Another one of my vises (vices?)

It is very likely that with this post I will pass 20,000 visits to my blog – while I am no pro in this woodworking world, I am pleased that folks are that interested in what I have to say. Thanks for the clicks!

Second Generation Face Vise in need of upgrade

This is the third vise for this bench I made in 1991. The bench was originally made from a Woodsmith magazine and was advertised as a European bench and I thought this good enough for me; and despite the cyclical trends of bench fads over these past 20+ years, this is still my favourite design. Originally the bench had a wooden vise face which the plans called for, but this only lasted a few years. It did not have a quick release and I was tired of spinning it every time I needed to use it. I like to close the vise when I am not using it as I have a habit of walking into things that are in my walking path...:-(

The vise that came off has served me well for many years, nothing special, just an 8” woodworking vise (with a quick release) with wooden jaws I made for it. I think this is the third set of wooden jaws which are overdue for replacement. This vise will get re-used on the new outfeed table I am building- with a new set of jaws of course.

The vise I used is the Lee Valley (Veritas) Quick Release Face Vise which according to my extensive reading is one of the best for this purpose. For me it was a very smooth installation as I could simply bolt it to the underside of the benchtop without much modification. The vise face was lined up on the template so it was flush with the top of my bench and I drilled the holes. The wooden jaw is bubinga with ebony shoulders to add some visual interest, I think it turned out okay.

Regarding the vise kit, the instructions were very well done, explaining how to mount the vise on several types of benches; as is typical of LV documentation it was well done and very easy to follow. The fit and finish of the vise is of an extremely high quality and very pleasing to the eye. But a vise is meant to be used, and now that I have been using it for a couple of months I am extremely pleased with its function. I lined the jaws with suede to give me a nice slip-proof setup and have no complaints whatsoever.

New face vise installed ready for use.

I use this vise everyday in the shop and it operates very smoothly, sliding in and out the way you would expect. The rails slide in and out very smooth, like a well engineered piece of equipment. The quick release is very well placed and easy to use and clicks off and on very precisely. A nice feature of this vise hardware is the angle iron protection over top of the acme threaded screw; I often use this vise to clamp parts being glued and the occasional squeeze-out drops down – the “hood” keeps the glue from fouling the screw and thus the action of the vise, I put a bit of wax on this to make it easier to clean off in the event of glue spillage.

In summary, I wish I had bought this vise years ago, we tend to put up with crappiness longer than we should – in fact this vise sat in the corner unopened in the box for 6 months before I broke down and installed it – what was I thinking?? If you are not caught up in the roubo bench vortex and are looking for this type of vise, I would recommend this one a lot. I have tried them all when I was researching and none of the ones I tried looked as good and felt as good in operation as this one – what do you expect from Lee Valley?

I knew I needed new (KNEW?) Handles

I really like the Knew Concepts saws. I bought one of the first aluminium ones I could buy. As a Titanium fan I wanted one those, but as with many of these firms in the U.S.; they refuse to ship to Canada - so I suffered with the Aluminium one, which really was not that much of a compromise. :-)

The ferrule insert which is quite different
 than the Elkhead one, shown beside it

These are quite simply the best saw out there for removing dovetail waste or cutting out creative shapes in material - I use it for both. The one knock on these saws is that for the price, you would think they would put more effort in putting a quality handle on their saws, NOT so much. I think they are made from some white wood from the crapwood tree.

Enter Elkhead Tools, who make pretty nice replacement handles for these saws. I bought one of these last fall at WIA and it makes the Knew saw way more usable. I find the saw with the stock handle as almost weightless which makes it difficult to control in fine cuts; the heavier handle makes it much easier to use accurately - at least for me. I am sure the almost weightless feel is good for some applications, just not mine.

Lee Valley recently picked up the Knew Coping saw which I immediately bought and love, but it's too light to use and thus control as well. I checked with the boys at Knew Concepts and they had no idea when the handle for the new Knew Coping saw would be available - enter Maritime ingenuity. At about the same time Lee Valley finally announced they were carrying the Titanium version and I grabbed one of these too.

I decided I would make some handles for these saws myself from some nice woods. I designed a brass insert and asked my machinist buddy Joey to make a few for me and turned a few handles for them and filed them to fit the saws and voila. I thought they turned out okay!!

My Knew saw collection and some nice handles, including an extra for a friend.

Yes I'm still alive

The past few months have been a very busy time for me, just not on the shop front. I am busily trying to finish the writing my Master's thesis, which must be complete by early May. I am really getting sick of queuing theory and modulation schemes right about now; but feel I am on the back side of this thing and its coming together. It will likely be my main focus for at least another month. Oh yeah that job thing takes some time as well, and with the travel associated with it, shop time is very limited.

Limited but not zero!!

I have been gradually picking away at my third rocking chair. We had a couple "warm" days at the end of February which allowed me to get outside and do the final grinding of the seat joints. This area is now sanded and the back braces and headrest have been attached.

This being my third chair, I am seeing some efficiencies of effort and I am finding that I am only referring to the plans for critical dimensions not techniques anymore. Someone looking at this chair would not imagine that the back braces are the most time consuming part of this chair - at least for me. In my view they are the feature aspect of this chair design, so worth the effort. It takes many hours to rip, thickness and glue up the back braces in the form. Last weekend it took me six straight hours to get them from rough-glued to ready for installation.

Back Braces ready for installation

The setup to make the cuts for the bottom and top tenons took almost an hour combined, for a 30 second cut; lots of test cuts to get it properly centered and the right size - exactly the right size!

Each end is then trimmed on the bandsaw, shaped on the spindle sander and then sanded by hand and fit to the mortises in the chair. The edges are eased on the router and then all sanded to 1000 grit before a coat of finish is applied - now they are ready for installation.

The rocker is well on its way now with the rocker stacks glued up and ready to attach to make this look more like a rocking chair. This is the final stage of assembly, but there is still lots of work shaping everything so it transitions smoothly - and comes the sanding - hours of frickin sanding...












I have also had the chance to put together a few small projects which I worked on a bit at a time.

Tea Anyone? all cherry inside, with bloodwood handles.

This tea box is for my son's girlfriend, who like many young folks today has discovered tea as a drink to be enjoyed - this is a good thing...:-)

The box is made from some curly Maple which was harvested from the front yard of my Dad's childhood home. The inside lids are from one piece of cherry left over from my Tommy Mac toolchest.

Curly maple with yellowheart veneer top.

The box top and bottom are veneered over a BB core and the miter feathers are cherry.

 This will store either tea bags or loose tea.

What's inside?

Mmm - more chisels!

Another recent project has been a storage box for my new Blue Spruce paring chisels which came in February. They have been rolling around loose and unrestrained in my toolchest, which is bad news for sharp tools.

These dreamy chisels are great for smoothing the sides of mortises or shaving an edge where a plane can't reach. The handles are African Blackwood.

The dovetailed box is made all from scraps of white oak, cherry and birdseye maple, the box bottom is a mahogany veneered BB panel.

The chisels are held in place with rare earth magnets which keeps everything snug when the lid is on.

mmmm...Beer!

 Beer Coatracks

Taphead finials.

The final small project is a couple of coat racks for the boys made to use up the last of the red oak I got from my uncle. They are a couple of coat racks which incorporate two beer tapheads I have been hoarding for years.

The bases, one with inlay, one with decal.

One of the boys has been asking about the Keith's one and could I make something for him. After lots of thought and research the coat rack was the best I could come up with.  The "hooks" are turned to look like small tapheads and I used laser-printer water slide decals to dress them up, turned out okay.

Okay back to spectrum and waveform analysis... :-(

Joinery Floats-an old tool is new again.

I was asked a few months back to review a new tool for Liogier rasps from France. They were thinking of starting a line of joinery floats and wanted the opinions of some users to refine the product before offering it for sale.

I am pleased to see some of my feedback was incorporated into the final design which is now available for sale.

In the interest of full disclosure, I purchased and paid for this float from Liogier - no freebies here.

Enjoy the video, I hope this tool from the past will find a way into your woodworking

Hand Tool Bench-on-Bench (aka Moxon Vise)

During the building of my Toolchest, I spent quite a bit of time hunched over the bench paring out dovetails that I had cut. The next day I could not bend my neck and knew I had to fix this before I did my next hand tool project.

Moxon's engraving showing vise on front of workbench.

Many builders have played with the design of the Moxon vise which by most accounts was first found in Joseph' Moxon's landmark book on woodworking from 1678.

The recent renaissance of hand tool interest has resuscitated interest in the Moxon vise and many woodworkers and manufacturers have taken a stab at their interpretation of the Moxon vise.


I have looked at most of the designs out there as well as the many individual attempts at building this vise and developed a design that would work for me. I knew I wanted to use my end vise dogs to attach it to the bench and I wanted a small bench-on-bench work-surface, rather than just the two jaws like many designs. I asked my machinist pal Joey to use the same design he used for my end vise handle to make some wheels which would work with some threaded rod that I would build into the vise.

Wood Parts Layout before final assembly

I also built a mock-up with some blocks to test the height which would be best for me; I had read the the ideal height for this work is 4" below your elbow; after trying several heights it turned out the 3-3/4" below my elbow was the perfect height - the rule of thumb would likely have been fine!

Gluing the bench-on-bench "top" piece

Picture of vise in use making some drawer sides with prototype wheels.

I used some Maple that I got from the same mill as the birds eye for my Dad's rocker and built the various components to build the vise. The picture below shows the finished vise. A few test cuts on the new bench have proven its going to be very useful going forward. Since I have already been asked, these wheels are turned from 5" 4140 steel bar stock and are very heavy.

After using the vise on a couple of projects, one thing that has frustrated me is the the chop(front jaw) does not move when I remove pressure from the vise - I am looking for a small spring set-up which will open the jaws for me.

The finished Moxon.

NBSS / Tommy MacDonald Tool Chest Complete! Plus Tool Porn

Thanks to many for the kind comments (including a FaceBook share from Tommy himself) on my first post on the Tool Chest; I am glad others are interested in this project, it inspires me to keep going with this blogging thing...

The first blog left off with the case finished and ready for some drawers. The next step involved my very first attempt at half-bind dovetails which have been a trademark of fine craftsmen for centuries. The drawer bodies are made from Southern Yellow Poplar which is harder than the pine normally used but still soft and light enough to work easily. The drawer bottoms are 3/8" bookmatched resawn poplar with tapered edges to fit in the groove but keep the strength in a drawer that large.

A few finishing touches I have put into this special project are the black cast iron pulls and the green leather drawer lining which add a real richness to the piece. Enjoy the build shots.

Using my David Barron dovetail gauge to cut the drawer sides.

Test fitting the drawers to ensure they glide effortlessly

The drawers with a coat of finish on them, the insides
are not finished.

The finished case and darwers, just 5 more coats of Deft natural to go.

The ash ship-lapped back is screwed on

The finished cabinet with cast iron pulls installed!

 And now for some Tool Porn

This new tool chest allows me to store some of my nicer tools in a dust-free place - they will all be used just as much, only without the dust!!

Measure three times, cut once, measure again!

The plane truth!

Saws - all??

A plane brown wrapper!

Thanks for viewing, this has been a fun project for me.

Tommy MacDonald inspired toolchest - Build Part 1

I have been a big fan of Tommy MacDonald since he hit PBS 3 years ago, and fully support him in carrying the torch for Norm as the promoter of all things wood on PBS for the current generation.  I have to admit that Norm inspired me to get into woodworking many years ago, long before I had the tools and the space to make anything.

Tommy and his Toolchest

I had the occasion to meet Tommy this fall at Woodworking in America and had a chance to chat about his show; he also did a little demo/chat on his  toolchest project which appeared in this season's episodes. This toolchest however has been one of his signature pieces from the beginning and the build along for the original has been on his site from the beginning. I have always wanted to build this project as I think it is important for every serious woodworker to build a toolchest sometime in their lifetime. This design features many elements which make it a challenge for even the most experienced wood butcher.

Wood layout, couple of nice pieces of Cherry need to be
oriented to maximize the nice sapwood stripe in the joint

This project is my first real attempt at dovetails for case construction and like most folks a little intimidating, and unlike others, I am not going to use a lot of time practicing cutting dovetails on firewood - my approach is to dig right in. I used David Barron's dovetail jig which I have to admit is the best jig I have tried for cutting dovetails and is difficult, even for me, to screw up.




My design has a few departures from Tommy's original, because of a screw-up (insert swearing here) the front divider strips are not dovetailed into the front of the case - the dadoes look just fine - really they do...  I  have also altered the drawer layout to give me full-width drawers on the top, this better suits the things I want to store in this chest.

Following are a few pictures from the build, the case is now complete and just need to finish cutting the drawers and fitting them which takes quite a bit of time - test-fit, plane, test-fit again, repeat as necessary. Remember to click on the pictures for a closer look.

All the tails cut on the case sides

Using David Barron Jig to cut the tails on the case top

Test fit of the first corner - doesn't suck!

Case sides with dadoes cut for interior partitions, cleaned up
with the router plane

Mother of all glue-ups to ensure its perfectly square

I am testing out a prototype joinery float from Liogier rasps from
France, it makes quick work of the these faces right off the
table saw.

The interior dividers all ready for glue-up, I used oak for these
as I had quite a bit laying around.

Layout of the front pieces was critical to get that grain
flowing across the two boards. the narrow pieces are the
divider pieces that fit between the drawers.

The dividers test fit with cherry fronts added, ready for trimming.

The front dividers glued in place and the drawers fronts
 friction fit into their openings creates a pleasing look.

The case with a coat of finish on it ready for some drawers! the case is on its back, the long
face is the case's top.

Rocker #2 - a most Special Build

I knew when I built my first rocker it would not be my last, its just a question of how long my attention span lasts before I need to move onto some other type of woodworking challenge - me thinks the next stage will involve carving - but that's another day.

This story starts with a challenge to my Dad to find me some nice hardwood from his childhood homeland, I told him I wanted to build a piece of furniture from it - not a lie, but misleading nonetheless - but for a good purpose!!

If you want to know where this is click here

Well between his brother Paul and himself he talked to a family friend who had a mill nearby and he thought he had "some of that birdeye maple", so the adventure began. Dad tracked him down and the visit was booked, we drove down and into the mill located in the middle of the woods. Sure enough it was there stuffed in the rafters of an outdoor mill for what I found out later was 20 years. As was typical for this part of the world, we spent an hour at the mill figuring out what I would take, all without the owner being around. Once I decided what I wanted, we drove out of the woods and over to the farm were he was working some cattle to negotiate the deal - he was very happy to take $2/bf for the wood which was a smoking deal, but I was not sure of the quality considering how long the wood has sat around and also how tough it was to grade the Birdseye in the rough - I would not be disappointed.

Dad organized his other brother's (not Darrell) truck and brought it down to the house. Thew wood was only air dried so it needed some time to dry out. This gave me time to build a couple of pieces from the Oak we got from the same brother into a couple of pieces of furniture, one for Brendan and one for Dad.

OK - back to this story....

All along my plan was to build a rocker for my Dad from the wood that was grown near his homestead - I could not have dreamed in my wildest fantasy this would be the result. While the pictures are very good quality, they cannot begin to do justice to how awesome this piece looks in the flesh. The creamy whiteness of the maple and the eyes just seem to pop off the chair and the mineral streaking only adds character, as much as I tried to avoid it. Here's the money shots: (as always click on the picture for the high-res close-up look)

Overall View, all Maple from this angle

Side View. The plugs and the accent strips
are Cherry which will darken up

Back View, the back braces are Cherry backed, not the grain
progression across the pieces. also see where the wood's figure
was not everywhere so i had to be strategic where I put the mineral
streaking.

Back Brace Detail

Seat and arms in all their Birdseye glory

Another detail shot

There was not quite enough of the good stuff to build a complete rocker, so I had to add a couple of pieces to beef out the legs so I could makes them from the narrow boards. Also the material was not quite 2" thick which makes it tough to get the thickness one needs for certain parts. All in all, I am more than pleased, and so its its happy new owner...

The happy Recipient!

Couple of small projects

Needed to fit a few small jobs between the big Christmas present build which will be revealed in a couple of days when it it presented to its unsuspecting recipient.

I needed a place to store my new Harold & Saxon chisels as these will be used for only special tasks and stored in the drawer for the rest of the time. I threw these two boxes together in an afternoon which I hope does justice to the fineness of these tools.

Couple of boxes from Walnut, Birdseye Maple and Cherry veneer over the BB plywood base.
 Keeps them where they belong.

Heather also asked me to turn a few Christmas ornaments for her staff so I used the popular birdhouse ornament look to turn a few of these out on Saturday morning.

Birdseye Maple birdhouses with Cherry and Walnut caps, kind of went for the acorn shape.

NOW BACK TO THE BIG PROJECT.