After KE and my swim meet in March, I decided to give Alameda another go in May. Weather was set to be beautiful the whole weekend and it didn’t disappoint. My schedule worked out such that I could get up north Friday and I was able to hit the local sales in the foothills of […]
Tag Archives: Stanley
Building the Paul Sellers Workbench – Progress (Several Days combined)
I ended my post on Day 5 noting that I’d started one of the aprons. Before I pick up on that, let me cover some early conclusions about my material choice. The simple statement is: ‘whitewood’ from the borg is a poor choice to use in the construction of this bench. In addition to being […]
Building the Paul Sellers Workbench – Update/Day 5
Since the plan of scrubbing after glue-up went well on the first (front) slab, I began the process on the second slab. The stock was slightly more challenging to get jointed than that for the front slab. The glue-up for this slab went poorly. I started out fine using James Thompson’s recommendation of dampening the […]
Building the Paul Sellers Workbench – Day 3 & 4
Progress has been slower that desired, but on par with expected. After glue-up on Day 2 it rained intermittently, permitting no work other than removing the clamps after 24 hours. I was pleasantly surprised that no tell-tale sounds of creaking glue joints occurred. Turning the scallops into a slab As was mentioned in my first […]
Building the Paul Sellers Workbench – Day 2
As the rain had stopped me before gluing up on Day 1, my goal was to get a lamination finished. Since my stock was still uneven, I went through each board with a straight-edge and jointed them with a No. 5. I hadn’t been very careful when I first smoothed the faces of the boards, […]
Building the Paul Sellers Workbench – Day 1
It is about time I built myself a proper bench; the MDF topped table with no vises is rather limiting. I realized this after falling into the folly myself: building a workbench is one of the largest ‘mind-sinks’ of a starting galoot’s journey. Detailed research into materials, vises, styles, arrangement and types of joinery; on […]
Servicing a No. 921 Brace Ratchet
One of my recent flea market finds, a Stanley No. 921 10in-Y brace, needed some fettling. The ratchet checked out fine before I bought it. So did the jaws, I love the expression on people’s faces when you take two whole minutes to unscrew the chuck, check the jaws and put it back. When I […]