Well, my first ever shooting board is complete rubbish! I had to sand down the outer wall of the guide track, so the plane would ride flat on its side. That was ok. But the big boo-boo is the block that holds the workpiece, which just doesn’t have a properly flat face on which to register.
I’ll have to make a new and better shooting-board. And I’ll need to sharpen the plane blade a lot better, as it wasn’t shaving off wood so much as hacking it off. And even then not very well. Leaving me pretty hacked off. Oh well, you live and learn.
The chest of drawers renovation continues. Pictured below are the four drawers, with various rescued bits of trim gluing up. I also fabricated a few corner pieces, using some wood taken from the wardrobe I acquired from the same Freecyclers.
I’ll need to make a new runner/guide thing for one of the drawers. Some drawer stops, and some of the profiled trim. I’m wondering if the trim profile is a common or standard one? And therefore whether I might be able to get some in a DIY store?
I cut the saw-bench timber to size today. That was really enjoyable. My tenon saw is, despite sharpening it, still rubbish. I tried using it, but it needs re-sharpening. Again. My rip saw, on the other hand, is great.
Then I tried to saw and chisel some half-laps for the legs and feet. This was awful. I made a right pig’s ear of it! My chisels clearly aren’t sharp enough. It took bloody ages, and I only did one side!
Despite the right royal hash I made of this, it’s gone together, and is now gluing up. Looks like it might even turn out tolerably okay. Hopefully the second one will go a bit more smoothly? The amount of mistakes I’m making, I should be learning a helluva lot!