Is there a project that you have started and then put off working on and why?

Pam Russell

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Holland
Mine is a cherry wood rifle stock. I had bought the wood, a big investment on my part, and then stopped because of not being sure how to inlay the action. Plus being afraid of ruining it. I've cut the blank in the general shape I want and stopped at that point. It's just a .22.

Dscf0005 (2).jpg
 
But seriously, sometimes things just get into a mode where either due to an unforseen design issue, or other reasons, things get put on hold for a while.
 
Sheesh no never :rolleyes:

A few reasons here
  • intimidated by the next step
  • stuck on figuring out exactly how to solve a problem
  • distracted by something shinier
  • something else really needs to get done first (and then something else...)
 
for me it was a obstical i hadnt done before, but after being pushed to it and seeing it done i made the plunge and was surprised at how easy it was to do compared to the way i perceived it..
Pam , frank fusco had a machine that would have done that stock for you, it was called a terrco duplicator i think.. but dave hawksford has made stocks for muzzel loaders so you in the right crowd for help
 
I don't really have any unfinished (or unstarted) flatwork projects, but I've got a few unfinished turned pieces around the shop that will never get finished, but that's because the wood was uninteresting or too junky to be worth the hassle to work with, or because I ended up cutting a form I don't like.

There are a few things I've built though, that I'm hesitant to try building again because I now know how hard it is to make and how lucky I was to have pulled it off the first time. My quilt pattern cutting boards are a good example of that.
 
Did I ever start something and take forever to finish it --- wow, that is so funny!!!!
Ask everyone around me.
I promised my daughter a Cherry blanket chest for her wedding gift - 6 month to a year BEFORE her wedding. She got it at 2nd anniversary?

Looking at the picture you posted - I saw the gun and stock - nice

The rest of the picture could be topic of a LOT of interesting discussion. You are one very interesting person.

I used to work at Winchester, as a senior engineer in manufacturing I had AMPLE opportunity to interact to departments and people. One time at Winchester in New Haven in the factory that was built in the 1800's I spend some time in the "custom gun" building department. The people working there were in their trade for 30 years. They were some kinda GOOD, let me tell you.

Sorry - but I cannot tell you HOW to do it. That is a BEAUTIFUL stock .

What I CAN offer up is this.

Make a "nuther" stock out of a different blank. Put the same effort into the "test run" as you plan to in the real deal.

I told you about my friend Elizabeth. She did some amazing work. Most guys would blush and shudder at the museum quality and extremely intricate jewelry boxes and display cases she made. She used exotic woods like rosewood and ebony. Far more expensive than Cherry. She is NOT a rich person, but more like "us". She just liked the nice stuff and stepped out to do it. Often she was scared to death to make the cuts - but she got through it.

I say - make a test run in Maple, of something less expensive - but NOT pine of any softwood. You want to be near the hardness of cherry. You could even make a glued up laminate. My Winchester lever action is a laminate stock - and it looks nice.

Make the new stock blank and wail away at is.

The custom gun makers at Winchester used anything they did what they could get to work. Hand drills to rough out material. Hand chisels - dremel tools - files --- anything.

They had just regular work benches with vises, and clamps ---- all the normal stuff that we find in our hobby shops.


I did take a class on time in Half Hull modeling. We modeled a half hull model of a sailboat with only basic tools

Band saw - just to get rough shape - really rough. I don't think you really need that.
The rest was with:

Nickelson Pattern makers rasp
Curved hand gouge
40 grit sandpaper
various grits of sandpaper to get to finish.

Getting the "lines" to be "faired out" was a skill development for sure.
I cannot type words to get that one in.

I would say - do internet search on the term ----- Fairing out --- or some derivation of that.

I would also tell you -- train your fingers and hands - light touch -- to feel - (you eyes do not do this) - feel - the smoothness of a curves surface. Notice the uneven wavyness of the curved surface and use the rasp and sandpaper and gouge to fix it. You could be a blind person to do this. In fact blind people would do it better than a seeing person.

Sorry for writing a book - but it is an interesting undertaking.
 
There is one, I started building a little 12' sailboat over 8 years ago. The hull is built, rudder and tiller build. It has been sitting in the garage for 4 years without any progress. Why? I'm at the step of epoxy and sanding the hull. I found out real quickly, I hate working with epoxy and doing all that sanding. I find every excuse in the book, to put it off. Been very successful so far,,, in putting it off!

One other is a '56 Ford 851 tractor I rebuilt and restored many years ago. When I did it I knew the back tires and rims were in bad shape. I patched them up as well as I could but knew they wouldn't last. They gave out several years ago and the pretty tractor has been sitting ever since. I just never seem to be able to spend the $1200 it would cost me to replace them. Always find something else to spend the money on.
 
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Nickelson Pattern makers rasp

On a side note those sadly ain't what they used to be (quality wise). If you can find some NOS (new old stock) ones your in like flin or some older used that aren't in to bad shape you could send them to bogs tool (http://www.boggstool.com/) for sharpening and that would work (their sharpening prices are really reasonable: http://www.boggstool.com/page74.html). If you're looking at new tools with a comparable feature set nowadays I'd probably instead consider a couple of the "iwasaki carving files" which aren't quite the same but do cut fast and leave a nice surface. The next closest thing is some of the bespoke rasp makers - I like looking at those but have never spent the $$'s ($100 for a single rasp.. ouch!).
 
I bought my Nickelson Pattern Makers Rasp in about 2002 or 2003. I paid $55 for it. I have never had an older one so I have no comparison. I found it to work VERY well. The guy teaching the class was a master mold maker and had been plying his trade for several decades - he supplied the rasps, brand new. He was not selling at a profit. He was just helping his students get the tools needed. He never said anything about quality other than to say they were of a high quality. I have no complaint - I still use that rasp today. To my knowledge - nobody else in the class had complaint either.
 
Fore me it's the Shaker style slant side hutch. Been working on it for a year or so. I'm probably going to abandon it because it's almost 7 feet tall and my shop is barely 7 feet at it's highest section. I'd need to build a long work table and I don't have the room. Defiantly poor planning on my part. (don't tell anyone but I've scavenged some of the shelves and top to build the book case I made last month)
 
I bought my Nickelson Pattern Makers Rasp in about 2002 or 2003. I paid $55 for it. I have never had an older one so I have no comparison. I found it to work VERY well. The guy teaching the class was a master mold maker and had been plying his trade for several decades - he supplied the rasps, brand new. He was not selling at a profit. He was just helping his students get the tools needed. He never said anything about quality other than to say they were of a high quality. I have no complaint - I still use that rasp today. To my knowledge - nobody else in the class had complaint either.

Yeah they moved production in 2009-2010 or so. Before that they were fantastic, unfortunately the newer ones aren't as good of quality:
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/blog/181
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/more/AU-Hist.html

Pauls post reminded me that the Dragon Rasps are nice as well.
 
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