My Review of Work Sharp 3000

Originally submitted at Woodcraft

You can monitor stock removal from above with the Work Sharp's "see-through" wheel while a large port provides access from underneath.

Work Sharp 3000

Easy Perfect Edge … given time.

By The Nicked Finger from Loudon, NH on 7/13/2010

 

4out of 5

Pros: Lightweight, Easy to use

Cons: Slower than Expected

Best Uses: At Home, Gifts, Contract Jobs

Describe Yourself: Avid Do-It-Yourselfer

Primary use: Personal

This tool works wonders on putting a sharp edge on things. However if you are going to change the PRIMARY BEVEL angle on anything, it’s gonna take a little while.

(legalese)

Plane and Simple

A few months back a member of my extended family (on my wife’s side) decided to sell their house and move south.  In the basement of the house was a collection of old tools from a grandfather who had passed away, and I bought the whole kitten-caboodle for $100.00 (see This Post from January).

Well, hidden in that lot was a little filthy dirty block plane that I didn’t really pay much attention to.  However I recently bought a set of dremel cleaning bits and decided to clean up some of this older stuff.

After really looking at this for first time I noted some unusual things about this block plane.  It has a lateral adjuster for the blade, the blade depth wheel is oriented horizontally:

And little tiny knob up front has some kind of adjuster I have never seen on a plane before:

I disassembled the plane, blew the dust out, and took every piece of the plane to my drill press that has a brass wire cleaning wheel installed in it right this second (I got it at the Big Blue store for $0.70).  After about 15 minutes I had everything de-gunked and pretty much rust free.

Imagine my surprise when I got enough gunk off of the cap iron to see the engraving stating this was a vintage Stanley Sweet Heart block plane.  I’m not sure exactly what the model is, I am pretty sure it is not a #102.

I’m also pretty sure it still works.

Going, going, gone….

Sunday I went to my first auction.  My wife spied an article in the local paper about an estate auction being held nearby and part of the estate was a wood working shop!

The auctions started at 10:00, and I didn’t get there until nearly 9:45, so I didn’t have as much chance to walk around and scope things out as I would have liked.

I got a little electric sharpener (by craftsman) for $10.00.  This will be good enough to hollow grind a set of junkie bench chisels, but I don’t want to use it on my good chisels or my plane blades.

I got a set of clamp edge guides for $30.  Two 4′, One 3′ and Two 2′

I also got a 3/4 HP single stage dust collector (woodtek) for $40, and a 1 HP single stage dust collector (relaint) for $45.00.

I got outbid on a 6″x4″ craftsman disk / belt sander, several different types of clamps, and 2 different oscillating spindle sanders.

Now I just need some hose fittings for the Dust collection (I’m going to put the 3/4 HP on my Bandsaw full time and move the 1HP around as I need it) and I’ll be in business.

The 2 hour project

After working 1/2 a day on Saturday, I cam home and installing the top the Bedroom Built in.  One more step in finishing this and its a big one.  Now everything looks finished (except for the handles, and the big gouge I took out of the wall installing the top) and adding the two bookcases to each end are just “add ons”.

House chores ate up the morning on Sunday, but I did get out the shop in the afternoon.  Due to a set of missing car keys I was left to work with whatever I had on hand in the shop and I remembered something the LOML had asked me for, and I had a piece of poplar handy that looked like it would fit the bill.  Two hours later the project was completed:

This is a wall mount magazine rack for the bathroom (seems someone is tired of my reading materials congregating on the back of the toilet).

Should be able to get this stained and installed by the weekend (which is good, cause it’s time get the Camper ready for our trip to Dover for the NASCAR race).  I even managed to use my new Bandsaw to shape the scooped cut-outs.

New Tool – Part 2 – The Tax Return

At the end of last year I was kind of hoping that our tax return would be enough to let me buy a new big ticket tool for my workshop (I define “big ticket” as over $200.00).  I knew I wanted to that tool to be a bandsaw, the question was really WHICH bandsaw to get.

I googled, I did searches on You Tube, I visited manufacturers websites, I posted questions in woodworking forums.  I created a comparison chart of 15 different band saws from 10 different manufacturers, comparing resaw capacity, table size, horsepower, price, etc…

Imagine my surprise when after all my research I ended up concluding that the Sears Craftsman 14″ bandsaw (for me) was going to be the best bang for the buck.

The bandsaw, in the box, weighs in at 223lbs.  Its a good 30 feet, uphill, over soft ground, from where I can park my truck to the front door of my shop… ugh.  I did finally get it in the shop, get it up on a table (which was really the hardest part), and then spent about 4 hours over 3 nights putting it together.

And because my lovely wife lets me do this crazy woodworking thing that I love so much, I just had to make something for her:

New Tool – Part 1 – The Birthday

Well I just had my birthday and my lovely wife went out and picked me up a little something.

I just put my old Relaint drill press up on Craigs List and hopefully it will find itself a nice new home.

Knob & Stain, the final pieces to the table.

Not much to say here.  Got the knob installed, gave the table 2 coats of Watco Danish Oil (Cherry), and I think its pretty much all done.  Might give it one more coat over the weekend.

Shaker table construction completed.

Saturday late afternoon I got the chance to run out and glue up the top to the Shaker Table and let it sit overnight in the clamps. Sunday I got to spend most of the day in the shop and got the bottom and top rails installed, cut the top down to its final size, and began to sand the be-Jesus out of it.

Got it down to 220 grit, installed the top (somewhere during the day I also installed the drawer stop in the back), and now, except for the drawer pull, construction is done.

This project had a lot of firsts for me. First Mortise and Tennon, first dovetail, first tapered legs, first COMPLETED project that started with rough wood.

All in all very satisfying.

Shaker, rattle, I’m on a roll

Got to spend quite a bit of time the shop this weekend and made a bit a progress on both of the pending projects.

The Woodworkers Fighting Cancer Shaker Table Build

 

 

 
 
 
Over the weekend I managed to get the aprons for the table cut, and the tennons made.  Following the advise of The Wood Whisperer I custome fit each tennon to its respective mortise.  Did a dry assembly, and finally got the carcass of the table glued up (in two stages).
 

I will have to do a little “evening” where one of the aprons meets one of the legs (I’ve got a 1/16th ridge where the apron ended up proud of the leg), but otherwise I’m pretty happy with how this is coming together.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I think the next thing on this table is going to be the top.

A counter top you can count on.

Got to spend quite a bit of time the shop this weekend and made a bit a progress on both of the pending projects.

The Cherry Counter Top for the Built-In

I got out my Kreg Mini and set about drilling 20 pocket holes in the center board of the counter top (10 on each side).  I got the Mini free when I ordered on of the Kreg clamps I got, and this thing is a joy to use on big pieces like this and I don’t have to take my regular Kreg apart.

These pieces are so long I ended up using biscuits and pocket holes to put it together (the biscuits where really to help keep the pieces aligned over the whole 10′ length).

Finally got out the glue and every clamp that I own that would open to 18″…

The I flipped the whole mess over and ran the 20 pocket screws home.  This worked really well as the pocket screws actually got some squeeze out from the places the clamps alone did not.

I even managed to get back to the piece about 45 minutes after the glue up to scrape away the squeeze out while it was in the “booger” stage.

Up next for this is a cutting to final size, and then lots and lots of sanding.  If I can “bump” into one of my neighbors down the street, he has a 20″ planer and maybe I can him to let me make a few passes over the top of this; it would sure make this last step much easier….