27 March, 2014

Is it normal that my hand planes talk to me?

Okay maybe not audibly, but hopefully you know what I mean...

You see last night, I really wasn't much in the mood to get out to the shop. I have been working way too many double shifts, and pulled a few that were close to triples over the last few weeks, and I needed to rest.

But something was bothering me...

BT3Central member / moderator LCHIEN posted up a review of his "Handyman drill bit guide". Now let's face it. these are just promotional gimmicks given away via mail in an attempt to get folks that got on some hardware / woodworking supply store mailing lists to join up and pay dues / subscription fees whatever.... They are not really intended to be a high dollar expensive / valuable tool in the shop. But they ARE useful...

I have over the years received 2 of them in the mail that I am aware of. Possibly more that I ignored. And both of them were in my Wood Magazine design wall hanging tool cabinets, the one with the hand planes. Or were they?

That was the nagging question that got me thinking about it, and it wouldn't go away until I knew.

It's not like I left my router out in the rain, or my air compressor on the side of the freeway...

It is a free piece of plastic that comes in the mail with no real prompting.

So there I was laying in bed, trying to shut off my brain and just relax, chill out with my lovely wife and just, well... be. But then again, she was on the phone with one of her lady friends from college...

Where are they?

Shut UP brain!

Are you sure that you put them back?

SHUT UP!

Maybe they are over in the...

Okay fine, I'll go look...

So on went the slippers, and off to the shop I went. No real risk to toes because my shop is clean except for some drop cloths bunched up in the corner that need to be folded and put away, but I digress...

So out to the shop, turn the lights on, walk over to the cabinet and open the outer door... Yep, they are just hanging there as they should be...

And then it happened...

I opened the inner doors to the cabinet. I don't know why, but I did...

And I could just tell they wanted to come out and play...

So I picked up #4. and the warm wood of the tote felt ready to go....

Well one thing led to another, and a piece of walnut, that I had just mixed up a mess of epoxy with walnut dust in it earlier that evening, filled knot voids, and cracks, and let it cure... Well THAT hunk of walnut ended up in the vise....

Before I knew what was going on, I had a board edge jointed with a #4 bench plane. Yeah I know, but it is straight, square, and dead flat so what if the #4 wasn't the right choice. It worked! I also had a huge pile of walnut shavings on the floor, and a big stupid smile on my face...

I'm leaving that pile of shavings for a few days. It looks nice right where it is...

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