Whoops

I realized that I haven't shared what I've been up to in a while, so here goes. Here is epoxy tinted with black acrylic paint that is filling a knot hole in the breadboard shelf. The breadboards were made using the same technique that I used for the stretchers. The ends have a groove, and a matching mortise for the breadboard tenons. The ends are also slightly longer than the shelf so they can be mortised into the legs. Here is a shot of the mortise being drilled in a leg. It was later squared up. Before assembly I made some small mortises in the inside of the stretchers.

These will accommodate the buttons that will affix the top.

This is a picture of the dry fit, which is very important.
And a picture of the actual glue-up: I did this in two stages, first I glued the long stretchers in, then after they dried, I glued in the back-stretcher, the front drawer runner, the other thing that goes above the drawer (that's the technical term for it), and the breadboard shelf to the legs.

With the base done, I turned my attention to the drawer. First I glued some runners onto the inside of the stretchers. I also put in some drawer guides. These have a small rabbet that allows me to trim after they are installed by only using a block plane on its side. If there was no rabbet, I would have to use a plane whose blade extends the entire width of its body in order to get right into the corner.

Mike Wenzloff Saw Kit

A while back I ordered a saw kit from Mike Wenzloff. After some helpful emails he helped me decide what exactly I wanted. I ordered a 16" tenon saw kit, with about 11 TPI (I can't remember the exact toothing), sharpened rip. The entire saw including shipping, sharpening, and saw nuts, was $75, which is an amazing bargain.

When it arrived it was 100% worth the wait that is associated with most custom made tools. As you can see, my kit came with 3 saw nuts, the saw blade (without the holes drilled in it), and a pattern for the handle. The quality on this is amazing, especially considering the price.

I have a piece of nice bubinga that I might use for the handle, but right now, I'm going to focus on the side table project, though I might be able to fit in making a handle for this beast.

Mike Wenzloff's Web Site:
http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/

Shelf Glue-up

To make large panels, you have to either buy stock that is wide enough, or you must glue two (or more!) boards to make a wider one. For the shelf, that is exactly what I did. First I flattened one face, and squared one edge square to the flat face. I do this to both boards. To do the glue-up, I have the flat faces facing down on another flat surface (in this example, my saw bench) and put some clamps across the joint. The small clamps and holdfast help keep the flat faces from moving and potentially bowing of cupping. After the glue is done drying, I flatten the face that I flattened before, to make one flat face on the panel. Then I scribe a line of desired thickness, referencing off my flat face, and plane to the line. Finish up with a smoothing plane.

Measure Once, Mark Twice

Relative dimensioning is a very important concept. When I make my design, I know that my final product will not have exactly the same dimensions as my design. No one cares if the side stretchers are exactly 18", or if they are 17 61/64" long. The eye will not notice this. The eye will notice gaps however. This is why I measure once, and mark twice. First I measure out the distance between tenon shoulders for the left side stretcher (18"), and then I lay the right stretcher next to it and mark a line next to where I just marked. This way, I have two stretchers with the critical dimensions identical. I do this for most of my components, usually measuring once with dimensions from my plan, and then transferring these marks to other components. When you are doing this you must keep track of your reference faces, and only reference off them. This will ensure consistency. A reference face is a part of a board (ex. the face, the edge, the end) that you know is exactly flat and square to the other reference faces on the board.

Using the techniques explained above, I got a lot done on the table. I started with the legs, sawing them out, and then planing them down to 1 1/2" square. As you can see, I didn't notice a large crack in one until I cut it out, which annoyed me because it's a lot of work to cut them out.
The leg to stretcher joinery is fairly straight forward, it's all mortise and tenon. To make the tenons, I tried out a new method. First mark a heavy line for the shoulder. Then pare away some material to make a vee groove. This makes a very clean shoulder line when you go to make the crosscut shoulder cuts. The line for the shoulder is transferred all around the stretcher (remember to only use the reference faces to reference your square). Then I make the shoulder cuts and chop out the bulk of the waste with a chisel.
After the waste is chiseled out almost to the line, I switch to the router plane and make light passes to reach the line. This is one exception when you can work off a face that isn't a reference face. To cut the back of the tenon (on a non-reference face), you can reference the router plane's sole against the face, because the tenon will be trimmed again later.

This makes a very nice, consistent, and square tenon.The mortises in the legs are drilled out and cleaned up with a chisel.

New Mobile Site

I just created a mobile site for my blog, if you're on a iPhone or whatnot, you should be able to read my blog easier. It should automatically redirect you if you're one such a device. Let me know if you don't like it.

Next Project!

For my next project, I will be building a shaker-style side table. Here is my design, it will have tapered legs like the front right leg in the sketch. I'm still experimenting with what taper looks best, I think that I will try a more subtle one. I have mapped out where all the components will come out of the boards, and have broken down and stickered the boards. For this project I tried a new lumber supplier that is much closer to my house. I have never seen so much lumber in one place before. It was so much fun, they had outbuildings full of all sorts of stuff. The only thing I didn't really like was that the boards were kind of hard to sift through to find one I really liked. I bought two 1" thick walnut boards, and one 8/4 walnut board, and one board of poplar. The widest board I will use for the top and shelf, and the thick walnut will be for the legs. The leg board is really nice, it's almost perfectly riftsawn, and even has a subtle curl to it. Unfortunately I had to cut it by hand, which took a while. I started by gluing the panel for the drawer together. It is a spring joint, and I simplified the glue-up by doing it on my wagon vise. This keeps everything flat.

Small Coffin Smoother- Part 2

As I left off, the plane was gluing. While the glue set, I worked on the rosewood sole. This involves cutting a hole for the blade to protrude through. I took some pictures, but someone (who will remain unnamed) deleted them. I'm sorry, because not only did they include visuals of what I'm trying to explain here, they included the answer to life, the universe, and the reason that my Pb & J sandwich is always squished.

To begin I drilled a series of small holes where the mouth will be. Then I connected them with a fret saw, and filed them flat. It is essential to leave the mouth too small, this can be opened up later. The bed angle needs to be worked into the back of the mouth opening. I made a ramp with the same incline as the bed angle, and used that to guide my chisel to make the cut. Leave the entire sole oversize, that can be trimmed down later. The sole is glued onto the body (after the surfaces have been smoothed and flattened) using epoxy. It is very important to align the parts accurately. I drove really small nails into the plane body, and clipped the heads so the protruded out about 1/16". This reduces the amount the sole will shift while being glued. Let the epoxy set according on what open time the package says. I didn't, I un-clamped it too soon, and the epoxy failed. So I had to re-glue the corner that came off.

The wedge is a nice looking design, but a hassle to make. It is at 10 degrees, to match the other angles. I sawed the angle out, and used my float (carefully!) to smooth the mating edges. With this done, I shaped the top portion using chisels, my float, and sandpaper. After the wedge, the plane is essentially done, I shaped the sides into a coffin shape, with a block plane and finished up with sand paper. To ensure crispness of all the details, I sanded first, and then cut the long chamfers with a spokeshave, and the short chamfers with my float. I flattened the sole of the plane with sandpaper and gave it two coats of oil.


Now onto the fettling. I was having problems with shavings just bunching up, and not being fluffy and nice. I opened up the throat area, removing any material that might have caused bunching, and tried it again. Definite improvement. Then I tried opening the mouth slightly and bingo! Nice easy planing. Here is a group shop, so you can see its size. It's really small. I can't tell a really big difference between this plane's resultant surface and my Stanley #4's, but it is a handy size, and works pretty well. One thing I don't like is the weight. I have to press pretty hard down onto it in order to get a good cut. But for a first wooden plane, not so bad!