As I’m dressing up the last few boards before assembling the crib, I decided to try planing off a few burn marks, rather than scraping them off. Holding the workpieces is my big problem. I don’t have a workbench (its on the list of projects) and honestly, I don’t have room for one right now. So when I want to do work that involves taking a hand tool to the work piece, I have to get creative. That’s how I came up with this “quad screw vise”
Just a couple of wooden handscrew clamps that I clamped to my workbench table saw. Actually, I set the workpiece in both handscrew clamps, then clamped those the table top. With such a thin edge to work on (the side of a piece of 3/4″ oak) I had to be careful not to run my plane into the head of the bar clamp, but otherwise it held the piece well.
The downside of this exercise is that I discovered I need to work on my hand plane skills, specifically setting one up. The shavings I took were a little too thick for what I was trying to accomplish. So now I get to cut a new piece from stock and try again!
Good solution to a benchless/viseless shop. Only problem I see is that you’re working awfully ‘high’ with your handplane, making it more work than it needs to be.
You’re right that having the handplane razor sharp and tuned up nicely is important to achieving good results. One you have this, however, it feels soooooo good to peel off shavings.
Cheers — Larry
It was definitely a lot of arms pushing that plane! The front rail for the table saw fence didn’t help matters either.