Woodworkers Blog

Shaker Table Completed!

2011-01-17T09:42:00.003-05:00

Well, the Shaker table is now complete and ready for sale! As I mentioned in my previous post, I used 3 coats of a Tung Oil finish followed by thinned coats, about 1-2 lb cuts of shellac; I used about 3 coats on the main part of the table and 5 coats on the top. The shellac was rubbed out with 0000 steel wool and paste wax. I think the oil does a nice job of revealing the stripes in the tiger maple. I know a lot of people like to use a dye to do that, but I think oil works great, it's simple and more natural. As this is cherry, the piece will get darker over time and with exposure to sun. So, here it is!

From Shaker Table

Let me know what you think!

Be Safe!

Shaker Table - Home Stretch!

2011-01-11T13:26:00.004-05:00

Well, I am in the home stretch of this project. The last thing I needed to do was build the drawer and put the drawer runners in. The drawer is made of maple with a Tiger Maple front. I really like the way the tiger maple compliments the cherry, especially as it darkens. So, here are a couple shots of the drawer, through dovetails in the back, and half blind dovetails in the front.

From Shaker Table

Here is a shot of the tiger maple drawer front. You can see the figure in the grain and this will be drawn out with the oil and shellac finish I am putting on it.

From Shaker Table

Well, that is all for now; next time I have pictures it should be all complete. The finish for this is really simple; I am using three coats of tung oil finish and then 3-5 coats of shellac and polished out.

Be Safe!

Shaker Table - Part 2

2011-01-07T14:20:00.004-05:00

Wow! It has been a LONG time since my last update. I guess Christmas and New Years got in the way there somewhere. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year break as I did.

Ok, so back to this table. Last time I left off I had milled the four leg blanks to size and was getting ready to mill the leg rails. Once I milled up the leg rails, I needed to lay out for the mortise and tenon joins. I probably do things a little different, but that's just the way I am; I cut my mortises before I do my tenons. I guess the reason I do it this way is because I have a mortising machine and the chisels are a defined dimension and I can cut the tenons to match this. Also, because the side and back rails are 5" wide, I will be using a haunched tenon in order to add strength to the joint. If I used just one big mortise and tenon, the legs would be very weak because of all the material that would be removed. So, after I laid out how I wanted the mortises to be, I drilled them out with the mortiser and cut the tenons to match.

From Shaker Table

After that, I was able to do a dry fit on the table.

From Shaker Table

If you notice, I have not cut the tapers on the legs yet; this is done after the mortises are cut so the legs are always flat will doing the mortises. It also serves as a bit of a reference when you do go to cut the tapers because you know to always taper the mortised side. Here, the legs were tapered on the bandsaw and cleaned up with hand planes.

From Shaker Table

Now the table frame is ready to be glued up. While that is being done, I can get the drawer runners cut and glued in; nothing special about these, just some pieces that will be glued to the sides and allow the drawer to set on and provide support from the bottom.

Next, it's time to turn my attention to the drawer itself, but that is for later.

Be Safe!

Next Project - Will be for sale!!

2010-12-11T19:21:00.003-05:00

So, as I wrap up the finish on the Book Nook, I am moving on to another project; I will post pictures of the finished Book Nook once the finish is all done.

This next project is going to be a Shaker inspired side table, very similar to the bedside tables I have already done, just different dimensions; also, this piece will be FOR SALE upon completion! I have not finalized a price yet so stay tuned. Anyways, this piece will be made out of cherry and curly maple. I am using some of the same cherry that I did for the Book Nook, procured from Peach State Lumber. The "plans" I am using call for 1 1/2" square legs (I put 'plans' in quotes because I am not really going off of one specific plan, but a combination of a few). So, for the legs I am going to use 8/4 lumber to give me that finished dimension. Also, I select a board wide enough that I can get all 4 legs from the same width of wood for grain continuity. Below is a picture of how I did that.

From Shaker Table

As you can see in this photo, the grain all lines up so you know it all came from the same board. How I keep them all lined up prior to cutting is by numbering them and putting witness marks on the end of the board.

From Shaker Table

Once all the leg pieces are rough cut, I use my Lee Valley low angle smoother to smooth all side of the legs to final dimensions. This smoother leaves a surface that is glass smooth and ready for finish; I love this thing! Take a look at these full length shavings.

From Shaker Table

Ok, enough for now. My next order of business will be to mill up the parts that will make up the sides and back. Then I will work on the mortise and tenon joints to hold it all together. So, until then...

Be Safe!

Book Nook - Part 2

2010-12-03T09:31:00.002-05:00

So, last time I left off I had routed the dados to receive the shelves. My next order of business as to mill up the trip pieces that will also provide support for the shelves and provide the front lip on the shelf to keep the books from slipping off. Also, I had to drill holes to receive the cross braces that will keep the books from falling forward.

So, I milled up some 3/4"x2" pieces, routed a profile on them and also put a 3/8"x3/4" dado in the back of the trim pieces so that they will slip into the front of the shelves.

From Book Nook

This is a shot that gives you an idea of the profile and the lip the trim puts on the shelf (my photography isn't too good)

From Book Nook

Once that was done, I had to drill the holes to receive the dowels for the cross braces. To do this, I used the same process where I lay the sides back-to-back so that when I lay out the places for the holes they will be perfectly aligned.

From Book Nook

Ok, once that was all done, I had to take some time and put a profile into the sides of the book nook so that they weren't just square and boring. So, after about 12 tries, here is what I came up with.

From Book Nook

I'm pretty pleased with that look and I think once it is done will give it a nice profile/look.

Ok, once that was all done, I did a quick dry fit and then it was time to glue it up! Big milestone...

Let me just first say, this was the most frustrating glue up I have EVER done. Oh man, did I ever need an extra set of hands to do this. Anyways, I got it done and below are a couple shots of the sides, shelves and braces all glued up. NOTE: notices the top back piece is also in; I had to do this because I had to put dados into the back to receive the back; you can see that dado in the pictures above.

From Book Nook

Now, I just have to let that set for a while to dry up and then I will come back and glue all the trim pieces on. Once that is done, it is the pains taking task of removing any glue squeeze out and final sanding and then it is "off to the finishing room". I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Be Safe!

New Project - Book Nook - Part 1

2010-11-30T10:25:00.005-05:00

Alright, alright, time for a new project! I was asked to build a children's bookcase that would hold books with the covers facing outward instead of the traditional binding facing outward; kind of a book display really. I did a little research and found these are typically called a Book Nook. These are pretty interesting, and pose some unique challenges, because of the dimensions; typically they are only a foot deep, about three feet tall and about 4 feet wide. What got me was only being a foot deep; I felt that this would make for an unstable design. I did notice in my research that many of them had a way in which to fasten the top of the book nook to a wall for stability.

So, with all this in mind, I decided on the final dimensions and design. This one will be 12" deep, about 42" wide and about 36" tall. It will have 3 shelves with each shelf capable of holding about 4 books side by side and roughly 3 or 4 deep. I also decided that this piece will be made in cherry and the finish will be BLO and shellac, no stain.

My first order of business as was to make a trip to Peach State Lumber and get the cherry I would need for the project. I decided I wanted 8/4 cherry so I could resaw it for the sides, since I knew I would have to glue two pieces together. I literally had to go through the entire pallet to find the boards that would work for me, but sometimes you have to do that. So, here are the boards I picked up:

From Book Nook

I did get more than I needed because I will be using the rest for another project once I'm done with this. My first order of business was to mill the lumber square so I could resaw it on the band saw. Some of this required the use of hand tools, which I don't mind.

From Book Nook

Once that was done, they were resawn on the band saw and laid out for glue up. Here you can see the book matched pieces, ready for glue up. I always make some kind of witness mark on the boards so I know exactly how they should be put together.

From Book Nook

Once I had both side panels glued up, it was now time for the tedious process of laying out for the 3 shelves. I wanted them to be equally spaced both vertically and horizontally. I did this by laying them back-to-back so that I could just transfer the lines from one to the other and know they were in perfect alignment. Here are the two side pieces laid back-to-back with the insides facing up.

From Book Nook

Also note that I make sure to mark the grain direction; that is was the arrows are for. This just helps me keep everything flowing the same direction. Next, I had to do all the layout lines, which took a good while because I wanted to be exact and there were some design features that I had to take into account. After the layout was done, I used a router to rout out a 3/8" deep dado for each shelf and then used chisels to square up the dados.

From Book Nook

So, my next order of business is to mill up the pieces that will be for the front and bottom trim. These trim pieces will serve multiple purposes. First, they will have a dado in them that will allow them to fit into the shelves so that will help to keep the shelves from sagging by adding support. Next, they will stick up from the front edge of the shelf about 1" which will provide a lip for the books to set into so they don't fall off the shelf and lastly, the will have a profile on them to add character. Once I have those trim pieces done, I will also begin to build the back of the shelves. That is all I've got for now....

Be Safe!

Woodworking blog Woodworking Magazine - A Dovetail a Day – Hurray

2010-11-11T10:25:00.001-05:00

So, the other day I was just posting on how I am practicing my dovetail cuts so that I can get better at hand cut dovetails. Well, yesterday, Chris Schwarz posted a blog entry about an article he did 2007 where he set out on the same task as I am undertaking. What he did was to make a dovetail a day until he got better at it. One of his readers, Bob Jones, followed along and did a dovetail a day for 90 days! I don't know if I can manage one a day with my schedule or not, but it is definitely worth a shot if I can get results like Chris and Bob. The blog post is below and a free copy of the original article can be found, either at the bottom of that post or here: FREE DOVETAIL ARTICLE

Woodworking blog Woodworking Magazine - A Dovetail a Day – Hurray

Dovetails - Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-11-08T13:58:00.002-05:00

One of the things I really want to do as a woodworker is get better at cutting dovetails by hand. This always seems to be a crowning moment for a woodworker, and is one of the highest achievements it seems. I think it is a mental thing, but once you can, consistently, cut high quality dovetails by hand, you feel like you can do anything in woodworking. So, I'm on a quest to get better at them, by hand. I've read a couple books, watched some videos and even tried some on my own; not successfully mind you. One of the things that I have read, and watched, over and over is to practice cutting straight lines. And I thought "Practice?! Practice? Are we talking about practice?" heck, I can cut a straight line, I don't need to do that! Well, if I can cut a straight line, every time, then why can't I get good dovetails? So, putting my ego aside, I decided to do what many expert woodworkers probably did in their apprenticeship....practice.

So, I set out to cut a bunch of lines to get used to cutting on a straight line, but also cutting to my scribe line, or shoulder line. I took a slightly different approach though; see, when you practice something, you practice in the same way you would execute whatever it is you are practicing for. So, in that spirit, I decide to no just cut straight lines, but to practice the types of cuts you would make when doing dovetails, skewed cuts and angled cuts. So, with that, I grabbed a piece of 3/8" walnut, laid out a bunch of lines, and started cutting.

From Misc Woodworking

Here you can see that, for the most part, I can cut a straight enough line; some on the left got a little crazy, but what I noticed is I need to do a better job of cutting to the line as on several of these, I went right past it.

This is a shot of the top of the practice board. Again, consistent angles all parallel to each other. These were laid out to simulate the types of cuts used when cutting the pins of a dovetail.

From Misc Woodworking

Next I grabbed a piece of 3/8" mahogany and made a series of cuts that would simulate cutting the tails.

From Misc Woodworking

Again, pretty consistent, but still room for improvement. My cutting to the line was much better on this one.

All-in-all, I think my cutting is pretty good. I definitely am going to do another round or two of practice cuts to get even more consistent; I also think I am going to practice cutting to save the line;personally, I think this is why mine just don't come out well. So, practice, practice, practice I shall do!

Be Safe!

Interview with plane maker Steve Knight - Fine Woodworking

2010-11-06T09:15:00.000-04:00

Steve Knight makes, or used to make, really nice wooden hand planes. Now he makes them as kits; super high quality. Here is an interview from Fine Woodworking and Steve where he talks about that transition from finished planes to kits...

Interview with plane maker Steve Knight - Fine Woodworking

Coffee Table Done!

2010-07-28T16:39:00.002-04:00

Wow, it has been forever since I have posted anything! I finally finished the coffee table I was working on. It took a lot longer this time because the top really gave me fits. The wood has some amazing figure/grain in it, but that is also what makes it so hard to work with. I ended up having to build the top three different times before I got it to come out right. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

From ChrisJanetCoffeeTable

Be safe!

Coffee Table build

2010-03-27T09:32:00.004-04:00

I've made some progress on the coffee table. I am glad I kept all my jigs and templates from the last time I made this table; it is saving me a lot of time. My next task was to mill all the rough pieces down to final dimension to get them ready. Here I am sawing the 12/4 pieces down to make the aprons, which are 3/4.

From ChrisJanetCoffeeTable

Here all the apron pieces are roughed out and now just need to be planed to thickness.

From ChrisJanetCoffeeTable

I also cut the leg blanks to size and planed them to final thickness, which is 2.75" square.

From ChrisJanetCoffeeTable

So, I will let those pieces sit overnight and then begin to cut the cabriole legs next time.

From ChrisJanetCoffeeTable

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Commissioned Coffee Table

2010-03-21T20:25:00.003-04:00

Ok everyone! Fresh off of the finish of my Walnut Media Cabinet build:
http://woodworkersblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/media-cabinet-is-complete.html

I have gotten started on a commissioned piece which is a replica of a mahogany coffee table I built last year. So, All I have done thus far is to cut, to rough length, the pieces I need.

Here I am doing the "slap test" where you cut about an inch off of the end and slap it on the ground and if it breaks, you take another inch....this checks for potential fail points in the wood. This particular piece is 12/4 so I can only make it so far with the Skill saw then I have to hand saw the last little bit

Here are all the rough cut pieces laid out. The top (closest to the bottom) will be resawn. The legs are 12/4x9" and the aprons are 12/4x9" as well and will be resawn to final dimensions.

I've made this piece before so I am familiar with it, but still need to be careful. The finish this time will be different as well, per the customer request, so you may seem some questions about that.

So next I think I will rough cut the legs and work on laying those out. I will also begin to mill the top.

Stay tuned! I have been in the play-by-play before and already finished one piece! WHO'S BETTER THAN ME?! ok, I know at least one person

Media Cabinet is COMPLETE!

2010-03-20T19:19:00.002-04:00

Project finished! My favorite part of a long build. I haven't posted much in regards to the progress because all I have been doing is applying the finish and hardware; had a week vacation in there too where no work was done. Anyways, here is a shot of the cabinet in the shop all finished.

From MediaCabinet

Here is a shot with all the doors open.

From MediaCabinet

And here is a shot of it in its final "resting place".

From MediaCabinet

Overall, this was a fun project. If I had to do it again there are a few things I would change, but overall I am happy with the way it came out.

My next project is going to be another coffee table, just like the other mahogany one I did last year; this is a commissioned piece though so I will get some money, which is always good!

Be Safe!

T-Chisel gets a show!

2010-02-27T08:22:00.002-05:00

As some of you may, or may not, know I'm a fan of Tommy MacDonald, aka T-Chisel, over at t-chisel.com. His work is amazing and the videos he has are some of the best around; they are raw, real and chock full of information. I recommend spending some time, a lot of time, and going through the bombe secretary videos; this piece is AMAZING! I love to go back and just watch some of these videos as they are just inspiring to me in the fact that Tommy does an awesome job of taking something that is complicated, or seems daunting, and breaks it down into its most simple form and makes it look easy. It was this inspiration/attitude that made me want to build the coffee table with a double bead time, cabriole legs, etc. Definitely check out his site and his videos; heck, sign up for the forum too!

So anyways, today I was cruising around The 207 Forum and came across a post that mentioned that Tommy is in the process of getting with WGBH out of Boston. This would be amazing! I know the shows would be better "quality" in the fact that the videos that Tommy has on his site are pretty raw with him walking around with a camera on a tri pod, but there is something neat about that to me. Anyways, I think it would be amazing for Tommy to have a show to validate the hard work he has done, and put on display all of his amazing work and talent. The other great thing about Tommy is how much he gives back to the woodworking community. Just look at his videos and all the information he gives for free on those things! Also, the 207, there are some great build alongs and other things on there; just full of information.

Below is a video "announcement" of the show...check back with his site for more details:

Media Cabinet - Final Stages

2010-02-23T10:10:00.004-05:00

Well, I am in the final stages of the media cabinet! I'm pumped and can see the finish line. Over the weekend we finally had some amazing weather so I was able to spend a good deal of time working on the cabinet. I was able to rout the profile around the bottom of the cabinet and then glue the vertical partitions into place. Next, I was able to dry fit all of the back panels; for these I just used ship lapped panels that will free float. One thing I did was to leave a good bit of space in the center section, at the top, to allow plenty of air flow and cable routing. I also took a page out of Marc Spagnuolo's book and his media cabinet build where he inset the middle back panel a couple of inches so you could put the power strip there and all the cable routing would fit in there and be hidden and allow you to put the cabinet further against the wall; great idea!

After the vertical partitions were dried, I got to work final fitting all the shelves and got those lightly glued into place. Lastly, I put the center doors back in and did the final fitting of those to make sure I had enough clearance all the way around each door. Then it was time to do any glue removal and finish sanding to prepare for the finish. One thing I like to do is to wait a few hours for the dust to settle, literally, then wipe the whole piece down with mineral spirits. This does a couple of things. First, it gets all the saw dust off of the piece. Next, it allows you to see any blemishes or glue spots that you may have missed and allows you to touch those up before putting on the finish.

For the finish I am applying a couple coats of Watco Danish Oil. Once that is good and dry (after a few days) I am going to spray several coats of shellac on it. This may be about another week or so away as the weather is supposed to turn pretty cold again for the next several days.

A couple construction Items I still need to do are to scrape and sand the top, rout the profile on it and apply the finish. I also need to feet on the base as well, but that will be last. Nearing the end!

Be Safe!

WoodTreks - Great Woodworking Site!

2010-02-19T12:17:00.002-05:00

About a month ago I stumbled across a great woodworking website I had never seen before, nor ever heard of; that site is WoodTreks. WoodTreks is a video blog by woodworker and filmmaker Keith Cruickshank. When I first saw the site I thought "man, this is kind of cool!"...then after about 4 straight hours spent on the site I thought "man! This IS cool!". The site is all video podcasts and has several categories from materials, techniques, tools as well as artisan profiles; I really like the artisan profiles, and the materials videos are pretty incredible you get to walk through a lumber mill and see how they process logs.

When you watch one of the videos, one of the first things you think is "is this from a TV show?". Keith's film making background is very apparent in the great quality videos and sound. What's even more neat, to me, is you don't even know he's there...it's like you are standing there with the artisan and they are talking to you.

About the site itself. One of the first things you notice about the site is how clean it is; no unnecessary graphics, no ads, no pop-ups, just great content. Next, when you click on the videos, again, no ads, no endorsement, nothing...except if you consider "watch more of my free videos" an ad or endorsement. Oh, did I mention free? Yep, free! No subscription, no registration, just click on the video and go! You can, as I have, subscribe to his site, via an RSS feed or through email, if you like as well so you don't miss a single episode. While you are there, don't forget to go to the Links section and check out some of the other blogs and sites that Keith has there; there are a ton of great sites there.

WoodTreks, it's full of great information, it's clean and concise, and best of all...it's FREE!

Media Cabinet - Pocket Doors Completed

2010-02-13T15:56:00.004-05:00

So I was able to get some shop time in today and work on the pocket doors. In my last post, I was making the center door panels. I got those all milled up, door built and ready to go. I used my mock up for a little while back and drilled out the door hinges, mounted the slides and was off to the races. Here is a shot of the two doors mounted and side-by-side.

From MediaCabinet

They overlap about 1/8" in the middle, which is ok as it will allow me some room to trim and true up the doors. Here is a shot of the doors opened.

From MediaCabinet

I sort of messed up when I ordered the hardware because, as you can see, the doors to slide back all the way. When I was ordering them, it was not clear to how much travel they would have, but I got sign off from the boss (wife) that it was fine the way it is.

So, that is all I wanted to get done today, so mission accomplished. I still need to clean the glue from the doors and sand them down a bit. I'm in the home stretch though! All I need to do now is mill up all of the shelving, rout the profiles into the top and bottom, add the feet and apply the finish. Here are a couple more shots of the front with the two side swing out doors set into place.

From MediaCabinet

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet Progressing

2010-02-08T19:26:00.004-05:00

Over the weekend I was able to get a good bit done on the Walnut Media Cabinet. Last time, I had cut the first set of dado's into the bottom to accept the vertical partitions. What I needed to do, after fitting the outer partitions was to construct the swing out doors. I need to do this before routing the next set of dado's so I know exactly where they are supposed to go; basing the cuts off of the actual piece and not pre-determined measurements has saved me a few times.

First I needed to route the dado for the two shelves that will be in the swing out doors.

From MediaCabinet

Then I attach the bottoms, which are dovetailed.

From MediaCabinet

Then I glue them together. Here you can see the front of one, and the back of the other.

From MediaCabinet

Once that is done, I use these doors to mark the location of the next set of dado's for the inner partitions and rout them.

From MediaCabinet

Here are the partitions just dry fit so you can get an idea of how it will go together.

From MediaCabinet

Notice how the outer partitions do not come all the way to the front; that is where the swing out doors go. This is a close up of the partition in the dado.

From MediaCabinet

I'm using pocket doors for the two center doors. I've not used them before so I am doing a little pre-layout so I know what to expect with my real doors.

From MediaCabinet

Next, I needed to begin to construct the two middle doors. So I book matched some 8/4 boards to make the center panels.

From MediaCabinet

I just love the grain on these, especially the one on the left. I actually didn't see this grain until I had milled it and cut them apart. Now the are glued up and ready for me to route the profiles on them and assemble them, just like the doors before.

Once these doors are put together I am going to see what wood I have left and what is left to be done. I thought I would have enough to do the whole thing, but I am going to be short on the wood needed for all the shelves and the back panels. So it will be back to the lumber yard this week so I can be ready for the weekend.

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet - Plugging along

2010-01-29T16:06:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I have given an update on progress. Mostly, the progress hasn't been anything too exciting, or exciting enough to write about, but I figured I should anyways. So last time I left off I had made the doors and and had begun to scrape all the glue lines for the top. I have since then finished all the scraping; I had to scrape the bottom platform and all the side pieces...basically anything that I had joined. Next I turned my attention to the two swing out doors. These are for holding games and DVD's. To keep things simple, and looking good, I decided to go with half-blind dovetails to joint the sides to the bottom (there is not top). So I set it all up in my Leigh jig, made a couple test cuts and knocked them out.

From MediaCabinet

I had a little tear out on the first one because I forgot to use a backer board. This joint is on the bottom anyways so it will never be seen.

From MediaCabinet

Next, I figured I would start on the top. It takes a while to glue the boards up so I figured now was a good time to do it because while the glue dries I can work on other items. So, the top is to be about 65" long by 22" deep. I started with a long 12/4 piece of wood. This I will resaw three times to get my three pieces need to make the top. I have an 8" jointer and this board was wider than that so I had to initially flatten it by hand. For those not familiar with doing this, a good way to get started is to use chalk and mark up your board.

From MediaCabinet

This allows you to know the areas that you have, and have not, planed. Then, you use something like a #4 and begin to work up and down the board at a pretty big angle, somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees.

From MediaCabinet

This is a shot of about half way though. You can see the center of the board still has chalk, this tells me that I have not yet gotten the whole thing flat. If you look at the part of the board closest to you, you can also see the plane marks and the angle of approach I am using. As you get it more and more flat, you begin to decrease the angle and then eventually switch to another plane to finish it off.
Here are the three, book matched, boards after being resawn and planed to thickness. By the way, resawing a 12/4 piece of wood 70" long is a real treat!

From MediaCabinet

It's not the greatest picture in the world, but I think you can get an idea for the triple book match. This is something that sets one piece of work apart from others so take note when looking at "antique" furniture and the quality of work.

Next, I needed to layout and begin routing the dado's for the vertical panels. I'm starting with the two outer most panels, these only come in just over half way as they are part of the swing out door assembly. I always turn into a nervous wreck when I have to do things like this because if you mess it up, all that wood and work are ruined. Anyways, I made the first two with no problem.

From MediaCabinet

So next I need to rout the dado's in the swing out doors that house the shelves for the storage. This will be two dado's on each side. Once I have those in, I will then glue up the swing out doors and use those to aid me in laying out where the next dado's go for the middle, full length, vertical panels. More on that later though!

Be safe!

Media Cabinet - Progress on the doors

2010-01-16T18:33:00.004-05:00

So with starting back to work on my normal job, I haven't spent a ton of time this last week on the media cabinet, just a little bit here and there. I was able to do some work on it today. During the week I was able to work on getting the base glued up. Below you can see where I am gluing up the long stretchers. As you can see, I don't have any clamps long enough for this so I had to improvise.

From MediaCabinet

So today I decided to do some more work on the doors; specifically the two outer doors. These doors are 26" tall by 13" wide. As I mentioned in my last post, the center panel is one solid piece of wood. What I worked on today was to mill up the rails and stiles. I am using 2" rails and stiles so once I got them cut and planed I used my matched rail and stile bit to rout the pieces. Here are the individual pieces.

From MediaCabinet

And here they are loosely put together.

From MediaCabinet

Here is one door dry fit, without the center panel obviously.

From MediaCabinet

Next, I took the two center panels and used one of my new vertical raised panel bits and routed the panel profile. Here is a glimpse at the profile.

From MediaCabinet

Here is one door dry fit. Note the chalk marks, this is how I keep track of where each piece goes and how they should be oriented.

From MediaCabinet

Straight on look.

From MediaCabinet

Also note that the I kept the stiles about 1" longer; this is on purpose so I can lay the door flat, make sure the panel is centered for glue up and then trim it to exact length. Here are both doors together.

From MediaCabinet

Well, that is all I was able to get done today really. Next I need to finish gluing the bottom together and then I need to do a little trick to them to re-enforce the mortise and tenon joint. Next, I am also going to turn my attention to the bottom panel and take my card scraper to it to get all the glue off from the glue up and work on flattening any unevenness. Hopefully more on that tomorrow!

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet - Starting the doors

2010-01-10T20:35:00.002-05:00

So for the last couple of days I have been gluing pieces together for the four main partitions, as well as the bottom. As I explained last time, I only glue up two boards at a time to keep it more manageable so it takes a little longer. I'm nearly complete with the bottom glue up, just one more piece and I will be ready to do final dimensioning on it; my router bits showed up as well so I will be ready to add the profile on it as well. So, while doing all of that I thought I would get started on the doors. There are four doors total, two swing out doors that house DVD storage and two center doors the are pocket doors. I'm starting with the two outside doors for now. The design call for doors that are 13" wide by 26" tall, I am using 2" rails and stiles, so my center panel needs to be a small 9 3/4" wide by 22 3/4" tall. You get to these numbers by taking the overall size of the door, subtracting your rail/stile width...twice and then adding back the depth of the cut the router bit makes, in my case 3/8" times two (one for each side). So, with that I wanted to get to making the center panels. I have some 8/4 pieces and one in particular that is over 10" wide so I am going to resaw that in half and have two matching doors, one on the left and one on the right. Before I can do that, I have to flatten the board on one side so I can plane it and and resaw it. So here is the board that I am using and in this picture you can see I have marked it up with chalk. This tell me where I need to remove material in order to ensure it is flat.

From MediaCabinet

So, after just a few minutes with my hand planes I had one side flat and then was able to run it through the planer and get it ready to be sliced in half.

From MediaCabinet

Here are the two pieces after being resawn; notice the grain in the center, it's the same on both boards, which is called book matched. When you cut the pieces in half, you then lay them open like a book and have matching pieces. Here they are after both being planed down to final thickness.

From MediaCabinet

Next I will be cutting the rail and stile material and using the router table to make the door frame. Then, I will be using a raised panel cutter for the doors and then I will be able to dry assemble the doors; so that is my goal for the first part of this week.

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet Progress - Working upward

2010-01-09T07:56:00.002-05:00

So I am continuing to make progress on the base; I know it seems like it is taking forever to finish the base, but if it is not done right, the whole piece will be off. So, in order to begin the glue up, I wanted to add some shape to the legs/feet of the base. I've always done a straight taper in the past so I wanted something a bit different this time, nothing to dramatic so I came up with a simple little bend.

From MediaCabinet

So with that, I went off to the band saw and cut all four feet.

From MediaCabinet

I then used my oscillating spindle sander to smooth them out. After that was done, I began to glue up the rails to the legs, starting with the short rails on the ends. After those dry overnight, I will then glue the main rails as well as the mid stretchers.

Now I am turning my attention to the four main upright partitions. There are on the outside that don't extend the whole depth of the cabinet and then two in the middle that do. I will start with the outside partitions first. Again, all solid wood, no plywood so I have to start milling up the pieces I need.

From MediaCabinet

Once I mill it up, I start to glue it together piece by piece.

From MediaCabinet

Now, some of these glue ups will require 4 or 5 pieces of wood. It takes a lot longer, but I only glue two pieces together at a time and not all 4 or 5. The reason I do this is it makes it more manageable. Instead of having to align 2 or 3 glue joints, I can focus on one and make sure it is nice and smooth. Plus, having several clamps (you can never have too many!) I can actually do several glue ups at one time. So, for a panel that requires 4 pieces, I do two glue ups, two boards each, and when they are done I come back and glue those two together for my full panel. I just think it makes the process way more manageable...but that's just me. So, while this is all drying, I'm going to start to layout and process for the two outside doors...

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet Progress

2010-01-07T08:38:00.003-05:00

So another, semi-productive, day on the media cabinet. I didn't get as much time today as I hoped, but made some more progress. Today I wanted to continue working on the base and get the cross stretchers done. These are going to provide more support and rigidity for the base and also give me some more point in which to secure the bottom. So, first I laid out where the stretchers would go; about 1/3 of the way in from each side.

From MediaCabinet

Then I cut the stretchers to their final size, which is 3/4" longer than the internal length as I am going to use a height of 3/8" on each end. For this joint, I decided to use a sliding dovetail joint. I did this because it will help protect against the piece pulling apart better than just a standard dado. So, first order of business was to cut the through dovetail in the rails.

From MediaCabinet

Now, something important to note is that it is ok to go all the way through. Why? Because the top will cover that up. Even if it didn't, a nice through dovetail is a neat feature to let people know the detail and quality you've put into the work. Next, create the mating piece. This is done by carefully nibbling away at the stretchers bit by bit. Remember, any adjustment to the fence is compounded by a factor of two as you have to rout both side of the piece; use scrap first to get the perfect fit.

From MediaCabinet

The mating pieces.

From MediaCabinet

Here is a shot of the stretchers dry fit. The closest one shows a finished fit and the far one shows how they go together.

From MediaCabinet

My next order of business is to mill and glue the pieces that will form the vertical partitions. Once I have those done, I will also finalize the bottom platform, square one end of each board and glue it up. I can't do much with the bottom after that until the router bit I ordered for the profile shows up (hopefully Friday).

Be Safe!

More work on the Media Cabinet

2010-01-05T15:37:00.002-05:00

So for the last couple of days I have been working on milling more wood for the base. I really need to get the base right or the whole thing is going to be off. Also, as usual, I've made a slight design change. In the stock picture, the base is flush with the rails and posts. I liked this, but it was going to be trickier than I wanted it to be. Also, I'm using solid wood, not plywood, so this would be an issue with wood movement. So, I've decided to change it to set on top, like a table top, with a 3/4-1" overlap on three sides (not the back). This solves my wood movement problem (sort of) but will also dress it up a bit; I'm going to use a classic ogee profile on it. So, with that, I've done all my mortise and tenon joints for the base rails.

From MediaCabinet

Here it is all dry fit.

From MediaCabinet

I have not glued it together yet as I want to add two cross braces about a third of the way in from each side. This will give me better support and also give me another place to screw the base into the bottom with slots for wood movement.

Next I milled up the 4/4 lumber that is going to be used for the base.

From MediaCabinet

And here they are LOOSELY dry fit to the bottom.

From MediaCabinet

I still need to cut them to exact length and glue them together. I'm not in a huge hurry for that as I had to order the router bit I need for the profile so it won't be here for a while. But I think what I will start on next are the two main vertical support in the center of the cabinet, as well as the outside verticals. I'm not completely sure how I want to attach these to the base, but I am leaning toward mortise and tenon here as well; input welcome on that one.

Well, back to the jointer and planer...

Be Safe!

Media Cabinet has begun...baby steps

2010-01-04T07:37:00.005-05:00

Have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you run and that is how my projects get started. I am preparing to build a media cabinet for my house based on a Pottery Barn design.

From MediaCabinet

The first thing I had to do was get some measurements, which Pottery Barn provides, and then guesstimate how much wood I was going to need. I am not using any plywood, all solid wood, so I will be compensating for wood movement as I go. So, with that, I have procured what I hope to be all the wood I need, but I will probably need more.

From MediaCabinet

The lumber is made up of 12/4, 8/4 and 4/4. The 12/4 will be for the legs and the top (resawn) and the 8/4 will be for book matched doors, rails and stiles and other parts and the 4/4 will be for just about everything else.

So, for the baby steps, it begins with deciding what to use where, which I've started to do, as well as mill the lumber. Here you can see some of the 12/4 milled for the legs; these will be cut in half to form two legs, four total and a leg in the middle for center support.

From MediaCabinet

Next I needed to resaw some 8/4 to make the rails for the base; I'm building the bottom platform before anything else as everything will be based on this dimension. So here I am setup for for the resaw.

From MediaCabinet

And a shot after it has been cut.

From MediaCabinet

This, roughly 6', section will give me all four rails I need for the bottom; two about 57" and two about 18". Next will be milling them to final size and laying out and cutting the tenons. Once I cut the tenons, I will layout for the mortises and begin to fit dry fit everything and move to the next stage. More to come...

Be Safe!

Newest project about to begin!

2009-12-22T08:15:00.004-05:00

Well, I've been pretty busy building some pens and have sold a few so that helps out. I recently bought a new flat panel LED TV so now I need to build a new stand for it. I want to build a stand that the TV will stand on, but that also has room to hold my receiver, cable box, Xbox, PS3 and DVD's/Games. So, one day I decided to browse through the Pottery Barn catalog and see what they had and found exactly what I was looking for:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/hudson-large-media-console/?pkey=cmedia-stand-flat-screen-display

This design is exactly what I need; TV sits on top, there is room for all the accessories as well as media storage on the sides. I also like that you can close the whole thing up if you want, when not in use. This will be the first cabinet I've built that has pocket doors too so that should be interesting.

This piece is going to be made out of Walnut, which I haven't used since my first piece which was the blanket chest, so I'm looking forward to that. Since Christmas is just a few days away, and New Years just after that, I'm not exactly sure when I will get started, but I may buy the wood after Christmas so that it can acclimate in the shop and then I can get started right after the new year; should be a nice way to ring in the new year! So join me around that time frame for the design and build along. I'm always eager to learn so input is always welcome!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!

Be Safe!

Woodworking items now for sale!

2009-11-10T18:32:00.005-05:00

Well, since I have been sidelined with my knee injury, I thought I would get into turning pens. I've had a lot of fun doing it so I've taken the next step and I have put some up for sale. I have opened a store front on Etsy.com. Right now I only have a few pens up there, but I'm going to be putting more up there so you can subscribe to my store as a feed. Later on, I am also going to build some small boxes and put them up there as well. Again, I'm just a hobbyist, but if you can make a little money here and there, why not. Etsy is nice because it is dedicated to handmade items and their costs are very reasonable. So, check out the store...feedback welcome!

www.vanvleetwoodworking.etsy.com

Be safe!

CA Finish for Pens - Part 2; An Observation

2009-11-07T08:25:00.003-05:00

In one of my previous posts I commented on my success and failures of using a CA finish on some of my pens. I've been tinkering with it a bit more with some more success, but I've made a few observations about the success, or lack of success in some cases, I am having.

First, I've noticed that if you use more than, say, two coats of CA, the pen will have a plastic feel. This makes total sense because the CA is an acrylic of sorts so the more you add, the more "plastic" you get. The advantage to this is you get a rock hard finish that will last nearly forever.

Second, the wood makes a difference. I've tried using a few different types of woods; cherry, tiger maple, paduk and rosewood. For some reason, it seems to me that the harder woods such as cherry, paduk and rosewood seem to do better than a softer wood such as maple. I have had success with maple, but it just seems more finicky than the other woods.

Third, one thick coat goes a long way. How I have had good success is to use a good coat of BLO. I apply this by wet sanding with 1000 grit paper and wiping the access with a rag. Then, with the lathe off, I apply the CA to the pen while rotating the mandrel by hand and quickly rubbing back and forth. I go around, quickly, three or four times, then stop. Next, I let that sit for a while to harden and cure, then I come back and wet sand with BLO, but this time with 2000 grit paper. I then increase the speed and apply BLO to a rag and wipe the whole thing down and apply slight pressure to heat the BLO into the pen, if you will.

This method has given me the most success so far. The other thing I really like about it is you do get a good protective CA finish on the pen, but it does not feel like plastic and retains the warmth of the wood underneath. But, this is all one person's observations, I would love to hear your take and your method for finishing.

Be safe!

On the DL for a while

2009-11-02T13:00:00.002-05:00

Well, a while back I had posted about blowing my knee out and tearing my ACL while playing basketball. I had ACL replacement surgery on Thursday, the 29th, so I am laid up for a while so no major woodworking for a while. Prior to the surgery and I had been on a pen making binge so once I am able to get up and about without much pain I will be back at that. I have a bar stool I can use while at the lathe and do some turning so that will help.

In the mean time, I have been working on my main website www.vanvleetwoodworking.com Right now, it is major lame and outdated! I am not happy with it at all so I am poking around the Internet and looking for some ideas on design and layout. I am using Microsoft Expression Studio to build it so I am learning that now as well. I hope to have something up soon, like this week. If others out there are using Expression, I would love some pointers and links to some resources out there to keep learning; I've found some good ones, but know people always have others they like.

Hope to be back up and woodworking soon! Be safe!

CA Pen Finish - mixed results

2009-10-26T09:37:00.004-04:00

So I've been in a pen turning mode for a while; I'm having some fun with it, creating different designs on some slim line pens. I've been using a few different finishing techniques as well. One is Shellac/Wax called Shellawax Cream. It is super easy to use, just put some on a paper towel and apply while the lathe is spinning. It creates a nice finish, not super glossy and has a good feel. Next I tried a friction polish, which is a lacquer based finish, in a semi-gloss. This is really easy to use as well; just apply to a paper towel and apply to the piece as it's spinning. I like this finish as well, but I think I would like something with a bit more shine so I might try the high-gloss. Lastly, it brings me to the CA finish. I've tried this a couple different way. First, I tried it by simply applying it to the piece and wiping it on quickly, letting it set, apply another coat, etc up to 3-5 coats. Then I let it dry for a while and then wet sand it up to 2000 grit. This actually came out really nice, but was a bit fussy at first. Next, I read about using BLO with CA so I tried that. That is really easy to do, but I don't seem get the nice high-gloss finish that I do with just the CA build up. I'm applying BLO to the paper towel, and then CA over that. For some reason, it doesn't seem to build up as well. I would love some feedback on how others use the CA process; I've watched a couple videos online about it, and read through some articles, but I'm just not "getting it" so far, but I'm going to keep trying.

The pen below was finished with the BLO and CA combination the I outlined above, it is made from Tiger Maple. It came out well, but I would like a bit more gloss finish on it. I'm thinking I should have put a couple more coats on and then wet sand it. I will try that next.

From Pen Making

Pen Making - First attempts

2009-10-19T18:48:00.003-04:00

In my other post I mentioned that I had bought the Penn State Industry pen making starter kit (found here) I've been having some fun with the kit; I never knew pen making was so easy. You can whip these suckers out in 15-20 minutes depending on what design you use. Well, I finally got around to taking some pictures of some that I've made.

From Pen Making

These are in chronological order from left to right. They are all made from Rosewood except the one on the right, that Padauk. The middle two were made for a friend of mine and it is a pen and pencil set.

So now I'm in the process of making some more from other woods such as cherry, mahogany and tiger maple. I've also ordered different kits from some other sources, specifically www.woodturnerscatalog.com I ordered some roller ball kits from here. I'm looking to try different kits from different sources, but I've only found a few so if anyone has some recommendations, I'm all ears. Thanks for looking!
Be safe!

Out of commission for a while...

2009-10-08T09:02:00.002-04:00

Well, with the changing of Summer into Fall, and the end of boating season, I usually resume my woodworking projects. I was getting geared up to FINALLY build some cabinets/storage under my workbench. I have the idea in my head and was thinking I would start on it this weekend. Well, I'm going to have to put that on the back burner for a few weeks at least; I was playing some basketball on Tuesday night and blew out my knee. The initial diagnosis is a torn acl and cartilage; MRI will tell the full extent of the damage, but it is looking like acl replacement surgery in the next couple of weeks. I'm a pretty active, and independent, person so being laid up in a full leg brace and crutches is killing me!

On another woodworking note, I was able to do some "new to me" woodworking recently; pen turning. This is one of the coolest things ever...I love it! I got a flier in the mail from Penn State Industries about their starter kit and figured "why not give it a try". So I ordered this kit: http://www.pennstateind.com/store/PK073SPECX.html
It arrived a few days later and is chock full of great stuff. I have only turned two pens, but I think they came out great. I will try and get some pictures up in the next couple of days. My wife took one of the, which is actually my favorite one, so when she gets back I'm going to snap a couple pictures and get them up. I will probably write a bit of a review about the kit as well so stay tuned for that.

So, even with the busted up knee, I'm hoping that I can still turn some pens and pencils, maybe get started on some Christmas presents this way. Happy woodworking and STAY SAFE!!

Woodworking Block....

2009-09-09T19:59:00.002-04:00

So I'm in the middle of woodworking block...like writer's block, but for woodworking. I have not built anything since I made that mahogany coffee table. I don't know if it's a lack of creativity, or lack of motivation; I'm thinking motivation at this point. I have a few projects I would like to complete for the shop, but haven't started. I'm thinking I will start there, but it isn't anything "exciting". I've also thought about making some small boxes or something like that, but don't feel the "creative juices" flowing on that; no good box ideas.

Do, when you have a woodworking slump, what do you do to break the slump? What projects get you back in the woodworking groove? I could use some ideas!

Mail-In Carbide Blade Sharpening Service

2009-09-08T15:57:00.000-04:00

Attention all you Highland Hardware fans! They now have a mail order sharpening service. NOTE: You cannot take your blades to the Atlanta store, they actually sharpen them in New Jersey. Check the link below for the full details and price list.

Mail-In Carbide Blade Sharpening Service

T-Chisel changes site

2009-06-05T09:13:00.001-04:00

So just a couple days ago I posted about Tommy's new Grand Slam site; well today I get an update that the main T-Chisel.com site has now been changed as well. Tommy has moved to http://www.mlwwoodworking.com/

It's not completely done, but the forum is up at http://www.mlwwoodworking.com/forum so be sure to drop in and check that out.

Grand Slam Tools!

2009-06-03T13:01:00.003-04:00

I dropped over to T-Chisel's website today and stopped in the forum and noticed some talk about Grand Slam Tools; it appears to be a set of layout tools that Tommy has been making and selling either as a pack or individually. Check them out here: http://www.grandslamtools.com/

If you know Tommy, you know he is from the Boston area and is a huge Red Sox fan (too bad for him actually), but one look at these tools and you understand where his inspiration for tools came from. I really dig the Major League inspired logo! You've got to love the t-shirts as well "Major League Woodworking; way cool. Tommy, if you read this, you need a t-shirt that says "who's better than me?"!! That would be a huge seller for you!

So, check out Grand Slam Tools and then jump over to the forum and let him know what you think!

What comes next?

2009-04-01T08:28:00.003-04:00

Well, with my latest project complete, and the shop all cleaned up...sort of, I'm trying to decide what to do next. Of course my wife has a few ideas; she always does. I'm thinking that a couple things that I really need to build are some shop cabinets. I really need some storage under my bench for hand tools, sandpaper, etc. Something basic and functional, nothing fancy. I'm thinking I may do something similar to what Marc Spagnuolo, aka The Wood Whisperer, did here: http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-19-assembly-table-stand/ Although I may reverse this a bit and do two sets of drawers and open cabinets/doors in the middle. Below is a shot of my bench as it currently is

From ShopPics

You can see some drawers just laying there; those are from the drawer "system" I had before which was crappy, very crappy. So, I think I'm going to take some measurements, watch Marc's video a couple more times and start to build me some storage ;)

Coffee Table....DONE!!

2009-03-18T09:22:00.002-04:00

Well, I put the finishing touches on the coffee table yesterday so this project is officially DONE! Overall, this project did not take terribly long, considering I have a day job and all. After I did all the final sanding and everything, I wet sanded with 400 grit paper and some Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO). After I let that dry a bit, I then used Watco Danish Oil, Dark Walnut, and went over the whole piece, again wet sanding it in. I did two coats of that and let it dry for about a week. Then, I applied 3 coats of a satin wipe on polyurethane. After the third coat, I lightly sanded with 400 grit paper and applied two more coats. Lastly, I put a light coat of paste wax on it and buffed it out. Below are a couple pictures.

From Coffee Table

In this first picture you can see the legs from all angles as well as the double beed detail on the top.

From Coffee Table

This pictures shows the crazy grain in the top; this was NO FUN to plane, but I just took my time and made very, very light passes. I really like the look of this particular piece of mahogany. You can also see the scalloped edges in this shot.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I tried several new things to test my skills; first time using mahogany, first cabriole leg, first shaped aprons, first scalloped top, first double beed. Even with all of these "new" things, it was one of the easiest projects I've ever done. I probably did my most thorough job of planning and thinking through each step with a focuse on the next step. I definately increased my abilities and concured the fear of trying new things in woodoworking, as well as better planning. Lot's to build off of as a result of this project!

Coffee Table Project - Topping it off

2009-03-02T14:29:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I resawed the piece for the top, planed it down and glued it together. Planing this thing down was a real treat! This particular piece is going to be great as a top, but it has a lot of switch back grain pattern which is a nightmare to work with. I had to take very, very light passes and try to scew the board at an angle as it went through the planer to avoid major tearout. So far it has come out good.

Next, I wanted to do something with the corners of the table, I didn't want it to be just square or just round the corners so I went with what is called a clam shell corner. it just so happens that my dining room table is like this so I took a quarter inch piece of plywood and traced it out to make a template. I modified it just a little, traced it onto my table top and cut it out on the band saw and used my spindle sander to sand to the line. Here is a view of it roughed out.

From Coffee Table

You can see the pattern, especially in the upper right. You can also make out the book match effect a little with the dark grain pattern in the middle of the board. So, normally I would just round over the top of the edges and be done with it, but I really wanted to test my skills on this project so I decided to do a double bead. I had seen this somewhere else and really liked it. Because of the grain on the top, I didn't want to risk using a router and have it take a chunk out of the edges. So what I did was approach it in two steps. First, I use a rabbet bit in the router and routed a 1/8" groove, centered, around the edge of the board. Next, I took a piece of metal and made a scratch stock. This allows me to control the cut by adjusting the angle and pressure to make sure I'm not doing too much at one time. From there, it was just pure putting my back into it and taking my time. Here's a shot of the scratch stock and the edge I'm putting on the top.

From Coffee Table

Here you can really see the groove that I cut and the double bead I'm talking about; this is really turning out nice in my opinion and just adds another nice little touch. It was a lot easier to do than I though. Now I need to do some finish sanding and start thinking of how I want to finish it. Ideas/suggestions welcome on the finish!

Coffee Table Build Cont'd

2009-03-02T14:22:00.002-05:00

lot's of progress since my last post. After I got the rails dry fit to the legs, I began to glue it all together. I started by gluing two sections together at a time. I used a strap clamp to pull the legs in just a little and then a clamp at the post to bring it all together.

From Coffee Table

Once this was done, I followed the same principle for gluing the whole thing together. One thing I did before I glued it together though was to cut a grove about a half inch from the top of the rails on the inside; this will be used for the buttons I made to attach the top to the bottom. I need to now focus some attention on the top. My first order of business is to resaw the board I have for the top in half to book match it.

Coffee Table Project - Cont'd

2009-02-17T12:06:00.003-05:00

I've managed to make a lot of progress on this coffee table project over the last weekend. Once I got through the design and shaping of the legs, I was pretty straight forward. What I had to do next was mill and cut the rails to their rough size. Once that was done, I used the router table to cut the tenons to match the mortises in the legs. I just used a 3/4" bit set to a 1/4" height; I only cut one side of the tenon, the front, since the back will be be visible and this allows me to use a larger tenon than normal. At this point, the tenon is really just a rabbet along the front side, I simply take each tenon and lay it next to the mortise to mark the points that I need to cut off.

From Coffee Table

Once I had all the tenons cut and fit, I put the whole thing together for a dry fit.

From Coffee Table

I still have some finish sanding to do, as well as round all the edges on rails, but that should not take long. I am still trying to decide if I want to add a bead detail to the rails and legs or not; I cannot decide.

Coffee Table - Continued - Cabriole Legs

2009-02-11T15:08:00.002-05:00

Ok, so in my post a while back, I created a second blank and decided on a template that I would use for production. So I went to work milling out my leg stock from 12/4 mahogany (that's why it's take me so long to post). Once I had everything dimensioned, I then traced the profile and went to cutting on the bandsaw just like before. Here are all the legs roughed out.

From Coffee Table

The next thing I needed to do before cutting the posts or rounding the feet on the lathe was to cut the mortises for the table rails, so here is a shot of those all done. My Delta Mortiser made quick work of it.

From Coffee Table

I'm going to be spending my next bit on forming the feet and shaping the legs, so that will take some time to do them all. I would also like to get my rails all cut and dimensioned; that should not take as long.

Grizzly T10010 Wet Grinder Review - Follow Up

2009-01-31T08:19:00.002-05:00

A while back, I posted an initial review of the Grizzly T10010 Wet Grinder; you can read the review here. Well, after having used the machine for a while, I thought I would post a follow up and give some more thoughts. First, I still love this machine for sharpening and honing; it is SUPER fast and easy. Second, you will need some "3rd party" accessories. I've read that the best, most economical setup for this machine, as compared to a Tormek, is to buy this machine, but use the Tormek accessories since they will fit. I have to say that I TOTALLY agree! Out of the box, I was fighting the Grizzly straight edge jig that comes with the tool; it's just not very good. So, the first thing I bought was the Tormek Square Edge Jig from Highland Hardware. That was a huge impovement, but I still wasn't getting a completely square edge and had the feeling that my wheel was not completely trued up. So, my next purchase, from Highland Hardware, was Tormek Truing and Dressing Kit. This was perfect! I found that my wheel was about a 32nd of an inch off from end to end, but also was not perfectly round. So, after a couple of passes with the truing tool, and I had a nice level, perfectly round, surface. I then went to town on my hand plane blades and got them nice and flat for a change; so much better.

So, bottom line is, if you don't want to fork out the money for the Tormek system, can recommend the Grizzly T10010 Wet Grinder, but I would save some money to also buy the Tormek accessories; it makes a big difference!

Cabriole Legs - Take Two

2009-01-26T14:52:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I was not really pleased with my first cabriole leg design, so I decided to have another go at it. Using the template from my previous post I prepared another pine blank from a couple 2x4".

From Coffee Table

After it was dry I took it down to the final dimensions of 20" long by 2.75" square. I then traced the pattern onto the two adjacent sides.

From Coffee Table

Then it was over to the bandsaw to cut it out. I made the first cut, saving the piece and taped it back on to provide support while cutting the second piece; simple blue tape works fine.

From Coffee Table

Finally, I had my ruffed out leg. You will notice in the picture below that the post is still the 2.75" square blank size; this is so I can put it on the lathe to turn the foot.

From Coffee Table

Before I turn the foot though, I need to relieve some material on the heel so I will not hit it while on the lathe. Here I have marked out the area I need to relieve; I will do that with a spokeshave.

From Coffee Table

Now to the lathe to turn the foot. All I want to do here is round out the bottom of the foot and define the pad. You can see in the picture below that I have drawn a line to where I want the pad to be, it's a little big on this one and will be refined on the final version.

From Coffee Table

Finally, after some turning and some work with a combination of the spokeshave and rasp, I have a more "finished" product. Also note that after I was done with turning the foot that I cut the posts back on the bandsaw.

From Coffee Table

I posted this over on T-Chisel's forum and received some good feedback about rounding the edges a little more and making it with a little more "sweep" instead of being so straight so I need to look into that.

New Project - Coffe Table

2009-01-23T09:32:00.004-05:00

Time for a new project! This time around I'm going to be building a coffee table similar to the one pictured below. This is a photograph of one in a magazine.

From Coffee Table

Mine will not have the curved sides like this one, but straight sides. I will have the curve in the sides though so it's not so boxy. Also, the legs will not have that dramatic of a curve in them. This project is going to be several firsts for me. First, I've not done cabriole legs before. Second, the corners are scalloped and I've never done that before. Lastly, I will be using mahogany for the wood, I've not used it before so I'm looking forward to that.

My first order of business was to practice making the cabriole legs and finalize the design. I decided to practice on a couple 2x4 boards glued together. As usual, I didn't do a good job of documenting my procedures, but I will on the next test run. You can find a really good video tutorial on Charles Neil's website here: http://www.antiquesbuiltdaily.com/tips.htm I followed this basic procedure for my first attempt. Even before that, I had to go to Highland Hardware and get myself a smaller blade for my bandsaw. Once I had that, I was ready to begin. So following Charles's basic principles I created a template out of 1/4" plywood. The table is going to be 21" tall, with a 1" thick top so the legs need to be 20" tall. Also, I decided on 2 1/2" thickness for the leg blanks. Armed with that, I created the template, traced it to the legs and cut it out on the bandsaw.

From Coffee Table

I also used the lathe to round the foot and create the pad, that was pretty fun. I need a spokeshave to form the heel so I had to order one, can't believe I don't have one. I also need it to help clean up the marks from the bandsaw.

So, this is my first attempt, not too bad, but the design needs some work. First, the foot is way too fat. I can fix that easy enough by taking it down more on the lathe. Second, there is not enough curve in the leg; it looks a little too straight. Lastly, the post is too tall. I want the aprons of the table to integrate with the curve of the leg, like in the picture above. So, armed with that, I went to work to create a new template. In this new template the first thing I did was draw a line for my final post length and based everything off of that. Here is a shot of the new template.

From Coffee Table

This looks a little better, but the more I look at the picture I think i can make some improvements. I think I may move the curve behind the knee up a little and make it a little more dramatic. I do like the knee and the transition into the foot. The ankle may be a bit too thin, but this won't carry much weight so it may be alright. Also, I may need to push the foot and pad back about a half inch or more.

Workshop Reorganization

2009-01-21T08:34:00.002-05:00

Well, I've decided to use the really cold weather here in the South to reorganize my shop. I'm working from a 2 car garage that measures about 21'x21'. My shop always seems to be a work in progress anyways, always changing and rearranging. I don't make any one particular type of furniture so I can't exactly set it up for, say, cabinet making, or chair making, etc. I'm trying to take the best advantage of my space, while keeping a good portion of floor space available. I also try and keep everything mobile. Here are a couple pictures of what my shop used to look like.

From ShopPics

It has changed a lot since that picture, but the layout is very similar; table saw on the side of the shop, butted against the wall, band saw in between the garage doors, work bench behind the table saw, dust collector tucked in the corner with PVC ducting runs and then other items such as planer, miter saw, sander, etc on mobile bases. Since this time I have added a few things such as a clamp rack, 8" Grizzly jointer, Grizzly lathe, wood rack and some other odds and ends.

So, since that time I've tried to utilize more space. One thing that I decided upon before starting this is that I am going to start breaking down sheet goods in another part of the shop; trying to rip a full sheet of plywood by myself is difficult, dangerous and a pain. I've decided that when I do use sheet goods, I'm going to break them down on saw horses with a long straight edge and circular saw, then over to the table saw. So, with that, this is my new layout. I'm going to run with this for a while and see how it works out. In this first shot, this is the view from the door from the house into the garage; along this wall are my Ridgid planer, 6" Grizzly jointer, Delta mortiser and Craftsman drill press. I also have my router cabinet at the far end. My Grizzly band saw is in the same place in between the doors.

From ShopPics

The next shot continues to the right and shows my bench now tucked directly up to the tablesaw, and my table saw in the middle of the garage; I really like this layout. You can see my Harbor Frieght dust collector, my air compressor is tucke in that back corner, and my Grizzly 8" jointer. Also, you can see part of my lumber rack on that wall; I don't keep a lot of lumber around so these racks work great.

From ShopPics

This last picture shows the rest of the shop, this is from one of the garage doors looking into the shop. Here you can my plywood storage on the left (where my DC used to be), then my new Grizzly lathe, my Ridgid spindle sander, clamp rack, miter saw and small power tool storage under that.

From ShopPics

All in all I like this layout so far. I still have some random things to do like clear some more clutter out and re work the small extension table on my table say; I need it to extend the entire width of the back of the saw and right side table, right now there is a gap and this would give me more work space. Also, with this layout I basically have one garage door wide open so I can bring in lumber there, put it on the rack (right by the jointer) and prep it. Also, for sheet goods, I have enough room to layout some saw horses and break down the sheets and then move right to the table saw for the rest of the work. I do need to do a little work with the dust collection. Right now I don't have a good way to get a dedicated pipe to the 8" jointer without running it across the floor right where I would bring lumber in. I may by a long piece of flex hose and use that so I can unhook it whenever it's not in use.

Face Frame with biscuits tip

2009-01-13T08:06:00.002-05:00

So, while I was building an E-desk (more on this later) I made a sort of rookie mistake with face frames and biscuits. I guess it's not really a rookie mistake, I just was not paying attention and thinking of things before I was doing them. Anyways, I wanted to use face frame biscuits to attach the rails to the stiles; for some reason I think pocket screws, although great, or just too much for this - I might re-think that. Anyways, in this first picture you can see I've laid out the lines for where I want biscuits to go; I like to put my two stiles together and lay out the lines together to avoid errors while transferring lines. You can also see in this picture that I've cut the biscuits too, but I will show you what I did wrong.

From E-Workbench

Ok, it may be a bit hard to see, but this is how I laid the pieces out when I cut them with the biscuit jointer; can you see what I did wrong? Basically, I cut them from the same side, not opposite sides. What I mean by this is, I cut them out as I laid them out; what I needed to do was to flip one of the stiles end for end like in this picture.

From E-Workbench

If you can see in this one, my slots are now offset. Why is this the right way? Unless you have your jointer set to cut perfectly in the center of the board, you will, if you cut from the same reference side on both pieces, end up with an offset of your rail to stile however much your bit is off of center. See picture:

From E-Workbench

This maybe isn't even a 1/16th of an inch off, but it's off and not easily fixed without causing other problems.

What you need to do, if you are using biscuits, is to mark the outter face on all your rails and stiles. This will help you understand to what reference point you need to put the fence of your biscuit jointer. In my example here, becuase I was cutting them as I laid them out, I was then putting the biscuit jointer fence on the face of one stile, then on the BACK of the other stile, causeing the offset. If I would have marked the face on both of them, and cut from that as a reference, then I would have been fine. Make sense? So, mark all of the faces of your rails and stiles and use that as the reference point for cutting all of your slots. I eventually got it figured out by doing another piece and got it attached.

From E-Workbench

Happy and safe woodworking!

Bedside Tables - Cherry

2009-01-07T14:55:00.002-05:00

After I completed my pencil post bed, I needed to make a set of matching tables to go with it. I based this off of a New Yankee design that I really liked. The main table is made from cherry, but has a tiger maple drawer. I really like the contrast of cherry and maple, and tiger maple is probably my most favorite wood; I just love the way it looks.

I don't have any pictures of making the main table part (I need to get better about that!), but I do have several of the making of the top and then the finish. The plans called for a 1" thick top, so the first thing to do was cut some rough 5/4 stock to about an inch oversize. Here you can see 3 of the 4 pieces needed for this top.

From Cherry Side Tables

Next was to face joint the boards to get one side flat.

From Cherry Side Tables

Once I have one side flat, I run each piece through the planer to get down to the final 1" thickness.

From Cherry Side Tables

After the boards were planed to thickness, I started to see how I wanted them oriented. I did this before I planed them, but sometimes after planing, things can change a little. This is a rough idea of what I came up with; subject to change without notice:

From Cherry Side Tables

Then it was back to the jointer to joint the endges to get them ready for glue up.

From Cherry Side Tables

Here they are glued up. If you look closely, you can see I change the orientation once again.

From Cherry Side Tables

After all the glue was cleaned up it was time to cut to size, final sand and then begin the finish process. I've talked about my finish for cherry before, but again what I do is start with a heavy coat of BLO. Here is one top coated in BLO.

From Cherry Side Tables

Now, after a few minutes, but before it dries, I will start adding the Watco Walnut colored Danish Oil. Here are two tops side by side after a few coats. You can notice the difference in how the color changes based on how the light hits it; the one the right looks much lighter, but it's the same. That really messed with me while I was working on it.

From Cherry Side Tables

As for the rest of the table, it gets the same finish except for the tiger maple. All I did for that was put on several coats of BLO. Once they are all dried, I wipe on 3-5 coats of a satin poly. Here is one of the bases with the drawer in it.

From Cherry Side Tables

What I really like about the finish, eventhough it is tricky, is that you can still keep the cherry grain that everyone loves. If you look at the legs on this table, you can still see the crazy grain pattern that it has. I have noticed that over time, this does not change but actually gets more enhanced and deeper.

Pencil Post Bed - Cherry - Part 2

2009-01-05T14:40:00.002-05:00

Ok, so in Part 1 I went through the process of prepping all the stock for the posts and rails; this was by far the longest part of the whole build process. After that was done, it was time to shape the posts. This part was BY FAR the most nerve wracking part of the process. After having gone through all of the trouble to make the boards nice and flat, and square, one misstep would have ruined the whole post. So, the first thing I needed to do was a build a jig, a long jig. I went to the local "big box" store and found the straightes 2x6 board I could find; I was fortunate to get a good one. Next I had to build a sort of indexing system (this came from the plans I went by to build the bed). Basically, it's two sqare disks with holes drilled at vaious points; these points give you the tapers that you need. In the case of this bed, 4 sides were tapered all the way through; the other four side had stopped tapers, more on that later. Basically, how the indexing jig works is, you drill a hole in the center of the bottom of the post; this is how the post will rotate/spin. Next you screw the reference disk to the bottom of the post, aligning the rotation hole. This inner disk has the 8 holes drilled into it for the tapers, each one is numbered so you know what order to make your cuts. The outer disk only had two holes, one for the pivot point in the center, and another indexing pin that matches the 8 other holes that were drilled through the inner disk. Below is a picture of the whole setup.

From PencilPostBed

Once I had the whole thing built, it still took me over an hour to get up the nerve to make the cuts! Once I got started though, it was a piece of cake. Here is a shot, not a great one, looking back down the jig.

From PencilPostBed

And here are all four posts done with the tapers.

From PencilPostBed

Now, remember that 4 sides on each post recieve a stopped taper. This is becuase I chose to include the lambs tounge detail. Using a pattern, I outlined the curve on each side of the posts and used a carving knife, file and sandpaper to do the details; 16 in all (4 each post). This was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I have a picture of the finished product below.

Basically, that was all of the hardest parts. The only other challange was drilling long, straight, holes for the bed bolts for the rails. I simply used a dowel jig to get the hole started and then finished it up. Below are some pictures of the final project.
Lambs Toung detail:

From PencilPostBed

Rails:

From PencilPostBed

Whole bed:

From PencilPostBed

The finish is sort of my own making I suppose. The bed is cherry, so I really just wanted to put some boiled lindseed oil (BLO) on it and some wipe on polyurethane, but my wife wanted a darker, aged look. So, what I typically do now is, I will put a heavy coat of BLO onto the piece and let it soak in good. Then, I use at least 3 coats of Watco, walnut colored, Danish oil. Simply wipe it on with a rag, let it set for a minute, and wipe off any that remains. The key to this is to have the surface as smooth as possible. Then, I simply put on 5 coats of a satin wipe on poly.

Overall, this was one of my most challenging projects, again due to the size, but it was pretty fun looking back on it. Let me know your thoughts...

Pencil Post Bed - Cherry - Part 1

2009-01-03T08:49:00.004-05:00

A few years ago I decided to undertake a project that I thought would be no problem; a King sized pencil post bed. After all, it' only had 9 pieces, how hard could it be? Well, the challenge with this bed was the fact that I had not dealt with single pieces of wood this large as a finished size. First, it is important to note that all the pieces are made from a single piece of solid cherry, not pieces glued together to make thicker pieces. The posts were made from 12/4 cherry, to a finished size of 2.5"x2.5" and the rails from 6/4 cherry, to a finished size of 1.5"x6". Selecting the stock was tricky because I needed to find pieces wide enough, long enough, and relatively straight enough; I needed as straight of grain stock as I could find.

So, after picking through stock at my local lumber store, Peach State Lumber, I came home with this stash.

From PencilPostBed

The pieces were pretty straight, no curves or bows in them, but they did have a cup in them. With all pieces having a finished length of over 70+", they were too big for my power tools so it was off to hand tools. I started by hand planing one side as flat as possible, then I could feed it through my power planer. This is the setup for hand planing them flat.

From PencilPostBed

You can see in this picture below how I use chalk to keep up with my progress, while also checking with a square. Anywhere chalk shows up, I know there is still more to be taken away.

From PencilPostBed

Finally! After a couple days of planing, and thinking my arms were going to fall off, I have a flat side.

From PencilPostBed

Now that I had one flat side, I could use my power planer to do the other side and go to final thickness. I had to use some out feed supports due to the length.

From PencilPostBed

Once I had all the pieces milled to thickness, it was back to the hand plane to flatten and smooth one edge.

From PencilPostBed

Once that edge was smooth, I could rip the pieces on the table saw to near finished width, leaving myself a little room for cleanup with a hand plane again.

That takes care of the milling of all the wood. In the next part, I will talk about the process of creating the pencil tapers, and how nerve racking that was, as well as creating the lambs tongue detail.

Cherry baby crib

2008-12-31T07:29:00.002-05:00

This project was one of the more challenging that I have done, mainly because of all of the pieces. I started with rough cherry stock and a hardware kit from Rockler. The first thing I did was to mill all the pieces; legs, rails, etc. Then I had to lay out the mortises; all 90 of them!! Here you can see all 32 of the smaller vertical slats.

From BabyCrib

One of the finer details of these is that they have a stopped round over on them to ease the edge so I created a simple start and stop block on the router table and did the whole batch.

Next, I had to lay out for the mortises. I combined the top and bottom boards and laid them out at the same time to eliminate any errors and causing them to be skewed during glue up.

From BabyCrib

Then I just took them all over to my Delta mortiser and went to town. I must say that this was a major time saver for this project; highly recommended.

From BabyCrib

This is a picture of one of the ends. The middle boards are book matched.

From BabyCrib

Here is the whole thing dry fit, without the sliding gate on it.

From BabyCrib

And finally, the finished product.

From BabyCrib

The finish on it was a wash coat of shellac followed by a coat of a red cherry gel stain that was put on and wiped off quickly; just adds a little color too it, turned out nice. And finally another top coat of shellac to seal it in.

Built-in Dry Bar

2008-12-30T17:33:00.002-05:00

Back in 2004, I was remodeling a house that was built in 1949. In the living room was a random two door closet. I decided to turn the closet into a built-in dry bar. I used a combination of left over Brazilian cherry and maple; I like the contrasting colors. These were the first cabinets of any kind that I had built, but they turned out pretty good I think. They are actually three separate cabinets. I had to do this because of the way the "closet" was configured so this was the only way to get the cabinets in the space. The finish is just a couple coats of Danish Oil and wipe on poly.

The first picture shows the base cabinets; I used full extension slides for the drawers and re sawed the maple for book matched doors.

From DryBar

The next pictures shows the two upper cabinets with the wine rack. The upper cabinets have glass doors on them and the wine rack will hold 15 bottles.

From DryBar

I built the top out of solid maple as well.

From DryBar

This last picture shows the "finished" product, but I somehow didn't have the top on when I took the picture.

From DryBar

Comments always welcome...

Grizzly T10010 Wet Grinder Review

2008-12-29T13:37:00.002-05:00

So for Christmas, my lovely wife gave me the Grizzly T10010 10" wet grinder. I had been wanting a wet grinder for a while and the Tormek was out of my price range; I have some other Grizzly tools so figured for the price, what the heck.

In the package is the main unit, which is essentially the motor with the buffing wheel. There is another box that contains the main grinding wheel and a small bag with the locking knobs and angle finder. Assembly is super easy, just put the tool rest in, screw in the locking knobs and bolt the grinding wheel on nice and tight. This is a picture of it fully assembled.

From Grizzly Grinder

After I assembled the unit, I filled the water reservoir and put it on. After about a minute, it was almost empty. That wheel will suck some water! You can see the water line in this picture.

From Grizzly Grinder

I refilled the reservoir and slowly turned the wheel by hand to wet the whole wheel and let it soak in the water, then refilled again. Once that was done, I turn the machine on to see how it ran; it is really quiet and very smooth, it does not wobble at all. I've had other grinders that you have had to bolt down or they would bounce all around, so that was nice.

So after all that, I grabbed one of my Lowe's purchased Stanley chisles that had a little nick in it and went to town. Getting the proper angle on the tool rest and everything is much easier than I thought. The Tormek, and Jet, have a fine adjusting knob for the up and down height of the tool rest, but the Grizzly does not; which is a shame. The shaft does fit fairly tight though so it's pretty easy to adjust. After just a few minutes of grinding, the nick was gone and I had a new edge. From there, I prepped the buffing wheel and applied some paste. I buffed off the bur that they grinding wheel creates in just a matter of seconds and tested it on a piece of cherry. All I could say was "wow"; I don't think I've had a chisle that sharp, even by hand (for some reason). This is a shot of me taking a nice little curn off of a board, the full length.

From Grizzly Grinder

The chisle just glided effortlessly and was super easy to control. End grain was no problem either; I was able to shave nice thin cuts without breaking out the back side of the board. Here is a shot of a thin shaving, the full length of the board.

From Grizzly Grinder

All in all, I'm impressed with the machine so far. I havne't spent a ton of time with it, but so far it is super easy to use and should help me keep my tools much more sharp, quicker, than I keep them now.

My very first piece - Walnut Blanket Chest

2008-12-20T10:31:00.004-05:00

So, several years ago now, maybe around almost 5 years, I made my "first" piece of actual furniture. It was a Walnut and Cherry blanket chest. The design came from some plans online and overall it was very easy to make. I think I would like to make another one sometime. This piece I made as a wedding present for my sister-in-law and her husband.

From HopeChest

The design was really simple; the only thing it called for that I didn't like, and would not do again, is to run the dado for the rails and panels all the way through the leg, which meant you then had to make a small "plug" to glue into the legs. If I did this again, I would use a router bit on the table and just make a stopped dado, or use my mortising machine. The finish was simple as well, just wiped on a few coats of Danish oil, let it dry, and then used a satin wipe on polyurethane. Simple!

From HopeChest

T-Chisel's Salem Secretary

2008-12-19T10:13:00.003-05:00

This piece is sick! The detail is amazing and if you watch his videos you will see the pains taking time and effort he puts into it. This is definitely something I would strive towards, but I am WAY off right now. In the words of the Chisel "who's better than me?!" Love it!

Back to woodworking

2008-12-19T09:53:00.002-05:00

Not that I haven't been woodworking lately, but I just haven't been blogging about it. I'm trying to get myself a bit more organized so I will be adding some content in here; things like tips/tricks, progress of my current work, past work and other items woodworking related. Check back often!