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22 March 2017 at 3:07 pm #310388
I have a set of 3 DMT Diasharp single sided plates, 8×3″. Cost about $100 each when I got them. I was surprised at how aggressive they were when I first got them, but they’ve broken in now. I’ve been using them for years, having re-habbed several planes, and sharpened my plane blades and chisels numerous times on them. I use glass cleaner as a lapping fluid, even though the manufacturing instructions say to use only water. The reason for this is that the glass cleaner has things in it (mostly alcohol) that reduce the surface tension, making it flow better instead of beading.
My guess is that either you’ve glazed the plates, the EZE-Lap ones are crap, or you’re expecting too much from them based on how they cut initially. If you’re expecting to seriously reshape the blade with them, you’re using the wrong tool. Also if you’re breaking glass with scary sharp, you’re almost certainly using far too much downward pressure. You should be holding the blades in contact with the plates with a light touch, not jamming them into it. Press just hard enough to keep the blades in contact with the plates.
I’d suggest you break out the glass cleaner, give the plates a good clean, and try sharpening a chisel on them. If you can see the metal powder darkening your fluid, then they’re probably working, even if you don’t necessarily notice. Don’t expect to get any serious knicks out of a blade with the course plate after it’s broken in. You’ll be there all day. Once a blade is in a serviceable condition though, you should be able to bring it back to sharp with 10 quick strokes on each plate, and 30 strokes on a strop.
Hope this helps!
PS. It’s entirely possible that the EZE-LAP plates are crap, so if you don’t have any success with what I mentioned, try to return them.
PPS. If you’re trying to flatten the entire back of a plane iron, you’re probably expecting too much, and wasting time anyway. Firstly, only the first little bit of the plane iron actually needs to be dead flat. Even an inch is more than enough. Secondly, if the blade has a hollow, it’s ok to leave it in, so long as it doesn’t go to the edge of the blade. If it’s poking out, you have a lot more material to remove, but Paul mentioned a great trick at one point. Put the blade on a wooden surface, and smack the high spot as hard as you can with a soft blow hammer. After 1 or 2 decent strikes, it should be hollow, and easy to get back to flat!
25 January 2017 at 8:10 am #308682Building this workbench entirely by hand with rounded construction lumber is possible, but very tedious. One option you might consider would be to buy larger stock, like a 2×8 or larger, and saw your pieces. That way you start with atleast one edge you can straighten by hand. You could ofcourse also remove the bulk of the rounded section with a handsaw anyway, or even a chisel if you felt like it.
Another suggestion I would make is to take some time orienting your boards before glue up. Primarily, you want all the grain running in the same direction, which makes planing the top much easier, and if you can manage, have as many knots as possible on the underside.
My own workbench tops have finished out at 2.5″ thick, which might seem on the thin side, but is still incredibly sturdy. Since you have already bought your stock (it would seem), and are determined to do it all by hand, I would strongly suggest reducing the edge (rather than the face) by sawing, chiseling, or even chopping it away carefully with a hatchet. Removing the 1/8″+ of material, even with a coarsely set jack plane, is going to take you a long long time and a lot of effort.
27 April 2016 at 10:43 am #136753On closer inspection it appears the backlash in the adjustment nut is a far worse culprit than the 5 thou slop in the groove/nut joint thingy. Wish I’d figured that out a pack of brass shim material ago 🙁
Wonder if that’d work to help the collar grip? That seems to be the key to it.
27 April 2016 at 5:52 am #136750At the moment I am using a small pair of pliers to turn the thumbscrew an extra 1/8th turn. Seems to do the job. Might just be that the thumb screw is too hard to get a decent grip on to tighten up properly.
26 April 2016 at 2:25 pm #136727[quote quote=136724]Hi Mooncabbage, I guess you have to look at the obvious first. Are the V grooves clean, and does the stem of the blade fit neatly along its length. Could the stem be bent and not touching along the length of the clamp and rear stay. In the short term the easiest way to eliminate most of the slippage is to take out the slack in the adjuster before you use the router to cut, this will effectively stop the blade riding up because the adjusting nut will keep it from moving. Hope this helps
Geoff
[/quote]Yes, the V grooves are clean, the stem fits properly etc. I have been taking the slack out of the adjuster by moving the blade up as I tighten, but I suppose just winding it down would work better. It’s a bit frustrating because a) the manual that originally came with it said to push down on the bit, and b) it makes it much harder to accurately adjust it, when you have to essentially constantly wind it deeper.
I had thought about using a bit of leather in the rear V groove or something, to increase the friction, but not sure it’s going to be solid enough, and would probably be too fiddly a solution.
23 March 2016 at 12:39 pm #135873[quote quote=135870]It is very humid where I live in Queensland, so I made up a blend of wax just melting bees wax and mineral oil, I made it so its not hard, just soft enough to wipe on easily.
[/quote]I actually bought some beeswax from a healthfoods store here in Perth not that long ago. Plan was to make some DIY furniture polish, and maybe a rust inhibitor too. Haven’t got around to it yet though. I have some Digger’s Paraffin Oil, reckon that’d work? What sort of ratio did you use?
[quote quote=135871]I’m using Tupperware/Click’n’Seal plastic air-tight boxes, the type designed for sandwiches etc.
They’re transparent, stackable, indestructible, readily-available, cheap and air/water-tight.
With a reproduction Stanley/Record/Woden label placed inside, they’re quite practical.
[/quote]I actually use the Sistema Click’n’Seal ones you see at the super markets for some of my other hobby/repair stuff, but they can get quite pricey. Also I haven’t yet seen one I could fit my No7 in.
- This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mooncabbage.
- This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mooncabbage. Reason: Trying to fix quotes
16 March 2016 at 4:26 pm #135672Unfortunately those logs are quite small in diameter, so most of the wood is bark, sapwood, or pith. That said, there is nothing stopping you from splitting the logs, cutting them to shortish lengths, painting the ends with some leftover paint or mistints, and then in a year or so, you could have some nice wood for carving spoons and the like.
I wouldn’t pay to have it kiln dried though, there just isn’t enough good wood to warrant the expense.
30 October 2015 at 10:41 am #131902So, following up on this thread, I’m interested to know how your square has survived the past 6 weeks. It would seem that TBT have expanded their range since you got yours, and I am considering a purchase after today. Seems like you can also purchase the blades separately, so I am wondering, are they interchangeable? I’d quite like to have metric and imperial in a few different sizes.
Went and patronized a local small business, and they had an older Irwin try square on markdown. I thought, well surely it can’t be that bad, and picked it up. Taking it home, it’s just under 0.1 degrees out of square. I could probably correct it, but I am really tired of having to do that with tools.
Which brings me to my main question. Just how square is square enough? I mean, fairly obviously it depends on the distance you’re trying to be square across, but at what point does one accept one’s square as “near enough”? How many decimal 0s do you need before that degree sign?
PS. I forgot TBT wasn’t Australian. What did shipping work out to?
1 September 2015 at 4:35 pm #129999They do look nice, and the price is a nice middle ground between the el cheapo big box store chisels, and the $50 a piece fancy pants ones. Can you speak to the fineness of the beveled edge? That is to say, the non-cutting edges that are 90 degrees to the face, how much of that is square before it bevels away? On the el cheapo ones I have, it is far too thick, maybe 2.5-3mm, increasing to a lot more to the back. It can become a real problem when trying to get into tight spaces or pare dovetails and the like.
19 August 2015 at 2:54 pm #129505Thanks for the heads up on the Hammer combination saw thing. Wasn’t aware of it’s existence, so I’ll keep it in mind for the future. Can’t see hauling it down the narrow stairs to my 4m x 5m basement workshop though 😛
I do actually have a Carbatec bandsaw in the cellar, which does a lot of things quite well. The fence is pretty dreadful though. At the end of the day I just want tools that do a good job of dimensioning stock, so I can get on with the fun bits. I really don’t need or want a tablesaw that can handle full 4×8′ sheet goods, since I can’t fit them round the bend to my basement workspace anyway.
Anyway, I’ll take your advice under consideration 😛 (I guess I could buy a starrett square or 4 instead…)
19 August 2015 at 12:40 pm #129483I’ve looked at a lot of tablesaws, fact is I don’t have the space for a full size table saw. I have looked at a lot of reviews for it, the seem to be fairly positive. As a brand, I have been very happy with the quality of DeWalt in the past. A friend has a DeWalt thicknesser, which is very good quality, and I have a DeWalt 18V cordless drill, which I am also very happy with. I have looked into other brands of compact/portable table saws, such as Bosch and Makita, and they seem to be more or less comparable, but harder to find in Perth. Also the DeWalt warranties and return policy are very good.
All I really want is a saw to rip rough and recycled stock down to dimension. Hand sawing all your timber isn’t fun, I’d rather spend my time doing joinery than stock prep.
All that said, if you’re aware of any specific problems with the DeWalt DW745-XE, I’d love to hear about them in advance.
PS. I would normally avoid Bunnings like the plague, but they seem to have some kind of exclusivity deal with DeWalt. Can’t find DeWalt stuff anywhere else in Perth, and shipping from the eastern states seems wasteful.
19 August 2015 at 9:58 am #129480Thanks for the link. You’re not wrong, the tool situation in Australia is dire. Quality hand tools are near impossible to find, outside the Veritas brand. Was looking into compact table saws, a good quality tool like DeWalt is $299 in the US, or $799 at Bunnings here. It should be ~$399, + p/h. Twice the price is a bit extreme.
In any event, let me know how you go with that seller. I am planning on eventually getting a Starrett square myself, as you say, a lifetime tool. If on the other hand, they don’t work out, you could ship to someone in the US and have them send it on to you. There are services that do the same thing, but they can be pricey.
13 August 2015 at 12:07 pm #129336Just don’t be tempted to try to polish it up on your Diamond Stones. Aluminium doesn’t see to agree with them.
13 August 2015 at 12:00 pm #129334I too use an Empire combination square, although I have to say I have never attempted to use the 45 on it. I can’t afford a good quality square either, but I was able to bring atleast the 90 degree angle to true following a youtube video. Basically the idea is that with the soft aluminium of cheap squares, you can use the steel rule itself to shave off the high side, and slowly true the stock. If you are 100% certain that this is not the issue with your square, you could still try filing the 45 degree side to true, with a flat smoothing file. Half a degree is not a lot of stock to remove, and worst case scenario, you’ve got a square that still doesn’t have a true 45, but atleast you won’t confuse it for one that does.
PS. The best and most accurate square I own, is a 6″ Combination Square I bought from the local Target or K-mart, for AU$6. Don’t waste a lot of money on a tool you have to fettle yourself.
19 May 2015 at 11:34 am #127243Oh good, some people aren’t quite as generous, and tone gets lost on the internet. What I meant was, having some layers to your background piece, or else some relief carving or similar, just to make it look less flat. If that makes more sense than what I’ve tried to describe before.
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