Poof, there's a drawer......

I've been trucking along with my tool storage/arranging thing I have going now. Made the big plunge and decided to add a drawer where once there wasn't one. If all goes well, I may add two more.

6 wall hung cabinets

I am going to put the drawer under the two cabinets on the left. These cabinets are 131/2" deep, 14 1/4" in width, and 31" high. You can pile a whole lot of crappola in here. Made out of 7/8" thick pine (about 700BF) that was a gift from my father in law.

Cabinet #1

I go in and out of this cabinet the most. I put my pencils, and measuring doo-dads in here. I also used to keep some doo-dads on the door. You can see the faint outlines where they used to be. I had a cheap-o 6" square that I filed in the round receptacle (garbage pail) and a wood river combo square set (12" combo square, ctr finder, and protractor head) that I hardly ever use. The cheap-o 6" square is going to be replaced with a starrett and the others will probably be given away.

 

Cabinet #2

In this cabinet I keep my chisels, rulers, japanese layout thingys, and my saws. It looks like a sh-thole because that's what it is. I have got to do something about the saws just laying all other each other. Originally I had 3 "tills" in this cabinet just like the one on the far left. You slid it out and took the tool you wanted off of it. The doo-dads and thingys on the door are staying there and I plan on adding more slide out "tills". On these I will finally get the saws off each other and hanging out of harms way.

Cabinet #3

The glues, glue brush box, pliers, and hammers are kept here. I have a billion of the little 4" crescent wrench hanging in the middle of the door. Don't use it much, but I do have a thing for small, functional tools.

#4

 Drilling doo-dads and the like go in here. The black handled tools are a set of Torx drivers that I use for my sanders. What happened to slot and phillip head screws in tools?

#5

 This is the door I fixed a couple of days ago. The strips around the edge of the door frame hold the raised panel in place. Just a few files and my collection of card scrapers is all that is left in this cabinet.

#6

I had a lot of crappola in this cabinet that I didn't use much, didn't know I had it, and I am glad I finally cleaned it out. All of these cabinets have been cleaned out and rearranged. I didn't take any before pics because it started as a spur of the moment thing. Actually thought about putting drawers inside of some these cabinets but rejected it due how the doors are hung. I would have to eat an inch in the width and then the door would have to be open 180, a real pain in the ass when you are in a hurry. These 6 are right behind my workbench and they are my go to place for grabbing what I need.

Drawer frame work

I plan on screwing this to underside of cabinets # 1 and 2 and hanging the drawer from it. It's 3/4" short in the side to side width so I can apply a solid piece of pine to it. You'll see this from the left side of the unit as you are looking at it.

Too big 

I had planned on using these drawer slides for the drawer but they are too long. They could work but the face of the drawer would extend beyond the door. I want the drawer face to be just a tad behind the door face.

Hard to see the overhang

I put four pieces of about 1/16" strong poplar in four places on the top of the drawer frame. This shim stock is added because the sides extend beyond the bottom (and at the top too) about 1/16". I think the frame would bow some as I screwed the frame in place. This would just cause way too many headaches trying to get the drawer to work properly. When I made these cabinets, I was in a hurry and made them all in one day. I didn't see any need at that time to flush the ends of the sides with the bottom. Who knew that 17 years later I would adding a drawer to the bottom?

The drawer

This is the drawer box. The strips are going to be used to cover the plywood edges on the top of the drawer. The plywood is going to be nailed and glued to the bottom of the drawer box. I am doing this because I want to maximize the amount of space in the drawer. I hope I don't sound like I'm quibbling over maybe a 1/2" of  lost depth. I still have to get drawer slides for this. I use KV slides because I had a very positive experience with them. I had bought some (already opened/resealed) and when I got home there weren't any screws. I emailed KV customer service and they sent me two bags of screws free. That ladies and gentlemen is what customer service should be. It's the reason why I only use KV drawer slides, period.

It looks like I have another partially completed project but that's alright. It'll give me time to figure out what is going in the drawer and how it's going to be arranged. I am thinking of putting two sliding tills inside the drawer Haven't thought it through completely but that's the direction I'm leaning in.

accidental woodworker

NCIS marathon or the workshop.....

My daughter got me hooked on NCIS. Before watching that first episode with her, I had never wanted to see this show at all. Now I can't wait for one to come on. It is really putting a crimp on my desire to be the workshop. It's working out for me because if they are showing an episode I haven't seen, I watch it. If they show an episode I've seen, it's down to the workshop (for an hour). It's a win win as far as I can see.

Out of the clamps

Here's my big ass'd tool tote. A tad on the obese size. It could be a little more narrow and stretched out in the length. But this is what I ended up with and this is what I have to work with.

Gappy dovetails to deal with

I knew that I had one set of "gappy" dovetails to fix. After I got it out of the clamps I found three others that needed to have the gap closed. I got my offset dovetail saw (has a big kerf) and sawed down in between each dovetail. I did them all and decided to highlight it by using some scrap mahogany I had. Had a picture of the saw action but it so blurry you couldn't see anything comprehensible in the picture.

Splines almost ready to go

I cut the spline stock on my bandsaw with this get up. I have enough here to do all the dovetails and have a little left over.

Needs a little tweaking

I use my block plane and thin the stock out until I just get a slip fit. You have to be careful here and take a light cut at a skew. If not, you end up with garbage. (I speak from experience here)

Now I wait

 

 

 

I've got them all glued in (hide glue) and I'll trim off the extra with a chisel tomorrow. Up where the handle is wedged I have to deal with my japanese saw leaving saw marks all over town. I decided to flush cut the horns sticking out because it would be too much of a pain to sand  around them by hand. Now I have a lot more pain than I would have had with that. I think this is much too big of an area to try and plane out. I think my best shot is to feather it out as best I can with sandpaper.

While this is cooking away and in between NCIS, I am back to work on my tool storage/rearranging. Finished the box for my drafting doo-dads and I don't need another box at this point in time (a door I'll never close). I am going to add a drawer to the bottom of my main (6) storage cabinets. Film at 11.

accidental woodworker

All clamped up and nowhere to ......

Finished the tool tote and clamped it up. It's cooking away as I blog merrily about it.

Side view dry clamped

end view dry clamped

I use the blue tape to remind that this is the outside of the end. Did the same on the sides too. Sometimes it works and I remember it, and other times I frantically work disassembling and re-reassembling the right way. You can also see the weird dovetail layout I ended up with. I thought I had gotten all of these reasonably the same but I didn't. I must have read the tape wrong and marked it that way. I usually mark out my layout on a scrap piece of wood but this time I thought I would be smart enough to remember my measurements.  I'm sad to say it wasn't so sports fans. The handle is a piece of 2x left over from the sawbench saga.

New cherry spokeshave

I got to try my new spokeshave on the handle. I did a quick round over from end to end and then went at it heavy in about the middle of the handle. Ended up with a nice little taper from the middle out to the ends.  I am going to wedge this handle in place. Along with the shoulders I cut this handle should "handle" the load without any problems.

All clamped up

Clamped it up and the dovetails closed up pretty good. There is only one spot that is a little too gappy for me. After it's done cooking I'll have to glue some fillers in there.

Wedged handle. It's going to be a bear to have to replace.

Wedged the handle with a piece of oak. It's a tad proud of the end and I am not certain as to what I am going to do about it. Saw it flush to the end or leave it as is?  I had to plug a little bit of blowout from the forstner bit when I drilled this hole for the handle. It's on the left side of the handle and I plugged it with a wedge from a piece of scrap left from the handle.

The gappy dovetail

This lower right corner dovetail is the gappy one I am going to have to plug. The dark outline is the hide glue. I'll check for others once I get it out of the clamps and clean it up.  Overall I am pleased with this outcome. This is my second complete dovetail project. This is why I want to learn how to cut these by hand because there are some projects that just scream to be made with dovetails. I am learning with each project and getting a little better each time.

I also went with a plywood bottom for this tote. I had glued up a couple of pine boards to use but I decided to go with the plywood. The hand tool thing kind of died somewhere around having to make the end panels again. I used power tools to cut the new end panels and my router to make the groove for the plywood bottom. I can say everything else was done with hand tools. Maybe I am not quite ready to cut the umbilical cord to my power tools yet.

This is done and I do have other projects to do. Finishing up my tool storage and rearranging would/should be a priority. Finish the box I started to stow all my drafting doo-dads in is doable. But since I have the attention span of a sand flea,  I'm sure I will start one of these and end up doing something else.

accidental woodworker

Update with pics.....

It's been a long time (over a year) that I have been able to go down to the shop and spend the entire day there and at the end not be all bent over and in so much pain even my eyebrows hurt. Had hip surgery in Jan of this year and today made it worth while. All I want to do is putter, make sawdust, and hopefully learn something new at the same time. For now it's good to be able to stand on concrete for hours on end like I used to.

The project starts with the stock

 

I am going to make a dovetailed tool tote from these two pine boards. One is a 1x8 and the other is a 1x12. There is more than enough stock to make one and have a little extra in case of a mee-steak. I am also going to try and do this with hand tools only.

X-cutting to rough length

I can follow the line ok but I still need to work on keeping it reasonably square to the edge.

Shooting board form David Charlesworth

It isn't as easy as it looks to get a rough cut board square across the face and it's width. Then trying to get two boards the same length is a workout. I had expected this to be easier than what it took to accomplish. Add to this a little bow in the board and yahoo. I made some words up that even I blushed at. And I spent twenty years in submarines.

Did I mention these boards had a slight bow?

Yes I am an idiot for trying to use these boards as bowed as they are. But I am a clever sort, cheap at some things, and above all I can be a stubborn mule headed SOB. I thought I could make this work.

What bow?

I clamped the boards together along with an extra one across it and the bow disappeared. So far it was working. I marked out my dovetails on these boards. They are the ends for the tool tote.

I sneezed and look what fell off

I wasn't paying attention when I laid out the tails and cut them with the grain running in the wrong direction. Only one pin didn't break when I was chopping them out. I glued them back on (I know that I am an idiot) in some kind of desperate way of trying to salvage an hour's worth of work. This is a mee-steak that I will try to remember not to do again.

Second set of end panels

These are end panel remakes 3 and 4 done correctly. Except for the weird tail layout everything went smoothly with this set.

Glued a filler piece to increase the width top to bottom

Wasn't paying attention here again and committed a faux pas. I glued one of the filler pieces on the wrong side of the end panel (it's the one in the back). So I cut it off and re-glued it right. Went out and got some pizza while it was cooking in the clamps.

Marking tails onto the pin board

This is what I thought up to aid me in laying out the pins from the tail board. I clamped my 12" straight edge on the scribe line and all I have to do is then line up the outside edges. I think I am going to stick with this method for time being. Once I get comfortable with cutting more dovetails I might switch back to the free hand method again.

Put my latest toy to work

Broke out the Record 405 and made a bunch of practice dadoes on some scrap pine boards. I have never made a "groove" with a combo plane before today. I was rather pleased with my efforts. There were a few fits and stalls but once I settled in the sailing was smooth. I had to get a feel for how big of a bite to take and where to start actually planing. The record book recommends starting at the far end and only doing short strokes and gradually easing into taking full length strokes. I didn't heed or use that advice. I took full length strokes that were shallow and gradually got it to full depth. I got some nice ribbons that were evidence enough for me that I was doing this right. At least for me this method worked.

I had more pictures but they were too blurry to be of any good. I have just about everything done with this with the exception of putting/fitting the bottom. I haven't made up my mind yet if I am going to use plywood or solid wood. Have to save some excitement for tomorrow.

accidental woodworker

long woodworking weekend......

The official start of summer sun is Memorial Day weekend. For me it's an extra day to be in the workshop. What I'll be doing hasn't hit me with divine inspiration yet. I am just about finished with what I am donating with the exception of little touch up here and there.

Finish applied, door hung, ready for drawers and a shelf.

I think this turned out pretty good. I never put the hole in the rounded trim detail on the top. I didn't forget to do it, I ended up deciding it wouldn't look right.

Drawers and shelf installed, just awaiting the oohs and aahs.

Looking even better with all parts installed. Made a faux pas (sounds better than I screwed up) with the no mortise hinges. When I first fitted them I did it with the door upside down. Imagine my surprise when I tried to hang the door the right way and my screw holes were on the wrong side of door. I got to practice hanging the door again but this time with the glass installed in the door. That's always a fun thing to do.

This is a shot of the back of the cabinet

I still don't think the back of the drawers need anything to close them in. The bead board is simply nailed in place with some 1" brads. I really don't expect the bead board to expand and contract all that much but to be safe I allowed a strong 1/8" gap on each outside edge.

Fix the shelf and it's complete.

The shelf had a brush hair (on the show side of course) that I caught after I applied the last coat of shellac. I had to scrape it out and the one coat I put over it wasn't enough. I'll have to sand it out with 400 and apply another coat or two of shellac. I should be able to do that today without any problems at all.

This was going to be the intended purpose of this cabinet. Even though I don't have much wall real estate to hang a cabinet, that was my original intention. In retrospect, I'm glad that I have donated it as I think it's now a bad idea to have glass in the shop. I have about half the space of a phone booth and it would just be a matter of time before a 1 x introduced himself to the glass.

My wood pile is is riding on fumes and needs to be replenished. The next project for this weekend will be on the small size due to that. However, for me it'll always be about being in the shop taking a board and making something.

accidental woodworker

Quid Pro Quo....

The title is Latin for "this for that" or "one thing for another" or a lot of other translations depending upon who you ask/read. For me it's starting down one path and doing a 180 to take another path. This weekend my plan was to finish the projects I am donating to Hope House in Utica, New York. I didn't get very far with that as I first repaired a door on one of my six hanging cabinets. From there I commenced on rearranging my tool storage in the shop. Hang on to your seats here comes the Pro Quo - I made two boxes. I guess my translation is very loose but I did do "this for that".

A box to hold my drivers

This was a quick and easy box to bang together. It's been on my to do list for a while (over a year) and it's finally done. I had a box that I used before this to keep my drivers here except for my long ones (6" plus long) that were just laying loose in the cabinet. Now I have a box that everything can fit in. The other box had a lid but this one I thought was too long for a lid. Besides it's home is inside a cabinet - so no dust/debris is getting in it. Made this box from some left over 3/8" thick pine that's been in the scrap bin for quite a while.

Plywood box to hold my drafting thingys

One of the shelves in my cabinet held all my drafting thingys. Several sizes of triangles, (45's, 30/60's, couple of adjustable ones), french curve set, and a huge protractor thingy that I have never used in the 25 years plus I have owned it. The length was dictated by this protractor and the height is a couple of inches higher than all the crappola that is going to be in the box.

I made this molding for the top edge of the box

This U-shaped molding has a dual purpose. The first is hide the ugly plywood piles and the second is provide a little better purchase for the screws in the hinges coming later. I have never had good luck putting screws directly into the piles (even with a counter sink). They would always eventually strip out and come loose. I have had much better success with first gluing a piece of sold wood on the edge first. These U-shaped moldings are also very easy to glue in place and there isn't any truing of edges after the fact.

More molding to hide the plywood edges

I don't think the cdx plywood I used for this box is all that bad looking except for the piles. These L-shaped moldings will hide them plus they also give some support at the corners for the U-shaped molding. I don't think I am going to do anything with the bottom. The lid will be a piece of pine or poplar. I haven't rooted around in the scrap bin for it yet.

So I will play around with this and finish it up a little at a time this week. I might even put a little time in on putting a finish on the projects.

accidental woodworker

Got side tracked......

I had applied my version of a BLO finish yesterday and today I was going to apply the shellac. The BLO imparted a yellowish tint to the pine, I didn't see much of an effect on the waste paper basket. The BLO had dried, or it felt dry to the touch, and I was ready to proceed with the shellac. I had to buy another can as the one I had was over three years old. I don't trust canned shellac over two years from the manufactured date to be any good.

It started innocently enough and before I knew it I was going full ahead and throwing up a rooster tail astern. I got sidetracked into rearranging my tool storage. It's something I have had in the back of my mind to do but it was on the b list along with trimming nose hair and doing a root canal. I had not planned on doing this it just snowballed and I went with the flow.

I also fixed one of my cabinet doors that I had never gotten around to (was going to do this first, then apply the finish). I made these cabinets in 1995 out of 7/8" thick pine about 15" wide. The doors I biscuited together and I put a rabbet around the inside edge. Into this I put a raised door panel. I secured the panel in place by screwing 1/4" thick by 1" wide strips of whatever I had along the edges. It isn't "woodworky" or elegant, but it was quick, efficient, and it's still going strong 16 years later. The one door I had to fix only had a four small strips along each edge holding it in place. Now I can actually rest my hand on it when it is closed  and it stays in place.

For some reason I got riled up as I did this quick repair. I think it was rooting around trying to find some #5 screws I knew I had somewhere. Moving six things around and out of the way to get to what you really want irks me. This was the start of the tool arranging. I am sad to admit it, but I actually threw some tools away. One was a six inch combo square from a former life that got filed in the round receptacle. I tossed a few ratty screwdrivers that wouldn't even pass muster as pry bars. I also find out that I have way too many screwdrivers.

I have a cabinet makers screwdriver set by Marples that I had gotten over thirty years ago. The set they sell today has only about 5 in it, my set from back then has 16. Besides these I also have 45 other assorted screwdrivers. I must have needed these since I have them, right? I thinned these out and I now have 12 in the drawer keeping company with the Marples set. I have grandiose plans of hanging this Marples set somewhere.

From the drawers were all these came from I have gotten it down to where I have one empty drawer. I put all the tools I think I know what they are used for but haven't used in a gazillion years in the bottom drawer. Yes I will have to move around six things to get the one that will be on the bottom. I probably will not ever use these tools, but I can't bring myself to toss them. I did toss a hammer tacker (totally frozen and rusted) and a couple of hand tackers. These were left over from my handyman construction days which I have no intention of doing again.

Am I done? Nay, nay, say I. I barely scratched the surface. I now have one empty drawer, one shelf in the power tool cabinet empty, and 1 and 1/2 wall cabinets empty. My ultimate aim is to give my hand saws proper storage. Right now they are laying one on top another in one of the wall cabinets. I cringe everytime I reach for them when I see how they are stowed.

Oh, yeah, doing all this while all the horizontal real estate is occupied with projects waiting to be finished, sucks. It forced me to make decisions right away because there was absouletly no where to put anything down. After work today I am going to start on finishing the projects and get them done. Then I will concentrate on finishing the arranging. While I was doing this I was thinking of making a clock. I saw a picture of one and I have been trying to think of way of making it without a lathe. As you can see I am easily sidetracked....

accidental woodworker

time for giving....

My in-laws stopped in to visit last week and they were talking about a craft fair to benefit Hope  House in Utica, New York. I offered to donate a project to the fair which they accepted. . The in-laws used to be Rhode Island residents but moved to Utica in the late nineties. Before they moved, both were very active in feeding the homeless and anyone else who needed a meal in the Providence, RI area. They found a new place to volunteer in upstate New York and they are doing the same there.

I'm donating my latest project.

I started putting the finish on my pine cabinet. I thinned some BLO with mineral spirits and applied it with a brush. This puts me dead in the water as to working on anything else. There is no real estate left on the bench to do anything else with anything. I can't wait for this dry and see what it looks like after a couple of coats of shellac is applied.

Locking Pine Box 

 

 

Besides the current project I decided to donate a few other pieces also. Most of these have been taking up space in my den and now maybe someone will put them to good use. I made this box september of '09. No one in the family liked or wanted it so it's been in the "boneyard" collecting dust since then.

My take on a Pleasant Hills Shaker stool

Putting a fresh coat of paint on a stool I made last summer. I used this color because the paint is a deck/fence paint that was on special at Lowe's (customer didn't buy it so I got it cheap). It's not to far away from the Shaker Red color I've seen before.

Stickley style waste basket

I don't know when I made this because I didn't sign it (maybe summer of '08). It's made of walnut stained poplar and cherry. The cherry pieces have a 1/2" stopped dado on two sides that the poplar panels sit in.  One panel didn't bottom out all the way at the top resulting in a 1/8" gap. I think this is why I didn't sign it. My wife and my mother in-law both said it is fine to sell as is. I dusted it off and applied the same BLO finish that I used on the pine cabinet.

Made this box to hold my recycling. Unfortunately, the bride nixed that idea and I ended up with another "boneyard" addition. Put BLO all over this piece too. Should have a ton of experience with this finish by the time I'm done finishing everything I started today.

This makes a total of five donations to the Hope House and a 4 hour drive on my part to bring them to Utica. I don't mind this because I love the area up there and I hope to retire there when that time comes. While everything is drying, I'm trying to think of something I could make with hand tools.

accidental woodworker

Ready for finish.....

All done with the sanding, or as much I am going to do. My excuse is that this is a rustic piece and there is no need to go through all the grits. I am going to finish it with BLO and shellac. Haven't tried the BLO as of yet, but it seems to be the finish of choice for a lot bloggers I read about.

Bead board back, one shelf and 3 drawers.

I looked into making the bead board for the back of the cabinet but I didn't get that far with it. I bought a package of wainscoting from Lowe's for ten bucks. There is enough  material in the package for me to do two cabinets. As there was no way I could make my bead board for that price, I went with the Lowe's product. It's knotty pine and only a shade over a 1/4" thick but it's sufficient for the back. I put a hanging rail at the top of the cabinet to hang it on the wall from. I think it fits in with the overall country pine look.

Shelf details, Pins & cups from Lee Valley.

These are the biggest shelf pins I have ever seen. Got them and the insert cups from Lee Valley. I also bought an insertion tool for the pin inserts. I really think that they are good idea, especially with soft pine like this cabinet. Eventually the pins just deform the holes and they are useless. These "cups" and the big pins should handle anything that will be put on the shelves. I made a recess in the underside of the shelf (1/2" brad point bit) so the shelf wouldn't move around. The shelf is plywood with a simple pine nosing applied to the front edge. Is one shelf enough?

Detailing of the drawer arrangement.

My original thought with this cabinet was one drawer here. After I get the carcass together, I wasn't so happy about the one (too big) drawer idea. I changed it to this 3 drawer thingy. The divider on the top left side is a piece of plywood that I screwed into from the cabinet shelf above it. These two small drawers ride in and out on oak runners I fixed to the sides of the divider and the sides of the cabinet. The bottom drawer rides in and out on the bottom of the cabinet. I had given some thought to putting in a dust panel between the drawers but abandoned that idea rather quickly. I didn't put any back on the back of the drawer section. To my thinking, it's not needed.

Door and drawer separation detail.

These two molding details define the bottom of the door and the separation between the small and large drawers. I held the top one down a tad to serve a stop for the bottom of the door. Both moldings were made the same way. A thin piece of pine with two 1" horns glued on each end. The bottom of the cabinet has three pieces of pine mitered at the corners attached to it ( same as the top).  I screwed this bottom molding in place because you really won't see the screws once it's hanging (if it's hung low on the wall).

The drawers

The drawers (all 3) were made with bits and pieces of 1/2" plywood I had in my scrap bin. It's a mixture of birch, oak, and cdx. I applied a piece of 1/2" pine to the two small drawers and a 3/4" piece of pine to the large drawer.

So tomorrow I start to apply the finish. I have already fitted the door (no mortise hinges) and planed it to fit. I have some super duper magnets to use as door keep it closed thingy but as now, I can't find them.   Haven't decided whether to just nail the stops in place for the door glass or to glue (hide  glue) and nail them in place. I'm leaning toward glue and nailing. Will someone later on, who might have to fix the broken glass realize that I glued it with hide glue?

accidental woodworker