When i was at U-Conn Ag school ( two year course animal husbandry) some of us got involved in a tractor rodeo. I was not as experienced as some of the others, but managed to be first substitute. Some others were involved with judging and several other aggie types of competitions. Together, we managed to win a few trophies. It was known to some of my closest buddies that i had taken wood shop while in HS. Those years, i had all the best machines to work with and often stayed after school to help with sharpening of any hand tools. I was allowed to hide away the sharpest tools so had all the advantages during those days.
With trophies piling up from our escapades, something had to be done for display. I was sort of "volunteered" to make a set of shelves. The only place I had to work was in my mother's kitchen. Just a kitchen table (large very well built trestle that a carpenter friend had built for my mom. a long history to that table, but my son has been remodeling his own kitchen to remove all memories of his "Ex" and will soon be transporting it from Leesburg, Virginia), some chairs and a couple of saw horses that i had made on a job. No clamps other than a couple of wood handscrews. I had a #4-1/2 smoother that I managed to do a decent job on knotty pine. Because i was only working on the shelves at nite (worked as a mason's helper/apprentice 6 days. Sundays building a boat.) the lumber was piled on the kitchen floor. It had been "off the shelf" from the local lumber yard and delivered with no special attention to grain or even warpage. I had never worked under all the conditions i had presented myself with.
Soon, as i got into the pile, i was realizing all sorts of problems with warpage and cupping. with no decent clamps, I determined I could straighten out a lot of problems with my old #4-1/2 smoother. (I still have the plane and have recently given it a full treatment tune up) I started piling up huge piles of "curles" on the kitchen floor. My mom put up with a lot in those days. Carpentry cluttering the kitchen. I was into fishing, and early spring, the living room was cluttered with fishing tackle preps for opening day trout season. Nobody could move in either room. I had some chickens that I managed to feed well enough that i had sold eggs in the neighborhood all during my HS years. I had stored the chicken feed in a closet next to the bathroom. The front lawn usually had a car in various forms of disrepair with parts scattered over and under heavy tarps all over the lawn.
Anyhow, back to the shelves. With no collection of clamps, and no desire to purchase same, i managed to do the planing by butting across or on top of the horses and butting ends of boards against the kitchen wall. With cupping and warping, and a deadline to finish the shelves before i was scheduling tearing down the kitchen and building new in the spring to finish before going on vacation with my uncle (That would be Uncle Sam and for two years) I finally put together a set of shelves that, today, would not have put my name on, nor did i sign the job back then. Some of those boards had been whittled down to nearly a quarter inch (maybe a slight exaggeration on the thickness, but not by much if my memory serves me well at 39 years of age :
)thickness at centers of cupping, Somehow, i had been able to disguise the problems and had managed, with two hands crew clamps, screws and nails and glue to finish off a set of shelves that held together for a 100 mile trip tied to the top of my car. The guys at Hicks Dorm thought it was great. so great that I had to stay in the dorm overnite after partaking of rather copious quantities of celebratory liquids. Two years later, i visited the dorm to find none of my old budies still there, altho a couple had moved over to the four year course. I was very much surprised to find "my" old shelves still there and loaded with trophies. Just the fact it held together was my trophy. I have never built anything, before, or since, that i had fully expected to fall apart as i had expected that case to self destruct. But it had survived both the load of trophies and some rather tough partying as i could see signs of nicks and dings all over along with "water" rings from countless wet bottles and glasses (Aggies drink a lot of water and milk you know) having been stored on of the shelves among the trophies.
I have not been back there since and i imagine that trophy case has been used for kindling wood or a bon fire by now.
Tinker
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