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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Welcome to the Porch, Steve.

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.

There are several options, although drawboring is
reversable with a small drill. Anyway, the easiest way to
make a disasebleable bench is with bed bolts.

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=1&p=40445&cat=3,40842,41269

These are both easily removeable and can be cinched up when
the base loosens - more likely with changes in humidity and
aging of the timbers than with the stresses of planing.

There's lots more information in links from my Knowledge
Base, specifically:

http://www.jlatech.com/rob/Woodworking/Knowledge%20Base%20Workbenches.htm

Good luck, and happy surfing,

Rob in Peoria
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Steven,

Welcome!  I was born in Philadelphia at a very early age
but grew out of it quickly - we lived off Cottman Avenue
until I was 4.  No, what you did with that hemlock handrail
is *not* cheating, and anyone who would do that with hand
tools is absolutely in the right place!  Pull up a chair.

Sounds like a nice bench.  If I'm understanding right from the
porch dwellers, benches are not a project that are ever
completely finished; if you use it, you'll keep tuning it for
the rest of your life.  There just comes to a time when you
spend less time building it and more time using it.

By the way, kids like eggbeater drills.

Gary K
Close to Buffalo NY

----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: 
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 8:04 PM
Subject: [OldTools] 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

--snip, snip--

> 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

--snip, snip-- 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not trying to be picky, but right from the start Bob Key's Bench
Pages is not a good link.  That domain is not there anymore and is available
for purchase.  I searched Google for Bob Key and remember well that even 2-3
month ago was able to find him very easy.  Not this time.

So, anyone know what happened to Bob? His bench site is far too valuable a
resource to lose.

Rob in Peoria
1960 Anniversary Shopsmith Mk V Brownie
www.jlatech.com/rob/Woodworking/Knowledge%20Base.htm

Wood shavings on the floor! Wood shavings on the floor!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steven C. Kumpf  Jr. wrote:

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  mortise 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.

Steve could try the method of joining prescribed for bench building in "How
to Work with Tools and Wood", a Stanley Tools book first published in 1952
and into its 22nd printing by Pocket Books in 1972, the vintage of my copy.
Simply, hex head (machine?) bolts of  3/8" are run through washers into the
legs and thence into the rails, 1" holes are drilled into the rails at the
points where the ends of the bolts will be located and the bolts are
tightened into the nuts placed in such 1" holes.  It's all a bit, hum, Ikea
with real timber. Although the Stanley design was for flush-fitting rails
and legs and dowels were incorporated to prevent the rails from revolving on
the bolts, there seems to be no reason why one can't fit the bolt & nut
assembly to the bench as is.  The trick is to drill the bolt holes straight
enough so that the 1" holes land on the ends of the bolt holes.  Horizontal
drilling (boring?) with a brace and auger with a looose washer on the auger
shank to keep things horizontal whilst sighting along the rail to keep
things straight should do the trick.  The auger having, in the ordinary
course, 1/64" greater diameter than its nominal size, permits the easy
fitting of the bolts.  I have built six of this type of bench (some simply
as heavy stands) in this manner over the years and have been happy enough to
have been able to tighten them up whenever timber movement so dictated and
they can be pulled apart for transportation and re-assembled fairly easily.
16 nuts, bolts & washers are required if the bench has lower as well as
upper rails.  If one does not like the bolt heads protruding they can be
sunk and plugged and the 1" holes can be bored from the inside to a
sufficient depth to accommodate the nut but without exiting the far side
(outside) of the rail but the plugs have to be removed for disassembly or
retightening.  This construction method first appealed to the bottom-feeder
in me because I could use "off-the-saw", unseasoned and therefore much
cheaper hardwood for the bench base and pull things together as shrinkage
loosened things up. Liberal applications of diesel fuel on the green timber
forestalled endgrain cracks.

In the alternative, if drawboring is continued completely through the legs
and well-seasoned and substantial (1/2", say) and "bendable" dowels are used
for the pins (unglued) they should be able to be drifted out with a smaller
diameter drift but would need renewing on re-assembly.  The offset should be
no greater than 1/16" and the leading end of the pin needs to be well
tapered to avoid the dreaded "blow out" on the far side.  Drive them from
the "show" side just in case.

John Manners
In Brisbane, where it's starting to warm up a bit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 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?

Nope.  ;-)

> Do true galoots only  use wooden planes?

Nope.  We use metal ones too...

> 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?

Some have mentioned bed bolts or lag screws - how about tusk tenons with
wedge keys?  Then you could snug the joints up nice and tight, but still
disassemble if you wanted.  Of course, that would likely require some
redesigning of the current bench.

The answer would then likely be bed bolts.

http://tinyurl.com/7l7hh

- Bill T.

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