Made progress on the Greene and Greene desks over the weekend.
Finished surface planing all of the mahogany for the desk tops. Used my newly constructed wide-board planing jig. The jig was shown in a recent article in Fine Woodworking magazine, and allowed the user to "joint" boards up to the full-width of the surface planer (about 11.5 inches). I had a few boards that were too wide for my 6 inch jointer, so I built the jig.
I was skeptical that the jig would work, but it worked like a charm. I may make a few improvements to the jig before I use it again though. The triangular height adjustment pieces slip on the plywood suface of the base when the planer’s feed-roller engages. Maybe put sandpaper strips on the plywood top of the jig to provide more friction. I will also replace the plywood triangular pieces with another material. They have a tendancy to split when the screws are engaged. I will use either MDF (as the article suggested), or a plastic material.
Also finished tuning (fettling) the old #8 jointer hand plane over the weekend. The 100-year old blade is laminated steel and sharpened to razor sharp with DMT and water stones. I have the cuts on my fingers to prove it! It needed to be reset to a 25-degree angle, as it was way off. Took awhile to regrind it on the stones. The sole was very flat already and just needed touching up. The plane is now as good as it was 100 years ago. I love it.
Hand Planes are addictive once you start to get good results.
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About mattsanf
Matt Sanfilippo is the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Director of its Engineering Research Accelerator. In this role, Matt coordinates and enables strategic and sponsored research opportunities across the college, and stewards the development of proposals for major research opportunities along strategic themes. Additionally, he enables collaboration among the college's research institute/center executive directors, and industrial and government relations personnel in the pursuit of opportunities with industry, federal and state governments. Before becoming CPO for the College, Matt was the Senior Executive Director for Research Initiatives, the Executive Director of CMU's SII (Smart Infrastructure Institute) and ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) and RAMP (Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania).
Before CMU, Matt was Managing Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, an engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed Baker's technology division including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality, visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on information security, supply chain and mobility solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, an infrastructure engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is on the board of Larson Design Group (LDG), past Chairman of the Board for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, current board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), current Vice President of the Sewickley Heights Gun Club (SHGC) and former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
A Learning Adventure in the Workshop 