I’ve been playing at single parenting this week while Jenn is out of town on business… I don’t think the PTSD is too severe, but it’s pretty much wiped out shop time. I did manage to steal some time over the weekend to get my new auxiliary bench up, and install a couple of new tools:
First up is a new patternmaker’s vise. This one is the new clone that a number of places sell. I’m hoping to acquire an old Yost version of the Emmert in the near future, which will replace this, but I got a really good deal on this one. I have to say that so far I’m very impressed with the vise. The castings certainly aren’t pretty, but functionally it’s really fantastic. It’s going to make shaping totes a much faster and easier process.
The second addition is a Grizzly compact bender, which you can see mounted behind the vise. I bought this to simplify the bends such as the one at the rear of the small miter planes. It’s a really simple contraption, but it’s a very welcome addition, and makes it MUCH easier to get precise bends without having to do much tweaking after the fact. It’s a tool I basically use for about two minutes every few weeks or so, so it lives under the bench, and mounts in under a minute.
I also made a start on the rear infill for the steel miter I’m working on. I put the recently-completed bronze miter to use tuning up the bed and shooting the end. The miter board in this picture, by the way, is Evenfall Studios’ deluxe shooter — a fantastic design, perfectly executed. It’s a much better board than I would ever have bothered to make for myself – and there’s something to be said for that.
Rough tuning the bed is done with a panel plane, which gives me a good head-start at flat along the bed’s length. I have a camber on my panel, though, so I followed it up with the miter plane to eliminate any hollow lingering from the panel.
Now I can start fitting the plane and hopefully get to the peining this weekend.
JW says
Mmmmmm.. pattern maker's vise.
This is one of the problems with fixing the Veritas. It's one less excuse to replace it with the Emmert I've had squirrled away.
Only, now that I'm focusing on chair work, I REALLY see the merits of using a pattern maker's vise.
Nice blog. 🙂
JW says
Mmmmmm.. pattern maker's vise.
This is one of the problems with fixing the Veritas. It's one less excuse to replace it with the Emmert I've had squirrled away.
Only, now that I'm focusing on chair work, I REALLY see the merits of using a pattern maker's vise.
Nice blog. 🙂
raney says
Hey James,
I didn't mention the vises on my woodworking bench. Now THOSE suckers are sweet…
The emmerts are great if you need to do a lot of 3-dimensional shaping. As a 'general' woodworking vise, though, I think there are better ones out there. For chair work, though, I think you'd be wise to find some way to set that puppy up.
raney says
Hey James,
I didn't mention the vises on my woodworking bench. Now THOSE suckers are sweet…
The emmerts are great if you need to do a lot of 3-dimensional shaping. As a 'general' woodworking vise, though, I think there are better ones out there. For chair work, though, I think you'd be wise to find some way to set that puppy up.