I’ve been working on making a mallet to use with chisels, etc. in the shop the past couple days, and have noted a few things:

• I had some leftover hard maple stock from putting together the mobile base I got for the tablesaw. Hard maple is hard!
• A well-tuned handplane leaves one of the nicest surfaces ever. No sanding necessary.
• Woodturning on a metal lathe is iffy, at best.

The price on the Rockler mobile base is somewhat deceptive, as it doesn’t include the hardwood stretchers used to attach the metal brackets to one another. That said, I had enough left over to make my mallet, and it is quite nice to have an easy way to move the heavy table saw around the garage without requiring two or three people. It came in quite handy when I was rearranging the shop. Check out the results: