JKM Woodworking

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.

My son asked to build a bookcase. I countered with a shelf mounted on a wall or a headboard with cubbyholes, which we settled on. We took measurements and I drew rough plans.

rough sketch

We used what I call 'cruddy pine' reclaimed from my house. Most of it is 1x10. We picked a few, waved a metal detector over them and then fed them through the thickness planer.

mostly planed vs unplaned cruddy pine

Crosscuts were made with a handsaw or bandsaw, and rip cuts were made with the bandsaw. All of the joints are 90 degree butt joints with pocket screws.

mostly power tool project but some hand tools case before upright dividers back view, top is not deep enough to cover case

The above picture is trying to show that the top board is not wide/deep enough. This was addressed by adding a backer board to add 3/4" of depth. I also ripped a little off the back of the upright dividers to allow room for a 1/4" plywood back.

My son asked to spray black paint like he remembers when I made the small dresser. For that project I actually rolled on india ink and then sprayed clear lacquer. So for this project we rolled and brushed on india ink and then sprayed zinnser sealcoat.

ready for 'painting'. back, top, and case india ink allows grain to be visible in position to connect rails. back not installed yet.

For a lot of woodworking bed plans there's discussion about how to set the rails into the headboard, and what type of hardware to use. Our project was easier, as the bed uses metal rails. We put the rails up to the headboard, marked where the slots were with an awl, and then drilled holes for bolts with nuts and washers. One of the holes had to be adjusted a little because I hit a pocket screw on the backside.

mark position of rails for mounting holes awl marks for starting holes through bolts, back view

My son did well, he even used power tools more than I expected. I'm a grown up and think the bandsaw can be intimidating and the planer is disturbingly loud. We also used a power drill, impact driver and paint sprayer. And some basic handtools like a saw, hand sander, saddle square, awl, etc. He likes smacking the holdfasts. And the 'painting' was relatively fun.

rails and back installed

This was built on an accelerated schedule. Not like my solo projects that take weeks or months just of planning. The whole thing took 3-4 sessions. There were chances for lessons like "It doesn't have to be perfect" or "That's OK, we'll work it out".

finished

A couple tasks remained before applying shellac.

I added two rails below the lowest shelf. These were cut to fit, glued on three sides, and clamped. After sitting overnight I drilled pilot holes and fastened nails.

glued, clamed, then nailed

I planed the front and back edges of the shelves so they would be flush with the sides. Having to plane these edges after assembly was the main reason I didn't pre-finish everything.

I cleaned up the glue residue with hot water and a toothbrush.

glue squeeze out

Earlier I moved the upper rail back so it wouldn't show. That led to those nails being off center. If it wasn't for that rail and those nails, there wouldn't be a clear front or back side.

front and side view

I sprayed zinsser sealcoat shellac, about 4-5 coats on the shelves and a little more on the outside uprights.

back and side view

When I planned the dimensions I wanted the top shelf to be big enough to hold a laptop. And I wanted that top shelf to be about 30" off the floor. That way we could put the stand near the kitchen table and watch something on the laptop while doing a puzzle.

The height is 37". The width is 18". The depth is 10" at the floor, narrowing to 9" at the top. The shelf spacings are 14", 10.5", and 7".

front view

Previous posts in this series:

• Shamrock Magazine Stand 1
• Shamrock Magazine Stand 2

I printed shamrocks in three sizes and taped them to the sides. I drilled some large holes in the corners and then cut them out. This pushed the depth of my coping saw. I also have a fret saw with a deeper opening that I used for a couple spots.

tracing through paper to leave impressions that's about as far as it can reach

Prior to carving the edges I took care of the smaller things. I made three rails with curved bottoms. Two for the bottom and one under the top shelf. I also drilled small holes where the pilot holes for the nails will go.

under-shelf support rails pilot holes for pilot holes. pre-pilot holes.

For the sides, I created curves for the top corners by tracing a tomato can, and the bottom edge by tracing a bucket. I also filled in most of the visible bug holes with shellac mixed with sanding dust.

tracing a round object. and I filled those bug holes.

I carved the edges of the shamrocks, mostly with a #7 gouge. This reminded me of a Mary May lesson "Carving a Donut" on reading the grain. When I carve against the grain I can feel it and I can hear it. So there's a lot of changing from left to right handed, or moving to the opposite side of the bench to keep approaching from the right direction.

don't quote me on these

When the two directions meet in the middle of an arch, it's not easy to free the chip. I get little snags and fuzzies.

hard to free the fuzzies

After carving twelve sides of six shamrocks I was about ready to put things together. Not having dados to house the shelves complicated things a little. I marked the edges of the sides for the shelf locations and then clamped it all up. While clamped I drilled proper pilot holes for the nails. I used 1/8" for 40mm nails and 9/64" for 50mm nails.

center lines for shelves dry fit

During this dry fit I noticed that the curved support rail under the top shelf was too wide/tall and was visible through the hole.

that doesn't look good

This was a problem as I had already (titebond genuine hide) glued it to the shelf. I had to unglue it. My method is to use a clothing steamer. After 1-2 minutes I could pull it apart. Rather than ripping the rail narrower I moved it back where it woudn't show.

lock the trigger in the on position I've come undone

Prior to glueing and nailing I hand sanded the visible parts with 180 grit. I did not sand the carved edges, just the flat fields. For glue-up I did one side at a time. I coated the end grain of the shelves with two coats of glue. I set the nails in the sides with their points poking through so they could find their matching pilot holes in the shelves. The lowest, thickest shelf got 50mm nails, all the rest are 40mm.

nails and glue nailed and glued

I still have two curved rails to fit under the bottom shelf, and I will plane the front and back edges of the shelves flush with the sides. Then I will finish it with shellac, though I don't know if I will use a rag or a brush or spray it.

glued and nailed

This project is loosely based on the "Stickley Magazine Stand" from Christopher Schwarz. There is a similar "I Can Do That" version with the title "Simplified Stickley Bookcase". I don't have any magazines these days, but I think a laptop will sit nicely on the top.

I adjusted the dimensions to maximize the stock I have. I am using butternut. These boards are 10" and 9.5" wide, with the longest being 9 feet long.

wide butternut

There were two large knots which were so loose I decided to cut them out before planing. After planing I crosscut them to make two sides and three shelves.

knots removed before planing

The sides ended up about 40" tall. One side has a small knot that may need to be filled. The other has a section with bug holes which I don't think I will fill.

side pieces with knot and holes

The three shelves ended up 17" long. I am making the three shelves three different thicknesses.

three shelves with three thicknesses

Another change is to taper the sides. I did this to accomodate the narrower 9 1/2" deep shelf on the top and the wider 10" shelf on the bottom. I laid out where the shelves would be and then drew a line to remove some width from the front and back edges. I ripped these on the bandsaw.

top shelf doesn't fit all the way across edges marked to taper now the shelves fit all the way across

I will eventually have to plane those shelf edges flush with the sides.

So far we've got the magazine stand, but not the shamrocks. My plan is to carve shamrocks into the sides. I haven't done any pierced carvings so this will be the first.

drawing with shamrocks

Searching for images brought up a lot of four leaf clovers. I wanted a shamrock with three leaflets. I took a picture from John Davey's website. Although a stone carver, I'm sure I found his site from a woodworking blog.

practice shamrocks traced onto butternut

I made two practice shamrocks. One has the background cut out, leaving the shamrock intact, and the other has the shamrock cut out.

bore holes for coping saw blade cut with coping saw

The next picture was supposed to be an in-progress shot. I created furrows down the middle of the leaflets and then tried to round them over. But it's a better picture of why you should keep your hands clean.

Wash your hands!

For the example with the shamrock cut out, I tried to slice or chamfer the edges. This went a lot quicker. But the sharp points are fragile. Between sawing and slicing, some of the points broke off.

This type was quicker. practice shamrocks

So now I have to decide which type of carving I like the best, and then do it for real on the sides of the magazine stand.

There will be some supports added under the shelves, and curves cut here and there.

I had been thinking I would make dados for all of the shelves and supports. But now I don't know if that's necessary. The "I Can Do That" project uses pocket screws without dados. I will use diamond head nails.

First we can look at the drawer supports. I installed kickers (upper) and runners (lower) with pocket screws. The kickers were easy to line up, as they aligned with the top rails. The runners line up with the rail in the front but not the back. For the back I used a cutoff to make sure the runners were a proper distance below the kickers.

lining up runner below kicker

Between the runners and kickers, the drawers should be limited in tilting up and down, especially when the drawer sides are as high as the fronts.

I built the two outer drawers first. They were pocket screwed also. All of the pieces were cupped. Rather than try to get them perfectly flat, I worked around it. The pieces were grooved for a 1/4" plywood bottom.

harbor freight pocket hole jig sample drawer

With the outer drawers built, I could place them in the case and add guides to keep the drawers from shifting side-to-side. These were fastened only with glue, and placed on the runners and the case sides.

gluing in guide to keep drawers in line

After the glue was dry, I could mark the center drawer for where it's sides should line up. To accomodate the guides, the sides of the drawers have to be inset about 3/8".

mark clearance needed for guide

Finally I glued strips behind the rail to act as stops. They will stop the drawer front from being pushed in farther than the rail. They just have to not stand up so far they interfere with the drawer bottom.

gluing in drawer stops view from underneath

For drawer pulls I checked out some of this hardware I've been carrying around for years. I settled on a winner and made a template for them to sit 1/3 of the way down the drawers. I think 1/2 way down would have looked better.

why do I even keep some of this stuff? template for driling holes into drawer fronts

The top I fastened with cabinet screws. The screws are 2" or longer to clear the 1.5" upper rails. The holes in the front are fixed, and those in the back are elongated. I drilled 3/16 holes and cleared the waste with a chisel.

making a slot to allow expansion I cut off the excess after the top was attached.

Tire Table

fulfilling its purpose

37.5" high, 62" wide, 25.75" deep

I did not apply any finish.