visual news from the garden shed!

hey all!
was in the shed today, taking some pictures again cause theres been are lot of new stuff and helpers.
so lay back, have a cup of tea or a nice cold beer and enjoy.....

something i was really afraid of because i had never touched something like that before.
the clark foam modified hitachi planer.



after at least 20 times watching "the master shaper series I & II with the unbelievable jim phillips, it immediately became my best friend after a few passes which doesnt mean that i have it under control at all :-)
this planer is very expensive, even more if it is shipped from england to austria and is 110V, so i needed a transformer from the european 220V down to 110V. but i think its worth every penny. every shaper kook like myself should immediately get it, turn it on and mow some foam. if you just start out you need every help you can get.
i still had another of the EPS blanks lying around so i used it for planer practice. thats what came out of turning the rails without any marks or stuff. the right rail came out pretty nice and consistent, the left has a little less volume, i took a little bit too much foam of with the planer but it was very good practice. if you look closely on the pic above, you can see both rails not being very much symmetrical.



this is where my new friend sleeps



and this is how my walls looked like after using it



this is what it will eat all the time



US Blanks, 7 alltogether
1x 6`2A fish blank
1x 6`5A fish blank
2x 6`10A fish blank
3x 7`9H funboard blank

Jepehhhhhhhh!


SOME NEW TOOLS

homemade shapers square.
it would have cost me like 100€ to get one from france, so i bought a piece of plastic at the hardware store and some sheets of transparent, self adhesive printer paper, voila, like 20€ alltogether.



beware! its the calipers from HELLLLLL!!!!
form follows function?
:-)



the trusty stanley 5.5" surform



and his big brother will get new teeth soon..



the wood armada
take them stringers down!



the small one is a german KUNZ hand plane, very tiny. but very nice.
standard stanley low angle block plane
standard spokes shave for the curvier areas of stringers.


a japanese pull saw



it goes trough foam and wood with no effort at all. i guess it will work quite well to cut the outlines out of the blanks. we`ll see.

thats it for the tools.

TEMPLATES



hmm, i was very afraid of making templates and i still am. lets not say afraid lets say i have a lot of respect for the template, because it is where everything starts, shitty template, shitty outline, shitty rails, shitty everything.

i made 2 of them up to this point and will make a lot more the next days.

i make my outlines in the computer, when im satisfied, i print them out on a couple of sheets for spin templates or bring it to a printshop for 1/2 templates. i got a piece of 3mm MDF doorskin or what you will call it, got it cut to 40cm wide strips.
i use some spray adhesive to glue the paper to the wood and cut it out with the jigsaw. then i use the planer and a sanding block to clean up the curve and take all the bumps out, or for example a piece of the nose HAHA which made my 7`4 template a nice 7`3 1/4". :-) but what are numbers anyway. it has to look right and feel right.
i draw the 2 outlines on a blank to see if its tight and nice.







well, thats it for today.
i`ll start making more templates and finally shaping some boards tomorrow.
wish me luck.

take care,
trim chris