Just as Advertised -- 5+ Hours Later!

The Innards! 

     If you can make out the picture at the left you'll see this is what I wanted.  Each half will be a mirror image of the other with the King & Queen in the largest niches in the center.  The wide area on the bottom/top two rows will be filled with a solid piece of Walnut which will have the locking mechanism for the inner lids.  As is my unfortunate habit, I made the joinery on the snug side but that was easy enough to fix.
     Any wood that comes off of a planer will always show some type of chatter marks.  This is true no matter how carefully the machine is set up.  I have a Powermatic, 15" Planer with a Byrd helical head.  Works great but the chatter marks are there none the less.  In lots of furniture or other wooden items you'll see those marks, I've tried to photograph them on this piece.

Lower Right, See the Vertical Lines?

     The way most folks remove them is through sanding but if you know me, I'm not a great fan of sanding.  It's messy, wastes material, and most importantly I feel it muddles the grain of the wood and is apparent through the finish.  Planing is the best way to get rid of those marks.  Short pieces can be held with a bench hook like this:

Bench Hook to Hold Small Dividers for Planing

     Longer pieces can be secured to the bench like this:

Smoothing the Long Pieces

     I now have a beautiful, bronze smoother plane that works great but you don't necessarily need a top end tool to get good results.  My main plane is an old Stanley Jack plane that I've had since the 60's.  Before I was able to afford or justify the Lie-Nielsen plane I have now I had two blades for the Stanley.  One was sharpened square and used for edge work while the other one had a slight chamfer to it so it could be used for smoothing.  I've taught many students how to accomplish excellent planed surfaces with mid-quality tools.  The key seems to be in learning how to sharpen it and then set it up properly.  Maybe it's just me but I get a lot of satisfaction creating a mirror smooth surface and piles of whispery shavings!  After surfacing both sides of every piece of this egg crate they slip together easily.  All that remains for them is to clean up and radius the top edge and then apply a few coats of shellac.
     I ended day with laminating a piece on to the edge of the Maple needed for the top and bottom panel of the case.  I need a piece approximately 10 5/8" wide, as luck would have it the piece I have ranges from about 11" on one end and 10 1/4" on the other.  That's what's meant by "random width, random length" when you buy hardwoods.  The joint will be right on the edges and more than likely be cut away for the rabbet.  Check out the chatoyance of this piece, especially to the left of the center clamp.

Love it!

     I did mess around a bit with the coloration on the iPhoto but it'll finish beautiful.  This piece will be difficult to smooth plane.  That's the down side to beautifully figured wood, the figure is caused by the grain going every which way!

So, You Want a Challenge?

Head Scratcher?

     You know I've been an ultra trail runner most of my life so relish challenges that pit me against the elements.  Well, I may have just taken on a big challenge that will pit me against the wooden elements and sanity!  I had a request on the Etsy store shortly before Christmas asking if I could make a box to hold chess pieces.  Initially, this was to be for Christmas but I didn't think I could accomplish it by then so we put it off for a birthday present at the end of February.  Although I'm not a chess player I've seen the game but didn't expect the pieces to be this large.  It took a bit of doing to come up with the lay-out you see there.  The largest piece is the King and it measures 2 3/16" x 9", the smallest ones are the pawn which measure 1 1/2" x 3 1/2".  My concept is to have the box open completely flat so that each side is a mirror image of the other segregated by the color of the pieces.  The dividers will slip together like an egg crate.  Here's how I got to this point today.
     The first step was to mill a bunch of Walnut 1/4" thick by 2 3/16" wide to make these dividers.  I'm thinking the key here is to keep all of the mating parts exactly the same size.  It's going to be interesting when final assembly comes along and I need to slip everything together but I'll worry about that when I get there.  I set up an auxiliary fence on the chop saw to cut these parts.  I needed 4 short sides of about 10" each and 12 of the longer pieces at 17+".

Cutting Required Pieces to Length

     My intention was to use my 6" dado set to cut the required slots but it wouldn't quite make the required depth of cut which was 1 3/32" -- it was about an eighth of an inch shy!  I used the box cutter set but had to add a few thin shims to get the required width.  Set up was crucial, these parts need to lap each other exactly.

Sneaking up on the Center

     One way to do this is by setting the blade slightly below the required height and then flipping a scrap piece over after each pass.  By raising the blade ever so slightly each time you complete a pass you'll slowly whittle away the piece you see in the center.  Once it's gone you're pretty much set, the proof can be seen here.

Stop Block Set and Depth Exact

     When the two trial pieces fit together without a gap in the middle or on the top/bottom you're right on the money.  The ends of all the pieces were cut and here's what I had at that point, this was relatively easy.

Gang Cutting, Four at a Time

     This proved to be the easier part of the dividers.  It was just a matter of cutting the ends of each long piece and the shorter pieces were carefully measured and marked with a marking knife.  By using a stop block clamped to the fence, all four pieces were cut at the same time so I ended up with what you see here:

Basic Dividers Complete

     Now things get a bit complex and required lots of talking to myself to keep it straight.  It was going to take more than talking so I got a piece of wrapping paper and drew it out full size.  Another thing I did was to number one end of each long piece so I don't have to waste any time when I get to the assembly stage.

Ready for the Short Dividers

     I'm saving that for first thing in the morning when I'm fresh.  Board number 4 will require some care as it has two slots closer together than I'd like but that's how the lay-out fell.  Once the divider is installed that will keep it strong.  In the center of the number 4, 5, & 6 boards there will be a solid block since the 4 pawns in each of those rows only need 14" of total space.  This will be where a swivel catch will be installed to secure all of the pieces in their slots when the box is close and/or carried.
     So far, things are going along as planed.  I've had quite a lot of down time fighting the flu so this project has already been built inside of my feverish mind!  Hopefully, when I get back down to a normal 98.6 it'll still look good.  It's kind of difficult to read the names of the pieces slated for each slot but if you scroll back up to the first picture it's easier to read.

Old Adage is True!

     When I was just starting out in this woodworking thing, some decades ago; I was told to always use the same tape measure for a project.  If you're like me, you probably have more than one laying around and grab whichever is closest or most convenient for the job.  For me, I have a 25 footer for big projects, a 16 footer for general stuff, and a 12 footer I keep in my coveralls for most of my work.  Well, today I went nuts trying to figure something out!
     For a new commission I have I needed a bunch of Walnut 2 3/16" wide.  Since I didn't put on my coveralls I grabbed the 16 footer from the bench.  I set the fence on the tablesaw to the 2 3/16" and, as is my habit, ripped a piece of scrap MDF to double check the setting.  It was off a sixteenth so my first thought is that the scale on the rip fence was out of adjustment.  Loosened the screws and slid it over but still wasn't right.  I grabbed a caliper and found the piece I initially cut was 2 3/16" wide as indicated by the scale on the rip fence and checked out the tape measure, here's what I found:

Things Don't Match!

     Using a gauge block that I know is accurate it shows the tape 1/16" short of the 3" block.  I know that sometimes the tip gets bent and can throw the measurement off a bit but no amount of messing around, trying to readjust the tip brought it back to acceptable accuracy.  This tape was just assembled wrong!  Guess that's why it was a freebie from a promotion -- you get what you pay for.
     You know, a sixteenth of an inch may not seem like much but if you had a certain area for a cabinet that had a number of pieces in it those sixteenths can add up in a hurry!  Just reinforced my belief in using one tape measure for a project starting with the measurement at the clients house and all the way through until the project is completed.  It would really suck to make a cabinet to fit a 24" opening measured with one tape measure only to find out that you're 1/2" off  and the cabinet is actually 24 1/2" wide when you get there because you used a different tape in the shop then what you used on the site!  Might be a good time to check all of your measurement tools in the shop and see if they agree with each other -- sounds like a good New Year's resolution!

Legs & Aprons

     Having the drastic change in my vision due to the side effect from a medication has really curtailed my woodworking.  Talked with the optometrist this morning and was told my new safety glasses are supposed to be delivered to them Thursday.  I have bifocals but there's just not enough near vision to comfortably cut dovetails or do any carving.  My reading glasses are so-so but ----- that should all change tomorrow!
     What I have been able to accomplish is laying out the legs and cutting the mortises in them.  So many things you need to keep track of.  The grain pattern plays a huge part in this for me even though most folks won't even notice.  I use a combination of chalk and writing on green tape to keep myself straight.

Okay, Which End is Up?

     I also use a set of machinists stamps that I picked up at a garage sale years ago, I'll mark every tenon with them.  The markings will correspond to the letter I stamp on the inside corner of the legs.  There's no way that it will get erased so it's the best system for me.

Machinist Stamps to i.d. Inside of Legs

     All of this was done before cutting the mortises and then the tapers on the inside of each leg.  Of course, if you've been following my blog you know the mishap I had with the tapering!  Things like that are good though, it keeps with my philosophy of "if it don't kill you, it'll make you stronger" and I think the Dutchman patch came out fine.
     Next up was forming the tenons to fit the mortises.  For this I decided to forego the tenon jig and simply make a series of passes to get them to rough size.  With only four tenons to cut there was no reason to either change to a dado head or go through the trial and error of the tenoning jig.

Sled to Cut Tenons

     This was a quick way to remove the waste and was followed by cutting the haunch and fine tuning with a rabbet block plane.

Final Sizing of the Tenon

     My preference is to use this tool over a shoulder plane, for me it's easier to control although I have to be careful to keep it parallel and not create an angle.

Great Christmas Present

   



     Their timing couldn't have been better, my daughter and son-in-law gave me a set of Lie-Nielsen card scrapers complete with the leather wallet for Christmas.  They weren't too sure what they were used for so was able to give them a quick demo on the apron before I glued everything up!  Took a great curl right out of the box, didn't even put a burr on them before trying it out on this piece of Sapele.







Final step was to assemble the two legs to the apron.  The apron is about four feet long and about 13" wide.  There will be a shallow glove drawer on either end of it with a caned shelf below.  I've been referring to this table as the Star Jasmine table but ….. that's going to change.  My initial plan was to carve the flower in the center of the bottom shelf but decided that it would seem odd design wise.  Everything else is straight, simple lines and adding that would disrupt the over-all feel of the piece.

About 50 Degrees in the Shop

     Until I get the new glasses I don't want to attempt the dovetails across the tops of the legs so thought I'd get a head start by assembling the legs/apron first.  We'll see but it may be a challenge cutting them with it already assembled.  Just another challenge.  Notice what appears to be a cup of coffee on the bench?  Well, I'm using Old Brown Glue for this project and discovered that this is the best way to keep it at a good viscosity.  I've used another brand of liquid hide glue but find this much easier to use and clean up as needed.

Sometimes #**%*^(*# Happens! Take Two

   
     This was the conclusion of the post when I talked about the tablesaw mishap and how it tore up the inside, bottom of one of the legs.

Epoxy/Sawdust Patch

     I wasn't real pleased with it and hated the thought of having to compromise on the over-all quality of the piece.  I reasoned that it was in a location that wouldn't be real noticeable but, like I always would stress to my students; I'll always know it's there!
     This is where the magic of the internet and electronic networking come into play.  I've had communications with Chris Hall who's blog can be found at:   http://thecarpentryway.blogspot.com.   He is from Massachusetts and specializes in Japanese style of woodworking which, if you're not familiar with it involves a lot of intricate hand cut joinery.  In any case, he commented on the blog and asked why I didn't consider making a Dutchman patch?  Let's see now, I was born in Amsterdam and am a genuine Dutchman myself -- you'd of thought that would have been a no-brainer for me now wouldn't you?  Thanks to his comment the outside of the leg now looks like this.

Dutchman Patch

      Realize that this is an extreme close-up so there is a visible line at the end of the patch but this piece came from the cut-off from this leg.  That one prominent grain line that goes from the lower right towards the upper left is the most visible feature so I was glad to be able to match that up.  The more difficult part of the hunt was trying to line up the various sections of interlocking grain the Sapele has.  Won't really be able to see exactly how well I succeeded on that until the final finish has been applied.
     Once I found a suitable "donor" piece, the first step was to route out the leg to remove the damage.

Dutchman Donor Piece

     I made a template for the patch which was clamped to the leg.  The first step was to outline it with a marking knife to prevent the wood fibers from tearing out as the router removed the material.  I went down to a depth of about 3/16".

Dutchman Template

     The corners were squared off and the patch piece was fitted and glued and clamped in.  Once the glue was thoroughly dry everything was planed flush.  Here you can see how that predominant grain line follows through the patch.

Ready for Final Sizing

     Here's the final shot of the patch from the inside.  It's slightly visible but a vast improvement over the photo at the top of this blog.  Thanks Chris for pointing out a better way to fix an unexpected mishap!

Much Improved, Darned Inter-locking Grain!

Ouch, Sometimes #**%*^(*# Happens!

Zero Clearance Throat Plate Disaster

       Not the best thing to happen the day before Christmas and well into a project.  What you see here is my throat plate, split in two.  The piece of Sapele with the chalk marks on it is the culprit, it's the tapered off-cut from one of the legs.  This occurred as I was cutting the taper on the leg using my taper jig.

Taper Jig

     I know now how it happened and what to do to prevent it from ever happening again but I'm now left with a leg with a chunk out of it.  Besides having spent lots of time selecting the grain and cutting the mortises there isn't any more of the Sapele to make another leg.  What happened is the tapered end of the off cut got caught between the blade even though there was a zero clearance plate.  It jammed and stopped the 3 horsepower motor as if I had a SawStop!  That's never happened before but I see that it can be prevented if I reverse the leg to start the cut near the top of the leg rather than the bottom.  This way it'll end the cut with the thickest part of the taper which shouldn't have any possibility of wedging itself between the blade and the throat plate when it drops down.
     Don't know how many times I'd tell my students that the difference between a good woodworker and one that's not so good is that the good one has learned how to hide his or her mistakes.  Guess it's time to see if I can practice what I preach!  My first instinct was to cut a new leg, couple of problems with that scenerio.  First of all, I'm out of wood and secondly, even if I could get another piece of 8/4 Sapele that chances of it matching the coloration and grain pattern would be pretty remote.  Here's my Plan B.
     Here's the raw damage after removing some of the splintering:

Ouch, Right on the Corner of the Leg

     The first step was to clean up the nasty gash caused by the jam.

The Damage, Epoxy, & Sawdust

      I then gathered up some fine sawdust and 5 minute epoxy.  My plan was to mix up the epoxy and then add some sawdust to it.  This was worked into the gash with an applicator made from a flexible piece of wood.  If you've ever done Bondo work on a car, this process is similar.

Epoxy Applied

     After it dried thoroughly the resulting patch was planed smooth.

Planed Smooth

     Here's what it looks like after spraying the surface with some water.  This will be similar to how it should appear when the table is oiled and finished.  The way I apply my oil and top coats is to wet sand it into the wood.  This tends to build up a slurry which will, hopefully, fill and blend in the patch.

Semi-Final Appearance

     It's not a perfect match but I'm trying to keep things in perspective.  It's about 2"long on a 29" leg so just a small percentage.  It's located on the inside bottom at almost the same location of a shelf that will span between the legs.  I'm pretty confident that it will barely be noticeable.  We have an ongoing discussion in our woodworking group about how we always tends to point out the flaws in our own work.  If the project is a success, in my opinion, I'll take it to the group for our show & tell sessions and see if anyone notices it.  If it bothers me I won't take it to market (so to speak) but won't mind having it for ourselves anyway.

All Waxes Are Not Created Equal

Here is the finished project I began a week or so ago with the carved and gilded lid.

Finished Camellia Box

    At that point I'd left you with a lid that was brightly gilded with Dutch Gold and I promised to share the technique I'd use to tone it down.

Bright & Brassy Composition Gold Metal

     Well, that's the point of this blogs title; all waxes are not created equal.  The first step to this process was to completely paint the lid.  I used a Krylon, satin black spray paint for this project.  They make a paint called Ultra-Flat which is a great one to use for picture  or mirror frames.  I should mention that this technique can also be done by using carved appliqués that you can find at craft stores.  Simply attach them to flat stock and that will eliminate the carving step in this process.  For me though, this gives me a great avenue to practice my carving.  After you've applied the spray paint it's best to wait 2-3 days to allow the paint to cure completely.
     Next up is selectively remove the paint to bring out the highlights of the carving.  This is a process that you can control if you realize a few things about waxes.  I'm familiar with a few different brands so that's what I can share with you.  Waxes have varying amounts and types of solvents in them, something you can tell strictly  by the smell.  The reason that's important to know is that the more solvent there is in the wax, the quicker you will rub off the paint and reveal the gold underneath.  Here's the basic premise:

• More solvent = quicker removal of paint which can be a plus -- or a negative!  You may remove more of the paint than you wanted.
• Less solvent = slower removal of paint which again, can be a plus or a negative.  It'll take you longer to reveal the gold below the paint layer but you'll have a bit more control.

     As far as waxes go, my favorite is made by Liberon and called Black Bison.  I love the smell and feel of it and is the one I use as a top coat on picture frames, boxes, and any furniture projects that I choose to wax.  It doesn't have a lot of solvent so it is quite slow at removing the paint layer.

     Another one that you may have seen since it's advertised quite a lot is Briwax.  It has a lot of solvent, you'll be able to smell it, and removes the paint layer extremely fast.  Because of that I don't like to use it.

     The last one I'm familiar with is Johnson's Paste Wax.  It's readily available and has a moderate amount of solvents and doesn't have a strong odor like the Briwax.  I should mention automotive paste waxes too because they are sometimes used on wood.  The only drawback with them is they usually contain silicon and they tend to leave a white residue in the pores of the wood.  I'd avoid them.  For this project I began by using the Johnson's to accelerate the paint removal process and then finished off with the Liberon.  The amount of time the paint has cured and the temperature/weather conditions will affect how the paint reacts to the wax too so, as you always hear -- test in an inconspicuous area first.

     I prefer to use cotton balls to work the wax onto the surface.  Because of the lack of structure to them they will get into the crooks and crannies of the carving.  Put a small amount of wax on the cotton ball and begin wiping the surface.  I'd advise that you put some wax on a scrap piece of wood rather than continually getting it out of the can with the cotton ball --- you'll contaminate the can with the paint.  At first you'll think nothing is happening but all of a sudden you'll feel some drag on the cotton ball.  That tells you the paint has become softened and is ready to come off!  Take your time and creatively remove what you want.  Obviously this is subjective but here's a photo sequence of this particular lid.

Initial wax application, notice dullness on lower left?

Drag on cotton ball & dullness means you should lighten up.

Remove as much of the black as you desire then

Buff entire lid.

     One of the disadvantages of course to black and waxed surfaces is that it will show any defects or blemishes but this is referred to as the patina and aging of the piece.  Tends to add to its appeal, makes it seem like a treasured heirloom object.  Like a gallery owner once told Diane as we were discussing her awards vs. sales: "the public votes with their checkbook".  I'll list this on my Etsy store tonight and see how the public votes!