The Harbor Freight bandsaw #60500 review

The Harbor Freight 60500 band saw.

I needed a small band saw for some of the decor that I make, like bandsaw boxes etc. Like most woodworkers I am on a tight budget and I want the most for my money. The most I had to spend was about $120. Honestly even I knew that $120 is not enough to buy a decent bandsaw. 

I spent a couple of months watching craigslist for a decent deal. I saw lots of awesome deals for full size bandsaws, but they were all at least $250 and up. Just because they were not in my budget doesn't mean they weren't awesome deals. I mean a $250 Delta 14" bandsaw? Come on we all know thats a great deal. 

I looked at different brands of new bench top models, in ads. Though they would have all fit my needs, they were all still too expensive. The closest (new bandsaws) to fitting in my budget were the Craftsman model, and the Harbor Freight pictured above. In pictures they look almost exactly the same. The only noticeable difference is the table. 

Finally I caught Harbor freight having a sale on the 60500, it was marked down to $120. I had also recently came across the coveted 25% off coupon, so off to Harbor Freight I went. I got my bandsaw for about $99 after purchasing the 2 year replacement warranty. 

Getting home I unpacked the saw and assembled it. It was well packed and in pristine condition. Plugging it in I found it ran fine, so I started examining and adjusting it to make it ready to use. This is what I found.

- The adjustment of the tension on the blade is simple and easy to adjust. It even has a tension release lever that is easy to operate. 

- The bandsaw wheels are fairly true, and ride on sealed bearings.

- The drive belt is a cog type, like you find on timing belts for cars.

- There is a dust collection port, as well as a small brush that is supposed to knock saw dust off the tires.

- It came with one blade that felt pretty sharp and looked to be of decent quality.

- The adjustments of the blade guides is fairly straight forward and done with an allen wrench that is supplied. The sacrificial part of the guides are graphite cylinders that are kind of a pain to adjust with the allen wrench.

- The tabletop is aluminum, with a tilt adjustment that allows the table to tilt like a normal bandsaw.

- There are pre-drilled holes in the base to screw the bandsaw down to a bench.

- The frame is made of steel and very strong. 

I have officially had it for a year, so I will now tell you how it has faired.

First the blade supplied cuts fine if you are cutting a straight line, but cutting tight turns was nearly impossible. If you tried to cut a tight turn, it flat out refused. the blade would twist, in the slot it cut , to the point of riding against the guides so hard it would bind the blade. At first it made me think that the unit was under powered. This was until I started having the blade drift really bad after about a month of use, meaning it was dull and needed a new blade. I bought a new blade from Harbor Freight for about $8, and suddenly the machine cuts like a dream, even tight curves! After inspecting the two blades I realized the original blade had no tooth set, seriously, none at all. The tooth set is what allows you to cut turns, not sure what they were thinking or why I didn't notice it before, I mean this wasn't my first experience with a bandsaw. 

Second the dust collection port is nearly useless, with a light vacuum. It catches about half the dust, so I found myself having to vacuum it out periodically. One day my light vacuum stopped working so I hooked up my shop vac. This got all of the dust, but I hate having to listen to it while I am cutting. 

Third, if the guides are set correctly when the machine is warm, it will not be set right when it is cold. I was surprised,  when winter came and the temperature dropped to near freezing, I would turn the machine on and it would be bound up. Loosening the guides alleviated this, but when it warms up again you will have to readjust. 

Fourth the upper guide sucks. Yes, it moves up and down easily, but not in a straight line. As you turn the rack and pinion style adjustment the guide starts to tilt towards the frame of the machine ever so slightly. This can be a major pain when it is cold because it means readjusting the guides anytime you adjust the height of the guide cradle. When the machine is warm, it is not as big of a deal, though it does make the blade ride the guide a little heavier on one side. 

Fifth the table gets an OK rating. The insert it comes with leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to blade clearance. If you are cutting off small pieces, they have a tendency to get sucked down between the insert and the blade, leaving no where for it to go. This means you have to turn the saw off and unplug it, then dig the piece out. This is  easily fixed by making a zero clearance insert out of 1/8" ply, which will still need to have a bit sanded off for thickness, so that the insert is even with the table. I also noticed that the table sitting at 0* tilt, measure with small square against the blade not with the increments marked on the table, has a slight tilt in the table towards the back. This part should be naturally square to the blade, but the locking mechanism actually pulls the table into this position. When the locking mechanism is left unlocked, the table sits a little better, but then the table can tilt while cutting, which is bad. The cause of the problem is the rack and pinion style adjustment for table tilt. the hole is slightly off from where it should be, torquing the table over. There is not any way I have found to fix this, except to trash the adjustable table and screw a piece of counter top down as a table, which makes the table unable to tilt. There is also a silly little screw/nut combo that closes off the slot for the blade in the table. The slot is for removing the blade, and you have to take this screw/nut combo off when removing the blade. It literally serves no other purpose that to annoy you. Just throw it out. 

The Miter gauge is largely useless, as the degrees are way off, and it is a bad fit to the table. 

All in all it is a decent saw for the price, and works fairly well in all woods. The upper guide could use another 1/4" of height adjustability because something the dimensions of a 4x4 doesn't quite fit between  it and the tabletop. 

Am I happy with the purchase? Well I guess, but I wish I would have spent $189 for the craftsman bench top bandsaw. After actually seeing it in the store and comparing the two, it looks like the craftsman version has the stuff that this one doesn't. For one the upper blade guide on the craftsman is made of a stouter material, and has bearing guides as do the lower blade guides.  The tabletop is made of cast iron, and it comes with a re-saw fence. The miter however is the exact same one. So I think it would be worth it to purchase instead of the Harbor Freight, if you have the extra dough. 

Christmas Gifts

Well so far about half of the Christmas presents are made, and I don't have very much time left. I have been doing pretty well usually completing a gift a day, with some of them taking a max of three days.

Here are some helpful hints about making it a woodworking Christmas.

1. Sit down and make a list of everyone you would like to make a gift for, and what you want to make them. It is best if you can make a few of the same type of gift to give out to multiple people.

2. If you are going to have to ship the present make sure it is not to big, and keep how much it weighs in mind. Shipping is going to be a fortune either way. If everyone is close together, go hog wild.

3. I try to keep my scrap bin in my thoughts as I think what to make people. I often have small amounts of some of the more exotic species in my bin.  This is a great way empty the bin.

4. Give yourself plenty of time. I would suggest starting 3-6 months before Christmas according to how many gifts you are making, and how much shop time to have. This year I have about 25 gifts I am making. I also plan on spending at least three hours in the shop 4 days a week. So I decided to get started at the first of October. Also keep in mind that you need to try to ship things out a couple of weeks before Christmas.

So as you can see for it to be sucessful your main goal is perfect time management.

Don't know what types of things would be good to make? Well here are some suggestions with the scrap bin in mind.

1. Rolling pins are always good. You don't have to make them out of one piece of wood. They can easily be made from multiple pieces, or even segmented. I do suggest however that you make them using a waterproof glue like Titebond type II, and use a food grade oil finish on them.

2. Scroll saw portraits. These are fairly easy to crank out, and cheap. A piece of 4x8 1/8 Luan ply may seem expensive but you could easily make 8 5x11 portraits out of one piece. Not good with a scroll saw or just starting out? I got started by thinking about the individuals interests, like say for instance Volkswagens. Google an image of the VW symbol, print it out in black and white, spray glue it to a piece, and cut it out. I think it only took me 20 mins to do. Took more time to make the frame.

3. Toy trucks or cars. These can be made easily from scrap, but be careful not to make them too complicated. Also if it is for a toddler, think seriously finishing it with food grade in mind. You never know when a lil guy or gal is gonna think that walnut wheel looks tasty.

4. Pencil holders. Another great scrap bin project, just search it in youtube to see how its made.

5. Bandsaw boxes. Every gal likes a nick- back box. There are some very simple designs that literally take 30 mins to cut out ( not including glue ups act)

I can think if tons more, but it is easy to get ideas. Maybe check out Steve Carmicheal's scrap bin video playlist for some. Also there is some great videos from The Drunken Woodworker on making succulent planters, pencil holders, and bandsaw boxes. Be sure to check them out!

Easy disc sander

I like many others had a need for a disc sander. I like many others do not have $300 to spend on one. I do however have a 70's Craftsman Radial Arm saw that has wear in the bushings making it impossible to keep adjusted to correct alignment. This particular model has an accessory side on the motor that a 1/2" Jacobs drill chuck will screw onto. The motor also spins at 3500 RPM which is a great speed for a disc sander.

What I did here will work for anything that you can connect a drill chuck too, whether it is a Radial Arm Saw or a wood lathe.

For $7 you can buy this sanding polishing disc that has a 5/8 11tpi attachment. Another plus is that it has a hook and loop attachment for the sanding discs themselves. It is easy to find these 7" sanding sheets nearly anywhere. You will also need an adapter, that I was able to get at Home Depot. It is a Milwaukee adapter 48-03-1005, and cost about $5. This adapter screws into the sanding disc backer (5/8" 11tpi), and then allows you to screw in a m10x1.25 bolt. M10 is small enough to fit into a 1/2 chuck once you cut the head off. 

With what I listed above, you have a sanding disc that can be chucked up in the chuck you use on your lathe, or a motor you have  chuck on. If you want to make what I did continue on. 

The RAS has a slider that slides forward and backwards. attached to this slider (don't know what its called for real) is a cradle that allows the motor to turn from a cross cut to a rip cut. This cradle is what I removed, with the motor still attached. I also removed the on off switch to reuse. My RAS was mounted to a rolling cabinet that came with the saw, so I removed the rest of the RAS from this cabinet.  I then turned the cradle upside down and mounted it to the cabinet so that the accessory side was hanging off enough to allow the disc to mount without hitting said cabinet. I also mounted the old on/off switch to the cabinet to run the motor. Now I have a disc sander, just need to build a table on it, and a shaft that spends at 3500 RPM that could easily power another piece of equipment. 

The Harbor Freight Grinder/ Carver #40432

Been a while since I wrote a new tool review for a Harbor Freight tool, honestly it has been a little while since I bought one. My newest acquisition was the Grinder Carver. It had fairly good reviews, and looked like a well made tool. It comes with the motor, a hand piece, a foot pedal, and a 1/4" chuck key. It comes with no accessories which isn't a big deal because if you are like me then you have a hundred of nearly every kind of bit, so it is a non issue.

After I bought it, it was a couple of weeks before I even pulled it out of the box. When I finally got around to opening it, I was pleased to find that it looked well made. After I plugged it in I found that it was very powerful on initial start up, however after a minute of running it the chuck went spinning across the bench. Turns out the chuck presses onto the shaft, similar to how a MT2 spindle presses onto your lathe.

So I fixed that by cleaning the shaft of oil and pressing it back onto the spindle. After a gentle hit to the chuck with a mallet, it was fixed. Soon I has happily removing the waste off of a block that I was carving into a small toy horse for a toddler's christmas present. Suddenly the cable went slinging around the shop and all that was left in my hand was an aluminum tube (the body of the carver hand piece). After taking a moment to reflect on life in general ( a cable slinging around at 15000 RPM and missing your ear by about 2 inches can do that to a fella), I decided to have a look and figure out what went wrong.

At the Motor the cable is bolted to the cable, this held together. The cable housing then screws to the motor as well, part of this was on the floor next to my feet, the other side was still mounted to the motor. The other end of the cable had a "nut" that screwed onto the aluminum tube that was still in my hand. the cable that was at one time still in the housing had just slid into a square hole on the shaft that held the chuck.

So what happened? The cable housing "nut" that attached to the aluminum tube had been threaded onto the tube. This was done with very fine and shallow threads. The pressure of my carving put pressure on the chuck, which in turn put pressure on the shaft, and this put pressure on the last place it could. That was on the shallow machine threads on the cable housing "nut". Needless to say this is what caused the issue, the threads gave up, the cable went slinging round ripping part of the housing off.

What saved me from injury? I was wearing a full face shield, and and form fitting gloves.

So would I recommend this tool to a friend (as Harbor Freight's review system asks)…… Yes. Why you ask? If said friend does a lot of carving and knows about this issue ahead of time, then they would just have to invest $49 and the time putting some small screws through the cable housing "nut" and into the aluminum handle. This would have fixed the problem. I could have exchanged it, but I see that the problem would not be any different on any of the other carvers they had on the shelf. I decided to opt for the return and used the money to buy supplies like sand paper, etc. I'll stick to my dremel and knives for carving.

Hand me down tools.

Haven't posted in a little while because I have been on vacation at my parent's house in Alabama. I did however come back with a few new to me toys.

First Dad gave me a Drill press that belonged to my grandfather. It is a small 8in Delta model with 5 or six speeds. It needs to be cleaned up a little bit but is in perfect working order. The chucks spins smooth with no wobble at all. In fact I am surprised at how quiet it is, probably the quietest machine in my shop.

The second tool he gave me was a hand saw that is quite old. I didn't know much about it at the time but on closer examination I have found the initials JES were carved into the handle. This is my Grandfather's initials, so I am super excited about it. It looks to have been barely used, but the blade is rusty and will need to be cleaned. It is however very sharp. I have already tightened the handle up, but it needs to be cleaned and oiled. I especially love the shaping of the handle, and hope to find a brand name of some sort on it after cleaning, but it doesn't really matter what brand it is. To hold something and use it as my long dead grandfather did, will thrill me to no end.

The third thing is a pantograph (hope I spelled that right). This also belonged to my grandfather, but it doesn't loo to have ever been used. It is always hard to tell with his tools as he always took very good care of his tools and refused to allow anyone to borrow them. It is still in the original box. I suspect he used it to make small pictures bigger to transfer them onto pieces of wood for scroll sawing, but I don't know it for a fact.

The fourth thing is an old brace. It looks to be a Stanley, but I am not sure yet. It needs to be cleaned up but looks to be in great shape. I don't have any bits for it as of yet but I will be on the look out for them in the future.

The fifth item was a 1950's Black and Decker drill. It is a 1/4" Heavy Duty Holgun model. This item was the first one that I decided to start with. It's cord had been cut, probably because it had stopped working. Being an all metal drill it is essential that it works properly electrically or you will get zapped. I plan on fixing this drill up and using it mainly as decoration in the shop, using it occasionally, as the parts are no longer made for this drill.

The last thing I will mention here will be a non-woodworking item. It is a Fish cooker that is around 30 years old. It has been well used every year since it was new, so it needs a little TLC though it works very well still.

Keep a look out for future posts on these items as I refurbish and use them. Also next time you see that old tool at a flea market, yard sale, or estate sale remember that even in its used, rusty, and dilapidated state its still better than anything you can buy off the shelf at your local box store.

Tool Review: Harbor Freight 5 Speed Bench Top Lathe #65345

This is the Harbor Freight mini Lathe. I decided to buy this after tons of research. I found that Grizzly, and a few other companies sell this same lathe for $350 and up. Granted they may have certain things that this one doesn't, but they are all basically the same unit and the differences don't qualify the price difference. I bought mine for $195 on sale, plus used the rarely found 25% off coupon. So I actually got this for about $150. That's $200 less than the grizzly.

It comes well packed and is very heavy for its size. The base is solid cast iron, as are all the parts. The motor power's the lathe via pulleys, and a grooved belt. The speeds are changed by moving the belt steps up, or down. Changing the speed is very easy. It uses normal size tapers for the head stock and tail stock, so it is easy to order accessories online. It comes with a spur, and a 4" bowl base which is nice. It can turn bowl blanks up to 10" in diameter, and material as long as 18".

Using this lathe is a dream, it doesn't vibrate at all. The motor is very strong and I have yet to stall it out during turning. All of the adjustments to put in a work piece are tool less and easy to use.

You really just can't ask for a better lathe of this size. It is WELL worth the price.

Review: Harbor Freight 3x21 belt sander

This is the Harbor Freight 3x21 Belt Sander model #69859. I am not a huge fan of Harbor Freight in general, most of their tools are not worth buying. I do buy some of my bigger tools from there, like my Mini-Lathe, which I will do a review on at a later date. Back to the subject at hand, I needed something to sand a table top with, my little palm sander just wasn't cutting it (errr I mean sanding it). I actually stopped in to Harbor Freight to get a new sanding sheet for my disc sander. Sanding sheets are right across the isle from the power tools, so when I grabbed the sheet I needed and turned to head towards the cash register the power sander section caught my eye.

I had seen this sander being used before, on a youtube video, I forget who it was who made it. It was doing the job on the videos, I remember that. The unit was on sale for $28.99 at the time, and I had a 20% off coupon on my phone. Speaking of phones, I pulled out my smart phone and looked at the reviews on this item. I never look at the reviews on Harbor Freights site, instead I opt for the reviews that show up in the results from forums, like LumberJocks.com. It seemed like most people liked it, so I bought it.

When I got ready to use it I pulled it out of the box, it was decently packed. It came with a dust bag that needed to be put on, so I did that. In the bottom of the box was an extra set of brushes for the motor. It is good to know that most of Harbor Freights hand help power tools are not broken in. This means the brushes have not been set to the shape of the armature. Most power tool companies due this in the factory to insure that they don't get returns. It is simple enough to do, just plug it in and turn it on, just don't put a load on it. In other words with this sander plug it in and turn it on, but don't sand with it. Just let it run for a couple of minutes. This gives the brushes a chance to set, without burning up. Most people just start using it, and burn up the brushes. That's why it comes with extras.

After running it no-load for a couple of minutes I was ready to sand. This sander did a really good job. It was loud, and made a lot of dust, but that's what a power tool does right. I was quite satisfied with the job it did. I do think a better quality belt will make it even better, there was a long flat spot where the belt was joined. It made quick work of the job though and that's what matters.

After a month of having it, I am still satisfied with it. The new belt did make a huge difference. The dust collection bag on this thing is worthless. The bag's zipper came apart the second time I went to empty it, so I plan on making a bag that uses a drawstring instead.

Overall I give it 4 out of five stars, and rank it as: A Good Value

The Hand plane (Tips from a woodworker with 70years of experience)

Today we're going to discuss one of the most useful and most aggravating (for beginners) hand tools in the shop, the hand plane. In the following post you will learn about one man's take on how to sharpen, clean, store, and about adjustments of the all steel style hand planes. Before you stop reading right here let me mention, that this man is not me, but an 84 year old carpenter named John. John has been a woodworker professionally since he was 14. What you read here will go against just about anything a woodworking magazine, or youtube video will tell you but it works fantastically. I will tell you the story of John in a later post, in this post we will stick to the Hand planes.

As you may or may not know there are thousands of styles of hand planes, and they do all sorts of amazing things, but we are going to discuss the plane jane hand plane. John told me that for 30+ years he only really used one hand plane for smoothing and jointing, and that was a Stanley no.4. It wasn't until later that he got a bench plane and jack plane. So let's just start with the no.4 because for the most part it is the same as the other two.

This is the No.4 hand plane. Yep its an oldie, but this particular one is a Craftsman and its mine. It was actually made by Stanley, but Craftsman used several manufacturers to make their hand planes. You can go to your local box store and buy a no.4 Stanley, but it is not going to be the same as the vintage planes. It looks the same, and feels pretty much the same, but the difference is in how its made. We'll discuss these differences when we discuss the setup, but just know if you have a new no.4 that's ok, don't toss it.

First let's discuss the handles. Believe it or not, they are not all the same. John handed me several examples to try out, and each one felt different. Some I could fit my hand into and hold it like it was meant to be held, others I couldn't. Some would rub my hand in certain areas, which can cause nasty blisters, and some would not. A few were heavier, and a few were lighter. From a distance they all looked the same. John told me that a hand plane can be the greatest in the world, but if it does't fit your hand, you'll never get it to work right for you. So if you haven't bought one yet, and are thinking about it, put your hands on it first.

There are two categories of metal hand planes, according to John, and all metal hand planes fall into these two categories. The difference between these two categories is wether or not the plane has an easily accessible adjustment screw for the frog. The frog is adjustable on both, but one (without the easily accessible screw) has to have the blade removed and two screws loosened to adjust the frog. This one can be a pain if you feel the need to adjust the frog between pieces, but it is meant to be set up once and forgotten about. The second one has a single screw below the depth adjustment that can be turned to adjust the frog forward or backwards, opening the throat or closing it. (this is labeled "Adjuster Screw{Frog}" below)

Courtesy of Lie-Nielson Bench Planes 

John told me that being able to adjust the throat opening easily is good, but it's not a must have as they all adjust in some way. Other than that the "Stanley style" planes are really all the same with exception to blade angles. Almost all the new planes that you buy are going to be the easily adjustable frog type. This is where the new Stanleys have a quality control issue (Kobalt as well). Often the frog is not machined but ground on these newer planes, that means 9 times out of 10 it will not adjust correctly until you take it apart and fix it. The vintage planes were machined, so they tend to be fine in this department. On my Kobalt, this was an issue. The frog was placed in a jig and ground, but the jig must have been tilted to the left by 1/16". This means that before I reground the frog I needed to have the lateral blade adjustment lever all the way to one side to make a the blade straight. When I did regrind the frog, and put it back in, I found that the screw that holds the frog adjustment tab was now 1/16" off. So I had to remove the adjustment tab, and grind the top a little and check it. I did this over and over until I got it right. The process of fixing the frog took about 3 hrs. 

Most of the videos that I have watched on youtube about setting up a hand plane said that the sole of the plane has to be perfectly flat. If you take a combination square that is true and place the ruler side against the sole, and the other part against the side of the plane that the sole should be perfectly flat and square to the sides. John says this is important, but it doesn't have to be perfect. How many readers just gasped? Well his point is that the plane should be close, very close, but it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect. Yes the sides need to be square to the sole, but out of the box John says most of them are. If the sole is cupped slightly in the center (by more than a few thousandth's of an inch) you will need to flatten it. On the other hand if its only 2 thousandths out, don't worry about it, "It's woodworking not machining" John says. I think for the average joe this is absolutely true. For other's that are into the super fine stuff perfection matters, but as John points out, wood is never perfect. "You can't make something perfect, that is full of hidden knots, or cracks anyway, besides it will flatten after a few years of keeping it clean" John states. What does he mean by this, well John believes in taking care of his tools, and this means taking it to sand paper to clean it occasionally, and keeping it waxed. That's what he means when he says a new plane is like a novice woodworker, it gets better with experience. 

John comes from an age where you respect your tools. He told me that in the 40's to 50's a Stanley no.4 cost about $3.50 brand new. Sounds cheap to us, but when you factor in inflation, and the fact that a hand saw cost $1.50 back then you realize the price hasn't really changed much. $3.50 then is a lot like $40 now. The quality was better, but John thinks they weren't as good at figuring out ways to cheapen things back then, or there wasn't the desire too. So that being said John says there are somethings a person should know about caring for hand planes. First and for most never store it on its sole. He says "The magazines today tell you to run the blade back up into the plane and sit it on the sole, that's horse shit" he says. "If you do that then every time you go to use it you got to get the blade adjusted back out, which means swipe and adjust, swipe and adjust, if you just leave the blade out and store it on it's side you don't have to worry about all that". "Besides what if you forget to suck that blade back up into the plane and set it hard on the table on it's sole, you just messed up the blade. Suck it back in there or not, as long as you remember to set it on its side, you don't have to worry about it" he says. It is important to keep in mind that John is a guy that needed to set a plane up, and expect it to be the same every time he picked it up, so I think this is really good advice. 

So if you know a lot about planes you have probably turned your nose up a couple of times but you haven't completely shunned this article, well that may change at this point. John sharpens his plane blades in a way that is completely against the ways that most people tell you to do it. So let's look at his sharpening strategy as if we were making a new plane sharp, or fixing a really dull blade. This is what John starts with....

Seriously he uses a bench grinder. He leaves it off and puts the blade against the wheel at the same angle the blade is already ground, then adjusts the rest to the blade. Next he makes sure the little can of water he has beside the grinder is full. Last he turns it on and swipes it across a few times, each time dipping it in the water to keep it cool, then he checks it. This is what he is looking for... 

He is looking for the concave shape the wheel naturally makes to go from the edge to the back like pictured above. Then he heads to his sharpening stone. He uses a oil stone that is a combination. Rough on one side, smooth on the other. John thinks it is best to build a little box to fit it in, John's box fits the stone exactly and has a lid. He also points out that he has run four screws through the box on the bottom, from the inside to the outside just enough for the screw tips to protrude, then breaks the screws off so the stone sits flat in the box. The screws keep the box from sliding on your work bench while sharpening. 

John sharpens his blades completely by hand holding it at the angle "the blade wants to sit at". He then puts 3 in 1 oil on the stone and proceeds to push it around on the stone in a circular motion. He does this and then checks the face of the blade. He is looking for three things. First he wants the blade to take on the following shape....

                                                 Standard                                 John's way

Next he looks at the blade from the side. This is what he wants it to look like....

John also wants a bur to form on the back side of the blade. Most woodworkers tell you to lay the blade on it's back side on the stone, then left up slightly and draw back. the point of this is to make the two angles meet into a really sharp edge. John says "That's Horse shit!, you want a plane iron, not a damn hatchet!" I find that John likes the combination of the words Horse and Shit when debunking what he says are myths. He turns the blade over onto its back side, flat, and then moves it in a circular motion to knock off the bur. After demonstrating the perfect method, he starts moving at his normal speed. You can tell he has done this a million times as his 84 year old hands flip the blade swipes, flips the blade and swipes, and does it so fast he is literally blinding me as the flash of the sunlight hitting the blade hits my eyes. Yes his irons are that well polished. John also says you should never sharpen in the dark. Dummy me asks him why not, and he flashes a quick smile and says "thats how you cut yourself, turn a light on!" "There's only one thing a man should do in the dark, and if it involves sharp objects, you have the wrong woman!" I loved this man's humor!

He put the iron in the plane, and adjusted it by planing on a piece of mahogany, till he got perfect curls, and then handed me the plane. "Try this he said", and I did. I can tell you that was the smoothest shaving I have ever made. I couldn't believe it. He then says "You like that? Watch this" he takes the plane from my hands and adjusts the depth and swipes the plane over the wood. By feel this man just adjusted a plane to take out a mahogany shaving that was full width of the iron, and so thin I could literally see through it. "I bet that's only a couple of cells thick right there." he says.  I was completely amazed, I asked him if this was the no.4 he had told me about that he had his whole career. "No, he said I just bought that one at a yard sale yesterday. I tuned it, cleaned it, and sharpened it while we were talking. Never used it before, but its a good plane". "You want it" he asks, "How much you want for it?" I say. "Nothing I only paid $2 for it", walking over to a cabinet he opens the door, "I have at least 40 no.4's". I am amazed as I see three shelves full of no.4's. 

Before I left I also bought a no.5 Stanley off of him for $30. 

Every time I use these planes I will forever remember the time a 84 year old woodworker took 2 hours of his time to show me his secrets. I hope this article helps some of you to learn to use a hand plane, because his methods really work for me.

Pencil holders (Drunken Woodworker style)

So I watched this video made by The Drunken Woodworker, and got inspired to create some of my own versions following along with my recycling mantra. So take a few minutes and watch this video.

I did things a little different. I grabbed up some misc. pieces of pallet wood and plywood I had laying around, and using the table saw cut everything into 4"x6" blocks. I then took these blocks and stacked them in different ways, until I had several designs that I liked. I then glued them together, and left them to dry over night.

The next morning I drilled holes into the tops using an appropriate sized drill bit. Using a countersink bit I knocked the sharp edges off the holes. Using my bandsaw I cut them down to the shapes that I liked and followed that up by sanding them with a combination disc/belt sander.

Once I was satisfied with the overall shape and appearances I gave them several coats of Poly. It takes forever for Poly to dry so I left them for a couple of days. When I was sure they were dry I covered them in a layer of paste wax that I then buffed out.

It's amazing what you can do with some scraps of free wood. I used these as thank you gifts to my children's teachers. All they cost me was a little time. 

The Gun Cabinet

This gun cabinet took about three weeks to complete from start to finish. 

Materials List-

Outside

-Wood - Poplar

            - White Cedar (non aromatic)

-3/4" plywood sheet

-Hinges

-Deer Antler (naturally shed)

-Titebond II wood glue

- Tamper proof screws

Interior-

-Strips of Birch Plywood

-Camouflage jersey type material

-Leather

-Foam

Let's start by discussing the materials. The white cedar came from a bed frame, they were once the slats that held the box spring up, as did the Birch ply strips. The Poplar came from the frame of a box spring. 

The word box-spring leads you to believe that it is a box with springs in it. In fact some are, but rarely. Usually it is literally a wooden frame wrapped in upholstery fabric. These are great sources of straight pieces of quality wood. The only downside is disposing of the upholstery fabric, and pulling crown staples. Sometimes the guy that put it together at the factory felt the need to use ten staples at one joint, that can be a pain, but I have learned to just cut the wood on either side of the joint. You lose in wood waste, is directly related to your level of frustration. 

The slats usually have a hole at either end of the length of board, and maybe stapled together using fabric tape. Removing the tape and staples is easy on this just pull the tape in the opposite direction that the staples were shot in. This not only removes the tape, but removes the staples as well. 

The hinges were galvanized gate hinges that I had laying around. I poured a little muratic acid into a glad-ware container, and dropped them in for an hour or so, to remove the galvanization. It works like a charm, you just need to rinse them well with water afterwards. I then let them dry and sprayed them with Rustoleum Hammered Antique Bronze spray paint. 

The deer antler was a naturally shed antler that my father found in the woods years ago. The foam and leather were recovered from a leather couch. At fist glance a leather couch that has been tossed onto the curb looks worthless, often the seat cushions have holes in them, but thats not the part you are looking for. Look at the back of the couch, the side that sits against the wall and you will usually see a strip of leather that is in perfect condition that measures at least 2' x 3'. This is when carrying a razor knife in your vehicle is handy. The Jersey material is some that we have had for a while, it just seemed like the perfect use for it.

Total cost to build this unit was about $15.

How I did it-

I have needed a gun cabinet for a few years now. I hate the look of the gun safes these days, so I wanted the old school cabinet style. Yes having the guns in a secure location is important, but I felt I could make a cabinet nearly as secure. 

When you take on a project like this you need to have a general idea of what you want it to look like, as well as a general idea of the size. You will find that you can draw dimensionally accurate plans all day long, but they will be nearly useless to you other than using them for reference for what style you want. It is important to remember that reused wood is already cut to specific lengths and widths. In order to use the most wood in the best way, you will need to really think it out and dry fit things together before assembly. I determined that the best way to build this was in two sections. 

First I used the birch plywood strips to build the frame of a large box, this would become the lower cabinet. Next I built a smaller frame to make the upper box. I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood to fit the top of the large box. I then wrapped it with the camo material using staples. Next I attached the plywood to the top of the large box and attached the smaller box to the top of all of that. 

I cut two more pieces of plywood to cover the top of the small box, and bottom of the large box. One piece was wrapped in the camo material, the other piece was covered in foam and leather. These pieces were attached. Another piece of plywood was cut to fit the back of the entire unit. It was then covered in the camo cloth, and attached with tamper resistant screws. 

Using alternating strips of cedar and poplar, and clamps I attached the siding with countersunk tamper resistant screws that were then plugged with glued in dowels. You can't even get to the screws to loosen them, as the head is incased. Next I made the doors in the same way, and attached them with my painted gate hinges. 

I cut the button end off of the antler and used it as a pull for the upper door which is used to store ammunition, and cleaning supplies. The other end was drilled, and cut using a dremel tool to get it to fit perfect. Use a respirator when cutting antler, it makes a ton of dust. The antler was then attached with brass colored screws. That is essentially it. 

(Bloggers note: This was one of the first articles written for the old blog, it is the only one that was written after the fact. That being said I never thought to take pictures as it was made. )

The New Blog Site

I used to be on wordpress.org, and wasn't really satisfied with the site in General. After much deliberation I decided to shut that page down and move all the content over to this new page. I am much more satisfied with this layout, and site in general.

For those that are new to my blogs I would like to take a moment to welcome you and give you a description of what we do here at The Urban Woodworker. Here at The Urban Woodworker we consider it our goal to help people understand what is possible with discarded items (specifically wooden things, but we mess with other materials here and there). It is important to note that this is not a step by step how-to site, it is a site to show you things that can be done in order to INSPIRE you to come up with things for yourself. You want to make something you see here, feel free but I do not supply plans. I will however willingly answer any questions you may have about the item in question. When I say I do not supply plans, it is not because I am stingy or anything, it is purely because the materials that we use often dictate how things are made.

The Urban Woodworker concept is to follow the three R's, which are Recycle, Reuse, and Recreate. The wood (or whatever material) that is used in our projects is free wood. In the creations you find on these pages the only things that are bought is the glue, and/0r screws that hold it together.

So I hope you enjoy the projects that you find on these pages, and I hope they inspire you to create your own projects. Be sure to look in the links and follow me on Instagram to see new pics of creations as they are built.