Products From The Mind of Chris Wong
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This box was built from butternut using only hand tools. I started with green boards of butternut and planed them down with a jack plane, cut the half-lap joints with a chisel and skew-rabbet plane, and glued and nailed the joints. I glued and nailed on the bottom with two nails - the other two … Continue reading A Box Called “Tolerences”
Yesterday, I had a bit of a scary moment. I needed to glue something together, so I found my bottle of Hot Stuff (fast setting cyanoacrylate adhesive, commonly known as Super Glue). I took off the black cap, put the tip to the piece I was gluing, and squeezed. Nothing. I wasn't in the shop … Continue reading Faster Than Super Glue
May 11, I decided that it was time to rid my 8" jointer (Delta DJ-20) of its dull knives. I carefully removed the blades and found that they were hopelessly dull. Must have been that lignum vitae. Rather than send the knives out to be sharpened or purchase new knives, I decided to spring for … Continue reading Installing A Shelix Cutter Head
I have been working on developing a line of furniture for my company. Inspired by some Douglas Fir I found in my wood pile with green iron stains, I built this bench. If you look closely at the inside of the left leg, you can actually see evidence of the square steel spike that was … Continue reading Prototyping – Bench
Okay, I know that it's been a while since I updated you on the progress on my smoother. I've ground the blade to a shorter angle which works much better. I installed the wedge, set the blade with light taps, then secured the wedge and blade with one knock to the top of the wedge. … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part V
Passion is waking up because you're excited to start work. Passion is monitoring the industry trends and woodworking forums daily. Passion is missing the bus because you got caught up in reading a magazine. Passion is looking at trees and seeing potential in furniture form. Passion is always thinking about projects and figuring out how … Continue reading Passion Is…
Six years ago, I made my first big woodworking purchase. By big, I mean over $100 - in fact, it was my first purchase over $65 (a circular saw). This expense was a brand-new, $300 table saw, nearly as expensive as all the tools I'd purchased together to that point. Gradually, the cost of the … Continue reading Ah, Relativity
Today, I finally got back to working on my plane. I started by turning a dowel from lignum vitae. I cut out the billet (blank) from the straightest-grained stock I had available, then turned it round on the lathe. It ended up being 11/32" diameter. Then, I located a good position for the pin in … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part IV
Well, I spent another few hours in the shop yesterday on the smoother and got a lot done. I am very happy with how it is coming.I started by fitting the blade. I wanted a good fit between the blade and sidewalls - not so tight that I'd have to strike the blade to get … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part III
Today I trued up the body. I have never before been so glad to have my power jointer. I moved the fence all the way back to use the less-used blades and was rewarded with a much smoother cut. But it still required a little cleanup. I trued up the body with the table saw … Continue reading Making a Lignum Vitae Smoother (Plane), Part II
