hardwood
Vise jaws, now. I wanted hard maple. I've never used anything but pine, and accidentally some oak.
Each jaw has to be at least 1-5/8" x 6" x 18". Nothing even close to that at the borg, or even Woodcraft.
Looked around on woodweb. Plenty of places to buy it, but none local. Found a list of cabinet shops and such.
Some in this state, at least, hmm... an artist's studio that makes furniture, 10 miles away?
Wow, solid and expensive-looking custom stuff.
I drove there, it's a mini-warehouse full of woodshop. I guess there's quite a market for expensive custom furniture hereabouts.
Plenty of space, furniture in various states of repair piled up in the front bay, table saw, bandsaw, planer, jointer, drum sander, central dust collection, a finishing "booth" (plastic sheets and duct tape).
It must be nice to be able to just decide you need to machine something and not have to spend 10 minutes moving things around and setting up...
Three guys working on cutting up a plywood panel. One came over to greet. I asked him, where do you get small quantities of hardwood?
He tells me of a place a couple miles away, and gives me directions. He asked me if I was a woodworker. I said yes, sort of, I'm just starting out. He showed me some of the things they'd built, and some of the 3D renderings of things they're planning to build. I was kind of startled when he asked for contact info so he could call me if they got busy and needed some help. I told him I didn't know how to work most of the stuff in the shop yet, but he said nobody does at first. I sure wouldn't mind learning to build things like they make.
The wood dealer is another mini-warehouse, this one stacked to the rafters with roughsawn boards. Mostly I couldn't recognize it, but I think I saw some curly maple. I told the guy what I wanted, and he poked around in the stacks, rejected a couple of candidates because they had really bad checks. Finally, one really nice chunk of hard maple (I can't help but think of it as an "ingot") 2-1/4" x 4' x 8". (When I got home, I figured out it was quartersawn, choice stuff.) More than enough. He started up a bandsaw with wheels maybe more than 4' tall, sliced off the odd-shaped end, and then flattened one face of the straighter part on a jointer as big as my bed. (Ok, I'm easily impressed by machinery.)
Damn, this stuff is solid, and heavy, nothing like pine. Beautiful grain, too. It cuts more slowly, but it's doable.
Each jaw has to be at least 1-5/8" x 6" x 18". Nothing even close to that at the borg, or even Woodcraft.
Looked around on woodweb. Plenty of places to buy it, but none local. Found a list of cabinet shops and such.
Some in this state, at least, hmm... an artist's studio that makes furniture, 10 miles away?
Wow, solid and expensive-looking custom stuff.
I drove there, it's a mini-warehouse full of woodshop. I guess there's quite a market for expensive custom furniture hereabouts.
Plenty of space, furniture in various states of repair piled up in the front bay, table saw, bandsaw, planer, jointer, drum sander, central dust collection, a finishing "booth" (plastic sheets and duct tape).
It must be nice to be able to just decide you need to machine something and not have to spend 10 minutes moving things around and setting up...
Three guys working on cutting up a plywood panel. One came over to greet. I asked him, where do you get small quantities of hardwood?
He tells me of a place a couple miles away, and gives me directions. He asked me if I was a woodworker. I said yes, sort of, I'm just starting out. He showed me some of the things they'd built, and some of the 3D renderings of things they're planning to build. I was kind of startled when he asked for contact info so he could call me if they got busy and needed some help. I told him I didn't know how to work most of the stuff in the shop yet, but he said nobody does at first. I sure wouldn't mind learning to build things like they make.
The wood dealer is another mini-warehouse, this one stacked to the rafters with roughsawn boards. Mostly I couldn't recognize it, but I think I saw some curly maple. I told the guy what I wanted, and he poked around in the stacks, rejected a couple of candidates because they had really bad checks. Finally, one really nice chunk of hard maple (I can't help but think of it as an "ingot") 2-1/4" x 4' x 8". (When I got home, I figured out it was quartersawn, choice stuff.) More than enough. He started up a bandsaw with wheels maybe more than 4' tall, sliced off the odd-shaped end, and then flattened one face of the straighter part on a jointer as big as my bed. (Ok, I'm easily impressed by machinery.)
Damn, this stuff is solid, and heavy, nothing like pine. Beautiful grain, too. It cuts more slowly, but it's doable.