What I've been up to

[Andy Mac]

Hi there, and Happy new Year!:D

Holidays are over, spent most of it at Woodford Folk Festival, where I ran a few workshops on stick whittling. I knocked together a couple of transportable workbenches, complete with 12 light duty carving vices before I left, and thought I'd share some of pic's of the setup.
The benches are made from some type of European pine and ply, all from a pallet, and the top sits onto the leg units with tapered seats. The stretcher dovetails in to each leg unit and is held firmly in place by the braces, located by 2 dowels...all very sturdy, overkill really!
The vices are pretty simple, but also effective: 2 matching jaws of hardwood, one screwed to the bench and sitting very proud. A simple bolt setup is used, and you can see the flat bar below with holes to extend the jaw reasonably parallel. The jaws can close at various angles and with the felt pads they hold sticks, branches and small pieces for carving extremely well. I haven't used a set pattern, so they vary greatly in jaw dimensions and pivot positions. Their one weakness is a tendency to break out the drilled hole where the handle goes...had 2 give way, especially when using 5/16" bar for handles, as there is very little meat left. I solved it by regrinding the tube sleeve and welding spots on both sides of the handle, and by carrying a couple of spares!
Anyway, the workshops went well, and now I'm tooled up to use them again at anytime.

Cheers, but back to real work tomorrow:eek:

[Andy Mac]

Here's a close up of the vices.
Cheers,

[Andy Mac]

And a drawing of the vice, as well as a shot of the things I was making/teaching...

Cheers:)

[Andy Mac]

Here's another one of my stickmen, while I'm on a roll...they are made with privet branches and camphor bodies etc, stand about 200mm high.

Cheers,

[Wood Butcher]

Good to hear the workshops went well and that the bench and vises worked out. Have to have a go at whittling etc. one day....one day!

Well Done!

[Harry72]

Classic!

[Shedhand]

Here's another one of my stickmen, while I'm on a roll...they are made with privet branches and camphor bodies etc, stand about 200mm high.

Cheers, You been spyin' on me Mac???:eek::eek::eek:
Nice benches, vises and stick men. Particularly the guitarist (swear you modelled it on moi) :D:D

[TritonJapan]

Great projects.

What age group are the workshop participants?
What did each have to whittle with?

Have 2 kids over here on winter holidays. Your projects look like more fun than a trip to see Harry Potter.

Well done.

Steve

[RufflyRustic]

Love the Guitar Man! Very Cool! Were you inspired by the music up at Woodford perhaps ? :)

cheers
Wendy

[Jill]

Great job on the workbench and vices, Andy - it's more than I have at home to work on! Love those stick men, too - complete with knobbly knees, I noticed!! I'll have to show our kids!

Cheers,

Jill

[Andy Mac]

The workshops were meant to be for 15yrs+, but they allowed a few younger types in and a couple of them ran into trouble! A bit of claret-coloured staining on the benchtops, but nothing that couldn't be put down to experience;) .
I had a fairly simple tool kit: 6 secateurs; 4 coping saws and a bowsaw; 4 old fashioned hand drills with a range of bits (including panel pins without heads!); a roll of chisels and carving gouges; a dozen whittling knives; 3 tack hammers; and one nod to the 20C...a battery drill. The knives I made from 20cent kitchen knives from St. Vinnies. Simply grind a couple of "V's" on an angle across the blade about 50-75mm up from the handle, snap off the blade in a vice then regrind the back into a parrot beak shape. Modify the cutting edge if needed and give a really good sharpen, using less than the standard 22degrees, buff to a scalpel-like edge. Besides the vices I also screwed a couple of wooden blocks to each bench, about 50mm or more from the edge. These were good stops to lean sticks and small parts into while paring with chisels and knives. I also had half a dozen breast plates made from sole leather or plywood, suspended around the neck. These are great for fine work when there is a tendency to work towards the body.
My next job is to develop a range of round tenon cutters for these stick workshops, based on a pencil sharpener. Early prototypes are promising, and will enable me to include younger kids in the program.

Cheers,

[AlexS]

Very cool Andy, great way to get people involved, especially kids.