Hand Tools

 On friday last I got the new Verizon FIOS cable TV box. I tried to install it on sunday and it didn't go well. The cable won't work because the WiFi router is incompatible with it. It seems Verizon was supposed to ship a new router with the FIOS box but didn't. The WiFi router is still working but I don't have any TV in the living room. The flip side is I don't watch much TV there anymore so no big deal. However, it would be nice to see what 1080 resolution via HDMI looks like on a 720p TV. I might have to upgrade - the living room TV is probably 10 or more years old. 

I can't fix the hiccup because the cable account is in my wife's name. Verizon will only deal with the named account holder. So I'll have to wait till my wife calls Verizon from North Carolina and gets a new router shipped.

3 coats

Yesterday I got 3 coats on the crate/box and the Kreg loose tenon box on the bottoms. I got two more on in the AM and called the bottoms done.

quickie project

With the old cable box gone I no longer have the time it displayed. Couldn't believe how much I looked at it to get the time of day. Anyways, I needed something to elevate the DVD player and WiFi router up. I have a back stop on the TV stand and I can't stack the two of them because of that. This stand will elevate them enough so the wires coming out of the back of them clear the back stop. 

I came back to the shop after dinner yesterday and got it glued and cooking. Simple build - mitered front corners and I'll rout a rabbet along the top inside edges for a piece of plywood to sit in.

new banding cooked all night

The short side banding on the left is a wee bit high - it isn't down tight to the plywood bottom. I'm leaving it as is because it isn't anywhere near as bad as the replaced long side banding was.

lower left corner

I missed it initially but saw it after I looked a bit more carefully. From a few feet away it is almost invisible. I doubt anyone other than another woodworker will ever notice it.

stained pine

I don't remember where I read about staining pine blotch free. I followed those steps and this is what I got. I have never stained anything (including pine) as evenly as this. Can't remember the blog nor the steps. I do remember using the pre stain conditioner but there were a couple of extra steps. Today I'll just be using the pre stain stuff and hoping for the best.

not the same stain

I also don't remember the stain I used on the fielded panel but the platform has special dark walnut on it. Pretty happy with how it came out but it isn't as even as the pine panel. Those extra steps are necessary.

2nd coat of stain

The plywood top is birch plywood and it looks pretty even too. There is some white trying to say hello but at least it isn't flashing neon bright. Tomorrow I'll slap on a couple of coats of poly.

00 steel wool

Got two coats on it and before the third one I rubbed down this box and the one for the wife. Subsequent to in between coats I'll rub them down with 0000 steel wool.

saved myself a road trip

I have more than enough left in the can to apply to the black frame. I have two coats on the back and one on the front. I will leave the back with two but I think I'll do 3 on the front. According to black paint can, I can apply the poly after 24hrs. So I should be able to get this to Maria by saturday?

3 on

The more I look at this the more I like how well I did the fingers and dovetails. It looked pretty good with 3 coats but I am going to put on 5 - that is what I did on the bottom. I'll wash, rinse, and repeat for the Kreg box.

touch up

One nice thing about using a local paint store is the service. They went into my account and found where I had bought two quarts of this paint. I doubt Lowes or Home Depot could match that. I touched up the wounds and 2 hours later I could pick out only one and that one will definitely need at least one more coat. I'll get that on tomorrow. There is no rush to get this done at all.

new clock

I could easily just look at my computer to see what time it is but I don't. I made this 12 years ago and it will have to do for now. Thinking about making a digital clock (numbers, no clock face) and I'll look on line for a kit. You can see the back stop thing - the DVD player and WiFi have to be 4-5 inches in front of to lay flat.

accidental woodworker

The wife's crate/box got 3 coats of shellac today. Last night she let me know that she didn't need it until june. Oh well, it will be done in the next few days and she'll get the pleasure of finding a hole to stick it in until june. I'm betting on the boneyard hosting it. BTW it was another beautiful warm pre-spring day. The mercury topped out at 71F (22C) here abouts.

rounding the top corners

Used the dozuki to saw most of the waste off. Followed that up with a blockplane and finally the shinto rasp.

corners done

I wasn't going to but I sanded a round over on the top edge. The arris felt too sharp when I tried out the handles. I knocked it back on both the inside and outside edges.

sigh

Sanded this ever so lightly and it now sticks out like a blinking neon light. I didn't notice it when I glued it up because I would have put it on the bottom if possible.

why not?

To make this look like it was deliberate I transferred the location to the opposite side and I sanded in a matching divot. 

almost shellac time

I am going to apply 4-5 coats of shellac on the bottom first. Get that done first and then shellac the rest of it.

a couple more to-dos

There is a large snake like depression on one side that I'm going to attempt to steam out. The canned air is to blow sawdust out of the pin/tail gaps so I can hit them with super glue and pine sawdust. Branded the bottom with my logo and signed it.

see it

There was one small divot and a 5-6 inch snake like one. My wife's iron will spit an impressive amount of steam. Now that I used it I'm going to buy one to have in the shop. The small divot swelled and sanded flush but the snake didn't. I would say that maybe 80% - 85% of steamed flush. I tried 4-5 times to get the remaining part to swell but it wouldn't. What I was able to get will have to do. One of the joys of using soft pine.

one more fix

If I sanded this out it would look like crap IMO. Maybe if it wasn't at the corner it wouldn't look to be bad being feathered out.

dutchman ready

I didn't have many pine scraps to find a color match with. I had cleaned up the shop early in the week and dumped all my scraps then.  Glued this and after it cooked, I sawed and planed it flush.

dark spots at the baseline

The super glue and sawdust filled the gaps nicely. The dark spots will disappear under the shellac.

my nemesis

One more thing to address. I hate gaps and I saw more here than I did yesterday. This one is big and highly visible.

didn't see these yesterday

Or maybe it was what I wanted to see. I decided to apply banding around the bottom inside to hide this.

long sides first

While this was cooking I flipped the box over and put on a couple of coats of shellac.

two boxes to do

I put the Kreg loose tenon jig on the bench too. I might as well get shellac on it at the same time.

hmm....

I want to get this frame done and out to Maria before I do any of the Stanley poster frames. I am not impressed with this color (expected a deeper black) but it should look better with the second coat. I am going to cover it after the painting is done with either shellac or a General Finishes oil - I can get that at Koszela Lumber.

big sign followed by another one

I had to take out one of the long side bandings because it wasn't fully seated along its length down to the plywood. There was a big gap on the whole length of it. After I got the short sides done I glued another long side banding and made sure I pushed it down tight to the plywood as I clamped it with the ghost sticks.

that long ago?

I got a comment about using a dovetail miter joint and I had tried it before. Didn't realize it was over ten years ago. 

that's a miter

I don't like the look of this joint at the bottom face side. The half pin has to be bigger than the opposite end one to accommodate the bottom grooves.

too small for 1/4" plywood

In order for this to work with my 1/2" plywood bottom this would have to be at least 3 times as wide as it is now. It will definitely hide the groove but at the expense of throwing the symmetry of the tails and pins off. I had made a box with this joint but it wasn't with others in the samples hole. 

Now that a few years have elapsed I am going to revisit this joint and make another box with it. Maybe my mind will be changed once I see it again in a box. I don't recall this giving me any particular problems making it but I do remember the layout kicked my arse about figuring it out.

accidental woodworker

My newest carving video – “Carving 17th-century Strapwork Patterns” is now available on vimeo-on-demand. “Strapwork” is a name given to designs that include narrow vertical and horizontal bands or “straps” connecting different elements of the design – round “rosettes”, fleur-de-lis, leafy clusters, etc. The particular strapwork patterns presented in this series stem from the Ipswich, Massachusetts shop of Thomas Dennis and from Devon in England, specifically around the city of Exeter. The time period spans the whole 17th century.

Its running time is just over 3 hours, broken into six videos – after discussing the layout and the tools, the videos show how I carved 3 different versions of this pattern. All related, but each distinct. Between the three box fronts, you’ll see a full range of the vocabulary of strapwork patterns.

• Introduction & a look at the gouges used
• Incising the layout
• Background removal & details (those two videos contain the first full pattern, a box front from Thomas Dennis’s shop)
• A second Ipswich/Thomas Dennis box front
• A version of strapwork from Exeter, Devon
• A slideshow about the historic examples and the research (starting in 1892!) concerning this group of furniture, specifically this pattern.

Here’s a bit of a trailer –

The price for the series is $65.00 – the link is here https://vimeo.com/ondemand/follansbeestrapwork

If you are a paid subscriber to my substack blog you can get a 20% discount – there’s a promo code in a post sent to them… the link to that blog is here https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/

 Got to my goal of getting the wife's crate/box glued and cooking. I had my doubts during the AM session but that evaporated before the lunch bell rang. Stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something that I failed at previously. Even though I am making boxes I've been trying new tricks of the trade whenever I can in making them. As my skill improves, so does how I feel comfortable doing something new.

quick check

Got the first set of pins done and I had to check the fit. One of the things I tried that was new for me, was the finger before the tail on the left. The initial fit looks good without any gaps. One down and three more to go.

Yikes

I noticed something was OTL (out to lunch) when I was chopping the other side of the tails. The baseline there was deeper than the other side. I checked it and the baseline on this side was tapered and it was short thankfully. Don't ask me how I managed to brain fart my way into that because I'm clueless.

the pin is ok

I think this was the corner that I knifed the baseline wrong. The pin looks good and there aren't any gaps on either the outside or inside.

no twist

It went together off the saw. All the tails are fully seated but there is some proud between the tails and pins. It didn't effect the square - the diagonals were dead nuts on. The proud is only a few frog hairs and will disappear when I plane it.

something old again

I'm going to try and rout a stopped groove/dado in the long sides. I didn't want the groove/dado to run straight through out the ends. The bottom is 1/2" plywood and that would make for large visibly plugged holes. The last time I did a stopped dado it turned into a through dado. Laid it out so it will fall in between the tail sockets.

the first easy one

I tried to keep this as close to the bottom edge as I could. I didn't want to sacrifice any more depth than I had too. Knifed the outsides edges and removed most of the waste with a chisel. Got it to a 5/16" depth with a router.

first stopped one done

One of the biggest problems I've had doing these is blowing out the little bit on the tail. That part of the groove is fragile, especially so in soft pine. Took my time chiseling this out, taking small bites, and avoiding putting any undue stress on it.

a little short

Did another dry fit to check the alignment of the grooves 360. I didn't make the stopped ones long enough. I had to extend them another 1/8" on both ends so that they aligned with the groove ends on the short sides.

now I'm flush

The groove on the bottom was short of the groove on the vertical one. Other than that minor hiccup the groove runs aligns 360.

doesn't fit

I measured for the width and length and I was long on both of them. Used two sticks to mark the length and then the width.

done

The bottom fits and more importantly all the tails and pins are fully seated/mated. Zero gaps to talk about on the in or out sides.

hmm......

The grooves didn't come clean with crisp walls. The walls on both got wonky and I experienced a lot of tear out. Most of that was due to the chisel being a tight fit. However, with the bottom in it looks good. There is only one spot on the inside where I could see any tear out. The bottom was worse but still not that horrible to look at. The plywood is a good snug fit and that hides/blends 99% of it away.

maybe a shoulda....

I drilled out the handles before I glued the crate/box up. Thinking now that I shoulda did the round over on the top outside corners too. It shouldn't be too difficult to do the round overs after it has cooked.

handle holes are off

When I drilled one of the handle holes I didn't clear the chips from getting between the wood and the fence on the drill press. The near hole has a flat, horizontal bottom whereas the far one dips below the horizontal. Of the two I like the far one better and I used a rasp on the near to match its sibling.

the baseline hiccup corner

The gap on the tail is from me correcting for the tapered baseline. Still I'm happy with the overall look. Especially so with the fingers. This was the first time I done fingers like this and all of them came perfect - as in a snug fit and no gaps.

happy with this

Both fingers look perfect to me. My sawing to a line continues to improve.

opposite side

After 13 years I am calling myself a pretty good beginner dovetailer. I think after a few more years of doing the finger detail I will be able to add that too.

I should be able to get some shellac on this tomorrow. The tails and pins fitted snug and seated so there was no need for clamps
 

came today

The 1/4-24 die and starting tap came today. I thought I had ordered just the die but now I have and extra tap. I'll have to check my Stanley plane break down chart and see if there are any other oddball taps/dies and I need to get.

accidental woodworker

I didn't get as far with the new project as I thought I would but that is ok. I don't know when my wife will need it but I'll be done with it before next friday rolls around? I had one stupid wood trick I had to deal with that slowed down the time line. Got my fingers and toes crossed that I won't have anymore to deal with.

first change

Decided not to glue up the end boards to make them higher than the sides. I couldn't concede having a glue joint visible. Instead I'm going to decrease the height of the sides and leave the ends at 11".

drilling the handle holes

Didn't know whether or not to do this now or after the dovetailing. Since I thought of it here I went ahead and knocked it out.

roughed out

The holes still need to be sanded/rasped smooth and the inside/outside edges rounded. That can be done after the dovetails are checked off. One end has some knots that I couldn't avoid. 3 sides are clear and the knots are small too so not so unsightly.

first time I think

Wasn't too sure how sawing both sides at once would go. Up to now I have only sawn sides that were up to 5/8" thick - this 1 1/2". Spoiler alert - no hiccups, no problems. You still have to saw square and then down at an angle regardless of the thickness.

hot knife through butter

Well not quite that easy, but it wasn't difficult neither. I had plenty of stroke with this 12" saw. Never felt any binding doing any of the tail saw cuts.

stupid wood trick hiccup

The center of both of the ends is also the center of the tree that these boards came from. I had already planed both of the boards twice but the right hand board decided to throw a hissy fit. Initially the center had a hump and after planing that off it kind of spread out on either side of the center. There appears to be a lot of tension in these two that planing released. 

Put these two aside and made a road trip to Lowes to get another pine board for the ends and plywood for the bottom.

prices went up

The 4 foot long 1x12 cost more the 1/2" plywood panel (2'x2'). There is a large enough clear section on the 1x12 to get the two ends from. Using 1/2" plywood for the bottom to beef up and strengthen the crate/box. I wanted to use 3/8" plywood but Lowes didn't have anything but CDX plywood in that thickness.

The plan for the plywood is to use stopped dadoes to house it so I don't have to use plugs in the tails/pins. That is subject to change if an oops pops up doing said stopped dadoes.

just as well

Noticed a crack in the original end boards - this one I split with zero effort with just my hands.

ditto for the 2nd one

No visible cracks on the #2 but it also split with one sharp rap from my fist. 

quitting time

If I didn't have to make the Lowes run I would have gotten the box dry fitted and possibly glued and cooking. The tails are done and the pins are sawn out. Should get this dry fitted and glued in the AM.

accidental woodworker

 

next project

This is crate/box/holder thing I made 10/2010 and it is used to hold the paper recycling. My wife asked me yesterday if I could make one for her but square - ish and taller. She wants to for some dead people meeting thing she is going to. Doesn't matter to me because it means I have something to do after the frames are done and before I get back to kitchen ladder/stool.

two down, one more to go

Nailing and gluing the rabbeted back frame on the last 3 poster frames. The width of these 3 is roughly a strong 8th short on the width and +/- a 16th on the long length. There isn't enough of a difference to catch eyeballing them.

hmm......

I sanded the last 3 frames - no planing at all. This pine is weird to plane. It planes smooth then tear outs, goes back to smooth then to a little bit of tearing out and all within the first 3 inches. Sanded the front and back with 120 grit and it looks and feels ok. I will sand the front and the outside edges with 180 & 220 before I paint them.

last one

Needed some help both miters on this end had gaps. Snapped the pic before I got the other clamp cross wise on.

what a mess

I am getting better at not pack ratting everything single scrap of wood I produce. However, this is mostly plywood and I have been saving those scraps. I had a bazillion piles of it vertically placed all over the shop. Stopped working on the frames and attended to this. Placed the shit can by the bandsaw and cut this pile into little pieces. I saved only the large ones.

didn't fit

The original metal insert broke again. I had fixed it several years ago with epoxy but it failed. I had bought 10 of these Carter inserts then and they don't fit. The insert was a few frog hairs too wide. I sanded it with 120 grit and got it to fit. That alone surprised me to no end.

Got the diameter to fit the hole but it was slightly proud of the table. Tried sanding with 120 grit on the workbench but I wasn't making any progress doing that. I put it in the table and got it 99.99% flush. It is less than half a frog hair proud but it I cut up a ton of plywood without any hiccups. I'll revisit it and spend the calories to get it dead nuts flush later. 

13 of them

Wow, even I'm impressed with how many I made. I didn't make the seven poster frames all with different joinery. In fact, all 13 were done with bridal joints. I liked the different joinery idea and I intend to try it again in the future.

weak suction

Which means the filter is jammed packed with dust. Couldn't remember how to remove the filter so I could shake it out. I thought it was threaded but it isn't. I had to You Tube it - the white thing is a nipple that you pull the filter off and push it back on. Who knew, not me?

Besides dumping a shit can full of plywood scraps I also cleaned up the shop a wee bit. I didn't go nutso and I did clean off the workbench finally. It has been crowded with crappola for a couple of weeks and now it is down to bare wood again.

last thing done today

I went to Lowes and bought two 1x12x72 pine boards. They were the clearest ones in the pile - I looked at and fondled every single board in the rack. I haven't decided on a size for this yet but I do know the ID will be wide enough for a standard size file folder. The two short width boards are for the ends which will be 3-4 inches higher than the sides. My wife wants the same handle detail for this box.

stickered overnight

I was hoping to get the sides glued up but it didn't happen. By the time I got the stock broke down it was 1455 and almost quitting time. I'll do the glue up in the AM if the wood doesn't do any stupid wood tricks.

accidental woodworker

I interrupted grandpa mode for a bit and engaged my friend of almost 35 years, Brian Wilson, for a freewheeling conversation on social/political the status quo.  If pungent conversation about forbidden topics intrigues you, you can find it over at the Substack “Brian Wilson Writes.”  I’ve been told that it is unseemly to discuss politics, religion, and economics.  Hit the trifecta here.

Enjoy.  Or not.  You have been warned.

 A door in Accoya.

Wedged tenons. Pinned with brass. Fixing the drip, with brass flatheads and my turnscrew. Holding temporarily with the Jorgensens.

Hunted and gathered this new old anvil today. It was a lively beast and took some subduing, but with Mick on the seesaw, we roped it in! 

So, forging ahead with the forging. Bang bang bang.

Here’s a couple of updates from the workshop for you.

Whilst Amanda and I were having a bit of a sort out, we discovered an inlay that I had made back in the 70s. What a shame that I had completed the phoenix bass……………..anyway as I decided to swap the strings for flat-wounds, I took the tuners off and inlaid the head! Not quite a Phoenix rising, but pretty none the less!

 Another beautiful pre spring day again. There is a saying about march here about that if it comes in like a lamb and goes out like lion. It is almost the 1/2 way point for the month and it is supposed to turn to rain and cloudy for the next few days. We'll have to wait and see if the lion shows up.

rabbeted back frame

I've settled into this method for doing the back frame. I lay it out in pencil and then go around gluing and nailing each side into place. With that method it was hit or miss (mostly miss) with the last leg fitting nice with no gaps. 

With this new method I glue and nail one long side first and then repeat for the two short sides. I then measure and saw the last long leg a few frog hairs long. I then sneak up on the fit by planing a few strokes and checking the fit. I don't know why it took me 5 frames before I eased into doing this way.

nailed it

The top and bottom margin is about a 1/4" more than the long sides. That is to account for the logo and lettering.

close

The ID of these four poster frames are within +/- 5 frog hairs of each other. The OD dimensions are +/- a 16th. Four down, and 3 more to make.

last three

I got one frame from the last 1x4 I bought at Lowes. The other two came from a 1x5 pine board I got from Koszela lumber. I have two more of them left.

hmm......

The Lowes frame wood came out almost perfect. I checked the slot mortise using the tenon leg by putting it against the mortise. It stuck past the tenon about a 16th. With the Koszela wood I had a 8th inch of the mortise proud of the tenon. I was careful and I checked the stock and the saw blade after each cut I made.

dry fit

The tenon is good, snug, self supporting fit. The tenon is proud and the slot mortise is flush. I don't know what I am doing wrong - racked my brain thinking of hiccups I did and missed.

one down, two to go

The fit appears to be mirroring the other 4 frames. I couldn't see any glaring gaps between the them.

last two

Overall I'm happy with how well these last 3 match the previous 4. More importantly I don't think I'll be able to see/pick out any size differences in the frames. 

The last two came out looser than I like. And that was after making 4 test tenons before committing to the real deal. I was able to pinch the slot mortise on the tenon with my fingers and make it self supporting. 

finally came

I bought a 1/4-24 starting and bottoming tap along with a 1/4-24 die. After a week of '... order delayed, new arrival is....' two of the items came. The die is supposed to come anytime between the 13th and 18th. The seller added two frog washers as a gift. Finding these size washers was something I never found a source for.

extra frame?

I'm not sure what this frame is for. I don't think it is a poster frame so it must be an extra. I bandsawed a boatload of stock to make four back rabbet frames.

last one cooking

I didn't realize it was almost 1500 here. I got into a groove making these last 3 and lost track of time. These will cook until tomorrow. I just have to plane them flush, add the back rabbet frame, and rout a chamfer on the top inside and outside edges.

loose frames

Used my larger quick grips to clamp the bridal joints. I don't anticipate any problems with these two once the clamps come off.

accidental woodworker

It will soon be 12 years and almost 2,000 blog posts since donsbarn.com made its debut.  In chatting with Webmeister Tim yesterday he informed me that the original platform had not been updated since the beginning and was beginning to show its age.  In fact, the basic platform Jason built for me is no longer supported, but is still working!  Well done, Jason.  Nevertheless the site is occasionally having the burps, hiccups and sneezes that geezers often get, requiring periodic troubleshooting by Tim to get things back to running more-or-less smoothly.

All that to say that Tim will be constructing a new web site platform and that transition to “live” will occur some time next month.  With luck the site will remain visually unchanged.  The new site will be, well, new, and with greatly expanded capabilities I hope to begin exploiting.  At the same time, I will be reworking some of the foundational documents, maybe giving more of the donsbarn.com back story.

If it all goes well the redesign and migration should go smoothly once underway.

Stay tuned.

 I took monday off from trying to sign into the new VA log in and tried it today. It started off good with me visiting the Post Office. The clerk knew about the authentication procedure and I didn't have to make an appointment. Good news there so I went home and tried logging in again.

At first things were going along swimmingly. Signed in with no hiccups and got right into the new authentication procedures. I had very high hopes because I got a lot further today than I have previously. That all came crashing down when they said my cell phone couldn't be verified. WTF?

I signed into login.gov with my cell phone number and it sent an access code to it that allowed me to start authenticating myself to you. Now my cell phone number isn't in your records? The biggest thing that bugs me about this is that there is no human or AI human I can call and talk to. So I'll try it again tomorrow. At least I didn't piss away a bazillion hours this time chasing my tail.

hmmm....

I spent the entire shop time I had playing with the frames. Made a dent in them and I started with the 3 poster frames that are toast. Laid out 45° angles trying to maximize how much of the frame I could salvage. I didn't like the options I had with either of them.

from the 3 frames

The pieces aren't as long as I was hoping for. The shortest ones aren't sufficient for a 5x7 pic. Looking like this will gather dust in the boneyard scrap pile.

what I wanted

The margin between the pics and the frame is maybe a wee bit too much now but I'll take it. I don't like the thin margins on the paper mat.

rabbet frame done

This frame is almost ready for paint. I just have to do a little finish sanding and it is a go.

squaring the corners

There is name for this that comes from masonry work but for the life of me I can't recall it. The word had come to me while I was doing it but it went back to the black hole.

paint choices

When I was at Koszela Lumber I bought the black. She carries a good assortment of general finishes - paint and poly. I can't make up my mind for the multiple pic frame. I would like it to be two toned but I would need clean, crisp lines between the colors. I can't think of a way to do it on this frame. I would like the main color to be blue and the stripe between the chamfers, black.

my crocus flowers

There are 8 blooms and there are 3 more that budded but haven't bloomed. It is a shame that these will gone until next year in only a few days.

poster frame

This is one of four and I trimmed the proud cheeks first. Followed that up by flushing and smoothing the four outside edges.

ready for paint

I sanded these 4 with 120 grit after planing them. These all will be painted black. I have to make 3 more frames to bring my total of poster frames back up to 7. I have seven posters so I need 7 frames.

needed some help

The back frame miters were open slightly. It would never be seen unless you took it down and looked at them. However, Maria will see them and I want them look good.

last one

Got 3 of them done and I'll do this one in the AM. Glad the paint is latex so I can knock them out quickly.

the extra frames

The top frame needs the back rabbet frame to be done. I am leaning in the direction of painting 3 of these blue and 2 black. That is subject to change when I actually start slapping paint on them.

accidental woodworker

 The temp today topped out at 67F (19C) here at my corner of the universe. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, wispy clouds, and a light warm breeze. Spring officially shakes hands on the 20th so hopefully today is what is to come.

On the flip side of the coin, I only have seen 3 crocus flowers by the back door. I usually see them flower in feb but I saw none this year. The current 3 is about 6-7 shy of the usual number of blooms. Maybe it is because the temps at night are still forecasted to be hovering around the freezing mark. But today was the 2nd time this year that I went out without a coat. 

the next day

This was the last one glued up and it is the first one to be unclamped. I was a good boy and left them all alone to cook until this AM.

I'll take it

 

All the frames I glued up yesterday were all flat. I checked each for rocking on the tablesaw and none did.

within a 16th

I don't understand this because the diagonals are telling me I'm square but the square says I'm not. The long ID dimension is 12 11/16" and the top short leg is 9 3/4" while the bottom short leg is 10".

hmm......

One frame failed already and is sitting in the kindling pile for now. I had my fingers crossed that rest won't disappoint me.

new frame

This came from the bowed/cupped board and it measures width wise, 1 3/8". This will be for the multiple pic frame.

story pole

Marked the short and long dimensions of the paper mat to transfer to the new frame for it.

sawn to rough length

I added 2 7/8" to the story pole to get the final length on the short and long frame legs.

double triple checking myself

After each saw cut I checked the height of the blade against the stock to make sure the blade wasn't creeping upwards.

tenons were next

Checking the tenon length against the width of the leg with the slot mortise.

too snug

The test cut tenon wouldn't fully seat in the slot mortise. I think if I tried to do it with a mallet, one of the cheeks would have split off.

wasn't expecting this

The test tenon fit in all four of the slot mortises. The first tenon in the real stock fit in the first slot mortise I checked but it is too tight for the 2nd one. I had to rasp a couple tenons to fit their respective slot mortises.

didn't forget

I remembered to glue the frame together with grain running continuously 360 in the same direction. I had to plane both the inside and outside edges on all of them to do that. 

height of the tenons

I knifed it before I sawed them on the tablesaw. I checked the knife line of each one against the height of the saw blade before cutting them.

dead nuts square

The dozuki is a good tenon cut off saw. Its kerf fits in the knife line like a hand into a well fitting glove.

rasps I used

The one on the left is a japanese rasp that I consider to be fine. The maker says one face is coarse and the other fine. I disagree with that and I think one face is fine and the other finer. The right rasp is a machine stitched one and it is coarse. It will hog a lot of material off in a hurry. I had to be careful with this one and try to rasp at a skew to prevent spelching.

nope

The frame ID is what I measured it for and I don't like it. I what a larger margin on the sides, top, and bottom.

measurements of the ID

I made another frame and I wrote the ID down for reference. I have to add at a minimum 3" for the frame plus the margin I want for the mat.

Stopped here because I had to go to Koszela Lumber. Amanda asked me to make a small table for her. She set me a pic of something that she liked and dropped shipped tiles to me. She wants the top of it to be tiled and painted.

using poplar

No sense (IMO) to use a good hardwood for this and especially so because it will be painted. Didn't want to use pine due its softness so I picked poplar. Poplar is an easy wood to work and it takes paint well.

story pole

On this frame go around I added 5" more to the overall length of each of the legs. That should leave an inch for a margin 360.

wash, rinse, and repeat

The previous frame came out ok so I'm checking this one the same way.

a frog hair proud

The tenons came out looser than I wanted but they should be fine - clamping them will close them up. I thought I would have had a tight or not fitting tenon too. I left the entire pencil line so it should have been that.

three of the seven are toast

All 7 frames measured 12 11/16" on the long sides and 3 are OTL (out to lunch). The top is 9 3/4" and the bottom is 10". That is enough that I can see it is out of square.

what to do, what to do.....

The easy thing to do is give it my best goofy look, nod knowingly, and give them flying lessons. Or, I could saw off the bridal joints and make 3 smaller frames. However, I have a lot of time and calories invested in these so I'm going to try and salvage them as is.

it is still going to be painted

This actually might work. I planed a long wedge and the inside of the frame top and bottom now is 9 3/4". Along with the measurements being the same, it is 90° in the four corners.

another big hmm.....

The wedge on the inside makes the ID square but the outside edge of the frame isn't square. It is out about a 1/4" top to bottom. It is looking like I would be pissing into a head wind here. I think the sane thing to do is to make 3 smaller frames.

2nd idea

Instead of the wedge, an 'L' molding worked too. I put a 1/4" spacer at the bottom between the inside of the molding and the frame. Kind of liked that idea but this is where I saw the outside of the frame wasn't square. It measures under 5/8" at the bottom between the 'L' molding and the outside edge and almost 3/4" at the top. I'll be going with plan #3.

accidental woodworker

My recent blog post on chairs was my attempt to bridge a gap or two in the age-long passage of chair making. Just how did we end up with faults through mass-making the builds in a certain unintentional obsolescence by the original designer? Whether you buy a vintage Michael Thonet from the late 1800s or...

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This week has been a real rollercoaster, stressful and an eye opener. First, my wife had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. We had no clue what was wrong, just that she suddenly went into shock. While she was there, I had to get the house ready for Cyclone Alfred. Sandbags was sold out everywhere and taking any from the beach was a no go. So I grabbed bags of potters mix instead, turns out it was way cheaper than sand and did the job just fine.

The supermarket shelves were wiped clean but I figured as long as I had power we would be alright. Well, that did not last. Hundreds of thousands of homes lost power and even now a lot of people are still without it. Before the storm I bought a little gas stove, only problem was I did not grab a gas canister. The guy who sold it to me said I would have no trouble finding one. Yeah right, they were completely sold out.

Luckily, my old BBQ which I had not touched in a year still had a full gas bottle and the burners worked fine. So my son and I ended up cooking all our meals outside. On top of that, I managed to score a fresh load of ice from a gas station, pretty much the only place that had any. I packed the fridge with it to keep the meat cold. Honestly, I think we got pretty lucky all things considered.

Losing power completely changed things for me. It was tough, frustrating and honestly just plain boring. First off, I waited way too long to buy candles. The ones I had were more for setting a mood in a spa than actually lighting up a room. My phone’s light helped for a bit, but the battery drained fast and charging it in the car took forever, not to mention I did not want to sit there for hours just to get a few more percent.

Then there was my woodworking gear, my workbench, scroll saw and lathe, all shoved to the side so I could park my wife’s car. And with no power, I could not use my computer. No lights meant we were practically sitting in the dark and on top of that the humidity was brutal.

At some point I just sat there thinking, how did people 150 years ago live like this? Then it hit me, we have completely forgotten how to live. Our lives revolve around screens, writing blogs, making YouTube videos, chasing likes and subscriptions just to feel like we are not wasting our time. Back then people worked their farms, had supper, visited friends, read books. They lived real active lives. Meanwhile we are glued to social media, scrolling through nonsense, fake AI generated animal videos, endless political drama and injustice we cannot do anything about. No wonder we feel helpless and looney.

Losing power was a real wake up call. It got me thinking, what kind of life do I actually want? I have got another 20 or 30 years ahead of me, so how do I want to spend them? I cannot even remember the last time I had a proper conversation with my son. But during the outage, we talked non stop, spent every moment together. We even went out in the storm just to escape the house. Yeah, it was risky, but we actually lived. And now the power is back, everyone is back in their own little world, and here I am staring at a screen while time just keeps ticking away.

 Please tell me that I am not the only person on the planet who didn't know it was spring ahead time? I didn't catch it until 0850 on one clock when I compared it against my cell phone time. That really discombobulated me all day long. I felt like I was playing catch up until I hit the rack at 2200. I still have 3 clocks to 'spring ahead' that I'll do tomorrow.

a 1/4" long

The other side has 8 pics in oval and rectangular cutouts. Maria already told me that she match/cut out the same on a mat. I have to paint this first before I can bring it to her.

rails

These aren't all within +/- one frog hair on the width but that is ok. I picked the widest one to set the height of the slot mortise.

done

This didn't take long to knock out. I don't know the exact time but I would guess it took me around 30 minutes or less. 

sigh

I now know why some of the slot mortises are long. The saw blade drifted upwards a wee bit. I set the height at the beginning and I didn't check again until now. I did a test tenon and it sunk down into the slot mortise too deep.

I'll work around it

What sucks is the slot mortises gradually increased as I did them. I left them in the way I laid them up as I did them. I'll keep the last 4 to use together and mix and match the remaining the 3. At the end of the day I only had a problem with the slot mortises. For the most part the tenons all came out consistent.

too thick

I want the tenon to be a frog hair too snug. I would rather rasp the tenons to fit than have to add veneer to increase the thickness. I made one more saw cut on the tablesaw to where the tenon fit snug - I checked it randomly against 3 slot mortises.

good fit

Rasped the tenon until I was able to seat the tenon in the mortise with hand pressure only.

sawing the cheeks

I knifed the shoulder lines using the first one I did to mark the remaining 13 others. I didn't employ the knife wall, rather I sawed in /on the knife line. I only had 3 shoulders come out with gaps. Two of them were due to double knife lines and the 3rd one just wanted to be ornery. I'm painting all of the frames so I'll be able to hide the sins with wood putty.

done

Got all 7 frames dry fitted and ready to glue up. In spite of some of the slot mortises being long, all the frame inner diagonals were square within a 16th. The inside corners on all seven were 90° when I checked them with a square too.

two glued and cooking

I will have to find some stock to make the back rabbets for the glass and mats.

first two glued and cooking

I put getting more of these aluminum clamps on the to get list. I have eight 24" clamps and ten 36" ones. I would like to get 8 more 24" and 6 more 36". I'll keep my eyes open for a sale because they have increased in cost a lot since I got mine.

and one more makes 5

It was 1510 here and I called it quits. I went at it longer than I thought I would today. I was only going to glue up two but that went so easy I kept going.

two for tomorrow

The frames all agree on the ID but vary slightly on the OD. However, the variance between them is minimal. I will line them all up and eyeball them together and gauge how noticeable that will be - if any.

I forgot

One thing I wanted to do was to run the grain on the stiles and rails in the same direction. I made sure that the reference edge was facing the interior but missed doing this. I'll just have to check the grain direction when it comes time to plane the frames flush and smooth.

accidental woodworker
 

I remember my introduction to machining wood. I was aged sixteen, when every task seemed to become a machining moment in small and long bites of soul-destroying boredom that just kept building. Oh, I’m not talking about the hobbyist woodworker who sets up a mini-conveyor belt system of minor operations going from crosscuts to ripcuts...

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 Today was better than yesterday because I didn't even attempt to sign in to the VA's new log in. However, come monday I'll be back in the trenches  doing battle with it again. Wish me luck and I'm glad I have another day of rest before that.

Well boys and girls I got the sad, sad news from Home Depot after lunch. First the door is a special order because my door is not a standard size. $1000 for that special order and it will be here in a month or so. The labor and materials to install it is $1700 and I may have to adjust my woodworking  because this took a huge bite out of my wood budget.

I celebrated the HD experience by going to Lowes and buying some pine. I ended up getting 6 1x4x48 pine boards to finish up my Stanley poster frames.

no elves came overnight

Two frames on the bench and two in the clamps. Out of the 4 only one is the correct size. I'm sure that I can find a use for the other 3 because I've changed my mind on using them for the posters.

the right one is bowed

I could have sworn that this looked a lot worse yesterday. I'm going to try and salvage the right one. I think I can work around the bowing by sawing it up into the frame parts.

better

The two on the right sides are from the cupped one. I planed the hump out and ripped them on the tablesaw. I lost an 1/8" making the outside edges parallel and straight. I labeled them after so I don't mix them up with the other frame parts which are a 1 1/2" wide.

what I wanted

This is the frame that I got my 3/4" margin for the mat.

almost the same

The margin on this one is about 7/16 to 5/8. Probably won't notice that but you will see the frame size difference. There isn't anyway that I know of to hide or blend that in.

6 of them for $35

All of them are dead clean with the grain running fairly straight top to bottom. One of them had a small knot that went bye-bye when I sawed that aboard apart.

two 1 1/2" wide frame pieces

I got almost two complete frames out of each of the two pieces.

another on the fly change

I got enough stock to make the needed 5 frames. Made another lane change here based on the remaining pine boards I had. Decided to make and batch all 7 frames at once. This way I have a much better chance of them all being the same size. And I'm going to make all them the same bridal joint joinery.

3 off size frames

This also helped to nudge me in the direction of making all 7 at once. I don't think I would have been able to bring myself to have different frame sizes to look at in the shop.

done

Got all seven frames sawn to rough length and width. It is easy to screw things up with batch woodworking. You can be lulled by the monotony and end up in La La Land before you know it. After I planed a reference edge I sawed the frame parts to length.

can't use it

That divot would probably disappear when I chamfered this edge. But the problem is the split runs on the edge and the face for about 3-4 inches. This is one of two frame parts I had remake new ones. The other splintered when I hand sawed it to rough length.

last two

I knocked this out quickly - practice is making it almost perfect.

I have one taken already

I have some pics of the kids when they were young I'll use for one frame. The frame that those pics were in fell apart years ago and I never got around to making a new one. One down and 3 more to go.

accidental woodworker

 I wasted over 3 hours of my remaining life span dealing with the ( @^%()@Q*)_%Q*@^%&_(Q_)(%^ government. The VA on March 4th cut off the old way to log in and everyone had to sign up with the new, shiny, and better log in. Well boys and girls if you like stabbing yourself in the eye repeatedly with a dull fork engage in what I tried today. I had tried doing it several times before today and had failed miserably. The hang up - I had to upload a picture of my driver license along with other personal data. 

Couldn't do that so I tried to schedule a in person authentication at my local post office. The good point with that is I can do at the post office less than a 1/2 mile from my house. The bad _@%&)^%)(#Q@*_) crap is none of my inputted data was recognized by the VA. There is no phone number to call for help - I was constantly referred to a self help menu that was useless. Not one of the categories addressed the problems I was having. I said NO MAS and I'll try it again tomorrow. Maybe. It will probably be shut down due to it being the weekend. And the log in code that they are supposed to give me to take to post office will probably be FUBAR too. (FUBAR - Fouled/Fxxked up beyond all recognition/repair)

short AM time

Taking the two frames I made yesterday out of the clamps was all I got done. I was so ^@#*&%)&Q*@% frustrated and worked up I stayed out of the shop. I knew that littlest of things would make me go postal and destroy something. Both frames had a wee bit of twist to them. My fault because I didn't check to ensure that they were laying flat on the clamps at the corners.

don't understand this

I double, triple checked the height of the saw blade against the stock before I did the slot mortise and tenons. Made the interior a wee bit shorter than I want.

tried it and it worked

I am so happy that this vise is paying off. Trying to hold this in the face vise would have made for an awkward saw cut. I am impressed with how tenacious this vise grips - no vibrations or any movement of the frame at all while I sawed it.

both sides have twist

It is about the same and I only planed it away on the back side. That has to be flat for hanging on the wall. The face side I flushed the corners and smoothed it out.

helping hands

This is the back and the miters needed some help to close them up gap free.

nope

Changed my mind on leaving the poster frames plain Jane and I'm going to chamfer the inside and outside edges. However, I couldn't pull the chamfer bit out of the holder. None of them would come out even when coaxed with the pry bar.

pin punch

I had to resort to this to get the chamfer bit out. The rag on the vise bars caught it when I freed it from the holder.

rounded corners

This rounded, chamfered corner looks out of place to my eye. Carried the chamfer around and through the corner with a chisel.

used it again

This worked a treat. I was able to position the frame so I could work with my dominant hand.

done

The first one I did doesn't look this nice but it is acceptable. I'll use wood putty to dress it up nicely. These frames are getting painted so the wood putty will never be seen.

sweet

First tenon fit in the slot mortise snug and gap free all around. This is right off the table saw.

opposite slot mortise

Fit is just as good as its sibling.

YIKES

I'm blaming this entirely and sorely on the BS I had to deal with in the morning. I only added one stile width whereas I should have added two to the overall length. Frame #3 came out 1 1/2" short on both the stiles and the rails.

the 2nd (first finished one) frame

This frame's stiles and rails are the correct length now. Checking that the length of the next frame is long on both sides.

glued and cooking

From sizing the stock to gluing it together, it took me about 40 minutes. I'm thinking now that I will use the undersized frames too. I don't have enough stock to make the remaining frames. In fact one of the two slats remaining is cupping into a 6 foot long pretzel. And I also found out that I have 7 posters and not 6.

chamfering another frame

I can't say enough good things about this vise and how handy it is turning out to be. I got it from Lee Valley - it came as an email new tool deal.

for the remaining frames

I think I am one shy on this. This is for the back to make the standoff and rabbet for the glass, mat, and poster. These are 1/2" tall and 3/8" thick.

5x7 frame

I was thinking of mitering this frame and I laid out the miters to see what my ID would be. I have about an inch for matting.

long ID

Only have a 1/2" this way. Which means only about a 1/4" margin top and bottom. Maybe I should knock this down to a 3x5 frame. Leave it the size it is but put a 3x5 pic in it instead of a 5x7.

thinking out loud

Instead of mitering the corners, I'm thinking that loose tenons would be better. I would also like to decrease the width of the stiles and rails from the present 1 1/2" to 1 1/4" or even one inch. I'll decide on that in the AM - lights got killed here.

accidental woodworker

Rudeness is a weak man’s imitation of strength.

Eric Hoffer, American philosopher

A young man approached my table and asked me a few questions about guitar construction, but before I could answer the questions he answered them himself. I knew he was young and excited to be talking to guitars, but it was rude for him to talk over me. So I asked him how many guitars he had made.

“None” was his answer.

“None? The answers you just gave to your own questions makes me to think you had made at least ten guitars,” I replied.

“I have read a lot about guitar making. Now, which tone wood really is the best for a guitar top, spruce or cedar?” he asked.

“Let me answer that with a question to you. If you have a molecule of wood and, oh, dissect it, is it possible to separate the lignin from the cellulose in that piece of wood without destroying either element?”

“What?”

“Okay. Can you tell me the difference between an angiosperm and gymnosperm?”

“Huh?”

“Let me make this simple. What are the functions of the xylem and phloem in a tree?”

“What in the world do these questions have to do with guitar making?”

“You have to love forest first in order to make quality guitars. To know a forest is to know the trees and all the plants, animals, insects and other living things that make the forest a living breathing entity. If you aren’t interested in what makes a forest work then you need to re-evaluate your connection to the guitar. Now, I have made more than a few guitars so I can answer your questions, or…”

The young man was smart enough to realize he was starting to annoy me and moved to the next table. 

I later learned that this young man was in the guitar competition at the festival and was very rude to several of the judges. He was asked to leave.