Disposed Income

Well, this is my end of year blog entry where I talk about my annual woodworking shopping habits.  The woodworking purchases have been pretty low this year as evidenced in the blog entry calendar to the right of the page.  Here is the short list for 2013:

Lie-Nielsen I finally completed my chisel set and added some floats to my arsenal.
Highland Woodworking  I visit their site every other week at least.
McFeely's  It feels like I've purchased thousands of screws from them this year.
Tyler Tool  A new entrant to the list this year.  A great no frills source for power tools.
Lost Art Press  Most the stuff I buy from them is reviewed on the blog, so I'm not adding details here.
CU woodshop  This is an independent outfit in Champaign IL.  They have a great selection in stock from power tools to milk paint and, of course, wood.
Owl Hardwood lumber  There is a Hooter's one block away.  It is always a three or four hour outing when I go to Owl. Not including travel.
Woodcraft  Most of my odds and ends are filled by this place, it seems.
Menard's and Lowes  Interchangeable on most things so they get one line.
Amazon  The 7-eleven of the ether, and soon landing smiley boxed Stuff in your own backyard.

I'm giving a shout out to the many anonymous yard sales and flea markets I frequent.  I scored some major wood and paring chisels over the summer.

I'll return and add anyone I've forgotten.  Best wishes to you and yours in the coming year.

Court Jester Woodworker?

Sometimes I wonder why I keep at this woodworking thing.  Sure, I have a couple cool tables and a score of scout derby cars for my efforts.  But, it seems the more I do it, the more my shortcomings are revealed.

I finished the carcase for the Dutch tool chest a la Popular Woodworking and Chris Schwarz.  The top hinges are on back order from VanDykes hardware.  They have been on back order for a while now and I'm tired of waiting so now on to working on the innards.

 

I remarked before about how it was tough to keep square during the glue up.  I failed again.  The case ended up out of square.  I used tongue and groove carsiding for the back.  I cut each board wide enough to ensure coverage across the back of the out of square carcase.  Once in place I glued the tongues and nailed in the boards.  I planed the end grain by hand until both long sides were flush.

The innards for this box are pretty simple.  However, I held off on doing the tool racks until I gave it more thought.  I have opted for two rows of rack.  The first rack is for flat tools and the second for anything else.  I'm pretty sure I will lose floor space in the top compartment by making this decision, but so far I'm OK with that.

Tonight I started the top rack (flat tool).  The rack is in three layers.  The back board is 1/2" thick.  The middle layer is 1/4" thick spacer chips 1 1/8" wide.  The top layer is a 1/4" thick solid board.

I made the chips easy enough on the table saw over the weekend.  Unfortunately, I found out tonight that 1 1/8" is too wide for the spacing I want.  It is far too cold to go back out to the Outside Shop where the power tools live, so I'm stuck with the inside shop resources to make shorter spacers.  I used to have a nice bench hook made of scraps.  It got pretty chewed up, so I threw it away.  I told myself I'd make another from the scrap bin soon enough; as you might have guessed already, I never made the new bench hook.  So, here I am looking for a way to cut some small spacers in half.  I figure a bench hook is a lot cleaner than a chisel, allowing me to use both sides of the cut spacer.

Instead of making the top tool rack in less time than Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, I cobbled together a bench hook with what I could find around the house.

Making sure the top hook is square pictures one and two.

It ain't pretty, but here is the spur of the moment bench hook for cutting little spacers smaller: