Shop In Order

The Hammond Glider and the General 14" planer are both dialed in now, (other than dust collection), and I am really hoping to get to some woodworking now!

I do have two 14" bandsaws and two 6" jointers that I would like to restore. Also the Morrison Printer's saw. However, I think they will have to wait for now.

I am still working on the rebuild of the other two motors though. They are apart on my bench, but I am inching forward with them. A broken bolt has delayed things.

Decisions were made on the yellow cedar lined display case. I want it to be made of 100% wood that I harvested myself. I finally selected on one of my oak slabs that was nicely rift sawn to use on the exterior, and managed to cut some nice clear sections out of it. It was one of the ones in this photo, I milled it in 2008 I think.

 I also trimmed a piece of yellow cedar to use on the interior. It is a bit narrower than I would have liked, I will have to slip match the veneers that I cut from it. Browsing through my library(?) of yellow cedar pieces, I noticed quite a variation in colour and in grain pattern. I had always thought that the old growth yellow cedar was pretty similar - wrong! This one the grain lines are so tight I can't even see them (yes, even with my glasses on!)

I think I will use lumber core construction for the carcass. It'll be the first time for me. I selected a piece of linden that came from a tree about two blocks from where I live.  Linden is pretty soft, it's popular for carving. I think it is stable and should do well as the core.

Here are all the pieces, trimmed up and seasoning in my shop.

I also had a chance to spend a day at the beach slabbing up a couple big elm logs with one of my friends. Using the 60" bar with the mill on it on a crotch piece was an awful lot of work, and it took the both of us to push the mill. There just seemed to be a lot of fooling around with set up, trimming, saw adjustment, etc, so ultimately we did not get a lot of slabs, only six in total.

The load is still drying away gently in the kiln, a month now. It's taking longer than in the past as I am better able to control the rate of drying and I don't want to rush it.