From FlairWoodworks.com comes two reviews by Chris Wong on Woodcraft’s #5 V3 Bench Plane. The first review covers the product in detail, and the second blog will show the use of the plane. We thought we would share Chris’s expertise and overview of our product here at Woodshop Demos.com. So a hearty thank you, full credits and kudos goes out to Chris for allowing us to share his blog here at Woodshop Demos.

A little bit about Chris…Hailing from Port Moody in British Columbia, Canada. Chris began his woodworking path at the early age of 6. Under the tutelage of his father Brian and 2 uncles Ron and Tim, Chris just liked making stuff. One of his first projects was a stool made with the use of a jigsaw with radiused feet.

Chris’s middle school years consisted of a mandatory shop program called Technology Education which covered not only woodworking, but plastics and hydraulics. In high school, Chris’s elective’s consisted of 6 woodworking classes. Now there’s a thought for today’s education system, less computer tech and more woodworking education!

Right after leaving high school Chris made a decision based on learning from Sam Maloof, Chris stated, “You can take $20,000 and go to school or you can take $20,000 and build a quality woodshop.

Chris chose the latter and built himself a woodshop with the premise of making a woodworking future by learning as he went and teaching himself. After 9 years as a hobbyist woodworker and now 4 years as a professional, Chris enjoys the design and creation of his own business, Flair Woodworks making sculptural wood works. Chris can also be found on his Twitter page, @Flairwoodworks. Chris’s latest endeavor is a partnership with Garth Schafer, a woodworker turned toolmaker. Together they have formed Time Warp Tool Works. At Time Warp Tool Works, Chris and Garth are dedicated to fusing the best of old and new technologies in wood and metal working to create quality woodworking tools for the modern craftsman.  Each tool is individually made with care in British Columbia, Canada.

The following is Chris’s WoodRiver Review…

The purpose of this article is to show what the V3 plane looked like out of the box.

A couple of months ago, while visiting some friends in Arizona. I went to a Woodcraft store and bought a WoodRiver #5 V3 bench plane.  While I don’t need any more bench planes, I was curious to see just how good the much-talked-about WoodRiver planes really were.  From what I have read, Version 3 (V3) is drastically better than the previous two versions.

After taking the plane out of the package, the first thing I did was disassemble the plane and wipe off the grease applied to keep the plane rust free.  I carefully inspected each part, made notes and took photos along the way.  In general, everything seemed well-machined.

I noticed that the burr from tapping the hole in the cap iron had not been removed.  I used a mill file to remove the burr.

Cap Iron

The cap iron was ground to a fine edge.

Cap Iron Edge

The blade was also ground to a fine edge.  The machining marks were finer on the blade than on the cap iron and the blade was sharp, though not as sharp as I keep my blades.

Blade

The parts of the lateral- and depth-adjusters that engage with the cap iron and blade appeared to be well-made.

Top of Frog

I spotted a cosmetic defect, a scratch on the right wing of the plane. It did not concern me in the least.

Scratch on Side Wing

The body was machined very uniformly. The text on the box clearly reflected in the plane’s sole.

Sole

The frog rested on this ramp. The small machined edges on either side of the bed were helpful in keeping the frog from twisting as it was adjusted and locked down.

Frog Bedding Surface

The bottom of the frog was finely ground.

Bottom of Frog

All the moving parts moved smoothly.

Back of Frog/Depth Adjuster

There were two of these “rivets” dropped through the slots in the frog and into the body of the plane.  In the rear of the ramp (on which the frog rests) was a pair of slot-head screws with pointed tips.  The points engaged with the conical recess in the rivets and as the screws were tightened, the rivets were pulled down to secure the frog.  The dimple on the top indicated the location of the conical recess so that it could be properly aligned once it was dropped in place.  (Side note:  When removing the pointed, slot-head screws for the first time, they backed off freely then bound up snug.  By applying a little extra torque – but by no means an excessive amount – I was able to remove the screws.  When I ran them in and out afterwards, there was no resistance.)

Frog Rivets

My biggest complaint about the plane was that the front of the mouth opening was a little uneven, making it difficult to set the mouth evenly.  A little work with a file solved that problem.

Mouth Opening

The left wing appeared to be perfectly square.

Left Wing and Sole

The right wing appeared to be a little out of square.  I e-mailed Woodcraft Technical Support about this and they informed me that if I was able to fit a 0.002″ feeler gauge between the square and the plane’s sole, they would be happy to replace the plane.  This gap was well within that tolerance.

Right Wing and Sole

Purchase any WoodRiver Hand Plane at Woodcraft and Get A FREE 1 Month Subscription to Rob Cosman’s Interactive Online Hand Tool Workshop! The Subscription is Eight 30-Minute Sessions Plus Access to Hand Plane 101!

The next article will show how the plane performed…Stay tuned!
auf Wiedersehen…Frank

Most recently I was at a woodworking show chatting with a friend who was doing demos and selling DVDs. An older gentleman walked up and purchased a dovetailing DVD. He turned to me and proudly proclaimed that this was his fifth DVD on dovetailing. I asked if he did a lot of dovetailing and he told me didn’t have the skill or tools to even try it.

That encounter conjured up a memory from thirty years ago when I met a young fellow who was more of a motor head than a woodworker but he had the fire in his belly. He proudly displayed his first attempt at a dovetailed box and I was duly impressed. The dovetails were clean, tight, and well executed. When I asked him what kind of saw he used, he told me very matter-of-factly – a hacksaw. I was blown away but I made a fatal mistake. I told him that hacksaws were for metalworking, not woodworking.  Once that seed was planted in his head, he never again achieved the level of precision that he did on his first project.

These anecdotes have two morals. First, don’t ever question how someone did something. Just appreciate a job well done and leave it at that. Second, don’t let the lack of a “special” tool hinder you from doing what you want to do. Resourceful people will always find a work-around. By the way, even though I have tried a few times over the years, I have never been successful using a hacksaw to cut dovetails.

Although I’ve used Enduro-Var (Semi-Gloss) with success on several small projects, I finally got a chance to use it on a large surface – roughly 60 inches by 20 inches. The project was a curly maple counter top for a kitchen addition that we started last spring. The counter top sits on a pass-through that we cut out between our kitchen and dining room. It will act as a serving area for food when we’re using the dining room and an informal spot for drinks or snacks once we get a couple stools. Regardless, it’s bound to get some abuse and I thought it would be the perfect trial for this tough finish.

My finishing room is piled high with lumber and it’s cold outside, so spraying was out of the question. Since most amateurs don’t have access to spray equipment, I wanted to see what challenges would be presented by hand application of the product. After flattening the counter top, I sanded to 220 grit, raised the grain with a damp cloth, let it dry, and sanded off the whiskers with 220 grit. Next I stained the counter top with Lockwood’s Medium Amber Maple #143 water-soluble aniline dye. When that was dry I slathered on a heavy coat of Enduro-Var with a polyester brush because General Finishes claims Enduro-Var is self-sealing. After four hours of drying, I scuff sanded with 320 grit paper, cleaned off the sanding dust, and applied a second coat. I used one of my favorite brushes for water-borne finishes – the Wooster “Alpha”  which has nicely tapered bristles and has worked like a charm when hand-applying General Finishes’ High Performance water-based topcoat (another one of my favorite water-based finishes). I was surprised at how quickly the second coat set up. It was so fast that I barely had time to work from the wet edge into the next stroke. I also picked up a lot of color from the aniline dye, which indicated this coat was softening the previous coat. I had expected to pick up some dye on the first coat of finish, but not on the second. By the time I finished the last brush stroke on the second coat, the rest of the surface was dry and there were lots of ridges to deal with. After a conversation with the folks at General Finishes, I did confirm that each subsequent coat will “burn” into the previous coat if the recommended window of four hours between coats is followed.

I waited for another four hours and leveled the ridges with 400 grit wet-or-dry paper, and cleaned off the surface. I decided to try a different applicator, so using a fully saturated 4-inch foam brush, I laid on the third coat as quickly as I could. Within a few minutes, the coat was dry to the touch and reasonably smooth. Up until this point, the shop temperature was 68 degrees and the relative humidity was 40 percent. After another four hours of drying, I scuff sanded with 400 grit paper, cleaned off the surface, and dialed back the temperature to 62 degrees. While laying down the fourth coat, I could feel that it was drying slower due to the lower temperature. Keeping the temperature at 62 degrees, I waited four hours; scuff sanded, removed the sanding dust, and applied another coat. Then I repeated the entire procedure for the sixth coat. At that point I decided I had a good film build and let the counter top cure for two days. Finally, I leveled the surface with 400 grit wet-or dry paper lubricated with a drop of dish detergent in a cup of water. After cleaning off the surface, I rubbed it out with Behlen’s Deluxing Compound. The final result is a surface with a medium-high sheen that’s indistinguishable from the typical alkyd varnish finishes I’ve applied over the past forty years. Although the procedure may sound like a lot of work, the same results using an alkyd finish would have taken three times as long. Add in the benefits of water cleanup, plus no odors and I think we may have a winner.  Only time will tell. For now, I’m happy with it, my wife is happy with it, and I’ve had several compliments from fellow woodworkers. With that said, I will clean out my spray booth for the next big project because this product is best suited for spraying on large surfaces. On a closing note, this is a “self-cross linking” finish and I’ve tried several common finish removers on samples that have cured for over a year with minimal effect, so I don’t recommend using this as a finish for antiques. In plain English, that means it’s almost impossible to get off.

The finished countertop

We’ve worked hard to get John Lucas’s original site up and true to its original form. Click here to jump to the original Woodshopdemos.com and read John’s work. We’ve also added a link to this site’s main menu.

Photo by Brian Francis

Most hobbyist woodworkers fall into one of two camps – basement or garage shops. Having worked in an attic and two basement shops before I had a dedicated building, I would have given my eyeteeth for a garage shop. Of course that doesn’t mean a garage shop is the end all. Even if you have the luxury of a two-car garage, it seems that the more space you have, the faster it fills up. It usually comes to a head when your spouse can’t get their car out of the elements.

If you’re in this predicament, you might want to check out the latest issue of Woodcraft Magazine (Issue 43, Oct./Nov. 2011). My good friend Joe Hurst-Wajszczuk (Senior Editor at the magazine) spent the better part of his “free-time” for the past nine months turning his disheveled workspace into a clean, organized, functional shop, and he still has room for a car. I’m proud to say that I had a small hand in the transformation. Joe recruited me for the job of designing his mobile miter saw station/lumber rack. I was apprehensive at first but I think the project turned out to be a winner and Joe did a great job on the build. If you’d like to get a taste of what he accomplished, check out Frank Byers’ post on Woodcraft’s blog. Even if you don’t like what I came up with, you’ll find plenty of other cool projects to incorporate into your shop.

For those of you that already know me, I hope the transition will be an easy one. For those that don’t, please be patient. Although John’s approach to woodworking was a bit different than mine is, you’ll find my passion for the craft is the same. I have a feeling that with every posting I make, I’ll be wondering; what would John think? My plan for this blog is to provide a mix of honest hand tool and power tool reviews, project builds, workshop visits, and reports on other woodworking-related activities. I hope you’ll join me in this new endeavor. I look forward to your feedback.