Masterclass Tool Chests to Workshop Vises – Notes From Bench

Tool chest build is done
The woodworkingmasterclasses forum has gone from strength to strength and I thank all of those who take part to make this resource so available. I also thank you all for making it what is is in terms of encouragement to new woodworkers. Your experiences give real value and meaning to the work we do in passing on knowledge and skills without being hampered by advertisers. Thank you!
On the current woodworkingmasterclasses.com series I just concluded building the woodworking tool chest and here is how it looks today. We will be adding veneering, inlay work and cockbeading sometime in the in the near future, but as it stands, this is the first film series that teaches, door making, box making and drawer making using traditional hand tool methods for training woodworkers around the world through online broadcast. How about that; I mean we have haunched mortise and tenons, rails and stiles and raised panels in hand ploughed grooves and we never turned a machine on to perform any of the tasks mentioned. Then we have half-lap dovetails using a very unique method developed for the task that adds a slight quirk that eliminates the need for marking gauges yet brings superb accuracy to this difficult joint. We added another twist to the housing dadoes at the rear of the drawer in that this housing dado also has a through, cross-wedged tenon to each corner. Again, we ploughed the grooves by hand and the steps give perfect results without screaming routers and tablesaws. The box itself is as always fully dovetailed and split by hand saw. A technique that guarantees the two halves are perfectly sized and aligned. I could go on but this is what our online training is now bringing to hundreds of woodworkers around the world. We added hand made handles tenoned through the drawer front to cap off the whole chest. All that’s left to do is a free video on how I finish the chest. Please remember that there are paid and free membership levels. All of our technique videos are indeed free, so if it’s saw sharpening or a method of ork we see essential to skill-building we want everyone to have it.
Water-based paint for vises
I found a wonderful enamel gloss paint in tiny pots to paint my vises with. One pot does two coats to six vises and that translates into low cost paint job at £3 per pot. The company is called Plasticote and can be had from B&Q. It is amazingly a water-based paint that dries quickly and can be recoated in half an hour or so. Another feature is there are no health warnings on the jar. Not one. It simply states the low levels of VOCs. Here are the finished record vises I worked on last week.
We have more on the Aldi chisels coming up shortly too. Look forward to that!