Skills

My father was a woodworker. He made beautiful furniture. I have a couple of pieces he made.

His primary tool was the radial arm saw. He also had a hand drill. Everything else he did by hand. I wish I had learned more from him.

I think it was one of his quiet hobbies. Later, he became obsessed with model railroads, doing incredible things with them. He is actually published for his work on model railroading.

His skills didn’t seem to pass to me. It is/was so bad that I didn’t do woodworking until I had power tools and a place for them.

One of the basic tasks of wood working is sawing. This is rather simple. Move the saw back and forth in a straight line.

Yeah, not so much.

You have to cut a straight line, without a curve in it. That straight line must be in the correct place. It must not be tilted.

I think 3 degrees of freedom in that sawing.

So how the heck do you saw something correctly? And what the heck do you do when you have to “rip” a piece of wood that is 6 foot long? Or even harder, resaw something that is 6 foot long?

You start with the correct tools. With saws, there are a lot of them. But the real starting point is the marking gauge.

Instead of just marking the line you are cutting, you mark the sides as well. This will give you a visual of where you are supposed to be cutting.

Next, put your pencil aside. Use a marking knife instead. First, it gives a cleaner mark. Second, it is easier to transfer a knife line around a corner.

If you are working on light wood, you can then use that pencil to make that knife mark easier to see.

Finally, for precision work, make a knife wall. This is an artificial kerf. It makes a physical stop for the edge of your saw blade. Now, when you start sawing, your saw is already in a kerf. If you carry the knife wall down the sides, it will help to keep your saw properly aligned.

So that marking knife, a good combination square or try square, a metal ruler, and a good bench chisel are required.

The next thing to look at is the types of saws that are available, and what they are used for.

There are more than you can shake two sticks at. And each saw does a different task.

I’m going to focus on straight cuts and ignore Japanese pull saws.

Saws can be cross-cut, rip cut, or a combination cut. A combination cut saw does a poor job of both ripping and cross-cutting. But it can be handy when you don’t know which you will need.

Cross-cut blades are designed to cut across the wood fibers. Rip saws are for cutting with the fibers.

Normally, we want cross-cuts to be smooth. Smooth means more teeth per inch. More teeth per inch means smaller gullets. Smaller gullets mean slower cutting.

If we have two saws with the same level of sharpness, assume “very” sharp. The one with fewer teeth per inch will cut faster. The reason is the gullets.

The gullet is the space between the teeth. When you are pushing a saw forward, each tooth is cutting a small shaving from the wood.

That shaving has no place to go. It has to travel with the saw blade as it moves forward. The only place it can travel is in the gullet.

As the blade exits the wood, the wood that is traveling in the gullet drops free.

When enough wood dust/chips have built up in the gullet, the tooth can no longer cut and collect more wood shavings.

With fewer teeth, there is less room for wood shavings. The gullets fill up faster and the saw stops cutting.

There is so much more to this. I thought I had a better understanding.

In trying to explain it in this article, I figured out that I didn’t know enough.

I’m not a huge fan of hash, to be honest. However, I am a BIG fan of using up leftovers. The other day when it was hot, I used our Westinghouse to cook up a whole turkey (it was small, only 15 lbs or so). I’ve been using it in sandwiches and salads since last week, which has saved us turning the stove on during hot weather. As with Thanksgiving turkey, after a while you tend to run out of the usual leftover turkey dishes. I was looking for something different but yummy, and this was the recipe I found. This is my take on one by DownShiftOlogy. It was so delicious that we’ve decided to make it again, and soon! This dish serves two people.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium or a couple of small red potatoes
• olive oil
• 1 small yellow or red onion, in half circles
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup cooked turkey, diced finely
• ½ cup thick sliced mushrooms (optional)
• ½ cup rough diced bell peppers (optional)
• 1-½ tsp finely chopped fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dried thyme)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 eggs

Cook your potatoes until they are barely soft. I did mine in the microwave, but you can easily use leftover potatoes, or even frozen hash browns for this. Dice the potatoes into small pieces, about a half inch square. I like the skin; your mileage may vary. Feel free to discard it if you wish.

Oil a large cast iron (or other) pan and add in the onions and potatoes, and cook until the onions begin to soften. Add in the mushrooms and bell pepper, if you will be using them. Continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft and cooked. You want to leave the contents of the pan in a single layer, as much as possible, and don’t touch them for about four to five minutes. This lets the bottom get crispy and golden.

Add in the green onion and garlic, and gently stir. Cook for another minute or two. Add in the turkey and spices. Saute for another five to ten minutes, or until everything is thoroughly warmed.

In another non-stick pan, cook two eggs per person. These can be fried or poached, as you wish. Keep the yolks soft, unless you have picky eaters who simply can’t tolerate it.

Serve up on a plate with half of the hash and the two eggs on top. There’s no need for toast, with this meal, but it’s a welcome addition if you have some.

Notes:

If you like spicy, sprinkle the entire plate with a good quality sriracha. This adds both color and flavor, as well as a dash of heat.

This hash is lightly based off an African dish called shakshuka. You can find it here, if you’d like to check it out!

Last year, I purchased a Sig P365 XMacro. This is the “large” version of the P365, longer barrel, and a 17 round mag.

It turns out that my nephew wanted the same pistol, having looked at mine, he offered to buy it.

Being a good uncle, I sold it to him at my cost, plus shipping to his local FFL.

Because I was selling it so close to the time I had purchased the gun, we figured the safe thing to do was to send it to his local FFL for the 4473 BS.

The day I shipped it, I knew I had made a mistake. I really wanted that pistol, it felt good in my hand. It pointed like my 1911s. It rang steel.

One issue I have with it, is the magazines. This is a double stacked, single feed magazine. It holds 17 rounds, but the grip is narrow compared to most other double stacked pistols, my Glock and H&K for example.

You cannot load this without a reloading tool. I could get maybe 12 rounds into it before it would become too difficult to do with just my thumb, I could not get 17 rounds into it with just my thumb.

Even with the reloading tool, that final round is a bitch. I hold the magazine flat on the table, slap the tool hard to make room for that final round, then slip it under the feed lips. Without the tool, this is a 15 round magazine. Still better than regular 7 round 1911 mags, or 8 round extended 1911 mags.

So I’m in the process of changing out my EDC pistol. The holster system is the same as I use for the 1911s, but because the Sig weighs less, there is less pulling that side of my pants low. I’ll be picking up a mag holder shortly.

Currently, I’ve got an Alien Gear IWB Cloak Tuck. It has the same adjustments as the Shapeshifter system I use for my other pistols. The difference is in the retention system, the shell doesn’t move to other backers (OWB, Appendix, Shoulder, or paddle), it is only an IWB, and it is slightly slimmer than the Shapeshifter shells.

It isn’t all that difficult to go from 8+1 and a mag to 17+1 with no quick access mags.

Over the coming weeks I’ll do some range time to become comfortable drawing, presenting and hitting what I aim for.

Exciting times.

So what I do, when I’m out and attending events, is I set up a historically inspired or historically accurate (depending on the event) encampment. I dress the part, I cook meals either inspired by or directly from recipes of the time period. While I’m not perfect, I try to be very aware of what’s modern and what’s not, so that I can explain to any interested onlookers.

This lends itself well to gadget building. Not modern camping gadgets, though. While those are nice, they’re not replaceable. I can enjoy them, but only in moderation. I’m talking about the kind of gadgets you can build on site, for each event. Or they take so few resources that you can carry said resources with you. When looking into these types of items, I almost always turn to the Boy Scouts (mostly “of old” because the modern ones seem to have lost some of the sauce that made them special, but whatever). They have great publications, both on and offline.

When you look at paintings and sketches and such of earlier time periods, you learn things. A lot of the images contain people doing normal human things. Laundry, cooking, writing home, lounging, and the like. It’s the details I look for, though. What do they have around the fire? Are their tools laying on the ground, or hanging, or what? Where are their towels? How do they hang their wet laundry? What do their tables look like?

Chris is making some shelves for me, and probably a box that is both dry larder and a hide for my very modern cooler. It will look like a standard wooden chest, but will contain some build in shelves for canned and other dry goods, and a big section to slide my cooler into. When the lid is closed, it’ll be just like any other piece of camp furniture. And it will break down and flat-pack in the truck, which is a personal requirement I have of most items.

But there are other, little gadgets that I need in my encampment, and I’m in the process of learning how to make them. The first and most important one for me is a garbage bag holder. I know it seems stupid, but I need to have a modern garbage bag on hand for my very modern garbage… but I don’t want it in plain view. I’m going to be using a “three stave” version (the pic to the right is a four stave style), with either twine or small branches going between the tops of the staves. My garbage bag will be inside a large cotton canvas bag, which will in turn be draped over the staves. Voila, something that doesn’t take away from the camp look, but allows me easy access to my rubbish bin.

The Boy Scouts have a bunch of cool gadget pages, but the best is the Scout Pioneering “camp gadgets” page. If you read through, there are literally hundreds of projects, some large and many small. The second gadget that I’ll be making is a pot holder. This one, like the garbage bin, doesn’t require any twine or tying. For each end of the two sticks, you drive a criss cross of pegs which can be made of any bits of wood laying around. Lay the rods or sticks on top, and now you have a place out of the dirt to put your washing to dry, or the lid off your dutch oven. I have a trivet that I’ve used previously, but this is a much better alternative and one I can install along the far side of my fire. It will have the added benefit of keeping patrons from walking into the fire pit (which is actually a larger problem than you might think).

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Many years ago, I started to build a laminated wood workbench from hard maple. It was very slow-going. I think I have what I finished up in the rafters of the shop.

It is only 9 inches wide. It is not smooth, it is not flat. It is unlikely to be straight, and it is not square.

At the time, I did not have a place to use as a shop. We were living in a rental town house. All the work I did was done on saw horses in the kitchen with hand tools. I had purchased two very nice iron planes to use. But, I did not know how to tune them. I did not know how to use them.

In short, I lacked both skill and knowledge.

You can have something that is very smooth, but it might not be flat. You can have something be flat, but not smooth. You can have something that is flat and smooth, but not square. All three are needed to have a good face.

As a piece of wood comes off the saw, it has rough surfaces. The surfaces are mostly flat and square, but you can’t trust that until it is measured.

A piece of wood can also be cupped. This is when the center is higher than the edges. The board can also be twisted. All of these can be removed with a hand plane.

You start by examining the board and placing the cup up. This creates a stable surface. Looking down the board, you search for any high spots, end to end. These get your attention first.

Using a ‘fore plane, you remove those high spots. You then use a jack plane to make a flat surface that is also smooth.

Now that your board is flat and smooth, you use winding sticks to find any twist in the board. You plane that out.

Finally, you have a good face. Mark it, then move to an edge. Make it flat and smooth. Use a try square or a known good square to make sure your edge is square.

In the end, you will have two faces that are flat, smooth, and square to each other.

Moving on to the other sides becomes much easier.

Planes

I started with two planes from that failed project of years ago. One is a No 5 jack plane and the other is a joiner or try plane, I don’t remember which. I haven’t gotten tot hat stage yet.

What I didn’t have were smoothing or scrub planes.

Via YouTube recommendation, I found one that looked nice on e-bay, was a No 4 smoothing plane, and looked ready to go.

Friday, before I started work on the truck, I stopped in at the second hand store. I found four planes. One without any hardware or iron, one had an asking price of $175, and two that were only $6.

They followed me home.

Yesterday, I had the eBay one arrive. I went to test it, and it wasn’t ready to use.

Taking it apart, I realized the iron needed to be sharpened. About 30 minutes on the diamond plate and the back was mostly flat, again. The chip breaker also had its edge cleaned and straightened.

Then it was time to sharpen the iron. Using a 25° guide, I started working on it.

The bright was at the heel of the bevel. Looking at the bevel more closely, it was more of a half moon shape than flat.

This iron had been badly sharpened many times.

Today, I was able to get my slow speed grinder running with the correct jig for a plane iron. That iron now has a beautiful edge. It needs some hand work, but it is almost ready to go. Testing it shows reasonable shavings, before the hand work.

The first $6 plane needs to have the edge reworked. There is a chip out of it. I’ve not started that process yet. Nor have I looked at the iron of the other thrift shop plane.

Regardless, I will have my smoothing plane and scrub planes in the coming days. Good news for me!

A scrub plane is a smoothing plane with a rounded cutting edge. It is designed to remove bulk material rapidly.

We love salmon in our home, and I cook it in a variety of different ways. This, however, is my “signature” recipe and it’s the one I get requests for most often. This salmon can be eaten with “the usual suspects” as sides (pasta/potato/rice, salad/steamed veg), or you can shred it after cooking and toss it over a cold salad for a summer treat. Check out the notes below, as there are cooking options listed!

Ingredients:

• 4 to 6 oz salmon per person (filet, not steaks)
• oil for cooking
• soy sauce
• fresh lemon, half sliced and half juiced
• good quality balsamic vinegar (like this one)
• white wine (optional)
• minced garlic (fresh or dried)
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh herbs: thyme, oregano, rosemary, winter savory, dill are usual

Preheat your oven to 400*F. In a high edge pan or cast iron pan, add some olive oil or other heat safe oil and spread it over the bottom of the pan. Add in your salmon pieces, skin down. Drizzle with soy sauce, the half of a lemon’s juice, about a tablespoon or more of the vinegar, and a dash of wine if you like. Then top with the garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper. You can use dried herbs, about a total of a tablespoon of herbs per 6 oz of salmon. Fresh herbs are, in my opinion, better.

Pop the salmon into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Using a thermometer, check for a finished temperature between 125* and 145* F (I like mine more rare, but some people don’t like to risk it and cook it for longer). Check the temp at the fattest part of the salmon. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can try flaking the fat part of the salmon; when it flakes easily and is no longer fleshy and dark pink, it’s ready.

Let this sit on the counter, out of the oven, for about five minutes. This lets the juices settle and the flavors mingle.

Notes:

You can cook this on your stove top, at a medium heat. Using a pan large enough for your salmon, begin with the salmon skin-side down. Cook until you start to see the cooked part of the salmon not quite to the half way point. Flip the salmon over, and continue to cook for about 2 minutes, then flip so the skin is down again. Cook until the salmon is done (see instructions above). If you have a very fat part of salmon, you can put a couple of tablespoons of water or wine or broth into the pan and put a lid over it while cooking.

You can cook this on your grill! If you have a fish grill basket, you can use that. If you don’t, then use a cast iron pan or pick up disposable mesh grill mats. Don’t try to grill salmon directly on your grill bars, because they’re too far apart and your salmon will end up in the fire, and you will be sad.

Though I haven’t tried it, I’d warrant you could even cook this in your air fryer or your slow cooker (though I’d be wary of that last). Enjoy!

I’m sure you all are tired of reading about my vehicle troubles. I’m sure this won’t be the last post about it.

Base problem, the truck is 15 years old. It was given a new frame, but it is starting to age out.

Major safety issues:

• Right front wheel bearing is bad
• Left front wheel bearing is going bad
• Right front caliber is likely bad or will go bad when pads are replaced.
• Left front caliber is likely bad or will go bad when pads are replaced.
• Front brake pads, both sides, are bad
• Front rotors, both sides, are bad. Wear pattern shows uneven application of force
• Right rear hard line to flex line at frame has bad crimp. It will fail soon
• Multiple other smaller, non-safety issues

The goal was to reduce my costs at the dealer as much as possible. His price on parts is reasonable, he puts a reasonable markup on those parts. He is willing to use customer supplied parts from me. I have told him that he can reject any parts I bring him if they are not up to his expectations.

The total cost of parts, from Rockauto was $514. Of that, only the brake calibers were the right parts. Everything else goes back for store credit, my choice.

Total cost of parts from local shop, over $500. This was ONE wheel bearing, pressed, instead of two, a pair of rotors and new brake pads. Moreover, there is the brake cleaner, brake fluid, two 12 in sections of brake line. I’m glad they know me. I wish they didn’t know me by name when I walk in.

I thought the right front went ok, after I stopped cursing about buying the wrong parts. It is verified that I made the mistake.

I will have my guy inspect my work and fix any errors I made.

The left front did not go as smoothly.

The wheel didn’t want to come off. The use of a long punch and a 5 pound hand sledge and my son’s help got that off.

The process of taking off the caliber is to first take off the flex hose to hard line bracket. This is a 12 MM (head) bolt.

That bolt head is now round and the bolt is still in place. I should have drilled it out with a left-hand drill and then used my other tools to remove it. My vice grips have gone on walk-about, so I couldn’t even use them.

I was able to break the line lose at the caliber and remove the caliber. The rotor gave way after jack bolts and banging.

It was getting late. The calibers did not want to line up. I finally got it installed, and the hard line would not go into place. I left it like that for the night.

Today started with a trip to the parts store for hard-line. Ally strongly suggested that having the part and not needing it was better than needing the part and not having it. Thank you, Ally.

After a bit of cussing, the hard line went into place. It would not hold pressure. It was time to try my hand at bending break line.

The hardest part of me was the fact that I had to stuff 12 inches of hard line where I should have been using a 6-inch length.

Moreover, did you know that the fittings will not slide around curves? They slide freely on the straight part. That was fun, straightening the line enough to get the fitting into place, then bending it back.

This was a painful process. Because there was no flex, I was bending the hardline with a mandrel in place. Think 2 foot long chuck of 1 inch diameter steel bar and a 1.5 inch diameter steel bar, 2 foot long. Yes, they are heavy. They get heavier the longer you have to hold them in place.

It got done. It was tightened to specification, see AVE’s earlier work. “Click”.

No leaks! I’m happy. I spend the time to find the right size for the bleeder valve. Wheel goes back on, the world is good.

It is time to bleed the brakes. The rear brakes go fine. When I go to bleed the right front, there is a puddle of brake fluid. It is leaking.

When I crawl under and review it, it is leaking where the hard line enters the calibers. At that point my daughter arrives home, I catch a ride with her to get another piece of brake line.

This goes a bit better as I could detach the bracket to get things into place.

So, going into the shop, they will replace the bad crimp, replace the left front wheel bearing, not the complete unit. They will check all the bits and pieces.

I did receive a few helpful comments. I do have an air powered impact gun/wrench. It does ok. I need to upgrade it, as it does not produce enough torque.

Because the gun is weak, I normally break the lug nuts loose before I lift the car. This makes it much easier after the car is up.

To access the axle nut, I need to remove the dust cover. To access the dust cover, I have to remove the wheel and rotor. To remove the rotor, I have to remove the caliber. To put the rotor and wheel back on and lower the car is more work than using a pry bar against the lug studs to keep the wheel hub from spinning.

This is filler as I’ve not looked at the news nor anything else on Friday.

As I’m writing this at 1830 on Friday, my hands are almost as grease covered as the worker’s hands in the image. I’ve been up since 0700 and have been at work on the Truck since 0930.

First stop, the auto supply store for cotter pins, brake cleaner, and brake fluid.

The first wheel comes off just fine.

Then it was time to take of the calibers. That is where I got my first surprise, these are big, and they do not float.

I’m used to calibers that are attached to the knuckle with two 14 mm headed screws. Torque specs are “yep, click”.

These bolts are normally greased and the calibers just float on the pin portion.

Not mine. They are attached with bolts torqued to 91 ft/lbs, and they are stuck. It took nearly 45 minutes to break them free using a 1″ black iron pipe as a cheater. The big issue was that there was not enough room to work the breaker bar with cheater. I got it done.

Once the caliber was off the truck, it was time to attack the rotor.

The rotor refuses to leave the truck. I whaled on it with a 5 pound hand sledge, it did not budge.

Second trip out, I sent my son to get some 6mx1.0 jack bolts. He returns with exactly what I needed. It only took three text messages. “What is grade 8?”, “do you want the type with the hex top?”, and “How long do they need to be.

Guess what? They don’t fit.

It is only then that I remembered that I have a nice thread gage checker. This is a steel cable with most thread sizes you would find in normal stuff. Each “key” (my son’s term for them), has an external threaded section on one side and an internal threaded section on the other.

In other words, you can screw one side into a hole, and you can screw bolts and screws into the other side.

Testing the jack boltholes I find they are 8m1.25 Off my son goes to get them.

With those in hand, the rotor comes off,

It is now time to attack the axle dust cap. This doesn’t want to come off, but a gentle (not really) attack with a cold chisel, and it gives me a gap for a pry bar to pry it off.

This revels the first clean metal I’ve seen, the axel, axel nut, and the lock for the axel nut.

With a bit of help from my son to keep the hub from rotating, I apply 300+ foot pounds with my foot. There is a load SNAP and all the tools let go. The bar being used to stop the hub from turning, the breaker bar, the 36 mm socket all went their directions.

We recovered all the pieces. I inspected the axel for damage, trying to figure out what snapped. The axle nut now spins off with just light finger pressure. Good news.

I then get the first “win” of the day. Driving the axel out of the sandpaper, err, bearing, was easy and just worked the way it was supposed to.

Driving the other side off? Not so much. After way too much effort, some stupids along the way, my son and I were able to drive the bearings off the knuckle.

The day is good!

After all that work, it is time to start reassembling the front right side. I picked up the “hub with pressed bearings” and compared it to the old part.

Not only does it not match the old part, I can’t make it work without someway to cut a spline in the damn thing.

I messed up. I wasn’t paying enough attention when I ordered front-wheel bearing assemblies. Yes, it had the 6 lugs, but it turns out that there was another version of the Tacoma which uses the heavy-duty brakes, calibers and all the rest, but it is RWD only.

I’m almost in tears. My son takes me to the parts store. They have it in stock. $195. Rockauto.com sells a better version for $106. OUCH! This is precisely what I was hoping to avoid.

It is too late to got back, I buy the parts and we go back.

With the correct part in hand, we can install the bearing assembly. I was just a question of tightening each bolt in sequence, the same amount.

I even have the right tools to torque the bolts. I’m a happy creature.

Time to install the new rotor.

This is where I started cussing to myself.

As I was checking out, I had the rotors, pads in the cart. The website suggested that I use a kit because it came with more hardware, and it was cheaper.

I went for it.

And missed that I had returned the 6 lug version and replaced it with a 5 lug version.

After a short crying jag, my son takes me back to the parts store. Yes, they have the parts in stock. 2 rotors and a set of pads. But because they only have premium in stock, $214.

The passenger side is completed. The bearing has been replaced, the rotor has been replaced, pads have been replaced, brake caliber has been replaced.

The only thing remaining is bleeding the brakes.

Starting work on the driver’s side. The damn wheel won’t come off the rotor! This required energetic use of that five pound sledge with a long punch to knock it off the rotor.

Jack bolts and a bit of hammering and the rotor came off. The brake caliber is stuck on and the head of the bolt holding the hard line on the hub side and the flex line on the frame side rounds over. I can’t get it off.

My son bounces on the breaker bar a few times before the bolts finally come loose. We managed to get the correct two bolts out, pay no attention to the extra bolt we took out.

We then got the hub ready for the new rotor. It took 30 minutes to get the rotor and caliber installed. It was then that I noticed that the hard line doesn’t line up. I take the top bolt out of the caliber and attempt to get the hard-line to attach.

That is when I called it. I was afraid I was cross threading the hard line to the caliber.

I’m tired, I’m grumpy, I don’t want to see the crap and noise that the leftist put out today.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I’m out there working on the truck. Only about 4 hours more of work.

You can have the most guns, the biggest stockpile of rice and beans, and all the best shelter, and still not be prepared to survive.

Mindset is the absolute most important thing you have to prepare for an emergency. Whether it’s a zombie apocalypse, a hostile nation bombing us, or a fire in your dryer hose, having the right knowledge and mindset is what will allow you to survive.

It’s easy to figure out infrastructure things. Do you have X number of cans of protein, and X number of bags of carbs? Check. You’re done. Even stuff like first aid is pretty straight forward. The way you take care of a broken leg is going to be largely the same no matter the situation you’re in. It’s less easy to teach yourself how to behave in an emergency.

Years ago, I was a part of St. John Ambulance. When I first joined, I took the standard first aid courses available. I then went on to take more advanced ones. At that point, my captain took me out to events to see how I’d do. The answer was, I did alright on the technical front (I knew what equipment to use, in what order) but I did shitty on the attitude front. It wasn’t that I was squeamish (frankly, doesn’t matter if you can get the job done). It was that my reaction to nerves was to giggle. Let me tell you that most hockey players do not want a giggling young adult female tending to their gaping wounds. I had to find a way to fix it.

My captain was a practical man. He decided to just work it out of me. He took me with him to some of the most brutal scenes I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve held the hand of a woman who was dying because a seatbelt eviscerated her and help was much too far away. I’ve held gauze in the open wound of a hockey player who had his neck slashed accidentally. I’ve ridden on the chest of a man while giving compressions, while being rushed to an ambulance, on the bus, and into the hospital. After a while, I stopped giggling. It wasn’t that any of it became normal. There is no normal when you are dealing with dying people. It’s that I stopped responding with the giggles.

I still giggle, and sometimes cry, and often get shakes. It’s just that those are now my reaction AFTER the emergency is over. During the emergency, I go all deadly calm, I talk softly and move slowly and deliberately, and I get shit done. There’s time for panic and upset after, but when an emergency is … well, emerging, you just Git’er’done.

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Lumber has become expensive. A couple of 4x4s, some 2x4s and a 2×10, and I’m looking at painful amounts of money. Ouch.

Which brings us to working to a goal:

This cabinet will be knocked down and flat packed. We want this for events. All in all, it looks nice and will perform the functions we need.

I started looking at the materials required to make this. The costs for the lumber starts to get a little excessive. Mostly because of some wide boards that are required. In addition, we will be making more than one and some other pieces as well.

Which takes me to wood. Wood is what you find in trees and burn in your wood stove. Lumber is what you build from.

I have a lot of wood outback. I don’t even bother with all the pine that has fallen over the years because it is horrible for heating. And splitting it is painful.

In the best of all worlds, I would have some way to drag the wood out of the lot, load it into a wood mill, and then mill it to size. Base cost, about $3000. And I’m not sure if I can get the wood out. So add another $2k for the ability to move logs.

The next best thing would be to mill in place. This I’m willing to try. It requires a jib for my chainsaw and a willingness to mill. I expect to be able to pull some reasonable 4/4 lumber out this way. Beach, red oak, pine, elm and some other wood.

Ok, that tool comes first. Add a learning curve.

Now that I have that, I need to turn that 4/4 into useful lumber for building. There is nothing in that shelf unit that is beyond my skills. I’ve built furniture in the past. I expect to be able to build this.

Except I don’t have a place to build it. Which leads me to: I need a workbench:

This is an English Joiners workbench. It has a torsion box interior to stabilize the top, The apron is 2×10 to add stability. There is diagonal bracing which is firmly attached to the rear apron and rear legs to stop racking side to side. And cross bracing for the trestles to stop forward and back motion.

It is held together with screws and construction adhesive. This is where I want to end.

For work holding, a wooden leg vise will be available as well as planing stops, hold down holes, Batten stop and a crochet.

All of this will make it easy for me to work on the cabinets that I intend to make.

Except… The front apron needs to be flat and parallel on both major sides. This is no problem. I have the planes to do this. I have the knowledge of how to do it and some of the skills required.

All I need is a workbench with a planing stop.

What I require is a flat surface to use as a pseudo surface plate for woodworking. The only thing that might come close is the floor of my shop. Which is full and where it is not full, it is oily.

The answer is to build a workbench.

The workbench that I would make is a “low Roman workbench”. It would have a laminated top of 2x4s on edge. I don’t need to make the faces of the 2x4s “flat” I just need to make them flat enough for glue up. I can do this without a reference surface.

To make the surface of the low Roman workbench flat, I can just plain it flat. This can be done with the good plains I already have and some winding sticks.

In addition, the low Roman workbench is better suited for sawing.

For now, I’m stuck between making both workbenches or using my plainer to plain the front apron. If I use the plainer, I get to a workbench faster.

Well, my rubber ducks, thank you for that option.

I’ll use machine tools to get my joiners workbench up and running soonest. I might build the low Roman a bit later.

Now to have time and good weather to build this thing. It looks to be a three day build.