Beginning the Base: Mitered Legs

Posted on March 6, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn
Sketch of HDTV Stand

Sketch of HDTV Stand

Work continues on this project and I’m finding the fact that there isn’t a deadline refreshing!  Of course, it would be nice for it to be for a paying client but the lack of deadline stress is refreshing.  Now that the basic cabinet and drawer web are done it’s time to get away from the dovetails and work on the base it will sit upon.  Like everything else, this will be made of 1 1/8″ thick Sapele.

The total height of this base is 8+ inches and there will be a ledge that the cabinet sits on.  The top of each leg and the base is rabbeted out to a depth of 3/8″ with 1/4″ lip for the cabinet to drop down into.  That will receive a small chamfer to relieve that corner.  First order of business was cutting a 45 degree angle on the end of a board long enough to make the four sides of the legs.  This piece is 3″ wide.  After the angle was cut, the blade was lowered and the fence placed to the left of it to cut a slot for a reinforcing spline.  Just a side note here; the usual position for the fence is to the right of the blade.  Luckily I discovered this on my set up cut or it could have been a disaster!  When I ran it through, my body was pressed against the fence lock which loosened and the fence moved — that cut was very crooked and would have ruined the whole piece.  I was sure to keep clear of that when cutting the actual piece.  It took very little work to true up the angled cut after which they were cut to length.

Next up was rabbeting the tops to accept the case.  This was done with a dado set and the L-Shaped fence for the tablesaw.

Mitered piece to make 4 legs
Rabbeting the tops of each leg

This led to the challenge of how to glue and clamp all of this together and maintain a nice, tight joint.  As usual, a practice set up was done prior to the real thing — you know how stressful glue-ups can be!  The spline is made of a piece of plywood that was used on a bathroom remodel subfloor, it just happens to be the right side to fit the kerf of my blade.  The glue I used was Old Brown Glue which allows a longer open time and doesn’t cause the wood fibers to swell up like polyvinyl glues do.

Pieces prepared, spline ready to go
Three clamps, glued together, cure overnight
Finished leg checks square

All that remained for the legs was to reinforce the backs of them.  This was done with the piece that was cut off the edge to create the miter.  After relieving the inner edge with a block plane, a simple rubbed glue joint reinforced the legs.  Now comes fitting them to the bottom of the case with mortise and tenon joinery.

Setting up hollow chisel mortiser

Setting up hollow chisel mortiser

Pretty straight forward but I’ll share how I set the mortiser up.  The cut needs to be centered exactly in the width of the board.  It is a 3/8″ thick mortise with a haunch and about 2 1/2″ wide.  Using a piece of scrap I mark and set the mortising chisel to the center of the board.  After making a test cut, use a caliper to measure the wall thickness on either side of the mortise.  Once they’re the same you’re centered.  Lucked out today and only needed to make a couple of cuts to get it right.  Once it’s set the table is locked and I make sure not to turn that wheel while cutting.  I’ve also found that using a set up block like the one on the table is a great way to square the bit to the fence.  There’s more surface area on the block to line things up with compared to using a try-square.  Next up, measuring very careful and cutting/fitting the tenons for the rest of the base.

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Drawer Frames, Webs, and Sliding Doors — Oh My!

Posted on March 2, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn

At the onset I knew this project would have its share of challenges but that’s what it’s all about!  I wanted to use techniques that I hadn’t used a lot before in other my work.  Making a cabinet of this size with solid material changes the construction techniques.  One another challenge was figuring out the sequence of assembly.  After several “dry runs” this seemed to be my best course of action.

The sliding, bare faced dovetail used on the shelf was the first thing to consider.  I found it was easiest to slide the side down onto the tail portion of the shelf.  I then used a block of wood about 3″ long hold the side up so that glue could be spread inside the socket.  This way the front edge of the shelf will be glued flush with the front of the sides but still be able to move within the socket to adjust for humidity changes.  The other piece to be glued during the first phase was the bottom stretcher with the front, drawer web already glued in place.

Twin dovetails for bottom stretcher, groove is for drawer web
First glue up completed, shelf, bottom and top stretchers

After that assembly was unclamped making the drawer frame/web was next.  I decided to use Alder for my secondary wood since I had some of it on hand plus a partial sheet of 1/4″ plywood left from another project.  The plywood will be used for the dust panels and the back of the case.  Just as with the front stretcher, the back stretcher has the rear drawer web glued in place.  The web is tongue and groove construction and since it’s completely held captive inside of the case and it needs to be able to move, only a spot or two of  glue was applied to the center pieces that will have the drawer guides attached.

Detail of back stretcher and side drawer web
Web and dust panels in place, ready to glue back stretcher

In the pictures you can see how the side of the cabinet has a shallow 1/4″ dado for the web to sit in.  The dust panels were also shellacked prior to assembly.  So now the dust panel, drawer frame/web, and also the top rear stretcher are glued up.

Last detail on the case was to add the drawer guides between the three drawers.  The sides of the cabinet will be the outer guides but the inner guides were added afterwards.  I used a piece of Alder that is the same thickness as the dovetailed in, drawer dividers.  After planing them to match the dividers they were installed with screws only.  They are screwed through the bottom of the drawer frame and were a bit tricky to hold squarely in position so clamping it in place helped a lot.  I had considered glueing them but decided that just in case things didn’t work out the way I visualize it in my mind, I better be able to change them!

Planing drawer guides to flat & square
Attaching them squarely through bottom of drawer web

With the assembled unit sitting on top of the workbench I just couldn’t help myself!  Earlier I discussed my design considerations to access the electronics.  Since everything is controlled by remotes these days your options are:

  1. Open shelves
  2. Glass doors
  3. Solid doors with some type of relay system $$$

Since neither of those options appealed to me I investigated the possibility of using sliding doors.  If you’ve ever seen the plastic track that’s available for them it’s quite ugly!  I found an article in Fine Woodworking (Sept/Oct. 2004) written by Seth Janofsky showing how to make your own sliding door track.  I decided to go on faith and build follow the plans without making any type of mock up and you know what —- it works and I’m so happy!

Profile of sliding door
Proof that it works

I just had to make a mock up door out of some MDF and it works great.  The actual doors will be made out of a piece of Big Leaf Maple and should be stunning.  The concept is that the door slides on a very small portion of the bottom edge without bottoming out in the track.  I’ll do a more detailed post on it when I get to that part of the project.  I have my choice on where to go next; the pedestal base, the drawers, the sliding doors, or the top.  I do need to build up my inventory on the Etsy store and not get so obsessed with this project but it’s keeping me engaged for sure!

 

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Dovetails in Sapele — Tough, Fibrous Wood For Sure!

Posted on February 27, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn
HDTV Stand

Sketch of HDTV Stand

I’ve been working and experimenting with the cutting of dovetails in this Sapele that I’m using for the HDTV stand.  Although I’ve cut a fair share of dovetails, this material is proving to be a tough one to work.  Refer to the sketch at the left and there are dovetails on the dividers between the drawers and also on the bottom stretcher.  It dawned on me that besides the interlocking grain and generally fibrous nature of the Sapele I’m also cutting the sockets into edge grain which adds to the difficulty.  Usually, dovetails are cut into the end grain of the board which, as a general rule, reacts better to chisel work.

Honing my chisels

Honing my chisels

For starters I decided to make the work as easy as possible by first honing the chisels with an 8,000 grit water stone.  Only the micro edge of the bevel was touched up along with polishing the back.  My method of cutting details is to do the tails first.  The drawer dividers were the first to be cut this morning.  Cutting the tails wasn’t much of a problem since these are cut in end grain, it’s the sockets that present a challenge dud to the nature of the Sapele.

To match the barefaced dovetail used on the upper shelf, these needed to be cut at a 14 degree angle.  The joint for the upper shelf is a sliding one so I felt the need to use a router bit on that.  Once these were cut they were checked and squared up as needed.  If your shoulders and sides aren’t square it’ll be almost impossible to achieve a good joint.

Layout of 14 degree sides
Checking all for square prior to transferring

After carefully laying out the location of the drawer dividers work began on the sockets.  The two outer drawers are 13 1/4″ wide and the center one will be slightly wider.  Hard to divide 40″ equally into 3 parts!  Even after several practice dovetails I was very careful to saw to the line and mark out accurately.  This Sapele (have I mentioned it’s tough to work?) wants to split at the slightest provocation.  Being from Holland makes me a Dutchman and I must admit there are a few in this work!  Don’t know if you can see it or not, but one of the sockets ended up right in the middle of a swirl of contrasting grain.

Transferring tails to bottom stretcher
Unorthodox use of Stanley #271

I found that for this work the Stanley #271, small router plane is great to set the depth of the socket.  Although this is rather unorthodox, it really works well.  Since you’re cutting with the grain a marking knife or gauge line is hard to see.  The router plane leaves a thicker line that is easy to follow when marking with the grain.  It’s set just shy of the required depth so that I can fine tune it with a chisel.

Work in progress
Enhanced photo to show fibrous nature of this wood
One down, seven to go!

I have a friend by the name of Bill who asked me whether my work would be completed quicker if I didn’t take the time to photograph the progress and yes Bill — it would but then I couldn’t share my trials and tribulations with the world.  Now that one is done I’m hunkering down and working on the rest!

I do want to acknowledge a tool maker.  He is Robert Zajicek and he makes beautiful woodworking tools.  Here is a LINK to his website.  Whenever possible I prefer to buy from small shops and especially avoid big box stores and all of the Chinese imported junk.   Since I’m a very small business that appreciates people seeking me out I like to do the same.  Recently I ordered one of his quality marking knives, the Kerf Cadet II and although it works great in most woods this Sapele hasn’t cut as well.  I emailed him this morning and he responded within a few hours.  He mentioned that Sapele is a tough wood to work and suggested I re-hone the knife on a fine stone which I did at the same time the chisels were honed.  The point is, try getting that kind of response from your local Big Box store or internet purchase from China!  I’ll gladly pay a little bit more for a quality product and real customer service.  Here’s a few of the lay-out work:

Initial scribed lines with Kerf Cadet II
Marked in with a sharpened pencil

It’s difficult to really see the lines but at least they are visible.  I use the trick of sharpening a pencil to a sharp point with a chisel to fill in the scribed line and even with my eyesight, I can see to cut sockets.

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A Tricky, Half-Blind Carcass Dovetail

Posted on February 25, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn
Poor picture but joints are visible

Poor picture but joints are visible

I’ll admit it, like so many other woodworkers I’m enthralled with the dovetail joint.  Yes, it’s probably been romanticized but the truth remains that it is a joint that works because of it’s mechanical design and angles.  Whenever I teach a student about the dovetail I’ll mention that this joint has been found in ancient wooden items and is still sound!  So, here’s the one that is tricky but will work well for the top of the carcass.

Trick from Tage Frid

Trick from Tage Frid

The reason I find this joint somewhat tricky is that you’re cutting down into end grain.  Too hard of a blow with your mallet and could split the entire piece!  Add to that the hardness of this ribbon grain Sapele and the fun and stress just continues to multiply!  I used a couple of techniques here that I found in my research so will pass them along.  First of all, this dovetail is about 3/8″ thick and 5/8″ long which means there isn’t a lot of cutting to be done with your dovetail saw but; you need to cut the wood at the bottom.  Tage Frid had a technique in his book where he used  a piece of cabinet scraper to complete that cut.  I had a very thin piece of card scraper that I used.  In his book the joinery is cut with a bow saw which has a pretty wide kerf so he showed a thicker card scraper.  According to the text, you don’t want this to be a sharpened piece of metal since that could split the wood!  I was very careful and gentle with the small hammer I’m using!

The other trick I used on this project is one I found on a Lonnie Bird video.  On it he showed removing the waste from a half blind dovetail by using a smaller chisel and cutting down on the end grain.  Usually the wood you remove is split along the grain and worked back to the shoulder line.  The Sapele has a tendency to split along the grain so I experimented with Lonnie Birds technique and found that it worked well.

Small chisel to remove waste by cutting end grain
Resulting cut
DovetailCarcass-WoodworksbyJohn-CustomFurniture-LasVegas-6

Small router plane and fishtail chisel

Once the bulk of the material was chopped out this way it became a matter of paring to the lines like you normally do.  What was awkward about this as compared to smaller work like a drawer is how to secure it in the vise.  That’s always a challenge because if you can’t hold what you’re working on securely your work will be sloppy.  There are a couple of things that make cutting this joint easier for me.  One is to use the Stanley small router plane to help maintain the proper depth of the socket and the other is using a Lie-Nielsen fishtail chisel to work into those corners.  You see both of them in this picture.

Practice twin, 14 degree dovetail for bottom stretcher

Practice twin, 14 degree dovetail for bottom stretcher

The twin dovetails that will be used for the front, bottom stretcher will have their own challenges but at least I won’t be cutting down into end grain on the ones just completed. My practice one turned out quite nicely so hopefully the real ones will go as well tomorrow.  This is what the practice one looks like, the angle is 14 degrees to match the machine cut one on the shelf above.

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Woods Cut, Joinery Started, TV Stand Progress

Posted on February 23, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn

In my last blog I talked about the bare faced dovetail joint I will be using for this project. I also mentioned how I’m calling this my “challenge project” because I want to try a number of techniques I haven’t done on this scale.  The main thing is to use solid wood for the entire cabinet along with a lot of hand cut, dovetail joinery.  Makes me a bit leery of posting this for all the world to see (well, at least my blog readers) but what the heck, the byline on my blog says that I’m “sharing my thoughts and decisions” so I suppose I’m committed!

WoodworksbyJohn-LasVegas-CustomFurniture-HDTVStand-Joinery-1The first thing to do was to cut those bare faced dovetails that will connect the two sides together with the main shelf.  Yes, router work is quicker than hand work but it’s also quicker to mess things up!  Before routing the socket for this joint, the inside surface of the cabinet was finished with a smooth plane.  Really can’t do that later as it would change the fit.

Next step is cutting the socket. This is definitely a case of measure twice and cut once.  The initial cuts were made in two passes with a 1/2″ cutter to a depth of 3/8″.  That bit was swapped out for the dovetail bit, the fence moved 1/4″, and the cut made.  Amazingly enough, even though I used a tape measure to make these settings the groove itself is only 1/64 wider on one side than the other.

Initial cuts, fence set at 10 1/4″ from end
Dovetail bit installed, depth set using test piece
Fence moved 1/4″, cut with dovetail bit
Slight variation cleaned up with Stanley #71

 

Now, here’s the somewhat ironic part of this joinery story!  When I was at San Francisco State University it was important to not only cut your joints but get them glued up the same day.  Why?, well when the fog rolled in the next morning the increase in humidity would cause the wood fibers to swell and what was a good fitting joint became difficult to assemble.  Here in the desert, I’m experiencing the opposite of this.  Two days ago the fit on this joint was as close to perfect as I could get after fine tuning the flat side with a rabbet block plane.  Now, there is a very slight space and I think it’s because the wood dried a bit after being exposed.  Not a huge concern though, it may reach an equilibrium but if not a small Dutchman will conceal it.

HDTV Stand

Sketch of HDTV Stand

The bottom piece of the cabinet will be 3″ wide with twin dovetails into the side for the front.  The top piece is dovetailed into the sides and serves as the upper track for the sliding doors as well.  The back of the cabinet will be a panel and frame piece to create a square and solid case.  After cutting these pieces to the inside dimension of the cabinets plus 5/8″ for the dovetails I used the tablesaw to rabbet the ends, the rest of the joinery will be hand cut.

First cut for rabbet, note notched stop block to clear sawdust
Tenon jig used for second cut for rabbet
L-Shaped Fence for tablesaw

L-Shaped Fence for tablesaw

The workday ended by cutting another rabbet on the inner, back  side of the cabinet.  Here’s where using an L-shaped fence in addition to the rip fence comes in handy.  You don’t need to add a sacrificial piece and can see exactly where the cut will be made with your dado head.

 

 

Sliding Door Track

Sliding Door Track

The final thing accomplished is beginning the work for the sliding doors.  Here’s where I have to go out on faith.  I’ve mentioned my design considerations for them and the commercially available plastic track is just plain hideous! I found an article in Fine Woodworking magazine by Seth Janofsky showing how he makes his own track for sliding doors.  This was in the September/October 2004 edition.  The first part is to cut the track in the shelf and also the top, cabinet case member.  I followed all of his directions including drawing it out to visualize it.  The work was done with a 1/2″ wide dado blade in the tablesaw and what you see is the final result.  Definitely have to pay attention to what surface — ah yes, I love the challenge!

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Bare Faced Dovetail: Critique Requested

Posted on February 19, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn

WoodworksbyJohn-BarefacedDovetail-Exp-9In my last blog I talked about the joinery considerations for the TV stand project.  After lots of research and some inquiries on the Woodweb forums I’ve decided that the joint you see pictured here is the way to go but I would be interested in hearing thoughts from other woodworkers.  This is my sample joint and the real one will be about 7″ down from the top of the board.  In Ernest Joyce’s Furniture book a sliding dovetail like this is referred to as a barefaced dovetail (pg.178).  With the size and weight of these pieces a tapered, sliding dovetail seemed to be tricky at best.  Also, the case will need to be assembled and disassembled many times to check how the sliding doors fit and the drawer web construction.  With only the bottom of the joint having the dovetail angle, that will establish the shelf location.  The top, being flat can be fine tuned with a rabbet block plane to fine tune the fit.

Here’s how I went about cutting this joint:

3/8 Rabbet bit on scrap to set depth
1/2″ straight bit set to depth on that scrap
1/2″ straight bit for initial pass on cabinet side
Fence moved 1/4″ to right. Recut with dovetail bit set at same depth with scrap piece.

At this point I now have the female side of the joint cut into the cabinet side.  Next up is cutting the corresponding joint on the shelf.  It begins with leaving the depth set as it was and cutting half the dovetail on the end of the shelf.  Then, the 3/8″ rabbet bit is used on the opposite side:

Dovetail on shelf end
Rabbet on opposite side of the end

Now it became a matter of fine tuning the joint to where it will slide together without too much problem — router plane and rabbet block plane are used to achieve that:

Router plane to fine tune socket
Rabbet block plane to fine tune tail

The joint slid together fairly easily so my thoughts are that even when it’s twice this long, my success should be the same!  To fit the bottom and top members of the cabinet I’ll be able to flip the shelf over to the rabbeted side and clamp the sides temporarily as I fit the top and bottom case members.  These will be hand dovetailed in the usual manner.  I won’t need to fully insert the shelf until the final assembly.  My plan is to use liquid hide glue on the final 2″ or so which will secure the shelf in front (and keep it flush) but still allow it to move in the socket with temperature changes.

So, how does this sound to you fellow woodworkers who’ve taken the time to read through all of this?  I really would appreciate any thoughts you may have because you know once the glue is on it darn well better work!

 

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The Challenge: TV Stand Project

Posted on February 19, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn

Well, I’ve been holding off beginning to blog on this latest project because of the complexity of the piece.  Since doing the family room remodel it’s obvious that the table we now use to hold the television isn’t adequate so — what better excuse to design and build something new!  I’ve made many pieces of furniture using panel and frame construction or hardwood plywood for the sides with solid, mortise and tenon face frames but never attempted a large cabinet like this made completely with solid material.  I’m basing much of the sizing from Thos. Moser shaker designs, most of his drawings show 1 1/8″ thick material.  Here is my initial design sketch:
HDTV StandOver-all it’s approximately 26″ tall, 16″ deep, and 50″ long.  Since I dislike open shelves or glass doors to house the media components that are operated by remote control the two doors at the top are sliding.  Here’s one challenge, I’m making my own track which will be routed directly into the shelf at the bottom and into the top frame member.  I’ll be using a piece of Big Leaf Maple mail ordered from Woodworkers Source in Arizona.

My next challenge will be all of the dovetailed construction the design calls for.  This has caused many sleepless nights and lots of research not only in my reference books but also on the web.  The size of the shelf is what is tricky, a tapered sliding dovetail seems like the best way to go but the process of making this complicated joint is daunting!  I’ve used sliding dovetails in small, solid lumber cabinets but never in one of this size.  I will also need to take this shelf in and out several times during the construction of it which isn’t recommended for dovetails.  After some experimentation I’ve come up with a bare-faced dovetail combined with a dado that I think will do the trick.  Look for a separate blog on that coming soon — the joinery work has been done.  Below the sliding doors will be three, dovetailed drawers and the entire unit will sit on a pedestal as shown.

Last of all, here’s a “shout out” to Woodworker’s Source in Phoenix.  I put a link to them above but after a discussion we had at the latest Sin City Woodworkers meeting about customer service from our local lumber suppliers feel this is warranted.  First of all, I’ve done mail order with them for probably 10 years or so.  When my wife was in galleries in Scottsdale I would stop there too whenever I delivered paintings to her galleries.  The piece of Big Leaf Maple I mentioned was one of their “one of a kind” boards and delivered to me here in Las Vegas.  I needed about 50 board feet of 6/4 Sapele and wanted to pick out my own lumber so it was time for a road trip.  Before going there I called and they had about 700 bf in stock.

It’s about a 5 hour drive and when I arrived the boards in the bin were pretty well picked over so decided to check out the warehouse.  One of the guys asked me what I was looking for — 6/4 Sapele in as wide of board available.  He pulled down a unit of 10 footers that were anywhere from 5-9″ wide and beautiful.  He set them down in a corner and I selected what I needed.  I took my time and marked them with chalk to coincide with my cutting list.  I re-stacked the pile, having worked in a lumber yard in my younger days I always do that and suggest you do too.  They cut the boards to the sizes marked and also straight line ripped them for me.  My jointer is a #7 Stanley so this is well worth the .25 per board foot to me.  Also picked out some 6/4 Maple to be resawn for the drawer sides.  The point I want to make is that the people at Woodworkers Source are really great to work with.  Their customer service is top notch and that’s the same whether you shop there in person or go through mail order.  In all the years I’ve bought wood from them I’ve never been disappointed.

Loaded up at Woodworkers Source in Phoenix
Better look at what I bought, 52 board feet of 6/4 Sapele plus Maple.

 

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Roman Shades = Custom Pull

Posted on February 16, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn
FamilyRoom-Remodel-Drapes-1

New Roman Shades

Well, I did say a post or two ago that it was the last of the blogs about our recent family room remodel but —- guess what?  Here’s another!  If you work around your own home does it ever feel like there’s no end to it all?  Happily, my wife has a great sense of style and design so our house stays up to date and a wonderful place to spend our time together.  A high school friend of mine who I’ve re-connected with through Facebook has a design blog which is always inspiring, it’s called The Good Life of Design and is a good source of inspiration.  Her style is coastal beach and even if that’s not your focus, her blog is a good read.

When we took down the original Roman Shades that Diane made for the house her first thought was to simply replace the cords and the numerous plastic rings that the sun had eaten up — well, not so easy!  The desert sun was brutal, as a result the lining was so bad it was impossible to sew or repair.  Our first instinct was to go the quick and easy route and contact one of the many companies that specialize in blinds.  Kind of had the thought going in that we wouldn’t be satisfied with their offerings or pricing so Diane was off to the various fabric stores to find just the right material and she succeeded!  Just as she was about to give up on her quest she came across this fabric and bought 15 yards to do the job.  She didn’t know until checking out that it was all on sale, ironically the lining ended up costing more than the face fabric!  Next on the agenda was to find rings and cord which she ended up buying on line.  The rings are brass so will never deteriorate from the sun, unfortunately the storms back east delayed the shipment so Diane was “chomping at the bit” to get the job complete.

There were a total of 6 shades, two for the doors (25″ or so), two for narrow windows (36″ or so), and then two more for the large windows (75″ or so).  That’s a lot of fabric and sewing to say the least!  Ended up taking the assembly table from the shop and putting it on her sewing table to have enough room and support for the fabric.  That was a lot of sewing for her to complete but the final results are beautiful.   For my contribution to this job I only needed to re-size the mounting boards and change the eye-screws for the cords to run through.  The shades are attached to the mounting boards with velcro which makes it easy to align them as needed.  Believe it or not, the windows aren’t all square or level to the world so being able to adjust them is crucial.

Check out that shaving!

Check out that shaving!

New pulls were made from a piece of 1″ square Poplar.  This began by first planing the surfaces.  I felt a bit like Rob Cosman as I planed this wood.  The shaving came out just like it does for him in a YouTube video on planes.  I’ve given you a link to it in case you’re wondering what I’m talking about.  Once the piece was squared and smooth the edges needed to be chamfered which was done with a block plane.  So much nicer doing this type of work with hand tools as compared to a router, shaper, or table saw.  Quicker and better finish too:

Drawing out 1/8″ line for chamfer
Block planing to the line

After the piece was shaped and felt good to the touch the individual pulls were cut, they’re about 3″ long.  Here’s a sequence of the finishing steps to this project.  We’re happy with the results of the entire job but I’d bet there will be subtle changes moving forward!

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Repair Job on a Custom Stool

Posted on February 9, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn
WoodworksbyJohn-StoolRepair-1

Ouch!!

In my last blog I mentioned that a previous client of mine called me with the news that one of the stools I made for him had an accident.  He told me the stool has survived many parties and grandkids but just couldn’t take being toppled onto the floor. This is how things looked when he brought it by.  Apparently the back got tangled in something which brought the stool down.  Just a side note, you always hear that the glued section of a piece of furniture is stronger than the original wood.  This was proven here, it’s the wood that failed, not the glued up joint.

WoodworksbyJohn-StoolRepair-2The back of the stool is a curved, laminated piece that consists of 2 pieces of Chakte Kok sandwiched around two pieces of Maple.  Each piece is about 1/8″ thick, they were laminated together with plastic resin glue.  The way they are attached is with epoxy and a single screw that has been concealed with a Maple plug.  There was very little room to countersink the screw and then apply the plug.  As you can see, the screw ripped out of the one side so it needed to be removed.  The other side was still attached but the top of the leg has some cracks in it.  I decided against trying to drill out the plug to remove the screw, there just isn’t enough meat to firmly re-attach everything.  Epoxy and clamping over-night seemed to be my only option.

Trying to put parallel clamps on a curved surface like this stool back wasn’t going to happen!  My first step was to create a caul with the same curvature as the back of the chair for clamping.  A short piece of Alder fit the bill:

WoodworksbyJohn-StoolRepair-10Once the fit on the caul was acceptable it was cut in half, one for each side.  To protect the surrounding wood everything was taped off and the leather seat covered.  The cauls were attached to the front of the back with double stick tape.  After a dry fit it was time to do it!  I’ve mentioned before and most woodworkers will agree that glue ups are always stressful.  All of your work can be ruined by one mishap — now add the fact that this is 5 minute epoxy and there is a definite time frame.  Suffice to say, I was pumped up!  Forgot to take a photo of all the clamps used but there were enough to do the job.  Although the directions for the epoxy said you only need 30 minutes of clamp time I allowed overnight time before removing the clamps.  Kind of held my breath and crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t hear any popping or cracking noises as the clamps released the pressure — all was silent!

Clamps removed

Clamps removed

After removing all of the tape there was still a bit of residue from the epoxy which was removed with a sharp chisel and X-acto knife.  The large split was smoothed down as well.  Really glad that the finish I use is so simple to rejuvenate and hide minor imperfections.  It’s a 3 part mix of turpentine, boiled linseed oil, and poly urethane that is wet sanded into the wood.  I did an initial application with 400 grit paper and then additional coats rubbed in with denim.  These were buffed out, since the front of the back had a few scratches on it it too was re-coated.  Here’s what it looks like now, much better if I do say so myself.

WoodworksbyJohn-StoolRepair-9

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From the Bar to the Desk!

Posted on February 7, 2014 by woodworksbyjohn

No, that’s not what I did last night — I work with a local interior designer from time to time.  She owns and operates Urban Ranch General Store here in Las Vegas.  Durette has hosted my work in one of her featured artists shows and also has a few of my pieces in her studio.  Well, she called me and asked if I could modify a chair for one of her recent design jobs.  Her client wanted to take one of the bar stools and convert it to a desk height chair instead.  Here’s the original bar stool on the left and the modified desk chair on the right:

The tall and ……
….. short of it!

The current seat height was 24″ which is too tall for a desk.  The client asked for casters as well.  The limiting factor with this project was the foot rest.  Even though it’s screwed into position (rather than tenoned) moving it wasn’t feasible.  I knew there were many different styles of casters but was somewhat surprised by the pricing.  Seems as if the readily available ones were all 2″ in size and roughly $5.00 a pair.  Then they make a huge jump to $30.00 – $60.00 for a set of 4.  After consulting with my client, we chose the lesser priced ones for this project.  Fairly straight forward job, the only complications was having to deal with the screws which were centered in the leg.  Because of that the stem mount for the casters is off center.  Here’s a photo essay of the process:

These assembly screws dictated caster placement.
Tape to protect finish, first tried a flush cut saw.
Flush cut saw had too fine of a cut so went to Japanese Razor saw.
Stick clamped on leg to guide drill bit angle.
Bottom painted and casters installed.

By the way, stools seem to be the current trend.  If you’ve followed my blog for a while you may recall the Dovetail Chair I designed back in 2010.  From the publicity I received after being an awarded an Honorable Mention at the Design in Wood competition I made a set of bar stools for a local client.  He called me a week or so ago, heart broken because he knocked one of them over and split the back!  Even though this commission was 4 years ago I want to see if I can fix it some way.  You can see that stool in the last picture, here’s a LINK to the final blog of that project.

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