A Place for Everything and Everything in its' Place!

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

     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!

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

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

     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

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

     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!