Leach Family Projects

Reproduction Stickley hardware #3

2010-04-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

I thought after the last Reproduction Stickley hardware entry that I was done with the subject. But, found one more set of instructions on how to roll your own Hand-Hammered Copper hardware. The first entry I did on this topic had a link to a different guide. Personally, I think they are both worth reading. The lead picture from the article is shown at the left. I sure hope this constitutes Fair Use as my only purpose in displaying it is to tempt you into reading This Great Article on the American Woodworker Magazine website on how to make the hardware for yourself! Hammer Your Own Copper Hardware by David Olson is well worth reading, as is the companion article by Randy Johnson on building a Stickley style chest of drawers. Yes, to get these results a fair bit of work is going to be required, but, I think worth trying, at least once.

Saving woodworking articles for later viewing, Part 2

2010-04-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

If you have a Macintosh, you can simply "print" to a PDF printer - and that includes interesting articles that you've stumbled upon on the Web. If you are a PC (user) then there isn't a native method to do this. (See Part 1 for native methods to save webpages.) However, for the last few months, I've been using PrimoPDF, a free print-to-PDF driver that is added to your printer selection combobox. I especially like being able to highlight something and then print just that selection to a PDF file. PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format. Like an MHT file, it stores everything you need in one file. A nice thing about PDF files is that they can be viewed on any machine (the first word in the name is Portable, after all.) On a PC, the best way to view PDF files is by using Adobe Reader (also free!) which used to be called Acrobat Reader. So, if you aren't afraid to install two pieces of software, ignore everything I said in Part 1!

Is plywood a fine woodworking material?

2010-03-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

Our friends at the Fine Woodworking magazine website took this "issue" on.
The article HERE was good, but the comments were almost a better read than the article itself. The two pictured casework pieces are a delight to look at, so even if you don't read the article, follow the link for the pictures! The picture I am showing you is not from the article, but from Timber Products. They make not only hardwood veneer plywood, but pre-finished plywood as well.
Personally, I thought the Fine Woodworking list of helpful tips was pretty good, but the last one: "Delivery pays: Let the supplier deliver hardwood-veneer plywood to reduce the risk of damage in transit" didn't sit well with me as you are stuck with the grain they pick for you - rather than picking through the sheets to get the figure you want from what is available. Or, if you have hand picked your sheet goods, the variability of turning it over to their delivery people...
I'm pretty careful with my material when I've spent hard earned money on it. Not a fan of mangled corners and dented edges, not to mention strap marks on the wood. One commenter got it right - if whoever you are buying plywood from has a panel saw (even Lowes and Home Depot have them) have them make some of the gross cuts there, so you are transporting smaller easier to manage pieces - especially if the cuts you need are rip cuts, because once a panel saw is locked in, it will give you near identical repeat cuts - which can be handy when what you need is a match between two pieces, not an exact / dialed in perfect measurement. But, you have to be careful - if you are using the pretty cathedral grain for panels, you may want to make grain match decisions back in the shop, not in the store.

The Fine Woodworking article / discussion thread really caught my eye as a couple of the projects I helped work on lately have been predominately of plywood, with solid wood trim. The one thing against plywood is that it is as flat is it is every going to be, the day you buy it. If the juice is good, it will stay good. If not... ...well there really isn't anything you can do about bad plywood. And, to some extent with hardwood, there Are things you can do about it.
What I really didn't like is the (results pictured) POLL that went along with this article. No concept that perhaps sometimes plywood was the right material? That the only possible reason to use plywood would be to save a dime, or for lesser purpose? It seems especially silly as a lot of people that turn their noses up at plywood are proud of their veneering skills -which is the art of making (you guessed it) plywood. Anywho, a lot of this is in the comments to the online article. But I really wish that at least the poll questions had better balance. I was glad to see that people weren't bullied into rejecting plywood in the poll, based on their responses to the questions. But then if the questions were fair, there probably wouldn't have been the active commenting! (grin)

How to Ruin Perfectly Good Furniture, part 1

2010-02-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

I think this will be a helpful post, but also somewhat of a rant. To my mind, there are 4 main ways to ruin furniture: 1) Before you apply finish, 2) When you apply a finish, 3) Caring for a finished piece and 4) Fixing a piece that has previously been finished. I'm not going to count the nicks and bumps damage that occurs from regular use. It happens to even our most beloved pieces and there isn't anything we can do about it except to plan for it in the robustness of our designs.
There IS one more way to ruin furniture that doesn't match directly up with the above categories and that is to purposefully damage finish or piece itself to "antique" it... ...and that is where the rant part comes in. I don't like fake antiques. Never have, never will. Reproductions? Wonderful. Aging metal hardware? Fine. Banging on otherwise perfectly fine furniture to make it look worn? HELL NO!
If you need a particular piece to look a certain way for a play, or a movie set, or you make props for Halloween - well, those are the only exceptions I can think of. But then, we are talking about my personal taste. Your mileage may vary. As you may guess, I'm not a "shabby chic" guy either, even when someone is decorating with "found" junk.
People use words like "distressed" or "layered" as euphemisms for damaging on purpose. The above photo of a crackle finish was done on purpose! Ugh. Please look at this cover of a nationally circulated Woodworking Magazine. I can't post it directly on this blog because, well; I won't do it. Too Hideous. It isn't even good "antiquing". It is the poster child of what not to do, even if you like that kind of crap. But, I do want you to see the picture so you can share my disgust. Ok, end of rant. I'll try to be more productive in the next installment.

Oak Floor, Walnut accent

2010-02-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

My friends Donna and Mike have been making incremental improvements to their 40 year old house ever since they bought it. Their latest project was to replace the dark Oak parquet floor in their entry and first floor hallway and to replace the Linoleum in their kitchen all with Oak strip flooring to match their dining room and living room. To address wear concerns, they opted for a tiled entry, placed as a inlay with oak flooring around it.
One of the questions was how to best frame the area where the tile would go / how to make the transition. The initial thought was to make a mitered corner two-strip-wide border, to effectively picture frame the tile. As I was drawing out the lines for this framing / showing how it would look on the membrane paper that goes between the flooring and the subfloor, Donna came through and saw lines marked on the paper like this and said "how pretty!" She wasn't seeing what Mike and I were seeing - she saw corner blocks with angled cuts, out of contrasting wood, where we saw mitered corners & continuation lines to mark out the miter. So, as a trial, we cut small square blocks of Oak from the scrap offcuts of the flooring and used dark markers to simulate the contrasting colors of an accent wood like Walnut.
Even with the blocks rotated into the kite pattern you see here at the left, it wasn't exactly what they were looking for, but they still liked the idea of some form of contrasting wood detail around the entry. What they decided on was solid squares of Walnut, 2 per corner.
Making the little Walnut blocks was interesting - 2 sides tongue, 2 sides groove (to tie in with the tongues and grooves of the rest of the flooring) and I tried to gang cut them on the table saw as much as possible & then cut the joining tongues apart as the last operation. Still, getting the blocks sized correctly took a lot of time! Cutting the blocks without tongues or grooves would have taken just a few minutes instead of the few hours. But, hopefully the floor will be more solid because of the pains we took. I made a total of 14 blocks out of a small board of figured Walnut I had been hoarding and they selected their 8 favorites for appearance / grain direction, etc. And the results look like this:

At the point this picture was taken everything is finished except for the molding. The Oak register covers look great and Donna and Mike have a seamless Oak floor for much of the first floor. The flooring matched very nicely with the original Oak after it was sanded and finished as the one floor it now is. They selected Swedish Finish for its durability. It really looks nice. Oh, in the tile work, note the stainless steel accent tile in the lower right of this picture. They used a similar tile pattern to cover the bricks of their living room fireplace surround - it really helps tie everything together & looks great. So, I suppose the lesson in this is that it really helps to have multiple sets of eyes on a project, before you start cutting wood. Without Donna's perception, this would have been a much plainer floor!

try Hide Glue, epoxy, and repairability

2010-02-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

I've been addicted to Titebond II since it came out, and based on my success with it, use quite a bit of Titebond III now too. They both create amazing bonds to the wood, to the point where I wonder if mortice and tenon joints are just overkill and do we really need more than half-lap joints? In tests I've seen in the last few years, the wood tends to fail before the glue does!
However, what about repairability? A lot of people talk about hide glue (the original woodworkers glue and still the choice of Luthiers / instrument makers) as being the best / only repairable glue joint. Bob Smalser did a test of the various glues, but to "repair" he use epoxy and discovered that none of the Titebond glues create good bonds to epoxy. Epoxy being the most likely glue to use to repair a failed joint. Of course his criteria for repairability is that of a boat builder / restorer, where joint strength and watertight are both equally important, and water based glues such as hide glue is right out! So, his test involved just glues that a boat builder might reasonably use.

As an aspiring furniture maker I have been wondering about hide glue though. Sure, it isn't the glue of choice for even kitchen cutting boards, but hide glue is the traditional glue of woodworking, and the best choice for repairing antiques. The reason that hide glue is so cool is that it is waterbased and reversible. Simply get the glue wet again and it turns back into gel. Get it warm again and it turns back into runny glue.
Most everything you need to know about hide glue is available on Frank Ford's www.Frets.com website.

Something that I've seen in a few different places is an easy way to try Hide Glue out. Gelatine - like Knox unflavored Gelatine available in nearly any supermarket IS hide glue. Gelatine is super refined for food use, but still Hide Glue. Sandor Nagyszalanczy talks about it in his book: Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes, as does Frank Ford on his website in his Kitchen Glue page.
I probably won't try hide glue until necessity requires it - which will be the next time I'm faced with repairing an antique originally made with Hide Glue, or, when I want to reinforce a joint with a rubbed glue block. But, good to have in our bag of tricks.

The right size extension cord (Supplying power to your tailed devils #2)

2010-01-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

In March 2009 I wrote a little bit about electricity - this post is really a continuation of that one. If you've ever finished with a tool and been surprised at how warm the cord was when you unplugged it, this post is for you.
Basically, the longer the extension cord the more resistance / friction there will be and the more likely that there will be a significant voltage drop - sometimes dropping it below the threshold where your electric motor tools will operate well. Plus (added bonus!) if the extension cord is too anemic / wimpy, it can heat up or even melt. Can you say fire hazard? What to do about it? The answer is to use an extension cord that is big enough for the tool. Your tools may even last longer and perform better if you do.
This is a table that I derived originally from one posted on this site (well worth your time) but checked using other tables. Length by Amps, results in wire gauge:

Remember that with wire gauge, like shotgun bore gauge, the smaller the number, the bigger it is.
To use this table for 110/120v circuits you'll need to know the amps used by your tools. Mostly motors will be clearly (if somewhat microscopically) labeled with the amps used. If not, you can derive amps from Watts by using the formula: Amps = Watts/Volts. So, a 1400 watt blow dryer will draw nearly 13amps on the "high" setting. No wonder the cord gets warm! In the motor label picture Amperage is indicated "AMPS" but it is often abbr'ed to "A":

But wait! This motor lists VOLTS as "208-240/115" and AMPS as "6.1-6.0/12.0" - be careful when reading such. This is just indicating that the motor can be wired to use 220v instead of 110v. Note that the 115 at the end of the volts corresponds with the 12.0 at the end of the amps. This (12 amps) is the number you will use if you plug the tool into regular house wiring. If the motor is only 110v, it will only have one A/Amp number to worry about. So, using the above table you could using the following extension cords with the pictured motor safely: a 25' 14 gauge and a 50' 12 gauge extension cord... ...nothing longer than that! And this is only a 1 Horse Power (HP) motor tool! Here are some common tools and the amps they draw: Circular Saw 12 to 15 amps. Corded drill 3 to 7 amps. Contractor's Saw / Table Saw 15 to 20 amps. Router 4 to 6 amps. Remember, your mileage may vary. When it doubt, check the label.

As you can see, it pays to have a few different sizes and lengths of extension cords. But how to pick out the right one for the job? When you are buying an extension cord, the Gauge label will generally read 14/3 Gauge or 12/3, etc. The first number (14 or 12 in our examples) is the gauge used in the above table. the /3 means that there are 3 separate wires in the in the jacket of the cord - one for each prong on the plug: Green is ground, Black is hot, White is neutral. (Just like house wiring, except the Green ground wire is often just bare copper. Switches and outlets often label the right terminal/bolt to attach that bare copper wire to by coloring it green.) Older 2 wire cords are missing the Green/Ground prong and are not as safe as 3 wire cords. On new cords the gauge is often stamped repeatedly down the extension cord, but not marked at all on older ones. Eventually you will be able to tell by hefting the cord - there is quite a big difference between the various gauges, also a large size difference.

When in doubt, the shortest thickest extension cord is the one to use.

For more information on extension cords, especially about voltage drop, this PDF is great.

Great article on how best to use your hand-held belt sander

2010-01-19T19:51:00.000-08:00

This online article about using hand-held belt sanders on American Woodworker Magazine's website by Tom Caspar says it all, I don't have anything to add:
http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/techniques/archive/2009/02/22/tame-your-belt-sander.aspx
If you use a belt sander, it is worth your time to read it. I know that when I next buy a large sander, it will be one with a sanding frame. Until then, these tips will help make "Mr. Dusty" a lot more useful!

Reproduction Stickley hardware #2

2010-01-16T12:12:00.000-08:00

Back in May of last year I whined about not being able to find good Reproduction Stickley / Mission hardware.
I especially bashed Rockler's offerings. To be fair, I think Rockler's hardware is good, just not perfect. Also, they have a variety of offerings not available most anywhere else. But, I am on a mini "quest" to find great hardware and Rockler's isn't what I'm looking for. I hate identifying a problem and not being able to find a solution.
However, I now consider a solution to be in hand.

Thanks to Michael Pekovich, art director for Fine Woodworking magazine and his recent blog entries (really worth reading - about the value of mockups and living with (and modifying) mockups to improve the quality of your work) I've seen some great hardware! Yep, the hardware is made by Gerry Rucks and is available through his website, Arts and Crafts Hardware. This picture is what convinced me to check out his webpage.

Of course every silver lining has a rain cloud - this one is the pricing. Gosh, it is almost like he wants to be paid for his beautiful work! The funny part is, his prices are (well, some a lot higher, but some lower) comparable to Rockler's pricing for many of his items. I know that I will be buying from Gerry sometime this year.

The above picture is from the Arts and Crafts Hardware furniture page, which looks to be made by Rick Fusco - very nice stuff! I've always liked the Gus Stickley Bridal Chest. The site isn't so huge that you will be buried in detail - I recommend you check it out. You might find exactly what you have been looking for.

November Wedding Garden Arbor #3

2009-11-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm actually writing this at the end of January, 2010, but thought I would put this entry where it belongs, in November of 2009... Sorry folks - have been busy, but will try and catch up a bit.

The Garden Arbor was a success! You would think something so simple to make would have taken less time, but I barely had it done in time for the wedding. There was a lot of prep-work (pre-painting things, and even selecting materials and paint that wouldn't look shabby too quickly) but even assembly took some time.

The treated wood that it is made from took a long time to dry - it was still damp-ish to the touch, 2 weeks after buying it. We finally brought it into the living room to bake in front of a roaring fire as time was getting short.

The only major change to the design was not cutting out side "windows" in the lattice - I couldn't figure out a way to cut the vinyl lattice without it shattering somewhat - actually wasted a sheet attempting to cut good windows with a variety of hand and motorized tools. After the wedding, I discovered that regular straight tin snips / shears make great cuts in the stuff - who would ha' thunk it. I think it was the only tool I didn't try beforehand. Circular Saws threw chunks, Jigsaws melted it rather than cut it, Hacksaws also melted it, Straight-cut router bits either melted it or threw chunks, depending on bit diameter...

Oh, another change was that the side flower boxes weren't used in the ceremony - built, just not used. The vine artificial flowers were used as shown and looked great though.

My ability to cut out wooden hearts was sorely tested - we ended up buying those from a local retail outlet of Craft Warehouse. The trim colors of Blue and Green for the hearts were a nice find. The local ACE mixes small sample-size containers to try a color out - and at $4 each there was plenty left over. I'm very glad I didn't have to buy a quart of each!

Treated and "Marine Grade" wood was used throughout so it should last a good many years!

Congratulations Jeremy and Natalia!

Ikea, Glue Blocks, Ikea Hacking and Bob Flexner

2009-10-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

I don't like Ikea. Don't get me wrong, some of their stuff is great, but when it comes to their non-wood flat-pack furniture made out of that press/chip/particle/fiber/wafer board, I'm not a fan. Sure, it is finished really nicely, but it isn't wood. This "rant" applies to all of the ilk, not just Ikea. I've heard people have good success with things like kitchen cabinets and closets that you build in, and never move. But after a few years go by and moisture gets under the finished surface, or a corner curls, or a screw or two gets loose in a hinge... Well, you get the idea. Don't get me wrong, some of their real wood furniture items really do wear well. However, as most of their furniture is flat-packed (flat case pieces, bags of fasteners and other hardware and a couple simple tools to assemble them with) and made to be assembled without glue or clamps, the joint is usually a mechanical one - the quick / cam metal fasteners are holding the piece together. Nothing wrong with that... ...until you move it. Metal fasteners are stronger than wood and they don't give. Ikea engineers do a pretty good job of making sure that the furniture can resist the stress of normal use, but as soon as something gives a wracking force jolt, the metal hardware will do its best to keep things together, but what ends up "giving" is the MDF / chipboard - it will flake, dent and delaminate if you look at it wrong. And, as soon as a piece starts to get wiggly, it is only going to get worse.
Ok, woodworkers / cabinet makers are not the target audience of flat packed furniture. However, I'm sure I'm not the first that has been roped into assembling one, or been asked to fix after it has started going bad.
I have a couple suggestions:
First, use glue - it isn't going to help as much as if the product was wood, but it will help a lot. Some people think glue and Ikea are a bad combination, but the basic argument is that it makes it take longer to assemble, and you lose the flexibility of being able to break it down later. Well, most folk I know don't move so often that this is an issue. But, something to consider if you are putting something together for a teen or someone college-age.
Second, replace flimsy backs with plywood. A lot of Ikea backs are just for show, not to prevent wracking stress. Some of their backs are only 2mm thick, and are basically finished paper. If you want, you can glue that back to plywood, and then attach it to the case. I got this tip from my friends Don and Sue, who replaced the backs of some of their bookcases many years ago to help make them more earthquake proof / allow them to secure them to the wall.

Third, replace screws with nuts and bolts (not always possible, mostly screws are used for blind-side applications.) Screws strip out. Not all Ikea screws are the nice Spax (shown at left) or Confirmat screws that are made for MDF / particle board. But, when you can, upgrade fasteners. Sometimes the upgrade has to be gluing hinges rather than replacing fasteners. FYI, Spax screws are available at both Lowes and Home Depot & although you still need to pre-drill, you don't need to use a special drillbit like you do for Confirmat. You do have to be careful using them in plywood though.
Fourth, use Glue Blocks. The reminder I got for doing this was from Bob Flexner, in this article. Glue blocks have been used forever, why not use them to upgrade Ikea furniture stiffness? Glue blocks for Ikea furniture will do (potentially) three things - give you more surface area to glue two elements that join at 90 degree angles, provide a 90 degree square for assembly and (if needed and is possible to do in a way that won't show) allows you something to anchor screws in. Yep, when you can, pre-drill and drive drywall screws through the chip board, into the hardwood blocks you've added, for more strength.
Finally, if you are stuck with an Ikea product that is falling apart, and wasn't doing exactly what you wanted to anyway - hack it! These folk repurpose Ikea stuff for some fun results. I especially like this one.
Oh, another good tip is that Ikea does sell replacement parts - handy if a leg or bit of hardware fell off during a move. If a panel was damaged, consider replacing it with plywood - same arguments as for using glue blocks, above.
To conclude, I still like used solid wood furniture better than new Ikea. But if you have to deal with it, I hope the above tips help.

"My favorite American Communists" (and their boxes)

2009-10-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

Referring of course to The Shakers. I can't take credit for the phrase, that belongs to Roy Underhill, author of many books, host of the PBS show "The Woodwright's Shop" and now master of his own woodworking school. I wouldn't give up any important bits of anatomy, but I really would like to go to any class he teaches! (End of digression)
I don't want to get into who the Shakers were as a people / culture, I just want to gush about their legacy of fine craftsmanship. Many of the forms I first identified (in my naivete) as being "Craftsman" or "Arts and Crafts" belong to the Shakers. They were the first to eschew ornamentation of form for the higher beauty of function and simplicity. They made many fine things and there are plenty of books out there about their works. Today I just want to talk about Shaker Boxes.
In the days before Tupperware, Shaker oval boxes and other variations on this form were some of the best lightweight ways to store things. A couple of thin, steam bent hoops sized on forms, secured to themselves as well as their flat oval lid and bottom boards with wooden pegs and copper tacks and there you are: "green" biodegradable storage that can last forever, with care.
Pictured at the left is John Wilson with his work. He has the best website for all things related to making or buying modern Shaker Boxes. If you are interested in making these, his catalog is required reading. For one thing, I'm not sure you can buy the copper tacks anywhere else. "The copper tacks used in oval box construction are made on machines that date back to the 1800’s. Our machines were acquired from the W.W. Cross Nail Co. when they ceased tack manufacturing in 1991. We currently make nine sizes of tacks plus the ½” copper shoe peg used for securing top and bottom boards when copper is preferred in place of wood pegs." Shaker boxes range from 000 (tiny) to size 12, although I've seen pictures of larger coffee table sized boxes. Each size nests into the next larger size. Eventually I will try my hand at a stack of these.

November Wedding Garden Arbor #2

2009-10-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of people emailed me asking what I meant by "lattice" and "flower boxes" so this post is mostly about the rough pic showing most of what I was talking about. The top will have lattice too, but attempting to draw lattice conforming to a curve in an orthographic projection using MS Paint is beyond me! Eventually I'll figure out how to do it in SketchUp, but for now, shrug.
In thinking about this design, I think if I had the skills and right tools, I would make the Arbor frame out of powder coated welded steel for durability and to give it a more "airy" feeling & to allow it to survive outdoors longer. Vinyl instead of wood lattice was selected by the couple for its durability. But, wood for the frame is warmer to the touch and more relaxed than formal & it will be beautiful. (Fingers crossed)
Oh, in this Home Depot picture you can see what I was talking about regarding wood patches to tie the top and the sides together. I'm glad we can do without those!

November Wedding Garden Arbor

2009-10-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

Our only local cousins oldest son Jeremy is getting married to Natalia (who is already part of the family) in just less than one month! I asked them what they would like me to make for them as a gift and instead of some piece of indoor furniture, they came up with the idea of a garden arbor - that they will be married under! How fun is that? The only picture for this post is a simple illustration of the basic frame of the arbor / arch. Five feet wide and four feet deep, it will be the perfect size to frame the lovely couple and minister, and a garden bench afterward. The design is Jeremy and Natalia's - I just had to figure out how to fit the bits together.
Details of this Arbor: The arch joins the uprights smoothly, rather than with overhangs like some. As they are getting married outdoors, the arbor will disassemble into 3 pieces (top and two sides) for easy transport. The sides and top will be composed of lattice over the frame shown, with an arch-topped "window" in each side. The middle rail on each side will support a flowerbox, also decorated with hearts. The lowest side rail is slightly above the "feet" to keep it from ground contact. The top rails abutt the bottom rails of the arch.
I was looking at different ways of joining the arch to the sides and have seen a number of relatively simple ways, from overlapping wooden joining plates to metal straps. My first inclination was to join the pieces in some hidden fashion, both for appearance and to prevent places for the ubiquitous rain and dew to catch and aid in the decay of this structure. What I came up with is shown. The rails themselves will be joined by screws from the bottom side of the top side rail into the bottom of the bottom rails of the arch, so no wooden patch plates or Simpson Strong-ties will be needed. So a nice smooth appearance.
The fasteners are stainless steel, the lattice is vinyl and the wooden frame is treated cedar 2x2s, painted white. Exterior construction caulk to keep rain out of places it shouldn't be. The side flower boxes are cedar. Construction begins this upcoming Saturday.

安揉 Anjuu - Rich Soborowicz's furniture

2009-09-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

In Seattle Washington, there is an outfit called NW Fine Woodworking that makes some pretty amazing stuff. This post started off as just a "gush" about how much I liked the looks of one of their studio furniture maker's works: Rich Soborowicz's, some of which he calls "Anjuu". Pictured is the Anjuu Chest of Drawers from their website, from a full line of bedroom furniture that he makes.. Made of maple, birdseye maple, rosewood and bubinga - I think it is pretty. Of course, given that a lot of his work has a Japanese flavor, I *had* to find out what Anjuu meant. The most popular English translation is "living peaceably" The two characters, An and Juu are interesting too.
An (安) is composed of two parts, onna (女) which means woman/female and ben (宀) which means shaped crown. So the kanji of a woman wearing a crown (An) means: relax, quiet, rested, contented, peaceful.
Juu (揉) has 4 different components (one of which (木) means tree) but the composite character (Juu) means: rub, massage, shampoo, debate vigorously, train, coach, worry.
So, a well cared for woman, treated royally means "living peaceably". I rather like that. Puts me in mind of the phrase "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (SWMBO) which is often used online to refer to one's spouse.
The best way to achieve the state of "living peaceably" might be to get your SWMBO a bedroom set made by Rich! Hehehe
Ok, a huge digression, but not one that distracts too much from my main point (I hope) which is: if you live anywhere near Seattle, you owe it to yourself to take a look at their gallary of fine work. Tomorrow begins their "Maker's Mark" events, the best part of which is that the artists / artisians will be available for Q & A every Saturday and Sunday in October, from Noon to 3pm.

Replacing tool power cords

2009-09-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

"Tailed assistants" if they are helping you, "tailed devils" if they are part of the problem. I was all prepared to do a step-by-step power cord replacement post, but found one on the Fine Homebuilding website that did it better than I would have. Read this great article by John Ross on replacing circular saw cords and triggers. It is from the original Fine Homebuilding Magazine article in 2007, but it is timeless & well worth reading. Reading it did bring up a few ideas that are topical though - you do have some options when replacing power cords. It is true that for safety you want the outer sheathing to be unnicked and unpatched, but there is a great difference in opinion on how long a power cord should be.

If you cut through your cord, you could simply add a new plug to the existing cord at the break, without the need for disassembling the tool itself - assuming that you can live with a shorter power cord. If this is the direction you want to go, there are a great variety of tool plugs that you can get.
A lot of contractors like short cords with twist-lock plugs - especially for roof framing where losing connection between a framing saw and the extension cord can not only mean time lost, but can be a hazard to anyone below. Personally, I favor the standard "Edison" standard wall-plug connectors that most tools come with by default, as rewiring or using adaptors can be an expensive proposition and I'm not on a roof with a saw all that often.
But, having a cord pull out is a pain and my favorite solution is a right-angle replacement plug which fixes the problem nicely. It provides just enough friction that accidental disconnects don't happen very often, if ever.
Another alternative to buying a replacement cord is to go the other way - use the piece of severed cord with molded plug attached (or whatever clean length of cord there is between the plug and the break or abrasion) and replace the "stub" as in the above Fine Homebuilding article. You may have to put your own connectors on it, or use a soldering iron to tin the leads, but it is a darn sight cheaper than buying a new cord from the manufacturer. Actually, I've only bought a new replacement power cable once - and that was because the strain relief was ruined, and the new cord came with one specific to the tool which was molded on to the cord rather than a separate part. Even if you aren't busily ruining power cords yourself, the most common defect you run into when buying a used power tool is a bad cord - generally repaired with miles of black electrical tape! Getting comfortable making this type of repair will keep you a good deal safer and good tools out of metal recycling bins.

The camera as a shop tool

2009-09-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone has used a camera to visual document what is happening at a particular moment in time, even if it is just snaps of family and friends.

What I want to talk about is how many different ways there are of using a camera in the shop, or for woodworking related activities & how digital cameras and camera phones have changed the way we can use pictures. Old school was taking a picture, getting the film developed and pictures printed & then seeing what you have - with some chance of repeatable results through reprinting using the negatives / enlarging and printing details of a snapped photo. Polaroid technology gave us instant results - and the only chance at repeatabilty was from viewing the resulting picture and re-taking a better shot.

Digital camera technology, whether in a discrete camera, a cellphone camera, or even in a device family that started out as a music player and continues to add features has the best of all worlds - an instant look at the image you've captured and the ability to edit an image in endless ways after the fact before you print it - if you ever do. Frankly I rarely print pictures anymore.

Regardless of the history lesson, for most people, film cameras of any sort are dead, so I will be focusing on the use of a digital camera / camera phone for woodworking purposes. Sure, there are still plenty of people getting film developed, but when a serviceable point and shoot 5mp camera costs less than developing and printing costs of 6 rolls of film I have a hard time understanding why. Shrug. Dismounts soapbox.

Most of these tips are of course usable for more than just woodworking, but if I didn't limit the focus of this blog, it would be pretty random!

First, there is the act of recording your work - even if it is just for yourself, a good photographic record will keep things crystal clear, long after your memory has faded. Howard Ruttan said it best, here and has plenty of good "how to" tips, too.
Take pictures of products / product barcodes instead of hand written notes when going to the store to buy more - I've found this especially helpful when buying cans of finish, where you need to buy more of exactly the same stuff, but don't want to drag the entire can with you - I use the camera on my cellphone for this and don't bother printing - I just view the image on screen. Can price shop this way too - take a picture of the product barcode and price tag, and use the info to shop for a better deal after you leave the store.
Take pictures of furniture / ideas that you really like that inspires you. I've done this with fellow craftsman's work (with their permission) and at furniture stores (well, I've never been asked to stop.) When I see something I really like or want to duplicate or make my own version of, I take a quick snap. I keep a folder of images on my computer full of pretty furniture - and details of furniture I particularly like.
Decide on finish - depending on what image editing / manipulation software you use, you can take a picture of an unfinished piece and can play with color digitally before committing yourself.
Use a cropped digital image in a Google Sketchup drawing to see if it is what you / you client wants - as long as the angle you take the photo at is appropriate to the view you eventually want to look at, Sketchup is quite accomodating - simply align the drawing to the image. You can do it the other way too - take a picture of the wall a built-in or any other piece is going to be against, and position your Sketchup model against it. Get the sizing just right, then use relative measurements to perfectly size the piece you are making.
Tool repair - any sort of complicated dis-assembly can benefit from pictures along the way to aid in re-assembly. Actually, this tip is what caused me to write this entire post - was about to strip laces out of a pair of shoes preparatory to tossing them in the washer & out of habit took a picture of the way they were laced, so I could re-lace exactly the same way.
Using a camera as a magnifying glass - when working on something tiny, a camera that has a good zoom feature that works well in low light situations can help you without even needing to take a picture - just use it as a really expensive combination lamp and magnifying glass, or snap a picture with flash to see around corners / into dark, awkward or tight spaces.
Take pictures at auction previews, estate and garage sales - or any other buying situation, including wood purchases. This is where a cellphone camera shines - especially if you see something someone else can use - email or message the picture and get an answer back immediately rather than attempting to describe.

Well, that about wraps it up - oh, one final tip - as soon as humanly possible, give your image a meaningful file name. DSC00190.jpg doesn't convey any useful information. If you like keeping the sequence number, why not rename it to:

"DSC00190 Stickley Recliner Final Dry Fit view from front.jpg" ?

Yep, nothing wrong with spaces in filenames, and it makes searching for the image you want much easier. If you manipulate images a lot, consider adding suffixes such as the date, and if you've resized it from the original, note that too. So your final filename for a version you plan to post on the web or send in an email might be:

"Stickley Recliner Final Dry Fit view from front 2009 September 19 800x600.jpg"

Yep, I leave the sequence number off, and simply use the sort order to group pictures in the same series, or I add my own sequence number:

"Stickley Recliner 001 Grain selection for parts 2009 September 07.jpg"

...so that even if I want basically the same filename for the next 5 shots, the rest of the pictures in the sequence (002, 003, etc.) are still unique. I leave date at end so that even if a particular group of pictures span a few days, they will still be grouped together. But really, what ever works for you is perfect.

畫意能達萬言

A Picture's Meaning Can Express Ten Thousand Words.

Shop space / Man cave

2009-09-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

The house pictured is my favorite local "Bat Cave." Southern facing, ability to open up the doors and take in the sunshine - perfect! There are a few other houses that are similar in the area, but this one is my current favorite. A 5 car garage with a house over it would be ideal for my needs. Ok, why did I call it a Bat Cave? Phrase came from bro Greg, regarding some of the house designs I've come up with over the years: "Sure, it is cool, but it is like Batman's Batcave - guys all dig it, but you could never get a woman to live there with you."
You have to admit, he has a point. My current "shop" is garage based, with work spilling into the driveway whenever the sun makes an appearance. Most hobbyist woodworkers are in the same situation - whether their shop is in a basement or garage, there just isn't enough space. There are some interesting alternatives out there though. First, you can build a detached shop, separate from your home. Second, you could rent space for a shop. Third, you could learn to make do with the space you have available.

And finally, you could share a shop with someone, either formally, or informally. If I lived closer, The Shop People in Portland at SE Grand and Oak have an amazing shared setup. Plenty of quality tools, and you simply pay a low monthly membership fee. Somewhat closer to home and with a diverse tool selection is Portland TechShop which also offers classes in using some of the more high-tech tools. Classes taken in more traditional venues are another option - most community colleges have woodworking classes, and there are woodworking specific schools nearly everywhere too. The NW Woodworking School founded by Gary Rogowski and the Oregon College of Art & Craft are probably the two most famous locally. But, schools don't really solve the shop space problem. So, no answers for the masses, just a review of options

Branding / Leaving your mark

2009-09-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

This post is all about signing and dating work. Typically, I don't - mostly I don't think that my work / most work merits a signature. I feel like that is something reserved for artists / things of artistic merit rather than the ordinary or utilitarian. But, as much of what I do is for family, I've given serious consideration to marking pieces for the benefit of future generations. (Lofty dreams, hoping that your hand-crafted what-not isn't put in the dump after whoever you made it for is done with it!) But, leaving that behind for now, there are a few ways people brand their items:
The easiest is to simply use an indelible / laundry marker to write on some inconspicuous place before applying finish. Any good permanent marker like a Sharpie would work. You may want to put on a thin coat of finish first, so the marker doesn't "bleed" quite so much, and then finish as usual over it. Another is buy a wooden or metal "mark" that you would buy especially for the purpose - most are round and easily inset into your project.

Rockler and many other companies offer woodburning brands that you can customize - some with your name, some that are just a logo, even just initials. I've seen them offered with and without their own heat, so some are truly like a branding iron, while most are like large electric soldering irons. They even offer a date attachment that you can change (buy a new one) each year - but it is so expensive you may as well buy a whole new brand. Well, some of the graphic brands are more expensive, shrug, may be worth it for those.
Some use the right size forstner bit and drill a shallow recess and epoxy in a coin with the current year. I like this because it gives a solid date that can survive refinishing if need. Whenever you embed a coin though, you wonder if some 10 yo is going to dig it out eventually - either for his collection, or to put in a gumball machine.
Decals and stickers are another option and have been used by professionals and amateurs for many years as well - you can now make your own decals easily using a desktop inkjet printer.
I "Branded" this Blog by making a "Leach" icon that is simply a large "L" cradling the letters e,a,c,h. which arose from my interest in creating a furniture brand. If I was going to use this as a basis for a decal, the "L" would be a try-square. The top two brands pictured are real cattle brands from our family history / background in farming and ranching. The first is Bar Lazy L ( (the horizontal top line over an L over a rocker) which was our Paternal Grandfather's brand. The second brand was our Maternal Grandfather's initials, with the first initial reversed for balance, probably the same as his monogram.

Anywho, no decisions yet on a brand for me. We've done a few "branded" projects - one by putting a hand written piece of paper into a hollow spot in the project (I like that, and will do it again) before sealing it closed and another by signing in ball-point pen (although a laundry marker would have been much better) and finishing over that.

I'm leaning towards a wood-burned brand coupled with an epoxied U.S. dime. Both can survive most any kind of abuse / refinishing / painting. That combination seems busy /overdone somehow - but I don't want to make a new brand for each new year. The modern Stickley company uses a wood burned brand and a brad-fastened metal mark that has elements from the original logos. The brand pictured is on a twin bedframe headboard - this mark would be hidden by boxspring. This is another combination that can survive refinishing. I want something smaller though, so that I can mark smaller projects as well as the large. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

What Is It... ...revealed!

2009-08-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

The pictures tell the story. The "tool" is a kitchen tool - but then almost everything used to come in a sealed can. Heck, I think somewhere in my tools I still have a piercing spout for motor oil.
So, it makes sense that he / his father would have a can opener in with his other woodworking / home maintenance / construction equipment. I have a "church key" combination bottle / can opener in my tool box that future generations may puzzle over.

It does work amazingly well. Jab the center of the lid, adjust the cutter to the edge of the can, plunge it, grip can with one hand, turn can opener around until you either free the lid, or leave the lid attached and pull free with the point of the opener.

I think the downside of the tool is having to grip the can while using it - which is why the crank style can opener won out. It is at its worst with a small can like the pictured can of tuna. Simply less can to grip.

Here we have jabbed as accurately as possible.

Next, we engage the cutter, which has been moved and tightened for this size can.

Here we have pulled the cutter most of the way around the can. (This part is pretty quick, although we haven't tried a can race between electric, hand crank and this old fellow yet.)

And a last picture with the lid nearly removed and hinged up from the can.

What is it?

2009-08-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

I picked up this tool at a garage sale yesterday for a couple of bucks. The old gentleman that was having the sale was in his 70s or 80s and had a number of tools that were his father's - including a handsaw with a nib that just wasn't in good enough shape to turn back into a user, but was most likely over 100 years old. The pictures are of a tool that he couldn't identify, but that my eyes passed over until someone else asked him what it was. I had a guess at it & snagged it, just because it was a fun artifact. Other than lightly cleaning it I didn't do anything else to it. My teenage son used it successfully and quickly the very first time - the tool functions like new!
Of course I had to try it & was amazed that it works better than modern replacements. As you can see, it has a point on the end, and an adjustable double-sided cutter that is set with a thumbscrew. The thumbscrew locks the cutter to the shaft of the tool. The cutter isn't particularly sharp, and is an arc, coming to a single point. Frankly, I don't think the cutter was any sharper when it was brand new. I showed my parents thinking that there was a chance that they wouldn't be able to identify & my Mom said that her Grandmother had one that she used all the time. She also said that they fell out of favor after the war (WW2) and that she hadn't seen any since then.
So, my question to you is: what is it? Instead of giving the answer away, I thought I'd give you a puzzler. If you know the answer, please don't post as a comment. email me with your guess and I'll send you a picture of it in use, or give you a hint if you are wrong - or heck, will just send you a pic / tell you if that is what you would prefer. Hope this is fun for you!

Fein MultiMaster

2009-08-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

I finally got a Fein MultiMaster - it has been on my wish list for many years. But, the price has prevented me from buying and Santa from delivering. It has a lot of capabilities, which has lead to a number of manufacturers making less expensive knock-offs in the last year.

This is the model with case I bought, but I didn't pay $399 for it! I bought it at (of course) a garage sale for $25. Yep, pretty good deal, right? Hold on a second - check out how expensive the BLADES for it are! Yeah, a major stumbling block for me. Fortunately, there are a few options. I'm sure some of the competition's blades and accessories will fit & I can always make my own. Yep, there are some brave souls out there that have made their own blades for this tool, which may make it more affordable for me to own and use. I know we sure could have used it on a recent bathroom remodel.

Dana Decker's method is pretty much the standard way folk are going about it. This guy does much the same thing, but without having to melt the mounting hole. I'll probably end up trying both at some point as I really can't see shelling out more for blades than the tool cost me initially.

There are a few folk that sell somewhat cheaper blades - Multiblades and Imperial Blades appear to be the most popular. But if you need a Bimetallic Metal Cutting Blade you'll have to buy Fein's, as no-one else makes them.

I guess this post is mostly a tool gloat, but I hope someone else out there stumbles across this post and is able to save themselves some money keeping their Fein MultiMaster on the job.

Saving Woodworking Articles for later viewing, Part 1

2009-08-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

The web is great - I'm sure we've all found a lot of information that we can't live without, surfing around. Sometimes you will find a really useful article that you don't want to lose track of, and are a little afraid about finding it on the 'net again. Sure, you could print it, but the images lose their crispness and much of the detail.
Internet Explorer can help you out. You can save entire webpages for offline viewing, here is how:
When you use viewing any webpage, go to the File menu and use the Save As... option - choose a desination and name, but select the "Web Archive, single file(*.mht) as the Save as type: - this will create a file with all the pictures that can be viewed offline, backed up to CD and stored, whatever. There are other methods for saving webpages, but only this one puts everything into one file. I think you are fine about doing this for your own use, but I'm not sure about the legalities about sharing .mht files with others. Remember, this only works with Internet Explorer. Whoops! I'm wrong! There is support for MHT / MIME HTML files in other browsers. I wish I had known about this feature a few years ago - I stumbled across a guy that made a pair of Stickley style recliners out of flame figured Maple, with good pictures of each step of the process... ...and could never find the page again.

Shelf life and product code dating

2009-08-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Titebond in all the different flavors is my favorite family of wood glues. Franklin gives a standard shelf life of 1 year for all their glues for an unopened container. Keeping air out of the container helps, but still begs the question: When does that timer start? When was that bottle of glue made / when does that year start? That question is equally applicable to any finishing product.
It basically comes down to lot numbers. Lot numbers are generally stamped in easily smudged numbers on individual bottles, but if not there, then is printed on the cardboard box the bottles come in - thank goodness many stores only unbox a few bottles at a time and the rest stays easy to date from their birth certificate on the box. Quoted from www.titebond.com:
"How do I read the lot numbers?
The letter "A" is always used at the beginning of a Franklin International lot number. The second digit corresponds to the last number of the year. Digits 3 & 4 correspond to the months of the year. The 5th and 6th digits correspond to the day of the month the product was made. Lastly, digits 7 through 10 are batch numbers. Therefore, a Titebond product with the lot number of A906010045 was manufactured on June 1, 2009."
It turns out that there are more ways of coding Titebond Lot numbers than the above, as talked about here.
So, it comes down to tracking down (and deciphering) what the lot numbers mean to determine product age - marking a products "born on" date isn't as useful as marking when it goes bad, which I recommend that you do "in the clear" with a Black indelible marker! Especially if you have to get the "born on" date from a box that stays in the store. If you can't be bothered, buy from some place that does brisk business and date from when you buy the bottle. Otherwise, beware of that dusty bottle purchased from a Mom and Pop - sorry, I like to support Mom and Pop operations, but your project depends on its life based on the glues and finishes it is made with.

MSDS - why you need them.

2009-08-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

A MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) is a form produced by the manufacturers of all most all chemicals. Large businesses are required to have the MSDS information at hand for any of the products they use in their daily work. So why do you need them for the products you use? Well, mostly you don't, but I can give some compelling reasons to seek them out.
1) MSDS list the ingredients of the product you are using. Yep, ever wonder what was in some of the finishes you use? An MSDS will tell you, down to the percent. Poor labelling of consumer packaging no longer has to stop you from knowing exactly what you are exposing yourself to, or for that matter whipping up some of your own if that is cheaper for you. Many manufacturers rely on the "Secret" of what is in their stuff to stay in business.

2) The real purpose of MSDS sheets; safety - it is always good to know what you are being exposed to. Everything from alergic reactions, wondering how to store safely, or is it safe to mix with another product, etc.

Here are a few to get you started.
Rockler provides MSDS for the chemicals they sell and even have a nice search engine. As they sell the Sam Maloof finishes, kinda interesting reading!
Highland Hardware also has a list of MSDS for what they sell.

MSDS online is a pay service, but allow trial use, so if you have one in particular that you are interested in looking up, this may be your best option.

Oh, and I've noted that even if a .COM company doesn't have MSDS sheets online for the public, sometimes the Canadian version of the same company / site will.

Another tip - sometimes you can get the information you need simply by asking for it, either by mail, phonecall or webform. "I need the MSDS information for product X, please." Will generally get the job done. I like the "Contact Us" webforms that most companies provide for their sites.

This may be another good way to track down info.

So if your interest is simply casual (What is in this stuff? / Can I make my own version more cheaply?) or because you have concerns (Last time I used this stuff, I got a rash.) the right MSDS is where you need to go for the answers.

Tool repair: Hacksaws, Bench Grinders and ACE Hardware

2009-07-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

As a known estate and garage sale habitué, it shouldn't surprise anyone that more than half of my tools are less than new & are sometimes purchased in need of love.

Today (out of a box of tools labelled "50 sents each") I got a reciprocating saw-blade holder. Really, just a handle that would let you use Sawzall blades as a small handsaw. This one was made by Craftsman, and except for the missing thumbscrew to secure the blade is in great shape. Of course I tried to track it down, but it either came as an included accessory of a reciprocating saw, or wasn't deemed worthy of maintaining parts for (the plate that grips the blade is trapped / non-removable, so the only replacement part *IS* the thumbscrew.) No matter, my local ACE hardware has a ton of bolts and thumbscrews, so an easy fix.

Took the handle to the store and using the bins of bolts determined that it was 1/4", 20 tpi (threads per inch.) Second step was to decide what sort of head I wanted - wing nut, thumbscrew, slotted, hex drive with round knurled side - lots of options. Having no idea what the original looked like (although I'm guessing low-profile knurled edge, coin-slot to tighten so as not to get in the way) I decided on a thumbscrew. I may have gone with something with a lower-profile head, but this handle can be used to grip the blade either way - straight up, or flipped 180 degrees, so if a thumbscrew would get in the way one way, I could simply remove and flip the blade and retighten and be back in business.
ACE "only" had 2 lengths in the thread size that I needed - too long, and even longer. I really only need 3/8" of threaded length and leaving it long would have gotten in the way even worse. So, in addition to the thumbscrew, I also bought a stainless steel nut of the right size, and a couple washers. Sure, I probably have those, but rather than finding them in the garage, it was easy to spend the extra 20 cents to save time. After I got home, I slipped the washers onto the thumbscrew and tightened down the nut - the threads under the washers and nut were about the length that I wanted. If I wanted to leave any longer length of threads, I would have bought 2 nuts and not bothered with the washers and simply tightened the nuts against each other. I then used a hacksaw (although using my reciprocating saw would have had a certain poetry to it) to cut off the extra threads. The next part could be accomplished with a hand file, but I wanted this tool to cost less than buying one new (time is money) so I used a bench grinder to smooth the end of the threads up to the stainless steel nut. Depending on how good your hacksaw job is, this can be pretty painless & accomplished quickly without the need for quenching.

I then removed the nut and washers, and did a trial fit. Note - one of the main reasons for putting the nut(s) on is so that you can keep the threads clean / relatively burr free. Simply removing the nut slowly can clean up / chase the threads a bit for you. That is why I spent the extra couple of cents on the stainless steel nut - as it was a bit harder than the thumbscrew, it was adjusting it, rather than the thumbscrew adjusting the nut. If there was room for 2 nuts, I wouldn't have bothered with stainless steel. Trial fit - a bit long. Replaced the nut without the washers and got a cube of ice from the kitchen. Too short to make an adjustment cut with a hacksaw, I would have to grind off about the thickness of a washer. Tightly trapping the "thumb" part of the screw between my thumb and cradled ice cube, I ground off what I needed, rounding a bit this time to allow easier insertion. I got the idea for using ice for grinding from Frank Ford's Frets.Com website. Thanks Frank! It works great! The whole site is interesting / useful, but his shop tips are wonderful.

To conclude - even if a part isn't available, there isn't any reason you can't find (and adjust) something into a suitable replacement. A minimum number of metalworking tools you should already have (hacksaw, bench grinder, files) will get you there most of the time. Ice is wonderful for grinding & will prevent you from removing temper and/or keep you from burning yourself. A well stocked local hardware store is worth its weight in... ...broken tools that would otherwise be binned or recycled. If it is a complex part, try the manufacturer first, generally through their website.

Ed makes a computer desk for his Mom's birthday

2009-07-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is a computer desk that my son Edward made for his Mother's 50th birthday. A simple trestle design, and sized to fit a particular space, this was something that she had been wanting.

You can see that it is glued up from strips of wood (hardwood, mostly Oak) and fairly thick. The wood was purchased from a guy advertising "12 inch wide Oak boards." Of course I got excited and made the 45 minute drive without asking enough critical questions. Even though the product wasn't exactly what was mentally pictured when I read the Craigslist ad, I still left with the little pickup loaded with boards. These boards are tongue and groove and look like oversized pieces of flooring. They were made to be installed as flooring and rub rails for the trailers of tractor/trailer long-haul trucks (strong enough for forklifts to drive on.) They are finger-jointed, but the finger-joints are on the sides of the planks instead of the face, so not very noticeable.

The design is pretty simple. The top is glued up of 3 pieces (after the tongue and groves were cut off as they weren't precise enough to use.) The legs and the stretcher are cut from single boards, and the feet and battens are cut from smaller pieces of the same material. All of the exposed edges were softened / mildly rounded using a random-orbit hand-sander, except for the exposed end-grain of the legs and stretchers which have a much larger radius round-over. We wanted a design that would be easy to build, move / transport and if needed, easy to store. Also, although we would have liked to use a through-tenon on each end of the stretcher, it wasn't something we wanted Ed to tackle on his first large project.

Instead, we used cross-dowel nuts to attach the modesty panel/trestle/stretcher. We got the idea from a pair of work benches brother Greg made (using regular nuts and bolts as the larger cross-dowel nut sizes are uncommon.) A little industrial but look OK & is very solid. The battens are secured to the desktop with screws and glue, with glue just on the middle of each piece: although we don't expect much cross-grain wood movement, it didn't cost us anything to allow for it.

The battens and the feet are cut to the same width, and the battens are through-bolted to the legs. We used nylon-bushing locknuts to make the connection. A good change would have been to use thicker battens to make using socket wrenches easier as the nuts and bolt heads are very close to the bottom surface of the desk. The legs are secured to the feet with long square drive screws.

The feet and the feet pads are worth commenting on. Rounding over the end-grain could have been accomplished with a router table and sled, but we took a simpler approach. We already had the monster 4" wide "hand held" Porter-Cable belt-sander out for sanding both sides of the glued up top, so we inverted it and secured it in the jaws of a Workmate, cut small 45 degree angles across the ends of all 8 pieces (two battens, 2 feet, and both ends 4 feet pads) and Ed rounded the ends over on the belt-sander. The results were fantastic! If you are just rounding the ends of a workpiece, this is a pretty good method and gives good repeatable / consistent results with no edge tear out. As observed in the illustration, it is best not to linger on the flat of the cut 45 angle, and just make the roundover in one smooth pass, repeating as necessary to complete. It took 5 slow passes to make each roundover.

Ed finished it by brushing on coats of clear semi-gloss Minwax Poly: 3 coats for the top, 2 coats for the rest of the desk. Fine grit hand-sanding and triple-aught "000" degreased steel wool to knock down nibs, bubbles, etc. between coats. Another thing that we would change if we were doing it over again would be to pre-finish (at least 1 coat) the pieces before assembly.

The desk was a success (his Mom loved it) and it was a lot of fun helping Edward get his first large project completed.

As this will primarily be used as a laptop desk, Ed's next project / present for his Mom will be to make a back-of-desk-organizer, with pigeon holes for paper and other supplies.

Woodworker Haiku

2009-06-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Some are from phrases I heard other places and just Haiku-ified; others from personal experience. More about the above character here.

When you are in doubt
There is no doubt to it
Go the safer route.

Sharp teeth eat the meat
Woodworking tools have teeth
I am made of meat.

Blood sweat and teardrops
All are inappropriate
in a fine finish

Stacks of wood I have
Plenty of tools I have too
No confidence though

Still have 10 fingers
But upon them I see clues:
safety should come first

Irregular no,
Custom hand made wood art, yes
Sometimes you need "spin"

Reproduction Stickley hardware

2009-05-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

One project that I've been stalled on for a while (for a variety of reasons) is now hinging (snork) on finding suitable hardware. Actually, I've found good hinges, but the pulls are what really show / what people will be handling. As it will be in quarter-sawn Oregon White Oak with only simple detailing it seemed only appropriate to use Craftsman/Stickley-style hand-hammered copper hardware at least for the pulls. Rockler offers a line of hardware made by Stickley in cast copper - perfect, right? Well, maybe. Note that I said "cast" rather than "hand-hammered" - take a look at this close up of one of the pulls Rockler offers. I've only seen a few good Stickley pieces with this sort of pull, and they did not have the same feel as the one pictured above. But, "Patterned from the original designs of Gustav and Leopold Stickley, this cast copper hardware has been re-issued by the Stickley Furniture Company exclusively for Rockler!" means that commercially, these are about as close to the best match available, right?
I did check on a couple antique sites and found one that had a pair of real 1905 - 1912 Stickley pulls for $265. Ouch. This Popular Woodworking Blog entry has a few pictures of what original hardware looks like. Yep, not cast - made from coppersmithing / peening together pieces of copper sheet and cast or thick wire for the actual pulls.
This great blog entry by Mark A. DeCou on Lumberjocks shows a way I might get what I want, but not without learning some new tricks & buying some copper stock. There are commercial ways of getting a good patination on new copper work, I'd have to use one of those methods as bright copper isn't what I would be after. I think a trip to the bookstore may be in order, and perhaps a trip to a library as well. I can make or buy nice oak craftsman pyramid knobs for the pulls, but just not what I'm after. Any suggestions appreciated!

The measure of things

2009-05-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

I started piano lessons when I was in the 2nd grade... ...but what does that have to do with woodworking? It was the first time I can recall that I was interested in the reach of my hand, tip of pinkie to end of thumb. The piano keys made a simple ruler for measuring hand size. After I got my full growth as a teen, my reach ended up at just a smidgen over 9 inches. Funny, I got this image from a Girl Scout site - the PDF is actually pretty useful, and exactly what I wanted to write about today.
It often happens that I need a rough measurement and don't have a rule in my pocket, or a tape measure at my belt. I often use my hand to get a rough measurement, often walking my hand along 9 inches at a time to measure something up to around 45 inches or so. But, hands come in all different sizes. Finding the reach of your hand, finding a 1 inch knuckle joint, walking heel to toe to pace off the dimensions of rooms based on the length of your shod foot - all great, all handy. But what if you need a more precise measurement, or one you can have someone at the other end of the phone use? What common objects are handy (snork) for everyday measurement?

For starters, paper money is good as almost everyone has a dollar near to hand. A piece of US paper currency is 6.14 inches long - close enough to 6 inches for most purposes. Folded in half it is 3 inches, in quarters it is an inch and a half. It is also 2.61 inches tall, but I never remember that.

Coins are pretty good too. A US quarter is 0.955 inches across, and 0.069 inches thick. Not so useful if you have a good eye for such things, or are already trained to instinctively use a finger joint to measure an inch, but really handy when relaying size information remotely. A dime is 0.7 inches across and 0.053 inches thick, but I don't find that as generally useful as remembering the size of a quarter and a dollar bill. (added Sept 29, 09) I recently read that I neglected the cent! A Penny is 3/4 of an inch across - well worth noting.

The last one pictured is simply the reach of your outstretched arms. Pictured is Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian man" which was named after Vitruvius who was a Roman writer in the 1st century BC who set down ratios for human proportions. Bet you always wanted to know that, huh? (grin) So, however tall you are, that is generally the reach of your outstretched hands. The other measurements I like to be aware of is typical (Ok, favorite) chair seat, desk/ table, and kitchen counter heights - I measure those against my body. Perhaps not as handy as the above, but very handy when shopping for furniture. I really can't talk any more about it now, as it leads more deeply into the Golden Proportion / Golden Ratio!

Howard Feed-N-Wax

2009-05-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

I've been catching up on the backlog of projects I have for friends and family lately. One project was a few single-shelf bookshelves. The first one I made was out of English Walnut and I finished with Howard Feed-N-Wax - the easiest finish / non-finish possible. Apply it, wait for 20 minutes, wipe/buff off the excess. The reason I say non-finish is that although you can apply it directly to bare wood as I did, many people recommend that you use it over a another finishing product. If there is any chance the project you are finishing is going to get wet, this is probably not the right choice! Also, you'll have to re-apply occasionally to keep the appearance up. Like all waxes, eventually it will volatilize and end up in the air - it does not just soak into the wood, it evaporates. But, if you are looking for a finish that will show off the wood and doesn't form an obscuring film, this non-finish is better than no finish & really enhances the appearance of hardwoods with smaller pores. I'm not sure I would use Feed-N-Wax directly on Oak, or on softwood, but I think it is worth your time to try it. Howard does have a product called Restor-A-Finish that they recommend that you apply to Oak first, but I haven't tried it.
I first heard about using Feed-N-Wax as a finish a couple of years ago on this page in an article called How I Clean Wooden Tools... by Ray Drake that gives a great step-by-step approach to cleaning wooden tools / tool handles. For cleaning wood, that is the simplest / most foolproof method I've seen.

How to Finish Wood AKA reading Bob Flexner

2009-05-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

I sat down to write an entry about a book I have really been enjoying the past couple of weeks. Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish by Bob Flexner is easily the best book on the process of putting nearly Any finish on wood that I've ever read.
The funny part is that there were a few times that I caught myself thinking "I knew that." So I decided to look back and see where I learned that something originally. Often enough, it was an magazine article by Bob Flexner! So, I changed the focus of what I was going to write about.
First of all, buy the book. It dispels a lot of the myths and disinformation that is out there. Since applying an organic or inorganic finish is still chemistry, Mr. Flexner takes that approach to explaining the important bits. Plus, it is intensively visually oriented with more pictures and illustrations then there are pages in the book; which makes sense in a book about finish and finishing techniques. I like the sidebars, which include finish recipes, tips, and myth vs fact entries. Also, with individual chapters devoted to each type of finish, it is easy to find what you are looking for. However, without parroting or paraphrasing from the book (or pointing out that you can use Amazon's Look Inside feature to actually read portions of the book) I thought I'd list a couple of Bob's articles that are available online.
A Primer on Solvents
PROTECTING EXTERIOR WOOD What Manufacturers Won't Tell You
The 7 Myths of Polyurethane
How To Brush a Finish
Heck, that is enough - it isn't tough to use Google, or go on the Popular Woodworking Magazine website and search for Bob Flexner. And buy the book - you'll be glad you did.

The Sharpie marker as a finishing tool

2009-04-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

If you've ever had a poster / painting / picture professionally framed, you know what that can cost. But then if you are doing it yourself, the molding choices available most places aren't as good as what is available at the frame shops and what IS available is often pretty expensive and sold by the foot. Another alternative is to buy a pre-made picture frame and use as is, or cut it down to size. Depending on where you buy it, this can be a lot cheaper then professional framing or buying picture frame molding (or any molding for that matter) by the foot. In this case my sister Stephanie had found some nice poster-sized stained black frames that she really liked that were too big for the prints she wanted framed. The frames were shaped, pressed and even a little hand-carved (if I had to guess on how they were produced) which made the profile more than a little irregular. There wasn't a repeat to the pattern which meant that the corners were going to have to be joined somewhat haphazardly. These frames had a black stain with a satin finish over a very light wood. I cut the pieces down to the desired size, but the corner joints were looking pretty ugly - the miters were perfect, but the raw edges exposed the light color wood when I did a dry fit of the pieces. What to do? If I sanded the corners down I would have even more work to do trying to match the stain and finish? Luckily I had the scrap corners of the original frame to look at. When I pulled one apart I was able to see what they did - they had simply painted the end grain black and didn't worry about the surface irregularities of the joint. So, with a large black Sharpie permanent marker, I colored the end-grain edges that might be exposed, while completely avoiding touching the face of the frame pieces, as the colors weren't exact matches. This worked perfectly!

Free Wood, part 3, WOOD is made of wood

2009-04-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, this last one is only a free / cheap source of wood if you have the time / tools and resources to gather. Depending on the value you place on your time, this could be a more expensive method of gathering wood than paying retail. Wood turners are well familiar with finding a beautiful bowl hidden in a piece of firewood - but that same piece of wood can also yield some nice short boards! You don't have to have a sawmill to take advantage of firewood. Any process that gives you a piece of wood that is small enough to work with the tools you have is fine.
For non-woodturning woodworking you'll need (at a minimum) a thickness planer (and sled) and a shingle froe. Dang, too bad that Lee Valley no longer sells the one pictured. It is the one I have. Well, a right or left handed hatchet (one side of head is completely in one plane, and the helve is offset accordingly) will do the job as well or better for small pieces of straight grained wood. I think a bandsaw (and sled) set up for resawing is really the way to go - will maximize the amount of nice boards you'll get from each piece of wood anyway.
My point is that there are plenty of ways to get to a workable piece of wood from a piece of firewood. A lot is going to depend on how green / wet the wood is. If the wood has been stored inside for years, you may be able to use it immediately, but any cutting releases tension, so even with dry wood it might be better to wait until you see what the wood is going to do / how it is going to move before you use it.
When I cut the tops off of a couple of holly trees (Ilex aquifolium) I saved the trunks, even though they were fairly small. I used a sled and my thickness planer to get flat sides, my jointer to get a good 90 degree angle and my table saw to start the cuts for quartering it. Lots of wet dust and shavings! Many people wouldn't want wood that wet anywhere near their fine woodworking tools. After I got the wood quartered, I squared it up some and used latex paint to seal the end grain and a couple of inches of each end and stickered it to allow good airflow. In a year or two I'll have some nice white wood. I've done the same with other wood, generally only when I can see that it will have good figure that I don't want to go to waste.

Free Wood, part 2, ugly furniture is MADE of wood

2009-04-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, it is true! Even the ugliest piece of wooden furniture is still, well, wood. I can't believe how long it took me to figure that one out. Really, what triggered these entries on free wood (other than the acquired habits of a scrounger) is this article about recycling an ugly table into a padded bench. Yep, the table in the picture. ModHomeEcTeacher saw a padded bench, I see a bunch of lumber! If those legs are 2x2s (well, the shrunk down dimensional lumber version of a 2x2) than that bench is 4' long and just the planks on top are 8 inches wide, and nearly an inch thick. The side planks look to be 6 inches wide and nearly as long. I figure there is more than 8 board feet of usable wood in this table. She paid $13.99 for it at Goodwill - huge rookie mistake.
I would pay a maximum of... ...nothing. Yep, nada, zip, zilch, zero, nunca, niente. Oh, I would take it rather than reject it (for the price of a zero without a rim) as nice wide boards can be used for something, eventually. But the wood doesn't look to be anything too special. So where do I do my free & sometimes cheap furniture shopping?
The first two places are pretty competitive: the Craigslist.org free section & Freecycle.org. Lots of cheap people out there & being first is often the only criteria for scoring a deal. The Craigslist furniture and garage sale sections can also yield fruit. Oh, in the garage sale section look for estate sales that aren't being given by professionals. Best is when you turn up furniture that isn't currently in style, or is incomplete in some way. 1950's Early American roughcut thick Maple coffee tables, a solid wood footboard without matching headboard - that sort of thing. Sure, the Craigslist materials section is also great, but spotty - I did pay 50 cents a board ft for some roughsawn Walnut once though, so it is worth checking. To really mine online sources it is all about the keywords you use to search the ads. I like search keywords like: "wood", "broken", "table", "walnut", "oak", "maple", "hardwood" and so forth. Using online resources to pre-shop just makes sense. Look for local papers online too - often their classified sections are the same as the ones in the birdcage liner & searchable, too.
Goodwill or any of the other great service organizations that have storefronts can be possible sources, but you will pay more than you need to. The biggest problem you are going to have is when you get a piece of furniture that is too good to disassemble, and you end up repairing an antique. I hate it when that happens! (grin)

Free Wood, part 1, industrial and construction salvage

2009-04-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Among friends, Leach folk are widely considered to be cheap, if not frugal. That hasn't always been the case for me & doesn't apply to all aspects of my life. But, given that I don't make my living as a woodworker, part of my fun is smart shopping / bargain hunting.
I've talked about bargain hunting used quality tools, but what about the wood to apply those tools to? Gather ye round, I'm going to give up all the secrets in my next few entries.

Brief side note: As with power tools and all other woodworking related activities, your safety is your concern. I do not accept liability for any reliance you place on any information on this blog, in this entry, or any other - or for that matter anything I link to. I do recommend heavy gloves, long sleeve shirts, blue jeans, eye and ear protection and whatever tools you need to safely do what I'm talking about below. Some sort of metal detector might be a good idea too.

First was a small company that would receive shipments of very large, very heavy irregularly shaped pieces of equipment - and did us all the favor of periodically leaving the staple and nail infested pine / fir 2x4s at the sidewalk in a well organized pile. This was discovered by brother Greg around 7 or 8 years ago. What a bonanza! Assuming that you were the early bird, you could fully load a small pickup & not make much of a dent in what was offered. As the crates were often 12 feet long or longer (no idea what they were receiving) there were a bunch of nice long straight 2x4s to be had, with a group of 4 nails every 4 feet or so. Plus the vertical and cross pieces were often 4 to 6 feet long as well. Sure, most of the wood was pretty low grade, but the reality was we ended up wasting very little except as sawdust. Nail pulling before storing was the biggest pain - actually the giant staples that were used to secure the cardboard / fiberboard sides of the crates were the worst. As it was all single-use clean wood, the nails were easy to spot, so we didn't bother to use a metal detector. But what does junk wood like this have to do with woodworking? Plenty. We made a lot of things out of it - frames, shelves, fencing, assembly tables, sawhorses - you name it. If you make custom furniture out of only the finest woods you still have a place for pine or fir, even if it is only to make jigs and mock-ups. For us, any project that didn't demand a hardwood was made from salvaged 2x4s. The biggest problem is locating sources like that.

The second source we came across was when a friend Theron's Mother sold her rather nice 6000 sq ft+ home to a developer who was more interested in the land. He was able to let us have access to the place for just less than a week before the bulldozers were going to come in. We salvaged a variety of material including molding, doors, plywood from the attic floor, raised panel walls - any number of things. We were so busy with the trim that we didn't dig into walls or floors for framing members, although one of our group did salvage treated and untreated deck
wood.

There is a recycling center here that makes furniture from old house framing wood and other scrap that would otherwise go to landfill. The Rebuilding Center and ReFind Furniture are worth checking out in website form, even if you don't live within driving distance of their Portland, Oregon location. But then, I just mention them as good examples of what I/We/You can do with debris. A digression, but worth the trip. The trestle table pictured is of tight grained old-growth Doug Fir salvaged from an old home's beams and other framing members. You can just make out the black stains left by rusty nails in the picture. I'm not one to "antique" a piece of furniture by abusing it or making questionable finishing choices to make it look old, but something about the filled nail holes in these beautiful pieces of furniture, reminding us that this wood was saved from landfill or burn pile... Well, I think it is a beautiful thing, anyway.

Anywho, consider industrial and (de)construction salvage as a source of woodworking wood. Gotta be careful about embedded nails and suchlike though. Would be a crying shame to ruin a tool or some vital part of your anatomy just to save a few bucks and keep beautiful tight-grained wood out of land fills...

Keeping the wet stuff wet. Wine not?

2009-03-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

One of the major expenses of woodworking is finishes, solvents, glue & other "wet" chemicals that break down, dry out or otherwise react to oxygen / oxidizers. What to do about it?

We've all seen that commercially prepared woodputty is often sold in cans with the lid on the bottom - to open you have to invert it, and to store later with an upright appearance, you have to sit it back on the lid. Makes sense - the product goops itself to the bottom / lid, sealing the can, preventing air exchange & keeping it fresher, longer. Lots of condiments like catsup and mayo and so forth are coming that way these days too - same sort of reasoning. Trap a minimum amount of air and use the product to seal the container. I do something similar with cans of finishes / paint - after I get the lid down tight, I swirl the can around so that finish contacts the entire area of the join between the lid and the can, hopefully sealing it better than just the metal-to-metal connection of can and lid, even if I don't invert.

Another method is to reduce the size of the container as the product is used - toothpaste and caulk spring to mind, but I am also reminded of collapsible containers like those used in darkrooms to store chemicals and the mylar bag that makes boxes of wine possible, if not necessarily desirable. I guess for completeness, you can also put displacement in this category - like putting a brick in a toilet to reduce water usage, but keep the water level up. My favorite submethod is to simply move smaller amounts into smaller containers.
The third solution is to remove as much air as possible / vacuum pack things - with the use of a pump & containers that seal really well.

The method I've been thinking about today is another sort of displacement, suggested by my buddy Mike. Instead of displacing product, why not displace the air? There are plenty of inert gasses that are heavier than air. Just "pour" a heavy inert gas into a container, forming a gas lid on the surface, blocking any interaction. Makes me recall the wax lids on the surface of my Grandmother's homemade jellies. There are commercial products available for doing this for wine, and now, for woodworking. Private Preserve is the original method for wine & is composed of argon, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. If you already have some, you can use it in your cans in the shop (and darkroom) too! But Bloxygen is used in exactly the same way (although it appears that it contains just argon from what it says on the label) for about the same price and may be already available in your local woodworking store. And hey, who wants to go to a wine store when you can go to a woodworking store?

A few favorite woodworking books

2009-03-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

My first favorite woodworking book is actually a set of three great books by one great woodworker. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking: A Step-By-Step Guidebook is my recommendation for a first group of books for not only a beginning woodworker, but for ANY woodworker. Sometimes volumes 1 & 2 are combined in one book, with volume 3 separate. If you can afford it, I like the offering of all three books, with a bonus DVD available from Lee Valley. I haven't seen the DVD, but have read great things about it. Shrug, may make it worth the price! A lot cheaper than the same set directly from the publisher. But, if you are looking for just the books, you should be able to find them used for a total of less than $30 for all three.
If you are looking for used copies, phone calls to local bookstores are sometimes fruitful, but I really like ABE books if your local options are limited. I also like Daedalus Books, which is often worth a look for newer titles, but is hit and miss.
Second, I would recommend any of the five or six books by James Krenov - don't I make shopping easy? (Grin) If you need a place to start, I recommend his "A Cabinet Maker's Notebook" which was first published in 1976. Yes, there are a number of master woodworkers out there, including my favorite Sam Maloof, but start here, even if you don't like what Krenov makes. He writes well and conveys information in a clear easy to read style. His writing got me excited about doing excellent (instead of workmanlike) projects. If you don't immediately buy "A Cabinet Maker's Notebook", find any of his books in a brick and mortar store, open to a random page, and begin reading. If you end up standing in one place long enough that your feet fall asleep, buy the book.
My last recommendation is Peter Korn's Woodworking Basics: Mastering the Essentials of Craftsmanship which is a great step-by-step series of classes in book form. While no book can completely substitute for the presence of a teacher showing you the way, I think this book has enough detail to move you in the direction of becoming a great woodworker. I feel this book also serves as a good introduction to the Taunton Press series of the "The Complete Illustrated Guide To" books, which are all wonderful and written by masters. I was able to get most of the series from Daedalus at a sharp discount, several years after they were first published. Really, it all depends on where you are going with your woodworking & what tools you are using to get there. For example, if you do a lot of woodworking on the bandsaw, I have to recommend Lonnie Bird's "The Bandsaw Book". And if you are interested in lathe work there is no better book than Ernie Connover's "The Lathe Book". Gotta love the unambiguous titles! It all depends on the direction woodworking pulls you. Oh - don't forget your local public library when it comes to woodworking books or any printed matter. Best place in the world to try before you buy. Clubs and Guilds often have great lending libraries available to their membership; another reason to get involved locally with other woodworkers.

Supplying power to your tailed devils

2009-03-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Power tools are tricky. It doesn't help that many manufacturers give horsepower and power requirement ratings based on the motor being unloaded (not doing any useful work, just spinning freely.) The bottom line is, most of us working in residential shops have tripped a breaker operating a power tool (generally a 110v contractor's tablesaw cutting an uncooperative piece of hardwood.) A 1 horsepower motor requires 960 watts of power, which is about 8 amps of power. That is just a bit more than half of the rated 15 amp load of the outlet in the first picture to the left. No problem, right? Well, generally wrong - each circuit at the breaker panel is generally supplying multiple outlets... ...and if you are in a garage or basement shop, probably also the power for whatever overhead light you may have. This becomes clear when you trip a breaker and are left standing in the dark. Plus, if you are running your tools at the ends of long extension cords, the resistance of the cord comes into play, which means that there is less power available to your tool. You can easily figure out exactly how overloaded your circuits are by dividing the watts required for a particular tool (or light or other device) by the voltage (110) to get amperage: A 100 watt lightbulb is 100 divided by 110 giving .9 amps. Add up all the amps being supplied to everything on the same circuit & you have your (over) load. What to do about it?
First, have an electrician add a new 20 amp breaker (or two or five) supplying power to new 20 amp outlets positioned where you need them. Again, calculate the load to determine how many separate circuits you will need. Dust collectors, table saws and any big stationary tools draw the most. Make sure that 12 gauge wire is used, which is a lot thicker than the wire used for 15 amp outlets. Also make sure that your new circuits are separate from any other demand (like lighting) and are dedicated for just your power tools. This way at least you won't be in the dark when you trip a breaker. Your new outlets should look like the one in the second picture to the left. Try and keep each circuit as unloaded as possible. Remember, whatever the breaker is rated for is what it will trip at. Trip a breaker enough times and it will wear out, requiring replacement. Try for around half the load it will trip at. Yep, that means that you'll probably want one outlet with a dedicated breaker for your table saw.
Second, use the shortest run of the heaviest gauge extension cord that will get the job done. Sure, I have a 50' extension cord of 10 gauge wire for those times when I am really far away from an outlet (or powering a tool from my noisy gas powered generator) but in general, the shortest route to your power is the best. Ideally your outlets will be places so that no extension cord is required, but that is rarely going to be the case. This is where the third picture comes into play - my favorites extensions are short (3, 6 or 12 foot) air conditioner / heavy appliance extension cords. They have a right-angle plug which resists being pulled from the wall accidentally and because they are heavier / have more copper per foot and are short so they lose less juice on the way to your tools. Plus, you won't be tempted to borrow them for times when you need a long extension cord for some other purpose. And because they are short they are cheap enough that you won't mind dedicating a few for your main tools.
I haven't even mentioned what happens when you graduate to a 220v single-phase cabinet saw, but it is much the same as above - only 1 outlet connected to the breaker. I hope this helps the next time you are guiding a piece of wood through your saw and end up standing in the dark. The time to fix that problem is NOW, before it happens again.

Restoring the look of a 1950's bathroom cabinet

2009-03-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Even just a few years ago, this would be the before picture of a bathroom cabinet. But, in the early 50's, Ranch style houses often had "Ranch" fixtures and cabinets - varnished or shellacked, with exposed hammered-look hardware. For many years this dual sink base cabinet (and hinges & pulls) were painted, to make the bathroom more modern. During a minor bathroom renovation, the paint was stripped and we did the following to restore the look:
1) Sanded out the raised grain, and tried to eliminate (as much as possible) the white paint in the ends / edges of the birch plywood & even penetrated into the surface. Then applied several coats of clear Varathane over the natural wood. In this flash picture, you can see some of the white that was left in the wood. It looks a lot better / is less noticeable in person! Where the white paint was the hardest to touch was the plywood edges of the drawers and doors. If I was doing this project again, I would have edge-sanded longer, or used a permanent brown marker to color the traces of white before Varathaning.
2) Cleaned and restored the hardware. This was the most interesting part of the project. We cooked the pulls, hinges and screws in water in a crockpot for an hour, which completely loosened the remodel latex paint - most of it flaked off in large wet patches. But, as the hardware was mechanically rolled or pressed to give a hammered look, there were plenty of nooks and crannies that the paint wouldn't come out of. A wire wheel on a stationary grinder was used to remove the remaining paint. Instead of repainting, the hardware looked so good that we dipped each piece 3x in Varathane and suspended them by the screw holes to dry, reversing top and bottom each time to give a good coating & avoiding any bubbles or drips. The brushed-aged-steel look is still pretty dark & I think better looking than the original black.
3) Re-installing everything. Attaching hardware to drawers and doors, attaching everything back to the cabinet... Well, almost everything. During the cleaning and coating of the hardware two hinge pins and a couple screws were lost. Drat! How to match the 50+ year old hardware? Was easier than you would think. My favorite hardware store in the world, my local Suburban Ace Hardware fixed our hinge pin problem with tiny single-hole Clevis pins that we ground the tops of to have a similar appearance to the original. The screws were even easier - we bought 2 round-head plain steel slotted screws of the same size as the originals, used a hacksaw to give them the Phillips-head look, and ground the heads to match. I think I'm the only one that can tell which ones aren't original.
Digression - did you notice the guest appearance of a PC "Quicksand" random orbital sander in picture? This is what we used to finish sand the cabinet face-frame and doors. One of my favorite sanders. As you can see from the Shade-tree-engineering blue painter tape, not a fan of the way the porous dust collector cup attaches.
In conclusion - I like the look of natural wood & avoid painting wood whenever possible. I wish stripping paint off wood was as easy as using a crockpot to strip hardware!

Circles and angles, part 2

2009-03-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

I had a couple thoughts about circles and using circles to approximate angles and using circles to reduce angles.
The second (covered here) is that the bigger a wheel is, the better it is at rolling over obstructions, or climbing angles - that applies any wheels: on cars, or in this case, mobile tool bases, benches and carts.
If you have a perfectly flat shop floor, small wheels (assuming that they are rated for the load and won't develop flat spots) are perfectly fine. If you have to go over any bumps like I do (there is a noticeable lip between garage floor and driveway for me) the larger the wheel, the smaller the angle of attack / the easier it will be to roll items across any floor height differences. Also, if your wheels do develop small flat spots, the problem will be less noticeable with larger wheels. 3 inch wheels are about the smallest I would want to use to make a heavy stationary tool roll, but for anything lighter weight that is going to stay in the shop, even the smallest casters would work fine. Something to consider when choosing mobile base options for equipment likes table saws. The mobile kit I got for my first table saw was useless & required me to physically lift the saw to clear even minor differences between concrete pads. There are "all terrain" kits out there now with larger wheels, but then they ruin things by making the clearance too low - makes me think of off-road vehicles without a lift kit. One side clears edge, only to high-center before you can get the other side up-and-over. A strong case for rolling your own. Snork.

Circles and angles, part 1

2009-03-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

I had a couple thoughts about circles and using circles to approximate angles and using circles to reduce angles.
The first (covered here) is that when you are using a bench grinder to rough grind a tool to a particular angle, the larger the wheel, the closer you will get to the actual angle - with a 12 inch wheel the difference is quite small. My illustration exaggerates the differences by showing 3" thick tools. Even a Hock iron for a Stanley handplane is only 3/32 inch thick. There are two schools of thought. First, if you like the look of a true angle, the larger 12" wheel size (which is nearly synonymous with the Tormek system) is better. Second, if you are re-honing the tool fairly frequently to keep a sharp edge, you will have to do less work if you started with a smaller diameter wheel & will only have to regrind when you finally bottom out / completely flatten the concavity created by a 6 inch or 8 inch wheel. At least that is what we folk without a Tormek grinder keep telling ourselves! Hehehe.
If you are grinding to shape the edge and then using oil or water stones or "scary sharp" sandpaper sharpening or any other flat sharpening system out there, simply sharpening the tool edge and the heel really does make a lot more sense. It is nice to have a hollow in the middle. The hollow keeps the tool from rocking (which can cause rounding) and causes you to hone less surface area. It does look weird to some people, however.

Matching colors with tinted Polyurethane

2009-02-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

There are a variety of ways to make wood look a different color.
The easiest / least potentially blotchy would be to use a one-step finish like Minwax^® Polyshades^® which is a tint added to regular Polyurethane - so the poly itself has tiny flecks of pigment suspended in it. The more coats you use, the darker the color and the more grain obscuring / muddy the coating is. But, sometimes that is a bonus in certain situations.
The picture is of two pieces of molding for around a doorway, one a finished piece, the other with all the blotchy patches of color is the back side of another piece of molding that we used to try to match colors. Using the back side of a piece of the same wood makes a lot of sense. If you are careful and don't slop any finish onto the good side, you can use the wood. Plus, using the hidden side for color matching means that the wood will accept the finish identically, assuming that it is sanded to the same level as the front.
There are a bunch of different colors available (from a bunch of different companies) but it will be rare to get a perfect match right out of the can. If you are trying for a great color match, you are going to have to get into blending. This is where it pays off to buy a number of the same types of finishes, by the same manufacturer. I think you could probably mix and match from different companies, but you are pretty much guaranteed of a good application by staying in the same family of products by the same company.
We had a few different cans from a previous project, and purchased the two closest color matches... ...which weren't close enough.
The secret to being able to make a good sample / good application is to blend enough to do the entire job, rather than trying to eye-dropper / measure out and mix for a sample strip, and then trying to match the eye-droppered sample in a larger quantity. I guess I'm saying to not be afraid to waste finish - mix up enough in-between finishes that you can completely color your project. It helps to have some small clean sealable containers to store your various concoctions in. You can try for a wet match, but it is better to wait the full 6 hour drying time. The other thing you will want to do is that if you are trying for a color match in one coat for a product that needs a few layers for the level of shine you are looking for is to clear coat after getting the color you want. BUT, if you are serious about a good color match, you'll have to top coat your sample strip and wait for that coat(s) to dry. Even a clear poly may change the appearance enough to throw your match off.

My favorite Woodworking magazines

2009-02-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

This entry is kind of ironic, as I'm currently reducing the amount of paper I subscribe to (and subsequently have to store!) But, I may go through withdrawal and resubscribe to a few, will have to see. This entry is a (short) list of my favorite woodworking magazines and what they are about. But really the best way to evaluate magazines is to look for yourself at a newsstand & then subscribe at once! Most subscriptions are cheaper than paying retail for 3 or 4 issues.
Fine Woodworking published by Taunton Press is a wealth of information, although not necessarily for the beginning woodworker. My favorite articles are the how-to and reader galleries - inspiring to see how other folk do things. Very often there is an article that will take you step by step through a project. There are some really good online resources on the Fine Woodworking website too. I particularly like this plan with video of each step - unfortunately this is one of many of the website's project links require membership which is an extra cost over and above the magazine subscription cost. At least you can look at many of the pictures for free. I like many of the Taunton Press Woodworking and Homebuilding books. Be aware that some of their books are simply compliations of magazine articles and that some have original text but use pictures previously published in their family of magazines. This is a nice bookcase plan by the same author of the above table, but is a free download. Other free plans are available if you subscribe to their eletter.
Popular Woodworking is a great all-around magazine. Christopher Schwarz is the editor and I really enjoy anything he writes. His blog for the magazine is great, as is his person al blog. Honestly, as I type up this entry I feel like I'm assigning homework, but my other feeling is that I'm passing out keys to treasure chests or golden tickets to chocolate factories! If I was going to pick one magazine for the intermediate level woodworker, Popular Woodworking would be it. It has a good balance of power tool and galoot woodworking articles & the articles are long enough to fully explore whatever topic they are covering. They also have a regular beginners column that makes this the most well rounded of all the issues reviewed here.
American Woodworker is a pretty good magazine - chatty, many short articles, good exploded views of projects so that you can see how it all goes together. Some regular columns that are a lot of fun including one called "Tool Nut" that I like. I also like the profiles they do on various woodworker's work, often with detail on how they achieve some of their results. I would say the audience is beginner to intermediate & it covers most of the different types of woodworking including turning occasionally. Pick up an issue and thumb through it to see if it is for you.
Woodsmith - last but not least. The only magazine that doesn't have ANY advertising. Yep, none - well, the page inside the back cover does do a sneak peek at the next month's projects, but that is it. Pound for pound the most project-dense magazine. It comes 3 hole punched for binder storage, and is printed on a heavy weight non-gloss paper. I think there is a business relationship with Rockler, but that doesn't fuss me. There is also an associated Woodsmith TV show, that is showing on some PBS stations.

Building with an initial set of hobbyist woodworking tools

2009-02-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, I was going to call this post "Kreg Jig projects" but why not tie it to a previous post? Plus, buddy Adam suggested demonstrating what is possible with a minimum number of tools. Rather than coming up with a new project, or taking pictures after the fact, I Googled around and found this Reader's Digest / Family Handyman project that does a great job of building a cabinet with pocket screws and a minimum of tools: http://www.rd.com/18356/article18356.html This is a good project showing how to hide the screws and use them to full advantage. Plus, the list of minimum equipment is similar to mine. Sure, Kreg isn't the only game in town, but they are one of the most widely available. Any pocket screw jig kit would work. Kits like Kreg's Rocket (currently called the Junior) kit includes a starter pack of what you need for your first project. Well, ok, probably not enough screws if the project is half way ambitious: 1 1/4" square drive screws with washer heads will work for all most all of your needs, starting out.
This jig is the cheapest full featured one I could find, but not sure I can recommend it over Kreg.
In parting, a few links to good pictures, to help get your creative juices flowing. Here is a great way to completely assemble a kitchen base cabinet with pocket screw joinery. And This great video came with the Kreg jig pro kit I got from my brother Greg and sister-in-law Tracy for Christmas 4 or 5 years ago. (Thanks again!) This Lowes project requires a few more tools, but demonstrates that even chair making isn't beyond pocket screw joinery.

Rough sawn vs surfaced wood

2009-02-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Wood that you buy from Home Depot, Lowes, Parr or any other retail outlet that services the general public as well as most home building and construction trades has one thing in common: it is surfaced, reasonably square, and ready to use. It even has a standard name; dimensional lumber. A 2x4 from one store is likely to play well with a 2x4 from any other store. If you are building a house or a garden shed that is perfect.

When you look at wood available from specialty stores such as Woodcrafter, Rockler, Crosscut Hardwoods, Woodcrafters (or any other specialty store for woodworkers) you start to see some differences. Sure, there are flat smooth boards available for sale but there is also rough cut wood too. Some of the rough cut stock looks almost woolly it is so rough. The other thing you'll notice is a difference in price. Surfaced planks may be cheaper at bigbox stores or lumberyards, but the same species of rough sawn wood from specialty stores will be less expensive. Maybe not a lot less expensive, but some. Also, if you are looking for figured wood the only place you will generally find it will be a specialty store.

But, if you have the tools to deal with rough sawn wood you can cut out the middleman and buy directly from a sawyer or lumbermill. You'll get better prices, and you'll have a better chance of buying boards that were all cut from the same tree. Also, you'll be able to get boards of locally harvested wood that may be completely unavailable to you otherwise. My favorite local sawyer Tyler of Urban Hardwood Recovery has his own kiln and operates his business on a part time basis. Locating a local sawyer isn't hard. Search for terms like Hardwood, mill, lumber, kiln-dried and the species you are looking for. You can also contact a local Arborist who may know of a small sawmill operation, or even the makers of small sawmills like Wood-Mizer who may know of mills operating in your area.

The most important tool

2009-02-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Speaking of tools - The most important tool anyone brings to any project is their brain.
Yep, that bony knob protecting 8 pounds of greasy meat is more than just a sensory organ cluster, well at least for some.
But, to sharpen that tool, you need to hone it using several different methods.
The first is all the varieties of classroom learning. Everything from sitting in a desk facing a blackboard, to reading web articles, blogs (meh) books and magazines. Not everyone learns well this way.
The second is to learn by demonstration - having someone experienced show you the way. Videos, flipping through pictures and in-person are the usual way such knowledge sneaks past our eyeballs and creates new synaptic pathways.
The third should be an outgrowth of the first two, and is the "lab" portion of the process - learn by doing. If it isn't the logical follow through of the above, you are in possession of an original thought (be very careful with it, it is lonely and in an unfamiliar place) and are charting unknown territory. OR you are a mad scientist type attempting to re-invent the wheel from first principles - because hey, you are smart and know better than everybody else anyway - right?

Notwithstanding the superannuated status of said canine and its lack of ability to absorb concepts of unfamiliar prestidigitation: I think it behooves us all, no matter what our skill level, to improve ourselves and therefore our work.

Taking a class, joining a club or guild, or just spending time with a buddy working as his helper on something is a great way to learn. Reading or even just flipping through pictures can help. I have a list of favorite magazines and books that I need to post here sometime. The method I like best is that once I have the basic concept for something clear, is to try it. Then, keep practicing it until I develop muscle memory and the skill to apply my new learning to a new project. Sadly, the new technique and project often go hand-in-hand. This should not be the case & can lead to wasted time and shoddy projects. I think Popular Woodworking Editor Christopher Schwarz has the right idea. Heck, he says it best, here. Take some time every day to refine a skill that you want to master by practicing those skills.

Old Dogs CAN learn new tricks.

Buying an initial set of hobbyist woodworking tools

2009-02-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

If you are just starting out making things out of wood, the first thing to do is acquire a good basic tool kit to get you through your first projects. I think people generally start doing woodworking 3 different ways:
1) They were exposed young, either through a family tradition of craftsmanship, school shop program, or an innate desire to make things.
2) They've done a few projects around the house like assembling kit furniture, fence or furniture repair and desire to expand their repertory.
3) Basic need - a desire to make furniture better than they can afford to buy, or satisfy immediate furniture needs as cheaply as possible.
Whichever route we take, most people accumulate tools to accomplish the job at hand. Sure, sometimes people dive right in and purchase a bunch of tools all at once, but most people don't have the means, desire, or even the knowledge to pick out tools that way.
Years ago I wrote an article that was published by The Guild of Oregon Woodworkers about buying second hand tools from garage sales. I do recommend buying your first tools as inexpensively as possible without sacrificing quality (click here to read it) but that isn't the focus of this blog entry.
TIP - join a local woodworker's guild or club to learn from others rather than solely your own mistakes. Some mistakes are bigger than others - most folk start off with hearing, 10 digits on their two hands and 2 eyes; at a minimum you should at least hang on to those - safety first!

Here is my minimum list of equipment for making furniture from surfaced and (mostly) square lumber from a Home Center:
1) Eye protection - safety glasses are a must. Buy extra for any helpers!
2) Hearing protection - in ear or over ear, use whatever form you like every time you turn on a power tool. The important part is to never forget to use, and to use properly. Again, make sure you have protection for your helpers too.
3) Circular Saw - really, almost any will do, what is important is the blade, and how square the blade is to the shoe. For construction almost any blade will do, but you'll want a high quality blade if you are trying to make good looking furniture. I like Freud crosscut blades for their clean cutting action - get one that fits your saw.
4) A fence / sawing guide - for the shoe of the Circular saw to ride against. It can be homemade, or a fancy self-clamping guide. The important thing is that it be perfectly straight as the fence turns your lowly hand-held circular saw into a precision instrument. It has to be long enough to cut the pieces you are making. You may even need two - a short one and a long one depending on your projects.
5) A drill - a reversible, corded, variable speed hand-held drill with a 1/2" chuck, with a set of bradpoint drillbits in the common small sizes. Why 1/2" and not 3/8" ? Because this is one piece of equipment that you won't grow out of, or need to replace if you buy a good one the first time. Cordless and impact drivers may be tools that you add to your arsenal, but you'll be reaching for your larger drill more often than you think. Kreg Pocketscrews or Dowels or Miller dowels, they all rely on a good handheld drill. I also prefer a chuck with a key rather than a hand-tightened keyless chuck. I like a key chuck because I think they hold more securely and I've had keyless chucks bind and be hard to loosen, especially when wearing gloves or with sweaty hands.
6) Squares. You'll want a couple and for a few different reasons. A Speed square, a framing square, and a combination square are good ones to start off with. A good large combination square would be my first purchase in this category.
7) Sanding - at a bare minimum, a selection of sand papers in various grits up to 220 or higher, and a sanding block or two. First upgrade in this category would be a random orbital sander. My personal favorite is the Porter Cable Quicksand - of their current models, the 343K would do nicely.
8) Rules and tape measures. A good straight accurate rule and a quality 12' tape measure are handy for getting sizes right. When it is critical always be sure to use the same measuring device for all tightly fitting joinery because small differences occur between various types of rules.
9) A workbench, or at least a work surface. The Black & Decker Workmates come in a variety of sizes, the larger of which is a small workbench! A undrilled solid exterior door and a couple of sawhorses can be a great initial bench. Using a sawing guide on your bench can mean cutting into the bench itself, one method to protect your work surface is a 4'x8' piece of rigid foam to put under the board being cut, so the protruding blade divots the foam instead of bench or floor.
10) Clamps - good clamps are expensive, but pay for themselves in ease of use. I got my initial bunch of clamps from Harbor Freight (ugh) and still use some of them today... However, if you can afford at least 4 Bessey K-body clamps large enough to build your initial projects, you will save yourself a lot of grief. There are a lot of different clamps and types of clamps out there, but the Bessey K-body is a gold standard. Other clamping types are needed too, like "C" and "F" clamps or other small adjustable clamps for holding things in place. Mostly buy as you need, but always in groups - clamps of a common size from one manufacturer are easier to use together. "You can never have too many clamps"
11) A handsaw - doesn't have to be fancy, but a circular saw does poorly on inside cuts. Use a handsaw to finish what the circular saw starts. A handheld jigsaw would be the first upgrade in this category & would allow for some curves in your work.
12) Hand powered screw drivers in a range of sizes, both Philips and straight bladed - especially important if you are driving brass screws. TIP - cut grooves for brass screws by using a steel screw of the exact same size first, then back it out and hand-drive in the brass screw. This will save a lot of wear and tear on the "swear jar" as you won't break or damage as many brass screws that way. I like drills for putting in most screws, except for exposed / decorative ones.
13) Consumables - pencils, glue (I like Titebond III as a general purpose glue) and screws, sure; but also whatever finish you are going to apply, and the proper applicators and cleanup for that finish.

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but with the above equipment you can build nearly anything. Equipment beyond this will allow you to do so more quickly and attractively / with greater detail. Popular Woodworking has a special "I Can Do That" program that has a similar basic list of tools. Their PDF Manual is an amazing free download.

Garage Epoxy Floor

2009-01-31T22:43:00.000-08:00

Can you imagine a garage so empty that you could pressure wash it? Only when moving / before moving in, right? Generally you may not go to these extremes, but in this case it was a necessity...
The previous owner had a large number of cats and took care of the cat box problem by making his own giant sized one and putting it in the garage.

Here is how to duplicate his (genius!) process:

1) Make a large frame of 2x6 lumber with a scrap of vinyl flooring for a bottom
2) Put box in the middle of one garage bay
3) Fill it with cat litter and ignore until you move...
So you can see why pressure washing was needed.

Oh! Least I forget - when the garage floor was poured in 1977, kids were allowed to walk, ride bikes, draw and play games like tic-tac-toe in the wet concrete. What fun! The gift of permanent pre-pubescent lithic art!

So what to do about this two pronged problem? A smell better left to the imagination & chasms carved into solid concrete by prehistoric preteen Morlock sub creatures?

The answer to both was sealing the well-defiled floor. There are several DIY epoxy products available on the market. A 2 part, 2 1/2 gallon "pro" epoxy kit sized for the typical two car garage was selected - it also came with colored paint flakes to be sprinkled on the wet paint.

This was the process: Pressure wash the garage floor thoroughly. Be sure to use a very high powered gas pressure washer and run the motor constantly for the entire 1 day rental period. (Get full use of the rental by pressure washing driveway, sidewalks, and curbs.) No other pressure washer is loud enough to allow you to meet your neighbors while making a great first impression! Do avoid hitting the sheet rock on the walls as even a casual flick of the wand will rip a hole right through it. Next, allow the concrete to dry. Attempt to fill cracks, craters and other gouges in concrete with vinyl concrete patch. Abandon fruitless effort (next time fill with liquid epoxy mixed thin enough to self level?) allow to dry, proceed to next step. Mask edges and wood expansion joint between the two car bays. Divide the color chips into smaller quantities to ensure that there will be enough for the entire floor / to make sure coverage is reasonably even. Mix epoxy in 5 gallon bucket. Brush edges, roller epoxy onto floor, spreading color chips as we (Thanks Dad (pictured) and Greg!) painted our way out of the garage.
That is all there is to it! Sure the more aggressive prep methods might be indicated if the floor has a lot of oil or grease embedded, but so far so good! The concrete patch may not have done more than fill the deepest of the gouges, but the epoxy paint and color chips did a pretty good job of camouflaging things. And the overpowering olfactory reminder that the garage was once a temple to the end result of feeding and confining cats? Gone!

Oak Column Plant Stand

2009-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

This one happened fairly easily - it isn't a very big project - less than three feet tall, with a top just nine inches on a side.
It started like this: David and I were hanging out in his living room not many days after he proposed to Claire. I mentioned that I would like to make something for him. He said "There is one thing I would like" and brought out a plant stand that was made 90 to 100 years ago by his Great-Grandfather. It was made of Oak, with a fairly dark / darkened finish. I took measurements and made a sketch then and there. And within the week started to work on it. This is the perfect kind of project for a smaller shop craftsman to work on. There is nothing better than building something that your customer can't just buy from a catalog.

Design: purely dictated by the existing piece I was trying to match. Four tapered boards make up the column, the top and bottom are both made of two boards tongue and grooved into each other. 3/4" Cove molding dressed the top and bottom of the column. Nothing too difficult. The final part was to make two full-size patterns of the tapered pieces - 3 pieces of graph paper taped together for each, with the elongated regular trapezoid shape cut out of each. Why two? The second had to allow for the thickness of the wood of the wider sides. There are four small feet, also wood under the bottom board so that if things do get too wet, the stand won't be sitting too deeply in a puddle. Also note that the top and the bottoms are square to each other and exactly the same nine inches square in size - sure looks like the top is bigger in the photos, huh?

Construction: First stop was Woodcrafters for the Oak - I had some quartersawn in stock, but wanted grain that came close to approximating the original. So I went looking for relatively small cathedral grain for the wider sides. Woodcrafters obliged. At a bit over 26 inches tall, there isn't a lot of wood in making one of these & after bringing a long board to the desk I was talked out of buying it by the clerk. I was chatting with him about what it was going to be used for and he mentioned that they also had a bunch of shorts available. I went where he directed, and sure enough, found even prettier pieces in the short bin. Once back home (and after I had jointed and thicknessed the wood to 3/4" that I planned for) I laid the larger of the two templates on the wood, looking for the prettiest grain. Once found, I lightly traced the outline on the wood in pencil, and started looking for the rest of the pieces in the wood. Oh! As is obvious from the photo, at some point it was decided that I should make 2 of these stands - someone else saw my sketch & asked if I would make one for them as well. As it isn't twice as hard to make 2 or more of something when you are already set up to make 1, I readily agreed. The photo is interesting because it shows the grain flowing from one stand to the next. As I laid out the tongue and groove tops and bottoms as one long board, it wasn't a surprise for this to happen. Once cut into 4 pieces, I used the prettiest two for tops - what you see are the less visible bottoms, which are even less visible with the molding applied.

One good trick to share for cutting - the angle of each side is just 2 degrees. I used a Wixey digital angle gauge to do a couple of the cuts - I zeroed the gauge my tablesaw top, then I laid my angle cut jig on its side on the tablesaw, and adjusted it until it read exactly 2 degrees. This technique would work for any taper cut such as table legs. Kinda cool for those times when the eyeball alone isn't good enough. A related tip - the battery in the Wixey is the same size used by LED tea-lights. So, if your battery dies it might be cheaper to buy a pack of those for a dollar or two than a replacement battery alone for Six dollars!

Most of the angle cuts were done with a template and carpet tape as most of the grain I wanted wasn't aligned in any way with a board edge. Assembly was relatively straightforward - using offcuts as clamping cauls, Titebond III for the glue up, etc.

The only tricky part was back-sanding the molding to conform to the column taper. This was only necessary for the molding on the bottom. Finished with tinted water-based Poly (it is a plant stand, it Is going to get wet) in a reasonably close shade, covered with a clear gloss water-based Poly of the same brand. I also made sure I turned the project over and sealed the feet and bottom of this stand too. If there is the slightest chance of it ever standing in a puddle, it may as well have a fighting chance. I rubbed out that final clear coat with very fine steel wool to give it more of a semi-gloss finish. A simple but attractive stand. My hats off to David's Great-Grandpa!

Murphy Bed Project

2009-01-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

This is a nice built-in project that Greg and I did for our folks 6 years ago. This Murphy bed wall system was installed in Mom's sewing room so that they would have a good-sized guest bed for an approaching family reunion. Plus, Mom needed additional storage for fabric and sewing supplies. This post is about the details of how and why the project happened like it did.
Initially the folks looked at buying a Murphy bed type solution with storage from one of the local companies that specialize in bedrooms, closets and other built-ins. Unfortunately, none of the systems had deep enough cabinets and the best of what was offered wouldn't fit the space very well. Ended up buying the Queen size bolt to the floor version of the original Murphy Bed mechanism and designing and building the cabinets ourselves.

Design:
Designing the cabinets was fairly straightforward - the internal shelves were sized vertically to fit the clear plastic tubs Mom uses to store fabric & the width of each side cabinet was dictated by the size of the bed and the width of the wall. Depth was determined by existing window placement. Enough clearance was left so that the window doesn't look off center or out of place in the room & so the doors next to the window opened well. The bottom and middle shelves between the upper and lower doors are fixed, the rest are adjustable. 6 nearly identical rectangular frames were used - 2 support the bottom shelves (and to provide for a toe-kick just taller than the baseboard molding) 2 support the middle shelves and the other two keep the cabinet square at the top. The 4 side pieces are 3/4" hardwood plywood with a birch veneer on one side and a maple veneer on the other, with 1/4" shelf peg holes spaced every 2". Above the bed frame is a simple rectangular bridge, lipped internally to support a floating panel with a couple of puck lights controlled by a light switch at the head of the bed. The headboard is removable as it would be in the way with the bed in the storage position. With the original Murphy Bed mechanism, legs supporting the foot of the bed automatically deploy as the bed is lowered into position. Kinda cool, but what that means is that the only standard way to conceal the bed when it is in the upright position is with doors - which would get in the way and give the head of the bed too much of a cave feeling while it was being used, as the deeper side cabinets would prevent the doors from folding the full 180 degrees. Even bi-fold doors wouldn't work for what the folks wanted. We could have solved the problem by bringing the bed further into the room so that the front of the stowed bed / middle cabinet would be proud of the side cabinets so that the doors could fold back (many of the standard designs are like that) but that would have made it a bit harder to get around the end of the bed when it was down, and make for a cramped guest bedroom. Instead, we put a groove in the front edge of the top bridge, and made a slightly taller than toe-kick height base board with an identical groove which accept 2 lightweight melamine face 1/4" pieces of plywood. The closet rod was added latter as a bar to display quilts.

Construction:
As the carpet was to be replaced, we pulled it back from the wall where the Wall-bed system was going, removing the tack-strips and molding. We left the carpet in place on the rest of the floor temporarily, to act as a built-in padded drop cloth. We cleaned and painted the wall and repaired the damage left by the tack strips. The bed mechanism was to be bolted to the floor, but as there was still going to be carpet in the room we used a piece of plywood roughly the same thickness as the new carpet and pad between the mechanism and the floor. We measured off exact center and installed it with just 1 additional inch over the minimum distance to wall. Bolting it down was accomplished with the lag bolts that were not provided with the bed kit - too many types of floors to anticipate them all. The parts installed in relatively large pieces, installing each tensioned spring required the most muscle.

All 4 plywood sides were cut to the exact same size on the Home Center's panel saw before leaving the store. Assembly was very straight forward, but had to be done in-place as the cabinets were completely floor to ceiling. As the frames gave good support, very few screws were used to attach the cabinets to the walls. (It was very nice that the bed mechanism didn't rely on the cabinets for support - just the bolted floor connection. We had contemplated a home-built counter-weighted mechanism, but time was an issue & a counter-weighted mechanism would have required much beefier side cabinets.) The small face frames were attached with brads and glue. The cabinet doors were more time consuming to construct than the rest of the project. It was our first attempt at making floating panel doors and all 8 of these are rather large - nearly 4 feet tall each. They are attached to the cabinets with Grass brand European style hinges, which are quite adjustable. The cabinet itself is finished with several coats of a smooth flowing, white gloss oil based paint. It was rolled and brushed on by Dad but does not have a brushed look. It flowed and leveled itself so well it has a sprayed professional appearance. The oil paint did smell strongly and took a few weeks to fully cure / have the smell dissipate. White was selected to give what is usually a sewing room a bright appearance.
The molding that was installed on the now hidden wall was cut and moved to the toe-kick of the new built in cabinet. 1/2" Quarter-round was used to trim the cabinet to the ceiling as the rest of the room was left without crown molding. The headboard has a lighted switch for the puck reading lights and outlets for additional lights / radios / alarm clocks. The overhead bedroom-style light was eventually replaced with a florescent fixture.

Use:
The room's primary purpose is a sewing room. There is a large central layout and cutting table and two cabinet sewing machines. Only the table has to be folded and rolled out of the way to use the bed. The two center panels are removed and stored - they are thin and lightweight. The bed is pulled down, a band is removed that keeps the mattress from shifting while it is stored. The headboard is put into place and the bed is made up with fresh bedding for guests. A quick process to transform a sewing room into a guest bedroom. Oh, they also have a picture hung over the bed, which completes the look.

Queen bedframe

2009-01-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

My personal taste in furniture is mostly Eastlake, Craftsman / Mission / Greene and Green, and Shaker styles. I also like modern derivatives and interpretations like those available from studios like these: NW Fine Woodworking, The Joinery, and Thos. Moser.
The pictured bedframe with drawers (and legs!) is a product of Whittier Wood Furniture a Eugene Oregon company, which offers unfinished and flat-pack ready to assemble furniture.
I was first exposed to Whittier's products through Fred Meyer, a local we-sell-everything chain. I've even finished and assembled a few of their products - all well made, all out of good wood (generally Alder) and nicely veneered plywood. Their products hold up very well - it is real furniture. A bargain if you can apply a decent finish yourself, or buy one of their pre-finished pieces like the above bedframe. I recommend their work as a better alternative to anybody considering buying particle board from IKEA.
However in this case I want something a bit different, more in the Craftsman style. Fumed quarter-sawn Oak instead of cherry finished Alder, and instead of 6 ball-bearing glide drawers, probably just 3 pull-through drawers resting on UHMW runners, so no matter how you position the bed (against one or another wall, etc.) you'll still be able to get at the contents of the drawers. I like the drawers for storage of extra bedding, not for daily use in place of a chest of drawers. The extra bed height I've always liked, so that isn't an issue for me. I also like the legs rather than just having the drawers rest directly on the carpet.
I still need to figure out exactly what I want for a headboard & how to balance style with functionality. I really enjoyed the bookcase-with-lights headboard I had on my waterbed back in the early 80's, but by my current standards it was pretty hideous. Any suggestions?

Dovetail Saw, replacing a broken handle.

2009-01-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

The web is a great resource for woodworkers - I got a fairly nice unlabeled old Dovetail saw from a garage sale / tag sale very inexpensively - because the handle was broken. Web to the rescue!
Here are some good resources for replacing the handle on any saw, but most especially smaller back saws that have a stiffener down the spine / back of the blade.

http://www.leevalley.com/newsletters/Woodworking/1/5/article3-3.htm

http://wenzloffandsons.com/saws/kits/index.html
This family operation is only 14 miles away from me & are medium famous for their great saws.

http://www.norsewoodsmith.com/node/68
Also available as a PDF, this guy shows you how to make a complete backsaw from scratch!
http://www.norsewoodsmith.com/files/image/backsaws/pdf/Backsaw_Project.pdf

http://www.backsaw.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=7

Note that the handle pictured isn't mine, just my personal favorite of all those I saw (snork) and what I aspire to.