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Going into wildness alone is a high-demand aspect of my personal woodworking journey. Would I do it now, now that I am nearing 76 years of age? And would I do it as back then, without a cell phone, when cell phones were yet to be invented, and the internet was still mainly in the...

Source

Frontispiece from the book Woodwork (The English Sloyd) by S. Barter ND C.1890

I studied woodworking for a little bit at the New School and then for years at the now defunct Craft Students League. Not only did I learn essential woodworking skills, I met lifelong friends. My interests eventually led to my founding Tools for Working Wood as well.

So I can be sincere in recommending woodworking classes (or indeed classes focusing on any craft that interests you). Trial and error is by definition mostly repeated error, so having a teacher whose methods and results excite you can make learning much more efficient (and fun).

Where can you learn woodworking in the NYC area? Here are some great options for instruction. Many of these schools also offer opportunities for shop rentals, one-on-one instruction and club meet-ups.

Note: We are not guaranteeing that this list is comprehensive. We are very familiar with some of these schools, others less so. Some have comprehensive offerings; others specialize. We arent endorsing any specific school or methodology. We do think not everyone teaches or learns the same way and it is hard to judge the effectiveness of a program.

When folks ask us when we will be offering the Rietveld chair class again (never, sorry to say) or other classes we have offered in the past, we give them the list below. If we left your school, or class off of this list please let us know and we will add you in.

By the way, just because we have put the kibosh on offering formal classes does not mean that we are no longer offering instruction. We will continue to host instructional events such as our Festool demo event, Festool Fest - and in fact we are hosting this two- day extravaganza again next month: Friday, September 12th and Saturday, September 13th, from 12 -3 pm both days. For more information, please click here.

(In no particular order)

Makeville Studio 125 8th St Brooklyn NY 11215 917-873-5542
https://makeville.com/

Bien Hecho Academy
Brooklyn Navy Yard, 63 Flushing Ave, Bldg 3, Suite 1103, Brooklyn, NY 11205 646-875-8075
https://www.bienhechoacademy.com/

Makerspace NYC - Brooklyn
Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th St Bldg B Unit 1C, Brooklyn, NY 11220 718-273-3951
https://www.makerspace.nyc/

Makerspace NYC - Staten Island - contact Makerspace Brooklyn above

Fashion Institute of Technology - Continuing Education
Furniture Making Classes, FIT CCPS, 227 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001
https://continuinged.fitnyc.edu

Nihonsan Tools
300 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 929-724-4027
https://www.nihonsantools.com/classes

Make Good Traditional Handcrafts
https://www.makegoodwood.com/classes/

Astoria Woodworkers Collective
1210 Astoria Blvd, Astoria, NY 11102 971-373-5248
https://www.astoriawoodworkers.org/classes

Craftsman Ave
117 11th Street Brooklyn, NY 11215 929-266-3494
https://craftsmanave.com

Sawkill Lumber
1 Troy Ave Brooklyn, NY 11213 917-862-7910
https://www.sawkill.nyc/woodworking-classes-brooklyn/

Training programs:

Brooklyn Woods 621 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217 718-237-2017
https://bwiny.org/brooklyn-woods/overview/

Local classes, provided you have an expansive idea of what constitutes the local area:

CT woodwork (East Patchogue, NY)
https://www.ct-woodwork.com

HUDSON RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM (Kingston. MY)
https://www.hrmm.org/adult-classes.html

Philadelphia Furniture Workshop (Philadelphia)
https://www.philadelphiafurnitureworkshop.com/

New Jersey School of Woodwork (Washington NJ)
https://www.njsow.org/

Peter's Valley School of Craft(Layton, NJ)
https://petersvalley.org/

The Wood Joint (Long Branch, NJ)
https://thewoodjointnj.com/

Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking (Manchester, CT)
https://schoolofwoodworking.com/

Make Haven (New Haven, CT)
https://www.makehaven.org/about-us

The Nautical Arts Workshop (Deep River, CT)
https://www.thenauticalartsworkshop.com

Brookfield Craft Center (Brookfield, CT)
https://www.brookfieldcraft.org/

Plumier Foundation (Saltsburg, PA)
https://plumier.org/shop-talk/

 

squaring them up

The plan was to square the bottoms of all three and then get the height adjusted and finally square off the tops. It didn't go as to plan. I couldn't get the bottoms of the sides to read square. I could read square from one long side and the opposite one was slightly off. Just enough to be annoying and needing attention. 

I went back and forth seemingly forever trying to adjust this. I ended up sawing the long sides (parallel) on the tablesaw. When I had measured them the sides were a strong 16th off from top to bottom. After I got the sides parallel I had to square the bottoms again because both ways were off.

Now I got square from both sides. Then I got the length of all three the same and finished by squaring the tops.

making the battle plan

Decided to use biscuits to attach the sides to the back. I'll biscuit one side and let it cook before doing the opposite one. Got both sides dried squared here to get the length on this top front rail. Switching from dowels to biscuits and screws (?) to attach it.

The biscuit operation didn't happen. I didn't have enough to do the sides but it worked to my advantage. I hadn't sanded the inside faces of the three panels yet. That was next and I only sanded it with 120 because this is getting painted.

need a bigger square

The black ones work for keeping the ends square but I don't have anything for the middle. I didn't feel like making a road trip for biscuits so I made a larger clamping square.

oops

I sawed the half lap on the bandsaw, wrong. I thought I had set the fence (with 3/8" set up bar) so the half lap would be strong. I positioned the set up bar so the blade was past it by strong 32nd (wrong way). I should have did it so the blade was a 32nd the other way. I'll plane the two legs flush after the square has cooked.

only need the outside

Dry clamped to see if this was feasible. This will work - I'll be able to glue the half lap and clamp it while also clamping the wooden square to Big Red.

yikes

Where is the missing tool? FYI - it is my Union 90 square. Lost an hour scouring the shop trying to find it and nada. I even emptied two shit cans sifting through them to check I hadn't swept it up. I couldn't find it after spending over an hour searching. On the flip side of the coin, the shop is swept clean and tidy now. I'll give it a few days before I buy another one - I use this constantly and the Blue Spruce one I have is too big.

accidental woodworker

This is the first in a new series of “Bass Build” videos that I’m making. I’ve been wanting to build myself a solid body, short-scale bass guitar for a while and now’s the time! If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you would have noticed a few bass side-projects in amongst all the mandolins. In that case, you’ll remember that I restored a vintage Kay bass about a year ago and that’s been the inspiration for this one’s design. In this video I look at designing the bass and solve the problem of a getting a bridge with a narrow (17mm) string spacing.

 What a miserable way to spend more than half a day. At 0830 I was at my local Firestone tire store because my driver side rear tire wouldn't hold air. While I was there, I noticed the passenger side rear was looking soft and sad. To shorten my tale of woe, I got back to the barn just before 1400 - $497.37 lighter with two new rear tires, OUCH, OUCH, and OUCH again. I wasn't expecting to spend this much and it will put a serious dent in my discretionary $$$ for fun stuff this month and maybe a part of september too. 

after dinner last night

Went back to the shop to glue that weird hiccup on the edge of this ass'y. It looked good after the clamps came off. I could readily pick out it still and I'll have to use some putty to flush it. Paint will hide any evidence of it after.

afternoon session

Stayed late in the shop today to have something to show for it. Clamps off and used the LN 102 to knock down the high/proud on the rails/stiles.

too much twist (?)

I'm not sure if this came from me when I clamped this. I do know that I didn't check the glue up to ensure that it was laying flat/tight to the clamps. Regardless I will have to deal with it.

bottom

Not as bad as it is at the top but I still have to flatten it out.

better

There is almost nothing here at the middle rail. The plan percolating in the brain bucket was to try to spread this out across the width of the back. I didn't want to take all the wood off the uplifted side stile.

it is working

Definitely had to remove more on the left side than the right but I think I balanced it pretty good overall. I didn't go nutso trying to get it flat +/- an atom or two. I concentrated on outside 1" getting that flat between the left and right stiles.

stopping here

Nothing is married to the face side of the stiles. The outside edges will be secured to faces of the side rear stiles so it is only important that these two surfaces are square to each other.

dead square

The back panel ass'y is dead nuts square. The diagonals were barely off the width of a black division line on the tape.

back

The two sides are pretty good on size, both width and height. The back is 1/8" taller than the sides. Not sure if I want to leave it and plane it square after the sides are attached or plane it off now. I got time to figure it out.

sneak peak

This needs something at the front to help hold it together. A rail at the top and bottom to keep the sides from folding inward or falling outward. Just thought of another issue that has to do with the door. Should it be a overlay or insert door? I had planned on an insert door but an overlay door would be easier than an insert one.

door stock

The two long ones are the stiles and they look straight and flat to my eye. Fingers crossed that they will still look the same in the AM.

muntin stock

This should be more than enough for the muntins for the door. I even have extra for several oops if need be.

garbage and ....

The left one is the plywood I got sunday from Woodcraft. Two thin veneers for the outside faces with a single ply between them. 6mm plywood on the right, 5 plies. Two thin outside face veneers with 3 plies between them. Should have bought the 6mm and sanded/planed it fit the grooves. Sigh.

insurance

The bottom rail for the door is 3 1/2" wide and got two of them. Got two top rails at 3" wide. All of them look flat and straight for now.

maybe

I might be able to use one or two of these as a back stile. One of them has a groove so that one isn't a good candidate. 

wonky

All three of these are straight and flat until this short area at the end where it wanders out into left field. I didn't measure it to see if it is long enough because I didn't want to find out they were a 1/2" short. 

needs some attention

The back bottom isn't square and one side ass'y is out of square at the top. Tomorrow I'll square up the bottom edge and set the height too. I'll then saw the two sides to match it. The top and bottom rails are an 1/8" wider - the top at 3 1/8" and the bottom at 3 5/8". I did that to allow for trimming and squaring things up.

accidental woodworker

Recently the Venn Diagram of Life had enough overlap that I was able to address the problem of the blanched finish on the sill/shelf of the new bay window in the dining room.  As you may recall, I trimmed out the window with antique cherry I had in my stash, and sealed the shelf with epoxy because there was a 100% chance that Mrs. Barn would be using it to hold plants.  In order to unify the overall appearance of the window and shelf, I glazed the veneered pine shelf with an oil stain to match the cherry.

It looked grand until I varnished over the glazing with P&L 38 that then blushed overnight as it dried.  I mean, the kind of blushing when we were spraying cellulose nitrate on a muggy July day in South Florida.

A reader wrote to tell me that an amine component of the epoxy hardener was the culprit.  Despite several efforts to mitigate the whitened surface it remained in place, leading me to the inescapable conclusion that the oil varnish and the oil glaze underneath it had to come off.

The time for that to occur had finally arrived and the combination of a low-odor stripper with the open windows inflicted minimal affect inside the house.  A very small test area worked well, a larger test area confirmed my path of execution.

My method was to brush on some low odor paint remover, cover that with aluminum foil, and let it work its magic for about three hours.

At the end of that time the foil was peeled back and the now-dissolve varnish and stain scraped/wiped off slicker’n cat snot.

My original plan was to introduce a colorant into a new application of the varnish to achieve the same cherry tone, but the fact is we like the contrast so much I am going to leave it looking just the way it is.  I’ll rub out the epoxy finish and call it “done.”

old bookcase

This is the only project that I made with divided glass lites. I have made several cabinets with glass doors but all were made with one piece of glass. I made this 10+ years ago(?) and I eyeballed it to see how I did it. I had been thinking about it for for a couple of days and nada. Once I saw this the light bulb finally came on.

glazing putty

I put on rabbet all the way around on the inside. Then I put in the glazing bars - two pieces, a front flat one and an thin inside one. The panes are held in place with glazing putty and glaziers points. I want an unsymmetrical arrangement of lites for the current cabinet too. Now I have a starting point for making the current door.

hmm......

Yikes! This is a screwball type of a hiccup. I only found it because it stuck a sliver of wood into my index finger. Now that I'm typing this I realized I totally forgot to fix it. I'll have to make sure that I do it in the AM.

happy face on

Fiddled a bit more on the tenons and did a dry clamp up. Happy with how all the rail/stile connections look. Any misalignment I'm sure I can easily feather out.

width measurement

I thought both the upper and lower width were dead nuts.

I was wrong

 Almost a 1/8" difference, but how? I checked it again and I hadn't fully seated one of the sticks in the groove. Checked the two of them again and now they were dead nuts on.

height sticks

Didn't make the same mistake with the height. I put the top measurement on one side and the bottom one on the other face. The top panel is 1/8" taller than the bottom one. 

experiment time

I want to use a dowel joint but I wasn't sure how to do it with the dowel max jig. It is a 'T' joint. The first part was easy but the 2nd mating one made me feel like I didn't haven't an IQ with double digits.

hmm.....

My jury rigged test failed. I don't know how I ended up with this offset. I was feeling a little smug before I saw this. When in doubt, RTI (read the instructions) as the last resort.

T joint instructions

These were initially as clear as mud. I read them a bazillion times and nada - I was still clueless. One thing I couldn't reconcile or understand was the drawing on the right side page. 

5.67mm plywood

I set aside the dowel max and made a road trip to Woodcraft. There was one 30x30 6mm plywood panel but it was too thick at 6.43mm. I bought a 1/4" thick 24x48 plywood panel that measured this. The panel edge plies look liked complete garbage compared to the 6mm edge plies. However, it fit snug and is self supporting. The other bonus is I got all 4 panels out of this with some box making stock left over.

dry fit

Got a good fit with all four panels. I checked for square measuring the inside of the panels and all said I was square.

glued and cooking

Met my goal of getting the side assemblies glued and cooking. I'll start on the door tomorrow. I think I will only saw out the stiles and rails. I won't make it until I have the sides and back together. I'll need to have that to get the final size for the door.

ta da

Finally figured it out. Turns out the drawing and the instructions don't tell the complete story to do a 'T' joint. You have take one part of the jig apart and put it back together so you can drill the dowel holes in the face of the mating piece. Nice feeling to see the joint come together correctly.

the 'T' joint place

I have been thinking about using this joint at the top front of the cabinet. Still undecided about whether or not to place it horizontally or vertically.

it will work

As I was looking at the placement of the rail (above pic) I thought that the jig wouldn't fit for the 2nd part of the 'T'. The excess horns did a job with my head making me think that it wouldn't fit where it should. I was wrong and the proof of the pudding is the jig placement itself.

accidental woodworker 

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

 

first side panel ass'y

Initial check of the tenons said that not only did they fit but they were snug and self supporting. In the on deck circle was trimming the tenons and checking the fit of them fully seated.

first dry fit

Happy with this. The tenons haven't been sucked down fully but they look ok at all the rail and stile connections. This first dry fit confirms that the tenons are good as is.

fully seated

No hiccups when I clamped across the three rails. The rail/stile joints are dead nuts flush and none are off more than a frog hair or two.

2nd side panel

The bottom rail/stile connection (IMO) is unacceptable. It is about a strong 32nd on both faces and the same headache on the opposite end. The difference is too much to sand/plane and feather out. The other four connections are acceptable.

plywood fits

I got the panel to slide into the corner without having to beat into place with a mallet. However, I don't like this as I can see a slight misalignment between the rail and stile groove walls. Most likely I sawed the tenons of this one wrong from the other two in this set.

see it?

I got the thin and thick walls between the rail and stile as it should be. I don't like not having the groove walls aligned. This little bit may bite me on the arse at glue up if I leave it. The fix is to either remove some wood from one face of the tenon and shim the opposite face or enlarge the mortise and shim the tenons afterward.

and the winner is....

Decided to avoid thinning the tenon and reducing its strength. Instead I am going to enlarge the mortise but only by removing wood from the thick walled side of the groove. A bit tedious removing some wood and then checking the fit repeatedly.

oak veneer

When I got close I checked the fit of the tenon and it was decent with this oak veneer. I still had more to go and in the end the oak veneer turned out to be too thin.

bandsawn veneer

I only needed two shims, one on each tenon. I sawed these a bit fat so after they were cooked I would have to trim them to fit.

almost

Slow going moving the rail flush with the stile. I think at this point I had moved it forward about 3/4 of the way. I was using a chisel and a rasp. One problem I had was I went from a tapered wall (side to side and not up/down) to one with a hump. Removing the hump tried my patience big time.

done

There is a huge improvement in rail/stile flush. It is close enough that I can feather it out flush with sanding. It took me over an hour to get this rail flush with the stiles.

cooking

Glued on the shims and set them aside to cook for a couple of hours. Killed the lights here because watching glue dries sucks.

90 minutes later

I am liking this LN rabbet plane more and more for trimming tenon cheeks every time I use it. It took almost no time at all to get both cheeks fitting snug and almost flush.

first one fitted

Haven't decided yet but I could place this on the inside of the cabinet. That will depend upon how it looks after it is glued and sanded smooth.

done

Got the second one fitted quicker than the first one. Both of them came out snug and self supporting.

I only have one 30x30 6mm plywood panel which will only give up two panel inserts and I need 4. I will make a road trip to the Walpole Woodcraft tomorrow. On sunday the traffic will be almost nonexistent. I'll saw up the panels and get the two assemblies glued and cooking. Then its on to the door.

accidental woodworker 

Due to some technological mishaps my blog has been “incognito” for the last 3-4 weeks! I didn’t realize it until a couple of my followers told me about it. The problem was with my domain registry but happy to say it’s been resolved — I do have a love/hate relationship with technology for sure!

What you may have missed is the latest project which was my Danish inspired love seat, here’s the link for the first blog about it: https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2025/06/07/danish-inspired-loveseat/

….. and here’s the link showing the completed project : https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2025/06/28/danish-loveseat-finished/

Hope these come through for you; if you feel so inclined I would appreciate a quick note to confirm the the technical issues have been resolved, thanks — John

With all the holes pierced for the pegs, it's finally time for assembly. The rain is holding off, so I'm going to do it outside.

Even with all the pre-fitting, it can still be a struggle to get all the pieces together. The idea is that the offset of the holes will pull all the joints together. I am going to give it a trial squeeze with sash clamps, before I put any pegs in. That way I can see if there needs to be any final adjustment of the shoulders.

All of these parts are from gnarly English oak, and even though they were straight and true when I first planed them, some have moved and twisted. This kind of construction allows for that and as long as you can get the tenons part way into the mortices, once they all tap home, the whole of it miraculously transforms into a straight thing. Sure enough, the shoulders of the top rail/stile joint needed squaring up.

Time to gather the pegs. One final check to makes sure all the holes are in the right place.

And then bang them in. It's a very satisfying process, as the pegs squirm through the offset holes, pulling it all tight.

Then back inside, as the sky is darkening with potential rain.

This chest will be taller than most at 35.5"/900mm, for two reasons. It's going to be a combined tool chest and workbench, with space underneath to slide my other toolbox (which is a WW1 British soldier's kit box, I believe). That height is ideal for me to work at.

Another oddity with this chest, is the brackets; because it's going to be a workbench/toolbox, I've upped the amount of pegs by a factor of 4. Period brackets often had only one peg, these have 4 each. It's going to take a lot of punishment, so I want it to be as strong as possible.

Where the rail carvings run onto the stiles, I have left this unfinished, so I can take those final cuts now the front is joined. I have to trim off those pegs first.

 

out of the clamps

I was mildly surprised by how the rail/stile joints looked after coming out of the clamps. I didn't see/feel any of misalignment seen/felt on the dry fit up.

the worse one

This rail/stile is misaligned about 3 frog hairs. Happy with how it turned out. I think the stiffness of the  6mm plywood had a lot to do with it.

6mm  fillers

I got the fillers from ripping off the walls on the off cuts from the rails. They are almost a perfect fit - I'll just have to shave a wee bit to flush them.

 

sawing the horns

I laid out a pencil line a few frog hairs proud. Sawed it off on that and planed the stile ends flush with the bottom of the rails.

done

Much easier than I anticipated. In the back of the brain bucket I envisioned a lot of scenarios where I butchered this saw cut. Out of square in a bazillion directions were the headliners.

last one to smooth, flush, and square

I'll have to repeat this dance steps when I do the sides. I think I'll approach them with a lot less apprehension.

6mm fillers

I didn't leave the stub when I sawed the tenons to width. Once the cabinet is together the empty hole will never be seen. Filled it in mostly to give me a warm and fuzzy about keeping the bottom from twisting.

side project

Both of these are covers for my cell phone. If I put the cell phone in my pocket, as I walk it will intermittently shut off, lower the volume, or load a new you tube. Putting this on top of the phone between the screen and my pocket shut down 99.9% of this nonsense. I listen to podcasts on You Tube on my post lunch strolling - the cell phone blue tooth goes right to my blue tooth hearing aids.

chopping side mortises

I got two stiles done before lunch time rolled around.

3 coats

I'm going with 6-7 coats on these. I sweat a lot on my strolling and shellac doesn't like moisture. Hoping the multiple coats will help.

sigh

I screwed it up again. I want to scream and I did along with a barrage of expletives not to be heard in mixed company. The quirk making all the problems - the 6mm groove isn't centered. When I made the test groove a couple of days ago I didn't center it before plowing the grooves in the rails and stiles. I just ensured that I marked an X on the reference face for the fence.

That hiccup made for a lost interchangeability, that I had to check to make sure as I laid out the mortises. Here the grooves - the wide and skinny walls aligned but I laid out the mortises opposite. I put the top at the bottom on one and the opposite on the other. Result is the groove walls don't align with the mortises. I had to make a new stile.

FYI

One thing I've learned over the years is to leave the tools set and don't change them. If I need a different groove set up I will set and use another plow plane - I have five of them. I will not break down or stow a tool until the project is complete, finished, over with, a check mark in the done column. And it seems I lost my ability to count again because I have 3 extra stiles so I guess that is serendipitous.

double, triple checking it

There isn't a huge difference in the groove walls but it is enough to throw off sliding the panels in place. I stopped and walked away 4 times before I said it was aligned and it was ok to lay out the mortise locations.

side rails

Before I started the tenons I checked that all of these aligned. I used the X reference face to ensure they matched.

snug fit

Cut the tenons on the tablesaw and got a good fit and it is also self supporting.

sawing the cheek waste

old habit

I will save the off cut waste for just in case. I checked two more tenons for fit and I was happy with them. Probably won't need them and the pack rat in more says to save them for .......

chopping mortises again

Here you can see the two outside walls are just a wee bit fatter then the two inside ones. A subtle difference that will bite you on the arse and draw blood.

sigh or oops

These two rail tenons are too thin. They are a strong 32nd or more too loose in the mortise. The thickness of these two rails is about a strong 32nd more than the 3rd rail in this series. Hence the loose fitting tenons. Rather glue veneers on the cheeks I opted to make two new rails that are the same thickness as the 3rd rail (the bottom one).

extra rail stock

These are unused due to the change in the layout for the panels. I can get both the middle and top rails from these two.

done

Replacement rails done and test fitted. Snug and self supporting. All is well in Disneyland again.

6mm filler

The replacement rails came from stock that was grooved on both edges. The top edge of this one (which will be the top rail) I will fill in the groove. It will never be seen once the cabinet is finished. Filling it in will allow me to nail, screw, or glue along this edge as needed.

Looking ahead to tomorrow to finish chopping the mortises and get the side assemblies glued, clamped, and cooking. Then I can start on the door and how to make the divided lite glazing bars.

accidental woodworker

The title is not click bait, it’s real. I stumbled on it last night. It’s a total game changer for me and anyone else who wants to give it a go. I am talking about A2 steel razor sharp as if it has come off the strop in under 30 seconds flat. Watch the video to see how.

 It was hot, humid, and sticky today. The post lunch stroll was a PITA. I did a 3 Stooges routine trying to peel my sweat soaked T shirt off when I got back to the barn. That tired me out more than the stroll did. In spite of that adventure I made good progress on the cabinet. There is still a long ways to go but every journey starts with the first step.

hmm......

Put the opposite stile on to see how it fit. Two of the tenons fit and two didn't. Part of the fun with mortise and tenon joinery for me it the fitting.

30 minutes later

Dry fitted and clamped. Happy with the rail to stile connections. All of them look good but a couple of them aren't flush. Some of the rails were slightly cupped - enough to cause a misalignment with the stiles. I didn't plane it because I didn't want to thin the rails at all. I'll deal with the alignment issues with planes, sanding, and wood putty because after all it is getting painted.

width first

 Used two sticks to measure the width of the panels. The width of all three were the same.

setting the tablesaw

These sticks are for the height of the panels.

3 sets

I used leftover banding moldings for my measuring sticks.

3 panels

I don't have enough 6mm plywood for the cabinet. I figured this out before I brain farted and cut one wrong too. Another road trip to the Walpole Woodcraft is in the near future. I'll bring calipers so I can measure the thickness of the plywood.

oops

I made the bottom panel too wide or too tall. Depends upon whether you are a 1/2 full or 1/2 empty type personality. Spoiler alert - me-steak upcoming.

too small

I should have, would have, could have, but didn't eyeball the panel before running it through the saw. I didn't check to ensure that I had the orientation correct before trimming it to size.

not again

 This is what I missed when trimming the original panel. Oh well I can use the screwed up panel to make boxes.

dry fit

I did an asymmetrical layout on the panels. The top and bottom panels are the same size with the middle panel being 1 1/2 inches taller.

hmm.....

Both of these squares are the only ones that I have that don't have shoulders. They lay flat in the panel and say all three are square. The wooden squares when checked with Mr Starrett are a paper width off square at the far end from the 90. Both say the panels are square and the diagonals are dead on too. I was having a deja vu sensation but the light bulb never came on. How can the say it is square when they are a frog hair off? Does that make a difference when used wood on wood this way? I'll look around for a small framing square or something similar.

side rails

Before gluing up the back I plowed the grooves in the six rails for the sides. Decided to go with two plywood panels in each side. I did that because the width of the plywood panel will be about 9 inches. The height around 22 inches.

going well

No hiccups or urges to find my 3lb sledge hammer. The first part of the glue up went off without a hitch and zero stress. Glued on the last stile, clamped it, and set it aside to cook. Hoping that the sides glue up as easy as this one.

paper thick gap

When I sighted down the stiles they looked pretty good to the eye. Not dead nuts perfectly straight but good enough maybe. I just have the two ends clamped and there is a varying gap everywhere in between the clamped ends. Just to be safe I did the stiles for the sides the same way I did the back stiles.

done

It took me about 30 minutes to plow all the grooves in the rails and stiles.
 

mortise layout

This story stick is a mess with a few incorrectly marked mortises. It was a bit confusing but I slowed down, took my time and got everything transferred correctly. Here I did the top, bottom, and the middle rail mortises.

got lucky

I grabbed the correct bottle for me. I got this being reversible from watching Rosa String Works you tube vids. It isn't as quick and easy as hide glue, but it is doable.

accidental woodworker 

A humidity meter is something you really should have in your shop. The cost is trivial. A thermometer is combined with most of them, as shown above. This one can fit conveniently on the wall with a screw, or stand on its leg, or grip steel with its magnet. As we all know, wood is […]

 

what a clown show

I laid out the two stiles, one at a time. Then I laid the two against each other and they didn't agree. I have absolutely no idea how I screwed it up and gave up trying to figure it out. Instead I clamped the stiles together and planed as much of the layout lines off as I could. And I started over again

switched lanes

I didn't erase as much of the layout as I thought. What was left was confusing me and it took me a while checking the existing lines against what the layout stick had before moving forward for the 2nd time. 

two times was the charm

This finally worked and everything clicked into place. I clamped the layout stick and the two stiles together before I transferred mortise locations. The first time I tried this I couldn't get top or the bottom mortises to line up. Got it on the 2nd try.

not much

I double, triple checked the two stiles against each other a bazillion times. I even went topside, got a coffee came back and checked it one more time. Once I was satisfied that the plow plane had bottomed out it was on to chopping the mortises.

my first set of chisels

I got this set in the late 1970's or very early 1980's and for over 20 years I never knew that it was metric. Duh.

6mm chisel

I measured it with my calipers and it said it was 5.94mm. The chisel fit in the groove with a few frog hairs of wiggle room. It took me a few chops to get used to it. The flat on the top of the blade was a bit difficult to zoom in on to keep square in the groove.

about 3/8" at the widest

Both of the stiles are bowed - here I have them as they will be R and L.

gone

It takes almost zero pressure to flatten out the bow. I don't think the plywood will have any hiccups keeping the stiles straight. This is the back and I'll be able to flush the outside edges of the back stiles against the back edge of the sides.

first four chopped

This went surprising quick. It took me a little more than 30 minutes to whack them all out.

2nd set done

I left a lot of extra at the top and bottom of the stiles. A wee bit more than needed but then again I didn't get any blowouts on any of the top/bottom mortises I chopped.

test tenon

I increased the bottom rail from 3 to 3 1/2 wide to strengthen the back against twisting. Doing a test tenon to check the water first. It has been a while since I have done one. The plan was to do the cheeks to width on the tablesaw and hand saw the cheek waste off.

self supporting

It took some fiddling but the width of the tenon was good. I had to pare the walls of the mortise before I got the test tenon seated. Not happy with the rail not being quite flush with the stile - on either side. 

last one

I thought I had made the tenons too thin (visually based look) but I hadn't. These are 6mm and not 1/4".

all self supporting

I decided to go with a ladder style back for strength and stiffness. Still debating whether to use this for the sides too are just one rail in the middle. Chopping the extra mortises didn't cause any hardship. I'll have to see how many panels I can get out of the 30x30 panels. I've got a sinking feeling that I might be disappointed.

The tablesaw is working fine with the new V belt I installed. No hesitation, no slipping, and no bogging down in the cut. It spins up to speed instantly and it doesn't falter when wood is fed into the saw blade. It slowed a wee bit when sawing the tenons in the jig but that is normal. I didn't feel or see any difference doing the tenons with this belt than I did with the original one. All is well in Disneyland again.

accidental woodworker 

I roughed out this cherry shrink pot with split sides a few years ago. It cracked a couple days into drying, leaving a 1/2″ wide gap. It’s a rare occurrence, but sometimes you get lucky. My first inclination was to … Continue reading →