Favourite tool/piece of equipment?

[Puff]

The slats spread the pressure and keep the glass - which does flex - straighter. With a good straight break and the glass held fairly firmly, dead flat scraping is possible. IME - not sure if that's a standard abbreviation but it's In My Experience.

[liam_fnq]

Speaking of tools, I do enjoy a sharp chisel, even though mine are total crap.
I'm keen to get some better ones. has anyone used two cherry chisels. opinions would be appreciated.

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merc ... y_Code=CTC

[Nick]

Pete Howlett wrote:
... you guys are too wedded to your power tools and machines.

I do love a well sharpened Scraper Pete I just find my belt sander the most used tool in the shop & if it packed up tomorrow, it would take some adjusting to use the other methods I first started with (mostly planes, files, grit paper & a couple of ropey hand saws) . But you are right, you can't beat working a nice piece of wood with a hand tool. I know when carving my Archtop plates that hand planing tells you so much about the wood that a machine wouldn't.

[sebastiaan56]

When I first saw this thread a few days ago I was going to chip in with my trusty roll of 120 grit. But Im feeling a bit inadequate now...... Hang on..... its a big roll.....


This is the final re-constructed message of this topic posted by the ANZLF help team.

[rocket]

Mathew, the glass scraper sounds interesting, is normal window glass ok , say about 3mm thick? and doyou just cut an edge with a glass cutter?
Cheers ,,,Rod

[Kim]

I have used glass for scrapers since I was a kid. I use to shape cattle horn into animal such as giraffes, swans and penguins etc..Ironically I even made a cow once out of a cow horn.. The process was simple enough. Soften the horn in HOT water and rough cut into shapes with interlocking tabs to form the project. Then you let the horn cool and harden and begin scraping to finesse the shapes with broken glass so it all fits together as tight and shiny as a Tasmainian family in a brasso factory.

I would select different shaped bits of glass for working different pieces of horn...so much broken glass to choose from when you part of a household with three tearaway boys all armed with surgical rubber gings and air rifles. Any how I carried the practice of using glass scrapers over to wood work and still do the same...tool selection is a skill within it self, and so is breaking the glass in such away to produce the tool you are after. I guess it is somewhat like Flint Knapping.


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Anyhow the point is that different glass from different bottles, windows glass or even china will produce different tools, sometimes the edge is to thin to be of use for the job at hand so you break another bit and see what you can come up with. May be that a glass cutter is a good option to reliably produce a tool of the desired shape, but that would mean robbing myself of the enjoyment I get from smashing glass with legitimate reason

Cheers

Kim the Kid.

[woodrat]

I would have to say that my Lie Nielsen Bronze block plane is my most used tool as well as my hand scraper. I use them in tandem all the time for planing and scraping binding and all sorts of other jobs. The LN I bought second hand of eBay in the US years ago when they were still pretty exotic and more expensive than they are today but worth every penny as it is beautiful to use and ultra solid and reliable. The cabinet scraper I notice is getting skinnier so I must use it a lot!

[christian]

Most versatile and most used tool gotta be my Dewalt table saw, love the double rack and pinion fence incredibly accurate.
the router table is getting alot of use lately though.

Christian

[Taffy Evans]

I love all my machines, but like the others my sander may get the most use [in frequency not duration]. I'd be lost without my thicknesser/jointer at times. In fact anything that saves me time, especially in my repair shop. All the little helpers that enable me to work inside guitars quickly, and special jigs and clamps for instrument repair, just hanging there waiting for action. I love them all.
But with my large collection of 56 chisels and gouges, 10 knives, 9 planes, spokeshave, large drawknife....and a partridge in a pair tree, my Tormek wet grinding station gets the big tick from me. Second would be my dust extraction system.

[Nick]

I've been thinking of getting a Tormek system Taffy after a recommendation from my mad keen woodworking uncle. What accessories would you say are the most 'useful' (read used) ?

[kiwigeo]

My wife reckons I'M the biggest tool in my workshop

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Nick I 'm not sure what is available now as I've had mine for about 4-5 years. I bought a couple of different jigs at the time, but the only one I use is the chisel holding one. Some of my chisels are too short for this jig so I go free hand. Most of the Tormek parts seem too expensive unless you've a fair bit of use for them.
Nick I think Bob has got one of these maybe he might chip in.

[Bob Connor]

I only use mine for chisels Nick.

I have considered getting the jig for kitchen knives and scissors but they're not cheap.

I believe it's more economical to get them in a pack. The hand tool kit is $239 and has about 5 jigs in it - the long knife jig is $105 by itself

The scissors sharpener would be a bonus as I use the workshop scissors for cutting up sandpaper, thus they're useless for anything else.