Oh Frabjous day

Got some goodies in the mail today. Well, the brown truck and the white/green/purple truck came and dropped them off actually.

Got me some stones...

Err water stones. Need to sharpen my chisels and my block plane. Rockler had a $15 off on a $40 purchase, so I picked up a set. I would also like to grab a Norton aluminum oxide wheel for the grinder to aid in bevel grinding. Gonna have to make due for now with the stones, buffing wheel, and sand paper for rough forming. My grandfather was a big fan of sharpening. I don't know that I will get as good at it as him. Hopefully I can learn a thing or two along the way though.

Next box...

Push sticks! Sunhill was dumping these for $.01, so I grabbed five for my nickel. Also grabbed a couple more push blocks that were on sale and a multi-purpose combination saw blade. The blade was $10, down from about $30. Looks to be a decent blade. Better for every day stuff than the 80t finishing blade that was in the tablesaw. It had one tooth that looked a bit shody on the brazing of the carbide, but otherwise a good looking ATB blade. Of course a few cuts in I run into this:

I am not really sure what the heck this nail/brad was doing in the countertop. It made some great sparks as the brand new blade cut right through it.

Next box...

New planer. This one is a much more substantial rig than the short lived Ryobi. Erin said the FedEX driver was gunting and huffing to carry it into the garage. I imagine it is close to 80lb without the box.

So I dug in and got to work. This was a tool that I don't want to be lifting and lugging around the shop. I had saved the base off the contractor saw that I sold. It is heavy gauge and more than capable of handling the weight of the planer. Only problem, it is a bit low. So I devised a mobile base and sub-base for the top that added about 8"+.

Odd thing was that the thing wasn't square. I ended up lugging out one of my 50in clamps to pinch a diagonal while I drove in the lag screws from 2x4 to 2x6. Guess dragging it around with missing braces and uneven levelers took their toll. Well it is much better now.

Counter bore for the sub-base. Those Forsner bits have been getting a workout lately. I love those bits. Using them in the drill press gives even nicer results.


I reclaimed the section of counter top that was chopped when setting up my workbench. I did end up trimming it down shortly after this picture to remove the one radius corner and the laminate that only covered 2 sides. Here you can see me test fitting the planer on the shelf. When I need it this cart can be used as an assembly bench or auxiliary table.


Okay, some pictures of the finished product...




And of course it is starting to look a bit crowded in here :-)

In a good way of course. I do need to do some more organizing to make the work space a bit more user-friendly, but so long as things are on wheels I am not sweating their location much.