Where in the world is Doug??

Work, home, or on a beer run. Those would be the most likely candidates.

So weekend followup. What happened round these parts? Not much. I took advantage of some garage time to straighten up some more, sharpen and tune some planes, and of course get my jointer back together to tackle the table project. The new helical insert cutterhead is sweet. It is quiet, sharp, and produces a surface that could go straight to finishing. Well worth all the hoops I went through to get it set up.


The new additions to the hand plane collection over the last month or so...
the no42 Lie Neilsen shoulder plane:
aka the deal that was too good to pass. e-bay is the devil. I don't think the original owner even used this plane other than test cuts, it still had the factory bevel on it.


the Stanley Bailey no.3:
WWII vintage, heavy casting, I added a hock blade. Very nice little smoother or to be used for work that is just a bit too much for the block plane.


the Stanley Bailey no.4:
a bit bigger than the no.3. Another e-bay temptress. Got it for about half of what the aftermarket blade and chipbreaker sell for. Older plane, probably circa 1920 if I had to take a wag at it.


Okay, that is a lot of new tools. Not likely to see another haul like that for quite a while. Enough about tools, what about that dining table??

There she is. Well, that is the base of the table (aprons and legs). I laminated and rough squared the legs this weekend. Tonight I milled the aprons. The legs are about 3-7/8" square right now and the aprons are 2" thick. I am going to let them sit for a day or two to adjust to the cuts. Meanwhile I need to decide on the proportions and construction details. In my spare time I need to do a lumber run to get the wood for the table top. I am favoring 40x84 inches for the top. That is a bit of work. I would have 4 sections to work with my planer. I'll keep you all posted, but it is going to be real tight to try and have this one done by the end of the month. Slipping from slim chance to no chance rapidly.

Here are a few screen caps of what the finished table should look like with respect to proportions.



In other news, I am a man without a country. Well at the least missing a defining accessory. Over the weekend I sold off my bikes and my park workstand. So don't come here expecting any ride updates for a while. I will get a new bike, but with current state of the nation I figured that getting out of debt was more important than riding for now. It is a hard decision to put a loved hobby on the back-burner. The only consolation is that my bikes provided enough cash to pay off our time share. So one less monthly bill. One step in the right direction.

Family is doing well. We rearranged the office to give Austin a more conducive learning environment For those who don't know, we pulled Austin from 1st grade and Erin is home schooling him. He ended up with a very poorly equipped teacher this year. So bad that we made the decision that if anyone was going to mess up our kid it was going to be us, not some teacher at wits end. Thus far the transition has been very good. Austin is a much happier kid and Erin seems to be getting by okay too.

I could probably keep babbling, but I am gonna call it and get to bed. Hope everyone is doing well. If you are out riding put in an extra mile for me.