Don't Know When to Quit !!

I guess being an ultrarunner means you're pretty intense and don't always know when to quit -- I seem to carry that in what ever I do!  After dinner I went out to the shop to see how the glue was setting up and thought, heck; might as well sand, scrape, and clean up some of the pieces for tomorrow.  Well, as you can see; one thing lead to another.  As I was cleaning the shelf I noticed there was quite a gap between it and the leg assembly.  Too much wiggle!  I've figured out that by gently pushing wooden shims between the loose joints it's possible to get them apart so that's what I did.

The entire assembly came away.  Boy, this really reinforces my thoughts on not using dowels.  There is a lot of end grain to end grain surface here and the only thing holding it together is a dowel.  I know it was the production method of the day but .......
In any case, I used the brush and water/vinegar solution to re-dissolve the existing glue, sanded the dowels and gave them some notching, and also discovered that I had a wire brush that may have been used to clean a rifle bore that was perfect for cleaning out the dowel holes.

  
                                                                            

 

Here's this section glued up for the night, now I really am going to let it rest until tomorrow afternoon!

Always Up for the Challenge

I had an interesting email from a lady who'd seen the story in the Review Journal about the Dovetail Chair.  She has a "What Not" cabinet that dates back to the early 1900's and came from the east coast.  Between the move and the lack of humidity here, it's starting to fall apart.  Although I usually shy away from this type of project it was evident that the piece has a cherished memories for her so I decided to take it on.  She and her husband helped bring it to my shop and I was able to begin on it this afternoon.  My first concern was being able to disassemble it without doing any further damage.  Essentially it is three units joined together with dowels and glue.  I'm reminded as to why I feel dowel joints are not the best choice because they had shrunk more than the furniture wood and that lead (in part) to the failure.  I also noticed several cracks on the face of the wood where the dowels had been inserted.
The first part I decided to tackle was the gallery at the top of the center piece shown below.

You can see how intricate some of the carvings are but it came apart fairly easily.  My fear came true that as I gently disassembled one section it caused an adjacent section to loosen as well!  Since we're after a "state of arrested deterioration" project rather than a complete rebuild I'm doing what I can to keep things intact.  A couple of dowels had broken and these were carefully drilled out and new ones made.  I'm also filing grooves on them to allow the glue to get a bit of purchase.  I'm pretty sure the piece was originally assembled with hide glue since a solution of vinegar and water applied with a brush dissolves it.  There is evidence of previous repairs done with white glue, nails, and an occasional screw or two!

This is the center section, it's laying on it's back and this is a view from the bottom.  The two spindles were dowelled into the top and bottom of the piece but had broken loose.  There is also some bric-brac at the top that has separated and cracked as well.  I was able to loosen the spindles and get some glue into the joint with a syringe and clamp it.  These spindles have bracketed molding on either side which I will clean up and re-glue.  I'm going to need to buy a 23 gauge pin nailer to accomplish that, there isn't any way to clamp the curved pieces and an 18 gauge finish nailer would be do risky -- this wood is very brittle.  I'll definitely let this dry in the clamps overnight.  Actually will be longer, I think it'll stay clamped until after Church tomorrow.

In the meantime I started to work on the right side of the cabinet that pretty much separated from the rest of the piece.  The challenge was figuring out how to clamp it so here it is laying on my workbench.  The section with the mirror had completely cracked at the bottom.  It had separated from the leg as well so I'm basically trying to work two ends from the middle.  I cleaned up the joints with the vinegar and water solution, scuffed up the dowels, and figured out how it'll all go together.  I used the hide glue to re-attach to the leg but chose regular cabinetmakers glue for the mirror piece.  It wasn't a joint that let go but the wood cracked completely.  You can see how I made a caul to surround the carving at the top.
Again, leave it till tomorrow for maximum strength.

Just a Test

I'm doing this to see if Blogger automatically posts to my Facebook page.  That could explain why they are duplicated a couple of hours apart.  Here's a picture of Ali to keep you interested!

Shop Made Runners, part 2

In my last post I shared how I went about making the runners, now comes the fun part -- installing them.  As luck would have it one of the drawers ended up being ever so slightly tweaked but a little bit of planing took care of that.  The drawers are pretty wide and shallow but should be fine once they get a load in them.  The technique I use to install a bank of drawers, whether they're metal slides or shop made like these is the same for both.  I know there are jigs available but I've found this method to be pretty fool proof and accurate.  It starts by using a piece of MDF or plywood that spans the interior of the case.  In this instance my first drawer was the bottom one because I have a shelf on top to reference from.  First I locate the drawer with the cabinet on it's side and locate the runner.

I then cut the plywood so that it will locate the top of the runner, drill the holes, and screw it on.  Flip the case over and use the plywood again to attach the runner on the opposite side. Using the plywood insures that the distance is the same.  In this picture I've already installed two, and am doing the third of five.  It's a simple matter of ripping the plywood to size.  The penny? that's what I use to determine the spacing between drawers.

Here's a better shot of the technique I use.  The reddish piece of wood is the inside of the drawer.  At the front, out of the picture, I have a penny between it and the next drawer and you can see the end of a try-square keeping the drawer in line.  That very light piece of wood by the tape measure is the drawer runner.  It's about 2  3/4" from the top so my next cut on the plywood will be that size.  Remove the drawer, place the plywood against the top, and screw down the runner.

It really is a good system and insures that the runners are at the same level from your reference point.

  I couldn't resist sharing a picture of the first mock up of the cabinet.  I've oiled the drawers and you can see the joinery I used.  The very top piece will hinge at the back but I still need to do the carving on the panel for it.  You may notice the hole at the upper left corner, that's for the brass pin I'm using to hinge the lid section.

So far I'm liking it a lot!

Shop Made Drawer Runners

Work is going along well on the chest in spite of the chilly weather, mid-forties until I kicked on the heater so the glue would set.  The drawers are assembled with the dowels rather than dovetails.  I shellacked the bottoms before assembly.  I also cut a 3/4" slot, a little less than 1/4" on the sides for the runners.  There's something cool about wooden runners as opposed to metal hardware.  For one thing, you don't need to allow a half an inch on each side for the hardware.  I use pennies for spacers.  Since I had some European Steamed Beech left over from a picture frame I chose it for the runners.  Very nice, straight grained stock.  Each runner is between 1/4" - 5/16" thick so that allows a little room for final planing.  Cutting thin material like that on the tablesaw can be risky, here's what I did:

   

Front View

 I first planed a radius on the front and planed the edge that's against the fence.  What appears to be a pretty fancy push block is actually my mock-up piece for the drawer.  I cut it so it rides just above the table and with my hand on top of the fence there's very little chance of contacting the blade.  You can see from the side view how the splitter will keep the wood from binding -- worked nicely!

Side View

I only need 10 runners but made a couple extra, just in case.  Must be part of Murphy's Law because if I take the time to make extra parts I don't need them, but no extras and you inevitably screw up!!

Anyway, the final machining step is to put slotted holes to attach them to the sides of the case.  For that I used a bit from Lee Valley which cuts the screw hole as well as a recess for the screw head.  I made a quick jig for it so that the slots are approximately 3/8" long which should be more than sufficient.

Slotting the Mounting Holes

Tomorrow will be time spent on finishing the drawers, attaching the handles, and going from there.  The last major step is to carve the likeness of the smooth plane on the top of the case.  Easy on the coffee then, don't want to get the jitters trying to carve that.

How Hard Is It ??

Sounds like a punch line from a Johnny Carson monologue doesn't it?  'Cept now I'm talking about the Bloodwood.  I cut dovetails on the stretcher going across the front of the tool chest and noted that it was a hard, sinewy, type of wood.  Easily split off (got the sliver under my fingernail to prove it) and hard on the tools.  Well, after about 6 sets of practice half blind dovetails that I had planned to use for the drawers I changed my mind.  The main drawers are 2" tall so that would easily accommodate 2 tails so that was the intent of my practice.  Split, crack, splinter, dull tools, sharpen, and do it again until >>>>>

Japanese Skewed Paring Chisel

Yep, broke the tip right off of it.  I know Japanese steel is pretty brittle and to be honest, I'm not sold on them.  I may have pried a little but the tip stayed stuck into the wood!  Anybody want to make me an offer on a slightly used set of chisels -- I can take PayPal (I'm serious).

Anyway, after weighing my options I decided to do a rabbeted joint reinforced with dowels.  The drawer sides are Alder, the dowel is dark, and it should make an interesting contrast for the joint.  Cut all the bits and pieces last night so will work on that in the morning.

I called the Japan Woodworker and was told they'd charge about $15.00 to regrind the tip.  They're in their current catalog for $43.00 each so I'll sell the pair for the first $60.00.  Part numbers are 06.001.060 and 06.002.060.

Love the Hand Work

There's just something about working with a hand tool that I had to share today. I wanted to ease the top edge of the sides on the tool chest with a 1/8" chamfer.  Once it was laid out it took a half dozen passes with a spokeshave to accomplish.  I had a friend over to the shop yesterday and admittedly, he prefers power tools over hand tools and I can respect that but......there's just something about the quietness of doing hand work that appeals to me.          

                                                                                                 

In this photo you can see the spokeshave I used, it's one I blogged about making last year and a Veritas kit

from Lee Valley.  It did a great job on the end grain, you can see the shaving from the long grain wrapped around it.

Here's a better shot of how it turned out.  I suppose I could have chucked a chamfer bit in a small router but the risk of tear out and not being able to balance it on the edge, combined with the noise and dust kept me from that.  Maybe I'll talk my friend into more handwork.  I know I'm wired to where I enjoy the process odf the work as much, if not more, than the final product.
The last thing I did today is to crank up the heater and glue the sides and back together.  Tomorrow I'll assemble the front pieces and begin work on the drawers.