Happy Birthday to me!

This past Friday, I celebrated my birthday.  Which one?  Let’s just say I know the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. I spent a very enjoyable day at work, where I was feted with bagels, donuts and other morning goodies by my coworkers, and then I came home to get ready for a special dinner out with my family.

While the time with my family was certainly the main thing to celebrate on my special day, I was especially eager to open my birthday presents…

My wife and sons gave me this sweet set of Narex  mortise chisels.  This things are very substantially built with heavy duty handles and some beefy blades with very thick irons.  This is – of course – is because these babies are never babied like you might do with a set of bench chisels or certainly would do with a set of paring chisels.  They are meant to be driven with a wooden mallet to excavate deep mortises.  I have got to get out the sharpening equipment and hone them all to a very fine edge, and that will certainly be happening this week.  I just have to ensure I get a night or two of shop time.

This is a universal router bushing set from Ridgid for my Freud FT 1700 combo base router. While my DeWalt setup has a standard Porter-Cable baseplate, the Freud has a more unique proprietary set up which, of course, I can’t find. This kit, however, allows me to drill a new baseplate  to accept these standard model bushings.  It’s funny, but these bushings can make help me make an easy mortising jig that works on my plunge router… I wonder if I’ll be needing to do that as much with my new mortising chisel?

There was also my cake… my absolute favorite kind of cake of all times. Trust me.. if you haven’t tasted one, you owe it to yourself if you get the opportunity.

I also got a few birthday checks from relatives… and I’m starting to wonder what I can use the funds to purchase.  I think I will hold off until after Christmas… I’m not 100% sure what Santa’s going to bring, but I’ve been a very VERY good boy this year!

5 thoughts on “Happy Birthday to me!”

  1. Happy Birthday Tom! Awesome gifts….

    I am a newbie and don’t really get bushings…maybe a post???

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.