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computer woes.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 I used to configure and repair computers for a living at one time. The shop computer decided to throw a hissy fit today when I tried to boot it. It defaulted at some weird spot in the boot sequence that I wasn't familiar with. I couldn't find anything online to help either. So after pissing away the better part of 3 hours I said No Mas, No Mas.

I can't believe how much I depend upon and use this computer. I have a win OS laptop I can use but I really missed that big screen today. Not sure which road to travel with this now. A lot of the computer repair shops in my local area folded during the pandemic and they probably weren't Linux savvy either. Amazon has all in one computers furbished for $250 to $300 which isn't that bad of a price. I don't want a tower system, the all in one takes up less space. I have lots of time to figure it out and it will be a bit inconvenient.

 yesterday

This is the mitered bridle joint I did yesterday. The tenon is too thin for the mortise but I think I figured how to do it the right way.

test joint #2

I thought I had this figured out in the brain bucket but when I started to saw it out I lost everything momentarily. The left one (mortise) will have the two outside cheeks sawn at a 45. The right one (tenon) will have its outside cheeks sawn off at a 45 leaving a tenon at 45.

 acceptable

I did it right in spite of drawing a blank on it. The 45's line up good without a gap.

 ugly looking

This needs a lot of help. I'm much better at sawing but still need a lot more practice. I sawed the mortise with the sawing guide and the tenon one freehand. I left way too much of the line. I initially tried to clean it up with a chisel and a tenon float before finally switching to a router. I decided to leave the mitered bridle joint for later and I will do a new frame with just miters.

 wee bit chilly

The mercury was hovering around 10F (-12C) this AM when I got up. Supposedly the real cold weather hasn't gotten to my part of the universe yet. It was miserable doing my grocery shopping at 0700.

 new frame

Miters rough sawn and shot dead on the shooting board.

 what a PITA

I tried to dry clamp the frame on my set up table but it was too small. This kind of worked but the 3/8" plywood is bowed so getting the corners aligned, flat, and tightened was frustrating. The important part is the miters are all dead nuts 45, the frame is square and all the corners are tight and gap free. Not sure at this point how or when I will glue this frame together.

 pic fits

There is about 1 7/8" for the matting between the pic and the frame.

 $30

I ordered this yesterday and it came today. I'll need it for the frame.

 rabbeting bit

I had one of these but I couldn't find the bearings for it at first. I finally found them and the cap screw broke off at the head. Tossed that and ordered this one. I wonder if they knew I am a box freak? It even has plastic sleeves for both of them.

 better

I have tried numerous times in the past to use these miter clamps with zero joy. That was all due to my miters being garbage. I think the best way to glue up this frame is to do two corners first. After they have set up, do the remaining two.

Time to go piss into the wind and try and fix the shop computer again.

accidental woodworker

Driving through redwoods?

Working By Hand -

Who ever thought that putting holes through super large trees so that cars could drive through was a good idea? A number of big trees in California had tunnels dug through them in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the most famous was cut in 1881 through Yosemite’s famous Wawona Tree. It was cut as a tourist attraction, and was the second standing sequoia to be tunnelled – the first, a dead tree, still stands in the Tuolumne Grove in Yosemite). The Wawona Tree stood for 88 summers before falling during the winter of 1968-69 (it was 2,100 years old).

There are currently three different tree drive-through : the Shrine Tree (4,500 years/hollowed by fire), a coast redwood, the Chandelier Tree (2,400 years old/opening cut late 1930s), and the Klamath Tree (785 years old/opening cut 1976).

Cutting holes through such majestic trees really seems like a very odd thing to do.

Tools for the Making

Journeyman's Journal -

The author makes tools for several reasons-to recapture the quality of days gone by, to meet the demands of special applications, and to improve on the designs available from mass producers. The objects shown on the facing page recapture the combined elegance of function and appearance that every first-rate cabinetmaker once expected from his tools.

I am probably the only active woodworker with both a Norris and Primus smoothing plane gathering dust on a shelf. The reason for this curious circumstance is that I have built replacements that come much closer to my personal vision of what a plane should be. l make guitars, working almost entirely with hand tools: a comprehensive collection of planes, saws, chisels, scraper blades and miscellany accumulated over 30 years. The scale of my instrument building does not call for heavy power tools, with their concentration-shattering din. Making musical instruments is essentially a quiet activity, a calming ambience in which I draw great physical and metaphysical pleasure from planing, sawing, scraping and otherwise working wood by hand. My idea of a good tool is a solid, well-made object that does the job it was designed to do. It should be comfortable to use and, I hope, look attractive. Finding hand tools that fit these particulars is not as easy as it once was. Power tools have pushed out many hand tools, and manufacturers have dropped others because turnover is too small by today’s high-volume standards. Lightweight plastics are fast replacing wooden handles (to the detriment of a handsaw’s balance), and high labour costs in industrialised countries will increasingly shift manufacture to low-wage countries, where price will be more important than quality.

The whole ethos of merchandising has changed since the days when tools of durable excellence streamed from the factories of Victorian Britain. Tool manufacturers then shared the universal assumption that having a good product was the high road to competitive success. Skilled journeymen, the “marketplace” back then, demanded fine quality; lesser tools made for dilettantes were whimsically described as “Gent’s” tools.
Today, competitive pressures focus on that end of the market where the preemptive word is not so much “good,” but “right” the right tool, the right price, and the right merchandising. The appeal is aimed at the great mass of basically unskilled buyers who are building shelves in their garages. The choice of colour for a plastic handle (involving market research and colour consultants) is counted a weightier matter than the alloy in the blade. For these and other reasons, I came to understand that if I wanted my dream plane, I would have to make it myself. I wanted tools that would not only function better than those on the market, but look beautiful too. Using planes as much as I do, I soon realised their shortcomings.

The Norris smoothing plane, a famous example from the golden age of British tool manufacture, has deficiencies that make it less than wonderful today. The front grip is a brief stub of wood offering a restricted hand-hold, and the closed handle is designed for the three-finger grip favoured by British woodworkers but alien to me. The screw adjusted cap is inefficient-a half-turn too little can affect the plane’s functioning. The cutting edge is concealed from view and can easily strike the bottom of the fixed screw cap or the top of the mouth, and the mouth is not adjustable. The things I really like about the Norris are its heft, coffin-sided shape, thick blade and the configuration of the wooden frog. My own design for a metal bench smoother was based on these Norris features.

The wood-bodied Primus plane is a well-made German tool with a cumbersome adjusting mechanism. Removing the blade for sharpening is an above average bother, and replacing it involves complete repositioning of the blade using two knobs. I find the Primus’ horn-style tote unsatisfying in terms of comfort and control. As a plus, the mouth opening can be changed by simple adjustment of a wooden insert. I wanted my plane to have an adjustable throat, depth-adjustment without slack, lever-action blade cap for fast blade removal, and a lateral adjustment by means of a concealed device that could not be knocked askew. I made many sketches, and tried different styles of tote and handle before constructing the metal bench smoother shown on the facing page. The patterns for the brass lever cap and malleable iron body casting were made of wood, with the bent sides made of maple veneer laminated over a curved form. Both of these, plus the pattern for the sliding toe piece, were sand castings. The regulating mechanism parts and cap lever were built of boxwood, and cast by a lost-wax foundry using inexpensive silicone moulds. Steel regulator shafts and knurled brass knobs were turned by a machine shop. Precise hand-fitting of all the regulator parts eliminated slack motion. Wooden parts are Brazilian rosewood, the handle being a three-piece lamination. The blade is a 2-in. chrome vanadium replacement blade, 1/8 in. thick (available from Woodcraft or Garrett Wade).

For the wood-bodied plane, I used a laminate construction to avoid the difficult job of mortising the throat out of a solid block. Quartersawn teak was chosen for its dimensional stability, and the sole was lined with stainless steel. The metal lining is epoxied to the sole and secured with a “key” mortised into the front and back end of the body. These keys are hard-soldered to the sole plate. Loosening the screw in back of the tote permits movement of an insert in the sole to open or close the mouth. This plane is a joy, comfortable to work with for long periods, and has the balance and heft that make it a good all -around plane. It holds a 1/3/4,-in. chrome vanadium blade, 1/8 in. thick.

My total cost for four planes (jack and jointer in process) will average out to about $65 per plane . Not cheap, as planes go, but certainly a worthwhile investment to me. So far, I’ve built 22 tools-planes, try squares, mortising gauges, bevels, and spoke shaves.

Good commercial chisels are not in short supply, so my chisel making has been confined to special-purpose kinds. I particularly like the exceptional comfort of a chisel-handle shape based on the handle of an engraver’s burin used in conjunction with a square instead of round ferrule. A square ferrule automatically orients the hand in its proper working mode. I plan about 10 more tools, including block plane, instrument-maker’s vise, level, hand router, and hand drill of improved design. The time is not far off when China, India and other developing countries will be shipping basic hand tools of very acceptable quality to world markets. It is interesting to speculate that domestic producers may then abandon the homeowner market and choose to focus on tools for the skilled woodworker. We might see a bench plane that is not a Ford, but a Mercedes. In the
meantime, I’ve found that it’s entirely possible to make your own tools using the best materials available, and without the cost constraints manufacturers have to live with. Not the least benefit
of surrounding yourself with elegant tools is the constant stimulus to do work that measures up to the tools.

Irving Sloane makes guitars in Brussels, Belgium. He has written several books on guitar construction, and these, too, focus on the benefits of making special-purpose tools.

hamper done.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 I didn't get a lot done today other than finishing the clothes hamper. Over the past few months after lunch I've been nodding out at my desk. It is a symptom of having A fib where you are tired all the time. Today I napped for almost 2 hours. I have an appointment with my cardiologist in March and I'll ask him about it and if there is anything I can do about it. If I stay sitting after eating I'll nod off but if I get up and go back to the shop nada. I don't feel tired or sleepy then at all.

last night

I came back to the shop after dinner last night and got the second coat on the small table. This AM it is looking like I'm good to go on it. The coverage looks good and I didn't see any holidays anywhere..

 4 on and one more

I have 5 coats of shellac on the exterior of the drawer. I have 4 on the interior and I can't smell shellac on it. I'll have to wait and see how it fares once the drawer is shut up in the table.

 new picture frame

Thought I would knock out this frame while I'm kind of in between projects. Thinking of doing a mitered half lap on the corners.

 the pic to be framed

This is a painting that my wife's mother did over 35 years ago. I want to frame it and give it my wife as a surprise.

 getting the width/length

This pic is getting matted and will be under glass. Making sure that there is room for mat. Maria from the Frame it Shop told me the rabbet for it only has to be 1/4" wide.

 bridle joinery

I love this guide for sawing bridle joints. This one came from Richard Maguire and not Paul Sellers.

 30 minutes

This went off surprisingly quick. Pretty much happy with the consistency I saw with the saw cuts. All looked to be straight, square, and parallel to each other.

one extra

I made an extra out of a scrap piece to practice on. I was struggling trying to decipher how to do this in the brain bucket.

 hmm...

I was doing it right but I could see that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be. The next step was making a 45 on the middle tenon of the right piece.

 chopped a 45?

From looking at this I didn't need to saw down all the way on the outside. I should have sawn from the bottom on the edge to the to outside top edge - that would have been the 45. Chopping this wasn't that bad and I was careful doing it especially at the top. I didn't get any blow out and Mr Starrett seems happy with it. Not sure if it was dead on 45 but it was good enough for this.

 needs work

It is missing the one detail that I wanted with this joint - the indication that the corner was mitered. I can still do that by reversing how I sawed this one out. That would involve sawing two of the outside cheeks at 45 on both pieces. The middle tenon wouldn't need anything done to it.

too loose

The fit is unacceptable. I was having trouble holding this together to snap this pic. As soon as I saw this I knew that I had brain farted again. 

 screwed up

I should have only sawn the bridle joint on either the stiles or rails first. Chopped out the middle creating the mortise and then sawing the tenon on the other set marked off the mortise. My guide is adjustable - I can add/subtract shims to allow for the saw kerf. I totally zoned that out and forgot that is what I did on the previous bridle joint frames I made.

These won't go to waste because I have two more frames I want to make. I will use the shorter length ones for one of the those frames.

 done

No idea when this is going to High Point and Amanda. I was thinking of putting a lid stay on it but I'm hesitant to do that. Most likely this will be put against a wall so it isn't needed. I have time to sort it out and I'll Amanda about where she plans to put it. 

 interior

The insides feel smooth to the touch so clothes shouldn't snag on anything. This is another thing I can do later also - put a couple of coats of poly on the painted surfaces. The pegboard in my clothes hamper is doing fine after almost 20 years - it is dated 6Jun1995. No evidence of any moisture damage at all on it.

small table top

No need to paint the entire underneath. The top over hangs the base by a 1/2" 360 and that is all that needs paint. 

 battle scar

The table top lost the bounce test with Mr Concrete Deck. It fell off the bench and landed on this corner. Now way that was going to be steamed out. I am going to put a couple of coats of clear shellac on the top and shelf. Dusting painted stuff is a PITA. Being topped coated with shellac makes it easier to keep it dust/lean. I'll have to be careful with this because the Keurig coffee maker is calling the top of this home.

accidental woodworker

paint day.....

Accidental Woodworker -

 My wife and I went out to eat today at Gregg's. She had a patty melt and I had a quasi surf and turf. The surf part of my meal was fish 'n chips and the turf was the patty melt my wife didn't finish. That was tasty and I think it would make a good menu item - a hamburger and fried fish with chips. But could it be called surf 'n turf?

 new Dewalt drill

I didn't know that this came with two batteries. The chucked drill coming next week is a bare bones tool. This will give 3 batteries for the 3 Dewalt tools - two drills and a sander.

 hmmm.....

I bought this 3AH battery to replace the ones the Bosch drills came with. I tried it out in all 3 of the Bosch drills and it wouldn't run.

 missed it

The charger isn't plugged in. That explains why this battery is dead when I thought I had charged it.

 different size

The yellow 20V battery is from the sander and it is a 4AH one. I couldn't find a AH rating on either one of the 20V batteries for the 1/4" hex drive drill. Even the write up on amazon didn't state it.

 almost burned straight through

It feels solid when I rap it with my knuckles but not with a mallet. I think I should replace it just to be on the safe side.

it is deep

The charred wood I brushed away with my finger tips left a depression too big to ignore.

 might have been a stupid move

I was able to push my finger through with little oomph. The stupid part was I had trouble pulling it back out. I had to push down on the edge of the hole in order to get my finger out.

 easy peasy

I see furniture restorers on You Tube doing this all the time to remove nails. This was my first time and it worked without any hiccups. In fact I was able to reuse the nails on the replacement drawer bottom.

 coin toss

Flipped a Susan B Anthony dollar coin and chamfers won. It has taken me a lot of time to get to this stage. I planed all four edges straight and true to the pencil lines. I still remember wandering all over the dial trying to plane chamfers to pencil lines.

small table drawer

Experimenting with applying shellac to the small table drawer. I want to do this one first to see if it still smells shellac and if it will harden on the inside of the drawer. If this one turns out ok I'll shellac them all on the 15 drawer dresser.

 small table

My wife is on a green paint kick. She has been buying green paint like it isn't going to be made anymore. She currently has 7 different green paint shades waiting for her. This shade is called Caldwell Green.

 eyeballing it

Thinking of leaving the drawer finished with the  blonde shellac I mixed a few days ago. This has two coats on it and it doesn't look overly yellow hued. I still have 4-5 more coats to put on. If I don't like how it looks then I will slap some Caldwell Green on it.

accidental woodworker

Yard Sales and Thrift Stores I

The Barn on White Run -

Many of you are, like me, familiar with, and probably partakers in, the “tailgating” tool flea markets that are fairly common around MWTCA meetings, tool auctions, and the like.  I might only spend a minute or two per year buying clothes and shoes, but I can sink days into scrounging for tools.  I carry the same mindset to almost every yard sale or thrift store I encounter, and often with more strategic buys in mind.

In fact, all of my workspaces are chock full of yard sale and thrift store resources.  I’ve had a pretty good stretch of useful acquisitions lately.

Here are some treasures from a recent event, a community yard sale just before winter got here.  In a few minutes and for a few dollars, I came home with this booty.

My first treasure was this collection of assorted tacks, of which I bought six boxes for $1.  I am always on the lookout for vintage fasteners, and this box is the type of assorted tacks that was common in hardware stores in the 1950s and 1960s.  At some point when I get bored enough I will sort the contents of the boxes, ranging from 1/4″ in length to 1″.

Grinding shellac anyone?  I don’t like coffee, never have.  But coffee grinders, especially one for 50 cents?  There’s always space for them as I use them to grind up shellac, resin beads, whatever.

What in the world can I do with cake and jello molds?  Well, there is a lacquerwork technique I want to experiment with, using my epoxy fauxrushi.  This technique involves draping strips or sheets of impregnated fabric over a mold, then demolding after hardening.  The molds will have to be sized with whiting first, but they are a terrific testing opportunity for the idea.  If my memory is intact this stack was $1.

Since I use heat for a lot of functions involving wax or glue, old timey electric irons are just the tool for a lot of applications.  These were $2 a piece.  In the original boxes no less.

Since I melt wax a lot, and even more in the near future as I delve again into lost wax metal casting, I’ve found that using coffee pots are darned near perfect for material handling.  I can melt wax on a hot plate with these beauties, and then pour into whatever form or mold I’m using for whatever project I am creating.  I got these four for a buck apiece.

Perhaps my biggest prize, both conceptually and physically, was this very large turkey roasting pan.  What in the world do you need with a turkey roasting pan?  (Mrs. Barn asked me the very same question).  Well, when steaming the wax out of a ceramic investment mold, that is “Losing the wax” in lost-wax metal casting, you gotta invert the investment mold and steam out the wax.  This roasting pan is just perfect for the largest investment shell I will ever do.  I shelled out big bucks for this one, $4.  And worth every penny.

Fifteen minutes, fourteen and a half dollars.  Not a bad way to spend a little time and money on the way home from the post office.

PS – between the wedding, and Christmas, and family visits going in both directions, and preparing the Maryland house for new occupants, I don’t think I’ve spent a dozen hours in the shop doing any real work since the beginning of November.  “If only I can get past this next thing,” I tell myself…  But there is always another dozen things waiting in line.

Sigh.

small table build day 8.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 I think I'm finished with the woodworking for the small table. All that is left is too paint it and install the top and bottom shelf. I'm not going to post/blog on that but I will post the glamour the pics when I'm done. 

I had an appointment at the VA today with the podiatrist. I haven't gone on a stroll since the one outing I did last week. I asked him about why my right heel hurts so much after walking. He said he could feel my heel bone which he shouldn't be able to. He said there is usually a layer of fat between the bone and the outside skin. 

He gave me some insole inserts and some heel pads to try. He also said to take it easy initially and not go nutso and walk 4-5 miles at first. Go slow and gradually add which is what I intend to do. Wally World door to door from house is a little over a mile if I walk it directly. I'll try that out for a few days first.

 last one

The top has ten table clips and the shelf has two.

 hmm.....

It would appear that I wasn't paying attention to the 7 P's (proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance). It works in my favor because I wasn't too happy with the gaps between the legs and the outside edges of the shelf.

 center shake

I had glued this a couple of days ago but the right side didn't take. It also runs down the outside edge almost to the middle. Time to whack out a new bottom shelf.

 don't need much

The interior distance between the legs is 12 1/2", the board is 11 1/4" wide so I just had to add 3/4". That would leave a 1/4" on both edges for expansion and contraction.

 shop temp is dipping

It has been around 59-60F (15C) for about a week in the shop. The temps here are forecasted to dip even lower into the teens overnight. IMO this is pushing the envelope for gluing up and I'm not sure what the temp range is for the glue I am using.

 clamped and cooking

Left this by the furnace while I went to the VA.

 prepping the shelf

The shelf ended up a wee bit thinner in the width than I wanted. There is now 5/16" for the space between the legs and the shelf.

 bottom shelf

The table clips worked and pulled the shelf tight to the rails. One corner could be better as there is a slight gap there. I will have to shim the mortise for the table clip for it to pull tighter. I should have gone an 1/8" higher with the clip mortises rather then the 16th I did.

 cup

The is a gentle cup in the top and it flairs up on this end more than the middle. I can easily push it down flat to the top so I don't think I'll have any problems with the table clips pulling it flat and keeping it flat.

 the drawer back

I didn't like the drawer back being uneven so I sawed it off equally. The back rail on the table is slanted/tapered due to the leg orientation being skewed. The right side of the drawer back hits the back before the left one by about a 3/8". I ended up gluing blocks at the back of the drawer guides to act as drawer stops.

15 drawer dresser

I decided to put two coats of shellac on the drawers - interior and exterior. I usually don't finish the drawers but I'm making an exception here. I will use the blonde shellac I  just mixed for the drawers. I bought a quart can of clear from ACE that I'll use on the exterior of the dresser. 

The open drawers are ones that I have to remove pencil markings from first.

 new sander dust container

There is a spring in the dust bag which sure makes it easy to dump all the sanding dust in it out. Pretty clever whoever thought of it.

oops....

I forgot that I had the branding iron on the bottom of the drawer. It burned through a couple of layers of it and I'll check it thoroughly tomorrow with a mallet. If I have to I'll replace it which is probably what is going to happen.

 hamper

The 'highlighted' area is where I had planed this to unbind the butt hinges. One coat now and one after dinner and the painting will be done on this finally. Fitting the overlay hinges will be the check mark in the done column.

I bought two Dewalt 20v drills. I bought one with a chuck and another one with a 1/4" hex driver. One is coming today and the other is supposed to be here this coming tuesday. I have already been looking at changing the drill storage from the Bosch ones to the new kids on the block.

accidental woodworker

2023 Review

Woodworking in a Tiny Shop -

I'm a little late with this post.  Let's see what I accomplished last year.  As usual feel like I didn't do enough.

Tool Rehab or Making

J. Kellogg wooden jack plane.  This plane needed a lot of restoration - new base of handle (tote), new wedge, new-to-this-plane double iron fitted, strike button added, mouth closed with an insert.

J. Kellogg 16" jack

W. Tyzack Sons & Turner backsaw

Not much restoration needed, but I did reshape the handle

Made a travisher, though I've not had any chair seats to hollow out to test how well it works.

This makeshift travisher uses the blade from a heel shave

Disston #70 dovetail saw

This little saw was a raffle prize at a tool show.  It cleaned up
nicely and has become my dovetail saw of choice.


Projects

This wreath was made up of 66 (nearly) identical interlocking pieces

I added some carving after building this Shaker two-step stool

This rustic post and rung stool was made from a local tree that had
fallen in a storm.  It has a Danish paper cord seat.

This and a couple more "Roubo" phone stands featured a bit of carving

This garden bench was made from an old table top

The democratic armchair was the highlight project of the year for me.
It was made from kiln-dried red oak (except the seat) using interesting
techniques to get straight grained pieces.

This scrap-wood project was a simple but fun one

This dovetailed and lidded box is fairly simple, but just came out so nice

An interesting little stool uses no glue.  The through cross-wedged
tenons keep it very rigid.

A carved sign for my wife's daughter and SIL

Miscellaneous

After waffling a little, I bit the bullet and got a flight to Amana, IA to attend the Handworks event oput on by the people at Benchcrafted.  The show was fantastic.  It was so great to be among so many people with like interests.

Roy Underhill giving the keynote address / comedy hour

And on a personal note, the highlight of 2023 was becoming a grandfather for the first time.

Such a tiny little bundle of joy

Well, after looking at this, I guess the year wasn't so bad after all.  Heavier on the projects and lighter on tool making / restoring, the way it should be.

Wishing you all a 2024 filled with woodworking goodness.

I’d like to clarify that there aren’t any shenanigans going on with the good folks at Culinary…

Giant Cypress -

giantcypress:

95-100% ethanol for shellac

On the recent episode of the MWA podcast, we had a discussion on my favorite finish, and I went on about my love for shellac, and especially seedlac. I’ve written about why Everclear is a better solvent for making your shellac than denatured alcohol, and one thing to look out for when buying Everclear.

In case you live in a place that doesn’t sell 190 proof Everclear, Brian Glendenning let me know about another source for 95% ethanol. Culinary Solvent sells 95% and 100%(!) ethanol. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but Brian mentioned that he has 2 gallons of their ethanol, and he didn’t complain about it to me.

I have no idea how this is legal, but as Brian mentioned to me, the 2 gallons of it in his shop should disprove any skepticism.

I’d like to clarify that there aren’t any shenanigans going on with the good folks at Culinary Solvent. In some cases, you can live in a state where you can’t buy 190 proof Everclear in the liquor store, but you can buy 151 proof Everclear. The 151 proof Everclear isn’t good for making your own shellac, of course.

But it seems that in some of these cases, you can have 95-100% ethanol shipped to you even if 190 proof Everclear can’t be bought locally, which is where Culinary Solvent may be an option.

I didn’t know that — it’s always good to learn something new.

More information can be found here on the Culinary Solvent website. In any case, it’s always good to have options.

The Road To Ikea

Tools For Working Wood -

Headboard and bookcase by Eileen Gray c.1930Headboard and bookcase by Eileen Gray c.1930
Cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930Cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930
A recent Christie's auction of 20th century furniture I visited included many of the usual suspects - Ruhlmann, Nakashima, and Lalanne, to name a few. But for the first time I noticed work by Eileen Gray (1879-1976) too. Typically I find Gray's work, which is eminently collectible and sells for high sums, not particularly interesting or distinguished for its era. This work struck me differently. It was furniture she had made for herself. The table below, circa 1930-1935, was typical of her professional work, very light and airy. And like a lot of furniture of the time, it takes it's material and construction sensibility right from the Bauhaus, and in this case adopts a tubular steel frame.
Table by Eileen Gray C. 1935-1935Table by Eileen Gray C. 1935-1935
If you search around on the internet, you'll find her her professional work that seems to my eye very much in the 1920s and '30s high style / Deco mode. But her personal stuff is what is interesting to me. The other two pieces show here (above), both circa 1930, came from her Paris apartment and look to me what people want today in their furniture. The pieces are very practical, made out of very prosaic materials, and are pretty poorly made. Exactly what a practical designer living on a budget might want for herself! For me they seem right out of Ikea, albeit with maybe a few more curves. And that idea is way advanced for it's time.
You can ask if Ikea defines what modern furniture looks like, or if changes in the way we live redefined what we look for in furniture and Ikea just reacted to the demand. But either way, there was a cataclysmic change in popular furnishing from 1940 to 1980. (We can nickel-and-dime the dates.) I am not even talking about decoration; I am talking about basic forms and their uses.

While the Bauhaus pretended to want to make furniture for the masses - and they did sow the seeds for that - their actual furniture was made in too low a volume and with fancy finishing, and so mostly attracted rich buyers. By removing decoration and straightening lines you got rid of all the expensive handwork. No need for carvings, no need for hand making curved moldings, no matched veneer, etc. But the furniture forms were the same. A dining table and chairs, living room sofas, armoires, nick-knack cabinets, and other pieces designed for formal living, preferably with servants.

It looks like in 1930 Eileen Gray realized that she wanted practical stuff for herself. A headboard that isn't a gorgeous showpiece but is something for storage with a light built in. Her clients might have wanted "modern design," but they didn't actually have a "modern" lifestyle. Gray wanted both.

American mass market furniture started the post-war period with the neo-colonial style of the pre-war period. Higher-end Danish style with a nod towards the Bauhaus evolved and became known as mid-century modern, but it wasn't highly popular. People still had their curio cabinets, and their new television platforms still had decoration. By the 1970's, Americans welcomed in Shaker furniture, which was significantly plainer, and Arts and Crafts style, which even in its most simplified versions required lots of wood and skill to make work.

By the 1980's, people were moving - every five years or so, on average - enough to make substantial pieces of furniture less attractive. Ikea not only popularized knockdown furniture at lower cost but also realized the shift towards practicality. People didn't need or want a curio cabinet. The idea of servants didn't exist in the post-war house. People wanted practicality since they had to cook, serve, and maintain their homes all by themselves. Longer work hours (for all members of the household) stopped most formal entertaining, so the living room, dining room, family room, and kitchen all became munged into one large space where people informally gathered to eat, socialize, play video games and watch TV.

Even our concept of a desk has evolved. Desks used to be a place where you had a nice writing surface, good light, storage for paperwork and bills, and maybe even some help with organization. Now, a desk is simply a flat surface top with a few outlets for recharging your computer. And people understand this - which is why Ikea style desks are so popular. Office desks which, if you rank high enough for some status, also evolved to the same flat landscape, but are large and use fancy materials to denote status.

What interests me so much about Eileen Gray's personal furniture is that while professionally she had to cater to her customers, privately she lived a much more modern life and designed really some of the first truly modern furniture.

The problem the modern artisanal furniture maker has now is how does one design and sell something unique in a society whose furniture requirements are so much simpler than they used to be?

Detail from cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930Detail from cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930
Detail from cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930Detail from cabinet by Eileen Gray c. 1930

small table build day 7.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 Things are going swimmingly well with the table. I am, or I think I am almost done with the woodworking on it. I showed it to my wife today and she said it looks cute. Translation - she likes it. She is going to get me some paint for and I'll be the one doing that too. Speaking of paint I still haven't finished painting the clothes hamper. I still have one side of the top to do. 

 dado for the back

Lots of muscle memory kicked in and I zipped through this drawer. 

 good fit

I am still having problems with the half tail on the left having a slight gap. Still not sure what is causing that. I think it may be the far side of the saw cut but I'll have to examine that for the next one. This isn't a problem that I have with through dovetails.

 caught it in time

I was going to glue this up when something about the back looked funny to me. Realized that I hadn't made the slips yet nor shortened the width of the back for it.

dry fitted

Got the front glued and cooking and the sides are dry fitted. Those will get glued after lunch.

 one of two

I have made one chair and it was a Morris style one. I also have a stool under my belt but no sitting at the dinning table chairs. This chair is going to be my next thing to cross off the bucket list. Picked this up from the Frame it Shop after lunch.

 2nd one

My John Ruskin poster. He was a Victorian era polymath but I just like the poster of the elderly woodworker looking out the window.

 potential home

I am thinking of putting these two on the doors. I will have to remove the B's and the ear muff holder. There isn't an inch of real estate on any of the walls in the shop for either of these.

 copy this

I think this same system for holding the frame will work on the cabinet doors too. I don't want to screw through the frame into the door. I might want to move the frames elsewhere in the house.

 glad I bought this

My LN skew chisels wouldn't fit in the pin sockets but this fishtail did.

cooking away

Got both side slips glued. I'll give this an hour then I'll fit the bottom.

 drawer tilt bar

Decided to notch both the front and rear for this. I didn't want the end grain of the half lap showing at the back. That is because it stops the table from being viewed 360.

 butt scratcher

Came up short. Don't know how because I thought I had marked it directly between the notches.

 flushing it

Decided to not glue this in the notches. The top will keep it in place and I can replace it if there is any need to.

 table clips

Going with these instead of wooden ones. Doing this mostly because of the small interior space to work in. 4 clips for the shelf and 6-8 for the top. 

 clip mortises

Whacked out the mortises for the clips with the 8th inch chisel. For the eagle eyed I initially laid out the clip mortises on the bottom of the rail instead of the top.

 needs a knob

Drawer bottom fitted and fitting the drawer to the opening was next.

 fitted

Got confused on the fitting and took more off the sides when I should have taken it off the top. The gap is more than I like on the sides but it slides in/out easily with no binding.

 sneak peek

I need to do an edge treatment on the top and shelf. The first two choices are a round over or a chamfer. I have molding planes but I haven't gotten good results using them on end grain pine, yet. I will flip a coin to pick the round over or chamfer.

 hmm......
The left side butts up against the back and it is almost a perfect drawer stop. The front of the drawer is proud by only two frog hairs. I think I'll leave it as is for now.

accidental woodworker

more snow......

Accidental Woodworker -

Last night before I hit the rack I checked the weather. The latest and greatest then was there would be a dusting of snow overnight ending in the early AM. When my feet hit the deck this AM there was 3" of the white stuff on the ground. It was also still coming down, nice big white fluffy flakes. It turned to rain around mid morning and turned the snow on the ground to slush. 

I shoveled once around 0800 and again at 1230. The AM shoveling was ok but shoveling slush sucks pond scum. I was tempted to leave it but the temps for the rest of the week are running several degrees below freezing. There is more snow coming later on this weekend too. It sure is nice being retired because it like the song, "let it snow, let it snow.....".

 four coats

The right pine has four coats of the blonde shellac I just mixed up. The left one is bare, raw wood. I am not crazy about the yellowish hue to it. I want the shellac to be clear with no underlying tones of yellow or orange. I'll be making a road trip to ACE to get a quart of blonde shellac. I'm not sure if Lowes sells shellac in quarts anymore and ACE is closer.

 center stretcher

Did all the fitting of the stretcher off the handsaw. I half lapped it and the rail.

 base line

In the past I have had trouble with the baselines splitting off cleanly. I chiseled a knife wall before I sawed the two outside walls.

 split off cleanly

It only took one hit from both sides for this to break off. Both sides have a clean, straight baseline for the stretcher to sit on.

 marking the stretcher

The stretcher and the rail are both the same width. The plan was to mark the stretcher here and it should end up being half of what the rail notch is. At least that is what my brain bucket thought up. 

 glued and cooking

Both ends of the stretcher ended up a few frog hairs proud of the rail. I'll flush it after the glue has set. I got it right and I'm happy that the stretcher wasn't below the rail notch.

 done
The rails are slightly twisted but I can easily push the shelf down flat on the rails and center stretcher.
 drawer tilt stopper thing

I need something to stop the drawer from tilting as it is pulled out. That would drive me bonkers in a heart beat. I'll wait until the drawer is done and has been fitted.

 no half lapping here

I don't want any end grain from a half lap showing at the front. I don't mind it at the back especially so on this table. The back of it will be up against a wall. The plan is to put the front in a stopped dado and half lap the other end.

killed the lights here

Bending over the bench to dovetail was starting to hurt. The bending down wasn't a problem, it was straightening back up that was. My back gave a few twinges of protest when I was shoveling the slush. Just to be safe I killed the lights and headed topside. Luna and Sophie added two more seasons for me to binge watch.

accidental woodworker

The conundrum of storing handplanes

Working By Hand -

Check any woodworking forum and you will always a brisk discussion over whether a plane should be stored vertically on its sole, or horizontally on its side, and whether one is better than the other. Proponents of each will find some hole to pick in the oppositions approach. Then there is atop the bench – how do you rest a plane not being used for a short period? It is somewhat of a conundrum… or is it?

On the sole?
Or on the side?

Let’s deal with the bench-top first. One side of the argument will say that by resting a plane on its side, it won’t result in any damage to the plane (blade). That’s certainly a valid argument, if the bench top were made of anything but wood, or contained pop-up metal bench dogs or the like. But because benches are usually made of wood, leaving a plane upright will have little or no effect on the sharpness of the blade. The first thing anyone normally does when setting down a plane is to check that the space is free of things that could cause harm. In fact it is easier to handle if it is left up-right, and the blade is not left exposed as it is if the plane is on its side. Exposed blades are more likely to be accidentally nudged by some other (metal) tool, or by a human body part. If you are concerned, it’s easy to use a piece of anti-corrosion liner somewhere on the bench to place the planes atop (it also has grip-like texture), or even use a strip of wood ¼” tall to sit the toe of the plane on, thereby raising the edge of the blade off the bench. Placing a plane on its side on the workbench isn’t something I would necessarily choose to do.

Sit the plane on a piece of shelf-lining.
Or rest it on a strip of wood.

What about storage? Well in this respect I don’t see that there is much difference. Many people store planes in the upright position on the sole, either vertically, or on an incline (in a till) – it really depends on personal preference, often related to storage options. For example if you store your tools in a chest, then arguably the planes have to be stored vertically due to space constraints. Inclined plane storage options do take up more room, but they make bench planes readily accessible. Storing planes vertically in a wall cabinet is okay, but may prove to be an accessibility challenge for bench planes. Some people even build cubbies, where only the rear of the tote is showing (this makes them easy to grab, but does result in a deeper cabinet).

Ways of storing planes

Neither storage method adversely affects the sharpness of the blade in any manner (unless you are slamming into its storage cubby!). Vertical storage sits the blade on wood, and horizontal storage typically sits the plane with the sole nearest the cabinet, so nowhere near anything it could cut, i.e. the woodworker. If you’re worried about the metal-wood interaction, the base could also be lined with cork or Crubber.

At the end, the storage method is your choice, depending on your own needs.

small table build day 5.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 Time flies when you are having a good one, eh? If you held a gun to my head I would have said I was on day 3. Trying a new way of dating my projects. Instead of the title having part numbers I am going to use days. After all it is the number of days to build something that matters most to me. Hard to say the each part # was days work on something. 

 out of the clamps

Both of the bottoms of the drawer guides are square to the side rails. 

 need spacers

These will ensure that the guides will be parallel to the sides and to the outside edges of the drawer openings.

 major oops

The left side bottom appears to have shrunk a wee bit after being glued. It is either that or I screwed up the width when I sawed it. It is barely a 1/4" and that is too small to guide and support a drawer. I glued a 1/2" wide pine scrap to make up the required width.

 6"

Too much waste as I could have made it shorter. The top is cleaned up and smoothed but it still doesn't lay flat and gap free on the top. I can press it down tight to the top with hand pressure. With wooden buttons it should be gap free too.

 minor hiccup

I thought I had glued this so that it was flush with the front bottom rail. It must have shifted under the clamp pressure. I flushed it with a bullnose plane.

 left side

Got the extension and the guide glued to the bottom of the drawer guide. I added some glue blocks to help stiffen and strengthen the bottom of the guide.

 leg split

There was a spider crack on this leg that runs down from the top about 5". I'm sure it came from the tenon being in the wrong mortise. It easily closed up with almost no clamp pressure, so I flooded it with glue and let it cook.

 front rail

Got a snug fit of the drawer front in its opening. I'll get to dovetailing it tomorrow.

 bullnose work

I waited until the drawer guide had set up before flushing it to the bottom of the front rail. I used the guide to guide the bullnose along the length.

 bottom shelf

This didn't look right to me and my spider sense was starting to tingle.

 doesn't fit

Not only didn't it fit - way to tight - it also would look like crap. That didn't stop me from keeping on fitting it.

 3rd fitting

I first sawed off the outside ear on the four corners but it still wouldn't fit. I needed more clearance for it to lay down. It fit after this last trim but I didn't like the look of it.

 the finale?

I thought the look of the corner notches looked hideous. I couldn't get past being able to see the rails coming into the leg from each side. This is change #2 here. The first one was the shelf laying flat on the two outside rails. 

risers

I didn't like the shelf laying on the rails, it looked funny to my eye. With the blocks under it, it now appears to be floating which I do like.

 needs a drawer

Top and shelf is sized and the last bit of woodworking is the drawer. The rocking is gone. I marked three legs and sawed the waste. It didn't rock on the workbench or the tablesaw. Where this is going it will have two legs on carpets and two on bare wood floor. I'll be doing some shimming there for sure.

 figured it out

It is this rail that I find so offending to my eye. It is the same if the shelf is laying flat on rails or floating up off them. I especially don't like the empty space between the edge of the shelf and the rail.

 problem fixed

I sawed the front and bottom offending rails off. Now this looks good to my eye. 

 tomorrow

I'll add a center stretcher rail to keep the outside legs from bowing inward. That adds a woodworking step before completion.

accidental woodworker

Double Scratch Stock

Journeyman's Journal -

A scratch stock is a simple but effective tool for cutting moulding patterns. However, when you scratch against the grain as is often necessary, the tool shatters and leaves behind a rough surface.

This double scratch stock solves that problem. Grind or file mirror images of the desired pattern on a cabinet scraper. File the edge to 45°, then turn the burr. Fix the blade in a hardwood block that will act as a depth and fence. Adjust the scraper blade for the proper depth and tighten the screws to lock the blade in place. When you run into contrary grain, simply switch to the other side.

A Tea Box

Woodworking in a Tiny Shop -

My wife wanted a box for tea bags - something that could keep the different teas separated.  Each tea bag is in a little envelope and these were each about 2 3/4" wide and 3" tall.  I didn't know what might work well, so I made a couple of prototypes from scrap wood.  The design I settled on is my take on a Paul Sellers box from a few years ago.

I wanted this box to be more special, so I used some mahogany (previously used, of course) that I've had for quite a while.  I'll tell the story of the build in pictures and captions.

This glued-up plank had been the side of a cabinet someone gave away.
It was pretty warped, with an ugly finish on front and green "stuff" on the back.

Most of the parts roughed out

Here the front and back are marked with the triangle to denote position.
The sides, as well as the top and bottom were similarly marked.

Before dovetailing, marked the mating parts

The dovetails are on the box sides, and the tails are first rabbeted by 3/16"
to hide the 3/16" grooves that will come later to house the top and bottom.

The dry fit was encouraging

Leveling the top and bottom prior to ploughing grooves

Any day I can use this old plough plane is a good day

Grooves completed

The top and bottom are of an interesting, if not way-too-complicated design.  They each have grooves on both edges and both ends.  Then the inside "lips" formed by the grooves are shortened to fit into the grooved box sides and front/back, while the outside lip stays a bit longer for aesthetic reasons of the finished box.

The box top has grooves ploughed on the long grain edges and I've
taken one or two passes with the plough plane on the end grain.
This gave the gents' saw guide lines to saw down the walls of the groove
to make it easier.  Ploughing end grain can be tough; sharpening really helped.

Here's the top grooved all around

Then I removed 3/16" from the inside lip using saw and rabbet plane

Here's the bottom being fitted into the grooves in the box

The box was to have dividers, so dadoes were cut into the front and back

Fitting the divider was a cinch

The longer divider is half-lapped with the shorter one.  But it is not 
dadoed into the box ends - that would cause glue-up nightmares.  It can be
installed after the box is glued-up and the lid sawn off.

Before glue-up, I pre-finished some components, especially
those that would be tough to reach on the inside.

Also before glue-up, the front/back and sides were curved.
Here I'm checking progress using a template with a 10 3/4" radius.

The glue-up went better than expected.  I made curved clamping
cauls to even out the pressure.

When the glue had dried, sawed apart the top from bottom

Then planed up the rims

Testing the rim for twist

And got excellent mating surfaces

Mortised for the hinges

The screws for the hinges are #2 and require a 3/64" pilot hole.  I had to order
the bit - my smallest was 1/16".  My battery-drill's chuck couldn't tighten on the 3/64"
bit, so I broke out the original "cordless" drill, which had no such problem.

Hinges installed

Finally I added a small handle, mortised into the top.
Then 3-4 coats of shellac, some 0000 steel wool and waxing.

And here she is all gussied up!

A nice build, for sure.  I'm so glad I made a prototype - that really helped me avoid some mistakes.  The wife loves it, so live is good.



I don’t know if there is such a thing as “niche” anymore. I think that because of the internet, the…

Giant Cypress -

I don’t know if there is such a thing as “niche” anymore. I think that because of the internet, the way we consume culture has changed to the point where we don’t have the same kind of a centralized culture. Let’s say you go on TikTok. Every video there is a niche! I could sit there and watch a video of somebody shaving wood, then flip to a video of a big pop star, and then flip to a video about manatees. But on the other hand, traditionally, people have weaponized the language of niches to say that if something is “niche,” it does not deserve the resources that something “mainstream” does. Then it becomes about power. So I feel like it is worth rejecting the idea that some stories are niche and some are mainstream.

— Celine Song, in a terrific interview along with Adele Lim in Harper’s Bazaar.

This is a great insight, and the idea that Celine Song or Adele Lim might see a video of me making shavings makes me giddy. I do have a TikTok account, with exactly two videos of me cooking food. Better get busy.

boo boos again......

Accidental Woodworker -

I finished the 15 drawer dresser last week and I was hoping that I had put making brain fart me-steaks behind me. Well boys and girls I am here to say it ain't so. I made a boatload more on the small table build. They are recoverable and surprisingly most of them aren't visible. I'll take that as a credit against future me-steaks. The good news is that it should be ready for paint midweek. I think I'll paint it too rather than asking my wife to do it.

 unclamped

I plan on a 1/2-5/8 inch overhang of the top and the bottom shelf. Both the top and bottom came out of the clamps relatively flat in all directions. I'll get into the hiccups with the table later on down.

#1 brain fart

This wasn't the #1 mistake but the first one I saw. This should have been the inside face of the drawer front. There is a gap on the shoulder and on the inboard side of the left end. I'll fill them in with epoxy tomorrow.

 another miss

#2 Doesn't effect anything. I reversed the top left rail but I got the bottom one correct.

 #3

I consider this one to be the #1 mistake. I reversed the orientation of the legs. This caused a couple of hiccups but on the positive side of the coin toss, it isn't that noticeable. This threw off the diagonals by a 1/4".

 top/bottom

Neither one of these lay flat and gap free on the top of the table. They still need to be planed flat and straight but I don't expect it to change things much.

 almost a 1/4"

The table rocks like crazy. This is due to the misalignment in the legs. It pulled one side of the table out by a 1/4".

slip fit

The drawer is a slip in the width whereas before the glue up it wouldn't fit. The length is off a strong 16th. Not a problem but not the same as the dry fit up.

 surprise

My shellac came last night at 1930. I need to get this mixed up so I can start getting it applied to the dresser.

 low level alarm

I thought I had a full bottle of Everclear but I only have about a 1/4 cup. I had to make a run to the package store to get a liter.

I found another source of not only 190 proof but 200 proof which has zero water. I got this off SawMillCreek here. The site has a lot of information about alcohol that I didn't know. I spent over an hour reading up on it. Can't wait for my next wine tasting to drop a lot useless alcohol trivia. The only hit against them is they don't sell in small quantities. A liter of Everclear cost me $34 and the cheapest on this site was 5 gallons for $325. There are shipping restrictions to deal with to.

 whizzed up

I got this tip off the www and it works fantastically. I whiz it up into teeny pieces with the coffee grinder before I add the alcohol. I have found that it dissolves quicker and almost 100% of it gets broke down by the alcohol.

 drawer guides

I didn't realize it here but these were toast. I had thought of doing mortise and tenon for the drawer guides but nixed it. I didn't want to deal with the headache of getting that glued along with clamping the rails.

 hmm.....

This doesn't look like clear shellac to me and it sure isn't clear looking on the stir stick neither.

 glue only

I am going to rely on glue to hold the drawer guide. The right long edge will be glued to the bottom of the side rail. The guide for the drawer in/out will be glued to this after it has set up.

 caught it here

I glued in the bottom of the drawer guides and saw than they didn't extend pass the edge of the drawer opening. There was nothing to glue the drawer guide to. I was lucky that neither of them had set up yet. Popped them off and installed new ones ensuring that they extended past the outside edges of the drawer opening.

 shelf

 Flushed the joint line on both faces and squared up two sides to the bottom edge. I plan to notch the shelf to fit around the legs and overhang the rails.

 another hiccup

I only saw this because I was squaring this end to the front edge. I didn't notice it all when I was flushing the glue line. I have see this kinds of defects run the entire length of a board.

 glued and cooking

I got lucky with this split because I was able to get a lot of glue into it from top to bottom. I had looked to see if I could have sawn it off but there would have been about 2-3 inches of left after sizing it for the top.

accidental woodworker

More Japanese tool use at set build for my son’s high school drama club. Here I’m trimming off…

Giant Cypress -

More Japanese tool use at set build for my son’s high school drama club. Here I’m trimming off bracing for platforms that make up part of the set, so the platforms can butt up against each other.

The kids were talking about using a jigsaw for this task. I thought using a ryoba would be more straightforward. Plus, I was done before they were able to find an extension cord for the jigsaw long enough to reach the platform.

Japanese hand tools for the win!

(Thanks to my son for taking the picture.)

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