Tag: Tools

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A different kind of plane

For obvious reasons, I want the top of the new work table to be dead flat. As I set the top pieces of particle board on the bench, it became obvious that there are (and I know this already) some high spots on the frame. Obviously the 2×4 dimensional lumber I used was not perfectly straight, so no shock there. The bench was constructed on top of a bench that is pretty much dead flat, but is covered with a layer of indoor/outdoor carpet – so there’s some room for high spots to compress the carpeting. Anyway – it needs to be flattened.

I suppose a person could attack this with a sander and some really coarse grit paper to knock material off where it needs to be. It would work, but it’s inefficient and in my humble opinion might lead to a “wobbly table” scenario, where you progressively over-correct making legs shorter to try to stop a table from wobbling until you end up with a Japanese tea table on 6″ legs. I opted to plane the wood. I didn’t own a plane, so I went and bought a couple. Lowe’s had two planes on sale for good prices, so I took a risk that they would be usable. They may not meet the demands of a professional producer of hardwood cabinets or something, but they’re certainly good enough to take consistent paper-thin shavings off of a pine 2×4. One is a 10″ bench plane, the other a 3-1/2″ block plane. I’m not taking the top off of the bench to start flattening it just yet; I still need to stain and attach the fancy quilted maple veneer to the gossip bench while I’ve got a working bench. Once that’s done, I’ll slide the particle board back off and get a flat surface to screw them down onto.

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Getting the new bench ready

Since getting the bench pieces all home yesterday, I’ve been knocking out a couple of backed up tasks that needed done. Lisa needed a larger rectangular overlay for her ironing board – useful for ironing quilt tops and such. I cut out a 24″ x 56″ piece of half-inch plywood and, with he outline of the existing ironing board top traced onto the bottom side, attached some guide rails cut from 3/4 particleboard. I wish I’d used pine instead, of course.

With that done, I’m currently working to determine the best approach to staining the quilted maple veneer for the gossip bench. I tried the same red mahogany stain that I used of the rest of the piece — it really just obscures the beautiful grain patterns of the quilted maple. My next attempt will be with the same stain, applied after a wipe down with mineral spirits. A quick test on a scrap of particle board (which soaks up stain like the maple veneer does) looks pretty promising.

I’ve got the main top and one of the extension tops in place. I haven’t screwed the main top down, because the top frame is not flat. I’ll probably hit Lowe’s on Monday and pick up a hand plane to fix that. Now I’m wishing I’d grabbed Dad’s old planes when Mom was having the estate sale. At the time I didn’t see that I’d ever have any use for them… too soon old, too late smart, as Dad was fond of saying. I’m sure a new plane will require some work to turn into a really nice tool, but for right now I just need to knock some high spots off the edges of a few 2x4s. It’s not high precision work, but after all of the work and money I’ve put into this bench I’m not going to end up with a top that’s not flat. Once I get the central part flat and secured in place, I can work on getting the extensions properly aligned and get everything screwed down. I did screw one extension top in place, just so I could get the supports under it.

Along the way I’ve been thinking about how I was working over at Stu’s shop. I had the bench littered with tools and materials. I’d often spend several minutes looking for a pencil, knife, saw, or something else that was underneath or hidden behind a spar or something. Then I had a 24 x 40 inch rolling table covered with other stuff, and usually had a box of clamps sitting on top of the wing as I was building. I don’t have rolling tables here, nor do I have room for any. Time to work smarter. Rather than leaving the large shelf under the bench open to collect everything in a big jumble (it’s happening already), I want to figure out exactly what I use or will use for construction, and design some under-bench storage to make sure everything is close at hand, quickly and easily accessible, and can quickly and easily be put away.

I’ll likely want a drawer for the large number of spring clamps, though I wish there were a better solution for them. I want a carpenter’s square and a speed square hung onto the edge of the bench. I want one place for the epoxy syringes, mixing cups and stir sticks, and disposable brushes. I want both the coarse and fine razor saws close at hand, and marked so I know which is which just by glancing at the handles. I want masking tape and marking pencils within easy reach. The list goes on, but you get the picture. I figure if I do this right, I may be able to trim a month or so off the build time just by eliminating the cumulative time I spend trying to find that blasted tool I just had in my hand.

I’d write this all down or draw up a plan, but I seem to have mislaid the mechanical pencil I just bought. Sigh.

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Bench tops and bottoms

On Thursday I picked up the particle board and plywood and Stu helped me — er, that is to say, Stu cut the sheets up for the top and shelf of the new bench. He’s got a massive SawStop table saw, and he’s a virtuoso using it. It seems to be a challenge for me to rip a 2×4 in half on a table saw; he can zip a 4×8 sheet of 3/4 particle board through that thing like it was a sheet of paper. I try not to use his saw, because even though I’ve never in my life hit the blade of a running saw with a finger, sure as hell I’d trigger his SawStop and add the ignominy of replacing a blade and cartridge to my list of accomplishments. I have, however, found that when I do use his saw things go a lot easier. My old table saw was a challenge to use — for most of the time I owned it the fence wasn’t parallel to the blade, and once I got that fixed the blade was dull. It was actually halfway decent in the end, for smaller pieces. Once I got it finally set up and a brand new carbide blade on it, some asswipe stole it… so now I get to buy new, some day when I have a place to put one. But I digress.

The tops are two layers of 3/4″ particle board, glued and stapled together. The lower shelf is 1/2 plywood, mainly because I had to buy some anyway for another project. The shelf is in three sections, so I’ll need to join them with some scraps of particle board or something. I plan to build some sort of storage to slide in on top of that shelf.

My casters and levelers also arrived Thursday afternoon, so on Friday I went over and installed those. I also cut the plywood for the lower shelf to fit, cut some corner blocks to keep the top square, and made the diagonal supports for the two extensions. Those are lengths of 2×4, notched on the lower end and with a double 45 cut on the upper end, that will brace between the lower shelf support and the top of the extension on either side.

The last thing to be done before final assembly is to flatten the top. As the bench was built with dimensional lumber on top of a workbench with a carpeted top, it’s “more or less” flat but the 2x4s aren’t perfect by any means. In a perfect world I’d have used a 6 foot jointer and a thickness plane to turn them into perfect boards before building, but I didn’t have access to a jointer. I know for sure one of the long edges of the table frame has a hump in it, and I want the top to be FLAT. I’ll evaluate how much needs to be done to make that a reality and see how I’ll make that happen.

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Episode V: A New Workbench

I guess I missed a chance to make this Episode IV for a catchier title. Ah, well.

Today I bought some 2x4s, did some measuring and cutting, gluing, screwing, clamping, and ended up with a new work table mostly built. I’ll try and finish it up tomorrow. The main section is 60″ long by 36″ wide (that’s roughly 152 x 91 cm for you metric folks). Each end has a 30″ folding extension, so you can have a 5′, 7.5′, or 10′ total length depending on your needs. For most of the airplane build I’ll likely have it fully extended, but it will be nice to be able to shorten it when needed.

I used the basic EAA 1000 work table plan, with a few changes. The width is increased, of course, from 24 to 36 inches. The folding extensions are another departure. I also lowered the shelf to about 4.5″ from the bottom of the legs rather than the original 8.5″. In hindsight, I kind of wish I’d made it even lower, but it’s fine. Tomorrow I’ll be adding some corner blocking to keep it perfectly square and solid. I still need to install the top (two layers of particle board) and the supports for the extensions. Those will be simple lengths of 2×4, with one end notched and the other cut to fit into the extension, Stu has a similar setup on the work table I have been using at his shop, and it’s absolutely rock steady and completely flat.

I thought long and hard about how to put retractable casters on this bench. I’ve seen a lot of different ways to do it. I had another work table, 3′ x 8′ with a setup on it that worked, but was a little more involved than I wanted. I’ve seen a few more designs on Youtube, several of which look kind of fidgety – making custom steel latches, etc. Anyway, in the process of working that out I managed to forget to re-add 1.5″ to the legs that I’d subtracted for one of the designs. Then I came up with what I think is an absolutely brilliant method, and I think it would work really well… on any workbench that does NOT have folding extensions that will block access to the end of the bench. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson…

So, I have ordered some retracting casters from Amazon that will be here tomorrow, and will cut some blocks of 2×4 for the bottom of the legs. No biggie. Perfection is the enemy of completion.

I think it’s very likely that I’ll build some sort of cabinet, shelving, and/or drawers under the top. I can only imagine how handy it would be to have all of the woodworking tools, clamps, glue, and so on right there at hand, and storage to keep it well organized and clean. That will wait until I have the bench at home and set up in the garage; that way I can cut the wood and do the assembly there. I can think of a long list of items that I will want to always have within easy reach, and more importantly have a place to put it within easy reach so I don’t end up with tools and supplies scattered everywhere.

Of course the very first thing the new bench will be used for is finishing the rebuild of the “gossip bench”. The veneer for that should arrive later this week.

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Boy, I’m bushed!

Today I took the wing brackets over to the shop, sorted them all out, and re-marked them so I could tell one part from the other. There are seven (I think) different bracket types. The acid etch solution had removed all of the markings, along with other stuff.

I sorted out which brackets are needed for the right lower wing that’s on the bench, and checked all of the bolt sizes for proper fit. All are acceptable, if not perfect. I have AN4-24A bolts (1-15/16″ grip length) for the main spar root attachment brackets; I could have used AN4-23A (1-13/16″ grip length). It’s not a problem; a couple of AN960 washers do the trick and are a perfectly acceptable solution. On the rear spar N-strut (outer end) brackets, the AN4-16A bolts are a tad long; I could have used -15A. Two AN960 and one AN960L are fine. As a mental exercise I calculated the weight savings if I ordered the shorter bolts. The shorter bolts would weigh about half an ounce less (total per wing); the washers would bring that up to just a smidge over half an ounce — .53 ounce, or about 15 grams per wing. I can live with that.

But I digress. I got all the remaining bushings cut. Once I wrapped my head around that fact that the bushings do not need to be cosmetically and dimensionally perfect, but just need to be “flush or slightly below” the face of the wood per the plans, things went a little quicker. I pulled the 24 tooth per inch metal blade from my bandsaw and replaced it with a 10 TPI wood blade, which is fine for thin wall AL tubing like this. I set up the miter gauge and fence for the length I wanted. The tubing cut-off end was snagging the blade teeth; Stu suggested a spacer on the rip fence that extends just shy of the blade. That did the trick! Now the cut-offs roll out of the way. I cut one piece and tested for fit in the hole; once that was verified I was able to set the fence once and cut as many pieces of each diameter tube as I needed. Easy peasy. That will save hours of build time.

Now I need some etching primer for the brackets, and spar urethane for the wood, and I can get everything installed and call this wing done.

Oh, after I cut the bracket for the aileron connecting rod.

And get the bearing block holes drilled.

And… whatever else I’ve forgotten.

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Bushings

On Wednesday I went over and tried cutting some of the bushings used for the bolts that hold the brackets to the wing.

I’ve cut a couple with a chop saw, but one got away and ruined a saw blade and almost took my thumb off. I think I could fix that problem, but after ruining one nice Freud carbide blade I’m not really inclined to pursue that method again. I’ve been using my small (9″) band saw with a metal cutting blade, and it’s been a bit of a struggle. I’ve had no success getting the miter slot aligned to the blade, so I made a custom miter gauge with a slight angle to get straight cuts. I wrapped masking tape around one end and made test cuts until I got a square cut. After cutting, I typically need to take a few thousandths off with sandpaper before I get the correct length.

Until now I’ve been scribing a line with a micrometer and following that with the blade. I think I’m going to switch to clamping a fence down on the table and using that for repeatability. I have three sizes of tubing — 5/8, 1/2, and 3/8 OD. Bushings are made with one, two, or three pieces of tubing nested together, so I need to cut identical length pieces. The 1/2 and 5/8 tubing is a snug enough fit that I can cut them together, but the 3/8 OD is not a snug fit, so I end up having to cut that separately or it spins and moves out of position. I’m going to just try a different approach, as making these bushings is taking forever.

I’ve been using a 1/2″ wide, 24 TPI metal cutting blade on the saw. I think it’s too fine for the AL tubing; I’m going to try a different blade. Of course I’ll have to order it. I have the 24 TPI, as well as 6 and 10 TPI wood cutting blades. I think I want to try 14 TPI.

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Some detail work

So many little things left to do. Today I made a little jig to mark the leading edge plywood for the depth of the scallops that need to be cut, and marked the center of each bay. I did some sanding on the wing walk to bring the rib caps down flush with the plywood skin — it’s not much to remove, just a few thousandths, but I want it smooth. I glued the LE plywood to the wing walk plywood, since that hadn’t gotten clamped well enough and the edge was loose. I’ll sand a tapered transition on that later.

I’ve got a dozen or two micro pins that I tried to use to stick down some 1/8 spruce to hold down the leading edge plywood. That failed, leaving the pins sticking out, They need to be driven in so they’re below the surface, so I got a few of those done with a center punch. I have a small pin punch I’ll use to do the rest tomorrow when I get back at it.

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Finishing out the aileron bay

Last session I cut and sanded everything to get the top of the aileron bay closed out. Well, not everything; after gluing in the CW37 piece I realized that there were some additional supports I hadn’t cut. As I was running short on time, though, I had to leave them for another day.

The fun part (and it actually was kind of fun) was cutting notches in CW37 for the ends of the rib caps. After marking the location of both sides of each rib. I cut a shallow slot with he razor saw, then used an X-Acto knife to gradually fit the depth of the notch to fit. In the end I got it in and clamped, then had to leave.

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On a roll!

Today I did some work with the razor plane and a new sanding block to get the aileron spar and other bits to their final dimensions. I got the top side geodetic braces cut and glued in place on the aileron. Then I glued the lower aileron nose skin in place – the aileron now has, I think, the maximum possible number of clamps on it.

With that done, I got the blocking sanded down on the wingtip bow supports, and cut and glued the top gussets in place. Only eight clamps there, but I think it’s still feeling the love.

And if you’re a Star Trek: Voyager fan, this makes Seven of Nine days in September that I’ve worked on the plane.

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Wing walk extension

This morning I went over to check on the work I did yesterday. The main portion of the walk structure looks good. I still needed to get the extension (front portion) ready for the skin.

The center plywood support is glued to the first false rib, but of course the plywood skin sits between the ribs. That meant I needed to shave about 1/8″ from the top cap of the false rib. I used the razor plane for most of this work but needed to use a file for some of it like the front edge. I cut the cross supports and used them to gauge whether the top of the middle support/rib was level with the other two. In the end I used a DA sander to “fine tune” the high spots until it was all level.

I also wanted to make sure the front and back edges of the thin plywood are fully supported and level with the thicker ply on the rear portion of the walk. I ended up just cutting a couple of support strips to attach to the top of the spar; I use da cutoff scrap of the wing walk for this as it was the perfect thickness. I also cut a couple of pieces of rib capstrip (I’ve got a lot of it left) to glue to the false spar to support the front edge of the walk extension. The plans don’t call for it, but I’ll feel better with a little added structure there.

I can probably remove half of the capstrip on the center one. if it’s not going to provide any strength, there’s no need for the extra weight!

The plans call for using nailing strips and brads to nail down the plywood skins while the glue dries. That’s one way, but I’m thinking another way would be longer clamping strips and long clamps. One strip would hold down the aft end of the main walk and get clamped to the rear spar. One would hold both the forward end of the main walk and the aft end of the extension and get clamped to the main spar. A third would hold down the forward end of the extension… I’m not entirely sure how that one would get clamped, but since it’s 1/8″ plywood it won’t need a lot of clamping force. I’ll find a place, I’m sure.