Nicholas Nelson

Table Photos

2012-02-10T09:55:00.003-06:00

Feels like I haven't had a lot to show for recent work. I suppose it is true with the chair and sofa not yet complete with upholstery. Well here is that table I put together after the sofa.

Highly Shaker inspired but through my own/"Krenovian" eyes and hands. If it were not going to Rustica Bakery I may have thinned down some of the proportions, but I feel I mostly achieved what I was aiming for considering the space.

I had two pairs of stretchers to choose from. A pair with fairly clean straight grain or these pieces with highly curved grain and one with a small group of knots. I liked the more "figured" pair for a bit of more visual interest in a fairly simple form.
The problem was that I wanted to keep all my components straight. With this much curve, keeping the stretcher straight it would visually sag with an optical illusion. What I did in this case was curve the stretcher's tops and bottoms with perhaps a 1/16" amplitude trying to lift the visual sag yet maintain a fairly straight looking component.
Did it work?

There we have it. I don't know when I'm going to get this to the bakery. Hopefully within the next week. I could really use the space in the shop ;).
Speaking of, It seems I may be having a little lag time in starting the next project. I'm aiming to make a liquor cabinet specifically geared towards whiskey and perhaps other brown liquors. Perhaps out of Walnut and Oak, again ha. I can't seem to get away from those for too long. I still have a cabinet out of Cherry in mind for sometime down the road, I haven't gotten any good cherry for it though!
Till next time!

Getting Oily

2012-02-02T14:19:00.001-06:00

Alright, where was I? On to shaping?
SO. I gave the legs a bit of a taper using the jointer and a stop block. The taper is slightly over 1/8" thinner at the bottom. A tapered pillowing on the inside/joint side of the legs gives a slight back taper as well. Very subtle though.
I'm giving all the edges of the table a little more substantial "rounding" with slightly more "aggressive" or deeper set plane strokes. My thought here is to be safer in case of bumping into corners/accidents, be a little more robust/accepting of bumps and dings from chairs, and leave a slightly stronger "fingerprint" in line with a slightly rustic leaning.
What I also find with this softening of a Shaker style adds a bit of perhaps Scandinavian Modern side to it. Thus far, I like it.

This is a piece that with cross the middle of the table from one long apron to the other. I bored a normal screw hole in the middle of this pieces to pin the table top at the middle. On either end of this piece I used my "slot mortise" set-up to make these elongated holes for a screw to go into the top and "float" with seasonal movement. Pretty neat.

I've made brass brackets again for top attaching at the perimeter of the base. Here I'm treating the edges of the bracket mortises with a small chisel I had made at IP. Keeping these edges simple and slightly rough.

Boof! The base is dry fit to work on some of the leg end grain treatment before pre-finishing. Here you can see how that middle piece I mentioned works.

Here I am getting oily with a Water Lox marine sealer.
I suppose I'm always excited to see work come together, this time is no different. I'm looking forward to see how this all turns out. It is a bit of a different piece, came together fairly quickly, and the most "exacting" designing I did was just a 3/16 scale drawing. Sort of came together under "intuitions" gathered by previous projects and notions.

But hey, lets not forget this guy...
I finally got to the webbing while waiting on oil on the table.
This is the first time I've completely assembled it. The tweaks I made from the chair prototype feel like they paid off.
A cargo van would make my life easier in transporting this around town though :/ heh. Off to the upholsterer, figure out how/where to take some photography, then to its intended residence!

Surfaces

2012-01-25T11:38:00.001-06:00

Alright those who may be interested, let me take you on a sweep of my process and "logic" of/in surface prep.
My words are certainly not the final words on the subject but a view into my practices and what seems to work for me.

-Surfaces with Nicholas Nelson
You have your rough lumber, do whatever you need to do to get it down close to size over a period of time.
Stress and/or moisture can often be less than stable in a plank, or the plank has some sort of "equilibrium" of forces keeping it in shape. Cutting away material can let loose these forces.
Don't cut it down to final dimension right away!
I try to take time with my lumber. Let it acclimate to the shop as much as possible. Give it some time to settle after milling away material. And so on.

So, keep it a little fat. I joint the pieces on the jointer again, follwed by the planer again. I mill to "final" dimension when I feel the time is right, or I can't wait any longer.
Though some machines perform better than others, I have yet to see a jointer/planer give a perfectly smooth, flat surface. You will get little ripples by way of the rotating cutter head. However fast it spins it does not apply a continual cut. Usually there is some level of snipe as well.
Enter the hand plane.
A very old tool indeed. A plane is just a jig that holds a blade. The sole of the plane acts as registration for the blade. The sole will ride over bumps and valleys in the surface in a way that the position of the blade will remain "planner" to the surfaces over which the plane is traveling.
Sanding devices do not have this advantage. While one can sand out the ripples and other defects left by machines, the fact is that planes were designed to create and maintain a flat and planner surface. Sure, it is easier said than done. Just like any discipline, accurate hand planing takes practice and accumulated knowledge which will lead to skill.
The hand plane also accomplishes what the typical jointer or planer cannot. A continuous shearing cut the length of your work piece. In my opinion, there is usually nothing better than a freshly sheared, friendly wood in terms of surface quality.
When faced with more difficult woods I will opt for my high angle plane. If that doesn't work I'll try a scraping plane. If not that, then I go to sand paper.

When working with friendly woods like Maple, Walnut, Cherry, etc I typically don't do anything more for prep beyond wiping any dust off with a clean cotton rag before finishing. Another plus for the hand plane/shearing tools, one step surface prep. When working with less friendly woods, such as this Red Elm, I find the surface will be slightly fuzzy, or gritty if the wood contains a fair amount of silica.
This Elm planes fairly well with my high angle plane. I just need something to take care of the small fibers and silica left.
I have used steel wool but Nick B had a good concern that I had forgotten about. Which is the possibility of iron particles trapped in the pores of the wood rusting, depending on finish. I don't really use water carried finishes. Shellac gets methyl hydrate, or I use oils. I'd like to be careful though.
I don't particularly like using the 1000+ grit sand paper that would do the job. It creates more fine dust, clogs quickly, and doesn't perform especially well over rounded surfaces with plane/spokeshave facets left like edge treatments or pillowed legs.
I picked up some non-woven pads by Mirka. These are often used in the automotive paint industry commonly referred to as "scuff pads". I chose their finest "grained" pad which they call "micro fine". I took it on some test runs with an Elm off cut which I'm also using for a finish sample of the oil I plan to use. It seems to be doing the trick! Only problem is, these pads aren't as cheap as steel wool. I imagine I may switch back to steel wool after the the second coat of finish is applied.

Well, I think that about does it!

Progress: Rustica

2012-01-19T18:11:00.000-06:00

I haven't been getting out much lately. That's just fine, it's cold out and I've been getting good work done on this table.
I had to once again rip the larger planks to be the top apart so that I could mill them. It's a drag, but I just don't have big enough machinery to do much else.
Using my new high angle plane on its maiden project. Thus far this little guy is great!
Elm doesn't plane or work particularly well. Under the plane it is pretty dry and dusty. The high angle is working well though. Before applying finish a quick buffing with steel wool should be all I need.

The final top glue-up after a series of edge joints. Looks pretty darn good from the top and bottom, the end grain will give away the joints though. Oh well, it tells a story.

Already had all my components milled over a few days. Time to think about leg joinery.

I wanted to make this build as simple as possible, something I'm not too familiar with ha. Well turns out I just can't get away that easily. Here's the plan for leg joinery over-head view.

Here it is after the fact. The longer tenons belong to the long apron going the length of the table. This is the only piece spanning the length so it gets both of the twin tenons overlapped. The side is not only shorter (less able to create torque) but it gets a stretcher under the apron. This configuration seems to be a bit of a motif of mine.

There, see? Yes.

How does one trim and square off a table top without a panel-saw, or even a cabinet saw? I don't know. Here's how I did it. A circular saw and a well placed "fence".
It certainly doesn't make a clean cut, which is a drag because this end grain is HARD! I forgot how hard Elm's end grain can be.

Next problem was how to get the piece so I could work the end grain.
Yep, bringing my craftsmanship to a new level...

Rustica Table

2012-01-12T18:56:00.000-06:00

Back again in rapid succession!
While I'm waiting around pre-finishing I thought I'd get started on my next project: a table for Rustica Bakery.
Rustica is the place that I have been working at part-time as a Barista. It is a European bakery and coffee bar producing some of the best products of both fields I've laid hands on AND they wont brake the bank. The space is also not shabby. Not super "swank" but comfortable and approachable.

Mmmm Flax Seed Levain (bread) and Dogwood Coffee in the background.

Espresso being pulled from the lovely Synesso machine I get to work with.

The place of course already is outfitted with seating and tables but there are a couple tables that had never meant to stay. One of which is the bigger table (6 seater) pictured to the right. This is where I see this table project going.
As the name suggests they have a bit of a "rustic" aesthetic going on but it is certainly no "Caribou" cheeky log cabin thing. The aesthetic reflects the product, though more time and effort has gone into their product as it should. There is a level of refinement yet the beautiful variation and humility that comes from things man-made. This of course is more true with their product than the decor, but shall we see what I can introduce?

These are the two main planks I will be using for the table top. This is Red Elm. Craig will perhaps recognize these as a couple he left behind in New Brighton at a local sawyer's barn.
The design I've been fiddling with is HIGHLY Shaker inspired.
This is where we get a little conceptual...
Though Rustica definitely has a European edge to it, it is not in Europe though one just may mistakenly think so when enjoying some baguette and cheese. The decor has more "Americana" than the baked goods and coffee. The interior and identity gives suggestion of perhaps "American Farmhouse". Course grain woods, rusty brown reds, heavier proportions...
Of course something of a Shaker nature should fit right in along with a native tree that tends to have an American connotation... not to mention a similar color palate.
Red Elm typically gets put into gnarly, knotty, heavily rustic pieces. A couple reasons being that the grain structure is, as I see it, inherently rustic. Also the fact that Elm is not a dense nor overly strong wood means that heavier cuts are used to compensate. However I feel a lot of what we see in Elms are perhaps overly compensated a tad, or that compensation wasn't even in mind as much as just wanting a heavy aesthetic.

Well, we shall see what I can do with it. Hopefully it will be strong enough to withstand some punishment. If it goes over well, perhaps I will have a couple more to build... maybe not in Elm, I just may have a lead on some air dried Ash...

That Was Quick

2012-01-11T17:17:00.001-06:00

Ha, well that was a quick trip... After the first week of work at the cabinet shop I already quit. To sum it up I am not built physically for that job (5'8"-9", 150-155 lbs), nor am I wired for it mentally. I was having severe reactions to it... and back pain.

Don't know what the heck I'm going to do now but at the moment I'm back at the bakery.

So, more sofa time. I managed to get the frames glued up without too much problem.

A day later I could get to trimming the frames. I tried especially hard to get everything and close to final and square before/during assembly so that I would have less fuss over these big pieces later. It paid off! Trimmed the sides of the seat and back frame to match each other by shooting with my jointer plane.

Ha, some slightly questionable rigging allowed me to trim and clean the six foot long edges just fine.

Lastly, shooting the apron/stretchers to match the frames while maintaining a square end of course.
Things are looking good with some pre-assembly and I'm off pre-finishing again.
Looks like I'm back on track with my end of the month "deadline" I wanted. At least on my work. Don't know when the upholstery will be completed!

Till next time!

On the Road and Back Again

2012-01-02T18:00:00.000-06:00

This past week I had time off between jobs and Eva was on vacation. We decided to make it more of a vacation by jumping on a road trip. Without time to really devote to any particular place we decided to make a little over view of a a few places in Oregon, and whatever else along the way. As I called it, "pretty much a long Sunday drive". Met up with one Jason Herrick in Portland, a helpful guy and great character, thanks again Jason!
Pictured above, making way to the Rockies through Montana, beautiful.
This was also a kind of first step in the physical in search of a possible future.
We are both difficult to please in terms of an ideal location. Wanting a bit of isolation and scenery yet proximity to potential places of work/clients both in woodworking for me and design for Eva, all without the bitter winter we see in the Minneapolis area.
It seems the more I've traveled around the more I can appreciate what the Twin Cities has going for it, though I do like to gripe over a few things.

Road-trip dinner ;).

Welp we're back and trying to get back to reality ha.
I did miss my shop. I got a little time today to put the last coat of pre-finish on some frame parts and start the leg to stretcher assembly of the sofa.
Tomorrow I start the new job bright and early. Here's hoping things work out!

Chipped a Tooth?

2011-12-21T18:17:00.000-06:00

Greetings again, sorry for delays. Though work on the sofa is indeed progressing, I have been quite distracted otherwise.
The above is an albumen print by Oscar Rejlander entitled Hard Times. Obviously many can relate.
To skip the tired sob story I think it is sufficient to say that all my socks have holes in them. Times have been tough and I've been wrestling over it with myself for some time.
I've decided to bite the bullet and seek "real" employment.
I got a job at a cabinet shop located across town about 30-35 min away in clear traffic. The work is neither glamorous nor what I am terribly interested in, but as we know sometimes something has to give.
However, thus far I have only signed on for 32 hours a week trying to still get a level of focus on my personal work. Yes, my productivity will go down. On the other hand this will allow me to afford some things, like potential co-op gallery space, marketing tools, and lets not forget wood and replacing some tired tools... and new socks. As much as I want to feel sorry for myself I try to look at it in a positive light.

Aaannd here's proof of progress heh. The back frame dry-fit.
The legs and leg stretchers are being pre-finished currently. Hopefully I'll be able to start pre-finishing bits of the seat and back frames tomorrow. I'm using oil again so it takes time, even more time in the cool winter basement.

Fat Man, Little Coat

2011-12-07T17:57:00.001-06:00

After the drawing board (in my case, floor) was hit I've done some rough milling for the Sofa.
These are pretty BIG planks of air-dried Walnut from IA.
My little shop can hardly handle them! I had to improvise a bit and do an initial rip with a circular saw.

Though the sides are basically the same as the chair version, the pieces between the sides will be 6 feet long. I haven't built anything on that scale since my workbench. I had forgotten how much of a hassle the scale is working from large rough timber in a small shop with small machines.
Oh yeah, the Roller Stands I have here are terrible. When I got them it was tough for me to justify the price of better rollers but now I wish I had. Yet another item on the list.

After some long hours of milling, this is what I got.
The lumber is not ideal, it's mostly quarter-sawn and every big plank has at least one big knot. Even trying my darnedest, there was an awful lot of waste resulting in less than ideal grain. I realize I may ask a lot on these matters, but hey, I've done my best choosing from what I have and it will be fine.
Had a short day today finishing up the rough milling this morning only to step back and allow it a little time to settle. Got some cleaning and "sketching" in.
Hopefully I can move onward tomorrow!

Learning Isn't Always Easy

2011-11-30T17:57:00.001-06:00

Fast forwarding a number of final and finishing steps, here is the seat webbing. I ended up using #4 screws to fasten the webbing. I wonder if certain tacks would work as the screws were a bit more difficult and therefore a bit more time consuming.
This slightly elastic webbing was urged by the upholsterer I've been in contact with, who is basically the guy around town for Danish/Mid Century Modern stuff.

The woodwork is all done and here it is giving all the knock-down hardware a go.

This was a sizeable undertaking for me in terms of things to learn.
That being said, it is "certainly" not perfect. I say certainly, my lady is more forgiving ha. She has a point though, it was meant as a learning tool.
Here's the run-down...
It's too wide by maybe 1-2".
I would like the seat deeper 0.5-1".
I want to kick the angle of the back leg a bit more.
With the variables of webbing and upholstery involved in the sitting height, it sits a smidge low.
A related note the lower sitting position effectively closes the back angle a tad. I'd like to adjust that. Though I need to wait to try the real foam which will be softer for the back, opening it up a bit.
The seat and back frames are pretty chunky for a single chair. I think they would be decent for a sofa. I was hoping to keep all the dimensions the same except width between chair and sofa. That may not work out, as I would like to build a sofa that I'm not afraid to use.

On the more positive side... The chair feels rock solid and I thought of a couple techniques along the way to use next time.

This was certainly a learning and humbling experience. After this sofa, I don't know that I'll be working on many more chairs heh... Though I still like the idea of a dinning chair / chair to go with that Walnut Desk. I do know that I would like a make a fairly simple bench with danish chord.

what to do now. I feel a little jumbled up... Perhaps finishing that plane will help.

Almost a Chair

2011-11-22T19:01:00.001-06:00

I'm back before fellow US citizens get lethargic and drunk over the holiday. If that isn't what happens to you, you're probably doing it wrong?
At any rate, the legs and side stretchers have been pre-finished. Here is the second stage of the assembly, gluing the back leg. Per usual I've dealt with this tricky situation in a low-tech way. Worked out for me!
I'm certainly happy to see some bits coming together... for good heh.

While pre-finishing and assembly were going on, I took some time off to work on a new high angle smoothing plane. This wood is called Mora, it's not the prettiest wood out there but it is fairly dense and hard! It's structure reminds me of Shedua as does its odor, though not as "pungent" as Shedua.
I glued it up and will save the rest for another time.

Moving on to arms!
I've been looking forward to working on the arms, the shapeliest pieces of the chair!
With joinery dry fit between the arm and legs I went on to the touchiest part, these reliefs at the back of the arms. This will allow the back frame to connect flush with the arm and the rest of the arm to over-hang a bit. This also allows me to do some shaping to give the arms a slight opening towards the front inviting the user to sit comfortably.
If you haven't guessed, this was done on the router table with a stop-block.
Dialing in the depth of the relief is critical for a good fit and smooth work. I got it to just be proud of the leg allowing me to just use sand paper to finesse it flush. Thus far, this is the only thing I've used sand paper on. Considering it is Oak, I'm quite happy with that.

A couple hours of shaving and good tunes later, this is what came out. Always difficult to photograph these kinds of things. In the end perhaps I will have enough angles to tell a story.
The end grain has only been cut on the table saw and has yet to get its final shaping.

Moving on to the front apron and back stretcher.
Dialed in the dimensions and ends, laid out, and bored for them main knock-down fasteners. I made the dowel holes a tad asymmetrical so that one can only assemble it one way.

To make life easier, I attached a large bit of ply-wood to the drill-press table. Looks a little silly, but worked like a charm!

Looks like I was due for a stupid mistake. It always happens when work seems to be going nice and smooth ha. However irritating, frustrating, disappointing it is, it's not the end of the world. In this case I just plugged the wrong hole with a dowel and glue then tried again. It will not affect the structural integrity of the piece and will not be seen when assembled, but damn. I will NOT make the same mistake on the other side!

Setting the threaded insert. For me, this is a sizable fastener with a sizable thread. Particularly in Oak this is a bit of a scary moment for me. Making the hole tight enough to ensure a well positioned insert, it takes a fair amount of force to set it. Hence the long hex-key just in case. Oak is strong and hard. It doesn't have a ton of give, instead, it breaks. The countersink for setting the insert flush helped against splintering, nice.

Here's where I'm at thus far.
The arms and knock-down rails are not done, but it's almost a chair?
At the moment I'm stuck on the frames, waiting for a router bit I'm not even sure I will use. It was supposed to be in this past Friday or today (Monday). Hopefully tomorrow or I'll be waiting till next Monday. Bah!

catch up on the chair

2011-11-15T16:45:00.001-06:00

Last time I left on the progress side of things I was making slip tenons for the back and seat frame.
Here is the tenon side with checks cut off on the band saw, dialing in very close on the router table.

The last bit of fitting can be done with a file, a bit of sand paper or what have you.
This has to be the biggest joint I've made since my bench!
You may note that the outsides of this joint are proud, beyond flush. This is to make clamping easier, quite convenient.

Cut some stock for back slats, and set that aside.
Turning back to the legs I dialed in the end grain angles. I must say that the O-1 steel blade in the block plane is proving itself as I had hoped! My A-2 would just crumble on Oak end grain. The O-1 keeps on cutting, relatively speaking, this is still Oak here ha.
Anywho, back to the boring machine to cut more twin tenon mortises. This time for the arm to leg joints.

After that was done I was finally free to cut the legs to shape! The arm isn't joined here, it doesn't even have mortises yet. That will be saved for after the legs and stretcher are glued up.
Starting to look more like a chair though!

Pillowing done to the edges of the legs and stretchers I could move on with edge treatment. This is a bit heavier softening than I've done before. A couple reasons. This is a chair which will hopefully see plenty of attention by its owners. Make it soft for friendly and comforting use. Also the sides of the components are flat, no pillowing. I wanted to try to emphasize the pillowing on the edges while still maintaining a squarish look as opposed to the full radius of much Danish Modern pieces.
Pre-finishing comes next for these parts!

Back to the boring machine for back slat mortises.

I decided to use live tenons on these. It could certainly be done with floating tenons, and I may do that on the sofa with a bunch of these to make. I just wanted to make live tenons. It feels like it has been a while. Perhaps I wanted the practice or to prove to myself that I can still do them, but there are some days that you just need more hand/bench work.
It was a gratifying bit of work. Probably the best live tenons I've made in a while, certainly the fastest! I needed that heh.

Still pretty chunky looking. The main frame will lose about 1/8" around the perimeter. Hopefully that and the edge treatment will lighten it up. Perhaps it will all come together in the end. Seen that before.
Yikes, I'm going to have to figure out this seat webbing soon!

Trials

2011-11-10T15:29:00.001-06:00

Though I have made some progress on the chair itself, I wanted to take this time to share some trials.
Here is a test run with the set-up and milling for the main knock-down hardware I will be using.
It took me a while to find a good quality hardware system that satisfied my construction desires.
What I found is an Australian manufacturer of mechanical fasteners by the name of Zipbolt. The model I have here is the Zipbolt UT mini 12.720 - KD6.
It consists of a threaded insert, for the leg side in my case, a double threaded rod, and a "nut" mechanism for the stretcher side.
Oh yes, the only supplier I found to sell these units retail was Stafast.com.

In use your joint can be tightened up with a simple hex-key. Pretty frickin slick!
You will note the gap as I did not counter-sink the threaded insert on this test.

I imagine for the rear stretcher I will fashion a "plug" a bit like this. I imagine some edge softening and a hole in the middle or a bit cut out on the side to easily be able to pry it off when needed. This plug is obviously too small for the hole but you get the idea. A plug that is not trying to be invisible, they never are, so give it some tasteful intention ;).
And yes, the joint feels strong when assembled!

I ordered a sample of WOCA's "Master Oil - White" via their direct US seller in Georgia - WOCA Direct, after the post and comments about it on Mr. Godfrey's blog.

Here are a number of finish samples including the WOCA White Oil at the bottom-right.
The WOCA product produces a nice minimal build up with a durable feel to it. It is light in color and pretty matte in sheen which is what I'm looking for.

There IS a problem though. About the only woods I would imagine using this on are Oak and Ash. Both are open grained woods As such the oil "pools" in the pores and more white pigment is deposited. Much like when staining these kinds of woods you get a pronounced color in the pores, in this case white. My immediate thought when seeing this is that it looks like there is dust in the pores, which I do not find very attractive.
WOCA is on the bottom. Just Clapham's wax above.
The just wax finish seems to be yellowing ever so slightly with time. The extra blonde shellac with wax starts out very slightly blonde but has seemed to stay put.
After doing some research and talking to a friend who works at a Danish Modern refurbishing shop I gather that a Soap finish is simply not durable. Although it is aesthetically what I want, practically it doesn't quite hold up.
Thus far I think my best bet is to go for a very thin extra blonde shellac with a thin coat or two of Clapham's wax.

In further sampling, here are some upholstery fabric options I've been looking at. I'm sure the photo/monitors don't do the colors justice but it's a "jist".
Hmmm tough decision.

Lastly, as I expected, staples are just not going to be a good option in securing seat webbing in an Oak frame. What I have seen before is a routed out section replaced with something like Poplar or perhaps Soft Maple to be able to staple the webbing in.
Also I have an idea to use recessed brass bars and screws to do the job. It could be pretty nice but pretty time consuming...
Any thoughts?

Chair Tenons

2011-11-04T13:52:00.000-05:00

With Art Attack coming up I have been pretty distracted this past week. Fitting more days in the part-time so that I can have the weekend off for the event, and preparing for the event. I have managed to get a little work in.
Shown above is tenon stock for the stretcher joinery between the chair legs. I cut pieces to rough dimension on the band saw. Joint and plane the stock with machines very close to fitting. I further dial in the thickness with a hand plane before cross cutting them to size. Once they are cross cut, any further fitting is done with block plane and sand paper.

This can be some nice quiet work time. I rarely sit when working but this kind of operation allowed me to also give some lovely tea bowls I commissioned from Bev and Ray in Roberts Creek, BC a first go. Lovely work.

Everything was looking good in the dry fitting. Pretty neat looking joinery heh.
Went on to gluing the tenons in the stretcher side.

While the tenons were being glued I went to work on the relatively large slip tenon joinery for the seat and back frames.
This shows the mortise side of the joints which will be the width spaning of the seat and back.
I cleared out all the waste with the band saw. A bit time consuming and tedious with a normal band blade. A carbide blade would have made a little quicker work of it. I could have set the table saw up for these but figure I wouldn't be able to use that method with 6'+ long frame parts that the sofa will have. Part of the point of this prototype is to work out/think about methods of work for a sofa sized piece.
Oh I also don't have a proper ripping blade for such joinery with the table saw. Perhaps I should get one and clear the smaller frame parts by table saw and just do the big ones on the band saw hmmm.

At any rate I moved on to the tenon side, the sides of the seat and back.
Cut the shoulders on the table saw with a stop block for repeatability. Also cut the ends with the same dept for setting up the band saw when cutting the cheeks off and for consistency.
I cut the tenons a bit fat and will be dialing further in on the router table. I haven't gotten to that yet because I've been distracted too much with the event really starting this evening! I need a steady hand and mind for this kind of work so it will wait till the weekend is over. I will be in depose for most of it anyway and was able to get this post in now.

Sale at Art Attack!

2011-10-28T10:40:00.001-05:00

Wow, time is flying! Art Attack is just a week away immediately preceding First Thursday at the Northrup King Building.
I will be in attendance for much of the event(s) Nov. 3rd - 6th.

SALE! -
I've decided to significantly mark down the prices of a couple my pieces in Blue Sky Galleries during the event. Looking to put these pieces in homes and make room for new ones!

Frame-Top Coffee Table in Oak.
White Oak from the Metro, Glass, and Unryu that was sourced and sent to me by a classmate and friend in Japan.
Just one piece!

Frame-Top Side Table in Shedua.
Shedua comes from Africa while the Burr Oak top panel came from the local metro area.
There is a pair of these that will be $875 each!

Frame-Top Pedestal in air dried Walnut.This picture shows a kiln dried Walnut piece however the air dried version is quite similar. A tad lighter and more red/violet tones.
This air dried Walnut is also coming from the metro as is the air dried Maple top panel. The process of air drying is a very slow one compared to modern kiln practices. Thus it is increasingly more difficult to find. This natural process yields lumber with greater color variation which people like me enjoy, however it is easier for industry to work with more "homogenized" material.
Just one of these!

Again this is November 3rd-6th at the Northrup King Building
1500 Jackson Street Northeast
Minneapolis, MN
in Blue Sky Galleries Suite #295

See you there!

Get this Boulder Rolling

2011-10-26T19:51:00.003-05:00

Ugh I've felt so distant from my own work let alone wood working as of late. Well I finally got a little time to heave-ho and see if I can get some momentum rolling. There are still a number of things to learn and look for that aren't wood working. I'll be thankful when my learning/sourcing curve is over and I can just get to work... Hmm seems kind of familiar heh.

Anyway, I got the rough milling the White Oak I picked up a bit ago. Here are the roughly cut out components for the easy chair. All that is missing in wood here are my back slats. I figure I'd wait on those just in case.

A couple days went by and the Oak is looking stable. I milled some pieces to final thickness and closer to final width.
It's time to start joinery for the chair sides. I cut the inside curves on my leg stock leaving the outside straight for referencing on my boring machine when cutting mortises.

Along the shaping way I check for edge squareness and check the curve against my shop drawing.

Cut my legs to length with "appropriate" angles... I assume I'm going to have to dial those in further when the right time comes. This is good enough for joinery though.

Before cutting mortises I wanted to do a bit of surface prep to try to get the closest I can to a flat planer side when joined together. As I've mentioned, Oak isn't the friendliest wood to work. Sometimes you can plane it just fine, sometimes not.
I'm finding this selection responds best to a higher angle smoother I have. I used this in my last project with the Kwila stands... I think it's about time to upgrade this style plane with a heavier, more dense plane blank I have.

I was debating between wide tenons for the back or splitting them. I ended up splitting them because of the angle this joint is at. I can utilize more depth this way and the split twin tenon will be more "mechanically" strong. Though this chair design doesn't quite fit the typical dinning chair style construction, the joint between the back leg/back and the seat stretcher is the most critical. I know I may be going above and beyond what may be commonly used but I certainly want this joint to last a long, long time!

Getting down to the business of figuring out my jigging. Here are a few blocks I'll be using as spacers in my mortise endeavors.

Here you can see one of my blocks acting as a spacer for the twin joinery. In this way I can leave all my horizontal settings as the are and prop the work piece up for another set making it "exactly" repeatable.

One pair of wide tenons for the front and a set of four for the rear.
One might say "what's up with your big old shoulders there (above and below the mortises)?" Well there is going to be a bit of rounded shaping in those areas, and I'm just concerned? I mean this is a chair, a lowish one at that. Most of the stress put on a chair is when a grown person sits down or gets up which probably happens a lot more and with much more force than a person opening a drawer in a tea cabinet. It makes sense to me to leave more material vertically above and below the main joints... alas, I'm not a real expert on chairs but I'm sure I've covered my bases here.

Alright, lets do it again, but sideways!
Uff-duh this is turning out to be a longish post. Well it's about time to cut this one... I'll be back with some tenon stock and such later!

Lumber Search

2011-10-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

My grinding wheel lay still. Quiet for what feels to be too long. I'm getting restless.
I've been on the search for lumber for my prototype chair, Ash was my original intention. It seems Ash is quite lacking in "the market" which is a bit of a surprise to me typically seeing it abundant. Walnut is low too. Really, there is just a general lull in wood it seems.

What little Ash I found at one commercial supplier was inadequate, even for their typical less than stellar stock. The other commercial supplier had none in 6/4 or 8/4. Small piles of Walnut at these locations riddled with knots and defects for $8-$9 per bd/ft.

Called the small sawyers I've worked with before to answering machines or poor news for my quest.
Today I went to another place I've been in contact with before. My hopes were high.
Turns out we speak a little of a different language.
I've never quite seen the kind of array before. There was Ash and there was Walnut, but it was either in the form of the flattest sawn pieces I've ever seen or perfectly quarter sawn. These must of come from sizable logs!
"There's no market for that kind [rift] of stuff."
This kind of statement gets to me a little. I realize that I am a bit of a small nook of a current market but the beauty of rift type lumber has been utilized by fine craftspeople for well more than a hundred years.
Particularly here, the chaotic flat sawn and heavily bias quarter material is used all over. Even so, I have yet to meet the furniture maker that once they see and understand the flow, grace, and cohesion of well cut material, want to go back to the current "standard".
This doesn't mean that rift is the only way to go. Not only would that be wasteful but there is a time and place for all cuts.
Maybe I'm overly sensitive, or just crazy, I don't know ha.

Yet I did not come home empty handed :)!
There just happened to be a small collection of 6/4 rift sawn "sticks" of Oak 3.5"-5" wide. All from the same tree I'm told though I have some doubts. I assume these were cut off in the quartering process. Not normally the kind of thing I'm looking for but for this application it works out quite well. I would normally be cutting these bits from the edges of "flat sawn" lumber.
In this way there is definitely less waste involved especially since in this project I can work in 6/4 lumber. So, my cost was a bit lower than normally anticipated for Oak.

Got some templates cut out ready to look over this Oak for components tomorrow!
Oak is not the friendliest species to work with but I'm looking forward to digging into some work again.
Looks like I will have to rethink the upholstery choices again heh.

Let's be honest.

2011-10-10T18:12:00.001-05:00

Let's be honest. Fine craft isn't easy. Years working on cabinets, tables, and such I've grown somewhat accustom to a loose set of challenges and guidelines. Working towards a sofa/seating project, I sort of feel like I'm trying to tackle a new discipline. I may argue that statement is true. There are a number of variables and concerns that I either have not dealt with or not quite in the same way as other furnishings.
Concerns with upholstery, seating foam, seat webbings, critical human/bio-mechanic geometry... It's unfamiliar. Just like dovetails, drawer fitting, doors, and the like may be unfamiliar to a chair maker.

After much thought I feel that a prototype Easy Chair could help me out and that I would simply feel better about the whole project if I made a prototype. Probably out of Ash. I've been wanting to build something of Ash though haven't had a project that has called for it. Also Ash is relatively inexpensive. Went to the two commercial lumber yards around here and was surprised at the lack of inventory of 6/4 and 8/4 Ash. The search will continue, though I may have to choose something else.
Thing is, I'm very hard pressed for funds and I doubt I can afford to keep this chair.
Undecided at the moment but I may be looking to sell it basically for the cost of materials including cushions of course.
If anyone may be interested please let me know. Shoot me a message or email linked on my website www.nanelson.com.

Sofa/chair "Design"

2011-10-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

OK, back like I suggested I would be with some cut-outs on a full scale drawing. I had established my seating heights and angles. I needed to get going on the rest.
This approach allows me to better see/guess visual weight and layering. Layering meaning how the seat frames play with the sides. I can also quickly make adjustments without much fuss.

Moved on to a bit of a Poplar mock-up. Arms are intimidating. The shaping isn't really represented here in the photo. These kinds of things never come out in photos. Well I'm fairly happy with it and think I have a good direction. I think I'm going to try to thin out everything a tad and see what happens.

I took another look at the stack of lumber I've been thinking of using. Air-dried Walnut. Doubts have stirred upon another look. I thought there was more flat grain in this pile but most of it is quatered. These are also pretty wide "slabs". I thought I would use this because it doesn't have what I would consider the "most ideal" grain for my interest in case-work.
I might feel bad about ripping up such wide planks though quater-sawn isn't typically the best for the kind of cabinets and such I tend to build. It would/could work for something like the nightstands I just finished or a sideboard etc in a similar/linear style.
I generally prefer rift and off rift grain orientation. For this project towards the flat side of rift is what I was picturing. Hmmm.
Also I just can't afford more material. Then there's the problem of finding decent air-dried Walnut.
What I can do is use the smaller flatter pieces for the legs and arms and try to use the "less-desirable" planks for the big frames. Save the rest for work to come.

In any case, I'll sleep on it at least a couple nights.

Oh, I've also come to a name for the last project/style with some input from Eva.
Svea side table.
I would like to build a bit of a sideboard in this style and can also picture a lowish console. Been wondering if I can adapt it to a higher form such as a hall table but haven't put real effort to it yet.

Continue Moving

2011-09-29T18:01:00.001-05:00

After the last photography shoot and working over the weekend at the part-time, I actually took a day easy. Ha. Did some domestic cleaning which felt good, and started on some shop cleaning. I still haven't cleared out as much as I would like but I need some more nice nights for scrap wood fires heh.
I finally got around to quickly making an abrasive "storage unit". Certainly not fancy but it does the trick.
Also I'm attempting to re-purpose a "parts bin" I had from long ago, now for screws and such. Haven't been able to tidy my shop shelves O'stuff really cleanly hmmm.

Thought I might make some coasters for the desk and such. For the moment this is what my years of training and dedication culminate to ha.

And already getting into the next project it seems. I was wanting to start off at "the drawing board" but felt I was working with too many variables. That the brain power and time spent drawing would be a waste without some important basic information.
Information such as geometry. Heights, depths, angles and so forth. In dealing with seating the basics aren't as open as say a cabinet might be.
Threw together this "mock-up" able to change all that and started test sitting. Went to the foam supply store to get an idea what to expect with cushions and tried to work that into the mock-up.

Got the geometry approved and it's back to the drawing board, or bench.
Next is making a full scale drawing marking the critical dimensions and making some cut-outs of legs and such to fiddle around with over the main geometry.
In addition I'm needing to do some research for knock-down fasteners. I haven't started looking yet but if anyone has a/some decent sources it would be great to be pointed in a good direction!

Nightstands - Complete!

2011-09-22T16:53:00.000-05:00

Nightstands - I haven't come up with an "official" name for these guys. I'm thinking I want to give the "style" a name because I think this general form could be adapted for other applications... say, a low bookcase/side board. Hmmm it is certainly tougher for me than building the pieces ha.
Any suggestions as to how to go about this?

22" H x 20.5" W x 16.75" D.
European Beech, Kwila, Brass (brackets).

Decided to skip the last process installment as it was pretty quick and simple/repetitious heh.

Oh boy, I'm a little tuckered.
Before seriously moving on I think I need try to clean and organize the shop and space before winter bares down on us. The next proposed project ("sofa") is going to take some decent R&D for me. I think a cleaner space will help me out. Perhaps I should get some R&R before that... doubtful heh.

Box Assembly, Stand Stuff

2011-09-14T19:16:00.002-05:00

Here we are again, and as promised I'm back with the glue up.
With 14 dowels per joint and four joints per box that adds up to 112 dowels plus the two dowels per apron to side joint gives a grant total of 128 dowels!
The dowels I got this time around (same dowels I always get) are harder than they have been in the past. Hand rolling them with a file to compress them was becoming a pain in the neck, and arm.
I decided to take a piece of brass and drill a 15/64" hole in it (1/64" smaller than 1/4") then tap/hammer the dowels through. Turns out it's a sloppy fit.
Well today I happened to need to go to the tooling shop to pick up another end mill bit. I bought an alphabetic "C" and "D" sized twist bits that are both between 15/64" and 1/4"... see if one of those works out for me next time.

Whole lot of clamping going on.

While glue-ups were drying I thought I'd get going on some brackets for this project. These are what I needed a new sized end mill for. I'm attaching the box portion with #6 sized screws with brackets that need to allow for movement. The 1/8" bit I have is just too small and 3/16" too big. I got a 5/32" bit. Haven't gotten back to the brackets yet though.

Onward to stand stuff!
Cut the stubby little legs to height and the aprons to length including that 2 or 3 degree angle I'm using.

Spent a little time cleaning up the end grain cuts on the aprons fine tuning that angle and making the leg end grain smooth and square.

Hadn't decided how I was going to get the slight angle in the aprons to match the legs. Decided to plane it in and use square(er) joinery. My work horse 45 degree smoother wasn't giving me the best result with the temperamental Kwila. I grabbed a higher angle smoother I made in school that I haven't used since I've been back. Quickly trued the sole, ground and honed a new edge, and gave it a test run. Seemed to be what I needed. Opened the window to the cool air set my blade for some fine shavings and got to it.
As small as this step was, the different between top and bottom edge is only 1/32", it was probably the best moments with this project thus far.
Bringing another plane into use again, making some fine shavings, freedom of shaping, sight sound and smell of the kwila, the air; it all just came together.

In short order it was back to machining. Mortising. Though with the joinery so relatively simple and square it went without much fuss.

I had decided to keep the legs square for joinery, now it's time to give it some tapering. I made a little jig to help me out. These are the first "straight" legs I've made since my first year in MCTC!? I usually can't/don't use jigs with curved legs.
The jig just cradles the leg and I cut the taper I want into the side of the jig that hits the fence. Quick and low-tech!

Ok, calling it quits on this entry here!
Maybe I can get these done in another two weeks?? hmmmm

Doweling to Pre-finish

2011-09-08T15:50:00.003-05:00

Alright. Once the components of the boxes were sized and all it was time for the major joinery of said boxes, doweling. As always I'm using doweling jigs. This makes an "exact" set of holes repeatable.

First I bored holes int he vertical pieces.

Then swap the jigs over to the corresponding sides for the top and bottom pieces... that is the bottom of the top and the top of the bottom ;).
Bore holes on the drill press setting the stop as to NOT bore all the way through!

Made a dry run to be sure things were working out and continued on making the aprons, doing some final reveal trimming and all the edge treatment.

Another check with it all together before pre-finishing. Box!

Then guess what? Yep, pre-finish!
Good old shellac and wax for these guys.

Be back with assembly and such, till then, later on out.

So Much Surface

2011-08-30T17:32:00.002-05:00

Back again! Well, I have been working, it's just been repetitive and not photogenic heh.
After machining down the components of the box to relative final thickness I was turning between planing the surfaces, and clamping up edge joints.

After each edge joint is dried, it's back to planing, then back to joining again, and so on.
It may not be the most exciting process ever but it is enjoyable when the work goes well and the bits turn into something more.

Mustn't forget about hitting the sharpening station about every five min. My poor iron has just about had it. I finally ordered a new one yesterday... Can't wait for lapping ha.

So the surfaces had all been glued up! I trimmed and squared the surfaces and took some time to clean up some edges. Here is my block plane taking a shaving from the end grain of a top piece.

Ha, knew this post would be short relative to the work I've put in, and it may happen again...
Till next time!

Photos : Walnut Desk

2011-08-18T16:25:00.000-05:00

Walnut Desk
30"H x 47.5"W x 22"D
Air Dried Walnut, White Oak

Moved photography efforts to the garage. The basement is a bit cluttered at the moment. The garage does seem to be a decent fit though I still like more room. Mainly to get further away from the piece.
Here trying to photograph those pulls... tricky!

Nightstand Milling

2011-08-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

Here again a a pic of the Nightstand mock-up for reference :).
It's nice getting into new work though ideas and drawings of this piece have been around my head since March.
The box portion will be of Euro Beech and the little stand will be Kwila.

A quick change of band saw blade for the new project and I'm off doing the major milling for these little guys. Here re-sawing Beech for the box portion. Beech is a bit soft compared to Oak but it's creamy dense structure makes it more labor intensive for the saw to cut through.

After getting covered in Beech dust, this is what I came out with. All of this material is for the box surfaces. I'm always surprised at how much material I need. I got 2 10' long planks and there is hardly anything left of them!
As I mentioned a while ago I wasn't the greatly pleased by the selections I got from A&M this time. One plank was much wider than the other and the center was lop-sided with a number of defects. The other more narrow plank was cleaner yet had some wonky grain going on.
I am doing the best I can to put together a clean product and think I will end up with a decent conclusion, it's just a bit more challenging. That of course can be interesting and fun in a way.
For the kind of grain graphic thing I'm going for one could be ripping smaller sections of the material and reassembling them to coax a nice smooth "one big plank". I've done this in some veneer work. However in this solid wood form I'm feeling the urge for simplicity and honesty, not that my other works aren't honest which is something I strive for... hmmm difficult to put into words.
Anywho, My intention is still that of "one big plank", which is much more than just throwing boards together, however with this selection there is just no way to get the smoothest transitions. Rather than fight it, I feel it more "graceful" to except it and "embrace" it for what it is... kind of getting to my Nakashima influences heh.

Back to mill work!
This is the Kwlia for the stands.
I happen to have one left-over narrow plank from my last order from Cormark Int. for the Maple Showcase.
The grain is straight and the color a beautiful rust brown with a bit of red which I feel will be lovely against the cream and pink tones of the Euro Beech.
I must say that I'm quite happy I was introduced to Cormark Int. (http://www.cormarkint.com/) by my benchmate and friend at IP, Jason D. The guys and gals there care about what they send out have been great for me to work with. My only complaint is that they are far away from me in NC. Cheers.

Done. With the desk.

2011-08-15T11:12:00.000-05:00

The last couple things for this project went relatively quickly.
Carve pulls.
Make drawer bottoms.

Oil drawer fronts.
Make drawer stops.

Done. Hopefully I will get photos taken and up in the coming weeks!

For now I cleaned up my bench room a bit to make room for the next project. As some will know, a pair of nightstands/side tables made of Euro Beech and Kwila. Just set these planks of Euro Beech up to ponder my component selections. I have yet to make any cuts as I need to go to work to make pretty coffee drinks at the bakery soon. Perhaps I will start tomorrow unless I can get my hands on a backdrop stand for desk photography.

Chao! - NN

So Close!

2011-08-05T10:19:00.000-05:00

So close! The suspension is killing me! Or maybe I'm still over caffeinated from being a closing barista with discerning customers...
Anyway, sorry to fast forward the progress but I was on a role. The drawers have all been dovetailed, assembled, and fit!

The other day I also FINALLY got drawer bottom material. I would much rather have had it earlier in the process but funds were dry due to a couple unforeseen occurrences. Well I actually found a decent plank from the commercial lumber supplier without too much for waste, except for a nice crack going through the middle of half the plank much like I've seen before in 8/4 Oak from this supplier. Does one call that a "shake"?
I decided to rip the sections down the crack which was in the flat of the grain. I'd rather not cut through the flat because it is tougher to get a nice looking edge joint gluing them back together and particularly for something like Oak where the quarter-sawn edge will not want to work very well. What can one do but think, reason, adapt, be careful, and keep moving? heh

Giving the Oak a little time I turned to some pull mock ups. I first compared a post and bail to a carved pull. I feel the carved pull will look more organic and would be less obtrusive to my sight when sitting at the desk. I liked the idea of doing some post and bail and trying to through joinery but I also like carved pulls. In the end the piece should get what it wants!
I haven't quite nailed down the shape of the pull. I don't think I'll be going with the "smiley" towards the right. I also think I could use a new carving gouge or two. I'd rather not by more tools but like I say, the right tool for the right job.

Just got to milling/resawing the drawer bottom stock. I will give it the weekend to sort itself out a bit, then back to work. Hopefully I will have this project wrapped up in the coming week or so (oil still takes time)!

Don't know when I'll get to photograph it. Probably going to need a wider back drop for this one :/. Looking forward to completing the project and moving on though!

Half Blind Dovetails

2011-08-01T18:14:00.001-05:00

Alright. Half blind dovetails, lets do this.
First I start by marking where the joints are going to go and there dimensions. I scribed a line where I want the reveal, or the portion covering the dovetails to the front. Also marked with a marking gauge how deep the joint should go which is referenced by how thick your drawer sides are.
Mark out the patter of dovetails and get sawing... carefully! Accurate sawing really makes the work go more smoothly and therefore more quickly. Saw at an angle meeting your scribe line both on the side and back of the drawer front.

Then go to the chop block. Here it is not in position yet. You can see the scribe line marking the depth of the joint. I use this line to line up the work piece in the chop block.

Here's a "trick". Use a nice wide blade of sorts and let the leading edge fit into the scribe line. Apply a little pressure to keep it steady and pull the chop block against your blade. Tada! Very accurate placement with no fuss!

Well now, get to chopping... but wait! Here's another handy maneuver I picked up at IP. I use a little brass shim against the chop block to start my "rough chopping". Just make the initial cuts with this shim then put it aside and keep chopping putting the cutting edge of the chisel where it just was and bracing the chisel back against the block.
The purpose of this is to leave a little to shave off at after the joint has been mainly chopped out giving you a nice clean cut/joint.

Chopping progress.
Now, the inside corner of these joints is where your saw couldn't reach so it will look a bit rough/stringy as you chop out the waste. It will be cleaned up later.

More shims! Get close to your reveal scribe line, I used a wooden shim scribe said line. This is that same wood shim with the brass shim from earlier on top. Same idea, use the brass shim to guide your cut then the bare wood shim for your final cut.

Final cuts with wood shim.

Final end grain cuts using the chop block.
Look over your work. Make sure there isn't anything left to do while in the chop block.

Take the work piece out of the block. It's still going to need some work.
Here are a couple tools I've learned how to make and use. At the top is a small pairing chisel. I mainly use this for dovetail work. It has short, wide-ish blade to be able to comfortable choke up on it and get a lot of control. The blade is also pretty thin in thickness and has a pretty long taper to be able to get between tight dovetails when fitting.
The middle I can only think to call a "detail chisel". I don't use it terribly often but when I need it, nothing else will quite do as well.
At the bottom is a violin knife. Quite handy to clean out corners.

Use the pairing chisel to clean up the rough parts where the saw couldn't cut.

Then the violin knife to cut the shaving out and clean the corners. (This isn't how I use the tool, need two hands, one to hold the work piece and one the knife. Just showing how the tool fits in to cut.)

Check for cleanliness and squareness and address accordingly. Remember, your pins here is what's going to define your tails therefore how the joint looks. Well made pins will make fitting your tails much easier!

The tails side is chopped out much the same except through of course. Fast forwarding that whole procedure here is an almost finished set.
Fyi... Oak is not the easiest wood for dovetails! I feel for the students at IP who picked Oak for their first box project! heh.
Well I am physically and mentally drained from dovetail week as always. Looking forward to wrapping this project up!!! I still don't know what I'm going to do for pulls yet hmmmmm....

Let the Drawers Begin

2011-07-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

Before I put the top down, while pre-finishing, I went ahead and did some beginning work on drawers.
Here I cut bits of Poplar to exactly fit the drawer openings. Which are slightly smaller than the rest of the drawer pocket(s).

Took one "story stick" at a time back to the table saw and set up a stop to cut the corresponding drawer front to size. I thought the thickness of my ruler was a good extra bit for fitting the drawer. Unless you want a sloppy fitting drawer you do not want it to fit the pocket off the bat.
Cross-cuts were made to the drawer fronts with carriages to get the correct angles I needed.

Here are four chop-blocks, all of which I need to make these drawers. Each one is a different angle corresponding to the different points on the curved drawer fronts that the joinery will go. It can get a little complicated, be sure to mark what goes where!

Here is what one of the chop-block set-ups looks like. I use a thickish block to prop up the drawer front to accommodate it's curve. I find this a lot easier and faster than making a curved cradle, which I find unnecessary.

Well, this post is a bit short. I thought I would separate this one from the next as it will probably get a little lengthy... at least a bunch of pics of making half-blind dovetail pins!
So, till then...

Back On

2011-07-25T11:58:00.000-05:00

Alright. It feels it has been a while. I've been busy with a number of Best-man duties for a good friend's wedding. The wedding just took place this weekend, lovely. Now life may continue as "normal" though I hardly know what that is.
I did get some time in the shop. Enough to put the desk top down and start on drawer work.
Before getting the top down I wanted to snap a shot of this joint, more-so the leg, that kept me up at night for a while ha.

Here it the top to base assembly. Using pretty much all the F-clamps I have... maybe I should get more.

Next post, hopefully soon, let the drawers begin.

Almost there...

2011-07-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

With the little bits of pre-finishing complete I could get to some more assembly.
Here I'm gluing up/down the vertical drawer partitions to the web-frame. I figured it would be easier to do it at this point than work around the rest of the desk.

After that was another scarey part of this build. The web-frame glue-up. This is just one big joint splined on three sides. Part of what mad this tricky is that I couldn't really get a good caul on the relatively thin parts to help the whole join home. I managed though.

The next day I got to another part of this project that I have been weary of. Chopping out the desk top corners to fit in the proud leg tops. I have done this before but it is still a nervous time. I think of all the hours I've invested and how tricky it would be to "come back" from a mistake at this point.
Overall it went pretty smoothly. Much more so than I had anticipated. I had set the top up on the legs where I wanted it. scored lines marking the legs protrusions. Made an accurate 90 degree chop block. Rough cut the corners with a hand saw and got to chopping. I allowed some extra room for tweaking but hardly needed it.
I was glad when it fit and the "ordeal" was over ha.

Here is the front, right corner after chopping was done and before the leg top got edge treatment. I was aiming for a 3/32 proud leg top and it looks damn close.

After final surface and edge prep it's now back to pre-finishing again yayyyyyyy.

In the mean time I received a replacement blade for my LN 60-1/2 block plane. I maxed out the original blade and couldn't used it anymore! Good thing I was in a place in the project where I didn't need it.
I'm glad to see that LN is making O1 steel blades for a number of tools now. I hope that this A2 fad may be dwindling heh. A2 I think sounds like a nice option on paper but not so much in practice unless under certain circumstances.
A2 is harder and keeps an edge longer if using friendly woods however it's more difficult/a pain to get a really keen edge with. It also is more brittle due to its hardness. When I get little chips coming off my tool edge when, say working Oak end grain, it's more time-consuming to get back to a clean edge with A2.
Well, time will tell of this O1 blade's performance. I still find it a bit irritating that people producing O1 "western style" tools are hardening the steel to the levels closer to a Japanese style tool. Which I think may be another "trend" of sorts. The reason Japanese tools are so hard is that traditionally they were used with soft woods which need very sharp edges and are of course less tough than hardwoods. A slightly softer steel will be more resilient to the relative toughness of hardwoods... at least in theory.

Whatever, that's my hand tool steel rant for the day ha.
Take care all!

Stop, Go, Stop

2011-07-01T15:33:00.000-05:00

Hello again, and back to the desk after leg/apron assembly.
After all those joints were good and stuck I fit the web-frame into the drawer pocket. Mark the points that I wanted to cut the front curve at, mark by using the top itself as a template and cut on the band saw. Here I'm cleaning up the curve with a trusty spoke shave.

Next was to "laminate" the Walnut front edge to the web-frame. Just used a couple strips from the same piece of Walnut I used for the back apron rail.
During this time I also cut the vertical drawer partitions to size and added Walnut front edges of their own.

Aaaaaand I'm back to pre-finishing again.
I'm getting a bit bored with this down time ha.
I would like to put together a couple organizers some odds and ends on my shop shelves but I don't have money for the material at the moment. I've done machine maintenance already. Made a mock-up for the next project...
Well I took some time to make a pair of "cutting/butcher boards" of some scrap Maple I had ha.

After that, got bored again. I decided to just dig into some material for the next project.

I'm going to call the next projects "nightstands" for now to simplify as that is the indented purpose.
The Euro Beech for the box part of these nightstands though simple in overall structure is going to be tricky with grain selection. I'm going to need a good amount of open brain space for that so I wont tackle that for now.
So I got going on some leg stock. Mmmmm Kwila. The relatively narrow plank I had left over is mainly quarter-sawn so I used the band saw to cut angles out to try to "twist" some more rift-sawn leg stock out.

Ooo parallelograms... Fun word. Say it out loud. Do it!

Further milled the leg stock square. With the legs so short on these stands I decided to double up on the length to make work go more smoothly. Each square piece will be cut in half to make two legs. The other bits are the off-cuts in width of the plank. They will be used either for aprons or stretchers.
Though the leg stock isn't the exact 45 degree grain orientation I would have liked, it's the best I could comfortably do given the plank and will still work out quite nicely. Kwila is a fairly course structured wood sort of like Oak which helps in making it fairly forgiving in terms of these grain compromises.
Mmmmm I love Kwila! I wish I had the funds to store some up! But thanks again to Cormark International for sending me those couple nice planks!

Back to Desk / Time on my Hands

2011-06-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

Alright. You may have noticed that I have some time on my hands.
This is why heh. All this pre-finishing then waiting hours between 8 stages of glue-ups!
I try to be productive but it's the Minnesotan Summer which is short and erratic. When a couple nice days come around it gets difficult to keep ones nose to the grind stone.
The desk is coming along nicely it seems though.

The crossing clamp and "bracing stick" is simple insurance of the distance in front to keep my angles roughly true.

On an unrelated but geeky tangent...

Glass/beerware came to my step today!
I'm not really an excitable kind of guy but I can get excited about adding to my geekery. I'm pretty pumped to give these a go ;).
I figure a number of people out there, like me, like their beer. I also figure I'd give a "shout out" to pubglasses.com for having a decent selection at decent prices. I am missing one or two styles I'd like to add to my disposal though heh.
(No I didn't build the dinning set heh. It's a set my parents got from a Danish store a number of years ago. Nice and quite though.)

Nightstand/Side Table Mock-Up

2011-06-22T16:57:00.000-05:00

Boof!
Nightstand/Side Table mock-up complete!
I was/am surprised at how little I wanted to change from my sketches.
One thing I find tricky about this form is the "foot print" dimensions lets say... For the top to make a nicely functional top and say hold a decent sized lamp and have comfortable room for a glass or whatever, the piece gets pretty deep. Deeper than I would like if I was just looking at the interior space of the box. It starts to look quite cube-like. I could make it narrower or longer though I wouldn't want to add or subtract much. Hmmm. No more than 3/4" either way for functionality sake.

Kind of cute I'd say. By no means is this a spanking new form, of course not. I'm putting my hands, and eyes to it and I'd like to think it'll come out not QUITE like any other. Plus I have the option of tweaking things for certain applications if (hopefully) asked to reproduce this kind of piece. Same goes for the Frame-Top tables, though I feel those are a bit "tighter bound" by the amount going on in those pieces, which I don't see as a bad thing.

Ugh seems like I'm going to have to name this something. If you can't tell by what I call my other piece, I don't really like naming them heh. I already have a side table "design". I was going to call this a Nightstand though I think it could make a handy side table as well. Hmmm... Make it really "Danish" and call it "Side No. 02" or "Table No. 04" heh?

work work aaaaand more prefinishing

2011-06-20T13:39:00.001-05:00

Okie dokie. The pre-finishing from last time had been completed. I glued on the little rails to my aprons and then needed to trim them flush. For the end grain I used a block plane and clamped on a backer block as to not blow out fibers upon exiting the end grain plane strokes. I simply used the angles of the ends themselves to guide my cuts.

It was also time to make a cut that I have been a little scared of. Make the top of the front legs square. Initial cut was on the band saw then I took a plane iron and small mallet for chopping and slicing them clean, neat, and accurately. Wasn't actually as scarey as I thought though it was good to pay extra attention to.

Again involving these little "ramps". Plane the ramp down flush to the inside Oak pieces. Again, the only reason I have these little ramps is that they are a part of my drawer pocket. I want a "seamless" joint between these pieces as to not interfere with the workings of the drawers.

Leg pillowing! Feels like I haven't made legs in a while. I forgot how much time it takes to nicely pillow a leg. This is possibly why it is among the first things to leave a "krenovian's" work when trying to make ends meet.
It is a detail. To some perhaps a small detail. To me, however, I feel it makes a big impact in my work. I find that this detail is rarely specifically pointed out but contributes to an overall effect/"aura" of the pieces. They simply wouldn't feel or be the same piece without it. For now I will stubbornly "stick to my guns".

All surfaces and edges refined and preped... More pre-finishing.
I do have a little work I could do for some of the interior parts though I think I will save that as something to do while the assembly is happening after finishing is done. It will be a pretty major assembly being completed in a number of stages... I'll have time.

For now I may use some time to get a head start on a full scale drawing and maybe mock-up of the next project among other things none woodworking on my plate.

The next project I'm looking at is a pair of nightstands for a lovely talented little Scandinavian blooded gal whom I will be bartering for logo/web design and branding work.
Found this photo in a google image search. I quite like the concept and overall design/proportions and is vaguely similar to the Oak Wall piece I finished not too long ago... that is to say an open box heh not a huge leap. Well I'm looking at taking this piece as inspiration for a nightstand/side table "NN adaptation".
The "box" will be of Euro Beech and I hope to make little stands of Kwila.

Oil takes time

2011-06-07T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ok. So the major joints have been cut and fit. I "whipped up" some rails that will be applied to the aprons which will correlate to the horizontal drawer pocket division in the front of the desk (the bottom of the drawer pocket).
Nick B, you'll notice this ha you did something like it on your hall table :P.

Before those little rails are applied I'm going to pre-finish the face of the apron and rail along with the little step corner of the rail. This way I don't have to deal with trying to put finish along corners. However, oil TAKES TIME to dry so it will be a bit of a process.
I'm changing up my oil concoction a bit. I took out the 1/3 plain tung oil and am just thinning down Original Waterlox by 1/3. I figure the desk is something I want a little more "heafty" finish on. That's not to say "thick" though. I'm also not planing on using wax to simplify any touch ups in the desk's hopefully long future.
Ha if only I got paid for product placement.
With this cut of finish I'm finding 24 hours between coats to be alright for the first 3. I though about finishing with the 4th and last coat without thinning the oil. It has been about a day and a half and needs more time. I'm not thrilled about how it's looking but what can ya do but wait for it to dry enough to work with. So I'll see how it goes and see what I can do.

So I've had some time on my hands. I made a bit of a story-stick for the drawer pocket and got going on the web-frame.
Here is the mortise side of a couple slip-tenon frame joints.

And then there's the frame members for the pocket partitions.

Poof! Gluing up the middle pieces to the front horizontal piece. This will just make life a little easier when gluing the whole frame up.

Now what? Well I suppose I can get a start on some initial leg shaping!

Work is a little here and there at the moment but at least things are starting to look less like random boards!

Sticks to Structure

2011-05-31T18:07:00.000-05:00

Ok back again.
Last time the mortise making on the rail side was done. Now the leg side.
I normally like to keep my leg blanks square for joinery when I can. The front two legs are to be at angles pinching into the desk and need to get angles planed in where the drawer pocket meets the leg. This would be unnecessary if the desk was square, or I had put a visual space and made drawers to come out a little away from the leg.
At any rate I need to cut some of the profile to allow those little juts to become the angles I need.

Started by taking the angle off my shop drawing with my little bevel gauge. The square is to check for squareness relative to the end grain, aka top of the leg.

Then a whirl wind of angled mortise making happened at the boring machine where I was too wrapped up to stop for photos it seems.
This however is the last part of that whirl wind. The dowels is where the drawer pocket partition meets the back apron. I used dowels because normal mortises would have been all cross on end grain which doesn't help too much and the partition is too thin for lateral tenons... dowels was the answer.
That is one full corner of joinery!

Woot! A skeleton of a desk emerges.
Getting to this point was a big relief. I stood back to study it a bit and couldn't find much energy to do much else for the moment. Hopefully the scariest part is over, hopefully.

Desk Leg Joinery Begins

2011-05-26T17:45:00.000-05:00

Back to the Desk!
Once again I'm working with angles off 90. Furthermore none of the leg joinery angles even repeat! Well except for the side apron and side stretcher because they are on the same side.
I rough cross cut components on the table saw and took them back to my bench where I used this perhaps odd set-up. Dig it or oppose it, this is the way I tend/like to work heh. With no angles matching, what's the point of making fancy jigs? I'd need like 8 of them! I simply used a little ingenuity in choosing how I made the cross cuts on the table saw to be able to dial in the angles afterwards with minimal sweat :).

I'm not a machine, I'm flexible, as are the projects I work with. I train to trust and be confident with my hands to be able to effectively fine tune complicated builds like these. SOme will school me with jigs and machines, but as one would guess they're simply not for me ;).

However I DO like to use some nice jigging! Love that boring machine and X-Y table (if only I had a proper one).
Above is a top view look at a back corner of the desk "shop drawing".
To the left the side apron comes to the leg and to the right the back apron meets the leg as well. The further to the right there's a drawer pocket partition. Always looking to maximize joint strength, this is what I've come to for this corner. The back apron was thick enough for two 3/16" tenons but I figured I'd maximize the depth of the side apron 1/4" tenon and use a 1/4" + 1/8" twin tenon in the back. The sides also get stretcher so I can put a deeper tenon in at that location.
In theory I'm pleased with this set-up, I think Robert would be too heh.

So here I am at the boring machine. I have a spacer to define the width of the mortises, a spacer defining the horizontal distance between mortises, and a spacer for the vertical dimention of the twin tenon mortises.
Also to make like quite easy with the curved pieces I'm using a small riser block to clamp to which with bring the last 1.25" of the curves to a "flat" plane allowing the tenons to come "straight" from the aprons... Low tech and effective, again.

Mortises made in the side aprons, side stretchers, and sides of the drawer pocket. Funny enough it all worked out so that all these mortises are 1/4" x 1-1/4" which is a happy accident that makes work a bit easier.

And here's that back apron with the "twin" tenon mortises in it. Pretty neat I think!
Next is the scary part... Putting mortises into the legs at all sorts of angles... and I don't have any spares! Yikes!!!

Cherry Display Cabinet

2011-05-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

Finally! You know that wall piece I was working on months ago? Here it is :).
Cherry Display Cabinet
18" x 23" x 7"
Cherry (air dried), Maple (air dried), Jatoba

The glass in this piece presented photographing problems. I couldn't get the lights in position that I really liked due to reflection hence the big shadows.

The color temp of these lights seem to be true which is great for the piece! However I had been over compensating with the back drop. This is the same back drop I used with the Maple Showcase and now doesn't give as warm a feel as I would like. But hey I much prefer knowing what the end result is going to be!

I mentioned as I was building this piece that I was trying a little something different in terms of finger prints here and there. The piece prior to this was very highly regulated and smooth/fared out. That kind of work is great for the right piece. This time I went more relaxed, that's not to say sloppy, just a little more free.
I kept the facets and kept them a little more evident. It was fun for me, I like the results, and I think others will enjoy it too.
Trying to capture it in a photo is another story. Click on the pic to enlarge it and you should be able to see it in the shaping of the end grain/side.

Mmmm that notched pull. Scary but worth it.

New Toys

2011-05-19T13:54:00.000-05:00

New toys!
A pair of Interfit StellarX 600s.
Hopefully these puppies will work out!

Almost to Joinery

2011-05-16T14:34:00.001-05:00

All the substrates had been made, now they all have veneer. That's not to say they have edges though. Above the lumber-core back apron getting veneer. Clamped this up at the end of a day so that I could use my bench and a big heavy flat caul.

For the side stretchers I decided to go with bent laminations. I may have mentioned that I'm low on Walnut for this project, and I already had the form from the side apron veneered lamination. Walnut is also a good candidate for lamination. Something lighter in color and more dense such a Maple will show the seams more readily.
Even with Walnut's favorable attributes for such a technique I took the time to hand plane each surface after they went through the thickness planer and before the lamination. This plane is still new to me but it feels like it will continue to be a good performer given the right attention.

Here is a still rough result! I used 5 eighth-inch strips of Walnut glued together over the curved form I used for the side aprons. The glued layers is what holds the shape. Under close inspection they look like pretty clean and tight seams to me :).

Before I get focused on joinery I want to rough mill stock for the drawer pocket web-frame that is to be made of Oak. Attack of the kiln-dried White Oak again! This was after re-sawing for the two long frame members. Good thing I cut them way over thickness! I was afraid something like this would happen... and it did ha.
While these and the other frame pieces are settling a bit hopefully I can get on to the main joinery. Still have to figure all that out though!

In more news, I received a shipment of lumber for my next project which will be a pair of Nightstands. This is Steamed European Beech coming from A&M in Cambridge, ON. It's hard to see the relatively fine grain in this shot but it is not as nice of selection I was hoping for. I had a feeling it would basically be pulled from the top of a pallet but for half the cost as Gilmer was asking I figured I'd give it a shot... I may have learned a lesson.
This perhaps will just supply challenge in an otherwise more simple project and practice in doing the best with less than ideal material which I'm sure I will continue to struggle with ;).

In further more news, Art-a-Whirl is this weekend! May 20-22. The Northrup King Building is included in this event where Blue Sky Galleries resides and within reside some of my pieces. I will be in attendance when I can to hopefully meet, greet, and chat with some folk!
Perhaps see you there!

Substrate City

2011-05-06T16:48:00.000-05:00

Aloha it's once again time for substrates! Ha
As I get further into this project I realize that for such a simple looking end result there is a fair amount going on with this desk. Even in the substrates!
The for drawer pocket partitions are made with flat birch ply, two different thicknesses though. The side aprons are being made by bent lamination of 1/8" ply lams. Then the back apron is lumber-core constructed... and I still have to make a decision on how to construct the two side stretchers!
Building something of the sort with an organic intention is neither quick nor easy. If it was, we'd see more of it I think.

Above some bake-ins are being applied to a drawer pocket component.

Shaping a Poplar mold for the bent laminations.

Here is the core lamination all clamped up. I'm using 1/8" Poplar "sheets" combined as a flexable caul. The ply core with be then given bake-ins before it goes back on the mold to get veneer.

While that was going attention was turned to the lumber-core back apron piece. Quater-sawn Poplar. I'm using lumber-core so I can curve the outside to the shape of the desk-top and keep the back flat which will be part of the drawer pocket.

Clamps came off the bent lamination and went on to press the Oak veneer for some drawer pocket parts. I kept my "press" set-up I had for veneering the panels in my Side Tables in hopes that I would need it again. And it just seemed a good size to keep around. Less fussing around makes my life easier, yay.

While the veneer was going I got to the bake-ins on the bent lam side apron cores. The bake-ins need to be cut in a curve also of course heh.

Aaaaaaand cleaning up the long bake-ins for these curved surfaces. I went with a spokeshave to accomplish this.
Wheeew now that the substrates are mainly done I can get to the veneering. The up coming couple weeks may be a bit touch and go because I'm starting a new part-time job hopefully as a barista on a high-end "coffee bar" and bakery (yay/yum) and will have some overlap with the other. Somewhat decent timing though as I only have enough clamps to do one veneer clamp-up at a time and my Father looks to be starting a sizable project and will be in the shop.
Hopefully I wont get too cranky from being out of the shop! ha

Return to Deskland

2011-05-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

Alrighty! After finishing up the Cherry Display Cabinet and taking a breather I'm back on the Walnut Desk I started a bit back.
Last I have just got the Walnut veneer on the desk top and smoothed that all out. Applied edges were next for me. I decided I'd just use the iron I had in my other smoother for now and tune up the new plane. I'm feeling the pinch as it were. Trimming these little edges isn't really critical enough to judge a plane by however I do like the feel of it thus far :).

Above is the mouth of my new plane. Not too shabby if you ask me ;D.

After the long edges were applied and trimmed I went to the short cross-grained ones. In this case there is no overlap of edges because the legs will be integrated into the top. This means the order of the edges is "less" important. I chose to do the long ones first so I could plane with the grain and not have to worry about cross-grain blow-out going across the end-grain edges.
I used a number of 1/8" thick slices of Poplar as flexable cauls gluing one side at a time.

Above is a plank of White Oak that will fulfill the drawer pocket and side components of the desk. I have had this plank for a little over a year and just took it out again to look it over. I marked where I think I want to get my drawer pocket partitions from but I don't like to make hasty cuts in "virgin planks" particularly because I was originally saving this plank possibly for a pair of side tables to go with the Oak Coffee Table I made. Soooo I came up from the basement to do some online stuff.

On that note I have hesitantly started a facebook page. The little lady has been suggesting it to me; I figure I'd give it a shot!

Nicholas Nelson : facebook

I've also put a link to it in the side links here and on my website.
Check it out if you wish!

Wall Cabinet Wrap Up

2011-04-25T11:10:00.000-05:00

It took longer than expected (of course) to get glass but I got it and was able to wrap things up.
Seems as though it has been a while since the last post on this.
Pictured is mortise making for door hinges. This was just after I refinished my butt chisel handles. You can see the difference between those and the original finish on the bench chisel.

Consoles (shelf supports) in process. Kind of cute heh. I went with Jatoba for the little bits in the cabinet. It will age to a darker rusty red color which should go nicely with the aging cherry.

Consoles finished! There will be two shelves for this cabinet. I made two sets plus three extra... biffed the last one of the third set but I was expecting that ha. This way there is extra in case something should happen to the others. Don't know what but it's better to be prepared :).

This is a scarey part that I had been putting off. After fitting and hanging the door. I mortised the door for the same pull I made for the first door. Now it was time to cut into the FINISHED carcass to make a recess for the pull.

Started out with marking the recess with a pencil. Went at it with a chisel. Then made a sanding block to fit the shape I wanted. Finished it up and made the little profile with a knife. I dig it.
Phew!

Received the glass shelves and "bulk" sheet of glass for the door panes. Got to cutting the glass for the door myself.
I think this is a good thing to be able to do. I like to know that I can make these kinds of panes fit just right. Not tight but not sloppy. It allows me to work with smaller tolerances, which I like.
Once the glass was cut and put into place I marked the mullions on the sticks that hold the glass in place. Pictured above was after cutting the waste with the band saw. Used chisels to fit and clean them up.

Drilling hole for the brads that will hold the glass in.
SO CLOSE!
Actually it is done. Cleaned up the sticks, softened their edges, glued the pull in place, finished everything that needed finish, installed glass into the door, and hung the door. :D

Alas I have another waiting game. I ordered a pair of studio strobes (photo flash lights) and was given notice a couple days later the they are on back order. They say it will take another week or two but I have had bad experience with things on back order in the past :/.
While I'm waiting for those I will of course resume work on the Walnut Desk :).

Plane Break

2011-04-14T17:20:00.000-05:00

I put in an order for the glass for the Cherry Cabinet on Wednesday. It wont be done till Friday at the earliest I suspect. What to do now. Well I took some time to pick up around the shop but I also had a milled plane black laying around for a few weeks and decided to go to town on a new smoother to replace the last one of Vera that delaminated. I took a bunch of pics in case anyone viewing this blog is not familiar with "krenovian planes".

So, I got a 3"x3"x12" blank from the local "woodworking store". They sell these as turning blanks though I don't really know why this is such a popular size but it works great for most hand plane projects.
I scraped the wax off and let it sit for a while. Then did some milling getting the cheeks and the main body cut out. I let these sit stickered for a few weeks for them to move as they please.

When I finally got back to the blank yesterday I flattened and dressed the sides and body. Then cut the iron ramp out on a band saw.

Used my block plane to dress and square up the iron ramp.

Then using the iron itself to help set the distance between the ramp and the front I drilled holes in the top corners for locator dowels. Trimmed the dowels flush so they wouldn't interfere with the glue-up.

With the dowels in place the cross-pin holes were drilled at 5/16". Use the block that was cut out as a backer for the first hole drilled.

That same block was used to get cross-pin material. I got two cross-pin blanks and a bit left over for shoulder cut tests on the table saw. The rest of the block will be used to get a wedge and can be saved in case of the need for a mouth insert.

Pin shoulders were cut on a table saw. Then the tenons are made round to fit with a chisel and files.

A relief was made for the chip-breaker cap-screw using a 3/4" router bit on the router table.

After triple checking everything and giving the glue faces a acetone wipe I glued the plane up with cauls and flaw board.
I do happen to have these cauls and flaw board "laying around" for plane making :).

I left the glue-up over night and came back to it today. Took the glued up block out of the clamps and ran the bottom over the jointer once. Then to the band saw to rough out the final shape.
Some like their planes rougher than others. I tend to like mine relatively shaped smooth as is more comfortable for my small soft hands hahah ;).

Tada! There it is fit with a wedge. It isn't in working order yet. These planes always seem to move around a little bit in the first stage of their life so I'm just going to allow that to happen for a bit before I get to fine tuning. I also want to order a new iron for it. The one I have seen here is wearing a bit short.
Here's hoping it will be a loyal performer!

This project along with cleaning up a bit has been good for me to get back in tune with the shop space as I still hadn't acclimated since my return from IP. I'm also enjoying a couple "bonfires" cleaning out my scrap bins that have over flowed from winter.
Alas the seasons change and it can be easy to lose one's way with our short Minnesotan Summers ha. We'll see... ;p

Where's that swing?

2011-04-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

Getting back home, it has been difficult to get back in the swing, find that momentum. Being gone for a couple weeks, jet lag, odd schedules at the part-time, and plan old being beat.
I have managed to get some work done back in the shop. I'm back on that Cherry Display Cabinet. Doing this door again. After taking it very slow and carefully with milling the frame stock down I'm feeling pretty confident of its stability.
Made a new template for the panes of glass. Ugh, that's another thing... Glass shelves. I just can't find a quality glass cutter around here! As it looks I'm going to have to opt to have the glass cut and ground then get another grinding wheel and put buffing wheels on it to polish the edges myself. I've never polished glass before. I've used buffing wheels with metal before. I would think it would be fairly similar.

Frame dry-fit with panel rebates and all about ready to be glued up. The second time around the production has gone smoother which is nice and encouraging.
Currently the door has been glued-up and fit to the cabinet opening. There's still enough work to be done to keep me busy for a couple days... if I can finally really get in the shop that is. I still have a couple non-shop things to do :/.

Another factor I feel playing against me is that of a little funk :( heh. I haven't been feeling as connected to the work as I usually am. This seems to come and go with all sorts of people in all sorts of walks of life.
I think it's good to reflect on one's "way" and asses "their path". Seems to be part of "the human condition" at least for me. It just sucks that it gets in, what seems to be, the way ha.
In attempt to reconnect, I took some time later in the evening to give my little chisels some love.
I like these Ashley Iles butt-chisels but I'm not fond of some of the fit and finish of them. The Bubinga handles covered in hard thick finish, the cheap ferrules. I stripped the hard finish off with scrapers and files and re-finished them with a single thin coat of oil. Also I took some sand paper to the ferrules to clean them up a bit.
I'm going to need to replace my 1/8" and 1/4" chisels soon and have been wondering about switching to a whole new set. I'm still undecided... I wish more people made quality butt-chisels.

A bit of a Blur

2011-03-20T13:41:00.001-05:00

Oh boy, it's been a bit of a blur here. I don't do so well with time changes and I've gone through two of them on this trip.
Well trip began with visiting one Dan M... DannyMac? hehahhe Looking through lumber, spinning around Vancouver, some coffee and beer. Went down to the beach to see where his chainsaw milling takes place. Pretty cool, I wouldn't mind being able to do the same now and again ;).
Thanks for your time and hospitality Dan!

Onwards/back to the school!
It was great to meet all the passionate crafts-people here, to reminisce on memories past, and taking some new memories for the future.
The program has changed a bit since I was there but the quality and underlying goals remain.
There is, of course, great working being done this year. I didn't get to pull my camera out on everyone's project but I snapped a few...

Raul is stationed at my old bench, it seems to treat him well. He is making a lovely little jewelry display case for his wife, a jewelry maker, of Boxwood and English Sycamore. Above is one of his panels getting applied edges.

Meredith across from him is working on a lovely Danish inspired low console/coffee table. I think those through tenons are going to look pretty hot Meredith! ha!

Jesse is making a pipe wall cabinet of Caltalpa and Black Limba. I haven't been the biggest fan of either of these species, but these planks coming together in this cabinet of his is looking mighty fine.

Melissa is making a desk not hugely different from the one I'm working on. Her's is of Kwila and Narra, with drawers coming from the sides.

This is a mini mock-up of Hong's. Very cool. I think it could be very successful as a coffee table.

Steve Wolf finished and presented the second of a mating pair of end table/cabinets of Zebrano and Walnut. Well done sir!

Andrea is working on a wall cabinet of Claro Walnut, Monterey Cypress, and Swiss Pear featuring a display area, and an enclosed space. Pretty sharp.

Dave is reproducing a rocking chair made by Roberts a number of years ago. A great chair it is.

Jay has been spending time on a media stand with drawers made of Kwila. His plank of Kwila is a bit cranky but it's looking good!

Christian, from Denmark, is a highly meticulous worker... a regular Craig Johnson heh. Making a small tool chest of Boxwood and Maple. These woods call for precision work and Christian is surely meeting the challenge.

Josh is a young man somewhat strikingly similar to myself and my mode of work... also a musician. He's tackling one of JK's silver chests. These Maple drawers will be set into a Spalted Maple carcass. Good luck Josh!
Kylle is working on a lovely little floor standing cabinet made of a familiar material to me heh... Euro Cherry. Great work Kylle. He can show you his work on his blog here: http://kylle221.wordpress.com.

Howard has had years of experience as a carver. I can see how the plank he selected and his form speak to him and each other. It may be a little tricky but it will be lovely in the end. I'm sure he'll be looking forward to making happy shavings after break.

I've also been reminded how awesome this little coffee grinder is! I want one!!!

Thanks to eveyone who made this trip possible and for the kindness, hospitality, conversations, inspirations... and the food haha ;). Please keep in touch and show me your projects when they're done!

It is coming time for me to leave the coast again which is a bittersweet affair. I love the land, people, and culture here. Especially the multitude of cultures drawn to the school. At the same time my shop and work are calling me. Also I am looking forward to get back to special lovely lady back home...

Return to The Creek

2011-03-06T11:19:00.000-06:00

With my short trip to the Sunshine Coast fast approaching I found it more difficult to get work done in the shop. Had to tie some ends, had another gallery night, and spent some good time with the lady. However I did get SOME work done.
Above is the veneer being applied to the substrate in a jimmy rigged "press"... this time it didn't work out as well as I got some shaping out of said "press" that isn't quite flat. I do have some speculations why that I will address in the future. For now can make it work but it will require some extra attention.

Ahhhh smoothing that top! One thing I did miss about Walnut is it's workability! This air-dried selection seems to work particularly well... or it could just seem that way after coming from an Oak project :p.
Whatever the case, the top is looking pretty nice if I do say so myself, though it is due to the nature of the tree, not as much of my own work ;).
So it's time to leave this project, MN, the Midwest, the country for a couple weeks.

I'll be back Mr. Desk, I promise, but for now I'm back in Roberts Creek, BC, Canada. Here to do my best to help out at the school (IP)! Should be an interesting, challenging, and inspiring time!
Alas I forgot how late things get going around here on Sundays ha. Can't get that Gumboot Granola till 11:00!

Desk Substrate

2011-02-25T09:01:00.000-06:00

Geez, seems like I've had my hands full with little progress to show for it. I have been spending more time on the gallery's website, and I guess it is the way of veneer work sometime.
Desk top substrate! I decided I didn't want to do a 3/4" top but wanted more than 5/8", however plywood comes 1/8"s. Well I have extra 1/16" veneer I've used for cross banding. I opted to joint together some 1/16" Poplar veneer and laminate that in a 1/4" ply sandwich.

The sandwich gives me about 9/16" thick substrate, adding the two 1/16" walnut veneers it should come out to be somewhere around 11/16" aka 1/16" less than 3/4".
Here is said substrate shaped before the bake-ins are applied.
Nice subtle curves which I seem to be gravitating toward. Also I wanted to maintain the amount of usable surface area. Some more "radical" curves could look nice but in the end this is to be a daily desk with an effective use of space... who ever says their rooms are too big?

And the part that set this piece in motion. The top. Well the veneer for the top anyway. pictured above are the "strips" of veneer cut to mate together. The light spaces in between is just the ply wood "work space" I had set up but nicely defines the joint lines for viewing pleasure/ease.
So, part of the reason I needed to veneer this is that the raw board wasn't quite wide enough for a desk top. I'd veneer it in order to do a couple slip matches to make it wide enough. I have used this technique before. Although I'd prefer to have planks wide enough and like to maintain the wood's "integrity", it's just not going to happen all the time. Being in my position and locale I need to be able to work with what I have. I'm sure many others can relate :).
So, those slip matches are the two thinner pieces inside the strips with sap wood.
I think this will make a beautiful top! I'm excited to see it clean up :).

Catching up on the Oak

2011-02-10T17:17:00.000-06:00

Oh boy, this may be a doosey of a post. Some times the time just flies and one doesn't realize how many operations have gone by!
Back on the brackets adding the final touch. Using my jimmy riged x-y table to add the notch to the brackets. I was surprised at how well it worked while taking it easy. Last time I went over to Craig's to use his mighty x-y but looks like I wont have to bother him for that any more heh.
I like to think my clamping/positioning jig is a little clever. Milled a piece of Poplar slightly thinner than the brackets are wide. This way my clamping force is stable on the table and the brackets are held securely.

With the "carcass" all dry-fit together it was time to move on to the finishing touches with it too.
Sometimes I get a little antsy with edge treatment, just wanting to get on to the next step. This time it was different. I really found a "groove" with these edges. Being such a stripped down piece, the edges are one of the few places the maker's hands can really come through.
I'm sure I've said it before, but one of the things I really like toying with is the concept that the fewer components/elements in a piece of work, the greater weight each carries. If one blows any component on a very simple piece, there's no "making up" for it else where. Sure maybe that adds a bit of "pressure" but I like the challenge :).

Bam! Assembly, after pre-finishing of course.

On to the drawer, the only other component of the piece ha.
Using a small piece of Chinese Elm I saved from my school project at IP. It should go rather nicely with the Oak. For the rest of the drawer I've opted for Ash as it has a stronger grain structure better mating with the Oak than Maple may.

Poof! the Dovetail Gnomes are at it again!
Anywho, fast forwarding the sawing, chopping, paring, and fitting of the dovetails I was to flattening the bottom of the drawer in preparation of making the grooves for the drawer bottom.

This time around I tried putting a little flare into the pins and tails. The Elm being stringy and brittle across the grain I couldn't very well just shave a little curve into the pins. Thus the outcome isn't quite as nice as I was hoping for but hey, at least the fit of the joints are pretty spot on :).
Next drawers I;m planing on doing are with Walnut fronts. I think they would work better trying to get that flare. However the sides are looking to be of Oak which doesn't work all too well... hmmm don't know if I should try it in those or not, we'll see when the time comes.

Skipping ahead past drawer fitting and drawer edge treatment, the pull is the last piece of this "puzzle".
I originally made a different pull out of a different wood but when I mocked it up on the drawer in its pocket I got one of those sinking feelings that I didn't like it. The shape was decent but it was the color that screamed at me. I decided to cut into my prized little stash of Ornamental Maple I received from Jody at IP. The shape of the new pull is a bit simpler and cleaner which I thought would ultimately be better for the piece anyway. It is actually very similar to the ones I did for the Chinese Elm Cabinet but heavier and with less movement. I think it will be nice.

Well I've pretty much wrapped this piece up already :). Quite a change from the more lengthy pieces I have been doing. It's nice, but I feel like I may need another piece to push me. The desk may just be enough push for me. Don't know when I'll get to photographing this piece but rest assured I'm post the pics when they're done :).

Till later, happy shavings!

Oak Display Doweling

2011-01-31T17:51:00.000-06:00

Boof! Carcass all doweled up. I think we can all guess how that happened. What is a bit more interesting is doweling the little corner drawer pocket.

Here are the pieces to finial dimension and about where I want them. I made the same old doweling jig I always do but there is a little trickery in setting exactly where the doweling jig should be.

First I bored the dowel holes in the end grain joints. Order of operations doesn't especially matter what holes are drilled first as long as the jig is used accurately.
I used my drawer pocket vertical piece as a "template" to locate the dowel jig on the carcass vertical, nailed it and went to the drill press.

This is the bottom of the drawer pocket top. I cut a piece of Poplar to use as a template for horizontal distance from the side of the carcass.

Similarly, I set the same template up for the carcass side of the joint.

And there we have the dry-run after fitting dowels!
KEEN!

Decided to go on to the hanging brackets. I only plan to use two on this piece but as long as I'm changing blades and setting up jigs for one pair, I might as well make two. I probably would have made a third pair but only had enough brass left for two plus a fifth bracket in case a mistake is made heh.
These brackets are a little different than the one I normally use. They need to be skinny to stay hidden behind the carcass sides without a back-panel to cover them up.
I figure even if this piece isn't a sales "hit" I really do like the form and may someday want one of my own ;).
Welp, I'll have an extra pair of hangers for a customer or myself heh.

Walnut Desk Search

2011-01-26T18:07:00.000-06:00

In my newly cluttered order of operations drafting/mocking and rough component milling of the Walnut desk come first. Put the "slab" I've had saved for the top of this desk up on my horses that happen to only be an inch or two higher than the desk will be and started looking at defining the top shape which will define the shape of the whole desk.
Pictured above, looking for/drawing the left end of the desk top.

Copying lines I put on the rough piece of Walnut I put the full-scale top "outline" on paper and started to "draft" the whole thing through a top view.
When I originally had the desire to build this desk I was hoping for a relatively simple project, but it's looking more complicated now. The drawers need a whole "separate" drawer-pocket structure within the main structure of the desk due to the curves. Also I'm very strapped for material once again so it looks like I will be veneering all the aprons and therefore the drawer-pocket vertical pieces as well. Not sure how I will construct the two side stretchers yet.

Back to the wood. As I mentioned, this nice wide plank I got for the top has a big old check in it. Fortunately the check is relatively straight. I built in a taper to my drawing allowing to take this check out with minimal waste. I was going to taper it anyway ha.

Here's the same plank cleaned up after ripping the check out, and ripping the initial two parts again to accommodate my small machines. 8" re-saw, 8" jointer... sigh.

Went looking for components in the other Walnut lumber I've had set aside for this project. The four chunks on top are for legs. These are kind of grossly over-sized but I wasn't going to get any more usable material from cutting closer and I've been worried about the stability of these planks once opened up. I'll just slowly whittle away at them while working on other things until it's time to really focus on this piece.
So, you'll probably not hear about this one for a little while.
Tomorrow it's on to the Oak Wall piece!

Multi-tasking

2011-01-23T13:57:00.000-06:00

So the door of the Cherry Display Cabinet hasn't showed any sign of improving over the last couple days. I just took it out of the basement and brought it upstairs to see what would happen, probably nothing.
I'm looking at rough cutting more material tomorrow morning and moving on to another project while waiting for the wood to settle for AMPLE time.
I could really dive into the gallery website but think I'd go crazy just working on a computer all day so I need to move on to another woodworking project.

So, I'm looking to do the Oak "wall display" while waiting on another Cherry door.
I probably already mentioned the concept with this one but will re-tell a little. Looking to build something on spec perhaps a little more "gallery savvy". Small, simple, lower price, but with the same level of craftsmanship, visual interest, and personal touch.
It is also interesting because this is something that can be made with just one nice 8/4 plank. I had picked up a White Oak plank at the local commercial lumberyard one time I was there for something else. I didn't have any plans for this plank but knew I could use it sometime for something. It's not terribly rift-sawn but it was pretty straight and clean.

Problem I've had before with commercially sourced Oak was some crazy tension in the lumber. Pictured is some cupping towards the middle of the plank. I re-sawed the pieces way over-sized allowing for some of this.
Today I jointed and planed the pieces I re-sawed a week or two ago, still over-sized. I need to let them sit for some days more... Now what?

Well I've been planning to make a small desk out of Walnut after I would be done with the Oak wall piece. Might as well get a little into that.
Took out my metal smoother plane to do some scrubbing on some planks of Walnut I had set aside for this desk. The top is coming from a smallish wide plank. The legs, aprons, stretchers, and drawer fronts hopefully are coming from the plank on the horses and the other two pictured behind. I will be building a web-frame system out of Oak for the Oak sided drawers.
These planks are thick and have a number of knots so there will be a lot of waste and I feel like there is going to be tension and moisture issues. I want to get components out to settle for a good time. I think I will mock this piece up, and cut component stock before I get back to the Oak piece.

Ugh this multi-tasking kind of stuff isn't usually how I like to work. However in my circumstance it seems a more effective use of time.
Here's hoping I don't cut a Walnut drawer out of Oak hahah!

Up to Speed... or not?

2011-01-20T17:40:00.000-06:00

Hasn't been THAT long since my last post, but it feels like a while.
Well with the new door parts ready to go, I could pick up a little momentum again.
Slip tenons for all corners of the door. This time the rails and styles are going to be flush, pictured here trying to achieve just that.

Using a similar set up to route the rebate for the angled glass in the door as the Maple Showcase. This time however the rails aren't curved so it moves a little faster :).

Fast forward the door glue-up, fitting, hinge installation, hanging, and edge work (ha) and here I'm fitting the sticks that will hold the glass in place. Three panes of flat glass.

Mullions, pieces separating the angled glass. on the way to fitting in the door frame with notches.

Got to mocking up door pulls. I imagine putting a pull on the side of the door and creating a notch out of the cabinet side for a hopefully pleasant detail of a pull :).

I don't tend to like to mock something up and make the real one the same day (unless it's something pretty common-place) so while I let the door pull stew I moved on the the back of the cabinet again... Oh yeah, I fit and glued the back panel in a little while ago ha.
Anywho, went on to making "mortises" for the French Cleat I will be using to hang this cabinet. I've seen people just screw their cleats to the back panel but I'm going with the same kind of "theory" as with the brass brackets I normally use. I want to screw the cleat into the sides of the cabinet which is a load-bearing component of the cabinet.
Quickly made a little 45 degree block to help chop a mating angled mortise for the cleat.

And there's the cleat in place. I need to get to a hardware store to pick up some appropriate screws... perhaps #3 3/4 hmm.
The bottom catch of the cleat, which will be mounted on the wall, has a fat 1/16" play horizontally to make life easier when hanging the cabinet.

And back to the door pull today. a pretty simple but pleasing form with a little flare on all sides which add a nice visual and tactile interest.
I was looking to start the notch in the cabinet side for the pull. so I hung the door as it would be to accurately mark where it will go when. I found that the door MOVED on me AGAIN! Gahhhh. When I fit and hung the door originally it wall all nice and planer. Now, the hinge side is fine, the top right corner of the door mates the cabinet as it did but the bottom corner now is a good 1/16" out of line WTF!!?? >:O ahhhh!!!
At the moment I don't really know what to do about it. Getting upset I just don't want to think about it and hope the door will correct itself, though I doubt it will happen :/.
I really don't want to have to remake this door AGAIN especially when I didn't screw it up :(.
Well I'm not going to be able to get in the shop tomorrow, well see how it looks when I get back to it. Here's hoping!

Back Panel & Misc.

2011-01-10T15:39:00.000-06:00

Welp, got to over sized milling for new door frame parts and worked on the back panel.
The "stage" of this cabinet is so close to the bottom That I really couldn't justify making a second sliver of a panel so I made a wide bottom frame member. This doesn't make for a nice slip-tenon though so I doweled the bottom and went for slip tenons at the top joints of the frame.

Here's a neat little trick. Learned this at IP but haven't made a floating panel big enough to justify using this technique till now. I put a little 1/8" dowel in the groove of the frame and a notch in the panel. The panel will be centered on these little "pins" and have room for seasonal movement on the sides. This means that even when moving the reveals on the sides of the panel will be equal. Keen!

Aaaand poof! glued up and getting finished.
There wasn't a large selection of decent AD Maple to choose from. What I got I thought was a bit flatter sawn then I would like. I took the best section out of the center of the plank and got some interesting composition in grain pattern and think it will be nice. A little less "liney" and a little more open for a very soft looking background which should do a display cabinet good :).

I've been whittling away at the door frame members but am now over cautious about them ha. Thus I've had much more down-time than I'm used to around the shop. Starting to get stir crazy I went ahead a rough milled some lumber for the next project I've had in my head. It will be relatively quick and straight forward.
With the goal of coming up with something more "Gallery savvy" I'm looking for something smallish, simple, and less time consuming all lending to a lower price without sacrificing craftsmanship or visual interest. I'm not even going to use curves in this one! :p
I remembered the last time I got into some Oak from the commercial supplier it had crazy tension and needed to mellow out. So I milled with plenty of margin and time for it to do its thing.
More on this one later...

In addition I took some time to look at some "web design" for the gallery. The website they have now desperately needs to be updated! Will, the director of the gallery, has been kind in hearing some ideas I've had about the show space. I thought he may be interested in allowing me to try my hand at the website.
Now, I've never claimed to be a graphic/web designer... Hell, I've never even claimed to be a furniture designer. There are still bugs to be thought about and worked out but here are a couple concept screen shots.
The pics aren't all too important at the moment just defining content space.

Some of the colors will change a bit I've sure. Screen size is something that may need reworking... I have a little wide screen monitor that frames these jpgs nicely but others are different soooo... I don't know, not there yet ha.
Anywho I think it would be nice to contribute more to the gallery, and hopefully the success of the gallery. Sure I'm spending my own time on these gallery things but it stretches my brain a bit, allows me to practice other "skills", and I just may learn something too.

Set-backs... Grrrr

2011-01-04T17:32:00.000-06:00

I already thought my recent work flow was choppy... Well, it got choppier.
Wood movement strikes again.
Above is a couple frame components for the back of the cabinet. The top one went a little wacky on me :/. Disappointing because it matched the bottom one so well. But hey it's not the end of the world. Milled a new piece let it settle over a couple days that I was working the part-time and got to joinery today.

Ok well since the band saw is set up with my "joinery blade" I can cut the slip tenons for the door...

... Or not. Movement strikes hard! >:/. I jointed the edges to get a better idea with what I was dealing with... Holy crap that's a lot of wind! I thought I took it easy on milling these parts! I let the wood settle for at least a day every time I cut them. Nothing seemed wrong 2.5 weeks ago.
The sides for the door also got a bit wonky... I can still use them being a little bit smaller than I wanted, or try milling new sides too, hmmm.

Well what can you do but carry on (and throw a tantrum)? Looking for a new door "crest rail". We'll see if I can find more door sides too...
I'm too aggravated to continue work in the shop today...
That and more trouble with technology and the print-shop... imagine that...
GAH! FRUSTRATED!!!

Just a Little Scattered

2010-12-29T17:20:00.000-06:00

Salutations again. Oh man, Not feeling I'm getting a lot of actual woodwork done lately... Photo shoot, photo post work, post card writing/design, this little flyer, delivery to the gallery... Alas it's all part of the one-man gig. Then again, it can also be interesting.
Here's a little flyer for the up-coming "First Thursday" at the Northrup King Building. Don't know how many folk viewing this blog are near the Minneapolis area but feel welcome to come by Thursday the 6th, see the new piece &/or heckle me ha.

Just took this cabinet to the gallery today and managed a little rearranging. I was looking to group all of my stuff together hopefully in a manner conductive to the pieces themselves within the boundaries of the tight space. There is a space in the back corner of the show space I thought would be nice. There isn't much there now and it's pretty spacious. Problem is that it's all the way in back so not as attractive to foot traffic. However I would be able to lay things out in similar ways they may appear in a home.
The director suggested the entry. I suppose it's a nice gesture having the first spot people see. However I've seen that the entry way is not a place that people linger. They step in and eyes grow wide wanting to see everything. Then it is just an after-thought on the way out, minds already turned off moving on to the next studio. All that and it's a smaller space. Baby steps I guess. Hopefully I will start to sell, then later we'll see heh.

Post card front and back. The text isn't finalized. This piece seems harder for me to write about than the last two cards. Hopefully I'll have something for the 6th.

Back to the Cherry cabinet. All this touch and go on other projects does not put me in a good state for focused work ha. I suppose it hasn't been the worst timing though. Wipe finish on the carcass and work on the computer till it's time for another coat.
This time 2 coats orange shellac, 2 coast extra blond, 1 wax.

Stuck together after glue-up!
It already has a nice color to it. It should age to a nice rich tone.
At the gallery today I noticed how nicely my Cherry Pedestal is aging. At first it was so close to the AD Maple I used for the top but now there is a clear distinction. A couple months ago it looked a bit gray, monotone, and a little drab. Now it's looking deeper, redder and... sexy?
I WAS going to use some of that same Maple I have left over but it doesn't look like it's going to work :(. The two clean pieces I have are too different in color/reflection, and they are too small to make up the back panel on each own. I think Kiln dried Maple is going to be too bright, to much contrast. Maybe it'll look stellar for a month but in a year... not for this piece. I have a lead on some more Maple. Hopefully it'll work out!

Maple Showcase Photos

2010-12-22T16:59:00.000-06:00

Air Dried Maple, Kwila, Kiln Dried Maple, Olive.
61"x24"x12.5"

This photo shoot seemed to go better. Perhaps I'm getting a little hang of this? Ha not crossing my fingers.
Thanks again to Craig and Carol Johnson for lending me their lights! Lights of my own are on my list I promise heh.
After last time I figured it was better to use a higher ISO level to get brighter though slightly more grainy photos than smoother dark ones. For use on the internet it is basically no visible difference in grain but in print I suspect there will be.
Haven't messed around with them too much in post but don't think they'll need much work.

All the glass in this piece presented some lighting problems as I figured it would. I tried to get around them the best I could but there's only so much I can do in a smallish cluttered space.
Also the size of this cabinet wouldn't allow me to get full landscape shots which is what my website is based on as my backdrop is too narrow :/. I'm going to have to figure something out...

The Olive has mellowed out a bit. They will get a fair amount darker but I had to get the shoot in to be able to get other things lined up to put this guy in the Gallery come Jan.

Grain whoopty-doo :).

Mmmm dovetails... heh.

Steps and curves.

And back to the first shot without contents.

10% to 90%?

2010-12-21T09:56:00.000-06:00

Hey I'm back from a weekend in Milwaukee! What a craptastic drive home it was through another snow storm in rush hour. Milwaukee however has no snow in the streets... jerks ha.

Before I left I was getting some good work done.
It is said that it only takes 10% of the total time in a project to get 90% completed. Well the carcass of this wall cabinet has sure come together pretty quick.
Above pictures one of the sides being cut to final dimension. The stop-block ensures that the next side will be "exactly" the same size.

Dressing the end grain of the sides straight and true... and smooth.

Doweling jig for the carcass joints. Just milled up some sticks of 3/4" Maple (enter any other hard wood) and plotted out some dowel holes. Later it they will get a 3/16" hole at the back and a 1/8" hole in the front, I will just be using dowel center finders for that.
I have a block for the right side and a block for the left side. Temporarily nailed into the sides to hold them during operation.

Once again I have made a spacing template for joint location in the top and bottom. Once again it is tapered ever so slightly larger at the back for fitting a partition. As you my know I love these simple solutions. Make one template and it helps take out a number of small inconsistencies that may occur otherwise.

With the correct block nailed to the correct spot it's on to the drill press. Set my depth stop about 3/32-1/8" from going through and drill.

BAM! Almost a cabinet ha. Sides have been shaped with curves kicking in to the front and end grain on top and bottom to match. Before doing the shaping on the front edges I want to get some work in on the door.
These pieces still seem to be moving on me a little bit. The trip over the weekend was a good way to get away from them for a few days. Hopefully they have sorted themselves out and I can touch them up when I get back to them.

Helping me out with some door frame shaping is the newest addition to my tool wall. A larger round bottom spokeshave from LN. I've been wanting to get one of these for a while. I tend to do a good amout of curved work and don't see that changing soon. I have been making due with a flat bottom but it has become apparent that it simply doesn't do the same job. One could make a compass plane but I don't do as well with those. The curves are irregular so there is very little contact on the sole of the plane. What's the point of having a whole plane? Some people like the feel better and do better work with them. That's great, unfortunately not me heh.
I find the Veritas spoke shave to be more to the liking of my hands. More ergonomic for me with nice placements for your thumbs and fingers close up to the blade. Allows me to work more comfortably and with more control. However the Veritas round bottom shave has a heavier radius than needed which decreases the stability of the cut for me. I tried both at IP from my classmates and seem to do better with the LN's shallow radius. So now I have one. The LN is prettier than the Veritas heh.

Snowed in and wood settling

2010-12-11T14:53:00.000-06:00

Well hello again. Woke up today to an unpleasant sight. You're looking at about 8-10" of snow there and there is no sign of it letting up.
My plan for the day was to rough mill parts for the Cherry cabinet and go to work at the part-time for the rest of the day conveniently getting paid while I let the wood settle a bit. My car, however is going no where in this snow so I'm snowed in with nothing to do ha.
I figured I'd chat here a little bit.

Put a new blade in the band saw this morning. I love the feel of a new band cutting so smooth and easy.
This is basically the yield of the whole plank pictured yesterday. It may not look like much, and it may not be, but beyond cutting off sap there was very little waste after joining and planing the stock... perhaps 20-25% Which is pretty damn low for this kind of work!
Pictured there is the top, bottom, and sides of the carcass. Also the frame members for the door. I still need to find the back panel frame parts, mullions (pieces separating glass in the door), and the horizontal partition or "stage" as I like to call it in these kinds of cabinets. Finding the partition is going to be the trickiest. Usually I get it from the same plank as the carcass which was not possible in this case. I wont be able to find a "perfect" match but hopefully I'll find something that looks good.

I've always had mixed feelings about Cherry. It's every where. Whenever you talk to people who aren't "bit by the wood bug" they only seem to care or know about Oak, and Cherry. I've seen a lot of "bad" work in Cherry. A lot of misused perhaps abused Cherry. So many woodworkers go on and on about how great it is (many of whom are the misusers). It's gratuitous.
All this gives me poor connotations with the wood. However Cherry IS nice and CAN be used to much success. It's relatively light and sturdy. It works very well and has little blunting effect. It has potential for a variety of finishing choices. It has lovely depth of color (when not stained [as it should be ;) ] ). The wood even smells a lovely soft sweetness. The trees themselves are romantic sights in bloom and bearing fruit.
It seems a lot of these connections are lost in much of the work I see in Cherry. I would love for this piece to come together and for an audience to be able to sense these things, the "nature" of the material. Perhaps, if it is a success, they may wonder why other work in Cherry isn't like this? ... That may be a stretch but it is nice to think about and perhaps wish or strive for.

I have a sudden craving for some cherry lambic.

Moving On Again - Cherry Display Cabinet

2010-12-10T15:39:00.000-06:00

Now that the usual trouble with glass is out of the way (this time the shelf edges were not polished) I can move on from the showcase until I'm ready for photos.
Yay! My paper work finally has a home beyond a drawer in my room ha.

I've been wanting to frame these since I came back (May 2009) but have been so busy with other work.
MCTC, IP, and my IP class photo :). I still want to make a little shelf for my JK Plane but will leave that for next break maybe.
Love those little steps, I can't get away from them now.

I already can't remember the grass and the cool fall nights. The snow and cold is a familiarity I wish to depart from. Shivering mornings combated by the dry heat of a small electric radiator. I need to adjust the drawers in the Maple Showcase as they swelled just a little being moved upstairs.

Next up is a wall hung display cabinet in AD Cherry!
For those in the "Krenov circle" this kind of cabinet is not new. A form so simple and elegant is bound to be come to by a variety of people independently, and one may expect, be repeated.
I love this form and have been waiting for a good time to build one. The specifics and details will vary with the voices of the lumber and maker. It is not and perhaps cannot be an exact "replica" of an existing piece.
The Cherry lumber has already put in a request: smallish. This is the best plank of cherry out of a small flitch and still has some defects to be weary of. I think I will go for about 1/2" bigger in height and width than the mock-up.

Also this time I'll be using a French Cleat to hang the cabinet due to the properties of the wall it is to go on. A cleat is easy enough but what gets to me a bit is the space needed in the back of the cabinet. One might say that an extra 3/8" or so is no big deal. Sure, but with a small cabinet that amount can be somewhat significant in a visual sense. I'm pretty into stripping down to "essential" space and size. The problem is that the "show space" (interior) of the cabinet may feel slightly small if I make the carcass the size I see fit, or the carcass might seem a little deep to get the show space I feel good with.
Currently I'm siding on the show space side. Probably because of a drive for function I tend to have.

Finishing Touches, Teaser

2010-12-06T10:57:00.000-06:00

Finally, the last touches for this cabinet. Pulls, levelers, flipper-floppers, and consoles.
I'm using my boring machine to dill holes for the drawer pulls. Pretty handy to have one of these to cut out variables of using a hand drill.

I'm going for post and bail pulls. I like them a lot. They are more work in the joinery side of things than other pulls, but they are just so classic! And the cabinet being a pretty structural piece, they fit.
Here posts were cut to size, and tenons/shoulders cut on the table saw. There are two posts joined at the tenon here as the pieces are easier to work like this.
Holes being drilled are for the bails.

Aaaand the bail stock.

Moving on to the consoles, the little shelf supports. I'm using some Boxwood I had left from Robert at IP. It looks soft but the wood is quite hard. It also smells a bit like Swiss Pear.
I machined them in pairs connected at the tips. Once again, much easier/safer to work with them like this. Tenons/shoulders on the table saw, and used a forstner bit to cut that round.
There's only going to be one shelf in this piece but I'm making 8 consoles. How much of a drag would it be to lose one of these little guys and not be able to use the shelf!

Here are a couple done.

TEASER! Ha. Well here you can see the pulls done and in place.
They are made of Olive and are quite yellow now. I think I'm going to let them oxidize a bit before I do a photo shoot. They should reach a mauve-ish brown in between the Maple and Kwila.

More Drawer

2010-11-29T18:41:00.000-06:00

BAM! Poof! Drawers!
So here are the drawers all fit together with groove for the bottoms. It was all kind of a whiz, a blur of work and interruptions coming from my part-time and the holiday. I don't clearly remember working on these but there they are heh.

The grooves for the drawer bottoms are easy for the flat parts. Curved parts take a little strategy... Ha look at my angled, curved "jig". Crude, simple, and effective. Just how I like them.

Here's a nice little trick to plane your drawer sides. I just used the lag bolts and bottom cross member of my chop-block with a cut of Birch ply to get the support and clearance I need for handling the drawers. With bigger drawers one may want to double up on the ply.
Careful for blow-out at the back of the drawer planing through the end-grain of the pins! Just give the back corners a bevel and your good to go.

Boof! Drawer bottoms. 1/4" thick bottoms of the same Maple the drawer sides are made of. The "dot" in the middle of the bottom at the back is a screw to hold the bottom in place. When making the grooves for the bottoms I made the groove in the fronts deeper to allow for seasonal movement in the bottoms.
The drawers are done except for pulls and finish.

The last thing I needed to do with the stand itself is locaters for cabinet placement. I used a template of the cabinet base to plot a pair of dowels going into the stand and bottom of the cabinet. Kind of cute little things made of Kwila. Could have more easily used standard dowels, but come on heh.

This project is finally coming to a close. It's hard not to rush these last steps/details and move on. I'm getting pretty sick of staring at this thing all day ha. It would be nice to not have another job so I could get these pieces out from under my nose in half the time! Well, one can dream...

Stand assembled, on to drawers

2010-11-22T19:50:00.000-06:00

The stand is assembled! Thought this cluster of joints looks pretty nice. Too bad people wont be seeing it heh.
On to drawers, but first I need the pocket partition. You can see a groove routed in the center of the web-frame. That is for a spline to get to join the partition.

Fast forward the partition fitting, it's just shooting until snug. Here is something a little odd. End grain on long grain. Sounds like a bad idea, but with only 2-7/8" tall of quarter-sawn Maple I'm not worried about it. The dowels give most of the holding power here.

Pre-finish the front section the same as the web-frames and glue her in. See the nice consistent lines of dark and light wood, thanks to my little end-grain joint there :). Well, I like it ha.

All the drawer stock was preped and it's once again dovetail week. These 3-way angled joints on the outsides aren't turning out too hard, just a number of extra things to keep in mind.
I'm using the waste side of the drawer fronts for my cradle. It already had the same curve, just clean it up a bit, make a mating chop block and your set! This seems to get easier the 3rd or 4th time around ha. Well, maybe not easier but quicker and smoother.

Cutting pins. This time around I'm getting a little bit more "free". I have mapped out about where I want to points of the tails to be and then just free-hand drawing the line to be cut. There will be a bid more variation in the joints which I like. Don't know if it is best for this piece but I've been getting a little worn on how "polished" this project is ha.
The Kwila feels a bit dry and stringy under the chisel. That and it was killing my edges with that silica Kwila has. I raised the bevel angle by perhaps 2 degrees, and put a slightly heavier double bevel on. That kept me going.

The Maple feels like cream compared to the Kwila fronts! The fronts are more forgiving though.
Here sawing up some tails for a drawer front. Saw to the waste-side of the line! If you saw that line off, you might as well stop and try again. However the further away from the line you saw, the more work you have to do to fit them and the more likely one is to screw something up. It's a balancing act that I'm getting a little braver with heh.
I have more chopping and paring to do. See you when the drawers (hopefully) come together!

Web-Frames

2010-11-15T16:59:00.000-06:00

Back to the shop! Web-frames for the Kwila stand. The web-frames create the drawers pockets I'm wanting in the stand and give the stand way more strength than it needs heh.
Pictured above, using the band saw to cut the slip tenon mortise.

On the table saw cutting shoulders for the tenons

BAM! Fit slip tenons with allowances for easy clamping.

I guess I forgot to photograph the center piece for the drawer partition. Well, it is fit with shooting board and block plane then doweled into place. Pictured is applying the Kwila front edge.
I have enough good Kwila to have made the frames of all Kwila but I like the look of the Maple. A nice splash of colors for the curious. That and the drawer sides are going to be of the same Maple, it will all be nice and bright in there.

Fitting the frame to the stand and making it all nice and square. The nice thing about the web-frames is that when gluing up I know my stand will be square if the frame has a seamless joint. That is without ridiculous pressure.

Both frames fit with splines and dowels... I don't think they are going to go anywhere heh.
On to edge work and pre-finishing.

The first glued assembly of three, scary! It went smoothly enough, I'm glad I had an extra set of hands.
I can sense the light at the end of the tunnel... not there yet!

A Man and a Mill

2010-11-11T15:07:00.000-06:00

A little while ago I was invited down to Spencer, IA to meet a man with a passion and a mill. Tuesday morning I made the 4 hour trip.
Spencer, I was informed is a bit of a railroad town denied the railroad. Charming yet strange. Brandon is the resident wood nut heh.
I have seen and participated in a bit of chainsaw milling and I have seen a little of a band saw mill in action but have never seen the whole process let alone operate one. Brandon showed me some of the ropes.
It was a great experience gaining new appreciation and having a good time.

I saw a log of Walnut among a few others behind the barn that looked promising to me. Brandon got it on the mill with a tractor and asked is I wanted to "drive" the mill. After getting the log oriented in the way we thought best suited it we went ahead with flitch cutting the log. Perhaps the easy way to mill but my preferred method.

This Walnut log was about 22" in diameter and 8.5 feet long. The mill was pretty easy to operate. Up and down, forward and back, and a speed control. Then again, a hand plane is pretty easy to operate in theory.
The belt drive decided to take a short smoke break as it was displeased with some of my effort. Brandon assured me all was fine.

Whoo Wee! You don't see logs/lumber like that every day! I don't anyway. Clean and mostly straight with only one sizable knot to work around.

Don't get drool on your key board...

Staked and stickered. all 8/4 (cut green at about 9/4) with the pith plank being about 10/4.

Next I was wondering about a log of Bur Oak out back. Nice straight and long. This one fought though. After the first pass we hit a nail. Then another. The log was getting shorter due to cutting sections with metal off. You can see the start of some black staining due to the nail(s). Then hit some copper too!? Ugh. One thing lead to another with some tools and we had to retreat for the time being.

Beautiful color and grain in this section. I hope more can be salvaged!

Well sir thank you for the time and hospitality, I shall return for more wood. So watch out!

Trials

2010-11-11T11:31:00.000-06:00

    Tired and weary, roll to the side. The clock reads seven o’clock. It’s Sunday. I worked late last night. Would like to rest though I know it wont come.
   Today is the last day of a three-day event at the gallery, I’m scheduled to work elsewhere at four. Off to the gallery, I’m the first one there after the director. People walk in, eyes glance, and bodies turn back to the door. Some make little conversation. One lampshade was sold.
   A rumble comes from my stomach. I need fuel before work.
   Walk into work looking forward the sustenance in hand. There is no place to sit, all seats taken. Sit in back on the floor, it’s almost four. Go to the bathroom to change out of some dress clothes. Start the work day by picking toilet paper off the floor. Walk behind the counter to handle the dishes and stock neglected by my co-workers as my shoes stick a little to the floor.
   How does this place go on? Why am I here? I want to go home to my bed. Tomorrow morning I’ll be in my shop again.

Stand Joinery

2010-11-04T13:50:00.000-05:00

Last time I left with mapping out mortises. Here are the mortises being cut!
I put the shop-made X-Y table back into action because I felt with the angles in the joinery it may be easy to lose a visual reference when cutting free-hand.

Fast Forward the tenon fitting and here is the rail stalk with four tenons on each side! Looks kind of neat and holy crap is it strong!

With the floating tenons glued into the rails I'm looking to get a "seamless" transition between legs and rail on the inside which is a drawer pocket side. Yes, I know my plane's mouth is a bit big. I had replaced this smoother with a Vera one that then de-laminated ... it felt so good in hand and made my hands smell good ha. Oh well.

Using little 45 degree cradles to hold the legs for edge treatment, after pillowing was done.

Aaaaand more pre-finishing. I have a good amount of work left to do with this stand but I figure I want to glue the legs to the side aprons now to eliminate unnecessary variables down the road. To make the glue-up happen I need to pre-finish first. Then I am making the web-frames and assembling the rest of the stand around those.

Enter the Stand

2010-10-28T18:21:00.000-05:00

Two of three planks of Kwila that came from Cormark Int atop the new set of saw horses. I finally don't have to do a balancing act while trying to rough cut lumber with only two horses again. Don't let looks deceive you. Even though the horses are made of little they are sturdy! I gave one a test by sitting on it for at least 30 sec (my butt started to hurt ha). Two of them can handle me sitting on a plank while scrub planing said plank.

Getting all four legs from one plank. This was a great selected plank! Clean grain that has a subtle curve to it. A true rift toward where the center of the tree would be for the front legs and quarter-leaning to the outside for the rear legs. This plank is also for far the best working Kwila I've laid edge to. The other two planks don't work as nice though.

Legs with the insides shaped and apron parts to the left.

It has been a long time since I've made legs at vertical angles to the joining aprons. I forgot about the more time involved. I've left the outsides of the legs straight and square for now to help me with joinery... such as making sure the angled joints equal 90 degrees seen above.

Now this is starting to look a bit complicated, or at least intensive. The side aprons are so fat because they will also be acting as my drawer pocket sides. Even though my aprons will end up canted to the side I'm once again keeping two sides square. I've planed the joinery to be vertically straight because I felt it would be easier to avoid any twisting in assembly due to not getting angles quite right. With that planed I have room to do some twin 1/4" tenons. I'm splitting those up into four 1/4" tenons because they would otherwise be so tall. Though this doesn't allow for as much glue area on the tenons (though there's already plenty) it does make the mortises stronger resulting in a stronger joint... in my theory ;).
Here's to not pulling my hair out with these!

Saw Horses

2010-10-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

So Here I am, in wait for lumber to come to my door for the stand of the Maple Showcase project. I was thinking of making some saw horses after finishing the showcase but time has presented itself now.
On the table are all the rough dimensioned parts for four horses. The little "pony" there was made at school as an exercise in tenons, it also happens to be a 1/2 scale of the low horses out at IP. I'm making the taller horses though.

Here is some free-hand mortising in a foot piece. The ones at school are wedged tenons but I'm making stub tenons here.

Live tenons. There are 16 tenons in a set of four of these horses, I figure I would use them as another exercise in live tenons.
The shoulders cut and waste removed with table and bands saw. I use a chisel to cut out the corners of the tenon then round it with files to fit the rounded mortises... morti?

Here's a dry-fit tenon. Yes there is space horizontally because these are to be wedged tenons. It has been a long time since I have wanted to put through joinery in a piece, haven't done it since MCTC (before IP). These utilitarian aids probably need it though. The "leg" pieces are relatively thin and with the use that these guys are going to see (hopefully) they could benefit from a joint being mechanically strong too.

LOTS of edges to treat! But I don't want to be grabbing at sharp things when working so treatment they received!
The horses are all assembled except for the top cross piece. There is a lap joint in the top of the leg about 3/4" deep and a lap in the cross piece about 1/4" deep. The top piece is not to be glued into place in case it is ever needed to be replaced. The 1/4" dowel is not compressed any further than what came from the factory and is a tight fit. One will need to apply a fair amount of force to get the cross piece off but not enough that anything is in danger of breaking.

Tah-dah! A set of saw horses ready to be used! They are 30" tall and the top cross member is 18" wide.
I would also like a set in the 20-22" tall range, another time...

Material Frustration

2010-10-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

So this is the 100th post huh? Too bad it deals in frustration heh.
The doors hung, edges treated, and finish applied the cabinet is basically done. It's strange just how plain it looks without those pulls. I feel the addition of the pulls will make a world of difference (hopefully for the better ha).
The Maple has finished a littler more yellow than anticipated. Only used 4 thin coats of extra blonde shellac and one coat wax. The material I had aside for the stand is Golden Narra, a golden yellow color of course. I got started mocking up a stand and then took Narra samples to the cabinet only to have mu stomach turn. It was too close and tooooo much yellow going on >:/ .
I think if the match was closer to the Maple yet of differing "qualities" say Oak of sorts, Hickory, and so on it could work. However seeing as how this is supposed to be more of a "show piece" I'm wanting a higher contrast.
The other side of this disappointment, other than the money needed for new material, time taken to find/get new wood, and just wanting to wrap this project up, is that the Narra I have is 2 7/8" thick! I was going to utilize the + 8/4 in my leg shapes. Now I have to re-design the stand!

As I have said many a time before, there is no where good to go here for a selection of lumber. Also it is disappointing that we really don't have any domestics that are in the honey brown color range (like Teak).

I went to the whole of two local commercial lumber yards and found nothing for my cabinet (no surprise). I though perhaps Jatoba could work but there was only 5/4 to be had at one place. So look like I need to order something.
Called up my guy at Cormark (Jason who is awesome by the way) and briefly chatted with him about ideas and what he had in. I think Teak would be quite fitting but man, at $30 PER b/f? I'm thinking I need to get 20 b/f here to get what I need... $600 for a stand I wasn't prepared to pay for? If this was a commissioned piece it would be a different story.
There are other options like Iroko or some sort of Meranti, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with those as I have never worked with them and haven't seen anyone else who has. I really don't know how those woods age. I called Cormark because I knew they have some Kwila which is what I think I will go for unless he has some Brown Doussie or something, whish I doubt they do.
So while I wait for stand wood I will do some sketching of a new stand and thought I would at least start on the saw horses I've been wanting which is what the Ash pictured above is for.

However, while at one place I did find this guy. I saw it and immediately thought "that's perfect for the desk I want to do!" Except for the LARGE check of course. I figure I would need to rip this piece a couple times to work with it anyway and the check is decently contained across maybe 3 grain lines, and the fact that it would be a veneered top makes it a little easier to work around.
There wasn't enough material to get the rest of the desk from though and it's only 4/4 so it will really only serve as a possible top >:(. One reason why I don't like these kind of shops, they use material indiscriminately. How can you do that with such a beautiful tree!?! The grain, the color! AH!
I figure at $35 for a beautiful top, I would regret not taking it.
So now here's a challenge... find other walnut with similar enough color to make the rest.

I heartily dislike going to these kinds of places. At least around here. At 27 I'm one of the young guys coming in and get treated like an uneducated child. They are the ones who look confused at me when I say I'm looking for straight grained rift sawn 8/4 material. Most don't actually know what Rift is. What am I building? It doesn't frickin matter, I know what I want and need. Oh, you want leg stalk? Well that plank there is quartered... I said RIFT. Do you know know that furniture is 3 dimensional? You get two side with straight grain quartered but what about the other two? Garbage. Oh, well this plank has some rift then that one over there... Those are different colors! We tend to look for "interesting" wood. Oh so what you do is cut part of the trunk to get the crotch and the another part of the trunk to get the butt of the tree. So you're trying to make "Nakashima" slabs out of any tree you get and wasting the prime real estate without even thinking about it. Boy getting that rift sounds like a lot of waste. Yeah? well what I'm building may be better for the tree, it will be beautiful and have a much longer and happier life than your failed "Nakashima" table (don't use his name in vain ha) or your mismatched gaudy gun rack.
Every time I leave I wish to never return.

Surgery

2010-10-08T11:31:00.000-05:00

Veneering was going well for the back panel until... A BUBBLE in the veneer of the rear side of the back panel!!! >:/ (outlined in pencil).
I thought I thoroughly rolled glue on. The other side is fine. My veneer "press" set-ups haven't failed me before... Hmm.
Being a bit flustered I wasn't coming up with great ideas as to what to do. I called for help heh. I got a hold of one Mr. Jason Dingess a friend and classmate of mine who stayed on for a second year, so he was probably more fresh on such topics ;). Got a couple ideas talking with him and picked a plan.
Sometimes with these happens you just have to dive in and avoid the crushing loop of "oh my gosh, I can't believe I screwed up, what the hell am I going to do, what did I do wrong, can I fix this, how do I fix this, what am I doing..."
While I was in school bubbles happened to two students. Both took different approaches.

I chose the "diamond" plug. Hard Maple and other such smooth dense woods are not always the best wood to be doing this kind of thing with and joinery is less forgiving that in more porous woods. I figured I'd give this a shot, if it didn't work out I had a back-up plan.
cut out a rather elongated diamond to avoid harsh end grain joinery. Now, this just looked freaky to me. Just plain wrong. I liken it to cutting out a 1/16" deep diamond out of your flesh.
I had extra veneer so I took the "plug" from about the same spot in the veneer.
I used very thinned white glue in the bottle to help get the glue underneath the veneer filling the bubble. Put the plug in and clamped.

Here is the same spot after surface prep. The pencils mark the tips of the diamond. Not too shabby. It'll work for me.

Moved on the pre-finishing the back panel and working on the doors some more. Glass cutting wasn't the smoothest operation but it worked. Here getting the sticks to hold the glass in place set. finalizing the mullion lap joint.
Getting close on the cabinet portion of things! Glue up the back panel, hang the doors, edge treatment on the doors, finish doors, flipper-floppers, levelers, pulls, and consoles. Well maybe there is a number of things to do but I think I might hold of on the pulls, levelers, flipper-floppers and consoles until I figure out what I want to use for the drawer pulls int he stand.

Carcass glue-up

2010-10-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

There seems to be a spread of the common cold here. Early fall seems a strange time for it to happen. Well it has caught me too and put me out of commission for a couple days. I figure I can at least make a quick post.Pre-finishing done it's time to assemble. The first glue-up was a bit hairy. I glued the sides to the bottom. GET SOMEONE TO HELP YOU with these glue-ups! With 13 dowels per side it was a bit much for one person I think. By the time I got the glue in all the holes, spread in the holes, and dowels bottomed out in one side swelling due to water absorption had taken place... Not to mention some initial setting of the glue probably. The sides were getting locked up not quite home. In the end it turned out fine but it was scary!
The second glue-up (top to sides) I enlisted the help of my Father. He didn't even need to do much. I put glue in the holes and he spread it in the holes. I did the rest of the work. That extra speed made a world of difference though! Nice and easy it went.

Finally turned my attention to the doors again. The sticks to hold glass have been fit, except for the mullion placement. Speaking of, got to the mullions themselves (little wooden sticks that divide glass) shown above.

There they are, chopped and fit into place.
There are a lot of "sticks" going on in this piece. I hope when all is said and done it wont be too much. Ah, I'm sure it wont, it's just a bit different seeing this kind of piece come together versus one using a lot of surfaces.

Showcase Pre-finish

2010-09-23T17:32:00.000-05:00

Still working at it. Getting closer to the final product the work becomes less and less visible, but there is still much to be done.
Rebates for the back panel made on the router table need to be squared off.
Trimming was done to the length and prepped for the applied edges to go on.

Mortises made for flipper-floppers, levelers, and hinges. First roughed with a trim router then cut clean with chisels.

Edges applied and shaped. My father came down one day as he sometimes does to take a look at what I've been doing. He came across these edges and said "uh, is that showing intentionally?" (in regards to the end grain of the edge). It caught me a little off guard as a comment of an "outside perspective" lets say. not that I needed to rethink what I've done, just never thought of explaining it before.
I think it is a nice visual detail adding another "layer" to the piece. The small amount of end grain showing with choice of the grain graphics give a little lift/spring/counter balance to the larger grain line. I also like the way that it shows it is honestly a veneered piece. No hiding it.
Through the gratuitous use of veneer in mediocre ways veneer has gained a bad rap. Well it doesn't have to be so. This piece simply could not be built the way I'm building it using solid wood.
Making a fine veneered piece is quite different from the cheap stuff we see day in and out. In fact, depending on pieces, a veneered piece can be made to look more "refined" than a solid piece that may have more casual feeling to it.

Ok. Getting those little sticks made to hold the glass in place. My father, once again, asked why I didn't just make grooves in the frames to capture the glass. I've seen this done and am pretty baffled by it. Structurally it makes sense, and it is easier to do. Well this glass is only 3/32" thick. What happens if your $10 piece of captured glass breaks? It ruins your $10,000 cabinet! Seems pretty absurd, right? This way the glass can be replaced.

Annnnnnd pre-finish. Those little sticks added a heck of a lot of edges to take care of!
Four coats shellac, one coat wax.

Stationery?

2010-09-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

This is something I've been thinking about for a while though have yet to put into action.
I have been big into the whole minimalist clean thing. Letting the work do the talking, I mean how can one sum up hours upon hours of contemplation, shavings, sweat, and sometimes blood in a few words. The work itself IS the expression of all of that, but is that too much to ask of an audience? As a/the builder of these pieces I'm likely coming from a different perspective. Ones close to the work can read the work in detail.
How about potential customers and friends? I'm sure everyone is coming from different places and backgrounds with different sets of tastes and levels of understanding in a variety of settings.
Soooo here's an attempt to perhaps bridge some sort of gap. Little "post cards" I guess one may call them. To be set on, in, or by pieces in galleries and such viewers can take them as they will if they are interested. Perhaps get a little insight as to what I'm trying to accomplish and maybe get a little excited about the piece?

So lets call the text side the front and picture side the back. You can click on the photos to see a larger view here online.
I don't want to sound like a raging hippie nor do I want to sound like a marketing douche ha. Too much? Too little? Eh?

Back.

Front.

Back.

One could also mail these to interested parties upon completion of a piece.
I also hope that they may help me stand out in the crowd of louder pieces that surround me.
Hmmmm.
Turns out these JPEGs are a bit small on screen SORRY!
The actual post cards are about 5.5" x 4.25" (quarter of a standard 11x8.5" sheet)

Backed up!

2010-09-10T13:53:00.001-05:00

Holy crap, I didn't realize how backed up I was getting with my photos here! My last couple posts weren't about the work so have too many photos and had to edit a fast moving post here, that's ok some it was boring stuff anyway.
So There is the nice section of Maple I'm using for the top, bottom, partition, and back panel... veneered. This piece is about 20" wide! Much too wide for my small machinery. Something has to be done.

I had to rip the plank into 3 pieces along grain lines as best I could to fit them in my band saw.

Fast forward several HOURS of veneer cutting on the band saw and this is what the shop looked like... dusty.

Cut and sent through the planer, a bunch of nice 1/16" Maple veneer.

While the lumber-core I was making was being pressed with cross-banding I paid some attention to the doors again. Leveling out the accommodating material of the styles. I'm using my 1-3/4" coopering plane to make the back side of the style concave to match the curve of the door. It's a very nice detail to feel.

Poplar lumber-core with cross-banding. Now I need to know what size to cut it.

To help me out with that I got to making my side spacing template. I need to make it also exact because I don't really have room for adjusting the doors except the over lap where the doors meet can be trimmed about a 1/16" or so heh. Once again I made my template ever so slightly tapered thus building in "let-go" into the cabinet. This cabinet does not get drawers but it will aid in partition fitting yet again.

Fast forward applying bake-ins in the substrates and it's time to get the veneer back together. With the Maple lined back up as best I could I'm once again using tape for joining veneer.
I thought this shot might "demystify" the whole tape thing for those who may raise their brow about it ha. So. Take a piece of tape. Adhere it to one side of the joint (press it heh). Then pull both the joint and tape tight and adhere to the joining piece of veneer. The tape has some elasticity to it and will pull/spring back giving you your "clamping force". Now you need good fitting edge joints to do this. It does apply pressure but not like screw clamps or wedges.
Once you have all the tape on one side apply glue to the edge, flip the veneer over and follow the same procedure thus equaling the pressure on both sides which will keep the veneer pressed and level for curing.
Ta Da!

Fast forward the veneer pressing and trimming. I'm making adjustments to the sides by shooting the top and bottom of said sides. Pictured are the two side frames lined up. I'm trying to get the front edges, where the doors will go, to exactly line up as to avoid complications with the doors.

FF the doweling process and the cabinet is finally dry-fit for the first time! It feels like it has been a long time coming to this point, and it has been. There is still plenty to do but it's nice to finally be able to stand back and look at something that looks a bit like a box ha.

A Wood Hound Strikes Again!

2010-09-07T14:14:00.001-05:00

Oh man, it has been a while since new wood has come into the basement shop! This load is one of the up-lifting things I needed heh.
So I keep loose taps on the Craig's List "Materials" category and have noticed some re-occurring adds for Ash and figured I'd give this guy a call... maybe he has the odd large piece maybe air dried stuff that one can happen upon at a small sawyer's mill. I know my friend and classmate Craig had gone a couple months ago and scored some sweet looking Red Elm. I figured he'd snatched the select planks. I took a trip on over anyway to see what I could see.
I wasn't overly impressed by the Ash but there were a few other goodies there!

Such as this little flitched log of Cherry!!! heh. Only about 6 feet long and not overly wide but it is relatively clean and Flitch cut! One does NOT happen on this ind of thing often, so I took it.
There is another piece of Cherry that is not pictured. I wasn't very excited about it but I felt bad for taking the guy's primo stuff and leaving a single flat-sawn board. Turns out that extra board isn't even a part of this log! GAH shows me for having morals :/. Maybe I can hand it off to someone who will use it... after I'm done with this log just in case.

Then these planks of Maple that had just started to spalt. Some of the coloring is quite nice and some is kind of funky. I'm not sure how I feel about them but figured I'd give them a shot. There is a Pith plank and the next one to either side of the Pith, also a random plank of maple in similar condition but cleaner and straighter than these.

And last but not least, these guys. Craig may recognize these as the Red Elm he left behind... WHY Craig, WHY!? Why would you leave such planks behind? Oh well better for me, sorry Craig but I'm picking up your slack heheh. These pieces may not be sequential but the story is that they were from a quite tall tree and due to equipment they had to cut the trunk up into shorter pieces (about 6 feet?). They are at least from the same tree which is nice. A big Pith Plank and two rifty planks. Also the odd little guy on the floor I thought might be useful when doing curved stuff... though with the checks it's a bit short for the cabinet in my head :/.
All of this... about 180 bf for a smidge over $500!!! I was happy and the sawyer seemed happy as well :).
With new material in the shop and the refreshing cooler temps outside I hope I can get back on the ball after a distracting summer!

Return to Roberts Creek and Inside Passage

2010-09-03T11:13:00.001-05:00

Looks like I will be headed back to one of my favorite places, Roberts Creek, B.C. Not for good, yet ;). For a couple weeks come March. I will be returning to the Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking to participate as a guest/relief teacher. I may take some time beyond school days to hang out and maybe make a lumber run or two in the North West while I'm there :).
Though March may not be the best time for a "vacation" I very much look forward to re-connecting with the sites, sounds, the people and the nature of "the creek". I also am much looking forward to meeting more fine people who share such a passion for our craft and to gain inspiration and perhaps some insight with such a mass of top-notch work and workers.

Cabinet Sides... more frames

2010-08-29T11:22:00.001-05:00

Moving along to the cabinet sides. They will also be frames with glass set in them, however these are flat and square which made life easier with them! Above, "the spectator sport of free-hand mortising" with no one to spectate heh. I'm using 3/8" thick mortise and tenons in these frames. There's little reason to go with twin tenons here as the sides are fully supported in the cabinet and there's enough width in the styles.
I'd rather not go back to an x-y table until I get get a REAL one ha but if I'm in a bind I can make do with my plywood one.

Tenons are cut slightly too large on the table and band saws.

Then round over and trim/file/sand the tenons to fit the mortises they will be joining.

Because I cannot count on precise cuts with the tables saw I have available I have a little extra work to do. Even if you DO have a nice saw there will probably some clean up to do on the shoulders. I just have to account for a smidge extra in my measurements to be able to get a clean shoulder using my chopping block. Handy things they are.

Rebates made in the back of the frames for glass and more rounded corners to chop square.

Fast forward the edge treatment and pre-finishing the side frames are glued up.
Whilst glue was drying I started on some lumber-core for the top and bottom of the cabinet. I have a little mixed feeling about building lumber-core at the moment, but we'll see once I get them done. Thing is it's tedious, time consuming, and dusty on the band saw if you don't have dust control like myself. I like it because you can do things with it that you just can't do/would be a real pain with plywood such as tapered/curved parts. It is also an "old school" way of making substrate and doesn't use the nasty adhesives that plywood does. I'm using Poplar also so it's relatively light, stable, and is a fast growing tree.
Ha one probably doesn't have to make as small strips as I did, perhaps next time I'll make them larger.

Ok back to the frames, the doors. Before I get going TOO far on the substrates I have to know pretty exactly how big the cabinet will be. I came back to the door frames to make the overlap where the doors will meet, you do have to plan this from the beginning.
Done on the router table with a modified bit to give a nice little round on the inside corner. Because the styles are capped by the rails which are end-grain to the router operation, REMEMBER to use a backer block when finishing each pass! I don't want chips flying out of these nice doors!

The overlap may look about equal here but the styles are set back 3/32" from the rails. So the majority of the overlap seam is thicker at the back and thinner towards the front. I don't like the idea of a cavernous divide ha. So if there's light that shines through the meeting of the doors or when opening the doors the "back" will be right there giving a more delicate overlap with a hardier backer.
Perhaps this is a lot of thought about a little detail, but that's what this kind of craft is about :).

Boy, this seems to be taking me some time to do. I suppose it's because I'm usually using "solid" sides. Cut the plank of wood, or make a veneered substrate and go with it. With these sides each has a number of joints, rebates, lines and details that need to meet up. Now that they are basically done I can start building the cabinet like I only started working on it a couple days ago HA!

Showcase Doors

2010-08-18T18:48:00.000-05:00

Boy, these doors are taking me some time! Though the doors arguably being the most important part of a cabinet, I guess it's alright. That and the fact that these are curved frame doors, which I've never done, with glass "faceted" along the curve, which I've never done, with a compounded curve the to top rail, which I've never done, all using stub tenons including baby twin tenons, which I think take a bit more time than slip/bridal joints. HA! Well why not do it all the things I haven't done before at once!? hmmm
Anywho, The joinery for the frames are done. As I may have mentioned I made the styles (vertical pieces) a bit thicker than the rails (horizontal pieces) which can be see above. This was to allow for any wiggle room when joint making. Just hand plane them flat and "planer" to the rails and one can move on.

Now time for probably the most critical part of the whole cabinet... the rebates for glass in the curved doors. If the doors were flat, this would be relatively straight forward, but no. Curves. ha
Before going at this I read through the Showcase section in JK's Impractical Cabinetmaker where he talks about these doors (minus the compound curve). Though I found the pictures a little vague/not of the operations I was looking for. JK didn't have the flexibility of an online source though so it can't be helped. Hopefully what I have done here makes sense heh, made sense to me anyway, maybe others can think of easier/better ways...
Make a template. I'm sure there's more than one way to make more than one kind of template. I used some scrap 1/4 plywood. I drew exactly what I wanted on the plywood. Rough cut it with a band saw, then defined the template precisely by hand and chop block.

JK wrote about making a whole jig for holding your template to the work, I opted for a lower tech option, partially because of the curve in my top rails I wouldn't be able to use the holding jig for 2 of 4 pieces anyway.
Using a router template guide bushing I first set the template close, but not quite the bushing thickness passed my rebate lines. Made a pass with the router and slowly tapped my template back till the bit just skimmed the lines.
I was able to cut full depth of the rebate (3/16") with this set-up for the flat bottom pieces. Not the top curved ones.

Now, before I came to this conclusion I had racked my brain trying to come up with some sort of jigging to cut the curved rebates in my curved rails. I got fed up with trying to think of a jig that would make a clean finish cut and knew that I could get close then finish by hand by the time I may think of a jig.
SO I used the above template to start the rebate and to hit my rebate lines exactly. I could only make a straight cut with the above template set-up (straight rebate but varying rebate depth due to visual curve).
I took the template and bushing off. and set the curved rails up side by side (held to the bench with double sided tape LOVE THAT STUFF) for the router to stand on. The concave curves allows the router base to always have two points of contact along the curve (4 points counting both pieces) thus giving it stability, and the ability to cut a smoothly curved rebate "bottom".
This may be a little brow-raising to most but using the actual pieces as aids is something I have done a number of times before. Everything is exactly as I want it, why make and try to duplicate shapes with scrap wood when you don't have to!? ha.
I changed the bit to a smaller diameter so I could better see what was going on. Now, just free-hand route as close to the already exact starting point as one feels comfortable down to finish depth.

That resulted in a little bit of material I needed to clean up by hand to hit the desired line.
Then make the rebates in the styles with standard router table and chop the corners out of the rail rebates!
Phew! It seemed to have worked out, though I don't have glass to put in yet heh.

Now, I want to get the doors all glued up before moving on too far with the cabinet. To be able to do that I had to do some finish prep and edge treatment on some parts because these are frames and other parts because of the steps I've made between frame elements.
Above is the bench during edge treatment. Using a number of techniques depending on grain the edges are applied to. Block plane for long grain, files and paper for end grain.

So here they are, dry-fit with all the prep needed to do some prefinishing before assembly. Soon it will be on to FLAT pieces for the rest of the cabinet!!! ... until I get to the stand ha.

Where's the flow?

2010-08-09T19:14:00.001-05:00

Hey, I'm still alive. Just haven't been able to create a decent work flow lately. Working more hours at the other job to "make up" for time off, it being so hot and thick out here that it's a struggle to move, and problem-solving for these the cabinet doors racking my brain... alas a little relief with some good work done.

Above is a "book-matched" pair of air-dried Maple I got locally about this time last year (crazy to think a year has gone by). I cut some of this maple up for my table tops... kind of wish I hadn't because once again I'm calling it close for usable material. The tone of this maple is lovely, a much more "buttery" color than commercial Maple and a creamy texture. This is my Cabinet material.

I work at the door rails first, in my opinion the most important pieces for this cabinet. I haven't cut anything else at this point. If for some reason one of these is to not work out I need the next best selection.
A lot of the time these kinds of doors are made using bent lamination but it being Maple and with the end grain to be used as aesthetic features I don't want all those seams... also I just wanted to use solid material.
Note the nice curve of the grain accentuating the curve of the pieces because of the way arranged the cuts. Also the stronger grain curve on the top piece that will work well with the shape to come.

The outsides were shaped first, the the inside cut.

Save the off-cuts of the outside shape to use as supports for further work with the components.
I used spoke shaves for the inside shaping. Don't forget to keep things square! (that is if that's what you want)

Using those off cuts again. Cross cut the pieces to size on the table saw.

Here is the top rail with another curve introduced. I originally made the rails about 5/16" taller than they need to be so that I can get 3/16" thick strips to use to hold the glass in place.

Door joinery. This was one of the things I was losing sleep over... what to do. Most of the time one would use slip-tenons (aka bridal joints) BUT because my bottom rail is so tall (2-5/8") I didn't feel it was appropriate aesthetically and mainly due to wood movement potentially breaking/weakening the joints. I can get adequate stub tenons in the outer styles but the middle ones are pretty narrow... particularly the right side because of both the rebate for glass and lay-over for the meeting of the doors.
I came up with a couple options and was wanting to lean towards small double tenons but felt that they may be too small. After sleeping on it (or trying to) I reasoned that the middle style joints aren't baring a whole ton of load. The outside corners, where the hinges go, are going to be the real load bearing points. I think these double tenons will be quite adequate.

Showcase Mock-up

2010-07-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

Things almost always want to change between 2D and 3D. This is one of the main points of mock-ups for me. When I did a full-scale drawing I already took off an inch here and there. When I was putting this mock "together" I took off a 1/2" here and 1/4" there. I felt some of the frame members needed to be wider to support adequate joinery... particularly the vertical frame members of the doors in the center of the cabinet. I typically start the mock a bit heavier than I think I want it because it's easier to take off material than add heh.
I am a little worried about the size whether justifiably so, or not.

Here's a photo to get a better idea of actual size... I'm somewhere around 5'8-5'9". Keep in mind me standing in front of the Mock-up makes it look a little smaller than it is. Oh yeah, the height that I have it sitting at is the aimed finished height.
Though this piece is still small for many furniture/cabinet makers, it is bigger than many of JK's "larger" pieces. Then again, Jim was a smallish man. Maybe he "designed" to his person and I to mine. I do like the feeling and aesthetic of a small intimate piece but I'm also looking for something that may command a little more presence in a show/gallery setting yet still hold a relative humble grace I am fond of... and of course make a great piece for a home. Hmmmmm.

Aaaaaaaand here's a new plane! I've had this guy sitting in different stages of the process for long amounts of time, but it's finally done... except for dressing the bottom heh. It is made of a block of Vera wood that Robert graciously gave me while at IP THANKS AGAIN! It's a new smoother plane. I feel kind of sad when thinking of retiring my current smoother. It has been with me since the beginning of the year at IP (2008) and has served me well. However I have more experience making planes, and plane shapes now. The older one at times got a little uncomfortable. I think this one will be an improvement though I'll be keeping ole Paula (older plane) around just in case... maybe someday it will become a compass plane, maybe I'll give her away, maybe I'll keep it for sentimental reasons heh, I don't know.