Up Against The Wood Wall...Again...

Chris Schwarz's Lost Art Press ran a series of articles on good ol' Mr. Studley's Tool Chest last week.

I first got turned on to Henry O. Studley's tool chest back in the late 80's when Lee Valley Tools used an image of it for one of their catalogue covers. When I built the house I was living in then, I added one of the major items I had always wanted; a built-in magazine rack and book shelf in the can. That catalogue sat in that rack for over a year and I spent a great deal of time studying that cover while doing...ahem...other things, trying to figure out how Studley did it. Studley's work is beyond amazing.

I believe credit for this image should go to Fine Woodworking magazine,
but I have enhanced it considerably since finding it.

What I didn't know until recently was that Studley built a workbench that matched his tool cabinet. Chris has also written an article about it; a teaser for Don Williams' book about Studley's work.

This is Chris Schwarz's image of Studley's workbench, which he will probably kill me for
because I messed with it; straightening out camera distortion, changing the
lighting a bit and getting rid of the distracting background.

I tried to build a modified version of Studley's tool cabinet with no luck, even after making three attempts to get it right. The biggest problem is that I ended up buying more tools than ol' Henry. Who knew I would enjoy the hunt and the purchase of old tools as much as I enjoy using them? The second problem is that I don't have room for a workbench and a floor-style tool cabinet, and won't have for the foreseeable future. Another major problem was that I kept ending up with odd shaped areas that wasn't large enough to hold anything I owned, or any that I planned to purchase. It was a livable irritation, but an irritation nonetheless. After completing the plant shelving unit I have been working on for 10-months now, I plan to build a combination bench and tool cabinet, sort of like a Melhuish No.100, but one on steroids.

This example of a Melhuish No.1 was sold by David Stanley
Auctions in 2004 for a few cents off of $3000.

Chris' latest entry in this series is in regards to how much flak he has taken for being involved in the Studley project in the first place. I haven't been running up against this situation as long as Schwarz has, but I have probably bounced off of it more often than him. Being one of these guys who questions everything, then has the cajones to actually question the answers, I have run up against the "wood wall" Chris is talking about in this post more times than I care to image. Recently, an example of this just played out, and again, it was instigated by a Chris Schwarz post.

Chris ran an interview with Konrad Sauer from Sauer & Steiner Toolworks regarding his newly designed "K13". This new plane design for Sauer started to sprout legs on some previous thoughts I had on planes, thoughts that I had been forming for a while. In general, these thoughts were directed, overall, to the height of hand placement while using a traditional plane, and specifically, dealing with the high Centre of Gravity those high hand-holds produce.

This is an image of the Sauer & Steiner K13 Panel Plane. Sauer's customer
wanted a plane that oozed speed. Me? I just want one that doesn't
feel like it is going to fall over all the time.

Sauer brought the front knob down considerably and gave the lines more sweep as they moved towards the rear of the plane for an appearance of speed. I'm not interested in a fast looking plane, mainly because I know that saying "speed" and "hand planing" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. I was, however, very interested in that lower front knob. By the time I finished reading the interview, my thoughts had legs that ran as long as the knees. By the time I had finished reading everything that was posted about it on the Sauer & Steiner blog, they had ankles, arches and even toes.

I didn't find one comment about the low knob causing problems during planing anywhere. In fact, all I read was the exact opposite. As a result, I kept asking myself, "why keep the tote and knob so high?"

I "get" that planes have a traditional design and the world of woodworking has been following the basis of that design for centuries. I "get" that a high centre of gravity has been build purposely into the planes by utilizing tall totes and knobs. I "get" that the reason for this is so the user can better gauge the tool's plumb during use. I "get" all that. I also "get" that everyone in the world, for centuries, thought the world was flat, too.

My belief is that, while the high centre of gravity offers a built-in gauge for plumb, this benefit may be outweighed by the possibility that the high centre of gravity adds more to being off plumb than the operator of the tool could manage without it. Plane the edge with a block plane and you stand a far better chance of remaining on plumb than when you plane the same edge with a bench plane, at least for me. I think it is because the high COG forces the plane out of plumb more than the operator does. Please don't tell me about the guiding finger of the forward hand, I already use it. You still have to push the plane with the tote, and that is where the wiggly-wobblies come into play.

I also think the angle of the operator's wrist has a lot to do with getting off plumb too. To plane properly on a proper height bench with a traditional designed plane, you end up with a crook in your wrist that is not conducive to keeping the plane plumb. It is also not conducive to varying the pressure between heavy forward and light downward, and light forward and heavy downward either.

Lowering the tote would cause its angle to reduce, resulting in the operator's wrist being less-cocked. A more natural angle to the wrist means less stress on it, less weight trying to throw it off plumb and easier variance of pressure. At least that's how I see it, although the only way I could prove it is to have one made and try it out, an expensive exercise in experimentation if ever there was one. That is because there isn't anything written about this, and I sure haven't seen a plane made this way. Why? I have no idea. It could be that I am so wet with this, I'm drowning, or it could be that we have all been following this design religiously for so long, going against it would be, for a plane maker, like falling on his float.

I know the most common answer to this question before it is even uttered. "If I learn to use the traditional plane design properly, I will see the high COG as an advantage. Until I do learn how to use it properly, the high COG will always work as a disadvantage. From my perspective, whether I have learned to use a traditional plane properly or not is an irrelevant argument. With enough practice, you can train yourself to overcome pretty much anything, even swinging a golf club in its proper, but unnatural way.

Maybe in time I will be able to put this thought to bed, but in the meantime, I actually was stupid enough to write it all down and send it to a plane maker I know and am considering using. I think my quest for answers wasn't met with the same joy as it saw when written. In other words, I haven't heard from the guy since.

As to Chris' report on meeting the "wood wall". I left the following comment...

"I have come to believe that there isn’t any species of wood out there that is quite as unbending as the average dedicated woodworker’s mind."

Peace,

Mitchell


P.S.: Considering that dropping 4 to 6-grand on one plane is not conducive to my wife's belief that she shouldn't have to hide from our bank manager when she visits the bank, I will be listing some duplicate and "ok, I like it, but I don't love it" tools I am selling very soon. All proceeds from the sale of these tools will be going to the "Infill Plane Payment Foundation". I am just working on the images of the tools included which are:
1 - tack hammer - not so new - not so expensive
8 - Stanley Everlast chisels - conditions from "its ok" to "hey, that's pretty good"
1 - General Angle Divider with its original box
1 - Stanley Speed Drill with most of its original bits
1 - solid wheel Stanley No.624
1 - very good Stanley No.5 Type 11 plane 
1 - never used QTG laser beam level with case and - are you ready for it - original batteries still unused - wow!
I should have these posted before the end of this week.
Peace

Overcoming Life's Little Irritants, And Making Bigger Ones In The Process...

My ever beautiful, vivacious, kind, loving, but completely irrational wife insisted on “anything but an iPhone” when it came time to update her cell phone recently. This is probably due to my actions, more than hers.

Come on. Be honest with me. How many of you, while involved in something your really into, have either turned off your cell phone’s ringer, or turned the phone off completely? Then, when questioned by your wives why you didn’t pick up the phone when she called, you have answered with; “Gosh, it didn’t ring the whole time I was there. It must have been a bad signal”?

I used that con so many times, my wife believe the iPhones are crap. They are, of course, but don’t tell the members of the Apple cult that or you will be taking your life into your own hands.

So I bought my wife a Blackberry Tour.

If I were “joe-executive”, I would buy a Blackberry in a minute. Hands down, it is probably the fastest, most reliable cell phone out there that is configured and formatted with the businessman in mind. But I’m not joe-exec, so the thing is just a pain in the ass for me, but hey, it’s my wife’s phone so I don’t really care. Hers or not, it did presented me with a dilemma.

I started to write an explanation of the whys, hows and whatnots of this dilemma, but when I realized that I was typing away on page number 10, I wiped it all out and instead, will give you the abbreviated version.

Blackberry	Bluetooth equipped (as per all cell phones these days)
2007 Ford Fusion	Not Bluetooth equipped - became standard in 2008 (figures)
Pairing	To set up the common frequency between two devices and establish the encryption they will use to attempt to keep the contents of their communication private
Pairing Devices	Available aftermarket ranging from $9 to $1000
Suitability	None
Reason	Mounted by  suction cups larger than my wife’s bra, clasps that scratch the dashboard piece just showing them to each other, or possible positions result in wiring hanging down in front of the driver
Conclusion	Make my own
Result	The following “hands-free” cell phone unit that will mount the phone without damaging the dashboard components and will allow the phone conversation to be heard through the car’s stereo

Material	Walnut
Product used	Griffith Hands-Free Microphone and AUX Cable
Connections	One wire from the phone to the mic, mic plugs into the auxiliary jack on the car’s stereo
Issue	Fusion has auxiliary jack buried in the console glove box
Design	Buried the wires between the phone and the mic in the phone’s mount pad, installed the mic in a tower beside the phone, allow the pad to swivel and make everything robust enough to take my wife’s abuse
Time	3-hours per day over a 4-day period
Last procedure	Drilled pad for swivel mount
Procedures remaining	None
Reason	Drilled through the damned buried wiring!!!
Results	None - its pure junk now!!!

Peace,

Mitchell

Was It A Tool Show Or An Economics 101 Lesson...

The Tools of the Trade Show took place today in Pickering, Ontario. This is one of the very, very few vintage tool shows that takes place in Canada, and probably the only one of its size in Ontario.

I arrived late with a wife who was ticked because I had been hocking (Yiddish for pestering) her all morning to hurry up. She slept in, buggered around until 10:30, and wondered why I was a tad upset the entire 20 mile drive to the show's location. It started at 10 and we didn't arrive until almost 11:15. I had visions of viewing nothing but empty tables.

Boy, was I wrong.

The Pickering Recreational Centre, where the show was held, has a huge parking lot and it was filled almost to capacity. Dozens of people were leaving as we arrived, and a fair number were hanging around the entrance, standing in the rain, as we approached. We pulled up with me thinking my chances of finding something I wanted were slim, and that feeling increased as I saw all of this taking place around me. We walked through the doors, paid the 5-bucks a head entrance fee, and hit the event hall.

The hall was full of both people and tables.

The tables held tools and the people didn't.

What the hell was going on here?

I did my first circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with the quality or type of tools that was being displayed.

I did my second circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with the price displayed on many of the tools.

I did my third circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with how the sellers were dealing with the lack of sales.

I did my forth circuit around the room. In general, I was ticked with a lot of the so-called buyers.

The Quality of Tools
For the most part, many of the usual dealers were present and accounted for, although one of the first things I noticed was that MJD Tools was missing this time. While there was the odd quality piece of enticement sitting front and centre of some of the booths, most displayed mainly cheaper, not-so-rare stuff that probably ¾ of those attending already had.

Doug Orr's booth displayed the highest number of quality pieces, a Clifton No. 4 in particular, one of their first offerings, certainly caught my eye. Wider than a Stanley, done in green instead of black and displaying a lot more bling, it is a plane that will shock you when you first pick it up, as it weighs a ton. At $245, it was a good buy for those that wanted an excellent plane or collected original Cliftons. That isn't me, though, so reluctantly, I put it back. I also noticed a couple of amazingly large goose-wing axes laying on his "magic carpet" section, but putting an axe in my hands is just asking for trouble, so I didn't even get close.

Dave "ToolRush" Carriere's booth was not quite as loaded this time around as last, and overall, the quality of tools wasn't near the last show's level. I did notice something impressive about Dave, though. I can't remember if it was the last show or the one before it, but I do remember asking him if he had any Stanley #50 chisels. He said he didn't have them at that show, and gave me his card. I forgot about giving him a call, but I remembered the minute I saw a "Harlequin" set of #40's sitting front and centre at this event. Good on him. He remembered someone asking and included them.

Sauer & Steiner Toolworks, were absent at this show. I missed them. I didn't miss making a fool out of myself with them like I did at the last show, but I missed their new No. 3 that I was looking forward to seeing in the flesh.

Type of Tools
The group that this show is sponsored through is, The Tool Group of Canada. Because of that, I shouldn't complain that some of the booths mainly displayed vintage tools and machinery from the blacksmith, electrical and plumbing categories, as all of these are encompassed by the group's interests. The first tool I looked at after walking through the doors was a beautiful miniature metal lathe with a sold sticker on it. Damn! All of that said, while the last show had more vintage apple peelers than I could count, in truth, I thought this show included too much of the "other" categories, but I'm biased as I love old woodworking tools. I know those in charge will say I'm nit-picking here, but the show has a name for woodworking tools, has leaned severely in that direction since I started attending it, it is what I go to the show for, so when I see floor space taken up by a mechanically-driven-left-handed-reverse-counter-boring threading machine, when it could display a mother-load of vintage Stanley planes, I get a little disappointed.

This wasn't at the show. I just enjoy messing with images like this.

Prices
They were wayyyyyy tooooooo high - 'nuf said.

Sellers
I heard way too many complaining to their friends that they weren't making any sales. The fact that they were so busy commiserating with each other, they weren't readily available to answer some questions I had for some, meant that their crying in their beer actually cost them a few sales. A few that I was able to lay a few questions on weren't the dealers themselves, but stand-ins, and they couldn't answer them, so again, a few tools I was interested in buying went unsold.

There was one tool that I was really interested in buying; an old, craftsman made leg-vice. The problem with it was that it was the wrong way around. The sliding bar at the bottom was attached to the back leg with the front leg sliding back and forth on it. I believe it should have been the other way around, so that when the vice was closed, a chunk of wood wasn't sticking out across the floor in front of it. I noticed the incorrect set-up right away, and put down my bag and flashlight (its not the brightest lit show and I'm blind, remember) and had a close look at it to be sure I was right about it. I still would have bought it, as reversing it wouldn't be much work, but instead of acknowledging what I was saying, the seller decided to educate me on the finer points of leg-vices. If he had said, "Your right. Let's deal", I would have bought it for 50-bucks instead of the $55 he was asking. The point is, though, he didn't even suggest I might have been right about it, but instead, tried to convince me I was wrong. I think he went home with it.

Buyers
Ok, guys. Listen up. At tool shows, the tools on the table in front of you are for sale. The guy behind the table paid big bucks to be there so he can sell them. He needs as many as possible to see them, pick them up and talk to him about them. That is how he sells them. That is how he feeds his kids. You and your buddy standing front and centre of the table and talking to each other about the last show you were at, or where you got coffee on the way to the show that morning isn't doing the seller a damned bit of good, in fact, your lack of consideration is actually costing him money, not to mention really ticking off those of us who haven't viewed the guy's wares yet, and can't. If you want to talk about something other than buying one of the tools sitting in front of you, move your butts off to one side so someone who might want to buy something - can.

Ohhhh. That vent felt sooo goooood.

By the way, being a rude bugger and eavesdropping on some of the "table-crowder's" conversations, I got the distinct feeling the majority of them were members of The Tool Group of Canada, who should have known better.

Conclusions
There was a lot going against the sellers at the Fall 2011 Tools of the Trade Show, including the sellers themselves. Mainly, though, it was just the fact that the whole thing is about selling discretionary items in a less than forgiving economy that caused many buyers to leave grumbling and empty handed, myself included. Hopefully, the economy will pick up for the next show in April 2012, and the sellers will be back, wiser and better prepared to deal.

I came home and went online to Jim Bode Tools and bought a couple of miniature wire cutters and pliers. I would have bought more but Jim hasn't completed the 2011 Economics 101 course yet.

Peace,

Mitchell

Inovation Is The Mother Of Invention...

As I have mentioned, my shop space is in my office, located across a 9-foot-wide room from all my computer machinery. It is a funny thing about all the computers I have owned over the years. I have never owned one that didn't have allergies; all being specifically allergic to dust. With a room full of computers that are prone to sneezing, having a dust-producing woodworking set up in the same room isn't the smartest thing I have ever done, but it exists in this manner as there are only two other alternatives; quit making a living, or quit woodworking. Neither of those options are acceptable to me.
When a dusty job comes up, I have to use a little ingenuity to get it done without wiping out the price of a new car in computer equipment. I have tried covering everything with plastic, but that ate up too much time. I have tried popping over to a friends to do the dirty deed, but I'm not comfortable in other people's environments. Recently, though, I new one came to mind while I was out walking my dog one afternoon.
Out back of our condo building is a catch-basin, one that includes a open-angled wood retaining wall. Walking over, I checked for height, and while it is a tad too high, I figured it might be just the ticket the next time a dirty job came up. It wasn't long after realizing that wall could be useful that a job came up which allowed me to put it to the test.
I am making crown mouldings for my current, never-ending project, which is making my wife a plant shelving unit. As with anything made with hand tools, it takes forever, even though the design is pretty basic. Below is a quick line-drawing of how I am putting the crown moulding together.

Surprisingly, working with planes produces very little dust, as does scrapping and scratch work. The two big dust-producers are sawing anything and some specific sanding. When I sand finishes, it produces a lot of dust, but it doesn't get airborne, so if I vacuum up the mess regularly, and don't move the pieces being sanded around, the resulting dust is not an issue. Saw the end off a 1 x 2 piece of pine, though, and the dust seems to bred in the air and what I made, plus all its offspring, land on everything everywhere.
The cheapest and quickest way to produce the filler piece needed behind the angled face was to rip a piece of 2" x 2" poplar stock down the middle on the 45, and that, I knew, was going to produce some serious dust.
Of course the best way to handle this would be to grab the stock, saw and sawhorse, and head outside and just do it, but living in a condo doesn't allow you to do things easily. Understand that the one thing condo life doesn't have is space. You trade that off for not having to cut the lawn or shovel the snow. To explain just how tight some condos are when it comes to space, let me relate this little story. My wife and I once invested in some new condos and townhouses that were being built. When the builder asked me how I liked them, I told them they were fine, but anyone who ends up living in them would never be able to go on vacation again. He asked if that was because the mortgage payments would be too high, and I answered, "No. There is no place to store their suitcases once they return home". Hence, until I can come up with a design for a foldable sawhorse that is stable when open, I don't have one.
On the first cool summer's day, one where the temperature dropped below 80°F (27°C), I grabbed the 2 x 2 stock, a 3-foot piece of 1 x 2, my favourite ripsaw, and my latest invention...a portable hold-down, and off I went to cut some wood. Getting to the knee wall, The first thing I did was cut the 1" x 2" stock in half, then I cut a "V" in the centre of each one, as shown in the image below.

Beautiful old Disston from about 1900. When I get to Heaven, I'm going
to give "KCR" a piece of my mind for making his mark on this tool so
badly. I will, that is, if those in charge of admissions
forgave him for what he did to this saw.

Placing those two pieces of 1 x 2 on top of the wall at right angles to the 6 x 6, I then placed the 2 x 2 in the "V's", which held it on the bias. My new portable hold-down is unique, in that it is voice activated, so I tapped the 2 x 2 at a point between the two 1 x 2's and stated, "Hold wood here". Impressively, the hold-down kicked into action and positioned itself at the point I had indicated and held the stock down firmly. It was quite amazing, as you can see for yourself if you click on the thread of the image below.

Modifying and adapting one tool to do something it wasn't designed
to do is not only fun, it is quite rewarding.

While I did a great job modifying this piece of equipment, if I do say so myself, if I had to do it again, I would start with the more basic model that doesn't have voice communication. Talking to it to give it directions is fine, but sometimes it gets a glitch in its programming, and it talks back way too much and becomes irritating. While this particular hold-down looks great, I would start with the cheaper model next time as this one is way to pricy for what it does. (and with that, I'm sleeping on the couch for the next month)
As the slope in the land dropped off away from the wall, the stock was way too high to cut with traditional body placement, so invoking the French sawing position that Chis Schwarz reintroduced a while ago, only this time standing up. I positioned myself beside the stock, developed a slightly different hand-hold on the saw that Chris demonstrated, as shown below, and went to town, ripping the 8-foot 2 x 2 in about a half hour, give or take due to having to take the odd break.

A modified "French" grip made easier by Disston's addition of a second hole.

The breaks, by the way, were due to the hold-down pad's inability to maintain pressure on the corner of the stock for long periods of time. Frustratingly, it would release itself without warning, and to make matters worse, its voice abilities would kick in. The one thing I wasn't able to figure out is how to add an "off" switch to this unit. When it would let go like this, it would run on wildly and there was nothing I could do but let it run its course and once it exhausted itself, reset it and start again. (add a second month on the couch)
Even though the day was overcast, those breaks did allow me to appreciate the time and effort I spent French Polishing the handle on this saw. Many thanks to Stephen Shephard at the Full Chisel Blog for his instructions as, after viewing the results with the sunlight kicking it up, it put a smile on my face for hours afterwards.

You cannot beat French Polishing for finishing a tool's handle.
In the shop, its beautiful.
In the sunlight - wow!

Peace,
Mitchell
Images taken with an iPhone

NOTE: The "Tools of the Trade Show" takes place Sunday, October 2nd at the Pickering Recreation Complex in Pickering, Ontario. While my exposure to vintage tool shows is limited, I have never left this one disappointed as there are always enough items to view and buy to make me happy I made the effort to attend.
If anyone needs any information or help attending this event, just email me and I will be happy to help if I can.

Ok, world, this is how it is done…

Here’s the story behind this story…

Sharpening tools is time consuming and because my time for workin’ wood is limited, I often hold off sharpening a tool that could use a touch-up. The reason for this is that I simply would rather spend the time actually workin’ wood than pushing a chisel across a hunk of sandpaper. I know this isn’t smart, so I started looking at many of the commercial blade sharpening machines available today. Two things struck me about these dedicated machines; a) they are all way too expensive for what they do, and b) the work they can do is limited to the finer points of sharpening on a single horizontal wheel. This is ok for new tools, but it seems like every hundred-year-old tool I have bought, the last one to use it didn’t have a clue about angles, flat backs and micro edges. The result is that the blades often require considerable work before they can be finely tuned.

As I did my research, the Delta Sharpening Centre kept popping up all over the place. As this machine offers up two wheels; one vertical and a fine one on the horizontal, I gave up on the other $300 machines and started researching it. I discovered it was one of Delta’s usual offerings; a sound idea made so cheaply, it crashed and burned.

From all the complaints about the machine that I found, which were too numerous to count, the base machine was fine, as was the vertical wheel. Where the problems developed was balancing the horizontal wheel so the machine wouldn’t vibrate. Downloading all the different machine’s explosive parts drawings that I could find, I soon learned where the problem lies in the Delta machine, or at least I think I did. In fact, I am so confident that there is a way to fix this issue, I started looking for a machine to purchase.

Here’s the problem with the machine…

All of the dedicated horizontal-wheel sharpening machines have a balanced metal plate under their entire sharpening surface; whether that surface is a grinding wheel or proprietary plates or sheets. The Delta 23-710 Sharpening Centre machines do not have this. To keep the costs down, they used something that is more or less an oversize washer that is about 3-inches in diameter. Expecting something this small to balance an 8-inch wheel is more than just wishful thinking; its dumb.

Solution…

Re-jig the wheel mount by adding a full sized, balanced aluminum plate that will fully support the soft, 1000 grit, 8-inch wet wheel.

How to do this was something I couldn't answer until I bought one and had it sitting in front of me.

Enter MJDtools.com…

As Delta no longer makes this machine, I had some problems coming up with a good one in the used market place. One or two came up on eBay, but there was always something that kept me from buying them. The most common reason is my most common irritation with eBay sellers; being that many American sellers won’t ship to Canada. I guess turning away a potential 33-million bidders that could drive up their selling price isn’t worth the added shipping hassles. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I subscribe to Martin J. Donnelly Antique Tools Auction’s newsletters that arrive in my inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. I do so because they list some pretty incredible tools in their auctions, although I have yet to come across anything made by H. E. Mitchell. Damn!

A while ago, a Delta 23-710 was listed in one of those newsletters so I entered a maximum bid of $150. I won the machine for less than that, and with MJDTools.com’s usual professional ways, they charged my Visa for the purchase price plus shipping, and within days the machine was delivered to my door.

Oh, oh…

I didn’t have time to open the box right away but finally, a week later, I went through my unpacking ritual. As I got everything out of the box and laid out on the floor, I discovered that the machine had been shipped with the knife sharpening attachment still attached to the machine. This attachment is a wide adjustable flat that you use to rest a jointer knife on. During shipping, the post office had thrown this heavy box around so much that they snapped the casting. Every time they threw it after that, the resulting large, untethered hunk of metal thrashed around inside the box, taking out the plastic water spray guard and gouging the horizontal wheel.

Given the similar experience I just went through with the infamous Miller Falls tool restorer that will still rename nameless (email me if you want his name), I had some serious concerns about this problem which were further exasperated by discovering that the total cost of the damaged parts was $146.60 plus shipping.

I took a couple of photos and sent off an email to Martin listing the costs of the damaged parts.

This is the way a pro handles these situations…

Yesterday, I received an email in response to my claim from Kathy at MJDTools.com. In it she stated; “I made a credit on your charge card today for the full amount that you paid”.

I was astounded, astonished, dumbfounded, stupefied and literally blown away. They just didn't reimburse me for the damaged parts. They reimbursed me for the total amount that I paid for the machine plus the shipping. In other words, I got the machine for free, and now I have to just pay for the replacement parts out of the full credit.

In this day and age, who the hell treats their customers so well?

Peace,

Mitchell

A follow-up about trying to replace the broken Delta machine's parts...
The one thing I didn't check before purchasing this machine is the availability of Delta/Porter-Cable parts in Canada, something I usually do before purchasing anything like this, new or used. While this shouldn't be a concern for this type of thing, and I hope my American readers won't be offended by reporting this, but the norm with many of these larger American-run companies is that they want to sell in the Canadian market, and actually buy up smaller Canadian manufacturers to do so, and then leave us hanging for support with the purchases afterwards. Delta/Porter-Cable is one of those companies that fall into this category.

In this case, Delta has an online parts site called ServiceNet. I went on it, found the parts I needed and ordered them. When it came time to pay the bill, their shopping cart form wouldn't accept Canadian addresses. There is no site like this for Canadians and the American site does not even include a Canadian Service Centre location finder.

I sent off an email to Delta which included a screen capture of my Shopping Cart list. I'll keep you posted regarding the results.

I Know What It Is...The Question Is Why Does It Exist...

The Mid-Summer Antique Expo at Heritage Park in Milton had its inaugural run today and my wife, our dog and myself attended. It wasn’t the greatest of days for wandering an outdoor antique fair.

Around 11 a.m. the temperatures hit 33°C (in English, that would be  91.5°F). Calculating in the humidity, which weatherman seem to love doing, it hit 41°C (again, in English, that would be  104.8°F). Think about this the next time one of your fellow Americans suggests driving up here in the middle of August to do a bit of skiing.

We lasted about a ⅓ of the way around the grounds before the heat did us in. Out of the three of us, only the dog seemed to be able to withstand the temperatures. I'm not surprised, though. Almost every dealer was pushing a bowl of water at her; ignoring the hell out of my wife and I, but they just swooned over the dog. It was so bad, in fact, that she didn't touch the bottles of water we brought for her.

There were a few dealers that we did see that were selling some tools, but most of the offerings consisted of some very good Canadiana furnishings, carvings, signage and knick-knacks. While my wife scoured the tables for china and porcelain, I checked out what few tools I could see. I looked at a gutter plane made by Wallace, who made planes in Montreal, Canada between 1845 and 1858, and in Scotland before then. As was usual back then, Mrs. Wallace took over when Mr. Wallace passed away and she keep the business going until about 1885. Someone had refinished this example of their work, though, so it was worthless. For some reason one dealer I visited had a lot of Casey, Kitchel and Company planes on display, a plane maker I haven't seen much of up here. From what I have read, this firm made a lot of planes in New York State between 1847 ad 1858, mostly using “convict labor”, as they were the company that held the contracts for this during that time. Casey and Kitchel eventually parted ways in 1858, with Casey starting the Auburn Tool Company and Kitchel fading away into obscurity. I would bet it was Casey that did the deal with the government for those contracts as it sounds like he was the “mover and shaker” between the two. Now there is a salesman I would like to hire. Imagine walking into the Department of Corrections back then and saying, “We want to contract for convict labor. We want to hand them sharp chisels to fashion wood and give them access to big files to fashion steel”. Man, would I like to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting.

So we left early and all I got for spending a few hours in the boiling sun depleting my bodily fluids was this cutter for use with an auger…

It wasn't what I had in mind going into the show, but I couldn’t think of going home empty handed. As we were heading for the exit I noticed it sitting forlorn and unloved on a dealer's table, so I went to it, and when I saw it marked with the princely price of 15 bucks...I scooped it.

Ok, in truth, from a distance I thought it was a Stanley No.47 auger stop, so I moved in for the kill. Getting close enough to see what it was, my mind quickly switched from going in for the kill, to; what the hell is that?

I have seen similar items before, but not quite like this, and not for an auger. It’s maximum circumference is 3-inches, the minimum is 1¼-inches. As you can see from the photos, it pivots around a centre-point, and a cutter rotates around it removing material like a granny’s tooth would handle it, but this has the upright cast to the side of the blade, instead of the back of it.

The radius and depth adjustments are pretty simple, really. Loosen the wing nut and move the blade where you want it, move it, that is, if it doesn’t fall out and onto the floor first. I know that the shape of a wing nut can help to  determine a rough manufacturing date, but damned if I can remember what shapes were around for what dates. If your looking for some fun, try researching it. In Google, I entered “timeline of a wing nut” and my biography popped up with a picture of me at birth. Go figure.

The photo above shows the shape of the wing nut and the stamping on the arm. It has the radius values rather crudely stamped, along with what appears to be “RCLF, Newark N.J., which would be the maker’s stamp. I wasn't surprised that I couldn't make out this maker's mark. Maker's marks are a dead give-away about the tool's worth.  They are like wine bottle labels. If the wine is good, the label design is brilliant. If it sucks, the label is so busy, it turns you into a jitterbugger before you even drink it. (For those that have lead protected lives, "jitterbugging" is a slang term for predominant shaking brought on by alcohol, or rather, the lack of it.)

This last photo also shows the “teeth” that hold the blade in position, or what is left of them. Seeing how badly they were beaten up in the dealer's tent blew me away because I didn’t think this thing would have been used enough to incur any damage like this. Without a spur on the outer edge of the blade, how does this thing cut wood without tearing it? My first thought was that something was missing. Either it fit into something like a holesaw, or had another attachment that pre-cut a circle ahead of the horizontal blade digging in, but there isn’t any way to attach these things to it, so I figured it must be complete.

One day, when I have a scrap clamped to the table I’ll give this thing a whirl. To be honest, my expectations of it working are slim to none.

Until then, for the grandiose investment of 15 bucks, I’ll keep it on the shelf so it can remind me that junk for woodworkers has been around long before Pierre Omidyar wrote his first line of code for what became eBay.

Peace,

Mitchell



Updated Monday, July 25...
I Might Be Wrong...

Because Stephen has suggested in the comments that this little tool is for another purpose, I have created a line drawing of it to try and make its appearance clearing to everyone. I have set it off to Stephen to see if he still thinks it is a leather washer cutter. That one scares me because, with the cutting edge configuration, the only way I can think it would cut leather washers is if the hide is still on the cow.

I'll update again once I hear back from him.

Peace,

Mitchell



Updated Wednesday, July 27...


Stephen Shepherd's reply...
Stephen Shepherd replied about the line-drawing stating he was more confused than ever. He thought it was a leather washer cutter, but realized that to work it, you would have to turn it in a counter-clockwise direction, so he wasn't sure about it.

Jim Bode of Jim Bode Tools...
Jim Bode also offered his opinion on this one, stating he thought it was a washer cutter that had been converted to chamfer the ends of dowels or posts, possibly to prep them for a hollow auger. He also said it, "wouldn't work for a hill of beans".

I did sharpen the blade and tried to take it for a test drive...Jim's right...it sucks!

Peace,

Mitchell

An Eggbeater Whipped Me Good...

I spent this morning writing a post for this blog that discussed the rebuild of the Miller Falls No.2 eggbeater that I purchased last year.  I spent about 4 ½ hours writing it, as not only did I have to write it, but also follow an email trail, reading each to determine the gist of their content, as well as establish the timeline. 

Once completed, I felt that the facts it listed did not reflect well on the tool restorer that did the work on the drill, so I sent a copy of it off to him, allowing him an opportunity to refute any of the points I had listed as untrue before posting it.

I have since trashed that article because I had made two major mistakes with it. My first mistake was writing it. My second was sending it to the restorer.

This is a compilation of the drill as it was
before I sent it off for restoration

So what are my problems with all of this?

To try and make a very long story shorter…

July 18, 2010
I purchased a very rough Miller Falls No.2, circa 1910 ($30)

August14, 2010
I spoke to the leading restorer of Miller Falls drills
I was told a mechanical and cosmetic restoration - quoted $180

August 15, 2010
I spoke to the restorer again to discuss not doing cosmetic work
Restorer agreed to only a mechanical restoration - quoted $180
Told 3 month turn-around
Told once drill was apart, he would contact to discuss cosmetics

August 20, 2010
Shipped drill to restorer ($34)
Paid restorer’s invoice through PayPal - $180 plus $25 shipping ($205)

January 18, 2011
No drill, no contact – emailed to request delivery date
Restorer stated he broke his wrist in October which put him behind

May 26, 2011
No drill, no contact – emailed to request delivery date again
Restorer stated he planned to start work the following Monday

June 9, 2011
Received email from UPS stating shipping label had been issued
Emailed restorer to ask what was going on as still no contact
Restorer answered I should “relax”, only the label was issued

June 11, 2011
Received call from restorer to discuss cosmetic requirements

June 14, 2011
Received email with 10 photos of completed drill attached

June 20, 2011
Received email stating drill was in transit

July 4, 2011
Drill delivered by UPS

As you can see from this ridiculous list, I sent the drill to the restorer almost a year ago and paid out $269 at that time to buy it, ship it and pre-pay for its restoration. I did this because I took this guy’s word on face value that the drill would be returned to me in 3 months. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

On top of that, I felt like the guy was treating me like a mushroom; keeping me in the dark and feeding me poop. Here’s a guy who broke his wrist, an injury that I would assume would pretty much shut him down for 6 weeks or so and he didn’t bother to let his customers know this had happened, at least not this one. What kind of businessman has so little concern for his customers that he does something like that?

The biggest issue, however, is that the drill arrived broken. As I was unpacking it, pieces fell out of the box onto the table. The handle’s cap had been broken in three pieces during transit.

I had sent the restorer a very tired drill that had a very worn handle and no cap. What I had in my hands after waiting a year and paying out a couple of hundred bucks was a refreshed drill with a new handle and a broken cap. As far as I was concerned, the cap was toast as a broken cap is not that much above not having one at all.

The most important part of all of this was that this broken cap negated my investment in the tool and meant the time, effort and money I had invested in it was wasted. Let’s be real here. Even whole, this drill will never see a value that will even come close to what I have invested in it during my lifetime, and possibly my son’s. Without a proper cap, that loss is even worse.

Although I consider it garbage, to be able to live with it, I glued the cap back together so I could at least live with the drill until a replacement arrived. Obviously, at this point, I was still under the impression I was dealing with an ethical businessman. I also took the pictures you see displayed here, one with the broken cap and shipping box and the other with the cap clamped together with tape to hold it together until the glue set. You can easily see the cracks where it was broken. I then emailed the restorer to inform him of the problem, attaching the photos.

Sadly, here is how things came out of the box

I did a glue up of the cap so I could live with it,

but anyone can see this cap is toast. It would

appear that the restorer has lost his pride

for his work as he was quite comfortable

leaving me stuck with it.

His answer back was pretty simple; I should glue it up myself, and if that doesn’t work out, I should pay to have the drill shipped back to him so he can do something.

At first my reaction was just simple shock. As time went by, the shock was replaced by anger. After I sent him a copy of the write-up I had done about this experience this morning, he called me. By the time I hung up on him, I was just downright furious with the guy.

Because I don’t want to relive it, I won’t bore you with the details of that discussion, but to say that an apology wasn’t in it would be more than an extreme understatement. Yes, he believed there were some mistruths in the article, one of them being I stated the bill was $187, and it was only $180. Can you imagine someone writing an article to post on a public forum that completely brings into question your business ethics, and the first point you bring up is a discrepancy in the figures of 7 friggin’ dollars????

The gist of my telephone conversation with him was that this entire fiasco, by his estimation, was entirely my fault. Huh? Hello? Customer screwed here…hello?

I know I’m screwed and he knows I’m screwed, and here’s why. The cap is rare. I have spoken to a few in the business and they have told me that these caps are almost impossible to find. My best chance is to find another No.2 that is trashed, but happens to have a good cap, something that rarely comes up. If I do find one, I can expect to have to pay out another $40 or $50 to get that stupid little cap landed on my desk.

It was obvious from the get-go that the restorer wasn’t going to take any responsibility for the broken cap. It might be possible that the space inside him is so full of knowledge about Miller Falls tools that there isn’t any room left to hold ethics.

I can’t even go back to PayPal and open a dispute, as their customer transaction “Protection” is only good for 45 days from the date of the transaction. In 35 days, this transaction will have its first year anniversary.

Nope, I’m nailed to the preverbal barn door on this one.

Giving this nonsense some serious thought, the old adage, “…he has read so many of his own press clippings that he has started to believe them”, comes to mind. We all get a bit carried away with our own reputations when they raise us above the norm. It is only natural to do so. What separates the great from the imitation, though, is the knowledge that it takes as much work to maintain a good reputation as it does to create it in the first place.

The biggest irony of all here is the fact that I didn’t even want this drill in the first place, but bought it only because of superstition. Well over two years ago I started looking for a Stanley No.624. One of the first in the business that I contacted was this restorer, asking him if he had a Stanley 624 with a spoked pinion. The fact that I never heard back from him at all should have been an omen to me. After over a year of looking and not finding a Stanley, I bought this Miller Falls thinking that if I bought what I didn’t want, what I did want would turn up. While the Miller Falls cost me way more than I ever imagined, within weeks the Stanley I was looking for came up on eBay and I bought it. I was going to send that drill to the restorer for the same treatment once the Miller Falls came back, but hey, life is way too short to have to go through that nonsense again. I’ll deal with it on my own.

So there you go. Admitting that I have been very quick to praise those that I have had successful business transactions with, I realize that I have to be just as quick to let you guys know about the ones that didn’t turn out as well. This is the first negative report on a member of the vintage tool community I have had to do and after living through this experience; I truly hope it is the last.

Peace,

Mitchell

Added the afternoon of July 16th, 2011...

If you would like to know the name of the restorer, please email me at mitchell@liquiddesigns.ca. I will be more than happy to supply his name.

When I wrote this post last night I glossed over my last telephone conversation with the restorer for the reason of brevity. Having thought about it this afternoon, I realized that there was an overall theme to his statements to me that, in hindsight, I think explains a lot. Reviewing his excuses for just about every one of my complaints, almost all can be paraphrased as; I didn't do anything wrong because you never complained to me about anything. Having spent over 40 years in the past dealing with the public, and having the bad habit of watching how people act in the checkout lines to-day, I have to say that it is astounding that anyone connected with the public today could even come up with this as an excuse, let alone use it. I think stating that because I wasn't bitching about anything, he didn't think it was necessary to act ethically is about as lame as you can get.

Peace,

Mitchell

If You Thought My First Dirty Movie Was Boring...

It's time to put a proper sheen on this sucker...

Pssst....Wanna' Watch A Dirty Movie...

Ok...so maybe the term "dirty" overshoots the mark a bit. How about "dusty"...

If Mohammad can’t go to the mountain, then the mountain will have to come to him…

After considering my wife’s change in position regarding our plans for moving out of the city and the loss of my planned workshop wherever that move would take us, I have come to some decisions regarding the direction I should take.

No, I’m not going to leave her.

What I am going to do is build a compact shop set-up for my specific needs that is based on a sort of modular design. If I am forced to stay here, it will work, and if we do end up moving to a more accommodating location, I can add to it as desired. If I am nothing, I am at least adaptable – possibly delusional – but definitely adaptable.

Ok, here’s the deal. We live on the 26^th floor of a high-rise condominium. We own everything from the plaster on the boundary walls in. While we can do modifications to the unit, they are limited. As moving is something my wife will not consider at this point, I am stuck with an area that is 9-feet by 12-feet with regular 8-foot ceilings. Within 108 square feet I have to operate my digital design business, deal with my teaching duties, store and display my ever-growing research library and have a usable workshop that has the facilities to store my ever-growing hand tool collection.

The only way to do all of this is to dedicate one wall to the workshop and one wall to the commercial operation that pays for that workshop.

Having done so much research lately on workbenches, this didn’t turn out to be the challenging task I thought it would be. Sequestered away in my 108 square foot domain for the weekend, this is what I came up with…

The minute my current project, the large plant shelf unit, is done, I am going on a shopping spree for a great deal of mahogany and this drawing will slowly become my centre for working wood.

Here is a layout with the basic dimensions...

The design is based on two drawer cabinets with three drawers each; two large drawers, one to be my saw till with the other accommodating larger items like my mitre jack, two medium sized drawers to hold my metal and wood plane collection and two smaller ones to hold my drills and other assorted mid-sized items.

Each of these cabinets has an overhead storage unit attached by a steel frame. These units have very shallow drawers, a number of smaller ones to hold small tools, a few midsized ones to hold files and other similar sized tools and two shallow hanging lockers with tambour doors.

In between the two storage areas lays a 7 ½ - foot bench with a tail vise at one end and a face vise of my own design at the other. A deadman sits between the two base cabinets for use with the face vise. Because floor space is at such a premium, the face vise cannot project out as far as a normal one, so the outer plate is set into the bench top with only the screw wheel projecting. When a longer board is being worked, a filler will have to be added behind it to bring it forward beyond the bench’s face.

As storage of additional jigs and things is also limited, as many adjustments as possible have to be built into the bench. One of those adjustments will be for height. Charlie, over at jack-bench.com has done some extensive work utilizing a car jack for this purpose and studying the plans I purchased from him, I am sure I can utilize this set-up to create a 10-inch height adjustment into my design.

I am also going to skirt the base cabinets to minimize the dust collecting underneath them. Because the room is full of computers as well, dust control is a big deal for me so I have also designed the same car jack set-up in their bases as I’ll be using for the bench top. These bases, however, will have the two car jacks connected so they raise and lower as a single unit to limit twisting the top. When employed, casters in each base will drop down to allow the whole assembly to be moved for relocation or just cleaning beneath.

If things change in our accommodations and we end up somewhere that offers more floor space, the bench top can be removed and set up independently, the two base cabinets can be stacked on one base and the two overhead storage units can be mounted to the wall in any one of multiple arrangements.

Overall, I think the workstation that will result from these plans will be functional to work at and esthetically pleasing to look at. The results will also be usable at this location, or adaptable if my wife decides working for a living is something she would finally like to forgo.

Either way, Mohammad ends up with his mountain.

Peace,

Mitchell

For Better or For Worse...

These past few months, whenever a few minutes of break time is due, I have been merrily using it to search out any interesting books I can find on the topic of woodworking benches. I have also done more than one all-nighter, surfing the web for posts by other woodworkers regarding their trials and troubles creating their benches, their joys and  disappointments with their resulting benches and their hopes and dreams for their future benches.

From all this research, here are my top-ten unscientifically defined conclusions about woodworkers and their workshop benches…

1. It appears to me that more than half of you out there have each built more than 100 benches in your lifetimes; 99 of them were built in your head…plus the one you actually built in the basement.

2. The vast majority of woodworks spend three to five years thinking about building a workbench, two to three years assembling the materials to build their workbenches, and six months to a year staring at all that stuff piled in the middle of the basement floor, all the while convincing yourselves that you shouldn’t rush these things.

3. You know the woodworkers who changed their bench designs right after purchasing the building materials for their first designs from their listings on eBay; they are the ones with the descriptions that always start with; "Bench place your bench part here - New - Still in the box..." 

4. Once the build has started, the average workbench usually takes about 73.832 days, 892.37 dollars and 192 bottles of beer to complete.

5. Many of you learned a good lesson in design whilst trying to decide which end of the bench to add the detailed mounting of the bottle opener, overcoming the possible bad choice by adding these complicated mounts at both ends.

6. Although mainly kept a secret, many a proud workbench builder has been seen dragged complete strangers off the street and forcing them down their basement stairs so they can show someone their pride and joy.

7. Once completed, it usually takes anywhere from three to five years for the average woodworker to finally admit that he or she "might" have made a mistake in the design of their bench, however obvious that mistake may be, by-the-way.

8. Once completed, it usually takes anywhere from three to five days for the average woodworker to start dreaming of what he or she will be adding to their next bench-build.

9. Once completed, "Re-flattening the top" is a task most new bench owners look forward to...once.

And finally, the number one conclusion I have come to…(drum roll, please)…

10. Once completed, the average time it takes for your wife to discover your beautifully crafted workshop bench is the perfect place to put clothes for, or from, washday – SEVEN!

And speaking of wives…

I didn't have long before retirement and I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to it (please note the operative words in this sentence, being "didn't" and “was”).

Damn it, Jim!

My wife came to me last week and asked for some help with her resume.

Huh?

My reaction was to ask why she wanted to deal with it so close to her retiring? This turned out to be a question I wished I had never asked.

We live in Toronto, Canada, which has a population of over a couple of million, 99% of them miserable sods who could care less about a single living soul other than themselves. Trust me, when I tell you that what you have heard or read about the people from Toronto being the epitome of “proper” behavior is pure poppycock. Most would skin their grandmother for her tattoos if they thought they were worth a buck, or would shave two seconds off of reaching the next stoplight. Needless to say, I have been patiently waiting these past ten years to move away to some small, rural community where I can be left alone to watch grass grow when I’m not working wood.

I have also been very vocal about this plan to my wife; so hearing even an inkling that there may be a problem with it caused me some major concern, to say the least. Sadly, it only got worse as the conversation went along.

Here's the rub. I’m older than my wife. Not by much, mind you, but enough to make a serious spread in ages at the time of retirement.  Way back when, it felt like a good idea to marry a younger woman. As with most good ideas, it has come to eventually bite me on the butt, and has left some serious teeth marks in the process.

A synopsis of the conversation went like this…

"I'm going to be calling it quits."

“You can, but I’m too young to retire.”

“Well I’m not.”

“Well then, retire. Who’s stopping you?”

“I don’t want to retire in Toronto.”

“Well I don’t want to retire which means we can’t leave Toronto.”

Editor's Note: It was around this point were the words that I never, ever dreamed I could even think of, let alone utter, especially to a woman and even more especially to my wife, just fell out of my mouth…

“But…but…but...I want to build boxes…”

And with that, she never said a word. She just turned on her heels and left my office. As I listened to her move down the hall laughing hysterically in a way that reminded me of crazed hyenas, I watched with my mind’s eye as my beloved little house on the prairie went up in flames.

Peace,

Mitchell