Woodworks by John

Too Late to Change My Mind?

2012-03-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

Ouch -- It's Beginning!

Well, this isn't the normal post but I have the feeling this will be taking me away from the shop for a while even though my new carving chisels arrived yesterday. Like many of you, our plans changed due to economy. Seems like not too long ago the plan was to sell the big house and use the profits from the sale to downsize plus have a good chunk of change to use during retirement. Since the economy retired about the same time I did in 2008 we are re-doing the house to keep it fresh. No problem, we're just re-purposing and doing what we want to keep the house perfect for our use. The project now is keeping the kitchen more current than it was in the 90's when we bought the house.

Oh So 90's

Like many of the homes built in the mid nineties ours had this huge, dropped fluorescent light fixture and the Oak cabinets. Part of the plan is to change the cabinets by painting them white. There is one door I brushed white by the refrigerator that we put there to live with that change. As much as I don't care for painted cabinets I agree with Di that this will really freshen up the over-all look. The fixture just had to go! When I got to the stage of the first picture I really did think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. Unreal the amount of nails and wood they used to build that monstrosity! Much of it is solid lengths of 2x6 and the nails --------- bizillions of them!! When I worked as a carpenter and built my own house, nail guns weren't very common. If we lowered the ceiling we'd build soffits, almost like a ladder out of 2x4's and attach them to the rafters. This darn thing had some of the crappiest wood and was nailed with a nail gun from every conceivable angle. Pretty much impossible to simply pry the boards off so the cat claw I used in the 70's as a carpenter apprentice still came to good use! It took me much of the day to get to this point:

End of the First Day

I left the lights there for now and this will be gone by the end of work day #2. Pretty amazing, the electrician who put these up didn't use a junction box and these lights are barely hanging on. Guess they figure if it were to fall that awful Oak grid would catch it. Definitely don't think this structure and electrical would have passed a HGTV Holmes Inspection!

Plane Making Class

2012-03-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

Had the first session of the class last night. Got so wrapped up in helping them get started on making their own versions of the Krenov style plane I forgot to take pictures! In the works are two different block planes using the 1" wide blade from Ron Hock, one general purpose plane with the 1 1/2" blade, and another plane that will be patterned after the scrub plane version I designed. Found out that if you do a image search on any of the search engines my plane comes up under "Krenov Style Planes". Must admit it's kind of cool to see my creation on the image page.
Things were going well until one of the sides on a block plane split as the dowel pins were inserted. Luckily it was at the dry fit stage and I had another piece of Australian Lacewood. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out. I think the students all enjoyed themselves in spite of some minor setbacks. Two of them weren't too crazy about making their own dowels so opted to use a tenon cutter for that operation instead. Making those dowels is time consuming but personally I like the results so feel the time is well spent.
Next session we'll be gluing on the soles, learning how to hone the blades, and then setting up and using one of these planes. The class is only 3 sessions so the last session will be spent on shaping the mouth and the plane body. I'll be sure to take pictures next session.

Ian Agrell's Carving Class

2012-02-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Acanthus Leaf

Well, I'm putting it out there for all to see. To think that this started out as a 1" thick piece of African Mahogany that is about 7" wide and 13" long. All hand work and to get to this stage was about two and a half days. I put a couple of coats of shellac on it to seal and protect the piece. The class was pretty intensive and with only 4 of us there we were able to get as much help as we asked for. There's nothing like individual instruction from someone who's mastered this craft to point you in the right direction! A dvd or pictures and text in a book just can't do that.
I really felt like the table's were turned, many times my students would ask how in the world I'd do something and make it look so easy. My reply was always "experience and learning from my mistakes", now I can feel their frustration in my own attempts to complete this leaf. The class went from 9-5 every day and we'd take a lunch break but then keep on carving. Very inspired and used the remainder of a gift certificate from Lee Valley to buy a couple of Hirsch carving tools as soon as I returned home. Then I went to Woodcraft to order a few more Pfiel tools from them that I feel I needed. Really like them and Ian highly recommended them as well. Can't wait to get them and continue my learning curve.
After finishing this required project I began work on two picture frames I'd brought from home. They're made of Basswood so much easier carving but also easier to blow out the edges. One of them is reeded and I plan to use it to work on my water gilding technique -- honestly not sure if there's enough time left for me to accomplish all I want to do in this life. Some refer to that as a "bucket list" but since I keep adding things to it it's really not a list! A plus to taking this workshop was being able to spend the week with my sister, something we hadn't done since we were kids and that was some time ago!

Time to Put it to Bed!

2012-02-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

Acanthus Leave

This is a photo of what I've been able to accomplish on Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday until Ian Agrell told me "it's time to put it to bed"! That's the expression he uses when he figures it's time to move on to something new. I can see that this is similar to when Diane would be working on a painting and finally decide that it's done and walk away from it. This is something that's hard to do because you look at what you've done and know that a little tweak here or there could improve it. Unfortunately, you could do this forever and still not be satisfied with your results! I think anyone working on an artistic level is rarely satisfied with their work --- there's always a little something we think we can do to improve it. By the way, the wood is African Mahogany -- remember the troubles I had with it on the wine cupboards?
I brought two, small picture frames and hope to learn techniques on those that I can take home Saturday and use in my work. I was right in thinking that these five days would be real intense, that they are!!

Off to Carving Class

2012-02-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

Depending on whether or not I can get WiFi and how much energy I have left after 5 days of 9-5 classes, this may be my last post for a week! I'm headed up to San Rafael to take an extensive carving class from Ian Agrell If you're unfamiliar with him and his work check out the link to his website. I'm looking forward to this with some apprehension. My carving is pretty much self taught from books, dvd's, and lots of trial and error. I plan to walk away from this class with much more knowledge about proper carving techniques. Notice I'm not saying I'll have it, just some sound background and then practice, practice, and more practice! The only other time I've enrolled in an extensive 5 day workshop like this was to study water gilding in Scottsdale. I was pretty amazed how tired I was after each day of concentration on the techniques -- I'm anticipating that this won't be any different!
In a recent post I talked about making the new throat plate and the problems I had reconfiguring the MJ ProSteel splitters. The problem was compounded by the fact that one of them had bent and another had a pin break off. Well, I contacted MicroJig with an email and explained the situation to them. Very encouraged by the quality and concern from the company since they replied to my email quickly and offered to send me the two splitters I needed to configure them correctly. I also learned from them that for some reason when you use a throat plate made on phenolic material the splitters are difficult to insert and remove. I found that to be the case when I tried to use them in that type of material. The bottom line is that they mailed me the two splitters I was missing at no charge to me. Companies like that are pretty rare so I'll whole heartedly recommend them to any of you if you need any of their products. If you're not familiar with them check out my link and see what they have to offer.
The Wednesday after I return will be the first session of the class I'm teaching on making wooden, Krenov style, planes. Also looking forward to that one as it should be lots of fun working with my students. I know one of them wants to make a scrub plane similar to my design and another plans to make a block plane for herself. Looks like we'll have the full gamut of sizes and purposes going on in that class. I expect that everyone will enjoy the work and walk away with a tool they made themselves. It's always cool to use a tool that you personally made, I'm excited to guide them in that process.

Lie-Nielsen Dowel Plate ReDo

2012-02-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

Lie-Nielsen Dowel Plate

If you've ever needed a dowel that wasn't the whitewood variety from the Big Box store or even one of the more common species available on line you just have to make your own. Another reason for making your own is that way they'll be the exact size you want. That's what motivated my decision to buy one. Add to that, I'd just received a $50.00 certificate from Highland Woodworking -- they featured my scrub plane in their Show Your Stuff column of the February issue.
A while back I borrowed a friends dowel plate for a project I was working on. I decided to make him a nice holder as a way of saying thanks. I made something similar for my own plate but had some problems. While researching on the net, someone mentioned that they thought the dowel that is made got crooked because there wasn't any way to guide the dowel as it went through. The suggestion was to use a hole beneath the dowel plate that's slightly larger than the dowel size to guide it as it's formed. I took that to heart and here's what that process looked like:

Drilling the Guide Holes

I centered and temporarily screwed the dowel plate to a piece of Oak. Next, each hole was drawn in using the plate as a guide. The holes were then drilled through the block, each is about 1/8" larger than the size of the dowel.

Counter Bore, 2 Large Holes were Filed

To make sure the dowel would go through easily I decided to counter bore each one. If you're going to take the time to make a tool, might as well make it attractive as well as functional. I had some Australian Lacewood, planed it down to match the thickness of the dowel plate then glued & clamped it on:

Lacewood Applied

I wanted to achieve a good fit so I wrapped the dowel plate in wax paper, screwed it to the Oak, then cut the Lacewood pieces oversized.

After Glue-Up

The Lacewood was planed flush with the Oak, slight chamfers with a block plane to ease the edges, Danish Oil, and a coat or two of my 3-part topcoat and we have a good looking tool -- but, how does it work?

Drawn Circle for Guideline

For the test I got a square piece of straight grained Walnut and using a circle guide, shaded in a 3/16" circle. You can't just take a square chunk of wood and drive it through the plate! I experimented to find the best way to reduce the size of the piece with spokeshaves and planes.

Creating the Octagon

Here's what worked the best; I took a scrap piece of 3/4" MDF and routed a shallow V-groove in it. A little work with a chisel to create a stop in that groove was all it took. Now that I had the visual circle at the end of the stick as a guide it was a simple matter of creating more of an octagon shape with a block plane. One last thing to do to the stick is to create a chamfer at one end to help start it.

Dowel Plate in Use

I clamped the tool over the vise and started to drive the stick through the plate. You can see the shavings created.

Quality Check

The proof is right here, perfect 3/16" dowel with very little roughness and much, much straighter than the ones I'd made previously without the guide holes. The dowel plate is one of those tools that may only see occasional use but when you need that perfectly sized dowel of a specific wood this can't be beat. I'll be teaching a class on making wooden planes and my students will be able to use this to make the short dowel pins needed from almost any species they may want.

Oh yea, what happened to the first holder? Well, here it is; at least the glue joint held and the wood failed!

Whoops!

Thought About This for Years

2012-02-11T21:08:00.000-08:00

A New (old) Splitter

I know every table saw comes with the manual and any picture you ever see in a magazine that shows a picture like the one above it will say: "Guard Removed for Illustration -- Always use all Safety Equipment"
But I'll bet that 90% of all small shops will not use the guard or splitter that comes with the machine. When I taught there was a type of guard called a Brett Guard and it worked in a school shop situation but still wasn't ideal. The technology of the SawStop is very good but also pretty pricey and a one-man shop isn't likely to invest in that upgrade, especially in these economic times. I will confess that I've had my Jet cabinet saw for over 12 years and after using the factory guard for a week, took it off and it's never been back on since. The splitter is a necessity, especially when doing a lot of ripping and I'd use that if I felt like taking the time to mess with three bolts and alignment issues. I found that a good solution was to make a zero clearance throat plate and install a micro jig splitter.

Splitters & Test Boards

The MicroJig splitter is a nice item that I've used for years. A couple of things have happened though during that time. Although they're very sturdy one of them was no match for me sliding the fence into it! Another got bent and last of all the throat plate I made for them (on far right) finally needed to be replaced. The red plate on the saw is the Jet original which is great for rough work and angled cuts even though the MicroJig splitters couldn't be used with it. I decided to order one from Highland Woodworking, it's a nice, fully adjustable one and very flat and stable. That's the buff colored one in the middle. Since I had saved all of the MicroJig parts I followed their instructions and attempted to mount the splitters I had left to the new throat plate.
Well, that sounded easy enough but unfortunately it wasn't! No matter how I tried to configure the two splitters I had left they just didn't line up with the saw kerf. Since I didn't want to spend more money and time to re-order them I finally did what I had thought of doing years ago --- made my own darn splitter! Did a bit of web searching and found several possibilities but most required gluing a wooden splitter into the throat plate. I took the stock splitter, drew out a piece that would protrude about an inch above the table. This piece is quite sturdy and is bolted to the trunnion bracket with one bolt only. It'll be easy enough to remove for dado work and will tilt with the blade for angled cuts -- nice! The only thing to figure out was how to cut the back of the plate so it would clear. Here's the solution:

I found that if I clamped an extension to the miter gauge I could then securely clamp the plate upright to pass it over the blade.

What made it more secure can be seen in the back view. The bottom of the leveling screws hooked over the top of the extension and kept the throat plate square to the blade. It took two passes to make a slot wide enough for the splitter.

So that's it, what started out to be a frustrating experience in trying to use the used and abused MicroJig pieces on the new throat plate inspired me to re-visit my original thought of years ago and repurpose the factory splitter to suit my work habits. A little head scratching, hack sawing, filing, and painting and now I believe I have a splitter that will last a long time.

Making Ebony Dowels

2012-02-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

In yesterdays blog, I showed how I went about making the holder for the dowel plate. Here it is in use to illustrate why I designed it this way. Remember there are two legs, the Mahogany in the center, and these are clamped into the vise. Now, the entire plate is supported by the side pieces and they're firm on the bench. It takes quite a bit of force to drive the dowels through and this gives a very solid platform.

Lie-Nielsen Dowel Plate in Use

Through the wonder of the internet I got an email a few days ago from a jewelry artist who found one of my previous posts on making Ebony dowels. Those were for a Greene & Greene inspired stool I made last March. In any case, I had some of the Ebony left so told her no problem. Isn't it great that life has a learning curve and the longer we do something the wider the curve becomes? Generally for pegging joints, as used on the stool, the dowel may be an inch long or so. Even though you make them a bit longer you do that because there will tend to be some inconsistencies. She needed them to be 2-3 inches long so I went for 6"+ to start.
Here's what I accomplished in a couple of hours (remember that learning curve!):

Ebony Dowels

The first step of the process was to figure out the proper width to cut the initial blanks in. They need to be 1/4" in diameter so with something that small the bandsaw was the logical choice. Using a piece of plywood, I created a zero clearance table so the thin piece wouldn't fall through. My goal was to get as close to 9/32 as possible:

Initial Sizing of Ebony

If you've ever used a dowel plate you know that, unfortunately, you can't just take a square piece of wood and begin banging it through the hole! You need to create an octagon shape first and my first thought was to use a spokeshave:

Spokeshave, Notice the end - that's the goal

That had mixed success since the thin piece would flex a bit. Another obstacle is that with Ebony it's really difficult to see which way the grain is running so with trial and error the piece sometimes chipped out. The next thought I had was to use a block plane, clamped into the bench vise:

Block Plane

This worked much better because you can hear when you're going against the grain and go the opposite way. Also a good way to trim your fingernails and get cramped up! The ends of the piece needed to be tapered a bit to start in the hole, this was done with a chisel. What seemed to work the best was to start it in the hole so it looked like this:

The Goal

Now that you have a visual as to what you need to work to it can be used as a guide on the block plane. Once the pieces were hammered through the dowel plate they needed some sanding to eliminate any imperfections and they're ready to ship to the jewelry artist. I plan to ask her to send me a picture of her finished work and I'll show them in the blog if she does.

Get Woodworking Week -- My Contribution

2012-02-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Many of you are probably aware of Tom Lovino's website and his push to promote woodworking, well, here's my contribution based on what I love to teach. That would be the basics using hand tools that don't cost a ton of money, create an equal amount of dust and noise, and just plain keep folks from enjoying the craft. Don't get me wrong, I have my share of power equipment and use it as my apprentices but I've always taught on the premise that using hand tools is an affordable way to enjoy our craft.
From these three items and some hand tools I'm going to show you how to improve your hand skills and end up with a nice little project.

What you see is a piece of Mahogany, a piece of Canarywood, and a Lie-Nielsen Dowel Plate. The Dowel Plate is a tool used to make accurately sized dowels. I'll be using it in an upcoming class where I'll show students how to make a Krenov style plane. The first thing needed for any project is to establish a smooth face and make that square to the edge:

Before I even started to plane the face it was checked with a straight edge. You can see light in the middle section that indicates the outer edges are higher than the center. To plane this, I used a very common Stanley plane, one that was purchased brand new in 1968 or so. These are easy enough to find on Ebay or you can purchase a new one depending on your finances.

Once the initial face and edge is squared, your next step is to bring it down to the desired thickness.

That is marked with a marking gauge guided against the face you just planed,that is your reference point. You can see that this tool scribes a line into the wood, you should mark it all the way around the piece. I couldn't photograph it but what will happen as you plane that second face is what I refer to as "feathering". Because the line is scribed deeply into the wood, as you plane down to it the wood's edge will "feather". That's your clue to lighten up on your cut and sneak up to the scribed line. Here are the other pieces prepared the same way:

Kind of confusing so let me explain. Think of the the two, tall pieces of Mahogany as the legs. The longer pieces of Canarywood are the top that the dowel plate will be let in to. The short piece in the center is a spacer. The process is to lay down a piece of wax paper so the glue doesn't stick onto your bench. Apply glue to the Mahogany, clamp one end flush, insert the spacer and push the other leg against it while you glue it down. The spacer is the distance needed between the holes on the dowel plate. When you glue these pieces together it's important to check the direction of the grain. You'll need to plane the top after the glue dries so be certain that the grain runs the same on each piece. Allow this to dry, preferably over night.

The next step is to screw the dowel plate in position and use a marking knife to scribe all around it. A knife is better than a pencil line because you can set your chisel into it to remove the wood.
Removing the wood; well, you can certainly do this all through hand work but if you have a trim router it's easier to use that to rough it out.

Since it's difficult to see when routing freehand, put some blue tape on the outline. If you have a clear base it's easier to see, I don't so using chalk to outline the opening was even more helpful. The chalk also lets you see how rough the top surface still is. Remember, the grain should all be running the same direction and that will make it easy to plane it smooth and level.

This process is similar to chiseling out for a hinge. Outline the area being sure to cut across the grain first, then work on the sides. For a hinge, you don't need to go nearly as deep (1/4"+) as I did for the dowel plate.

As you continue down your woodworking path, you'll acquire tools that you need. That's the case of this Stanley router plane. Again, you can find them on Ebay or buy them new from Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley. This ensures that the recess is level and although it can be done with a chisel too, the router plane just makes it easier.

Here you have it, the almost finished project. The block plane was used to chamfer the edges to minimize the risk of them getting split. All it's lacking is a protective finish and screwing the plate in. In use, the plate is clamped into a vise and your material is hammered through it. I'll do a future blog on how to make dowels.
So ----- was this over-kill? probably so! Could you simply clamp the dowel plate over a hole and hammer away? Yep! Then, why bother you may ask? This exercise is a great way to work on your hand skills. It doesn't need to be perfect but most people find that if there is a project involved it's more rewarding to practice those skills. You know, it's much more fun playing a song on an instrument than it is to just practice your scales! Woodworking can be the same, challenge yourself to use some of those difficult process on a non essential project like this. Then, when you need the skills on a project that matters you know you can do it.

Wine Cupboards are Complete

2012-01-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

After completing all of those little details that need to be done, the wine cupboards are both complete. Here is one of them hung in the family room:

Closed View

It's on an angled wall and since it's only 6 1/2" deep fits the space just right. Matter of fact, there is now a request for a narrow table with some type of stone top to sit below it so the wine can be poured right there!
Here's what it looks when it is open, room for three bottles and four glasses:

Open View

The African Mahogany, although it gave me some problems, really looks nice on the wall. As I recall the name of the color we painted the wall was Peanut Butter. The cupboard is attached with a French Cleat so there is no visible hardware or screws on the interior. There is ample room to put a wine cork of some type or another on the shelf above the glasses.

Latch Detail

I really like the hardware chosen for this project. Here's a close up of it, pretty obvious why it's called a Rat Tail Latch. This was a fairly common design used for shutters. The over-all feeling I wanted to achieve with the Wine Cupboard is one of a classical, well constructed piece. In keeping with what is often called "old world craftsmanship" the top molding was formed with a hand beader. The bottom of the case consists of hand cut dovetails which is a very traditional method of casework when you use solid wood. To my eye, using the Radio Weave pattern of woven caning enriches the over-all appearance of the cupboard. When the light shines through this you can see the slightest reflection of the glasses inside.

In keeping with the old ways of doing these things, the finish is clear shellac, about 5-6 coats. Once it was cured it was rubbed out with paste wax, thinned with Turpenoid. Turpenoid is something my wife used when painting in closed areas and is an odorless turpentine. This is the first time I've used this product and according to the manufacturer it has all of the properties of turpentine without the odor -- which I actually like! However; I didn't want to use anything that may ruin the taste of the wine.

Last of all though, if you've followed along with the making of this project you know I've had my fair share of difficulties with the African Mahogany. I said I was going to conquer it's reversed grain and other difficulties and I thought I had until it got me one last time! When I was smoothing it out I ran my hand over it to see how things were going, that's when it stuck me with a pretty good sliver. No big deal, or so I thought, until it broke off as I pulled at it with a pair of tweezers. If you work with wood you know that if you just let it alone for a few days it'll fester a bit and you can pop it right out of there. Tried that and got a little bit more out but that wood was determined to get the last word. After watching the lump grow and get more painful I finally gave in and went to Quick Care today. Two hours later and lots of cutting and probing the doctor got the last 1/4" long piece out of my finger, the only good outcome was that the doctor let me keep the tweezers!

Ouch !!

Adjustable Throat, Big Mouth, and other Plane Talk

2012-01-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

Tight Mouth, Small Throat = Fine Shavings

During the scrub plane demonstration I did at our last Sin City Woodworkers Meeting I mentioned that the scrub plane has a very large mouth or throat opening. The is to allow the thick shavings to pass through the plane. You can see a short video of the scrub plane in action if you click on the SCWW link. You may remember that on the initial cuts with the scrub plane it had a "clogged throat" and there was a picture there to illustrate on a previous blog. The plane above is a Lie-Nielsen Bronze # 4 1/2 smooth plane. It features a very small mouth and the throat opening can be adjusted as shown here:

Frog Adjustment

The beauty of this set up is that the frog can be moved forwards and backwards without having to remove the blade. The screwdriver is pointing to a locking screw, there's another one on the other side. After you loosen them the frog can be adjusted with the large screw in the center. Why do this? The smaller the opening (mouth) on the bottom of the plane is the, more support and pressure there is on the board. Since the plane is pushing down on the surface around the cut, there is less tendency for the grain of the wood to pull up and tear. You can see by the shavings that came through the throat, these are some pretty fine shavings from that piece of African Mahogany I've been working with.
This adjustable mouth is a nice feature to have on your plane. With the smooth plane it's the frog that's being moved back and forth to adjust the mouth opening. On block planes the section of the sole in front of the blade can be moved with an eccentric lever to change the mouth opening. There was a little confusion during my demonstration about which is the mouth and which is the throat. I thought it was pretty clear in my own mind until we started talking about it! I remember it this way; the mouth is the opening while looking at the bottom of the plane and the throat is where the shaving travels through. It's not a major point but just keep in mind that the small mouth will only allow thin shavings through the throat. By contrast, a large mouth will allow huge shavings through the throat.
Here's a comparison between the smooth plane and the scrub plane:

Mouth Comparisons

The mouth of the scrub plane is so large you can see completely through it, that plane can take off a lot of wood in a hurry! The function of the smooth plane is to smooth out that final surface of the board after the scrub and jointer planes have done their work.

Radio Weave Tutorial -- Wine Cupboard Doors

2012-01-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

Doors Caned & Drying

You know that you can only say: "I've never done that before" one time? It's my goal to be able to say that about all kinds of things -- my so-called bucket list keeps on growing! This is my first attempt at laying woven cane into the back of a door. I've used spline to attach woven cane into chairs and shelves but this project needed a clean appearance without the clutter of a spline. So far, so good; let me take you through the process. In the back of each door there is a 3/8" x 5/16" rabbet. The rabbet is to lay the radio weave in and then a strip of wood is pinned on top of it.

Bench Hook, Miter Side

Since I ran out of Mahogany I made the strips from Smoked Poplar, figure that will add a bit to the inside of the doors. To cut these small pieces to size, a bench hook was my choice. Bench hooks are something I think should be in every woodworkers shop. Very safe and easy way to cut small pieces to size. Granted, this one is "over-kill" with dovetails but I wanted the practice!

Ready to Start

To protect my bench I clamped a plastic bag to it. A 23 gauge pin was ideal for attaching the strips and Liquid Hide glue was the glue chosen for this job. This type of glue can be removed with a vinegar solution should the cane ever need to be replaced. The first step is to soak the cane for about 5 minutes. I was surprised to learn that this cane is actually made of paper!

Anchor one End

After soaking, remove the cane and shake off the excess water. Now center the cane and then crease it into the rabbet on one end. It's easiest to pull out some of the excess strands that run parallel to the rabbet. Once that's done, run a bead of glue in the corner, hold the pre-cut strip in position and pin it into place.

Opposite End and First Side

After following the same procedure and pulling it tight, the opposite end is secured. I did the best I could to line up the strands with the door's edge but not perfect. Actually I feel it looks better -- more of that hand crafted look and it's really not that obvious. I really like the look of this product, I get all of my caning supplies from Franks Cane and Rush Supply in Huntington Beach.

Opposite Side Secured

After the first side was secured I found it easiest to flip the door around so that the side was closest to me. This made it easier to put pressure against the strip as I nailed/pinned it in place. Notice that all of the long strands of the radio weave that run parallel to the edge are removed. This makes it easier to crease into the rabbet. All that remains is to let them dry for a good 24 hours and then trim those ends with a utility knife. I put them in the house so they will dry quicker.

The remainder of the shop time was spent making the French cleats that will be used to hang the cupboard. The upper portion of the doors needed a door stop so that was designed and glued on as well.

Making Progress

2012-01-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

After a few more battles with the African Mahogany I just had to put things together to remind myself that yes; I am making progress! Todays battle was with the crown molding I made. Really something that in a piece 1/2" thick and less than 24" long it can develop such a warp. I needed to remake a piece of it but once I secured it down with screws and glue I'm sure it won't go anywhere. It was very difficult to measure and cut accurately when it would either bow up in the middle or the ends -- crazy stuff. Also squared the corners of the inset area where the caning will go. Anyway, here's something material to look at:

This is a three quarter view showing how the bottles will be supported inside. Obviously, the doors are not attached.

There will be space for four glasses below.

Although somewhat dark, this shows the color of the Mahogany better. Not quite as washed out as it is in the other picture which I took on the kitchen island. The inside of the cupboard has been shellacked about 4 times. That's a pretty accurate photo of the completed finish.

Since I'd never worked with a paper based cane I wanted to experiment. I made up a sample door out of some Poplar and experimented with it. I like the look of it, has a more contemporary look than the traditional woven, reed caning. This is called Radio Weave.

If all goes well tomorrow I may be ready to do the actual doors. Need to hang and adjust them first so I'm looking forward to a productive afternoon after Church.

African Mahogany vs. John -- I will Prevail

2012-01-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

I hate to make concessions when it comes to the quality of my work, I suppose that's part of my perfectionist and rigid personality. This African Mahogany is really testing those traits. I'm not sure if it's just this particular board or what but today continued with its' share of problems. First of all though, the initial part of the crown is now installed to both cases. This was created using the bronze beading tool and I shared some of the problems with that in my last blog. When you're a one man shop you need to improvise on your procedures if a third hand isn't available. That occurred as I started to attach the crown.

Third Hand for Crown

To properly fit the crown you really need to hold the front and both sides at the same time and then measure and mark them too! Kind of tricky so what I did was to make a elongated cut with the biscuit joiner into the cupboard top. I wanted to have some free play so I could clamp it loosely while setting one end piece exactly where it belonged. This was then marked and cut and the process was repeated for the other side. Once everything was the correct size, the front was clamped tight and the sides were glued and held in place with a 23 gauge pin. Now I could concentrate on gluing and clamping the front piece. Once that was secure I used another clamp to hold the sides together. The only hassles here is that one of the pieces I beaded yesterday decided it wanted to warp a bit more than I thought it should so it was remade.
The next step was to prepare the doors for the Radio Weave caning I plan to use. This requires a 3/8" x 3/8" rabbet cut into the back side of each door. Easy enough with the proper router bit mounted in the table and off we go. I didn't want to risk any damage so made the cut in 1/16+" increments. Things were going okay until the 3rd. pass on one of the doors -- the side of the door ripped off!! All of a sudden, this is what I was looking at:

Inside of Door Frame

Now what to do! I could hear myself telling my students that: "the difference between a good woodworker and a bad one is that the good one has learned how to hide his or her mistakes". Now I needed to practice what I've been telling them for all these years.

Back Side of Door Frame

My decision was to continue cutting to the required depth on all doors but leaving the damaged section alone. The damaged door was brought into the house where it's warmer to repair. By using a thin piece of wood as an applicator and carefully spreading the ripped piece apart I was able to put glue into it. Then it was tightly wrapped with tape, kind of a band aid for wood:

Lumber Band Aid

I'll allow this to dry over-night and then use chisels and a small router plane to complete this rabbet. As you can see the router will cut round corners, these need to be squared off with chisels as well. I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have any more battles with the African Mahogany!

African Mahogany not my Favorite!

2012-01-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

You know, life is a learning experience and the longer you live the more you experience! Some good, some not so good, but if you learn from them it's all good. I've worked African Mahogany before and used it for the panels of a pistol case -- no problems although I recall that the grain did reverse in places which made it tough to plane. Maybe the wood was more stable because I used it as a fairly large panel. I took the last wide piece that was remaining and started to bead the details for the top, crown molding:

Crown Profile

My thought was that keeping the board wide and then ripping the piece off was a good plan. Well, the first problem was that as I got towards the middle of the board, the beading tool started to chatter.

That problem was overcome by clamping the board midway and working a section of it until the profile was complete, moving the clamp and continuing that process until the board was completely beaded.
Once the first piece was complete, I ripped it to 1 1/2" on the tablesaw and repeated the process for the second cabinet. Felt pretty good about that until I took that piece to the tablesaw. That piece curled up like the letter C in two directions -- completely unusable! The only option then was to rip a piece to the correct size first to make sure it was stable. This one was so it was beaded and ready to install. I'm going to let both of them "rest" for a while to make sure they are stabilized.

All I can say is that this wood is beautiful but ...... unstable with a lot of internal pressure built up that makes it move as you start cutting the boards to size. It could just be that this particular tree had lots of stress built into it from wind shake, hurricanes, or who knows what! I do think it will turn out nice because the pieces that I've pre-finished with shellac are looking good.

Doors Assembled

2012-01-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

Well, the morning in the shop started with the bench looking like this:

Ready for the Hand Work

Yesterday I had cut all of the mortises with a hollow chisel mortiser and also cut full tenons on each of the crosspieces for the four doors. No matter how careful I am, it's still easy to get confused as to which piece goes to which door. The tenons all had to be sized to fit the appropriate mortise, they are all haunched. Since they are as close to being the same as possible due to the machine set-ups from yesterday it meant that once I set the measuring/marking tools up it got to be almost like a production job. I prefer to saw on the auxiliary bench, easier on my old back! To size the tenons and cut the haunch I use the dovetail saw. After doing all eight of them, here's what I had:

Ready for Sizing

At this point they are all ready to be customized to fit where they belong. What's required is a bit of chisel work to fine tune the haunch or the mortise. The tool I utilize the most to adjust the tenon cheeks is a rabbet block plane:

Trimming Cheeks

This tool works the best for me, I know you can also use a rabbet plane to accomplish this and although I've tried it, this is my choice. Just support the piece on a bench hook and take whatever off of the tenon until it fits. All four doors were assembled before noon and one of them seems to have a bit of a twist in it. This African Mahogany has really been a bear to work with so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't need to make another door from scratch. Decided it was much too nice of a day to stay in the shop so headed out to Red Rock for a nice, two hour hike.

Machine Work aka Noisy & Dusty Operations are Done

2012-01-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Door Parts Mortise & Tenon

Most of the shop time today revolved around machine work. The first step was cutting the parts required for the door. You can see the uprights on the bench in the background with all of the mortises done, as far as machining goes. In the foreground is the tenoning jig and all of the cross pieces for the doors. I always machine these parts ever so slightly, oversized. Then it's a simple matter of cutting the tenon to fit it's mortise exactly with a dovetail saw and a rabbet plane.
Earlier this morning the wine glass holders were machined and attached to the shelf. Like the other interior pieces for the Wine Cupboard, these too will be shellacked before installation. The rat tail latches came in the mail on Saturday and I'm hoping the hinges arrive soon. If all goes according to plan the doors should be assembled tomorrow.

Why Do I Always Pick the Hard Stuff??

2012-01-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

I guess I can answer that: "if it was easy then everybody would do it!". I'm finding out that the African Mahogany is quite a difficult and unpredictable wood to work with. Whenever I select lumber I like to find the widest stock so that the wood will be as close to the same color, texture, and grain patterns as possible. I do this for the visual continuity it gives and also since I prefer to use clear finishes rather than stain, the color will usually be a good match. When I began ripping the wide board to the sizes I needed it was like ripping wet Redwood when I worked at Silvera Lumber in Antioch! You could see the wood curl and move as the tension within the board was released by the cutting action. I've already had to get some more of it because several pieces were just beyond salvaging.
At this point, I'm concerned about the success of these wine cupboards. I've cut the door pieces to rough size and brought them into the house just to see how they will react in a warmer, drier environment. In the meantime, I've decided to continue but I'm prepared to scrap the whole thing if needed. If the quality and craftsmanship isn't there they won't leave the shop and I'll chalk it up to experience. Sometimes it's better to push on even if the outcome is uncertain, you can always learn something.
The interior of these cupboards is somewhat complicated. Because of that they were shellacked before assembly. Since shellac is an easy finish to touch up I decided to go this route, here's the pieces laid out with three coats of shellac:

All Shellacked

You can see the square pieces that will support the bottles, then the sides, top, and bottom, and the back pieces laying on the tablesaw. That propane tank you see in the background is my only heat source out there. It's mounted on a furniture dolly so I can put it wherever I want. After applying the third coat I went to work on roughing out the stock for the doors and made the T-molding that will hold the wine glasses.

Towards the end of the day I decided to go ahead and assemble the two cases and that's where things got tricky!

Assembled, Clamped, and Ready

The tricky part here was that the bottom, dovetailed piece had to be glued and clamped into place but at the same time; I needed to insert the 6 rods that will hold the bottles and slide the back into the dado. To add to the difficulty, the unstable nature of the African Mahogany meant that some of those rods had a bit of a twist to them. I followed all of the recommended procedures, dry fit first, have clamps ready, have mallet ready, take a couple of deep breaths, then glue and work like the dickens! Thankfully it wasn't too bad but glue-ups always stress me out anyway. The final step to the assembly of this case is the shelf that goes up about 1/3 of the way. This will fit into the sliding dovetails and help to keep this unstable wood from getting too crazy! That will be finished before it's glued and slid into place.
I'll let them dry over-night, keep my fingers crossed that the door pieces won't go crazy, and grab a glass of wine before dinner.

Mock Up and First Look

2012-01-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

First Look

Kind of sounds like something you see while you're waiting for a show to start in the theater! I imagine many of you feel like I do at times as you work on a project. There are so many preliminary steps before you actually see something that looks like the vision in your head or the drawing on your plan you may lose sight of that. Here are the two wine cupboards dry-fit together. The one on the right has the middle shelf slid into a sliding dovetail, the joint chosen to hold the center of the cupboards together. This is my first time using African Mahogany and I'm finding it somewhat problematic to work with. After rough cutting the parts there was a lot of movement, warping, and other nasty stuff! Needed to get some more material because the boards I'd selected for the doors took a major twist which wouldn't work for door parts anymore.
The wine bottles will be supported by the 5/8" square pieces laying in the foreground. Assembly will be tricky -- there are six of these pieces that need to be fit into the holes on the side and the dovetails at the bottom of the case plus the top piece all have to be glued and clamped at the same time. Looks like a job where I'll need to ask for an extra pair of hands from Diane.

Using Set Up Blocks to Measure Dovetail Bit

For Christmas, I received a gift of the set up blocks sold through Lee Valley and made by Veritas. They were demonstrated at a recent Sin City Woodworkers meeting and seemed like a good tool to have. They are very nice! Much easier to get the proper depth with them as opposed to using a scale or scrap of wood.

Last of all, I'd like to share something with you, I was able to get into Ian Agrell's , five day carving class. He is a renowned wood carver and known internationally. If you're interested in seeing some of his work here's a LINK to his website. You'll be amazed at his portfolio of work. He's done carving for huge churches, the Pope, and other equally impressive clients. Luckily, the studio is less than 10 miles from my sister so I'll be able to stay with her. Really looking forward to that, it's towards the end of February.

Beginnings of a new Project

2012-01-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Where most projects begin

My recent series of blogs where I talked about my design process didn't really address where many things have to go before work begins. If I'm doing a project for myself I'll often make some rough sketches and then "fly by the seat of my pants"! When it's done for a client I seldom have the freedom to do that. They generally want a fairly definite idea before they write a check for the deposit. I've heard it said that if you can draw it you can build it and that's pretty accurate assessment of how to start a project. That's the approach I'm taking on this Wine Cupboard. One will be for myself, the other will go to the gallery as a speculation piece. It's designed to fit in a someones' home and will hold four glasses and three bottles of wine. After making preliminary sketches and some quick mock-ups out of wood I stood in front of my stand up drafting table and finalized the design. Some will argue that using a computer to create drawings is quicker but I find that I can build it in my mind better if I actually put pencil to paper.
When a project is designed as a speculation piece, its' design and construction has to stand out from the ordinary things people can buy elsewhere. The trick is to provide enough special details to set it apart without pricing it completely out of the market -- a tall order in these economic times! My forte is my emphasis on old world craftsmanship and hand cut joinery so dovetails were in order. The one area of dovetails that causes me the most grief is maintaining an even edge where the two pieces come together. I decided to try a technique I've read about where you cut a relief on the inside of the tailboard like this:

Tailboard Relief

This technique is named after a certain Stanley plane but I can't recall the number -- really doesn't matter but to achieve this I used the table saw with the blade set slightly higher than the thickness of the board and a depth of about a 1/16" of an inch. This is more obvious in this picture:

Chisel the Shoulder Line

It's easy to see that initial cut that will give a sharp, finished edge to the inside of the cabinet.
Something else I'd like to point out here as well. First, the board was scribed to the required thickness and angled tails were cut. Now, before using the saw to cut the shoulders I chiseled out a wedge of wood just as you'd do to remove area between the tails. Finally, I cut about a 1/16th. of an inch from the shoulder line. Why go to all of that? Let me show you:

Paring the Shoulder

Those initial cuts with the chisel give a great visual reference. Notice the different appearance of the wood where it's been sliced with the chisel (darker & smoother) compared to where it was cut with the dovetail saw which appears cloudy and fuzzy. By slicing diagonally it's fairly easy to achieve a smooth shoulder. Actually it would be better to undercut this than leave it high.

Another advantage to cutting that initial piece of the edge of the board is that it's much easier to line it up when you lay out your pin board:

Transferring Tails to Pin Board

That ledge you create with that initial cut is butted right up against the edge of the pin board so alignment of them is simplified and more secure. To cut out the waste between the pins you should follow the same procedure. First of all, set your chisel right on the scribed line and remove a small wedge. By doing this it's easier to keep your shoulder square. If you don't remove that wedge first the chisel will have the tendency to cut inward resulting is a poor shoulder line. Here you can see what I mean by the wedge better:

Removing waste from the Pin Board

Now that the bottoms of the cases are dovetailed, the next step will be to cut a sliding dovetail for the center shelf. This will be done with a router using the same technique that Dennis Patchett showed at one of the Sin City Woodworkers meetings.

The Proof is in the Shavings!

2012-01-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

Trial Run

Some of you may remember the old advertisement whose tag line was "the proof is in the pudding", hope I'm not showing my age but that's what came to mind when I took the now completed scrub plane for a test run. Look at those shavings! See the concave tracks made by the blade? Beautiful, I couldn't ask for more.

Purpleheart Sole and Mouth View

The blade from Ron Hock is fantastic, I honed it on a 1000 grit then 8000 grit waterstone which only took a couple of minutes to accomplish. The throat on the plane is large enough to pass some pretty large pieces which is what you want from a scrub plane. It's all about hogging off the warped or cupped section of a board.

Final Picture

For the finish I used the same three part mix I use on my furniture. It's equal parts of boiled linseed oil, pure gum turpentine, and polyurethane. This was rubbed in with 320 grit, wet/dry paper then wiped dry. I'll do a couple more coats and then we're done.
Very enjoyable project, one of those that I'll be reminded of every time I grab this plane! If you are now inspired to possibly make your own plane, Ron Hock sells complete kits on his website that include everything you need, even the wood. I have a link to his website on my blog. They are of the classic James Krenov design and don't have the tote and handle I've added to mine. If you want to make a scrub plane from the kit he'll substitute the straight blade for a radiused one like I used.

Shaping the Scrub Plane

2012-01-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Getting Into Shape

Well, I just couldn't wait to take a picture and post it on the blog. Who knows, some of you may be as excited as I am about the progress of the plane! Since this is something I've never done before I wouldn't mind constructive criticism about the progress. This plane is definitely based on the James Krenov design but I've modified it to better suit, what I think, a scrub plane should do.
At this point I've been using spokeshaves, files, chisels, and rasps to form the handle and the knob. It's far from being finished so I just wiped it down with turpentine to add some color to it. In my research there was some mention that the Krenov style plane's design didn't give a real good grip and scrubbing requires a lot of grip and oomph! Because of that I chose to use a saw type handle at the rear and a knob (of sorts) at the front. If you remember back to the beginning stages these pieces were pretty blocky. My strategy was to simply grip the plane as if I were using it and see how things feel. My left hand would be at the front. The knob is contoured so my hand can wrap around it with either all four fingers below the top of the knob and the thumb wrapped around it or else three fingers can wrap and the index finger and thumb go over the knob. I just started to radius it until it felt good. There is more radius on the left side then there is on the right. The rear handle is pretty straight forward and I'm working on blending it into the sides. Generally when I plane my habit is to wrap my hand around the rear handle but my index finger lays along the side.
The wedge I came up with is from a scrap of Zebrawood and the sole of the plane is just under eleven inches long. Now's the time we woodworkers tend to rush things but I'm determined to work the wood with sandpaper until it's as smooth and silky as the proverbial babies' butt!

First Shavings & I'm EXCITED !!

2012-01-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

First Scrub Plane Shavings

There you have it -- the first shavings from the first plane I've ever attempted to make! The cut is pretty nice and I haven't even honed the blade! This blade from Ron Hock will be a joy to use. I'm thinking that once I have the plane adjusted I'll just be able to leave it set up. In my last blog I mentioned entering that realm of the unknown, something I always look forward to. Kind of like your first race at a new distance and I've experienced that from a 10k to a 100 miler, you just have to take those first steps and even though there may lots of trepidation you push forward. In the picture, the dowel that is used to wedge the blade tight is only pushed part way through one side. This is my second wedge because the first one was too short. Now that the dowel is glued in I can work on shaping the wedge so it's easier to grab on to.
One area that was a little vague to me was to determine where to locate the 1/2" dowel in the body of the plane. Krenov's book and Hock's plan showed it to be 1 1/4" from the bottom. Here's how I solved this:

Dowel Lay-Out

By using a small sliding bevel I located the 45 degree ramp for the blade and also the other side of the mouth. There is a line drawn on at 1 1/4" from the bottom. Laying the blade and wedge on the side of the plane allowed me to locate the dowel. Simply cut a small piece of it, laid in on the line, then after marking the center of it drilled the hole through the body on the drill press to ensure it being square.

I also needed to complete the mouth opening through the sole. At first, this is what it looked like inside the plane. If you look closely you can see how I put a slight chamfer on it before I glued it on. That really helped when I used chisels to extend that 45 degree angle completely through the plane.

By first "nibbling" the Purple Heart sole with a smaller chisel it was easier to use the long paring chisel to set the angle. This had to be as close to perfection as I could get so the blade would have a good, flat surface to bed on.

Clogged Mouth

After drilling the dowel hole and then wedging the blade in for the first attempts I found that the throat was too small. This was an area that I wasn't too sure about. For a smooth plane you want the smallest possible throat so that the plane presses down on the wood and allows the thinnest of shavings to come through. I thought I'd made it pretty large but, as you can see, the shavings wouldn't pass through and it became clogged.
To remedy that the plane was clamped upside-down and then I carefully chiseled the front of the mouth larger. Similar to chiseling out a mortise for a hinge but the Walnut block had end grain which I didn't want to split through. As the first picture showed it all worked. Looking forward to working the shape of the plane so that it will fit my hand when I use it. That's the next step in this process.

The Realm of the Unknown

2012-01-01T15:20:00.001-08:00

The more I get into making this plane, the more I realize I really don't know! I've handled very few wooden bodied planes so I'm kind of going by logic and pictures. After Church, I started the day with this:

Sunday Morning

At this point things are pretty blocky and I'm resisting the urge to smooth, round, chisel, sand, etc. to a shape that's pleasing to my hands. The main thing missing is a sole. The directions say to attach the sole, mark out the mouth, and then cut it out with either a router or coping saw. I chose the latter:

Roughing out the Mouth

What you see here is the piece of Purple Heart that will become the sole of the plane. I'm a little bit stymied with how to treat the mouth. The pencil line you see is the actual space for the mouth in between the front and rear blocks. The rear block is cut at 45 degrees so the mouth in the sole will need to be formed to make a ramp that is perfectly flat and 45 degrees all the way to the opening. Since this is what the blade rests on it seems that will be crucial. Because this plane will be used to take large shavings, the mouth can and should, be pretty large so they will pass through. I did cut a slight chamfer on the bottom of the mouth, it will eventually taper from the pencil line to the edge of the opening. I'll use a paring chisel to accomplish that once the glue dries over-night. By contrast, my bronze Smooth Plane has a very "tight" mouth to allow just the thinnest of shavings to pass through. The two holes at the top of the sole are for the Ebony pegs that will align the sole to the body.

Here's where I left off this afternoon, everything's glued together and I roughed out the wedge from a piece of Zebrawood. It and the blade are at the lower corner of this picture:

There's a Plane in There Somewhere!

Just a side note here, last night Diane and I went to a place called Bottles & Burgers for some gourmet burgers on New Years Eve. The tables had a rustic finish on them which could have easily been made by a curved bladed scrub plane such as this project will hopefully become.

Happy New Year to All of You

How Was Your Christmas?

2011-12-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

I sincerely hope that those of you that read my blogs that your Christmas was a wonderful occasion that you were able to spend with family and friends as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Sometimes it's hard to keep sight of that as we open our presents to see what "Santa Claus" has brought us and I hope he too, was good to you. Two years ago, I asked for and received the small spokeshave kit from Lee Valley. Breanna got that for me and it was a good challenge to make it and I use that tool often. This year I asked for a scrub plane blade from Hock Tools. In case you're not familiar with what the heck a scrub plane is here's Wikipedia's definition:

The scrub plane is a type of plane used to remove large amounts of wood from the surface of lumber, such as when eliminating cup or twist in the first stages of preparing rough stock, or when reducing the thickness of a board significantly. Scrub planes generally have a short soles, a relatively narrow but thick blade, a very wide mouth, and a deeply curved edge (of about a 3 inch radius) to make a deep, gouging cut.

For woodworkers that use lots of power tools, the power jointer has pretty much eliminated any use for this style of plane but since I don't use or have a jointer I can see the need for it. After doing my internet research I decided to attempt to make my first plane. It will be based on the Krenov style but modified/customized to suit what I think I need. There were a few references on the construction of this plane and the fact that the traditional style plane patterned after James Krenov didn't necessarily lend itself to becoming a scrub plane. The reason cited was the lack of a handle or tote which made it difficult to get enough power behind the tool. Well, I found a design on a forum where there was more of a saw type of handle that I decided to use for my "plane to be".
Here's the parts:

Starting Point

What you're looking at is the two pieces of Walnut that will make up the plane. I drilled a few 1 3/16" holes to begin to form the handle. You can see the rough outline of the shape, very similar to a saw handle. The dowel will be used to wedge the blade into the plane itself and it's pretty obvious that the blade has a radius, just like Wikipedia's definition. This blade comes from Ron Hock who is well known for the quality of his blades, I gave you the link for his business in the opening paragraph. The long, yellowish piece of wood is Canarywood left over from my dining table and it will be used for the sides. Last of all is the Purple Heart which will be laminated to the bottom for the sole.

Roughed out Handle

Making the handle was interesting. First of all, the ramp that the blade rests on is cut at 45 degrees. Since there is a fairly large screw head that holds the blade and chip breaker together I needed to route a groove for that to fit in to. I needed to bring it down a bit more than this to accommodate the thickness of the sole but that was fairly easy to to with a chisel.

The width of this piece is 1 9/16" and when I gripped it, it's way too thick to be comfortable. That's when things on the bandsaw became interesting!

Looking Like a Plane ??

As you can see, I made the handle much thinner and that was a challenge. There's a well known furniture maker, Sam Maloof, who had a very, unorthodox (unsafe?) method of using the bandsaw. I've seen it in videos and he has most of the blade exposed and he makes these free hand cuts to form the arms, back slats, and other parts for his chairs. I figured that if he could do it I'd give it a shot as well and it worked! The next step is to laminate the Canarywood sides onto the rest of the plane, they will be pinned with Ebony dowels. There's a slight quandary in that I don't want to spend tons of time yet with spokeshaves and files to shape the plane until I know it will function as it should. In any case, I'm enjoying the process and that's really what it's all about. The front of the plane will resemble an infill plane with the somewhat bulbous grip but I'm hoping for a lot of control. The primary function of this plane will be to level and smooth one side of any board that happens to be cupped or warped. Once I have one side leveled the surface planer can be used to bring the board to a uniform thickness.

For Connor -- He Unwrapped it Today

2011-12-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

Step Stool for Connor

Now that Christmas has passed I can post my blog about making Connor's step stool. I must admit that it's much nicer than the one I made for his Mom when she was his age but you know, my skills have improved over that time. I used machine cut finger joints to join the top to the sides and hand cut dovetails on the stretchers for the bottom. This project was suggested by my neighbors Mom when she asked me what I was making for Connor's Christmas present. Hard to believe, but her daughter (my neighbor) was in my first class when she was in seventh grade!

I stayed with the theme of Walnut and Maple for this step which can also be used as a stool. With it, Connor can reach the counters to brush his teeth and be a big help for Mom! To make it special I found an image on Yahoo of the letter C. I thought this was pretty cool because it's the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street and Jennifer and I watched that together all of the time.

The first step to making this was to create a template which was done on the scroll saw. By using a guide bushing set on a router I first created the recess of the letter in the top of the step stool. As you can see, the template was clamped to the top and then routed out.

Template clamped on, ready for Routing

Once the outline was complete, a small router plane was used to remove the rest of the material inside the outline of the C:

Router Plane used to Complete Recess

I had already made the C part out of a piece of Maple so it was glued into the recess and planed smooth:

Once I got the step stool to this point I realized I should have relieved the bottom a bit just in case it sat on an uneven surface. Now that all was assembled there is no way to cut it on the bandsaw so the only option was to use a coping saw. Heck, I've taught hundreds of students how to use one so it was a logical choice:

Coping Saw Work

At this point I had the choice of either filing both sides smooth or else making a pattern so that a router could be used to smooth out the curve, that was my choice.

This is by far the easiest way to have two identical surfaces and contours on a project. If this cut was only made on one surface a file, spokeshave, and sandpaper would have been just fine but if you want to insure that both profiles are identical a template is the way to go. You can see I have quite a bit of material to remove but with the template clamped onto the sides, located by the bottom of the step stool and the center line both sides will be identical.

Template and Guided Router Bit

Now comes the hard part, waiting until Christmas for Connor to open this present. Then I'll be able to post it on the blog.

Hope all of you that follow my blog had a Merry Christmas!!

Still Working on It!

2011-12-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

My Ali Girl

Yesterday morning Diane was looking through some Etsy sites and told me there was a wood working site named Two Dog Woodshop, she suggested that I have a One Cat Woodshop! Silly as it seems she planted a seed in my mind so I scanned a photograph of when Ali was the cover girl on Cat Fancy Magazine and made it my carving challenge. Believe it or not; you're looking at about 4 hours worth of work and it's far from perfection but ......... I feel my skill level continues to improve.
When I'm out in my shop, fully engrossed in what I'm trying to achieve, time means nothing. I remember conversations in our car pool as we went up the mountain to work. Several of us were at that point of retiring and many of my co-workers were concerned with what the heck would they do all day. You know, you can only take so many trips or hit so many golf balls. Thank God that I have a past time that keeps me engaged and brings in some extra money besides. Let's talk about the carving work, here it is in a better shot:

Ali Carved 12-18-2011

I can still recall my very first exposure to carving, it was in Boy Scouts and we were told to bring a bar of soap to the next meeting. The scoutmasters name was Bill Hinkle and he showed us how to carve a fish out of that bar of soap. I remember him saying, when we asked how to do it, just cut away everything that doesn't look like a fish! Sounds simple enough but there's much more to it as I'm learning. With this carving I'm trying to give a sense of dimension and I think there's a certain degree of success. One of her front paws is up in the air so the other one has to be brought back some, same with her rear legs. My goal is to show different layers which can be achieved by rounding over the edges and creating shadows to show depth. A characteristic of the Oriental Shorthairs are their large ears and wedge shaped face. Looking down at Ali here on my lap that's pretty obvious.
Anyway, that's what's kept me busy for part of the weekend, the process that goes hand in hand with carving is maintaining sharp chisels but that's another subject all to itself!

Santa's Surprise

2011-12-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Shh, don't tell anyone!

Well, my current project (which is actually done) is a surprise so I can't say too much about it. You know how it is, Christmas is right around the corner and my grandson's name starts with a C so that's about as far as I can go with my blog for now. I like the letter C that I found on Yahoo images since it's the cookie monster and Jen and I used to watch Sesame Street together all of the time. It's a nice, playful looking one and it's an inlay on someone's Christmas present -- sorry, that's all I can say for now but I'll post it all after Christmas.

TV Tray Redux is Complete

2011-12-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

TV Tray in Use

Here is the culmination of the Design Process blog that some of you have been following. It's been a while since we began this series on September 30th. but in the mean time I also completed a birthday present for my grandson and new studio furniture for Diane. Things like that really don't matter because for me everything keeps rolling around in my head on how to solve design and construction problems. In my opinion, these tables solve the problem of having a tray that can be used for eating or holding drinks and snacks for a get together with friends but yet be attractive when they are not in use. You may remember the old TV trays, plastic, brass, and phony wood tops that you had to hide in the closet. They only came out when needed. This set, on the other hand, looks good just sitting there!

Waiting to be Used

The design I was after was to have the three of them make a statement when they're together. They can be arranged as shown, with the widest end out, or reversed with the shorter end out. This would depend on where you keep them. In this case they are tucked into a curved wall in our house.
One design element that needed to be addressed is that when they are not in use, I didn't want a "sea of legs" as Diane put it. That's the reason for going with only three legs per table. The prototypes seemed to work and now that we've used them they are very stable. When you look at them straight on you're not overwhelmed by that sea of legs!

To me, the tables have a sense of movement. Angling the legs out not only added stability but also some life. The legs taper towards the bottom and their face is beveled as well. Small, subtle features like this is what gives them life and movement.

It's all about the Wood

For me, my design process is centered around the wood. Black Walnut was used for the frame and the legs. The inset tops are Zebrawood which was resawn and then book matched. In my designs I like joinery details to show. In this case, the leg tenons go through the top and are splined with maple to mimic the coloration of the Zebrawood.

Custom Picture Frame Molding with a Lie-Nielsen #66 Beading Tool

2011-12-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

PART FOUR: FINISHING TOUCHES

Completed Frame with it's Painting

The customized frame is now complete and looking back over this project I realize how much I enjoyed creating the custom profile using the #66 Bronze Beading Tool from Lie-Nielsen. As I mentioned, I've made scratch stocks before for my furniture work and taught students in my classes how to make them as well but this tool makes it much easier. It's much easier to set the distance that you want the profile to be from the edge, just nice to use all around.

When I delivered the painting I noticed how much the color and finish of it matched a dresser the client had in their bedroom. As usual, photographs on blogs really don't do the project justice but you can see the gleam the finished frame has, notice the left, top corner? Another thing you may notice is how the areas that were profiled with the beading tool are slightly darker. That's because the Smoked Poplar didn't cut as cleanly as a hardwood might but it gives a nice shadow line and adds some dimension to the frame.

We're unsure as to who the artist is of this painting as it's unsigned. Appears to be the master of the house talking to the kitchen maid -- maybe she broke a dish or something! If anyone recognizes this work let me know who you think may have painted it. Many people tend to think of a frame being jewelry for the painting and I hope I achieved that with this one.

Custom Picture Frame Molding with a Lie-Nielsen #66 Beading Tool

2011-11-28T11:41:00.000-08:00

PART THREE: ASSEMBLY OF THE FRAME

Something you should know when you create this type of profile is that you now have nothing but angles! Usually I use a sled on my tablesaw to cut frame member to length but since there is a 15 degree beveled cut on the back of the profile it's now more like cutting crown molding. I find it best to do this with my miter saw which I have mounted on a cabinet. The saw is mounted in a recessed area in the center so the remainder of the bench becomes a support table. I suppose if you have a Tiger Stop all of this trial and error process isn't needed but if you're a one of a kind, one-man shop you have to become inventive!

My version of "Tiger Stop"

My solution is to mark the length of the longest frame leg first (always a wise choice). I lay a strip of tape on the cabinet top and clamp a stop block a bit further than what I need. Mark a line on the tape and make the initial cut. The length is then checked against the actual painting. Let's suppose it's 3/8" too long -- now it's a simple matter of marking another line 3/8" from the first one, re-positioning the stop block and you're good to go! After cutting both long legs I drew another line for the short legs of the frame. These happened to be exactly 12" shorter so I marked a line from the stop and that's all there is to it.

For picture frames it's vital that both pieces are exactly the same length or else your corners will be off. To check them, I lay them back to back. Do this before you remove your stop block in case you need to make a slight adjustment to one of your pieces.

Checking Length

24" x 36" sight, It's pretty big!

Assembling the frame had a bit of a challenge. I use biscuits, glue, and then clamps which isn't a production process but does result in a strong frame. The problem I encountered is that the Smoked Poplar started to swell the moment the glue hit the surface which meant there was no play what so ever, matter of fact, I could barely get the biscuit into the slot! Thank goodness I'd asked Diane to help me align the parts and we were able to wipe out all of the glue with some wet paper towels. The solution to this problem is the same technique I use with Basswood frames. Each slot is cut twice. After the initial cut I adjust the fence slightly higher and make another pass. If you're so inclined, the slot is good when it measures .165 - .170, the initial cut with my biscuit joiner is .155. Not much difference but it makes getting all four corners glued and clamped much easier and less stressful so I find it well worth the extra time it takes. Here's the frame clamped up and ready for the next steps.

After allowing the glue to set up overnight inside the house (cold in the shop) I'm ready for the final finishing work. Something I've found to be indispensable for this phase of frame making is the tadpole sander. With all of the profiles available it's easy to find one that matches your particular cove, bead, line, etc. All that's needed is to wrap some sandpaper around them and work the wood. Here is a before and after shot.

Before Tadpole Work

After Tadpole Work

I thought it was interesting that I could get the tadpoles to stand up in the profile, guess that means they were a very good fit for the cutter. Just completed oiling the frame with the Watco natural and it really gives it a rich, Walnut appearance. Next time you visit the blog you'll see a completed picture and frame!

Custom Picture Frame Molding with a Lie-Nielsen #66 Beading Tool

2011-11-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

PART TWO: BEADING THE FRAME

Lie-Nielsen #66 Bronze Beading Tool

Wow, isn't' that a thing of beauty? Even the guy who gave it to me and is a power tool fanatic admitted to the beauty of this tool -- said he'd buy it just to put it on display! The tool is based on the Stanley #66 which I believe was manufactured from the 1880's to the 1940's. The quality of this Lie-Nielsen tool is outstanding and the only preparation work needed was to polish the faces at each cutting edge. Before electric routers came along this was the tool to use to make moldings and profiles. Another tool was Stanley's #45 plane which cut profiles rather than scraped them like the beading tool does. I've worked with the #45 and believe me, set up and use of the beading tool is much easier. Matter of fact, I e-bayed the #45, it just didn't seem worth the effort to me.

Left Side Planed -- Right Side from the Planer

Before beginning the beading process, the show face of each board was planed with a smoothing plane. It's an important step that is often left out by some but if you look at the picture on the left I think the result is obvious. To do this, I use another Lie-Nielsn tool, a Bronze smooth plane. Electric planers, no matter how good they are will tend to leave chatter marks all across the board. You can see them pretty clearly and they're magnified once the board has a finish on it and the light reflects off of the surface. In my work, this is a pretty important step.

As I mentioned in part one, I cut the first bead for the sight edge before cutting the rabbet out. That was done with the cutter on the far right in the picture above. The question will be asked: "How long did that take you to do?" and the answer was less than 25 minutes. This frame required two pieces 4' long and another two at 3'. You need to have a bit extra since it's difficult to start and stop the beading tool right at the end of a board.

First Profile: Sight Bead

To use the beading tool the first step is to set the depth. This is done by holding your piece of wood on the sole of the tool, sliding the cutter to the required depth, and tightening it in place. The fence is then located on whatever side works best for you and your ready to go. The first few passes are critical. The tool is pulled towards you and it's important to tilt the trailing edge up so the cutter basically just scribes the wood at first. It doesn't take much to maintain pressure against the board with the fence. After the cutter has scribed its profile into the board you can take deeper and deeper cuts. Sounds corny but you just have to listen to the wood -- the sound the cutter makes will let you know if you're trying to remove too much material at one time.

All Pieces Completed

It took a little over an hour to bead all of the required material. Although the power tool junkies may scoff at that and think the work could have been done with a router, maybe quicker, I'd have to disagree. First of all, finding some of these profiles in available router bits is probably not possible. These are pretty detailed. By the time you set up fences, install/remove the different bits, run the risk of burning the wood, and then add clean up time to the picture I'm not sure you could do any better. Besides, I worked off some calories so I could eat more this Thanksgiving! One last plus for the beading tool is that you can cut your own profile to either match an existing one or make a custom design just for your own work. I like to put a small detail along the apron of tables and this would be an example of where this can come into play.

The last thing I wanted to do is to compare this Smoked Poplar to Black Walnut it's been engineered to replicate. The piece of Walnut is on the left and you can see that the detail the cutter left is crisper. It also cuts cleaner and forms a shaving rather than the dust formed when the Smoked Poplar is beaded. There is a positive to this though, when the Poplar is oiled there is a nice contrast between the scraped bead, the rougher background surface, and the surrounding planed surface of the rest of the molding.

All in all, a very rewarding and productive experiment. All that remains is to cut and join the frame, finish it and mount the artwork. I'll post that picture when it's complete.

Custom Picture Frame Molding with a Lie-Nielsen #66 Beading Tool

2011-11-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

PART ONE: PICTURE FRAME FROM 4/4 MATERIAL

After using and teaching others how to make and use their own scratch stock for many years I recently received a Bronze beading tool from Lie-Nielsen tool works. If you've never heard of them I'd encourage you click on the link and check out the quality of their Made in the USA tools. I'm a huge fan of them and own a few planes, a spokeshave, set of chisels, and now their beading tool. As things often go, a series of events led me to this commission for a custom frame that will be approximately 24" x 36". The gift of the beading tool is the first in that series of events.
The next event happened at our last meeting of the Sin City Woodworkers. A local supplier had dropped off some samples of thermo-treated Poplar. It was referred to as "Smoked Poplar" and is a product designed to replicate Walnut at about a third of the cost. It's light weight, should be very stable, the color goes all the way through, but it is somewhat brittle. That's probably because of the thermo process the wood goes through. Matter of fact, when you cut or bead it there is a charcoal odor -- like you left the steaks on the bbq too long!
The last of the events was being called to give an estimate on a picture frame. The clients were pretty open as to the design of the profile but knew they wanted something dark. I contacted the lumber company and was able to get a piece to experiment with. I designed a profile, made the corner sample, and after showing it to the client, got the job. Here is the sample that earned me the commission:

Corner Sample: Smoked Poplar

You can see how rich and dark this material looks and from a distance you probably would mistake it for Walnut. The finish on it is natural Watco oil. There are differences between the two species of course. As I mentioned brittleness is one of them and it's much softer but for this application that won't present any problem at all.

Creating your own picture frame moldings from scratch is an interesting endeavor. There are many details to it but let me give you the basic procedure so you can try it on your own, feel free to contact me if you want more detail. After deciding on the material and width you need to consider whether the frame is for a stretched canvas, a board, or a watercolor. If it's a canvas, you need to either use wood thicker than the 3/4" stock readily available or use this trick I'll talk you through here.

Lay out of Rabbet

Back 15 degree bevel

Start by cutting the back of the piece at 15 degrees, this will force the molding out away from the wall. This is best done on the tablesaw. Next you set a bevel at 15 degrees and draw in the rabbet. Keep in mind that the bevel you cut on the back sits against the wall, that's why the rabbet is also cut at the 15 degrees. Set the height of your blade by extending the distance to the side of the molding, then make your first cut with the piece laying flat on the tablesaw.

Second cut for Rabbet

Completed molding before beading

The second cut is a little trickier and the way I do it is probably not OSHA approved! It's difficult to determine the exact height of this cut so what I do is to estimate it the best I can, push the piece through until it's just past the blade, then lift it straight up by pushing on the back of the piece. Then I'll slowly raise the blade a little at a time until the two angled cuts meet. Once they are, you should set a feather board up to maintain pressure against the fence and cut the remaining pieces. You'll end up with a piece of material that looks like the one on the right.

Now we're ready to start the fun part -- beading the frame! The pictures above were taken when I created the corner sample. The only change I made when doing the actual frame was to cut the bead at the sight edge before I cut the rabbet. I wanted to make sure it would be strong enough as the bead was formed.

TV Tray Redux -- First Look

2011-11-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

First Look !!

Most of you, if you remember them at all, would picture a TV tray as brass coated, spindly legged, faux laminated wooden top, on a cart with plastic wheels and handle. I recall saving Blue Chip stamps and getting the required number of books for a set of them shortly after getting married in '72! Ugly as they were, they had their place and purpose.
Over the past six months or so I've been working on these and designing them through mock-ups and drawings. This has been between commissions so it's had plenty of time to work in my mind! Let's face it, people still eat their meals while watching TV so there is a need. One popular way is to have nesting tables. The shortcoming with them is that they get smaller so if you're stuck with the littlest of the set, there's not enough room for plate, drink, and utensils. They do solve the traditional TV tray problem in that they are more attractive and can be left out in a room.
The current expression is to "think outside of the box" and although I'm not real crazy about any saying that's over-used, that's what I've done here. The goal for these was to function as TV trays but more importantly, when they're not in use I wanted them to be attractive and make a statement of their own. In our house there is a blank wall near the entryway, these will be placed against the wall -- somewhat like low console table. Items can be displayed on it but as you know, I'm all about the wood and, in my opinion, using the Walnut/Zebrawood combination is enough. However; almost anything you want to display could be put on the set. My next thought was who says a table must have four legs? In this instance three are sufficient and when they are placed along a wall you're not overwhelmed by a sea of legs. It also lends itself to the shape of the top, which I think is a type of parallelogram. I played around with the angles so that a regular plate and glass would fit on the top. To give it more stability the legs have through tenons, cut at 10 degrees that go completely through the top. These will be wedged with maple, adding to total look. The other aspect of the legs I wanted to achieve was a lightness. They taper in the length and also bevel across the face. The way the light will play off of these angles should be a nice effect.
Still have lots of work to do before these will be complete but real pleased with how they're coming out. Here's another angle of them -- gotta love the wood!

Love the Wood, Can you see the leg profile?

Diane's Saying I Always Hear!

2011-11-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

A number of years ago, Diane and I would head out to the desert to paint, run, read, and get away from it all. I'd do a couple hour run while she set up her easel and found her subject. When I came back I'd read and just watch her work. Well, she tends to talk to herself (don't we all!) and I asked her one time what she said. Her reply has stuck with me: "I work until I get to a problem, figure that one out, and work until I get to the next problem". It made so much sense to me that I've been approaching my work that way ever since.

Nice Legs!!

For the trio of tables I'm working on there have been many design and construction problems that needed solving. Angles, joinery, bevels, etc. all compound the complexity. I've just completed the legs. I knew I wanted a lightness to them so a taper and a beveled face seemed appropriate. The first step was to bevel the face of each leg. This was easily done on the tablesaw however; the tenon limited being able to work to the center of each leg. This was solved by using a hand plane.
After beveling, each side of the leg needed to be tapered. Using the tapering sled for this was not possible because of the one face being beveled, it wouldn't lay flat on the tapering sled so I needed to come up with a solution for that. After a bit of head scratching here's how this was accomplished.

Taper Jig & Leg

After Cut

In the photo on the left you can see a jig I made for the leg to ride in. The side of the jig of the jig is guided against the fence on the bandsaw and they're pushed through as a unit. You can see the wedge that was removed in this operation.

Wedge Taped On

Jig & Leg Reversed

To cut the other side the wedge that was removed is temporarily taped back to the leg. Then, by reversing the jig and the leg as a unit but keeping the fence in the same position I was able to cut the other side of the taper.

All that remained is to refine the cut edges and the beveled face. After honing my smooth plane I completed that step. There's just something relaxing and rewarding about hand planing a surface. Trying to capture that on film is pretty difficult but I tried it anyway:

Planed Profile

The beauty of it is how the light reflects off of the surface and how the grain wraps itself over the beveled surface. After the surfaces were completed, each edge was chamfered ever so slightly with 8 strokes of a block plane. Can't wait to see how these turn out after the hand rubbed oil finish. Next step will be to fit the inset, Zebrawood top into the frames.

Designing Your Own Picture Frame Molding

2011-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

As a woodworker I learned something about myself a long time ago ..... I'm more interested in the process of what it is I'm trying to create than the final product. Don't misunderstand this though, there's nothing more rewarding than presenting something I created to a client and hearing them tell me how they enjoy it but the process of getting to that final piece is what excites me. Many artists/woodworkers/creative people of any bent hear their friends tell them: "hey, if you made a couple hundred of those you'd be rich, they'd sell like hotcakes!" but for many of us that's not where it's at. Okay, so where's all of this going?

Lie-Nielsen #66 Bronze Beading Tool

I was given this beautiful tool, a Lie-Nielsen bronze beading tool which is his companies version of the old Stanley #66. First off, this company makes their tools in Maine and I'm a great fan of theirs. I own chisels and planes made by them and the quality and performance of these tools is beyond compare. What a beading tool does is to scrape profiles into a piece of wood with a cutter. It's an old time technique used to make furniture details and moldings. This tool came with a set of pre-made cutters but you can also make your own. In the hand tools class I taught, I introduced my students to this technique with my shop made scratch stock and the process is really not all that difficult. However; after using this tool the advantages over a shop made one is pretty apparent but comes at a price! I'm very apprecitive to have received this tool and just had to try it out!
Two other things have occurred to give me the chance to experiment with this tool. First off, I've been asked by a client for a bid to do a picture frame. The request is for a dark molding of a fairly simple profile. At the Sin City Woodworker's meeting this past Wednesday Jamie showed some samples of what she called "Smoked Poplar", technically it's called thermo treated Poplar. It's available here locally and is touted as a substitute for Walnut. It costs about $3.30 a board foot compared to that to Black Walnut which can be 2 to 3 times that price. I was able to get a chunk of it free to try out from Peterman Lumber so thought this is the time to experiment with the beading tool and create a custom profile.

If you've never even thought about making your own moldings it's really an interesting process. For starters, unless you're framing a panel or a poster you need to have a molding that is thicker than the typical 3/4" stretched canvas. An obvious choice would be to use wood for the frame that is thicker than that but that can get expensive and heavy. A trick you can use is to cut the bottom, outside corner at an angle to make the frame angle out from the wall. For this example I used an angle of about 15 degrees:

Initial 15 degree cut on what will be the outside bottom of the molding

This was done on the table saw.

Laying out the Rabbet

Keep in mind that the frame will contact the wall on the beveled edge only. This means the rabbet needs to be cut out at the same angle of the bevel so the canvas will sit squarely in the frame. Using a small, sliding bevel I drew in the area that needs to be removed, it's shaded in for clarity.

Removing the rabbet waste, second cut

The first cut is done with the molding laying flat on the table saw. The second cut will take a bit of trial and error to establish the correct depth. Although definitely not OSHA approved, the best way to do this is to eye-ball the depth you think is correct, slide the fence into position, and cut a couple of inches into the board until the blade is covered. Now, very carefully lift the board straight up by pushing down on the back edge. You can now see how far the cut went. For this molding, I turned the elevation wheel up about 4 times, maybe a half a turn at a time, until the two cuts meet. Once that's done you cut the remaining pieces. Here's what that process provided for me:

Final, table-sawn profile

In this instance I need to clean up the inside edge.

Now we've hit the fun, experimentation stage of this project! Sure, you can design your profile to use either a router or a shaper but they won't allow you to make custom profiles easily like a scratch stock held in the beading tool will. If this was a production run I could certainly have a custom cutter made for me and use the power but that's not what we're after here. Heck, for that matter I could just draw it out and send it to China for them to make like so much of the other crap -- oops, I mean products that we find in our stores today!

The beading tool came with several preformed cutters. All I did with them was to remove the machine marks from the outside surface. This was quickly accomplished with a diamond flattening plate I use for my water stones and then finished with an 8000 grit stone. The problems I've heard regarding using the beading tool is that it may chatter. Any chatter will be caused by an unsupported edge. The technique that worked was to advance the cutter slightly below the bottom of the tool, set the fence to locate it on the profile, and then cut each piece until full depth was reached. Next, the cutter was re-adjusted to go deeper and the cutting process was repeated on each piece.

Beading Tool in Action

I found that a gentle pressure is all that's required to make the tool work. I intentionally went over a small knot to see how it would react and it was okay. The process is pretty fast too, it took less than 30 minutes of scraping time, using three different cutters, to complete the profile I was after. A side effect which may add to the over-all appearance of this mold is that the beading tool seems to burnish the flat areas of the profile. I oiled a scrap piece of this poplar and I'm anxious to do it to the corner sample I made. That'll have to wait until tomorrow but here is a picture of it, freshly glued together:

Ready to be oiled

Well, this has been a great experiment. One of the things that came up at the meeting was whether or not the color goes all the way through the wood --- it does. Peterman told me it would be a little more brittle but because of the heat process it's lighter in weight and more stable. I think of it as wood that's been in a super kiln. When I first started to cut it I thought it had a slight chocolate odor but it's probably the charred odor, not objectionable though. Tomorrow I'll oil this corner sample, show it to my perspective client, and post a photo of how it looks finished.

It's Finished !!

2011-11-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Happy to say the finishing touches were put on Diane's studio today and it's just how she wanted and designed it to be. We picked up the doors from the Glass Art Studio here in Las Vegas, decided to let them install the glass as I was sure they can run a much finer bead of silicon than I can. Besides, they charged just slightly more than a tube of it would have cost us. We also got a different bulb temperature of lighting but will probably need to add some more light to the entire studio space. Diane has some task lighting but for the work she's doing the studio needs to be completely well lit.
Here's a few pictures of the finished project, first off, this is the left side of the space:

Left Side

The lighting doesn't show off the glass and the crystal knobs. See the wooden horse on the top shelf? I brought that with me from Holland when we came to the states in 1956! It's been glued a multitude of times and the tails long gone but it's one of two childhood toys I have. The other is a teddy bear I recall getting for Sinter Klaus in 1955. Okay, back to the project. You can now see the two drawers in the case that are in line with the table top. Di will keep one of her machines on this side of the table and store any needed items in the drawer below.

Right Side

Here is the right side of the studio. Everything is pretty much the same and you can see the patterned glass and the crystal knobs illuminated from the light coming in through the window. Diane's inspiration for the table was found in a magazine or web search as was the cabinetry. She then worked the design to suit her requirements and the space we had and she's very happy with it. I'm happy too that the table is plenty sturdy for the machines, especially the serger. When that thing gets going it moves!! It used to be on an L-shaped desk upstairs and when it was in use we needed to put an extra support under the corner of it.

A Place for Everything and Everything in its' Place!

2011-11-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

Tidy isn't It?

When Diane was designing her studio space she really took everything into account. She has many different colors of threads that she needs to create her RagDolls and needed them close to her sewing machines. This is one of the drawers and here is the other:

Adjustability of Dividers

Her table can be used from either side, depending on what type of sewing operation she's doing. In addition to the single drawer on the table there are also two drawers in the cabinet that flank the table on both sides. In the picture above you can see the hinges for the doors. They are currently having the glass installed but should be in place in a few days, just waiting for the silicon to set before they're attached.

Diane really likes the divider system and thinks I should offer them on Etsy! What I did to make them was to cut a bunch of 1" strips from a piece of 1/8" plywood. These were then notched half way up so they will slip together and interlock. That process was accomplished with this tablesaw set up:

Set Up for Notching Dividers

Very similar to cutting finger joints. The piece that is sticking out towards you is exactly 2" from the blade. After you cut the first notch, set the pieces over that, cut again, and repeat until you reach the end of the strip. The long dividers were notched every 3" and the short ones every 2", this way she could customize them to suit whatever is going into that particular drawer.

Drawer Progress - Trying to Simplify

2011-11-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Diane keeps telling me I don't need to build a masterpiece for her sewing center but hey, if you're going to do it -- do it right! In any case though I am using some different, more streamlined techniques for the drawers. For starters, rather than being dovetailed I thought I'd cut a rabbet on the drawer front and then use dowels for reinforcement. Thanks to the drill press that Vince gave me, this is a fairly simple process. Without being able to use the drill press the process would have been different.

Drawer on drill press for dowel placement.

I would have had to use a hand held drill and be very steady and square to drill the holes. This particular drill press has a table which can be adjusted for height quite easily.

You can see the other drawers in the back that have been drilled already.

Once all of the pieces were dry fit with an MDF bottom they were glued and assembled.

Nice Shavings!

It seems that no matter how careful you are with sizing the drawer members there's usually a small amount of trimming that needs to be done with a block plane. Here's where having a nicely sharpened tool comes in handy.

For this application I chose to put a 3/4" wide groove in the drawer sides and make runners to guide the drawers. As a general rule, a piece of hardwood would be used for this purpose but I broke that general rule and used pieces of 1/4" MDF! Since the drawer space is just a bit over 5" tall I knew it would be a hassle working in there with a drill and screwdriver. To make my life simpler I used a 1/2" piece of plywood to fill the space between the inside of the cabinet and the face frame. My thought was that I could attach the runners to the plywood first and then attach the plywood to the cabinet -- it worked!!

Notice the pennies used to set 1/16" gap

The first step was to locate the runner for the bottom drawer and attach it to the plywood filler piece. Then by clamping the plywood pieces to the drawer I was able to locate the runner for the upper drawer with a small try square. If you look close you can see my hi-tech spacers; a penny at each corner. This gives about a 1/16" gap between the drawers which is just about right.

Plywood and Runners Installed

Last of all was to screw the plywood into the cabinet. A coat of wax and it works as it should!

At this time the units are in Diane's studio. Tomorrow we'll take the doors to a stained glass studio in town so they can cut the glass to size. I'll take some final photo's of the entire unit after they're installed.

Does she like it --- you bet she does. Took us to Smashburger for dinner, that's all the payment I need. Tried their black bean patty and it's good, highly recommended.

Aww, paintings not so bad!

2011-11-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

Alfie likes the new Table

This week decided to turn drastically cold so there was no way I'd let Diane honor her commitment to paint her new studio furniture out in the unheated shop. In spite of my grumbling, painting isn't all that bad especially when Alfie is so happy to have a new table!!
Yep, that's Alfie -- a second generation of Diane's creations. If you haven't seen her shop and blog here is a LINK to her Etsy store. Alfie has evolved somewhat. First off you'll notice her segmented legs and knee joint (wish Di would make me a new knee joint) which allows her to sit. Some added weight to her feet help her do that as well. More shape to the head will make the hair more realistic and easier to style. Diane likened the first generation heads as trying to put hair on a bagel! Alfie is a real cutie, she got her name Alpha, meaning the first, and also in honor of Diane's Mom who had an Alfa Romeo which was affectionately named Alfie.

As for the remaining studio furniture here is a shot of the table:

Table with Machines and Alfie

This table will eventually be flanked by these two bookcases, they will replace the wooden toned MDF one you see in the corner:

Bookcases Approx. 23" x 72" each

These cases will have a back installed. Each narrow space near the center will house two, fairly shallow (2+") drawers. These will be divided for thread, bobbins, ribbons, etc. The space directly below the drawers will have a pair of doors with a clear yet textured glass. We went to a stained glass studio in town last week and Di's picked out some really neat stuff. The top of the table will be level with the top of the drawer section to present a continuos plane. Each drawer and door will have a crystal knob installed, you can see it on the table drawer.

All in all, this studio make Diane designed is going to give her a great place to work and create the Rag Dolls Rising. You've got to see them, they are cute and would be great for any child.

Quality and Made in America RANT

2011-11-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Look at that --- 1/128" !!

Where is the quality these days? Madison Avenue and the marketing guru's of the world have convinced the population that everything these days is disposable. Everything, from diapers to furniture! For the studio make-over Diane chose to paint the cabinets and the table so we're using shop grade Birch plywood which should have been of sufficient quality, or so I'd hoped. Veneers are getting thinner and thinner as you can see from the picture. The joinery is a dado and tongue for the shelves. I have a quality dado set that pre-scores the material before the full cut is made. On cross cuts with this ply it chipped pretty badly and the veneer came loose! I measure the thickness of the piece that I ripped off and it's just slightly more than 1/128" in thickness. Forget using a plane to flush up the banding or any abrasive rougher than maybe 220 grit or so.
I know it'll be acceptable for this project and no one will probably notice but I must admit that it really bothers me. Back in the early 70's when I was working at Silvera Lumber in Antioch, CA the local newspaper did a story about how plywood was being made off-shore rather than in the states. The article showed me holding a sheet of plywood and if I remember correctly off-shore meant that the Japanese had factory ships out in the Pacific producing the material! Seems crazy but they would buy logs from the Northwest, take them out to the factory ship, produce the ply and sell it back to us for less than companies like Cascade and Roseburg could. Anybody reading this know if that was really the case?

Woodworks by John: Diane's Studio -- Table's Done

2011-10-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

One of the more rewarding aspects of working with wood and designing/building projects is when they start to take their final form. Now you see the vision that was once only on paper and in your mind take on that three dimensional form. Think about it, last week at this time there was a pile of rough lumber that we had selected in the morning and now Diane's planning to paint her table in the morning -- doesn't get much better than that!
A final detail was to figure out the easiest way to attach the runners for the drawers. The final solution the joinery was to use two dowels on each side, this will provide plenty of strength and be considerably better than your typical butt joint and pins. It'll also add a decorative element to the drawer. My choice was to use shop made runners rather than metal ones. These drawers are on either side of the table and will store scissors, bobbins, tape measure, etc. Since Diane will have a machine at either side there is a drawer to service either one.

Drawer Runner

The drawers are a shallow 2" deep, 16" wide with a 9" inside depth. The runner is a piece of Poplar cut into an L-shape. The piece of plywood in the middle of the runners serves two purposes. First of all it will prevent the runners from any movement due to humidity changes and secondly, it serves as a drawer stop. Although Diane will be painting the table tomorrow, the drawer sides and runners will be shellacked and waxed only.

Matched Grain on Apron

This photo illustrates how the grain is continuous on the entire apron because of the technique I explained in an earlier post. The edges were first ripped off of the piece and the drawer front was cut out. After gluing the edge pieces back on you can't really see where the drawer is -- had to follow the tradition even though this piece will be painted.

All that remained was to flatten the top. It measures 28" x 48" and consists of three boards. I had to establish a square edge so the first step was to rip it to width on the table saw. I used this technique to cut one end square:

Squaring the first end

A piece of plywood was screwed to the uneven end making sure that it was square to the edge. This was done on the bottom of the table top and was used to guide the top against the fence. Once the first end was sawn, the plywood piece was removed and the squared end guides the piece against the fence. A little bit awkward but works well for a one man shop.

Once the ends were square and the top was it's final size it was flattened:

Flattening the top

This was accomplished with a smooth plane. Thanks to the clamps I used that not only bring the edges together but also hold them flat this wasn't too hard of a process. Insuring that the grain runs the same way when these pieces were laminated together is key to relatively easy planing of the top.

Your other option would be using a wide planner or drum sander. I suppose an orbital sander would do too but you'll be hard pressed to get it as smooth and flat as a hand plane and some effort on your part will.

Woodworks by John: First Look and an Offset Tenon

2011-10-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

First Look!

You know how when you go to the movies they play previews and trivia before you get to the feature? Well, in keeping with that theme here is the first look of the table. It's just a dry-fit and already I've sat on it to check it's stability. You can see how the drawer is off center, there's one on the opposite side as well. The table will nestle between two cabinets (yet to be built) so that's why the drawer is off center. Obviously, the top needs sizing and planing.
A big concern for this table was to design it with stability to support sewing machines and handle their vibrations and also to allow full access underneath it. That meant a center stretcher couldn't be used in its' design. The apron is 4 1/4" wide which allowed using offset tenons. Here's a picture of how they were designed:

Offset Tenons

The first thing to notice is the full, 1/2" deep mortise to prevent the apron from twisting. To get the maximum depth on the tenon I chose to offset them rather than have them meet inside of the leg with a miter. Wanted to have the maximum "meat" left in the leg and this solves that. The leg is 1 3/4" square and the tenon is 1 1/4" long so I think we're good

Cleaning Mortise

After chopping out the mortise I wanted it to be a consistent depth in the entire haunched section. Using a Stanley #271 router plane accomplished that.

Tenon Detail

The tenon was pretty straight forward as well. The first step was to draw a line 1/2" up from the shoulder. I used a piece of plywood to set that. After transferring the full tenon location it was simply cut out. The only problem encountered here is that my dovetail saw's depth was limited by the back so I needed to finish the long cut with a flush cut saw.
As of now, the two ends of the table are assembled so today will find me doing the drawer runners, drawers, and starting work on the top. Happy to say that Diane will paint it, I have an aversion to painting wood!

Table Progress

2011-10-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Techniques used to build furniture can vary depending on the shop that's making it. I used to tell my students that "there's more than one way to skin a cat", an expression that needed explanation to the younger set! For this table, there will be a shallow drawer on either side for sewing supplies. The design calls for space on both sides of the table, one side is for the sewing machine and the other side is for the serger. Since the table will be against the wall the drawers will need to be in line with one and other.
The customary way to do this is to take your apron piece, rip off the top and bottom pieces, then glue them back together after cutting out the drawer area. This picture will help illustrate that:

Drawer Apron

I mentioned that the 6/4 Poplar was pretty picked over and one of these pieces has quite a wind in it which I'll need to plane out before surfacing the entire assembly to 7/8". Even though this table will be painted, when you construct a drawer apron this way you are able to keep the wood grain continuous, even the grain on the drawer front will match, giving the appearance of one solid piece of wood. Once these are surfaced they will be cut to the required size and tenons will be cut on the ends.

Taper Jig

While this was drying work started on the legs. The plans Diane gave show a short taper on one side to lighten the over-all appearance of them. Using my shop made taper jig simplifies this process, all that's needed now is a bit of hand planing to make them all uniform.

I prefer to use a good, solid, mortise and tenon joint to build table aprons. This is a time proven joint and although dowels, biscuits, pocket screws, and other methods are quicker they won't compare to the strength of the mortise and tenon. If you've ever seen a serger in action, strength and stability are a must!

Cutting Mortises, note depth block

I use a hollow chisel mortiser to cut my mortises. I started out years ago doing them all by hand the same way my junior high school students were taught. Then I graduated to getting a drill press, then a bench top mortiser, and now finally a dedicated hollow chisel mortiser. It's nice to know I have the ability to cut them by hand but this sure makes it easier. They still require some clean up work with chisels but all in all, this is the best method for me.
The apron will be 4 1/4" wide. For maximum strength I chose to stagger a 1 1/2" wide tenon in a full haunch that will be 1/2" deep. Lots of technical stuff here but the purpose of the full haunch is to prevent the aprons from twisting. I decided to stagger the tenons rather than having them meet inside the leg to increase the strength. The technique I use is illustrated by this picture; at the rear of the mortiser there is a black rod which is the depth stop. See the little block of reddish colored wood? It's 3/4" thick so when you cut the haunch, that is put onto the stop which limits the depth to 1/2". For cutting the full depth mortise, you remove the block and cut the full 1 1/4". Simple little trick but works quite well.
Well, the sun's coming up so that means I can make noise out in the shop. Glad to say our weather has cooled down considerably so working conditions are much improved!

Woodworks by John: Diane's Studio Make-Over

2011-10-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

During my trip and drive back from the east coast I was able to talk to Diane using FaceTime on our Apple MacBooks. Wow, this was pretty cool just using the internet through the Wi-Fi at the hotels and being able to see each other while we were talking. One of the things we talked about is a make over of her studio so I told her to draw out some plans and we'll call it a project! Well, in one of our FaceTime conversations I could see that she was at my drafting table and when I came home the plans were ready.
She's really good at designing to get the maximum use of the limited space we have available. The over-all look will be one of shabby chic with a contemporary twist. It's centered around a table (28 x 48) that will extend out from the wall. This will be flanked by a pair of tall cabinets which will have shelves at the top, a bank of two drawers, and then a pair of glass fronted doors at the bottom. Since everything will be painted by her, Poplar and shop grade Birch plywood will be used. We went to Peterman lumber Monday to buy material and ordered hardware on line.
The first project will be the table. Since this will have a sewing machine on either side, her design calls for a drawer on each side as well. I was able to find a decent piece of 6/4 Poplar that was 10+ inches wide. After surfacing all three pieces it was time to joint the edges prior to glue up.

Checking Edges

Once the edge has been cut on the table saw my method is to use a #7 Jointer plane to true it up. After laying out the pieces according to the grain direction you can check them by laying the matching pieces on edge as shown in this picture.

Using straight edge to check for square

I also like to take a straight edge to them. Theoretically, if there isn't any light when you sight down the joint both edges are square and the panel should glue up just fine. That's always a concern but as of now, I've had very few panel failures so my methods must be working okay

The final step is to glue up the panel. I've found that Gorilla Glue is great for this mostly because of how easily it cleans up. The way it foams as it cures doesn't seem to penetrate into the wood which can become a problem during the finishing process. In the picture you can see some clamps that I found at a cabinet shop that was going out of business. You don't see these around too much but I really like them because they help keep the panel flat while bringing the edges together. When I bought them I was told they were a pain in the neck because, being wood, glue sticks to them and they may get stuck to your panel --- not good! I solved this by ripping down pieces of UHMW polyethylene and screwing that to the wood, nothing sticks to them. They're at wooden pieces at the ends and center of this picture:

Glued up Table top

I'll find out soon how much work it'll take to make this smooth and flat. As you know, I tend to shun power tools for things like this preferring the quiet process of hand planing this to get there. I was talking to a friend of mine who has a shop with a wide belt sander and many time people come to her and ask what it'll cost to sand a wide panel. Let you know how sore my arms may be after I get this flat!

Woodworks by John: Custom Work vs. Mass Production

2011-10-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Now that my hiatus from the table project brought about by visiting family and doing the entertainment doors is over, I can get back to work on them. I installed the doors this morning and; as suspected, it wasn't a quick process. Between using some pretty old and dried out material to make them and then installing them in an opening that wasn't 100% square it took some time. Add to that they were inset doors and you can understand why it was difficult. But -- bottom line is that they were happy with the results and could see the efforts I went through to make things right. Ended up using the cardboard off some of their writing pads to shim a filler piece!
To attach the legs to the tables I'm using a through mortise and tenon, splined to add strength and a decorative element to the top as well. Going through the process I couldn't help but contrast this to the quicker way of pocket screw joinery which might be used if these were mass-produced. I thought it would be a good time to share the process with you, it may get complicated! Let's start with this picture:

Splined Mortise & Tenon

What you see here is the table top frame with the leg inserted from the bottom side. The two white pieces of wood are the splines that will wedge the tenon tightly into the mortise. Before I got to this point it was necessary to first drill two holes near the base of the tenon and then saw a kerf to those holes. I put an extra leg in the picture to illustrate that. Here's what happens when the joint is assembled, the leg is inserted from the bottom with glue, when it comes through the mortise the wedges are inserted and hammered tight. It's difficult to see, but the wedges are tapered towards the outside of the mortise and the mortise is slightly tapered as well. As the wedge is hammered home, the hole drilled in the tenon will let the outside splay out tightly against the tapered mortise side. It's important to put the tapered side of the wedge to the outside e of the joint. Once the glue has dried the tenon will be cut off and planed flush.
Time consuming --- yes, worth it --- yes again. That's the beauty of working this way and personally I can't think of too many other ways I'd like to spend the day. Sure, it gets a bit tedious at times like when I used a paring chisel to cut the taper on all 18 wedges:

Shaping Wedges

Next up will be the final shaping of the legs. They will have a double bevel from the center and then be tapered from top to bottom to add a sense of lightness to them. Like any design process, you're never quite sure how things will end up even after making drawings and several mockups. I'll keep you posted!

Update on Entertainment Center Doors

2011-10-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

After a week in Spokane visiting my grandson and celebrating his first birthday it's back to the shop. Actually had withdrawal symptoms from not spending time working the wood but the time spent with him, Jennifer, Rich and that side of the family was priceless. It's too bad it's a bit more than a "drive across town" but what can you do? Just relish the time together and keep it up.
So, the doors hit that production stage. Since I'm using Eurostyle, 35mm cup hinges it was a matter of setting up the drill press and boring each hole:

35 mm for CupHinge

I always like to reference them from the center and in this case, each hole was drilled 4" from the center of the door. A fence marked with the center line of the bit and located 4mm from the edge of the door made this pretty straight forward.
Next was the mockup for the hinge bases. This is a full inset application so I needed to make another jig to locate the holes for the base. You can see that on the angled section of the mdf scrap I used for making the mockup.

Door Mockup

In theory, it should be a pretty straight forward installation. I need to add some filler pieces to the center plus a door stop to put between the two sets of doors. The plan is to use a 2" wide piece of painters tape on the inside of the cabinet, mark the center line, then draw a line 4" each way. If you look at the jig in the picture, you can just barely see a line scratched into the plastic between the two mounting holes. By lining that up with the line drawn on the tape things should be good. The nice thing about this type of hinge is that it's pretty simple to adjust, much easier than mortising in a butt hinge! Once that's done the client will stain and finish then simply snap them back into position and we're good to go.
Not to sure what the next project will be but I am still working on the tables and have a picture frame idea brewing in my head --- yeah, I know; another hair brained scheme!

Woodworks by John: Connor's B-Day Present

2011-10-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

I'll have to put any of Connor's relatives who do Facebook on a code of honor that they won't tell him, or Jennifer, or Rich that this is now visible. We're leaving tomorrow morning but I wanted to get these posted before we left. First off, Diane's been making these really cool dolls and selling them on her Etsy store. Well, here's Biff -- one of the first boy dolls:

Notice his stylish "man bag" and custom made Maple and African Paduak skateboard!

The other thing I've been working on is a coat rack. I saw these coat hooks in a Lee Valley catalog and knew they were just the thing for him. The rack is Maple and Walnut and the pyramids on the ends are the same as the ones on his crib.

Can't wait to see them all tomorrow!

Woodworks by John: A Silk Purse from a Sow's Ear?

2011-10-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

I've started a rather interesting project, one that on the surface seemed to be fairly quick but then; when I got into it found it wasn't quite so -- hence the title of this blog. Ah, what's life without a challenge or two. I was contacted by a man who had an unfinished, built-in entertainment center. Nice looking piece but the doors hadn't been completed on the bottom section. He had managed to find various pieces of Cherry that were already dadoed out and (I thought!) just needed to be cut, tenoned, and joined.

Parts is Parts

Here's the collection of parts I came home with after measuring the opening for the doors. Well, the desert climate is pretty rough on wood. Something that became pretty apparent when I started cutting them to size and adding the tenons on the ends of the crosspieces. The first step to any project is to make every piece of material the exact same thickness -- these varied quite a bit!

In any case, this is what I had to work with so I proceeded cautiously. As I started to form the tenons I could tell that depending on the piece of wood I tried to match it with, it may or may not fit. Spent a lot of time with 16 pieces of material, turning them every which way to make the door frames.

This was quite a challenge, I needed to find adjoining parts that were somewhat snug and then use the rabbet plane in the photo to get they fit needed. As part of custom work it's always done so that the grain patterns of the wood make a continuous flow all the way across the piece. To illustrate that, let's suppose you had door members that needed to be 3" wide. You would select a 6" wide piece and rip it in half, then; when the doors were glued up the grain would align and appear to be one piece. Well, with the collection of wood that I had that wasn't a possibility but I believe that by the time the doors are sanded and stained it won't be an issue. I know that I tend to be overly particular but that's what I enjoy about custom work.

End of the Day

The important thing is that we were able to salvage the materials my client had and we have the four doors required. Next will be boring the holes for the hinges and sanding them prior to installation. My client has the same stain that was used on the rest of the unit and will stain and finish them to match. We're using European style cup hinges so it'll be an easy process to remove and re-install after the finish is applied.

Woodworks by John: Design Process

2011-10-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

Another commission came my way but I was pretty much all set up to begin work on the tenons so wanted to get that done. This will be more of a photo how to than anything else. You may recall that I prefer to use machines to do the grunt work and then hand work to refine and fit everything "just so". After cutting both sides of the tenon cheeks at a 10 degree angle they needed to be individually fit into their corresponding mortise. The mortise length varied a bit so the first step was to cut 1/2" off of one side:

Rough Size Tenon

This became somewhat of a mass production process to do the 9 legs plus a spare. Basically, use a knife to locate 1/2", then the dovetail saw to remove it -- next!

Each mortise and tenon is marked with a metal working stamp in an inconspicuous place to keep things organized. You measure the width of the mortise, mark it with the double square and knife, then cut with the dovetail saw as before. The shoulders always need a little paring to get them perfect and in this case, the angle needed to be 10 degrees to allow the legs to splay out a bit. The small sliding bevel is used to check that.

Trimming Tenon Thickness

The tenons were cut slightly thicker than 3/8" so that they could be trimmed to fit each individual mortise. When you use a table saw and tenoning jig the blade can be slightly inconsistent so the width may vary a little. This is especially true when cutting angled tenons. This is a definite case of having the proper tool for the job. In the past I've used chisels to pare tenons and also router planes. This rabbet block plane is ideal as far as I'm concerned. Feels great in my hand and look at those shavings! Just nice to use for this operation. This model has nickers which leave a tell-tale mark. By making my initial cuts towards the outside, the nicker leaves a scratch. Once I remove the scratch I know I've planed the entire surface evenly.

Woodworks by John: Design Process

2011-09-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

In a recent conversation the subject of how to go about about designing projects came up. Many times the client initiates the process with either sketches or pictures of what they want. Some of them are so descriptive when they talk about their visions then that's all you need to get you going. The technique that works well for me is that a design can germinate in my mind for a long time which is then followed by rough sketches to visualize it. That's how the design for the Dovetail Chair came about. I built several mock-ups played around with the joinery, angles, dimensions, etc. and ended up with a set of chairs that are comfortable, stylish, and were awarded an Honorable Mention at the Design in Wood competition.
We were watching an HGTV show that Vern Yip hosted about an urban condo they are planning to give away in Chicago. He was talking with his assistant and mentioned places he likes to go to get design inspirations. Can't quote it directly but what it boiled down to is that you never know what stays in your mind when you just observe things that may come out in a later design. He's right!!!, as they were walking around in some recycled furniture store I saw a set of tables that inspired me for the ones that have been playing around in my mind for a long time now.

Initial Prototype

If this were a project for a client I would refine it and present them with a drawing of the project. If, as is the case here, it's a speculation piece or for personal use I like to play around with it in three dimensions. You can use cardboard, MDF, or an inexpensive wood such as Poplar. This photo shows the first general shape of these tables. Their purpose is twofold, first as occasional tables that are just right to put by a sofa or chair and secondly to fill a blank wall space. By placing them against the wall so together they will present a larger surface that could be utilized for .....? I like the shape and size and have selected Walnut for the framework and Zebrawood for the insert. The struggle has been with the legs. Heck, you can find a four legged table anywhere so let's see what can be done with three! Didn't want to have a "sea of legs" when they were parked against the wall.

The first concept was to cut notches and attach the legs into those. You can see I experimented with placement of them on the rear. After doing that and looking at them for a while it just seemed awkward and bulky. The next idea was to have the legs extend up, into the frame with an exposed and splined tenon. This, on the other hand, looked too slim and fragile. Finally, after seeing the tables on the HGTV show I came up with the design I like, that's the one in the lower right side. Good thing too because the Popular prototype for the frame was running out of space! The mockup leg is made of MDF and consists of a through tenon that is angled out 10 degrees to add stability and give a sense of movement. In reality, there will be one centered in the short end and two across the back. Good, you have the design, now, how are you going to build it?
For the prototype, where only one thing is required it's no problem to work it out the best you can but when it comes to making three tables and nine legs plus the joinery it helps to have some type of consistent set up. My work method is to use power tools to basically rough out what I can and then finish with hand tools to refine and fit every part into its proper place.

Mortising 45 degrees at the rear

The front through mortise was no problem. The rear ones are cut 45 degrees to the back frame member. I needed to make a jig that would hold the frame at that angle plus clamp down during the mortising operation. This is the set up for one side, the clamp was re-positioned to the other edge for the others.

Now comes the mating part of the mortise, the tenons. The legs were left long and the mortise will be cut longer than needed as well. By angling my tenoning jig at 10 degrees every leg will cant out the same amount. Each leg required two passes and are cut slightly oversize.

Cutting 10 degree tenons

After each tenon was cut, I used a rabbet block plane to fit them to the mortises as far as their width goes. The length of the mortise is about 1 1/8" and the leg is currently 2 1/4" wide. Each leg will be custom fit into its' location.

Trimming Tenons

There are several more steps to the legs. After they are fit into their mortises they will first be angled on the front faces. Then they'll need to be tapered to about an inch or so at the bottom so they will appear light and delicate. Where they enter the table frame will be splined. Basically that involves cutting two narrow slots in the tenon and then driving in a wedge to secure the joint. You can see how it will look in the practice piece behind.

Prototype Leg

Here's another view of the mock up, do you agree that there is a sense of movement in the design? I like how shadow and light will play on the angles cut into the front of the leg. In reality, there will be one leg centered on the front and two across the back. I'll keep you informed as we go through this process.

Card Scraper -- Thanks Jim!

2011-09-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

One of the items used by cabinet makers and furniture builders alike is the cabinet scraper. What is it?, not much more than a piece of metal with a burnished edge that can be pulled or pushed along the face of the wood and make it incredibly smooth. Works extremely well on wood with interlocked grain. As a kid, I remember my uncle scraping the paint off of a piano using nothing more than pieces of glass. Of course he allowed us kids to do it in an inconspicuous place and it worked. When the glass no longer scraped off the finish we just got another piece of broken window glass -- hey, we are Dutch after all!
What brings all of this about is that on the last day of class, one of the students asked me about using card scrapers and my luck with them. I had to admit that lately I've struggled with it but had good success in the past and was somewhat puzzled. That prompted me to re-visit the scraper and do some research. There is a ton of it so let me summarize what I learned and what works.
The first problem is that my one card scraper had been burnished so many times the edge was "work hardened" and no matter how I tried to burnish it, it wouldn't hold the hook that does the cutting. More on that aspect of it later. My first step was to use a single cut file in a holder and really work the edge down. The purpose of the holder is to keep it square to the blade. It can be bought or you can cut a file sized groove in a block of wood and use that. Probably removed at least an 1/8 of an inch or so. In the picture below, you can barely see a holder I use. It's in the vise, on the left side and is nothing more than a piece of wood, split 2/3 of the way that I insert the card scraper into. It's then put in the vise and clamped in place.

Whoops, no steel safety toes!

After filing, I marked the edge with a Sharpie and using a block of wood to keep it at 90 degrees, ran it over a 1000 grit water stone to burnish it. I then laid it on its' side and did the same for the flat sides of the scraper. The goal is to get two sides and one edge that is smooth and square. The smoother the piece of steel is, the better your cut will be.
Burnishers -- there are two in the picture. The triangular one is an official, store bought version. The other is a fuel pump push rod from a 1973 Capri V-6 that I've had since replacing that car's fuel pump in '75 or so. If I were going to buy one I'd definitely not get the triangular one, it tended to catch the edge when I used it. There are round and oval ones available commercially that I'd buy instead. Your first burnishing action is to lay the scraper flat, apply a drop of oil on the edge and run the burnisher along the flat, side edge 5-6 times. The purpose is to "draw" the steel towards the outside. Now it's time to put it back into the holder and burnish the edge to form the hook that will smooth your wood.
In my frustration with not being able to get a hook anymore, I bought the black thing you see at the top of the board. This works well, it's from Veritas and has a burnishing rod that you can adjust for any angle up to about 15 degrees. The only problem is that it was difficult for me to start it right at the beginning of the scraper. I found that I could get equally good results with it or the old push rod. The triangular one -- not so much. I think it's destined for E-bay!
As I thought about it, the major problem I and probably others have when you burnish is knowing where the heck 10 degrees or so is! Familiar angles like 90 or 45 we can get a pretty decent guess on but 10 degrees isn't that common. What I did and it worked great for me was to take an angle checker (upper left of picture) and set it at 10 degrees. I then had a visual to look at and match my hands angle to it and have success! Three to five strokes is all it took to form a nice hook.
In practice, you hold the scraper in both hands and flex the blade. I find that I'm a puller but you can do either -- push or pull. By adjusting your angle the scraper will take fine shavings off of the wood much like a plane will. These are pretty aggressive with a 10 degree hook, lessening the angle to half of that should result in a lighter cut. You should be able to put a hook on both sides of each edge including the short ends. At this point I've only done one side.
So, there you have it. You can do lots of research on the web to find more details but this is one of those woodworking things that once you find what works for you ----- leave it alone!

New Project -- A Present

2011-09-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't really say who or what occasion this latest project is for but he's turning one year old and it has elements of his crib incorporated into it. I know his parents don't see facebook or my blog so I'll just hope that others who may will keep it a secret until he gets it! I won't put the completed project on the blog until we've given it to him so that'll be mid-October.
Let me start at the end of this project since that is the best look, everything else will be an explanation of how I got to this point. When I made the crib, I cut more of the Walnut pyramid shaped blocks than I needed thinking there could be a future use for them.

Final Smoothing Done

I used a piece of Maple and banded it with Walnut on both edges. Those are the materials the crib is made of. This is after all of the machine work was completed and the surface is now ready for several coats of super blonde shellac. Wanted to do that today but it was pretty close to 90 degrees and it would have dried way too fast so it'll be a morning project. In the class I just taught we spent a little bit of time on using planes to achieve the final surface as opposed to sanding. The bronze, #4 Smoother Plane you see at the end of the board is perfect for this. This picture is with natural light, no flash, and you can see some of the gleam in the lower right hand corner of the piece. Can't get that with sandpaper, it's only with a keen cutting edge that you can achieve that look!

First steps after Laminating

The first step was too laminate two pieces of Walnut to both long edges of the Maple piece. The thing you need to be careful of here is that the grain runs the same way on all three pieces when you laminate them together. Whether you use a hand plane as I do or a power planer this is a real important consideration. If the grain direction is not taken into consideration, you'll find that the wood will tear as you plane with the grain on one piece but against the grain on the adjoining one. Then you have little choice but to sand it smooth.

Coping Saw

The next step was making a template that could be used to remove the waste for the Walnut pyramid inlay. In this case I used a piece of MDF, calculated the opening size and then drilled holes in each corner. A simple coping saw is ideal for this step and takes very little time to complete.

Chisel in MDF

MDF, being layers of tightly compressed paper can be filed easily. I thought I'd experiment and see what a chisel would do instead. I used one of my "beater" chisels and as you can see, the layers of paper cut cleanly.

Template

Whoops, needed to make two cut outs before I got it right. I almost wonder if I should have just traced the inlay onto the board and worked it free-hand ..... maybe next time.

After using a plunge router equipped with a guide bearing and a 1/4" straight bit the recess was finished off with a small router plane and chisel.

Router Plane & Chisel to finalize Inlay

All that remained was to locate and drill the holes needed for the things I can't show yet! Since this will be hung on the wall I also used a keyhole bit to put a couple of slots on the back. I had a deja vu moment when I did that. When the school district shut down the woodshops in middle school, I kept the guide I'd made for the class to use on just this very same operation. Heck, Jennifer probably used it when she was in my class in 7th. grade!

Keyhole Slot

The last step of todays process was to spokeshave a very slight chamfer on the front edges to ease them ever so slightly. Love that corkscrew shaving coming out of my spokeshave.

Look at that Spiral!!

Hand Tool Class Ended

2011-09-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Thursday 9/22, marked the last day of the Hand Tool Class and I'm sad to see it end! Other than giving one on one lessons in my shop or doing a demonstration at the Sin City Woodworkers meetings this is the first class I've had teaching adults woodworking skills. The last time I worked with adults is when I was a teacher's assistant at Diablo Valley Junior College and San Francisco State but that was in the mid-seventies so everything has changed a bit! Being so used to keeping on top of anywhere from 20 to 35 students in a middle school shop having the opportunity to simply teach a technique, demonstrate it, and then mill around helping where needed was a welcome change. It's been said that I "pre-worry" and working with these students I didn't have to worry at all. The only stress I had was self imposed, wanting to cover so many things and not enough time to get it all in. Working with and in Jamie Yocono's shop and school was a pleasure. We plan to collaborate and do it again some time.
Here is a picture of the proud students and the work that they produced:

The Results!

Everyone continued working through the entire last day, as with any woodworking project about the only time you're really forced to stop is while you wait for the glue to dry. I was able to do a demonstration on the sharpening technique I use and brought in a paring chisel for the demo. One of the students used it to pare the dovetails on his cabinet. Everyone who used it liked the idea of having that longer handle for added control, it's 15" long chisel so that seems huge!

Paring Chisel in Use

The final machine steps included cutting a groove in the bottom of the drawer for the bottom:

Routing Drawer Groove

Since this left radiused corners the edges need to be rounded over with a file or block plane or .........
OMG, is that a power tool in a hand tool class?

Hard at work with the half blind dovetails. For most woodworkers they are a bit more complicated to do but this student whipped through them in record time and said they were easier and more enjoyable for her, cool!

Half Blind Dovetails

All in all, teaching this class was a great experience. I hope we do it again down the road. I talked to a couple of people at the last meeting of Sin City Woodworkers who expressed an interest in taking the class if it's offered at night. I think that's in Jamie's plans when she works on next semesters schedule.

Experimental Blog

2011-09-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought that this Photo Booth picture of Ali would get some attention. I've been having some of those technical computer $&%$%*^&^& issues where my blog doesn't seem to automatically go to facebook. If you see this on facebook could you just leave a comment saying so? I'd appreciate it.
Posted this blog at 4:30pm on Tuesday 9/20

Coming to the Finish Line

2011-09-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday's class session began with a demonstration on making and using a scratch stock and ended up with assembling the cabinet. There are two more sessions next week and I'm confident that the projects will be completed by then. Students will probably have to finish them at home but that shouldn't be a problem for any of them. Once again, very pleased with the progress we're making and how hard everyone is working on the joinery. Hand cut dovetails can be daunting -- everything needs to be "just so" but if it isn't there is a trick for that. It's called a "Dutchman" and I really like it because it refers to my heritage. We'll be learning about it on Tuesday as well as taking our dovetail skills to the next level and cutting half blind versions for the drawers. In the meantime, here's a few pictures showing Thursday's work.

Pondering ......

and Thinking ....

.... but now it's Glued Up!

After the glue is dried and it has set overnight, or until Tuesday in our case, it's time to trim the ends of the dovetails flush with the rest of the case. Traditionally they are left slightly proud, this is done with a sharp plane and chisel if needed.

Trimming the Tails

See everybody on Tuesday, think about what you want to do for a drawer handle. I'll discuss some ways you could make your own from a scrap of cool looking wood you may have laying around.

Lie-Nielsen: Small Bronze Spokeshave

2011-09-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Tool !!

In the hand tool class I'm teaching, we're using a variety of tools and my goal is to expose the students to methods of work that are an alternative to using power tools. Not that there's anything wrong with power tools, it's just a whole other experience doing the work quietly, listening to the sound the cutters make as you apply them to the wood. So much to learn by listening, the wood does talk to you and let you know whether or not your technique is correct, your tool is sharp, and the cut is just so.
One of my favorite tools is the spokeshave. Just as the name implies, it's original use was to form the wooden spokes on wheels for wagons and later cars. I showed the class my old Stanley version and also the one I made myself so they could experience how these tools work. Our project has a gently curved, bandsawed edge and the spokeshave is ideal for smoothing it out to a fair curve. Only problem is where there is a slight inward cove -- for that you need a spokeshave with a radiused edge. I've had my eye on this spokeshave for quite some time so in the interest of educating my students decided to buy it, sounded like a perfect excuse to open my wallet!
Lie-Nielsen is a custom tool maker located in Maine. Their tools are beyond compare in quality, and they have customer service where you actually talk to a person! They will answer questions or give you advice on how to best sharpen, select, or use one of their tools. Here is a link to their website so you can see them for yourself. Their tools are ready to use, right out of the box. It is recommended that you hone them for optimum performance. Most other manufacturers tools require more preparation than theirs do. For cutting tools to really work well, the backs need to be perfectly flat, the sides should be parallel, and the casting that holds the blade should be flat as well. Preparing this blade took very little time plus there is a video on YouTube, made by Lie-Nielsen that showed the best method to prepare the blade.
In the class, we've discussed how a sharp tool will improve the quality of the work. It's also much safer to use a tool that is sharp compared to forcing a tool to do the work that isn't sharp. What you look for as you sharpen is the scratch pattern made by the stone. I use Norton waterstones and started out with a 4000 grit and ended with a final honing on an 8000. Below is a photo essay showing the progression of the sharpening process, you can see by the scratch pattern that there is a small area near the center of this blade that needed attention:

After 3-4 Passes

More ......

..... keep going

Almost there

See the Reflection?

That's what you're looking for whenever you sharpen a tool. Doesn't matter if it's a spokeshave, plane iron, or chisel. The scratch pattern is so fine it'll have a mirror finish. You remove the burr created by sharpening from the back, install the blade, and you should be good to go.

Setting up and Practicing

Blade Installed

Ready For Delivery

2011-09-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to say that the Faux Barrister Bookcase is ready for delivery however; the weather is just not going to cooperate! After bemoaning how hot is was last month and the delays in gluing up, now it's raining and I really don't think it's wise to give it the water test. I spoke with my clients last night and they're excited to get their piece but patient too. Here's a couple of pictures that I took in the shop last night, unfortunately I couldn't assemble the piece by myself so for now we'll just have to use our imagination as to how it'll look as one piece. I'll definitely take my camera and try to get some photos in their house.
There's quite a difference in the overall appearance of the unit with the doors, knobs, and glass installed. The oval shape you see is the access for electronic cables, there is access inside of each unit to allow flexibility. It's pretty obvious now but once the unit is placed into the media niche and things are put into it it won't be seen.

Upper Unit

I'm sure thankful for the furniture dollies that Harbor Freight sells so cheaply, they make a world of difference in being able to move pieces around the shop to where I want them.

Straight on View

3/4 View

One of the main items destined for this unit is a turntable. It'll be housed in the largest area. The placement of it pretty much determined the spacing and sizes of the remaining shelves. We wanted it to be at a comfortable level for easy access to the turntable.

From this 3/4 view you can see how the molding creates the illusion that these are separate units, just like traditional Barrister Bookcases would be. You can imagine how this look will continue once the upper unit is placed on top. The custom molding that wraps around it like a skirt will conceal the material of the top of the base unit and give the appearance of one, continuous bookcase.

We were talking about doing custom furniture work in my class yesterday and we all agreed that the final steps of a project seem to take the longest. It sounds quick and simple to say; "all that's left is putting on the doors, back, and hardware" when in reality these things are quite time consuming and have a fair share of head scratching! For example, let's look at the brass pins used for the doors to pivot and move on:

Cutting Pins

The process was to first use wooden dowels to check for side play of the door. Since I used jigs and stops to drill the pin holes theoretically everything should have been the same. They were pretty darn close, that's where being careful through out the building process pays off. What was involved was to first create a bevel on the both ends of the pin (1/4" brass rod), cut it to the required size using the jig shown in the picture, and then using some super glue and a hammer to gently coax the pin into the sides of the door.

Roller Set-Up

The door needs a means of support at the front of the case as the pin travels in the groove. Traditionally all that is required is a dowel but I decided to add a small roller thinking that it would make the action a bit easier, especially on the larger doors. Placement was critical and needed to be consistent on all doors. With this jig that was accomplished, seems like I contorted myself into some weird positions to get this done. It wasn't bad on the larger doors but the smaller they got the less room I had for my hands, drill, and head!

Set-Up for Catches

The final step to the door process was to locate the catches in the exact, same location so the reveal on all the doors would be consistent. Rather than trying to measure this for each door I devised a method to hold the doors at the same location while locating them. Again, fairly easy on the bigger doors but the small ones were tougher to get in to. I like using these brass, double-ball catches that can be adjusted for tension and allow for some slight movement due to weather conditions.

All in all, I'm happy with how this project turned out. Building custom furniture is always a process of learning and doing research to accomplish what your client wants and the vision you come up with to meet that. I'd be bored to death if someone wanted me to build ten of these for them, might as well go into production then! Anxious to get this piece delivered and go on to the next project. It's going to be a bit different as I set up an Etsy store to sell and market the custom eyeglass cases I've made. Seems like just the thing for a unique, one of a kind, Christmas present for somebody!

Work Goes On Intently

2011-09-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful day of work in the class, sure was nice to have the coolness of our first rainstorm in a long time here in the desert. It's just proof that this dry climate becomes something we're accustomed to here with our woodwork. The sample cabinet I made for the class regained its "cup" on the shelf and now the drawer will barely open! You may recall that this particular piece of material cupped badly after I had surfaced it the night before a storm in July. Unfortunately, by that time work had already begun on the joinery so re-surfacing it was not an option.
Here's the class in action, our goal is to glue the main portion of the cabinet together tomorrow and then begin work on the drawer --- hope all of our wood is stabilized!

Precise Dovetail Work, notice the sample Cabinet in foreground

Intently Paying Attention to the Task at Hand

Coming to the HomeStretch and Using MinWax Wipe On Poly

2011-09-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Work continues on the bookcases, almost done with the finishing process. I'm trying a new product from MinWax (new to me) which is a wipe on, polyurethane. For my solid wood furniture I typically use a natural oil finish that is top coated with a multiple, hand applied finish. For solid wood, the sheen and feel of the wood is beyond compare. When using cabinet grade sheet goods, even the best quality ones that you can find, the veneer simply isn't thick enough to achieve the same sheen.
The concern for woodworkers everywhere, when it comes to the finish, is how to apply it and not have it become contaminated with dust during the drying process. Dust is a big enough issue here in the desert but now add the typical woodshop environment and you compound the issue considerably. The wipe on poly eliminates that concern completely. It's simply wiped on with a clean, cotton rag and dries so quickly the dust doesn't have any time to settle. A plus I discovered with it is that it will remove any stain that has dried on the surface or oozed out of the pores. If you've ever stained Oak, that tends to be a problem. Oak is so porous that it'll allow the stain to settle below the surface and then ooze out and harden sometime over night when you're not there to wipe it off! In the past, you would have to remove this with some solvent before applying your top finish. In any case, the Wipe On Poly works well. A very light sanding between coats is all that's required.
At this point, everything has three coats except for the base unit which only has two. The glass wasn't ready for pickup on Friday (think they went home early) but it'll take some time to install the doors and get them adjusted.

Base Unit

Upper Unit

Being able to move the unit around on furniture dollies is a big plus. Since the backs won't be attached until the doors are in and adjusted it was easier to get to the entire unit and see what's going on in there.

This has three coats of the Wipe On Poly, I like the way the crown molding and the skirt came out. Even though these are new units I think they have an aged appearance and will look like my client has had them for years, maybe passed on from generations past!

The door frames are ready to have the guide pins, knobs, and glass installed. The pieces laying in front of them are the door stops that will limit the travel of each door as it slides back into the case.

Door Frames

Second Day of Class

2011-09-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

The second day of class was another successful one. During the first day everyone began cutting the materials needed for the cabinet after making a practice dovetail or two. We started off today getting the material prepped for the cabinet sides. These need to be surfaced to 5/8" thickness so we had a slight bottle neck at the planer but we worked through all of that. The class is small (5 students) and everyone gets along well with one and other unlike the team on last nights Project Runway -- bet you're surprised I watch and like that show!

Power Tools to Size Material

One of the goals for this class session was to discuss ways to create what's called a "fair curve". I brought a couple of spokeshaves for this that they all had the chance to use. Since the emphasis of the class is hand tools the spokeshave works just as well (better in my opinion) than an oscillating spindle sander and leaves a much cleaner finish on the wood.

Initial Curve Cut on Bandsaw

There are several ways to lay out a curve but we used a thin, flexible piece of wood and clamped that to the starting point of the arc. It was then flexed until the curve suited their design and a line was penciled in. After taping both side pieces together, the bandsaw was used to cut it out.

Working Intently

Scribing Line for Dovetail on Tail Board

Laying out the Tails on the Tail Board

Use of a Spokeshave to Achieve a "Fair Curve"

One of the things that's always satisfying as a teacher is to watch your students work at what you've taught. Look at how intent everyone is to accomplish the task at hand -- love it!

Jamie, the owner/operator/principal/and everything else related to WoodItIs was impressed with how well everyone is working and having success at this complex bit of wood joinery. She couldn't help but appreciate the quietness in the room as everyone worked on their projects compared to the noise of the machine room. Love those hand tools -- hope to pass some of that along to them as well.

First Class Success!!

2011-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first session of the hand tool woodworking class I'm teaching at WoodItIs. Not sure who was happier to see all five class members complete a couple of dovetails successfully --- me or them! Here are four of them with their completed practice joints:

Even if you're not familiar with woodworking joints, you've probably seen a dovetail joint on the side of a drawer. It's a joint that's been traced back to ancient Egypt and found in furniture and burial vaults from that time and they're still holding tight! Here's a sketch of what they look like:

The next class session will be tomorrow, Sept. 8 from 11am to 2pm. This class meets every Tuesday and Thursday for the next three weeks. It's going to be fun to see how they apply this practice dovetail to the project. This joint is completely done by hand with chisels, mallets, and a dovetail saw. It's a great exercise in learning how your body mechanics control what the tool in your hand does. Frustrating at times but rewarding just the same!

Cases are Almost Complete!

2011-09-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Cases Together

Things are coming together and here is the proof of that. This is the entire unit with the doors loosely set into place so that I could see how the grain pattern would look on the completed piece. The only thing missing now is the cap that goes onto the front edge, as it is you can still see the plywood edge. In the background are the panels for the back of each case, they're stained and ready for the finish coat of satin polyurethane. What's been completed so far represents about forty hours of work. It's kind of like running a long race, at first you just feel like you're slogging along but then you realize you've covered 30-40 miles. The final stretch always takes a bit longer than you think it should but victory is close and sweet!
Designing this project had some interesting challenges. The first was how to design a cabinet that had the appearance of separate Barrister Bookcases but it needed to have different sized shelving areas to accommodate the turntable. That'll be housed in the center area. At 80+ inches tall, it would have been too difficult to build and move as a one piece unit so I came up with a way to hide where the two pieces come together. It separates right above the turntable area.

Using Wax Paper to Prevent the Glue from Joining

Close up of Case Joint Molding

The molding at the case junction is similar in profile to the crown molding. It is attached to the upper unit which simply slides into position. To attach it, I put wax paper between the two cases so the glue wouldn't ooze out and attach them -- that could have been a major problem! These were glued and clamped, and reinforced with a few biscuits for strength.

In this close up view you can see that there is a slight relief cut on the bottom of molding to help it clear the lower unit. This is looking at the back of the cases. The groove visible on the bottom case is what the door pin will slide in.

Guide Block Attached to Door Front

The challenge of making custom pieces is that no two of them are alike. To be sure, there are certain operations in woodworking that are the same no matter what the final project will be but usually, each project has it's own set of challenges that need to be solved. One of those challenges for this project was how to accurately lay out and drill the holes required in the doors. It was critical that each one was in the proper location or else the doors wouldn't function the way they should.
To solve that problem I made a guide block that was clamped in line with the top of the door. Since it's always difficult to measure to the center from both faces the best way to align this block was to the front face of the door on each side.

Drill bit with Stop Collar

This meant there had to be two holes so that when you flip it to the opposite edge it would line up. Maybe sounds a bit confusing but not so bad, you just have to keep it in mind as you drill the holes. By making the guide block on the drill press I was guaranteed a straight hole. In practice the guide block is first clamped to the door, then the drill bit is inserted into the hole and it's drilled until the stop collar contacts the guide block.

Now comes the finishing operations. It's critical that the brass pins used to support and guide each door are a certain size. My plan is to use wooden dowels first to check the operation and then cut the brass pin the exact, same size. Because of the nature of wood, there is bound to be some variation in these things but hopefully not too bad. The brass pins will be attached with either epoxy or crazy glue, I need to do a mock up first. I'm thinking that the crazy glue would be better because it's thinner than the epoxy so there shouldn't be a problem with it oozing out and showing up on the finish. Theoretically, they shouldn't go anywhere once they're inserted into their holes.
Now comes the finishing procedures, this will require quite a bit of sanding since it's made of cabinet grade plywood rather than solid wood. For solid wood I generally smooth the surface with hand planes -- can't plane plywood! I'll order the glass tomorrow but I also start teaching the hand tool class at WoodItIs school here in Las Vegas -- really looking forward to that. I'm hoping that work and weather will cooperate and I'll be able to deliver the completed project in a week. My clients schedule has him off on Mondays so that's the best day to shoot for completion. I'll keep you posted.

Visible Signs of Progress

2011-09-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

After my whining about the weather and not being able to do any large scale glue ups due to the heat, I've finally been able to accomplish them. Must admit, it always feels good to see the progress once you put things together. Most projects, and this was no exception, have lots of preliminary ground work before a project actually takes shape. One of the things that took a good deal of time was cutting and shaping all of the profiled moldings. The other thing that has taken time was cutting the carcass sides to size as well as the dados required for the shelves. Pretty much like making your own jig saw puzzle to get a well constructed project.

Dry Fit and Pre-Drilling of Upper Unit

The first piece assembled was the upper unit, it was small enough and basically only had six long joints. The process was to locate the screw holes on the inside of each dado then clamp the pieces together. Next I could drill and countersink the holes from the outside of the case. It was no problem gluing and attaching the shelves to one side, one at a time. My concern was attaching the other side and having 3 shelves to glue/screw into the opposite side at one time. With careful planing and keeping cool and calm this went well. No matter how many glue ups or assemblies I do, it's always a time of stress. All of your work up to that point can be wasted if things go wrong.

Jig Used to Support Side Molding

After the glue set (over-night) it was time to miter and attach the moldings which finish off the case. The front pieces are reinforced with several biscuits, the side piece conceals the screws used to assemble the case. I made a simple T-square to hold the molding in place on the sides. Always difficult to hold and nail a piece that's covered in glue but this went without a hitch.

Creating the crown molding was another custom part of this project. The existing media niche that the unit will fit into limits how big of a crown we can have. Although a crown is not normally found on a barrister bookcase it works all for this design. Simple, yet "crowning" and it mimics the side molding. Molding of a similar design will be used where the two cases sit on top of one and other. This will hide the seam.

Crown Molding

Cutting all of the miters can be tricky and since I want them to be as accurate as possible I always clamp them down on the miter saw, sure it takes a little more time this way but there's no chance of the wood creeping forward as the blade cuts it at an angle:

Close up of Miter Cutting with Clamp

Two days ago the weather cooperated and I was able to assemble the base unit. I laid it flat on the torsion box assembly table and used the same process used on the upper unit. Only big difference here is that instead of there being 3 shelves, this unit has one more and is about twice the size! After joining one shelf to a side I clamped it squarely onto the table and added the next ones. Little tricky putting all 4 shelves into the opposite side with glue and all but things went well. The large clamp running across at a diagonal is there to insure everything dries as squarely as possible. There is a 1/2" plywood back that will fit into the rabbets on each side of the case to maintain the integrity of the entire unit.

Base Unit

Door Frame for Turntable Area

Last of all, this afternoon I was able to glue the five doors together. Did these one at a time on the kitchen island; know what? I could get used to working in air conditioned comfort!

Class is a Definite Go!

2011-08-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

Class Project

I received word from Jamie this morning that the hand tool class is now officially on the schedule at her school. We weren't sure if the required number of students would sign up but after she notified all of former her students with an email sign ups came briskly and we're both pleased. The only place she had on her schedule was a twice weekly class during the day. Many of her students are work night shifts or are retired so a day time class is ideal for them. She thought the sticking point may of been the twice weekly meetings, Tuesday & Thursday. You can see her complete schedule and more info about her school from this LINK .
I'm really looking forward to teaching this class. According to Jamie, many of her students have asked about hand tool instruction so she approached me about designing a project for it. The results of that are in the picture above. The majority of the joinery is hand cut dovetails. We'll begin with through dovetails to join the top to the sides, here there are only two tails. To join the bottom to the sides we'll add a few more tails with some unequal spacing and sizes just to mix things up a bit. I plan to introduce them to making and using a scratch stock. That's what was used to form the profile on the front, curved edge. The dovetails continue to the drawer front but this time they are half blind -- more of a challenge! We'll leave the rear of the drawer simpler, grooved only. Depending on how much time we'll have, students can either create their own drawer pull or else buy one. The wood used is Cumala which is a plantation grown species that can be used in place of Mahogany. If you've never had the pleasure of working with genuine Mahogany you don't know what you're missing but the Cumala will have to do -- it's not a bad substitute.