Website lost photos

A while back someone emailed to tell me that many of the photos were missing from my website.  I think I still have all of them on my computer but it will be a very time consuming affair to locate them and get them back in the right places.  I'm not sure when or if I will find the time to do this.  It is frustrating to have moved to Google sites and have my photos disappear like that.  I guess it would be a good time to start thinking about better organizing my files in the future.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

16-inch Tenon Saw

It's been some time since I put up my last post.  I didn't spend much time in the shop over the winter (or the spring) but I did manage to complete another saw.  I cut a couple of practice tenons with it and was pleased with the way it cut and followed a line.

This one is a 16-inch tenon/sash saw with 10 ppi filed rip.  It has 3-1/2 inches of plate under the back at the toe and about 3-13/16 at the heel.  The handle is black walnut with home made steel bolts and split nuts.  The back is folded steel like my dovetail saw only this one is about 7/8 inch tall after folding.

Shiny!

The last of the walnut from a donated 5/4 plank.

Sunflower engraved on the large bolt.

Clocking the nuts.

Dovetail Delivery

I'm home for Thanksgiving and this is the perfect time to give my niece the dovetail saw I made for her.

I set up a pine 1x6 and had her practice some straight cuts then some angled cuts, about 10 or 12 of each.  It didn't take long before she got the hang of it.  She didn't always cut right to the line but she was usually parallel to it and always on the waste side.  Now it was time for her first dovetail joint.

I marked out three pins and turned her loose on them.  She did great.  I held the pin board while she marked out the tails with a pencil.  Some of the tail cuts were a little proud of the line but not bad.  Cleaning them up with a chisel wasn't difficult but it did help her understand the advantage of learning to cut to the line.

 

Not bad for a first try.

As I took this photo, I think she was sending a picture of the finished joint to one of her friends. 

Lighting Upgrade

When I first set up my shop, I didn't know much about lighting.  I bought the cheapest florescent shop lights I could find.  Although they did produce light, they were slow starting in cold weather and some of them buzzed like a swarm of angry bees.  I only bought a few at a time, as my perceived budget allowed, and I ended up with several different styles.  Some had decent size reflectors while others had smaller or no reflectors at all.

Dovetail saw conclusion

I finally got the rest of the video edited, so here is the conclusion of the saw build.

More on the dovetail saw

As I continue to edit video, here is part 2 of building the dovetail saw.

I'm still working on part 3 but should have it ready in a few days.

Dovetail Saw Build

I recently completed my first back saw with each and every component made in my shop.  It's a 10-inch dovetail saw with a folded steel back, steel saw bolts and split nuts, and a walnut tote.

I was able to locate plenty of information online about making and sharpening saws.  The more I researched, the more I realized that making a saw really isn't as big a mystery as it first seemed.

I was able to acquire most of the materials locally, with the exception of the saw plate and a saw file.