Stuart Ablett
Member
- Messages
- 15,917
- Location
- Tokyo Japan
I went down to the local glass shop to pick up some glass for lapping the bottom of the #5C Stanley I'm working on, and much to my surprise, the glass shop had closed Seems the guy retired. As you can tell, I don't buy a lot of glass
I then had to go to the next closest place, but this is out of my neighbourhood, which is no big deal, but, I'll have to break in a new guy, to dealing with the foreigner
On Tuesday, I went by the shop and the guy was out, but his wife was there, I explained to her what I wanted, as best I could, but from the 'Deer in the headlights' look I got from her, it was obvious she had no clue what I was talking about, but she wrote down the sizes, my name and cell number and said he would be back around 7PM. I went back around 7 PM and he was there, putting stuff away off his truck, as he had just got back from a job, he stopped and we chatted, at first I could see him looking kind of sideways at me with a 'Oh Brother, here we go' look, but once we got talking and I was making myself understood, he was fine. He said he was busy the next day, but would have time on Thursday, so why drop back around the same time then.
Today was Thursday, and around 6PM he called me to say he was done, and I could come by anytime. I'd just finished deliveries, so I scooted on by.
I wanted three pieces of glass, one the narrow width of a piece of sandpaper and two times the long length of a piece of sandpaper, about 22cm wide by 60 cm long (8.6" x 23.6") and one piece the same size as a piece of sandpaper. These two I wanted out of the thickest glass he had, in the garbage pile. I also wanted another piece for a buddy, a photographer, he wants it to put stuff on top of and light from below that piece is 45cm x 45cm and 5mm thick (17 3/4" x 17 3/4" and 3/16" thick)
It turns out that he did not read the list right and had not cut the one smaller piece I wanted the same size as a piece of sandpaper. No worry he said, I'll cut one now.
The glass is 1cm thick (13/32") and he cut it by hand, boy is that slick, did not take him long at all, he sanded the sharp corners off the piece and then said "There is enough in that off cut to make one more, do you need it?" I said sure thing, and so I got one long piece, and two short pieces, plus the piece for my buddy, all for 3000 yen or about $25.
Good deal says I
I'm making up a sharpening box to carry or at least keep together all of this stuff.....
Here the two pieces of glass are in the box, the smaller piece on the bottom.
The long piece is out of the box....
...and so is the short piece. The sharpening stones will go on top of the glass, so I'll have one place for all of my sharpening stuff.
Got to be flat.
When lapping the bottom of the plane, it does little good to lap it, unless the glass is really flat, and one a long piece like this, if the table or work bench is not real flat, then the glass can bend a bit.
I put my straight edge on the glass and it looks real flat but.....
Checking it with feeler gauge the right side is fine, but.....
.... I found that the left side was down a bit, just a bit, 0.03mm worth.
To fix this I put a sheet of newspaper under the one end and checked the whole length of the straight edge again, this time I could not slip the 0.03mm feeler gauge under it anywhere.
That is flat
Now if I only had some spray on glue for the sandpaper
Cheers!
I then had to go to the next closest place, but this is out of my neighbourhood, which is no big deal, but, I'll have to break in a new guy, to dealing with the foreigner
On Tuesday, I went by the shop and the guy was out, but his wife was there, I explained to her what I wanted, as best I could, but from the 'Deer in the headlights' look I got from her, it was obvious she had no clue what I was talking about, but she wrote down the sizes, my name and cell number and said he would be back around 7PM. I went back around 7 PM and he was there, putting stuff away off his truck, as he had just got back from a job, he stopped and we chatted, at first I could see him looking kind of sideways at me with a 'Oh Brother, here we go' look, but once we got talking and I was making myself understood, he was fine. He said he was busy the next day, but would have time on Thursday, so why drop back around the same time then.
Today was Thursday, and around 6PM he called me to say he was done, and I could come by anytime. I'd just finished deliveries, so I scooted on by.
I wanted three pieces of glass, one the narrow width of a piece of sandpaper and two times the long length of a piece of sandpaper, about 22cm wide by 60 cm long (8.6" x 23.6") and one piece the same size as a piece of sandpaper. These two I wanted out of the thickest glass he had, in the garbage pile. I also wanted another piece for a buddy, a photographer, he wants it to put stuff on top of and light from below that piece is 45cm x 45cm and 5mm thick (17 3/4" x 17 3/4" and 3/16" thick)
It turns out that he did not read the list right and had not cut the one smaller piece I wanted the same size as a piece of sandpaper. No worry he said, I'll cut one now.
The glass is 1cm thick (13/32") and he cut it by hand, boy is that slick, did not take him long at all, he sanded the sharp corners off the piece and then said "There is enough in that off cut to make one more, do you need it?" I said sure thing, and so I got one long piece, and two short pieces, plus the piece for my buddy, all for 3000 yen or about $25.
Good deal says I
I'm making up a sharpening box to carry or at least keep together all of this stuff.....
Here the two pieces of glass are in the box, the smaller piece on the bottom.
The long piece is out of the box....
...and so is the short piece. The sharpening stones will go on top of the glass, so I'll have one place for all of my sharpening stuff.
Got to be flat.
When lapping the bottom of the plane, it does little good to lap it, unless the glass is really flat, and one a long piece like this, if the table or work bench is not real flat, then the glass can bend a bit.
I put my straight edge on the glass and it looks real flat but.....
Checking it with feeler gauge the right side is fine, but.....
.... I found that the left side was down a bit, just a bit, 0.03mm worth.
To fix this I put a sheet of newspaper under the one end and checked the whole length of the straight edge again, this time I could not slip the 0.03mm feeler gauge under it anywhere.
That is flat
Now if I only had some spray on glue for the sandpaper
Cheers!