the bride decided......

The bride came home early from work yesterday and decided that we were going to do other things. And yes sports fans it didn't include anything to do with me working in the shop. Lucky for me she allowed me to finish what I was doing before complying with the new marching orders.

banding for the mirror project

I cut out the banding and it didn't come out as good as I had hoped for. The strip on left doesn't line up exactly with the the one on the right. I've been trying to picture in my mind how I want to lay this out. I want the out of alignment to be as much in the back as possible. Nothing carved in stone yet because I still have to make the rabbet in the mirror carcass. I might not even use it now.

cleaned up stock for the perfume caddy(s)

look at the maple/purpleheart banding

I don't think I can use this banding I made. When I first took it out of the clamps it was just bowed. Now its about as straight as dog's hind leg. I can clamp it flat but I don't trust it to stay glued to it's neighbors. It's looking like I'll have to make another one.

top for the clock done

This is what I was working on when the bride came home. It has a 1 1/2" overhang on the sides and the front. I marked a point 1/4" down from the top and a 1/4" out from the sides and the front. I connected these two lines and that is the angle I cut the top to.  I like the look of this better than what a 45 looked like because I compared this to a scrap piece of pine with a 45 on it's edge.

I'm going to make the big plunge and fume the finish on my clock. Ammonia, face mask, and container are going to cost over $100. Since I am not a good finisher with dyes, etc., I'm going to try the fuming route. The only parts of the project that won't fume are the  plywood top and bottom.  I will have to stain at least the bottom piece of plywood.

The only problem I am have with the fuming is how much do I need? I haven't found anything yet except blurbs about putting the ammonia in trays.  I can't seem to find any ratio of ammonia to project size. FYI - ammonia isn't cheap.

the clock's back door and stiles

I took a white oak board and I cut it in half with my table saw. I didn't have a board wide enough to make the door in one piece, so I had to glue it up. The door and stiles are a tad over 5/16" of an inch which I think is more than sufficient for the back door. I'll smooth the door and glue line once it's out of the clamps.

I took today off from work and now the bride and I are going on a cemetery stone hunting trip. Oh goodie.

accidental woodworker

Lee Valley grip discs......

Yes this is another offering of dribble of my opinion of a new Lee Valley product and it all starts a while back. So first I will digress a tad before I jump in.

my stuff for grip discs....

I like to think that I am a clever guy who can solve a problem and save some money at the same time. I bought this shelf liner for a 1.99 and I was going to make my own grip discs. I was so optimistic about making them that I bought two of these shelf liners. This one is unused and the one I opened, I use as a sanding pad. I never got beyond the planning to make my own discs stage.

my disc making jig

This jig isn't my idea. When I was in the navy the pattern makers had a 24" diameter disc sander with a 100 lb cast iron jig that made discs from 2" diameter up to 18" diameter. It was awesome and made a perfect circle every time. My jig doesn't have the fancy radius limit it had but my jig works as is.

The block at the top limits the distance from the disc to the piece of wood to a 3" diameter. By moving the pivoting arm and repositioning the stop, you can get an infinite range of diameters. I first cut the piece of wood to it's rough diameter on the bandsaw. I  then screw it to the arm and move it into the sanding disc and spin it until it's round. It's almost error proof.

one disc all done

back side of the jig

With my jig you push the disc into the sanding disc and then you can  move the jig laterally. I don't recommend this because you could give the jig flying lessons if it hits the sanding disc rotation wrong. I speak from experience here. I now clamp the jig in place before I use it.

Lee Valley grip discs  p/n 88K5901

You get a package of 8 - 2 3/4" diameter, self adhering grip discs for 2.95. They have grippy stuff on one side and an adhesive applied to the other side. Simple and easy.  With a piece of scrap pine for the body my cost is about 40 cents a grip disc. You don't have to use pine. I used it because it was 3 1/2" wide and my discs have a 3" diameter.

peel and stick and you have a grip disc

side by side with my rockler grip disc

pretty much the same dimensions all around

the grip is as good as the rockler ones - I'm  pushing hard here

So you're wondering why I didn't use the shelf liner to make my discs? First it is a real chore cutting shelf liner into 3" circles without shredding and tearing the snot out of it (ie neatly). Secondly I couldn't find a glue that would stick the shelf liner to the disc and still keep the shelf liner grippy. The one I did find turned hard as a rock and the shelf liner had the gripping power of over cooked spaghetti. So I put the eight discs I had made aside and I forgot about them. Until I got the email from LV about new products.

For 2.95 for 8, plus s/h, these are a winner from LV. You can also get a sheet of this stuff and use your imagination as to what you can make with that. You could also buy the sheet and cutout your discs. This way you can customize the diameter you want.

The only point about these that I might have reservations about is that I don't have any longevity with them. My rockler discs are 2+ years old and are still as good as the day I bought them. Will I be able to say the same about the LV discs in 2+ years?  But at this price even if I have to replace a failed adhesive disc, it's cheaper than buying a ready made one.

If you don't want the pleasure of making your own discs, LV sells them ready made too.

accidental woodworker

I had to quit early.....

After work today I took the molding for the cherry cabinet out of the clamps and cleaned it up. It was a waste of calories because I didn't need it. The molding for the top and bottom of the cherry cabinet is attached to the bottom and top of the cabinet. This is so the plywood edge of the cherry plywood will be hidden. Kind of hard to hide a plywood edge on the bottom if the molding is applied to the front of the cabinet. I'm telling myself I made it as spare for the center molding.

I installed the hinges on my divider box next. I used my tite mark to set the bottom of the ramp at a about twice the thickness of one leaf. At the front I made the mortise a tad deeper than the thickness of one leaf. The gain slants down from the interior to the exterior. This was my interpretation of what Hayward said is shallow.

not shallow enough

I surface mounted the hinges to the lid. All the shallow work is being done on the box side. The two illustrations I have show the hinge installation this way. As you can see I still haven't nailed the british depth for shallow. I'll have to do a little more on this as that gap is unacceptable to me.

That's not going to happen tonight because the UPS guy rang the bell just as I was going to take the hinges off and do some more chisel work. It is so much nicer doing hinges now that I can sharpen a chisel properly.

This is what the UPS guy brought me.

new Graham Blackburn - 1st of 3

book 2 of 3

I can't play with hinges when I have some new books to read. I'll to pick up the hinge tomorrow, maybe.

accidental woodworker

heat and humidity continues.......

Today (monday) as I was driving home the temperature was 86 degrees. Along with the temp, the humidity was probably 86 on a scale of 0-100. Not what I consider ideal conditions to work in the shop under. However, comma, slant, backslash, to the workshop I went when I got home. Right after I fed the cats because I forgot to do it before I went to work.

Got to the shop and I realized that I have billion things that need to be done. But I'm casting a critical eye around to do something that isn't going to make me sweat. I started with making a molding for the cherry cabinet. Been  a while since I've done anything on that.

bottom molding for the cherry cabinet

extra clamps to help out

I've had these bessey corners clamps for 15+ plus years but I haven't used them much because I'm either brain dead when comes to figuring out how to use them or I cut crappy miters. According to the 45 on my combo square my miters are dead nuts on so I must be brain dead.

I could never seem to get the miters to fully close up. However that was until I added extra clamps when I made the mirror frame for my mirror project. The miters were ok without the extra clamps but you could see the difference once you draw them up (nice and tight heel to toe). From this point forward when I use these clamps again it's going to be as they are used now. I hate tools that just sit around and gather dust.

perfume caddy parts

This is everything I need (wood wise) to make the perfume caddy. If I play it right I might be able to get two of them out this. I bought a piece of 1/4"x4 purpleheart and a 3/8"x4 piece of maple at my local woodcraft. The two pieces were almost $20 dollars but it costs me two tanks of gas to go to New Hampshire and back. It was a no brainer for me - go to woodcraft. I sure wish that the purpleheart would stay this bright and not fade over time.

I glued a sandwich of maple and purpleheart together to make one the narrow bands for the caddy and I also changed my mind on the shape of caddy. I'm sticking with the overall shape (oval) but I'm changing where the two small circular cutouts are. Here they are basically straight across from each other. I'm going to raise one and lower the other so they are across the oval at a slant.

lid faux pas

I was a tad overly zealous in my trimming of the bridle joints on the lid. I had to add the filler strip here to make up for what I took off. The lid was short front to back by about 1/16" strong. When I hinge this lid I am going to make sure that this is at the back of the box.

little bit of character in the 1/8" plywood bottom

I was going to use some of my self adhesive blue velvet here but it's too big. I usually use the cardboard backs from 8x11 writing pads. This box is 8 5/8 x 12 1/2. My pad backs are too small and I don't have any cardboard anywhere near this big.  This is not carved in stone, yet.

tiny hinges

I'm going to try in put these unswaged hinges in like I tried on a box before. I re-read the Hayward blurb about installing these hinges and he writes that it should be a shallow mortise. That's it sports fans. Typical british understatement - shallow. Being a tad pig headed, I'm going to try and solve what the british say shallow is.

A&C dry assembled look

I was worried about this coming out right. The dial board is 9 1/4" square and the opening had to be the same. I nailed it pretty good left to right, but the top is about a 1/32 or less proud. Once I get the top screwed down, it'll be 9 1/4" square.

blocking for the dial board

I am up in the air about how to secure the dial board to the clock. I was thinking of screwing it to the blocking on the sides and the top. Or I can glue it to the blocking on the sides and the top. If I screw it on I have to apply the paper dial after it's in place. That could tricky and I could screw up a $30 piece of paper. If I apply the dial to the dial board before I mount it I'll have to glue it. This way would be a lot less stressful for me and if I use hide glue I can reverse it if need be.

And the winner is.....

accidental woodworker

Pats and Buffalo......

I got a few things done before kickoff but not a lot. I started a new project and did only one thing on a project that's been gathering dust lately. I took the A&C clock out of the clamps and put it in the boneyard because I'm running out of room in the workshop. I actually did something on a cabinet that I haven't touched in quite some time.

cherry cabinet - one divider glued in place - one more on the bottom

original base for the miniature chest

What do you do when you have all the irons in the fire? You add another one. I was looking at this and I thought I could squeeze another box that I don't need out of it. It's basically useless as is but now it's got a function. Since this box doesn't have a lot of depth to it I decided to make the interior with a lattice type divider thingie.

three across the long way first

I cut up some scrap that I tried to make a frame out of but screwed it up (I think it was the first base for the miniature chest). It's now all the dividers for the interior. I didn't measure for any of these dividers.  I walked all the measurements off with a couple pair of dividers.

add two more across the short side

final divider in the middle

I wanted to visually break this up by making it asymmetrical. The middle four openings are larger than the ones on the outside edges. The two large openings are twice one of the middle ones. Using dividers beats the snot out of trying to measure and mark all of this.

I had to make the middle divider twice because the first one I made I cut one of the slots the wrong side to the line. It fit but I didn't think the huge gap fit in with the overall look. I'm glad that I cut a few extra pieces for just in case.

frame lid parts

This is a lightweight frame that is going to be the lid for this box. The stiles and rails are 3/4" x 1/2". The center groove is for a piece of 1/8" ply that is going to be the panel.

bridle joint

This bridle joint isn't all that big. My first thoughts were to make a half lap at the corners. I went with the bridle joint because I think it'll be stronger. There is going to be a hole on the ends where I made the groove for the 1/8 ply. I'm going to plug them with some scrap walnut. I wanted to use padauk but the scrap I have is too small and I don't want to cut into my newly planed padauk board.

almost ready for the next step

 The lid is done. I trimmed the plugs and ran my block plane over the joints to even everything up. I am not going to glue the dividers until I'm done with the box. Haven't decided whether or not to use this as a small parts box or a jewelry box.  A jewelry box (too plain)  is a stretch so maybe it could be used as a collection box. Like for the bride's button collection.

I got all the weights on the bottom of the box because I didn't want to use any nails/screws on it.  I'm going to rely on the glue joint alone. It'll be all cooked come tomorrow.

One last note on dividers. They should give it's inventor a national holiday. I can not even begin to explain how easy it was to lay out the grid pattern for the dividers. It took a few trys at the begining to get the steps to be even but once that's done you're golden. FYI - once you have this don't change it.

I used one pair of dividers for the short side and one for the long side. All the spaces are based on the first even steps I made for each side. It especially pays dividends when you are inserting these crossing pieces. Sir Chris wrote about this dividing thing in his new book. If I had tried to measure this I know that it would not have come as nice as this one did. Give dividers and a sector a try - you'll shitcan your measuring stick.

accidental woodworker

hot, humid, and yes it sucks.......

I think this is the third day of autumn but here in New England we call this indian summer. I call it sucky weather because it's hard to woodwork when you're sweating all over your project. This is the kind of weather where blinking your eyelids will cause a flood of sweat to cascade down your forehead. It just sucks.

I did get three things done today in spite of the sucky weather. I squeezed my planing in because the sun came out in spite of the weather man's prediction of 100% rain. I did some work on the mirror project and I started to glue up the Arts & Crafts clock.

double rabbet - the lower one for the mirror - upper one for the plywood back

plywood back - this really stiffens the frame a lot

I bought a pair of mirror swivels but I don't like them. Its going to be a little tricky installing them (precise measurement between posts) and I don't want any mistakes at this point in the game. I'm going to use mirror swivels I have used in the past. I know how to install these and there won't be any tricky measurement surprises with these.

dry fit of the clock sans the top

I used biscuits for the top and bottom on the clock interior mostly for alignment purposes. The bottom shelf also got pocket hole screws. I didn't have a drill bit long enough to use the pocket hole as a guide to drill pilot holes for the screws. I had to mark them and drill them at my best guess-ta-mation of the angle.

right side cooking

both sides cooking

I am going to let this cook overnight and hopefully tomorrow this sucky humidity will be gone.

padauk

I didn't realize it until I got done planing that this is board is quarter sawn. That aside, I was able to plane out all the blow outs and still maintain the thickness I wanted.

Grain runs up and down - qtr sawn in my book

walnut - the other side has sap showing on the two outside edges

I didn't get lucky with the walnut. This is plain sawn which isn't supposed to be glued with qtr sawn stock because of difference wood movement between them. Well I have done this sin in the past and I haven't seen or gotten any complaints about it. I don't think that with the small project I have planned for this stock I shouldn't have any problems.

accidental woodworker

a little crisis mgmt.....

After work today I wanted to figure out where the slot for the pendulum on the clock should be. The clock I had ordered was broken when I took it out of it's package. It is a useless $55.90 pile of plastic and bits of wire. Seeing this I shifted into my screaming mode following up with a string of my best expletives. Once I vented I went online to find out where I bought the clock from.

I'm thinking I'm screwed. I had ordered this around the first of the month and I've had it for a couple of weeks now. I'm thinking I'm the poster boy for caveat emptor. I find out who and I find the phone number and I then listened to the your important to me crappola recording for 20 minutes. I gave up on that and left a voice mail with my number.

Can we say wow together? Someone named Mike called me back about ten minutes later. I tell him my tale of woe and he tells me he wants the order # and the part #. I have neither of them. They are both at work and he tells me call again when I have that info. Now I'm thinking someone has got hold of my hair and is lining me up for the swift one to the playground. Lucky me I find a copy of the receipt in the paper recycling so I call again and this time I was ready to leave another voice mail.
 
However, this time I get through to Mike on the first call. I explained the problem again (short memory) and he gave me a RMA so I can return the broken clock. Not what I expected. I really thought I was going to eat $55.90. All my crisis management was for naught. (fancy word meaning nothing)

I cooled down and got my BP under control and headed for the workshop to do some work on the clock.

back side of the dial board

Before I ship the clock off I tried it in the dial board and found out it's too thin. To bring it up to snuff I glued this scrap piece of pine in place. The block plane is just the being used as a weight while the glue cooks.

bottom of the clock interior

I didn't forget to cut the slot for the pendulum. This slot is about 2" longer than it should be. I stopped believing what the movement pendulum swing in the literature states. I also glued the lower rail on too. This part is done. The top needs some slots and the width cut some but that comes later.

side assemblies

 The hide glue scraped off without any problems. I am thinking of trying ammonia to fume the finish on this project. It'll be pricey - a mask/cartridge is about $50 (a must for working with ammonia), and the ammonia with s/h is about $45. I haven priced a big plastic container to fume the clock in yet. I'll do that tomorrow at Walmart. So before I can even start it I've dropped a c note without blinking.

walnut and padauk

Just in case I can use my planer tomorrow, I one squared rough pieces of walnut and padauk. Of the two, I thought the padauk would be the hardest one to do. Nay nay I say moose breath. The walnut gave me more fits then the padauk. The padauk blew out more when I went across the grain than the walnut but smoothed with the 4 1/2 a lot sweeter. This side of the padauk is almost as slick/smooth as a piece of glass. You can also see the difference in the pile of chips - more walnut than padauk.

I'm going to use these two for the perfume caddy. The cherry for it is already 4S and all I need is a piece of maple.

accidental woodworker

new obsession and a little clock work.....

In my cabinet that I hold all my measurement type toys I have a 2 foot 4 fold rule. It's actually an interesting rule. It'll measure in 16th's, 12th's, 10th's, and 8th's of an inch. I got it back in my Roy Underhill give me an axe and I can make everything I need from the house to live in to the furniture to sit on. I have never used it much and I haven't used in the past 15 years at all. I find it clumsy to use and I don't like to measure if I can avoid it.

The rule is not the actual object of my current obsession. It's the hinge that allows the rule to open up 180 degrees. I can't find one of these hinges anywhere. I spent my entire lunchtime searching the WWW trying to find a maker with no luck. I even searched the WWW in Europe with the same results.

Why do I want this hinge? I want to make a sector. Since I try to get all my measurements for what I need by direct read/mark, a sector is the perfect tool for me. I have been using dividers more and more and I love them. It's a bit of trial and error stepping it out but the sector should help alleviate a lot of that crap.

the famous folding rule joint hinge

the blade is captured on both sides by metal - some hinges don't use this method

The blade is tad less than 3/16" and the tenon that fits in the metal mortise is a tad less 1/8". Each tenon is pinned with 3 metal pins.

I did find someone on the web that will accept some machining jobs like this. After I emailed him I noticed at the bottom of the web page - Not accepting any new work due to an injury. I'll have to search some someone else. Why do I want this hinge? So the sector I'll make will have the both of the arms in the same plane. Now I have one on top of the other.

On  to the clock as there is nothing more I can do about the hinge except obsess. I took the side assemblies out of clamps and saw that I needed to do some clean up. On both the front and back sides.

one side assembly clamped and ready to scrape

I bought this benchcraft carbide tipped glue scraper last year. I initially choked a little at the price but after having it and using for over a year, I wouldn't be without it. This is an awesome glue scraper. It giggles at dried up clumps of glue and plows right through them. Add to that it doubles as a pretty damn good small scraper too. I would marry it if it wasn't an animate object.

one swipe and nice wispy shavings

I did the backsides with my jack

misread the grain direction

There is a little blowout on the stile down towards the end. I don't know how to fix this. For now I plan on putting this so it's in the back. Why does it always happens on show side?

glue up for the dial board

I'm using my saw's fence to keep the board and the frame even while I put a couple of brads in it.

dial board glued, clamped, and cooking

The wood with the blue tape is labeling what goes where. If I do this right when it comes time to glue it up, I'll ignore it and screw it up. I don't think that will happen because I have to make a few cuts in the top and bottom. The bottom is getting a slot for the pendulum. The top is getting a few small slot for screws so I can secure the top piece. Another clue I hope I pay attention to is the fact that the bottom piece will have the lower curved rail glued to it.

Supposed to rain all weekend here in RI so I won't be able to plane some boards. I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze it in because it's not supposed to be a continuous down pour.

accidental woodworker