Descending Ashtray

On the morning of my birthday, I woke up, made some coffee, and gathered up my tools. Sarah dropped me off at the door of 1002 SE 8th Street, home of the Northwest Woodworking Studio, where I had enrolled in a class on making brass handplanes. I hoped that by the end of the day, I’d be walking out the same door with a small brass handplane in my pocket, a birthday present I’d made for myself.

Class got off to a start quickly, with instructor Ken Altman showing off one of his beautifully handmade violin bows, then launching into the demo. He’d show one step in the process, and the students would then complete the same step on their own. It all began with solid brass stock. Here, I’ve got a large piece clamped in my vise from which I’m cutting the two pieces for the inside of the plane.

Next, I cut the side pieces, which sandwich the parts I just cut. These were cut using a jeweler’s saw, which I hadn’t used since high school, though I really enjoyed using it again. The blade is so delicate that many students broke blades, but having done it before, I managed without doing so.

Once the pieces were cut out, there was a lot of filing and fine shaping to be done. One of the students made a joke that the studio didn’t sound much like a woodworking shop with all the filing and metal sawing going on. It was pretty noisy at times. Finally, though, things took shape and the next step was putting all the pieces together, which was done by soldering.

By now it was about 2:00, and after letting the plane cool down, I set to work with some more finishing work, filing away like a madman. It was much more rewarding now, as the finished product became more and more visible. And by 3:30, I had a nice plane in my hands! And a real pain in my elbows! I’m not used to so much filing!

I was so busy with the steps, I didn’t take as many photos as I intended, but it was a very rewarding experience, and I plan on making several more planes, which hopefully I’ll do a better job of documenting!

I drilled out the pieces for my sculpture in progress last night. Six of the 139 pieces split or otherwise shattered while I was drilling them, leaving 133 pieces, and a lot of sanding to do. The Forstner bit did a good job, but cherry burns so easily; a lot of the inside of the holes in the cherry wood will need a fair amount of sanding. Wish I had an oscillating spindle sander. Perhaps I will get one for my birthday!

I milled up stock today for the sculpture I described a few days ago. The idea is to assemble same-sized pieces of many different kinds of wood (and copper) to create the look of a building that has fallen into disrepair and been rebuilt several times.

I began with a bunch of scrap I had laying around (I am a major wood packrat): small pieces of Doug Fir, Poplar, Cherry, Black Walnut, Maple, Alder, Aromatic Cedar … Some were thick enough that I ended up re-sawing them on the bandsaw before I sent them through the planer.

Because I was using up some scrap, there were a few short pieces I tried to plane, in the neighborhood of 5-6 inches long. One piece of poplar shattered inside the planer, I think because it was not long enough to be engaged by both feed rollers at the same time. No harm done, but it made a terrible noise! So, word to the wise: only plane pieces longer than 6 inches.

After more planing, I cut the pieces to width and length on the table saw, ending up with a pile of 139 pieces of wood 2 3/8-in. square. Amazing how the pile shrunk from the first photo! There goes another bag of sawdust!

I am already liking how they look all together. Tomorrow night I will drill a 1 1/2-in. hole in each one.

This thing really cranks out the BTU’s! It takes about 4 gallons to fill up the tank, which they say will last about 17 hours. I have been using it off and on all week and the tank is about half full. I was at Menards recently and they have cast iron wood burning stove kits for about $150. Maybe next year I will make the shop insulated and get the stove. There could not be a better way to turn your scrap wood into heat.

Just when I thought I was safe, the need for another power tool arises. The Mortiser. I am just borrowing it from a friend but could be a handy tool to have around. Since I am making 10 double hung windows that means there are twenty individual sashes and with each sash there are 4 corners that need to be chiseled out. Which comes to 80 corners. I did not have any problem when I made just one or two windows but 10 windows is a whole different story. This a perfect example of how much time you can save with power tools!

Since it’s still too cold here to make it out to the shop, I thought I’d continue the “enormous tools” theme from yesterday.

Who is that skinny young guy?

In 2002, Sarah and I were lucky enough to get a guided tour of the Brooklyn Train Yards in Portland’s Brooklyn Neighborhood district. Currently a switching yard owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, the yard also features a full-size turntable used for turning whole locomotives around to move them in and out of the “roundhouse” for repairs. Now, the roundhouse is occupied by a local steam preservation group that is restoring several old engines. Hence the giant drill press.

As a lover of rusty bits, I was like a kid in a candy store, snapping all sorts of interesting photos, a few of which are below.