BugBear's Web Presence

• Stop Press/Temporary Features

  An old style fretsaw, now restored.

  

• Site Map

  Shows the linkage of this site, and all the pages and images thereon, generated with a simple perl script

• Plans and Projects

  • Bowsaw
    My bowsaw plan is almost famous! So I've given it its own page including photos, the original detailed plan, and versions made by people out in web-land

  • Closed ('D' pattern) Plane Handle
    In the same spirit as the bowsaw above, I am planning to make my own scrub plane (I've been planning this for years now ;-) I recently encountered a wooden Ibbotson Jointer with a wonderfully comfortable handle, at such a low price I bought the entire plane, just so I could reverse engineer the handle design.

  • A Scrub plane
    You know that scrub plane I was going to build. I've finally built one, but not in the way I anticipated... by converting a jack plane to a scrub plane.

  • Plant Stand
    I saw the original of this at an auction, and the kind people let me crawl all over it with a tape measure. I then built it from English oak, and it looks pretty darn good. It's an ideal neander project. If you follow this plan be warned that I didn't calculate all the lengths and angles correctly; the legs angle inwards and some minor corrections need to be made on the "hopper cuts". Here's the plan (40K, PDF), and here's Bill Claspy's version.

  • Record #043/#044 lever Cap
    How to make this often missing part. (41K, PDF)

  • Small Projects for the Shop
    Coupla' small tools to build

  • Scratch Stocks
    A dissertation on scratch stocks - commercial ones, how to build your own, and what they can do.

• Hint and Tips

  • Web Searching
    Over the last several years, I've done a lot of web searching, and learnt "stuff". Here's the pick of the techniques I use to amuse and amaze

  • Workshop
    I've posted various of my favourite techniques in forums over the years. Thanks to a recent loan of a digital camera, here (at last) are the images to go with the text

  • Sharpening
    A simple and functional approach to blades that actually cut.

  • Saw Sharpening
    Following recent discussions, I've collated some of my information.

• Planes

  • Starting with Handplanes
    One of the FAQ's on any handtool forum is "I want to start hand planing. What should I do?" Here, for the greater good, is a rather extensive linked introductory dissertation.

  • Sole Flattening
    One of the other FAQ's is "does my plane need to be exactly flat, and how do I make it so?". I can't answer the former (it's been the heart of many a juicy flamewar) but here's my best shot at the latter.

    Following questions prompted by the above flattening, I've added some less rambling information:

    • Theory Behind Flattening
    • Straight forward "how to flatten"

  • Record
    Here's a patriotism induced offering; information about planes by Record that were only made by Record, and weren't available from any other manufacturer.

• Web links and directories

  • Tools
    Several people have gone to the trouble of making available reference material on old tool brands and models.

  • People
    I've had the pleasure, on various fora, of encountering several of that most excellent individual, the galoot. Here are links to the homepages of a few of them.

  • Workbenches
    Every neander needs a good workbench. Here's a collection of every useful page I can find. It includes plans, discussion and sources. I try to keep it up to date, but link-rot is an occupational hazard.

To read a PDF file you need a PDF viewer. The standard is Adobe's "Acrobat Reader". If you can get this software off a Magazine cover CD, it's quicker, but here's the online download if you can't.

If you follow a book link and buy from Amazon.co.uk , I get money from their associate program.

people have strolled by.