An Old Friend Comes out to Help

 First the Project:

32 7/8in Oak slats with spacers.

    This project was inspired by one I saw on woodworkingformeremortals.com.  Needless to say I made it from what I have on hand and following my own sort of design.
  
  I jointed, then ripped the slats before putting them through the planer.  They are all pretty close to the same size and the spacers where also planed to  similar thicknesses.  The size of the mat, 32x18" meant that is was glued together in three sections before being glued into one piece.  The edges are held on with 7 screws but the balance of the project is held together with titebond III.  


  Now for the old friend, this old friend is one of the first quality power tools that I ever bought and it is easily 30 years old. Over those years is has flattened acres of table tops and long before I got a planer, or decent planes it took care of all my humps and bumps.

an old and trusted friend.

  I am guilty of neglecting my 3x21 sander, complete with broken handle, glue spots, paint marks and all.  For the last while I have imagined myself a woodworker that did not have to resort to the beast of the belt sander.  I have scraped and planed, struggled with glue lines and end grain and made my life harder than was necessary on more than one occasion.  I had thought about the sander but talked myself into believing that it was somehow not a tool for quality work. In my mind the belt sander had been put in the category of rough carpentry tools.
  
   Last weekend a friend of mine and I were talking.  My friend Charles is a very talented wood worker and guitar maker.  I value his opinion highly and aspire to his quality of work.( in another life I suppose)  I was asking him what he would do with some of the very twisted grain that comes up when working with Red Elm.  He had several answers, including throw it in the fire, but one idea caught me by surprise, he said he would drag out is heavy duty sander and put it to work.
   
   Well.....if Charles uses beast of a sander sometimes then it must be OK.
  
   This last project was made 100 times easier by dragging out the beast and sanding down the top of the mat.


   Thank you Charles, and old friend.