Thread: Bueller's shed - a noobs journey through vintage machinery

Resurrecting an old thread - was locked out of my workshop for a while during early COVID, then my parents sold their home where the workshop was located so all my machines went into storage. Turns out this was the kick up the bum I needed to sort some plans out and buy my own place. In June I settled on a delightful 54sqm workshop with a 3x1 house attached

First few months have been spent doing minor renovations and fixing stuff around the house but I managed to get my Harvey table saw set up and dialled in this weekend. Bought it in the first few months of COVID and never managed to actually get it setup before moving everything into storage. Going to try and post a bit more often now, have missed this place and the hobby the last few years!

Haven't really got any photos from the workshop yet but I refinished the Jarrah floors in the house in July so here's the finished product.

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Making some progress in the new workshop, been busy working through some renovations on the house so spent a lot of time in there the last year or so.

Not a lot of woodworking going on but I did get a chance to try my hand at glazing some old jarrah casement windows. Stripped down to wood, new 5mm glass and putty and then a coat of paint. Managed to get half of the house done and will finish up the last of them after winter.

The first photo shows my horrible first attempt at cutting the putty, wound up scrapping this one and managed to get the hang of it on my second attempt.



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And now for some real woodworking! I was lucky enough to finally get over to Melbourne last month and spent 6 days taking a chair making class with Bern Chandley, had an absolute blast and was very happy with the finished product.

Spent yesterday getting my lathe all setup and working, now I'm working on getting my bandsaw setup with new tyres and guide bearings. Then I'll move onto making a steam bending box and a bunch of forms to help making another 5 chairs for my dining setting.

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Good job on the windows. Been a very long time since I have done a puttied in window. I found the putty part of the job quite calming after the stress of cutting the glass.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by bueller

And now for some real woodworking! I was lucky enough to finally get over to Melbourne last month and spent 6 days taking a chair making class with Bern Chandley, had an absolute blast and was very happy with the finished product.

That looks first rate. All the best with the other 5 chairs. Whats the timber used by the way?
Regards
John

Originally Posted by orraloon

Good job on the windows. Been a very long time since I have done a puttied in window. I found the putty part of the job quite calming after the stress of cutting the glass.
Regards
John

Thanks! Yeah it was stressing me out a bit for the first few as the whole process was so long winded but after a while I was batching them out much quicker. Quite relaxing doing the putty once you've got the method down. And I was able to get the glass cut at Balcatta Glass pretty cheap so didn't need to deal with that luckily [emoji28]

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Originally Posted by orraloon

That looks first rate. All the best with the other 5 chairs. Whats the timber used by the way?
Regards
John

Thanks mate! It's Tasmanian Blackwood, very nice to work with hand tools and scrapers.

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It's bandsaw upgrade day! Bought this 18" 2HP Jet for $800 back in the day and never had time to get it up and running with all the other machines I was working on. Now that I've got them all going it's time to give it the attention it deserves.

I got a good deal on it because the guy said he could never get it cutting correctly and it had no tires. I'm assuming that it had tyres at one point and the poorly aligned blade caused damage to the tyres but hard to tell really.

While pulling it apart I realized the lower bearing guides were set wayyy too far forward so this could have been a root cause but time will tell, I'll still need to inspect the tensioning assembly for damage and make sure everything is working as expected. At any rate I bought an upgrade kit from Carter and some new urethane tyres so today I'm hoping to get it back up and running. Also bought a Resaw King blade and I'll go some other blades for cutting curves and such this week.

The Carter guides were drop on replacements and that went well, later this arvo I'll work on getting the new tyres installed.

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I fitted some blue urethane tyres from the US to a jet bandsaw of similar size a couple of years back.
I found the supplied tool useless and had a mate who although my vintage was an ex scuba diver so built like the proverbial, drop by to help.
We wrestled them on ok but I’d have been battling on my own.
H.

Yeah they're not fun, I battled through on my 10" Woodfast and it wasn't fun at all even after heating them up. I'm planning on clamping them in place as I walk around the wheel, a tip I saw from Alex Snodgrass on YouTube. Will probably put the girlfriend to work for an extra pair of hands [emoji28]

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New tyres are installed! This actually wasn't too hard. I threw a few clamps on around the edge of the wheel to start it and then worked my way around the wheel with an 1" diameter piece of dowel between the tyre and the wheel. Once it starts to fight you to stretch it on further you can rotate the dowel and it will start to work the tyre onto the wheel. The direction you rotate the dowel will be key here, I was struggling on the second wheel and then realized I was rotating it backwards which was less useful. A second pair of hands is useful to help with clamping as you go. Use a strong piece of dowel though, you do need to lever the tyre over the rim to get started and I'd be worried that some pine dowel would snap.

Now I'm waiting on blades to arrive, no one has stock locally and the only blade I have is a Resaw King which I stupidly ordered in too large a size. Need to take it to a blade shop and get them to shorten and rejoin this week. Kind of thinking I might just throw it up on marketplace and re-order it though, it's a fairly common size so it should sell at the right price.

Like the way things are progressing.

Originally Posted by Beuller

Then I'll move onto making a steam bending box and a bunch of forms to help making another 5 chairs for my dining setting.

Rather than making a steam box, have you thought about steaming timber in a plastic bag? I tried it about 7-8 years ago; it is so much easier that I wouldn’t consider going back to a steam box.

Lots of videos on you-tube, etc.

Big advantage is that you keep the steam on during the bending, can flex in both directions and loosen the lignin in the timber, wait a bit to soften more, and bend tighter with fewer breaks. The wood doesn,t rush to cool and stiffen as with a steam box.

I think I'll give that a try in future but for the chairs I'm building I'm just doing some subtle bends for the crest and stretchers so planning on sticking with the methods we used in class. I'd imagine it's a useful technique for more aggressive bends though!

Originally Posted by bueller

I'd imagine it's a useful technique for more aggressive bends though!

It certainly is.

But it is also easier for all bending. Why make and store a box?