Thread: a day in the shed with the kids

Well I reckon good on ya. Be warned though I reckon you could be stood on top of a slippery slope From pretty much before I could walk (apparently) I spent years as a kid with my father in his workshop - he was a carpenter. I have many memories of doing just the kind of thing you describe your kids doing. Now, 35 - 40 yrs later, I'm a Civil Engineer and absolutely love shed time I suppose in the plus side it keeps me out of the pub!


Thx
Jon

Yes very reminiscent of my child hood too, I also remember what I used to do to Dad's tools, so therefore I have started preparing a tool kit of their very own, I vividly remember "sharpening" my grandfather's 10ppi panel saw. My father gave me that same saw about six months ago it now resides in my shed.
Although my Dad had some tools he was no avid woodworker, my time was spent in the shed of my adopted grandfather(never got to meet my reel ones) across the road. Watching him for hours and hours on his wood lathe.
I'm not a drinker so the pub is safe for now, I would much rather have them in the shed than playing the darn Playsation.
I recently bought a secondhand Vicmarc VL100, That I will introduce them too once I have it set up better and at their height.
Someone gave my Dad a tiny little Sherwood lathe (from memory) when I was about 7 or 8 that was the beginning of my slide down the slope.

Shedbound, here is the plan of a Swiss Shave Horse, so you can get started right away. I am sure your children can help you make it.

Thank-you for the plans Kidbee, That is the design I have been leaning toward. Now to decide on timber choice, I have enough Chestnut or cypress Mac. Either way it will be heavy, I think I will incorporate wheels on one end that engage the floor if lifted from the opposite end as I am limited for room and will need to move it. I think the chestnut will work well, I just might dig it out today, thanks again for the motivation.
cheers
Joel

Ok so thanks to Kidbee I have decided to stop thinking about doing it and actually do it.

I will do a WIP in this thread, so here's the start of things.
Gathered the raw materials together, as close to the required sizes as I could get without cutting up good sized slabs. The bench will be cypress as will be the riser and bridge, the bridge is 1/4" under size in thickness so I might use a 3/8 bolt instead of 1/2" the arm will be chestnut and the head will either be the Casuarina or some black wood I think the blackwood has more density than that particular casuarina.

For the legs I amputated a branch from the English oak in the front yard, it is green so I'll see how that goes, otherwise I'll go and find a dead branch off something else.

The plan is to build this as primitively as possible (without using tools made from stone). I am hoping to use zero electricity, although it is tempting to use the thicknesser but I will try not to.

Now off to gather some tools together for the build.SAM_1628.JPG

Gathered the basics together I'm sure i'll need other things along the way, marking gauge and bevel come to mind.
WP_20160502_001.jpg

Will look forward to your progress. I particularly like the head and curved arm, on this screen shot, I took of the Swiss Bucket maker's horse.

Dilemma, I'm having trouble reading the measurements. I found the plans on the intraweb but alas they are no clearer, anyone care to hazard a guess on the thickness of the arm? i'm unsure if it's 1 1/4 or 1 3/4.

This is where I'm at so far, of the few hours I got in the shed I think I spent more time supervising kids but they were having fun.

1/used the drawknife to hog off material from one edge of the bench, to straighten it a little and give myself a centre line as a reference.

2/ was to do the motice for the leg, I so wanted to drop a circular saw into it, but refrained and came up with this.
bore a couple of holes, enough to get a compass saw into, cut the first 3 or so inches which was easier than I was expecting, given I don't normally use this saw to rip a 2" thick slab and then swapped to the larger rip saw

SAM_1631.JPGSAM_1634.JPG
SAM_1635.JPGThen squared the ends also using the compass saw
SAM_1636.JPGA quick clean up with a farriers rasp which I think out performs timber rasps hands down, it leaves a finish like sandpaper
SAM_1637.JPGCheck the fit (looks good enough to me) Then did the same with the bridge.
I think 7 1/2" on the riser might be a little high for my liking I may end up dropping it by an inch or so.
The plans lack some detail so I had to improvise a little. I also made the bridge 2"wider than the plan
This is where I am at, all just sitting in place at the moment I may get a little more done later if the shed hasn't blown away, the wind is horrendous
SAM_1639.JPG

[QUOTE=Kidbee;1949352]Will look forward to your progress. I particularly like the head and curved arm, on this screen shot, I took of the Swiss Bucket maker's horse.[/QUOTE

Hi KidbeeI like this look too,
looking at the video again, Do you think the head and arm have been fashioned from one large piece of timber? (i.e full log)from the back of the arm/head juction, it looks like a crack more than a join as it does not line up with the arm,
and from the from the front, the lighter color on each corner of the head looks like sapwood, Maybe its just my eyes? any thoughts
Joel

[QUOTE=shedbound;1949776]

Originally Posted by Kidbee

Will look forward to your progress. I particularly like the head and curved arm, on this screen shot, I took of the Swiss Bucket maker's horse.[/QUOTE

Hi KidbeeI like this look too,
looking at the video again, Do you think the head and arm have been fashioned from one large piece of timber? (i.e full log)from the back of the arm/head juction, it looks like a crack more than a join as it does not line up with the arm,
and from the from the front, the lighter color on each corner of the head looks like sapwood, Maybe its just my eyes? any thoughts
Joel

The side bits have been added to the head as you can see in the other screen shots I took on my iPad. I am keen to make a shave horse myself. I do not own a draw knife and when I was up at the Maleny Wood Expo on the weekend there was a spoon maker using a Lie Neilsen Draw Knife. It looked a very nice tool but has a price tag of a bit over $300.

Straight Blade Drawknife with Leather Case

Thanks for the pics pic one is a good angle.
SAM_1629.JPGAs far as tools go this one I picked up in a box of "rubbish I was supposed to put in a skip bin on a job", my tool budget is mere pennies, I think its an old Marples slightly curved.

This poor old thing I have abused, some on the forums would be disgusted, but I got it to use, It was in rough shape, but its been used, when I mill a log to peel the bark, and yet here it is taking the finest of shavings, IMHO one of the most versatile tools. It will hog of a 1/4 inch or a fine shaving, end grain and all, I find it additive once you become "one with the tool"
I'm no sharpening expert, My methods are very similar to Ruedi Kohler, everything free hand but it works for me, No water stones no jigs.

SAM_1642.JPGSo here's the latest got an hour on it today,
Start to shape the bench, Here it is straight of the tomahawk, down to 1/4 inch from my line
the last thing I want on this is symetry I want it to look like it came from a tree, cypress is lovely for this sort of work given its splitty nature, as long as there is no knots(see next pic). Guess I could have done it with saw, but that's Knot half as much fun. and in part i had to play it safe due to a knot.
SAM_1645.jpg

SAM_1649.JPGfinished the edges with the draw knife and a spokeshave, then dressed the top with the "4, Again another market find. Still has the original SW blade, silky smooth all over(well 3 sides any how).

SAM_1665.JPGSAM_1667.JPGI wasn't going to refine the shape any more than I had,
But I just thought you might be interested, to see what the finish is like from the farriers file, great to refine the bull nose edges, if you dont have a concave spokeshave, great on cranky spots and the hish spots,
these I get once the wifes farrier has finished with them, so I would love to see what a new one could do, they have a course and fine side and about 1 3/4" wide, not sure if any other woodies use them but, if not they should give them a crack.
After doing that I put the spoke shave back over it, because I like the tool lines and silky finish.
SAM_1655.JPGSAM_1656.JPGIn my vain effort to refrain from using electricity(except the lights). I did this for turning the tenons.
Rope attached to a spring, and operated by foot. Log mounted between two live centres. not to size yet
By no means original, but bloody fun, I haven't smiled that much turning before, my jaw cramped. Highly recommended for kicks, but I am small minded.

Following your journey, on this project, with great interest as well as your commitment to do it with non-powered hand tools in a primitive way. The smell of cypress shavings is quite addictive and I can picture you taking them off with that old Marples drawknife.

However, I did note your shed is equipped with some good machinery and dust extraction so you must do quite a lot of woodwork.