Plane till

Finished my plane till

Antique workbench

I on occasion visit antique stores and such looking for hand tools. Since building my workbench I have an interest in old workbenches and how they were built. I found this bench on a recent outing.

looked like it was solid oak and had a slant leg vise.

Had a nice tail vise as well with those little metal caps that spin up and grab the work which you can see in the picture.

guilty minor distractions

As the title to my blog suggests I am a serial hobbyist. This means from time to time I get distracted by my various hobbies. I sometimes feel a great deal of guilt from this, however I am finally grasping that like I state all the time its a hobby not a job. I should feel no guilt from treasuring my other hobbies.

I joined a woodturning club at the beginning of the year and really like it. Since getting a lathe I have become addicted to finding projects for it. Lathes are fun tools, you can finish really quickly, find fun creative projects, and mostly get wood for free just go around looking for people that have cut down trees. I started turning pens as well at the beginning of the year which I find entertaining. I am always seeing ideas for turned objects and scraps I would like to find a purpose for.

Recently someone contacted me about buying one of the airplane kits I have stashed. At first I was seriously tempted to sell it. Means I could have some more money for hock irons or other such thing I have desires to purchase. Well that ended when he stated he wanted to see pictures of the kit. I opened the box and a waft of balsa "energy" came over me. I felt a sadness at the idea of not building it. I got the kit in trade for building an airplane a few years ago. Its a plane called a Hammer 40 a sport pattern plane from the 1990s before the company's factory and warehouse burned down putting the company out of business. It is such a rare kit and has just sat in my garage for all this time. It sparked my interest in airplanes again and now I am eager to start building another airplane. This fall I can build it and re-up my AMA coverage and join another club somewhere again, we will see.

I had purchased an electric helicopter but got about 75 percent done with it before getting distracted. Was hoping to get back to readying it for flight but that might be on hold again since a friend of mine game me his old electric helicopter. It had been sitting around not getting flown and he decided to part with it.

I want to do a review on the blog when I get a chance. Everyone that knows me believes me to be a Linux fanatic. So when I went looking for a laptop I was determined to find again a company preloading them with ubuntu. I like this for two reasons, I feel I am supporting the distro and I am not buying a license I plan on tossing out the minute I get the computer. Two companies out there right now that sell preloaded systems are System76 and Zareason. I chose Zareason because they had what I was looking for in hardware and in price. I went through a lot recently trying to see if I could get one from Dell which turned out to be a bust since they no longer really sell many systems with Ubuntu or Linux period. It causes a lot of headaches to order one now with the operating system you want instead of the one that has a strangle hold on the market. I will say I did end up with a great laptop for a fair price.

Alot to say in one post! I find myself in a woodworking quandary when I do love to build stuff but often get distracted. I'm still working to get rid of the guilt but that comes so natural. I need to let that go or else I wont enjoy everything else I like in my life.

installed the chop and dropped the top on the base.

chop for the vise

here is the base finally on

going to move on to a couple of projects for the time being then come back to do the face vise.

I added the Tail Vise

today I mounted the tail vise. Its an antique Columbia I got for Christmas. Started one mortise and realized I need to replan how I will cut the mortises.

Dell Computer Rant

Being a Linux user I was delighted to find that Dell started shipping laptops and PCs preloaded with Ubuntu. This has been a dream of mine for years. Lately I have been in the need of a new laptop for the wife. I dug around on their site for hours without an easy way to get to the Ubuntu preloaded systems. Before they had a link to the Ubuntu PC's and thats was it. Now it seems more mysterious to buy one. Why is it that they offer preloaded Ubuntu with no way to actually buy them? Then when you do get to a point where you see you are looking at an Ubuntu based system you don't have the option to upgrade any of the parts. The base Vostro 1015 comes with a Celeron which is a FINE processor so I will tell you its out of CPU greed that I wish to upgrade the CPU. I also would want more ram than the 1GB they offer. It is severely frustrating that a company offers preloaded Ubuntu systems with no real way to purchase them or upgrade them. I might even have to do the most unthinkable buy a windows laptop and upgrade the OS to my choice. Yes I did say upgrade for you windows fan boys because that is what it would be!

:edit
After some frustration I decided to try their chat with Dell system to ask if they still sell Ubuntu couldn’t get a straight answer though the Associate was very nice, I didn’t include his name or email address just the overall conversation. I got a little preachy at the end apologies there. It seems like to me that they have a Ubuntu site but no longer sell any systems with Ubuntu. They may sell servers with it, but as far as I could see no more consumer level pcs. Link he tried to send me too http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19

Here is the conversation aside from the names I didn't change the conversation even the broken link is there which i fixed above. maybe I am being unreasonable or maybe the linked page is broken I couldn't tell.

15:53:54 System
You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
15:53:54 System
Connected with Dell Sales Associate
15:53:54 Dell Sales Associate
Welcome to Dell US SALES Chat! My name is Dell Sales Associate and I will be your Dell.COM Sales Chat Expert.
I can be reached at ______________ or via phone at 1-800-289-3355 BUY-DELL ext. ________. How can I help you today?
15:54:05 Dell Sales Associate
Hi Joseph :)
15:54:13 Dell Sales Associate
How are you doing today ?
15:54:41 Me
I am fine just had one question, what happened to the Inspiron 15 laptops with preloaded Ubuntu?
15:55:15 Dell Sales Associate
Glad you chatted in today, I'd be happy to help you
15:55:45 Dell Sales Associate
All our system comes with windows 7 now
15:56:00 Dell Sales Associate
we have systems we ubuntu now
15:56:37 Dell Sales Associate
we up graded it to windows 7
15:56:38 Me
where are they, its apparent that its some secret that dell carries ubuntu
15:56:53 Me
thats not an upgrade in my opinion
15:57:24 Me
i dont want to buy a windows system just to wipe and install ubuntu is my basic issue
15:57:34 Dell Sales Associate
i mean we changed it to windows
15:58:07 Me
So basically dell dropped Ubuntu as a CHOICE?
15:58:15 Dell Sales Associate
i understand your concern
15:59:00 Dell Sales Associate
yes we no more sell the system with Ubuntu as operating system
15:59:42 Me
even though your company publicly says they do and works with Ubuntu to do so?
16:00:25 Me
i guess there is nothing more you can do for me then thanks and have a good day I will be forced to look elsewhere
16:04:05 Dell Sales Associate
we don't have inspiron 15 in ubuntu
16:04:25 Me
do you sell any consumer line models in ubuntu?
16:04:30 Dell Sales Associate
however if you want the system with ubuntu please check this link
16:04:40 Dell Sales Associate
Dell Sales Associate pushes page, http://_http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
16:05:30 Me
ive been to that link and nothing loads on it but a batter once you click the shop link
16:05:36 Me
banner
16:05:56 Me
nothing there but the banner
16:06:45 Dell Sales Associate
i apologies but the that was the only way for the system s with Ubuntu
16:07:14 Me
does that mean currently there are no systems with ubuntu or just an error with the page
16:08:15 Dell Sales Associate
the link is working there might be an error on website
16:10:21 Dell Sales Associate
sorry for not being able to help you
16:11:00 Me
not your fault too bad dell isnt more upfront about dropping ubuntu as a choice mostly that I have to go to another company
16:11:14 Me
good day sir hope it is pleasent

Base is assembled

I assembled the base. I had created the legs and left and right stretchers a few weeks ago. I had made the front and rear stretchers only to get interrupted for a little bit. I sometimes have to slip little bits of work in when I can.

This is the assembled base.


I saw someone had created some dog holes in the leg opposite where the leg vise will be eventually. I decided to do this as well. This is a good idea for two reasons. It gives you a place to store the holdfasts and acts similar to a sliding deadman for longer boards.


Next bit of work will involve working on the top for the end vise and mortising for the base. Leg vise is something I plan on but will come later after I make another interruption to work on a project for the wife.

New addition to my family

My daughter Adelle June
Born March 1st 2011

7 lbs 1 oz
19 inches long

From Mar 1, 2011

Bench Update

When I started my bench I had no place to work. I made the leap and got the top done but didnt have a base for it yet. Well I am finding this has been the best thing that would happen to me. The top is heavy enough in which I can work on it to make the joinery for the base. I sat the bench on saw horses a while back but never did much with it. After drilling the dogholes another world opened up and I was able to use the grammercy holdfasts I bought from TFWW to hold down pieces of my base. I would recommend anyone who builds a bench use the top to build the base.

Here is one of the joints they arent pretty but strong.


Here is the assemble getting the stretchers that go in the front and back.


Not much longer work wise will I have left before I finish this bench.

Workbench Continues

Did more work on the bench this weekend along with stuff I had going on. Drilled the Dog holes in the top and used my hold fasts for the first time. I bought the grammercy Hold fasts back in late December.



these hold fasts are great and were not a lot of money.

turning pens pt1

a fairly simple process but turning pens starts with your choice of wood. For this pen I chose maple. I have plenty of these blocks of scrap maple.


You then cut the maple into square blanks. these are actually a bit larger than they need to be. usually you will make blanks of 3/4 inches by 3/4 inches these are 1 inch square. they are also about 6 inches long


you then cut the blanks to fit the brass tube to be fitted later


next step is to mark the center and drill out for the brass tube to be inserted.




then I used a forsner bit to flush the wood to where the tube is inside the blank. I have also used a sanding wheel to flush them as well. they make a tool that flushes them up and cleans the inside of the tube but for now that is not what I am doing.

I then mounted the blanks on my lathe with the pen mandrel mounted.


then with a roughing gouge I turned them round.


these are as they looked before sanding bringing them down to the bushings in which match the level of the hardware you install the blanks on.


I am thinking I will make this part one since I dont have pictures of where I finished the pen.

Finished another project

A project that has been in the making for about 6 years or so. I told my wife I will build you a jewelry cabinet. It got to be a joke around the family since it had not even been started until about last year. I toiled over the design several times and even restarted it last year after i started it. Once I finally settled on a design that I found pleasing I started building again. I tried to give it a Krenov feel though not sure how successful I was at that. I started off using oak for the majority of the cabinet. Then made up a cedar drawer to fit in the place where I decided it would go. I had some maple I found in my pile to use for the doors. I went back to Oak for the legs and base that would be screwed to the bottom. I finally made a tapered leg project on this one. I got a lathe in the last year just so I could turn spindles or shaker style knobs. The lathe I got to use by turning a couple of shaker style knobs for pulls on this cabinet as well. This has two sets of hook racks for handing necklaces or earrings. I used an oil and wax finish which is by far one of my favorite finishes. Oil and wax yields great results and is a perfect low VOC finish for small shops like mine. It starts with BLO ( boiled linseed oil ) applying till it is no longer needed. Then sand down with 0000 steel wool and rub on wax let film and buff out.

Progress Update

been working on this one a while. its my wifes jewelry cabinet. I made the base this last weekend has hand cut tenons but I used the router table to cut the mortises. still has a bit of work to go.

My first pen turning