My First Hand Plane

I have a few wood working buddies here in Mississippi. They are big into hand tools, especially planes. I have resisted getting into that because, quite frankly, I can't afford anymore on my hobby than what I'm already spending. Things get expensive, especially when I can't sell any of my work.
Well, this morning, I went to an estate sale. As much as I have resisted getting into this interesting part of the wood working hobby, I just couldn't pass up a plane for one dollar that seemed to be in pretty good shape.
It is a Dunlap plane. All the metal parts are in used, but excellent shape. The wood, not so great, but I am a wood worker, so I knew that was not an issue. Besides, like I said, it was one dollar. I have spent more than that on a cup of coffee. So how could I go wrong?

So I carried it home and tore it apart. Everything, after cleaning it up, was in even better shape than I had imagined. I only found three marking on it. The plastic knob above the blade iron has the word Dunlap on it. The inside of the throat area has a three stamped on it. The blade iron has the words, "Made in Germany" stamped.

The only real issue was the handles. They just simply looked like crap. I thought I could sand the paint off and refinish them. While doing so though, I also noticed some cracks. So I decided to just make some more.

Any of you reading this that collect planes may be laughing at these. I am quite happy with them though. Keep in mind, this is my first hand plane. For a first timer, I don't think these shop made handles are bad at all.

All cleaned up, I think it looks nice. Looks aren't the deciding factor here though, is it?

It works fine. I'm in a situation now. I am a power tool guy. I am also a broke power tool guy. Now though, all I can think about is all the different hand planes I would love to have that I cannot afford.

Patio Furniture

I finally got the patio furniture set out so I could snap some good photos of it.

All the metal got a coat of Rustoleum Hunter Green paint.

Then each chair has fifty oak slats. Each slat has two cleats on the back to hold them in place. That makes for two hundred slats total, and four hundred cleats.

Then all the wood is sealed with Behr Premium Waterproofer.

I am afraid there isn't much else I can tell you about this project besides the fact that is was a lot of work. In the end though, my wife is happy, so it was worth it.

Spring Time Is Here

This week was spring break for my kids. Me and the little ones spent most of it in the shop. I haven't been feeling well, but with their help, I have gotten a lot done.
Most of what we got done though, isn't exactly photo worthy. We done a lot of cleaning and rearranging. As some of you know, my four youngest boys love hanging out in the shop. They have their own tools and build things for themselves. I am proud of this fact for the simple reason that a lot of kids these days wouldn't want to work at building something to play with like my boys do.
However, I also have some good friends that have been giving them tools. In addition to that, they are constantly adding to the things they keep along with their tools that was taking up real estate in the little corner I'd given them. They had outgrown their corner. So it was time to move some things around and give them more space.

I did get a little work done on one of my table saw stations.

When I got the Craftsman setup, I temporarily threw some particle board into the wing extensions until I had time to do better. The plan was always though to build them with substantial hard wood and put a router in the right wing. I finally got this done.

The panels are now made of pecan. The router is mounted under the wing panel closest to the cast iron saw side. This saw also has a function on it I like. It is wired with a keyed two way switch. You flip the key one way to work the table saw, and the other way for the router. This makes it impossible to accidentally, or absent mindedly run them both at one. This is a nice wired in safety feature.

My oldest son has been wanting to have a crawfish boil. I was worried about it because I knew it would be hard on my back doing the work of it. The two oldest boys though, that have left home, both said they'd help, and they did. We had a great time. It was a nice end to the official spring break. I had all my kids, all eight of them, in one place at the same time. I don't know what I enjoyed more, the visit or the food.

I'm sure many of you reading this will understand. You raise your kids right, and you know they'll be alright. There is nothing though like having all of them right in front of you at a given time. When you're sitting there looking out over your yard, and all of them are there, you know that, at that instant, all of them are healthy and everything is right in your world.

Today, as we have finally caught up on everything, I did start a new project.

This is a project I promised to do for my wife some time ago and just hadn't gotten to it yet. Summer is coming though and I think she'd like these done.

This is our patio set. The plastic straps are dry rotted and falling apart. I went and looked at new patio furniture. The prices are way out of my budget, and they are not built as good as these old ones. So I got the idea of saving these.

When I am done with them, I will post the end result and you can see how I save them. I have an interesting idea on how I want to do the job and I think you all will like it.

So that was our spring break.

I have loved spending the week with the boys helping me everyday. I have to admit though, it will also be nice to enjoy the quiet when they leave for school again Monday morning. I hope everyone's spring is turning out to be as nice as mine has so far.

Perfume Tray

This is a small perfume tray I made for my wife. It is one of the present I am giving her this Friday for our anniversary.

It is made of aromatic cedar. It is six inches wide, ten inches long, and five inches tall. It is unfinished except for the bottom because my wife lives the smell of aromatic cedar. I applied Johnson's Paste Wax on the bottom to protect a personal message I wrote on the bottom to her.

If any of you would like to cut and make one of these, the pattern can be found here.

It is designed by Steve Goode. If you are a scroller, be sure to check out his website, Scrollsaw Workshop. There are plenty of free patterns there. However, if you use a lot of his patterns, as I have in the past, and can afford it, please consider making a donation to his site. He puts a lot of time into that site and appreciates all the help he can get with the financial cost of keeping it up. There is a link near the top where anyone can make a donation to his site through PayPal.