Making a Potting Bench

This is a project I've thought about for a long time.  We don't do a whole lot of gardening here at the humble abode, but when we do get a new plant it would be nice not to have to re-pot it on the ground or at the kitchen sink.

The completed project

It started with an internet search for some ideas and then later a Sketchup drawing.

Sketchup drawing

I did end up changing a couple things from the drawing, most notably I didn't use the shelf supports that are shown with the upper two shelves.

This project is far from "fine woodworking".  The lumber is just common pine 1x4s, with 1x6s for the upper shelves.  None of the boards was straight and there were lots of knots, but I wasn't looking for anything more.

18  1x4s, each 8' long

The construction was fairly simple.  The 36" front legs and 64" rear legs are each made of two lengths of 1x4, glued together at right angles.  I planed the edge on one piece, but did not bother planing the face of the mating piece.  The two main platforms, one at 8" off the ground, the other at 36", were basically boxes glued and pocket-hole screwed together.  Each was 20" x 47 1/2".  I added slats that were supported by a piece that was glued and screwed to the inside of the long sides of these boxes.

The two "boxes" roughed out and screwed together

I got to pull out the miter box to cut the 24 slats.
There's a board clamped upright in the end vise acting as a stop for repeat cuts.

Here, I'm checking the fit of slats in one of the boxes

I got to use a variety of hand tools for screw holes and screws

Attaching a slat to the support piece

The gap between slats was 3/8".  Twelve fit into each box, with the first and last slat made less wide to fit the space and leave a 1/4" gap at the end.

To support the boxes on the legs, I glued and screwed small blocks to the inside of the legs.  The boxes rest on those blocks and are later screwed to the legs.

Starting to come together.  Here it is dry-clamped.

I fit the two upper shelves similarly with blocks glued and screwed to the inside of the back legs.  I cut those shelves for a good fit between the legs and they are also pocket-hole screwed to the legs.

View from underneath an upper shelf.  You can see the support
block and also the pocket screws from shelf to leg if you look closely.

The back edges of the upper shelves were planed straight so that I could glue on a strip to keep things from falling off the back of the shelf.  Those pieces were glued to the back edge of the shelf and also pocket-hole screwed to the legs.

Back view showing the strips glued to the upper shelves
and pocket-hole screwed to the legs

I thought I would glue and screw the main boxes to the legs, but after just screwing them together without glue and feeling how solid it was, I decided the glue was unnecessary.  This will allow me to disassemble it later if the need ever arises.

For the moment, I'm thinking there will be no finish applied.  It will reside under a balcony and will rarely, if ever, get wet.  I might change that decision later.  Maybe BLO or a poly on the main work surface to make it easier to clean off the dirt and cuttings.  Oh yeah, I might still add a shelf just below the right side of the main work surface.  The shelf would hold a plastic bin to catch dirt that falls between slats.

That's it.  A rough project, but I like the way it looks.  And it should make it better for us to do some gardening work.

PAST Tool Meet with Guest Speaker James Wright

My local tool collectors group, PAST, got together on April 18th.  As always, it was great fun talking to the folks and checking out the tools.  I wasn't planning to purchase anything this time (though I did bring extra cash just in case ...).  But I saw these two auger bits that were in pristine - I mean, absolutely shiny and sharp - condition for $3 each.  And when I talked to the seller about them, he said "I'll give you both for $3".  Mind you, I don't really need more auger bits.  But I have a partial set that goes from 1/4" to 5/8" and these two were 11/16" and 3/4" - perfect!  I flipped him a 10-spot and said keep the change.

In the original cardboard tubes

The labels on the tubes read:

ONE

ACRABORE

ELECTRICIANS' BIT

SIZE 11/16 (other one says 12/16)

TAYLOR-GJEDE CO., INC

WEBSTER, MASS., U.S.A.

I have another bit that is from the same company, but I always thought it said Taylor-Guede (stamped on a worn shank).  It's good to get it right, but I wonder how I'm supposed to pronounce Gjede.

These bits are the type with a single cutting spur.  I generally prefer bits with two spurs, but these spurs are plenty long to score the entire perimeter of the hole before the cutting lips engage.  I didn't have to touch them up at all - they're nice and sharp and the hole they cut has an incredibly smooth wall.

Here's the two bits next to the holes they just bored

The tool show had a guest speaker this time - James Wright of the "Wood By Wright" YouTube channel.  James flew out here on his own dime to speak about scrapers.  He brought along a bunch of different types of scrapers - card scrapers, cabinet scrapers, scraper planes, paint scrapers, etc.  And he gave a nice presentation, answering lots of questions from our members.

James with a table full of different scrapers

James is involved with the Midwest Tool Collectors Association (MWTCA) - I think he has something to do with their membership, but he certainly is doing a lot for outreach.  We can't thank him enough for coming out to our meeting.

In alignment with James' presentation and as part of our tool show, one of our members displayed his extensive collection of scrapers.  This was unbelievable!  I'm really trying not to be a collector, but I can see I'd never match up to some of our members.  I usually only ever see the stuff they bring to the tool meets to try to sell.  I'm realizing now that some of these guys (and gals) have much more extensive collections than I ever realized.

Here is the display of his scrapers.  It's four pictures!  One picture would not have been sufficient.

Scraper planes and shaves of many types - some with patent info

Spokeshave-type scrapers

More spokeshave-type scrapers

Paint and/or floor scrapers

These scrapers ran the gamut from user-made to manufactured, but all were interesting.  What a collection!

For me, going to these (roughly quarterly) tool shows is a highlight of my year.  Our membership is aging, so I hope we can recruit and keep some younger people.  There were several new people this time, so that's a great sign.

Another Tea Box

Lately I've been working on some old tools that I've found at garage or estate sales.  I found myself in need of building something - anything!  So I though I'd make another tea box, similar to one I made a couple years ago.

This one is made from red alder, which can be a really beautiful wood.  Some boards that I've seen have white streaks, and I'm not a fan of that, but the wood for this project was very nice.  The back and left side even have some figure to them.

The sides have a 3/16" deep rabbet that will hide grooves at top and bottom

First corner dovetailed and fitted

All four corners dovetailed

After leveling the top and bottom rims, 3/16" x 3/16" grooves are run

The top and bottom are identical.  All four edges get a 3/8" deep x 3/16" wide groove.  I was unable to do the end grain edges with the plough plane, so I used a saw and chisels.  Something was not quite right with the plough.  I suspect the iron and wedge were not properly fitted - the iron was not forced against the steel skate and that resulted in poor performance.  I need to look into this some more later.  After the grooves were cut, the inside face was cut down about 3/16" on all edges.

Fitting the bottom into the grooves in the main box

The short divider is housed in 1/8" deep dadoes.
The long divider is half-lapped with the short one and its length
is fitted to the assembled box interior length.

I didn't show it, but the box sides are curved using an approximate 10 3/4" radius.  This makes the top and bottom edges of each piece about 3/16" to 1/4" thinner than the middle.

Here's a test fit without the lid

I pre-finished the inside surfaces of the box with 4-5 coats of
shellac followed by 0000 steel wool buffing and then wax

The box is glued up without the long divider installed

After the glue dried and the joints cleaned up,
the lid is cut from the bottom

I used old plastic cards as spacers to fill the kerfs when clamping in the vise

Then clean up the saw cuts on bottom and top, and correct any twist

Adding hinges

I mortised in a small piece of wood for a handle

Outside was finished like the inside: 4-5 coats of shellac, then wax

The completed box

I added green felt to the bottom

The box is intended to hold tea bag packets - four compartments for four types of tea.  This one took a while - I went kind of slow on it.  But it felt good to make something again.

A Fray Brace with Different Style Chuck

When I found this brace a few weeks ago, I grabbed it because I didn't have a 6" brace.  And because it's a Fray.

John S. Fray 6" brace

John S. Fray was in business from the late1850's to 1909 or 1920 (accounts differ), when they were bought by Stanley.  But Stanley continued to use Fray-marked components after the purchase, so it's not clear when this brace was made.  There's some evidence below that it's post-1932.  I'm sure there are some people out there that could nail it down, but I'm not one of them.

THE JOHN S. FRAY CO.

BRIDGEPORT, CONN U.S.A.

The only other marking is this "7" on the ratcheting area, but it's a 6" swing!

I'm not certain, but the handles might be rosewood - I saw examples on the web that had rosewood and some with walnut.  Either way, they're in great shape and I did nothing to clean them up.

The part of this brace that I want to point out is the chuck, or bit-holder.

Jaws opened

Jaws closed

I found a website by George Langford that had a list of patents related to Fray braces.  One of them, applied for in 1928 and granted in 1930 or 1932, shows a bit holder very similar, if not exactly like this one.  That's several years after Stanley had bought Fray.  Apparently it took a long time to use up the Fray parts that they had purchased.

The chuck jaws were like none other I'd seen before.  It is a two-jaw chuck and after wrestling with them for a while, I got them removed from the housing.

Pointing to what I think is an oil port.
Loosening the screw to the right allows the jaws to come free.

The jaws removed and cleaned up

Looking down into the chuck where the jaws go.
The bright spot is part of a threaded section on the inside wall of the knurled outer shaft.

In the picture of the jaws above, you can see a threaded section on the jaws, just next to the leaf springs on the right end.  These engage with inside threads deep inside the chuck.  When the knurled section of the chuck is turned, the chuck pulls the jaws inside and they clamp on the shank of an auger bit and grab it tight.  That little screw on the knurled part of the chuck's housing somehow keeps the jaws in place.  I can't quite see what's going on in there, but the screw does it's job.

Here's another picture looking down inside the chuck while the jaws are in place.  Down in the bottom, there is a recess shaped to accommodate the square tapered shank of an auger bit.

Tough to get a good picture of the recess where an auger bit sits

After a bit is set in that recess, the knurled shaft is turned and the jaws grip tightly on the auger bit.  And I mean it REALLY grabs tight!

Here's a bit tightened in the jaws

If it helps to understand the mechanism, here is a picture from the original patent (thanks to DATAMP and Google Patents).

I hope this pic comes out OK.  It downloaded as a
PNG file rather than JPG

Here's a link to the Patent picture, if the above doesn't show up well in the blog.

The tough thing about this brace is that I can't remove the chuck to clean the innards.  I cleaned what I could with dental tools and small brushes (and I pulled out a lot of crap), then oiled it generously.  It worked as found, but it works more smoothly now.

To clean up the brace, I wire-brushed most of the metal parts fairly lightly just to clean off the grunge.  And I left the wood parts alone - they were already in pretty good shape.

And there she is

It's always nice to see different mechanisms like this.  I don't necessarily get all there is to understand about it.  For example, what are the leaf springs on the ends of the jaws for?  And why is that little screw in the knurled section needed?  Well, it's good to learn about these things anyway.

Some More Tool Finds

My name is Matt and I've got a problem.  I just can't seem to help myself.  About 4-5 weeks ago I visited a couple of estate / garage sales and found a few cool things.  I just can't stand the thought of these things going to the dump if nobody takes them.  Or the thought of someone else finding these things and not knowing what they are and mistreating them.  Well, I guess the first step to recovery is admitting I have a problem.  I'd rather think of it as charity for the old tools.

First, at one garage sale I found a nice partial set of auger bits.  These were #4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 bits.  A shame the set didn't go all the way up to 16, but beggars can't be choosers.  I can't recall, but I probably paid no more than $10 for them all.  They cleaned up easily with wire wheels in a drill.  And they were easily sharpened, too.  Full length cutting spurs.

The Irwin bits in size order

Logo upper: IRWIN

Logo lower: U S OF A

I don't know when these Irwin bits were made, but I suspect the '60's or '70's.  I didn't realize it when I picked these up, but the Greenlee bit in the yellow package was toast.  Someone had filed down the cutting spurs, rendering the bit useless.  What a shame.

The file is pointing to a ruined spur

Then a week or two later, I found this group of tools at another sale.  This group cost a measly $20.  And I got to the sale late!  Who knows what I might have found if I had gone early!

Spring clamps, more auger bits, a 6" brace, saw set and "parts" plane

This group of auger bits had an 8/16" size, so after cleaning it up, I added it to the earlier set to fill in that missing size.  The bits' sizes and logos were as follows (a slash indicates a divider between lines in the logo; a ~~~ symbol means unintelligible markings).

• 1 1/2" (#24)          TEMPER  /  TESTED
• 1" (#16)                U.S.A. HSB & CO.  CHICAGO     (Hibbert, Spencer and Bartlett)
• 1" (#16)                THE IRWIN BIT  /  MADE IN U.S.A.  /  MAINBOR
• 5/8" (#10)             Jennings  /  Pattern
• 1/2" (#8)               ~~~ Bit  /  ~~~ S. Pat. Off.
• 3/8" (#6)               ROCKFORK ILLINOIS GREENLEE  /  MADE IN U ~~~
• 3/8" (#6)               IRWIN  /  U S OF A

I gave this group of bits a bath in rust remover and then wire wheeled them with a drill.  They look really great now.  One of the 1" bits went into another set I've got that was missing that size.

Lookin' good!

The is a 6" sweep brace made by John S. Fray.  I didn't have a 6" brace, so this was a nice pickup.  There were some interesting things about this brace, so I think I'll write about it separately.

6" sweep brace

THE JOHN S. FRAY CO.
(other side says BRIDGEPORT, CONN U.S.A.)

The plane is what's left of a type 9 (1902-1907) Stanley #3.  I wish I could have found the missing parts, but even if I had, the frog had been broken (or cut) above the depth adjusting yoke, and a piece of brass had been riveted to the inside of the left cheek.  I wish I knew what the prior owner was trying to do with this - maybe making some sort of nicker, judging by a corner of it placed at the plane's mouth.

Stanley #3 with frog broken or cut

This brass was "riveted" to the cheek using a peened nail

I got the plane to use for parts.  For a couple of bucks, how could I go wrong.  But I would really have loved a useable type 9 #3.

Last on the list was this saw set.  The only marking on it was J. M. KELLAR and I'm thinking that was an owner rather than a maker - I found nothing about Kellar with a quick internet search.

The saw set

The only marking

Front end with anvil dial settings

It looks like a fully functioning saw set, but I've yet to try it out.  The first pic of the set shows the lower screw that "squeezes" a saw plate to the anvil, similar to some other sets I've seen.  I might have to see if I can take it apart and clean it up.  More on that later if I do.