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How not to make a Japanese style toolbox

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awemawson:
Ross, you are welcome to run your plane irons and chisels through my Viceroy Sharpedge any time you want. Dead easy to get a good sharp and square edge on them.

Andrew

vtsteam:
Take your cupped board and lay it cup side down on the lawn in the sun for about half an hour and check it. Repeat until straight.

I don't know whether it is traditional for Japanese tool chests, but oil based paint or varnish does wonders to stabilize wood, For obvious reasons, water based paints aren't a good idea if you are having this kind of trouble.

Next time when picking out lumber for this kind of wide flat use, look for quarter sawn grain (vertical bands, end on) rather than flitch sawn (horizontal), or as close as you can get.

Fast growth hard pine will tend to warp more than better woods, also.

Pete49:
here I was thinking I have had a bad week and then I read your tales of woe and now my week doesn't seem so bad :beer:. I can see that you drive nails just like me ....do you borrow my hammer while I'm asleep? Keep at it its been an entertaining read so far.
Pete

RossJarvis:
Very little to report so far.  Motivation levels are at a low ebb, not helped by having 35quids worth of stone commit Hari-Kiri.  The edges of the cracks have crumbled too much for a glue-back-together exercise so it’s now relegated to the kitchen knife and axe department.

The other end cap for the tray was suffering from a little too enthusiastic paring so was suffering from a Positional Instability Slope Situation :doh: :Doh:;



so I inserted a bit of angled wood shim;



…threw some glue at it and bashed some pins in;



Even though all the side and end bits were supposed to be uniform in width etc, there’s a fair amount of not-quite-the –right-size-when-put-together-ness but nothing that a pass or two with a plane or flame-thrower won’t solve.  I shall return if motivation picks up, really shouldn’t take too long to finish this, should it? :scratch:

vtsteam:
That's a tough one. The point of everything is to enjoy yourself. And the only way to learn a difficult skill is to make mistakes. If you can't enjoy even those mistakes, the desire to continue can disappear.

When learning to draw as an artist, you do rapid gesture drawings of say 1 minute each on newsprint. You don't attach to them. If they come out badly, who cares, you just do another one in the next minute, then another, then another. Gradually and eventually something good comes out of it. And you find facility. And your drawing gets better until you surprise yourself -- it starts to become unconscious and innate as an ability.

But if you start out trying to draw a figure like Davinci did, buy the most expensive paper, and supplies and just go at it as the only shot you have, and it goes badly, as it will, that can stop you in your tracks, and discourage you from actually acquiring skills.

Why not try taking your shelf apart, and cutting it down into a smaller box with thinner but straight sides. You will find a use for it, but besides that, just think of it as a practice piece. It isn't important. What is important is learning.

And then after that, try again to make a shelf with some new lumber. You will have had more practice by then, and will be aware of the potential problems in planing sawing and making fits. And when finished with it you will satisfy yourself about the quality of what you do and your own abilities. And you will have a good shelf, too.

Taking care of your own enjoyment and pride in your work is much more important than any other aspect of acquiring a skill. Your mistakes are okay, just part of learning, and convertible into something else.

If you can maintain enjoyment in learning, everything else will follow.

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