Yet another Shepherd Tool Sale?!?

[Louis Bois]

I don't know if any of you are currently building Shepherd kits? If you are, I'd love to see some progress pics...if not, what are you waiting for?!? The Shepherd guys are having yet another sale it seems. I don't quite understand it myself, I just checked out their site and they seem to be having a concurrent sale to their "moving sale"?!? Something to do with Victoria Day/Memorial Day?!?

I may just have to pull the trigger on one of those shoulder plane kits...too many ways to spend my money...I suppose an alternative would be collecting stories? I'd sure save some cash...

...again, no affiliation, etc...I just like their products and think most woodworkers can benefit from the experience of building their own quality plane...

[Manny Hernandez]

Here is one I finished.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shinogi@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=200f&.dnm=aa91.jpg&.src=ph

Ben and Doug were in the SF bay area around April and did a "plane build" session for our group. I didn't have any metal working experience prior to this. Although time consuming, they are not difficult to build as I first thought.

[Dan Moening]

I've been looking into doing this for some time; but with my latest financial setback may be awhile longer.

I watched all the videos this morning...very instructional, and Doug is entertaining as well :p

I may just have to compile the parts piecemeal and do the whole thing on my own...

With all the instructions, and inspiration on their site I certainly feel as if I could do it ;)

[Ben Knebel]

Here is one I finished.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shinogi@sbcglobal.net/detail?.dir=200f&.dnm=aa91.jpg&.src=ph

Ben and Doug were in the SF bay area around April and did a "plane build" session for our group. I didn't have any metal working experience prior to this. Although time consuming, they are not difficult to build as I first thought.
Holy smokes Manny--that's wonderful--I saw pics before you had put the finishing touches on it. If you don't mind I'd like to put these pictures in my customer gallery--can you send me the jpegs.
That goes for anyone else as well--if you've built one of our planes and would like pics in our gallery send me the jpegs with a short write-up and I'll add them.
Best regards
Ben
www.shepherdtool.com

[Louis Bois]

Ben, congratulations on your new website!!! I didn't think you had it in you to create something so "organized"!! :eek::D

Those video snippets of Doug's mug are quite informative and the builder's showcase is inspiring. Kudos young feller!!!

I'm also glad that you're planning some more build sessions...it really helped me along for my first kit...I'm a lot gentler on those peining sessions now...seeing a shrink really helped with my hidden aggression!!!:D

Cheers,

Louis

[John Keeling]

And Manny, whats the lowdown on the screen in picture 1 of 4 that you linked to. Is that a piece of yours?

I like the balance in the solid wood bottom and the real delicate framework on the upper part. I notice that some of the lattice work does not go all the way across, how do you do that without it becoming to fragile?

Nice plane too by the way... I had a couple of shoulder plane kits but I don't have time right now, gave one away and i'm hoping to get around to the other one real soon.

John, NY

[Doug Evans]

I have been editing a lot of the video we took from the California trip and I expect that Ben will have it up in the next few days.

Most of these will be build details of Ben with various groups.

In addition, we are not far from creating our first video newsletter.

Cheers,

Doug

[Manny Hernandez]

And Manny, whats the lowdown on the screen in picture 1 of 4 that you linked to. Is that a piece of yours?

I like the balance in the solid wood bottom and the real delicate framework on the upper part. I notice that some of the lattice work does not go all the way across, how do you do that without it becoming to fragile?

Nice plane too by the way... I had a couple of shoulder plane kits but I don't have time right now, gave one away and i'm hoping to get around to the other one real soon.

John, NY

John,
Yes, those are screens I built a few years ago. I should have replaced that picture with a better one. The screens are swapped in that pic. The bottom "hip boards" are supposed to be bookmatched in the other direction. I resawed a piece of Cal Walnut to make those. It was a piece of highly figured, swirly grained walnut.
The lattice pieces are interlocked with lap joints and mortised into the frame. The frame is separate from the main frame you see in the picture. I made it removable so I could easily replace the paper if my then one year old decided to put her finger through it. It's not as fragile as you might think once all the joints are locked together and reinforced with rice glue. It becomes even more rigid once the paper is glued on. After the paper is glued and dried you lightly wet the paper with a spray mist. When it dries the paper is tight as a drum.

Here is a better picture and a short writeup I did for Bay Area Woodworkers:
http://www.geocities.com/bawanewsletter/gallery/Hernandez1.html

Manny

[Roy Wall]

Manny,


THe screens look great - nice job!! And the plane is beautiful...it's awesome!!!

[John Keeling]

And Doug

don't give up the day job for that acting carreer... you could get into special affects though, I loved the way the whole screen shook as you pound away at the dovetails with that 28lb hammer. Gives you a real sense of being there!

Seriously though, it looks to me as though the video footage will be a great help when I get the time to do my plane, although to tell ya the truth i'm still not 100% sure what I need to do differently with my brass sidewalls. I'll have to pay better attention next time I watch your footage and perhaps read the instructions a little more thoroughly.

Great stuff, i'm hoping to get around to it soon, just got to get a sailboat finished and out of my workshop.

John

[Doug Evans]

We are supposed to be doing a build session near Albany on June 4. Just thought I would run it by you, as I saw your location there.

It has been awhile since those original videos were done. I used a webcam and brought a full-size computer into the shop. I had the monitor on the bench to give me enough f/b to know I was still somewhat centered in the screen. Prior to leaving for the West Coast, we bought a Sony camera (and even a tri-pod) and the clips of Ben going up later this week should be better quality.

I took some footage a couple of weeks ago of Ashlar in his pitching debut. He has moved up a year and so, at 9, he is playing Minor Tyke (10 year olds). He has a 3/4 arm slot and is averaging about 45 mph. Although he is not quite the fastest on his team he has good control and he retired 3 for 3 in his inning on strikes. I am just starting to work on his step and pivot - it will be another couple of weeks before it is all together. I wish I had used the tripod though... an excited dad has the camera bouncing all over!

In any event, let us know about the 4th.

Cheers,

Doug

Cheers,

Doug

[Marc Hills]

Doug/Ben:

You guys ever getting over to Maine, that emerging mecca of hand tool enthusiasm? I'd personally invite you both to have a Portland, ME build session, but seeing how my CFO cut me off from even low-end rust hunting (some nonsense about having to eat), I can't currently commit to even a chariot plane, much less the Norris smoother like Manny's that I've had my eyes on.

[Doug Evans]

Hi Marc:

It would not take much to convince us to head out towards Maine. To let a "cat-'o-nine outta the baize bag," we are thinking of doing some video interviews out that way for the site. In addition, we have a reasonable number of customers out that way and could probably bolster numbers.

Timing could be in your favour as well... we dont want to go anywhere this summer until we get our throughput up and prototyping done here. Think early fall.

We may also use this as a start point for a number of east coast fall builds.

Cheers,

Doug

[Dan Forman]

Manny---That's truly stunning!!!

Doug---Are the 13 1/2" panel kits available in brass? Are you planning on making the Spiers designs available with 47 1/2 degree bedding angle in the near future?

Any future build sessions planned in the Washington/Oregon area?

Dan

[Ben Knebel]

Manny---That's truly stunning!!!

Doug---Are the 13 1/2" panel kits available in brass? Are you planning on making the Spiers designs available with 47 1/2 degree bedding angle in the near future?

Any future build sessions planned in the Washington/Oregon area?

Dan
Hi Dan;
I just thought I'd jump in on Doug's behalf. Yes the 13.5 will be available in brass--now that we have the ability to cut our own materials we can make all of the planes available in both steel and brass--including the thumb.
Although we have offered most of our line in both brass and steel for some time we did limit the number that were available in both metals because we were creating an inventory nightmare with our outside suppliers--much less of an issue now.
No , we don't have any plans to offer the Spiers line with 47.5 degree beds--not really necessary in our opinion as the differences in performance are negligible. Infill planes ,by the very nature of thier design, work exceedingly well and although bedding angle can make a significant difference in finish with Stanley/Bailey style planes this is considerably less true with infills. Some time ago Lynn Mangiamelli did a study on infills at various bedding angles--we supplied him with planes bedded at 45,47,50,55 and 60 degrees and he found very little performance difference until he got up to about the 55 degree range and even then there wasn't that big a difference-i.e--the infills achieved very fine surfaces in most woods at all angles with only small changes in the quality of the surface finish.( I'm synopsizing some e-mail conversations we had with him and I think I've got the gist of what he found correct). Lynn has always intended to publish the study but I haven't seen anything yet.
BTW---For those that find the bite is too big to buy one of our planes in one big chew I'm quite prepared to work out a payment plan---I can spread payments out across anywhere from 2 - 6 months and as long as I get at least 75.00 down and a card # I can charge I'll send the plane out with the first payment. I haven't had a chance to put this info on the site yet but will shortly
Best Regards
Ben

[Doug Evans]

Ben successfully ran some Chariot bridges in brass on Friday with little apparent problem. This is our first run of metal with our own router. We sort of did a collective sigh of relief, as we were a bit aprehensive as to how long it would take us to get onto it. Thus, we are capable of 13 1/2's now.

As to the possibility of being in the Oregon/Washington/Vancouver area again, it is quite likely that we will be there next summer. We missed a meeting of the Pacific NW Tool Collectors on the last trip and we are talking about coming out for their meet next summer. There is also a group interested in Vancouver. We also like to go fishing... (did I say that out loud?)...

We are trying to work towards a fall that covers Houston-Dallas-Atlanta-Orlando-Miami in addition to an east coast loop.

Again, for the summer, we are working on the manufacturing delivery engine and some prototyping.

Cheers,

Doug

[Ben Knebel]

I don't know if any of you are currently building Shepherd kits? If you are, I'd love to see some progress pics...if not, what are you waiting for?!? The Shepherd guys are having yet another sale it seems. I don't quite understand it myself, I just checked out their site and they seem to be having a concurrent sale to their "moving sale"?!? Something to do with Victoria Day/Memorial Day?!?

I may just have to pull the trigger on one of those shoulder plane kits...too many ways to spend my money...I suppose an alternative would be collecting stories? I'd sure save some cash...

...again, no affiliation, etc...I just like their products and think most woodworkers can benefit from the experience of building their own quality plane...

Hey Louis--check this out http://www.shepherdtool.com/fantastic_shoulder_plane_kit_sal.htm you wanted to pull the trigger--shoot away.
Best regards
Ben

[Louis Bois]

Darn...I hate it when you guys do that!!!!:eek::rolleyes: Hmmm...let's see...did I spend that whole tax return yet?!? :eek:

[Ben Knebel]

I am going to keep doing this Louis till I get you to bite again--you entice me to give away even more
http://www.shepherdtool.com/great_shepherd_smoother_give.htm
Best Regards
Ben

[Ben Knebel]

Darn...I hate it when you guys do that!!!!:eek::rolleyes: Hmmm...let's see...did I spend that whole tax return yet?!? :eek:

So how goes the taxes?--only till July 4th to pull the trigger --then all sales end. If not new stuff how about the stuff in the Antique Store I just opened.
Best Regards
Ben

[Louis Bois]

YOU sir, are crossing the line!!! I'm glad I have a sensible wife...or else I'd be in the poor house...surrounded by beautiful infills...and donuts, of course.

[Ben Knebel]

YOU sir, are crossing the line!!! I'm glad I have a sensible wife...or else I'd be in the poor house...surrounded by beautiful infills...and donuts, of course.

All you have to do is win a contest. # 2 is now running.
Best regards
Ben
www.shepherdtool.com

[Andrew Ault]

I've built the Spiers Smoother. It was a lot of fun and very educational. Not having much experience working metal, I was very interested in how peening steel makes it possible to create compound dovetail joints in steel so that both sides of the joint have tails and the joint is interlocked. I built the steel sided kit, so the joints pretty much disappeared when I finished filing the sides and bottom smooth.

I was lucky to be able to attend a short build session in the workshop of a local woodworker here in San Diego during Ben's west coast road trip. It was handy to have Ben available for the first procedures in making the plane from the kit but from my experience I think that it would be no problem doing it from the instructions.

The parts were precisely made and the kit and procedures well thought out for the first time builder.

I've since ordered additional kits for a shoulder plane, chariot plane and thumb plane and I'm looking forward to making those planes.

I see on the Shepherd website that they are now having a 25% off sale...

-Andy

[Ben Knebel]

I've built the Spiers Smoother. It was a lot of fun and very educational. Not having much experience working metal, I was very interested in how peening steel makes it possible to create compound dovetail joints in steel so that both sides of the joint have tails and the joint is interlocked. I built the steel sided kit, so the joints pretty much disappeared when I finished filing the sides and bottom smooth.

I was lucky to be able to attend a short build session in the workshop of a local woodworker here in San Diego during Ben's west coast road trip. It was handy to have Ben available for the first procedures in making the plane from the kit but from my experience I think that it would be no problem doing it from the instructions.

The parts were precisely made and the kit and procedures well thought out for the first time builder.

I've since ordered additional kits for a shoulder plane, chariot plane and thumb plane and I'm looking forward to making those planes.

I see on the Shepherd website that they are now having a 25% off sale...

-Andy
Which sale ends Wednesday at midnight.
Best regards
Ben

[Ben Knebel]

Which sale ends Wednesday at midnight.
Best regards
Ben

By popular demand the sale has been extended to July 25th, 2005--many folks have asked for the extra time to get their money together and/or convince their spouse so hey why not?

Best Regards
Ben
www.shepherdtool.com

[Ben Knebel]

By popular demand the sale has been extended to July 25th, 2005--many folks have asked for the extra time to get their money together and/or convince their spouse so hey why not?

Best Regards
Ben
www.shepherdtool.com


ALRIGHT ALREADY
I've had more requests to extend the sale--this time into August- this will be the last extension--the sale is extended to August 15, 2005 but that'll be it.
Best Regards
Ben
www.shepherdtool.com

[Jim Rolf]

I ordered the Spiers smoother back at the end of May and have yet to receive it. I've emailed several times and sometimes I get a response along the lines of "we're a little behind, but will ship it next week." The last email I sent, i did not even get a response.

I've heard great things about this kit, but unfortunately don't have any experience because Shepherd Tools hasn't shipped me the kit, even after 3 months.

I would advise going elsewhere....

Jim Rolf

[Ben Knebel]

I ordered the Spiers smoother back at the end of May and have yet to receive it. I've emailed several times and sometimes I get a response along the lines of "we're a little behind, but will ship it next week." The last email I sent, i did not even get a response.

I've heard great things about this kit, but unfortunately don't have any experience because Shepherd Tools hasn't shipped me the kit, even after 3 months.

I would advise going elsewhere....

Jim Rolf

Hello Jim;
We have had a number of issues that have delayed shipments--including a bad batch of wood that had to be rerun and some problems in heat treat and some other supplier issues. Add to that the move of our shop and a huge influx of orders and thus the delays. Not trying to excuse this--just explain it.

We are now in a postition to catch up the backlog on kits and we apologise to everyone waiting for kits for the delays. Your kit Jim and a number of others will ship by Tuesday.

We have had delivery issues for a number of months but I would like to assure all our customers that the product will be delivered--we always do.

One of the reasons we moved our shop and invested in a CNC router , surface grinder, milling machine, better drill presses and sanders and various other pieces of gear was so that we could control our own production and eliminate the production delays we have experienced in the past. Being a small company--we were-- until recently--- at the mercy of outside suppliers. All our components were jobbed out and then brought in house for final prep and then shipping. Because we are small we didn't always get the highest priority with our suppliers and would sometimes have to wait inordinate lengths of time for inventory, thus creating shipping delays to our customers. With our new shop and equipment coming on stream we will be able to eliminate these shipping delays. This will take some time to work through but we should be catching up on all our kit backlog over the next few weeks.

The non response to your last e-mail may be because I also moved my home over the last couple of weeks and had to change ISP's--that meant changing all the forwarding addresses on the website and of course my personal e-mail. I was off the air entirely for 5 days--Fergus is in a somewhat rural area and hookups aren't as fast as in a more urban area. Anything that went to my knebel@ rogers.com address would have been kicked back or lost in the ether. The ben@shepherdtool.com address on the website forwarded to the @rogers address until I could get it changed to my new bknebel@cogeco.ca address.

Once again--apologies for the delays but the product will ship by Tuesday.
Best regards
Ben

[Andrew Ault]

When I read Jim's message, I felt conflicted. I know what it is like to do too much with too little and I know what it is like to wait for something that I want - and to wait too long.

I have built a one of thier smoother kits and I can say that it is excellent and the results are worth every effort. At the least one hopes for communication in this situation.

Having met Ben I feel that they will do everything they can to get the kit in your hands and that it will go together really well. It is designed to go together with common tools and by someone that is doing it for the first time. The completed plane is excellent and works great.

I am just one of thier customers.

I hope you can regain the excitement that I personally felt to be able to actually make something that I never thought I could. It is a good learning experience and the result feels so good in your hands. You can PM me if you want to ask me anything about the process.

-Andy

[Jerry Crawford]

Not trying to hyjack this string Gentlemen but as long as we have his attention,

HEY DOUG I sent you a note about your work benches a couple of months ago. No reply. Lets talk.