Where's sturdee when I need him ??? :-)

[NewLou]

I've been hand chiseling a few mortises lately and have been using a straight edge clamped to the stock I've been mortising to ensure that I don't get to wayward with my chiseling. (See Pics) I'm thinking of getting a really strong magnet and seating it in some stock to hold my chisels flush with the straight edge......................Has anyone tried this??? ..............Any ideas on best way to knock up this Jig?????

Regards Lou

[derekcohen]

Lou

What you might try is a variation of the jig I made for cutting dovetails. The full set of pics is at http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=7221

I would make a slightly higher fence/guide for the chisel.

Make the fence wider so that you can clamp the timber along its length.

What do you think?


Regards from Perth

Derek

[Sturdee]

Hi Lou,

Great to feel needed.

Are you drilling out the mortices and just cleaning up after drilling or are you doing the huncho bit by chiselling out the whole mortice?

If you are just cleaning up after drilling than I think Derek's jig suitably modified for thickness of the jig and incorporating a few rare earth magnets to help you keep the chisel straight would be possible. Else I would Derek's jig without magnets.


Peter.

[NewLou]

Yer the only power tool I use is the Drill Press. (See Pics on how I did it) The good old outdoor barbie table is doubling as my workbench at the moment I make jigs outta anything I can including the barbie setting chairs with the help a clamps The joint is a through wedged mortice and tenon with two dowells for extra strength............................I'm practicing this joint to prep up for the construction of my bench's base. (Wll be made from Ash)

Derek's idea looks great thx for the help fellas............Just one last thing does anyone know where to get some strong magnets?

Regards Lou

[Sturdee]

Lou,

That is a nice strong joint that you made and I like the idea of using whatever is at hand. Just make sure that when you use a kitchen table as a saw bench you keep the cut line well away from the edge of the table. DAMHIK.

A carjack was one of my favourite lifting tools when I was renovating.

For my magnets I go to the Aussie magnet Company see http://www.aussiemagnets.com.au/home.html

Peter.

[NewLou]

Thx for that sturdee I checked out your web site ............ I'll never go short of magnets again

Regards Lou

[NewLou]

After Sturdee's advise on where I could pick up some good magnets.......off to cyber world to check out their stuff n boy have Aussie MAgnets got some cool gear (See previous link).

I decided to order some rare earth magnets so that I could set them with some epoxy into a mortise in a straight edge (block of hardwood) that I exclusively use to practice mortises and dovetails. The great thing bout this piece of hardwood is that I can incorporate it into a frankenstein version of Dereks dovetail jig in the future.

The first thing I noticed is that man these are strong magnets!!! (See Pics) I mean if they stick to something they stay stuck and nothing but a bit of elbow grease and some brute force will pry them apart, or off other metal items they have leeched to.

I marked out the mortise n chissled away until I reached the desired depth..........mixed up some epoxy set the magnets in the mortise then left them to set.

Of note is that these particular rare earth magnets a quite brittle.........After recapturing my childhood mucking around with the magnets and showing off in front of the kids I unfortunately broke one. luckily I was able to glue up with epoxy and set in the mortise after some encouragement from my mallet.

...........I'll let you guys know how I got on once they have cured.

Regards Lou

[Termite]

New Lou,
Bionic arm eh? Looks just like the real thing.

[NewLou]

LOL....................Yer I got off the Grog so now I need something to hold me together...............I reckon I should get a job as a poor man's stuntman........that really hurt having those magnets there sucking and squeezing the life outta me

[journeyman Mick]

LOL....................Yer I got off the Grog so now I need something to hold me together...............I reckon I should get a job as a poor man's stuntman........that really hurt having those magnets there sucking and squeezing the life outta me

What you need (besides the foil hat of course) is some elbow length foil gloves to stop the magnets sucking your life forces out, followed by a stack of pancakes to build your strength up again.

Mick

[Slavo]

Another good source of rare earth magnets is old computer hard drives.

[Sturdee]

The first thing I noticed is that man these are strong magnets!!! (See Pics) I mean if they stick to something they stay stuck and nothing but a bit of elbow grease and some brute force will pry them apart, or off other metal items they have leeched to.

Lou, don't try to prise them apart but slide them of each other or the metal surface. Much easier.


Of course if you want to do the strong man stuff it helps if you eat some pancakes first.


Peter.

[NewLou]

Well heres the prototype of this jig after shes cured................I'll post a few pics and scribe a few words on how handy she is after I give her a workout practicing a few joints!!!! .............. To ensure the face stays true I've been toying with the idea of screwing on a thin sheet of perspex over the face..................Anyone got some ideas on anything else that I could use to keep the face where I've seated the magnets true????

In Hindsight (Handy thing that) I should of waited until I got a router and would probably seat the magnets by simply making the mortise deeper so that I could seat a block of metal for the magnet to adhear to (No need for epoxy then) & in theory I could take the magnets out if needed.........I'll develop this Jig more as I discover its strengths and weaknesses and probably incorporate some of dereks ideas as well.............I'm wondering if I can set up a similar Jig to assist with paring tails of Dovetails etc etc. In the meantime I've ordered a bit of wax to apply to the face to help reduce wear and assist chisels to slide across the face.


Regards Lou

[Termite]

Look Mum , no hands.
Seriously though, a darn good idea. Well done.

[NewLou]

Gidday everyone

Well I thought it was about time that I cleaned up the prototype of my first magnetic block jig. Basically its a hardwood straight edge with a magnet epoxied into a mortice.

I thought I'd use one of my favourate planes to soften the edges and clean her up a bit. To help tools slide over the magnetic edge and protect the wood I decided to rub in a coat of traditional Wax into the Jig (So far seems to help metal slide over the magnets and face of the straight edge)

As previously shown this Jig is designed to guide chisels and other metal tools....................I thought I'd show you guys how effective she is at crosscuts on a piece of meranti stock I plan to use for practicing dovetails. DoH! sorry
...............digital camera ran outta batteries I'll post the rest soon

REgards Lou