Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: LivingElemental on July 14, 2012, 06:08:19 pm
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I'm destroying my back deck using my stairs and handrails to hold my staves while I shave them, so I'm planning on investing in a workbench or a shave horse, but I've never owned one before, so I don't know.
What is everyone else using?
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I made myself a shave horse, highly recommended. Need a bench too for the later stages.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/Shavehorse1.jpg)
I've modified it a bit since this shot, I've put the seat on a skew so that the stave can pass under my left arm when I'm working near it's centre.
Del
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Never been much of a handyman. Anyone know of a good shave horse build-a-long?
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Have you looked in the "How To" section?
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Never noticed it there before. I just started skimming through it. Thanks.
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I made a traveling sit down bench with a vice on it not to long ago. What I use every day is a small work bench with a good sized vice on it.
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I can't get on with shaving horses and i've used a few different ones. I've even made a 'new' design where the stave is clamped using inner tubes and can be locked in place with a piece of wood so that you can move around it.
I don't think you can beat a nice sturdy bench with an engineers vice with 4 inch jaws which are padded with a little leather. Make your table higher than you think so you don't have to bend over at all when working on a bow. Use either wood or steel box section for the frame, 3/4 ply for the top and then rawl bolt it to a solid wall with some brackets so that it's completely immoveable. Perfect!
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... Make your table higher than you think so you don't have to bend over at all when working on a bow. ...
Ain't that the truth!
Del
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(http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/ab346/sadiejane9/bowmaking/DSCN0916.jpg)
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You don't mind if I copy either of your designs, do you?
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Del looks like the American stereotypical image of the "peculiar" Englishman...leather loafers, knit stocking cap, slacks! Granted, I see the same thing...but then I catch myself studying the wood he has trapped in the bodger trying to see where he is in the process, whether there is anything I can steal for ideas, how he is addressing the wood with the tool. Heck, I wanna be Del the Cat when I grow up. Maybe that should be IF I grow up.
In the last place I lived, I built a great workbench by going to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and buying a set of kitchen cabinets. The base cabinets were set up on 4" of risers and had a countertop made of double thickness of 3/4 exterior grade plywood with a glued and dowelled hickory facing installed. The wall cabinets fit over a sink and had a gap for a window where you would stare out wishing you weren't washing dishes. That wall unit was hung up and a pegboard tool rack covered the space where the window would have been. A flourescent light fixture was set in that space as well and three power outlets installed at the back of the bench. The bench top also extended 3 inches out over the base cabinets so that clamping to the bench was a snap. I wrote out all my math equations and doodled over it with pencil until it was covered. I'd use my palm sander to clean it up and re-paint every few months. Worked for me.
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You don't mind if I copy either of your designs, do you?
No prob, there are better pics and a write up on my Bowyers Diary.
Just google to find it. The search on the Bowyers Diary actually works well ! :o
Del
@ JW.. If you look closely you'll see I'm using an invisible spokeshave! I just posed the pic for my blog and it was the first tool that came to hand ;D
Mind it's a great tool, I've never made a mistake using it, but the shavings are very very fine ;D
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The main thing I noticed in Del's picture is that he appears to be quite comfortable in a knit watch cap and sweater. I would give one kidney and my remaining eye tooth for some cool, dank weather like that now. It's hotter than furry **** in a wool sock down here right now.
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It's hotter than furry **** in a wool sock down here right now.
I hear ya, buddy. I work part time in an adult beverage shop...you can bet Del's invisible spokeshave I take my bloody time restocking the barleywater cooler!
There is a nice little picnic spot up Nemo Road in the Black Hills. Lots of shade, a nice gurgling coldwater creek, barbecue grills, and these wonderful heavy picnic tables. I take my gear up there now and then and work. I always end up letting other people take a few licks with the tools and they are always fascinated. It's the "outreach woodshop".
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To take one out of my dad's book, it's hotter than a four-balled tom cat down here this summer. I've been having to move my shop into the woods behind my house to avoid boiling alive.