Neander Work Out

[Mike Allen1010]

I spent Saturday working on a project for my wife that turned out to be a real Neander work out.

The project is a 7’ tall shoe rack for a corner of her closet. It's basically three, 7’ tall x 2” x 3” boards that will form the vertical supports with twelve, 12” x 14” x 5/8” shelves (pictures below).

She wants it painted white to match the rest of her closet so I’m building it out of inexpensive lumber from the local home center: Douglas Fir 2x4”s for the vertical members and pine for the shelves.

All in all a pretty simple project that I will spice up with some shouldered dado and tenon joints to attach the shelves. I thought it would give me a chance to work on my hand tool skills with some nice softwood.

To get the dimensions I wanted I needed to rip the three, 7’, 2” x4”’s - which adds up to 21 feet of rip sawing! So with some deep breaths and a couple bottles of water I broke out the saw bench and a couple of my favorite 28” rip saws: an Atkins 53, 5 PPI and a D-8, 4 PPI and went to town.

The pictures below show the pile of sawdust I accumulated as I'm just about finished with the third board with the two previous offcuts sitting on the bench.

The whole process was surprisingly satisfying and easier than I anticipated. As I found my rhythm, it was fun to watch the blades glide along the layout line. In total it took me about 45”, including rest breaks and cost me less sweat than I expected. I ended up with surprisingly straight, square cuts that cleaned up easily with a couple passes from the joiner plane.

The next job was to surface and dimension the glued up pine shelves. I use my reconditioned Stanley, Bailey pattern #5, #6 and #8 with Hock blades and a Japanese plane I use as a scrub plane. Final surfacing with LN #4 gave me the long, full width shavings and final surface I was looking for. Planing the soft Pine and Fir was a real joy -- except for the knots!

Final dimensioning with backsaws and shooting board at the workbench gave me the square, straight and true pieces ready for cutting a curved front edge and joinery.

The last couple pictures show the dimension stock and a pile of shavings I had to show for my effort - the beer really tasted good that night!

My point in sharing this post is that it was this kind of work - requiring lots of ripping, surfacing and dimensioning by hand is what I was leery of when I got rid of my stationary power tools. I have always enjoyed cutting joinery by hand, but thought this kind of work might cause me to regret going totally unplugged. I found it's been exactly the opposite; I never really enjoyed dimensioning rough stock with a table saw, joiner and thickness planer. Now going the Neander route, I actually look forward to it. For me working primarily with hand tools has really helped me focus on and enjoy the “journey”, as well as the “destination” –and the Neander workout is always a good excuse for a couple extra beers!

Thanks to all you fellow cave dwellers for the motivation, example and teaching that shows how much fun it can be to go unplugged.

Best regards, Mike
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[Andrew Nielsen]

Looks good !

How wide is the gap in your saw bench ?

[Jim Matthews]

I'm always amazed at the volume shavings displace.

One itty-bitty board, planed to dimensions desired leaves a hefty bag full of curls.

[Steve Branam]

A trash barrel full of shavings is a sign of a good day!

[Mike Allen1010]

Looks good !

How wide is the gap in your saw bench ?

2 1/2" - I was looking for a compromise between a width narrow enough to support ripping narrow stock on on both sides of the cut and wide enough that I didn't have to fuss around with lining up the board to ensure that kerf would fall inside the slot.

I have really been pleasantly surprised that how much better/more accurate my sawing skills are using the saw bench as compared to the regular height cabinetmakers bench. For me, being able to get my upper body and eyes comfortably over the layout line has made a huge difference in both speed and accuracy.

Building a solid saw bench is one of the best things I've done to enhance my satisfaction with hand tool woodworking.

All the best, Mike

[Joe A Faulkner]

How about a few more pics of that saw bench - your workbench too for that matter? Both look like a great benches.

[Peter Scoma]

Can we stop for a moment and discuss those saw till's in the background of the first pic.

You seem to have amassed quite a collection. Any chance of some pics?

PJS

[Tony Shea]

I second Peter's attention to detail. I missed it the first time around but had to go back to double check.... Wow! That appears to be a massive collection of saws. I have become a bit of a saw nut and love to see other's collections. I would greatly appreciate a little more detail on your collection.

[Mike Allen1010]

As requested, here are some pictures of my saw bench -- nothing fancy. I built it out of construction grade Doug Fir to save some $. Tops are 2” x 12” and the legs 4x4s. The legs and horizontal support members are joined by bridle joints,and as you can see lots of lag bolts to hold everything in place.

I added a little sliding backstop for crosscutting. It's light enough to move around the shop (the slot down the middle makes it easy to pick up), and still heavy enough to be very solid when cutting, even if I just clamped the stock to the bench and don't hold it with my weight.
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Saw Tills/saws

Disclaimer: I clearly have a saw problem and am only posting some pictures because you asked. I'm hoping that in sharing my problem I will have a sympathetic audience here in the cave with those of you that have a similar affliction.

In my defense, I have no stationary power tools and I have rehabilitated and sharpened these saws over the last 20 years. These are all I use for everything I build in the shop (mostly furniture). I know that's no excuse, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

I have four tills: Pine for my backsaws, Walnut for the fine crosscut saws, African Mahogney for the coarser crosscut saws and Cherry for my rip saws.
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Here are the crosscut saws a use at the bench: the first 5 backsaws are shop made (many thanks to one Wenzloff, TFWW and Dominic Greco for the parts), and the last one a Disston. The blades on the Simmonds and #12 panel saws are dark because I use gunbarrel bluing to bring out the etch and maybe make them smoother. I can't prove it makes a difference, but I sure like the way they look and slide through the kerf.

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Here are the rip backsaws; the three on the left are shop made (birds eye maple and Cocobolo handles):
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Here is a shot of the three tills for my full-size saws. I use the labels to keep track of the current setup/configuration:


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I will add another post if for more pictures.

Mike

[Mike Allen1010]

More Saw Pics

I use little labels to keep track of the set up-configuration- kind of like a menu!



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Here's a shot of the fine pitch crosscut saws 10-12 PPI (with space for a few who that are currently being rehabilitated) and a few of my favorites:

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Here's a the coarser crosscut till and more of my favorites:



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Finally, the rip saws and again some of my favorites:

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I like to think that I use them all -- do I have too many? I say no, my wife says yes. Please be gentle, I clearly have a problem but like I tell my wife - at least it's not heroin!

Please don't make me feel like I'm the only one who needs rehab - I would love to see pics from other with the same "disease"!

Thanks for looking- All the Best, Mike

All the best, Mike

[Joe Bailey]

Mike, if you need help, then we probably all do, because I for one am impressed.

[Tony Shea]

I'll second being very impressed. Here I was originally thinking you were some kind of saw/saw rehab business with your tills in the background in the original post. But after your latest post, I am in complete awe. It makes me feel much better about my addiction. I usually can't pass up a nice straight older disston, simonds, etc. I have not got the skill to straighten saws therefore pass those up. But boy does my collection look very slim in comparison. Very nice Mike, am glad you took the time to post them. And your handles you've made look great, nice work on those.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Mike, thanks for the pictures of the saw bench and tills. I'm not quite ready to part with my power tools, and with a 20x20 shop, I have to be careful about adding new benches, but that looks like something to add to my list.