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18 Boards remaining

December 24, 2021 by Bob Easton 4 Comments

The top of the Anarchist’s Workbench wants 18 boards. Most of the base parts are done. Next the top.

Whoa, wait a minute, what’s happening? Why a new workbench? Longish story; shortish answer: we moved on June 10th this year. … from New York to Florida. We left many possessions in NY, into the hands of others. Among the things from my workshop there, I left behind that 12 foot long English bench, an infrequently used band saw, and a rag-tag bunch of clamps. (With moving costs based on weight, many heavy things can be replaced for less than the cost of moving them.) After a couple of other woodworking projects since moving in, I’m now getting a new workshop together, along with a new bench.

First a bit about the shop

We were very fortunate to find a home with a 3 car garage. This community is one where cars are kept inside garages, not on the streets, not in driveways. So, we have accommodations for both of our vehicles, and a 3rd bay that is becoming my new shop. This one is a few feet longer than the single car stall in the NY home and a LOT taller. We have 10 foot high ceilings throughout the house, including the garage. Since I like to keep tools “at hand” and not in tool chests, the ceiling height affords lots of wall space for mounting various tool racks. All I have to do now is learn to levitate to reach some of those tools.

photo looking toward the workshop

One of the first things we did after purchasing this newly constructed home was to have the garage floors coated with Liquid Floors, a polyurea / polyaspartic coating that is tougher and more durable than the epoxy I had in the old shop. It’s an amazing coating that makes cleanup incredibly easy. Yep, cleaned the floor before taking these pictures.

photo of window wall
another photo of the window wall
photo of the back wall

You can see some of the things from the previous shop, lathe, lathe tool chest, carving tools, hollow and round planes, bowl carving horse and many other tools. Not everything is yet in a good place, but getting closer.

P.S. Thanks Megan for the sawbenches, the first shop furniture built in this shop.

It takes a bench…

…to build a bench. There’s a hastily assembled temporary workbench under the window. It’s a couple of 8 foot long 2 by 12s screwed to a few brackets that are attached to the concrete block wall. It offers enough space for prepping the wood for building a better bench. Workholding is sometimes a challenge, leading to a variety of ways to employ blocks screwed to the bench top combined with a few clamps.

photo of temporary bench

It will definitely be temporary, because as much as it offers space, it is springy and boomingly loud. A good bench absorbs hammering as dull thudding sounds. This one booms loudly enough to be heard all over the neighborhood, and homes are close together here. It will eventually become the base for a lumber rack underneath the flag on the back wall of the shop.

photo of truck-side of the shop

BTW, those recumbent trikes get used every day. This community has a large number of golf courses and more golf carts per capita than NY has lawyers per capita. The trikes are our substitute for golf carts … and, no I don’t play golf. Been there, done that. And yes, those are retractable screens on the garage door openings. They keep the insects out and slow down the gators.

Anarchist Workbench in progress

I won’t try to sell anyone on this choice of bench. The sales page and over 100 pages of the book itself do that job. I was sold a long time ago, not because anything wrong with my earlier bench, but because I see this as the last bench a 77 year old woodworker will ever need.

Unlike the process recommended in the book, using power tools to prep the lumber, I’m doing it all by hand. Yep, staying active. Keeping the irons sharp in my scrub and #5 planes is key to the work moving along well. I also do glue-ups differently than what Schwarz suggests. He outlines planing a set of boards and then gluing them, something that can be done in a few hours with power planing. Hand planing isn’t nearly as fast, and letting 4 or 5 boards sit around for a few days while plaining others just gives them time to turn themselves into twizzler shapes. I glue-up any time a board is ready to add to the stack.

photo of the bench base

All of the base parts are done, and that left front leg now has the rough mortise refined into the correct dimensions for the Benchcrafted Crisscross vise, one of the heavy things I DID bring along.

Next, 18 boards for the top.

Why the move?

movie poster for Escape from New York

Short answer: New York, the state not the people, has been becoming increasingly burdensome / tyrannical / communist for many years and we just reached the point of “enough already!” My wife and I have been retired for a number of years, leaving fewer ties to the area. It was simply time to leave.

Florida provides us a real, palpable, feeling of freedom. We are free from government pandemania about our health decisions, and Florida’s COVID record proves the value of letting people rather than government make these decisions. Business is booming. People are enjoying their lives here; we’ve never lived in a place where total strangers we pass in the streets wave and say “hello.” Unemployment is very low. The state budget is under control. And we have great law enforcement without stupid bail policies.

Florida also has great weather (for the snow-adverse), an amazing variety of birds, alligators and other wildlife … and we go swimming in outdoor pools under sunny skies every day.

Filed Under: Shopmade, Woodworking, workbench

3 More Walking Eagles

January 30, 2021 by Bob Easton 4 Comments

photo of 3 walking canes

A few years ago, I made one of these in walnut. Last year, another in cherry for one of my brothers. Now, three more in cherry, two for my other brothers and one for me. We’re all aging and gratefully still fully mobile. The time might come when one of these is handy. As I learned 6 decades ago as a Boy Scout: “Be prepared.”

I have already adjusted mine (far right) for the height I find comfortable. My brothers are about as tall as me; I’ll let them adjust their own. Here’s a useful guide for getting the right length cane.

Today’s temperature in the Peoples Republic of New York started at 15° Fahrenheit, leaving the shop at 36°. My cold tolerance in the shop bottoms out at about 50°. During the recent cold spell, I’ve deferred heavy work (such as hacking out bowls) abandoned the shop, and moved my carving bench and carving tools into a heated room, ideal for the detail carving of these eagles.

detail photo of 3 walking canes

As with earlier walking canes, these are built with a foxed tenon and finished with several coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil gun stock finish.

Filed Under: Woodcarving, Woodworking

New Greenland Paddle – part 3

July 29, 2020 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

The last phase of shaping the paddle is to remove everything that isn’t paddle shaped. Pare the loom, center handle, down to a round shape. Shape the oar portions, starting with nearly a diamond near the center, tapering evenly to thin softly arched tips. Knock off all the sharp edges so the entire length of the paddle will be easy on the hands.

Primary tools for this work are a simple ancient Stanley spoke shave and a collection of sharp steel card scrapers. (How to sharpen a scraper.)

  • photo of just beginning to shape a paddle
  • photo of one paddle nearly done

Update July 31:

After branding, I applied the first of 4 coats of pure tung oil. As with many natural oils, caution about spontaneous combustion applies.

  • photo of "Easton" branded paddle tip
  • Oscar's only ostrich oiled an orange owl today
    Oscar’s only ostrich oiled an orange owl today.
photo ot paddle tip after 4 coats of tung oil

Same paddle tip after 4 coats of tung oil.

  • photo showing the length of the paddle
    Extra long for use on a wide kayak
  • photo of the paddle out for a kayak ride
    Out for a sunset ride on a Minnesota lake
click images for larger versions

Filed Under: Boating, Woodworking

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