New jointer plane

Got a new toy the other day.  It's a 22" jointer plane I got from Grizzly.  This was only $60 but the good ones are easily over $300.  The sole wasn't flat when I got it but about an hour of sanding later it's close.  I sharpened the blade and gave it a test run.  Worked great as you can see from all the paper thin curls.

Hand tools

I'm starting to have a real appreciation for hand tools.  Mostly because they're the only thing I can use while the kids are asleep.  Second, they do a whole bunch of things a power tool (at least the ones I have) can't really do.  

The piece on the bottom is the seat of yet another rustic bar stool that I'm building.  The concave seat had all sorts of band saw marks, glue, and 2 uneven halves.  I took a card scraper and cleaned up the hold thing.  I could have done this with a belt sander but my shop would have been covered in a (another) layer of dust.  Now I just have that small pile of shavings.

The piece on top is what might be the binder of a book shaped humidor.  I shaped this entirely with my Stanley smoothing plane and WoodRiver block plane.  More exciting posts to come on that.

Wooden block plane

I made this block plane for dad for Christmas.  The plane has 11 laminated layers.  The bigger pieces are walnut and oak.

DIY lathe tool

There's a guy I subscribe to on YouTube, Eddie Castelin, who has some great videos on wood turning.  He also sells lathe tools and cutters.  I ordered one of his bars and carbide cutters as they are about 1/3 the price of anywhere else.  The only gotcha is it doesn't have a handle.  You have to make your own, which is part of the fun I guess.

Here is the bar as it arrived.

Here is the handle.  It's a thin strip of cherry sandwiched between poplar.  The copper piece at the end is just a plumbing fitting.

Here is the assembled tool.

I like my version better.

Hope it's big enough.

I love Harbor Freight

For a while I didn't really care about not having a lathe.  With some of the things I've been doing recently a lathe would be nice.  I started doing some digging and of course checked Harbor Freight for their options.  They happened to have this little beauty for only $160 after using my coupon.  It got almost 5 stars on all the reviews and seems like a solid little machine.  This lathe looks exactly like the one Grizzly sells for $235.


http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-x-18-Bench-Top-Wood-Lathe/H8259

As I spend more time at Harbor Freight I'm starting to realize that the crap they sell is often clearly from the same factory as other tools with a different paint job and much higher price.  Here's a ridiculous example.  This Jet lathe at Woodcraft is $900:
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2002046/23311/JET-12-Variable-Speed-Wood-Lathe-Model-JWL1236.aspx
Compare the picture of this to the $250 model at Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-x-33-3-8-eighth-inch-wood-lathe-with-reversible-head-34706.html
They are almost identical, and it's quite clear they at least came from the same blueprint.  I've also read that if you need a new part for the Harbor Freight version you can order from Jet and it fits perfect.

Anyway, here's my new toy.

New Plane

I've been needing a new block plane for a while to put some finishing touches on various things.  My old one was quite worthless and the blade looked like someone was planing the driveway.  I pulled the trigger and bought a fairly decent Wood River low angle plane.

It works!!

New Tablesaw

Now that I have room for a workshop it was time to invest in a new table saw.  For the longest time I had my heart set on a grizzly cabinet saw, but found this at home depot the other day.  It got good reviews and was much cheaper.  Hopefully I made the right choice.  Thanks for helping me put it together (and more importantly carry it down the stairs) Steve.

Definitely an upgrade