General Woodworking

 Just a few photos for you................

out of the clamps

Looks good but it is rocking a lot.

confirmation

Front left and the back right are high - the sticks show 1 1/2 lines out of whack.

box miters

This is the best looking mitered box that I can remember doing. Miters are flush along the toes and at the top and bottom. It laid flat on the workbench with no rocking.

flushing the tenons

The tenons didn't swell when glued and close up as tight as I expected them to. They have acceptable  gaps that I can live with.

wavering again

I had kind of decided on overlay sides last night and I was still driving on that road when I came to the shop. Now that it is time to put the pedal to the metal, I'm questioning myself again. Looking at the inset on the right and the overlay on the left, I decided to go with inset sides. I don't like the end grain look on the overlay. The inset side is cleaner looking and I can accept the 1 1/2" loss of interior space.

another choice

If I put the keepers in the bottom they would have been 3" wide. Keepers in the lid are only an inch wide. Of the two I prefer have them in the bottom but I didn't want to make 3" keepers - I could have made 3 sets of keepers for the lid with them.

first one done

Scribed and planed to the pencil lines. The left side was square and the right side was out of square - the end leaned in a wee bit. The fit is snug and self supporting but there a sliver of a gap. I clamped it and that did nothing for closing it up. I'll live with it.

left side

This is what I wanted to be on the right side but I'll take one out of two.

much better

Opposite side and gapless this time. I left the pencil line this time and that paid off. On the other side I planed it away leaving just a hint of it.

left side

This side is square between the end the bottom. No gaps. I thought of redoing the other side with the teeny gap but nixed it. I didn't want to use another board out of my Gurney sawmill stash.

helping hand

I put 4 Miller Dowels in both ends to reinforce the bottom/end connections.

Container Store haul

The small plastic boxes are no more - haven't been sold for several years. One of the reps there found these for me. They are stackable and twist lock into each other. The glazier points in the pkg above the mouse will go in one of the smaller ones. The others I'll toss into my junk drawer.

nope

Lid doesn't fit in either orientation. It is an almost fit so a little work with 100 grit sandpaper (because it was on the workbench) loosened the fit.

done

A couple minutes work and it fit - snug and only in this orientation. A few more calories and the lid fit both ways.

laying flat

No rocking, not even a teeny bit. No finish as of this typing but that is subject to change.

hmm......

The board had a bit of twist and a cup to it. The original plan was to flatten the outside face and leave the interior face as is. It didn't work because I couldn't get the outside face flush with the ends and the bottom. The inside face which I had flattened was supposed to be the outside face but it had to face the inside due to the scribed and planed end. I had to flatten both faces but I didn't go nutso trying to make the faces dead nuts parallel.

just screws

Went back and forth on glue and screws and decided on just screws. I put five in the bottom and 4 in each end.

fitting the lid

Should I leave it overhanging a wee bit? 

no overhang

This is the clearance I have with the lid opened. With the overhang it wouldn't clear the handle.

potential hiccup

I planed the front edge of the lid to match the slope of the ends. I'm not sure the toe of the lid won't fracture and chip as is. I am thinking now of ripping off the angle and gluing on a new edge piece. Another hiccup is the clasp for the lid - will it clear the handle when the lid is opened?

The strap hinges I ordered didn't come on monday. I deleted the confirmation email so I don't have a way to check on it. Maybe it is coming this monday? I'm already thinking of alternative hinges just in case.

accidental woodworker  

And here we have it; the completed bass!

Thanks for watching, cheers Gary

 I haven't forgotten the glass door cabinet. I worked some on it today and I should be snapping glamour pics before the weekend. Made progress on the toolbox too - got it glued and cooking. I'm back to square one on the sides and the lid. I have overnight to decide on what to do, what to do. 

happy with this

Last night after dinner I went back to the shop and shaped the handle. I had glued it before I killed the lights earlier. A simple round over on the top just to knock off the sharp edges. It felt solid and secure but I'm still a bit leery of the dovetail connection of the handle. Time will tell how well that will hold up.

last dry fit run

Used bessey clamps on the middle of the bottom - had enough room between the through tenons to get two clamps to bear there. The top is a bit trickier to clamp. I had tried two clamps on the outside and that didn't apply even clamping pressure across the tails/pins. In fact the clamps pulled the half pins inward 1/4".

last dry check

I like this handle a lot. It feels comfortable to grip and it has a nice balance. It feels substantial and secure and I'm probably over thinking it too much. After all the toolbox I'm using as my inspiration is well over a 100 years old.

glued and cooking

Figured out the clamping headache for the handle. Placed a scrap directly below the baseline and used that to close up the tails and pins. The half pins were in line with the end - they weren't pushed inwards. I'll let this cook until the AM.

clean up

It was difficult to cut up all my small scraps and shitcan them. I'm sure that I could have used them eventually but I don't hang on to them anymore. Cutting them up into smaller bits makes it easier to fit in the shitcan. Garbage pickup is tomorrow.

sigh

The painters said that they would deal with this. Update - they didn't. This is/was the exhaust port for the bathroom fan. That got changed years ago when I replaced the bathroom exhaust fan. The maroon who put this in did it with nails which made removing it a PITA. Got that done and the replacement cover my wife bought wouldn't fit.

I had to push part of the metal tube inward, stuffed it with insulation, and covered it with a shingle. One coat of paint today and the 2nd one tomorrow. Happy face on the wife and me.

survived

Got the door hinges hung again. This door is heavy and I'm glad I went with thick hinges. The door swings open and close easily and smoothly. There are a few spots that I have touch up. The black on the front edge of the shelves and several hiccups on the inside and outside of the cabinet.

new box coming

I got asked why I make so many boxes for whatever? I dislike throwing things like  this into a drawer. I like having boxes that contain/group specific/related items and not having to hunt for them in a crowded drawer.

oversized

This is box is taller than it needs to be. I'm going with a lift off lid for it so the lid space won't usable. Besides it will give me room to add new pushers if I come across any.

dry fit

I got a snug fit with the 1/8" plywood that is the top and bottom. Usually the plywood is a slip fit. 

glued and cooking

The box held together after glue went on and I could have left it as is. The miters were tight because the 1/8" plywood was snug and it was holding the box together. I added clamps for insurance against something getting bumped and to prevent any other stupid wood tricks.

sigh

I thought I had a larger one of these but nada. I searched my 3 junk drawers and I only found the two small ones. I need one to put the large triangle glazier points in. I'll have to make a run to the Container store at Garden City.

hmm.....

Found this while searching for that MIA clear plastic box. The last time I used this I found it to be very frustrating and it mostly centered around on how to clamp the stock in the jig. It is surprising how well something like this will works after a long non use. I know I didn't use a spring clamp in my last use but it worked surprisingly well today.

dead nuts

You can't argue with the results. I still like the wooden one I made. It is larger with a wider reference surface to guide a chisel on.

accidental woodworker 

dry fit

Things weren't going well in Disneyland today boys and girls. The left side leaned inward and I had to clamp these in order to keep it square. The right side gave me fits too.

still scratching my bald spot

The front top stick is a frog hair over a 16th longer than the back one. The diagonals at the top are less than a 32nd off. The bottom left is square - stopped playing with the square here and moved on to playing with the tenons.

making them deeper

I eyeballed the tenons on the dry fit and they were still shy of the end faces. I started correcting it by making the dadoes a few frog hairs deeper.

nope

Awfully close but not proud yet. It took a couple more runs with the router before all six tenons were proud.

back to frustration

Without the spreader, the bottom read dead nuts. However, just above the top of the square, the end runs out to lunch. Not by much but enough to be annoying IMO. I played around with positioning the spreaders in different spots along with clamping some of them that were short on the length.

gave up

Without the spreader, the bottom read dead nuts. However, just above the top of the square, the end runs outward. The board is pretty close to dead flat and there isn't any hint of a cup in it. Residual stress from being thicknessed?

interesting

I sawed the sides to rough length with the Ryobi saw. Almost zero fuzzy wuzzies on both of them. A western crosscut saw would have left it ugly looking.

sides and the handle

Moving right along with these three being the last of the parts. The lid is resting on the shitcan. I think I thought this through and I don't need anything else. But I am thinking of putting a sliding till in it.

hmm......

Changing how I'll attach/do the sides on this toolbox. I like the 3 rabbet idea that I've been kicking around in the brain bucket but things changed. With the square headache I'm going to inset the sides between the ends and the bottom. I will scribe/plane the ends instead. I think I'll have a better fit and easier time doing this vice making out of square rabbets.

This is subject to changing again. The original I'm basing mine off had the sides nailed to the outside of the ends and the bottom. That saves a 1 1/2" of interior space over inset sides.

confusing

These dovetails confused me a lot when I tried to picture them on the movie screen in the brain bucket. They are face dovetails but the orientation is 90° off. I marked the waste before I sawed them. That is something I rarely do.

tails done

Stopped here for a few to think of a way to hold the handle in place so I could mark the pins.

worked

Clamped a scrap on the baseline and marked the pins with a pencil. I marked the pin waste because there were so many extra pencil lines. And I am easily confused.

good fit

I left the pencil lines when I sawed these. If they came out too tight I had meat to trim.

dry fit

Sneak peek says this isn't a tiny toolbox. Looking at this pic has the gears turning in the brain bucket with new roads to do down. No hinge lid but taller sides than planned along with a sliding till or maybe two sliding tills.

nixed

Laid out for the mortise for the handle support. After I took it apart I didn't like where the mortise was. It would be under the center tail and I think that would weaken the handle directly where it shouldn't.

glue up in the batter's box

Did a simple cutout for the bottom of the ends. The original pattern was to fancy for a toolbox. I'll glue this up in the AM.

hmm.....

The handle is quarter sawn and by itself I don't have a warm and fuzzy with it being able to survive picking up this toolbox fully loaded. I will glue the oak to the underside of the handle between the two ends to strengthen it.

accidental woodworker

 

done

Started at 0851 and had the paint brush cleaned at 1430. Worked straight through lunch to get this done. I was tired when I was done but it was a good feeling knowing this is over with. The important thing is the wife is over the moon happy about it. Tomorrow she said she going to roll another coat on this side and the front. Why, I don't know. 

made a command decision

I'm leaving this as is. The interior length will be about 26 1/4" and that is what drove my choice. Besides I would have had to cut the bottom back 2 1/2" in order to use the original sides. Instead I'll make two new ones from the Gurney's sawmill haul.

I think I came up with a way to do the sides. The plan is to put a 3 sided rabbet in the sides. The rabbets will be flush with the outside edges of the bottom and the ends. Glue, screws, or nails will keep everything together.

figuring the lid out

 These 3 planes are the ones I think I would need to transport in this toolbox. The height of the iron determines where the bottom of the lid will be. The #7 has the highest iron at a little over 6". Starting with a side height of 7 inches which includes the thickness of the lid. 

plenty of room

 The lid will be about 11" in width and the compass is set to that. The arc which is the outside swing of the lid, was an inch under the bottom of the handle. Based on this I could raise the sides up another inch.

This is all I got for shop time today. I'll get back into this in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

In this video, the penultimate in the series, the bass gets the Karate Kid treatment and its various components re-fitted, ready for its final testing.

Cheers Gary 

 When I rolled out of the rack this AM it was painful. Usually my back hurts and is stiff when I first got up but today it was upped by a factor of 10. I am lucky in that the stiffness and pain goes bye-bye in about 20-30 minutes. Today it took a wee bit longer. It wasn't a good start to a day of going up/down a ladder painting the house. 

It was cloudy when I got up and it had rained overnight so painting, thankfully, didn't happen today. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I don't have an excuse to postpone again. It is looking like I'll be painting in the AM.

wow, double wow, and a triple wow

Coat #5 going on to cover streaks. It was hard to pick them out initially but after shining a flashlight on the back stop it popped out. I feel sorry for who ever will strip this in the future because I don't have a warm and fuzzy that I won't be slapping another coat on it in the AM.

bottom layout

Used my 1-2-3 block to layout the through tenons for the bottom. Two, 2 inch ones an inch in from each outside edge, and one in the middle (centered) 1 inch wide.

started here

Partially chopped the mortises from the face side first. This way when I finished chopping from the other side, there wasn't any blowout on the face side.

first one

Happy with this - it is clean with crisp outlines and zero fuzzy wuzzies.

hmm.....

I was shooting for a snug fit but it appears I went nutso in the wrong direction. The dado is too narrow. Or the bottom thickness is too fat - half empty, half full dilemma.

The dado is also deeper than I wanted it to be. I had to go this deep because I chopped the walls too deep. I originally wanted the depth to be 1/8" and it ended up being 3/16". 

hmm......

Had to ponder this for a few. Normally I would just thin the end of the board to fit the dado. However, the tenon/mortises have already been done and planing the end of the bottom would change the fit of the tenon/mortises. What to do, what to do.....

Yikes

I'm a 16th too much from being snug. The tenons fit the mortises well and the reference edge of the bottom is flush with the end. A couple of things are working in my favor and I just to solve the fit of the bottom into the dado.

how much

Decided that easiest and best way to deal with this was to make the dado a wee bit wider. There isn't any way I could think of to plane, chisel, beat on the end to trim it to fit without changing the fit of the tenon/mortises. 

I could have done that and the resulting gap I might have been able to expand the tenons with wedges but I want just a plain mortise and through tenon.

easy peasy

I will say it is much easier to chisel off a 16th then a 32nd. Chiseling the wall over the open mortise wasn't the headache I anticipated it being. 

happy with this

Look Ma, no gaps. If there had been any gaps I would have resorted to using wedges to close them up. I had to do a bit of trimming the dado to get the tenons flush with the face.

next day from Amazon

I saw this on the manufacturer's website but I couldn't see/find any way to order it. I also ordered extra blades for the Makita hand planer. I found a bazillion YouTube vids on how to change the irons, including these and the thicker monster ones I thought I had.

nope

This is not what I wanted to see. I don't want the end proud of the tenon. I wanted the easier to deal with option of the tenon being proud of the end. I'll play and trim and fit to at least it is flush.

fitting the right side

Had to deal with the same hiccups on the right. Although it wasn't as bad as what I had to deal with on the left end.

sawing the tenons

Feeling a wee bit smug on how well I sawed the tenons. Square across the tops and plumb down the faces and no gaps to obsess about.

fitting the end

This end of the dado is snug and the tenons fit as good as the first set I did.

too tight

Tried the side rabbet plane first to open up this end. I got the end to fit into the tenons but not the dado. I planed the end of the bottom 3 wispy shavings and got it to fully seat in the tenons and the dado. Used the LN skew rabbet plane to do this, just planing the bottom face and not the tenons.

sigh

Wasn't thinking when I sized the sides. I wanted the overall interior length to be 24" and I made the rough length of the sides 24". The overall length, outside edge R/L is 26 1/4". Going out on limb and saying I might be short. FYI, you can't stretch pine.

handle is short too

Stopped working on this after eyeballing this me-steak. My first thoughts on a fix was to shorten the bottom. Discarded that and then moved on to making new sides but that decision will happen tomorrow. This me-steak sucked all the wind out of my sails.

Noticed another potential problem. The lid is now the culprit. I don't think that it will clear the handle. Didn't think that one all the way through. 

accidental woodworker 

 At 0711 I was on the road headed to Gurney's Sawmill to replenish my pine supply. The sun was shining and on the trip up I was driving into the rising sun. What I don't understand is how fast the idiots were driving. The traffic up and back wasn't that bad. It is usually heavier on return leg but today it was half of what it was the last time I did this. This stash should keep me from playing in the streets for a couple of weeks.

ten boards

I wanted 12 footers but all that was available were 10 footers. I sawed the boards at the yard so I don't have any overhanging the tail gate.

6', 5', and 4'

I sawed 6 of the boards into 6' and 4' lengths. The others I sawed in half giving me two 5 footers.
 

tomorrow's work

My wife scraped and primed this side. The painters only did the other 3 sides and tomorrow I'll dig out my brush and I'll paint this. The bump out with the door needs to be painted too. 

My wife bought a new light fixture because this one stopped working years (?) ago. It was supposed to be activated with a motion sensor but that never worked. I could turn the light on/off but that went south too. Wife bought the fixture but not the two lights it needs.

before I forgot again

Putting a 'colored' dutchman in to cover the pitch pocket. I put the board on the door before I went to Gurney's. If I hadn't done that I'm sure I would have forgotten to do it when I returned.

sigh..... gaps

I knew this was coming - I saw the gaps in some of the miters when I glued the retainers in place. I used veneer to fill in the biggest gaps and I'll rely on paint adhesion filling in the smaller ones. I had to shim 7 of the 32 miters.

nope

Half of the retainer was glued fast to the muntin rabbet with the other half not glued. I could squeeze it tight to the muntin rabbet with hand pressure. Got these two glued and cooking before I left for Gurneys.

done

All the stock for the toolbox minus the top is ready for joinery. Now that I'm this close I'll have to decide how it will go together. The bottom into the sides isn't a problem, but how to attach the sides is still hazy. I have time because the cabinet door is hogging the workbench now.

this sucks

There are streaks of the accent color peeking out in spots on the back stop and the moldings underneath the top. This is the 4th coat I'm putting on to cover this. The bottom cove moldings covered with two coats.

toolbox lid

Purposely picked this for the lid. Two brown knots on this side and one on the opposite face to dutch. I could have picked a clear board but this way all the boards in the toolbox will have at least two dutchmen.

toolbox lid

Got lucky with this board. It was flat and twist free and I planed both faces down to 11/16". Looking at the lid and comparing it to the other boards I couldn't see a difference in the thicknesses. 

accidental woodworker 

Life has been keeping me busy with my job and antiquing with my wife on the weekends. It seems my shop time is a few minutes a week and even then, I spend that time restoring old tools. But when I saw these pipe clamp holders on an Instagram ad, I had to have them.

I’ve been fighting with my Jorgensen pipe clamps for decades. When they came out in 1980’s they were a must have woodworking tool, so I bought as many as I could afford as a teenager. Fast forward 35 years, I still use the heck out of them. The issue, is that when I use them, they have a tendancy to roll over during glue ups.

These fixtures allow you to slide the foot of the pipe clamp into a pocket and lifts it a few inches to allow you to turn the handle without hitting the bench. Simple and straight forward. Even the height of the fixture is short enough that if it is in front of back clamp pad, it won’t hit the wood being clamped, which is nice if I’m clamping a panel that is wider than my bench.

The guy who sells these makes them on a 3D Printer. They’re about $30 for four of them but they’ll last a lifetime. If you have these style of Jorgensen pipe clamps, it’s a no-brainer. I know they sell newer versions of pipe clamps with a taller base that do the same thing, but I don’t want to spend the money to replace all my pipe clamps.

You can find this guy on instagram @artisanmadethings.

Plastic molded tray (probably imported!) or hand made Steamed Beech?

I’m sure I’m not the only woodworker who enjoys creating something that’s relatively simple and challenging that will serve a purpose. I love the challenge of making furniture and picture frames but this had some techniques not usually used and would be useful — enter the bathroom drawer tray! I have some leftover Beech which was resawn from furniture projects that required 8/4 material, the pieces were approximately 3/8″ and 3/16″ thick.

That’s about it, fun project to make and helps to maintain my hand tool skills. Used the table saw and planer to rip to width and surface to thickness. I aways use hand planes to remove planer chatter marks. The miters began with a miter saw but were fine tuned with the Donkey Ear shooting board.

 Still prepping the stock for the toolbox. Still haven't gotten the stock for the lid which is ok - the run to Gurneys tomorrow will solve that. The offset strap hinges are supposed to be here on monday. Found them after searching/googling it for a couple of days. There might be a slight hiccup with the offset being 3/4" and the stock thickness being 5/8". I already have thought of a few things that will silence that hiccup.

Closing in on the finishing the glass door cabinet. I'll know in the AM if I need to paint it anymore. Fingers crossed on closing that door finally.

looks promising

This was my first look see at what I thicknessed yesterday. From this end of the bench it looked like none of them did any stupid wood tricks.

ta da

Everything is flat and straight still. That aside I wish that stock was 3/4" thick but losing an 1/8" to remove twist and cup isn't too bad.

hmm.....

Two small brown knots left. I wasn't going to dutch them but in for a penny, in for a pound.

two red knots

A double knot at the top, one small brownish one and a red/brown one. Bigger red knot at the bottom. I wasn't going to do these two but if I didn't they would be the only 'defects' visible in the five boards.

pesky, (^@%)@%@) PITA

I tried gluing this chip out 3 times before I finally secured it here. I had to clamp it with a deep reach clamp and wax paper.

had to show it again

I really like how these two dutchman are done. It would have looked better if I had used two contrasting pieces of wood but they still pop.

sigh.....

If I hadn't chamfered the edges I probably wouldn't have to redo them now. Thought of leaving them thinking I would put this on the inside (this is one of the sides). But knowing me, I wouldn't notice it nor pay attention when the time came. It only took less than 10 minutes to do the both of them.

yikes

I got a split for my efforts chopping out this dutchman. It ran out pass the dutchman to the left about 5".

it fits

 Flipped a coin on whether or not to glue/clamp the split first or glue the dutchman and the split at the same time.

been a while

This is blurry pic of glue squeeze out on the split. Two clamps and I got a even line of squeeze out, even the end closed up solidly top to bottom. Glued and clamped the dutchman and the split at the same time.

sigh

Last one and then I'm done. I am going to have this dutchman run into the one below this red knot.

pitch pocket

These can be problematic - they can leak pitch which is sticky and it sucks to deal with it. I was going to dutch this one too but I forgot it. I only remembered it after I saw this pic.

gaps filled

Decided that I am going to shellac this toolbox. Partly because I don't won't to cover up the dutchmen. The gaps aren't that wide so the putty shouldn't pop that much.

hmm.....

That is similar to the glazier point tool that I remember as a kid. I'll be searching the WWW for a seller of it. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will also have one for the smaller points. 

hmm.....

Decided to install the glass in the door before I hang it. Painting the muntin bars with it hung would be a headache. With it laying flat on the workbench I can paint the muntin bars lickety split. 

I didn't use glazier points on the smaller glass lites. On those I just glued the retainer bars with  hide glue. On the four large glass I used four glazier points and I had to chop a teeny mortise so the retainer would lay flat on the glass. The large retainers got glued with hide glue too.

center ones needed help

Hide glue pulls while it sets but the center retainers bowed a bit, especially the large ones. The other retainers looked good and I don't think I'll have any problems with them securing themselves in place. The hide glue is reversible in case of any future glass repairs. 

accidental woodworker

 Week 3 of the football season is behind us now and I still haven't watched one game. I briefly found and watched a game on my digital air wave TV for all of 3 seconds. I don't miss TV and nor do I miss TV football games. Instead I'm into watching highlights on You Tube. I can pick and choose which game I what to see and I can fast forward or rewind at my leisure.

Of course this year the highlights are different then proceeding years. They are shorter with a ton of subjective editing. There is almost no commentary or video of penalty calls. It is almost like they don't exist anymore. There is zero controversy and zero questioning of penalties called. We have entered a new era and it is looking like I'll probably stop watching the high lights before the Super Bowl rolls around.

happy face on

I saved this board for a side. I still have to get one more board for the lid. But back to this board and all its dutchmen - no knots to see and they look super cool IMO.

missed this

I didn't catch this when I bought it, also missed similar defects on another board. Both of them are the sides and this will be waste when they are sized in the width.

can you see them?

Bare wood, standing 3-4 feet away and I can't pick them out. Both dutchman are to the right end of the two sticks. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure they will pop with a shellac finish. Maybe I should paint it? The inspiration for my version is a painted toolbox.

might as well

Since I dutched the sides, I am going to do the same for the ends. I'll repeat it for the lid when I buy a board for that.

first two

Had left over dutch material from yesterday. I only have to do the larger brown knot on this side - it doesn't go through to the other side. And it does get easier to do the more you do.

deeper than I wanted

Got some tear out chiseling the waste and due to that I had to make this mortise deeper than I wanted. The depth of it is determined by the thickness of the dutchman.

first two cooking

I got these two deep reach clamps at Home Depot in the late 1990's. They were marked as$15(?) and I told the HD tool guy that the price was wrong. At that time these were going for about $50 each. He insisted the price was as marked so I didn't argue with him and took them home with me. I've been kicking myself in the arse ever since then for not buying the other two. Anyways deep reach clamps that can really apply serious pressure are worth it if the opportunity comes up.

time for thicknessing

Of the five boards I have for the upcoming toolbox, all of the them are cupped. Some a wee bit and other just a bit. Nothing drastic and I'm hoping that once I get them to thickness, they will stay flat.

all five had some twist too

After getting one face flat, I checked it for twist. A couple were easy and the others were obstinate and a ROYAL PITA to get flat.

the biggest dutchmans upcoming

The one on the right might be a problem because the bottom is awfully close to the edge. I'll have to make sure that this edge gets the absolute minimum of trimming.

too chippy

The edge of the dutchman fractured as I was chiseling. I was able to glue 3 smaller ones but this big one got away from me. As I was gently pulling it up to apply super glue it disintegrated into a bazillion teeny pieces. 

this is why Frank

My friend Frank said that I should be able to get the depth with the 271 but it ain't so. The area in front of the bevel is barely a quarter of an inch. So when you turn it around to go in the opposite direction, there isn't a flat reference depth for the iron.

dutchman isn't big enough

The pencil line is where the back end of the iron is when the router is in the mortise up against the wall. It is impossible to get a sufficient flat (to depth) area for the router to be used in opposing directions.

no problem with this router

With this router it will flatten to depth the area in front of the iron so that when reversed to go the opposite way, the iron will have plenty of wiggle room before it levels the opposite end. Any router that has this orientation of the iron to sole will work well with small mortises like this one.

hmm.......

Too fancy for a toolbox? The little horn detail might be a headache as something that will break, chip, dent, and look ugly real quick. Just thinking out loud on something for the end panel bottoms.

I went nutso

When I was doing plane restorations I went nutso buying irons and chipbreakers for the planes I had. What I found out was that other chipbreaker/iron setups always didn't work in the plane. Now I keep the original chipbreaker that came with the plane and just swap out the irons. 

I needed to swap out the iron in the #7 because it was dull. Having extra irons means I can keep on working after a couple minutes of swapping out the irons. I have 5 irons for the #7 and other planes that use the same size iron.

it is harmless

The #6 shavings have a habit of circling around my left arm. The shavings from the other planes don't do this - just the #6 with its cambered iron. 

hmm.....

The boards are all getting thicknessed to 5/8" and the dutchman (these two) were a frog hair over an 1/8". I'll have to redo the dutchman for these two. The others I did were 3/16" to a 1/4" thick.

done

All are 5/8" thick which should be adequate for a lidded toolbox. I probably couldn't have gone down to a 1/2" if needed. Fingers crossed that none of these will do any stupid wood tricks over night.

hope it never stops

I packed the shitcan done twice filling it with the shavings from thicknessing the boards. I am still amazed at how big the pile of shavings that comes from doing this. 

accidental woodworker

The weather over the past month has been weird. Most days were cloudy but there were only a couple of rainy days. Last night thunder boomers woke me and usually it doesn't. Today it rained off and on all day. No post lunch stroll because I won't walk in the rain. Tomorrow is back to cloudy/partly sunny with the same forecast for saturday. I will go to Gurney's to get some pine because my stash of pine is nothing by teeny scraps.

what to do, what to do

I've been thinking about how to install the glass and the retainers. That in itself isn't the problem - the problem is how to hang the door. Do I do the glass and retainers on the workbench and then hang the door? Or hang the door and then do the glass and retainers? Still haven't decided which fork in the road to take.

breaking down the stock

I should have listened to the little man on my shoulder. These are the ends and I could already see that I didn't buy enough to make the upcoming toolbox.

hmm.....second side

Don't have to worry about this brown knot falling out, it already did.

sigh

The split runs from the end over to my finger. This is a shop project so I'm going to try and glue this and keep on trucking. And I don't want to make a Lowes run in the rain.

blood pressure was spiking

The split closest to the end was easy to spread glue on. Around the half way point it turned into a nightmare. I finally got glue in the other half by forcing glue into the split with canned air.

incredibly frustrating

The split was a steep, shallow angle that slipped by each other as I tried to clamp it. After fighting, cursing, and threatening it I settled. I got the end of the split flush and tight. Closed up the opposite end of the split about the same. The real estate between them didn't look good. I couldn't get it flush nor could I clamp the split down flush. 

some of the toolbox

Got two ends, the bottom, and one side. The opposite side is iffy for now. I won't know its outcome until it comes out of the clamps.

it looks ugly

The glue or something has caused this end of the split to swell. It looks like something/someone pumped air into the split. This wasn't looking so good only 5 minutes after clamping it.

monochrome like B&W TV

It is probably going to take 3 coats to cover the accent color and 2 coats to cover the wood putty. Sneak peek is lowering my BP a lot. I am liking this one color much more then then the previous two colors.

yikes

Out of the clamps this spot was spongy feeling. Not only that it looked like it wasn't solid. The plan was to cut the sides down to 10" but that doesn't help here. 100% of this defect would still smiling back at me.

hmm....

I planed both sides of the glue joint and this side is acceptable the other isn't. It was looking like this turning it kitchen filling burnt toast. 

It was too early to leave the shop so I thought I would practice installing dutchmans. I will put one on both sides of the missing brown knot hole.

knifed out

For me the key is to make the patch first and then knife the mortise. Not make the mortise and then try and fit a patch. I have tried it both ways twice and this one works best for me.

ready to glue in

My small Stanley 271 router (and the LN version) didn't work well here. Because of where the iron is positioned in relation to the sole - it leaves a hump in the middle. This small router worked perfectly flattening and leveling the whole of the bottom of this dutchman.

helping chamfer

This makes it easier to get it to lay flat in the mortise.

done

I tried to get a grain/color match but none of the scraps of pine were cooperating. Now that it is done it looks almost perfect. The color is good and from 3 feet away I couldn't see it. One down and one more to go - the opposite side is getting the same treatment.

why not?

It would appear I didn't snap any pics of the opposite side dutchman. It is there just to the right of the lower right corner of the long dutchman in progress. In fact part of the long one intrudes into the brown knot dutchman.

After doing the brown knot and seeing how well they turned out I decided to fill in this defect with a dutchman too. It is a shop project and if it goes south that is ok. Got some practice in and knowledge for the next time I have to do this.

surprised me

I thought this was going south on me when my knife wandered while trying to deepen the knife lines. I got a teeny bit of a gap but considering the size of the dutchman I'll calling it acceptable. This one was the tightest fitting of the 5 that I did on this board. I had to shave one long edge a couple of times before it fit.

I was on a roll

Chopped out this one while it was clamped and cooking the long dutchman. It is looking like this is going to become one of the sides.

another one bites the dust

I was so happy with how well these dutchmen were turning out I could have wet myself. I did the opposite side of this one after the clamps came off the long one.

cool

The long dutchman ran into the brown knot dutchman here. I've been watching a chinese craftsman on You Tube who works mostly in black walnut mostly by hand. He filled in a huge branch knot with four different types of wood dutchman. All four at some point intruded into one of the other dutchman. I only used pine and two of them but the effect was the same - it looks cool (IMO).

Not too bad for less than an hours work. One long dutchman and 4 smaller ones covering brown knots. The ultimate goal next is to do a butterfly dutchman.

accidental woodworker

The armoires

Now that the house is painted, my wife pointed out that one window on the back of the house needed shatters. I'm pretty sure that I meant to make these shutters for said window way back when but it never happened. I have a lot of things like this waiting to be done. Good thing I don't write any of them down but instead rely on my porous memory. Whacked out said shutters staying in the shop past quitting time to finish them..

3 coats

The 3rd coat went on this AM and after I was done I didn't have a warm and fuzzy that 3 would the charm.

big holiday missed

Not exactly missed but caught up. I wasn't to fill any divots or tear outs in the interior. This big one looked like crap and it is right where the snap catch will live - it would be highly visible.

might as well

Decided to address all the sins on the cabinet. Like the interior, I wasn't going to fill in any of them on the exterior. Initially I was just going to do the door and the front edges but that changed and my OCD is thanking me.

had enough

I had enough scrap pine in the shop to make one shutter now. The pickets have a few brown knots but I'm not obsessing about them. These are shutters and if the knots fall out it won't be that visible.

got lucky

One knot popped out when I sawed this picket out. I was able to saw this one out but the others are still around. I hit all of those with super glue, just in case.

totally clueless

Happy feeling with getting the first one done. Glue and 4 penny nails. I would have used screws but I didn't have any spax screws. The clueless part? Look at the angles on the two outside pickets.

fixed

I only noticed the angles after I had set it aside to cook.. Easy to whack off the offending picket and reposition it. 

hmm......

Sneak peek and I'm not liking what I see. I like the contrast between the two colors but I don't like what and where it is highlighting the cabinet. I'll wait until the AM, but it is a definite maybe this will be one color by the PM session.

Lowes run

Bought three 1x12's by four feet for the next project. I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to be short one board. Should have listened to the little man sitting on my shoulder.

two 1"x3"x6'

Bought 1x3s because they are already the width needed for the shutters. Needed 3 pickets and I have an extra for an oops.

not again

Made sure that I got the angles in the right directions this time. I remember when I made the other shutters the angles bit me on the arse a bazillion times.

sigh...

Houston, we have a problem. The cross batten on the bottom right shutter is off. Why is it that something as simple as this makes me feel like my IQ is a single digit number. There is absolutely nothing overly complex about this. At least I saw the misalignment between the two of them before it cooked.

whacked it off but it wasn't easy this time

I shitcanned the cross batten and made a new one. The nails are angled because they are 1 1/2" long and the two boards are a total thickness of 1 1/2".

?????

I think I'm getting senile or early dementia. Stared at this for a bazillion hours and for the life of me I couldn't say how I screwed this up so bad. I sawed off the overage and glued/nailed the new cross batten on.

done

Got to say it again, this simple project kicked my butt and drew blood. I can see myself not getting the angles correct - not checking before nailing - but how did the 2nd shutter pickets came out over an inch longer than the first one.

I rough sawed the pickets out to 33" long and to the final length of 32 3/4". Measured the first shutter at 32 13/16" long and the 2nd shutter at 32 7/8" long. Did I forget how to read a tape measure? I filed this away in the brain bucket for now. Regardless, my wife can paint these now. And I shouldn't have to make any more shutters before I take that dirt nap.

accidental woodworker 

The neck’s done, so in this video the body shaping is completed and a few other bits sorted out!

Cheers Gary

hmm....

Making a half round mortise. This was a bit tricky for me because one I've never done a mortise like this and two, it was difficult to find a chisel to match the half round curve. It was also hard to get the wall of it vertical, especially at the top of the arc - not enough room for my fat fingers and the chisel at the same time.
 

could be better

The fit is adequate but not gap free. The dark line is the pencil layout and there is a slight gap on the whole of it too. Not too bad for a first attempt.

makes it stronger

The little bit the half round fits the mortise is more then enough to strengthen and add rigidity to the handle. Now some of the lifting force on the handle will be borne by the ends of the half round stuck in the mortise.

1/8"

I think I can increase the overall strength by increasing the mortise to 1/4" deep. When I make the toolbox I'll layout and chop the round mortise before I glue the joint together.

premature

In the AM session, after I painted the cabinet, I thought I was done. It wasn't so boys and girls. In the PM session I found a holiday and boo boos on the back of the cabinet. OUCH. 

feeling better

The paint coverage improved overnight and it actually looked decent. I think two coats will do the trick.

glazier's points

I got these from the 'thecraftmanstore' dot com. Google is like sharp tools, it can solve a lot of headaches. I found these on the 3rd site I checked. I wish I could have bought the gun for these but I couldn't justify $275 cost. A wee bit expensive - 500 points for $28 delivered.

the wake up

I was getting giddy because I thought all that I had left to do was to paint the moldings and back stop the accent colors. Instead I found two large areas of paint build up on the arris on both sides of the back. Minimum of two coats of paint to cover after removing the build up down to bare wood.

accent color

At first I was going to cut in the accent color without the painter's tape. I changed my mind on that before I got 1/2 way on the first molding. I taped off all the moldings and slapped on the accent color lickety split. The first coat barely covered anything. I wasn't expecting that but I'll deal with it.

need a pusher

When I was kid (14-16) you could buy glazier point pushers at any paint store. Not anymore so I'll have to make one. I had two extra of these putty knives so if I screw this one up, I have a 2nd as backup.

triangular file

Initially it wasn't easy getting the 'vee' groove started I wanted. But once I got it established the rest went much easier.

done

The pushers I remember were slightly bent but this one isn't. I don't know how to bend this - the angle shouldn't be much more than about 20-30 degrees. I'll practice on scraps before I commit to doing the glass in the doors.

accidental woodworker

 It seemed like events unfolded in the shop today in slow motion. I'm at that part of a project build were a lot of small things converge and eat up a ton of time. Spent both sessions in hurry and wait mode. It was paint something and wait. Apply wood putty to unseen divots and wait. Circle back to step one and repeat. Fingers crossed that tomorrow will be the last one with these dance steps.

the fault of semi gloss

 A shinier paint will highlight sins more readily than a satin or flat one will. I had a lot more sins, divots, and tear out spots than I thought I had. After sanding the door (and the cabinet) with 220, they all popped out like someone flipped on a secret switch. Filled them in with wood putty and I already knew that it would take a minimum of two coats to cover it. Sigh - translation, it wasn't getting done today.

ugly looking

This divot wasn't that evident with the green paint. It popped out like lighted neon sign on a dark, foggy night with black paint. The other shelf edge had 2 similar divots that I had to deal with.

paint is next

I put all the retainers back where they will live and labeled the face of the retainer that lays on the glass. I will paint the adjacent face so I won't have to cut in around glass. The other unpainted face I will do at the same time I will paint the door.

sigh

It is going to take at least 3 coats to cover the molded edges. I was hoping to get away with two but that ain't happening. But the paint coverage got upped after I filled in the divots and tear out with putty.

two more minimum

Based on how the green paint covered with one coat, this will take at least two more. That will bring the total up to at least 5 and possibly 6-7. 

first coat

Not encouraging looking at how light this coverage is 30 minutes after I applied it. 

practice

I know what my next project will be. I saw a restoration of a lidded tool box on You Tube and I am going to make my version of it. The handle had two dovetails that were inserted into ends. It took me a while wrap the brain bucket around the orientation of the tails/pins. My first two attempts at layout were OTL (out to lunch) big time. Finally got it after penciling the layout I needed on the end grain vice the face grain.

the handle

I have an idea for the handle on the tool box. The ends will get the pins with and the area between them thinned down to the pencil lines. The You Tube tool box had the handle vertical to the end panel and I'm going horizontal.

hmm......

I left it a wee bit proud so I'll have wiggle room for trimming/fitting. As is this probably won't be strong enough to pick up/support a fully loaded toolbox. I do like the overall look of it but I think I will shorten the ends. Right now it is 2" to half circle cutouts. Maybe shave it down to 1 3/4" to 1 1/2"?

half round of red oak

This is my idea for strengthening the handle. Glued and screwed it should act like a strong back. The half round will extend over the handle ends and dead in on the toolbox ends. Plenty of time to work out the details. I don't have any pine left to make it with thought. Used up what I had left last week making the pic frames. I will have to make a road trip to Gurney's saw mill next saturday to replenish.

accidental woodworker 

I bought two lots of planes from an estate sale. One was for metal bodied planes and one was wooden bodied.

new additions

I decided to leave them on the bench until I processed them, rather than put them away and forget about them. So I walked past them for a month until I got around to it.

I already had a few planes but almost always used the #5 or #7. They just worked the best. I did have #3 and #4 planes which should be used as smoothers, but I never really trusted them. I merged my old planes with the new ones and first decided which ones to get rid of. I don't need three #6 planes.

metal bodied planes wood bodied planes

The non-keepers I will try to sell or if they are low value I will take them to the thrift store.

eclipse plane - not a keeper defiance plane - not a keeper

There was one I thought was a frankenplane:

doesn't look quite right

The levercap was textured, which I assumed meant it was taken from a transitional plane. Also the body had "STANLEY" instead of "BAILEY" and there was no number anywhere. Looking it up I learned it was a stanley "Foursquare" which I had never heard of. Not a frankenplane after all.

The metal bodied planes I brushed the dirt off of and sharpened the blades. I was most interested in the others. The transitional and wooden planes were mostly new to me. I'd wanted molding planes and now had a few. I couldn't wait to try them out. I tried planing profiles on basswood before even disassembling or sharpening them.

This #24 transitional plane works surprisingly well:

transitional no 24 works better than my #4

There were two planes with almost the same profile, one was marked "5/8 Ogee":

Deforest, Birmingham I should've tilted it.

There was a small variety of types:

Plow plane; Moseley & Son, London round? Tongue plane; A Mathieson & Son, Glasgow & Edinburgh

Now that I have a tongue plane it would be nice if I could set up one of the plow planes to make complimentary grooves.

3/8 beading plane? hollow

Satisfied that they actually cut, I then disassembled them, cleaned them a little and tried my best to sharpen the blades.

some required more work than others

And now my bench is clear.