The newest addition to the workbench is the Pancake Snare. I was inspired by the video below, to try this. And I just happened to have a leftover ring of shell, from making some hand drums.
Wood filler drying.
Step one was cutting bearing edges. I did that a while back. Poss’ at S&F? There was some tear-out, of the outermost plus, inside and out. So I filled anything like that in, this morning.
After sanding the filler, I taped the inside and bearing edges, ready for an orange sparkle coating.
Today, at S&F, I made two tools for sanding and smoothing internal facets of snare #1.
Above: making the sanding tools. And Teresa, looking adorable, in one of my caps!
One was designed to follow the bevelled curve of the inner bearing-edge, and neaten that up. The other is to make the interior face of the drum smoother and more regular.
As ever, these simple things took absolutely ages! They are also drum size (or diameter) specific. So I’ll prob’ need to make them again for snare #2!
My two current snare builds had kind of stalled. Foundering on my inability to cut a neat/smooth inner bearing edge…
I finally got around to addressing this issue. And the results, whilst far from perfect, are both tolerable and encouraging.
Snare #1, above, is probably coming along better, in this respect. Both require a lot more fiddling and fettling. But snare #2 needs much more.
Snare# 2.
The shell wall thickness and the smoothness of the inner bearing-edge bevel, on snare #2, are much more varied. I’m thinking about what kind of jigs or tools I might make to help sort this out.
Snare #2 also needs the outer bearing-edge enlarging a bit, so the two bevels meet in a ‘sharp’ edge…
The reason I was finally able to get these inner bearing-edges cut, is that I was able to mount my new Katsu palm-router in the jig originally made for my older Titan plunge-router. As pictured below:
Experimenting with a bearing and various stops, I finally came up with a method that appears to work. Albeit, as already noted, far from perfectly.
I bought this old lectern, most likely originally from a church, from a reclamation place, in Three Holes.
The guy that runs that place asked for £50. I believe I paid £25. It was in a pretty sorry state. Evidently it’s been outdoors a good long while.
Made of oak. It’s been heavily weathered. Some of the timbers have dried out, bowed, and even cracked.
Before removing the standing platform.
Originally, or at least when I first got it, it had a kind of platform, for standing on. I didn’t like this; it made the whole piece both unwieldy and space-consuming.
So the first thing I did, today, was cut that off, and use part of it to strengthen what remained, resulting in a new and smaller footprint.
Gluing the smaller footprint base.
Evidence of earlier modifications? One side has the original … , whilst the other has been replaced with dowels, and their corresponding holes.
The above images show the ‘feet’. These were very damaged. And held in place wi’ ancient rusted screws. Getting these screws out was hard work. Indeed, the attempt caused all but one of the ‘feet’ to split and break. So I’ve had to glue them all back together.
The two carved side panels have lost a few bits. And at their bases, there are some splits. I tried gluing these together, before reassembly. With mixed success!
I decided I’d try and rescue this, my recent first attempt at a bevel-plane.
Before addressing the damaged sole, I tidied up and enlarged the waste vent, above. After that I thought about how I could retrieve this tool. A wider angle on the sole, perhaps?
Marking up for the new wider sole.
I also used my second more successful bevel-plane to knock the edges off the first one. I think the results look fab!
I then used my Kity table saw to cut the new wider angle on the sole. There’s still a wee bit of visible damage on the sole. But it’s tolerable.
I’ll need to make a new iron and wedge for this one, soon.
I learned about this particular combo’ thanks, I believe, to James Wright, of YouTube channel Wood by Wright. It’s his go to method for finishing most wooden stuff.
Googling the subject ‘linseed oil paste wax’ this morning brought in a result from lostartpress.com, whom I also learned of via James Wright.
My bevel-plane is now finished. It took two attempts. But I’m happy with the overall outcome. It works!
Functionally finished.
In attempting to finesse the overall form, I screwed up. To correct the mistake I wound up passing the body through the drum sander multiple times. The resulting tool is thinner than originally intended.
The cutting zone…
Another nice view, above. Not sure how or when the dent in the sole, on the right side, occurred. Hopefully it’ll disappear over time, with use?
Having tested it at Shedders & Fixers, where I got the f-functional essence f-f-finally f-f-f-finished, once home, I used it to finish off the mallet I recently made for our pal, Yanni (must post tomorrow!). The pics above attest to it working as intended.
Shavings…
I love the results so much I took the mallet outside, for a photo-shoot! Yielding the images below:
Having used the bevel-plane on Yanni’s mallet, I tried it on my oak mallet. It was harder to use, cutting into the denser oak. But it still worked. It would doubtless benefit from further sharpening, to get a slicker cut in hardwoods. But it still did the job, much to my satisfaction.
I adjusted the iron, to cut a little deeper into the oak. That was a bit dumb! I should’ve dialled it back, if anything, and done the deeper bevelling in several passes.
Buy it still worked, albeit hard going, and not the smoothest cuts. But the tool basically works. Result! Plus you live n’ learn; the whole build process has been both fun and highly educational.
I finished today shaping both the body of the plane, and the wedge, to add a little finesse (!) to the overall look. It’s not all that funky looking. But I’m very happy with it.
I reckon I’ll make another, and bigger, when time allows.
Every now and again something catches on this chandelier light, and sometimes that cause a bit of damage. I’ve already had to repair one dangling set of ‘crystals’.
It’s now happened again, but affecting a different strand of ‘crystals’. So today I fixed it.
Making new links… and string the ‘crystals’ together.
Finished. In both off and on states. Much better! It’s always satisfying, in a Loki way, getting jobs like this done.
