LeTurbo

Then another one. I can't remember what size block I started with here. It wasn't much bigger. Also beech, with saligna dowels hiding the screws. Two more to go. But I have to think of other designs, because my rule is to never make the same thing twice.

Friday was a bit quiet (when is it not, actually) so I had a bit of a mess around. What could I make from a single piece of beech, 400 X 58 X 40? My bikes have been driving me nuts, cluttering the workshop, so ... one bike rack coming up. (OK, so I cheated with the saligna. It was a leftover that I messed up on another job, but already had most of the tenon cut. Horrid wood to work with; the grain is all over the place.)

This was a bit of a baitch. It's actually a screen for the biggest domestic airconditioner I have ever seen, on a 6th floor penthouse in Sea Point. (The aircon is too high to allow the box to fit flush with the tiles, which irritates the heck out of my OCD.) I wish I had could've charged appropriately. But I always see jobs as easier in my head than they really are. This is made of balau, because of the exposed position. The wood, unfortunately, moves a lot so that had to be taken into account in the design. The top, for example, is breadboarded with serious bracing underneath to allow the boards to slide without any buckling. Similarly, the door at the side has a floating panel - it's there to allow access to the outdoor plugpoint, in case you thought it an arb place for a door! The slats were all ripped from a large plank. Most of the job was done on my old Triton 2000, and the Bosch router. However! Some bits, like planing the top, were done with handtools like my Record No. 5. Sheesh. That Balau is tough. Half of the time, the plane just skates over it unless your blades are 110% sharp.

Nice work there, DJR!

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. And some seriously funny stuff! (As always on the Hub). And DJR, the Calder idea is awesome - now I just need to find a blank wall that doesn't have rubbish piled against it

The completed chair. I don't know that it's that good as a chair ... more the dainty vicar's tea party don't-move-too-much-type. But it was interesting as design and woodworking exercise.

This is actually a leg joint, where I tried to keep as much mortise-and-tenon strength as I could, while giving a continuous line around the outside edge. There was some nice flecking in the beech that I wanted to run across the upper front of the chair and down both front legs, without end grain getting in the way. It's also glued with old-fashioned hot animal glue. Boiled hooves and skin and bones. Why? Well, if things go wrong, it's possible to steam the joint open again. In future, the chair could be restored if it needs to be. And the hot glue is the only one that actually sticks to itself, where modern glues need to be cleaned out thoroughly and then re-done. PS: the animal glue doesn't smell as bad as it's made out to be.

I have this strange inner something-or-other to make things differently to the way they're usually done. Rebelliousness or curiosity, I can't tell which. So I've been making a chair ... well, you'll see that later. But one of the interesting parts was working out this joint, and then cutting it (which entailed much swearing and self-insulting).

Slowbee, if there wasn't a drought on, I'd recommend washing your deck with a high pressure cleaner rather than sanding. I'm also more in favour of the raw linseed oil & genuine turps mix than I am of other products. First, it'll return the colour to the wood and, of course, it repels water. I keep a cheap, big brush just for my oiling. If, at any future time, you want to varnish or add preservative, the oil/turps mix isn't a problem. Despite the lovely rain tonight, I think you could go right ahead and do it asap. The water will evaporate away but the oil will penetrate. The two are mutually exclusive. The screws are a problem. You need to see whether the supporting structure is rotting, because that's probably why they're pulling out. Again, the oil/turps mix does wonders and you can add wood preservative without a problem. How to fix the rotted bits? If the damage isn't too deep, drill the area out. You can use a plug-cutter and drill press to cut appropriately sized plugs, or glue dowels (though you're going into end grain, which isn't ideal). I've used rawl plugs in wood before too. You can fill it with Pratley's epoxy putty, or a product you may have to search for a bit called Screwplug. All of those will hold. On the oil-based vs water-based question: I find the water-based products seem to form a skin that's somehow different to oil-based paints. That skin tends to trap water, and sets up a kind of greenhouse effect that seems to promote wood rot. I've done a few window and shutter repairs where - especially with acrylic paint - the wood has gone south very quickly, though it previously lasted over 100 years with old-fashioned enamels. Just my 2 cents worth!

How thick? The formula for calculating cubic metres would be 2.800 X 0.230 X (thickness, like 0.050 for 50mm). My July 2017 Rare Woods cost sheet has merchantable Oregon at R22 460/cube for a 101mm thickness, and clears at R30 000/cube. (Merchantable = knots, shakes and some defects; Clears = largely knot free and good quality for furniture).

Nice stuff happening here as usual. Tork Craft! What utter, utter crap! It's actually sinful. White-labelled Chinese rubbish that's being repackaged here by quite a respected distributor. But the quality is unbelievably bad. Sometimes I'm forced to buy it because I have a job to do to deadline, but I've regretted it every single time. Like a hole cutter that actually loosens the retaining nut as it drives in; the thread is the wrong way. A router bit that looks like it's a resharpened (and I use that word very, very loosely) second-hand 13mm bit now at 12.5mm. Both the router and the wood were chattering and shaking. It was like the bit was trying to bounce the material off rather than cut it. No, seriously, save your money. Tork Craft is "use once, hate the experience, and throw it away" stuff. When I saw that Hardware Centre had started stocking it, my head immediately said, "Well, there's the end of Hardware Centre then". I don't believe that any self-respecting retailer, or someone who enjoys hand work, would ever sell it. Rant over! Feels goooooooooooooooood!

It seems, these days, 10GB doesn't go anywhere. I just had to change my contract so I can at least get on the here. And pay the bills (not that I have the money to do that, but it's the thought that counts). More weird workshop stuff. Stop me in it's boring. I wanted a shower in here too. Changing from advertising to carpentry meant going from pre-work showers to post-work showers. I had a plumber rip out one of the three toilets and rediscover the old shower plumbing that had been covered up. It's an OK job, but the taps don't line up and little hassles like that. Showering in the temporary set-up felt like needing a shower after the shower. The only outlet was a hole in the wall in the right hand corner. Not good for the masonry. Side to side, the space is about 800mm, which cut out a standard shower tray. And I hate working with cement. But my friend Juan had offcut shutter ply, about 4 square metres. Perfect. The base is raised on a pine frame to accommodate the basic plumbing, working around that hole in the wall. I routed the joints and all in the workshop, then had to assemble in the room. I used Sticks Like ****, but it seems to just be overpriced silicon. Ordinary PVA might have been easier, and quicker drying. The edging is just standard pine cover strip, panel-pinned (by hand, Grebel!) and glued. The final finish is three coats of epoxy resin. Cue sleazy 1970s Swedish porn music! Actually, it's lekker because it's always warm to the touch, and the finish holds ok. I'd do it differently if I did it again, probably taking the water to a drain trough at one end instead of the drainage grooves which aren't particularly effective. Also, to avoid sharp corners where water and soap scum could build up.

I was getting all technical on myself, but I'm the kind of guy who can add up a column three times and get three different answers. And that's with a calculator. So I guesstimated it at around 10 to 15 degrees. Trial and error really. I'd cut one piece with angles on each end, then one with flat ends, then another angled, and so on. Guessing length too, by positioning them and then mark the cut line a little beyond where it touched the curve. If any of that makes the slightest sense! At the end, I trimmed the excess with a chisel, used a file to round it all and get a decent curve, and then a light hand sanding. A bit of filler where necessary.

More workshop messing about. I needed a cupboard of some sort; a dresser to make my sandwiches and lunch and stop bugs getting into the cornflakes. (Actually,I was thinking about this the other day and realised that bun feet were an early form of insect deterrent. they can't climb around the acute angle.) So this unit is again made up of bits and pieces of discarded crap. Some offcuts and old shelves of plain chipboard for the sides and shelves. Ripping up the industrial pine beams for the framework (a twisted 3000mm is usually perfectly usable in 600 - 1000mm lengths). A bit of meranti coverstrip for the shelf facings. Even the paint is leftovers from previous jobs that was drying out in the cans. The top is saligna, and that I did pay for. I bought about 1/4 cube at the Rare Woods sale for R1200, then spent another R600 to have it thicknessed. Well, not much they could do: each piece is really rough or twisted or cupped and the machines were choking and binding. But! I have a trusty Triton and my straightening jig I posted a few pages back! Usable planks were ripped into 70mm widths then laminated. Hand-planed because the grain direction goes completely berserk all the time. Random-orbit sanded. Sealed with a daily soaking of raw linseed oil over 2 weeks, then Liberon wax. The top is also breadboarded at the ends. Now I can eat.

Ha! Those days when I was employed and could spend 7 hours on Bike Hub, Facebook, Pinterest and 1/2 an hour on work... When I got to the new workshop it had this disgusting pine-and-masonite kitchen unit. The old army word "syph" was the perfect descriptor. Like many wordworkers (apologies to the exceptions!), I'm completely anal and OCD (ok, like cycling woodworkers then) and needed an upgrade asap. With the lease only being for 2 years, I wasn't going to do anything particularly major though. Plumbing and the rest had to stay as it is. *He then proceeds to start doing major things ...* I had some leftover 18mm birch ply from the school library bookcase tree I posted on here about a year ago. With some jiggling of dimensions, it was just enough to make up the doors and countertop and other aesthetic bits. My mate Juan gave me an old melamine wardrobe he'd demolished from someone's house, and that would do for the shelves and interior. I spent about R1000 on ten 3000 X 144 X 44 industrial pine to use for framework and other bits and pieces around the workshop. Twisted and warped as it usually is, there's ways of working around it. And I'm schnoep. The cupboard had to be built around the sink and plumbing, as I was still using things on a daily basis. It's sealed with Woodoc floor varnish, which actually works damn well and stands up to hot pots, boiling water and all the other troubles I throw at it.

Have a look at "Milkman's Workbench" on Google Images. I'm not sure why a milkman gets a special bench, or even what he's going to do on it, but there you are. They're quite cunning, especially for a flat. Chuck it in the back of the cupboard.

Table saws and cutting tapers. I’ve made two of the scissor- type tapering guides and they both drove me nuts! I’m slow to learn. Set the angle and then the fence is wrong, set the fence and the angle is wrong. This one has turned out to be a beaut, but for a whole different reason. I bought a load of Saligna at a good price, but it’s all waney edged and frequently twisted. With this jig, I can straighten the edges, even when the board isn’t perfect. Then I rip it into strips and use it as necessary (the board, not the jig). I’ve used standard 8mm bolts here, with T-nuts for the knobs.

I started with a drill, a handsaw, a rubber mallet, a 13mm chisel and a square. I used that to make my first workbench out of a load of old rafters. But I needed to finish it off, so I bought a belt sander and a planer. The belt sander still proves useful. The planer seldom gets used. When I bought my Triton 2000, I got a Metabo circular saw to go with it, and well as a rail. I never took the circular saw out of the Triton, and eventually threw the rail away. Of those, the Triton does have its drawbacks though I'd feel uncomfortable using a conventional table saw. I like the "at the side" working position and most of the features. drawbacks are its small table, it's crap for crosscutting, and the fact that you can't tilt the blade is a serious difficulty sometimes. The "optional" tilt table was ridiculously expensive and not entirely accurate. Given the choice, in hindsight, I might have stumped for a decent quality proper table saw at around R10 000, which is what all the Triton saw and stuff cost 15 or 20 years ago. If you do go for Triton, steer well clear of the Mark II. It was a brief-lived model that didn't perform anything very well. Circular saws seem to be being replaced with plunge saws on a rail. Most guys say it's more accurate, practical, and faster. You don't end up with your clamps getting in the way of the motor housing while trying to use a straight edge as a guide (and then buckling the straight edge because the clamps are too tight). Jigsaw, pretty useful. Router, very useful. You can make a router table very easily. Measuring tools are paramount. A good T-square, a combination square, and a marking guage. Two decent handsaws, crosscut or general purpose, and a back saw (though lots of guys are moving to Japanese saws). I love my chisels (go for older blue-handled Marples, or even wooden handled older chisels at flea markets and pawn shops; they hold their edge better. New, Narex seems the current good deal). An old Stanley Number 4 will do most of your planing needs. You'll need an oilstone or waterstone. Get a decent one. The Stanley product these days ... well, I had one that was curved. No use to man or beast. For grinding, I turn my beltsander upside down. I'd love a drill press again, but often get away with using old tricks like an L-shaped block of wood to guide the drill. Bandsaw? OMG, Love them. There's little you can't do with it, including dovetails. I'll always regret selling mine years ago when I ran out of workshops and interest for a while. But first things first. For simple furniture, I'd go to the local library and get some books out on woodwork. They've got complete rundowns of the machines and handtools, as well as starter projects. Take it from there. My first book taught me about 70 percent of what I know now,

Sharp eyes, guys! It's good to see you both here still. Thanks for the welcome back! On Saturday, I visited the old BPM I bought my power tools from about 20 years ago. Big change! These guys will probably take a lot of Hardware Centre's business. A great resource for some of the more esoteric woodworking stuff. they seem to have the complete Veritas and Lie-Nielsen ranges, the biggest range of Makita I've seen locally, Festool, Incra ... the works. Weird measuring devices and tools I didn't know existed. Even those really big screws for Moxon and other vices. Well worth a visit! BPM Toolcraft, 93 Victoria Road, Plumstead. Tel 021 705 1247. Best of all, they're also online: www.toolcraft.co.za. Cover the keypad with plastic film. Go drool over tool porn. Then sell your house.

A mate had to paint a massive walnut cabinet white. A Zimbabwean carpenter who say it just shook his head. "It's the cycle," he said. "Someone paints it, someone strips it, someone paints it, someone strips it ...."

Lotus, things have changed since you were last here. Paarden Eiland, Woodstock and those areas around the CBD are sky-rocketing rent-wise. Woodstock is becoming gentrified, so many of the smaller businesses and craftsmen who were there are moving out so the web developers and ad agencies can move in. Some guys have found space in Paarden Eiland, but the rents there are going up like hell too, because the agents have seen what's happening in Woodstock ... You have to go further out to find a decent rental, which is why I'm in Bellville. The space is just over 300 sq m at about R45/sq m. But when you add in the electricity, services, security, etc you come up to about R53/sq. m, or around R16 000 per month. Actually, I saw an article recently that, certainly as far as residential property goes, Cape Town has the fastest rising rates in the world. Well, at least we're number 1 at something!

Another project from Woodstock. I’d forgotten about this one, mainly because I’m not really happy with how it turned out. The handle could’ve been a lot more elegant and its base should’ve been wider. Probably more like a split fork; something that was a compromise between the square lines of the trolley and the OTT of the present handle. It was a little trolley for my great-niece’s first birthday. One of those you fill with wooden blocks. It also helps her learn walking, I gather. The wheels had to be reasonably big because they live on a farm in Robertson so it’s a 4X4 trolley. The axles are just coach screws – they have the smooth upper shank – with a washer. Like the wheels, the hubcaps were turned on my sanding machine (one of Dad’s creations, with a 70 year old Hoover motor). I drilled the back and chiselled a hexagon for the nut and glued them on with epoxy.

Thanks, Rocket-Boy! It has been a looooooong time. A year maybe? No, the chairs are an old set that I grew up with, so they date from the 50s or thereabouts. Standard ball-and-claw imbuia, but all the joints are broken so I need to fix that up so I can pass them on to my niece.

One of the few projects at the old place – and I hope I haven’t posted this before, because then I’ll know that my 54 years are catching up with me – is this asymetric table. I was left with some oddly shaped ash wedges from the bed I made, and I had a hickory top floating around from 2 workshops earlier (stillborn side-tables that had a sprayed mdf base in very ugly yellow). So I chucked the wedges on the floor and decided they had to be joined pretty much as they lay, give or take 360 degrees in the round. Interesting cutting some of the angles and then also trying to make a kind of joint that would have mechanical strength without slipping and sliding during glue-up. The doweling is ordinary saligna dowels with an ash wedge for dekorasie. Remarkably, it’s less unstable than some of the other odd stuff I’ve made.

I feel a bit of an imposter coming on Bike Hub when I haven’t ridden further than about 5km at any time during those two years. Anyway, good to be back. And though I’ve only gone through the past 8 or so pages, it’s good to see familiar old names causing the same old ***. And making some very nice things too. (Still miss old Tumbles though.) These days, I’m mainly just doing the woodwork for my own amusement and education (which means it’s now actually silly having a big workshop; I should go back to Woodstock). I guess it’s just part of the commercial world that it’s easier to make money putting up a few towel rails, changing lightbulbs, and fixing kitchen cupboards than it is by making furniture. Although I over-complicate that too. Nobody makes money out of hand-made furniture. All the big boys locally – Pierre Cronje, David Krynauw, etc - are using CNC these days, and the carpenters job is purely to glue and clamp. I’ll try to put up something entertaining in the way of a few projects completed over the past months. Good to be back! This is the new(ish) workshop I moved into in September or October.