Well it kept me busy over christmas...

[John Rumm]

Been nailing planks together again...

(Feel free to translate into English where required!)

Let me know where it makes no sense at all ;-)

[Bill Wright]

I wish I could do something like that...

Bill

[pcb1962]

Very nice work, thanks for writing it up.

[Huge]

I'm deeply impressed. And slightly embarrassed that all I did over Xmas was lay about. Oh, I did do *some* woodwork - I pruned the apple trees.

And I now know how non-techies must feel when we talk about computer stuff since a significant proportion of the description is incomprehensible to me. :o)

[The Medway Handyman]

Nice work Norm :-)

[stuart noble]

Nice job! My only concern would be the true moisture content of the timber. I learnt the hard way not to trust the estimates given by merchants. Furniture stuff should ideally be 10%-12% but IIRC American hardwoods were pretty reliable in that respect. By contrast, locally sourced material was often described as "nice and dry" :-)

[Bob Minchin]

Looks very good indeed John. Did you glue along the full length of the stretcher tenons? I wonder about movement tending to split the stretchers especially as they are 'pre-weakened' by the decorative clamping holes? Hopefully not but should be out of direct gaze of all but other woodworkers. Happy New Year and thanks for your advice during the past year. Bob

[Tim Lamb]

In message , John Rumm writes

Excellent work. Did it get the important domestic seal of approval?

I use the band saw for tenons as you can easily work to a clamped stop. I also have a Wadkin pullover saw which is easier for repetitive clearing cuts.

[John Rumm]

If you tell me which bits, I can either rephrase, or make links to glossary entries etc.

I must admit to being torn a little at times with terminology, since much of what is commonly used on the web is US centric - but it gets a bit repetitive to keep using both all the time.

e.g. referring to a Planer in the UK vs a Jointer in the US etc.

[Tim Watts]

On Friday 03 January 2014 11:16 Tim Lamb wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Wow - seriously nice work :)

[John Rumm]

I wonder how locally sourced American Hardwood fairs ;-)

I did give it a poke with my (cheap ebay) moisture meter, and it did seem to be in the right ballpark (apart from the last couple of inches at the board ends which were a bit damper).

Time will tell however...

[John Rumm]

I did not stick a brad nail in it anywhere... (although was wearing my "safety glasses" ;-)

[stuart noble]

Lucky sod :-)

[John Rumm]

Yes I did wonder about that... My original plan was to only glue the top

3" section of the tenon - although I think in the heat of the moment, I did both bits! Fortunately the timeber seemed pretty dry at the time of assembly, so with luck it ought not shrink too much more.

(I did keep the tenons a tad narrower than the mortices to allow a little room - but how much scope that has now they are not floating at one end is debatable).

Indeed... I might go back and add some notes to that section, since it is a good point.

[Bod]

I assume you only saw up 'old' pullovers :-)

[John Rumm]

Indeed it did... "that might be the nicest thing you have made" was the comment ;-)

I use mine for "big" tenons. I must admit to liking a "non H&S approved" technique for smaller ones on the table saw that basically makes the shoulder cuts first and then gnaws away at the waste section using a cove cutting style technique.

I can do similar with my SCMS, but its depth setup is not that accurate, and its not much less effort than on the table saw unless the wood in question is large an heavy.

Normally if I need to do lots of trench clearing, I fit a dado stack on the table saw. (which being ancient (1948) has a long enough arbour to take one).

[Tim Lamb]

In message , stuart noble writes

E-bay, £400, no injection braking. You need space, 3phase, a fork lift truck. Did I mention space?

I am slightly entertained by the American (dado) determination to use what I call a *wobble saw blade* for cutting slots. However long does this take to set up on a bench saw for a one off job?

>

[gremlin_95]

Wow, that is very impressive :-)

[stuart noble]

Yep, you said "space" twice in one sentence :-) Woodworking shops always look as though the occupants have moved out and left a couple of machines dotted about. 10 feet back and front of a table saw (and most other machines) is an absolute minimum IME. Lovely thing to use, the Wadkin. I mostly had to put up with the deWalt radial arm, a very different proposition

In the (good) old days ISTR an adjustable Picador wobble washer, but it was mainly a question of trial and error as you couldn't measure the kerf width unless the blade was spinning

[Bob Minchin]

Dado blades cut a flat bottomed groove( housing, dado etc call it what you will) whereas wobble saws cut a groove with a radiussed bottom which on most joints is visible. Armed with a suitable table of thicknesses, I find a dado set and shims very quick to set and nearly always right first time.