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Picked up a new (to me) time saver this week. With the amount of thin wood strips I use, it made sense to get a drum sander. I rarely resaw anything wider than 10", so this little one is perfect for the job. No more playing thickness planer roulette. You know, when you put thin stock in one end and roll the dice as to whether it exits via the bed or the dust collector. #performax #drumsander #performax1020 #smalldrumsander

Current project: 9'8" x 7'8" media cabinet. This is the base. Baltic birch plywood with solid maple edging. #monstermediacabinet

To replace the veneer on the rounded corners of the yangqin, it first had to be shaped. The veneer was wetted just enough to allow it to bend, then it was formed around a dowel with an appropriate diameter. Some flat twine held it in place until it dried. It was then cut to fit and glued into place. #yangqin #veneer #veneerrepair #instrumentrestoration #instrumentrepair

Finally added planing stops! I didn't realize how much I used the adjustable planing stop on the end of my bench until I didn't have one for a few weeks. After splitting the bench top, the old one no longer fit. I decided to jazz up the bench with a pair of stops made from a resawn chunk of 12/4 black walnut. #planingstop #walnut #workbench #workholding

I wish I had taken some pictures before the repairs. It was covered in 30 years of grime, veneer was peeling off the corners or was missing, and the finished was crazed. I patched the veneer with some shop sawn honey locust, dyed to matched. The existing finish appeared to be shellac, so I did my best to repair it, then give it some extra coats. While it isn't perfect, it is far better looking than when it came in. I was beating myself up because it wasn't perfect - not all the veneer is a perfect match in colour, and there are some micro-bubbles in the finish. The client didn't care - they were ecstatic about how much better it looked, and reminded me that there is only so much you can do. He's promised to send videos once it has been restrung, so I'll share them with you. #instrumentrepair #instrumentrestoration #veneer #yangqin #shellac

The gang's all here. • • • Working on some mallets for my daughters while shellac dries on a project. Walnut, oak, and purpleheart are on the menu. The n°3, n°05, and n°4s made short work of the heads, while the spokeshave and drawknife made quick work of the handles. The n°3 and one n°4 are back-beveled (35° main, 20° back) and give tearout-free cuts on the gnarliest of grains.

This is the perfect example of (one of the many reasons) why I split my benchtop: I use it as a flat reference surface for laminations. In this case, I am laminating 6mm and 18mm Baltic birch plywood. (I could only source 10' sheets in 18mm thickness, and the design calls for 24mm). The joints will be hidden by the vertical cabinet components. #clamping #curvedcauls #splitbenchtop #splitworkbench #balticbirchplywood #glueup #westsystemsepoxy

Ladies and gentlemen: my workbench with the upgraded top. The base is based on @kenney.matt "Matt's Monster Workbench" plans from @finewoodworkingmagazine. Me being me, I upsized all the components to increase the weight, both visually and in mass. Now that the top is double the original thickness, it seems better suited to the base. I still have to add a gap filler for the split, and a planing stop, but it has still been a joy to use the last few days. The interesting thing about going from a wide single surface bench to a split top is that I am much more prone to keeping the surface uncluttered - only the required tools and parts are on the bench. I think this is going to work out very well. Base: hard maple Top: soft maple Vise: Groz 10-1/2" Width: 32-1/2" (15-3/4" + 3-1/2" gap + 13-1/4") Length: 70" Height: 39-1/2" Finished with Osmo Polyx 3043 satin #mattsmonsterworkbench #workbench #workbenchupgrade #splittopworkbench #mapleworkbench #maple #softmaple #madewithosmo

Royal Plum Crazy • • I asked @jjjjayhawk what colour I should paint the Stanley n°8C type 13 (ish) I bought from him. Jay doesn't like anything but black on a restored plane (though I think he's coming around...); his snarky answer: Plum Crazy. So, I went to the paint store and found one better: Royal Plum (get it, my last name is King). In a previous post I raved about the amazing job Jay did cleaning and restoring the plane (and anyone shipping planes needs a lesson from this plane packing master). Right out of the box (and after reassembly), this beast worked flawlessly. And with the new paint job, I've officially made it mine. #handtoolthursday #handtool #handplane #stanley8c #stanley8 #stanleyhandplane #stanleyplane #yesipaintmyhandplanesrainbowcolourswhatofit

Ready for a beating. • • Just need to glue the leather onto the vise jaws and we're ready to bash up this beauty. And if you think I'm ridiculous for making a benchtop out of figured soft maple, it was purely accidental. I purchased the 12/4 boards based on size and grain. The figure was only apparent (to me) once the rough sawn exterior was removed. And yes, there will be plenty more pictures of the bench. #workbench #woodworkingbench #workbenchupgrade #monsterworkbench #beautifulworkbench #curlymaple #softmaple #visejaws #vise #osmopolyx #madewithosmo

Vise is test fitted, and the dog holes are drilled all the way through. Let's get this workbench working! #workbench #workbenchbuild #workbenchupgrade #benchtop #benchtopupgrade #vise #woodworkingvise #quickreleasevise

Pair of templates for some new and long overdue steps. #maplestairs #customstairs #maplesteps #customsteps

This is not a food picture!!! (Okay, the second one is...) • • This is @mindfulmamatoronto and I enjoying our first sushi dinner as husband and wife, using the curly koa chopsticks made for us as a wedding present by @copper_pig_fine_woodworking. Seriously, these chopsticks are perfect - weight, feel, how they grip the food. And, they look gorgeous and make the food taste better. Paul has made quite an assortment using various woods, and has them for sale. Thank you, Paul. We absolutely love them. #chopsticks #curlykoa #koachopsticks #handmadechopsticks #nowihavetomakeaboxforthem #weddingpresent

Haven't been posting or interacting much as I've been completely drained by the end of each day. I mean, sit-on-a-chair-and-stare-at-the-wall-and-drool kind of exhaustion. Kudos to the folks who work construction outside every day. It's Friday, and I am taking a break from siding the shop to clean the shop and knock a couple small items off the to-do list. One is to repaint the Stanley n°8 type 13 I bought from @jjjjayhawk. Primer is on; colour to come. #handplanerestoration #stanley8 #stanleyhandplane #stanleyplane #itaintgonnabeblack

The siding is too wide for my mitre saw, so out comes a simple jig for the circular saw. Square cuts, and a easier to cut using the pile as support with this flippy floppy material. #circularsawjig #circularsaw #bosch #kwpsiding #naturetech #siding

A few weeks ago, I got to visit a project from a few years ago. Solid air-dried red oak media cabinet finished in tung oil. What I like about this oak is that the colour is much closer to white oak than the garish red of most commercial red oak. I used wide boards and cut them to get a quieter and more stable rift or quarter sawn material. Happy to see that it still looks good and is aging well. #redoakmediacabinet #redoak #airdriedredoak #customcabinetry #cremonebolt #raisedpanel #tungoil

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