If you linked here directly, feel free to go back and read part 1 for background on this project, located here.  If you’re still with us from Part 1, Thanks!

Recently, I filled a 4 foot rolling rack with equipment.  A 4 core IBM eSeries server with 2 TB of SCSI storage running ESXi is one of the main components.  I always like to keep the server online for various sundry items, but it usually sits largely idle, even with two Red Hat Linux instances running on it while I am studying.  This is somewhat of a waste in my opinion because the server is sitting idle with spinning fans while not doing much of anything.  A wonderful solution to this is have ESXi run a guest, specifically for the folding application.  If set up correctly, you can even have ESXi dedicate as much of the machine’s resources for CPU and memory as possible during downtime, and have it throttle it back when other applications are working on mission critical things.  I’m looking at you, small business and enterprise owners.

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Around this time last year, I made a post about helping the environment through a service called “Earth911″ (See that post here).  This post isn’t about the environment, nor is it about woodworking, electronics, weather, or any of the other weird stuff you’ve come to expect from my writings.  This is about helping the thing we all hold most dear in this life: ourselves.  Readers in my audience who are on the techie side of things will likely have already known about this for years, but I also know I have others in my audience who are not.

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Hey Everyone, thanks for visiting my site! If you linked here from “The Daily Matt” (I’m noticing A LOT of referrer traffic in my logs), let me be the first to welcome you on your arrival!  I have taken the liberty of organizing all of the hand planer restoration articles into one concise source.  Again, thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the restoration articles!

Refurbishing Old Hand Planes Part 1: Flattening the Sole
Refurbishing Old Hand Planes Part 2: Truing the Frog
Refurbishing Old Hand Planes Part 3: Modifying the throat and chip breaker
Refurbishing Old Hand Planes Part 4: Sharpening the iron

I’ve got some things that were from past projects that are up for sale.  Take a look at my sale page to see if any of it catches your fancy!

Wow, a tremendous response from some of you who are following my restoration articles! Thank you all for your kind words and support!

For those of you just joining us, we’ve been discussing how to refurbish an old Stanley #4 hand plane that I inherited as a family heirloom. If you have missed part 1, part 2, or part 3, feel free to go back and read them. I’ll wait…..

Some of you may have noticed in part 3 that the plane iron was cutting really rough, despite having trued all of the surfaces of the plane so far. The reason is that not only was the iron not all that sharp (like yours truly at times), but the angle of the cut was not optimal. As if that weren’t bad enough, the angle was not homogeneous all the way across, and there was a small knick in the edge.

We’re gonna wanna take care of that I think……
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For those following along, welcome back! For those of you just joining us, we’ve been talking about how to restore an old Stanley #4 hand plane. If you’d like to catch up, feel free to check out part 1 and part 2 beforehand.

We’ve got our sole flattened and our frog is true, and now it’s a good time to address tweaking a few of the components that deal with chip removal: the plane throat, and the chip breaker.

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Welcome back! If you’re still with us after reading part 1, you are a most curious soul. I mean, how could you not be to withstand so much of my boring writing in the name of woodworking?!

So now the sole of the plane is flat.  I would have to say that 80 percent of your grunt work here is done…..but there are a few other crucial things left to accomplish.  If the bottom of our plane is flat, we need to ensure that the rest of that translates all the way up to the plane iron, because what have we really accomplished if we stop here?  Flattening and truing the Frog isn’t JUST to make it parallel to the sole, it also ensures we have a mating surface for the blade to rest on the whole time the plane is in operation.  When this surface is not flat, we get that ever so annoying movement named “chatter”.  As the plane iron skims across the wood substrate, it will unseat itself and bounce around on the surface of the frog, causing an inconsistent cut.

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A couple of weeks ago, I decided on a whim to refurbish a couple of the tools I inherited from my father-in-law: A Block Plane and a Stanley #4 hand plane.  Both had really bad surface rust, and were REALLY cupped from years of heavy use.  To give you an idea of what I dealt with before, I used that #4 on a scrap piece of pine stock and got nothing but crooked, toothpick sized shavings with every pass, and small chunks of sawdust.  I didn’t chronicle the restoration of the block plane (it was a spur of the moment thing), but have documented the restoration of the Stanley #4 pretty thoroughly.

Join me in this journey in the next couple of articles.

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Hey everyone, a quick note that I have received a press release from Earth911.com and I am happy to report that they have a new mobile iPhone application called “iRecycle“!  The application allows you to pretty much do everything that you can do on their website search engine with some added features.  Check it out!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 19, 2009

iPhone App Makes Local Recycling Easy and Convenient

When it comes to recycling and properly disposing of your trash, knowing is half the battle. The other half is actually getting your stuff to where it needs to go – whether it’s in a curbside collection program, a retail drop-off point or a hazardous waste event. With iRecycle, a new iPhone app from Earth911.com, you’re equipped for all stages of reducing your waste: knowing what you can recycle and where you can take it in your neighborhood.

Compatible with both iPhone and iTouch, iRecycle brings you Earth911.com’s national, comprehensive database of over 100,000 recycling and proper disposal locations for over 200 products at the touch of a button. Whether you need to recycle motor oil and CFLs in San Francisco or rechargeable batteries and paint in Washington, DC, iRecycle can connect you with real, local options.

Simply start typing what you’ve got, select your location and get instant access to the nearest recycling and proper disposal spots near you:

• Auto-complete makes searches quick and effective
• Get directions to the nearest site from your current location
• Find additional information like hours of operation, other materials accepted (maybe you can recycle all those plastic bags from under your kitchen sink), their Web site, etc.
• Check your search history to replay old search results –also functions on iTouch when an Internet connection is not available
• Call locations directly from search results if you need more information

Wherever you are, iRecycle keeps you connected to your green efforts. Even when you’re travelling or in a new city, you’ll never be without the knowledge of where to take your electronics, water bottles, car batteries, tires, eyeglasses… well, you get the point.

At Earth911.com, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make recycling easy. With iRecycle, you can use your powers for good – not waste. 

As we continue through Woodworkers Safety Week, many resources that were previously unknown to me have surfaced.  A new one, is Earth 911.com.  This was brought to my attention by The Woodwhisperer Woodworking Video podcast, Episode 88 - Safety Q&A.  (Before I forget, keep voting for Marc in the BHG contest.   He’s still in second place and hanging strong, so don’t stop voting now!)

Anyway, Earth911 is a search engine you can use to find locations for hazardous materials disposal.  As a woodworker, you could use this to dispose of old, or dirty varnish, or any other material so it doesn’t end up in the landfill.  If you are a DiY tinkerer like I am, the search engine is of GREAT use.  One thing that comes to mind is circuit board disposal (Or any E-Waste) where they can recycle the silver and gold, but also reclaim the lead.  If you don’t know my stance on this issue, you should read this article from last year.

The absolute first thing that I used this site for was car battery disposal.  I have been accumulating these in the garage for some reason…mainly because I didn’t know of a safe way to dispose of them.  Lo and behold, the search engine turned up an unexpected result: Wal Mart.  I was a little skeptical, so I called to verify, and sure enough, they do take car batteries to recycle!

I’m gonna use this website a LOT, and I invite you to do the same.

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