Breadbin, hand tools wip

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Andy,

with ref to your stopped rebate above: were you not tempted to finish it off with a router plane? I ask that as someone who does not have too much faith in his own chiselling and who would regard the chisel as a means to get down to near the point at which the router takes over.
 
I'll guess at Andy's answer to that, before he gets here. A router plane tears at the wood somewhat. It doesn't leave a shiny plane-like finish which you can achieve fairly easily with paring. For my money, you rough chisel to get rid of the bulk, then use the router plane to repair the mess and get to a level, and then pare with a chisel to finish. Admittedly, inside a narrow groove you won't achieve the same results as you can get paring on, say, the face of a tenon.
 
Well, the honest answer is that it didn't occur to me. I could have used a Stanley 71 or any of several wooden routers but my mind was running on chisels instead. The chestnut is very pleasant stuff to work with and I was happy with the surface left by the wide chisel.

Once again, there are many different ways to go about a job like that.
 
AndyT":168nu200 said:
Well, the honest answer is that it didn't occur to me. I could have used a Stanley 71 or any of several wooden routers but my mind was running on chisels instead. The chestnut is very pleasant stuff to work with and I was happy with the surface left by the wide chisel.

Once again, there are many different ways to go about a job like that.

Yep, loads of different ways. I find myself reaching for the router as it is such a reassuring tool. It seems to be made to achieve "bang on".
 
What a super project, and very neatly executed.

=D>

It would be an excellent opportunity for some simple letter carving or a little flourish of chip carving.
 
custard":24mu3kkq said:
What a super project, and very neatly executed.

=D>

It would be an excellent opportunity for some simple letter carving or a little flourish of chip carving.

Thanks - but it's not finished yet and there are still plenty of opportunities to mess it up!

I wonder what sort of carving would look right? Maybe something underneath the bottom? :wink:
 
Nearly there, you'll be relieved to know, except those with bets that lockdown will finish first. Before I show you the last few stumbling steps, I want your help deciding about a handle.

It needs to be easy to hold, as I think it will be necessary to guide the door back into its slides below the top - it won't just go there magically when knocked. So I think it needs to be 2 - 3 inches long.

I have a nice bit of bog oak which is big enough, another of the many "offcuts" given to me by Custard. But rather than mess that up, I have made a couple of sketch handles using softwood of much lower rank from my own offcuts box.

This was my first idea. Rounded, curved. At the ends either with one curve like this

bbin135.jpg


or with two like this

bbin136.jpg


Here it is showing the scale, but with the bit at the back not trimmed off yet.

bbin138.jpg


Or would it be better to keep to straight lines and angles, like this which is the same size but hexagonal in cross section. (Without the holes, naturally.) Angled so the top surface is horizontal.

bbin142.jpg


For all three options, do please imagine a better quality of size and finish - there's nothing like macro photos on a big monitor for showing up all the faults in a piece of wood!

Which would you pick? Or do you have a better suggestion?
 
I like the last one personally Andy. Think the faceted edges will suit the bog oak.
 
I left you all in the lurch about fitting the door and making the handles.

You won't be surprised to know that I spent quite a while thinking about the arrangement for the door. I want it to slide on brass pins in the plastic lined slots on either side. These pins also work as a hinge, so the door can pivot down. They need to be in the right position. Also, the top edge needs to be rounded enough to clear the top, without making an ugly gap.

Time for an experiment with a bit of scrap.

bbin119.jpg


bbin120.jpg


This seemed to work ok, so I marked out and drilled the real thing.

bbin121.jpg


It's easier to drill vertical holes if the wood is horizontal.

bbin122.jpg


I chose a modern drill, bit and depth stop

bbin123.jpg


then enlarged the holes to 3/16" inch with a nice new imperial sized bit. (Thanks Andy!)

bbin124.jpg


To round off the top edge, I couldn't resist using this hollow plane.

bbin126.jpg


It may look quite ordinary, but the flat chamfers and the maker's mark tell a different story.

bbin125.jpg


It's by John Harris, earliest of the Bath planemakers, and probably dates back to the 1770s. I do rather like the idea of using a tool which could be 250 years old but still does the job it was made for. It's probably the oldest tool I have.

The fitting was a success. After trimming the bottom edge, it looked like this.

bbin129.jpg


To support the door when open, I fitted two little wheels. They were cut off the stump of African blackwood left behind when I turned the drawer knob for my little walnut table - I find it hard to chuck out even tiny scraps of exotic woods when they can come in useful.

bbin128.jpg


I then turned to the back panels. These just needed some holes to be drilled so they could be screwed into the rebate, with a tongue and groove holding them at the top.

I don't like using slender drill bits in a big heavy drill. So I used a little brass Archimedean drill. It's the sort of thing that fretworkers used to use to make little holes to thread sawblades through. For a job like this it has the advantage that it's easy to drill at an angle, so the screws dive down into the base properly.

bbin139.jpg


This was to make pilot holes for the threaded part of the screws. To make clearance holes for the shanks, I used a much more conventional hand drill.

bbin140.jpg


And then I countersunk for the screw heads. I really do prefer the wooden brace for this job and keep it ready with a countersink in it.

bbin141.jpg


After that, there was no escaping it, I needed to decide on the handle. I came down in favour of something smaller, thinner and curved. (Your comments really did help on this.) A bit of marking out

bbin143.jpg


bbin144.jpg


Then I planed the grooves with a small round. Bog oak is really weird stuff to work on something like this - the shavings looked a lot like black polythene.

bbin145.jpg


bbin147.jpg


I cleaned up the groove with a round file, then planed the curves and shaped them with abrasive paper.

bbin148.jpg


bbin149.jpg


bbin150.jpg


To sand the ends square I turned my bench hook over and used it as a sort of sanding shooting board.

bbin152.jpg


bbin153.jpg


Then I just needed some accurately placed screw holes

bbin155.jpg


bbin156.jpg


Nearly done!

A quick sanding was followed by finishing. I used Osmo Poly-X. One coat on the inside, two coats on the outside.

bbin159.jpg


bbin160.jpg


bbin161.jpg


I'd made some little feet from the offcut of bog oak not used for the handle.

bbin162.jpg


And here's a carefully posed photo of the last screw having its head carefully clocked - I didn't want complaints about that sort of thing!

bbin163.jpg


And suddenly there it was, finished!

bbin164.jpg


I'll give it a week or so for the finish to cure completely before it goes into use, but here is the old one - very rusty on the inside.

bbin165.jpg


and the new one

bbin167.jpg


bbin166.jpg


I know it's taken a long time and I have doubtless agonised much more over the details than other people would have done, but this is what I like doing. Each project is an exploration of the possibilities and a chance to re-learn techniques I have forgotten or discover new ones. Thanks for coming along for the journey.
 
AndyT":kfku7c1y said:
I left you all in the lurch.......

:lol: Yeah you did! I was only wondering this morning how you were getting on with this. It looks great. That's a really nice little project. When do you start carving it? :lol:
 
MikeG.":1yjvvib5 said:
When do you start carving it? :lol:

When there's no bread left to carve!

But thanks Mike, for bearing with me and not telling me off for having more tools than strictly necessary. :)
 
Yes indeed, very nice and beautifully photographed. But - you had me thinking I was going mad for a moment here - no, I was right, what happened to this one you you made earlier ?
 
Sheffield Tony":2e7ub1zr said:
Yes indeed, very nice and beautifully photographed. But - you had me thinking I was going mad for a moment here - no, I was right, what happened to this one you you made earlier ?

It's still around, but no longer living in Bristol.
 
Nice work, AndyT.

Ignore the fleers about being a two bread bin plutocrat. It's only jealousy.

As overheard in Waitrose: ' Darling, do we need bread for BOTH our bread bins?'
 
Fantastic work as usual andy, love the bog Oak.

Pete
 

Latest posts

Back
Top