Dan’s Hobbies

Some of you might remember that back in April I picked up a well used Stanley type 13 #3, that was in need of some TLC. Tonight I finished refurbishing the plane.  To get the plane back into working condition, I performed the following tasks:

1. general cleaning
2. de-rusted the sole
3. lapped the sole
4. fixed the broken tote
5. refinished the sole with an industrial grade enamel
6. lapped the frog

The following photos are of the  plane after a few test cuts.

Last night I finally finished one of the two utility benches, I’m about 80% done with the second one. To finish the top I used BLO (boiled linseed oil), spar urethane, & Johnson’s paste wax. A lot of traditionalist woodworkers will scoff about applying a film finish to a workbench, but this bench is going to be exposed to a lot more than glue dribbles.

To see some additional shots from this project check out the following posts:

1. The design concept
2. Welding the frame together
3. Welding together the leveling feet mounts
4. Rough cutting the lumber for the top
5. Gluing-up a top

I was on vacation last week so I built myself a collapsible spray booth.  The walls are made up of 8: 45″ by 90″ panels.   The corners are formed by joining 2 panels with door hinges; thus allowing the booth to be collapsible for storage.  The 4 corner units are bolted together using 2 parallel boards: 1 along the top of the wall, and 1 along the bottom.  The top of the booth is a single sheet of plastic film held in place by the top parallel boards.
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The following photo is a close up of the arbor on my 10″ Delta Contractors saw (model TS350).  I purchased this saw new in 2004 at Lowe’s, and until today it’s done everything I’ve asked of it.

Give up?  It’s not a consistent diameter, the threaded section is 0.610″, the non threaded section is 0.557″, & the standard mounting surface is 0.6245″ (what it should be). So what does that mean? Well that nice Freud dial a dado set I just purchased is essentially useless on this saw.

I’m a power tool guy at heart, however I have come to the realization that some tasks are easier with hand tools. For example,  face/edge jointing large cumbersome boards. With that in mind, I’ve been learning about hand planes & their uses. Earlier this week I came across this plane on eBay, it’s a Stanely type 13(1925-1928) #3 smooth plane. Since it looked to be in good shape,  I placed my bid and waited.  Since it’s a fairly common plane, & not in pristine condition I picked it up for $21.50. The following pictures show what it looked like when it arrived on my door step. All I need to do now is clean it up.