Diamonds are forever

Blog is doing nothing these days.
What's up?
I don't really know. Time flies. I have been sharpening and tuning tools getting ready for the Hutch project. I managed to get the lawnmower back together, but it isn't working quite right. The new belt has a bit more friction to it and the blades still spin a bit even when disengaged. Not real safe. It also is vibrating more than I remember. This either means I unbalanced the blades or am just noticing the vibration more. More time crawling around on the floor this weekend.

And as the title of this blog indicates I have some new bling in the shop.
A big'Ol monocrystaline diamond bench stone from DMT

http://www.dmtsharp.com/index.html
It's big. It's shiny. It is a pain in the but :-(
Diamond sharpening stones are a love-hate item. If you get a good one and take care of it the thing will stay flat and cut for a long time, like decades. If you get a Monday or a Friday stone you will likely want to throw it out the window. I think I ended up with one in the latter catagory. Figures. Mine showed up flat and cut like heck, but the cutting action is so random and unpredictable that it is of little use for lapping.

After working it over for about 20 minutes I threw in the towel. Despite my best efforts the stone was not breaking in evenly. I called customer service. They suggested I clean the stone. Okay, that is reasonable. Maybe metal particles are clogging it up. The next suggestion was a bit funny. He asks if I have a waterstone. Yeah. He suggests using my waterstone to break in the diamond stone. Great.

Well, that did work in breaking in the stone. It now feels about like a 220g stone. But there are still places that scratch deeper. These scratches are so deep that the rest of the stone can't get them out. Grrr. Back on the phone to customer service. Rep says that I likely have a bad stone, send it in and he will get it replaced. Okie-dokie.

I will let you know if the replacement is any better.

In other news:
- I turned 31 on Wednesday (thanks to those who sent in Birthday cards and wishes, the rest of you guys suck) It was an uneventful day, no new toys, just a couple of beers and dinner out.
- My mom is out visiting for the week
- Austin is all set to turn 7 on Saturday (time flies, seems he was crawling just yesterday)
- Obama has approved additional spending on the NASA side of the fence, so looks like job will continue to be stable

That's all I got. Keep the rubber side down and fingers out of any moving machinery.

So what's next

Well, I am going to dive into the Hutch/Server. So first thing first. Search the web for pictures. Second figure out what I want. Next, figure out what the Mrs. wants. Been through this already.

Now comes time to mock out a concept. Pretty much anything that goes into our home has to get joint approval. I can go on the fly pretty well, but Mrs. Doug can't visualize well since I don't elaborate well. Good thing I speak CAD. I can usually put something together to give her an idea what the heck I am talking about doing. It kind of keeps the surprises to a minimum that way.

So here is the first cut at the lower cabinets (the server portion). Construction will be 3 cabinets. Overall length is about 10ft. So I will need to laminate up a solid wood cabinet top to get that length. The finish will be painted, so no major requirements for the wood to be used. Most likely we are looking at birch plywood and pine, poplar, or ash for the solid wood.

Okay, enough blab. Here are a couple of pictures...





Here is a shot of one of the closest inspirational pieces...


Other news in the house of Doug. Not much. Fricken utilities were $450 this month. Ouch! This house doesn't heat well, so the heat pump and strips are running constantly while we have these 20-40 degree week-long cold spells. I can't wait for the weather to warm back up. Of course that means the mower will need to finish getting fixed up :-)

Faith is really enjoying her preschool. She is liking it so much that she is being a little beast when Erin picks her up in the afternoon. Attitude to spare on this girl. Things are sure to be interesting as she matures.

Austin is reading up a storm. We have gotten the kids in the habbit of taking a couple of books to bed and reading until they get tired. It seems to be working well. They enjoy it and it calms them down so they go to sleep easier. Win-win situation.


That's all I got. Hope all is well with you. Take care and thanks for reading.

Sports fan?

Nah, but this video is too cool. If it is all actually real it is doubly impressive.

re-post freehand honing/blade preparation

I have tried a few different methods over the last few months to flatten blades. Here is my go-to method for flattening the back of a new blade.

Adhere some sandpaper to a flat surface. I prefer 3M super77 and a granite surface plate for the substrate.


Use 60-80g until you have a uniform scratch pattern. I prefer Norton 3X 80g at this phase. It is a fast cutter and the paper is thick, so it is easy to install and remove from the granite.


Next comes the 220g w/d. Generally I can get away with using it dry. Again, go for a uniform scratch pattern. I typically try to rotate 90 degrees from the previous pattern, so I know when I have removed all previous scratches.


Onto 400g w/d. Again, remove all previous scratches. I will start to do random motion at this point and lighter pressure once the 220g scratches are worked out. At this point you will begin to pick up a mirror finish.


Next comes 1000g w/d. You know the routine. Remove the scratches. At this time you will have a decent mirror polish going. It is about equivalent to my hard black Arkansas stone.


At this point I will go back and work over the primary bevel. On a new Hock blade or a previously prepped blade I usually can go to the 400 and back to 1000g.


Black Arkansas back, secondary bevel, then strop using green rouge.





Going freehand and by this routine doesn't give as pretty of an edge as going up through 8000g waterstones using an eclipse jig. But you know it is pretty liberating to ditch the training wheels. I have noticed no decline in cut quality or sharpness of the finished blade. This method is also fairly easy to apply to heavily cambered blades, just add a wrist roll to the regime.

At the end of the day I still need more practice. But I am looking forward to the day that I don't feel attached to a sharpening jig.

New shop tour

Decided it was high time to update my shop tour. Don't laugh too hard as I dork out and explain my way through the shop.

Sentimental Plane Restoration Complete

Back at the end of November my Father rolled into town. He had brought a truck-load of booty from California. Amongst the junk from my childhood was a N06 that had belonged to my Great Grandfather. It was rusted, missing the knob, tote cracked into about 4 pieces, and had not likely cut a shaving in more than 30 years. I really should have taken a picture as I received the plane. To date it is the crustiest plane that I have brought back to life.









This afternoon I prepped a blade for it. It isn't vintage. In fact the blade is from a type16 plane. But since I am cambering it heavily and using this No6 as a true fore plane I figured this is a moot point. The later planes have thicker irons which will work out adventaegously. Here is a shot of the cambered and sharpened blade. I may need to open up the mouth a bit to accomodate the thick shavings.

It didn't clog with my testing this afternoon. If it bugs me I will adjust it. As it is I am impressed with the workings of this plane. It cleans up like a scrub, but has a lot more mass and stability. I think I will be spending plenty of quality time with this plane in the near future.

Near as I can tell this is a type6. I have restored it to close to mint parts and function.


Hopefully this tool will last a few more generations...

edit 1/21 okay, I managed to dig up a partial before image
Here it is in the Evapo-rust and it gives some clue what I mean by crusty...

So long as I am being a geek...

Well, what's new there.

Check this out
Grizzly Shop Planner
It is a fun little flash layout tool designed to help you figure out where you can stuff more tools in your shop. It can also be used for home layout as well. Fun stuff. Very quick and easy.

Here is what I worked out from memory on my shop.


What else is new?
I managed to sand off the tip of my thumb again. Seems like every time I have to prep a new blade for a plane that I end up sanding off a bunch of skin. I haven't gone to the point of bleeding, but it sure feels bad for a few days after the fact. I posted over on woodnet and apparently I am not alone in this minor oversight. It is weird, because I don't feel any abrasion while doing it but later when I clean up it hurts. Live and learn.

I have been testing out silicone carbide loose abrasive in the shop. This stuff is fun. Cuts like nobodys business at first and over time fractures into smaller less abrasive particles. I am using it on the bottom of my granite surface plate. It would work better with a cast iron or mild steel substrate, but honestly it works pretty well on the granite. I have a bit more playing around before I have this lapping method dailed, but for now I can say that it is faster and cheaper than sandpaper for flat lapping the plane blades.

That's all I got for now. Probably starting a couple new furniture pieces here in the next week or so, so stay tuned.