Roger Tulk
Member
- Messages
- 3,018
- Location
- St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
In the sixteenth century, the authorities didn't examine witches, as you may have heard, by throwing them into water to see if they would float. They asked them to attach handles which attach from the back by two blind screws. If they did it on the first try, they were executed as witches. My wife has been waiting for me to do this for some time, and the words I used while I was trying to get the holes in the right place would have set the COC on fire. I made a clever little card stock template for installing the handles, and still managed to get the handles in the wrong position and had to redrill a couple of the four holes. Oh, yeah, mounting a handle with just one blind nut is a breeze, but add a second hole and the whole project goes to heck.
Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk about. A while ago, I bought a spokeshave, a knockoff of a Stanley 151, from our local everything store, Canadian Tire, known to all and sundry as Cr@ppy Tire, although most of their products are of acceptable quality.
The spokeshave was not great, requiring considerable honing to undo the damage that had been done by the beach rock that the Chinese sharpened it on, and not really getting a good consistent shaving. I decided to try tuning it, using the instructions from a book I have called Working with Handplanes and an article therein entitled "Soup up Your Spokeshave," by Brian Boggs. I declined to make a new cap iron out of brass, and I may yet buy a new blade from LV, but theintersting part to me was flattening the bed.
The procedure involves putting Bondo on the bed of the spokeshave, then putting a paper guard on top and squishing it down with the blade and cap iron. Part of the process involves setting up the adjusting screws so the blade doesn't ride on them, and the whole thing is supposed to reduce chatter and give you an altogether superior experience.
You can see from the photos below how it looks in general. I am leaving the Bondo for a day or so to set, as I think the paper will retard the offgassing of the solvents. However, the blade no longer rides on the adjusting screws, and if the spokeshave gives me a better performance, this will have been worthwhile. The paper stays, according to the instructions.
Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk about. A while ago, I bought a spokeshave, a knockoff of a Stanley 151, from our local everything store, Canadian Tire, known to all and sundry as Cr@ppy Tire, although most of their products are of acceptable quality.
The spokeshave was not great, requiring considerable honing to undo the damage that had been done by the beach rock that the Chinese sharpened it on, and not really getting a good consistent shaving. I decided to try tuning it, using the instructions from a book I have called Working with Handplanes and an article therein entitled "Soup up Your Spokeshave," by Brian Boggs. I declined to make a new cap iron out of brass, and I may yet buy a new blade from LV, but theintersting part to me was flattening the bed.
The procedure involves putting Bondo on the bed of the spokeshave, then putting a paper guard on top and squishing it down with the blade and cap iron. Part of the process involves setting up the adjusting screws so the blade doesn't ride on them, and the whole thing is supposed to reduce chatter and give you an altogether superior experience.
You can see from the photos below how it looks in general. I am leaving the Bondo for a day or so to set, as I think the paper will retard the offgassing of the solvents. However, the blade no longer rides on the adjusting screws, and if the spokeshave gives me a better performance, this will have been worthwhile. The paper stays, according to the instructions.