Woodworks by John

Finally, Glue Up of Bubinga Frame and Panel

Posted on March 3, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

It always seems to take a long time between the start of a project to the assembly of some of its pieces. The first goal, after milling the lumber to approximate dimensions, was to assemble the top. The rest of the cabinet sizes would be based on that. Well, if you’ve been following the progress of this piece the top has been done. The next step was to cut all of the frame and panel members that will make up the front and sides of the Mechanical Cellarette. In my last blog about this unit those pieces were completed on the shaper, the panels were sized and ready for a couple of coats of the Tried and True Danish oil that will be used for this project. If you missed that, here is a LINK to that post. In my opinion the panels turned out beautifully with the two coats of oil. The purpose of pre-finishing the panels is primarily to make sure no unfinished surface will ever be visible should they shrink as time goes on. Another plus to doing this is so the glue won’t stick to the panels as the frame is assembled.

Smoothing tools for the Bubinga

Once the pieces were coped and sized they were made as smooth as possible at this stage of the construction; although I prefer not to sand I think this project will require it. I’ve mentioned how difficult the Bubinga can be to work with due to it’s tricky grain structure. At left are some of the tools used to accomplish that. They included a smooth plane which was effective on 70% of the wood as long as a super thin cut was taken, a cabinet scraper, and denatured alcohol to tame the grain down a bit so that it could be planed successfully. That’s a technique that works well too in carving. Here’s some of the process, pictures do not truly show the effects of smoothing the wood but this will give you some idea:

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Rabbet Block Plane to fine tune joinery

The horizontal pieces of the frame and panel assembly are tenoned into the legs at the top and bottom. The entire side piece fits into a shallow 1/4″ x 1/4″ groove. The pieces were initially cut using a dado head in the tablesaw but intentionally slightly oversized. A rabbet block plane is used to fine tune the pieces to fit into their perspective grooves and mortises. Something usually needed to compensate for that inevitable wood movement.

Japanese Razor Saw

When it came to cutting the tenons to fit the mortises I discovered that my English style crosscut dovetail saw didn’t have enough blade under the reinforced back to complete the cut. Although I prefer the English style saws for my joinery for this instance only a Japanese style razor saw was able to get the depth I needed. By holding its long, bamboo handle as shown in this picture I’m able to get a straight cut. By the way, here is another great use for the Black Diamond Headlamp I mentioned previously, it really helps me see and cut to the line!

The first panel I decided to tackle was the front one. It’s approximately 39″ long and 22″ tall. The frame consists of four, 5/16″ thick, equally sized panels. After arranging the wood to where I thought the grain was being showcased to it’s best advantage it was time to do a dry fit, label all of the pieces, and lay out all of the clamps needed to accomplish the job as stress free as possible.

Dry fit and label all pieces

Clamps and cauls ready

Final, glued up section

As you know, once the glue is applied to your pieces things can slip and slid around a bit and that is especially true with an assembly such as this. What you’re seeing is the backside of the panel. I had to chuckle to myself during the layout process as I recalled the difficulties my students have with math. The horizontal rails needed to be divided evenly and then the vertical members centered on those divisions. All of those markings are on the backs of the boards. What you see in the second picture are polyethylene pads (1/4″ thick) laying on the clamps. Their purpose is to elevate the panel so the clamp pressure is centered but more importantly they’re a barrier between the metal bar clamp and the glue. Water based glue and steel clamps equal some pretty deep stains! The glue up was done on the workbench so it looked like the first photograph. Once all the glue was applied the entire unit was carefully carried over to the assembly table, laid onto the clamps, then squared, flattened, and secured to dry. Can’t wait to turn it over tomorrow and see the show face! My glue of choice comes from Lee Valley, this particular glue has an open time of 15-20 minutes, one that’s definitely needed when you’re a one man shop doing a complicated glue up. After the assembly was in the clamps for about a half an hour it’s a good idea to make sure you can move each panel within the frame. No matter how careful you are, some glue is bound to stick to the panels, pre-finishing them with the oil makes it easier to break them loose. They need to be able to move as the wood moves due to seasonal changes.

Whenever I do a frame and panel assembly there is usually some slight discrepencies between the pieces. Usually these can be smoothed out by careful block plane use but I have some concerns due to the nature of the Bubinga. Sanding carefully with a random orbit sander followed by hand sanding and a block may be what’s needed to work this beautiful wood. I made up a sample piece to experiment with before committing myself to the process — better safe than sorry!

Posted in Mechanical Cellarette | Tagged Bubinga, card scraper, denatured alcohol, frame and panel, head lamp, Japanese razor saw, mortise and tenon, Tried and True Danish oil | Leave a comment

Creating the Panel & Frame: Mechanical Cellarette

Posted on February 24, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

The last post on the Mechanical Cellarette found the top of the unit ready for final details. This is one of those projects where I have the artistic license to adjust the sizes a bit to utilize the available lumber. The 8/4 Bubinga was mail ordered from Woodworkers Source in Arizona. There was enough to make the top, legs, and supporting framework for the lift unit. I planned my cuts to have enough of that beautiful 8/4 stock to resaw into the panels needed for the sides and front of the unit. The remaining material is 4/4 Bubinga which I was able to source locally from Peterman Lumber. I’m glad that I was able to mill enough material for the panels from the 8/4 as the grain and figure in it is much more pronounced and showy than the material from Peterman.

Initial Planing of Stock

There are always plusses and minuses when it comes to exotic lumber. With the plus of showy grain comes the minus of it being more difficult to work with. Wood that’s a bit easier to work, even if it’s the same species, usually doesn’t exhibit that wild and crazy grain! In this instance though I was happy the 4/4 material from Peterman was easier to work. These pieces were approximately 6″ wide so that determined the sizes of the frame for the Cellarette. After running all of the material through the planer to achieve a uniform thickness, pieces were cut to the approximate length needed, one edge planed smooth and square, then ripped on the table saw to the required widths.

End panels labeled for shaping.

These were then carefully laid out and labeled for the next step which was to cut the cope and stick joinery. Shown here are the two frames for the ends. The pieces you see clamped together are the seven panels ripped from the 8/4 stock that will fill those frames. Lots of chalk, arrows, tape, etc. to keep from getting confused and mistakenly shape the wrong edge or side of those pieces — no time to daydream!

Squaring miter gauge

Next step is setting up the shaper. I have an almost antique, Rockwell Shaper model 43-120. This has a 1/2″ spindle, 1 1/2 hp motor, and runs on 110 volts. Rated as light duty but has always done the job for me. A set of matched cutters from Freeborn work just fine but it is critical that everything is as square as possible. This starts with the miter gauge used for making the cope cuts. Shapers have a bad reputation with many woodworkers. Accidents on them are particularly bad because the cutters will just make mince meat out of any body part it comes in contact with!

The first step of the process is to cut the coped part of the joint, that is the end grain. Here’s a video I made to illustrate that:

After the pieces are all coped, this is what is referred to as the “stick” part of the joint. This cut is made with the grain of the wood:

Ready for Panels

The results are laying on the shop floor, the horizontal pieces are longer than needed as they will have tenons on the end to fit into legs. In the class I recently taught there was some reluctance and unfamiliarity with working with rulers and fractions. Oh boy, is this ever a skill needed for building furniture. Most of the calculations have to do with locating the center of the spaces that need to be filled with the panels. Then you need to add for the grooves, subtract for expansion, and go from there! Believe me, I will also cut scrap pieces before cutting the actual panel stock. There isn’t enough material left to make a mistake. Even if the wood was easy to obtain (which it isn’t) every board will finish differently. When making a piece that will only have natural oil finish on it you can’t dye or stain all of the pieces that have different coloration to look like one, unified piece. So, that saying “measure twice, cut once” is one I live by!

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All of that made for a pretty long couple of days, especially since my eyes were dilated from a morning optometrist visit. The goal tomorrow is to begin the finish on the panels. They’ll need to have at least two coats of oil before glueing them up.

Posted in Mechanical Cellarette, Uncategorized, YouTubeVideo | Tagged Bubinga, cope and stick joinery, Freeborn cutters, Rockwell 43-120 | 1 Comment

Hand Tool Class Ends

Posted on February 23, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

We just wrapped up the 6 week Hand Tool class at Wooditis here in Las Vegas. Wooditis is a great place where woodworkers from all over the valley come to learn the craft. The owner, Jamie Yocono, has really developed her school and studio to be the premier woodworking facility here in Southern Nevada. I was honored to be a guest instructor over these past weeks.

The focus of the class was learning how to sharpen, maintain, and use tools such as dovetail saws, chisels, mallet, and hand planes. I brought in some of my own tools so the students could experience them as well. Those included router planes, spokeshave, brace and bit, and coping saw just to name a few. The class began with learning how to sharpen. If they had them, students were encouraged to bring their own tools so they could learn those skills on their own tools. Most of them had their own but if not, the school had plenty of tools for them to use.

The first project was to make a bench hook which I refer to as project over-kill. Where a few scraps of wood, screws, and glue would suffice I’ve turned this into a project that incorporates dovetails and a hand cut dado. There were a few times we needed to use the “big eraser”, the nickname I gave to the chop saw when the dovetailing went awry! Although students could have chosen to make a box of their own choice, when they saw the tool tote I carry that was inspired by the one in Jim Tolpin’s book The New Traditional Woodworker they unanimously decided they’d like to make that. That took the remaining class time. Unfortunately, although most got real close to completion they will have to assemble the tote at home. The last day was spent working out the details, learning how to use a brace and bit, a coping saw, and cutting stopped dados by hand.

All in all I think the class was a success. I always enjoy sharing my skills with others. Students can contact me and I’ll be happy to answer any questions they may have as they finish the tote. Having been involved with woodworking and construction for well over 50 years it’s easy to see how the skills that I was taught growing up aren’t as relevant today. Especially in the area of shop mathematics, measurement, and working with fractions. Makes me feel like the old timer I probably am, but in years only! Looking forward to being invited to teach another session. Here are some pictures of the students busily working on their projects.

Posted in Hand Planes, Hand Tool Woodworking, Hand Tool Woodworking Class, Tool Sharpening | Leave a comment

Inlaying Marble in a Bubinga Top

Posted on February 20, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

It has been an involved process getting to this point but here’s the first look at the Italian Marble placed into the top:

First Look at Marble and Top

The over-all measurement of the top is 20″ wide by 44″ long. The piece of marble is an 18″ square piece of Bianco Gioia Marble. The two pieces that currently have some Oak plywood in them is where the marble will be inlaid. These are approximately 8″ x 14″. The center section is where the mechanical cellarette will be housed. Since it measures approximately 12″ x 18″ there will be a 2″ wide inlaid section of marble at the front as well. The marble was purchased from Emser Tile here in Las Vegas at the recommendation of my tile guy. I was pleasantly surprised at the service I got from them, sometimes buying small quantities of material doesn’t bode will with retailers/wholesalers. He also suggested having a 1/2″ base for the marble due to their weight. That was the next problem that needed solving.

These pieces of 8/4 Bubinga have been particularly difficult to work. As I mentioned earlier, when a piece of lumber has beautiful and showy grain patterns, it usually means it’s going to be a tough one to work — oh so true for these! You may recall the reluctance it had to being planed smoothly and the joinery has been “hard fought”. The top measures 1 1/8″ in thickness so applying the rule of thumb, the tenons are 3/8; one third the thickness of the piece. A combination of machine work with a hollow chisel mortiser and a tenon jig on the tablesaw followed by hand work gave me an acceptable fit.

Dovetail saw to size tenon

Chisel to pare shoulders

Rabbet block plane to adjust cheeks

Router table to cut groove

The next step to creating the top was to cut a groove that would house and support the plywood. The tricky thing here was keeping all of the pieces organized and make sure the proper face of each board was held against the fence. Let me explain what you’re looking at, the marks on the green tape indicate the beginning and starting point of the router bit. The groove doesn’t run the full length of the pieces so they will have to be dropped down and picked up from the cutter depending on the location. Since the groove depth is 3/8″ the edge of the board needs marking to tell me where to start and stop each cut. Due to the hardness of this wood the cut had to be made in two passes. The face of the board needs to go against the fence so the backside was marked with chalk — every time I picked up a board my mantra was: “see the chalk before you cut” and it worked!

L-Fence on Tablesaw

Now that the grooves were properly located it was time to size the plywood. I had some quality, 1/2″ Oak ply in stock so that was the obvious choice, it’s a 7 ply material so plenty strong. After cutting them oversize to allow for the groove depth, they were rabbeted to slip into it. That was achieved using an L-shaped fence and a dado head in the tablesaw. Now it’s finally time to dry fit and glue this piece up!

Glue ups are always stressful and this one was no exception. The flattest surface I have in the shop is the tablesaw so that became my assembly table. A combination of Gorilla glue and cabinetmakers glue from Lee Valley was used for this process. Because of the oily nature of Bubinga the Gorilla glue was used for the mortise and tenon joints while the cabinetmakers glue secures the plywood.

Glued up and curing

Just a side note on the glue from Lee Valley. I ordered a bottle to replenish my supply recently and when I opened it the consistency coming out was more like a tootsie roll than glue! I sent a picture to their customer service and they replaced the bottle for me, no questions asked. We were trying to figure out what could have happened to the glue and they suspect that it must have frozen and thawed several times in its journey from eastern Canada to here which ruined it! Moral of that story is to only order it during warmer temperatures!

Posted in Mechanical Cellarette, Mortise and Tenon Joint | Tagged Bubinga, Gorilla glue, Italian Marble, L-shaped fence for tablesaw, Lee Valley Cabinetmakers glue 2002, mechanical cellarette | 1 Comment

Fitting Lee Valley Brass Leg Tip #01A4535

Posted on February 16, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

Tablesaw Taper Jig

The wood used for the Mechanical Cellarette is Bubinga which I’m learning is a pretty challenging material to work with. The legs are approximately 1 3/4″ square and the initial plan was to taper the insides of them with the bandsaw then plane smooth. On my sample piece, planing that band sawn surface to an acceptable finish proved to be rather difficult due to the inter-locked grain. Even a freshly sharpened Jack Plane with a very tight mouth couldn’t achieve the finish I was after; time for Plan B which was to use the tablesaw and a tapering jig. This left a much smoother finish, one that I was able to smooth by taking the thinnest shavings possible with a smooth plane. Once they surfaces were acceptable, I used the traditional marking system to identify which leg goes where. I also use machinists letter stamps for a backup. The grain pattern of Bubinga is quite vivid so I chose the best faces for the show surface.

Smooth Plane on tapers

Tops of legs marked for position

Now that the legs have the taper complete the next step was to fit them for the brass leg tips from Lee Valley. These will add a traditional look to the piece. My client liked the appearance of them in the plans so they were chosen for the project. These are an old brass finish and the only instructions given is that they attach with a single brad into a friction fit. That’s the extent of the information given so it’s up to the craftsman (me in this case) to figure out the process. They measure 1 5/8″ tall and the width at the top is 1 3/8″. When I laid out the taper it was done so that the leg would measure 1 3/8″ square at 1 5/8″ from the bottom. That was step one.

Determining Tip Angle

Now I needed to determine the degree of angle inside of the tips. I first tried to hold the sliding bevel square inside the cap and set the angle from there — not acceptable! I’m currently teaching a hand dovetail class so chose to use this system to set the bevel, it’s the same way you’d set one for laying out the tails. It begins with a vertical line drawn up 1 5/8″ which is the length of the tip. The difference between the top and bottom of the tip is 1/4″ (1 5/8 vs. 1 3/8) so I marked 1/8″ to the side of that vertical line. Now the bevel is set by lining it up at the bottom of the line and the mark 1/8″ to the side. You can be sure I made a practice piece on some Poplar to make sure this worked before I began work on the actual legs. You may notice a couple of aids I used to accomplish this in the slide show. First of all, I absolutely love my Black Diamond ReVolt headlamp I got from REI with gift certificates for my recent birthday! I can see the lines not only for hand cutting joinery but also on the bandsaw. Another aid I used was to put green painters tape on the boards and pencil the cuts on it. The wood is pretty dark and I find that green tape shows pencil lines better than the traditional blue painters tape. Last of all, to keep the small cut off pieces from being sucked into the dust collector I added a temporary zero clearance fence to the bandsaw.

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Now that the legs are complete the next step is to make the top. I’m building the casework after the top is sized to make sure of the dimensions. I picked up two pieces of Italian Marble that measure 18″ square that will be inlaid into the top after it’s completely finished and installed.

Posted in Mechanical Cellarette, Uncategorized | Tagged Black Diamond Revolt headlamp, brass leg tips, Bubinga, friction fit, headlamp, how to fit leg tips, Lee Valley Leg Tip, sliding bevel square, smooth plane, tablesaw tapers | 1 Comment

Work Begins on Latest Commission

Posted on February 11, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

Towards the end of last year I was contacted about making a Mechanical Cellarette. Now, this was something I’d never heard of before and my research turned up very little information. Essentially, it is a cabinet used to store liquor and there are some references to it on auction sites. I met with the client, he showed me the intended location and shared his vision of what he had in mind. I submitted this basic plan to him which he approved and the work began. It’s taken a while to get all of the parts and pieces together but the timing worked perfectly as I just completed Nick’s Media Stand when the mechanical part of this project was delivered.

The project will be in my clients office which is a brand new space. Fantastic finishes on the walls and the flooring is Brazilian Rosewood. Images I had found of the Mechanical Cellarette were mostly in the Victorian style with lots of carvings and applied moldings and my design and style is more Shaker inspired. I prefer letting the wood itself be the star of the show. To that end, he suggested using Bubinga which is a beautiful wood from the western jungles of Africa. This will be teamed up with a top of inlaid Italian Marble. I knew going into this project that Bubinga is a difficult wood to work with, extremely dense and heavy but that’s the correlation: beautiful wood = challenging work!

Brass Leg Cup on Poplar

The first parts to arrive were these brass leg cups from Lee Valley. We decided they would add a nice style element to the cabinet. This was the first of many challenges to come for this project. The legs will be approximately 1 3/4″ square and taper towards the inside bottom. The leg cups also taper from 1 3/8″ at the top to 1 1/8″ (inside dimensions) at the bottom. This requires a combination of machine and hand tool work to get the fit just right. A trial piece was done on Poplar and I took notes so to be able to do the same thing on the Bubinga. I know that it won’t cut as easily as the Poplar will but at least now I have the process down.

8/4 Bubinga ready to cut

I ordered the 8/4 Bubinga from Woodworkers Source in Arizona. You’re looking at just under $500.00 worth of material which is enough for the top and framework for the Cellarette. Rod Stewart’s classic “The First Cut is the Deepest” always plays in my head as I begin to cut apart the materials. I substitute hardest for deepest because you just can’t afford to make a mistake here! Careful planning is called for when using expensive woods, especially since the supply is limited and hard to obtain. I’ll be purchasing the 4/4 Bubinga from Peterman Lumber here locally — they don’t stock 8/4. Once things were laid out it was time to begin the actual cutting.

Re-sawing top material

Even after carefully honing the blade on my old Stanley #7 jointer plane it had a difficult time with this interlocked grain of this wood. By taking the thinnest of cuts with the tightest mouth possible the jack plane gave me an acceptable surface. I can tell that there will be a lot of hand scraping to achieve the finish I want on this Bubinga! I was pleasantly surprised to see that the resaw process went better than I feared. The bandsaw is fitted with a Wood Slicer resaw blade from Highland Woodworking. This is a time that proves buying the Powermatic planer with the upgrade, Byrd Shelix cutter was a good investment. It was able to surface the resawn pieces and achieve a good finish. As always, it will require a smooth plane and card scraper for the final surface preparation but that’s to be expected.

Days end result

At the end of this work day I reduced the stack of 8/4 Bubinga to these pieces. They will sit for a few days to stabilize before the joinery work begins. The small piece at the lower left is a cut-off that I’ve applied the first coat of finish to. This really brings out the richness and beauty of the wood. I’ll take it with me to select the Italian marble for the top. The mechanism for the unit is under the bag to keep it as dust free as possible in a shop environment. I wanted to see how smoothly this unit from Auton worked so made this little video as a demonstration. I’ve used television lifts before and they usually have a single lift mechanism located at the rear of the unit and can exhibit some instability as the raise and lower. This unit features four gears on either side of a rack that the unit essentially “crawls up”, well worth the money as this unit seems to be of very high quality. Here’s my video:

So there’s the first step of many to come on the creation of the Mechanical Cellarette. Time to order the marble and pick up the remaining Bubinga here from Peterman.

Posted in Mechanical Cellarette | Tagged appliance lift, Auton Lifts, brass leg cups, Bubinga, Byrd Shelix, hand plane, Italian Marble, leg caps, Resawing | Leave a comment

Nick’s Media Stand Delivered

Posted on February 9, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

Yesterday a friend helped me to deliver this unit to the client — good deal for the delivery charges; a cup of Starbucks and a treat! This is a picture of it in the house and, as you can see my client is still in the early stages of moving in. The TV that will be on the unit is sitting behind it.

Nicks’ Media Stand in place

The unit went upstairs and luckily, they were wide and my friend was strong! All of the pictures show a bit of distortion, sorry; it was difficult to get enough distance to eliminate that both in my shop and their house. The pictures in my shop show it on dollies with furniture pads used for backdrops.

Inspiration Photo

During our early planning stages for this unit I was given this image as an example of what they were looking for. Over-all their piece measures 65″ long by 20″ wide and stands 26″ high. As you can see, there is a resemblance between my work and the inspiration piece with some notable differences. The material in mine is recycled material that started life as dog-eared, 1″ x 8″ Redwood fence boards. They came from somewhere in California and are probably about 50 years old! I mentioned in one of the blogs that who knows, I could have cut these as a teenager. I worked for a Silvera Lumber in Antioch then and that was a job I would do at times! In any case, the bottoms had quite a bit of the expected rot and the top, dog-eared sections were beat up as well.

Drawer Unit

The first step to prepare them was to run one face through the planer to establish a fresh, smooth surface. This was for the glue to adhere when they were attached with brads. Due to the rough nature of the boards, those brads barely show at all. The show side of these boards were wire brushed by hand to remove the accumulation of 50 years of dirt, grime, and who knows what else!

Drawer Detail

Being able to find a suitable board that would span the drawer was of importance to me. After all, in fine furniture construction you select a single board for your drawer fronts for a continuos flow of the grain and even though this is constructed of recycled materials it had to be done right. The drawer box and top are made of shop grade, Maple plywood. The drawers are 1/2″ Poplar and feature full extension, ball bearing slides rated for 100 pounds. The drawer pulls haven’t arrived yet but the mounting holes are drilled and ready.

The metal legs came from an Etsy store, Blue Ridge Metalworks. The finish chosen for this project is multiple coats of General Finishes Enduro-Var which is a water based, Polyurethane. This was sprayed on as brushing on the rough surface of the recycled boards wouldn’t have good results. There’s talk of a companion unit to go into their living room — that’s would be a good indication that my client was pleased with my work!

Posted in Recycled Wood Furniture | Tagged recycled wood, TV stand | 3 Comments

Hand Tool Class Session #3

Posted on January 31, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

This week marks the half way point in the class I’m teaching at WoodItIs here in Las Vegas. WoodItIs is a wonderful school located in North Las Vegas and founded by Jamie Yocono. She has expanded the physical size of the school and offers a full complement of classes through our local colleges and university. She also has a series of classes where students start with the basics and advance to becoming proficient furniture makers. Besides the school, Jamie takes on a variety of custom woodworking projects. Anyone wanting to learn the basics of woodwork and furniture construction can find a starting place at her school. I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited as a guest instructor teaching the hand tool aspects of our craft.

The class runs from 11:00 – 2:00 for six Saturdays. We began with learning how to properly sharpen plane and chisel blades. Not having a properly sharpened tool only causes a lot of frustration to anyone learning how to use hand tools. Although not a requirement, students were encouraged to bring in their own tools to begin the learning process. These first two weeks had lots of lecture/demonstration and I’m afraid I was too busy to take any photos! We’re using a bench hook as the initial learning project. Although this could simply be three pieces of wood, some screws, and glue I’ve developed this into what I call “Project Overkill”! The main board for the bench hook is used to develop our hand plane skills. Starting with a working edge (Jack plane), then a working end (block plane), and finally planing the board to width. After that, the students cut a dovetail to secure the two pieces together and the hook part of it is housed in a hand cut dado. I bring in my two, old Stanley router planes so they can experience that tool. One of the students has a new Lie-Nielsen version of the router plane! You can see in the pictures above and below that they are hard at work on this project. Time seems to just fly by when you’re engaged in the quietness of hand tool work. We generally end up going past the two o’clock hour but that’s okay!

One student completed all three pieces at the end of the class today so first thing up for the next session will be an assembly demonstration. The remaining 3 sessions are a time for them to put this work into practice on a project of their choice. The class description suggested a box with lid. I’ve been asking (bugging?) them to come up with the size and purpose for the box but for some reason haven’t had any responses. My guess is that they are so intent on learning the skill, making a box hasn’t sunk in yet!

Tool Tote

Today I brought in a tool tote that I had used in another class and the response from them tells me that it may be a winner. The inspiration for this project came from Jim Tolpin’s book: The New Traditional Woodworker. Those of you with sharp eyes may notice that the one pictured has dovetails on one end and pegged lap joint at the other — this was done as a learning exercise but for this class it’ll be dovetailed all around. This seems like a logical choice for a project seeing how they will need a way to carry their tools anyway. We’ll use Pine for this with a Baltic Birch plywood bottom. Due to time and equipment restraints I’ll probably rough cut their materials for them. Looking forward to seeing how they apply what they struggled to learn on the bench hook to this project.

Posted in Hand Cut Dovetails, Hand Tool Woodworking, Tool Sharpening | Tagged dovetail, hand planes, sharpening, WoodItIs, woodworking instruction | Leave a comment

Nick’s Media Center Coming to Completion

Posted on January 26, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

Making progress as you can see!

The past couple of days have been productive on this project. Before my neighbor helped put it up on my workbench I had cut and sized the pieces of reclaimed fence boards used on the top and for the banding around it. These have been planed on the underside to create a smooth glue surface. Glues and #18 brads secure them to the plywood substrate. I needed my neighbors help to slide the drawer unit between the legs to begin cutting the reclaimed material for that. In the first blog about this project I explained the process of making the drawer unit. The top was left off of it to make fitting the drawers easier.

These drawers are machine dovetailed, something my students are probably aghast over!

Not all work calls for hand cut dovetails but I will tell you that I don’t use this very often. Matter of fact, the jig I use I bought in the early 1970’s, it’s a Craftsman and old enough to be found on eBay, check out this LINK. Same goes for the router, it’s also an oldie from Sears listed as a commercial grade with a 3/4″ h.p. motor. When you think of all the choices you have these days for woodworking tools it’s hard to believe that Craftsman was one of the major players in those days. I remember buying this router in 1972 or so.

How’s that go?

Now days I keep it set up with a dovetail bit and as you can see, have the original instructions that came with it. Good thing too because I use it so seldom I couldn’t recall how to lay out the parts. I begins with cutting your groove for the drawer bottom to keep from getting confused. The pieces are placed in the jig “inside out” so labeling the parts as the directions say to do is essential. Oldie but a goodie and still serviceable. Pretty darn noisy though — ear protection required!

After they were glued up and dry, a coat of shellac was applied to them as well as the inside of the drawer space. That will provide an odor free layer of protection for the drawer, I usually wax these as well. When ever I use metal slides I use a full extension, ball bearing unit made by Dynoslide. I get them from Woodworkers Emporium and they are rated for 100 pounds. Here’s my process:

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Once I was happy with the drawer action the top of the drawer unit was glued and screwed into place. Now it’s time to begin attaching the reclaimed fence boards. I decided to rip a clean, smooth edge on them to make a cleaner joint. As I mentioned, these are glued and nailed to the Maple plywood substrate. The banding was then mitered and applied around the top.

Notching bottom boards to fit around legs

The drawer unit will need to have the boards nailed on after it is in place between the legs. The plan is to pre-finish those boards and glue/nail them on once it’s screwed in position. To cut the notches for the leg I used a Japanese style razor saw. Markings don’t show on these boards so a piece of tape is put on so I can see what I’m supposed to cut. I was able to select one board with some interesting grain pattern for the front of the drawer unit. I know it’s a rustic piece but I still want that continous grain pattern flowing across the front from drawer to drawer. It’s really hard to see in this picture, the first step of the finish procedure was using a wire brush to remove all of the dirt (and who knows what else!) from the board. Next it will receive multiple coats of clear, satin varnish.

Drawer Unit

We just had a rain storm move in, not too good for shooting the finish tomorrow so there may be a slight delay. Hope not because I received the Bubinga for the next project — a Mechanical Cellarette.

Posted in Recycled Wood Furniture | Tagged Craftsman dovetail jig, Craftsman router, fitting drawers, Nicks' Media Stand | 2 Comments

All the Parts Have Arrived!

Posted on January 22, 2015 by woodworksbyjohn

Finally, it’s time to begin work on the TV stand that it seems like I’ve been planning for a very long time! When I accepted this commission there was a source for recycled fence boards here in Las Vegas. I purchased a few of them, made a mock up, and then presented this to my client. He approved the design and gave me the customary 50% down deposit. However, when I went to pick up the required fence boards they were completely out! They come from somewhere in California and it was several weeks before their supply was replenished. Finally got them and they were different sizes and soaking wet. After stacking them with stickers to dry out in the shop they are now workable.

Leg Bracket Error

The other hold up was getting the legs fabricated. I sent my client some sources from Etsy and he picked out a style he liked from Blue Ridge Metalworks. Since they were located in North Carolina I expected the shipping costs to be huge but was pleasantly surprised as they were considerably less expensive than the few local sources I contacted. We did have a few problems with tracking numbers and forgetting to add a brace for the drawer unit but the owner, Jon, was quick to actually call me when asked. He explained some growing pains due to expansion of the business and corrected the problems quickly. Only slight concern I had was with a bracket being welded on that was proud of the leg by about 1/4″. Luckily I was able to take away some of the wooden rim to make it fit as it should — much easier to chisel wood than it is to grind metal!

Finally, the actual construction of this piece can begin and started with creating one relatively smooth surface on the underside of the fence boards. Since these are recycled I suppose you could call them old growth Redwood — just like the fence boards I used to cut working at Silvera Lumber in the 60’s! Next up was sizing the plywood to fit the legs. Mass produced furniture uses MDF which is heavy, doesn’t hold screws very well, and also doesn’t have much structural strength to it. I use domestic, 3/4″, shop grade Maple plywood. To me the extra expense is justified by giving my clients a quality piece of furniture. Breaking down those 4′ x 8′ sheets began with my old school track saw. Although you can find many hi-tech versions on Amazon, this simple shop made guide combined with a Porter-Cable trim saw gets the job done.

Mock up and first visual

The top of this piece is pretty straight forward as you can see in this first mock up of it. It measures 20″ x 65″, there’s an edging glued/nailed to thicken and reinforce the edge. Yes, any of my students reading this I used glue and a brad gun for this! There will be two drawers in the unit below which I decided to make as a torsion box for stability and strength. Since there is a span of five feet, this unit needs to be stable in order for the drawers to work properly. Although I’m known for hand tool woodwork and joinery, when working with sheet goods glue and screws are in order. I imagine this torsion box assembly could have been simply glued and nailed. I’ve been accused of over-building but I’d rather have that reputation than one of cutting corners!

Since there are drawers here it’s critical that the assembly is square. All holes were first pre-drilled and countersunk on the drill press. These were then assembled into U-shaped pieces that will define the drawer spaces:

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After these 3 assemblies dried it was time to attach them squarely to the bottom of the drawer unit. This began by using the same setup on the drill press to pre-drill the holes. They are glued/screwed on the outside edge only, the drawer sides are left loose to allow for any adjustments for squareness. As you can see, all went according to plan. Before attaching the top I’ll install the drawers and full extension slides, it’ll be much easier that way then working in a closed up area. The drawer space is approximately 5″ high by 16″ wide and 12″ deep.

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The next phase will be making the drawers. These will be made of 1/2″ Poplar with Baltic Birch plywood for the bottoms. I know I’ve probably shocked some of my students in the construction process for this piece but I’ll also be machine cutting the dovetails for the drawer —- there are times and projects that call for modern processes rather than traditional hand work. I promise, the other project I’ve accepted will feature more traditional work!

Posted in Recycled Wood Furniture | Tagged BlueRidge Metalworks, drawer unit, drill press, metal legs, nail gun, Nicks' Media Stand, reclaimed wood, recycled wood, shop grade maple plywood, torsion box, wood screws | 2 Comments

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