Hand Tools

For the mini chest of drawers that I recently completed, I struggled to decide what type of drawer handles to use.  Eventually I chose small wood handles that angled on each side and had a tenon to fit into a mortise in the drawer face.  After making a couple of one-off prototypes to figure out sizing, I decided on a shape I liked.

The prototypes - one sticks out 3/8", the other 1/2"

I needed four of these handles.  Sometimes when making small parts like this, it makes more sense to make them all from one stick of wood, then cut them apart.  You can get greater consistency between parts, and it's far safer and easier to work with a longer stick of wood.

A 5/16" thick, 1" wide stick laid out for 6 handles. Always good to make extras just in case.

Routed out dadoes which will be tenons later

Then removed the tenon sides

I used this "stop" to chisel a bevel on the wide sides (top and bottom of handle)

You can see the beveled shape with the piece on edge

Then I used the stop again to bevel the edges (sides) of each handle

The tenon areas were made longer than needed so that I could cut the tenons off at the length I wanted (1/4") and still have some cleanup to do on a shooting board to get the next handle ready.

Cutting off a handle with 1/4 long tenon

That leaves the next handle with extra material ...

... that I remove safely on the shooting board

The tenons were just over 3/16" thick and they fit nicely into mortises chopped into the drawer fronts.

One handle fitted

The moral of the story is this.  When making multiples of small parts, it makes sense to lay them out on a stick much larger than needed for a single piece.  It's easier to lay out this way, safer to do the cutting, and the repeatability is probably better, too.

After more than a month being out of commission, between family gatherings and what my dear old Dad would call “the epizootic,” as of yesterday I am back in full swing.  Not quite full strength and speed, but that will come with ongoing activity.

I am now fully caught up with all my orders of polissoirs, waxes, and videos.  Interestingly, for the first time in many years I got zero orders for Christmas gifts (the buyers always tell me).  I’m looking forward to getting my PayPal annual statement, I am expecting that this past year I only sold half as many as the year before.  Perhaps the market is saturated.  Given that at this point it is just barely even a hobby I am fine with that.  In looking backward, I noticed that the shipping/postage costs for my first order more than a decade ago was $2.97, padded mailer included.  My latest per unit shipping cost is now approaching $8 for padded envelope and postage.  Good thing it is not a growing enterprise on which I am pinning my retirement hopes!

At the moment my greatest concern is my supply.  My broom maker has also been under the weather and unable to make any new inventory since the beginning of November.  If this continues, I’ll soon be out of stock.  Fortunately, I spoke to him this week and he is confident he can be back in his own shop in a week or so.

Wish him well. Perhaps now he will take me and his wife seriously when we implore him to train a successor.

‘

 I am not somebody who gives a rat's ass about original boxes tools came in. I have the original box for my Stanley #59 along with the instructions for it. Today I made a new, wooden box for it. I'll put the original instructions in the new wooden box and I'll save the original box. I've seen Stanley boxes for sale on eBay for high prices that seem to sell real quick. I just hope who ever gets my workshop doesn't shit can the empty boxes I have - a mix of Stanley and Lie Nielsen.

final prep

Sanded the poster frame, first the wood putty on the nails, and then the frame itself on both sides.

done

Ready for milk paint. A little hesitant about making it. There are a lot of variables with milk according to the author. Before I go pissing away $$$ on milk I'll do a wee bit more research.

hmm....

My wife wants this corner of the boneyard for a reading room. I'm thinking of taking down the beach painting and putting the wood post frame there. The bigger headache is where am I going to put all the crappola I have in the boneyard?

wee bit off

Using 6mm plywood to make the box for the Stanley #59. The miters don't line up at the toes - one is a wee bit longer than the other.

shop computer is back

Got it up and running. Ubuntu is different then Linux Mint but I am slowly working my way around the OS. It is going to be a few days before I get used to having this one to look at. Here I'm watching the Wrist Watch Revival YouTube channel. 

correct sequence

Miter the corners first and then do the groove for the top and bottom. No blowout on the grooves or the exit. I made the bottom groove a few frog hairs higher than than the top groove is down. Concerned about the weight of the #59 bearing on a thin web of plywood.

checking

Making sure that there is sufficient room for the jig. Nothing will ruin your day quicker than being a frog hair too short. That over sight has bit me on arse more than once.

double, triple checking

I think I dodged the big one, but not by much. I accounted for the top and bottom panels but not for the lid separation. I think I'm ok but my spatial ability lives in a shit can.

glued and cooking

The top and bottom panels were snug fitting and they could have kept the box together while the glue cooked. But to be safe, I used the band clamps top and bottom.

bit of a pain

In the Stanley cardboard box all the bushings were tossed in to roll around loose. Don't like that so I made this block to hold them. It was difficult to find the correct size drill bit to drill for each bushing. I used two metric drills, one for the 1/2" bushing and the other for the 3/8" one. Used imperial drill bits for the others. I was shooting for a 64th over the OD for each one.

hmm......

This is the depth stop and the id is a 1/2". I have a few ideas for securing this one but I need the box done first. I need see how much room there is in the corner I'm thinking of using for this.

hmm......

It has been over an hour since I glued this up but I'm not going to unclamp it now. It is mitered and I want them to stay clamped for a wee bit longer - till the AM at the earliest. I'll probably saw the lid off by hand because that will have the smallest kerf. The table saw kerf is a 1/8" and I don't trust the bandsaw to saw plumb

accidental woodworker 

Progressing in the discussion of mortise and tenon joinery, it is now time to bring in Domino.  Put simply, it is a way to make a pair of matching mortises into which is placed a manufactured tenon. Properly set up, it gives fast, precise mortising and an accurately fitting tenon. We all know Domino. I […]

not the worse ones

I only needed 4 but I ripped out 20. The five in my hand were the first ones I ripped. Each one bowed or cupped rendering them useless for moldings.

nope

I thought had left the trim router setup. I was wrong and I had to set the router bit again which is a time consuming PITA.

fiddly setting

I would set the bit and tighten it. Check the molding in the bit and it was off. Tightening the base would shift it up/down enough to throw it off. Wash, rinse, repeat a bazillion times before it was set properly.

I had to reset it three more times after the router was in the table.  Note to self: don't break down the router again so soon. I got 6 moldings for the outside routed and ready to go.

my only quibble (so far)

These are the leveling screws for the router base plate. They are exposed and could be accidentally whacked or bumped in the shop. I bought this table because of its portability and size. I'll have to find a hole to stick this in somewhere in the shop or the boneyard.

2nd coat

I was really surprised when I checked the handles and they were bone dry. No stickiness or any evidence and I had drenched these handles in BLO yesterday. I drenched them again and a couple of hours later they were dry again. Just a hint of stickiness - these handles were beyond bone dry. A couple of more coats upcoming.

hmm......

Bought this sander a while ago and I was hoping I could use it on the miters for the frame moldings. It only does vertical sanding - useless for what I needed.
 

it worked

I couldn't find/figure/use a backer for shooting one of the miters. I have a miter trimmer thing a ma bob but it went MIA on me. This kind of worked and because I'm painting the frame I used it. Any gaps in the miters will be filled with wood putty.

inside moldings done

I hand nailed the moldings on, both inside and outside. Miters looked decent but two corners were slightly misaligned. I'll have to address them with sandpaper and chisels.

working the outside moldings

I found the outside moldings a wee bit harder to do over the inside ones. I had gaps on two corners but no misalignments. One corner required sanding to level the toes before I could fill the miter with wood putty. Wonder if milk paint will cover putty? I'll find out.

done

I nail set all the nails and filled them with putty. I checked the poster in the frame and the frame is 1 1/2" bigger than the poster in both directions. The poster border is black which is the same as the frame color. I'll have to think of color for the matting that won't cause a jarring break between the two.

accidental woodworker 

hmm......

This came 3 days early, was it a plan to look good? Either way the wind blew on that I can finally make the moldings for the poster frame.

nope

I was hoping that my trim router, being a DeWalt clone, would line up on the DeWalt 611 screw holes. Spoiler alert - it didn't.

2x4 scrap

This is going to be the holder thing a ma bob for the router table. I left the thickness as is but ripped the width to 1 7/8". Lucky me there was no twist.

hmm......

I thought I saw something awry. The handle tapers away from the head to the left and the head is skewed slightly to the right. Felt funny hammering a couple of 1" brads into some scraps. I'll look at Lowes and see what they have for small hammers. My favorite hammer was a Craftsman I bought from Sears a bazillion years.

yikes

Houston, the vise handle is in the way. It was the same with the other vise on the sharpening bench. This was my preferred placement of the router table.
 

sigh

Three of the four holes were off. I had to use the rat tail to enlarge 3 holes.

M4 coarse

Checked the screws to determine whether they were metric or imperial. I expected metric because the trim router came from China.

WOWIE

I almost had an involuntary bowel movement when I saw the price of this - $16.99 from Ace Hardware. I had a partial can of BLO but it wasn't liquid, had no choice but buy a can.

test run

Used a scrap to set the router height etc etc etc. The right side of the bead has a quirk that I don't want. I want that to be round going straight down vertically.

got it

This is the look I was shooting for. The quirk on the left will go up against the frame. 

eyeballing the moldings

I mitered a couple pieces of scrap moldings for one, to see how it will look, and more importantly to help me with mitering the real moldings. Miters can kick my butt and especially so when it is profiled. Got a finished edge with a shadow line between it and the frame.

hmm.......

I tried 5/16" but I didn't like the width of the quirk - too little. 3/8" thick had the width I liked.

done

Got the blanks ready to rout with a couple for oops.

ugly looking

The fence had moved on me causing this 'step' on the end. It won't be a problem because I made both the short and long moldings 4-5" longer then needed.

hmm.....

I shot the miters to check how they laid up in the corners. All four looked good and none had any gaps dry fitted.

extras

While trying to not shxt my pants after seeing the BLO cost, I almost lost control when I saw the price of these screws - 95 cents each. But through experience they are worth the cost. I've lost router plate screws in the past. I'll put these extras in the trim router box.

thinking cap on

Both moldings blew out when shooting them with the plane. The bottom is ok and the blow out there just needs a clean up swipe with sandpaper. The top is problematic because the plane exits past the round over. That blowout destroys the round over. 

I don't have a left hand donkey ear jig so I have to shoot both miters on the right. I'll have to come up with some type of backer for the bead when planing this one.  

moldings are done

There was a slight quirk on the right side of all of the moldings that I sanded off. That side of the molding will be facing out and be visible. A 'line' like that will stick out when painted.

oops

Not a bad oops, just a forgot oops. I made the moldings for the inside of the frame but not the outside. Sure glad the router table and the table saw is still set - I'll whack out the outside moldings in the AM.

Got no shop time in the PM. I had two appointments at the VA in the PM to attend to. The heart doc said I'm good to go until next year. Pulmonary is going to schedule a bronchoscopy sometime next week? 

After I got back to the barn I had to bring my SATA Hard Drive to the computer shop. Ordered it from Amazon because Best Buy didn't have any internal hard drives in the store. 

I should be able to get the moldings attached to the poster frame tomorrow. Once that is done I can mix up my first jar of milk paint for the miniature chest. The 2nd attempt will be black milk paint for the poster frame.

accidental woodworker 

In the last video I showed that one of the two keepers used to hold the blade in the brackets snapped. These are the same keepers Chris from Blackburn Tools describes and supplies. After looking closely at the failure it became clear why it happened. The hole in the saw that the keepers pass through was biting into the steel. I do not know exactly what type of steel was used but we can see from the damage that it does not hold up very well over time. The idea with a part like this is not for it to last for a short while but to last indefinitely.

Another factor that likely contributed to the failure is how I was using the saw. I was leaving the saw under constant tension so it was always ready to use. This is not a good idea with frame saws or bow saws. When a saw is left under tension the hardware is under continuous stress. Steel under constant load can slowly deform or fatigue even if it looks fine on the surface. Wood also moves with changes in humidity and temperature and that movement can increase stress on the metal parts. Over time this combination weakens small components like keepers and clips and makes failure far more likely. Releasing tension after use greatly extends the life of both the saw frame and the hardware.

To solve the issue I went to visit Gerald at Complete Engineering. He is a fellow woodworker who has moved into metal work and he is extremely pedantic about what he does. After looking at the problem he suggested using stainless steel, explaining that it is much harder and more durable than the steel being used in the original keepers. After walking through both of his factories he managed to find a single stainless clip left in stock and gave it to me free of charge.

What really struck me was the time he gave me. Gerald spent a good half hour helping me work through the problem. Considering the size of his operation and how much work he clearly has on, I was genuinely lost for words at the kindness he showed.

Gerald then suggested I head over to Build It Fasteners in Molendinar. As luck would have it, just as I pulled into the driveway the owner was starting to close the roller doors. I showed him the clip I needed and without hesitation he knew exactly where it was. He also had only one clip left and he gave it to me free of charge. I tried to pay him but he flat out refused.

Two men I had never met before showed me an incredible amount of kindness. It was honestly a heartfelt moment of absolute gratitude. The irony that both of them only had one clip left was not lost on me either.

When I got back to the shop I hammered both stainless clips into a shape that matched the original keepers supplied by Blackburn. I then cut them to length with a hacksaw. The whole job took only a few minutes. Gerald was absolutely right. These stainless keepers are far better than the originals. There are no bite marks from the saw plate and they feel solid and reliable.

Sometimes a small failure turns into a good lesson. In this case it was about material choice, tool care, and the reminder that generosity still exists in abundance if you are paying attention.

To show my gratitude I would like to give these businesses a smal promo. Please take the time to visit their links.

Complete Engineering provides machining and fabrication services for industrial and building work. They handle custom jobs and ongoing work and have been operating in this space for many years.https://comeng.au/

Build It Fasteners supplies fasteners, tools, and related hardware for trade and construction use. They carry a wide range of standard and specialty items and provide practical advice when selecting the right products. https://www.builditfasteners.com.au/

Used together, these businesses cover both fabrication and supply requirements, making it easier to move projects from planning through to completion.

Answers to blog post questions posed in Known By Their Fruits

1: Why did this maker take a saw to each corner of the appliqued drawer bottom groove at the back of the drawer when no one would see it, ever? On each of the drawers, he cut this corner off, in situ, after the drawer bottom was screwed in place.

Answer: This extreme created an overhang over the next drawer down. This had the potential of catching items in the lower drawer. Sloping the leading edge this way reduced the risk of snagging fabrics, paper, and other items, nudging them away. Also, all of these back corners are ‘eased’, and ‘easing’ was the common practice so that when drawers passed back into their openings, inset doors too, it was common practice to bevel back the leading edges at all the corners. 

2: Why, out of the six drawers, did this drawer bottom split where the screws anchored the drawer bottom to the drawer back?

Answer: I removed all of the drawer bottoms to rework the insides of the drawers in one way or another, but particularly to sand them because they were actually left without any finish. As a result, the surfaces were fuzzy and unpleasant. I decided to sand them and finish them. The other drawer bottoms were well-fitted but not tight. Now this unit was made before central heating was developed and installed in every home. Park a desk like this near to a radiator or other heat source, and shrinkage will take place. Whereas all of the drawer bottoms had shrunk by 3/16” in the ¼” deep groove, this particular drawer bottom was tightly fitted in the groove and took some effort on my part to extract that ‘wedged leading front edge from its tight groove. In other words, there was enough retentive grip to prevent it from shrinking to the fixed point of the screwed edge, as in all of the other drawers. Something had to give, and in this case it was the screw-points of the back edge. I added an extra ⅛” to the front edges of all of the drawer bottoms.

3: Why was this common, through dovetail so gappy at the back but with no gap on the inside corner?

Answer: Speed was of the essence in an age where handwork was barely surviving the age of the Industrial Revolution. For every skilled maker at work, there were ten outside the gates and doors ready to take your place. Industrialism was replacing and thereby displacing skilled workers with machine made alternatives. It was hard to compete. But in this case, reading between the lines, I suspect he’d possibly given this individual drawer to his apprentice, as you can see the line of the inside of the drawer was precisely cut and neat. This wood being so soft, you could cut all the way from the inside face to the outside from one side. Here, I have these considerations: the cut was from the inside all the way through onto something solid and without a gap, so the cut was clean with no breakout; the maker was experienced and somewhat careless; the main maker was in a hurry to get the work done; or the work was that of an apprentice.

4: Why were so many repairs required to the front face marquetry veneers, especially at the corners?

Answer: These corners are really quite unprotected and rely on the glue alone. Through the main outer sources, there is little if any friction to pull the veneer away, but on the edges, there is friction if the drawer has any play at all in it. Rushed or careless closing will catch on the frame surrounding the drawer. Especially is this so with very thin veneers. Also, when the drawer is open, it can be subjected to clothing catching the corners of the veneer. Notice that on almost all of the drawer corners, 24 of them, there has been repair work to restore broken off veneers at the very corners, and this is because of the short length of the grain at that point.

It’s worth mentioning here that the main purpose of cockbeading was to protect the exposed corners of doors and drawers from being damaged. It’s much easier to replace damaged or broken cockbeading than it is the veneered surfaces and corners. Also, the extremes of wood veneers are a little like the edges of wallpaper that have curled away at the edges. The uptake of moisture coming from the edges will allow the veneer to expand and pull away from the core wood. Veneers are really ultra-thin solids of wood, and wood of every kind expands and contracts according to atmospheric moisture. The best way to protect wood is to apply a coat of resistant film or a penetrating oil that forms a barrier of one kind or another. Finishes shrink during the curing, and the breakpoint of sharp corners to edges creates  the narrowest thickness of finish, and in some cases no finish on the tight corners exists with any kind of continuity. That's the reason we remove the arris or lightly sand off the corner edges to a slight round.

5: Why did the maker use planted or appliqued drawer grooving instead of ploughing the grooves directly into the drawer sides?

Answer: These drawers are about as thin as they can be, and that’s to reduce the weight of the drawer. The grooves need to be no less than 3/16” (4.76 mm) to be of any real retentive value, especially at the leading edge to the front of the drawer. The drawer front is ⅞” thick, so the groove was ploughed in directly to ¼” (6.35) deep just fine. Ploughing that deep into the ⅜” (9.5 mm) sides would result in an ultra-weak point along the long axis of the drawer sides. Planting the groove from an independent piece added more wear surface and increased the strength of the bottom edges where the weight within the drawer would be. It’s also easier to plough a long length on the edge of a board and then rip it off to expose a new edge to plough again. That way you can then cut the grooved piece to length.

I also noticed that he had written ‘Plant’ to the pieces at different points in pencil and a cursive writing style, which might well mean that someone else was working on the cabinet and he was sending the message to someone else. It is worth noting that often a foreman did all of the laying out and allocation of materials to individual makers working on the same piece. Highly economical to do it that way.

6: Why did he use poplar as the secondary wood even where it could be seen in place?

Answer: Poplar is a relatively inexpensive wood compared to most other hardwoods and is a sustainable tree to source wood from. Also, the consistent density, lack of contrasting growth rings, uneventful patterns of growth made it a better choice than other softer, easy to work woods, including the whole softwood range, though something like old-growth eastern white pine from virgin North American forests (now long gone through greedy rich pioneers and investment companies on every continent) was popular too. Poplar has been used throughout the furniture industry for decades, whether for commercially produced furniture or in small workshops like mine. You can stain poplar to just about any colour you want, and it can be just about the easiest wood to match to other wood types. It takes stain and dyes well too. This is a soft hardwood, which makes it exceptionally easy to work with every type of hand tool. It grows to good widths and lengths and is very stable too. I had already disposed of the ‘evidence’ by the time I decided to create a blog post. Apologies for no pics.

Answers to blog post questions posed in Known By Their Fruits 1: Why did this maker take a saw to each corner of the appliqued drawer bottom groove at the back of the drawer when no one would see it, ever? On each of the drawers, he cut this corner off, in situ, after the...

Source

 

hmm......

Not sure if this is the correct way to handle a hammer head but it is the way I'm doing it. Slowly working down the head  until it will fit fully in the eye.

yikes

I was sharpening this draw knife by clamping the handle in the vise. I don't think I applied a ton of pressure but the handle said No Mas. The breaks were all clean and I had no problems getting the handle back to its original shape dry.

glued and cooking

I could have made another handle but I couldn't have made one like this. I don't have a lathe and this handle fits my hand perfectly. I'll let this cook for a few hours. The wood is dried out and I think that is why it split/cracked in the vise.

the before and after

The plan is to make the one on the left side to look kinda like the one on the right. I started by eyeballing the two to gauge how much wood to remove.

not yet

Gave up on the draw shaves. This piece of hickory is like working stone with a butter knife. Used flat and round bottom spokeshaves, two block planes, and couple of chisels. I was going slow doing frequent checks to gauge my progress.

big piece of hickory

The slow way seems to be working. None of the tools I was using were taking big shavings, but they were easier to operate over the draw knives. I was almost there - the hammer head would have gone on with a bit of gentle persuasion.

getting there

The hammer head is only around a 1/4" into the hammer head with about an inch to go.

my gauge marks

Used the ridge marks all the way around to gauge the next round of wood removal.

hmm.....

Thought I was going out into left field here. The eye is bigger than the handle. I thought initially I was going for a tight fit. 

almost done

Not happy with the gaps but I've seen about the same in the YouTube vids I watched. Once the wedges are inserted it should flare out the handle tight to the eye walls.

Yikes

I had the handle fully inserted into the eye. I wanted to remove it so I could clean up the fuzzy stuff before wedging it. I also wanted to separate it so I could finish shaping the handle. Ain't happening today boys and girls.

store bought handle

Decided to put the store bought handle on the hammer head. This hammer is for the grandson's toolbox.

took some work

The handle was too thick and I had to thin that before it fit. Not sure what to make of the gaps. The R/L is worse then the top/bottom. But this is the handle recommended for this size eye.

wedged

The handle came with a wooden wedge and two much smaller metal ones. No gaps at all and the wooden closed up almost all of them. The two metal ones were inserted at 90 degrees to the wooden one. The addition of those two closed up the remaining gaps. The head felt solid and secure.

hmm......

The handle feels off. It is too long for the size of the hammer head IMO. Overall I don't like the look of it. It feels off in the hand too.

still square

I bought this precision square back when I was going nutso rehabbing planes and old tools. The accuracy is way beyond anything needed for tool rehab but in for a penny, in for a pound. I made these wooden squares before Chris S at LAP did is big wooden square.

2nd one is still square too

I don't like using wooden squares and I prefer to use metal. Both of these wooden squares are displayed on my cabinet doors behind the workbench.

done

Scraped and sanded the handle smooth so I could eyeball the glue lines. All of the were tight with no gaps.

the sibling handle

It didn't like unbalance having one with a finish and the other sanded smooth. I'll buy a can of Boiled Linseed oil tod refinish the two.

Don't know if I want to make a hammer handle again. I don't like the store bought one at all. If I do I'll remove that handle and replace it with? 

This one was going ok until the handle broke while trying to remove the head.  I think now that the reason my other handle attempts failed was because I used softwoods. Although this handle is plain, there are curves and dips that are hard to execute in soft wood and especially so when there are knots and squirrely grain.

The Ubuntu OS is working fine. I am pretty much over the learning hump with a few more tidbits to figure out. But they don't interfere with surfing or posting my blog. The computer is so much faster. I expected a speed jump but it is a significant jump. Can't wait to see how the shop computer turns out.

accidental woodworker

toast

Before I pissed away calories and time again, I brought this to a computer shop to have them check it out. They said the boot loader was corrupt and that was why my installs were going south on me. He also told me that Linux Mint was buggy and I can agree with that. Nice display, easy to use, but it threw curve balls now and then at me. He recommended using Ubuntu. Said it was stable and support goes out to 2034.

current set up

Bit the bullet and I am having the computer shop blow in the latest Ubuntu version. Until then this is my computer setup. Small screen size of the laptop sucked. The keyboard is a PITA to use because several keys stick. Fingers crossed that I won't have to endure this torture for long.

no balls, no blue chips

I've had this handle to replace for over a year. I tried to make it a couple of times before and they were disasters (on scrap). Totally unrecognizable as a hammer handle. I've been watching a lot of tool handle vids on YouTube and I'm ready to jump into this again with both feet.

I got this piece of wood from a reader of my keyboard diarrhea and it is time to pony up. I don't know why I'm hesitating on this. I've always been a jump and do and let the chips fall where they may kind of a guy. Been cautious and slow because I don't want to waste the gift I was given.  

ouch

I forget what type of wood this is (hickory or beech?) and it is hard and difficult to shave wood off. I've had these draw shaves for over 25 years and this is the first real use of them.

sharp cures all

I vaguely remember 'sharpening' these with a file. Of course back then I was clueless on how to do it. I'm pretty sure I read it in a book (pre YouTube) on how to do it. This time I'm going to use my old diamond stones.

yikes

The business edge looks like crappola. I have no idea what caused the striations along the whole edge. I only did a cursory sharpening before I checked it on the handle. Big improvement. Still difficult to make shavings, but they were coming. Found that a smaller bite made the going much better.

4 hours later

I was surprised when the shop called me saying it was done. It is going to take some doing to get familiar with it. The biggest reason I went with this was Terminal supposedly works better in Ubuntu vice Linux Mint.

I will attest to that bearing fruit. I used the terminal to remove the admin user the shop had inputted to load the OS. I had tried this in Mint and got nowhere. Most of the terminal commands weren't recognized in Mint .

I brought the shop computer in to have them load Ubuntu on it too. They called me 30 minutes after I dropped it off to tell me the hard drive was toast. He said multiple sectors were corrupt. Understandable as the hard drive was probably used on the ark. I'll have to buy another SSD  hard drive and drop it off. 

Never got back to sharpening the draw knives. I'll pick that back up in the AM. Spent most the PM playing with the new OS. It will be a learning curve familiarizing myself how to work with this - trying to find and use 'settings' is a wee bit different now. But I'm good at '.....what does this button do....."

accidental woodworker 

 

started with this one

I got the Linux operating system (OS) on my shop computer with no headaches.  This OS blew in a lot cleaner and quicker then the last Linux OS I did. I got Fire Fox set up and signed into my google account with no hiccups. All was looking golden in Ralphie's workshop.

hmm.....

Made a left turn to play with the Stanley #59 doweling jig. I was clueless as to what this doo dad was. Labeled 3/16 -1/2 at the bottom.

test

Dug these 3 out of the shitcan for doweling them together. Laid out my marks and drilled some holes.

happy face

Glued the 3 up with no problems. The joints lines aren't dead flush but well within 1 frog hair. On top is a comparison look between the Stanley and the Dowel Max. I don't have a lot of time on the pond with either one but I can see where one would be easier to use then and other one.

it had instructions

Their were two instruction sheets in the box. The one on top of this one was for the dowel making jig. It is a depth stop - goes from 3/16 to 1/2 inch.

it was working

I updated the OS with all the updates and restarted the computer with no problems or hiccups. Surfed the internet and YouTube for a while and shut it down.

ditto

I went to Best Buy and bought a SSD Hard Drive. OS loaded as quick and easy as the shop computer. Did the same dance steps on this one too. Happy face on.

came yesterday night

I cost almost as much to ship as the lime. S/H and the tax were more than the lime itself. I decided to eat the extra cost to get clean Hydrated Lime. This 5 lb pail should last me a bazillion years.

booting up for the first time

Good feeling that none of the crappola I endured yesterday shook hands with me today.

my home page

This was the last thing I played/checked before bringing it upstairs. 

toast

Shop computer wouldn't boot up at all. Got nothing but nonsensical garbage. I don't understand what is wrong. It seems the longer the computer is off, the less the chance it will boot up.

back to the laptop

I left the computer on and made a run to the grocery store. When I got back I had to sign in because I forgot to remove the screen activity time out. The computer wouldn't recognize my password. Kept telling me it was incorrect. So I shut it off and rebooted it. This is what the screen said hello to me with. I couldn't get it past this screen. It is frozen and won't go past the initial boot up.

Earlier I had two functioning Linux computers and a few hours later I two heavy paper weights. I'm ready to go find my 3lb sledge and do some gentle persuasion with these )(*^&%(@&)_*%!%K!  computers.

The only bright spot in the day, other than the initial success loading the Linux OS, was the Stanley #59 doweling jig.

I'm convinced

Cleaned the test piece  with the #3. Big smile on the face. I remember watching my neighbor 40-50 years ago using a doweling jig. Don't know if it was Stanley but he used it to edge joint boards. The jig looked easy to use and I can see myself using it for a long edge glue up for alignment. Especially so if one or both boards is not straight. 

accidental woodworker 

 I'm happy with these. They are for my own use.

The blades are modified from other snipe planes. When I get some time, I will forge some new blades.

That’s correct, an update on a project never declared to be underway. To be transparent I’ve done many projects this year that seemed too lowly to meet these pages or my desire to write never materialized.

Early this year my largest customer declared that it would be nice to add some drawers and shelves into the walk in closet (for clarity this is not my wife). Noting a sense of urgency I began and after approximately a year have. Completed the build with only final painting and installation remaining. Why a year? It’s all about expectations, why deliver a project in a few weeks if you can spread it out and ensure that requests in the future have lower expectations.

The request was for three cabinets, one shelves only and two shelves and drawers and final color white. My only pause is my poor skills to paint anything white as learned from bookshelves made 20 years ago.

Three quarter plywood back and sides, half inch plywood back, three quarter plywood shelves with one inch trim for finish and strength. Trim around carcass is three quarter hardwood screwed and plugged. Tools – table saw, planer, handsaw, #4 Stanley plane and drill. Obviously mostly power tools. The drawers were put together using a routed joint.

Like most of the last couple of years I enjoyed the power tools challenges and continued to learn skills and techniques.

Yesterday I cleaned up my bench and swept the dust off the floor and turned off the lights. I’m thinking the next project will be mostly hand tools and back to cherry or oak.

 Today was one of those days where I felt like I walking through liquid fecal matter up to my armpits. Every thing I tried to do immediately went south on a bullet train. There were a few times where I had evidence of things going right only to hear laughter as the light went out. I'll attack this again in the AM and I don't plan on taking prisoners.

wristwatch size

The time keeping movement is a lot smaller than what I expected. I gave up on this and shit canned it. I let it go for over two days and nada. The hands didn't budge a frog hair. 

hmm.....

Yesterday I thought this was pendulum movement and I had lost the arm. It ain't so boys and girls, this is/was a non pendulum movement.

missed it

The pendulum movement arm has a magnet and the copper coil - those two are what keep the pendulum arm swinging right and left.

Spent the morning playing and failing with the movement that keeps time and Bim Bams.  However, it isn't Bim Baming correctly. It is singing 4-5 minutes before the hour. I played with moving the hands and nada. Came close a  couple of times but no cigar. After beating myself up with it for over an hour I said NO MAS.

another rabbit hole

My USB stick with the latest Linux Mint OS came two days early. This OS install made me feel like my IQ had dropped down into triple negative numbers. I couldn't get the computer to boot into the Linux OS. I went in and out of the settings so many times it was ridiculous trying different combinations. I tried to install it 7 times and 7 times I failed.

I had changed something in the RAID settings that the computer didn't like. The computer wouldn't even boot up into the start screen. I couldn't get into the settings to change it neither. I cleared this headache by pulling the BIOS battery.

In the end I think I have a problem with the hard drive. One recurring error was that it couldn't find something, it was missing. I couldn't feel any movement in it and I couldn't find in the settings. Not 100% sure of that and I'm kind of rusty with this. New Solid State drives are only $40 or so. If I change this it will be the last thing I try with computer. I have dumped enough $$$ trying to revive it.

dark as I feel

I looked and I think this computer will accept legacy IDE hard drives. I'll think about that over night.

the bright spot

I got Linux installed on the shop computer. Got the network connected and it was looking like people were dancing in the streets of Mudville. That didn't last long.

I messed up jumping ahead of myself and crashed the install. I tried to reboot it but I got a scrolling line of numbers. I was beyond frustrated at this point. The urge to give both of these computers free flying lessons was making my toes tingle. Killed the lights here and I'll attack this one in the AM too.

before I left

This is a Stanley doweling jig and it was on the table with the shop computer. Forgot I had it. To calm myself I made a bunch of holes. This is a slick and well designed doweling jig. I assumed that it was crude and not worth the calorie count to use. I was wrong, so very wrong. 

The vertical scale on the right is for the center of the dowel hole. The short scale on the left is for the size bushing. You align the bushing size with the measurement on the right scale. Changed my mind an opinion of this. I will definitely be considering using this in future projects. The one bright spot in a overall dismal day.

accidental woodworker

The sofra is now complete, and to my eye, the table looks good. I am very happy with how it turned out. The carving in particular stands out to me. I like it a lot and would like to repeat this style of carving in future projects.

Years ago, I used to follow a woodworker in Russia on YouTube who carved the most beautiful work I have ever seen. When my account was hacked, I lost everything and with it, I lost track of his channel. I do not know his name, and no matter how much I search, I only seem to get results from western countries. That is disappointing. I would really like to see how people in other parts of the world work wood and approach their craft.

The finish I used on this table is food safe. My preference for food safe finishes is tung oil thinned with a citrus solvent. You cannot use mineral spirits or turpentine to thin tung oil. They are petroleum based and not suitable for a surface that will be used with food. It is also important to use one hundred percent tung oil, not a blend. Many products sold as tung oil are mixed with other oils or varnishes. If you want to buy it, I highly recommend this company. You purchase directly from the source instead of through shops, which are middlemen, so the price is much lower. https://www.sceneys.com.au/product/tung-oil/

The citrus solvent is ridiculously expensive. A 4-litre (1-gallon) can costs $176. That’s why I only use it for food-safe projects and never for everyday work.

I prefer tung oil over mineral oil because tung oil actually cures. Once cured, it hardens within the wood and provides real protection. Mineral oil never cures. It stays liquid, continues to weep out over time, and needs constant reapplication. Tung oil, once cured, is stable, durable, and better suited for a table that may see regular use.

Tung oil takes about four weeks to fully cure. The table should not be used before that time. It may be possible to serve food on it with a tablecloth under the plates, but I am not fully confident recommending that before the cure is complete.

The legs of the table are turned and foldable. Unfortunately, the folding brackets are poorly made. I bought them from Amazon, and they took a month to arrive. On one leg, the rubber pad you press to activate the spring was torn in several places. After attaching the brackets to the legs, another bracket failed, and the leg now flops around.

None of the brackets properly secure the legs or lock them upright. You only press a lever to unfold the legs, but there is no solid locking system. Every bracket is flimsy, so the legs rattle instead of staying firm.

Lastly, the screws supplied with the brackets are very weak. You have to turn them slowly and gently, even when using a pilot hole. If you are not careful, the screw head can snap off, which is exactly what happened to mine.

If I were to make another table like this, I would spend more time searching for better quality folding brackets, assuming they exist. The table itself deserves better hardware than what was used here.

Welcome back folks, it’s been a while. A lot has happened over the past few months, and despite my best efforts it’s been hard to find the time to sit down and write. There’s so much I’d like to share here on the blog but between commissions, teaching, and the house renovation, time has become… Read More »Dining Room Renovation

The post Dining Room Renovation appeared first on Big Sand Woodworking.

 I had my follow up CT scan. It was over and done with in less then 3 minutes. Remarkable technology done with magnets. I don't know when I'll get the results. The doc will review that and the pulmonary function test I did last week. Can't really say how I feel about it. It could be good news, no cancer, or bad news. Either way I'm not going to obsess about it until the doc tells me the results.

happy face on

The router powered on and off with no hiccups. Turned it back on and cycled it up/down with the variable speed dial. Still haven't checked on the handles - I get the heebie jeebies every time I think of doing that.

it is all good

Sometimes memory changes can be a hassle to straighten out. The 12G I replaced had 3 different makers which isn't a good idea IMO. All 24G I installed is from the same maker and all are the same amount. Just need to get the latest Linux on the USB drive. Checked that and it is supposed to be here on monday. 

set for 1000

The minute hand is 30 minutes off but the Bim Bam sounded off on 1 thru 12 and then 1 to 10. I'll be using this movement for the clock project.

hmm.......

Haven't figured out where to place the speaker in the clock case. There isn't a lot of wire and that will limit my choices. It doesn't sound muffled at all laying against the 1/4" plywood. It might though up against 5/8" thick solid cherry. 

feels solid now

This movement is for a 3/8" thick dial board and I plan on using 1/4" plywood. With a 1/8" thick plywood spacer along with a rubber washer, the movement is tight and secure now.

cleaning up the wood species frame

Still wavering on completing this or sticking it in the boneyard. While deciding that fate I cleaned up the back frame which is butt jointed. No reason to go nutso on it . Flushed the four corners and checked them for square. Not necessary but I had nothing else on the hit parade to occupy my time.

planing all front facing surfaces

Paint lays down better on smooth surface. I will go over the entire frame with water to raise the grain before I slap any milk paint on it. 

worth it

None of this will be visible if this is hung on a vertical surface. I did it mostly for the practice. I checked and corrected as I planed the edges square.

how?

I was getting ready to put this aside because I thought I was done with it. Clueless as to how this chip/blowout happened. There is also one on the diagonal corner to this. Super glue and blue tape fixed it. Before I planed it I had scraped all the glue squeeze out off, inside and outside with a carbide scraper.

hmm.....

Giving it a try but it ain't working. The far edge looks kinda ok but the front edge is torn out. That aside it still didn't look like a 1/4" round over.

hmm......

None of the four round overs seem to work nicely. I couldn't get the same shavings pushing and pulling the tool. Since sharp solves a lot of headaches I sharpened the four of them with the supplied sharpening doo  dad with 320 and 500 grit sandpaper.

not much help

These still weren't working that good. The shavings were a wee bit better and easier to make but they didn't feel reasonably sharper in use.

much better

Nice shavings and they were about the same pushing and pulling. I used ceramic hones and slip stones to sharpen them this time. In spite of the better shavings, the round over still looked lopsided. There is no way I could use these to make a round over for the moldings on the wood species poster frame.

hmm.....

The larger round overs (3/16" &  1/4") were larger enough for the ceramic hones and slip stones. The two smaller ones (1/16" & 1/8") were too small for the ceramic hones and slip stones. I made some small dowels to wrap sandpaper around that worked.

I didn't have a warm and fuzzy about sharpening these. Do you sharpen/hone both sides of each size? What I did was to lightly rub the flat side (bottom part in the pic) with 400 grit to knock back the burr. I used from 240 to 500 grit on the other face that makes the shavings (far top of the pic).

Another thought occurred to me while I sharpened these - will repeated sharpenings enlarge the profile hole? The four round overs are 1/16", 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4".

ready for paint

My hydrated lime for making milk paint is coming tomorrow. I've been reading my book on making milk paint reviewing the recipe and I'm ready to try it. Blue for the miniature chest and black for this picture frame.

accidental woodworker

A chisel or plane leaves its trace identity in the surface of wood in similar fashion as the shell of a bullet discharged by any firearm identifies the gun, but not really the exact same. With a firearm, there are several distinct mechanisms that make the shell casing at different points, and prosecutors can use these as evidence to identify the gun. Our forensics are slightly different in that the working of the tools, leverage points, indents, and such tell us how the manmaker worked at different points and in different ways. I can tell when he was in a hurry, which was most of the time, and when he stopped to sharpen up. Mahogany transfers the information as it takes it in impressions from the tool being used and then, as in the case of these drawers and other parts, keeps the 'trade secrets' for later discovery. I have learned more through the decades of dismantling pieces than I can possibly put together, and each piece tells its unique story. This craftsman undercut here and compressed the pins over there. The wood absorbed his rushing mostly, but then he lost it a couple of times in frustration. I'll likely keep most of those because, all in all, this man-maker had integrity, and that integrity was reflected in many ways of his making.

Before I move too quickly along, I should point out that the veneers of the past were not the fake facing of today's sheet goods and mass-making industry designed to hide the fakeness of MDF and pressed fiberboards. Adding veneers enabled artisans to do things that would be otherwise impossible with solid wood. Facing veneers enabled sequential book-matching to guarantee tones and grain patterns for the fronts of pieces, as in the case of these drawers. Mahogany can be so diverse; were the real and solid to be used instead of sequential flitches of veneer, the drawer fronts would likely be far too busy for a harmonious look to give good balance and even tone to exist. There's much more to it than that too. But there it is, the starter. The image below shows how a softwood clear soft pine was used for an 11" wide drawer front to be faced with mahogany and lipped with a thick edge for the massive drawer of a wardrobe bottom drawer.

It looks like it, but no, it's not solid mahogany but a thicker veneer on softwood.

The pine with the veneer is 21.3 mm thick, and the veneer is .75 of a millimeter, so 10 times thicker than face veneer on our modern-day decorative plywood.

My drawers had been somewhat mistreated before they ever came to me, and I have dragged them around with me for a few years, hoping I could repair the desk to reframe them one day. But alas, time gets away from us and becomes ever more precious as we continue to grow our output for the conservation of my craft. These six drawers have actually made it pretty well thus far, so I decided it would work best to make a new case from old wood I have also garnered from different scrappy places through the years. I've collected several panels and tabletops to do it from and plan to make a small chest for all of my art materials that I have scattered everywhere in the hopes that a central location will organise me a little more.

The French polishing with shellac has preserved the wood really well here. The panels are dead flat because the wood was quarter-sawn and book-matched for grain and colour matching. Another skip find!

Imagine this wood was being thrown into a skip (dumpster, USA), trashed, on or about 2017/18, and the trasher-person was a woodworker who said to me, "Why would anyone want this stuff anyway?. Those three panels are about seven feet tall, 1/2" thick, and single-piece wide at 15". My cabinet will be paneled with one or two of them on three sides.

Drawing out the dovetails to one side of three of the drawers and checking the widths and angles, encapsulates the reality that you have not seen it until you've drawn it. The smaller, left hand dovetails were really very inaccurate, even though for the most part the dovetails matched the recesses in width and aligned with the pins.

So, let's dissect this a little. The dovetails, as in the angles, fit well enough, but it's obvious that some were dead-on angles and some were not evenly or equally made. On one drawer the angles follow a 1:7 pitch on all three tails and both sides of the tails, whereas on another drawer they were entirely random in angle and size. This suggests to me that there was more than one man working on the piece. Was one an apprentice or a journeyman? Could one of them have been on equal standing as in fully trained but more slipshod in his ways?

Here are some questions with the pictures:

1: Why did this maker take a saw to each corner of the appliqued drawer bottom groove at the back of the drawer when no one would see it, ever? On each of the drawers, he cut this corner off, in situ, after the drawer bottom was screwed in place.2: Why, out of the six drawers, did this drawer bottom split where the screws anchored the drawer bottom to the drawer back?3: Why was this common dovetail gappy at the back but with no gap on the inside corner?

4: Why were so many repairs required to the front face marquetry veneers, especially at the corners?5: Why did the maker use planted or appliqued drawer grooving instead of ploughing the grooves directly into the drawer sides?

No picture for this one yet, but...

6: Why did he use poplar as the secondary wood even where it could be seen in place?

The drawer sizes are surprisingly accurate in that all of the drawers are equal in their overall width and length to one another, dead on 11" wide, and when they are stacked up on top of one another, they each stand square and in line with one another from front to back, top to bottom, and side to side. Furthermore, these drawers went into two separate cases in lots of three, diminishing in drawer height from top to bottom. I'm regretting using the word "surprisingly accurate" but kept it in. Perhaps I would consider my own work as accurate as this work in the overall reality of being a lifetime maker trained and training in handwork with hand tools for so very long.

The wood shows no sign of any machining whatsoever, and telltale marks tell me of handwork alone, and in different places where I have planed over existing surfaces, it has obviated hand-planed surfaces, chisel work, and handsawing all the way through. That's because there were undulations I would never consider inaccuracies per se. Such surfaces can only come from hand-planing in the course of truing and fitting them, and so too the saw work.

I have more to share on this and will also give my answers to the above questions shortly too.

A chisel or plane leaves its trace identity in the surface of wood in similar fashion as the shell of a bullet discharged by any firearm identifies the gun, but not really the exact same. With a firearm, there are several distinct mechanisms that make the shell casing at different points, and prosecutors can use...

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