Woodworking Tools

[kadman]

I'd be truly tempted to buy tools from boot sales too, theres a monthly regular one just down the road from me. But I avoid going to them ever since my brothers workshop was broken into, he's a chippy and had a great collection of tools and equipment, most of which were stolen.
He went to the Gardaí
who's only advice was to "travel around the car boot sales to look for them himself", (did he fcuk).
I'm not saying all the stuff sold there is knocked off, far from it, but that incident tainted my impression of them.
Now, whenever I'm after a new piece of kit, I get my missus to get it for me for my birthday or something.

I know thats a hard one, secondhand tools is always going to be next to impossible to know the provenience of. And the guards constantly advise us to mark our tools for possible recovery. I know a work colleague of my wife who had his I-phone stolen from his van. He tracked it to a halting site and informed the guards, who refused to go and retrieve it, and advised him to stay away himself.
He said fuk that, and went with a few others and got it back.

[Apelles]

I know thats a hard one, secondhand tools is always going to be next to impossible to know the provenience of. And the guards constantly advise us to mark our tools for possible recovery. I know a work colleague of my wife who had his I-phone stolen from his van. He tracked it to a halting site and informed the guards, who refused to go and retrieve it, and advised him to stay away himself.
He said fuk that, and went with a few others and got it back.

Fair fcuks to that man for getting his phone back, he must've a much larger pair of gonads on him than meself.

[kadman]

Fair fcuks to that man for getting his phone back, he must've a much larger pair of gonads on him than meself.

He parked outside and rang his phone, when they answered he told them to put it outside the gate, and he wouldn't call the guards.
And they did. They must have had more than his phone in the site

I know another guy who was working a green field site in Dublin, and turned up one morning to find a load of caravans parked in the middle of the site. They wanted 1000 euro to move out. he told them to feck off, and of course the guards wouldn't get involved. he argued with them all day but they wouldn't move, and he couldn't start the groundworks.So.....

Following day he diverted all his groundworks machinery and crew, and dug a wide mote around the caravans, and went off for the day.
He returned later in the day, and asked them for 1000 euro a piece to let them out

[CelticRambler]

It was the short-dated 20€ voucher wot made me do it ... and a few YouTube videos. With quite a pile of reclaimed wood to turn into functional and decorative timber, I treated myself this week to a yoke that describes itself as a "renovator" which seems to me like a right cop-out of a name, because isn't just about every tool a potential renovator if used with the right attachment?

Well anyway, cleaning up a first beam using a wire brush on a regular drill produced very satisfactory results, but jeeeeeez it took a long time. And wore out two wire brushes. Unfortunately, once I'd positioned the renovated beam into it's future location, it looked so perfect (for the role) that I knew I'd have to do the rest. While pysching myself up for the next stage (and the purchase of a job lot of wire brushes) YouTube, Google and the local hardware conspired to tell me that what I really needed was one of these renovator yokes.

D'you know what? They were right! In the time it took me to strip one face of that first beam, I was able to do three more, and a few planks for the fun of it (well, also because I wanted to see if I could make use of them). 'Tis but a cheapy Chinese model (FarTools) but has good reviews, and my box included two additional brushes for less than the box without them. Best of all, I didn't actually pay anything for it, as it all came out of loyalty points and vouchers.

[kadman]

Can we at least have a picture of said yoke, .....lest you be trying to pull a fast one with chinese tat tools here in the workshop. JZ wont be happy you know with yer chinky tat.

[CelticRambler]

Photos, wha? D'ya think I'm some kind of influencer who has nothing better to be doing than taking photos of my works in progress and yakkin on about it ???

This is what it looked like when it came out of the box (after I'd put it together):



It's not as clean and shiny as that any more.

The sandpaper flappy wheel thing has had one outing, but it's "only" 80 grit so not really beefy enough to make much of a difference to 150/200-year old oak and chestnut. For today's main job, I reverted to 40 grit on a belt sander after taking the dirt off with a brush and the woodwormy bits off with a hand plane (thirty-year old Draper included in an Argos "essential DIY tools" kit bought with one of my first paychecks. It's never worked as hard in its life as it has this week! )

[kadman]

how wide is the wire brush gizzmo. Any good for stripping paint off a car body?
What site did you buy it from.?

[CelticRambler]

100mm width, 120mm diameter. Variable rpm up to 3600.

I didn't look for any videos showing its use on car bodies, but you can see what this guy was able to do with an oil drum:



(at 1m24 if it doesn't jump to the spot automatically ; second barrel is shown for a "before" comparison)

There's a range of brush types available for different purposes, of which three came in the box I bought (brass wire, 80-grit split sanding strips, synthetic fibre). The full range was offered for sale in my local bricks-and-mortar hardware (bricomarche.fr) but I grabbed that pic above from amazon, and there are English-language tests/reviews on YT so it's not just a French re-badging exercise.

Fartools REX120 is the model. Mine is variant C, but I see they're already pushing D on the website, so they're obviously trying to shift their stock of Cs with a free brush sweetener.

Edit: Manufacturer's website includes a page dedicated to brush selection for car body repair. https://www.fartools.com/fr/categorie/t ... ie-28.html (doesn't seem to be an English version though ... )

[kadman]

There is an english pull down menu

[kadman]

Not too shabby. It cleaned up the motorcycle petrol tank alright. I wonder what is like on the paint stripping. I have 2 classics that need to be stripped to the bare metal, and this might do the job alright

[Calahonda52]

Certainly the job for getting off all the fake tan being plastered on here in Nenagh. some of the hands when being served food/coffee look like they ran out of toilet roll

[JayZeus]

You turn your back for 2 months and all of a sudden everyone's talking about petrol tanks and make-up in the woodworking tools thread.

What in the name of Jay...

[kadman]

You turn your back for 2 months and all of a sudden everyone's talking about petrol tanks and make-up in the woodworking tools thread.

What in the name of Jay...

Its what happens when you get on in years..............................sometimes you just dont give a shite...

[dawg]

Naughty - 'cause its off topic -

Is there anywhere to post about metal working gear ?

Many, many moons ago I got a horizontal milling machine complete with a vertical adapter

Neat enough but heavy duty ( not hobby ).

Needs a big refurb.

Not going to be doing anything with it at this stage of my life. Would like to find someone to take it on...

[kadman]

Metalworking forum is long overdue. So yeah start one in the hobbies section, and it will do a treat.

[CelticRambler]

Treated meself to one of these a couple of weeks ago. Beethehokey, as my grandad used to say: it makes short work of the knots in very well seasoned salvaged oak boards.



I'd been trying to flatten the faces of a selection of boards using a variety of tools, like planers and hand rasps and sanders, but it was a depressing task with next to no progress to show for it. The planer couldn't cope with taking off more than 0.5mm at a time, and was not at all happy about skimming the knots. I was about to try using the chainsaw to chomp through the high points when I remembered once seeing a chain-saw attachment for an angle-grinder, but when I went amazonning for one, I found this instead and remembered also seeing a YouTuber use one of these, found one cheaper on a French alternative to the big A, and had it in use a few days later.

Now, as the saying goes, "this changes everything!" - apart from getting my salvaged boards flat enough finish off with the planer, I have a few "sculptural" projects that have been waiting patiently for me to work up the enthusiasm to clean up a trunk's worth of curves and hollows and gnarly lumps. Between this and the renovator I got back in May, I think the right tools for the job are on hand and I feel a creative urge coming on ...

[JayZeus]

Good choice. I’ve had a couple of Saburrtooth carving disks for years and really like how effective and controllable they are.

Also good fortune that you didn’t get one of those downright dangerous chain disks. They turn a dangerous tool into something that’s all but guaranteed to f*** you up if ever your concentration lapses. I want to physically hurt the people who make and sell them. Awful tool produced by awful people. Darwin Award-makers.

[CelticRambler]

Good choice. I’ve had a couple of Saburrtooth carving disks for years and really like how effective and controllable they are.

I was really surprised at how clean a finish it left. Once I'd got a feel for it and how it worked with/against/across the grain, the surface wasn't much rougher than after using 40-grit sandpaper. I've since seen that there are a few other styles available, so might look into adding to the collection in due course.

As for the chainsaw wheel thing, I did come across a recall notice from the UK that seemed to indicate that they were all recalled, regardless of manufacturer.

[JayZeus]

As for the chainsaw wheel thing, I did come across a recall notice from the UK that seemed to indicate that they were all recalled, regardless of manufacturer.

Good! Awful things. They will kick back, just like when running on a chainsaw, but with limited leverage to resist via the grinder body, and assuming you're using the side handle. While doing so, the chain is much closer to the body. The chain is moving faster (about 1.6x) than on even a fast little saw like my 242 (15,500 rpm) and there isn't an inertia or level chain brake. I've had a grinding disk catch on something and it was a scary moment, let alone one of those toothed wheels of death.

Everything about them is frightening when you actually stop to think about it. It's like giving laxative chocolate to malnourished and dehydrated 3 year old with a sweet tooth and dysentery. A truly stupid thing to ever have been allowed be sold! Russian roulette for woodworkers. Forget about making it to the 6 foot hole with all your fingers attached - you can count it in limb inches retained. I'll stop now. Possibly.

[JayZeus]

Back when it was first announced I picked up a Veritas Combination Plane and later added a Small Plow Plane, their stupid spelling, not mine. I had a Stanley 45 but it was a little crusty and always pissed me off trying to adjust it.

The Veritas kit has turned out to be a real pleasure to use, and while I’ve no intention of selling any of it, these tools are worth more today than when I bought them so I’ll think of them as a good investment on both fronts.

Anyway, I like to look after my tools, so I used a few offcuts of plywood and knocked up a couple of storage boxes for the plough planes and the large and small router planes. Nothing fancy in terms of the woodworking, just rebated joints with some glue and a few pins from the headless nailer to stop things shifting while the glue dried. Kind of ugly latches and cheap and cheerful hinges but they do the job.

I ‘french fitted’ the routers in their box, just tracing the outline of the soles and used a fretsaw for the cut-outs. The plough planes are each held using blocks of wood attached to a piece of plywood that fits inside the box and which has a pair of holes per plane to take the fence guide rails. They’re easy to remove and replace in their storage box, a simple solution that works really well. I also made a caddy box for the set of Stanley 55 blades I bought years ago in very bad condition and which have taken a stilid amount of time to get to the state they’re in now. The backs of those blades are all lapped flat, but I decided not to bother with the bevels until I want or need to use the blade in question.

Thought ye might like to see them anyway.

[JayZeus]

I’ve given up trying to find good totes/handles for Stanley planes for a reasonable price. These are made using a modified template which is available in PDF format from Lee Valley’s website. Print the template, adjust to suit your own preferences (I think theirs is a little too bulky) using tip-ex and a pen, then photocopy a few. Cut out with a scissors and stick with pritt stick onto a board. Cut with a bandsaw, jigsaw, coping saw etc., then shape with your weapon of choice. I used a 1/2” radius roundover bit and some 80grit sandpaper along with a Shinto rasp, then 120 and 180 grit paper to refine the one in the foreground. The barrel nut hole is 11mm metric equivalent and I can recommend a Famag Boremax 2 forstner which I used after taking this picture to drill the top of of the tote. The through hole for the rod is best done using a 6mm drill, and my recommendation for that is what’s known as a Pen Drill. It’s a bradpoint bit, double fluted and does a fantastic job drilling a long straight hole without deflecting with the wood grain.

[Calahonda52]

Love this line
Nothing fancy in terms of the woodworking, just .....

[JayZeus]

I saw a Paul Sellers video a few years ago where he bought a couple of Spear & Jackson handsaws and modified the handles as they weren’t particularly comfortable. I’ve been looking for an excuse to do the same for the craic, but I already have a lovely set of saws from Thomas Flinn in Sheffield.

A family friend is recently retired and has taken up woodworking as a hobby, so that was as much as I needed to get 3 saws in McQuillans (much cheaper via Amazon, just saying) and give them a facelift.

I drilled out to the brass plated steel rivets holding the handles in place, reduced the thickness of the handle (removing the branding in the process) as they’re far too thick anyway, before getting into it with rasps, half round files and sandpaper. A few coats of shellac, a rub of antique wax (Clou brand, beeswax and natural ingredients. ‘Antik Wachs Clou’ on Amazon) and a set of brass saw bolts (flinn-garlick.co.uk) finished the job.

Good functional saw anyway, but feel great in the hand now. On to their new home now. Not perfect but good enough for government work.

As they were

IMG_2023-10-20-151957.jpeg

As they are now

IMG_2023-10-20-152129.jpeg

Bonus picture. While I was at it I tidied up the handle on one of my own and very much favoured vintage saws. I use this all the time.

IMG_2023-10-20-152209.jpeg

[JayZeus]

Another of that batch of plane totes, as pictured above, drilled and test fitted to a bitsa plane.

Bitsa this, bitsa that.

Turned out fairly well I thought. Stain, shellac and it’s done.

IMG_2023-10-20-203503.jpeg