LeTurbo

Worst scare I ever had was with Jarrah - I juuuuuuuuust caught the wrong edge of grain with the router. The piece shot itself right through a thin sheet of masonite and the router nearly went right acoss the workbench. The kind of mixed-up mayhem like touching tyres in a TDF sprint. Sweats!

Jeepers, thanks for all the likes guys! Much appreciated. And thanks for the comments. Thanks DJR! And Eddy Gordo ... well, it might with a higher quality ply, or a thicker one. But with 15mm, there's not a lot of space to play with. After trying three or four screws, I just reckoned it was easier to route the joints. It's fine when the router's set up properly. Whizz, whizz, whizz, then expanding glue for the joints and it's dry in an hour or two.

Thanks! The tops are just a standard 15mm wbp ply, but ones with a nice face. I cut strips for the edge to make 'em look like 30mm. They're sealed with Woodoc 10, about 4 coats. If they get damaged, Woodoc is very easy to get looking good again. The unit on the left of the main run of the counter, where it looks slightly different to the other units (with the drawers out), actually has a solid rhodesian teak top. The idea was to make it look like a found unit that had been built in, but I don't know if that's immediately apparent from the pics.

On the curved door? I used bending ply, which comes either in bendy-width or bendy-length. About R100 per sheet. The edges were laminated over a form, but I had to add a cut brace at the back to hold it more firmly, otherwise it tends flex.

Some pics of a kitchen I made completely from wbp (water & boil-proof) plywood ... and a good thing, because I did the scullery first. A month or two later, for the second part of the install, I found the washing machine had been pissing all over the floor and nobody noticed. It would've been a complete redo with chipboard. On the minus side, screws split the ply so every joint has to be routed. Drawers, backs, everything. And ... painting, painting, painting. 1 coat primer, 1 coat undercoat, 2 or 3 of topcoat, inside and out. This was all done by hand and probably took the better part of a month. Maybe longer. Unfortunately, well under R100 000. It was for a friend whose builder turned out to be a cocaine addict. He schnarfed all her money and left her with a half-built house.

It does things an electric planer can never dream of, or a sander for that matter. It's not for the same work. A hand plane will smooth out the tiniest discrepancies, it tidies up dovetails joints, is perfect for face frames .... O! You have no idea what a beautiful instrument it is to use. Have a look at some Doucette and Wolf (Wolfe?) videos on Youtube and you'll be blown away by a handplane's versatility.

A quiet little secret regarding planes - and I'm probably doing myself a huge disservice telling anyone this ... There's a pawn shop on Voortrekker Road in Maitland, just opposite McDonald's, that has used planes in very good condition. (It also has some horrible, cheap bicycles outside.) Sssssh.

Some three way joints I played with. The first, in ash, is pretty much my own design - at least, I haven't seen it anywhere else. The second, in stinkwood, and third are (a mock-up in pine) are variations on a bridle joint. They went into these tables on which I make a handsome profit of R2500 retail price = 50% maker's price - R300 glass - 2 day's labour - workshop rental - materials = about R0.00. I'm feeling resentful and disillusioned and pissed off tonight. Grrrrr. At least I'm not in the business anymore.

About R9 800 at Fowkes Brothers in Paarden Eiland. Beautiful saw, smooth as a Colnago.

Jeez Bobbo! This takes me back to my youth! My Dad was besotted with aeromodelling. Balsa, elastic bands, doped tissue paper, Baby-bee engines ... I still have a few copies of a book he wrote back in the 80s: Aeromodellers Handbook by Les Netherton. $2.98 on Amazon. Sheesh.

You might try Maker Station at 9 Plein Street, Woodstock. Speak to Felix.082 923 8293. I think there's a similar concept in Hout Bay, but don't know the name or details. Furntech in Paarden Eiland could do it for you, probably. They have all the commercial machines, but do piece jobs. It's a government training institute. I had to have big kiaat countertops done there and they finished them perfectly (jointed, planed and sanded) in a morning. The CCDI (Cape Craft and Design Institute) have a machine room but I don't know if they'll have what you need. You also need to be a member, but that doesn't cost anything. Plus you can learn and play on other lekker stuff like 3-d printers.

I inherited these babies from my dad: Swedish steel from the 1950s or thereabouts. Fantastic chisels that hold their edge for about a month (and that was working every day). I got some nicely figured walnut boards for the box; in hindsight I might've made the inside dividers from something other than kiaat, but I just had some thinly-sliced stuff lying around. Of course, the chisels made the box ...

I don't know if they have, but they're pretty informed and efficient at Chipboard Cafe in Stikland. They have stuff many of the other woodshops don't.

Jeepers-creepers, D-Mike. Get well soon, dude. And big ups to that paramedic. Actually, all paramedics. And firemen. And NSRI volunteers. And all those other girls and guys who keep the rest of us alive despite ourselves.

Choke! Cough! Gasp! Wheeze!

They'd probably be my first port of call. The guys at least know whereof they speak. You'll also find interesting options like the Japanese saws with pull rather than push action. Very clean cuts. Bit of an edit: I wouldn't touch Stanley with an uncut log, or a cut one either (Woodmized or Timberkinged). That said, for the past 25 years I've used a cheapish plastic-handled Japanese-made western-style cross-cut saw that I got from a hardware store in Mafikeng. The steel is good, and that's what's important. You can get any old saw with a decently hard, springy blade and get it sharpened. S A Bandsaw even collect, or there's a sharpening place in Epping near the market (forget its name though). Tell them the tpi you want, and they can do it. My tenon saw is also some no-name brand, but it's good enough. I rather put my energy into sharpening my chisels, because that's the only way to get a perfect tenon. Again, nothing fancy - I tried diamond stones, but still use a cheap 80-year old India stone in preference.

Hey Slowbee! It's good to be back and see my Hub family. The woodwork took me away for a while - I was living on Reddit and Pinterest. I can only handle one obsession at a time, unfortunately! Lekker to see old names and faces still here, and a few interesting new ones. PS: Try Hardware Centre opposite Good Hope Centre for your mortise guage. The Chinese (or others claim, Indian) brass-and-wood marking tools are actually good quality and very reasonably priced.

Thanks, Ed-Zulu. I tried making a living from it for two years, until January this year, but that pretty much ruined the bank balance. I've kept the tools, but don't have anywhere to work anymore. Such is life.

Mmm, I was just going to edit after a long bath. It maybe warps only in wet or dry weather, which would point to the joinery rather than the wood, yes? A table like that should have breadboard ends, but more often (these days, that I can see) the slats are fixed in place so they fight the construction itself. The top could be remade correctly and then the problems would likely end.

Nice thread, even though it's hijacked! If anyone's interested, I've done full step-by-step breakdowns of some of the stuff I've built primarily with handtools and traditional techniques. they're at http://brettnetherton.imgur.com/ Good places for old tools: Milnerton market (provided you've done your research about buying old tools) and the Pawn Shop on Voortrekker Road, next to McDonald's. A great reference to building things the old way - and an amazing teacher - is Paul Sellers on Youtube. And some nice woods: just next to Rare Woods in Epping, there's a warehouse where their commercially-unusable stock goes. It's open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, if I remember correctly. Geoffrey is the man to speak to (but do not call him Geoff!) Bravo to all cycling woodworkers, and woodworking cyclists!

It sometimes works to wet the thing - not fully soaked - then clamp it the other way. A lot of guys do that with doors and things. It's a bit hit-and-miss. I'd remove the top to do it. However, given the refrectory style of the table, I don't think a slight warp detracts from its character.

On all this possibility of being bike-jacked: there's a possibility of anything. It's possible you could be car-jacked too. Your house could get broken into while you're asleep. But you go on with life and do what has to be done. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Courage is not the absence of fear, but doing things despite fear. Just take proper precautions and get out there. On punctures. I've just been reading a book called "A Bike Ride" by an old biddy called Anne Mustoe. At age 54, in 1987, she bought a bike and set out (without much experience) to ride from England, through Europe, through India, to Thailand, and then across America. In 12 000 miles she had, as I recall, 6 punctures and used 2 tyres. I remember having Michelins on my Peugeot Sting back then, and they lasted 4 or 5 years. There's so much *** on the roads these days; we really have become a grubby society.

I have a fascinating neighbour who commutes from Rondebosch to Maitland on his MTB. Actually, he apparently has two. But on all the occasions I've seen him on the road - at least ten times - he has never once actually been on the bike. He pushes it out the gate, he pushes it over Rondebosch bridge, he pushes it at the Pinelands bridge ... I have no words for the wonder of it all.

I hate you all. Hate you, hate you, hate you. Damn. I shall have to buy that kombi.

And yet not one bike in there! Sheesh! You'll have to make a change to the company culture.