I might be a Neanderthal .........

[diggerop]

Had a great day in the workshop today. SWMBO had requested I make something for her daughter's birthday, so I set to work breaking down some timber on the T/S and then sharpened up my collection of hand planes and proceeded to flatten and dress the boards.

Happiness is spending a day at the bench using really sharp handplanes and being surrounded by light fluffy shavings, seeing the boards turn out completely flat and shining. : )

Doesn't matter to me that it's inefficient, - I enjoy the exercise and the challenge. (Have never owned a thicknesser and gave my jointer to a friend some time back, - I seldom used it and don't miss it.)

Next stage involves handsaw, chisels, spokeshave and handcut dovetails.

Life is good : )

Diggerop

[Leon]

I posted these links back in August. Your mention of your pleasure of hand works reminded me of the links. You should really enjoy the 3 viedo's if you did not catch the the first go round.

Glide Leg Vise

Bench and a little handy plane work. ;~) Vise

[diggerop]

vise is *very* nice.

I made a leg vise for my bench when I built it years ago. Nothing sophisticated like the one in the video, but it works well. The face is self-aligning to allow secure clamping of timber where the faces are not parallel. The foot slides in and out and locks automatically through the medium of a pinch block.

I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

Diggerop

[Leon]

Please do, I am in the planing stages of building a work bench and would like to see more ideas.

[Luigi Zanasi]

Re: subject; no "might" about it. :-)

Luigi

[RicodJour]

Until you replace that table saw with a two-person pit saw, at best you're a Cro-Magnon.

R

[diggerop]

Until you replace that table saw with a two-person pit saw, at best you're a Cro-Magnon.

R

Half a day in a saw pit would kill me : )

Years back, I came across many old saw pits while doing exploration work in the W.A. goldfields. They were used to produce railway sleepers for the wood hauling trains that supplied the steam powered gold mining industry in a bygone era. Most was used for fuel, with a smaller proportion used as shoring in the deep underground mines. As an area of forest was exhausted, they would rip up the tracks and re-lay them in an unlogged area. The last of these operations continued to the early 60's.

At its peak, they were logging 500,000 tons per year, predominantly using migrant labour.

They were extremely tough people.

Diggerop

[diggerop]

Re: subject; no "might" about it. :-)

Luigi

....... and then there's the adze ..... : )