David Keys Sustainable Woodworking

Rethinking shavehorse design for wheelchairs part 3.
For wheelchair access, the shavehorse needs to shift from being a foot powered clamp, to a completely different method of securing the workpiece.

Inspiration came from two areas.
There is an old way of using an offset egg shaped cam to fix a long board on a workbench, and as you push a plane along the cam pushes the board against a fixed baton.

And nature. I remembered fishing when I was growing up, and how well the rows of teeth in the mouth of a fish holds the bait. They are often pointed inwards and are a bit flexible, so they can allow prey to pass into the mouth, but if it tries to escape, the rows teeth work against each other and lock the prey in place. It's a one way ticket.

It took quite a bit of tweaking with shapes, sizes, and positioning, but I settled on a V-shaped structure and a set of four cams. It works perfectly. You can set your workpiece in, put the cams into position with your hands, and when you pull the workpiece, it sets firmly in place. You can work your magic with a drawknife, and then just push the workpiece backwards to release the cams, turn your workpiece, and reclamp.

And importantly, the whole thing can be fitted to a traditional shavehorse.

Rethinking shavehorse design part 2.
A great way to design something is to involve the people who will use it. My friends at Causeway Giants Wheelchair Basketball Team didn't hesitate to help when I asked them. We spent a great evening playing around with ideas. Everything was considered, nothing was daft. We had loads of roads to explore, but one thing really stood out. It shouldn't be very different.
THE DESIGN MUST LOOK LIKE A TRADITIONAL SHAVEHORSE.
So the best way to achieve that is to retrofit a shavehorse with something that would look like it could have been made 400 years ago. I still didn't know exactly how this was going to develop, but there were the seeds of a few ideas with real potential.

Rethinking shavehorse design. You sit on it, and you use your foot to clamp the workpiece, so can a shavehorse be wheelchair accessible? The obvious answer is no, but I decided to try and solve the problem.
First thing was a WhatsApp message to my friends at Causeway Giants Wheelchair Basketball Team to see if they could help. Five minutes later we had a design workshop planned...
More to follow.

Cedar bed. This was a great way to use up a load of odds and ends of cedar. I particularly love the headboard, which had been lying gathering dust just waiting for the right project. It was even the right size.
First time trying linseed oil from CaplinTec | Eco-Friendly Home & Garden Products and I have to say, I'm seriously impressed. Made in Wales, it's double boiled and is all natural, so none of the nasty chemical dryers that you often find in others. Smells great too, so with the beautiful scent from the cedar, this will be a huge air freshener!

A bench for Dad. It's hard to believe that it's just over a year since our Dad passed away. I bought the wood to make a bench not long after so we would have a spot in his garden where we could sit and remember him. I just haven't had a chance to get it made until recently.
I picked two slabs of cedar that were from the same part of the tree, so their grain pattern is mirrored. (Bookmatched) The spindles on the back are reclaimed wood from an old tabletop, and the stretchers between the legs were once skirting boards.
I'm pretty happy with it. There's something so satisfying when you sit on a chair or bench that you've made for the first time. That was ramped up quite a bit with this, it was a very special moment.

Sheryl Sandberg once wrote "Done is better than perfect", I love that. I have found over the years that knowing when it needs to be perfect, and when it's more important to just get it done is quite a skill. If you tried to do everything to absolute perfection, you'd still be working on your first project. But you also have to strive for quality right?
With something like these spindles, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. There are 48 holes that need to be equally spaced, and at the right angle, or the spindles just won't fit. So a tape measure and a Sharpie won't cut it.
Thankfully there are ways to help repeatedly getting it right. Dividers will step along a straight line with amazing accuracy and also make an indent for your drill bit. Making a guide block that can be clamped in place for your drill will help to keep your angles correct. If you count the number of turns on your brace, the holes will be the same depth (I also use some masking tape to be sure).
So you don't need to be a master craftsperson to get it right, you just need to employ a few helpful tricks. I'm sure if you ran a laser along these, there would be a couple off, but they're good enough for me, they fit, and they're done. And remember, wood moves, so there's no such thing as perfect.

I'm carving a batch of spindles for the back of a bench with some reclaimed mahogany from a table top. Here is the process.
Mark the size of the tenon on both ends. These are 3/4 inch.
Use a drawknife to knock the corners off and to carve an octagonal shape. You want go create a bit of a wine bottle shape. I have clamped a stop block on to help me start the cuts at the same distance from the end. This saves having to measure every time.
A spokeshave helps to then shave off the corners, rounding the tenon, and approaching the pencil mark.
A rounding plane set at 3/4 inch perfectly rounds to the exact size and guarantees perfectly parallel sides that will fit into the 3/4 holes like a glove.
The first couple usually take about 15 minutes to carve. I'll get better and faster, and the last few take 6-7 minutes. This bench will have 24 spindles. Have to say, this mahogany was a pleasure to work with.

Two new shavehorses have been added to the stable. I had some mega dry scrap pine boards and decided to use it for these, so they are really lightweight yet very strong. Finished with linseed oil paint, they also smell beautiful.
One is called Tommy, after the man who gave me the boards. Any suggestions for a name for the other one?

Had a great time down at the Eco Centre in Omagh with a great bunch of lads. They really got stuck in and actually finished their mug tables so quickly that we had to start a whole new project making this beautiful cedar and oak bench. Seriously great work gentlemen, that through wedged tenon is absolute perfection. 👏
Huge thanks to the Omagh Healthy Living Network for making it possible.