Accidental Woodworker

 I'm going into week four of feeling like crap. Yesterday was the worse. The cough is getting better. The frequency of hacking is down, the intensity is down, and I'm grateful for that. However, I now have a full blown snot locker crammed shut cold. I honestly don't know what feels worse - the cough or this cold.

I spent the entire day in bed feeling miserable. It sucks being sick but more so right before a holiday. Today's post is late because I forced myself to get out of bed and post something. 

So no progress to report on the 3 drawer project but it is close to being done. Just have to feel good enough to waddle on down to the shop and do something. Maybe tomorrow I'll have pics to back that up.

accidental woodworker 

 Feeling a little better but still coughing. The cough is a wee bit better, softer, and I haven't had a coughing fit that lasts for hours. Occasionally my stomach will hurt as I cough which sucks pond scum. Not only do I have to endure the cough but also my stomach screaming arias at me. And it lingers for several minutes. I have a follow up with my PCP on the 11th of Dec and I will definitely bring it up. Until then I'll have to suck it up and deal with it.

can we say yummy in my tummy together

I made this in the morning and got it out of the oven a few minutes before 1100. Of course I had to sample it - yummy in my tummy. I did forget the carrots though. I like carrots a lot but it was too late to include them. The stuffing had been in the oven for 10 minutes already when I remembered them.

bottom in the slips

Got it dead nuts on the first try. Usually takes at least one trim before that magic happens.

sigh......

I split the bottom for about 3 1/2" when removing the slips and bottom from between the sides. Super glued it back together along with a half pin that cracked too.

drawer guide

The distance from the back of the center stile to the back was 8". I made the drawer guide 4" long and glued it in place with super glue and yellow glue.

hmm......

I don't understand why the right drawer only goes in this far. The drawer guide is the exact same width as the center stile so WTF? This has got to be the billionth hiccup I have had to address with this project so far. After the drawer guide has time to cook I'll plane it with my bullnose plane.

hmm.....

Nixed the rabbets in the sides and I am going with a single tail back. I'm putting the tail in the back rather the sides. I did it this way so I could put the back in without having to push one or both sides outward if the back was the pin board.

sawing the pin

I would normally saw this from the outside face to the inside face so the fuzzies end up there. However, this is the only way to clamp the drawer to saw it. I used a dozuki so the fuzzies ended up on the inside.

clean

I chopped all the waste from this side. None of my chisels are short enough to be used on the opposite face. Chisel fit but there was zero room to swing a mallet to whack the chisel.

good fit and it is square

Happy to see this. I was expecting the drawer to be twisted but luck was on my side.

drawer slips cooking

Rather then try to match up the drawer slip to the groove on the front, I left it way proud. After it has cooked I will plane the bottoms of the slips flush.

ugh

This is not a yikes, a hiccup, a hmm...., a brain fart, or a me-steak. This is a brain dead screw up of hurrying up and wait and getting bit on the arse and drawing blood. By the way, this is not a gap but a chasm.

off cut

This is the off cut from ripping the back to width. I'll glue this on in the AM or PM tomorrow.

homemade cranberry sauce

Again this something that only I will be eating. I will eat the stuff in a can but this IMO is so much better. Whole cranberries, sugar, orange juice, orange zest, a little water and a splash of orange grand mariner. Yummy in my tummy. This is the only thing that is a bit tart/sour that I will eat.

accidental woodworker 

Didn't sleep well at all last night. On the bright side it wasn't because I was trying to cough myself into a stupor. I just couldn't fall asleep and stay asleep. Spent most of the night watching You Tube. That really screwed my AM today. I was feeling comatose and went back to bed after breakfast. I slept fitfully until lunch and got up. Felt better but still a bit tired. Spent 4 hours in the shop and got some things done.

made the change

I thought more about the gaps to be filled I decided to go with a half lap.

did better

Positioned and clamped the carcass before sawing the half lap. Found out I have a kink in the saw blade. In spite of that I sawed on the knife lines without wandering out into La La Land.

initial fit

Got a snug fit top/bottom and side to side. I still had to saw the half lap on the center stile.

handy router

This router was the perfect size for routing the bottoms of the half lap mortises.

half tenons

Sawed the shoulders and split the tenons with a chisel.

yikes

Only this one was below. I had to build it up with a couple of pieces of veneer to get it a frog hair proud.

glued and cooking

Screwed up here and put the cart before the horse. The plan was to put the back in a dado but that ain't happening now. I only noticed this after about 10 minutes after glue up. Too late to separate the sides from the front.

should work

I think I can dovetail the back - if not I may have to make a new drawer. Or nail the back on - I should be able to put a rabbet on the back ends? 

took a while

The tails on the front had gaps. They closed up with clamps but the sides toed in almost an inch. Wedged a scrap to hold the ends square while it cooked.

accidental woodworker

done - ish

Planed and sanded. The bottom side had the tails proud of the pins. I had to plane a strong 32nd off to flush them. The carcass is basically done and I will do a final sanding with 240 before I apply the shellac.

sigh

The drawer front isn't flush with the front. Part of the problem of using second hand drawers.

left drawer

Left isn't as bad as the right one.

left one fixed 95%

I left some to do after I get the center stile in.

one more swipe

I wanted to leave some wiggle room but one more swipe erased that.

fitting the back

Decided after seeing this to make the entire project out of cherry. I think I can do that except for the drawer bottom. That will be 1/8" plywood maybe stained cherry.

the top single drawer front

Originally I was going to using rabbet joints for the drawer. But I made a U-turn and switched to through dovetails. Thought about using half blinds first but nixed it. The sides are frog hair over 5/16" and I didn't want to deal with something that small.

sneak peek

The bottom left miter joint is open. Hmm..... I thought I had left this one long with lots of wiggle room.

Rethinking the all cherry thing after seeing the quarter round molding. No way you can mistake birch or maple for cherry.

my nemesis

Scratched the bald spot for a few trying to figure this out. This short piece is short on the length. No amount of wiggle room will hide that.

the fix

This was the 2nd sliver I sawed off. It was a lot easier to do then I thought it would be. I superglued the sliver to the short miter and then glued the bottom quarter round in place. Set it aside to cook and turned to other things.

3 gaps

The bottom right corner was the only one that didn't have a gap. I filled in the other 3 with cherry veneer and yellow glue.

ta da

Nailed it on the first one. There is a very teeny, weeny gap but I can live with the smallness of it.

not too bad

Chopping out the tail wasn't that bad. I thought I would be fighting having room to swing the mallet but that didn't happen. The hardest part of this was sawing the tail. Initially I thought I had done a bang up job but when it came time to chop it out it was different story. I hadn't sawn on the knife lines and I couldn't change that. I have tried in the past to transfer a chopped tail onto a board without any hint of success. I was already thinking ahead on how to address the gaps.

drawer guide

I half lapped the center stile to fit the tail recesses. Used one of the errant center stiles that were short to give up the drawer guide.

hmm.......

Gaps, top and bottom. As I was typing this I thought of doing a half lap. That would hide all these headaches. But getting back to what I came up with to deal with the gaps.

bottom

This one is a lot better than the top one. On the top one I performed worse sawing than the bottom one.

hmm....

What I came up with was to make the gaps wider. Since there wasn't any other way to fix them, might as well celebrate them and make them pop. I'll fill them in after I make the gaps a little more even on both sides.

been a couple of hours

The bottom molding had set and was a frog hair shy of being flush with the bottom of the back panel. The bigger problem than that is how will I attach this to the top of the carcass? There is the classic cross grain hiccup between the two drawer enclosures.

not perfect but.....

This is a whole lot better - not perfect but this is at the back and won't be readily visible.

choices

From left to right, walnut, mahogany, and cherry. The winner is walnut. Darker than the cherry and it will pop against the lighter colored cherry. But that may be changing. I'll find out in the AM when I see which way the wind blows me. 

Yikes

What gremlin is responsible for this hiccup? Unfortunately for me this hiccup is at the front left bottom. This is going to be a wee bit tricky to dutch in something.

drawer slip(s)

I didn't glue up the sides and front. I am waiting until I get the length of the sides determined and get the back attached. I was going to over size the two drawer slips but the shop clock said it was almost 1600. Been a while since I got into a groove and time just zoomed on ahead of me. Killed the lights here and I'll get back to this in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

Went to Express care at the VA thursday for the cough which is beyond sucking pond scum now. The Nurse practitioner said I had pneumonia and she sent me to the ER. At the ER they drew blood and I had a CT scan. The results according to the radiologist were I didn't have pneumonia but there was a nodule on my left lung. 

The doc explained the procedures to determine exactly what the nodule was. The prognosis was most likely cancer with the tests to determine whether it was benign or malignant. Not a good list of choices. From this I got admitted to 6B supposedly to have a bronchoscopy.

Long story short, the pulmonologist reviewed the CT scan and said it was most likely pneumonia. My blood work, white blood count, and blood cultures all came back normal he said. So he prescribed two antibiotics to treat the pneumonia for seven days. He also scheduled a follow up CT Scan to check/compare the nodule on my left lung next year. 

Fingers crossed that it isn't the dread 'C' word. Lung cancer doesn't have a high cure rate. Either way the wind blows I've made my peace with it. What I do then depends on the results of the CT scan on Jan 16th. 

No restrictions were placed on me so I'll be back in the shop in the AM. There are a few projects on the to do list I want to tackle. The top two are desks for the grandkids.

I managed to squeeze in an hour or so on Thursday morning in the shop before I went to the VA Express care.

chip blowout

This is the bottom but the side view will be visible. The chip void I had to fill extended down from the top about a 1/4". Way to big to ignore. Shouldn't be too bad once I get some shellac slapped on this.

hmm......

I honestly can't tell the difference between cherry sawdust and hide glue from pine sawdust and hide glue. Both of them look about the same color brown. Although it does match up better with the end grain tails.

Can't wait to plane/sand the carcass to see how it looks.

accidental woodworker 

 This is Mrs. Ralph.  He'll be back soon as he's been busy all day with some medical stuff. Meanwhile, happy woodworking to all!

 Same o, same o, with the cold. I feel like I'm in a rut not getting better and not regressing neither. Still have the cough, still hacking up pounds of phlegm, but I'm sleeping better. Haven't woke up trying to cough my lungs out through my mouth. If I still have the cough I'm going back to the VA acute care.

no before pic but an after pic

Top drawer enclosure is 99% done. It looks a lot better than what I expected it to.

it is gone

The gap I saw it when I glued up is gone. This was a pleasant surprise. This top will be visible so, no gaps allowed.

left side

The tails are a wee bit proud but no gaps. One small chip missing on the far right tail.

right side

One errant slip on the far left tail baseline. Wasn't paying attention and the chisel wasn't in the baseline when I whacked it. Other than that boo boo, this looks better than the other side.

the fix

The plan is to glue this quarter round molding flush with the back edge. That is step one.

step two

Cut and fit the back. Then glue it against the inside face of the moldings. This will never be stressed in any way so it will be adequate.

hmm......

This short side toes in enough for it to be a PITA. Using the scrap of pine pushed it outwards until it read square.

short legs

These were a little tricky to hold and true up the miters but I got it done. Thought about how to do the bottom molding - nothing to glue it to but air. Decided to do the top and sides first. Then glue the panel to those 3 moldings and after it has set, glue the final molding to the panel.

3 times was the charm

I did good on the first 3 but on the last one I wandered out into La La land 3 times. It is confusing to me and I sawed the miters correctly but on the wrong face twice. Before I got it right I did a practice one on a 6 inch scrap molding.

ready

I left this one a few frog hairs long for just in case. Fingers crossed that I don't lose it before I need it.

sigh....

The diagonals are a 1/8" off. Something must have shifted when I moved it from the workbench to the tablesaw to cook.

worse side

Without the drawer in, the opening looks square. With the drawer in, it looks bad. This is the kind of thing that happened with me a lot of years ago. Time to see how the left drawer looks.

better than the right one

Smaller gap and at least it is the opposite of the right side.

fitting begins

You know the drill - plane, make shavings, check the fit. Wash, rinse, and repeat until the gap is parallel, even, and consistent top to bottom.

almost

The drawer is tight against the side at the top. I'll wait and save this for later, after I have the center stile installed.

oops

Realized here that I had made a me-steak. This orientation is wrong - this is the bottom and the bottom should be the top.

survived

Both of the drawers were a bit tight. I had to plane some off the tops of the drawers before they slid in/out easily. The good thing is the drawer edges are good. No uneven gaps and the margins on both look better than the first fitting.

compare right and left sides

I took a lot off the right side fitting the drawer. Unfortunately I had also taken off the right side when I had fit these drawers to the first cabinet I made them for.

hmm.....

The back edge of the drawer is a wee bit on the thin side. It is barely a 16th at the top tapering out to a little thicker at the bottom.  I'll have to keep an eye on this.

ready to go

The center stile is next. I am going to dovetail it at the top and bottom. The other option is a half lap but I'm not keen on that. There isn't anyway to hide the center stile connection so I think visually a dovetail is a better choice.

history repeats

When I last tried this joinery on the last cabinet I had made the same me-steak. This one is about a 32nd shy between the baselines. Not something I want to use putty or veneer on to hide any gaps. 

strike two

The gap on the 2nd one is about the same as the first one. I was going to invoke my 2 same me-steak rule but I said no. Been a while since I worked the whole day in the shop. Instead of killing the lights I worked on something different.

just in case

Made 6 center stiles, 5 are for just in case. I'll find out in the AM how many of these I burn through.

need four

Used one of the errant center stiles to get the plugs for the through groove holes.

good match

I had to fix the chip missing on the tail because on the side you could see it. Plugged the through groove holes and would you know it that the top side had the bigger holes to plug.

filling the gaps

Hide glue and cherry sawdust to make my own wood putty. This is the first time I've tried cherry and hide glue. Curious as to how dark this will look after the glue has set up. I'll find out in the AM.

accidental woodworker

 Wow. Nine days of feeling like crappola. I've been fighting this cold/flu/whatever for 9 days that I counted but it doesn't include the week or so before I started counting. I'm still not feeling 100% but maybe something around 60-70%. I haven't strolled in almost two weeks now and I'm dreading the day I venture out to do it. It might be tomorrow and just a 1/2 lap to get back into shape.

need a groove

I figured where the groove should be so it would be hidden but nixed it. It would be too far in from the back edge. Instead I ran the groove a 1/4" in from the back edge and I'll be filling in a few holes later.

it fits

I was expecting the fit to be snug but it was loose. Not self supporting by any stretch of the imagination. The back is captive 360 so the looseness isn't a problem.

fitted

I didn't escape this unscathed. My first rip cut was 5/8" short on the width. The second one was dead on.

ends

Sawed the pins and removed most of the waste. One down, one to go.

sneak peek

I like this and I think I'll skip making the top of it a tray. It has sufficient length and width to house keys, wallets, etc etc.

hmm......

These are all the pieces for the top drawer enclosure. I don't want to plug holes from grooves on this so I'm thinking of alternative ways to attach the back. Gave it my best goofy looks but drew a blank here.

Yikes

This confirms that I'm an idiot. Glued the box together and I didn't put the back in. I only noticed it when I spun the box around checking the tails and pins. Got lucky and I was able to whack it apart, apply a bit more glue, and get it back together again.

needed some help

I had to clamp the long diagonal to bring the box into square. I was able to close up some of the gaps in the tails but not all. What is helpful is the gaps are mostly on the small ends.

road block

Got the TPI on this screw but not the size. According to the chart the 18TPI is for a 5/16 screw. No way this is a 5/16 screw. I'll have to search for how to match the TPI to a screw.

sigh

The front of this end snapped off at about the 1/3 mark. Glued it back but there is a gap on the half pin now. Not sure how I'll deal with it but making a new enclosure is at the top of the fix list. 

accidental woodworker 

 I spent a couple of hours in the shop today. When I woke up I didn't feel so hot but that changed as the day went on. Don't feel 100% but better than I did yesterday or the day before. I stayed and kept working in the shop until the quitting bell rang. First time in over a week that I had spent more than 30 continuous minutes in the shop.

tails cleaned up

Blue taped a chip blow out but the chip missing on the left is history. Unfortunately the bottom board is what I chose to be the top. I'll have to rethink that whether I fix the missing chip or not.

4 done

Took my time and chopped the four small pins in the AM session. Planned to whack out the 4 larger ones in the PM session.

big chisel

Used a 1 1/2" chisel to chop the large pin waste. I find it is easier to keep the baseline straight using the widest chisel possible.

done

Overall I'm happy with how this came out. Not my best work but I would place in the top ten.

my me-steak

This was the tail waste where I didn't allow for the chisel moving backwards. This is the top up face too. So I have a couple of tail gaps and a missing chip so far to deal with on this face.

the bottom

Much better looking bottom which has now been promoted to the up face. All the sins on the original top will now be unseen on the bottom.

doesn't look too bad

The scale of this doesn't look oversized at all IMO. The center stile is tight and won't go all the way to the back. The left drawer is not square with the opening. The diagonals for the front opening are dead nuts on. The right drawer margin is ok - it is even top to bottom on the right.

got lucky

The sapwood on the tops of the drawer blends into the sapwood on the bottom side of the top. I'm going with although I still like the grain pattern on the original choice.

much better

I squared up the left side of the left drawer. The margin is consistent now top to bottom. In hindsight maybe I should have waited until I glued the carcass before doing this. I should be alright because the ID of the carcass is square as is the drawer now.

center stile

With the drawer squared up, the center stile is now loose in the gap between the drawers.

I was prepared

When I laid out the opening I used the left one. The right one was the one that was going to be used to make the center stile.

hmm......

Sneak peek. I wasn't sure how this would look - would the top drawer thing scale or just look odd. I'm ok with this as it is.

choices....

The bottom one I picked to match/blend with the top grain pattern and having lots of color. The top one has straight, uniform grain that matches the drawer enclosure and the grain of the top. Bottom one is out for the drawer front and the top one is the winner.

tails for the top drawer enclosure

The drawer in this will be about 2 1/4" high OAL with a usable interior drawer height of about 1 7/8". That would be sufficient for it to be used as a watch drawer?

area for the back

The drawers are not the same length. The right one is longer by over a 1/2". This is how much room I have to put the 1/4" cherry back in.

hmm....

The cherry panel is wide enough for the grain to ran vertical. I am going to run it horizontally so it goes in the same direction as the  length of the carcass.

accidental woodworker 

 Slept good last night. When I woke up for the toilet trot races I coughed. I didn't wake up at all because I coughed. My symptoms for a cold/flu seemed to have paused and resumed. Feeling better, but I'm being cautious about them now. The after effects of this cold/flu could run on for a couple of weeks. Day/night Quill along with cough suppression medicine appears to be working. Spent most of the day in the rack nodding out and watching You Tube. I'll probably do the same tomorrow.

from Mortise and Tenon

This was supposed to come on monday but instead it spent the night on my front step in the rain. Luckily for me it was packed in a large box with a lot of packing paper. It wasn't wet and none of the pages were stuck together.

center bit info

This book was originally published in 1903 and republished again in 2025 by Mortise and Tenon. This came out at when hand to machine work was getting started. I got it mostly for the info like how to sharpen center bits. The book is loaded with a lot more lost hand tool info. It will take a few days to wade through the information pool.

Based on the writing I think it was written in England, or written on this side of the pond by an Englishman. Not a deal killer but the written language around the turn of the century wasn't like the prose of today. Makes reading it more interesting.

No shop time at all today. I didn't even go to the shop. Feeling better, but weak as new born babe. Maybe tomorrow I'll finish up the last of the pins.

accidental woodworker 

 Last night was the worse night I've had since I started counting the days of this cold. I barely slept and I was coughing so much my hernia site hurt. Every cough sent waves of agony through it. My right hip (the metal one) not to be out done, sang arias with every cough too. A miserable )@&%$)%)_@_*)( f-&%#ing night I hope to never happen again.

last night

After dinner I went to the shop and sawed the pin waste. Did good with no over cuts into the sides or below the baselines. This was as close to the baselines as I felt like getting to.

detour

Got a comment about running an imperial 1/4-20 through the Whitworth tap and die. I could see a difference in the threads as I only did about 3/4" from the bottom. No real effort required to run the die on the imperial threads. However, it didn't help at all. These threads were a bit looser than the original screws and they wouldn't tighten down neither. Back to square one on coming up with a fix for this headache.

wasn't hacking up my lungs

Wasn't coughing so I decided to check the fit at one corner. I didn't see or feel any problems. It should go together fully once the pins are chiseled and cleaned up.

hmm.....

Not too bad on the tail side. I anticipate that these small gaps will close up once the glue swells them.

not horrible, not good neither

I knew I would have gaps on the pin side. I rushed chopping it and paid the price. I moved the baselines several times and I could see it exactly when it happened. I might be able to close some of the gaps when I clamp this. I'll deal with them after the glue up.

1710 today

accidental woodworker 

 I finally broke down and went to acute care at the VA. I dislike going to the doctor but the cough was getting out of hand. I tried a cough and chest congestion medicine for two days that kind of worked. The phlegm I had been hacking up by the pound was gone but the cough shifted into overdrive. It woke me up at 0200 and I thought I hacking up bits and pieces of my lungs for the next 3 hours.

I was concerned that I might have contracted Covid but the test for it came back negative. That was good news. The doc said my lungs were clear which ruled out pneumonia - the two fears I thought I had were zero. The doc said I had a viral infection and gave me some pills for the cough. He said that they will make me feel a lot better. We'll see how modern chemistry performs, eh?

sawing the pins

I like the tape idea for where the baseline is. Even with glasses and the baseline highlighted with pencil it was still difficult for me to gauge when sawing. Can't mistake where the baseline is now.

pins sawn

In spite of trying to hack up my lungs I intended to spend time in the shop today. That got flushed with my trip to the VA. I got back to the barn at 1430 and decided to wait until tomorrow for sawing the pin waste. No matter how I feel I'm going to spend some time in the shop then.

accidental woodworker 

 I thought I had turned the corner but I was wrong. So badly wrong. Late in the afternoon the cold I thought was on its way out returned with a vengeance. The cough was back triple worse, the snot locker was clogged again, and my throat hurt. I guess it is going to be a few more days of feeling miserable.

is it an omen?

All of the taps are starter ones. Not a single bottoming tap in the lot. Could it be a hint of the quality of them? I don't anticipate using this much so it may last me long enough to leave it to the grand kids.

great chart

Lists all the British Standard threads. Everything needed to tap a hole and thread a screw.

back side

Same info for imperial threads. There is also British Standard thread for 47 1/2° - didn't know that existed. All the drilling info is in metric - no imperial.

hmm.....

As much as I like chopping the waste, sawing most of it and then chopping is the way to go on this cherry.

done

Got all the waste chopped. I checked all the sides of the tails square to the face. I still have to clean up the baselines and the corners before I mark the pin boards.

This was all I did today. This little outing exhausted me. I felt like I had worked hours while it was barely 20 minutes. Having a cold sucks big time when you have the urge to make sawdust.

missed it

This is on the outside face on the top. This must have happened when I knocked the waste out. At least I didn't have this headache when sawed the waste.

accidental woodworker 

 Started to feel normal today. Coughing less and I'm no longer hacking up globs of puss. I think I'll be back in the shop friday - at least that is what I am shooting for. If nothing else I will go there and just sit and watch You Tube.

done

Got the other side tail waste cut out. No boo boos and no expletives expended. More importantly no over cuts.

hmm.....

I expect that I will have gaps on the baselines. For some reason I assumed that since I removed most of the waste I could chisel directly in the knife line. I was wrong as I saw the chisel move backwards when I struck it. Oh well, I have a container of cherry sawdust to make wood putty with.

came today

Got my British Standard Whitworth tap and die set today. The box is MDF but is still nicely made. 1/16th up to 1/4 inch.

hmm......

There were 3 starter taps. I was expecting at least one bottoming tap but I can chase the threads with what I got. There was something in the threads and I got the tap to run in/out freely through both holes.

die holder

Both screws went through the die without any hiccups. It felt a little loose but there were no hindrances running it in/out.

tap holder

This is a simple tap holder. Considering what I payed for this set it fits. The quality isn't shouting at me with the paint on the tap and die holders being questionable. The tap holder worked and held the tap securely in spite of its looks.

clear and clean

Got my hopes up because the tap cleared out something in the threads. The fit was loose but not as loose as the die with the screws.

toast

Badly burnt toast too. The threads are clean on the screws and the spokeshave but the screws spin freely - neither one would tighten and stay there. I don't have any ideas on how to restore the threads that I can do in my shop. The only red neck idea that popped up in the brain bucket was to fill the threads in with JB Weld and tap it again.

accidental woodworker

 Feeling a little better today. I think I peaked and I'm on the downhill slide to getting better. Sore throat is gone but I'm still coughing and hacking up globs of slimy, sticky crap. Still no AM or PM shop time. Maybe by the weekend?

hmm.....

I thought of the blue tape last night during a a fit of coughing. One problem I've had in the past with using a coping saw was over cutting. Either into the side of the tail or below the baseline. I put the tape 3 frog hairs above the knifed base line. I'll have to carefully gauge cutting toward the side of the tails.

ta da

Survived the first sweeping coping saw cuts. Felt stronger today too, not as weak as I felt yesterday.

done

Still have to saw the opposite end but I didn't want to push my luck. I'll saw them tomorrow.

accidental woodworker 

 For over a week I've been coughing on and off all day. My first dark thoughts were it could be lung cancer. However, last night I woke up with a sore throat and a clogged shut snot locker. Thoughts are lighter now and it looks like I got my first cold in years. I feel like something a stray dog left on the front walk and you step and slide in it. I didn't even feel like doing anything but I did go out for my monday breakfast. I bought a bunch of side dishes for thanksgiving after I finished eating.Looking like I won't be strolling post lunch for a few days.

felt better

I went to the shop around 1300 and looked around. It was just as I left it. I can't imagine not being able to work in the shop. Not an idea I like but it is just for a few days.

had to do something

I felt like a kid just making one saw cut. Realized that I was too weak to do anything else. If I had I probably would have screwed it up. Maybe tomorrow I'll finish sawing this first tail waste.

accidental woodworker 

lid stay

I had left the lid down for two days and no sticking. Put on my largest chain as a lid stay. This will snap off if you are too aggressive when opening as it has snapped on me before. I know from past experience that if the lid falls back free and clear, these hinges will also get ripped off. I'll tell my sister to be careful with this.

the dovetail chisels

The largest chisel I'm sharpening is 1 1/4" and I'll use it on the pins. I don't try to to match dovetails to chisel sizes. That is why I need 5 to whack out these pins and tails.

sigh

When I hit the waste to remove it, it took a chip with it on exiting. Stopped chopping to super glue the chip back before I lost it.

a work out

Chiseling the tail waste was like chiseling stone. If this had been pine I would have whacked it out an end in less than 5 minutes. Doing one end took me almost 20. On the other end I removed most of the waste with the bandsaw. I stopped here for the day so I can think on how to best do the other board.

I had made a dovetailed cherry cupboard a few months back and I don't recall the chopping of those tails/pins being this difficult. I will say that bandsawing most of the waste made chopping what was left easier. I'll have to decide whether to bandsaw them or to use my coping saw. Both have their own potential hiccups.

hmm......

The slope is a two frog hairs off square. With pine I wouldn't worry about this little bit but with this rock hard cherry I have to fix it. I checked and trimmed the tails square to the front face. Killed the lights here to go watch some football.

accidental woodworker 

 I bit the bullet hard and ordered the Whitworth tap and die set last night. Amazon says it will be here on monday. I got it because I have 4 record plow planes that have Whitworth threads or at least I know that they aren't imperial threads. I also found my Whitworth thread gauge. Luckily I had bought another one before I remembered I already had one. The downside to this is I'm not 100% sure that chasing the threads will help but I'll find out in a couple of days.

end panels

I was surprised at how well the grain matched on the glue ups. One side (left board) sticks out but the right one is much better. Cleaned up the joint line on both faces with the Stanley #80.

made a left turn

I thought about this last night right up to hitting the rack. I couldn't reconcile the overhang on the ends - that kept looking like elephant ears on a red headed step child. I am now making a dovetailed box to house the drawers. On the first plan I was going to house the ends in stopped dadoes. I made the length a few frog hairs shy so I can plane the drawers to fit.

hmm......

30 minutes work and it looks like I hardly did anything at all to this iron. I plan on shining it up so it will be pretty to look at. Time to implement plan 2-b.

custom holder

Working on something like this with one hand sucks. It is almost counter productive. I can only work on half of it and then switching to work on the other half. Not being able to use my dominant hand exclusively hurts too. With this simple jig the iron is captive and not going anywhere. I am able to employ both hands to work on it. The walls are scrap pieces of cherry a few frog hairs thinner than the iron is.

better

Draw filing the iron resulted in much better results over sanding it. Quicker too but it still ate a lot of time.

20 minutes of work

Not done yet but looking so much better. There is a defect at the bottom of the iron that is being a problem child. I wasn't able to draw file it entirely away.

2nd jig

It was shine time and trying to move this back and forth on the sandpaper wasn't working. Way too difficult/awkward to keep downward pressure and moving it with just my fingers. This worked way beyond my expectations and I moved through all 8 grits in less than 10 minutes on both irons. 

up to 180 grit

The jig held up with zero hiccups. The little tab was the Achilles heel but it performed like it was a rock.

done

Not a mirror shine but I'm satisfied with what I got. The jig fits in the bigger irons but it is a loosey goosey fit. I'll make another one when it comes time to shine them up.

glamour pic #1

Still haven't tried to mold a profile with it. For now I'll keep it somewhere in the shop where I can eyeball it as tool candy.

finally

This is the fifth layout I did. What I wanted was to have two large dovetails R/L of center with two smaller ones at the outside edges. Initially I couldn't wrap my brain bucket around it. I could see it on the brain's main projector but couldn't translate it to plywood template. I don't know why this befuddled me like it did but working it out on the plywood template saved my butt.

half pins sawn

Before I chop the tails I need to sharpen and hone my chisels. They are probably good enough to chop pine but not cherry. I'll do that in the AM.

accidental woodworker

all cherry

I have a cherry veneered panel that I can use on the 3 drawer thing upcoming. All the visible surfaces will be cherry. Should be enough here to do the two drawer and one drawer enclosures.

came yesterday

I bought 4 more no mortise 3/4" hinges from Lee Valley. Bought this scraper too. I could have used this on the last miniature hope chest. It would have worked well on the cove molding on the base.

made a command decision

Decided to put one drawer on top of the two drawers beneath it. The bottom drawers are about 9" front to back and the single on on top will be about 5 1/2" front to back and roughly 10" right to left.

bottom glue up

The joint line on this side was almost dead flush and I made this one the reference face. There was also a wee bit of a cup that I flattened. 

hmm.....

Got a small hollow here that I couldn't plane off. Fingers crossed that when I run it through the lunchbox planer it will disappear. If not it won't present a problem because it will be hidden under the drawers.

it is flat

Twist free too. I have a flat face to run through the lunchbox planer.

done

It took less than an hour to run all the boards through the lunchbox planer. All three are dead nuts 3/4" thick.

done

The OVELOE spokeshave is done. I didn't try it out but I think it looks nice. I will sand the irons until the are shiny. This may end up being a 'just for looking at' tool.

sigh....

The screw on the right is spinning and not tightening down. It looks like the the screw was badly rusted and was derusted. The threads in the spokeshave are partially occluded. My imperial 1/4-20 pitch gauge lays perfectly in the screw threads. However, when I tried to chase the threads with a 1/4-20 imperial tap it wouldn't go. Much to my surprise, I found a Whitworth tap and die set on Amazon for $60. Still sitting on a fence about whether or not to buy it.

sigh again.......

I thought this screw was ok but I was wrong. After the left screw went south I tightened this one down again and it after 1/8 of a turn it started spinning too. Both of them are toast. Might be enough for me to hop down off the fence now.

knife nicks

It is nice to finally mastered rolling the burr on this. The wispy shavings put a smiley face on me. There were 6 rows of knife nicks to remove. Had to wash, rinse, and repeat for the other two boards.

settling the design

Eyeballed the overall look first. Thinking that maybe the single drawer could be for watches? I am also thinking of making a tray on the top of the single drawer.

lots of hmm......'s today

I don't like this little semi circular piece of grain here. I cut it off shortening the drawer front to 10" right to left.

box nails

These have to go. I won't be able to plane the sides to fit the drawers. I am going to attempt to get the fit but I would rather have the option to plane to fit too.

it works

I have seen this technique for removing nails in countless restoration You Tube vids that I watch. It worked well with a minimal amount of fussing and relatively little site damage.

tapered nails

Replaced the box nails with wooden japanese tapered nails.

not too bad

The drawer on the left I did first. The one on the right was the last one. I lightly sanded both with a 80 grit sanding block. Used a screwdriver initially to pry up the head of the nail and then removed it with the diagonal cutter pliers.

got the length

I left an inch on each end with scraps for the end panels and the center divider. 

brain fart

The end panels aren't wide enough to use in the orientation I want. If I use the end this way, end grain will be facing out front and back. If I flip it 90 face grain will be facing out but it won't be wide enough. One more glue up to do.

more thicknessing to do

I left the piece to be glued to the end panel a few frog hairs thicker. I will flush them after the glue ups have cooked.

done

I left the knife line when I flattened this for wiggle room. It isn't that important that both end panels be within one to two atoms of thickness with each other. They aren't married to anything and the dadoes for them will be individually done based on each one's thickness.

glued and cooking

Not thrilled with the color difference but this is what I had to work with. I will put the shorter board at the back.

haven't forgotten this

I've been thinking about this one and made another command decision. No drawers, it will be a enclosed book shelf (or display) now. This way I can use 1x12 stock without having to do any glue ups. Three adjustable shelves and a 4-6 inch raised base will complete it. I'll start on this once I'm done with the 3 drawer thing.

accidental woodworker 

first coat

I could almost get away with this one coat but I'm going with a 2nd one.

a little bit of surprise

This was the spot, a divot, that I filled and when I sanded it it looked like a portion of it had fell out. It is invisible as to where it was under the first coat. Happy with how well the paint coverage performed.

last look over

I double, triple checked/looked the two over three times. No holidays and I couldn't see any casting defects anywhere through the paint.

done

Two coats and tomorrow I'll be able to put the OVELOE spokeshave together. I'm still thinking/researching on how/what to do with getting the profile fixed on the lamb's tongue spokeshave.

time to vacate the boneyard

This is the lingering headache of making things and having limited space in the boneyard. This has to go upstairs into my wife's office. I was not looking forward to doing it. I've been putting it off for a couple of weeks but today I put on my big boy pants and got it moved.

the tough spot

I have to get it up these stairs, turn to the right and go up three more steps. The last obstacle before my wife's office is getting past the end of the counter and the refrigerator.

done

The hardest part was over and no marks, scrapes, or dings on the cabinet. I went up one step at a time, resting after each one. I left it in the living room and when I got back from my post lunch stroll my wife had in it the office and partially filled.

new project

Thinking of a small cabinet (?) with these two drawers. All cherry and I will have to glue up stock for the bottom or for the top. Most likely it will be the bottom because it is a two board glue up.

wow

The twist is four lines and that is the most I can recall seeing. The plan at this point was to remove the twist and based on how thin it ends up, decide then whether or not it is still usable. I'm shooting for a thickness of 3/4".

flattening

Cherry isn't as easy as pine but it still reasonable. I couldn't take the heavy shavings with the #6 like I could with pine. After flattening with the #6 I checked it with the sticks and 95% of the twist was gone which surprised me a lot. I was expecting to see a lot of twist still left to remove.

twist free

Smoothed the board with the 5 1/2, the #7, and finished with the #3. This is ready to be fed through the lunchbox planer.

the top

This board was basically twist free. I just had to deal with a slight cup and then a hump in the middle.

hmm......

I'll let this stock relax overnight and let them do any stupid wood tricks. 

resawn cherry

Not quite equal - I thought I had eyeballed the middle before pushing it through the bandsaw. This is for the top of the two drawer cabinet. Thinking of putting one, two, or three smaller drawers on the top?

drawer front

Flattened two of them to the same thickness plus a 2nd set. The first one is book matched, the 2nd set isn't.

nice

Besides the grain sloping down, the area above it shimmers a bit. This will really pop with a finish. The top one is rather bland compared to them.

1/2" cherry

Remembered that I had some 1/2" stock I had bought several years ago. Got two boards wide enough for the small drawer enclosure.

hmm.....

I don't know what the boards on the left are. The right board is mahogany and I thought of using either of these for the small drawer fronts. I'll probably stick with all cherry for the show surfaces. Drawer sides and backs will be pine.

accidental woodworker