Repairing the fenders on Oddesundbroen (the Oddesund Bridge)

 I was asked by a friend who runs a commercial diving company, if our company could help in making new fenders for Oddesundbroen. 

He said that the job was so unorthodox, that he immediately thought that we would be the right ones to do it. The thing is that the fenders are made out of wood, and since the base pillar of the bridge is round, the fenders had to be sawed out to a 15 foot radius, and they had to be made out of 10" thick azobe / ekki (tropical hardwood).

There were also some smaller parts that needed to be mounted, but they were just made from straight pieces, so they weren't equally challenging.

The first step was to make a template so I had something that I could use for marking out the fenders. 
The template was then placed on top of the azobe planks 10 " x 20" x 10feet

The newly purchased Mafell ZSE330K was originally purchased with this specific project in mind, and performed brilliantly. 
Given that the wood was so thick and hard, I found out that by attaching an elastic securing strap to the saw and to the end of the wood, it would help by giving a fixed pull, so I didn't have to push quite as hard to saw the curve. Every now and then I would reposition the elastic strap another 8" to make it smooth.

When all the pieces were made, I helped installing it at the bridge.
The entire project had been a little delayed due to the delivery of the wood as far as I have understood, so we were challenged by having to do the actual mounting in November which is not the optimal month for outdoor working in marine environments.

The diving company had deployed a working barge, a small work dinghy and a work boat for the job. The barge had a small tool storage shed/ workshop onboard, and a hydraulic crane plus a generator.
The work boat would tow the barge out to the bridge, and we would secure it to the bridge pillar and get to work. 
The waves, heavy current and tide were all factors that we tried to work around. Some days the wind and waves would make it impossible to work safely, and then we'd try to do some preparing in the small harbour, and other days we just had to cancel it all.

We had completed the hinged bridge pillar part of the project, but the abutment pillar still had to be re-fendered. I had helped in removing a lot of the old wood fenders on that, and the old rubber fenders as well.
Sadly, the weather turned so bad in the end of November, that I was unable to see the project completed since I had to return to sea and my regular job. 

All in all a very challenging and satisfying project to have worked on.

Going through my pictures, I can see that I forgot to take any of the newly installed curved fenders.

Sawing the curved fenders

The first curved fender.

Mafell ZSE 330K, a fantastic tool.

Oddesundbroen

The state of somne of the old vertical fendering.

New fender planks, new galvanized chain and new fender rubber.

View from the abutment pillar, still early in the project.

On the right side some of the curved fenders are missing.

A rare day with sunshine and low winds.

Working on replacing the vertical fender planks.

Opening of the bridge

Passing of the Poul Løwenørn

Dovetailed box for a Mafell ZSE 330K

 Last time I was home, I bought a Mafell ZSE 330K. It was for sale in the northern part of Germany, just about an hour or so south of the border, so I was lucky since most of the machines I find for sale in Germany are situated in the southern part of the country.

It came with a transport cart for use on the job site, but I wanted to make a box where it could be stored and also where I could keep any tools needed for the regular use of the machine.

I happened to have some thin larch boards that I had milled once, and there was just enough to make the sides of the box. They were planed int he thickness planer and ripped before gluing them into some panels.

The panels were trimmed to size on the table saw, and I marked up for some dovetails. Since it was going to be a tool box, I opted for regular through dovetails. With pins on the end boards where I would mount some chest lifts.

I gang cut the tails, and after some uneventful chiseling, I could mark the pins. Some more chiseling and the sides were assembled. 
I hadn't really planned on what to use for a bottom, but I didn't want the box to be heavier than needed since the Mafell itself is no light weight machine. I had a piece of 15 mm plywood, and I planed a rabbet along all sides of it so the bottom would fit inside the sides and still have a flat part to be glued to the underside of the sides. This also allowed me to nail from the sides as well as straight from the bottom to give a strong joint.

Fitting out the box was an incredible enjoyable and relaxing part of the project. I was in no hurry, and I tried to not fuss too much over ultra fine finishing details. 
The fence for the saw is kept in the bottom, around it, there were room for the tools needed to adjust and service the saw. I included 3 spanners, a screwdriver and chain saw file. There is also a room for the riving knife and the chain + saw bar. I drew a line around each part and wrote what should go where. 

When the interior was fitted, I mounted a set of chest lifts. To give a bit more for the screws to bite into, I glued a small piece of plywood to the inside where each lift was going to be.

The lid was made from an old glued panel from an old solid kitchen cabinet door (or something like that). It was a panel that I had kept on the loft of the barn for purposes like this. 
To keep the lid from scooting around, I added some strips on the underside, that works as dust seals as well as helping to keep the lid in place. I didn't mount any hinges or any locking devices. The idea is that you can just lift of the entire lid and gain access to the saw and tools. I was afraid that if I had hinged the lid, I would have to add straps or similar to prevent it from falling over and ripping the hinge screws out. And all that would just make it more difficult to reach inside the box.
I was happy to see, that when everything was in place, there was still room for a 5 L jug of chain saw bar oil. So the box contains all that I need to use the saw at any job sites.

Box complete with lid.

Box without contents.

Bar along upper wall, tools & parts in place.

Saw body in place.

Company name without the log on the side.

 

Barnsley hayrake table for my sister in law

 Mettes sister turned 50 this year, and her husband asked me some time ago if I could make a table for her birthday. 

They have recently bought a summer house and wanted a slab table of sorts. 

I showed him some pictures of the tabletop I made a couple of years ago, and some pictures of the Barnsley hayrake tables that I have made. and he confirmed that it was something along those lines that he would like to give her. 

We settled on a family price, and I got the joy of being able to make a complete table this time. Not just the tabletop. 

I wanted to blog about it during the build, but given that it was a birthday gift I couldn't out of fear that the surprise was blown. 

All the wood comes from the blood beech that I milled a couple of years ago, save for the pegs that I used for the drawbores that are made of ash, and the butterflies that are made of elm. 

I had forgotten how much work there is in flattening a massive slab using hand planes, and at one point I considered if I should try to make a flattening jig for a router. But I decided that it wasn't worth the while for just one slab.  

A thing I remembered from last time was that it was important to make the breadboard ends before putting too much energy into the flattening. Simply to keep the split parts of the crotch in place. So that is where I started. 
As soon as the breadboard ends were in place, a regular workout using a jointer plane with a scrub blade in it was the next task. I switched a little with a regular jointer and going either diagonally or traversing the grain. 
The slab had twisted a bit during drying, so one small area in the top end of the crotch kept being about 1/4" lower than the rest of the surface. I decided that it would be a waste of time, wood and energy to remove that much wood from the rest of the slab, just to get everything flat. After all it was an area about half the size of my palm, and I felt that it gave a bit of character to the table. 

I made a bunch of butterflies in progressively larger sizes out of elm, just to give a bit of contrast to the beech. The butterflies serve both to stabilize the split crotch area and to fill up the void so you don't accidentally push a dinner plate through the large hole. 

Once the butterflies were glued in place, they were dressed down to the surface of the tabletop, and I sanded starting with grit 40 on a belt sander and ending with grit 240 on a random orbit sander.

The undercarriage for the table was interesting to make due to the tabletop not being rectangular. I decided that it would look the best if the legs were sort of the same distance from the edges of the table. To avoid any hiccups, I made some full size drawings of each end, so I had something to work from. 
I mounted the two traverse pieces with a tenon through the center, and the traverse piece itself set into the top of the leg (I am a bit uncertain what the technical name of that type of joint is).

After chopping in MMXXV in the lower stretcher, the table got a couple of coats of a wipe on finish (linseed oil, spar varnish and turpentine) And it was moved inside the house to be ready for pick up (and to make a bit of space int he shop again).

As always a challenging and satisfying project. The biggest issues were that he top was heavy and unwieldy, and that it takes up a lot of space during the build. 

I clocked my hours, and all in all there is 60 hours of work in the table.

Ash log Roubo project 5, the completed bench.

The two leg vises each had a parallel guide installed. I made a mortise and tenon joint with lightly tapered run out, so the guide was thoroughly fixed be means of a couple of wedges.

I made two lines of holes, so I can adjust the parallel guide with 1" increments.

A groove was routed in the underside of the top, and a sliding deadman was made and installed. A bunch of holes were drilled in that one too. 

My old bench was never fitted with a shelf, I have often thought that it is one of the few things that could make a good bench better, so for this one I wanted to install one. 

The shelf itself was made out of small ash boards of varying width. I simply milled whatever pieces I could find from the large log, and to avoid live edges, they were all trimmed. 

The shelf lies loose on top of a batten that is screwed to the stretchers. I positioned the shelf so that the ends and the rear was flush with the top of the stretchers. That way it will be easy to sweep debris of the shelf, or push/pull a heavy object in and out of the shelf.

The front stretcher carries the sliding deadman, so that one ends in a triangular shape that raises above the shelf.

The ends of the slab were sawed square and they and the top were planed using a couple of hand planes.

I purchased a really nice Record quick release vise from Brian Eve, and I plan on installing it at some point. But I'll wait a bit because the wood is still moving a lot as a result of it not being completely dry.

I think that I need to run the tap through the threaded holes in the legs too when the bench dries, just in case the wood movement distorts the legs and thereby shrinks the holes.

The bench hasn't received any sort of finishing, but I might give it a coat of linseed oil to protect the surface a bit.

I told Gustav, that I would like him to have the bench, since he will train to become a carpenter. So we have installed it in the shop so he can start using it.

Completed Roubo work bench.

Twin leg vises and sliding deadman.

Rear of the bench (now on a clean floor)

Shelf is flush with the top of the rear stretcher.

The patched up top of the slab.

Spindle with apple hub and ebony pegs for the dowel.

Complete with Roman numerals.

This end will feature a Record quick release vise at some point.

Ash log Roubo project 4, leg vise spindles and chops.

During my final trip on the Troms Capella, I used the ships lathe to turn a tap for making wooden threads.
It makes a 2" thread with a pitch of 4.5 modules. Modules is actually just a fancy word for Pi mm, so the thread is 14 mm or pretty close to 9/16"

It seems as though I only took one picture while making the tap, and now it is at home, so I can't really take anymore pictures of it at the moment.

The tap worked really well, despite ash not being the easiest wood to turn a thread in.
After making the internal threads in the legs, I watched an episode of Roy Underhill, where he makes a die for wooden threads.
I basically copied all he did, and though I couldn't do it as fast as him, eventually I ended up with a die that could produce a thread.
The first spindle looked utterly magnificent, with the slight but important part - it didn't fit..
I had to do quite a bit of adjusting to get the die working in a way that produced a spindle that would work. But finally I had two spindles (made out of whitebeam).

I turned a couple of ends for the spindles out of some apple, and glued them on. Then a hole was drilled through, and a couple of sticks were turned and inserted.
Those sticks were retained using small ebony pegs, so technically I can't keep on claiming that the entire bench is made from the same tree.

The chops were made out of the ash log, and I made those a bit tapered to make them look nice.
A square recess was chopped in each of them to receive a garter for the spindle.

Completed spindle.

Close up of cutting action of the die.

Turning a spindle blank on the metal lathe.

Fabricating a 2"/4.5 module tap.

Two pieces of ash for the vise chops.

 

Recess for the garter.

Ash log Roubo project 3, the undercarriage

With the legs all done and the short and long stretchers ready, I was ready to begin the assembly of the undercarriage of the workbench.

All the joints were drawbored, and I made a bunch of dowels for the project. I can't quite remember what size, but I think they were sort of 3/8" in diameter.

I used my homemade drawbore pins to test the fit of each of the joints, and they worked really well. Having made four of those enabled me to test both ends of a stretcher/leg assembly at the same time.

The long front stretcher was made with a triangular shape at the top, to accommodate a sliding deadman. I even remembered to make a slot in the front legs for the parallel guide for the leg vises before assembling all the parts!

I placed the top upside down on a couple of battens so I wouldn't mar the top in case there was a small stone or any other debris on the workshop floor.
The tenons and the mortises were lubricated with an old candle, as I didn't want things to seize up half way. The undercarriage was brought up to the mortises, and I double checked that the front of the bench top was also aligned with the front of the undercarriage before I began to negotiate the legs into place with the help of a hammer and a block of wood.

Slowly but surely the legs seated themselves in the mortises, and once the sound changed upon hitting a leg, I knew that they were in position.

The assembled undercarriage.

Checking that all parts line up.

Checking both sides.

Half way through.

About an inch to go. 

Ash log Roubo project 2, legs and mortises

It is with a slight embarrassment that I discovered that I forgot to blog further about the build of the Ash log Roubo bench, so I'll try to spread the rest of the pictures and information over a few blog posts to make up for that.

I had read in the Roubo book, that the legs should be rectangular, which puzzled me a bit, since they are square on all the drawings. But I decided to follow the written instructions. So I made the legs 4x6".
I made a little shoulder on the inside of the legs, and then sawed out for the large double tenon with the angled front.

I used the chain mortiser to make the mortises in the top. I had to make a new attachment to get it to work that way, but a bit of plywood and a few small strips of wood was all that was required.
The machine took care of the bulk of the work, and there was just a little bit of cleaning up in the corners of the front mortises that had the corners defined by a saw cut.

Once I had made all the mortises in the top, I remounted the chain mortiser in its stand and made the mortises in the legs for the stretchers.

Making the tenons on the stretchers was easy, basically a bit of sawing and chopping.
Prior to making the tenons though, I had drilled a hole in the two legs destined to become the front legs of the workbench. And I had threaded those holes with my homemade tap.
My plan was to make sure that the bench could be used for boat building (just in case), so I wanted to make two leg vises on the front.

I had decided to use as much ash from the same tree as possible, so the legs and stretchers were all from the same trunk as the top itself. It was far from bone dry, and in the end one of the stretchers had twisted a bit - but not enough to stop me.

Making a double tenon on a leg. Notice the shoulder.

Marked up and ready for sawing.

Portable chain mortiser attachment.

Drawbored stretchers.