them still and the blades protected. Check. I needed the box to be as small and lightweight as possible, since they go around the world (literally) every couple years or so. Check. I needed to build it quickly, since those of you who DO read my blog (you’re still welcome, Adam!) know that I spent six months making a jewelry box and six weeks making a simple step stool. Check.
I know that lots of guys out there like pretty shop furniture. Workbenches are works of art these days. But everyone (yes, even you, Adam!) draws the line somewhere. Do you inlay your push stick? Do a little decorative carving on your shooting board? Why not?
Lastly, I also must disagree with Adam that the plastic packaging is better than where my chisels are currently housed, for one main reason. I didn’t just get a chisel box out of that weekend’s work. I got additional experience working with wood and figuring out what to do…and yes, what not to do.
P.S. The title of this blog entry, for those who didn’t get it, is from the movie Babe about a sheep-herding pig.
Today is a national holiday (it’s Eid ul-Adha, the big Muslim holiday celebrating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son) and I was able to get in a little shop time today! But first, define shop. I needed to work on my dovetails for the aprons on my Lego Table, but had no place to do any vertical clamping. So out to the balcony I went. And voila!
I had to use one of the little metal vertical bars (you can see one on the far right of the above picture) to support the back side of the clamp, and bunches of scrap wood to support everything and keep my piece straight up and down. Here’s a closeup:
I used the balcony wall as a tool rest, which is a little scary being on the fifth floor and all! But I didn’t drop anything. I also tried to get a shot of the mosque in the background of the picture above, you know, cuz of the holiday and all. :^)
Now I had to get ultra super creative when it came time to mark the tails (I did two pins-first joints and two tails-first joints – I think I liked tails-first better). Here I used the clothes drying rack (slash secondary tool rest) with a plastic stool resting on blocks to get the right height for marking the mating piece.
I had to do a little paring on one of my tails, so I resorted to my bone clamp with ratcheting double-femur action. I was too lazy to go get my mallet so I grabbed a scrap of wood to help my dull chisel along.
At the end of the day (only a couple hours of “shop” time), I managed to finish two of the four corners. I’ve done all the marking on the other two, so next time I’ll be able to jump right into it.
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