tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post4391081538438772621..comments2023-11-05T06:16:56.961-05:00Comments on the Carpentry Way: A Ming-Inspired Cabinet (13)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-48393207968020761962015-12-06T10:03:21.083-05:002015-12-06T10:03:21.083-05:00...
Another issue relates to the material I am wo......<br /><br />Another issue relates to the material I am working with in this case, which is very hard and difficult to work. If I was purposely orienting my work around hand tools for some reason, then I would probably not have picked this wood. I'd pick woods like Cherry, Walnut, butternut, mahogany, straight grained cedar, poplar, etcetera. This material choice tends to push me to use carbide as much as possible. I could use a $1500 Miyano hand saw to cross cut the pillow blocks, and it would do fine at that task, and cut perfectly accurately, but I choose to use carbide and preserve the precious hand saw. I'd hate to break a tooth on any of those saws.<br /><br />To my way of thinking, I am bringing a cutter to the work and taking chips off when using the milling machine. It gives a vast improvement in rigidity and work holding over other means of doing the same task. It allows me to take the wood to dimension without tear out. If I didn't have the mill, I'd be taking parts to a sub contractor to have them thickness sanded, and the results would be inferior. I'm so happy to have the mill as an option.<br /><br />~CAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-9556514510830479402015-12-06T10:03:08.204-05:002015-12-06T10:03:08.204-05:00Richard,
I appreciate the comment. I am sorry to ...Richard,<br /><br />I appreciate the comment. I am sorry to hear you are feeling conflicted. Not me. I'm feeling high degrees of satisfaction.<br /><br />For me, 'the process' is al about conceptualizing a design and exploring the design until I have created something I, and the client, are pleased with. Then the fabrication process is al about realizing that design as faithfully as possible, subject to a certain minor process of discovery and refinement along the way. If I cut a surface, I want to cut it cleanly. I would much rather cut it than grind it. If I am using a precious wood, I want to use it wisely - hence a lot of consideration must go into the design and the approach to fabrication.<br /><br />For me the greatest satisfaction with joinery work is achieving a close tolerance fit. Of course that can be accomplished by hand tools, and I often have had no other choice in the past, due to lack of other equipment or due to a joint have surfaces which cannot be readily cut other than by hand. However, now that I have more tooling and equipment, I often have a choice in how i might achieve a certain result in cut out. Do I hand rip the stick into strips or use the bandsaw? Do I cross cut that piece with a hand saw, the chop saw, or the sliding table saw? Do I hand plane 3/16"of material off of a board or do I take it to a place to get it thickness sanded? Do I hand chop that mortise or do I drill it out first, or rout it out, or use the hollow chisel mortiser and finish later by chopping and paring? <br /><br />If you compare the steps shown in the post above to a similar post from the 'Square Deal' series (post #22), the steps are pretty much the same. The pillow blocks for the 'Square Deal' were straight grained, not curly, so I was able to more readily power plane them to thickness. I gave them a skim with the hand plane afterwards. This time, I have a new piece of equipment available, one which proved to be excellent for dimensioning the curly stock for the pillow blocks without tear out. As the surfaces produced were at dimension and had no planer marks, and were not exposed to view, I felt no need to touch them with a hand plane. <br /><br />Processing the coves on the pillow blocks this time, and previously, was done on the router table. As I do not have a suitable coving plane, the router was the means of accomplishing the task. Rough cutting the lap notches this time was done on the sliding table, while last time it was done on the chop saw. Last time I dimensioned the notches with an MDF jig and router, this time I did it with the milling machine. Last time i made up an elaborate paring jig out of hardwood and MDF so I could pare the mitered abutments. This time I used the milling machine and the results were a little better and accomplished with far far less trial and error.<br /><br />Last time I subbed out the coffee table slab dimensioning to a CNC place, as it was the best option available. I would rather have been able to do it myself, but I don't have equipment to handle that. If I had an enormous thickness sander, like most commercial shops, then that would have been an option. Hand planing 1/2" of stock off of each face of a curly bubinga slab was never going to be an option.<br /><br />For me, having other tools to realize a task does not mean moving away from hand tool use, hanging up the planes and grabbing the belt sander, or anything like that. Similarly, using my sliding table saw this time to cut notches doesn't mean I will no longer use my chop saw for such a task. I will pick the tool I think will obtain the best results. Sometimes that is a powered tool and sometimes that is a hand tool. I agree there is a little bit more direct visceral feedback from the hand tool, however I still get a sense how hard this wood is, and still know what the shavings and chips smell like, when bringing a powered cutter to bear.<br /><br />continued...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328401081765407624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261993076995357307.post-48819119751899907032015-12-06T00:42:38.627-05:002015-12-06T00:42:38.627-05:00This seems to get the results with much less stres...This seems to get the results with much less stress, and I get the impression of significant time savings, compared to your earlier project. This while still learning the ins and outs of the new equipment. I appreciate the quality of the fit and the beauty of the results, but I wonder if you feel a little less in touch with the process. I am sure the the final result will be spectacular; however this far it is tool-making more than woodworking. This is just from my perspective, with my biases and I understand that getting the results from handtools would much harder, with more waste of a precious and limited resource. I'm sure that you can tell that I am conflicted. Part of me is jealous of the equipment and part is sorry to see you seeming to move away from handtool use. RichardAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com