Well said Barry, The problem today is that few of us will have access to enough real wood to make some of that skill development practical and those hand tools don't work well with composite materials and plywoods with their cross grains and glues and of course for us, the blind, often power tools with their guides and reproducibility are the most practical way of solving many problems.
I just received my latest shipment from Lee Valley: leveling legs for my router table project hundred pound full extension drawer glides for the bottom drawers recessed handles, I bought a couple of other items, one I am interested to test, called a blending curve. This is 36 inches long, is a series of flexible plastic strips bound together to form a strip about quarter of an inch thick and an inch wide. These strips will slide over each other so it can be bent around quite a sharp curve. I am hoping I can use this to form shaped jigs. I should be able to form a shape, stick it down to a thin sheet of plywood or hardboard with double sided tape or maybe hot glue and follow with a router. I hope to be able to use it to form the curved channel required for a roll-top desk but hopefully to be able to form more organic shapes than I have been so far able to produce. There are a couple of feather boards, one a magnetic one I haven't yet figured out, the other is a feather board which fits into the miter slot of a saw or router table to hold work against the fence. The nut you tighten down to hold the plastic fins against the work pulls up through the bit in the miter slot and expands it to hold it firmly into place, truly cool! When I figure out the magnetic one I'll let you know. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Levine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 9:48 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Corner planer > > Thanks, Dale. I went to the Lee Valley website and found the planes > you're > talking about. I'll be ordering one of them today. > > You're right... There's something quite satisfying about using hand tools > for such things as shaping an edge of wood. Certainly, power tools are > more > versatile, in some ways quicker, etc. But, there's a good feeling > associated with that nice little curly-cue of wood planed from a piece of > wood. > > Some years ago, I built a 4-poster bed for Phyllis and I. It turned out > well, if I must say so myself. The posts are approx six and a half feet > high and, by using a jig on the table saw, I tapered and chamfered them. > There's approximately 4 and a half feet above the side, front and rear > rails > of the bed... Which, themselves, are about 8 inches in height. Then > there's > about 12 inches below the rails. This section of post is also tapered and > chamfered... But tapering in the opposite direction of that portion of the > post above the rail. The section of post where the rail meets it is not > tapered or chamfered... I left it square. Anyway, I wanted to ad a curve > to > each chamfer where it meets the rail section of the post... Maybe just 3 > or > 4 inches in length. I couldn't figure out how to do this blind, so I took > the posts to my brother-in-law's workshop, where he added the 8 little > curves to each post... 4 below the rail section, and 4 above... Using a > band > saw. I'm taking a long time to tell the story. My brother-in-law is > enamored with old hand tools. He rarely uses them, but has a nice little > collection. Before using the very convenient band saw to cut the curves, > we > were tempted to use a two-handled draw-blade to hand cut the curves into > the > posts. But, the draw-blade was rather dull, and would have required more > skill with our hands than either of us possessed. Yet, there is something > quite intriguing about shaping a piece of wood in the same manner used by > craftsmen centuries ago. I can just picture the age-old carpenter > straddling the post, drawing his blade toward himself and shaping nice > little curves of interest into each chamfered corner of each wood post. > The > band saw can, of course, do this quicker, with significantly more > repetitive > accuracy. But, there's some charm, character and satisfaction lost in the > power tool process. > Once upon a time, craftsmen in wood were true craftsman. They understood > more about different blades, their purposes, their maintenance, and > methods > for using them than I'll ever know. > > > --Barry > > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various > List Members At The Following address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.16.7/618 - Release Date: 6/01/2007 > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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