New Tools

On Thursday, I visited another former employer, Jon Harris. Years ago, I worked with Jon in his cabinet-making shop, and we became friends, so I like to drop in on him every now & again and see how things are going.

The last time I saw Jon was maybe 2 years ago, when I helped him to prop up a falling-down shed off the back of his barn. Inside the barn, Jon had a couple of tools sitting under a tarp, and we struck a deal where I bought the tools from him. I hadn't been by to see Jon in the past couple years in order to pick up the tools, but I gave him a call the other day, and sure enough, he said those tools were still sitting there in the barn.

There were two tools: one was a Delta drill press, which is a good tool, and will come in handy. The other, though, is the tool that I am really excited about: it is an Inca combination jointer/planer. It has the capability of squaring lumber and then planing it to finish thickness. This tool will be indispensible to the building of my windows, because I will be building the windows from reclaimed lumber. So when I get this tool working, I will be able to use it to mill all of my lumber to accurate size and squareness, so that I can then cut the precision joinery that will be required for my window sashes.


This is a photo of the Inca as it was loaded in the back seat of Sparky, my trusty little VW diesel Jetta, my "truck".