Almost Famous!

The big news here today is that unpluggedshop.com now has this blog on their feed.  I sent a note to them with a link here thinking I'd get a "thanks but no thanks" reply, seeing as most of the other blogs on this site have content from authors with actual skill in woodworking.

I guess that means now I should start proof reading my posts.

Charge the batteries in my camera.

Start wearing pants in the shop.

Seriously, though, it just so happens that I am in the process of renovating my shop space, and starting up a new blog.  Both items that have been topics of The Literary Workshop Blog lately.  Great stuff to think about.

Unfortunately, the bit about charging my batteries is true.  Not sure where the charger is, so until I find it there are going to be only either low quality pictures from my phone or brilliant descriptions that will paint a picture in your mind with my mastery of the language.

Today's is the latter.

I got the base of the table project glued up.  Note to self:  when doing a glue-up in the future, don't start it five minutes before the shop closes.

I was very worried about this assembly because I wound up being forced into a big hurry.  I thought I would be manly and not a wuss by drawboring the tennons without any clamps.  Strangely enough, the drawboring worked perfectly.  The problem was my tennons weren't precise enough, so there is now a giant gap in the front of the table apron.  Why couldn't I have done it the other way?  The inside of the table shows some wicked tight tennons.

old picture of the table due to not having a functioning camera for this post.

Back at the shop at home, yesterday I got some new lighting installed, finished the planing stop, and got the tail vise put in my bench.  I had problems with the vise wobbling all over the place, so I bit the bullet and cut my chop shorter.  It is now only about 10 inches long.  It would have looked cooler taking up more real estate, but this Taiwanese vise just couldn't handle it.

I think it will work fine, though.  My guess is than 99% of it's use will be to hold a board between dogs to flatten it.

Speaking of dogs, I made the decision to use wooden dogs one inch in diameter.  I ordered some 1" walnut dowels from the internet and plan to keep a dog in every single dog hole on my bench.  It is annoying to me to move dogs all over the place.

Why one inch?  Because they will look cooler than 3/4" dogs.  I was thinking that my Gramercy holdfasts would not fit in those holes, but all of those holes will have a dog in them anyway.  Also, pleanty of people are happy with square dog holes and still use their holdfasts effectively, so why not?  Also I'll have the coolest dogs in Germany because who wants to buy a 26 mm drill bit just to chew up for a one-time use?  Stay tuned for my brace and bit demonstration.  My guess is the holes I drill at the end will be a lot straighter than the ones I start with.

Enough drivel for today.  If you've stuck with me this long, you are hooked.