daughter #2's mirror.......

Since I dislike finishing and I will readily do anything else from picking belly button lint from my navel to watching water  evaporate from a glass, I started my daughter's mirror. Mirror ideas have been banging around in the brain bucket all the while I was making the bookcase. My initial thought was to make one like I made for daughter #1 but a new design crystallized over the past few days and I changed my mind.

I did a little looking around on the internet and I wasn't impressed with what I saw or the prices. Most of the cheval mirrors I saw were dated with the same design no matter what the flavor was, be it colonial looking to modern crappy.  I didn't see one round top mirror like I built for daughter #1 (here).

I bought a 2x6 so I could use it make patterns and see just how crappy my design was. I want this cheval style mirror to be a little on the modern side. It's going to be dyed ebony because I have already been told that that will be the color. The design of it has been left up to me. I would have liked it to have a round top but I can't see that as being modernist looking.

my foot design

This is design #2. #1 looked almost exactly like this but this one I got rid of all the rounded parts. I had rounded off both the front and rear of the foot. The bottom cutout was rounded also. I cut them off and made the ends angular and I did the same with the bottom. The angle of the start of the  cutout matches the end of the foot.  The bottom cutout is parallel to the deck and I'm thinking of raising it and making it rise slightly from the rear to the front by 3/8" to 1/2".

Both the rear and front angles are a tad different. I wasn't clever with this, it just turned out that way.  The top slope is square and parallel with the floor but that's changing. I want the upright to tilt backwards a couple of degrees. I think it'll be easier for me to make an angled mortise rather then making angled cheek cuts. That part of the build is still up in the air.

the upright

I made a slanted cut on the front and back of the upright. The back one is twice what the front one is. At the top I made a couple of angled cuts to finish off that. These I drew with a ruler and what looked ok to my eye.  The height of this could change but I picked what looked good to me.

design #1

I am not ecstatic about this but I'm not unhappy with it neither. I like the upright and the slight tilt of it a lot. That part will be staying. The foot is what isn't giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I am planning on putting a chamfer on all the outside edges of the foot and upright. I would like for it to flow from the foot right into and up the upright but I can't see it. I may have to mortise this into the leg and do that detail so I can see it.

For now I'll set it so that I see it as I put the finish on the bookcase.  Maybe some more inspiration will smack me upside the head as I apply it.

accidental woodworker

new old cross cut saw.......

A couple of moons ago I bought 3 panel saws from Timeless Treasures for $50. All 3 were crosscut saws with two being 8 TPI and the smallest one of the lot being 11 TPI. I'm no expert on saws but I do recognize the the name Groves as being a pretty good saw maker and I have 2 of them. The 11 TPI one doesn't have an etch or a medallion. I have no idea who made this one. I had bought these to put into my traveling tool box that I haven't made yet.

new old saw

I am going to put a new tote on this saw. The original one had a broken tote that I couldn't fix. I had found 3 saw totes in an antique mall for $6. Two of them didn't have saw nuts but the one I'm using here did.

original tote and saw nuts

break in a bad spot

This break is old and goes almost all the way through the tote from this side to the other. The break is as dirty as the rest of the tote, so I think it's been this way for quite a while. I couldn't clamp this break and close it up. I'm going to hang on to this tote to use as a pattern. These old totes have a character and class that the plastic crap of today's saws sorely lack.

how big to make the hole?

There are 2 measurements to make here. The post part that the threaded portion screws into and the smaller threaded portion. The post portions are buried in the tote so the threaded portion of the saw nut is the what I have to make a hole in the saw plate for.

center punching my holes

I put the replacement saw tote on the saw plate and marked my holes with a black sharpie.  I even tried to saw a piece of pine with it first to get a feel for the position of the tote on the saw plate.

filing off the backside burr

Drilling out these holes was a bear to do. The first bit I used did absolutely nothing (brand new bit too!). It wouldn't bite and it wouldn't advance neither. I had to use another bit and my jojoba oil as a lubricant to drill my holes. This saw plate was one tough mother to drill. I used 3 drill bits of increasing size until my hole was big enough to pass the threaded portion of the saw nut through it.

medallion side of the tote

opposite side

road test in pine first then poplar

I had Rob from Logan's Cabinet Shoppe sharpen this for sawing pine. It sailed through this scrap pine without a whimper. The poplar was a different story, the saw plate kept binding in the kerf as I sawed it.

poplar on top - pine on the bottom

Pretty good plumb cuts compared to what I was making  last month. I think it pays to not over analyze my saw mechanics and just saw away.

This saw is ready to saw away on any pine I throw it's way. I still have to refinish the tote with some BLO and then a couple of coats of shellac. I'll try and do that this weekend if I don't forget it.

my second 8TPI xcut waiting to be restored

a little kink at the toe  but otherwise the plate is straight and flat

My take on the nibs on the top of saw plate at the toe is this: I think it is for decoration and nothing else. Given a choice, I would prefer not to have one at all. This may get filed off if it doesn't break first.

11 TPI xcut

This is the runt of the lot I got and it is sharp enough to cut scrap oak and poplar. However, there are more than a few teeth that aren't at the same height. It could definitely use a re-toothing to even things out and a sharpening.  I'll be sending these out to Rob one at time as soon as the saw sharpening section of the sock drawer fills up with some coin.

Fed Ex delivered

Sandy still hasn't introduced herself. According to the weather guys she'll do that around 1:00 am on tuesday. I'm ready for her. I had to clean my gutters out again because they were overflowing with leaves. The wind hasn't reached it's maximum yet and I already lost 2 good sized tree limbs. I've got them and a bunch of smaller ones in a pile by the back fence. After the storm passes I'll cut them up and give them to my next door neighbor who burns them.

I've got my finish and once I get it on the bookcase, I'll post some pics of the finished piece.

accidental woodworker

99 & 44/100 % done.......

Like the percentage Ivory soap is pure, my bookcase project is that complete. In spite of hurricane Sandy or hybrid Sandy bearing down on me, I'm almost done. In addition to being almost done I also got some prep work done for Sandy.

I spent a couple of hours in the yard clearing up all the debris I could pick up. I stowed all the lawn and gardening equipment along with the lawn furniture in the garage. The last thing I did was to check and clean out the gutter downspouts.

Got a surprise there as all four of the downspouts were clogged shut. The downspout where I got my flooding was the worse one. I checked this one when it was raining and water was coming out so I assumed it was clear. This explains why with a gentle rain I didn't flood the workshop. With a deluge the water couldn't seep through the blockage and it over flowed the gutter and into my workshop.

I'm as ready as I can be for the storm. It's supposed to go ashore in New Jersey but even though I am on the outer fringe of the storm there are predictions of localized flooding and wind damage. As long as fed ex still delivers my finish I'll be ok. And if I lose power I'll light some candles and do some  hand tool woodworking.

batting cleanup

I took the base out of the clamps and started to flush up the pins and tails.  I am trying something new with my cleanup. I'm using my 1" chisel to knock off most of the proud first. With a sharp chisel and swiveling the the corner of it,  I can do this pretty quickly.

LN 102 after the chiseling to smooth everything out

layout lines for the chamfer

starting at the corners

I am using my small block plane to get the chamfer going at the corners. I don't want to blow out the corners so I'm doing both of them first. The rest of the chamfer I don't have to worry about this but I''ll have to pay attention to the grain.

both corners done

switched to my big block plane to complete the chamfers

done

It took me less than 10 minutes to do these chamfers. Most of that time was spent doing the corners. The straight run on the front and sides were done quickly. What I like most about doing this by hand is that I'm not tied down to a 45 degree chamfer from a router bit.

parallel bars

I want the bookcase to be put on the base so that I have 1/8" lip on the front. That means the the support blocks have to be 5/8" shy of the top of the base. That's where these parallel machinists bars come in handy. I don't have to measure each corner, I just use these.

 I didn't forget that I had these, they're a pain in the butt to get to where I have them stowed. I have 2 each of 1/2" up to 1 5/8". Each is 1/8" thick x "x wide" x 6" long. The width increases by an 1/8" with each successive bar. They were handy for this.

back base supports

A got in a little practice sawing out the back braces. I laid out my knife lines and I cut it out. My cuts weren't perfect but they weren't terrible neither. The more I do this the better I am getting.

the base braces ready to install

I used white glue instead of hide glue

front corner blocks

The front blocks are glued and brad nailed to the front of the base only. These blocks have the their grain going in the same direction as the front brace.  The back support braces are glued and biscuit-ed in place. I used white glue here because I don't want to wait a day for the hide glue to set up.

using my gimlets

This is the front support that I glued, brad nailed and screwed to the base. I drilled 2 countersink holes in it before I installed it those will secure the front of the base to the bottom of the bookcase.

back brace

Biscuits are the best choice here for me. I'm not fond of pocket screws and this is an end grain to long connection. And I don't want to have any fasteners showing on the outside of the base. The biscuit/glue should be enough to keep it together.

installing the top molding

I got the top installed. I screwed into the bottom of the top from the back support in 3 places. I did the same screw detail in the front too but there I elongated the holes to allow for the top to expand/contract. The molding I installed with my pin nailer. The sides are just nailed and the front is glued and nailed.

back brace

There was a little bit of a twist in the base that I didn't like. The weight of the bookcase would have taken that out but this one screw will do it for sure (I did the same on the other corner). It's in the back and won't be readily noticeable.

1/8" lip

I made a bookcase many moons ago without this lip and the base got dinged up putting books in and out.   I think it looks good too and it will also allow the base to expand/contract without closing the gap.

bookcase almost done

When the storm comes tomorrow I'll be at work for most of it. My job at the VA is deemed critical so I have to go in no matter what happens.  I don't want this to be a sponge if I do flood out. If I do flood and the bookcase gets wet I'll have bigger problems then crying about a ruined project.

my poplar stash

This was the last of my wood to get off the deck and secured. I'm as ready as I can be for the storm. It's time now to go watch some american football from London, England.

accidental woodworker

am I alone in the universe........

Earlier this year and last year,  I was having problems uploading pictures from my new computer into blogger. It was almost impossible for me to upload pics from it (WIN7 laptop) into blogger. I could go all day long with my XP laptop without a whimper. I never had any problems with pictures until I got my WIN7 laptop.

sample crappy uploaded pic

what it was supposed to be

I tried to upload this pic above 3 times.  I had to shut down the laptop and restart before I got this pic to upload.

What is this?

and this?

nice tint

where's the rest of the pic?

I have tried to resolve this problem with blogger but I got no response from them. All of the picture problems posted in the forums/FAQ's had nothing to do with my problem. A search of the WWW yielded similar results. I haven't checked lately so that may have changed.

My XP laptop that I was using to upload is toast.  It was 10 years old, slow as molasses in winter, and dell dropped support for it years ago. It won't recognize it's battery and dell doesn't have a bios update for that because "we no longer support that model".

 I was uploading pics ok with my WIN7 for a while with no problems and it lulled me into a false sense of security. I thought with the new blogger that got jammed down my throat that it had fixed this problem. Ain't so sports fans.

About a week ago when I was uploading I got one bad pic. That has slowly been increasing with each blog entry I do.  Today's count was 13 bad uploads.  I really dislike all these crappy useless pictures uploaded into my pic space in blogger. The sit there and can't be used and they take up storage space. I can't delete them which would be a good thing. Instead I have to pay for them to sit there.

I would like to think that I am not alone in the universe with this problem. There has to be some intelligent life in the cosmos having a similar problem. I wonder what it would be like doing this with Windows 8?

accidental woodworker

bookcase almost done.....

The first batter up was getting the dovetailing done on the base. I had done the tails yesterday and today was the pins. This is only the second time I've done dovetails in a hardwood. Most of them before today were in pine. The first thing I had to figure out was how to hold the tail and pin board so I could mark them.

used the bookcase

I thought of this as I was discarding idea #2.  The bookcase is big enough and it's square. A little difficult looking directly down onto the pin board but I was able to transfer them ok.  I used my combo square to align the tail and pin board edges.

sawing the pins

Not exactly the right way to saw these out but I decided to give it a shot. I didn't get a lot of chattering considering how high this board is above the vise. I took my time sawing and when I was sawing on the push stroke, I pushed forward on the top of the board. I also tried to saw as close to my lines as I could.

first pin fit

This would probably tap together if I played with it by hitting it with my mallet and wiggling the board. I'll come back and trim the pins a tad and try the fit again.

not happening today

 The other side is too tight. I can't even get it started. This one is going to take a tad bit more trimming than the other side. For my first time doing hardwood dovetailing, I'm satisfied with how these came out. I would rather take a little off to get a fit rather then glue in a shim to close a gap.

I got pretty close to my lines with the sawing - this is the no go off the saw side

tight side trimmed and fitted

the first side - I just had to trim the middle pin a little

dovetailing done - layout and sawing out the base next

sides marked for length

I marked these and then I added a 1/16" just in case. Once I get it glued up and installed I can flush the ends to the bookcase then.

cleaning up the sides

cleaning up the front piece

I used my LN 102 on this long run to clean up the bandsaw marks. Still couldn't get the spoke shave to clean up the inside radius. I've seen and read about others using a spoke shave in tighter radii then mine here. I cleaned these up with my oscillating spindle sander.

stanley #80

 There is something squirrely about this poplar. I tried to use my 4 1/2 with a middle pitch frog and I still got tear out. I definitely wasn't planing against the grain and it didn't matter how I attacked it, or at what angle I attacked it. I glad that I decided to do the back side first just in case.

I'm reading a book by Charles Hayward and he wrote about my squirrely grain. He didn't call it that but he did write there is grain that will tear out no matter which pitch frog you use or from what angle you plane it. He writes that when you come across this a scraper is the only answer. I used a scraper on my base parts and I had no tear out.

base cooking

I had another mind fart with the base. I had marked the top of all three pieces so they would stay together. When I cut out the bottom portion, I cut it out on the wrong edge on one of the sides. This flipped the dovetails and they didn't line up. I had to trim them again to get the new fit. As a consequence of my mind fart, I ended up with gappy joints on that side. I had to glue a shim in one pin/tail to close it up.

So instead of patting myself on the back for a nice dovetail job, I'm fixing them because I wasn't paying attention to my marks.

back braces glued and nailed in place

I put 5 screws in from bottom into each brace

two bottom shelves

On the two bottom shelves I had enough room for the drill and counter sink. On the two top shelves, that wasn't happening. On these two shelves I used a bird cage awl and hand counter sink. Everything went off without any problems here.

 I was a tad surprised with how easy it was to use the awl as a screw starter. Of course after I was done, I remembered that I have a set of gimlets. If I remember I have them again, I can use them to install the screws in the top.

The braces, now that they are installed, added an incredible amount of stiffness to the bookcase. I could feel a difference in the bookcase as I flipped it back upright after I got the screws installed. This bookcase will handle any book load that my wife can put on it.

beaded molding ready to install

I cut the side moldings a 1/16" long and the front piece is a tad long also. I don't want to install this until after I get the the top screwed in place. This beaded molding will then be installed and hide any gaps between the top and the sides/front.

Tomorrow I'll take the base out of the clamps and put a chamfer on the top edge to match the top. I'll install the base and do any touch up sanding/scraping. Then it's waiting for the finish to come in. I should be able to give this to my wife next weekend.

accidental woodworker