almost done with racks 4 & 5......

I'm chugging along with racks #4 & #5 and I'm approaching the spot to grab  the brass ring. It is beginning to look like I'll be finishing this weekend for sure.

#5 ready for the sides to be glued on

#5 glued & cooking

cleaning up #4

#4 rack was made with some left over walnut that wasn't exactly very straight. It wasn't too bad once I cut it into 1.5" strips. I was able to remove most of it when I glued the outside pieces to the leg assemble. I used the #3 to level things out. The only spot I couldn't get was by the brass pins. I didn't want to chance hitting them with the plane. I will have to try and feather out that area when I sand it.

Next up on the hit parade is sanding. That rates right up there with my ultimate desire to have a third eye in the middle of my forehead. Have you ever wondered how the old guys would have prepped the surface for the finish on these racks? I would pay cash american to have a book showing that step by step.

It looks like starting tomorrow after work I've got some sanding to do. Or I could start another project.

accidental woodworker

done.....

I'm calling this shaker stool done. I've got two coats of seal coat shellac, one primer coat, and 4 top coats on it. And you can still see a little bit of the white primer coat showing through. Incredibly annoying sports fans. I am giving this to daughter #2 and she likes brownish colors not red. So I anticipate this being painted one more time.

I'm hoping this is too red

back view

you can see where I wiped the dust off the stool

This is stool is all dovetailed. The steps are dovetailed to into the sides. The front stretchers and  the rear stretcher, are all dovetailed in place. The back stretcher is further secured with 1x miller dowels. I did a pretty good on the dovetails and I go and cover them up with paint.

I'm ok with this. To me dovetails are just another woodworking joint to master.  I do like to show them off but in this case, I didn't. The dovetails in this project were used to provide strength in keeping this stool together each and every time it's used.

I have seen a lot of shaker stools at the 3 shaker villages I have visited. Most of them were painted. I can recall only seeing two that were left natural and those two were pine. Of the painted ones I saw, you can make out the faint outlines of the dovetails. One stool was made with butt joints and maybe rabbets but the staff wouldn't let me hold the stool so I could see for sure. Just about every one showed nails used somewhere on them. (Not all the stools were in the style I made.)

The old shaker craftsman who made these stools weren't showing off. They used dovetails because they are a good joint for joining wood at 90 degrees. With glue and some nails they are very strong. To these craftsman using the dovetail was one joint in their woodworking arsenal. They used what in the judgement was the best joint for the application.

I did the same thing with my shaker stool. I used dovetails because I think they are the best choice for this application. The dovetails were used to build the stool and give it integrity. Hiding them under paint does not take away anything from them. They were used in the same way I would use a mortise and tenon joint to make a door frame.

I am going to make another stool. It will be pine and the finish will be clear or garnet shellac. The dovetails will be seen and won't be covered by paint. Why? I want to show off.

accidental woodworker

rack saga continues......

I'm in the home stretch on the last two racks of five. Depending on how well they are received as gifts for xmas; that will drive whether I make more of them. I might make one more for my use irregardless of what the outcome on the 25th is.

time to clean the miters and flush the splines

 I used my japanese dovetail saw to saw off most of the protruding spines. It's the about the only use that it gets. I just can't seem to get used to the pull stroke cutting. Then I put my block plane to work doing the rest of the clean up.

#3 cleaning up the outside of the miters

I switched over to using my #3 part way through the cleanup. I am reaching for this more than my block plane lately. I only did two spline/miter flushings with the block plane and I used the #3 for the rest of cleanup. I feel like I have more control over what I am doing with the #3 then the block plane.

hack sawing off most of the waste pins

I was a little surprised by how much the blue tape kept the excess epoxy off the wood. The tape and epoxy lifted off without a problem. Only one pin had a large blob of epoxy on the tape and I had to use a chisel to get rid of it. But there wasn't any epoxy on the wood underneath the tape there.

some file action to level off the pins

I don't bring the pins dead nuts flush with the wood. I leave them a tad proud so that when I do the final sanding I'll bring them and the wood  flush at the same time.

epoxied the pins in rack #5

rack #4 cooking

sneak preview of the dry fit on rack #4

sneak preview of the dry fit on rack #5

I tried something on rack #5 that I hadn't done before. I tried to get the grain to run continuously from one end to the other. I cut all my miters from the left side. I don't flip the piece and cut the next miter from the right side. So I have to mark the miter onto the opposite side and then cut it. An extra step that I have to pay attention to in order to get the miters flowing. I did this w/o any hiccups.

I got the desired result on the far side but the near side I mind farted. I had carefully labeled the miters (on the face) so that I could put them together in the correct order. I paid attention to that with the far side but on the near side I didn't look at the labels. I just glued them and clamped it. And I did it wrong.

I picked this piece of oak because it was the only one (at Lowe's) that showed some grain and dark color streaks. It would be easy to allow the grain to flow around the miters from end to end. Oh well there is always the next rack to try and not screw it up on. Maybe I should come up with a better labeling system. Like one that slaps me when I mind fart.

size comparison of racks 4 & 5

The miters on these two racks are a lot better then any of the first three. They are tight and have no gaps and they are dead nuts square. I like the look of these splines and I like them more then splines across the miter. If I use splines across the miter again,  I am going to use fake dovetails of a contrasting color.

I can't drag my feet on these because before I know it xmas will be here. My plan is to sand them up 180 grit. Then I'll apply the finish (shellac looks good right now) on all 5 at the same time. I'm shooting for doing that this weekend. Or maybe I can do BLO and shellac for a finish......

Then I can start on my next project which is going to be.....

accidental woodworker

2 more.......

I got up at oh dark thirty and at oh dark 45 I was at Lowe's waiting for the door to open. I forgot that on sunday they open at 7 and not 6. After stewing and fidgeting for eons they finally opened the doors and I was able to get my piece of oak. I also snagged a 2 x 4 piece of birch plywood for my next project too.

The price for my one board foot piece of oak was 6 and big change. It really isn't that bad when you consider that it's S4S and ready to use. It's about a 1.75 more a BF than what I would pay at Highlands. But it wouldn't be S4S. Highlands only does S2S and S3S is extra.

used my 4 1/2 to plane it to the thickness of the oak

splines all fitted and ready to glue up

splines from scraps

 I set my tite mark just a tad wider than I needed. I scored both sides as deep as I could and I just snapped the piece off. A couple of swipes over my block plane to remove the roughness and I checked the fit. I repeated this until I had all the splines snapped, planed, and fitted.

ready to glue and epoxy

using my wagon vise to hold the leg

I epoxied one leg on first. Epoxy has one good point for using it - you don't need to clamp the snot out of it. While this first leg was curing I did the glue up on the miters and the splines. By the time I did that, the epoxy was set on this leg so I then epoxied the other one.

cooking away

Same as the last ones. Size the joint, glue in the splines, clamp it both ways and set it aside to cook.

miters/splines done - epoxy the other leg

rack #4

I found an easy way to cut the 1/8" brass pins. Easy for me. I score it with a triangular file and then snap it off. Too difficult to hold the wire and use a hack saw (I don't have a machinist's vise) and using my slip joint pliers is a little too much for them. Filing a notch is quicker than the last two methods. (see the hacksaw? hard to hold the rod and saw at the same time)

all the pins epoxied in place

I thought I was going to get racks #4 & #5 glued up today but I stopped here. I still have to do the brass pin dance with rack #5. And both racks still need the two outside pieces glued to the center pieces. Then I'll have to sand them and get them ready for the finish. Probably shellac because I can get multiple coats on in one day. Not happening today.

I think I'm going to go and make an impression of my butt on the couch cushions and watch some football.

accidental woodworker

making some progress.......

Post #2 for today. I did 2 posts yesterday also. I think that from now on that I am going to post separately on each project I'm doing rather than one big entry with multiple projects. I haven't seen any rules saying I can't do more then one post a day anywhere.

I did some work on cabinet #6 which I think I started back in june? I think this is the longest I have ever taken to finish a project. I can't think of any other project that took anywhere near this long to complete.

needs drawer fronts

I posted a pic of this a few blogs back but it was on the poor side. This shows the space on the sides of the bottom big drawer. This drawer rides on two strips of white oak that provide wear resistance for the sides and bottom of the drawer. Might be over kill but I didn't want the drawer dragging on the sides and bottom of the plywood carcass.

shelf pins and cups

I got these pins and cups from Lee Valley. The cups are nicely made brass sleeves. They have two bevels on them. One on the outside aids in inserting into the hole and the other on the inside aids in inserting the pin into the cup. They are a little larger than want I am used to using. I won't have to worry about these carrying their weight.

drilling guide

I drilled the holes for the guide on my drill press to ensure that they were straight. I used a stop collar on the bit to drill to the proper depth for the cups. I have made too many dutchmans because I drilled to deep. I bought this set of the collars from Lee Valley when I bought the pins and cups.

shelf trimmed and fitted

I was originally going to put in 5 shelf positions. That got knocked down to 4 because I lost one of the cups(3 per shelf doesn't work). After I got the guide in place I changed my mind and eliminated the top and bottom positions which left me with 3 adjustments for the shelf.

bead board back

I have had this cherry bead board since I mess cooked on the ark with Noah. I am finally putting it to use. This side has a center bead and the back side doesn't. I like the center bead and this is side that you'll see. I don't mind the color difference caused by the sapwood. I like it and I usually don't try to hide it.

sneak preview

I have some cherry knobs for the door and drawers. That will complete the all cherry look for this cabinet. The only non cherry used is the pine for the drawers.

I'm pretty sure that this will end up in the bone yard with the pine and poplar cabinets which are lonely and need company.

accidental woodworker

more racks.....

I'm still a little jazzed about the 3 racks I already made. I don't want to come across like I am a superior being and the I Can Do That project is crap because it isn't. These projects are geared toward someone who has a limited tool set and relies on the home center for his wood.

30 or so years ago I would have done the project as is and wouldn't have questioned anything. I wouldn't have thought that maybe I could make it better. 30 years on I can say that I think I can do this a better way.  And I can back it up with a mixture of woodworking skill and experience gained from OJT/mistakes/making sawdust and lots of reading .

All that I've done is take a good project idea and bring it up to my level of woodworking. I just did a little improving here and there. I can do it with this but I couldn't do it with a chippendale highboy. It's going to be a little while before I say "I think I can improve on this by doing ......".

I got the cleaning done to the point where I could see things I hadn't seen for a while and I found some suitable scraps of wood. There was just enough to make one more rack and the leg assembly of another one. I'll go to Lowe's and buy a piece of oak to finish that one. Just like the plan says to do.

rack #5 - incomplete

The center piece is going to be padauk with the rest of the rack being oak. All the other racks have a center piece that's about 11" long. This one is only 8". I am going to make this one and take it to work and use it as a book rack. I'll shorten the uprights a little too to keep the scale right.

rack #4

I had plenty of two species to make this rack. It's padauk and walnut with 1/8" plywood for the splines. The padauk I had to plane with my #7 hand plane to match the thickness of the walnut.

It was a real chore cutting the splines slots across the face of the miters. The tilt ways on my table saw were all gunked up and at first I could not get the saw to tilt to 45 degrees. I had just cleaned the shop so I extended it to include cleaning the ways on the table saw. Gunked up sawdust is pretty damn close to being as hard as cement.

That side trip took almost an hour to resolve. At first I tried to do it with the blade installed but I removed it after it took a chunk of flesh out of my pinkie. Finally got it cleaned/fixed/set and found out that my electronic angle display thingie is a complete piece of crappola. I initially set the angle with that contraption and just to be sure I checked it with my artist 45 triangle. Yes sports fans, the electronic display was toast. That was a well spent 30 dollars I'll never get back.

I wanted to do the splines across the face of the miters because I think it is easier to glue them up and keep them square. I also think it's a stronger joint then splines across the miter but that's just my opinion.

sizing the miters before gluing in the splines

one side done-checked for square-set aside to cook

other side done and cooking away

I glued these up with white glue and I probably could have played with them in a couple of hours. I'm going to wait until tomorrow (sunday) and give them 24 hours to set up.

getting ready to do the leg assembly

I'm using epoxy as the "glue" this time. I am not going to rely on the epoxy alone as I intend to epoxy some 1/8" brass pins in here also. This is 5 minute epoxy but I am going to wait until tomorrow to epoxy the pins in. I'm hoping that the epoxy will give a better bond between the face/end grain connection then hide/white/yellow glue would.

epoxy cooking on the second part

The blue tape is used to contain any epoxy that might seep out but mostly I used it to guide me on where to position the center piece.I let this set for an hour and then tried to break it (yes I'm an idiot) and it held. I didn't whack it with a hammer, I just tried to gently pry it off. I did it the same way I inadvertently broke off the legs on racks #2 & #3.

I should be able to finish these two on sunday. Then I'll have five of them to finish all at once. My least favorite part of making any project.

accidental woodworker

my clean shop.......

I spent the first part of my day on saturday cleaning up the shop. Other then sweeping now and then I haven't really been a good boy about tidying things up. I had to do it today because I couldn't find a few tools and toys. It involved a whole lot more than sweeping.  This is the shop cleaned up.

what I see first when I go into my shop - clean!

looking from the "bench area" to the other end of the phone booth

I can see my clamps now

I have a bench

two garbage pails of wood scraps out - this is what's left

bad pic looking from the table saw to the bench area

I was going to continue this blog post with what I did after the clean up but I changed my mind. I am going to post that separately. Anyway this my shop, cleaned and ready to make more sawdust. I still haven't managed to find a place for everything as every horizontal surface has something on it. Maybe next year I'll tackle that.

accidental woodworker

a little clean up .......

On thanksgiving morning I glued up the final drawer I needed for cabinet #6. This cabinet has been languishing on my saw bench for months unfinished. I had a little hiccup with the glue up for this drawer and it started with a piece of plywood that was warped.

The plywood warped because I let it sit unused for over a week. Being stubborn, stupid, and too cheap to buy another piece, I used it. It was working until I had to take the drawer apart for the third time to trim a little more.I think the stress of putting the ply in/out and the fact that I whacked it a little too hard taking it apart caused the break. I didn't even notice the break until I put it back together

I didn't get lucky because the break happened on the side. If it had been on the long side (the front or back) I could have just left it off. It broke cleanly at the top of the groove for the plywood. I could have left the plywood long and just nailed it to the broken end. Needless to say I wasn't lucky here in that regard.

this is the warmest spot in my shop

glued solid

That line at the top isn't grain, it's the glue line. I glued the piece back on to the pine and the plywood bottom. I then used my #3 smoother to plane it flush to the side.

The plywood I used for the bottom wasn't metric, it was 3/16" thick. A surprise for me. I'm used to the 4mm crap that I get from Lowe's or Home Depot.

drawer fitted and the shavings

The gap on the sides of the drawer is deliberate. There are two pieces of 1/16" thick white oak on both sides and the bottom. I did this so the drawer will ride on the oak rather the plywood of the carcass.

I have to get a piece of cherry for the drawer front, drill some holes for the shelf pins, trim the shelf to fit,  hang the door, put in the glass, install the cherry knobs, sand/scrape, apply the finish, and cabinet #6 will finally be done. I don't think it'll happen this year, but next year looks good.

rack #1  all padauk

rack #2  all walnut

rack #3  padauk/walnut

My overall impression of this project is favorable. I would not make and use it based on the way it is made in the I can do that project instructions. The joints definitely can benefit from some type of mechanical connection. Be it biscuits, screws, metal pins, or epoxy rather than hide/white/yellow glue. I just don't see them surviving no matter how long you let the joint cure.

I would also go the extra mile and reinforce the miters too. Maybe not to the extreme I did mine (about 1" + splines) but something.  Splines done across or with the miter face or maybe dovetail keys will do nicely. There is going to some weight put on the end uprights from the cd/dvds or books if you use it that way. I don't see the miters holding up to that kind of use.

I liked the idea of gluing the miters with the packing tape. It doesn't take a lot to keep and hold the miter in place. For me I pulled a little too much at the top because the miters opened a tad at the toes on both racks #2 and #3. I don't think anyone else would notice that - my bride, daughter #2 and future son in law didn't - another woodworker would see it instantaneously.Why? Because that's what we zero in on.

I've got these lightly sanded and I don't think I'll progress through too many more grits. A couple of coats of wipe on poly and some wax crayon to fill a couple of toe gaps and I'll call them done.

accidental woodworker

twas the day after....

I didn't walk into work today, I waddled. I got into an eating contest with daughter #2. I lost. She pulled way ahead with the pie/whipped cream/ice cream. I shoved so much food into the pie hole I got a cramp in my arm. Never again - until maybe next thanksgiving.

I did do some woodworking the first thing in the morning. I glued up the CD/DVD racks and showed them off to the bride once they were set. She like them and thought they were modern looking. She said it is a style I don't make a lot of projects in and I agree with her. I don't like modern but I like these racks.

I'll have pics on tomorrow's post. Today I have to rest up and digest what I ate yesterday. I hope that all had as good a time with family and friends yesterday as I did.

accidental woodworker

Since October of 1863......

The 16th president of the United States (and my favorite president) proclaimed in October of 1863 that the 4th Thursday in November shall be a day of thanksgiving. He did this while the nation was embroiled in a civil war that ran on for another 6 months after the proclamation.

It's easy to forget what the purpose of this day is and get all wrapped in family and gouging yourself on turkey and all the trimmings. It's easy to just let the meaning slide and heap more whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. We'll watch the ubiquitous Cowboy and whoever football game and up in the north here, nobody really cares who wins or loses. Unless you're a displaced texan.

At my house we'll sit down to dinner by first holding hands and forming a circle. The youngest will say grace before we eat.  Most of us, me leading the pack, will eat too much and we'll have to rest up before we attack dessert. For this unique American (Canada has thanksgiving in October) experience I give thanks that I am able to do it. I give thanks that my family is here today and that we are healthy. My thoughts go out to all those who have none of this.

To all who read this dribble - I wish you a happy Thanksgiving day and an extra notch in your belt for the after the meal wiggle room. If you have the time look up Abe's proclamation and read what he wrote.

accidental woodworker

updated version coming.......

I went ahead and did it all. I put splines in the miters and metal pins in the leg assemblies. I probably could have gotten away without the splines in the miters but I figured since I was doing the legs I might as well do the splines.

spline jig

I had a jig similar to this one but I threw it out because I thought I wouldn't need it again. Famous last words that came back to bite me on the butt. This jig I threw together with a piece of plywood and piece of pine leftover from the mirror project.  I didn't have to use it more than few minutes, so it's not that fancy. And I probably won't need it again. Didn't I just write that?

#1 rack

I used brass pins on this rack. Both of these legs remained glued to the horizontal piece. I used epoxy to glue the 1/8" brass pins into the legs. It wasn't a problem pounding the pins into the legs. They didn't even whimper. I think they stayed glued becasue this is quarter sawn padauk.

racks #2 & #3

The front rack has aluminum pins in it and the one in the back has brass. I could have used brass for all of the leg assemblies, but I wanted to see what the difference would be between the brass/aluminum pins. The aluminum pins went in without bending or screaming (wasn't expecting that). Used epoxy on all of these pins also.

Both of these racks had one leg that didn't stay glued to the horizontal piece. Even with sizing the joint it still wasn't able to get and maintain a good glue bond. I wonder how it would have been if I had used epoxy? I might have to glue some scraps together to see how it fares.

Ouch!

I asked this center padauk spline to be seated repeatedly. In the end I had to beat the snot out of it. This is the only spline that gave me a hard time. I hope I didn't beat it into submission beyond the spline slot. I'll find out tomorrow.

for racks #1 & #2

I decided to go for contrast on the splines as you can see. I was thinking that if I'm expending the calories to make these splines, I might as well show them off.

these are for rack #3

I made a me-steak on this rack. I wanted the center piece to be padauk (pic #3 rack in the back) but it ended up being walnut. Wasn't paying attention when I put the feet together on that one. No one is going to know that I didn't plan it this way so I'm not losing any sleep over this.

I am going to make a few more of these because I want at least two of them for me. I will do them the way I did these. If I don't have any pins, one of my original thoughts was to use a biscuit. Like a #0 or a #10. Even if I over shoot the slot for the biscuit, the two outside pieces will hide it.

This is a good project to make with pieces from the scrap bin.

accidental woodworker