Making a Simple Project Not So Simple

[Jim Koepke]

A coat and hat rack has been on the to do list for a long time. Finally turned a few pegs out of scrap ash:

Ash Pegs.jpg

My "calipers" or gauges for turning the mounting dowel and the base of the pegs were a 3/8" & 1/2" open end wrenches.

The idea of having the pegs come straight out of the board doesn't appeal to me. So instead of doing this the easy way of drilling slanted holes I decided to put a slant on the piece of wood:

Stanley #55 at Angle.jpg

The fence on the Stanley #55 can be slanted. To get it to slant the way I wanted the wood needed to be taken off and turned upside down.

A fixture to hold the piece while drilling was made:

Angled Drilling Guide.jpg

This was bolted to the drill press table. A 1/2" forestner bit was used to bore about 1/16" deep. Then a 3/8" brad point bit was used to drill through.

Adjustment was easy with a few taps to insure the holes were concentric:

Tap 4 Adjustment.jpg

At this point I wanted to see how it all fit together before moving on to the next steps:

Test Assembly.jpg

Not being one to leave something so plain un-planed:

223 Reed Cutter.jpg

Have you ever heard, "sharp fixes a lot of things in woodworking?" It is true.

If you ever have used a Stanley Combination blade with the factory grind, you know those folks were in a hurry. Good thing I have a lot of slip stones. This blade took a bit of work to get it to cut properly. Wax on the skates and fence also helped. The orange thing on the bench is a hunk of old candle wax.

As the shavings get wider with a reeding or beading blade you know you are getting to depth. Chris Schwarz recently wrote something about stopping a cut. This is nothing new. Thinking about it while doing this made me wonder if that is why all the combination planes have rounded toes.

The grain on this piece is rather wild. One old rule of Combination planes is to use as straight of grain as you can. Since that wasn't an option from my pieces of left over stock, things had to be extra sharp and some clean up was needed:

Side Rabbet Clean Up.jpg

Since the grain angled across this piece a side rabbet plane came in handy to remove the splintering.

More to come...

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Now it looked to need some edge work at the top. Made a step for some molding with a rabbet plane:

Rabbet 4 Edge Molding.jpg

The edge of this was cleaned up with a shoulder plane:

Shoulder Plane.jpg

Then used a 5/8" complex molding plane:

Big Molder.jpg

Then I decided to change the molding using a pair of hollow & round planes:

Clean up Edge Molding.jpg

Then it seemed a cove would be nice so my trusty Stanley 45 was used to plow a guide slot:

Guide Slot Cutting.jpg

This is actually a Montgomery Wards #45 made by Stanley back in the day.

This was followed by a wide round plane:

Big Round in Use.jpg

My plan is to cut ogees on the end. Marking for this can be very simple with pre-cut circles:

Marking End Ogee.jpg

The circle's diameter should be close to the size of the stock. My circles have lines drawn on the axis to make it easy to line up for this type of work.

It will likely be tomorrow before more is done on this. The sawing of the ends, gluing and trimming the pegs and deciding on the finish is about all that is left.

jtk

[James Pallas]

"Sharply" done Jim. Fun to watch.
Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks Jim.

Just a thing or two to add.

The spacing was set for about 8" and the overall length is about 45". Went out and cut the end ogees and it is actually 50".

The peg spacing was stepped off with a pair of dividers and then a pencil was used to darken the marks.

jtk

[Jeff Ranck]

Well done!

[steven c newman]

Makes mine look rather a bit plain jane......instead of turning knobs, I just used the knobs from the old kitchen cabinets....then again, I'm cheap..

[Jim Koepke]

Makes mine look rather a bit plain jane......instead of turning knobs, I just used the knobs from the old kitchen cabinets....then again, I'm cheap..

I am cheap also, knobs are too valuable to use on something like this.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

Wow, +100points for actually producing something other than misery and sarcasm with a #55.

[Jim Koepke]

Wow, +100points for actually producing something other than misery and sarcasm with a #55.

The #55 is a sadly misunderstood plane. The movable skate being adjustable likely gives a lot of people fits when using it with a straight or beading cutter. That the blades all come in need of sharpening is likely the next cause of consternation.

If a person has problems getting the #45 to work for them, the #55 is going to be worse.

Over the years the #45 has become fairly easy for me to produce good results. What totally surprised me was a #50 that was found in an antique shop. That thing is simple to use compared to the #45. Yet it doesn't even have half the bells & whistles.

BTW, I have even had some success with some of the complex molding blades on the #55.

Like so many other things, sharpness and a light touch makes it work.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

The #55 is a sadly misunderstood plane. The movable skate being adjustable likely gives a lot of people fits when using it with a straight or beading cutter. That the blades all come in need of sharpening is likely the next cause of consternation.

Yeah, you're the third person I've seen say something along those lines. The other two were very good at fettling/sharpening and also said that the third skate was the key.

[Brian Holcombe]

Really nice work Jim! Thanks for the write up!

[steven c newman]

I'm even cheaper.....knobs used were replaced on the kitchen cabinets, rather than throw the large bagful out into the trash, I kept them for other projects. New knobs that were used? Yard Sale finds, bag ful @ $0.25 each.....

[Jim Koepke]

Really nice work Jim! Thanks for the write up!

I am glad you are enjoying it. Forgot the wife and I had appointments in town today so didn't get anything done on it.

The other two were very good at fettling/sharpening and also said that the third skate was the key.

The third skate and the shoe are needed with some of the complex shapes. Especially if one wants to keep the cut from wandering or digging in to spoil the cut.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

I am glad you are enjoying it. Forgot the wife and I had appointments in town today so didn't get anything done on it.



The third skate and the shoe are needed with some of the complex shapes. Especially if one wants to keep the cut from wandering or digging in to spoil the cut.

jtk

Interesting - thanks for the information and for sharing a very nice project!

[Jeff Ranck]

Great job Jim. I love hearing about the things you make.