Accidental Woodworker

Had a  good and bad day depending upon how you look at a half filled glass of water. I did my first walk about at 0830 and it took me 27 minutes to complete including resting 4 times to catch my breath. The first part of the walk I felt like I was trying to hack up what was left of my lungs. Got winded and out of breath but the 2nd half of the walk was cough free. The strange part is that I felt good in spite of being tired from a short, easy walk.

I did the 2nd walk at 1555 and it was different. I didn't cough as much initially but I still got winded, out of breath and had to stop catch my breath. It felt good to be walking again. Fingers crossed that my right foot doesn't throw a hissy fit tomorrow.

layout

Transferred the story pole to one edge of the dresser. Clamped the two sides together and knifed the pencil lines across the two.

hmm.....

I made the stopped dado for the rail 1 1/2" which just happens to be the size of this butt chisel. I thought chiseling this thin of a dado with this chisel would have given me some headaches but it didn't. Sharp cures a lot of what ifs and maybes.

1/2 done

This is all I got done today. The first walk wore me out and made me feel like I had worked a 12 hour shift. I had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch that I didn't finish. I fell asleep at my desk and woke up over 2 hours later.

I am still not sleeping through the night. I hit the rack around 2200 and I've been waking up 3-4 hours later. I do seem to add a little more time each day so that is encouraging. As much as I hate it, taking a nap might be a good idea.

I am feeling better each day but today made me feel my age. I was worn out with absolutely no desire to do anything but sit at my desk. Wondering if I will ever get back to putting 5-8 hours in the shop daily?

accidental woodworker

Had two appointments at the VA today, one at podiatry (AM) and the other with pulmonary (PM). The foot doc said I had most likely broken my big toe based on what I told him about it. That certainly explains the pain and why it took so long to go away. He told me that I should be able to manage two, 20 minute, walks a day now. Day one for that starts tomorrow.

marked

I set the front edge of the sides a 1/2" from the outside edge of the top. Once I had that I marked the back  edge and sawed the two sides.

rail half dovetails sawn

This was a bit tricky for me to layout. I laid out the slant wrong on 3 of the four. I had to double triple check myself a bazillion times before I sawed them. I did half tails because I didn't want a single tail with two half pins. I think this will be as strong or stronger than a single tail would be. I will glue and nail these with cut nails.

done

I wasn't overjoyed at the fit. The front rail had a gap and neither rail fit snug or was self supporting. The half dovetail was a good fit and it will keep the sides square and where they should be. I will fill the gaps with shims - and they will never be seen.

I sawed the tails and pins with my dozuki saw. My opinion of this saw is still changing. I like how smooth the cuts are and I'm finding it easier to saw square/plumb with over a western saw. Not sure how far down the japanese saw road I will go but for now it worked well doing the front/back rails.

hmm......

Did a layout starting from the top 1 1/2" drawer opening down with a 1/2" drawer rail in between openings. The bottom drawer was 2 1/4" which is too wide IMO. I only need 1 1/8" of depth for a plastic screw container. 

Laid out a second one with 1 3/4" for 4 drawers with the last one being a few frog hairs shy of 1 5/8". I didn't like this layout - this one had the shortest drawer at the bottom and I think that should be at the top. I also think that the difference should be more then 1/8". Visually this is too easy to miss.

good, better, the best

I cut two scraps that is were the same length between the top and bottom of the carcass (ID). I'm going with the 3rd and final one I laid out.  The top drawer is 1 1/2" and the other four are 1 3/4". I might need to make another one because I have a lot of hardware/screws/etc scattered/stowed around the shop. Maybe 2 or more hardware dressers would consolidate the herd in one corral.

The 2nd appointment with pulmonary  was at 1500. Found out that they removed a 8cm tumor and according to the Doc based on the size was most likely stage 3. I'll  get the official word on that june 26th from West Roxbury VA. The impression I got was that the pulmonary team is more concerned with my secondary ILD (Interstitial Lung Disease). Before either the Prov VA or West Roxbury VA decide on how to  treat the ILD, I have to heal from the lung cancer surgery.

No appointments on the calendar for tomorrow so I should get more shop time. I felt much better today, still coughing but most the pain with that is gone. Now I have to build my lungs back up -  still can't take a full, deep, breath. Partly due to the missing part of the lung and ILD. Sounds like tons of fun upcoming.

accidental woodworker 

 Another miserable night. Anesthesia is a wonderful thing but the side effects linger way longer then its actual use. Went to bed at 2145, fell asleep right away, and then woke up at 1230. I couldn't fall back asleep no matter what I tried. I had the same sleep  headaches when I had my right hip replaced. Don't know how long this @)%&@)%_*_@# BS is going to continue. 

hmm.....

Went to the shop after sitting at my desk for a few hours. The plan was to work until I couldn't anymore. I did a knife wall on the top end of the dado. I like that it keeps it clean and concise as I chop the dado. Without that this gets ragged out chopping the two outside walls of the dado and it tends to becomes longer than it was laid out to be.

not quite enough

The side fits in the dado snug but the side isn't bottoming out. I shaved a wee bit off the inside bottom until the the side bottomed out - and it was still snug. 

nope

The bottom fits on the sides back the grain orientation is wrong. The plan was to get the front and back rails from this but I can't. The grain runs in the opposite direction along the length I want it to.

sizing the front/back rails

I clamped the sides plumb to the top and the measurement at the bottom wasn't the same as the measurement at the top. After playing with this doing some different clamping, I decided that the bottom measurement is carved in stone and I'll use this stick to ensure the inside spacing of the sides at the bottom is the same as it is at the top.

The  kicker is the right side (as I was looking at it) wasn't plumb - it went slightly out of square towards the bottom (the top as I was looking at it). The side wasn't twisted and checked flat and straight. So I am going with the spacing as dictated by the top captured in the sides and match it at the bottom.

done

This is all I got done today - normally I think it would have taken me 45 minutes but this is the results after 2 hours of puttering in the shop. It felt good spending that amount of continuous time in the shop. Don't know if I was going slow purposely or not but at least I wasn't sitting on my arse doing nothing.

Being immobile to the point that I would have to sit or lie on a bed is not living IMO. I have been thinking ahead with this and I'm considering taking up model ship building again. I made 3 wooden ship models in the early part of my Navy career. 

accidental woodworker

 I slept good last night and the peepers failed open at 0430. I went back asleep and woke up again at 0645. However, I was in a wee bit of pain along with a mountain of soreness. The Breathing/discharge tube hole hasn't gotten the memo to heal and shut yet. The act of coughing still ain't bad but the tube hole sings arias whenever I do cough and not always in tune. The strange thing is I feel better coughing but the pain from the tube hole negates it big time.

I spent my entire morning siting at my desk and vegetated until lunchtime. I got up twice to get coffee and twice to pee. It didn't seem to help with my erratic heart rate. It still fluctuated up and down. Sitting still doing nothing with lowering it. My wife researched this tidbit and it is a common side effect with the surgery I had.

My belly is still twice the size it was before the surgery - there are still gallons of fluid in my chest wall cavity. I look like I swallowed a 3XL beach ball. I have an appointment with pulmonary at the Prov VA on monday where I'll get my tube hole bandages changed/removed. Maybe that will help things out the pain etc. Fingers and toes double crossed.

hmm.......

I wasn't going to go to the shop today but at 1412 I ambled on down there. The plan was to flatten the first dado down to depth. There is a void centered on the dado but there isn't any pitch in it. On the opposite face it is all solid wood. No pitch pocket or any evidence there is/was one. I'll have to mark this location so I don't put a Miller dowel in it.

I had to check it

This wasn't in the plan but I had to check the fit. It was snug and I was expecting a gap at the back end on both faces.

why not

I notched the front so it would hide the end of the dado. I had to plane the inside edge a wee bit to facilitate the fit.

one thing led to another

The clamps pulled the side down tight into the dado but it wasn't square. I had to push the side into the interior to get it square. After I get the 2nd side done, I can size the front and back rails.

drawer layout

I did the layout for the drawer rails on the back part that will be cut off. I used dividers first but that didn't work out. The top is down a 1/4" and the bottom is up 11/16". I was getting confused and my results sucked pond scum. Switched to laying them out with a ruler.

took 4 tries

I ended up with one more drawer then I had on my rough sketch. The bottom drawer is 1 7/8" high and the others are 1 5/8". The top one is a strong 16th wider - should be unnoticeable.

sigh

Two of the layouts were right but wrong. The wider drawer ended up at the top (twice) and I wanted that one to be on the bottom.

hmm.....

Not carved in stone yet. I can and probably will add the 16th on the top drawer to the bottom one. I couldn't believe I had spent this much time in the shop. No headaches, breathing issues, but not what I had planned.

accidental woodworker 

 Day two at home and things aren't exactly a Disneyland movie yet. The left side of my chest is swollen. Parts of it look like an inflated balloon and it it firm to the touch. That is causing heart problems - my heart rate is fluctuating from 70 all the way up to 130 and above. The highest it hit today was a brief 172. It doesn't feel bad, no shortness of breath, and no dizziness. However, the heart rate numbers are in the A fib territory.

That aside it is the coughing that is crippling me. That hurts like hell but not quite as bad as the pneumonia coughing I did back in november. The chest tube hole doesn't like it and expresses it so with pain that brings me to my knees.

The last headache I'm dealing with is sleeping. I got maybe an hour last night. I tried to fall asleep on back and after 4 hours I gave up and watched You Tube vids. Between 0200 and 0545 when I said fxxx it and got up, I think I got an hours worth of shut eye. Tried not to nod out today so maybe I'll be so )#)^&*^#_# tired I'll pass out. The )@&%)@&%@#)__+)# heat wave ain't helping much neither.

hmm......

I got maybe an hour total in the shop today. One thing I have to guard against is repetitious arm movements like sawing etc. Got the top and sides of the dresser to size. Noticed that is appeared to be shrinking but I could be wrong. 

first change

Initially I was going to put a solid bottom on dovetailed into the sides. Nixed that and I will now put a rail at the front and back. A solid bottom isn't needed because I am putting a base platform on the bottom.

yeah, it is shrinking

I did something wrong on the layout and I'm losing over an inch of depth on the sides. The front/back depth is now about 11 3/8 " instead of 12 1/4".

almost

Just need to flatten the first dado and rout it down to final depth. After the top is clamped in placed I will size and install the two bottom front/back cross rails.

No problems with the brief time I was in the shop. It didn't feel any different now then before the surgery. I had contacted a tool seller before the surgery and he is willing to buy out my shop. This is something I don't want to leave to my wife to have to deal with. Now that I know I can still woodwork, the buyout is on a back burner for now. That is subject to change if my health decides to go south on me again.

accidental woodworker 

 The surgery went  well and the doc said the tumor was removed in its entirety. I'm a little short in the breath department. It was a chore to  walk from the 3rd floor in the hospital to where my wife parked her car. My marching orders are to  start walking in 20 minute chunks every day and  work up  from that.  Based on today it will be a  while before that will happen. Hard to type too because of my bandaged right thumb.

survived

No headaches going to the shop up and down the stairs, No issues and my drawer runners  and front rails still look to be straight and flat.

I can't drive for at least two weeks which sucks. I can't lift anything heavy then 10 lbs. So I can't use my lunchbox planer for the 1/2" thick stock for the drawer boxes. Not sure what I'll be able to do with the carcass until then.

hmm......

Carcass parts look good. I should be able to size them and do the layout for the rails and drawer runners. Fingers crossed that I can knock that out. I have to stay active and avoid laying down in bed and sitting for prolonged periods. Blood clots aren't something to mess with.

I want to personally thank all who commented. I normally read and reply the same time I see them. I was in a bit of fog with the up coming surgery and spent the 3 days before it getting my affairs in order. 

 The doc was surprised that I wasn't eating pain meds like candy. I didn't feel any pain just discomfort from the drainage tube in my lung.  On a scale of 1 to ten, the pain never made it past 2 and I don't like taking pills if I don't have to. The drainage tube in my chest was a @_)*)_%&_*)^)@&%*$ ROYAL PITA squared - very painful, hurt when I coughed, and whenever I moved. The surgery was easier to take then that _@(%$_Q@)*%$_ tube.

Until my thumb heals some more I think I'll keep the blog short and sweet. Thanx to my wife for stepping in and keeping daily blog record intact.

accidental woodworker 

Ralph is hoping to respond to your comments soon.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of a Lenox Spice Cabinet you may have seen him making last fall.  

Mrs. Ralph 

 Well the boneyard is somewhat cleaned out since we got a mover to take three pieces of furniture headed to daughter number 2 in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, this is Mrs. Ralph, I plan to visit the patient today and I know he appreciated your kind wishes. You will hear more from him soon.  He is doing well.

This is Mrs. Ralph. Ralph is doing well and expects to be back in the workshop way sooner than would be advisable. 

Thank you for your kind messages and he will respond to comments when he can. 

I wasn't going to start anything today but it just fell into place. Started it and fingers crossed, I'll be finishing it sometime next week.

hmm....

I have 39 of these plastic containers. They are phillips head wood screws, sheet metal screws, and machine bolts along with picture hanging do dads. Way too much crappola to put into the mini 3 drawer dresser from yesterday's post.

story stick

Initially I thought I would keep everything in the plastic containers but nixed it. Zoomed past that idea and settled on individual compartments. This story pole is for a 9 compartment drawer, with 5 drawers total. The number of drawers is subject to change, up or down.

rough sketches

Thinking ahead, I really don't have a  hole for this (when finished) but I'll find one. Rough measurements are 12" across, 12" deep, and about 14" high.

sigh

I missed it again. I should have sawn the two long edges parallel before squaring the end grain ends. Fixing that boo boo cost me a little more then a 1/4" lost between the end grain ends.

couldn't avoid it

I had to glue on a 2nd board to get the length I needed. I'll put that small glue on towards the back.

made a Lowes run

The 1x12's at Lowes were complete garbage. I found some decent 1x8's that I'll use for the top and bottom. Snagged ten 1/4" poplar slats that I'll use for the dividers. I might need to get more because I'll need 3 per drawer and I'm short for two drawers.

cooking away

That is the dresser carcass - two sides, a top and bottom. 

hmm.......

Got 3 boards left over, not that they will go to waste in my shop. The heat wave must have scrambled the synapses firing in the brain bucket.

yikes

That is my bandaged right thumb. I got careless clearing a scrap of wood from the saw blade. The blade grazed the inside edge of it - a superficial wound that the ER took care of lickety split. I was in and out of the ER in less then 30 minutes and back in the shop.

drawer cross rails

Mr Thumb shook hands with Mr Saw Blade while I was sawing these out. I had to saw one more - incident free.

hmm.......

The R/L opening is about 12 1/4" and these are 24" long. I will only be able to get one front or back from these. I'll have to rethink the drawer stock. I could use 3/4" pine and thin it down to a 1/2". I'll start with the three 1x8's from above.

checking for twist

The first one I checked was twist free but the next two had a wee bit that I see sawed knocking out.

needed a couple of more

These will be used for the drawer runners. That don't have to be 12 plus inches. I think they will be about 11".

stickered

The thinner ones will be the drawer runners and the wider ones are the front cross rails. I will put only two rails on the back. All of these will get thinned down to a 1/2".

hmm......

A little awkward but no headaches using the #3 to flush and smooth the glue joints on the sides, top, and bottom. This is where I left off for the day. No idea when I'll get back to this. The doc said I can work in the shop once I'm home but I shouldn't exert myself for at least a couple of weeks. And I can't lift anything weighing more than 9 lbs.

accidental woodworker

 Didn't get much shop time today. Spent most of it nodding out at my desk and watching You Tube vids. I don't get this way often but with what is looming on the horizon....

it is 13 years old

This is something my wife kept in her office that is now an orphan. I used it at the VA for to keep my binder clips in them. My wife used it for the same purpose and now it is back in my care. The finish is a little worn but the drawers still work silky smooth. 

This was my project for the day. Sanded, scraped it, and applied 3 coats of shellac to it over a period of 7-8 hours. I am thinking of using it to hold specialty hardware items or screws, etc etc.

After I had made this I had to fix a couple of stupid wood tricks it threw at me. The right side had cupped and the top right and bottom drawers were binding. I shaved the inside of the right side with a chisel and eliminated that headache. In the time since then it hasn't come back. 

The 2nd headache was the middle rail came loose at the ends. I know I had nailed each end through the outside into the rail but not if I glued it again. It doesn't  matter as the repair has held up but I never set and filled the nail holes. I did that today with wood putty. 

see the white dot?

Got two coats on the body and the wood putty filled nail hole popped like a neon sign. Normally this would send my OCD into overdrive but this is a shop piece of furniture. I can deal with it. This will be done definitely by tomorrow. I don't expect to burn up the shop on sunday doing much of anything beyond sweeping and cleaning things up a bit.

accidental woodworker 

 I just finished the miniature cherry chest and the cherry bench/plant stand. BTW, daughter #2 said yes, I'll take it. Getting back on track, finished two and there is no project on the horizon at the moment. I have to take a step back and wait until I see what this coming monday says to me.

I have surgery scheduled at the Roxbury VA on monday at 0600. The CT guided biopsy last month confirmed that I have lung cancer in my left upper lobe. Before the surgery they will take a sample of my lymph nodes to confirm that they are cancer free. If they are they will remove the cancerous portion of my left lung. If the lymph nodes are cancerous, it is toast for me and there will be no surgery.

Either way the wind blows this, all I am really concerned with is being able to continue to work in the the shop. Fingers crossed that the lymph nodes come out negative, the cancer is removed, and I'll be able to figure out what the next project from Ralphie's shop is.

I would have started something now but I would only have two days to work on it. I also don't know if the blog will continue after monday - my wife will be posting while I'm in the hospital. I'll make that call after I get back to barn, hopefully on thursday at the latest. 

hmm........

The blackening solution worked. The directions were straight forward and the screws matched the color of the hinges. This solution has scary chemicals and I took a lot of precautions using it. If push comes to shove I'll try to get steel next time and use heat to blacken the screws.

happy with this

There were a few spots of shiny brass peeking through that I dabbed with a cotton swab to darken them. 

the honey do project

The back was a plywood wanna be thing secured with staples, no glue. It came off easily and I had no problems pulling out all 23 bazillion of them.

1/4" staples

These staples barely held the plywood back on the bookcase. Just about everyone of them remained on in the bookcase. 

hmm.......

I had to cut off 15" according to my wife. That went off without a hitch. The bottom and the center shelf were still attached keeping the bookcase reasonably square and together.

hmm.......

I got lucky that the rabbet was in the top and not the sides. The joint came apart cleanly and the glue residue scraped off with no headaches.

sigh

Glued and nailed the top back on with the 5 penny nails through the sides and the top. It should be ok because it was only previously held together with 3 staples and a bit of glue.

top on and cooking

I stapled the back on and nada. The plywood was thin and the staples blew right through them like I was stapling paper. I had to attach the back with 3/4" brads.

done

This bookcase is going here in the boneyard. This is the space my wife has decided to turn into a reading room. The left wall has all of my crappola that is facing eviction. Some hard choices coming.

100% done

I mixed up a fresh quart of shellac and put two coats on the bench/plant stand. My wife will be bringing this to daughter #2 in august. On monday the movers are coming to pick up the desks and the dresser to ship them to her. That is the downside of living so many states away from daughter #2.

experiment time

I've noticed lately that a lot of the You Tube woodworkers I watch use this saw to rip and crosscut. I am in between so I ripped this piece of pine off following a groove I had plowed in it.

hmm......

Cross cut #1 and it ain't pretty. It is square across but wee bit out to lunch on the plumb cut.

2nd crosscut

Cross cut #2 and it wasn't any better neither. It was square across (no problems there) but still off on the plumb cut.

3rd cross cut

No problems sawing it square across the face. It doesn't matter if I use the japanese or western saw. The problems come when sawing the plumb part. The plumb pencil line helped a lot.

square

The easy part of the sawing for me. All of the crosscuts I did were all square.

better

The plumb line helps me a lot to saw plumb. I did 8 crosscuts total and went 8 for 8 with square crosscuts and 5 for 8 with square plumb cuts.

hmm.......

I bought these clamps a couple of years ago specifically made for using with these machinist's blocks. Today was the first time I used these. Made a cross cut and edge plumb cut with it. Both of them came out dead square. The 2nd set up was making a practice tenon.

hmm......

This is my preferred way to make tenons. Saw the shoulders and split off the cheeks.

done

After splitting off the cheeks I use my LN rabbeting blockplane to get down to the knife lines. I should have made a mortise to test fit this but I didn't. Maybe I'll do that in the AM because there is nothing else on the hit parade.

My sister and brother in law stopped in again today for another visit before they head back to Indiana. I'm thinking of driving out there because once you get past New York it is basically a straight shot to where they live in Indiana. Maybe, that is what I told my sister.

The weather lately has been out of sorts. There was a mini heat wave and then it got cold, the kind of cold where I had to turn the heat back on. Now we are back to a mini heat wave. I went to Wally World and bought an AC. The temp at the house hit 93F 34C at 1430. I got the AC now because I will have a weight limitation after monday if the surgery goes through. Got it installed and it is working good - the bedroom temp is down to 70F from 88F. 

accidental woodworker 

squirrely grain

The grain on two of the faces of the legs have an interesting grain that I like. A downside to it is that it is full of shallow tear out pockets. It is/was very difficult to remove it. Sanding did diddly squat and scraping was the only thing working. Even that wasn't nice sailing trying to remove and smooth it out. Wiped it with alcohol to show me where it was still and how well I was doing removing it.

bottom is done

I got three coats on the underside of the top and I'm calling it done. There isn't any need to put anymore on it.

stretcher

Got three coats on the bottom and sides of the stretcher. After I install it I'll finish the top of it.

sigh

I thought I was done with scraping the base but it ain't so boys and girls. I was getting ready to shellac this when I caught several spots of tear out in raking light. Spent another hour and a pound of calories dealing with it.

oops

I forgot to or rather I thought I didn't have to sand the ends of the stretcher. The angled saw cut was pretty smooth but this piece of end grain was raw and rough. Sanded it and the saw cut up to 220.

not waiting

The last screw for the hinges. This chest had been done except for this for a couple of days. The back stop on the lid increased the real estate for driving screws on the lid. I'll deal with replacing the phillips head screws after my #4 screws come in.

lid stay

I have several bent arm lid stays but nixed using them. My track record for installing them is dismal. Chain stays are very forgiving and almost impossible for me to screw up.

eyeball is off

Got the upper part of the chain on the lid a wee bit too far over to the right. I'm leaving this as is because I don't want to fill in any errant screw holes.

extremely happy with this

The front of the chest had the most work fixing the gaps on the pins/tails. From a foot away I had to stare and concentrate to pick out the shims and hide glue/sawdust filler. The latter blended in seamlessly too. From 3 feet or more away the pins/tails look flawlessly tight.

lead off glamour pic #1

I absolutely love these handles. This chest is heavy (due to being made from 3/4" thick cherry) so handles of some sort were necessary.

glamour pic #2

Don't know if the back will be visible but it is finished so it can be viewed. The tails/pins look good here too.

left side glamour pic #3

I prefer the larger handle but the price of them is prohibitive IMO. One handle is about $70. These two are 4 1/2" and cost me $21 each including S/H.

left side pins/tails

Up close and personal and almost nothing to pick out. I had my doubts about the pins/tails being presentable after what I had to do to close/fill all the ugly gaps I had. Couldn't be happier with this. I have no issues with giving this away as a present.

final glamour pic

I like the top of this chest. It has cathedral graining, sapwood, and black gum streaks that matches the rest of the chest. 

bench/plant stand

Glued the stretcher to the end rail and I'm adding screws to give me a warm and fuzzy.

ran out of shellac

The can is bone dry but I have two spray cans of shellac. This one is about a 1/3 full and the other is full to the brim. More then enough to finish the bench/plant stand.

calling this done

The top of the stretcher is all that needs to have some shellac slapped on it. I will do that with spray shellac and it will probably take 6 or so light coats.

bench/plant stand glamour pic #1

This looks better than I expected. The top of it is 15 5/8" up from the deck.

side view glamour pic #2

I think not putting a bottom shelf on this was a good call to make. The size of this would be perfect for the grandsons to use as bench.

glamour pic #3

It is hard to pick out the double bung holes I did on this side and the opposite one. At first glance I didn't notice them. 

glamour pic #4

The top has some interesting grain and my first attempt at a butterfly tie (also called a bow tie). In hindsight I should have used walnut rather then cherry.

hmm......

There is a slight bit of rocking which I wasn't expecting. When I checked this yesterday there was none.

high spots

I put a piece of blue tape on the high legs. After the shellac is done I'll trim these two down until the rocking goes bye bye.

sigh

My #4 screws and shellac flakes were waiting on my desk when I killed the lights for the day. When I put the #4 screws away I found that I already had 50 #4 x 5/8", flat head screws and now I have a 100. A little later on the Birchwood Brass Black came in early. When I had checked it at lunch it was scheduled to come tomorrow.

I'll check it out in the AM and see how well it works on turning my brass #4 screws black.

a honey do quickie project

My wife wants this bookcase shortened by 16". I'll be taking it off at the top and she knows that she will be losing at least one shelf position. She said she didn't even care what it looks like but of course I will give it my best shot.

 accidental woodworker 

 Today was an interrupted one. I had an appointment with my new PCP at 1000 and at 1200 my sister and brother in law stopped in for a visit. We went out to grab lunch. Three of us got fish 'n chips and the wife got a patty melt, well done. The only seafood I have seen go into her pie hole in 27 years is a fish sandwich from McDonald's. Needless to say not much time in the shop but I did manage to squeeze in a few things. Still not done with either the cherry chest or the cherry bench/stool/plant stand. Maybe tomorrow I'll knock out both or maybe at least one of them.

bottom stretcher

Settled on how I want the bottom stretcher to be attached to the bottom end rails. The notch in the end rails is half the width of them. The 1/2 lap notch on the stretcher is 3/16". It will sit proud of the end rails.

hmm......

The ends of the stretcher will extend past the outside face of the end rails 1". I thought of putting the stretcher flush and putting a shelf on it but nixed it. With it being proud it says that this was intentional. 

clipped the ends

I didn't like the look of the ends being squared so I clipped them This cut isn't 45° neither but something shallower - 5/8" in from end and 3/8" down. I liked how smooth the cut face was off the saw - no need to play with it anymore.

sneak peek

This definitely has the look of a bench but it could be used as a plant stand. The bench is roughly 16" off the deck which, IMO, is as low as seat height should be. The fit of notches on the stretchers/rails is spot on.

not easy

I was able to chop down but angling the chisel to remove/pop out the waste wasn't happening. Not enough room to leverage the chisel to do that.

surprise

I got my heaviest picks to pry out the waste but the exacto knife is what I used to remove it. It outclassed the picks by a mile which surprised me to no end at all.

step one fixing the errant drilled holes

Positioned the drill block on the center of the leg and drilled two teeny depressions on it.

hmm......

These could be a decorative item, I'll have to keep this in mind. I did this only on the outside faces of the long side legs.

step two

Used my Fuller countersink to drill in the depressions I did with step one.

step three

Make more bungs then needed to fill in the countersinks.

first one done

This is what I repeated on all four legs. They will all look the same, with two cherry plugs. I orientated the grain on the bungs to align with the grain on the legs. Normally I would put the grain of the bung at 90° to the leg grain.

This is as far as I got. Stopped here and went to the VA for my PCP appointment.

blast from the past

The wife is rearranging her office and this got demoted to the boneyard. It is a revolving bookcase I made for her 14 years ago (?). She still wants it which surprised me because she uses something and then discards it without another thought. This she likes and wants to keep.

hiding the me-steak

I got enough of these thin strips of cherry to apply to the tops of all four rails.

covering the notch

I covered the notch in the end rails so I don't get any shellac on it. I learned the hard way that you can't glue over shellac.

happy face on

It isn't shaking or rocking in any direction. This is/was almost ready for shellac. I don't have enough to finish this but I have a 1/2 pound of flakes on order.

sigh

Got a divot on this end from the router. I brain farted and forgot to tighten the collet on the bit. Too big to ignore or sand and blend out.

fixed

I had to saw off a 1/8" to remove the boo boo divot. After that I had to smooth the end grain with my sanding sticks.

nope

I thought I could sand the top and be done with it. I was wrong because the butterfly developed some gaps I didn't like. Mixed up some cherry sawdust and hide glue and filled it in. I'll have to wait until the AM before I can sand this smooth and stop slapping some shellac on it.

 accidental woodworker

 The miniature cherry chest isn't done. I'm waiting on the screws which are coming friday, but I'm still applying shellac too. In between doing that I started and almost finished the cherry bench/stool/plant stand. Came close but no cigar but I am so awfully close to being done with it. I have already started looking ahead to what will be coming out of my shop next.

rearranging the shop

I needed the workbench to be cleared off so I can work on the bench/stool/plant stand. I need the bench to plane and clean up the rails and legs.

cleaned up

All the rails had burn marks that cleaned up easily. The legs were mostly burn free but had saw marks to plane smooth.

hmm......

Legs and rails sawn to length and dry fitted. The stretcher I'm leaving over length because I haven't decided how I'm going to use it. This gives a peek at what it will look like which IMO ain't too bad.

swapped out

Removed the 1/4" drill block and installed the 6mm drill block. Looking at my stock of dowels, 99% of them are 2" and 1 1/2" 6mm pins. I have about 40-50 1/4" diameter, 1 1/2" spiral dowels.

6mm dowel in a 6mm drilled hole

The dowel fits snug and I mean snug. I can't push the dowel into the hole with my hands. No probably driving it home with a hammer. As an aside the 6mm dowels fall straight through the 1/4" diameter drill block bushings.

oops

Got ahead of myself and drilled a hole I shouldn't have. The rail will cover about half of it but not all.

scratched off the bucket list

I have wanted to put a butterfly on a split/crack for a bazillion years. The split/crack here doesn't extend straight through to the other face. It only goes less then half way. 

hmm......

This came out better than I expected. I have a gap here at this end but the rest of the butterfly is gap free. This is going to be the up face of the top. If this butterfly had come out crappy I would of placed this face down.

The depth of the mortise is about 5/16" deep and I sized it so that I could use my small Stanley router to get the depth consistent.

stretcher

Still figuring out how to do this. Overall I want the stretcher to keep the bottom of the ends from moving in/out. I kinda have an idea but that won't happen until after it is glued and cooked.

panic time

The glue up plan was to do the ends first and then the two long rails. Things went south on me first when I couldn't align the 2nd bottom rail with the top one. The top rail fit on both ends but the bottom one was off.

I thought it was me not drilling the holes correctly so I drilled one more. That did diddly squat and left me with a hole I had to plug.

the problem

When I drilled the dowel holes I did them opposite of each other. The holes on this end should have had the closest dowel to the edge on the right and not the left. The other end of this rail I drilled correctly. Drilled the holes again in the right orientation this time.

another me-steak

After the screw up from above, I was checking the holes lining up and they do. However, I saw another misalignment that I'll deal with after this has cooked.

2nd _*&%@)(@*_)(_#@ me-steak

When I put this rail in I thought I had done it right - making sure the slot for the table clip was facing the inside of the base. Missed that by a mile. I had remembered to do the table clip slots with my plunge router but I'll have to chop this one by hand on the other side of this rail. 

I made this same brain fart on Miles's desk and the fix to hide the me-steak is I'll cover it with a thin slat of cherry.

hidden brain fart

While I was trying to figure out why the bottom rail holes didn't align, I drilled two holes on this face that I'll have to hide somehow. These won't be partly hidden though but will be staring right back at me.

one more

I had a couple of drips and runs that I had to card scrape away. It is going to take a couple of covering coats of shellac to blend them in. I should be done with the shellac tomorrow. Before glamour pics I'll have to wait for the screws to come in.

hmm.....

Clamped and cooking away until the AM. I have been thinking of the stretcher and I think I have decided how to do it. I will notch the ends to go over the rails - not a full half lap joint but a 1/4 one. We'll see how that shakes out in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

 I had my annual peepers check this AM. Got there at 0730 for my 0830 appointment. I went early because Rte 10 gets nutso with rush hour traffic. It worked in my favor because at 0740 my annual exam began. An hour later I was driving home with 20/20 vision. It seems like every year the exam takes a wee bit longer and they add new tests and checks. Hopefully that is what it is and not because I can't remember what happened a year ago.

chest attached to the base

I used two screws on each bearer to secure the chest to them. 

not rocking

Happy with this. I was expecting some rocking because the base had a teeny bit of twist. Maybe the chest pulled it straight but it doesn't matter. The chest is tight and flat to the bearers and base ain't rocking.

moldings

Got  the four moldings sawn out over the lengths needed. This is as far as I got in the AM session. My peepers were dilated and I was working with sunglasses on and it wasn't working. I couldn't focus and see clearly so I went upstairs and did the crossword and sudoku puzzles.

up side of the lid

Got the first coat on the lid and it didn't pop like I thought it would. I like the sapwood and the black grain lines. There are black gum pocket/lines on the back stop too. Subsequent coats of shellac should pop this.

sizing the moldings

The molding under my finger is a test piece. I used it make sure the front molding is positioned dead on the corner.

yikes

I had seen this but I thought it was a black gum pocket. The peepers still weren't operating at 100%. The screw was too close to the edge and caused the bulge.

fixed

Squirted some glue in to the crack and clamped it shut. I'm lucky with this fix because the molding will hide all of it. 

first one done

Got the first molding set, checked, then glued and nailed in place. The plan is to repeat this for the two short ends. The last one I will trim/fit between the short open ends.

got 3 attached

Fitting the last long molding in place was batting next.

sanding stick

Used a 120 grit sanding stick to sweeten the miters. The corners of the chest after planing and sanding were slightly off 90°. 

sigh

Over corrected my trimming and the last molding is short. This gap is too wide (and ugly) to ignore. I have one more piece of molding left to replace this one.

the problem

This short side molding is a few frog hairs short of the corner. I pulled this one off and used the last long molding to get a new short side one.

new molding

Got the left corner tight.

ditto for the right side

Happy with the fit of the miters on the back. Glued and nailed it off and with that the moldings were done.

hmm.......

This was the molding I had dyed the bare wood and I can see a color difference between this and the other three. Got lucky because I wasn't pay attention as to where this molding was going. If it had been at the front I would have ripped it out and replaced it with a new molding.

decided

My choices were to rip out one of these to match the 1 1/2" square leg. Instead I'm going to knock these two down to 1 1/2" because they are the exact same length.

done

I got one leg blank for any oops that might bite me on the arse.

done

I got all the parts needed for this bench/stool/plant stand. Four legs, 6 rails, and one stretcher for the bottom rails . The board on the right is an extra rail, again for any potential oops.

In between getting shellac on the cherry chest I'll start working on the new project. I'll be doweling this like I did for Leo's desk. I will use the 6mm dowel jig I just bought for my Dowel Max jig.

accidental woodworker

installing the hinges

I always try to do my hinging the same way. Which means chopping the hinge gains on the wider board/part first. Then repeat for the other (thinner) one.

stop and move on

A big chip out happened the first lid hinge - I super glued it and clamped it with a piece of blue painter's tape. While it set up I chopped the other hinge.

yikes

A hinge is MIA. I spent an hour searching the house retracing my steps trying to find it and nada. I almost bought another set of them from Horton Brasses. Hint - look at the far end between the vise faces. The MIA hinge was hiding there.

nice touch

Horton sends steel and brass screws with their hinges. However, I had two strikes against them already. The first is they are phillip head screws and secondly, they are too long. They aren't too long for screwing into the chest but they are for screwing into the lid.

I tried ordering some black oxide, #4 x 5/8, flat head screws and nada. In fact I was ordered a lot of screws to get above the minimum and they only had two of the 9 screws I tried to order. I ended up buying brass, flat head slotted screws off the internet. It was site I hadn't ordered from before.

no help

I had no #4 x 5/8" screws in any flavor and the #5 x 5/8" screws I had were too big for the hinge countersink. I'll have to wait for the screws to come in. 

yes they are 3/4" long

I thought of clipping/filing the screws down to 5/8" but nixed it. I'll cool my heels and wait. Once they come in I will paint the heads black.

prepping for shellac

All the woodworking is done except for attaching the back stop on the lid. The glue joint on the underside of lid wasn't flush. A few strokes with the card scraper and it was.

swagged hinges

I made both gains the thickness of the leaves which left me with this big gap. I expected that and to lower it I will trim the gains on the chest until I get a gap I like.

handle template

Drilled the holes for the handles now rather then after the shellac was done.

better looking tear out

The grain on the front at top reverses three times along the length. I skewed a #3 and got most of it to look presentable. I followed that up with a card scraper. I didn't get it all but enough. I stopped because I didn't want a hollow in the front between the chest and the lid.

sneaking up on it

The gap I wanted needed about a 16th to go bye bye. Used the router plane to sneak up on that - took me 3 plane and checks before I got there.

almost there

I was slowly reducing the gap but I didn't like this one - still too wide.

done

Trying to avoid the lid becoming hinge bound. That would require adding shims to the gains which was the opposite direction I was going in. I'm happy with this one. The lid is laying flat on the front edge and the angle from the back to the front is a frog hair off 90°. (It sill may get sucked down some when I screw the hinges in place too.)

first coat of shellac

I like watching the first coat of shellac pop this cherry. I can't wait to see what it looks like with 5 or more coats slapped on it.

last of the woodworking

I had 3 coats on the underside of the lid and set the back stop in place. I used a couple drops of super glue along the length to hold it in place while I screwed it off.

last one

Five screws and a few drops of super glue secure the back stop. All the woodworking is done. The oohs and aahs will commence after the last coat of shellac is on.

easy oops fix

I forgot to remove my center line pencil mark on the back edge. Shellac is very forgiving with something like this. Card scraped the pencil mark and put shellac on this and it disappeared like it was never there.

3 coats on

Got four coats on the underside of the lid. Next batter up is marrying the chest to the base. Then I'll attach the cove moldings and finish applying shellac to the chest and lid. I should be snapping glamour pics on tuesday (for Wednesday's blog post?).

couldn't get it to flow

The cathedral grain doesn't flow around the chest in one direction. I tried to do it but it wouldn't work out. I wanted the sapwood on the outside of the chest and couldn't get the cathedrals to cooperate. 

next project

Most of these scraps of cherry have been hanging out on the tablesaw and they have to go. I think I have enough here to make a small table/bench/plant stand. 

leg stock

The two bigger ones are too big for this project. The thinner one is 1 1/2" square and I think that fits better with the overall scale of what I intend to make. I'll start on it after the chest is done.

I found something that will turn brass black - Birchwood Casey Brass Black Metal Finish. Heating brass doesn't turn it blue/black but this will. Coming from Amazon tomorrow.

accidental woodworker

next day AM session

I checked the base for rocking and immediately was annoyed. The top was rocking a teeny bit and the bottom twice as much. Spent my first ten minutes getting the top and bottom to be rock free again.

new bearers

Didn't have any cherry so I used pine. They are snug fitting and dry - no nails or glue. Before I commit to this I wanted to make sure it is going to work.

first fit was good

The bearers felt snug and they held the weight of the chest on them. No rocking which put a happy face on me. Took the chest out and put it back in again and it was rocking.

not rocking

Checked the chest but it was still laying flat on the tablesaw. I was getting the heebie jeebies about this base and chest ever getting married.

a happy sigh

The far left corner is down - that was why it was rocking again. Evened the bearers out and checked the chest and no rocking.

baby steps

The plan was to nail the bearers on, no glue, and checked the chest for rocking. 

oh what a relief

Bearers nailed on and the chest is dead flat on them - zero rocking.

hmm.......

Leaving the nails in the bearers. I didn't want to risk pulling them off, applying glue, and then nailing them back on. 

screwed the bearers

I added screws to the bearers one at time. After screwing one on I checked that the chest still wasn't rocking. Got them all screwed off and the final check of the chest still had no rocking. Much joy and dancing in the streets of Mudville commenced and lasted for hours.

cleaning up the base

There were a lot of shallow tear out spots that the sandpaper wasn't removing. I had to use a card scraper to finally remove them. I used a #3 only to flush the pins/tails at the end. I didn't want to risk tear out planing the entire length of the sides.

shellac and black dye

Trying this to see how it will look on the cove molding I dyed yesterday.

not black enough

This is the back side of the molding that I didn't dye. I guess I was looking more for this to be a deep black like it was paint.

the dyed side

I don't like this look at all. I thought some of the red oak would peek through but it isn't. This molding doesn't look like wood to me.

from ACE

I  had to make a grocery store run and ACE is in the same parking lot. $10 for a pint can of cherry dye.

cleaning up the chest

This took a lot of time and a ton of calories. Used the #3 to flush the tails/pins on the corners and sanded the chest after that was done.

hmm........

The middle one was dyed on the bare wood. The other two I put a seal coat of shellac first before applying the dye. The middle one is dark but not as splotchy as the top and bottom ones are. They are also lighter. The cherry dye IMO doesn't look like cherry. I think I like the red oak dye was a better match for cherry. Regardless I am going with the cherry dye as is for the cove molding. It will be a contrast between it and the chest cherry.

it worked

Made a template for the handles and tested it on a piece of scrap pine.

back stop

Rounded over the top edge on the front and back to soften it. Got the hinges laid out and stopped here for the day. My wrist was hurting probably from the  RO sander work I did. I'll get the hinges done in the AM. After that is done I can attach the back stop to the lid.

accidental woodworker 

 I went back to the shop after dinner last night intending to spend a few minutes checking out the base/chest rocking issues. Those few minutes morphed into almost 2 hours. One thing led into another and I lost track of time. Figuring out why things were going south on marrying the chest to base started to consume me. In the end I still didn't have a clue as to what was going on. 

Instead of adding the pics from that session to tomorrow's post I am writing it up as a separate post for today. As soon as I post this I'll be returning to that headache and commence doing battle again.

the problem

The base has a teeny bit of twist over the sticks both top and bottom. IMO it is no where close to causing the headache with the chest and base being married. I was starting out first by checking the base and the chest for twist.

the flatness check

This is my preferred way to check for flatness and the chest ain't a rocking on either diagonal. I also checked with the sticks and they said no twist too.

hmm.......

Thinking about this I thought that maybe there was a hump on one or more of the bearers. There wasn't, all four were flat and straight.

light assist

I even shined a light behind the rule and no light peeked out on any of the four bearers. 

hmm......

Thought I had found the problem. Two corners had one above the other and two were the rule hit. I evened the ends were they met but that didn't make the rocking go bye bye.

one of the high corners

Both of the high corners were where I had the veneer. I really thought this was the fix boys and girls.

it wasn't easy

Of course where I had to remove some wood was against the grain. One corner torn out and looked ugly.

sigh

I had to shim the ugly torn out corner so the rule lay flat across corner to corner. Got zero joy when I put the chest on the base. If anything, the rocking was worse then before.

checking the offset

Next check on the hit parade was checking the bearer offset from the top of the base to the bearer. It was off less than a frog hair 360 in a few spots.

hmm.......

Clamped the chest to the base. The clamps pulled it flat and tight to all four bearers. I could see and feel them pull the twist out of base onto the chest.

no joy again

The chest ain't rocking on the base but the base is rocking. It wasn't rocking as bad as the chest unclamped but enough to be annoying.

back to square one

Starting over by checking and removing the twist on the base. I wanted to go forward from here with a known, good flat base.

the final check

When doing this I saw that two of the bottom corners weren't square in one direction. Squared those, flipped it and kept at it until there was zero rocking on the tablesaw. Repeated it for the other side. Base was now flat and not rocking on either the top or bottom.

removed

The bearers came off without any problems. I thought with them being glued that they wouldn't come off as cleanly as they did. The reason why I didn't extend the bearers from side to side was I didn't have any scraps long enough for the long side. When I replace the bearers again I will do that.

hmm.....

Still surprised after seeing this pic how easily this cleaned up. I used a card scraper to remove the glue residue. 

last check

According to the straight edge the top of the base is flat, straight, and all in the same plane 360.

hmm.......

This is not the look I was expecting. I put on a 2nd seal coat of shellac and once it was dry, I wiped on the ebony dye. I was hoping that it would be more dark and black. Maybe I can boost that happening with adding some black dye to the ebony?

accidental woodworker

I stuck to the plan

After dinner I went back to the shop and glued up the 2nd base. It was twisted a bit so I clamped it flat to the workbench. I wasn't expecting it to do anything but when I took off the red handled clamps, the base stayed flat on the bench. Nothing moved or shifted when I did that. Sometimes you get lucky.

cleaning up the base

It probably wasn't necessary but I planed and rasped the base cutout smooth.

it fits

I had built in wiggle room, R/L and F/B. However, it seems I added a wee bit too much R/L - it was 3/16". But that is what the cove molding is for - to cover any gaps between the base and the chest.

blurry pic

Just as well that this was blurry because the tails on this base have some of the ugliest gaps I have seen in many, many moons. This blurry corner had the worse looking ones.

the other end

This corner looks better but it still ain't good IMO. I will use it and shim all the gaps.

the best corner

This is what I was expecting to see on all four but that didn't happen boys and girls.

homemade putty

Gathered up some cherry sawdust and mixed hide glue with it. I filled in all the small gaps with this that didn't need a shim.

bearers done

I glued and screwed the bearers to the inside of the base.  I will screw up through them into the bottom of the chest.

too high?

The bearers are 5/16" down from the top of the base. That puts the plywood bottom a few frog hairs below the top edge. Not that matters much because the cove molding will hide it. In the pic it looks high to my eye, but in person it doesn't.

bottom on

I nixed just screwing the bottom on and instead I glued and nailed it. Flushed the edges of it to the chest.

lid sized

The lid is a 1/2" oversized on the front and sides. I may knocked that back to 3/8" because I'm not exactly in love with this amount of overhang. 

needs shims

I had 4 pin/tails to shim on this end. The other end I had to do 6. Overall I used 14 shims to close up gaps. 

shim stock

I picked through my cherry scraps and used those that closely matched the chest. The japanese dozuki did extremely well sawing the thin shims I needed.

more homemade putty

I shimmed what I could but there were still a few gaps that looked ugly. 99.9% of them were on the tails. I only had to fill two spots on the short ends.

the cove molding

The first step is to put a thin coat of shellac on so the dye doesn't end up splotchy. I put one spoonful of shellac into the container.

hmm.......

I added 3 spoonfuls of the alcohol from the brush container into the spoonful of shellac. That should thin it so the dye goes on even. I don't think the cove molding is pine but it looks like poplar to me. I don't know if this molding will act like pine does when it is dyed.

two of the choices

The plan is to dye it with red oak first. The right one didn't look like the cherry at all. After the red oak has dried I will apply another coat of shellac as a sealer. After that has dried I will apply the ebony as the 2nd dye.

happy with this

The color came out more even then I expected. It also doesn't look that bad against the cherry. (BTW when I was at Lowes there wasn't a drop of cherry dye in the store.) After dinner this will be dry and I'll put on the ebony. I want this molding to stand out from the cherry and that is why I'm using a dark ebony as the top coat dye. I'm hoping that the red underneath will peek out too.

hmm........

The chest is rocking in the base. The chest isn't rocking sitting on the bench. I stacked up some veneer on the low corners until the chest stopped rocking on the base.

it went south

Took the chest out of the base to super glue the veneer stack together. Put the veneer stacks on the bearers and put the chest in place. It was rocking again. Less than two minutes before it wasn't. WTF?

The chest lays flat on the tablesaw with zero rocking in any direction. Under the sticks it shows zero twist too. The bearers show a little twist but I don't think it is enough to cause the amount of rocking I'm seeing. I'll have to set this aside for now and think on it for a while. 

back thing doo dad or doo hickey

I have a book on furniture styles and the names of the parts of them. What I don't have is one thing that has anything like this. I like the look of it on the lid over leaving the lid flat and unpopulated. A back stop is what I came up with to call it.

accidental woodworker