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For years I believed that if you made something with enough care, honesty and skill, people would eventually flock to it. It would command a high price, your reputation as a craftsman would be highly valued. That was the old way. A craftsman would build something beautiful, show it to people, build a reputation, and over time customers would appear. Today, the internet has replaced the old workshop doorway with a maze of algorithms, advertising systems and platforms that decide who gets seen. For a small maker, that can be a hard reality to accept. Let’s face it algorithms don’t care how good you dovetails are.

I have spent years learning traditional woodworking. Hand tools, old techniques, various joinery, making things slowly and steering clear from factory production work. Working the way I do makes my work have meaning because it carries the mark of the maker who made it. But making something and selling something are two completely different skills.

Everywhere you look, there are promises that AI will solve everything. Better titles, better descriptions, better SEO, better photographs, more customers. The idea sounds simple and promising. Use AI, optimise your listings, and buyers will come. But after putting those ideas into practice, the reality is different.

AI can help you present your work better. It can help write descriptions, organise ideas, improve wording and save time. What AI cannot do is create customers out of thin air. It cannot force a marketplace to show your work. It cannot replace trust that you can only gain through years of dealing with the public. And it cannot make people suddenly want something they were never searching for. It’s like not so long ago when website developers all promised the same thing: “to make you number 1 on Google’s search engine.” That pitch was everywhere in the early 2000s and it was almost always nonsense. There is only one number 1 spot for any given search term, it changes constantly, and it is largely controlled by factors most small businesses have no power over. The people making that promise knew it was hollow. They were selling hope to people who didn’t yet understand how search worked. The AI marketing promises of today are no different. Same structure, different technology. Promise big results, collect the fee, and move on when it doesn’t deliver. The person left holding nothing is always the small operator who believed it. A perfectly written listing can still sit on Etsy, eBay, Marketplace or a Facebook shop and go completely unnoticed.

One of the biggest lessons a craftsman learns is that the people who appreciate your work are not always the people who buy it. Many of the people interested in traditional woodworking are other woodworkers. They love seeing hand cut dovetails. They enjoy learning techniques. They appreciate the process and slowing down. But many of them are not customers because they can either make it themselves or they are armchair woodworkers. They are not looking for someone to build them a wooden item. They are looking for knowledge or entertainment. That audience is valuable, but it is a different audience from the person who wants to buy a finished piece. A person who buys handmade work is often someone who admires the craft but does not have the time, tools or skills to create it themselves. They are buying the story as much as the object.

Many makers build their entire business on platforms they do not control. Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, eBay.

These platforms are powerful, but they are not yours. You can spend years building followers and still be at the mercy of a decision made by a company, an algorithm or a moderation system. That is a frightening position for a small creator. One day your work can be visible. The next day it can disappear. A following is not the same as ownership, and a follower on a platform is not the same as a paying customer.

The obvious answer is always: “Build a website.” But for many craftspeople, that is not easy. Money is not unlimited. A website costs money. Hosting, Software, Marketing all costs money. When you are trying to sell handmade work, every dollar matters. The answer is not necessarily an expensive website. The important thing is having a platform that belongs to you. Even a simple page, a basic portfolio or a small email list. Because an email address from someone who genuinely cares about your work is worth more than thousands of random followers who scroll past. It is old school, but it still works better than most of what is being sold today.

The world does not need another mass produced wooden object. Factories can make things cheaper and faster. A great example of that would be in my neck of the woods the Carrara markets. Why is it failing? Because the sellers sell imported mass produced goods that you can buy in any shop on the Gold Coast. Forty years ago sellers were selling trash and treasure, stuff they had from home and stuff they made themselves. Somewhere along the way sellers started importing goods from China. It was profitable for a while until it wasn’t. In other words, short term gain for a long term loss.

The future of handmade work may not be about chasing every platform. It may be about finding the small number of people who truly value what you do, and sadly not everyone will care. Most people are busy with their own lives and that is normal. The goal is not to reach everyone, the goal is to find the few who care. A craftsman does not need millions of people watching unless you are a content creator. What they do need is the right people watching.

The hardest part of being an independent maker today is not making the object. It is getting it seen. The internet promised to connect creators with the world, but it also created new barriers. Algorithms and platforms decide who will be seen. And Facebook advertising systems decide who will advertise with them or not. They will ban you in a heartbeat without giving you a reason for it, even if you have never advertised once. I know many people who have suffered the same fate just for merely speaking up against political figures. This is now a common worldwide problem. This is their way of silencing you. For some it has proven effective, but for others it has not. The damage caused in the process runs into the millions, and just like the imported Chinese goods, a short term gain will eventually become a long term loss.

For the small craftsman, the challenge is learning how to survive in that environment without losing the reason they started making things in the first place. Because at the end of the day, the value of handmade work was never created by an algorithm. It was created by a person.

After many years of development, I am very excited to announce that my direct-mount Suction Controller is now available. You can order yours here.

Though designed for use with Festool CT 26, 36, and 48 dust extractors, it works just as well with workshop vacuums from brands like Ridgid and DeWalt… it just doesn’t look as slick when installed on those round-bodied tools.

It plugs into the front of a dust extractor or workshop vacuum and allows you to connect one or two hoses. This is useful for one person switching between two tools, or using a tool like a router with two dust extraction ports. It also allows two people to work simultaneously with different tools, such as sanders, using just one dust extractor.

It’s different from a Y splitter in that the suction to each hose can be completely controlled, so you can regulate how much suction goes to each hose. You can have a 50/50 split, a 60/40 split, suction to only the left, or right, or any other ratio.

There are two versions available – the CT SWITCHER-D which is anti-static, and the VAC SWITCHER-D which is not. You can order yours here.

Time now to shape the neck!

Also, I have a brief chat about the tools needed for this process. After running through the shaping process, I start the clean-up in preparation for setting-up the mandolin, “in the white.”

Cheers Gary

 

one down, 3 to go

This was a wee bit difficult to get the notch measurement in the cross rail. Once I figured that out I whacked them out one at time.

go/no/go stick

The rails were all about 1/8" over length and the stick was a slip fit between the dadoes R/L. In hindsight I should have did the go/no/go stick before I sawed the notches at the top for the rail ends.

last one

I sawed out all the rails with the dozuki saw. No problems except with the 3rd one. The distance between the dadoes was a few frog hairs less then the others. I trimmed the notches equally with a chisel until it fit.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well I sawed the notches.  I didn't wander into La La Land with any of them. All the vertical saw cuts split the pencil almost dead nuts. I had thought of doing the cuts on the tablesaw but nixed it. No blue chips for taking the easy road. These were the best (multiple) precision saw cuts I've done.

dry fit

Happy with the fit. The front is within a frog hair of being flush and the ends are a little bit wild. They will clean up easily once the rails have been glued and cooked.

glued and cooking

A wee bit of proud but not a problem to flush. On the right side all the rails are tight and gap free. However, on the left side all of them have a teeny gap. Using a mallet to try and seat them further on the left did diddly squat. I'll have to fill them in with a shim or putty.

hmm......

Flushed up the proud on both sides. The gaps on the left looked like they closed up some after sawing. 

first drawer guide rial

I clipped a nail on the end that butts up against the cross rail. I applied glue to the end grain and about 3" of the drawer guide to anchor the front. 

the easiest one

 The bottom drawer guide rails I can clamp a straight edge to set it correctly. The others won't be as easy to set. I used two nails also - one at the mid point and another one an inch from the end. The middle one cooperated but the end one split the rail. 

I glued the split and put another nail in a half inch away from the errant one. After this has cooked and set I plan to add another nail at the front.

prep

I planed both edges of the rails straight and square to the face. I added a clipped nail at one end. These are ready to go.

oops

Noticed that I was short two drawer guide rails. Whacked them out and prepped them for tomorrow. Killed the lights here and I'll get back to this in the AM.

I can't drive yet and I won't know if I can until this friday. Which means I have to depend on my wife which ain't easy. She does a lot of dead people stuff on line with a lot of zoom meetings. I didn't realize how lucky I was with driving until now.

I want to make a mitering sled for the table saw - I've been watching You Tube vids on how to make one for a couple of days. Still haven't been able to squeeze in a 'wife taxi ride' to Lowes to get some stock. I have zero 3/4" (or 1/2") plywood scraps in the shop. I don't expect this jig to a one use deal - that is why I want to use plywood.

I got the grandsons each an Ipad. (cashed in my Reward points on the Visa card)  Along with a cover, red for Miles, and blue for Leo. Shipped them out today via UPS for $70. It could get there by thursday or up to week later. For $108 I could have gotten guaranteed delivery for friday. This confused the crap out of me but it is what it is. Shipping is a deal killer for sure.

accidental woodworker 

Last Saturday I went to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where I was born and lived for many years, to check out what turned out to be an unimpressive museum show. The plan was to take advantage of beautiful weather and commute back home with a ferry ride downtown instead of the standard subway ride. (NYC is a watery town, with not only spectacular beaches and bridges, but also ferry rides for commuters and day trippers - the world famous Staten Island ferry between Staten Island and Manhattan is one of many ferries between various boroughs and neighborhoods.)

This plan brought me from the museum on a northern stretch of Fifth Avenue to the ferry dock on 90th Street and the East River in the Yorkville neighborhood. 100 years ago Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest people in the United States, lived nearby on 5th avenue and 90th Street. Only four avenue blocks away from Carnegie's home, the Ruppert's Brewery cranked out millions of bottles of a really excellent dark beer that I miss to this day. Ruppert's and the industrial businesses all around the area east of Park Avenue employed thousands of people who lived in walk-up apartments all around that area. The factories are gone, the ethnic (mainly German and Hungarian) enclaves are gone, but some of the housing remains, even as the overall area has become probably the most densely populated residential area in the country.

The explosive growth of the area - from pretty empty to dense rows of walk-ups - was triggered by the explosion in population in post-Civil War NYC, along with some amazing foresight by the leadership of New York City before Civil War. The city ran out of water. The city also had no recreational space. Before 1850, the only real parks in the city were small, one- or two-block affairs like Madison Square Park. While adding parks and water could and did trigger a lot of corruption, the city elders realized that without a proper source of water, the city would die. Between 1850 and about 1870, the water system was installed, Central Park was built and the New York City took on a lot of the character it has today.

During this time Yorkville was rapidly built up. While the area near the river stayed pretty industrial until after WW1, The few existing private houses and farms were torn down for block after block of apartment buildings, mostly five-story walk-ups. But a few buildings from before the boom survive, including these three wooden frame houses on 92nd Street near Lexington Avenue. The oldest, #160, dates from 1853. Built by carpenter Albro Howell, these houses were built as middle-class housing, not the mansions of Fifth Avenue. The first resident of #160 was bookkeeper and mirror salesperson, Robert N. Hebbard. #120 and #122 are similar and were built in 1871 .

Because of the danger from fire, New York City zoning laws banned wooden buildings - first, in lower Manhattan from about the 1830s and, and for all neighborhoods south of 155th street from 1882.

In the 1898 insurance maps, these three wooden structures, along with a few other long-gone buildings, are the only wooden framed houses in the area. The rest of the blocks are already built up with walk-ups.

These three surviving wooden houses look a lot like similar wooden houses that you'll find all over other parts of NYC, especially in Brooklyn. Same time. Same technology. Same construction techniques. The original walls would have had three coats of plaster. The floors would have been heavy parquet. How much of the original interiors of these buildings still exist? I don't know. These are all private homes. The outsides are landmarked. They're also well maintained and each worth in the millions.

By the end of the 19th century, Manhattan was no longer a single-family home city.

Note: the walkups were pretty much capped at five stories because a building would not have enough water pressure (unless it had a water tower). While I am not positive that they came with electricity, the walkups probably did - but it was DC. - and remained that way for a lot of buildings until the 1960's. While such housing may be standard elsewhere in the world, walk-ups are relatively unusual in the US but still abound in NYC. If you help a friend move in or out of a 5th floor walk-up apartment, they owe you big time!

N.B. for those who are curious: Blogs are rarely planned much in advance. If we have a new product line, I'd want to talk about it. But most of the time, blog posts are like this one - inspired by something on the fly. On Saturday when I unexpectedly walked by a couple of houses I found so interesting I took some pictures, and then, when I returned home, I did some research about what I saw. I found out a lot more about these buildings, and located an archived 1898 insurance map and the 1940s municipal archive of photographs. The larger idea which I realized as the entry came together, was the role government had in shaping the neighborhood.

I was looking for videos on YT on how to film woodworking videos. I’m curious how they get all those close up angle shots without themselves or their hands being in the way. As always on YT I get everything else, but what I want. Amongst all those unwanted videos I came across this one “What Woodworking Youtube Videos Sounds Like” and I tell you what, it was actually funny and made me laugh. I thought I would share this with you and hopefully will make you laugh. Lord knows how much we need a laugh in these uncertain times.

https://youtu.be/LCyzfXZ8An4?si=d8UOVIKHJtBtOa_P

hmm.......

I'm trying to reverse engineer how I made this frame and I ain't doing so good. Don't remember how I did the beading on the inside edge. The outside edge I used a router bit and I dimly recall using a hand plane to do the bead. The miters look good and there isn't any chips or blowout on any of the bead heels. The initial plan is make the 2nd frame look like this one.

how

It kind of looks like I half lapped the corners but it looks too small. There also isn't any evidence of that other then this corner. I can't see a spline either and I don't think I would do a miter without one - I don't like miters and I wouldn't depend on just glue to  hold one together. I have plenty of time before I get to the mitering stage to figure it out.

didn't see this

I ripped the rough sawn left edge before I ripped out the frame pieces. Wasn't expecting this tapered cut off to pop up. 

working the dresser molding

I only need three pieces for the plywood back on the dresser. I will nail the bottom of the plywood to the bottom rail.

clean up

The rabbet inside corner needed some clean up. The chisel turned out to be the quickest and easiest one to do it.

done

Glued the three legs on the back. I plan on shaping the outside of the molding after it has cooked. Once that is done I'll add some nails (or screws) to it.

last one

Smoothing and cleaning up the faces of the frame. Two of them planed beautifully with no crazy grain to deal with. Two faces on the remaining two had  some crazy grain that  tore out no matter what I tried planing it. I'll have to smooth those two out with card scrapers and sandpaper.

ready for mitering

Pencil wasn't showing up on the sapele so I used blue tape. Got both edges square to one face but I still needed to get the width of the four to match.

hmm......

Flushed the miters and realized in hindsight that I should have waited before doing this. I still have a lot more manhandling of the carcass to do before this is done. At least this is on the back and won't be that visible.

ran out of gas

Switching between the two ended here for the day. Tomorrow I'll work on getting the drawer cross rails installed. I can get that done before I can do the drawers themselves.

 Thinking ahead on the frame, mostly shooting the miters, is that  they may be a bit difficult. Planing this sapele, even with freshly sharpened irons, it isn't going to be easy. The first frame is a true mahogany and planing that was a dream. I'll find out tomorrow or the next day.

last part

This is what was left over after ripping out the frame. This will do nicely for the back rabbeted frame.

how??????

I have a book on mitering where the each miter was sawn by hand and glued up. True and square and with much joy and dancing in Mudville. My miters were sawn by hand, one on each end, and both were off. This end was worse than the other one.

cleaned up

I had no problems truing the miters up. Mr Starrett confirmed that the two of them are dead nuts on. I could do this with the 2nd frame but the book doesn't mention this being done. It was layout, saw them out, and glue it up. I'm concerned that I'll seesaw and the frame will go south on me. The question I still have is, how did the old guys do this so well?

I continue to feel better each day. A lot of the swelling and fluid build up has gone way down but a stubborn part is still hanging on. It still hurts to cough but the burning pain is gone. Still hurts but it is way better than the burning coughing crap.

Sleeping through the night is proving to be elusive. I slept through the night on thursday and friday but come saturday night, nada. Spent sat/sun sleepless. Got a lot of time viewing You Tube vids with zero shut eye. I seemed to wander in and out sleeping for 10-20 minute periods followed by staying wide awake for hours to nod off again for 10-20 minutes. It is most likely a lingering after effect of the anesthesia. 

accidental woodworker 

Now let us consider tuning up the hand scraper. Despite what you may have heard, read, or viewed, this is not a difficult task. What makes some demonstrations and discussions confusing is not presenting a simple understanding of exactly what you need to do with the scraper steel. Most demos do not clearly state what […]

 Some things are looking up for me. I can see my toes again when I look straight down. Over 1/2 of the swelling and fluid build up is gone. I still think the fluid build up is what is causing my pain when coughing. As my chest expands to cough the fluid is putting pressure on my chest cavity. The swelling and fluid build up I had with my hip operation was mostly gone within 7-9 days. It ain't happening as quick north of that.

still square

There is a wee bit of gap at the front but I'm not going to slip into OCD overdrive about it. The plan for now was to glue and nail the front and back rails in place.

hmm.......

This side of the rail is a few frog hairs below flush. This isn't a problem as the rail's main function is to keep the sides from spreading in or out. Most of the exposed end on the outside of the carcass will be hidden with a molding.

yikes

I used cut nails to secure the rails. This one decided it wouldn't cooperate and threw a hissy fit. It curled and came out on the inside of the carcass. I tried to punch it out with a nail set without success. I used the nail set to put the nail below the surface. I then filled it in with wood putty.

sneak peek

This came out smaller than I expected. I'm sure it had to do with my mixing up the length and width when I glued a 2nd board on.

the back molding

This is want I intend to make to hold the back plywood on. Still deciding on the height and width but I won't be 3/4" square.

prepping for the cross rails

Used the dozuki saw to do the notches for the cross rails. I was surprised that the waste popped off cleanly without ripping and tearing out chunks of wood. The baselines on the outside faces are almost perfectly clean and smooth. 

good fit

All four rails fit snug. The top left one is a wee bit more than that and I'll have to plane/sand that end before gluing it.

close

The top drawer opening is 1 9/16" and the other three are all 1 3/4", plus or minus a frog hair. If I have to make a another one I'll add a couple of more drawers. 

sapele

I've had this in the shop for over ten years. I've had it so long that I can't remember what I bought it for. I will use this to make the frame for the latest certificate my wife received. I'll start on that next week some time.

Had a good day and made 3 trips to the shop to work. Only the second trip was without a coughing fit to deal with. Still haven't found the threshold for not coughing but I worked through it and got something accomplished today. I will be going dead in the water for now because the drawers are next. 

Can't use the lunchbox so I will have to resaw what pine I have on the tablesaw. It is either do that or resaw the sapele for the frame. 

accidental woodworker

 If I move, or exert myself suddenly, I will have a coughing spasm. That will cause the burning pain in my right rib cage. The lung that I didn't have the surgery on is the one that is continuing to throw a hissy fit. I feel no discomfort or pain from the left lung surgery site. So today I mostly sat on my arse again and did nothing. I got up to pee and get coffee. 

The pain site has shifted today. It is still under my right bottom rib cage but the pain has moved to the left a couple of inches. My left boob hasn't changed, it continues to hurt when I touch it, bend over, or strain to fart. I would think it would go spastic when I cough too but it doesn't. 

made in august of 2008

My wife has cleaned out some of the boneyard residents and sent them to a storage unit. This she wants this to use on the porch which is going to be a 'sitting room'. The table is poplar and red oak. I remember making it and putting in the boneyard where I forgot about it.

faded

The black streaks were a purplish color but they had disappeared into a brown color before I was done making the table.

still tight

I had wedged all the bottom and top tenons. 18 years later they are still tight and gap free.

wandered down to the shop

The plan was to give the wood my best goofy looks and fondle some of the tools. Instead I decided to glue up the carcass. I took my time, and I mean I moved like molasses flowing at 40 below freezing. I got it done without having a coughing fit too.

hmm.......

I only glued the sides into the bottom of the top. I left the front and bottom cross rails dry. I will glue and nail them in place later. When and if I get to the shop tomorrow.

another hmm.......

The other three spots I checked for square were dead nuts and stayed square when the clamps were tightened. The right corner when I tightened the F clamp in the middle, this corner would go out of square. I need both sides of the front to be square for when I put in the 4 front drawer rails.

long and wide enough

I am going to apply a 'L' shaped molding to the back that I can slip the 1/4" plywood back into. That means I won't be giving up any drawer real estate to the back. I will give up details on that when I do it a little ways down the road.

got demoted

Another august of 2008 project. Poplar sides with cherry corners. I made this just before I went full out on hand tool woodworking. I used a router table to rout two 1/2" wide dadoes in the cherry to accept the solid poplar panels. My wife decided to use a plastic shitcan now. I can't figure out why?

my shitcan

All solid poplar with a plywood bottom. 72 total mortises and no I don't think I'll make another one. I saw both of these in a mission furniture style book and they caught my attention. A lot of what I make are pictures of things I've seen that I would like to make. Haven't seen anything in a while that has tickled my fancy. Unlike my wife, I like my shitcan and I'll continue to use it.

accidental woodworker

I've recently been working on my old woodie plow plane and it got me thinking about the Veritas plow.  When I bought it, I got a 1/4" and a 3/8" iron with it.  But it seems most of the grooves I make these days are small.  I absolutely love using the wooden plow, but the irons are a little funky.  None of them are the nominal size - they're typically off by a bit (some more than others).  For example, the 1/8" iron (0.125") measures 0.157".  That's almost 22% over nominal.  But the 1/4" iron for the Veritas is spot on.

Here's the Veritas plow plane

And here's its 1/4" iron

Anyway, I thought I'd make a new 3/16" iron for the Veritas, and maybe later I'll make a 1/8" iron.  Their irons are 1/8" thick and, as luck would have it, I have some 1/8" O-1 tool steel.  So I got out the old hack saw and cut a blank to just over 1/4" wide and just over 3" long.

Sawed it out to just over 1/4" wide

The blank filed to 1/4" wide next to the factory 1/4" iron

Next was to file away 1/16" of metal in the lower 3/4" to 1" of the iron.  I probably should have hacksawn this because filing it took a while.  But I got a fairly precise 3/16" wide iron.

Iron clamped sideways in a vise

Filed the width, and also sawed and filed the notch for iron depth adjustment

I also filed the sidewalls so that the bevel side of the iron is a little thinner than the flat side, giving clearance for the iron in a cut.  The next pic shows the iron test fit into the plane.  I made the body of the iron 1/4" wide so that the iron clamping screw would act similarly to the way it does for the stock 1/4" iron.  You can also see where the lever cap meets the iron - that's why I didn't go higher on the iron with the 3/16" width.

First test fit into the plane

The notch fit nicely with the depth adjusting nut

Just a note here.  The metal that was filed away to make the business end 3/16" wide, was filed on the outer side of the iron.  You can't tell in these photos, but the plane's skate sits below the inner side of the iron.  So for the skate to properly support the iron, the metal had to be removed from the outer side.

I heat-treated the iron with a torch until cherry red and nonmagnetic, then plunged into oil.  Then because I didn't want to use our kitchen oven to temper the iron (it was 96° that day and we have no A/C), I tried for the first time to temper it using the colors that advance to the cutting edge as I heated the iron about midway along its length.  When the golden straw color reached the bevel, I plunged in oil.

I didn't get any pictures of that, but it seems to have worked well.  When I sharpened the iron, I thought I might have done the tempering wrong because it seemed I couldn't get a good cutting edge.  But after I removed a bit of material, I sharpened again and got a great cutting edge.  I'm guessing that the initial hardening treatment left the thin cutting edge area a bit brittle and it just needed to be ground back a bit.

[If you read my substack blog, skip this one. Just notifying readers of the new book about the Essex County cupboard.]

I was the luckiest woodworker around when I got the chance to make TWO versions of one of the most elaborate cupboards I know…and even more so when Lost Art Press (who else?) agreed to turn my notes and photos into a book.

The link for ordering is here – https://lostartpress.com/products/17th-century-essex-county-cupboard

I first saw the cupboard this is based on in 1998 – it’s in the collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. At that point, I was embarking on a study with my friend Bob Trent of this cupboard and its relatives. That study took a couple of years to research, digest and write.

Along the way I had a chance to collaborate with my joiner-friends Ted Curtin and Rob Tarule – they were building a copy of a related example to be exhibited at the Saugus Iron Works – and they included me in some of that work. Then in 2001 the article I worked on with Trent and Alan Miller was published in the 2001 edition of American Furniture. At that point, I figured that my Essex Co Cupboards notebook would go on the shelf and stay there. And so it did, for 20 years – when out of the blue I got asked would like me to make one! I jumped at the chance and was twice-blessed. I wrote enough about the project that another person chimed in & said “I want one too.”

Along the way I shot a bunch of video of the process in addition to the photos for the book. I’ve edited a bunch of those – about 5 hours’ worth and made a vimeo-on-demand page for them. Think of them as a companion to the book. All the details are in the book. Many of the processes are presented in the video series. Link is here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/504407

I posted a sample video of about 10 minutes of setting the pintle hinges on the cupboard door over on my substack blog. That video is above the paywall – so you should be able to see it. Maybe you need a free subscription – those that get the truncated posts. Often those are about half the length of the full post…

https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/p/the-cupboard-book-is-done

In this episode, I design and make a new jig for routing the neck joint. Then: fit the neck, the fretboard’s supporting wedge, and the fretboard itself. Quite a lot there to take in!

I skim over the fretting process as I’ve demoed this many times before, but if you’re interested in how I fret, have a look at thisvideo- 

Although I fret my short scale bass, the actual process is the same, just the scale is different!

Cheers Gary

Panel saw German Plum (Zwetschge) 550cm 7 toi Crosscut Pedderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12692353908068506678noreply@blogger.com0

In my last post, I showed how I removed the old finish from this 19th-century sideboard.

Most any antique furniture I can afford to buy is going to need some repair, and that was certainly true of this piece. No doubt it was priced low partly due to the hole burned into the top.

As you can see, the gap is large and deep, and it runs right out the front edge. I first considered filling most of it in with epoxy and doing some kind of decorative inlay to top it off. Then I came to my senses and settled on an plain wooden panel. I’ve done this kind of thing a couple times before, though never with something this big.

I happened to have a 4″ wide white oak board available. I resawed it and edge-glued the two halves together. After planing it down, I ended up with a panel measuring about 12″ by 8″, and 3/8″ thick. I made sure both halves had the grain running the same direction.

The first step was to clamp the panel to be inlaid exactly where I wanted it.

Make sure the grain direction of your inlay more or less matches the grain direction of the surrounding wood, because you’ll eventually have to plane this whole thing flat. You don’t want the grain of the inlay going one direction while the grain of the surrounding wood goes the other.

I outlined the whole thing with a knife.

Use a chisel to cut into the knife line, resulting in a clear knife wall. Deepen those cuts with mallet and chisel. Everything inside will be cut away.

Now it’s time for some serious excavation. There is a lot of wood to remove here.

I found it helpful to work across the grain at times, not just with the grain.

After removing a good amount of material with the chisel, I switched over to the router plane.

I set the router plane somewhat more shallow than the final depth, and started going around the edges.

Because this was a really big surface to excavate, it was important to leave a little “island” of material in the middle for the router plane to ride on.

In retrospect, I should have left even more in the center and the front edge so the router plane had more surface to reference.

I went back and forth between the chisel and the router plane, slowly increasing the router plane’s depth, until I got to the final depth. Then I chiseled out the center.

Because the router plane wouldn’t reach into the very center, I used a small handplane to bring the center down to the right level.

I managed to go deep enough to get most of the damaged wood out, but there’s still a nice burn mark underneath. But no matter. The patch will cover it all, and the surrounding wood is sound, so the patch will stick just fine.

I put in enough glue to make the patch stick. There’s no need to put in so much that the whole panel starts floating on the glue, as there aren’t a whole lot of places where excess glue can squeeze out.

If the fit of the patch is a bit too snug, try using a handplane to relieve the underside of each edge, so it drops in easily at first. Then you can tap it the rest of the way home with a mallet.

I clamped the patch down as well as I could and walked away.

Once the glue had time to dry, I leveled it off with a handplane. I’m very glad I ran the grain in the right direction. But I also wish I had either excavated the hole a little deeper or planed the panel down a bit more before installation, as it took me too long to plane the whole thing down level.

The next fun challenge was to plane the edge to match the profile on the front edge.

I got as close as possible with the shoulder plane.

Then I switched over to a hollow plane. I own just one, which I picked up on a lark at an antique mall a year or so ago.

It’s the only molding plane I have, but it fit the profile well enough. I’m so glad I have it!

It’s the first time I’ve used this plane on a project, and I’m really pleased with the result. I’ll have to be on the lookout for more molding planes like this.

I used some card scrapers and sandpaper to finish the job.

Once I had finished, I realized that there was a little gap at the far end, where some of the old wood had splintered away from the initial chisel cuts.

These kinds of little gaps are very easy to fix. I sprinkled a bit of oak sawdust into the gap and flooded it with regular superglue. Once it was dry and hard, I scraped it all level with a card scraper.

Even with all the repair on this end, the top of this sideboard still had a lot of scratches, burn marks, and other stains, some of which you can see in the above photo. (Maybe somebody was using it for chemistry experiments for a while. I dunno.) I decided the whole top needed to be sanded down.

One of my daughters was interested in learning to use an orbital sander. So I showed her how to do it. She went over the whole top to try to remove as many of the scratches and stains as possible.

It eventually became clear that we were either going to have to remove a good 1/8″ of wood from this top, or leave some of the deeper burn marks there.

We reminded ourselves that we weren’t going for a like-new look. It’s okay to leave some scars visible.

However, all the sanding had gotten us down to fresh wood, so putting a clear coat of finish on it would not only fail to color-match the rest of the piece, but it would also risk accentuating every stain and discoloration.

So I decided to apply a coat of medium-brown stain to the whole top.

I used an aniline dye (“Georgian brown” from Lee Valley), which brought the color back closer to the rest of the piece. It didn’t need to be an exact match, but it turned out fairly close. More importantly, it hides the burn marks just a little bit.

With the sanding and staining done, it was time to apply a fresh finish.

I went with my all-time favorite: home-mixed Danish oil. Here’s the recipe: put equal parts polyurethane, boiled linseed oil, and mineral spirits into a jar. Shake it up a bit to make sure it’s thoroughly mixed.

Using this finish is very easy, and I normally put on only one coat. Flood the surface of the wood liberally with the mixed oil, using a brush or a wadded up piece of paper towel to spread it out evenly. Wait 2-5 minutes, and add more to any spots that look a bit dry. Once the whole surface is fully coated, wait 15-20 minutes. Wipe off any excess. (Make sure you wipe off the excess before it turns tacky.) Let it dry for at least 24 hours, or until you no longer get a strong smell from the surface.

You can add additional coats if you like. The results are a surface that feels like wood, not like plastic, but that is still easy to clean. It also really brings out any figure in the wood, which is a really good thing in this case.

This sideboard was never going to look like new, but it certainly looks a lot better than it did before.

You can see the burn marks on the far right side, right below the inlaid patch. That’s where the burning liquid that damaged the top spilled over and dripped down the front. Whatever it was even burned off part of the original wooden drawer pull! But there’s enough of the pull left that it remains functional.

Like I said, on a functional piece this old, it’s okay that some scars are visible.

The sideboard is now at home in our back hallway, which we are (slowly) renovating to be our coffee and tea bar.

I think it looks happy in its new home.

 Yesterday was bad and today was worse. The swelling and fluid build up is going down. I no longer have a XXL beach ball belly but a XL one. That is good along with the coughing spells subsiding in frequency and length. The downside is there is a burning pain sensation just under the bottom of my right rib cage. The same pain is in my left boob extending under my armpit out to the site of the lung tube. My boob is sensitive and it hurts a lot when I move or bend over. 

The pain under my rib cage is much worse. It hurts just sitting and with small movements but when I cough, I want to put a gun in my mouth. I get a sharp, intense burning pain when I cough. I can feel the cough pressing a 'lump' and the lump doesn't like being bothered. The fluid build up is right along the bottom of my rib cage, with more on the left than on the right. 

I have been sitting at my desk doing nothing trying not to cause a coughing fit. Pressing on the 'lump' helps some knocking down the pain but it is still incredibly painful to cough. 

I didn't go to the shop at all today. I did go to lunch to get fish 'n chips and I won't be doing that again. I spent the entire meal in fear I would have a coughing fit. They aren't pretty sights boys and girls should see and most time they bring tears to my eyes. The Tylenol and oxycodone the hospital gave are useless managing the pain. It is like I am taking nothing for it because it still hurts like _)*@#^%__@)%*Q#@*)^*(#+_)^(_324-534=7*(%^** hell when I cough. 

On a bright note I did sleep well last night. I woke up 3 times, twice because of a coughing fit, but I was able to go back to sleep each time. Still can't sleep flat on my back but I have to sleep propped up against the head board.

I don't know if it is worth while to go to the ER about this. I feel that they are just going to tell me that it is post op symptom that I have to deal with. We'll have to wait and see what shakes out with that.

No promises for shop time tomorrow. I may go down there just to look around and fondle the wood and tools though. Maybe that will be a cough suppressant?

accidental woodworker 

 Another sleepless night. The rest of my lingering symptoms are still gradually getting better. I'd trade that for a goods night sleep. I hit the rack before 2200 and slept fitfully until the peepers failed open for good at 0231. In between 2200 to 0230 I slept for less then an hour, woke up, and drift off to sleep again. That would have been acceptable if it had continued until morning.

Instead I was wide awake watching You Tube until until I felt sleepy around 0500. I debated about getting up but I closed my eyes and when they opened again it was 0810. I felt a whole lot better then and got up then to face the day.

By the time I had posted my blog I felt blah as in I just wanted to occupy space, suck in oxygen, and expel carbon dioxide. I stayed that way vegetating until I dragged my myself down the shop in the PM session.

honey do project

My wife asked me to make a frame for her new certificate. The left one is mahogany that I made out of a mahogany table I got off of Facebook Marketplace. I don't have any more of that but I do have some 8/4 sapele. That is the closest thing I have to mahogany and it'll have to do.

2nd honey do project

This is from daughter #2 that she wants framed as a present for her husband. I have a frame for this already so I just have to pick out a mat for it. I'll get this one to Maria ASAP as his birthday is next month.

yikes

At this time of the day in the shop I'm usually looking to wrap things up. Today it is the time I finally made it to the shop. It was a chore to get myself motivated to do something.

done

Cleaned up the bottom of the top and the sides. That took me all of 3 minutes to knock out. This was all I had on the to do list but I stayed to find something else to do.

what a relief

Searched the shop looking for these. As the last place I searched, I found them in the shitcan. How and why they were tossed in here, I am totally clueless. Happy that I found them and they weren't damaged.

hmm.....

My first choice for the back was 1/8" plywood but I don't have any wide enough for the back. I'll have to use 1/4" which would be  stiffer and stronger but it will eat up some of the drawer real estate. The rabbet at the back top isn't that bad - a bit awkward to execute but no headaches to do.

I like this rabbet

This one will hidden when viewed from the side. I think overlaying it looks sloppy and crappy. It is worth the calories (IMO) to do it this way.

nope

This is the rabbet on the sides and I don't like it. It is eating into the half tail which will decrease the strength of it. I'll have to rethink how to get a back on that doesn't look haphazard or an afterthought. I already have an idea percolating in the brain bucket for that.

I didn't feel up to gluing the the carcass today. Past glue ups have taught me that they are stressful enough without not being fully up to snuff. Maybe tomorrow I'll get it glued and cooked.

accidental woodworker 

The old-fashioned way. I've been out and about taking these around today. Birdwood House Gallery, Totnes.

Lots to do. 

 

 I am now 8 days out from my surgery. I am mostly pain free but there is some soreness on the left side of my chest. I cough a lot but the doc said that is good for me as it helps to inflate and expand my lungs. The cough is annoying as I don't get a heads up with it nor for how long I will try to hack up whatever is causing the coughing spell.

I still have a lot of swelling due to fluid build up. The doc said walking should help with making that going bye bye. The fluid build up has shifted from the tube site to the middle of my chest. I still feel like/look I have a XXL beach ball for a stomach. But overall I'm happy with my healing so far. Next week I see the chief pulmonologist and fingers crossed that  he'll have some good news for me.

done

Chopped the other nine stopped dadoes this AM. It took me longer to whack out then it would have before the surgery. Happy with how they came out.  Sometimes pine dado bottoms can tear out and look real ugly. A few came close tbut they will never be seen regardless.

hmm......

From the top to the 3rd one down, the dadoes are a few frog hairs wider than a 1/2". The bottom one (by my finger) is a snug fit for the 1/2" brass bar. I thought of shaving it to increase the width but nixed it. The difference between the dadoes is almost nothing and I didn't want to risk chiseling a mismatch R/L.

no problems

 I wasn't sure how this would go. I ripped the thickness of the rails a few frog hairs wider then the dadoes. I planed the R/L ends to fit and had no issues doing that. Planing the rails to fit with my #4 was easy. No straining, pain, or losing my breath planing them. Not sure if the back and forth moving the plane fit the excessive arm repetition I am supposed to avoid. 

drawer guides

The plan is to glue the front end of the drawer guides to back of the drawer rails. I will screw the back of the drawer guide to the side in an elongated hole. I have used this same method in just about every other 'shop dresser' I have made. I think this is the 8th one?

ran out of gas

I have to plane the inside of the dresser and then I can glue it up. That will be the all I can do on this for now. Making the drawers is batting next. They aren't on a multiple of 12" neither which means I'll have a bit of waste with standard length boards. I don't have enough stock neither to make all the drawers.

My wife went to Lowes in the PM and asked me to come but I declined. I could have picked up the stock needed to make the drawers but I just wanted to sit at my desk and rest up before I went on my 2nd walk about for the day. 

I will be dead in the water because I can't bring the lunchbox planer out to the driveway. I could saw out drawer parts to rough size and then resaw them to width on the tablesaw. That is doable and most likely what I'll do because I don't want to wait. 

Ran out of gas again at lunch time. I spent a few AM hours in the shop with the intention of returning in the PM to start the glue up but that didn't happen boys and girls. However, this time I stayed awake and didn't allow myself to drift off into La La Land. I paid that price last night when I woke up at 1230 and didn't fall back to sleep until 0300 or so. I can't sleep a full night after taking a nap during the day. Fingers crossed I'll get a good nights' sleep tonight.

accidental woodworker 

Rex Krueger has posted a very nice video snapshot of Plane Wellness’ Handtool Haven 2026, where I was one of the speakers and exhibitors.