General Woodworking

Panel Saw Restoration

The Literary Workshop Blog -

One of the perks of moving to the Midwest is that old tools are still relatively easy to find–if you know where to look. When I lived in Alabama, it was really difficult to find old tools in local antique shops, but Ohio is awash in antiques of all kinds–especially furniture. And if you’re looking for vintage hand tools at bargain prices, antique malls in Ohio are usually worth a look.

Take, for example, these saws I picked up recently at a local antique mall. I don’t recall what I paid for them–under $10 apiece, certainly.

The saw on the bottom has been resharpened so many times that the blade is about gone. I’ll take it apart and repurpose the nuts and probably the handle. I’ll eventually cut up the blade for card scrapers. That will be another story, though.

The smaller saw on the top, however, is getting restored. Underneath the dirt and rust is a usable tool with lots of life left in it.

I first removed saw nuts and the handle from this little saw. It was pretty easy to clean the rust off the blade. I just scraped the rust off with a razor blade, using a bit of WD40 as a lubricant. I finished up with a little bit of fine steel wool and wiped everything clean. (Do this over cardboard or something. It’s messy.) I scrubbed the handle with a green scrubby pad and some Murphy’s Oil Soap. Then once it was dry I applied a coat of Danish oil. Once the oil had cured, I put everything back together.

Now that the grime is gone, let’s take a closer look at this panel saw.

I can just make out the remnants of the etch, which is the Disston company’s keystone logo. There is a “00” in the center–whatever that means. The Disston company identified different model saws by number–No. 7, No. 8, etc., and on some saws the model number appears in the middle of the keystone. I’ve never seen a reference to a model “00,” though.

The medallion is just the Warranted Superior eagle, not the more desirable Disston-branded medallion. The Disston company sold its best saws under its own brand name, whereas secondary-quality saws were sold with the generic “Warranted Superior” branding, though there are often enough distinctive features to tell that the saw was made by the Disston company. This saw was probably sold under one hardware store brand or another, which explains the odd model number. It would be hard to date the saw precisely, but the saw’s features resemble saws made by the Disston company in the 1920s.

You can also see a little number 11 stamped just above the teeth below the handle. That indicates the number of tooth points per inch. The higher the number, the smaller the teeth and the finer and slower the cut. The lower the number, the faster and coarser the cut. 11 is definitely on the fine side, which means it will be good for making relatively fine cuts.

This saw is shorter than the average handsaw you find in the wild, although a 20″-long blade isn’t exactly rare. Disston made many of its most popular saws in lengths ranging from 16″ to 28″, with some models being offered with a blade as long as 36″! The average antique handsaw has a blade that’s about 26″ long. It seems like most people who were buying handsaws a century ago preferred longer ones to shorter ones. A long saw has the obvious advantage of being able to make a cut in a thicker piece of wood. Plus, you can cut a thin piece of wood with a long saw, but it’s harder to cut a really thick piece of wood with a shorter saw. But a short saw also has advantages. It can work more easily in tight spaces, and it will fit easily into a tool box.

This saw has certainly lain dormant for a while. There is some pitting on the blade, but fortunately none of it is down near the teeth, so the pitting is really just a cosmetic issue. The decorative nib near the toe of the blade has long been broken off or removed. The saw hasn’t been resharpened very often; there is still plenty of blade left.

But whoever sharpened it last did not do a very good job. The teeth were uneven in height, so it took me a while to re-file them back to an even height. But once I did, the saw cut really well. I am already enjoying having a smaller handsaw like this available for making fine cuts in small workpieces. This may well become one of my favorite saws in my growing arsenal.

Merry Christmas to me!

Cherry Aquarium Stand

JKM Woodworking -

finished, in place

I built this aquarium stand two years ago. It is frame and panel construction with cherry hardwood frames and cherry plywood panels. The underlying structure is made out of 2×4 construction lumber.

2×4 structure

The plans for the 2×4 structure were taken from an old forum post on reef central by rocketengineer. It is a very long thread that is responsible for countless builds. One take home message is that many aquarium stands are overbuilt, with a 2×4 construction being sufficient for a 55 gallon tank.

The prettier cherry part is composed of two side pieces and a front. Each section was made separately and then screwed together at the corners. The rails and stiles are solid cherry and have 1/4 grooves for the plywood panels. I would have liked a larger door opening but I didn’t like the look of two large doors.

angled view

The plywood was special ordered from Columbia Forest Products through the home depot website. If you search for “cherry plywood” or “walnut plywood” their options come up. There are multiple thicknesses, sizes, and species available, with one or two good sides. Since I knew my dimensions ahead of time, the company cut the pieces to size before shipping.

front view

The stand was finished with one coat of boiled linseed oil, one coat of dewaxed shellac, and 3-4 coats of PolyCrylic water based polyurethane. I did not like working with PolyCrylic. It left globs and residue on the edges and corners. The handles are Ikea “Eneryda” (Ikea number 703.475.16).

doors open

The hinges are blum cabinet hinges which I had no experiences with. They needed attachments to work properly with a face frame. The doors took a lot of finessing to open and close properly. This was mostly removing material from the edges of the doors, not adjusting the hinges. I added cedar tongue and groove boards to the bottom of the enclosure.

This stand is a copy of an older stand I made out of pine and plywood. That was quite an effort considering my tools and skills at the time. I only had a japanese saw and a drill with a pocket hole jig that worked one hole at a time. The plywood panels were butted against the pine pieces without grooves. That lasted several years until we gave the aquarium away before moving.

older similar stand

Quercus Magazine

Tools For Working Wood -

The first three issues of Quercus MagazineThe first three issues of Quercus Magazine
We've been stocking Quercus Magazine since the first issue. The magazine was a bolt of joy during the pandemic, covering and celebrating an incredible array of topics relating to hand tool woodworking all over the world. (If you don't believe me, check out the summary of the contents of each issue on our Quercus page. Whew!) The magazine was founded and published by Nick Gibbs, a veteran of the English working magazine world. Each issues was inexpensive, eclectic and well worth the read. Quercus celebrated many luminaries that we've known or known of for years, but also introduced us to toolmakers like Julia Kalthoff, whose carving axe we started carrying after reading about her in Issue 4.

I met Nick at Handworks this past fall in Amana. Nick was busy getting subscribers but he also found time to come to our booth, play with our new treadle lathe prototype and have a go at some of the tools we offer. This current issue, No. 21, has a review of some of those tools and an article about our lathe.

Sadly, a few weeks ago Nick told us that that Issue 21 will be the last issue of Quercus. The task of editing, assembling, and managing a magazine of Quercus's quality simply required too much energy to sustain. As Nick observes in his Note in Issue 21, "The dream...to produce a magazine for chairmakers and hand-tool enthusiasts had been met. Yet what began as a plaything is now invading my life." Nick proved that a magazine like Quercus, with an infectious energy and correspondents from all over the world, could be successful. It's a wonderful magazine - and one that makes its readers feel part of a community. As Nick notes, "I was lonely in 2020 and I've been reminded that I have friendships around the world."

Magazines in general have been going through very tough times. People aren't reading as much, and "content" is supposedly supposed to be free. In the old days, subscribers paid for the privilege of getting copies, but not all the cost was paid by subscription. The bulk of the money came from advertisers who loved getting access to an audience that had showed their interest by forking over some cash to get the issues.

The rise of the internet killed that model as people found all sorts of info for free on the net. Advertisers found that print advertising wasn't nearly as effective or fashionable than it had been, so a major source of revenue dried up. Many magazines tried to drive up their circulations (and appeal to advertisers) by heavily discounting subscriptions, but less money in the game meant cost cutting, making it harder to get compelling content, and the disappearance or zombie-fication of magazines. This trend affected all sorts of magazines, not just woodworking, of course.

In the 1990's one major mantra of magazine was that people were too busy to read, so give them lots of pictures and very little text. Unfortunately for magazines, the internet is far, far better at offering this recipe than magazines, which have come to seem a little anachronistic. My basic thought is that if I can read a magazine completely between the time I buy it and then get on line for boarding a plane, it's just not worth it anymore.

So in the past years we have seen a consolidation and, disappearance of a lot of great publications. Fine Woodworking magazine, along with the other titles left at Taunton Press, was recently sold to Active Interest Media, the publisher of Popular Woodworking and Woodsmith (among other titles).

Now don't get me wrong - I love magazines. I love the thrill of discovery. No matter how brilliant the YouTube algorithm is, you can't beat the human editor who makes sure that whatever reaches your eyeballs has been vetted, corrected, and is worth your time. Mortise and Tenon Magazine, which we are proud to stock, is a case in point. The articles are in depth, have a focus and perspective. I don't always necessarily agree but I so value their perspective. Wood Magazine is another great publication. It's the opposite of M&T with its stress on power tools, but I enjoy that their approach to woodworking each issue is consistently filled with projects meant to be made in a powered shop with lots of jigs and accessories to extend the ability of the tools you have.

We wish Nick Gibbs and his team (including Amanda Laidler, a theater director who also served as our point person for shipping the the physical copies of the magazine) a very happy new year as they contemplate their next steps. The closing of Quercus is very poignant - Quercus will be very much missed - but it shows not just to Nick, but to all of us, that there is room for great magazines, written with passion, and designed for readers.

At Handworks 2023At Handworks 2023, Nick Gibbs (left tests out our folding treadle lathe while Alan Dorsey, the demonstrator, looks on)

The cover of the last issue of QuercusThe cover of the last issue of Quercus, with a slightly modified motto

15 drawer dresser pt X.........

Accidental Woodworker -

Today (19th) is my birthday and along with that milestone I notched another one too. Way back in June I started paying down on my mortgage. It was something I really wasn't paying attention to until the day I did look at it. The bank was milking me for boatload of interest every month that I wasn't aware of. Today I paid it off and I think I now own my home outright. I say think because I don't know how long the vacuum hose from bank is buried in my wallet. Most likely the bank will take their customary 3-4 days to post the payment. I'm doubly sure that there will be more interest I will have to pay that the statement hadn't posted yet. If it isn't a zero balance in a couple of days I'll go to the bank and pay it off in person this time.

 last night

I wandered back to the shop last night and glued the last 3 drawer guides on the middle stiles. Just the top and the back and the woodworking will be complete on the carcass. 

 front base toe kick

Trying to get a width for the vertical part of the toe kick. The horizontal one will get the penciled angle. I didn't like the first one - wasn't shallow enough. I also shortened to 2 1/2" because I thought that made the vertical one way too wide.

 hmm......

This was the first attempt and I am not sure about it. Looking at I think the wider width should be on the horizontal one? Other than that this looks ok but I want a shallower angle.

 curves

Looking ahead on this it would seem to me that it would behoove me to glue the toe kick in first and then cut out the curves. I plan on insetting the toe kick about 3/8" so sawing the curves with a jig saw might not work. Might be better to glue it, do the curves, and then glue it on the carcass. Plenty of time to sort that out.

dovetails

Laid out and ready to saw. This gizmo takes all the shaking and vibrating out of the tail board as I saw the tails. It is sticking up high enough above the workbench where it would vibrate too much. This and the clamp made the board rock solid.

 a little tricky

Getting the tail board positioned with the corner clamps worked flawlessly. I thought I was in for a lengthy session of fighting the urge to give this flying lessons. The only difficult part of this was knifing the tails onto to the pin boards (the carcass sides).

dutchman is coming

Earlier this AM while moving the carcass around it slipped off the horses and the corners lost the bounce test with Mr Concrete floor. No way I'm steaming these out and after the top is glued and set, I'll fill in what is missing with a dutchman.

 worse here

On both of these smashed corners I couldn't lay out the tail so I'll be guessing on it. I have already conceded that I'm going to lose it and I'll deal with it when the time comes.

 maybe a big oops

Realized that I screwed up here and it might be of momentous proportions. I forgot to label the top and the sides. I don't remember which face was up and the dovetails aren't symmetrical neither. I'm so used to doing boxes that it didn't occur to me to label the top on this.

 awkward

Sawing is sawing but this was different to say the least. I had a hard time initially sawing the vertically pencil lines on the sides. I wanted to stand on a step stool to saw (so the saw would be exiting on the inside) but there isn't enough head room.

 3 times was the charm

I broke the blade in the Knew saw and I couldn't find any blades for it. Switched to the fret saw next. The small one was too small for sawing the tails. There wasn't enough room between the blade and the frame to saw the tail waste. The larger fret saw worked.

 nothing

I tried to use the dividers to find the top or the bottom of this pin socket and nada. The dividers were hanging out in the air. I sawed what I thought looked close to where the tail would be and sawed it square rather then angled.

 first time use

I bought these fret saws off Saw Mill Creek 2-3 years ago with the intent of using them to make folding phone charger stands. That never materialized and today I used them to saw out the pin waste. I think I did pretty good overall and I only broke 4 blades doing it. Three blades bent into an unusable shapes due to a lack of proper tension and one blade broke when I tried to remove it from the saw cut.

thanking my lucky stars

My first try to line up the top didn't work but the second one did. I'm not sure how well these tails/pins are going to come out. I'll find out tomorrow for sure when I get the pin waste chiseled out. I didn't forget to label the two front corners this time.

 kind of loose feeling

That aside, the board only mated pins/tails in one way so I know that this is the correct orientation. 

found them

This box contains my coping and fret saw blades. It was buried in the back of the saw till.

 partially done

I don't saw the waste on either the tails or pins when I dovetail. I did it here because I don't have a good way to back up the pins when chopping them from the outside. I'm still thinking on how I'll be pulling off that stunt. Killed the lights here and headed topside because the wife just got home. I'll finish this tomorrow, maybe. The wife is taking me out for fish 'n chips to celebrate my birthday.

accidental woodworker

15 drawer dresser pt IX......

Accidental Woodworker -

 Noticed another glitch in blogger. I had a bunch of comments show up tonight. A couple of them go back to the 14th. Just when I thought blogger was smoothing out for me, I get a new to me headache with it. I still can't comment using my goggle account so I still have to respond anonymously. No idea what caused this nor if it will return to normal. I've been posting daily for 13(?) years so maybe blogger can't handle storing all those posts. My apologies to those whose commented and for the lateness of my replies.

 hmm.....

The 15 drawer dresser has an unusual kick base at the front. It is 3 pieces but the top corners of it aren't joined with 45's. Instead it is more like a 30/60 angle. I tried to make that and the first one didn't come out. This one is 48 and 42 degrees and looks nothing like CH Becksvoort's base. From the 3 tries I did I think the two pieces have to be different widths. I had to leave for the VA here so I'll have to figure it out later.

 3rd test

The difference in the width of the two is only a 1/4" but I think I'm on the right track with it. The angle needs to be more acute than it is now.

 I'll do battle with these later

Before I left for the VA I sawed the biscuits flush. 

 front diagonals are off

They are off by 1/8" but not what I would have liked. That 1/8" is spread out over 62" so it isn't that bad overall.

 ditto for the back diagonals

Both front and back are off the same amount.

 some twist

There is one line of twist from top to bottom. There is no twist from the top to the half way point. The bottom half of the left side has all the bow/cup to it. The right side has none.

 test piece

It took some fussing but I finally got the biscuit slot to be flush with the front rail.

 got bit on the arse again

I thought I had sorted out where the fence was referenced so the half lap would be in the rail half lap. The stile would line up flush with the front rail but the half lap was off.

 reversed them

The bottom one is the test piece and I double triple checked it 4 times before I made the slot in the stile. Somehow I lost the orientation of the half lap in relation to the jointer fence.

 loose back rail

I noticed this as I was moving the carcass around on the saw horses. I forced some hide glue into the gaps and clamped it. The next step was to toe nail some nails into it after the hide glue has cooked for a few.

 Bostich Brad nailer

I couldn't see any way to swing a hammer to nail this so I broke out the compressor and gun to do it. I had to contort the nailer but I was able to toe 2 nails from one side and one from the other side.

 found the problem

I just happened to look at the fence and noticed that it wasn't square to the body. That explains why I have such a headache lining up two slots. If they are both angled (and in opposite directions) there is no way they would be flush. 

 angle pointer

This was off almost 4 degrees. I know that these aren't meant to be dead nuts accurate but it was way OTL (out to lunch) IMO. I had to file one edge of it to get the pointer within a couple of frog hairs of indicating 90°.

Maybe I should have checked this a long time ago but I didn't. I assumed that dropping the fence down it would be 90° to the body. I was wrong but now the biscuit jointer fence reads and is dead nuts 90°.

Duh

Why didn't I do this yesterday? I have a boatload of thin scraps to fill in the errant biscuit slots. I think this is the 3rd time I'm gluing shut the biscuit slot on middle stile #4 and hopefully it is the last time.

 test piece

The top is flush and the biscuit is 90° to the end. Ready to start at square #1 with the remaining 3 middle stiles.

 success

I made some 'biscuits' and glued them in the rails and made a new slot once it had cooked for 30 minutes. One last biscuit slot in the middle stile and a test fit that made me smile.

 last three

These went together like they were supposed to. No fiddling or fussing or any serious butt scratching. Fitted like I thought they should have had I fixed the out of square BS first.

 one down, four to go

This the drawer guide and separator between the two drawer openings. After these are glued in all the woodworking on the carcass is almost done. All that is left is to dovetail the top and install the back.

accidental woodworker

15 drawer dresser pt VIII......

Accidental Woodworker -

Didn't get everything I wanted checked off today. Came close but I didn't win the proverbial cigar. The last steps I needed to complete proved to be the most frustrating. After repeating the same me-steak three times I said No Mas. I'll finish up what kicked my arse today, tomorrow. Maybe, because after a good night sleep it may not be enough to over come the brain farts I repeatedly made today.

 drawer set #5

I didn't see or feel or movement in the carcass when I took the 4 clamps off the #5 drawer set. It looked to be flat and it was mostly. From the front to the rear around the 3/4 mark it is flat but at the outside back edge it curls downward slightly. Not too bad but still not what I wanted to see. At least the bow/cup is up rather than inwards.

 drawer set #1

Removed the clamps for drawer set #1 and noted nothing that raised any alarms. The top portion is still flat from the top edge down to drawer set #2. It is flat and straight from the front to rear edge with no humps, cupping, or bowing anywhere.

 no light

The top edge of the left side had the biggest amount of cupping and now there is none. I was expecting to have to deal with a bit of it but I don't have to. This will make the dovetails much easier to do.

 #3 was next

Drawer sets #1 and #2 have the clamps and cauls removed and both are flat and straight in both directions.

 all clamps and cauls removed

Starting at drawer set #3 I had some light under Mr Starrett. It was roller coasting some and got better with #4 and #5. From #3 to the bottom the back edge curled downwards a wee bit. Overall it was nowhere like it was before I glued it up. I don't think it is going to be too much of a headache to fit the drawers.

 Mr Starrett at #5

It is only at the back 4" or so that there is light under the blade.

 half way on the left side

I didn't think of it until now as I am typing this that I should have checked the left side for twist and the carcass for square. The right side is flat with no bowing/cupping on it.

 left side

The side runs out according to the square. I'm not sure but to my twisted thinking I would rather fit a drawer to this then one with the side running in.

 right side

Almost dead nuts perfect on all ten. 

 not much

I have a stile clamped in the dado and it pulled about 1/2 of the bow out of the left side at the #3 drawer set - roughly the middle of the side.

 better on the outside

I put another clamp on the stile and it got rid of 99% of the bow/cup on the outside. Every little bit the stiles can pull the bow/cup out will help a lot come time to fit the drawers.

 sneak peek

If Amanda doesn't want this I'll keep it. I don't need any more storage for the shop but I am sure not putting this curbside to be picked up. Who knows maybe the wife will take a shine to it and use it.

vertical dividers

Glued the vertical dividers in and headed topside while the glue set up. I made a new divider for #1 because there was a gap in the original one. After doing this I thought I would get all the rest of the bits on the interior glued and cooking today.

 #5 dado

This is the one that I noticed was off square. I thought I might have to fill it in at the back here but I don't. 

 frustrating part started here

I was able to make the slots on the front rails for the middle stiles with no hiccups. However, I did have repeated ones with the slot in the middle rails. I referenced the fence off of the same face but the slots didn't line up. The middle rail has to be flush with the top of the front rail because the two of them form the drawer guide.

while the middle stile fix cooked

Gluing in the side stiles. This is #1A stile and I glued it with hide glue and clamped it. All the other stiles I used white glue and no clamps. Most all them fit snug and didn't need to be clamped. I only applied glue to half the length of the stiles.

 ride side stiles

All the side stiles were glued and cooking. All that was left to do on the interior was to wash, rinse, and repeat for the middle stiles.

 UGH

I shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't. All the single drawer fronts are either too snug or fit top to bottom. With all the double drawers, the drawer fronts are shy of the top to bottom by a 16th. Another couple of reasons why I like to wait and saw out parts. I can repurpose the double drawer fronts for sides and backs.

 close enough

I had already glued a biscuit into the middle stile slot twice because it was off flush with the front rail. This one is a frog hair below it and I going to use it as is. I only had 12 #20 biscuits and I had used three of them for this and I need at least 4 more. I didn't want to make a road trip to Lowes to get more.

 Why?

I couldn't figure out why the slots were off between the front rails and the middle stiles. Another me-steak I was making was figuring in the half lap joint. I got the #4 slots to line up but the half lap on the middle stile was facing up. It needs to face down to make with the half lap on the back rail. I did this boo-boo twice more.

 some progress

I got the middle stile installed on the #5 and #1. #1 is a wee proud of the front rail and the plan is to plane it flush after it has cooked.

 nope

I used a piece of scrap pine the same thickness as the middle stiles to dial in the slot before doing it on the real thing. That didn't go too well and I had to stop and glue biscuits in the slots on the #2, #3, and #4 middle stiles. I screwed up the #4 stile again and glued another biscuit in it. When I finally quit for the day I had 4 biscuits left and I need three for the last three middle stiles. Hopefully tomorrow fresh eyes and a pot of coffee will help get it done.

accidental woodworker

15 drawer dresser pt VII......

Accidental Woodworker -

 My lack of adult supervision ends monday. My wife is leaving High Point on sunday and stopping in New Jersey and arriving home sometime monday afternoon. She is coming home at the right time because tuesday at 0722 I'll mark 69 years on this third rock from the sun. I've been thinking about that and how I feel and I can say I don't feel any different now than I did at 35. Are you supposed to feel old now? How does old feel? I'm a bit slower and I tire quicker but I can still do everything I could do so far. Maybe something will kick in on the age thing next year.

 it fits

The back end of the jointer clears the back rail in this orientation. There is more room with the jointer rolled 180 to the right but the back of it hits the back rail. If this hadn't fit I had a plan 2 which was mortising a loose tenon by hand.

 ready to unclamp

The board was still tight and flat on the bar clamps. The board came out flat and straight on an eyeball check sighting down the four corners.

 less than a frog hair

I was surprised to see how well the diagonals agreed. This is one part of the glue up that gives me the heebie jeebies. With all the clamps that will be on this there is no way to do a diagonal check. The drawer openings aren't big enough (IMO) to gauge how square the carcass is. Fingers crossed that come glue up the rails will be sufficient to square the carcass.

 half laps

The middle stile and the back rail will be half lapped. Rather then use a stopped half lap I am going with a through half lap. It will be easier to execute and I won't have to worry if the stop housing was deep enough.

 sawing out the first one

Made multiple saw cuts and removed most of the waste with a chisel. Got it to depth with routers.

 middle stile half lap

Sawed the shoulders and split out the half lap. None of the five ran in - sometimes you get lucky.

 snug fit

I purposely made the half lap in the rail smaller than the width of the middle stile. I planed them all to fit snugly and flush in their rails.

 last one

Not sure if I'm going to secure the half lap with a screw or a nail. My thinking is the half lap is designed to move in/out with the weight of the drawer keeping it together. Lots of time before a decision is needed on that.

 Walker Moore router

I have two depth stops for this router. The one on the left is a Lie Nielsen stop that I modified to fit the WM router. The round one is a WM depth stop. I'm not sure if they sell this anymore.

 
 WM depth stop

I don't like this depth because the screw tightens down on the threaded shaft for raising and lowering the iron. I can be ham fisted when tightening things of this nature so they don't slip.

Lie Nielsen depth stop

If I remember right I had to file this corner off to get it to fit. I like this stop because the screw for it bears down on the side of the iron shaft. I didn't use either one of them on the dresser so far. I used the WM to remove most of the waste and the Lie Nielsen router got everything to depth.

 going in stages

This was the most stressful glue up I have done in a very, very, long time. I decided the best thing for my sanity and blood pressure was to do it a little at a time. I wanted to do it on the workbench but I didn't have enough room underneath it to put the clamps on. I moved it to the shitcan and got the #1 and #5 rails glued and clamped.

I had to move this again from the shitcan to the saw horses which worked even better. If I didn't have this option I would have had to wait until these two had set up before gluing on the last 3 sets of rails.

 no light

The cambered cauls are doing their job. Here at the top and the bottom the left side is flat. Where I don't have any clamps it is slightly bowed but not much. The top and bottom being clamped flattened out the bow better than I expected it to.

 flat here too

I could see the cambered cauls flattening the bow out as I tightened the clamps. I still have to wait until tomorrow to see if the rails will keep the left side flat when the clamps come off.

 wee bit of light showing

This is where the #4 set of rails will be and it has a bit of a bow still. Rail set #2 and #3 are almost dead flat sans their rails.

 done

This took ??? I don't know. I had come back to the shop after lunch late because I fell asleep at my desk for over an hour. When I got to the shop I wasn't going to go the glue up but it happened. At the end I don't know how square the carcass is. I checked the ten openings and 6 were square and 4 weren't. Not sure if that is good or bad. Either way it is a moot point and I'll be fitting the drawers to their respective openings, square or not.

 stiles

I didn't glue the stiles in today. I will glue them in tomorrow and I plan on using white glue for them. I am thinking that maybe I can use the stiles to keep the left side flat by gluing half of it in the side dadoes.

 vertical dividers

I didn't glue these in neither. They are dry and I put them in to help keep the rails square to the sides. All the vertical dividers when checked were square. I'll glue these in tomorrow too.

 squaring the top

I went back and forth on whether or not to use dovetails or a stopped housing dado. I went with dovetails because I like the visual of them. I think either of them would/will do ok keeping the sides flat at least at the top.

 two reference edges square

I used the tablesaw to get the other two edges parallel to the reference edges.

 ready for dovetails

The glue joint on the top doesn't align with the glue joint line on the sides. I had thought of that when I was squaring this up. I had intended to ensure that the glue joints between the two were off set from each other. I read about this in making tool chests and doing that with the four sides.

accidental woodworker

15 drawer dresser pt VI.......

Accidental Woodworker -

 I had my doubts today that I was going to get any time in the shop today. I spent the entire morning in quality time with my smart TV. It has been acting up for a couple of weeks and lately I haven't been to watch any cable TV channels on it. I have worked on analog and electronic computers since 1974. I can tell you what happens when you hit the enter key and what the computer does. Software is another story altogether and I am as smart as a box of pointy rocks dealing with it. I felt today that my IQ was in the triple digit negative range dealing with the smart TV hiccups. And no I haven't been able to find a TV that just accepts cable TV inputs (this one did) or an antenna feed.

mostly what I saw this AM

As near as I can figure it the Smart TV did an update and that was the downfall for me. I think this is the 4th or 5th time I was trying to reset the TV to factory defaults so I would have a solid starting point to make sense of the problem I was having.

Trying to input passwords using a remote sucks pond scum. If you make an input me-steak, you can't back up and input it again (if there was one I didn't know it). Nay, nay, moose breath, you have to cancel the whole thing and start over at the welcome screen. After an hour of doing these insane dance steps I hooked up a USB BT keyboard. The TV had a USB port and I was able to turn it on so I gave it a shot. It worked and life was so much better being able to input passwords with the keyboard. It did diddly for solving the channel problem I was having.

 this thing sucks

I still don't know how to navigate through the screens. The help menu tells you to use certain buttons that aren't on the remote. A favorite one is the back arrow. There is a back key, and a big down arrow for the Smart Screen, but no such 'back arrow'.

The only progress I was able to make on this was to get connected to Amazon prime. I can now watch prime videos and movies. I can also watch YouTube and there is an option for You Tube TV. I haven't looked into that yet but I might because Watch Free doesn't have any local channels and the TV accepts nothing from the cable box.

Just before lunch I said NO MAS. I went to the post office and mailed out the Aldren Watson books to Jason. Of course I had to be 3rd in line to two other people mailing out something to everyone on the planet it seems. The lady on the right was mailing international and the one on the right I heard her tell the clerk she had 49 pieces to mail domestically. Let's just say I don't do well waiting in any line for more than a nanosecond but I did because I wanted to mail out the books. 

original top

I had two rails/stiles left over that were the length of the top. I decided rather than glue up a new one I would add on one of these. I only needed about a 1/2" and this was 1 7/8" wide.

 caught myself

Before I did the glue up I checked the top against the sides and saw I was going to cry. Gluing on the extra stile wasn't going to increase the top in the necessary direction. I needed to increase the length going with the grain. Looks I would be gluing up a new top.

19" square

Or there about. I think the top needs to be 16 1/4" by 17 1/2". Other then having to use deep reach clamps to flush the joint line, the glue up was uneventful.

 glad I looked

The top of the board pulled away from the 3 clamps. The board stayed tight to the bar clamps on the opposite end. I had to use a quick grip to keep the board flat and tight to the clamp.

 need twenty

I need ten of these with a camber planed in them to glue up the carcass. The left side has a bow in it and I need the cambered battens to flatten out the bow when I do the glue up. The right side isn't bowed so I don't need cambered battens but I will use flat battens so I don't put unequal pressure on the sides during the glue up.

 done

The left ten have a camber in them and I did it by eye. I also ran a solid line from end to end on the cambered battens so I know which is which.

 MCLS band clamp

I got a couple of inquiries about this clamp and it from MCLS. I'm sure there are other import companies that sell it too but this is where I bought mine. This thing I'm holding is what was used to tighten down on the steel band and secure it. It is a major PITA and is/was constantly in the way. 

It is bad enough you have to deal with the inflexible steel band and the round canister that it winds up into. This clamp always managed to exacerbate the steel band hiccups and its canister and also once tightened to be in precisely the spot you most don't want it to be in. I replaced it with a hex head bolt. Pretty sure it was metric M6?

 the replacement bolt

With that you didn't need something to loosen and tighten the band with. I don't mind using a wrench or pliers to loosen or tighten the head. Haven't regretted replacing this in the least.

 getting quicker

Shaved about 20 minutes off getting the carcass dry assembled this go around. The glue up is going to a fun packed adventure but hopefully all the dry runs I've done will help when that time comes.

 I'm liking the look of this

I had 3 of the five vertical divider rails mislabeled. I thought I had mislabeled the stiles but I sorted that out. I got all the vertical dividers cut and fitted. I didn't get around to the half lap layout on the back rails so I'll do that tomorrow. I hope I don't forget but I also want to check to make sure I can get the biscuit jointer on the back of the front rails to saw the slot for the middle stile biscuit.

accidental woodworker

Recent Acquisition

A Luthiers Blog -

 

I’ve just been lucky enough to get my hands on this lovely vintage bass guitar. Although it’s lost its head badge/logo, I do know it’s a “Top Twenty” made in 1968/9. These were made in Japan by Teisco at a time when they were being taken over by Kawai. This brand was sold via Woolworths in the UK, and I can distinctly remember seeing Top Twenty Guitars along with Audition amplifiers in my local branch.
Whilst researching, I came across this interesting catalogue page.
It seems the bass originally costs around £29, which according to the Bank of England inflation calculator equates to £400 today (2023): so, not exactly a cheapo!

First impressions?
The build quality is generally very good, with nice details such as the use of faux tortoise shell for the pickguard and the chrome “Jazz” bass control plate. The body is around 6mm thicker than the Kay bass I had recently, and that extra mass makes this one feel a more substantial guitar. It has a nice, real rosewood fretboard and the thumb rest is also solid rosewood. All this helps to give the impression of quality.
The bass is generally in good condition for its age with its original finish albeit with a few dings! However, it’s in dire need of a re-fret; the frets have clearly been levelled many times over the years and are now so, so low!
In spite of the frets, I’ve had a go at playing it and I’m really happy with the tone of the single coil pickup.
Unfortunately, as with the majority of used bass guitars, the tailpiece cover is missing: where do they all go?
I’m sure I’ll discover a few more issues once I dig and delve. But that will have to wait until the New Year and my current projects are complete!

15 drawer dresser pt V.....

Accidental Woodworker -

 I got asked in an email if I had plans for this dresser and I do not. I am roughly basing it on a picture of 15 drawer dresser that CH Becksvoort makes (he is retired now I think). I have a mental pic of it banging around in the brain bucket and that is all I have to go on. I've made a few me-steaks cutting stock ahead of time but other than that it is coming along ok. The joinery is fluid and is ever changing. What I thought I would do at the beginning has evolved into something else. I'm getting close on finishing the carcass with the lions share of the build being the dovetailed drawers next.

 clothes hamper lid

The thought was to get the hinges screwed onto the lid and put the final coat of paint on it. That was the intention but it wasn't smooth sailing. The first headache was cleaning the paint out of the mortises for the hinges.

 no gap

The lid was hinge bound and I know it wasn't that way before I put any paint on it. It is up a 1/4" at the front edge and tight fitting at the rear. I only got one screw in the lid because I had to fill the original holes. The screws were pulling the hinges askew and I had to fix that first. After that I put veneer in the mortises to build it out a wee bit.

 still hinge bound

I noticed that both corners at the back of the lid were binding so I knocked them off with the blockplane. That helped but the hinges were still hinge bound a little bit. The lid still wasn't laying fully flat at the front edge.

 this worked

Knocking back these areas helped and I now had some clearance here and the lid wasn't binding there anymore.

blurry pic to match my mood

What I thought was going to take a few minutes had now been over an hour. I wasn't expecting this to have gone this far south on me. Painting a project can throw some curve balls over your home plate.

 No Mas, No Mas

I conceded and gave up trying to get these hinges unbound and working. I like this hinge installation but I glued shims in the hinge mortises. I'll be surface mounting hinges on this now. I don't like that look but I spent almost 2 hours pissing into the wind trying to fix these hinges and 99% of what I did was doing diddly squat. When I started thinking thoughts of would painted wood make kindling, it was time to try something new.

 left stiles

Each one individually planed and fitted to its respective dado. I will be using hide glue for this glue up.

 washed and rinsed

Repeated for the right side. I replaced one stile because I planed too much and it was loose and not self supporting.

 early xmas presents to myself

The banding inlay tool from Lee Valley won't be available until Feb. These are chisels for doing inlay and they were available so I bought them. One of them is for cleaning the 90° corners.

The other toy I got is Lee Valley's version of Stanley's No 50 honing guide. This is the 11th sharpening guide gizmo that I have bought. My first one was the General No 810 honing guide over 40 years ago. This is the 6th Lee Valley honing guide that I've bought.

 25 and 30 angles

I only use the 25° because I don't sharpen anything at 30. There isn't a lot to this and even someone like couldn't screw it up. This honing guide will only do plane irons. The brass knob on the right fits over the round hole on the slot on plane irons. You slide the iron up under it and it screws down onto it securing it. I tried it on a Lie Nielsen, Miller Falls, and Stanley irons and all them fit. 

 Setting the angle is easy and foolproof. Of course I had to look at the instructions because I wasn't sure how to set it at first. I'll give this try for the next iron I have to sharpen and I can compare it to 25° setting jig I use with Lie Nielsen honing guide.

 jig with a Lie Nielsen iron

I think using this jig is going to be as close to hand sharpening that you can get. All you are getting with the jig is setting the bevel to 25°. It still up to you to sharpen it square across and you can do a camber with it too.

 ACE hardware

Made a short road trip to ACE and picked up this hinge to surface mount on the hamper. I replaced the screws because they were too long. When I checked them the screw point was too close to the bottom. I didn't have a warm and fuzzy that it wouldn't poke out and say hello.

 shiny brass

I shouldn't complain about this because the other clothes hamper has surface mounted hinges too. These almost cover all of the patches I glued in the old hinge mortises.

flushed

Planed the patches flush and now I can finish painting this. It will probably take two coats on all the 'new' wood spots.

 vertical drawer dividers

This is another joinery change. Originally I was going to use dovetails on this but I'm going with this. If my OCD needs any help with that I can add screws to it.

 last one

The vertical dividers are too long but all five are snug and self supporting. I'll do the final length after the front and rear stiles are glued and set.

 hmm.....

This is how I will do the two drawer guides. The center divider is the easiest part to figure out. How to attach to the front and rear rails are the tricky parts.

 tricky

The dado is right at the center of the thickness where the biscuit slot is going. I think I'll have to wait to install the middle stile until after the vertical divider is glued and set. I think I can get the biscuit jointer in there to make the slot in the back of the front rail.

 first choice

I was going to use a biscuit at the back too. No glue which would allow the center stile to move with the carcass. I don't like the idea of the stile resting on a dry biscuit that could fall out.

 better way

A housed half lap at the back. The housing will be 3/8" longer than the length of the half lap on the center stile. That should be more the enough allowance for expansion and contraction of the 16" deep sides.

I might get the carcass glued up with the front and rear rails tomorrow. If nothing else I'll have to do a dry fit up to check the layout of the vertical dividers and layout the half laps on the rear rails.

accidental woodworker

15 drawer dresser pt IV.....

Accidental Woodworker -

I had to make a road trip to the VA this AM. I had to get one of my meds refilled and I thought I had reordered it but if I did I couldn't find it. I got there just as the morning rush hour traffic was going away. I was in and out of the pharmacy in about 10 minutes. That surprised me because it usually takes about 20-30 minutes to get a med refill. I lost less than two hours shop time taking care of this.

On a bright note, the weather is forecasted to be sunny through saturday. I was going to do the lunchbox planing today but I'm going to hold off on it. I decided that I want to get the carcass done first and then do the drawers. I have 15 drawers to dovetail, half blind and through, so I'll be busy for a couple of days doing that.

nope

Before I started to chop the dadoes on the right side I checked all of my knife lines were laid out square. I thought I was off on this one but I didn't have the square blade tight up against the edge of the side. I have to be on my best behavior using this square because it is so easy to go OTL (out to lunch) with it and not notice it.

 calling it done

6 coats of lemon shellac followed by 3 coats of blonde. Not particularly happy with this but I'll try something different on the next one. I'll still use the lemon shellac but I'll thin the pound cut to mostly alcohol and see how that does with sealing the pine before putting on a couple of 2 lb cuts.

lunch time

Made a dent in this. I got both walls on the dadoes done and sawn to depth. After lunch I used the routers to get them all to depth.

 front rails fitted

I only went 8 for 10 on the right side. Two of the rails aren't self supporting. The other 8 cooperated and fit snug and are self supporting.

 wasn't easy

Gluing this up is going to a major, royal, PITA squared and raised to the umpteenth power. Getting the front and back rails in the dadoes and getting it off the bench and on the deck took me almost an hour. I anticipated because of the snug fit of the rails it would be a cake walk but it wasn't. I would get two rails seated and two others would pop free.

 the top is toast

This is the biggest reason why I don't like precutting parts. The top is short. As is the OD of the carcass is 17 1/8". This top is short at 16". FYI - you can't stretch pine at all. I could shorten the length of the rails but that would decrease the width of the drawers, and especially so on the banks with two of them. I'll be making a new top and I'll repurpose this one for something else.

 big bow

The rails are doing diddly squat pulling the bow out of the top. They are fully seated in the dadoes but they aren't pulling the sides flat.

 

 flat and straight

This pulled the bow out of the top edge. What it didn't do was pull the bow out of the rest of the side. I could see it at each drawer bank section all the way to the bottom one.

 about an 1/8"

Without the clamps at the top the bow is twice this so it is helping some but not enough IMO. Ideally I want this side to be flat and straight. If not I'm in for some fun fitting the drawers to run in/out smoothly.

 right side

This side is flat top to bottom so it isn't presenting any hiccups to deal with.

 this helped

It looks like cambered cauls will help out with the bow. This will add some fancy foot work come glue up time. The downside is I am not sure if the bow won't come back once the clamps come off. I can't glue the stiles into the whole length of the dadoes as that would restrict expansion and contraction. I'll have do some thinking on this for a few days.

 hmm......

Rethinking the rail side connections. My original thought was to dovetail the the top 1/4" into the side with the bottom part of the rail in the dado. After this dry fit and the upcoming glue up, I'm rethinking it. The rail/dado connections are all on the snug side with no gaps. Looking at this it doesn't look that bad to my eye to use the joinery as is. I'll have to weigh this against the dovetails and any thing they might lend to pulling the bow out of the left side.

 vertical dividers/dadoes

While I had the carcass dry clamped I marked the rails that will need dadoes for the vertical drawer dividers. After looking over the carcass I don't think I'll put vertical dividers at the back. I don't see them imparting any strength to the rail and stile structure and they aren't necessary for the drawer runners in the middle neither.

 original stiles

The distance between the front and back stiles is 12 1/4" and these stiles are 12" long. I plan to glue and biscuit the front of the stiles into the rear of the front rails. I will also glue about the front 3-4" of the stiles into the dado too. That will leave about 3/4 w/o glue  to allow the sides to expand and contract as needed.

Changing my mind on the back too. I was going to put in a frame and panel - one made of pine with plywood panels. Instead of that I am now leaning in the direction of using 3/8 or 1/2 inch plywood. Another choice is 1/2" pine from Pepin Lumber. I'll have to check the $$ for both and I will probably go with the cheaper option. This dresser ain't cheap to make.

accidental woodworker

High Speed Grinding - Adding a CBN Wheel To a WEN High Speed 8" Grinder

Tools For Working Wood -

High Speed Grinding - Adding a CBN Wheel To a WEN High Speed 8" Grinder  1
Many years ago I wrote an article for Fine Woodworking on how to grind. The article was based on a method taught to me by Barry Iles that used a crowned wheel. I've been told it changed the way many people grind. I expanded the article in a long series about grinding. Turning a regular friable grinding wheel into something that has a crown on it is pretty easy - done in seconds with a wheel dresser. In the past few years a lot of people, myself included, have taken to grinding with CBN Wheels. CBN wheels run cool and do not require dressing. They're the cat's pajamas! The first generation of CBN Wheels were flat across - much better than a friable wheel, but missing that great advantage of a crown. So we started offering crowned wheels for our Baldor grinders. The blog article explains the advantages of a crowned wheel and the steps of when and how to grind.

Baldor stopped making their 6 inch grinder with a cast iron rest. We're currently out of stock on 6 inch CBN wheels but we expect to stock them again soon. The 8 inch Baldor grinder is awesome, but it's very expensive, especially after we soup it up. Unfortunately the grinder is simply not in the budget for a lot of people. We get frequent requests for crowned CBN wheels for regular 8" grinders. The problem is a Baldor grinder has a 3/4 inch arbor, but most other 8" grinders have a 5/8 inch arbor. In theory, you could use a bushing, but it's just not precise enough. So we have just started stocking 8" crowned CBN Wheels with a 5/8" bore for these grinders.
A lot of the inexpensive 8" grinders are really high speed (3600 rpm) 6" grinders that were fitted with 8" wheels and guards. Some are also variable speed. Years ago I was warned off variable speed grinders because of reliability issues, but in any case, if I could grind safely without burning the steel at the high speed of the grinder, that's what I would always do.

Grinding on a properly crowned wheel on a 6 inch grinder running at 3600 RPM is not a big deal. Works great with no burning. With CBN on a crowned wheel, I don't even bother dunking the chisel: it just isn't necessary because the CBN wheels run so cool. An 1800 RPM 8 inch wheel grinder has a surface speed a little bit under under a 6 inch 3600 speed grinder. It works great. What about an 8 inch high speed 3600 RPM grinder?

In the interests of research I ordered the least expensive high-speed 8 inch grinder I could find. The particular grinder, a WEN from Home Depot, cost $139.79, which frankly is just pennies less than a CBN wheel. It comes with a coarse 36 grit silicon carbide wheel and an 80 grit fine aluminum oxide (AO) wheel. It also comes with an impressively horrible set of rests, a crude wheel dresser, and a light.

Now I have no real need of an 8 inch grinder. I prefer a 6 inch grinder for woodworking tools (deeper hollow), although people who do turning really like the larger diameter and smaller hollow. But the most important aspect of a Baldor grinder to me is that it's rock solid with cast iron rests that don't bend or move.

The WEN grinder's light is neither here nor there. I never bothered to install a bulb. There's actually so much vibration in the grinder that the second I turned on the grinder, the light just sagged. But when I grind, I pay attention to the spark pattern, the edge, and feel the temperature. I don't need to look at the grinder. I understand that when grinding to a profile a light could be useful.
I removed the silicone carbide wheel on the left side and installed my 5/8 inch bore 80 grit CBN wheel. Then I put everything back together.
This grinder is variable speed from 2000 to 3450 RPM. At 2000, there is a little vibration, but not much. At 3450, there is a lot more. In fairness, I did not dress the AO wheel I left on the grinder; when dressed the grinder should run smoother.

Quick tip: Unless your smart shields on the WEN are tightened really tight, they will flip down because of the vibration as you use the grinder. I could not get the rests to actually clamp tight. Even worse: the screw connecting the rest was so long that if you actually moved the rest close to the grinder, the screw would hit the wheel.
The screw that holds the rest in place will also hit the grinding wheel if you set the rest close to the wheel.The screw that holds the rest in place will also hit the grinding wheel if you set the rest close to the wheel.

The other problem is that in lieu of a decent clamping system, the grinder has a kind of ratchet gear assembly. This means you can only actually tighten the rest in certain positions, which makes it pretty useless. So I added a couple of washers so the screw wouldn't stick out so much and I put another washer between the ratchet assembly so I could clamp it in any position. The rest still moved around a bit, but it was usable. And I ground away.

I didn't have any water to cool anything, but when the chisel being ground grew hotter, I just put it up against the table and it cooled down pretty quick. The technique is not as good as dunking in water but it is a lot less messy. And CBN wheels don't really heat up that much. I first ground a chisel at the slow speed of the grinder, about 2000 rpm. There was a huge shower of sparks which was great and I was able to grind to a wire edge without any trouble or any real danger of burning. The chisel got very warm a couple times and I stopped to cool it down, but I never really came close to burning. Then I sped up the grinder to its top speed of 3450 and took another chisel and again ground to a wire edge. I felt the need to pay more attention. The chisel was certainly heating up faster - but it was also grinding faster, which is always a good thing. When I got close to the wire edge I definitely had to pay more attention to make sure I didn't burn the edge. If I owned this grinder for a long term I would definitely run it at top speed and grind to a wire edge. If you're nervous, you just stop grinding just before you get to the wire edge. Stopping early certainly is good practice and going to a wire edge doesn't really save you much honing time versus stopping 1/64" from the edge. I wanted to have a specific benchmark. I can definitely say that I can grind to a wire edge on an 8" CBN high-speed grinder without any trouble. But it does take practice and paying attention.
High Speed Grinding - Adding a CBN Wheel To a WEN High Speed 8" Grinder  3

As you can see if you scrutinize the pictures of the finished grind, the grind is a touch uneven. The rests moved at the end when I shifted my position. This is the sort of movement that doesn't affect the Baldor because the rests are rock solid, but these are not very rigid. It's not a big deal but it annoys me and any flex in the rests is a deal killer for me.

I'm not planning to keep this grinder. I have a 6 inch Baldor grinder I love, but I would welcome a second grinder, even if nowhere near as good as the Baldor, just because we do a lot of grinding here. But this grinder has rests that need to be rebuilt with an acceptable clamping system. I can't justify the work to make this grinder functional. At some point I'm going to probably just get another 8 inch Baldor grinder and call it a day. If you're in the Brooklyn area and you want to buy a barely used 8" grinder my cost was $139.79 plus $139.95 for the wheel. If you come here and get it you can have it for $220. Email or call me if you want it. I am not shipping it.

By the way, if you don't have a budget for a CBN wheel, any coarse wheel will do the trick as long as it's crowned and regularly dressed. (It's just not as easy and takes more care.) I think a grinder is one of the most important tools in a woodworking shop. No matter how many fixtures and jigs you may have, the ability to hollow ground a tool easily makes it easy to maintain your tools in tip top shape. Honing can then do what it's supposed to, sparing you the prospect of spending hours just removing waste metal. Click here for part one a series I wrote on how to grind.

I would be remiss if I didn't plug our own customized Baldor grinders, which we get from Baldor, soup up and make awesome. Lately they've been moving very quickly for some reason and we just ran out of stock at the moment. We are taking orders and we will have more soon (possibly not in time for Xmas).
The WEN grinderThe WEN grinder, as it came from the store

15 drawer dresser pt III......

Accidental Woodworker -

I think this is pt III but it doesn't really matter. Had a good day in the shop and made some progress on the dresser. Thinking ahead to buying plywood for the drawer bottoms and that is going to be expensive. 1/4 sheets have more than doubled in price and I doubt there will be any post xmas sales on it. Oh well, it is what it is. 

On a brighter note I finally got through to Urology and I have an appointment on the 18th. I have my audiology appointment on the 18th too at 0930 and the urology at 1120. I hope that audiology is on time and it doesn't take a lot of time to do what they have to do.

 detour

Decided to whack out a quick frame. I shot all of them to same length and used the shortest one as the master to plane the other 3. I sawed them out on the tablesaw initially but the frame didn't fit.

 Yikes

I thought I had put all my 45 hiccups behind me but I guess it ain't so. This tells me that my angles aren't 45°. The miters were square to the face which was a big hiccup in the past for me. Mr Starrett said that the angles were 45°. I checked the 45s again and they still looked good.

2nd shooting

I shot all the miters again and it was still off. I shot them again making the sure the inside lengths were all the same. 

 parallel now

The widths of each leg were slightly off a few frog hairs. I ran them through the tablesaw again and shot the miters one more time. The frame closed up some but there was still a gap on the last two miters.

 off 90°

The miters were 45 according to Mr Starrett but the 90 on each of the four corners was OTL (out to lunch). This tells me that the toes need to shaved. It seems that I was forcing the combo square to read 45° - the frame is soft pine and I was forcing the combo square to read a 45 that wasn't 45. When I did it slow and easy I saw then it was off 45 by a couple of frog hairs.

 tricky part

Trying to correct the miter to close it up is something that I don't do good on. I usually have a problem figuring out if the toe or heel needs to move in or out. Then I have to set the 45 on the shooting board to open or close the miter. I got lucky this time and I picked the right way to change the 45 on the shooting board.

 dead on 90

It took three adjustments before I got 90 on the two miters.

 oh so close

This dry fit is a huge improvement over the first one. It looks pretty good but one corner isn't closing up 100% but only at about 99%.

 closed up
The frame miters are all tight and gap free but..... This corner here is off on the inside leg. The heels don't align and are slightly off. 


 

 third one from the top

I don't know if this leg was one of the legs with the heels off but it is proud of the other three. It is enough to cause the frame to be misaligned ever so slightly. I spent enough time and calories on this and set it aside to work on the dresser.

tools of the trade

I can't count. I thought I had 18 dadoes to chop but I have 20 of them. Because I had so many of these to do I sawed the walls of the dado. That saved me a lot of wear and tear on my wrists. I sawed all the walls on the left first and then I did the right ones.

 bit me on the arse again

This square is a PITA at times. It is so easy to bump/move it off 90 and not notice it. That is what happened on this last dado. I had already started to saw it out when I saw that it wasn't square.

 fixed

I was lucky that the out square boo boo was at the back and not the front. If it had been at the front this would probably be a 13 drawer chest. This pic is out of sequence and it has both the rail and stile snug fitted into the dado. All will be well in Disneyland come glue up.

 not pretty looking

This should have been the pic before the one above. The back left part of the dado is where the error is. I was able to chop the 'new' dado wall to the right of it without that one crumbling on me. Not sure if I will fill in the errant wall or not. Who is going to look inside at the bottom drawer opening to eyeball this?

 snug fitting dadoes

Getting much better at chopping these dadoes. All ten of them came out the same. I will take a shaving off each them when it comes the time to glue the stiles in place.

 ten little indians.....

I still have more dadoes to chop besides the ten in the other side piece. Every other drawer bank will have a center vertical divider for the two drawer openings. Not sure if I need to also put a center vertical divider at the back. I will have to think about that for a few.

 vertical divider
Definitely needed at the front but not really necessary at the back. It would lend a bit more strength to the drawer runner assemblies.

I am also going to need drawer stops. Nothing more annoying then pulling a drawer out too far and dumping its contents on the deck.

accidental woodworker

Boarded Bookshelf Finished

JKM Woodworking -

finished, front

The color is Purple Hibiscus, Valspar 8001-48C. I bought a sample cup on clearance for $2.00, then when my daughter said she liked it I bought another. The two little cups barely had enough for two coats. Some of the less important areas only got one coat, or none for the back. My kids helped me paint. They globbed it on and I smoothed it out. The paint is relatively thin and doesn’t feel sticky at all.

The back pieces were painted separately before installation. I let the painted pieces dry overnight, then nailed them in place. My daughter helped with these smaller nails.

finished, back

This was taken from Chris Schwarz’ The Anarchist’s Design Book. A sample can be found at his blog. It turned out to be good practice for a few techniques: surfacing wide boards, making dados, using cut nails with pilot holes, installing a tongue and groove back. His bookcase is painted only on the outside, mine is painted on all show surfaces. I prefer the look of mine but we will have to see if the paint holds up to books and objects on the shelf.

finished, side

The finished size is 49″ high, 13.25″ deep, and 37.5″ wide and it weighs 365 pounds. I carried it up two flights of stairs.

I spent about $100 on poplar, of which I used about 60%. I also bought three 12ft pieces of ‘carsiding’ for the back at $15 each. The other major cost was fancy nails. I used 32 70mm and 24 40mm diamond head nails. I had two cracks or splits from the nails, neither too serious. I also used a little glue, a little primer, and two sample cups of paint.

I made angled cuts to the top corners. This was to match another bookcase in my house that me and my wife made 20 years ago. *That* bookcase was made to match an older one that my wife had when we met. It was made by someone in her family. It has not survived but I do have an old picture:

bookcase from the before times

canceled again......

Accidental Woodworker -

 My podiatry appointment for today was canceled again. The doc called in sick and luckily my wife told me about it before I went to the hospital. I rescheduled it for jan 18th and fingers crossed it won't be canceled again. I also tried to get an urology appointment rescheduled but I had no luck with that. I am still at a lost as to why I should have to reschedule an appointment that the clinic canceled. If I don't get an appointment soon my meds prescribed by the clinic will expire.

 too short

The front rail of the dresser needs to be the same length as the top. I don't want to make the side to side dimension any smaller so I will be making new front and rear rails.

 old stiles and rails

These won't be wasted or tossed in the shitcan. I'll repurpose these for picture frames. My wife has accumulated a huge pile of pics of the grandsons. It will be good practice and a chance to experiment making different types of picture frames.

 middle stile

There is only a 1/2" on either side of the vertical post for the drawer to run on. I decided to make the middle stile wide enough to allow a 3/4" drawer runner on each side.

 sneak peek

The drawer runners on the top left are for the 2 drawer level. The one on the right is for the single drawer. There will be five banks of drawers - a single over two.

 have 5"

I laid out the drawers from top to bottom and I have 5" left for the bottom base feet. Yesterday I had 4 1/2" which is what CH Becksvoort did on his dresser. Not a deal killer and I am extremely flexible about changing the dimensions of most anything.

 picking R and L

There is some cathedral grain on both sides and I ensured that it was pointing up on both sides. The left side is cupped (easily flattened) and I set the side so that the bow was facing out. I don't want to deal with fitting drawers with the bow facing into the interior. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to flatten it and keep it that way once I have the rails installed.

 bow is gone

Laying out the drawer runners was in the batter's box. I was playing around with flattening the cupped side flat to the opposite side. I found that the clamps on the ends took out 99% of it and I didn't need the middle set up.

Miller Falls plane herd

I've been using these for several months now to compare them to my Stanleys. I don't have anything bad to say about any of these MF planes. The same hiccups I had with them I also have with the Stanleys. IMO both of the MF and Stanley planes are equal for working wood. The only quibble I have with the MF planes are the front high knobs which I don't like. I got used to them but I still don't like them. The second quibble is the rear handle. The MF handle is too upright and straight and lacks the curves of the Stanleys. The MF handle is also squarish (Stanleys are rounded) and doesn't feel as comfortable as the Stanley. I will say that after using the MF for a few minutes all the dislikes I had with knobs and handles didn't seem to matter anymore.

I would offer this herd for sale but the last few I have tried to sell didn't even get one nibble. I will pass these onto the grandsons. One of them will get Stanleys and the other will get the Miller Falls. I don't hold any hope out that it won't cause any hiccups between the two of them.

 1" Hake brush

I had forgotten that I had ordered this. It came today along with a poster I had ordered from LAP. The small pine cabinet on the big one is where I keep my herd of shellac brushes.

 hmm....

I had both of the brushes I just ordered. Out of sight and out of mind and I have more than I need now.

 latest poster

This was offered with free shipping so I pulled the trigger. I will try to find a spot to hang this in the shop somewhere.

 1/2" fillister plane

The plane spent over 4 days by a radiator in the living room and the putty still hasn't hardened. The plane is filthy and I didn't clean it before I packed the holes with putty. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the putty not setting up.

 drawer runners laid out

The front rails will be dovetailed in a housing dado. The back rails and the side stiles will be in dadoes. I have 18 dadoes in the sides to chop out.

 rabbets done

I plowed the rabbets in the sides now for one reason. It was to help me with keeping what is out and in on the sides clear in my head. I plan to put a frame and panel insert on the back. That way the back of the dresser can be visible.

 possibility

I planed a couple of different sized astragals in some cherry scraps. I like the size of the one on the inside of the frame. The one on the outside will have the square portion on the right side sawn off. I'm not sure about this one as I am not getting a warm and fuzzy about it.

 lemon shellac

I got four coats on this and I still see white spots that look to be bare of any shellac.

 more on the lid

I am going to put on one more coat after dinner and that is it for the lemon shellac. Tomorrow I will put on a couple of blonde coats and put a check mark in the done column.

 stickered

All the drawer fronts behaved and I didn't see any evidence of any stupid wood tricks. I got all the new rails and stiles relaxing too. I don't expect any of them to go nutso on me. Tomorrow I'll start on the dadoes after I plane the stock for the sides and back. The weather is supposed to be sunny and nice for tuesday and wednesday.

accidental woodworker

success......

Accidental Woodworker -

 The trip to Norwich was uneventful. No rain, no wind, but it was overcast. My sister gave me a homemade loaf of bread and a jar of homemade jam. I had that for desert after lunch today. I'll say a collective yum for all of us. I didn't spend a lot of time there because I didn't want to chance getting stuck in the rain. Some nasty weather came after lunch but the real stuff is supposed to come tomorrow morning and go until about noon time.

 hmm.....

I did this wrong or at least to my thinking I did. I tried to square and straighten each side separately and that didn't work out for me. What I did was close but it was off enough that it would have caused a lot of headaches if I kept it as is.

I clamped the two sides together and aligned them as best I could. Used the 6 foot level to eyeball the near edge which is my reference. The two ends were off from each other. The bottom ends were closer to square and matching then the top ends. The far long edge is still wild and doesn't count.

 pencil line

I drew a pencil about an 1/8" from the outside edge. This is what I should have done on the first go around. The plan was to clamp the two sides together and plane down to the pencil line. Keep the sides clamped together and square the two ends. The last step would be to rip the long wild edges.

distraction

There was a post on SMC (Saw Mill Creek) this AM that John posted about making picture frames. Since I am making picture frames this piqued my interest and I had to make a sample frame. As you can see it consists of two parts - one vertical (inner frame) and one horizontal (outer frame). I can come up with a lot of different profiles and orientations without getting a headache. This is similar to the picture frame but easier than the one Paul Sellers did. This sample frame took me about 10 minutes to do.

 5 more minutes

Planed an astragal on the top of the horizontal member and plowed a groove in it for the vertical member. A second frame I was thinking of was to forgo any profiling on the vertical one and instead put another tenon on the opposite side. Put that into an identical horizontal member. I was getting excited about the possibilities that this post opened up for me.

 planing to the lines

I planed down parallel to the pencil lines but not removing them. When I checked it with the 6 foot level I had a hump. I had eyeballed down the length and it had looked flat and straight to me. However, the 6 footer was spinning like a helicopter blade.

 square end to end

This took a wee bit of fussing and cussing to get down. I was planing square on the entire length of the left board but I out of square for half of the right board - from about the middle to the far end. I didn't find out what the cause was but I was able to finally get it square end to end.

 my pencil line

The planed edge was parallel and consistent from end to end. I didn't see the need to keep planing and remove it. I was square and straight now so I felt it wasn't necessary. And there is nothing carved in stone about the depth of the sides neither.

 hump is gone

The level pivoted about a third of the way from the end. From watching machinist You Tube videos I know that this is an indication of flatness. The level pivoted about the 1/3 mark when I did this from the opposite end too.

 square

Kept the newly planed reference long edges clamped and squared the ends together with the router.

 big, long taper

The bottom board is proud of the top one at this end a strong 5/16".

opposite end

Not quite a 1/8" here. I ripped 3/8" off both boards.

 lost a 1/4 inch

I consider myself lucky that I only lost a 1/4" squaring the ends off the total length. I was shooting for a 62" height but 61 3/4 is good too. I can make up for that by trimming the second drawer from 3 1/2" to 3". That will make it a match with the single drawer above it.

 passed

The real test is/was do the boards still align on all four edges with one of them flipped 180. Spoiler alert it did on that 180 as well as flipping it 180 end to end. It was almost dead nuts perfect but the few frog hairs it was off here and there don't amount to diddly squat. Very happy with how this came out and I'm ready to move on to stretchers front and back.

As I was typing this up I thought I had made a me-steak on the length of the stretchers I had cut up yesterday. I think but I didn't check it, that they are short. They should be be the same length or slightly shorter than the top is. The front stretchers are the same size as the top but the back ones are shorter because they will be in dadoes.

I have sawn the top to length but I can saw it shorter if need be. That is dependent upon how long the stretchers are for the front. I'll find out in the AM.

accidental woodworker

Making the pilgrimage

Rivers Joinery -

 

The original of this is at the other end of Devon from where I live. I first saw the carving on someone else's photograph, and set about carving it from that. After carving the main parts of it, I realised I could not see the details on their photo. So there was nothing for it, but to make the pilgrimage. In fact, I went twice; the first time the place was locked!


This one (from the same place) is a little shallower than the original, but the original of the top carving is much deeper at 19mm 3/4" and much bigger. I thought I was struggling to make the different layers look 3D; now I know why.

You can see that the original is degrading; not surprising after 500 years of passing feet, scuffs, knocks and woodworm. All the more important to learn how it was carved, and re-make it. These carvings are some of my favourite Devon carvings.

I will leave my first attempt how it is, not try to make it any deeper. The original is twice the size. I will carve it again, wider and deeper. The photograph that I carved from did not show it, but in the flesh, it's fairly obvious the background is painted red. So I have painted the ground of my first attempt red, to see how it looks. I like it.



expensive day......

Accidental Woodworker -

 The weather for the ride out to Gurney's sawmill was pretty good. Sunshine and blue skies but it was dreary and overcast by the afternoon. I got what I think is enough to make the 15 drawer dresser plus extra for whatever tickles my fancy next. I spent more this time then I did on last trip there. Things are going to change tomorrow.

Lots of rain and gusty winds are forecasted for sunday afternoon into monday morning. Sunday morning is supposed to be dry which suits me because I'm bringing the printer's tray to my sister. At least it is rain and not the white stuff although I would welcome that on and around the 25th.

 5 twelve foot 1x12s

Sawn in half. This should be triple what I need even if I screw up more than once.

 3 ten foot 1x12s

I left these whole and I bought them because there weren't anymore 12 foot 1x12s. My last haul was around $200 and this haul set me back $282.09. Good deal as this is all D select pine for $2.95 a BF. FYI - Gurney had raised their prices in November. The first increase since 2009.

 ten footer

Decided to break all of them down to 6 and 4 footers. I rarely make anything over 4 feet and 5 footers sounded odd to me. I will use this stock for the the drawers sides and back. Not sure about the drawer bottoms at this point. Most likely I will use plywood and drawer slips.

 hmm.....

The dresser drawers aren't as large as I thought they would be. Especially so with the two drawer levels. I can see why CH Becksvoort says it is for keys etc - small items. It should work for lingerie and if not Amanda can use it for whatever.

 one shy

Went scrounging around the shop and found some pine to make 4 of the five needed middle stiles. I hate to cut out a single one out of the stock I bought today. I'll wait and get it from the pile of scrap that I'm sure is coming.

untwisting

I didn't go nutso on this. I concentrated on getting one face flat and straight. When I haul the lunchbox planer topside to do the sides and backs I'll flatten the opposing face then.

 stickered

I just removed the twist from the drawer fronts only. The rest of the pieces shouldn't need any work on them. I'll let these relax until next week. I want the stock I got today to acclimate to the shop for a couple of days. With the forecasted rain it will be tuesday at the earliest before I can work this any further.

 back is on

Got the screw in and the blow out from that has healed. I put on the last coat of shellac on the back and this is done.

 only one glamour shot

Since this doesn't have any hangers it can be positioned on the wall either this way (my preference) or 180. Of course I assumed that the longest dimension would be the top to bottom one. To my eye it would look funny hung horizontally.

 needs more help

It is getting better but it is getting tedious using the spackle. There is a divot to the right of my finger that I don't remember seeing yesterday.  This is the underside and I looked at the top and it needs more help too.

 ????

This defect looks like wire brush strokes but I know it isn't that. There is one other spot with the same look along with in bedded wood dust and spackle powder.

 the last one

I put the final application of spackle on both sides of the lid. Regardless as to how this comes out I'm done with spackle.

 almost forgot this

Out of sight behind the bench and I only caught sight of it when I killed the shop computer.

 show face

I am real happy with how the glue joint looks on this face. I had to stare at it here for a few before I could pick it out.

 where is it

The glue line is flush end to end. It took only a few minutes working with the #80 to do that.

 opposite face

This is going to be the inside and I can see the glue joint easily almost for the whole length of it.

 hump

Hump on this side and a slight cup on the other. The cup I could flatten with a feather and I'll have to plane the hump off. Especially so if it is on the inside as it will interfere with the drawers.

 squaring the ends

Squaring the ends and matching the length with the first side were the last dance steps for today.

 made an oops

I forgot to plane a reference edge before I routed the ends square.

 not square

I was trying to take off the minimal amount of wood to preserve the length and it didn't work. I had to do this end again and the length of this one is shorter than the first one.

 chasing my tail

I didn't realize it here but I squared this end up for the wrong reason. It was out of square but I wasn't checking it from the reference edge.

 from the non reference edge

It still hadn't dawned me that I was checking from the rough edge. I had only planed one long edge flat and straight making it the reference.

 the two are off

I placed the two sides together with the thought of squaring the ends of them to get the length the same. The plan was to clamp them as one and use the router to square the two ends together.

 this one is dead on

The diagonals matched dead on - 64".

 used the reference edge

The corner was a few frog hairs off throwing the square off. A few swipes with the blockplane and all was well in Disneyland again.

 square

Once I realized that I was checking for square off the wrong long edge I checked the square on both sides again. One side was square from both edges and the other only from the reference edge. I labeled the reference edge on the face by that edge so I wouldn't miss it again.

 off by a 32nd

This is side #2 with both ends square now off the reference edge. The diagonals are off just shy of a 16th. It was the same when I checked for it on both faces.

 another hiccup

I couldn't align the long reference edges. Towards the bottom one was proud of the other - a hump. At the top one had a slight hollow. I also couldn't get the square ends at the bottom to align. I didn't bother with the top because I was going to square them as one.

I had this problem when I made the dresser for Miles. Had a lot of see sawing trying to get the two sides of that to match 360. I fixed that by planing the front long edges of it to flat and straight as one.

 six foot level

This is the longest straight edge I have. With it up against the sides I can see daylight peeking by in a few spots. I killed the lights here because I felt like I was chasing my tail. I'll come back to this tomorrow with fresh peepers and sort it out.

 hows this for a miter box?

I was leafing through my Aldren Watson books because he explains how woodworking was done before electricity. There aren't any books that I know of that show and tell how to deal with problems like I am having with the sides of my dresser.

 this would work

What he doesn't show or write about was this done vertically or horizontal? Didn't come across anything about how to ensure long/wide carcass sides align and match.

As an aside, and this isn't click bait, I have two Aldren Watson books to pass on. Both of them are duplicates and were formerly library books. They are Country Furniture - mostly about the tools used and how to on joinery, dovetails, legs, etc.

The second book is Furniture Making Plain and Simple. This one has projects and how to do them the way the old masters did. It is this one that had the squaring aid in it. It has a lot of good and simple ways to do seemingly difficult things. 

Both are free to whoever wants them and the first email wins them (rjboumenot at gmail dot com). I'll mail them to you on my dime.

accidental woodworker

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