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152541 Mme4u2meh@a... 2005‑11‑20 bio & ?
Hello all, my name is Steven C. Kumpf Jr. I currently reside in
Philadelphia, am 28 with a wife and a 2.5 year old boy. I have been
consulting the Archive for planemaking information and I figure that it
is time that I join the list. My obsession started with the birth of my
son. With a newborn in the house I was forced to alter my war plan. how
does one make no noise and still continue butchering wood? we all know
the answer to that .My solution ended up blossoming into a modest
working collection of Stanley metal bench planes( mostly type 6, 7, and
8's for my users) and 80 plus molding planesand about ten that I have
made so far. I also have started a restoration business( houses) and
work in Chestnut Hill and Center City(old City) for those of you who
know Philly. I use the molders for the trim that I have to make. I like
to do it that way and I do not own a sh@p$r and mills want to make a
thousand feet, not ten. I'm doing allright so far. I've been working for
the past eight months straight. Gotta start somewhere. My shop/closet is
soooo small, I think I can win an award for that. It is a 10 by 18
garage in the back basement of the house. My workbench takes up about a
third of it. I have to get very creative. Right now I am doing a job for
a guy in old city. He wants me to fab/install a ballustrade on the third
floor stairway. I am doing most of it by hand, my lathe is belt driven,
but I want to ask, the banister, I bought the stock hemlock rail from
h*m# ch!po. It is close enough that I can modify it to match the
ballustrades that are in the rest of the house which is the whole point
of the project. I planed off the two cock beads that are on either side
and planed off about 7/16ths from the bottom. Then I stuck on a 1/4 inch
bead on the two bottom sides for the finish. Pretty simple but my
question is, is this cheating? I know if I wanted to do it the galoot
way, I would have had to chop a tree down with an axe and hew it by hand
with a hewing hatchet. Do true galoots only use wooden planes? What is
the specific time period that a galoot thinks he or she should have been
born in? I am only being half serious but do want answers. Is my hand
rail cheating or am I well on my way to being allowed to sit on the
porch with the rest of the club? I have looked for some of the
philadelphia planemakers' locations. Most of them are gone. The worst
example is that of John Veit. His workshop was demo'd when I-95 was put
in(right through the middle of the city also cutting right through the
oldest part of the city where the highway, a park where bums sleep, and
three luxury apartments now stand) Philly has been raped in the past
eighty years. The water company and the gas company use thick lumber
when they dig ditches to hold up the sides of the hole and to cover the
hole. About a year ago, I stopped on a site and asked for some. They
said, people still use wood this big? It ended up being mostly center
cuts and wery wet as well as knotty. I did manage to find three peices
of 16/4 by eleven and a half by ten southern yellow pine, four peices of
12/4 by eight by eight semi clear poplar and two peices of 12/4 by ten
by eight ambrosia maple, all just like it was just sawn except for the
pine which was bone dry. The pine ended up being my new workbench top
with two rows of dog holes, square, in the front piece. The maple is the
base with doweled mortice and tenon, all done by hand and not glued in
case I have to move it. It is a monster with all my bench planes in the
base. But now I see that I should have glued the base because with all
the planing the base has become loose. Is there some way that I can keep
it solid without gluing it together? I know about the drawboring, but I
would rather be able to take it apart if I need to.


                          Steven C. Kumpf Jr.
                            Philadelphia PA
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