Half-Day Job Only Takes Weeks

On the theory that people are morbidly fascinated by tales of inept woodworking, I thought I’d post an update on my continuing efforts to create six pieces of walnut suitable for assembling in a slab which can be turned into a Telecaster body.

Tonight I resawed a new chunk of walnut, stuck the pieces on my new, shorter planer sled, and face-jointed them. It actually worked, although I got a tiny amount of snipe on both boards.

Initially I figured my tools were 98% to blame and I was responsible for the other 2%, but it has gradually become apparent that those numbers needed to be reversed. Ignorance, lack of technique, and sheer stupidity were causing most of my problems.

I have learned that good technique can almost eliminate snipe when I use the planer sled, and improved shimming and a more manageable sled are solving my other problems. The infeed tables I ordered should make things even better. The orbital quarter-sheet sander I bought yesterday does an acceptably quick and effective job of fixing my jointing errors. I now have six 18″-24″ pieces of usable wood, and I only had to buy nine feet of walnut to do it.

I guess I won’t have to buy a jointer right away, although the little Rikon 10″ looks really enticing and may end up in my garage anyhow.

I look forward to the arrival of my restored Stanley No. 6 plane, so I can put the sander and maybe even the planer away.

By the way, here’s a great tip I came up with tonight. When using a shop-vac as a passive receptacle to catch planer dust, don’t connect the hose to the shop-vac’s blower side. Don’t ask me how I got so smart. You wouldn’t understand. It’s a gift.

Chilly!

It’s 57° outside, and it’s almost one p.m.! I LOVE IT!

I get so tired of sticking to things.

Help Out

From a reader:

Hi Steve. XXXX here, longtime reader, occasional commenter. I’ve noticed that you take prayer requests from time to time. I started to detail what it is I wish you would join me (and others around me) in praying for…. but it’s so long and convoluted that I think I’ll just say this: my mother is in danger from my father. Last week, in a fit of rage, he had her by the throat and pointed a gun at her head. Now they both behave as if nothing happened. (he doesn’t know that I know about this – I got details from my aunt, his sister, but this is not out of keeping with his behavior since my childhood) My mother refuses to leave, and he refuses to get help. And so the cycle goes as it has for decades, but the involvement of a gun strikes me as a critical escalation of his behavior. I love my mother and my father, but this situation is untenable as it stands. I would like you to pray for safety for my mom and for peace for my dad. Right now, there is nothing I can do if neither of them will ask for or accept help. I feel helpless and afraid. I have told them about your blog in the past; I don’t know if they read it, but if you do put a prayer request out, please keep the details vague for everyone’s safety. I don’t mean to put a caveat on how you choose or do not choose to pray – it’s just a safety consideration. I have been wanting to send this to you for a week now, but have hesitated because its difficult stuff to talk about, and I don’t know if you would want to be involved or not.