May 5, 2020

Today was dovetail day, and I'm still not done, but I made a lot of progress.

As I'm doing mitered shoulder dovetails on the carcass (to practice them for the bookcases I'm building next), I took my time laying them out and cutting them. Spent all morning just cutting the tails.

After lunch, I headed out to the shop to cut the pins. That went pretty well, so I got started on the sliding dovetails for the shelves as well. They're not super hard, but I took pictures along the way, so I'd be better able to remember what I did and any improvements I found along the way.

First step is to layout your lines. Make sure the width is the width of the narrow part of the dovetail (cut in part 1 of this blog).

Then saw the two angled lines. As with normal dovetails, start on one end, then angle to the other end. I started on the near side, since it was easier for me to see.

After cutting the two angled lines, cut a straight line between them. This will make is easier to chisel out the waste. Note that the depth of this line you're sawing is your depth-gauge, so try to cut it to the line, but no further.

Then chisel our the waste. I did half from the front, turned the board around and did another half (to ¾ of the final depth) from the far side, and about an inch to full depth, then turned the board around again, and finished up from the front.

And that's where I finished the day. I still need to saw out the ten sliding dovetail sockets for the vertical pieces between the two shelves, and also the slots to hang the braces in. And I need to cut rabbets in the rear of the sides and top for the back, so there will be a couple more entries before I'm finished with the carcass.

Thanks for following along!

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Contents #woodworking #storage #slidingDovetails #joinery

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April 30, 2020

I was asked to finish moving my tools from the garage to the shop the other day, so I did that. Still haven't found and unpacked all of my tools, so I took a little detour to build a dovetail marker so I could lay out the dovetails nicely. In the course of making that, I needed a bench hook, so I slapped one of those together, too.

I think I can start laying out the dovetails now, but since I'm planning on doing mitered dovetails (as practice for the corners on the bookcases I need to build), I might need to study up on those first.

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And the next day, further detour to make a clamp rack.

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April 28, 2020

I looked at my braces as I was unpacking, and discovered I have four, plus a couple eggbeaters, plus another brace I've bid on on eBay… It's time to build a till. Also, I'll have a place to keep my bits if I do that.

So the first step was to get out the graph paper and sketch out what I think I'll need. I figure I'll eventually have braces of 6-14 inch sweeps, probably doubling up on 8 and 10 since they're more common. So I sketched a till that could hold those plus a couple eggbeater drills.

This is a first for me. Most of the time I just start building and then realize afterwards that I've underbuilt, so it feels kinda weird making a plan, but I think I'll survive. Also, the Bad Axe magnet is handy for holding my plan to the whiteboard so I don't lose it in a pile of sawdust.

Given that, I decided I'd use pine I have on hand for building my bookcases. I've got a lot of S4S 1×8s, so I started with those. That should give me enough depth that I can put doors on the till and still get a 14 in there. Plus it means my existing boxes of bits can fit in the cubbyholes at the bottom.

I started by cutting boards to length. All of my lumber on hand is cut to 4 foot lengths, so it worked out pretty well. The 38 inch long pieces had an offcut that gave me two pieces that were not quite 5 inches long, so I was efficient in my lumber use.

I've also got a new ECE dovetail plane so I've decided I'll put the shelves into the case with sliding dovetails and put the uprights between shelves with sliding dovetails as well.

As for the dovetail plane, it's pretty slick. It took me a while to get the fence set correctly for a half-inch deep sliding dovetail, but once I did, I spent more time grabbing a new board and whacking the holdfasts to hold it down than I did planing. There's a little spelching on the pine, but I lightened up the cut a little and that took care of the worst of it. The plane was usable out of the box, but would have benefited from a few minutes honing the blade, especially since I was working on pine.

I put the dovetails on the ends if the boards and called it a day. Tomorrow I'll start joinery on the carcass, and hopefully get the dovetails cut in the four exterior joints and maybe get started on the sliding dovetails for the shelves. We'll see how it goes!

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Contents #woodworking #build #storage #shopFurniture #plan

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In April of 2020, I started building a till (or cabinet) to hold all my braces, bits and other tools for boring holes. I kept track of the progress as I built it, which went until May of 2022. Here's the notes from the journey (all dated, so you can see how long various things took me).

1. Planning and Cutting
2. A Little Detour
3. Dovetails and Sliding Dovetails
4. Horizontal Bits
5. Reinforcement, Part 1
6. Cleanup and Test Fitting
7. Reinforcement, Part 2
8. Recutting the Bottom and More Test Fitting
9. Gluing it up
10. Back and Cleat—Hanging it up
11. Starting on Drawers
12. Resawing the Drawer Sides
13. Another Day, Another Drawer
14. Drawer Cleanup
15. More Drawers
16. Last Drawer Boxes—Odds & Ends
17. Fitting out Drawers
18. First Drawer Done—Starting on the Second
19. Small Drawer—Batwing and Forstner Bits
20. Small Drawer—Spoon bits, Countersinks, Plug Cutters
21. Last Drawer Insides
22. Cutting Drawer Fronts to Size
23. Starting to Finish the Drawer Fronts
24. Shellacking the Drawer Fronts
25. More Drawer Front Finishing
26. Drawer Pulls on—Mostly
27. Door Frames
28. Gluing up the Doors
29. Finishing the Doors
30. Hanging a Door
31. Second Door
32. Adjusting the Doors—Putting on Latches
33. Hammers on the Door

#Contents #buildBlog #woodworking #build #storage #shopFurniture

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When I got to the point where my next big project was my brace till, I needed to cut the dovetails for the corners of the carcass, and couldn't find my dovetail marker. Rather than completely wing it, I grabbed a scrap a katalox and set up my shooting board at 14 degrees (which is darned close to 1:4), and then found a piece of elm to put that katalox into. A couple cuts with the saw, a little trimming with a knife, and a dowel later, I had the marker mostly done. Glued it up, then did a little practice carving to label it so I won't get confused later. A coat of oil, and it's ready to go.

Looks like I need to practice carving serifs some more, but otherwise I'm happy with it.

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This is a collection of notes – I haven't done a lot of kolrosing other than on my baby bowsaw but I've collected a bunch of references I don't want to lose.

• Basics of Kolrosing from Del at Pinewood Forge
• Color Kolrosing
• White on brown kolrosing
• Chinkin-bori and with other materials than gold – the Japanese is 沈金彫り
• Martin Adburg actually tried Chinkin in Japan. He says polyurethane is tricky, since any blemishes or minute scratches will hold the gold dust, messing up the design (similar to what I saw with TiO2 on walnut). Traditional Japanese is red or black lacquer, and there are a number of scribers that are used to scratch the surface, but just a simple point will do the trick. Similar to engraving boulle marquetry, but it's definitely scratching the lacquer surface rather than cutting.
• Martin also suggests that an epoxy finish might work. Nitrocellulose lacquer might work too, or a harder varnish.
• Another link from Martin: chinkin technique
• And the Echizen Lacquerware Cooperative (where Martin and his wife did their workshop when they visited Japan).
• urushi / lacquer techniques

I expect next time I try, I'll try a shellac or lacquer surface, rather than naked wood as one does with kolrosing, but I might also try some tighter-grained woods with coarser pigments. I think there's a lot of decorative possibilities here.

#woodworking #finishing

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Today got the forge table across the finish line. I had a piece of aluminum diamond plate cut to roughly the right size, and today was the day it got attached to the table-top.

First up was figuring out how to bend it. I settled on clamping the bent edge in my twin-screw vise, then using a little 2-pound maul to hammer the main part of the plate flat onto my bench. It went pretty smoothly, except on the first corner, I couldn't figure out which way to cut off the metal for the corner, so I did both. The other corners got cut correctly and folded over the edge, and then I got out a drill and a handful of brass screws and screwed the metal onto the table-top.

Once things were screwed down, I used my hammer to round the corners, then filed off any stabby bits, cleaning the edges up so I won't hurt myself when I try to move the table.

And with that, the table is done, I think.

As one of my buddies commented, Kind of a 19th Century/modern fusion, truck-box chic!

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Today was a fairly light day on the table. Sawed off the protruding wedges and tenons, sanded them smooth, filled a few holes with sawdust and CA, and then hit the table with a coat of BLO.

Before:

After:

Tomorrow I'll see if I can bend the diamond plate so it'll fit over the top and figure out how to address the corners of it. Mostly a metal-working day tomorrow, rather than woodworking.

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I started the day making four new stretchers for the undercarriage. Where these would've taken me all day if I had done them last week, I've gotten more confident at the lathe and take bigger cuts and I finished roughing all four in an hour.

For each of the stretchers, I used the hollow auger to make one end a half inch. This end will go into the leg.

Then I trimmed the other end to the right length and used the tapered tenon cutter to make it taper. I used the matching reamer to widen the holes in the hub I turned yesterday, and to correct them to closer to the correct angle (not shown).

Then I sawed slots in the leg end of each stretcher for a wedge. It turned out that my offcuts from yesterday's wedges were nearly the right size and just needed a little bit trimmed off to make them perfect.

Then it was glue-up time. Glue on stretcher, stretcher into leg, align the slot horizontally, glue on wedge, pound in the wedge.

With all four in, put glue on all four hub ends, wiggle the hub in, and then put one glued wedge into the loosest of the four hub holes to tighten everything up.

Once the glue has dried overnight, I'll trim the legs so they're all the same length and the table sits level, pare off the wedges and the ends of the stretchers, and sand and oil the table. Should have it done in a couple days.

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Contents #woodworking #ForgeTable

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I did some work to build the undercarriage. I couldn't decide whether I wanted the stretchers to cross over or meet in a hub, but when I test fit things, it became clear I couldn't have them cross without bending them.

So I turned a hub (from a scrap of salt cedar) for the four stretchers to meet in and bored a couple holes through it.

Unfortunately, I didn't think that the holes wouldn't meet at right angles, but since the table-top is a rectangle, they don't. Oh well. As Bandit says, we have ways.

I found a half-inch dowel in the scrap pile, and used that for alignment. I'll worry about the actual stretcher later. For now I just need something so I can get the leg rotated correctly before gluing it into place.

So, test fit time again. And with the legs in place, I drew lines on the ends of their tenons, perpendicular to the grain of the tabletop, so the wedges won't split that, and sawed in slots for the wedges.

And then it was time to prep some wedges. Cut them on the bandsaw and plane the faces smooth.

Then show them to the holes and trim roughly to size.

Then plane the edge smooth. They don't need to be perfect, but they need to fit, and not be so rough that they'll get hung up halfway in.

Then the glue bottle gets opened, and I'm not smart enough to take pictures while gluing things up, but the process is: glue on the tenon and in the mortise; seat the leg in the tabletop, splaying it as much to the outside as it will go; glue on the wedge, and pound the wedge home (using Earl's dice mallet – thanks again, buddy!). Repeat four times, rinse out the glue brush, double check everything, and then write this up.

I'll get the undercarriage glued up either after lunch or tomorrow. The stretchers will be glued and wedged at the leg ends, and probably just glued at the hub in the middle.

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