The Shop > Wood & Stuff
How not to make a Japanese style toolbox
RossJarvis:
--- Quote from: awemawson on October 03, 2013, 04:57:57 PM --- :ddb: Cloven hooves :ddb:
Must be the sulphur smelling monster himself :lol:
--- End quote ---
Awemawson
You don't know how useful a forked tail is, till you try making toast in front of a roaring log fire :thumbup:
RossJarvis:
Right then ladies an Gennelmen, I have a wee confession to make, I started this box a week ago, so there is some delay, between the actions and the reportage, I am not finished yet so the reports will probably catch up soon.
The next bit is to make the ends. These are recessed for some handles. Now the width is, erm, let me think, the width of the board minus two thicknesses, that’s about……I know, measure the thickness of two boards, lay one across the bit I’m going to cut, take off the two thicknesses and hit it with the saw;
B****r, I knew I was being overly chuffed, this means a lot of shaving with the block plane, to get to the line;
and…….b****r, test fitting showed I was too wide and the sides were about 5mm wider than the base with the ends in place;
……so I took 5mm off the ends with the saw (actually followed the line this time) and then the whole lot was about 3mm too narrow?????????????;
After a cup of thinking tea, I realised that one of the boards was a couple of mm thinner than the other two and I swapped them around too often!! Should have marked each side and the bottom with big letters or summat. Anyway, I thought it was either time to go in or carry on and glue and pin it up. Typically, I made the wrong decision and carried on when it was obvious my thinking brain had decided to go inside without me. I next put some temporary blocks inside the sides to stick the ends up to when putting it together (the end pieces will go up to the inner side of these, as there’s a recess for handles at each end);
It put some effort and more thinking tea to come up with how to do this, with no work table and only two 12” handy clamps. Bearing in mind my thinking brain was in-doors watching the telly, this proved to not be the best decision I’ve ever made, but that’s for tomorrow……..
SwarfnStuff:
Great Post so far. I wait in eager anticipation for the continuation. Thanks for posting.
:thumbup:
John B
PekkaNF:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on October 03, 2013, 09:28:31 PM ---Yes, doing a very good job! :thumbup: :clap:
Krenov, Pekka, that brings me back. I had a boat shop in the 70's and read Krenov then. Made wood planes out of Osage orange, sharpened Japanese saws with feather file and set them with that tiny hammer, bought a hand operated grinding wheel and made his wooden guide for sharpening tools, and resawed previously impossible widths with a 1/2" bandsaw blade. He was really something. An inspiration.
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On my honeymoon (or something....) once - we wandered into a bookstore that had extensive woodworking section and there I sat on floor reading books and putting them into ever growing pile...there is only so much you can pack into a suitcase and bring home. Mind you, we were going trough Texas and most of the Mexico on public trasportation and flying back home. I bought probably 7 books and one of them was The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking....sounds familiar?
Incidently, you are not a well bearded guy who wrote a book about boatbuilding. Keeping waterstone in frigid water?
Pekka
RossJarvis:
As mentioned I am trying to catch up on a weeks work so you may be lucky enough :doh: to have more than one episode a day!
So, onto the blunders of the day. As mentioned. The thinking brain was indoors watching Top Gear on Dave (for the 15 millionth time), whilst the body was outside. Looking at the box, I thought it was looking a bit tall for it’s width and was also thinking about having a tray that fitted inside for bits n bobs n stuff. “I know”, says I “build it, cut the top off, fiddle a bit to make the top smaller and you’ve got four sides of a tray to fit inside.” So I bunged my tallest tool inside;
…and worked out that I’d need six inches clearance for the bottom. I could then work out how big the top was, divide it in two, do a little fiddling for clearance etc and know how much to cut off. Pure genius!
However, I then started sticking it together, somehow I now convinced myself that I was going to cut the top off six inches from the base!!!! So sellotaped the sides of the end bits 6” up so they wouldn’t stick to the side bits?!?;
squirted some glue on the end wotsits, cack handedly assembled these on the base-board and clamped the ends together and pinned the top and bottoms of the end wotsits from the outside;
This lot seemed square and level in the up and downward dimension as it was all flush and tightish to the board, so I flipped it over and pinned the bottom on, ensuring that the ends of the side-boards(!?!) were flush at one end of the base and one side at least, was flush with the edge of the base.
Now, as I’ve mentioned more than once, the thinking brain was inside, now having a snooze on the sofa. I had a couple of options on joining the whole lot together, screws or nails. The old traditional Japanese way is with nails and to my mind it’s a bit easier than screwing (fnaar fnaar). So I bashed a couple of nails in free-hand;
T**s, B****r and other expletives, so I got out Mr Makita “He very tough, He very Strong” and drilled some pilot holes in for the rest. Bash, Bash, Bish, Ouch, the base was on the sides and ends, all I had to do was bash the sides onto the end wotsits. So I flipped it on its side, Bash, Bish, Bosh and job done. However, had I checked that the end wotsits were supported when Bashing? Course not, so they’d slipped down a bit and then got bashed into position in the wrong position;
…still I suppose it’ll help for drainage or air circulation or Summat. I marked the centre(ish)lines of the boards for nailing, but left final positioning up to my own aesthetic principles;
I believe the non-even spacing is based on the Golden Section and therefore much more philosophically correct than using a rule.!!
I also realised that the edges of the end wotsits weren’t square to the faces, leaving more room for expansion (and too much for adhesion);
Anyway, it surely can’t get any worse can it?
Hmmmm! Have you ever had one of those days when you’ve thought “I don’t think I should have done that!” or “I really don’t think I should have gone out to the workshop today, cos my thinking brain is still asleep” or “WHY OH WHY OH WHY DID I GET OUT OF BED!!!”
Today has been one of those days. I should have learnt the last time I tried to cut the lid off a box, or I should have got the table saw out, or I should have decided the box looked fine as it was. Currently I don’t think I should have thought “I know, I’ll cut the top off that box, with a Japanese saw that I’ve not got used to yet”.
It almost started well. I marked a line 6” up from the base on each side, then remembered that that’s the height of my plane. So I measured from there to the top, divided that in two, thought a bit then guessed that 2 ½” down from the top would be okay, rubbed the first line out and marked the new line. Next I started ripping along the lines at each corner, till I started cutting into the recessed ends and marked a line across from the kerfs. So far so good. I was noticing that there was a lot of juddering going on, which I hadn’t had when testing the rip side of the blades out. I then tried ripping across the ends;
At this point, I was finding it a bit tricky as the saw was juddering quite a bit and it was difficult getting the angle right, plus I wasn’t following the line as well as usual. I was thinking it might be because I wasn’t standing above the work. Anyway, I cut across both ends;
..not brilliant but not too far out. Next to rip down the sides. For this the work was lower and I could put a foot on it, however;
Hmmmm, not quite on the line here, and I don’t think the blade should be over at that angle. I carried on from the other end and joined the two cuts up. Then I started on the other side and “OH WHAT THE B****Y H***S GOING ON HERE!!!” I was getting frustrated with the saw juddering, then it was leaning more and more to the right and then I lost the line and will to live;
Here’s the top bit wot I cut off;
…and here’s the bottom bit wot I’ve got left;
and here’s where the b****y saw bit me;
All I can say is ****, ****, ****ity, ****, ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve now got a box with a top edge all on the p**s (at an angle) in every b****y angle known to man and probably some unknown ones, plus some bits for a tray which is completely on the p**s in the opposite manner.
****, ****, ****ity, ****, ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How the b****y h**l am I gonna sort this out? The options seem to be; a, lots of planing, once I’ve marked a new line to go to, by hand; b, Getting out the planer and making a racket and shavings everywhere; c, unboxing the table saw and using that.
****, ****, ****ity, ****, ****!!!!!!!!
Todays main lesson learnt appears to be that using Japanese saws requires some practice and finding the correct technique and way of holding them.
B****r, I’m going outside, I may be some time!
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