Been working with power tools for 30 years and just started to work with hand tools

I took a dovetailing class and did pretty well cutting dovetails there, using sharp chisels for the first time.

I'm trying to do the same at home, but my own chisels don't seem to pare well at all. I bought two Shapton glass stones (1000 and 8000 grit) and a Lee Valley side clamping honing guide.
I'm trying sharpening either a 25 degree primary bevel or a 25 and then a 30 degree micro bevel. My chisels are probably low to medium quality (Rockler Chrome vanadium set and a Stanley 1/4" not sure what
kind of metal). I really don't know if it's the medium to low quality of the chisels or my inexperience at sharpening, but paring out the sockets is no pleasure for sure.

Any advice would be great:

1) Can i get these chisels I have sharp enough, but they'll just dull faster?
2) Should I just invest in better quality chisels? The Lee Valley PM V11s are quite expensive at like $90 for one 1/4" chisel. Any recommendations on chisels with decent steel would be helpful if these Rocklers are no good.
3) Any suggestions on sharpening.

Thank you,

Dave

I am looking to pick up some spare bearings for a couple of Porter Cable 690 series routers. I would have thought that there would be some cross reference between PC part numbers and standard bearing numbers somewhere on the web. If it exists, I could not find it. Here are the two PC part numbers:

878065 fan bearing
855284 commutator bearing

I know I can take the unit apart and remove the bearings and measure them, but I'd like to have the replacements on hand before I disassemble the units.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I want to make my next wooden handplane. I made the last one from beech, I like it, but I work with it on woods harder than it all the time, and wearing is a problem to some extent. I work with black locust most of the time. The options I have is to use black locust for the plane, or I also have osage, that is about 15% denser as I remember. I wonder if it would be a good choice though? Besides being denser, I also read shrinkage or movements are not a really big issue with that wood. But when I cut the osage tree out, the bark released some kind of gluey sap. Like the fruit. It is very heavy stuff, very sticky. I wonder if that is in the wood too, and if it makes it difficult to work with the wood itself? Or because of the sap can it irritate my skin?

I made this octagon box just for fun.  



I first was going to make it round on both the inside and out and with a threaded top, but after I saw how nice my miters were I decided to leave the outside as an octagon.  For the curious, I cut the miters on my CMS using an added 90 deg fence to assure the piece were plumb against the fence, only to find that the 22.5 deg angle was off by a fraction of a degree.  I had to disengage the preset 22.5 deg detent and tweak the angle some unknown amount until the mating pieces formed a perfect 45 degrees.  

I used my CNC to cut the ID.  At 3" thick, this was about the maximum I could put under Z-axis with a bit long enough to reach at least 1-1/2" deep.  The ID is cut just over halfway, then the box is flipped over and the other side is cut, as well as the rabbett on the bottom to receive the bottom panel.  What looks like two layers when you look inside the box is actually how the grain responded from the bit cutting in opposite directions.  That would disappear if I had been motivated enough to sand it all out, but I wasn't. 



The octagon shape pretty much nixed the idea of a threaded top.  There's just no way that the top would line up with the base when screwed on.  I could have used a round top to overcome that, but that didn't seem too appealing, so I just made a top with a shoulder on the bottom that fits into the ID of the base.  

The dome shape of the top is easy to do with a piece of clip art from the VCarve Pro software I have, as were the flutes that lay onto the dome.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, probably gift it, but it was a fun project to make. 

John

HI
I need to glue two small pieces of plastic to gather.  They will be under stress.  Is there a preferred type of glue for this?  Just use epoxy?? gorilla glue??
Thanks

Mark

I finished this am by installing the clasp to keep the door closed.


I wasn't able to find the 3 Mountaineers print on the front and the inside, so I went with a cherry panel.



(the tough part will be mailing it to her in DC after Christmas!!!)

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Fabricating a 28x18in end table with Black Walnut & Alumilite Deep pour resin.

I’m going to be working a project for my daughter cutting 4x4 posts. Might not have a generator to run the PC Circular Saw. They’ll be in the ground and I’m cutting the excess above 10’.
Will also be cutting 2X’s and 1Xs but the posts are the most important.

I don’t have a battery powered saw. Or system. Yet.
Would this be a good option OR do y’all think there’s better value out there?

DEWALT XR 20-volt Max 7-1/4-in Brushless Cordless Circular Saw Kit (Battery & Charger Included)

Thoughts.

I am remodeling my kitchen and the flooring guys removed the baseboard to install the new floor. I need to reinstall the baseboard and can't figure out how to nail behind the cast iron radiator. Any suggestions?

I finally received a set of bearings so I could put the motor back together.  Good luck if you ever have to send anything through the USPS hub in Indiana.  The first set of bearings arrived there and never left.  My local post office people traced it, sent emails to the IN facility, and even called me back after it was determined the package was lost and could not be found.  Very friendly and helpful, I must say, but the package nevertheless disappeared, and this was in November, not exactly the Christmas rush.  The bearing vendor refunded my money, so that was good, too.  I ordered more bearings from other vendors to avoid having to go through the IN facility and received them in another week or so.  

For those who might need to replace the bearings in a MBF, GWI, and probably other saws in this size range, the front bearing is 88504 and the rear one is a 88500.  Be aware, there is a short and a long 88500, the long one is the correct one, around 16.9 mm, IIRC.  

To start, I put the fan back on the motor arbor.  I tried to do it by freezing the arbor and heating the fan to 160F, but it wouldn't slide on, so I used a piece of aluminum tubing that fit onto the inner hub of the fan and whacked it a few times with a rubber mallet to seat it against the shoulder on the arbor.  



I installed the front bearing first, making sure I put the bearing retainer ring on the arbor first. This time, freezing the arbor and heating the bearing to 160F worked like a charm.  The bearing just dropped in place.  



I tried the same process with the rear bearing but it wouldn't go on, so I used a parallel jaw clamp to push it onto the arbor.  It took quite a lot of force to push it on.  With that done, I installed the shims and retaining clip against the front bearing.  



I put all of this back in the freezer and the front bell in the oven at 160 F.  As with the front bearing, the bell just dropped in place over the front bearing.  



I slid all of this through the motor stator and rear bell so that the rear bearing was centered over its recess in the rear bell and then whacked the front of the arbor a few times with a mallet to drive it in.  Everything looked good so I installed the four bolts to lock it all together.  Finally, I installed the ring on the end of the front bell, fishing the bearing retainer ring around until I could get the bolts to engage, then tightened them snuggly, backed them off, then snugged them again.  



The sound that caused me to replace the bearings is gone and the motor purrs now.  Now to get the motor reinstalled and get it all aligned.  My friend will be getting this just in time for Christmas.