Woodworking 101 Day 2

Yesterday I go the wood to build a workbench for the shop and, in a rare burst of activity for me, I actually started to do something with it!

I had already planed down a couple of timbers that had been used as stickers int he logs when we got our kit. These were to become the legs of the workbench. The plans called for the legs to be glued up from 2x lumber and then milled to 2-1/2 x 3 inches. The stickers were already over those measurements, so I planed two sides and then ripped the others to proper size. Hey, it saved the cost of a couple of 2x6s and the time needed to allow the glue to set. Oh, they each needed to have a notch cut in the top to hold a top rails.

10" Table Saw: "The Work Horse" of any shop

After ripping them to dimension and cutting them to length, I went to work on the pieces that would connect them. Two side rails for the bottom were also supposed to be glued up 2x but I used two more stickers. These needed tenons on the ends ans a ledge cut in tone corner to support a shelf. The front and rear spacers were cut from 2x6 lumber and also needed tenons on each end.

12" Chop Saw: Great tool to make long boards short.

The cutting of the tenons is a task I need to practice more. I've a dado blade for the table saw that is a wobble variety. They do not cut as cleanly as the stacked dado blades but their cost is much, much less.

End view of a side rail showing tenon and ledge.

That's where I left off last night.

Today, I dug out my mortising machine and set it up to produce the two mortises each leg needed to take the tenons on the spacers and risers. This was the first time in a very long time that I had need to mortise out a timber but, following Norm Abrhams' advice about measure twice, cut once, everything went very smoothly--even if I did end up drilling the holes 3/16ths of an inch too deeply. Once done, It was a matter of cleaning up the tenons (especially their cheek faces) to fit the holes.

Mortiser

I glued an screwed the side pieces together and set them aside. The front spacers can wait until the top is done for the top is the top spacer and without it things could get a bit wobbly.

Time to get to work on the top which is made from three 2x10s.

Have you ever dropped a 2x10 on your foot edgewise? Let me tell you, it hurts like the dickens! It doesn't help that 1-My steel toed boots are up at the Bolt Hole and 2-I have/had triphammer toes--that is toes which are constantly curled as if to grasp the floor; toes whose "knuckles" stick up like wickets in a croquet game just waiting for a heavy 2x10 to crash down upon them. Luckily--and I use the term loosely--the board "only" fell from the height of my knee or I surely would have broken something--besides the board. Damn fragile thing. Split nearly in two lengthwise right down the middle. I should be able to salvage it since a pair of brackets will span the width of the three (almost four now) boards and will be screwed into them to hold them together.

Anyway, I got the three boards cut to length and then planed their edges to produce a smooth, flat edge on each for joining purposes. Than was a difficult task because of the size and weight of the boards. Very difficult to keep the boards perpendicular to the planer table even with the rear fence. Then the length of the boards meant having one end extend well beyond the table at the beginning and end of a run. I've only got one roller support and don't have room for a second in my current setup.

Planer with a 2x10x70" board

I got the job done but am still not satisfied with the edges I've got to work with. I'm hoping some biscuits and clamp pressure will be able to bring things together tomorrow.

Biscuit Joiner

So. that's where I am right now. The legs are ready, the top boards are cut and await gluing up. I've a few errands to run tomorrow and don't know how much I'll get done. I'll be happy if I can get the top glued up.

Aerie Birding

Before I went out to pick up the lumber for my workbench project yesterday, I clicked some photos of the birds visiting our deck.

Early on i was alerted to something on the deck by both Chester and Shadow getting all agitated at the sliding glass door. Sure enough, there was a tiny Black-capped Chickadee sitting on the deck in an obviously stunned state. It must have flown into the glass next to the door trying to make a shortcut to the front feeder. (The door still has it's screen in place.)



I went out and carefully picked it up and put it on the rail of the deck. (Just in case one of the semi-feral cats around here happened to visit.) It sat there for five minutes or so and then disappeared.



We have, on average one bird a week try the same stunt. Usually it's the Chickadees or maybe a Dark-eyed Junco but last week it was a Tufted Titmouse and a month ago we had a White-breasted Nuthatch. The Mourning Doves are frequently hitting the window but they usually start from the deck and have attained very little velocity when they contact the glass. They'll usually hover in mid air and maybe even try again.

Last winter when we had a Sharp-shinned Hawk visit the yard for several weeks (he must have thought it was the local deli and always showed up for lunch), we had nearly as many birds strike glass as we lost to the hawk. These included some Common Redpolls as well as a Hoary Redpoll.

Okay, back to the bird pictures....

When the Dark-eyed Juncos come in to feed on the tray. It's usually one at a time. That's not because they come in, grab a seed and flit away to the trees like the Chckadees or Nuthatches. No, it's because they are bullies.



When one Junco takes over the feeder...it takes over the feeder! It might share with other species but never with another Junco. This is mildly surprising because to watch them on the ground or along the field and forest edge, the Dark-eyed Junco seems the most social of birds as they travel in flocks that may number 30 or 40 individuals. Get them on the feeder (and it needs to be a tray because they don't do no stinkin' perches) and it's a regular King of the Hill situation. As the Highlander said: "There can be only one!"

About the only bigger bully in birdland is the Blue Jay. Not only will he chase away members of his own clan, he chases away everybody. Sometimes he does so with a raucous call and a physical display of intimidation. And sometimes he scares the bejesus out of everybody with an imitation hawk cry. While everyone heads for the woods, literally, he'll stroll in and have a leisurely feed.




American Goldfinches were abundant yesterday and again today in the sloppy weather. Perhaps they were looking for an easy meal and figured my feeders fit the bill.



The Goldfinches were joined by their good friends the Pine Siskin (called a Goldfinch in camo by some). The Siskin is new to the feeders this winter (or, at least, I didn't notice them the last two years). Their behavior is exactly like that of the Goldfinches with whom they flock and they have a bit of the yellow of the Goldfinch on their wings but that's all. The Siskin's got a fairly well striped pair of flanks (the camo) and more pointy beak.



A couple of Mourning Doves bided their time on the electric wires. The only bare path of soil is under the deck and I've flushed several dozen Mourning Doves from that cozy little dust bath on occasion when I step outside.



The side yard feeders had their share of visitors including Cardinals and Nuthatches but the only photo I have is of Purple Finches helping themselves to some seed



Just as I was stepping out the door to head to the lumber yard, a Pileated Woodpecker flapped off from the Sumac berries along the driveway. It didn't fly far and allowed me to take one photo before it departed down the hill.



Looks like Woody Woodpecker's gone punk.

Woodworking 101

So yesterday, after procrastinating more than enough, I decided to purchase the materials to construct a solid workbench for the wood shop. I had looked through the books and magazines for plans and, as luck would have it, an issue of Shopnotes that arrived in November or there abouts had plans that would be easy enough to construct,sturdy enough for my needs and, most importantly, wouldn't cost an arm and a leg in materials. (As with all benches, the vises are the most costly after the materials and I figure I can retrofit them on this particular baby.)

I headed to the local lumber/hardware store (Arnot Building Supply in Mansfield) to get the necessaries and then spent the afternoon and early evening breathing sawdust and relearning some basic skills involving the construction of a mortise and tenon joint, using a dado blade on a table saw and doing various and sundry things to wood that would be easier if I had a work bench. (It's a Catch 22 situation.)

I did learn a couple of things:

1- I must get myself a dust collector and air filter for the shop. I was wearing a face mask filter but tiny dust particles still get through and cleanup was a significant time investment. Luckily there is a Grizzly supply store down on the other side of Williamsport that might have just what I need in that department.)
2- Wobbling dado heads (as opposed to stacked) are inexpensive for a reason---they aren't going to produce work to very small tolerances. Get a stacked dado blade set for the next project.
3- The bench will be one sturdy son of a gun! Made from two-by lumber and some 4x4 posts for legs it's going to be heavy to move about. I just hope the joinery is tight enough (see #2) to keep it from wobbling when I'm working on it.
4- The plans called for making your own specialty hardware (cross dowels) to connect the legs to the spacers and risers. Market ready cross dowels are available but the article does NOT give a source and the builder's supply store is NOT a furniture maker's store. So I'll have to improvise (with lag screws) and hope that it won't compromise the ruggedness and sturdiness of the final product.
5- I'm going to have to shift some of the stuff in the workshop around to make room for the bench (and future dust collector and air filter).

So I'll be back in the workshop today trying out some new/old skills and seeing how far I can progress on this project. But first I'll have to make another run down to Arnot to get some long skinny lag screws.

Later.

Huh?

I was reminded this afternoon that I hadn't posted anything new in several days--since January 2nd to be exact.

Can't think of a good reason for not doing so. Saturday and Sunday were spent watching football on the tube (I should have been outside--both days were lovely) and I had the computer in my lap the whole time reading everyone else' blogs and dropping comments left, right and sideways.

(Reminds me of an old football story wherein one of the Ivy League schools known for its engineering dept used the defensive battle cry of, "Not one soul shall pass! Neither vertically, horizontally, nor transversely!")

I did go for a nice long (200 mile) ride yesterday. I went west on Route 6 climbing out of the Susquehanna watershed and into that of the Allegheny River at Coudersport in Potter County. (The county welcome sign says "Welcome to God's Country." Neighboring counties joke that He's the only one who would have it!) I went as far a Smethport in McKean County before heading north toward Eldred and then the NY border at Ceres.

I discovered that Ethan Allen Furniture has a factory in Eldred where they turn out a little more than a thousand pieces of furniture a week. Everything is custom work for orders placed in the showrooms around the country. Hardwood for frames of sofas and chairs come from the local forests and from local loggers. (Some of the frames are made by an independent local company.) Business may be slowing down elsewhere, but on Monday the parking lot at the factory was full.

I circled back on Routes 44 and 49 past Cowanesque Lake. Three quarters of the lake is frozen (which is less than Hammond or Tioga Lakes(100%)) and where the water meets the ice, there are flocks of seagulls--probably ring billed gulls--and Canada Geese. I'm sure that if it were not for the recent thaw and the subsequent melting of the snow that reexposed a lot of grass, those geese would have headed south to the Delaware Bay or Chesapeake Bay. They may be dumb and obnoxious, but they ain't stupid.

This was a short voyage of discovery made on my own. I had been to the Coudersport area when we were looking at property three years ago but neither Terry nor I had been out that way or beyond since we started working on the construction of the Aerie. Galeton and Gaines are about as far west as we've been since then.

There's lots of good fishing waters out that way. (In fact, that's one of the reasons I drove out there. The Outdoor Channel had a program about flyfishing Pine Creek and some of the tributaries to both the Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers.) And, if I go just a bit further west, there's the Allegheny National Forest. But that may be an overnighter. As it was, much of this excursion was done at 50-55 mph and that's just too damn fast to really see anything. Besides Coudersport, there were several other small villages and towns I would have like to stop and get out and look around. Perhaps when spring arrives and the weather is a bit warmer....

Later.

UPDATE: So I get the comment below about going to God's Country and check out Solomon's Words only to find an article posted about how Ethan Allen is closing their Eldred plant!

And if you want up-to-the-minute information of happenings in and around Potter County Solomon's Words would seem to be THE place to go.

And I can't get one?

They came in through the window.

HAMILTON, N.J. -- Officials at a Hamilton Township school are hoping for a return to normal Tuesday, a day after class was disrupted by two deer leaping through a window.

Bird Watching at the Aerie

Considerably warmer this morning when the sun rose. It was a good 20 degrees at 9 AM. And the sun shone for much of the day.

Even so, it was a day to spend indoors as it was time to take the decorations and lights off the Christmas tree and put the living room back in order. The snow that was forecast for this evening has pretty much sent to the north of us. You can see a bank of clouds out in that direction. We might get just a tiny bit of flurries much, much later tonight.

I've been watching the birds out the window: White-winged Crossbills (new to the Aerie), White and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Dark-eyed Juncos, Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Purple Finches, American Tree Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Mourning Doves...all have made an appearance outside today. The Crossbills were actually on the driveway where the car was parked and the gravel/sand is exposed. They didn't come near the feeders.

We've also had two feline visitors in the yard. One was a frequent visitor--a female who appeared to be pregnant this summer and nearly let me pet her as she would drop and roll in the grass a few yards ahead of me. she wouldn't allow me to get near enough to touch her, however. Today she was in the rear of the house near the bird feeders. The other was a long-haired gray cat with tiny little white booties. It suddenly appeared on the deck and jumped up on the tray feeder there. I didn't see it succeed in its hunt but there were lots of Mourning Dove feathers out on the deck--but no carcass or blood--when I went out to try and corral the cat. (No luck as it must have jumped off the edge of the deck near the driveway and disappeared before I got around the corner.)


more animals

Gorgeous day at the Aerie.

I woke up early this morning.

Some days I have a difficult time falling asleep and some I just wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning with no hope of getting back to sleep. Some of it's sinus related and some of it has to do with chronic back pain. Shoveling snow (even as easy as it was) aggravated my back sufficiently that it woke me at 5 AM after getting six hours of sleep.

Naturally, once out of bed, the cats demanded they be fed. Then, as the sky began to lighten, the birds and squirrels wanted theirs.

Then I had to go out to remove the small (and, thankfully, light) pile of snow at the end of the driveway from the plow going up the hill last evening. It was a mere 1.4 degrees but at least it was above zero and there was no wind. What snow remained on the driveway squeaked underfoot as I walked out to the road and back.

Chores done, I settled in to watch some more bowl games.
Yet, the sun is shining and the wind is not blowing. The outdoors are calling.
But, Terry cooked up an excellent boneless pork roast, some oven potatoes, baked lima beans and sauerkraut for dinner. I do believe the couch and TV will win this one.