General Woodworking

fixing a missed step

I didn't plane a reference edge before I ripped the cherry frame to width. All four of them were uneven - they had humps that didn't line up. Went back to square one and planed one edge flat, straight, and square to the reference face. Still making me-steaks that bite me on the arse.

sigh

This was the 4th attempt to make the frame for the Declaration. I kept missing getting the length of the sides correct. I kept screwing up the inside and outside lengths. This frame is ok - ish but not correct. The mat would be less than 1" all the way around and I want it to be a minimum of 1 1/2".

I got the reference edge and ripped all the parts to the same width. I like the look of a thinner frame. One miter was off when I checked it with Mr Starrett. I had to redone both of the two short sides to fix the errant miter.

last one

Made a command decision and put the current frame aside and ripped out 4 new frame parts (with reference edges). I did two miters on the left and the other two on the right. All 8 miters were dead on 45 according to Mr Starrett.

shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't

This is how I should have measured the frame from the git go. The inside measurement for the short leg was 15 3/8" plus 3 1/2" for the mat. No me-steaks this time. I thought of doing this but I was concerned about it getting dirty. Turned out that wasn't a problem.

hmm.......

I've always been curious of this kind of mitered returns. My 4" Starrett said the two outside corners were dead on 90°.

the certificate frame

Got the dowels drilled - made sure that I set the dowel jig the same at each miter. I had set it so the dowel holes were slightly off center.

nope

The bar clamps drew up the miters tight. All the toes and heels aligned but I couldn't get the clamps to lay flat on the tablesaw. As I tightened them, it would pull it off the table. I didn't want a twisted frame. 

laying flat now

Switched to the besseys and the frame is laying flat. The frame is tight to the clamp bars and it is laying flat on the tablesaw. It doesn't seem to have the twist that the bar clamps had.

cooler today

The four day heat wave is gone and the highest temp in the shop hit 81F - 27C. A lot better than the living room which hovered in the low 90's F for the past 4 days. Today it got up to 85F and with a fan blowing it wasn't that bad. Not perfect but tolerable.

Declaration frame

I will glue up this frame in the AM. I only have 5 bessey clamps so I have to wait until the other frame has cooked. I plan to keep this frame simple - I am putting a small chamfer on the outside and inside edges only. 

hmm......

The two first cherry frames won't be wasted. I can use them to make two more frames. I think I'll leave them as is until I need to make one.

I'm post op now about month and I am feeling ok. Still not up to what I was before but getting a little better each day. I tend to get winded easier but the cough is way better. The bubble of fluid however, hasn't gotten the memo on healing yet. In the morning it is almost nothing. Within ten minutes of getting out of the rack and moving, it starts to fill up and grow. 

accidental woodworker 

 Had a major brain fart tonight. I thought I had written up my post but I hadn't. I deleted all the pics I would have used to write it up. I went and snapped a few after the fact pics to use. The heat wave continues and it sapped me. I didn't get a lot done today but maybe tomorrow I'll double it. The heat wave is supposed to break?

done - ish

Filled up the rest of the compartments I could. I have two coats on the dresser and the drawer fronts. When I find a new hole to stick this in I'll have to move it sans the drawers. I tried picking it up with all the drawers and my body said no way moose breath. Two more coats and this will be 100% complete.

frame for the wife

I had plans to gett this one glued and cooking but it didn't happen boys and girls. Maybe in the AM.

hmm......

This is the frame for the Declaration. Two of the miters are toast - Mr Starrett said they weren't 45. It is smaller then I wanted it to be but still doable. Nobody will ever know any difference.  

I'll redo the the two errant 45s which make the frame even a little bit more smaller. I noticed when sawing the 45s on the sled that I had to clamp them down on to the jig. I think I missed clamping the two errant 45s.

test miter

I made this one to test/check that the dowels I used won't interfere with routing that I plan to do on the outside and inside edges of the frame. To help out further I used two, one inch dowels. I didn't have problems closing up the miter when I clamped it. 

I don't know the name of the profile I plan to use on the outside but it is about 7/8" wide and 3/8" deep. The inside molding will be a shallow chamfer. The test miter sides are the same width as the Declaration frame. I don't think I'll need to make a test miter for the wife's frame. There is only an 1/8" difference in the width between the two.

accidental woodworker 

At last I’m back with an update. A lot has happened over the past few months. I’ve been working on our renovation project pretty much nonstop, aside from a few breaks for some small commissions and teaching. But the big project dominating my time this year has been renovating our kitchen, and I’ll share the… Read More »Old Doma Demo

The post Old Doma Demo appeared first on Big Sand Woodworking.

Well, this is another long video but so, so much to get through!

The bridge is made and I have brief chat about its design, the strings go on and I show you how I set-up my mandolins. And finally……..the New Model Mandolin gets to sing its first notes!

So, cuppa at the ready and off we go.

Cheers Gary

switched

The metal knobs were too large (IMO) for the dresser drawers. Decided to use one shaker knob per drawer. All of the tenons on the knobs were about a 64th over 3/8".

quick jig

The tenon length was 3/4" and the drawer fronts were a 1/2". This jig allowed me to saw the length to a little less than a 1/2".

done

I centered the knobs on each drawer front and it looks good to my eye. I found a site that sells shaker knobs. It is wood-dowel dot com. I was able to get three of the sizes I use the most. The one size that wasn't available was the largest but I don't use that size often. I'll check back on it occasionally to see if they pop up.

hmm.......

I have 31 containers to transfer to the drawers. I have 51 compartments available to fill up. There are 7 containers that are wood screws that I am not putting in the hardware dresser. I intend to put machine and metal screws only along with washers, nuts, etc.

new frame project

I don't remember where I saw this but it was (email?) about a printer who makes paper like they did in the 1770s. He printed copies of this Declaration using the font and printing methods from this time period. I'll be making a frame for this and another for a certificate my wife wants framed.

heavy

I didn't realize how much weight the hardware would impart on the drawers. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it makes the drawer runners sag.

found more

I found 5 cardboard boxes of wood screws. I remember these being left over from a McFeely's order from many, many moons ago.

There is a heat wave in its 3rd day in my part of the universe. It hit 97F - 36C  at my house today. It kinda sapped me and I didn't do anything in the PM session except to start filling up the dresser. All that is left to do on the dresser is to fit the base molding and slap on a few coats of shellac. Hoping to get that done in the AM and start on the two new pic frames.

accidental woodworker 

dry fitted

Feeling a little better today, still sore and painful with movement, but I could manage it. Chopping the pins took me almost an hour. A concession on my part to minimize antagonizing the pain center. It laid flat on the bench with no rocking but the tails and pins weren't fully seated. 

last one

I didn't forget to do the cutout for the base. Clamped two sides together and drilled a 1" hole. 

one more last thing

Used rasps to smooth out the undulations for the bandsaw. A few swipes with 100 grit and all four were done.

happy face on

A quick check to ensure the dresser fit within the base.

hmm.......

Needed some help closing up the tails and pins. It took me almost 2 hours to get to this point. Before surgery I don't think this would have taken me more than 30 minutes. I am getting a wee bit faster but still not anywhere near where I was prior to surgery.

done

Evened and smoothed the four sides of the base with the #3. A quick sand with 80 grit finished the base.

oops

A mind fart - I made the base on this side out to the outside edge of the molding. It should have been shortened to match the side of the dresser.

hmm......

This cove molding is too tall - The bottom drawer can't open. The bearers are set down 1/8" from the top. If the bottom rails on the dresser had been 3/4" thick the cove molding would have fit but the front and back bottom rails are 1/2" thick.

problem

hmm.......

I had a smaller molding but I didn't want to use it. If fits and the bottom drawer clears it and opens/closes freely. The moldings will only go on 3 sides. It will butt into the flat stock and be mitered at the front.

just needs knobs

too big

Ten of these 1 3/6" knobs for $2.52 and it is too big for the smallest drawer. It is barely small enough to fit on the 4 larger drawers. Rethinking whether or not to switch back to the shaker knobs. One option is to use a small shaker knob for the top drawer and the metal ones for the other four?

When I enlisted in the Navy in October of 1974 I was 5' 11" and 221 lbs. On my oncology appointment this week I weighed 251 but I had shrunk to 5' 7 3/8". I don't feel shorter and nurse said around age 25 we all start to shrink. I had noticed this over the years but I thought it was faulty measuring equipment. It ain't so boys and girls.

The pain in my left side is getting better as in less painful. I still have a stubborn bubble of fluid on the center of my chest and lower left rib cage. It hasn't changed in size for several days. My heart rate is normalized somewhat. It is now in the high 60s to middle 70s. Still high for me, I usually have a resting heart beat of 45-50. For several days now it hasn't gone nutso racing up to 120 to 130. I still think the fluid bubble is the cause for my heart rate headaches.

accidental woodworker 

 Last night after dinner I experienced a new pain that turned me into stone. There was an intense pain on my lower left side. It was a constant, heavy pain that didn't go away. It said hello with every movement I made, especially so with my left arm. The night was fitful but I did manage to sleep for a couple of hours. By morning the pain had subsided some but movement still woke up the pain. 

I thought I was at the apex of healing/feeling good and sliding down the other side. I spent most of the day sitting at desk watching You Tube. I picked vids that played for a long time because moving the mouse sucked pond scum. I watched hours of The Joy of Painting.

Around 1300 I was feeling a bit better and wandered down to the shop. That turned out to be a me-steak. By the time I decided to kill the lights I had just finished a 5 minute coughing fit. That didn't feel good and it is something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

hmm.......

The back stop thing had cooked and nothing moved when I took the clamps. Yesterday when I put this here it wasn't a problem. Today when I picked it up to move it to the sharpening bench, I felt it. There was a tugging sensation in the left side of my chest. 

stopped chamfer

This looks good IMO. If the chamfer had run out to the end I think it would have been too close to the end of the back stop.

didn't make

Initially I felt good and I thought I could get the pins/tails done and dry fitted. Almost but no cigar. I sawed the pins but couldn't chop them. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel a bit better and I can finish the dovetailing.

I went with a single tail because two half pins and one tail would have been too thin IMO. For a base this will work without any hiccups.

accidental woodworker

Until now, I've stored the irons for my wooden plow plane in a roll that gets put in a drawer.  The roll wasn't some multiple-compartment, fancy leather gizmo; it was nothing more than an old kitchen towel.  The irons deserved better, so I made a box for them.

For whatever reason, I often get stuck on design.  I looked online and found a few images of plow plane iron boxes.  They typically were vertical boxes with a lid that hinged to the side and each iron stands on end in its own slot.  While I liked that, I was having a tough time in my head with grain direction of the parts as well as methods of construction.  In the end I decided on a flat-ish box with a horizontal compartment for each iron.  The box has a sliding lid.  It's got 9 compartments; 8 for the set of irons I bought for the plane and an extra for the iron that came with the plane.

Two 10" long sides and a 6" long front and back

Dovetailed and dry fit

1/8" grooves were made top and bottom, starting 1/8" from the edges

Then (8) 1/8" dadoes were cut into the front and back

Cutting dadoes this small can be a real challenge, but it went much quicker after gaining some experience.  I used my homemade mini router plane to get the bottoms to depth.

The bottom of the box fits into the grooves in the sides, front and back.  It's just shy of 1/4" thick, so I rabbeted the edges to fit the grooves.

Getting ready to rabbet using the moving fillister

Here's the box's bottom rabbeted

Here's dry-fitting the bottom

1/8" hardboard dividers in the dry-fitted box

In this picture, you can see that I've cut down the box's front piece to allow the sliding lid to get in its grooves.  It started out the same width as the back for easier marking and cutting during the dovetailing and grooving stages.

Sliding lid

Two more details: the dividers were shaped to allow easier grabbing of the irons, and a thumb catch was carved into the lid to make the box easier to open.

The shaped dividers, with irons in place

Thumb catch on the lid

The glue-up was OK, though I initially messed up - even after a few dry-fits.  The order of putting the components together was key to get it glued up properly.  I gave the box a few coats of shellac on all outside surfaces, with none on the inside.

Here's one last detail.  The front edge of the box's top has a piece of wood glued to its end grain.  This hides the entry grooves and makes the front of the box look nicer.  I realize it a cross grained glue-up, but I've done this before on a similar box which has held up for about five years now.

Glamour shot

And with the lid partially open

Good little project.  The plow plane irons deserved a home of their own.  Now I just have to figure out where the box will live in my cramped shop.

last night

Got the bottom glued and nailed first. Then I sawed the dividers and installed them. One corner of the drawer was up slightly so I weighed it down with paint cans overnight.

hmm......

This plastic container came with 100 screws - it now has 92. It fit in 3 of the compartments I checked. Note to self - next dresser comes with 12 compartments.

off cuts

These off cuts are from when I thinned the drawer parts to a 1/2" thick. They are a wee bit wider and longer then the drawer fronts. Not only would they cover the plywood bottom, they will cover the dovetails.

first drawer

Squeezed in getting the off cuts glued onto the five drawer fronts. I'll be able to play with them when I get back home from the VA.

3 down, 2 to go

The glue up went off without any hiccups. One drawer will require some wood putty work. One corner of the drawer front has a big chip missing.

confirmed

I had set the miter gauge but almost an inch too much. Maybe I'll get lucky and find some odd shaped/long hardware that will fit in these compartments.

sneak peek

I think the veneer looks better than the original drawer front. The top drawer doesn't have the color streak the other 4 drawers have. It didn't occur to me that I could have used a cut off from one of the wider drawers. I was stuck on stupid thinking I could only use the cut off from the thinnest drawer (which didn't have a color streak).

hmm.......

Decided to leave the drawer fronts slightly proud at the front. They are all about the same with the bottom drawer sticking out a few frog hairs more than the others.

losing less than 1/8"

I sawed a bit off the back of all the drawers to even out the amount of proud of the drawers. After I did this I evened out the proud by eye by planing the off cuts I glued to the drawer fronts. 

done

I thought of building out the front of the dresser but nixed it. The proud of the drawers is a little less then 1/8". The amount of the proud doesn't look out of place or odd (IMO) when viewed from the sides.

chamfer done

Did a stopped chamfer - it would have looked crowded against the back stop thing if I had gone to end.

hmm......

Checked my shaker knob supply and this depletes it. I have just enough to put two knobs on each drawer, with either size. I think the drawers are small enough that I could get away with one knob per drawer. This is what I would like to use but maybe not. 

I had bought some blackish knobs on sale at Lowes specifically to use on this dresser. I think I'll use them instead and save my limited supply of shaker knobs for something else.

hmm......

I don't want a three sided base. I want it to go 360 but in order to do that I need to clip the molding holding the back. I sawed it so the bottom of the molding was even with the top of the back rail.

sigh

Made a Lowes run and bought two 1x8 pine boards. Somehow I did a mind meld with a rock and managed to screw up the long sides of the base. 

for tomorrow

Ripped out two new long sides - double, triple checked them correct. Laid out the base cut out for tomorrow. Ran out of gas again. I was feeling tired and I have learned not to work when I feel this way. I'll get back to this in the AM.

The oncology appointment went well. Met with the doc and I'll be doing one treatment of chemo. It will consist of 4 treatments 3 weeks apart. After that I go on a surveillance regimen with MRI s and CT s to monitor my body checking for a recurrence of the lung cancer. 

The important thing with the chemo is this is it. There won't be a follow up chemo round. The doc said because I am only getting 4 treatments that it is rare to get any lingering chemo side effects. And I can say No Mas at any time with it. 

accidental woodworker 

dry fitted dividers

I applied glue to the underside only. I didn't put any glue on the vertical ends.

hmm......

The dividers were a frog hair off but there is enough flexibility in 1/8" plywood to align them with the grooves. Decided to fit each drawer I've done so far rather than wait until all five are glued and cooked.

layout for the half laps

With the nine compartment layout I only have to layout for one end. I set the distance for it, sawed it, and then flipped it 180 to saw the other end.

fitting

First step was to flush the 1/8" plywood all the way around. It is getting easier to fit drawers. The key for me is one, take my time. And two, look at the fit of the drawer from the front and the rear. Thirdly, don't go nutso and take too many shavings at once.

one down, four to go

I am not that thrilled with the look of the plywood bottom. I glued it to the bottom because I didn't want the bottom inset in grooves. I also didn't want to give the little bit of real estate that would have eaten up. I have been eyeballing the off cuts from sawing the drawers to a 1/2" thick - I can glue it on the fronts and cover the 1/8" plywood bottoms.

hmm.......

Wasn't expecting this. I thought it would have been closer to flush. My first thought on fixing it is too saw the proud off the back of the drawer.

how?

This was making me scratch the bald spot on the roof raw. I don't know how the compartments on this drawer are different sizes.

?????

I laid out the dividers the same for both drawers but one is correct (left) and one wandered out into La La Land. It looks like I screwed up setting the stop on the miter gauge.

3 fitted

So far the first 3 drawers have about the same amount of proud.

3 down, two more to go

From the front I kind of like the proud look of the drawer fronts. The problem is what and how do I deal with the look from the sides?

#4 dry fitted

It was looking like I might get all five drawers at least glued and cooking before quitting time.

yikes

Made two boo boos with drawer #4. The first was I ripped one side a wee bit too much. Not a problem because the bottom of the drawer is flush - this gap will be on the side. I wanted it at the back but it ended up here. 

The 2nd boo boo was the side split when I glued it up. I thumped it with my fist while seating the tail/pin and it gave up the ship. I glued the split and the 1/8" plywood bottom will bridge the split and keep the side together.

drawer #4

The last two drawers will have 12 compartments. A little bit of apprehension that I did the half laps right and it would fit in the drawer.

drawer #4

I think I should have gone with 12 compartments for all of the drawers. If a plastic container  will fit in one of the 12, I'll be golden.

one left

Drawer #4 took longer to fit then the other 3. I think it was because of the 12 dividers which aren't that easy to plane and knock down. Got it done and it opens and closes freely.

drawer #5

This drawer was rocking a little bit. The paint cans flattened the drawer.  After ten minutes I removed the cans to check it. The drawer stayed flat on the workbench. I put the cans back on the let it cook. 

I'll be done with this in the AM. All that is left to do is to make the base which I don't have any stock for.  I used the base stock to get the drawers from. I'll have to make a Lowes run to get some pine for that.

I have an appointment with oncology tomorrow at 1000. I still haven't made up mind about the possibility of having to do chemo. Losing my hair I don't care if it happens. I don't want any nerve damage that would interfere with my woodworking. I'll find out what the game plan is in the AM.

accidental woodworker