Woodworks by.John

Now that the knockdown fittings are in place I’ll turn my attention to the seat and back assemblies. The seat assembly is made of 1″ x 2 5/8″ pieces of Birch and joined with mortise and tenons. The seat is 46″ wide so a brace was added at the center, it’s lowered so the webbing will lay across it. Webbing is installed with clips (from House2Home) and I learned that the “professional” way to do this is to remove a 1/8″ area so the clips and webbing lay flat in the frame. You can see better pictures of it in this my previous blog. It’s now ready to go and the next step on it will be to radius the edges, finish sand, and then rub in at least 2 coats of Osmo 3043. After that the webbing will be installed.

The seat back was built next. At this point the uprights for this are straight so that I have a reference point for the mortises. Once it’s complete they will be tapered and I plan to do some spokeshave work to sculpt them. The slats are 5/8″ x 1 1/2″ wide and will fit between the top and bottom pieces in 1/4″ x 3/4″ mortises. Figuring the spacing was first done on masking tape using dividers and a 1 1/2″ shim; took some time but much easier than trying to do the math required. One important consideration was that I needed at least 2″ of space at the ends to install the connecting hardware. There are 13 slats so that meant 26 mortises and 26 tenons — hollow chisel mortiser and dado head on the tablesaw made this go much quicker. For these, the slats won’t be glued in; matter of fact I think it’s better that there is some allowance so they can move freely with seasonal changes in humidity.

It’s been a hot summer so far in the desert so finishing is probably best done in the morning, by early afternoon it’s been as high as 104° in the shop! The Osmo should be fine at those temps but the Old Brown Glue I like to use may set up before I can get it clamped. Pre-finishing all of the slats makes sense, it’s always a hassle trying to dry the finish around all of those. I’ll tape off the tenons and wait to apply the finish to the sides of the backrest until it’s been assembled. It’s taken quite a bit of time to make all of these parts from 8/4 Birch but I’m sure it’ll be worth it when done.

I’m not so sure I like the term “loveseat” but that seems to be the proper name for a small couch/sofa built for two people so that’s what I’ll go with! If you’re a follower of my work you may recall my interpration of the famous Z-chair which I completed a year of so ago. Well, now it’s on to another project for the front bedroom of our home. The room currently has a queen size bed but is rarely used by overnight guests. We’ve decided to make that room a more useable space for us and use a blowup bed on those occasions where it may be needed. Making this smaller loveseat will leave plenty of room for that and allow us to use that room as part of the house. One problem with this room is the way the door opens and the configuration of the walls makes it impossible to get large furniture in the room. That means I get to challenge myself to use knockdown joints with threaded inserts, cross dowel nuts, and through bolts — hey, I love a challenge!

The only real furnishing in this room is the Birch cabinet I made previously. I decided to make this loveseat from Birch as well and who knows, maybe a table is in the future too. As the picture shows, I prefer to draw my plans out full size once the design has been worked out; and then cut pieces of Masonite to give me a true representation of the piece. There will be 6 pieces; the seat, right and left sides, front and rear stretchers, and the back. I plan to use brass inserts and black 1/4×20 hardware to assemble it.

After creating my cut list I purchased about 31 board feet of 8/4 Birch from Peterman Lumber here in Las Vegas. Since you have to buy whatever boards they have it’s challenging to get the right amount. The boards I bought were all 7″ or so in width and 8′ long. After cutting pieces to rough size I planed a working edge on them so they could be ripped and resawn as needed. The side frames are 1 1/8″ thick while the seat assembly and back are 1″ in thickness.

The stretcher between the legs has a single tenon at the front and a double at the rear. The stretcher was kept square so it lines up on the sliding arm and then tapered after the tenons were cut. The mortises are 3/8″ x 1 1/4″ deep and 90° to the leg. The tenons are angled at 15° and were cut using a flat top rip blade and my Sawstop sliding table. It was easy to set the opposite angle by adjusting the arm to the end of the board while keeping the fence set at the same location — much easier than using a wedge.

At this point, my main goal is to get the leg assemblies put together so they can be used to locate where the threaded brass inserts need to be installed the relationship of all of the pieces. The front and rear stretchers attach to the leg sections with connector bolts and cross dowel nuts — this was a challenge to drill a straight 1/4″ hole about three inches long! To add to the challenge the tops are angled to allow the seat to sit lower in the rear than in the front. The seat and back sections use threaded brass inserts and connector bolts and that too was a process. Started with 1/16″ pilot holes on the drill press to insure they are straight and then the loveseat was reassembled to line everything up. More complicated than I can write up so these pictures will help — if you want more details feel free to contact me.

To summarize the slide show basically the first hole drilled is 1/16″ and done on the drill press to get it as straight as possible. Then the parts were clamped in position so that I could use a hand drill through that hole to mark the location on the adjoining piece. Threaded insert holes were 3/8″ and connector holes were 1/4″ it all worked! In this picture you’re looking at the inside of the loveseat. Number 1 are the tenons for the eventual armrests; Number 2 is the seat frame, and Number 3 is the backrest. The piece of masonite represents the foam for the seat.

This is what the piece looks like at this point. No rush on this project, just taking my time and trying to avoid making mistakes which is easy to do — I’ll do separate blogs as work progresses.

Beginnings — it started out easy enough but that soon changed! I decided to see if I could construct a hexagon box that had a hinged lid. Why, just because I’d never done it or see it done! I wanted a better place to keep my Lie-Nielsen spokeshave than the cardboard box it came in. Since I had some Poplar in my shop decided to use that. Started by cutting 6 pieces at 30° and assembled them using packing tape, even book matched them– easy ’nuff!!

Now that I had a hexagon cylinder it needed the end pieces. Used a scrap of MDF to play with the sizing to match the outside of the hexagon. Once the miter saw was set with a stop block and the MDF fit well I cut the Poplar. The blade angel is 30°.

I’m a tails first dovetailer and this took a bit of thinking and planning ahead. The first step was scribing the thickness of the box on both sides of the end pieces. The tails are at the and marked off with a pencil. Removal of the waste began by first deepening the scribed marks with a chisel. After cutting closely to the line those deeper lines made it easier to chop the shoulders square. Transferring to the hexagon began by scribing the thickness of the end pieces all around, both inside and outside of the hexagon. Then the end piece was positioned and the tails were transferred to the hexagon. Not much room to move a dovetail saw but that was the easier part. The waste can only be removed from the outside of the hexagon so I got creative in how to hold the hexagon. At this point, I think a slideshow will illustrate better than anything I write!

Once the box was glued up, I separated the lid on the bandsaw, I correctly assumed that cutting it would change the size so the lid was a bit smaller than the box. Another unforeseen problem is the the screws for the hinges were too long since they sit on a 30° angel — cut them shorter so there’s not a lot of purchase with them. I had a small piece of curly Spanish Cedar so used that for a lid lift and also the French fit insert to hold the spokeshave. Sorry, didn’t take any pictures of that process but it’s secured inside of the hexagon with silicone seal. The hinges and the lid lift are mortised in, quite different cutting a mortise on an angled piece of wood!

All things considered, this was an interesting challenge and glad I took it on. I enjoy these types of projects, let me know if you too decide to try making one of these. Here’s a short video I posted to YouTube of the finished project, enjoy — John.

Frame #266 measures 24″ square and was designed for Diane Eugster’s painting titled Trail Dust. The closed corner frame was made using my 15° process and I’ll admit I probably went into way too much detail on how it’s made — sorry! A feature of this frame was using clavos to add that western vibe to it so feel free to scroll down through the tutorial on milling the Basswood to create that 15° profile. The finish is Real Milk Paint using a 9:1 ratio of Black Iron and Soft White.

I’ve been asked by a number of my readers how to create my 15° frame from 1″ thick material which can hold 3/4″ thick canvas. As you know, I also use my blog to remind myself how to do different process — at 75 years of age it helps! In any case, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know if this tutorial helps you as well, I’ll write it using my best, retired shop teacher format as I can. For this frame I’m using 5/4″ rough Basswood that I get from Peterman Lumber here in Las Vegas. My preference is to get their 8″ and wider, I make my frames about 3″ wide so this gives me the least amount of waste. After flattening one face with a scrub plane it’s surfaced with a power planer. I usually get 1 1/16″ to 1 1/8″ thickness from it.

I prefer to cut each leg of the frame to length (plus miter allowance) separately which makes it easier to control on the saw. I strongly suggest to also cut at least one additional piece 10″ to 12″ long to use as your trial piece to set up your saw. Set your blade at 15° and lock it, it’ll stay the same for the entire job. Lay out both ends of your trial piece with the sliding bevel set to the angle of the tablesaw blade. To ensure that all cuts are made in the right place, I lay the frame legs out on the tablesaw in the exact orientation for each cut — believe me, it’s really easy to make a cut on the wrong face or edge.

Cut 1: I forgot to take a photo of this one but the face of the frame will go against the fence and the board is set on edge. Setting the fence for about 3/4″ works for me but experiment. This cut is what the frame sits on to raise the sight edge. I did a blog on this some time ago but have changed the order of cutting a bit for safety, you may want to check that blog out.

Cuts 2 & 3: These are 15° angle cuts on the sight and back edges. Note that the angle on the back edge will become shorter when you make cut #4. For this frame I measured about 5/8″ in and the cuts are made with the piece on edge. After these cuts I use a smooth plane to remove any mill marks on the face of the frame.

For this frame I wanted to add some bead details and used a Veritas small plow plane with a 3/16″ bead cutter. This is an option, if you decide not to simply go on to the next steps. You need to do this before cut #4 so you have a 90° corner to guide the plow plane.

Cut #4: This cut will allow you to easily clamp the frame together for joining. The profile is upside-down for this cut. This creates a 90° edge for clamping.

Cuts # 5: This is tricky and creates your rabbet. I use a saddle square to “guesstimate” the depth of the rabbet (5/16″) and draw a line on the sight edge. Use that to adjust the blade height and then set your blade on line #5. You can see the orientation of the piece on the fence. I make the sight edge about 1/4″ thick. This is my set up block and you can see my initial cut was a little too deep!

Cut #6: To finish the rabbet this is how the piece is oriented. Again, I use a saddle square to “guesstimate” the depth of the rabbet, drawing a line on sight edge. Adjust the blade to the line and put your pressure on the outside of the piece, not by the fence where it’s angled. As a general rule I need to sneak up on the depth but that’s what the trial piece is for.

The final step is to cut the miters and assemble the frame. When you cut them be sure to apply pressure on the angled cut at the outside of the frame, not the sight edge. I use biscuits to join my frames and the same thing applies here, the biscuit joiner needs to be held securely to the angled cut on the bottom of the profile.

Final Steps:

Once the frame is removed from the clamps it’s time to do any clean up of glue, especially in the grooves between the beads. Any slight variation at the miters can be fixed with a paring chisel. This slideshow demonstrates the process for creating the areas for the clavos. Chisels were used as shown and you’ll notice I drew arrows to remind me of the grain direction, the miters required caution.

After locating the clavos location with dividers I used a scratch awl to deepen the holes so they were visible after painting. To install them they were first pressed in by hand and aligned to the center of the space. To protect the finish from the hammer I placed a piece of hard plastic and tapped them in. They did tend to twist so before they were completely seated I used those pliers with the plastic jaws to align them and tapped them into place. They have an uneven bottom edge which digs into the wood preventing them from twisting.

All things considered this was a good challenge and fit for this painting. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this somewhat lengthy blog I’d appreciate any comments about it — let me know if you make a 15° profile frame and how you liked it; Thanks — John

At the recent West Coast Art & Framing expo here in Las Vegas I made it a point to visit AJoy Framing and after seeing her frames in person it inspired me to create one of my own! My artist wife, Diane Eugster; was with me and after talking with Alana and seeing her work she too was inspired to use that technique for a frame for her work. The unique thing about Alana’s work is that it’s painted in subtle colors and she adds a customizable trim to the sight edge. I’ve created a few frames using milk paint from Real Milk Paint Company and like the results so that was the product I used for this project.

Of course, any new technique has its own set of challenges. Diane recently completed a painting titled Force of Nature which is 24″ square and on stretched canvas. It is painted in a contemporary figurative style. The first challenge was to design what I’ll call a filigree for the trim on the sight edge. My first thought was to do it in two sections to insure that both sides were the same. After trying that method I realized the joint in between the two halves would always show. Since the frame and filigree will be different colors they will need to be painted first and then assembled. That raised too many problems so another approach was needed.

Plan B: To get four identical pieces the first step was to make a router template and pattern jig. To make the pattern start with a piece of paper at least the length of the filigree. Fold it in half, draw on thalf of the design then cut it out and glue to the jig. To make the pattern routing jig I used 1/2″ MDF and 1/4″ Basswood. The Basswood was attached to the MDF with pin nails and glue to cradle the filigree in position for the routing. The measurement inside of the mitered pieces is 23 1/2″ which gives me a 1/4″ rabbet since the filigree is also the sight edge. After cutting the MDF on the bandsaw files and sandpaper are used to get the final design.

The filigree pieces were treated like a picture frame, each is exactly the same size and fit snugly into MDF template. The design is first traced onto the wood then cut out on the bandsaw with a 1/8″ blade. Double stick tape was used to hold the filigree in the jig and the final shape was routed with a 1/4″ round over bit.

Assembly: The frame was painted with milk paint from RMP.co, I chose Plum for the filigree and for the frame mixed 9 parts Black Iron with 1 part Soft White to achieve a charcoal color. Before painting the frame the filigree design was traced onto it and then taped off so that the glue has bare wood to adhere to. The challenge now was how to attach them in the exact location, if you’ve ever tried gluing and clamping long pieces of wood in place you know my concern! The problem was solved by using four pieces of 1/4″ masonite that I cut the exact size as the filigree; this was done at the same time the filigree pieces were cut. When both edges of the masonite lined up with the miter of the frame they were perfectly aligned. To attach the filigree one piece of masonite was removed. The glue was applied sparingly with a brush to both surfaces, the filigree is positioned between the miters, and clamped securely. The opposite edge as done the same way so now 2 of the filigrees are attached. Having the masonite pieces there made it easier to line the filigree up and after they had been glued for several hours it was just a matter of gluing the remaining pieces in. It’s important not to get any glue on the painted surfaces because it’ll leave a stain — learned that from my sample piece! Sounds complicated but this slide show should illustrate it the process for you:

I’ve been using OSMO PolyX 3043 to seal the milk paint. Before applying it I used a Mirka Mirlon pads in 1500 and 2500 grit from Lee Valley to smooth the finish of the milk paint. My wife and I are both pleased with the results. Her painting is done in a contemporary take on a traditional figure and the frame is done with a contemporary take on traditional framing where I used painted ornamentation rather than traditional gilding. The shape of the filigree compliments the flowing dress of the subject and the palette. I wonder if there will be more of these frames in our future?