Shop-Made Tools
Jigs, vises, workbenches, sawhorses, tools — I love making the stuff I then use in my woodworking. Many times the projects go off to family and friends. So the tools are my strongest connection to woodworking. I'm sure some of it is related to my thrifty side. That's probably how I got started. Since then, I've just enjoyed being able to experiment with different types of tools & jigs. Some get added to the set of everyday tools, others get modified and moved along to other folk who could use it.
One shop-made item that I need to put more reps in on, is a shooting board that I made from a ShopNotes plan. It's lovely, but I haven't gotten it to work the way that I should think it should.
Back in 2021, Logan bought an unfinished (perhaps a kit?) plane from the David Stanley auctions. It needs some work.
I don't need another hand plane. But after seeing the work of Bjorn Svantesson, I'm strongly considering his Nordic-style planes.
In recent seasons, we've incorporated a shop-made tools episode. This one recently posted and offers a good intro into the tool-making rabbit hole.
John's Display Box
John's current project is to design a small display box for Woodsmith. The idea is to display small objects under glass. A drawer below would hold other items to rotate in and out.
Listener Project
Mark S. wrote in: Long time viewer of Woodsmith Shop here, and I catch the podcast when I can. I am writing in response to Phil's call out for stories of furniture design adaptations.
My story stems from having some back issues , and the doctor stating I needed to sit in straight back chairs. The only straight back chairs we had in the house were dining table chairs. One can only sit on those for a certain amount of time before the rock pile outside starts to look more comfortable...but I digress.
We have a Craftsman style, fixed back chair at our church I found very comfortable. The more I looked at it, the more I realized it wasn't that much different in construction than a Morris Chair. Between the free plans download of episode 612 of the Woodsmith Shop (I said I was a long time viewer, and thanks, BTW), The New Yankee Workshop season 10 episode 06, the chair at church I could use as a model, and my own problem solving ingenuity, I came up with the chair in the picture. And yes, I created the cushions as well. For those who think sewing should be left to certain members of the household, a sewing machine is just another power tool. (Again, I digress).
The chair was built eleven years ago, and it is still rock solid. It's also the first project I remember building that wasn't a shelf. Since then, I have made many other, various furniture projects. I use plans as inspiration or guidance on a technique. Most of my projects have been built with a spacial constraint in mind. Therefore, plans usually become like recipes in the kitchen. They are there to guide in critical moments, but tweaked to become my own creation.
That is if I even use plans. Many times, I work from a cut list, and then build what's in my mind's eye. But that's another story.
Thank you for what you do. It is appreciated.
Transcript
Phil Huber (01:06.29) All right, we're doing this. It's the Shop Notes Podcast, episode number 263. I'm Phil Huber, along with John Doyle and Logan Whitmer, the usual cast of suspects on today's episode. We got some listener and viewer feedback for you, some fun shop updates going on, and just news and notes of all things that are happening here at Woodsmith and Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Let's get it started. As always, you can contact us, woodsmith at woodsmith.com or drop a comment on our shop notes podcast YouTube channel. That's right. You can either watch or listen there. And it's a great way to leave some comments and check in with our regular listeners who are always bopping in to let us know what's going on. Okay.
We had talked about, I think it was two episodes ago now, how we adapt designs for different uses. And this is going to be a little bit of an extended response, but that's why we have email. Is one of our listeners wrote in about something. Mark S from Indiana.
He says, long time viewer of the Woodsmith Shop here and I catch the podcast when I can writing in response to my call out for stories on furniture design adaptations. My story stems from having some back issues and the doctor stating I need to sit in straight back chairs. The only straight back chairs we had in the house were dining table chairs and one can only sit on those for a certain amount of time before the rock pile outside starts to look more comfortable. But I digress.
We have a craftsman style fixed back chair at our church I found very comfortable. The more I looked at it, the more I realized that it wasn't much different in construction than a Morris chair. So between the free plans download from episode 612 of the Woodsmith Shop, I said I was a long time viewer and thanks by the way, the new Yankee workshop season 10 episode, season 10 episode six.
the chair at church I could use as a model and my own problem solving ingenuity. I came up with the chair in the picture. I'll put a link. I'll put that in the show notes page.
And yes, I created the cushions as well. For those who think sewing should be left to certain members of the household, a sewing machine is just another power tool. Again, I digress. The chair was built 11 years ago and it's still rock solid. It's also the first project I remember building that wasn't a shelf. Since then, I've made other various furniture projects.
I use the plans as inspiration or guidance on a technique. Most of my projects have been built with a spatial constraint in mind, which we had talked about too. Therefore, plans usually become like recipes in the kitchen. They're there to guide in critical moments, but tweaked to become my own creation.
There you go.
John Doyle (04:32.386) Always be tweaking. That's what I say. Yes, yes.
Logan Wittmer (04:37.523) I've been doing something else. I thought it was...
Phil Huber (04:41.542) That's the lesson we should be taking from this is.
Phil Huber (04:47.76) Yeah. No, I mean, I've used that analogy before too, that it's like cooking where, you know, you're putting together some following, I, you know, loosely follow a recipe and then it's like, well, I don't have basil. Guess it's going to be time instead, you know, so.
John Doyle (05:08.91) Yeah. Sometimes cooking, can, you know, do whatever you want. And then sometimes you're baking and you have to follow the exact chemistry, but you know, a of times like he did just make, make a Franken chair that works out in the end and fits his needs. And that's the fun of it.
Phil Huber (05:30.288) I thought the chair looked really cool.
Phil Huber (05:34.839) in
Logan Wittmer (05:35.687) I, as I say, I will say on his comment about the making the cushions, that is an art in itself, like doing upholstery and doing it well. Um, one of our regular pop wood contributors, Willie Sandry is very good at it.
And he spends a lot of time flipping like industrial sewing machines like the Jukies and some of those Japanese sewing machines. yeah, yeah. And if you go to his YouTube channel, which I'm going to give him a shameless shout out, the Thoughtful Woodworker YouTube channel. He has.
Phil Huber (05:57.617) Really?
Phil Huber (06:06.236) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (06:08.729) some videos on there specifically on you know how to replace the you know pinion gear on a juki 601 sewing machine or whatever it is which is pretty cool so but yeah like anybody thinks like sewing is like you're only a man if you make the chair and you don't make the cushions you're much better rounded if you make the cushions and you're much more comfortable
Phil Huber (06:35.61) Yeah. I mean, I do remember taking,
Way back in the 1900s, when I was in junior high, as we called it, we had a program called 12-12-12 during the school year, where it was 12 weeks of art, 12 weeks of industrial arts, as it was called, and then 12 weeks of home economics. And we did several sewing machine projects, and sewing machines are kind of cool.
Logan Wittmer (07:10.34) Yeah, they are fascinating machines, like on how they run and operate and stuff. They're pretty sweet.
Phil Huber (07:17.658) Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to put one out in my workshop, but it is kind of a.
If you understand the basics of it, there's a lot that you can do and grow from.
Logan Wittmer (07:30.546) Yeah.
Phil Huber (07:33.49) So, all right, and then current episode up, we only have a couple of comments right here. Harold McDonald says, I like the idea of a production shop tour. Can we specify that it must be one video, not four videos broken up over three years, Phil?
John Doyle (07:50.498) Ha
Phil Huber (07:56.559) Only because Harold is one of those long time listeners, viewers, can I say this to him, but hey, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. So.
Logan Wittmer (08:11.089) That's right.
John Doyle (08:11.982) It needs to be one 45 minute shop tour video that lasts a sauna session.
Phil Huber (08:18.77) Right, right. It's also hard not picturing Harold from the Red Green Show when I read his comments. So there's that too. The other comment on their MUTiger83 says, one of the best presentations on design that I've seen lately on YouTube was from Nick Padula. Is that how you say his name? Okay.
Logan Wittmer (08:44.559) Yeah, yep, Padula Studios down in Australia.
Phil Huber (08:48.664) On his most recent dining table project, he interviewed 10 designers with YouTube channels about their thought process when they designed furniture. I found it very interesting and will probably go back and watch it a few times. The worst part of watching Nick's videos is that I feel totally inadequate as a woodworker, let alone as a designer. well, I guess I'll just have to strive to be better each time I build a project.
Phil Huber (09:14.97) You know, that was one of the big lessons that I learned when I started at Woodsmith, when we were in trying to understand the way Woodsmith at the time laid out pages and articles, is trying to take into account intimidation. Because when, you you can look at the glamour shot photo of a project and be like, I'm building that.
And then when you turn the page to the first set of instructions and you see six drawings jam-packed with dimensions and leader lines and numbers, and it's like, nope, not building that.
So I get the intimidation and I get that with the design process too. And that was part of my critique in that last episode where sometimes the designers that they talk about are built in.
Phil Huber (10:18.072) stuff that is tough to fit in what I would consider an average person's house.
Logan Wittmer (10:24.0) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (10:29.924) It's like, I feel like woodworking is related to architecture in many ways. I was reading about, I think it was about city planning or development or something like that. And they were talking about how...
The cities that do well and people find enjoyable to be in are ones that are on a human scale and have a sense of order to them because it's one less thing for people to be considerate of. And then if you go to like New York City and you get to the...
Phil Huber (11:11.932) I don't even remember the name of it. The museum that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. Is that the Guggenheim? Yeah. So the Guggenheim looks amazing. And the only reason that it looks amazing is that it's set within a neighborhood of orderly buildings. So that it's almost like a piece of jewelry on the street. And that if you had block after block of buildings,
Phil Huber (11:44.199) Guggenheim style all through that. It would just be visual chaos and would be Disruptive to you walking down the street You wouldn't want to do it You would just feel weird. It's like Logan shop when he has when the visual chaos gets to certain level and then it's time to like deal with it So that he can feel at peace again in there
Logan Wittmer (12:07.885) The great reset. Yep.
Phil Huber (12:16.794) Anyway, going back to furniture, you know, you can have a couple of really stand out, what I would call probably more art forward pieces. If you have a bunch of other stuff in the house that makes sense, so to speak.
Phil Huber (12:37.126) That's my opinion.
Phil Huber (12:42.226) There you go.
Phil Huber (12:48.166) All right. But yeah, we got to we'll get Mark and Dylan to do a team up on the shop tour. I think that would be cool.
Phil Huber (13:03.558) Goose running around in the back. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (13:03.929) cat has zoomies. He's walking around the shop bellowing just like, rawr! And now he's just racing around. Now he's chasing the dog.
John Doyle (13:05.998) you
Phil Huber (13:16.402) All right.
Logan Wittmer (13:17.344) I aspire to live my life like that cat does. He thinks he is the coolest thing in the world and he thinks he's as big as a dog.
And now he's covered in sawdust.
Phil Huber (13:39.058) All right, John, what do you got going on?
John Doyle (13:41.623) well, these, the, between this podcast and last podcast, we've, we're recording them about two days apart, but they're going to be a week apart. So I'm going to speak for future self as if like this next week. So, we in future, in the future, we are mid build of, for the TV show, shop made tools.
Phil Huber (13:55.334) Yes.
John Doyle (14:10.638) and it's going well as to plan as usual. next week we're starting on I believe a beam compass. Is that what you're gonna be doing Phil? So we got some parts from McMaster car and some aluminum and we're gonna pick out some fun wood. It's gonna look great. So.
Phil Huber (14:13.798) Yeah. Right. Yeah.
John Doyle (14:35.586) That's going great. And future cells also, we were talked about last week that I was designing a glass top display box.
Logan Wittmer (14:45.867) Mm-hmm.
John Doyle (14:45.996) So Future Self has that done. That's ready to go. It's a nice box. It's got a glass door on top, a drawer, as we had discussed for various pieces. And then I don't know if we've, I can't remember a project if we've used these or not. So I'm going to say it's new, but I decided to use the quadrant hinges for the box. it's got like a little kind of built in.
Phil Huber (14:48.39) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (14:48.502) Nice.
John Doyle (15:11.31) stop in it so it'll open to like 90 to 95 degrees and stay there won't swing wide open so yep yep so
Logan Wittmer (15:19.083) The L-shaped ones. Yeah, I did those on my dovetailed toolbox that I made, that curly maple one. And I ordered ones from a company in Ireland that's like jewelry box maker supply or something weird like that.
Phil Huber (15:38.322) is that Andrew Crawford?
Logan Wittmer (15:42.655) I don't remember. I just know that they are the nicest hinges I have ever purchased. They are also the most expensive hinges I've ever purchased, but they are so nice.
John Doyle (15:49.305) Yeah.
Yeah, I saw that like, brusso makes some and they're like $100 a pair. They look super nice. I didn't, I didn't order those because I'm cheap, but I got them from Rockler, I believe. But it's they're kind of interesting because they take, I mean, you can buy the template system to cut the matching L shaped hinges and then they have to have a pocket for that stop to drop in into. So I thought it'd be interesting to show
Logan Wittmer (15:57.601) Yeah, yeah that's similar.
John Doyle (16:21.678) that in the magazine and you know something different than just the regular you know butt hinges that you could use on a box and
Logan Wittmer (16:26.86) Yeah. Do you know how I would cut those mortises in my shop? I would scan that QR code with Shaper Origin and just let it go, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, cut it. Lovely.
John Doyle (16:38.028) Yeah. Yep. Yep. So I did order the jig that Rockler sells for it to ease Mark's mind a little bit. if we want to show. Yeah. Yeah. Because I can drop perfectly in inventor, but.
Phil Huber (16:49.49) So yeah.
Because you know he's going to come after you.
Phil Huber (16:57.382) Ha ha!
John Doyle (16:59.658) actually doing it is another story. So I ordered the jig. You can try that out. We can show it making our own jig as well. So just be something to kind of experiment with, I guess. So that was, you know, something to add on to talk about. So that's what I got going on with that.
Phil Huber (17:12.69) Okay. Yeah. I'll put one of John's sketches for that display box on the show notes page for this episode so you'll be able to see the development path of that particular project. cool. Now, speaking of the shop built tools episode for the TV show, we've done that for the past few seasons and...
Judging from the kind of feedback that we get from it, it seems pretty popular. And then looking at, you know, like plan downloads from stuff like that. It's also fun for me to do when we're doing them because I like making tools. know, like years and years ago, fine woodworking had like make a bandsaw out of wood or, you know, a sliding table saw kind of thing. That's not the kind of tools I'm talking about.
Logan Wittmer (17:45.515) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (18:09.847) It's smaller hand tools that...
Phil Huber (18:16.604) I don't know. I'm trying to decide, or trying to figure out why it's so much fun for me to make those kind of tools. Even though I know that there's quite a few woodworkers out there that are like, I'd rather build furniture than make the jigs, you know? And I can kind of get that. Right. And I get it, but, because we all have limited time and whatever, but there is a special amount of delight in
Logan Wittmer (18:34.955) Yeah.
Phil Huber (18:46.21) using tools to make something, you know, that that's gonna end up going somewhere else.
Logan Wittmer (18:52.554) Yeah, and as my wife would say, don't yuck on somebody else's yum. Like, if somebody likes making tools, let them make tools. Like, who cares?
Phil Huber (19:02.084) Yeah. And I feel like probably what got me started on it was making some of the jigs that were in shop notes. Even before I started here, there was just cool stuff. you know, the the boundary between jig and tool is pretty fuzzy. I think, you know, like, you know, you make a shop made miter box for a handsaw. Is that a jig or is that a tool?
Logan Wittmer (19:29.771) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (19:31.024) you know, and then, you know, like we did those alls a couple years ago, or the scraper shaves, Chris's brass mallet.
All that kind of stuff is just super fun to do. I mean, I think you can try and justify it, that you're saving money or being thrifty or whatever. And if that's what does it for you, bang on, man, go at it. But...
Logan Wittmer (20:04.33) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (20:07.404) I think it's just really cool to be able to come up with something and the skills that you learn along the way. I mean, was emailing or messaging, we use teams here at work about a set of Scandinavian hand planes that I saw a guy make. And I do not need another hand plane in my life, like at all.
But the Scandinavian style plane with like the horn at the front just looked amazing. And they're relatively simple. So it's like, why not? It's just a block of wood with a handle on the front. And if it doesn't work out, you burn it. Like, who cares?
Logan Wittmer (20:48.595) Mm-hmm.
John Doyle (20:58.254) Yeah, think that's part of it. It doesn't take a lot of material. Usually you have some sort of special quote unquote wood you've been saving for some purposes. It's never enough to build a project with. So making something for yourself, a little hand mail tool, or for a gift for someone, you can usually accomplish it in a day or two over a weekend and you learn.
learn about making the tools, using the tools. So it's kind of So, and just as a note, did from the season 17, the woodsman shop, shop make tools. just got that up on YouTube this week. So it has the brass hammers.
Logan Wittmer (21:42.665) Hmm.
Nice. All.
John Doyle (21:45.731) think Logan made a... No, that was season 16, which is also up. It was the panel gauge. Panel gauge, yep. And then Phil's tool was the upgrade to the Carpenter's Square, I believe. So, in that episode. So, and I think some of those plans are free. So, you can go watch the videos and download.
Logan Wittmer (21:53.192) the panel gauge, yeah.
Phil Huber (22:02.821) yeah.
Logan Wittmer (22:14.143) I was incorrect. I did not use quandrant hinges.
John Doyle (22:18.582) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (22:20.894) This has been bothering me since we said it and I couldn't remember the name. Fineboxhardware.com. Okay. I used what they call their jewelry box hinges, large brass, neat elite. So they're 50 euros, 50 pounds, 50 pounds a piece. They're heavy, they're thick.
John Doyle (22:21.166) Strike that from the record.
Phil Huber (22:21.49) This just in.
John Doyle (22:43.416) Those are heavy.
Logan Wittmer (22:47.849) But they have the knuckle design is such that they still open at 95 degrees, 92 degrees actually. So.
John Doyle (22:54.075) OK. yeah. I kind of remember those. There's like, yeah, the knuckle kind of stops it from keep coming from.
Logan Wittmer (22:59.269) Yeah, yeah, so you don't have to go deep into the sides.
John Doyle (23:05.24) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (23:07.709) Sorry, just had to, had to, had to scratch that itch. Like, had to figure out exactly which ones I used.
John Doyle (23:07.886) Thanks. Thanks for being honest. Yeah.
Phil Huber (23:14.802) This is the shop notes podcast fact checking by Logan Wittmer.
Logan Wittmer (23:16.713) Yeah
John Doyle (23:18.2) Yeah.
Phil Huber (23:25.17) All right, last week on the episode, we were talking about the tours that we were doing and I had that piece of boxwood that I had gotten and it had just been bandsawed to rough size and then Logan had suggested just sanding it up and polishing it. So I did that, took it over to the edge sander and cleaned up most of the blade marks and then used a card scraper on it to polish it up, including the end grain and...
Logan Wittmer (23:32.425) Yeah.
Phil Huber (23:54.032) Boxwood is one of those materials where it's just
Like the closer you look at it, the more amazing it is.
Logan Wittmer (24:02.544) Yeah, it like, it's so hard.
Phil Huber (24:06.14) Right.
Logan Wittmer (24:07.731) but it tools so well. Like, it's the perfect blend of hardness and like, the grain is so tight and fine that it holds crisp details. Traditionally, chest pieces would have been made out of boxwood, like super high-end chests, chest sets were, yeah, boxes, maybe, probably. It just, it's so amazing.
John Doyle (24:25.602) boxes.
Phil Huber (24:27.27) boxes.
Logan Wittmer (24:32.712) I literally sitting here thinking, what am I making for that hand tool episode? But then I realized I had said I was gonna make the bow saw, is what I had said. And then I was, as we were just talking about this, was thinking, do I have enough boxwood to make it out of boxwood? I don't know if I do, but it is. It's unbelievable. Did you put any finish on it?
Phil Huber (24:55.386) I did not yet. was thinking if I do, think I'm probably, it would just be maybe like, I don't know, I'm probably leaning towards just waxing it. Just cause it, I'll put a couple of photos. I don't know how well you'll be able to see it in photos, but like you said, the grain is so tight. This one, the quarter sawn face, like you can see little tiny, tiny ray fleck in it. It's just, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (25:23.996) Yeah, you know, the Bill Carter uses, what does he use? He uses some chemical on his boxwood to age it. I don't remember what it is. I've wanted to mess around with it, but I also don't want to go through the hassle of like, I want to get that chemical on the black market so I don't have to deal with all the shipping logistics of it. Like I just want somebody to throw it in a UPS box and just send it to me.
Phil Huber (25:24.4) It's jewelry.
Phil Huber (25:34.834) Oh, yeah, yeah.
Phil Huber (25:51.654) You want to still be able to fly?
Logan Wittmer (25:53.34) Yeah, yeah. I don't remember what he uses.
Phil Huber (25:59.943) Yeah, so speaking of which, like for shop made tools, like you made a Bill Carter style plane, couple of them, right?
Logan Wittmer (26:06.054) Yeah, I did. I did that. God. Nitric acid is what he uses because I can't go without knowing something. I did those several years ago. I did two of them. so Bill doesn't make many large miter planes. He makes mostly small miter planes, little tiny ones. And I wanted one that was a little bit larger. And I feel like a little bit larger planes, probably easier.
to do than the little planes. So I did one out of bronze, one out of brass, one was stuffed with apple, one was stuffed with pear. Shop made O1 tool steel blades on them. Yeah, they're great little planes. I don't use them very often, because I just, when I'm working, like if I have something that's super, like if I have to plane down an ingrain.
Like if I just have to trim the end of something really lightly, I'll grab one. Otherwise, they're finicky. The mouth is so tight on them that it's so hard to get them set just so. But when you get them set, they're wonderful.
Phil Huber (27:20.7) Which is Logan's way of saying like he just made them too good. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (27:23.323) Weird flex, yeah, weird flex.
Phil Huber (27:28.082) I made them so great that it's hard to use them.
Logan Wittmer (27:31.693) Nobody has made them better.
Phil Huber (27:34.024) You
Phil Huber (27:39.73) All right, yeah, the.
Phil Huber (27:44.039) beam compass that I'm going to be making was from ShopNotes and uses anodized aluminum. So a little harder on the surface and then has some veneer with it. I ended up making a set for myself and use it all the time. It's a cool project.
Phil Huber (28:10.61) All right, what else did I have on today's list for things to talk about?
Logan Wittmer (28:17.371) You know, I wish for the, I wish for the bow saw. I just don't know that I have enough. Like the box would I have is in log form. I'd have to cut it apart. There's going to be a lot of waste. Like I'd rather probably not do that. So then I'm sitting here thinking like, what do I make that? Cause I like to make stuff out of weird woods, right? Like I don't want to make it have a beach. Like that's dumb. Like let's make it cool. Right?
I really have anything cool in the shop right now. I have that pear that I cut, but that pear is all green. Like it's wet. It's not dry yet. And I cut a lot of it into, I actually cut a lot of it when you were talking about the hand plane. thought about this. I cut a lot of it into hand plane blanks. So I sawed it a little bit bigger. But I don't know. I have some curly maple I could maybe use. Which would be okay.
John Doyle (28:43.242) you
Logan Wittmer (29:11.78) I know, we'll see. I do have the blade kit.
Phil Huber (29:15.164) What made you choose that saw?
Logan Wittmer (29:21.062) I have the blanket and I've had it for probably nine years now and I've never built it and the the handle that came with it is a Hickory handle. I have to find the stupid thing now. So the problem is between now and when I film my episode or my part of the episode I have to find the dang thing like it's somewhere. I don't know where. It's probably in the basement shop I would guess but yeah.
John Doyle (29:22.84) Yeah.
Phil Huber (29:56.659) Speaking of shop made tools, you still have a...
large joint or plane body here, I think.
Logan Wittmer (30:06.021) Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah, that was a purchase from...
Phil Huber (30:16.85) I feel like you got it along with other stuff though, right?
Logan Wittmer (30:20.678) let's say that. I don't know. I mean, I, I bought, I bought that through the David Stanley auction, which is the English tool auction. And I bought it probably because I had other stuff getting shipped here. So it's like, if I'm buying one thing from David Stanley's auction, I'm going to buy multiples because then you get economies of shipping. Right.
Phil Huber (30:25.009) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (30:45.227) Obviously, like you gotta buy more than one. So I probably had like boxwood. That may have been the time when I bought all those lawn bowls, which I still have.
John Doyle (30:54.348) Yes. Yeah, let's just go right down the inventory of stuff that's Logan has in the closet. Yep. you took them? Okay.
Phil Huber (30:54.413) right. Yeah.
They're all in the closet over here. I can just go start digging them out. No, aren't they? okay.
Logan Wittmer (30:58.425) Yes.
Logan Wittmer (31:01.879) No they're not. I think I took them all. think I took them all. Maybe. Don't prove me wrong. But the the jointer plane I bought was a
large jointer plane like it's like 24 or 26 inches and it's brass and stainless, maybe not stainless steel, might be like mild steel, but brass and steel. Things heavy, dovetailed. The dovetails are peened over. Not the greatest dovetails in the world. There was some gaps in them and stuff. And I don't know if this was, this may have been, there was, there were several companies that made dovetailed kits.
Phil Huber (31:26.22) yeah.
Logan Wittmer (31:45.785) in brass and steel. So you could grab the kit and then all you're doing is you're putting it together, you're peening it and then you're putting in the bed and the the tote and the knob and stuff like that right. This one when I bought it and it still doesn't, it doesn't have a mouth cut in it. So it's it's extremely
It's an extremely difficult thing to figure out how to cut a mouth in a plane that is already assembled. Yep, there you go.
John Doyle (32:27.598) I feel like that's like a two man plane. Like it has a handle each end. One guy pushing, one guy pulling like, yeah.
Phil Huber (32:31.302) Ha ha.
Logan Wittmer (32:31.864) Yeah, it's huge. But like, I don't know if that is a, it very well may be a kit. But if if Phil rolls it over, there is no mouth in it. So that's the problem. And I bought it.
John Doyle (32:49.774) Could you drill it out and then file these files or I don't know. Yeah, that's true. That's why you got the milling machine. Yeah, for this reason.
Logan Wittmer (32:54.541) I got a milling machine that's set up now.
Phil Huber (32:57.254) I think that was the whole point is that he was eventually going to get a milling machine. Yeah. I think this one has been soldered or partially soldered in different places.
Logan Wittmer (32:58.936) That was The Point.
Yes.
I started to solder it to see if I could wick solder into those joints.
Phil Huber (33:13.521) Logan Wittmer (33:15.874) Yeah, because I was trying to close up those dovetails a little bit.
Yeah, I don't know. It has to be 24 inches, right? Is it real? God!
Phil Huber (33:28.626) 30.
Logan Wittmer (33:36.769) it's so heavy. You know, like it-
John Doyle (33:38.626) I feel like I was gonna say, I feel like you need to like mount that to a stand and then you bring the wood to that. Whatever piece of wood you're gonna be using will be lighter than that. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (33:45.26) Yeah, it's like the like the Cooper's planes where you used to run the wood down it. So, uh-oh, Phil's having a stroke. he's coming back. my God. Or he set it down and broke the cable out from his computer. But yeah, so I guess, I don't know, like my, my thought is, is that, God, I don't even know how.
John Doyle (33:54.799) He's frozen. It just blew his mind.
Logan Wittmer (34:15.116) like a slitting saw in the vertical mill. Like a slitting saw that cuts, you know, you know, 5,000th of an inch mouth. But then you got a mill in the bed angle. So the blade goes down into it. it's just a, it's a thing. So.
John Doyle (34:32.61) Yeah. You could also mount a router with a straight bit into it and make it into a jointer. Maybe. I don't know.
Logan Wittmer (34:39.299) Yes, yes, yep. So I don't know, but that's another one where it's like I kind of, I kind of want to, I mean want to finish that at some point and I want to finish it with some form of nice wood on the inside. you know, am I going to buy like $200 of Cocobolo to finish? I don't know, maybe, but.
John Doyle (35:06.914) Maybe season 21 of the Woodsmith Shop is where we're just all held at gunpoint to finish all of the projects, all the parts we have sitting in the closet in there or laying around. It's like, all right, we got a camera on you, finish it.
Logan Wittmer (35:13.345) all the projects.
Yep, you gotta do it. But no, was telling John, I don't know on that plane, how you, I don't know even with the vertical mill how I mill in that bed or that mouth because the mouth I think is easy. A slitting saw in the vertical mill will do that and you can just cut straight across it, no problem. But then you gotta mill in the angle, you gotta take whatever that is, quarter inch steel for the bottom and you gotta mill that at a 35, 40 degree angle for the bed.
and it's like you can, I can get a end mill in there, but I can't get all the way to the left and right edges, which I think is fine. It just is, it's a kind of a tricky little thing to do. So, almost be better to grind the dovetails off or flat, see if you can get it to come apart and then reassemble it.
Phil Huber (01:02.29) Whoa.
Logan Wittmer (01:03.367) Yeah, but I don't want to do that.
Logan Wittmer (01:08.535) Then I also got to like figure out what type of wood I want to stuff it with because like you're gonna put some fancy in it, right? Like you're not gonna put, I'm not gonna put walnut in there. I don't think that's dumb.
poor man's hand plane.
John Doyle (01:24.846) some reclaimed lumber from an old battleship or something
Logan Wittmer (01:29.427) Yes. Yes.
Phil Huber (01:39.134) I mean, which begs the question, like we all clearly have our limits on where we would want to.
what tool would you draw the line on not building? Or, I mean, this one says David Stanley 2021. we're...
Logan Wittmer (01:53.014) Ouch! god, I there was a date on it. Dang it!
Phil Huber (01:56.094) Ahem.
John Doyle (01:58.031) That's post 2020. It's still in, you know, recent history. So it's fine. Yeah.
Phil Huber (02:03.526) Right, right. The aftertimes, yeah. But it's like, and I totally get it. A, you were waiting for a milling machine because that's gonna make flattening this a lot easier. But B, is it, do you wanna do that?
Logan Wittmer (02:03.861) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (02:22.142) I I do, that's why I bought it, because I was like, that would be really cool. And quite honestly, like I would probably, if I finished that hand plane, I would probably get rid of my Lee Nielsen joiner.
Phil Huber (02:25.479) Right.
Phil Huber (02:36.264) Yeah.
okay.
Logan Wittmer (02:39.99) Yeah, because to me it's like, yeah, but like I don't need, I don't need both of those. Um, so, and I guess, so according to this photo on the website from David Stanley, I have a lever cap to that thing somewhere. So I had a lever cap, um, so that, which tells me that it was probably a kit plane. Um, and I paid a total of 50 pounds for that plane.
So like 65 bucks. I don't think that's awful.
I bought that some, I bought three planes. a couple little chariot planes with it. Anyways, yeah, it, I don't know. I don't know. Like I draw the line, so at tools I'm making, I draw the line at a disc sander.
Phil Huber (03:22.828) yeah.
John Doyle (03:35.502) you
Logan Wittmer (03:38.709) As there's parts about 20 feet from Phil that had been sitting there for probably four years now It was one of those things like we decided we were getting rid of video edition We're just gonna kind of build what we wanted to build on video and I'm like, let's start this disk sander I got a motor I got everything let's do it and then I bought a disk sander You know, we're allowed to change our minds
Phil Huber (03:39.901) you
Phil Huber (03:57.853) And then you bought a disk sander.
Phil Huber (04:07.697) yeah. Yep.
Logan Wittmer (04:07.751) Free will. Free will, people.
Phil Huber (04:11.368) Right. And I definitely have projects that I've started, set aside, come back to, and totally disregarded, you know, in the past. it's...
Logan Wittmer (04:21.981) Slop artiser.
Phil Huber (04:24.294) Yep.
I had two versions of that one going at one point.
Logan Wittmer (04:29.364) This is a c-
yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine.
Phil Huber (04:34.526) What do do? Like that's just, it's the way we grow as woodworkers and do different things. yeah. So yeah, that's what I'd like to know is what kind of shop tools you've made out there. Even fancy jigs. I'm going to count in the shop tool category. Let me know what you've been really proud of. Like all of us have done the Chinse Hinge Mortise Jig.
where it's just a piece of hardwood, hardboard and a fence and that's it. I'm not counting that, but something that's, you've kind of invested some time or brain power or pride in and set it up. It's kind of fun. And who knows, maybe I'll still build one of those Scandinavian planes just because. Just because.
Logan Wittmer (05:26.152) Yeah. You know, like I, the one thing I do want to build and it's kind of been on my list for a while. And I had ideas in my head that I was just going to design one and build it. And it was going to be a magazine project, but I don't know. It seems like sometimes you get to a point where with like, I want to design that, I want to build it, but how do you make it different than everybody else's? I need a shooting board.
I have the Lee Nielsen shooting board plane. have a shooting board. have Rob Cosman style of shooting board. Works great for my low angle jack, which is my most hated plane ever. I don't like it. People love those. I don't care for it. Works fine for that, but for the big shooting plane, I want something with that plane stuck in a track.
Phil Huber (05:52.285) Okay.
Phil Huber (06:15.507) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (06:18.002) That's kind of, maybe that's what I should build instead of the bow saw. Put that one down the road a little bit further.
Phil Huber (06:26.184) That's fine.
Logan Wittmer (06:27.411) I don't know, we'll see, we'll see.
Phil Huber (06:33.01) I have a shooting board, my dad and I once during a, I think we were up there over Christmas and I was gonna be there a week. So dad and I each made a shooting board from a shop notes plan. That was kind of fun. And.
Phil Huber (06:51.43) Everybody talks about how cool shooting boards are, but they, and the concept behind it is pretty simple to understand. The actual using of it, there's still a learning curve on that. I don't know that I feel super comfortable using a shooting board right now. If I can admit that here, is this a safe place? So yeah.
Logan Wittmer (07:07.816) Hmm. Yeah, that's fair. It is a safe place. Yeah, I thoroughly enjoy mine. I don't use it all the time. But for parts that need to be a super precise length, that's when I really use it. Like if I'm knifing a line, you know, like for most things, since I blocked the table saw, cut it.
Phil Huber (07:17.064) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (07:36.007) But if it's like, okay, I need these two parts to be perfectly square on the end and I need to make sure that they're exactly the same length, I'm standing them on end and doing the whole finger caliper on them, that's when I use it.
John Doyle (07:56.934) Speaking of shooting boards, we do have to be careful what we say because I had a YouTube video flagged one time that had shooting board in the title. So I don't know if we need to say pew pew boards or like use some sort of coded messaging. I just don't I don't want to get flagged. Yeah. No one's harmed.
Logan Wittmer (08:13.619) It's a tool, people.
Phil Huber (08:16.383) You
Phil Huber (08:20.863) Ha
Logan Wittmer (08:22.162) That's awesome.
Phil Huber (08:29.087) Contrary to what you probably think in listening to the Shop Notes podcast is that we script this out or plan in advance what we're going to be talking about. That's not the case at all. We come up with this on the fly. So apparently today's episode is all about shop made tools. So there you go.
Yeah, shop made tools are tons of fun.
Phil Huber (08:59.145) the end. don't know where else we go with that.
Logan Wittmer (09:00.594) Yeah. I don't know.
John Doyle (09:02.478) Fade to black.
Phil Huber (09:03.731) Fade to black. Thanks for listening to the Shop Notes podcast, everybody. These episodes are brought to you by the subscribers of Woodsmith and Popular Woodworking Magazine, especially those folk who have joined us in our membership program, Woodsmith Unlimited and Popwood Plus. As the name suggests, there is just a lot of woodworking information to be had. You want to check that out.
at thewoodsmith.com site and popularwoodworkingmagazine.com to learn more about those. Appreciate you signing up for that. Questions, comments, and smart remarks, send them in. We love to hear them and we love to riff on what you guys are talking about. Also, please subscribe to the Shop Notes Podcast YouTube channel and to give us a review wherever you get your podcasts to help us reach even more woodworkers and make this tent bigger. Thanks for listening. Bye.
