My First Workshop

[Mooncabbage]

The man loved his Antiques Roadshow and Bargain Hunt, he was always holding onto things incase they suddenly became valuable. I found 3 UK style mail slots, can't imagine what I'd use them for.

Got a few more bits from bunnies today, including super cheap trojan chisels, which apparently can be sharpened to quite a nice edge, even if they don't hold it for that long. Good excuse for more practice, and when I'm done with them I can use them for the nasty jobs, like levering and prizing things apart. I also got some sandpaper and whatnot so I can try that super sharp method on glass. Highest grit sandpaper Bunnings sells though is 1200 grit, which is a little disappointing. I'll have to get a sheet of 2000 grit from Carba-Tec next time I'm there.

On the way home I managed to blag two short radiata pine boards, and a short jarrah beam, from the bulk collection piles. I'm thinking I might use part of the jarrah beam for my shop made marking gauge.

Anyway, off down to see if I can't get a bit more done down there with the cabinet. Hopefully I'll get it done and then I can post a few pics!

[Master Splinter]

Super Cheap Auto runs to 2000 grit wet and dry - it's also a bit cheaper than bunnies, from memory.

[Mooncabbage]

Lol, I wish I'd known that, I would have stopped by to get some. Supercheap Auto at Morley is in a bit of a retarded spot now, so I always forget it's there.

[Needles]

I stitched your images into a panorama as best I could.




We all have to start somewhere - hang in there.

This should make you feel better M-C! I have tools, but no shop (bonus is there's no stroller to make SWMBO get clucky[er than she already is]!)
As BobL says, we all have to start somewhere...

I've learnt so much from my mistakes I'm thinking of making a few more...

[Mooncabbage]

The hearts are a nice touch, they really soften up all those hard edges on your tools and boards :P

You can work outside I suppose, get lots of nice sun?

EDIT: Update on my Scary Sharp experiment: So far I've discovered that Bunnings W&D paper is garbage. I don't think the backing is waterproof, as it swells up like a pregnant midget. By contrast, the blue backed stuff from Supercheap seems to stick to my glass better, doesn't swell up or tear anywhere near as easily. So I think next time I'll try getting some more of that. If it works out I might see about getting the same stuff in a roll. I was about ready to chuck in scary sharp as a method, until I made that discovery. Doing anything else seems like it'd require a fairly hefty investment in stones, unless I get some trojan ones from bunnies. I already have one of those too.

[Master Splinter]

Don't you knock Bunnings off-brand sandpaper...it has its places and uses...like when the ex asks you to pick up some sandpaper for her, it was the first option that sprung to mind!

[Mooncabbage]

Don't you knock Bunnings off-brand sandpaper...it has its places and uses...like when the ex asks you to pick up some sandpaper for her, it was the first option that sprung to mind!

Hah! I'm sure it's perfectly fine, so long as you don't try to use it. Besides it's non-stick nature, the grit also seems to disappear as soon as it sees a chisel coming. It's chicken-grit.

[Needles]

The hearts are a nice touch, they really soften up all those hard edges on your tools and boards :P

You can work outside I suppose, get lots of nice sun?

Lots of nice sun? Have you noticed I'm in Victoria??

The hearts are an essential part of woodworking in this household, they help in keeping SWMBO happy, as does the small footprint of my 'shop'.
It gets dragged into whichever room has enough space at the time!

On the whole sharpening debate; I ended up taking the hit and getting three shapton stones (1000, 5000, 8000), big initial investment but given my availability of free (read 'shop') time I don't get to spend as much time blunting edges as I would like, so I figure they should last me a pretty long time. I appear to have used about 0.04mm thickness on the 1000 (i.e. softest and fastest-wearing) stone over the last eight months or so, so I figure I've got a fair bit of life in the ol' gal yet! I got mine from Henry Eckert (the LN Aus guys), and David there was (and continues to be) extremely helpful; I've also heard that Stu (from Tools From Japan) is proverbially free with his information, and is a veritable treasure-trove of sharpening lore. That said, as others have pointed out, there is a wealth of material on the forums, sometimes generating a bit of friction but always an interesting read!

Keep us updated!

[Mooncabbage]

Did a bit of work yesterday, trying to fill in a portion of a door while fitting a handle. Was an interesting opportunity to use my chisels to try to pare and shape jarrah. It worked better than I expected, although my 32mm stanley chisel is now extremely blunt. My 6mm triton chisel performed very well actually, so I'm pretty happy with that.

My new saw arrived today. Henry Disston c. 1950s, very heavy steel backing plate, 12" blade, 10tpi. It's been recently sharpened (you can still see some shiny spots on the blade), but not properly set. The foremost teeth have much less set than the middle teeth. Sighting down the length of the blade, it also appears that the steel isn't exactly flat, but has a very gentle s-curve. I don't know if that's the teeth or the blade itself. Any thoughts on whether or not this is an issue and how to fix it if it is?

Other than that, not much is happening right now. Going to be making a few tools for myself for marking out, seems like fun projects. I'll let you all know how it goes.