Working wood

Back again-

Time to cut out the lid. Here are several photos showing the lid being shaped:


The lid is made from two pieces of white oak. I like oak but its a coarse-grained wood and it doesnt hold fine detail well. The color is interesting and its hard and durable so Ill probably be using it again in the future.

I turned the lid and the box together one last time and here is what we have at this point:



It needs a considerable amount of sanding and Im not sure it I like that section in the lower half of the box.  Ill have to cogitate on that. But the box is nice and it will hold a lot of chocolate or whatever my friend choses to put inside.

Our next box is made out of the same materials except the lid is made from white oak with a Brazilian cherry knob on top. The box will also be shaped differently so Ill post photos of that box.

Our next thing to do is to glue the red birch box pieces together in order to make a turning block. Im going upstairs for a bit and have some lunch and some hot coffee and Ill be back later today with more photos.

VW

Shaping the Feet and Finishing the Frame

In my last post I finished the leg to bench surface joinery and can now get into the rest of the mortise and tenon joinery to complete the frame work. As mentioned, the stock is 1 1/2" square so Im making 1/2" tenons and mortises. Its a work out chopping through the Ipe but my mortise chisel is up for the task. Remember I usually bore out the waste with my brace and bit but this wood wreaked havoc on my vintage augers and they only went in about 1/8". So lots of hammering and sawing and fitting the tenons. One nice thing about the 1 1/2" stock is the tenons are relatively small so after a few hours of banging around the basement Ill have the frame complete.

Chopping a Mortise

First thing is to establish the perimeter and I do this with some crisp knife lines. In this first shot you can see where Ive marked the overall size of the stretcher and then in the middle you can see my scribe lines...notice I marked off the center? This would have given me somewhere to register my auger bit but as mentioned, it didnt quite work out that way.
















To begin, I place my mortise chisel at the far end of the mortise area, about 3/16 " away from the scribe line. I hammer down, taking small bites as I go. Im holding the chisel so the bevel side is facing my body and work my way down the mortise section. Im careful to stay inside the lines and not to hammer the chisel in too deep...yet!






















Once I get to the end of the mortise section I stop just shy of the scribe line, again somewhere in the 1/8" range. I then go back and carefully pry out the small chips and get ready for a second, deeper pass. This time Im a little harder on the hammer and begin working my way down through the hardwood.

I continue on with this routine until I get close to my finished depth, checking after each pass. Once the mortise is at its finished depth Ill square up the ends. Place your body in front of the work so you can eye the chisel straight down, square into the opening. If you have trouble chopping square then place a square on your bench top, behind the work for reference. Another mortising trick you can try is marking the finished mortise depth on the back side of your chisel with a felt marker before you begin; that way you can make sure youre not chopping down too deep.






















This process is repeated fifteen more times and when complete Ill begin to saw out the tenons. Refer back to my last post to see my set up for that.

When everything is looking good I go back and re-visit the foot components and shape them.
This being a workbench I could have easily left them square- not like anyone will be looking at them ~ ;) but Ive always liked the look of rounded feet on workbenches. I find it gives the bench a traditional look and there will be much less chance of me tripping on them while I stumble around the shop. My own workbench has square feet but I think that taking the extra 30 minutes or so to round them over adds a nice touch.









Shaping the Feet















To begin shaping the feet I draw out the arch and scribe the lines to determine the recess in the top of each foot. On my bench hook Ill make the first cross cut to establish the small fillet down and then Ill put the stock upright and rip down to remove the shoulder.















Next, I make an angled cut to remove most of the waste and with some rasps and files I fair out the curve.






















As you know, my work shop is in my basement and the floor down there is far from flat! With that in mind I decide to remove the middle, underside of the feet to create four contact points where they meet the floor instead of the bench sitting on the entire length of the foot stock. This will make for a more stable bench.
To remove the material I make a series of cross cuts down to my desired depth which in this case is 1/4".















Then I grab my biggest, meanest Japanese chisel and start chopping the waste out between the saw kerfs. I take my time doing this part so I dont blow out any of the wood grain. Working from the inside of the foot I chop down a little over half way and then flip the board over and now working from the outside, show-side of each foot to complete the cut.















A quick going over with a sharp card scraper and its done. When I have the first foot shaped Ill use it as a pattern and trace the rest of the feet off of it. This will insure theyre all the same without having to measure every time. A bit of sanding and theyre good to go!















With the feet shaped and the joinery cut Ill do another dry fit and well call it a day. I begin by laying out the left front and back legs and insert the cross stretcher and foot. Ill mirror this assembly on my bench top with the right hand side as well.

















Leaving the frames flat on the bench top Ill insert the cross stretchers.
















Finally, Ill peg the right hand frame onto the end of the stretchers and stand the whole unit upright. Im happy with the results and my joints are looking pretty descent. In this final shot you can see how the work surface will slide down into the front slip joints and sit on the rear stub tenons. When I glue up the frame Ill drill and peg all of these joints for a bench thatll probably be around a lot longer than I will...My mortising is done for today but Ill add another cross stretcher at the top, rear of the frame that will serve dual pupose- itll have a dado running along its length to peg the drawer holders into as well as another pick-up point for the surface to sit on. This final cross stretcher will be made of oak because I want it to be at least 2" wide and as you know, the Ipe came pre-dimensioned at 1 1/2".
















In the next post Ill cut the giant hole in the work surface top for the granite insert (the horror-the horror!) as well as make the final stretcher and some last minute details before I glue up the frame assembly and build the under carriage that will hold the granite in place...stay tuned.

Drilling Holes in a Perfectly Fine Bench Top

Drilling holes in a perfectly fine bench top can be as scary as you make it; Ive been using this style bench at my shop in Toronto and have come to find Im much more comfortable hand planing stock with it sitting freely on the bench top surface butted up against a thin baton of hardwood. No tail vise or hold-fasts just the weight and the balance of my arms and the hand plane working together. (There are of course exceptions with this rule like cross grain work with a scrub plane) This, my summer bench has never been equipped with dog holes so now, before I get any further along with this dovetailed box project Ill need to get out the brace and bit and make some cheese.

















In the shot above you can see where I placed my bench dog holes; this is my comfort zone and its what works for me. Id suggest clamping a baton across your bench top and see wheres right for you. Maybe clamping a baton across the bench will always be enough for you and youll never have to scar your work bench...in my world I dont mind a few holes in the work surface.






















So with that I carefully draw a square line and mark with an awl the locations. I also mark off a hole in the block on my front shoulder vise; this is used sometimes to hold small pieces across the bench top. Ill probably add three more holes in line with the left hand side of the vise, but for today these three will suffice. (Make sure before you start boring youre not in line with the vice bolt or screw!!)

















Im using a couple of Bench Pups from Veritas; theyre the round brass type 2 3/8" long. I also use a pair of the 4 3/8" ones but theyre still sitting all snug in the holes on my bench top back in the city.

















With the third hole drilled Im ready to get back to work and surfacing the four pieces of the project is next on the list. As mentioned Ill lay a thin baton of hardwood across the bench top and work the boards flat, checking as I go.

















My shop made winding sticks also made the journey home and theyre the perfect tool for the job of checking this Khaya for any humps, valleys or wind.

















In no time at all Im back on the shooting board taking incredible shavings in the end grain. The 5 1/2 is a wonderful shooting plane and this minimal shooting board is working out better than I anticipated. (Just to answer the inevitable now instead of later...no-I wont be getting rid of my fancy shooting board back in Toronto nor will I stop using my dedicated No. 9 Iron Miter plane! This is good and working well but that duo are the cats ass when shooting)

















Four pieces, square and smooth Ill sit them on the bench top and take a few steps back. Im already thinking about adding to the design, perhaps a small frame to hold the carcass? Theres still some long skinny strips of Khaya and will think more of the piece while Im marking out the dovetails.

















The Tite-Mark again finds its way into my hand- this time the perfect application. Im laying out simple through dovetails, nothing too fancy, I am still on vacation over here!






















I like to clamp both pieces together when I lay out my tails as seen in the next photo below...This will obviously insure continuity between the top and the bottom and will speed up the process a little as well.






















I walk the dividers across the tail board and draw in the lines with a pencil and my dovetail marker. Youll notice that I divide the board into seven even sections and then when I start sawing Ill skip the middle one. This is something Ive been doing lately, (perhaps a nod to my Krenov admiration?) I love the look the two trios of tails make. (my tool chest and small wall cabinet I made for my book projects also had this same treatment) With that its time to cut dovetails and my small rip saw seems to really like this hardwood. Khaya is a great wood for hand tool work except sometimes when hand planing. The ribbons in the wood grain can reverse and bend which in turn can result in tear-out. This is easily remedied by some sanding in the final stages but Im hoping to avoid it if I can.

















The tails are cut first in my world but you can start with the pins if youre so inclined. From dovetail saw to fret saw I wander and in no time at all Im reaching for some chisels to clean out the waste. My detail chisels which I cant say enough about are always close by.

















With the tails cut and clean its a good time to break for the night; were having a campfire and I better get some kindling together. The beauty of the wood shop-always lots of waste to get a good campfire going...






















...Morning comes fast and first up is to transfer the tails over to my pin board; I use a thin Paul Bebee knife to reach deep into the corners. You may have noticed I didnt use the 140 trick when beginning these dovetails Im not sure why I didnt other than to say I may have been thinking this little project was destined for the wood shop. If this was a drawer for a client then I would have cut the shallow rabbets into the inside end of the tail board to make life easier when transferring the lines over. (if youve never heard of the 140 trick then you have some homework for tonight...look back through my older posts to find the method)

















Again from the dovetail saw to fret saw dance Im back to the chiseling and ready for a dry fit.

















At this point the box is ready for glue; Ive been thinking about the long strips of Khaya left in the off cut pile. Maybe a frame assembly to cradle the box? A trestle type affair dictated by the stock in question. In my work space Im able to create and design without any guidelines or rules save the lumber Ive chosen (perhaps foolishly) to work with. Sometimes the pencil and paper are better left on the shelf and we can meander through this creative process with only the wood to guide us. It can be quite liberating stumbling through a building process when time is our only real investment. Ive been enjoying myself over these past two days and really most of my time was given to setting up the work space. The hardwood owes me nothing but Im going to do my best to lure it into some form I can call my own. A cantilevered box over a thin double trestle?
This evening Ill do some more measuring and continue a little further on, down the path.
For now though...theres an old crow waiting hungrily, from his perch in yonder tree...

In part one I discussed the design, layout and cutting of the brackets for this simple paper towel holder. Now lets look at how I finished the project.

After cutting and shaping the second bracket, using the first as a pattern, I started on the base. Because of the way this holder is mounted under the cabinet (the cabinet bottom is actually recessed) the base will not be readily visible. So nothing fancy here - just a board with two dados to hold the brackets.

Dados are like grooves, except they run cross grain, while grooves run parallel to the grain. There are many ways of making these by hand. I decide to do a side-by-side (literally) comparison of two of these ways: knife, chisel, and router plane; and dado plane.

After laying out the dado with the square and marking knife, I used the router plane to mark the final depth of the dado. Of course, you could do this with a marking gauge etc. but I find this a convenient shortcut.


The next step is just zipping out the waste with the chisel. As shown, I started with the chisel bevel up, and then switched to bevel down action. There are two things to watch out for here. First, you need to be careful to avoid tearout on the far edge of the board. I do this by either cutting a small ramp with knife and chisel, or avoiding the issue entirely by working in from both edges. You also need to be careful to keep the chisel (and your arms and body) moving in a straight line. If you pivot or arch your stroke to either side, the chisel will dig into the sides of the dado and cause tearout. I find short, almost "jabby" strokes work better than long smooth ones in most cases - which somehow seems counterintuitive... Also, the knife lines will need to be redone as the dado deepens.


After getting close with the chisel, I switched to the router plane to clean things up and insure a flat, level bottom. I prefer the spear point cutter, but a square one works too.


For the second dado, I used a tool made specifically for the job. The dado plane combines the abilities of all the tools used on the first dado. It has dual nickers that knife the cross grain fibers to avoid tearout. It has a skewed iron that cleanly removes the wood between the knifed lines. And it has an adjustable depth stop to create a smooth and level bottom in the dado.

All the assistance it requires is a small batten attached to the board to guide it. Since I knew that the holes wouldnt show, I just nailed the batten to the board. If you wanted to avoid that, you could clamp it. Once the batten was in place, it was easy to plane the dado.



Both methods worked fine, but using the dado plane was easier (once it was properly adjusted) and produced a cleaner dado. Heres a shot of the test fit and a close-up of the dado joint made with the plane.



Once the brackets were nailed and glued into the dados, it was time to work on the rod that actually holds the roll of towels. I selected a piece of 2x stock with straight grain and using a hatchet and maul, split off a section.


Taking the billet over to the shavehorse I use a drawknife to square it up...


...then I created an octagon...


...and finally, using a concave spokeshave, changed this into a cylindrical rod.


After rounding the rod ends by cutting facets with the drawknife, it was time to hang the finished holder from the bottom of the cabinet. A huge improvement in my opinion. Where before I managed to avoid noticing the junky plastic holder, I now enjoy noticing and appreciating the new wooden holder. Sometimes small things are big changes.


Heres the hand tool kit used on this project.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Rip saw, concave spokeshave, #6 fore plane, flat spokeshave, shoulder plane, #5 jack plane, #3 smoothing plane, cross-cut panel saw, ¾” dado plane, #71 router plane, fine and coarse half-round files, 14” Brace with #20 bit, hatchet, batten, ¾” bevel edged chisel, awl, nail set, hammer, drawknife, square, marking knife, zigzag rule, plane setting hammer, and compass w/ pencil.

Here are some new pictures of the mantle and corbles being stained. At this point, they have 3 coats of stain on them, and I am getting ready to apply the polyurethane. Obviously, this is not an overnight process! Each coat has to dry completely to get the best results. Additionally, if I want an extreme shine with the poly, steel wool is used between each application, which lengthens the finishing phase.

However, once this is complete, I will be ready to hang the mantle, then apply the surrounding trim, and the project will be complete! Its almost done!!!

Once my metal chip bin met with crushing failure, I immediately scrapped it and set about re-building the dust collection bin. I first looked into buying a metal 55 gallon drum, but found them to be prohibitively expensive. I then found a plastic 55 gallon drum that had seen better days and was suffering from a cracked edge. As the bin was plastic I was able to simply cut off the cracked top section with my jig saw. After the cut I was left with a workable +/- 48 gallon drum with a gaping hole at its top.

rough fitting the mounted top section.

In order to mount the Dust Deputy to the plastic drum I initially thought of making a round lid out of MDF that would rest on the top of the drum and be sealed with weather stripping. In order to do this, I began flattening the cut edge of the drum. I then flattened it some more, and some more after that. Then I ran out of patience. It dawned on me that if I made a new top for the drum out of sheet goods, I could permanently mount and seal that to the drum and then cut a removable top sized to perfectly fit the mounted one. In order to make the mounted and removable tops exactly the same size I screwed them together and then cut them to size on the table saw as a single piece. Being lazy, I made the top square, rather then cut of the corners to make it a space savings octagon. I attached a lip of 3/4" baltic birch plywood scraps around the edge of the removable top to better gasket them and chamfered the inside edge of the lip to make tops easier to set on one another.

I rubbed in and let the glue on the cleats on the mounted base dry before flipping the unit over and screwing into them.

In order to mount the mounted top I glued and screwed cleats to the top. I used a jig saw to cut the middle of the mounted to out and then screwed the plastic drum to the cleats. I sealed the screws and the drum to the mounted top with M-1, a fantastic sealant we use at work.

The mounted top, sealed to the plastic drum.

I was at this stage in the construction when I heard that MDF was porous and might not provide an air tight top. To combat this, I sealed the top surface of the mounted top and the bottom surface of the removable top with shellac. If this doesnt prove to be enough Ill glue an EPDM gasket to the mounted top.

The completed Dust Deputy setup.

With the top mounted and air sealed (hopefully) it was quick work to install the Dust Deputy and previously built elbow assembly. I connected the CT22 and turned the knob all the way to the rabbit. It sucked and sucked and didnt crush.

The wheels make it so much easier to move.

As a final convenience I mounted castors to the bottom and handles on the side of the plastic drum. This lets me easily move it around the shop and will hopefully let me easily empty it (though I fear its emptying frequency will be based more on weight than on capacity).

Now my shop sucks with the best of them. How does your shop suck?

That Giant Sucking (& Crushing) Sound - Part I