Why Do I Always Pick the Hard Stuff??

     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

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

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!

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

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 !!

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

     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