Making bevels by hand

 How do you cut the end of a wide board so it has bevels for a box? Miter boxes and shooting boards are for miters.  You need a donkey's ear shooting board.  Most of the instructions I've seen until now start with a table saw.  Which I don't have or want and woodworkers didn't have before machine tools.

John McGrath shows how to do it by hand.  I milled more oak and carefully planed it square & 4s.

I think it came out well.

Getting the angle right all the way is just like squaring and thicknessing a board by hand.

The final fit is with a rabbet plane that cuts down into the corner.

The Jack Rabbet plane is perfect for this.  But not for shooting.  It will eventually cut too far.

I had to try a test cut. 

A low angle plane is great for cutting end grain.

This Low Angle Jack Rabbet has a trick that makes it great for shooting.  Can you spot it?

How about now?

The handle can be angled left or right.

All I need are some sides for the plane to so it isn't a rabbet plane with the blade to the edges.

This plane has rods for a fence that screw into threads on the side.

I'll make sides from an old cutting board and it will be perfect for shooting.  It will also keep the blade from cutting me when i pick it up like a regular plane.

When I get the sides on, I'll make a mitered box and see how I did making the donkey's ear.

I fought the log (arch)

 Two years ago a maple (soft) snapped off 15 feet up & fell.  Its between 2 and 3 feet in diameter.  So I've been looking to harvest it.

Cutting it up with a chain saw was fairly easy.

The longest piece is 10' long.  To move any of the pieces, I needed a log arch.

They are 2 wheels with an arch between them.  You lift the log between the wheels on the arch and there is a long lever to lift & move it.

They're usually metal, but I'm not a welder.  

I saw https://youtu.be/dvtzQmx7uNQ made from wood.

I have 2x4s, so I started off with that.

I used 10" wheels and a bolt through 2 vertical 2x4s as an axle.  I think it is simpler and stronger.

I wanted to move it to a clear area so I could split it into quarters  The chain is for a come-a-long winch.

Lucy was a big help.  My son was a bigger help pulling the log along.

We tip the arch forward pivoting around the wheels, wrap chains around it and under the log, then pull the arch back down to lift.

This is from the logs cut in the 1st photo.

We moved he big section 30-40 feet.

I didn't have a cross brace for the arms so I notched a log in the woods.  Otherwise you tend to squeeze the arms together and there is just a 1/4-20 bolt preventing it.

The brace under the arms also keeps the arms higher & the log higher off the ground.

I split the log in 1/2 and called it a day.  One 1/2 was 10' long and the other was 6' because it didn't split evenly the last 4'.

I painted the arch because it will be outside lots.

I made 2 cross braces, notched with a bolt through them holding them to the arms.

This is the 6' half.  No come-a-long winch needed.  I was able to lift & push it myself!

Next is the 10' hakf.

I couldn't suspend it fully, but I could get the front up and pull with a rope & pulley.

And the log won.

When I tried to suspend the whole log, I found out drilling the arms for the bolt of the cross brace was a bad idea.

It broke right at the cross brace.  It was scrap 2x4 and had a bit of damage.

The good thing is the arms and angles under are all bolted on.  I can make a new arm.  I had taken it apart for painting.

The cross braces were a big help, but drilling a hole through the arms to hold them isn't the right way.  The notch will do the work and I shouldn't need bolts at the arch.

At the other end, I  need something different.  Maybe an upper & lower cross brace with notches and something holding the upper & lower together so it can take forces up & down.  With just the bolts, the brace got pulled out.

I'm going to make some larger (2-3 ft) wheels out of wood sometime.  That will make it easier to move around in the woods.

Despite the failure, I'm happy with this.  10' is an awful big log and the arch didn't even creak with the unpainted, uncrossbraced version.  With the bolted cross brace, I heard creaking w/ just 1/2 of that log before it broke.

I went to https://www.omnicalculator.com/construction/log-weight and used 30" down to 20" diameter for silver maple.  It came up with 1500lbs.  After 2 years, I'd guess it was closer to 1000lbs or less.  With leverage, you can move a lot of weight!

The Planter Box

 It's summer & time to plant.  I saw https://www.instructables.com/Self-Watering-Veggie-Table/ and decided to do my own version.

I had leftover pressure treated wood to use. Because the soil will be in a plastic bucket, I don't have to worry about those nasties getting into any food we grow.

I bought 2 plastic storage bins.  It should be about the length of your arm because you're going to be reaching across it.  The width is up to you.

Let's see about the frame.  I used 2x4s for the uprights and the top horizontal.  The lower horizontal is a 2x6.

I marked the widths into the uprights to cut a notch.  You want it tight so it helps keep things rigid.  You can always cut more.

Having the lower horizontal inside helps support the bottom of the bin.  The top horizontal isn't really supporting enough to worry about.

I used construction screws to hold the horizonals into their notches.  You could use nails too.  The strength comes from the notch.

To connect the front and back, I have a 2x4 with a notched end fit into a notch in the 2x6.  The 2x4 should be in the middle under the bin to support the weight.  There is 1 screw from the top of the 2x4 down into the notch and 2x6.

Not shown is a 2x4 going from front to back.  The 2x4 is 1/2 lapped and screwed onto the sides of the front & back.  There won't be weight on it, but it will need to keep the front & back from spreading apart or getting closer!

What about that self watering?  These are plastic baskets.

I have 6-7" long 3/4" diameter PVC pipes.  I cut holes in the basket that the pipes could fit tightly in.

The top one should protrude above the soil so you can fill it. 

The other pipe goes out the front of the bin so it can't be overfilled. 

I found I had another PVC pipe whose inner diameter is almost big enough to fit around the 3/4".

I sliced off thin sections and and used them as a collar on either side of the basket or bin to hold them in place.  I used a heat gun to soften them.

It's a bit goofy and maybe I should've just used silicone caulking.

Ready to get your shoes wet!

You can see the lower horizontals here.

What can you do with a dado plane

 Well, a combination plane in my case.

You can cut across the grain!

This is a 3/8" dado in 3/4" thick pine. 

It seats nicely, feels solid.

I found a light shaving is best for dados.  You can take deeper cuts for grooves (with the grain).

The nicker is just protruding from the skate here, below the right side depth stop.

The nickers score & cut the wood grain on the sides of the plane before the main bladed shaves off the wood between.  Without the nicker, you'd tear out the wood.

You could cut both sides with a knife and use a plow plane, but it would probably be faster to do the whole dado with a chisel.

From underneath.  The left side stop (on the right here) is much longer.

This box was made using the 1/4"-1/4"-1/4" method.

• A groove around the bottom on all 4 pieces for the bottom plywood to ride in.
• A dado on the 2 ends 3/8" wide & 3/8" deep
• A rabbet on the sides 3/8" by 3/8".  This is on the side opposite the groove.

The dado/rabbets on the ends and sides should be half the thickness of your stock (3/4" here)

This is usually shown with a table saw and with 1/2" stock.

It's quick, repeatable and strong enough for a drawer that will last for 100 years.  Not everything needs to be dovetailed.

Siegley Combination Plane #2

 I recently purchased a combination tool to do dados.

The popular one is the Stanley #45 but the dealer had already sold the one he had and this Sigley #2 was suggested.  They were one of the main competitors to the #45.  Eventually, Stanley bought them and because they sold well, kept making them.

They added the Sigley name when they did so.

These planes were made around 1920.

In order to make dados, a groove across the grain, these planes have nickers in the skates that line up with the edges of the blade.

On the Siegly, there is a hole drilled vertically through the skate.  The nicker is a round rod with a diagonal grind at the end.  If I needed to replace it, I could probably use an old drill bit

It came with all the blades.  There's a sash blade (for the bottom of windows), beading blades, a tonguing blade and the regular blades.

Unlike the #45, there is no notch on the end.  I can get blades for the #45 or the newer Veritas blades for their plough or combination plane.

I have the Veritas plough as well.  The Siegley is bigger and heavier.  The Veritas has a better blade advancement,

I don't find the Siegley to be that much harder to adjust.  It has depth stops on both sides and I think they're better.

The Siegley blades came in a plastic bag so I needed to make a box for them.  I have spalted maple and oak.

It took 3 tries to get the top.  The depth stops on the tongue and sash blades needed a dado inside the lid.

After 2 fell apart due to this & spalting (it is rotten wood after all), I decided to remove the stops.

And the back.