Accidental Woodworker

I wasn't going to start anything today but it just fell into place. Started it and fingers crossed, I'll be finishing it sometime next week.

hmm....

I have 39 of these plastic containers. They are phillips head wood screws, sheet metal screws, and machine bolts along with picture hanging do dads. Way too much crappola to put into the mini 3 drawer dresser from yesterday's post.

story stick

Initially I thought I would keep everything in the plastic containers but nixed it. Zoomed past that idea and settled on individual compartments. This story pole is for a 9 compartment drawer, with 5 drawers total. The number of drawers is subject to change, up or down.

rough sketches

Thinking ahead, I really don't have a  hole for this (when finished) but I'll find one. Rough measurements are 12" across, 12" deep, and about 14" high.

sigh

I missed it again. I should have sawn the two long edges parallel before squaring the end grain ends. Fixing that boo boo cost me a little more then a 1/4" lost between the end grain ends.

couldn't avoid it

I had to glue on a 2nd board to get the length I needed. I'll put that small glue on towards the back.

made a Lowes run

The 1x12's at Lowes were complete garbage. I found some decent 1x8's that I'll use for the top and bottom. Snagged ten 1/4" poplar slats that I'll use for the dividers. I might need to get more because I'll need 3 per drawer and I'm short for two drawers.

cooking away

That is the dresser carcass - two sides, a top and bottom. 

hmm.......

Got 3 boards left over, not that they will go to waste in my shop. The heat wave must have scrambled the synapses firing in the brain bucket.

yikes

That is my bandaged right thumb. I got careless clearing a scrap of wood from the saw blade. The blade grazed the inside edge of it - a superficial wound that the ER took care of lickety split. I was in and out of the ER in less then 30 minutes and back in the shop.

drawer cross rails

Mr Thumb shook hands with Mr Saw Blade while I was sawing these out. I had to saw one more - incident free.

hmm.......

The R/L opening is about 12 1/4" and these are 24" long. I will only be able to get one front or back from these. I'll have to rethink the drawer stock. I could use 3/4" pine and thin it down to a 1/2". I'll start with the three 1x8's from above.

checking for twist

The first one I checked was twist free but the next two had a wee bit that I see sawed knocking out.

needed a couple of more

These will be used for the drawer runners. That don't have to be 12 plus inches. I think they will be about 11".

stickered

The thinner ones will be the drawer runners and the wider ones are the front cross rails. I will put only two rails on the back. All of these will get thinned down to a 1/2".

hmm......

A little awkward but no headaches using the #3 to flush and smooth the glue joints on the sides, top, and bottom. This is where I left off for the day. No idea when I'll get back to this. The doc said I can work in the shop once I'm home but I shouldn't exert myself for at least a couple of weeks. And I can't lift anything weighing more than 9 lbs.

accidental woodworker

 Didn't get much shop time today. Spent most of it nodding out at my desk and watching You Tube vids. I don't get this way often but with what is looming on the horizon....

it is 13 years old

This is something my wife kept in her office that is now an orphan. I used it at the VA for to keep my binder clips in them. My wife used it for the same purpose and now it is back in my care. The finish is a little worn but the drawers still work silky smooth. 

This was my project for the day. Sanded, scraped it, and applied 3 coats of shellac to it over a period of 7-8 hours. I am thinking of using it to hold specialty hardware items or screws, etc etc.

After I had made this I had to fix a couple of stupid wood tricks it threw at me. The right side had cupped and the top right and bottom drawers were binding. I shaved the inside of the right side with a chisel and eliminated that headache. In the time since then it hasn't come back. 

The 2nd headache was the middle rail came loose at the ends. I know I had nailed each end through the outside into the rail but not if I glued it again. It doesn't  matter as the repair has held up but I never set and filled the nail holes. I did that today with wood putty. 

see the white dot?

Got two coats on the body and the wood putty filled nail hole popped like a neon sign. Normally this would send my OCD into overdrive but this is a shop piece of furniture. I can deal with it. This will be done definitely by tomorrow. I don't expect to burn up the shop on sunday doing much of anything beyond sweeping and cleaning things up a bit.

accidental woodworker 

 I just finished the miniature cherry chest and the cherry bench/plant stand. BTW, daughter #2 said yes, I'll take it. Getting back on track, finished two and there is no project on the horizon at the moment. I have to take a step back and wait until I see what this coming monday says to me.

I have surgery scheduled at the Roxbury VA on monday at 0600. The CT guided biopsy last month confirmed that I have lung cancer in my left upper lobe. Before the surgery they will take a sample of my lymph nodes to confirm that they are cancer free. If they are they will remove the cancerous portion of my left lung. If the lymph nodes are cancerous, it is toast for me and there will be no surgery.

Either way the wind blows this, all I am really concerned with is being able to continue to work in the the shop. Fingers crossed that the lymph nodes come out negative, the cancer is removed, and I'll be able to figure out what the next project from Ralphie's shop is.

I would have started something now but I would only have two days to work on it. I also don't know if the blog will continue after monday - my wife will be posting while I'm in the hospital. I'll make that call after I get back to barn, hopefully on thursday at the latest. 

hmm........

The blackening solution worked. The directions were straight forward and the screws matched the color of the hinges. This solution has scary chemicals and I took a lot of precautions using it. If push comes to shove I'll try to get steel next time and use heat to blacken the screws.

happy with this

There were a few spots of shiny brass peeking through that I dabbed with a cotton swab to darken them. 

the honey do project

The back was a plywood wanna be thing secured with staples, no glue. It came off easily and I had no problems pulling out all 23 bazillion of them.

1/4" staples

These staples barely held the plywood back on the bookcase. Just about everyone of them remained on in the bookcase. 

hmm.......

I had to cut off 15" according to my wife. That went off without a hitch. The bottom and the center shelf were still attached keeping the bookcase reasonably square and together.

hmm.......

I got lucky that the rabbet was in the top and not the sides. The joint came apart cleanly and the glue residue scraped off with no headaches.

sigh

Glued and nailed the top back on with the 5 penny nails through the sides and the top. It should be ok because it was only previously held together with 3 staples and a bit of glue.

top on and cooking

I stapled the back on and nada. The plywood was thin and the staples blew right through them like I was stapling paper. I had to attach the back with 3/4" brads.

done

This bookcase is going here in the boneyard. This is the space my wife has decided to turn into a reading room. The left wall has all of my crappola that is facing eviction. Some hard choices coming.

100% done

I mixed up a fresh quart of shellac and put two coats on the bench/plant stand. My wife will be bringing this to daughter #2 in august. On monday the movers are coming to pick up the desks and the dresser to ship them to her. That is the downside of living so many states away from daughter #2.

experiment time

I've noticed lately that a lot of the You Tube woodworkers I watch use this saw to rip and crosscut. I am in between so I ripped this piece of pine off following a groove I had plowed in it.

hmm......

Cross cut #1 and it ain't pretty. It is square across but wee bit out to lunch on the plumb cut.

2nd crosscut

Cross cut #2 and it wasn't any better neither. It was square across (no problems there) but still off on the plumb cut.

3rd cross cut

No problems sawing it square across the face. It doesn't matter if I use the japanese or western saw. The problems come when sawing the plumb part. The plumb pencil line helped a lot.

square

The easy part of the sawing for me. All of the crosscuts I did were all square.

better

The plumb line helps me a lot to saw plumb. I did 8 crosscuts total and went 8 for 8 with square crosscuts and 5 for 8 with square plumb cuts.

hmm.......

I bought these clamps a couple of years ago specifically made for using with these machinist's blocks. Today was the first time I used these. Made a cross cut and edge plumb cut with it. Both of them came out dead square. The 2nd set up was making a practice tenon.

hmm......

This is my preferred way to make tenons. Saw the shoulders and split off the cheeks.

done

After splitting off the cheeks I use my LN rabbeting blockplane to get down to the knife lines. I should have made a mortise to test fit this but I didn't. Maybe I'll do that in the AM because there is nothing else on the hit parade.

My sister and brother in law stopped in again today for another visit before they head back to Indiana. I'm thinking of driving out there because once you get past New York it is basically a straight shot to where they live in Indiana. Maybe, that is what I told my sister.

The weather lately has been out of sorts. There was a mini heat wave and then it got cold, the kind of cold where I had to turn the heat back on. Now we are back to a mini heat wave. I went to Wally World and bought an AC. The temp at the house hit 93F 34C at 1430. I got the AC now because I will have a weight limitation after monday if the surgery goes through. Got it installed and it is working good - the bedroom temp is down to 70F from 88F. 

accidental woodworker 

squirrely grain

The grain on two of the faces of the legs have an interesting grain that I like. A downside to it is that it is full of shallow tear out pockets. It is/was very difficult to remove it. Sanding did diddly squat and scraping was the only thing working. Even that wasn't nice sailing trying to remove and smooth it out. Wiped it with alcohol to show me where it was still and how well I was doing removing it.

bottom is done

I got three coats on the underside of the top and I'm calling it done. There isn't any need to put anymore on it.

stretcher

Got three coats on the bottom and sides of the stretcher. After I install it I'll finish the top of it.

sigh

I thought I was done with scraping the base but it ain't so boys and girls. I was getting ready to shellac this when I caught several spots of tear out in raking light. Spent another hour and a pound of calories dealing with it.

oops

I forgot to or rather I thought I didn't have to sand the ends of the stretcher. The angled saw cut was pretty smooth but this piece of end grain was raw and rough. Sanded it and the saw cut up to 220.

not waiting

The last screw for the hinges. This chest had been done except for this for a couple of days. The back stop on the lid increased the real estate for driving screws on the lid. I'll deal with replacing the phillips head screws after my #4 screws come in.

lid stay

I have several bent arm lid stays but nixed using them. My track record for installing them is dismal. Chain stays are very forgiving and almost impossible for me to screw up.

eyeball is off

Got the upper part of the chain on the lid a wee bit too far over to the right. I'm leaving this as is because I don't want to fill in any errant screw holes.

extremely happy with this

The front of the chest had the most work fixing the gaps on the pins/tails. From a foot away I had to stare and concentrate to pick out the shims and hide glue/sawdust filler. The latter blended in seamlessly too. From 3 feet or more away the pins/tails look flawlessly tight.

lead off glamour pic #1

I absolutely love these handles. This chest is heavy (due to being made from 3/4" thick cherry) so handles of some sort were necessary.

glamour pic #2

Don't know if the back will be visible but it is finished so it can be viewed. The tails/pins look good here too.

left side glamour pic #3

I prefer the larger handle but the price of them is prohibitive IMO. One handle is about $70. These two are 4 1/2" and cost me $21 each including S/H.

left side pins/tails

Up close and personal and almost nothing to pick out. I had my doubts about the pins/tails being presentable after what I had to do to close/fill all the ugly gaps I had. Couldn't be happier with this. I have no issues with giving this away as a present.

final glamour pic

I like the top of this chest. It has cathedral graining, sapwood, and black gum streaks that matches the rest of the chest. 

bench/plant stand

Glued the stretcher to the end rail and I'm adding screws to give me a warm and fuzzy.

ran out of shellac

The can is bone dry but I have two spray cans of shellac. This one is about a 1/3 full and the other is full to the brim. More then enough to finish the bench/plant stand.

calling this done

The top of the stretcher is all that needs to have some shellac slapped on it. I will do that with spray shellac and it will probably take 6 or so light coats.

bench/plant stand glamour pic #1

This looks better than I expected. The top of it is 15 5/8" up from the deck.

side view glamour pic #2

I think not putting a bottom shelf on this was a good call to make. The size of this would be perfect for the grandsons to use as bench.

glamour pic #3

It is hard to pick out the double bung holes I did on this side and the opposite one. At first glance I didn't notice them. 

glamour pic #4

The top has some interesting grain and my first attempt at a butterfly tie (also called a bow tie). In hindsight I should have used walnut rather then cherry.

hmm......

There is a slight bit of rocking which I wasn't expecting. When I checked this yesterday there was none.

high spots

I put a piece of blue tape on the high legs. After the shellac is done I'll trim these two down until the rocking goes bye bye.

sigh

My #4 screws and shellac flakes were waiting on my desk when I killed the lights for the day. When I put the #4 screws away I found that I already had 50 #4 x 5/8", flat head screws and now I have a 100. A little later on the Birchwood Brass Black came in early. When I had checked it at lunch it was scheduled to come tomorrow.

I'll check it out in the AM and see how well it works on turning my brass #4 screws black.

a honey do quickie project

My wife wants this bookcase shortened by 16". I'll be taking it off at the top and she knows that she will be losing at least one shelf position. She said she didn't even care what it looks like but of course I will give it my best shot.

 accidental woodworker 

 Today was an interrupted one. I had an appointment with my new PCP at 1000 and at 1200 my sister and brother in law stopped in for a visit. We went out to grab lunch. Three of us got fish 'n chips and the wife got a patty melt, well done. The only seafood I have seen go into her pie hole in 27 years is a fish sandwich from McDonald's. Needless to say not much time in the shop but I did manage to squeeze in a few things. Still not done with either the cherry chest or the cherry bench/stool/plant stand. Maybe tomorrow I'll knock out both or maybe at least one of them.

bottom stretcher

Settled on how I want the bottom stretcher to be attached to the bottom end rails. The notch in the end rails is half the width of them. The 1/2 lap notch on the stretcher is 3/16". It will sit proud of the end rails.

hmm......

The ends of the stretcher will extend past the outside face of the end rails 1". I thought of putting the stretcher flush and putting a shelf on it but nixed it. With it being proud it says that this was intentional. 

clipped the ends

I didn't like the look of the ends being squared so I clipped them This cut isn't 45° neither but something shallower - 5/8" in from end and 3/8" down. I liked how smooth the cut face was off the saw - no need to play with it anymore.

sneak peek

This definitely has the look of a bench but it could be used as a plant stand. The bench is roughly 16" off the deck which, IMO, is as low as seat height should be. The fit of notches on the stretchers/rails is spot on.

not easy

I was able to chop down but angling the chisel to remove/pop out the waste wasn't happening. Not enough room to leverage the chisel to do that.

surprise

I got my heaviest picks to pry out the waste but the exacto knife is what I used to remove it. It outclassed the picks by a mile which surprised me to no end at all.

step one fixing the errant drilled holes

Positioned the drill block on the center of the leg and drilled two teeny depressions on it.

hmm......

These could be a decorative item, I'll have to keep this in mind. I did this only on the outside faces of the long side legs.

step two

Used my Fuller countersink to drill in the depressions I did with step one.

step three

Make more bungs then needed to fill in the countersinks.

first one done

This is what I repeated on all four legs. They will all look the same, with two cherry plugs. I orientated the grain on the bungs to align with the grain on the legs. Normally I would put the grain of the bung at 90° to the leg grain.

This is as far as I got. Stopped here and went to the VA for my PCP appointment.

blast from the past

The wife is rearranging her office and this got demoted to the boneyard. It is a revolving bookcase I made for her 14 years ago (?). She still wants it which surprised me because she uses something and then discards it without another thought. This she likes and wants to keep.

hiding the me-steak

I got enough of these thin strips of cherry to apply to the tops of all four rails.

covering the notch

I covered the notch in the end rails so I don't get any shellac on it. I learned the hard way that you can't glue over shellac.

happy face on

It isn't shaking or rocking in any direction. This is/was almost ready for shellac. I don't have enough to finish this but I have a 1/2 pound of flakes on order.

sigh

Got a divot on this end from the router. I brain farted and forgot to tighten the collet on the bit. Too big to ignore or sand and blend out.

fixed

I had to saw off a 1/8" to remove the boo boo divot. After that I had to smooth the end grain with my sanding sticks.

nope

I thought I could sand the top and be done with it. I was wrong because the butterfly developed some gaps I didn't like. Mixed up some cherry sawdust and hide glue and filled it in. I'll have to wait until the AM before I can sand this smooth and stop slapping some shellac on it.

 accidental woodworker

 The miniature cherry chest isn't done. I'm waiting on the screws which are coming friday, but I'm still applying shellac too. In between doing that I started and almost finished the cherry bench/stool/plant stand. Came close but no cigar but I am so awfully close to being done with it. I have already started looking ahead to what will be coming out of my shop next.

rearranging the shop

I needed the workbench to be cleared off so I can work on the bench/stool/plant stand. I need the bench to plane and clean up the rails and legs.

cleaned up

All the rails had burn marks that cleaned up easily. The legs were mostly burn free but had saw marks to plane smooth.

hmm......

Legs and rails sawn to length and dry fitted. The stretcher I'm leaving over length because I haven't decided how I'm going to use it. This gives a peek at what it will look like which IMO ain't too bad.

swapped out

Removed the 1/4" drill block and installed the 6mm drill block. Looking at my stock of dowels, 99% of them are 2" and 1 1/2" 6mm pins. I have about 40-50 1/4" diameter, 1 1/2" spiral dowels.

6mm dowel in a 6mm drilled hole

The dowel fits snug and I mean snug. I can't push the dowel into the hole with my hands. No probably driving it home with a hammer. As an aside the 6mm dowels fall straight through the 1/4" diameter drill block bushings.

oops

Got ahead of myself and drilled a hole I shouldn't have. The rail will cover about half of it but not all.

scratched off the bucket list

I have wanted to put a butterfly on a split/crack for a bazillion years. The split/crack here doesn't extend straight through to the other face. It only goes less then half way. 

hmm......

This came out better than I expected. I have a gap here at this end but the rest of the butterfly is gap free. This is going to be the up face of the top. If this butterfly had come out crappy I would of placed this face down.

The depth of the mortise is about 5/16" deep and I sized it so that I could use my small Stanley router to get the depth consistent.

stretcher

Still figuring out how to do this. Overall I want the stretcher to keep the bottom of the ends from moving in/out. I kinda have an idea but that won't happen until after it is glued and cooked.

panic time

The glue up plan was to do the ends first and then the two long rails. Things went south on me first when I couldn't align the 2nd bottom rail with the top one. The top rail fit on both ends but the bottom one was off.

I thought it was me not drilling the holes correctly so I drilled one more. That did diddly squat and left me with a hole I had to plug.

the problem

When I drilled the dowel holes I did them opposite of each other. The holes on this end should have had the closest dowel to the edge on the right and not the left. The other end of this rail I drilled correctly. Drilled the holes again in the right orientation this time.

another me-steak

After the screw up from above, I was checking the holes lining up and they do. However, I saw another misalignment that I'll deal with after this has cooked.

2nd _*&%@)(@*_)(_#@ me-steak

When I put this rail in I thought I had done it right - making sure the slot for the table clip was facing the inside of the base. Missed that by a mile. I had remembered to do the table clip slots with my plunge router but I'll have to chop this one by hand on the other side of this rail. 

I made this same brain fart on Miles's desk and the fix to hide the me-steak is I'll cover it with a thin slat of cherry.

hidden brain fart

While I was trying to figure out why the bottom rail holes didn't align, I drilled two holes on this face that I'll have to hide somehow. These won't be partly hidden though but will be staring right back at me.

one more

I had a couple of drips and runs that I had to card scrape away. It is going to take a couple of covering coats of shellac to blend them in. I should be done with the shellac tomorrow. Before glamour pics I'll have to wait for the screws to come in.

hmm.....

Clamped and cooking away until the AM. I have been thinking of the stretcher and I think I have decided how to do it. I will notch the ends to go over the rails - not a full half lap joint but a 1/4 one. We'll see how that shakes out in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

 I had my annual peepers check this AM. Got there at 0730 for my 0830 appointment. I went early because Rte 10 gets nutso with rush hour traffic. It worked in my favor because at 0740 my annual exam began. An hour later I was driving home with 20/20 vision. It seems like every year the exam takes a wee bit longer and they add new tests and checks. Hopefully that is what it is and not because I can't remember what happened a year ago.

chest attached to the base

I used two screws on each bearer to secure the chest to them. 

not rocking

Happy with this. I was expecting some rocking because the base had a teeny bit of twist. Maybe the chest pulled it straight but it doesn't matter. The chest is tight and flat to the bearers and base ain't rocking.

moldings

Got  the four moldings sawn out over the lengths needed. This is as far as I got in the AM session. My peepers were dilated and I was working with sunglasses on and it wasn't working. I couldn't focus and see clearly so I went upstairs and did the crossword and sudoku puzzles.

up side of the lid

Got the first coat on the lid and it didn't pop like I thought it would. I like the sapwood and the black grain lines. There are black gum pocket/lines on the back stop too. Subsequent coats of shellac should pop this.

sizing the moldings

The molding under my finger is a test piece. I used it make sure the front molding is positioned dead on the corner.

yikes

I had seen this but I thought it was a black gum pocket. The peepers still weren't operating at 100%. The screw was too close to the edge and caused the bulge.

fixed

Squirted some glue in to the crack and clamped it shut. I'm lucky with this fix because the molding will hide all of it. 

first one done

Got the first molding set, checked, then glued and nailed in place. The plan is to repeat this for the two short ends. The last one I will trim/fit between the short open ends.

got 3 attached

Fitting the last long molding in place was batting next.

sanding stick

Used a 120 grit sanding stick to sweeten the miters. The corners of the chest after planing and sanding were slightly off 90°. 

sigh

Over corrected my trimming and the last molding is short. This gap is too wide (and ugly) to ignore. I have one more piece of molding left to replace this one.

the problem

This short side molding is a few frog hairs short of the corner. I pulled this one off and used the last long molding to get a new short side one.

new molding

Got the left corner tight.

ditto for the right side

Happy with the fit of the miters on the back. Glued and nailed it off and with that the moldings were done.

hmm.......

This was the molding I had dyed the bare wood and I can see a color difference between this and the other three. Got lucky because I wasn't pay attention as to where this molding was going. If it had been at the front I would have ripped it out and replaced it with a new molding.

decided

My choices were to rip out one of these to match the 1 1/2" square leg. Instead I'm going to knock these two down to 1 1/2" because they are the exact same length.

done

I got one leg blank for any oops that might bite me on the arse.

done

I got all the parts needed for this bench/stool/plant stand. Four legs, 6 rails, and one stretcher for the bottom rails . The board on the right is an extra rail, again for any potential oops.

In between getting shellac on the cherry chest I'll start working on the new project. I'll be doweling this like I did for Leo's desk. I will use the 6mm dowel jig I just bought for my Dowel Max jig.

accidental woodworker

installing the hinges

I always try to do my hinging the same way. Which means chopping the hinge gains on the wider board/part first. Then repeat for the other (thinner) one.

stop and move on

A big chip out happened the first lid hinge - I super glued it and clamped it with a piece of blue painter's tape. While it set up I chopped the other hinge.

yikes

A hinge is MIA. I spent an hour searching the house retracing my steps trying to find it and nada. I almost bought another set of them from Horton Brasses. Hint - look at the far end between the vise faces. The MIA hinge was hiding there.

nice touch

Horton sends steel and brass screws with their hinges. However, I had two strikes against them already. The first is they are phillip head screws and secondly, they are too long. They aren't too long for screwing into the chest but they are for screwing into the lid.

I tried ordering some black oxide, #4 x 5/8, flat head screws and nada. In fact I was ordered a lot of screws to get above the minimum and they only had two of the 9 screws I tried to order. I ended up buying brass, flat head slotted screws off the internet. It was site I hadn't ordered from before.

no help

I had no #4 x 5/8" screws in any flavor and the #5 x 5/8" screws I had were too big for the hinge countersink. I'll have to wait for the screws to come in. 

yes they are 3/4" long

I thought of clipping/filing the screws down to 5/8" but nixed it. I'll cool my heels and wait. Once they come in I will paint the heads black.

prepping for shellac

All the woodworking is done except for attaching the back stop on the lid. The glue joint on the underside of lid wasn't flush. A few strokes with the card scraper and it was.

swagged hinges

I made both gains the thickness of the leaves which left me with this big gap. I expected that and to lower it I will trim the gains on the chest until I get a gap I like.

handle template

Drilled the holes for the handles now rather then after the shellac was done.

better looking tear out

The grain on the front at top reverses three times along the length. I skewed a #3 and got most of it to look presentable. I followed that up with a card scraper. I didn't get it all but enough. I stopped because I didn't want a hollow in the front between the chest and the lid.

sneaking up on it

The gap I wanted needed about a 16th to go bye bye. Used the router plane to sneak up on that - took me 3 plane and checks before I got there.

almost there

I was slowly reducing the gap but I didn't like this one - still too wide.

done

Trying to avoid the lid becoming hinge bound. That would require adding shims to the gains which was the opposite direction I was going in. I'm happy with this one. The lid is laying flat on the front edge and the angle from the back to the front is a frog hair off 90°. (It sill may get sucked down some when I screw the hinges in place too.)

first coat of shellac

I like watching the first coat of shellac pop this cherry. I can't wait to see what it looks like with 5 or more coats slapped on it.

last of the woodworking

I had 3 coats on the underside of the lid and set the back stop in place. I used a couple drops of super glue along the length to hold it in place while I screwed it off.

last one

Five screws and a few drops of super glue secure the back stop. All the woodworking is done. The oohs and aahs will commence after the last coat of shellac is on.

easy oops fix

I forgot to remove my center line pencil mark on the back edge. Shellac is very forgiving with something like this. Card scraped the pencil mark and put shellac on this and it disappeared like it was never there.

3 coats on

Got four coats on the underside of the lid. Next batter up is marrying the chest to the base. Then I'll attach the cove moldings and finish applying shellac to the chest and lid. I should be snapping glamour pics on tuesday (for Wednesday's blog post?).

couldn't get it to flow

The cathedral grain doesn't flow around the chest in one direction. I tried to do it but it wouldn't work out. I wanted the sapwood on the outside of the chest and couldn't get the cathedrals to cooperate. 

next project

Most of these scraps of cherry have been hanging out on the tablesaw and they have to go. I think I have enough here to make a small table/bench/plant stand. 

leg stock

The two bigger ones are too big for this project. The thinner one is 1 1/2" square and I think that fits better with the overall scale of what I intend to make. I'll start on it after the chest is done.

I found something that will turn brass black - Birchwood Casey Brass Black Metal Finish. Heating brass doesn't turn it blue/black but this will. Coming from Amazon tomorrow.

accidental woodworker

next day AM session

I checked the base for rocking and immediately was annoyed. The top was rocking a teeny bit and the bottom twice as much. Spent my first ten minutes getting the top and bottom to be rock free again.

new bearers

Didn't have any cherry so I used pine. They are snug fitting and dry - no nails or glue. Before I commit to this I wanted to make sure it is going to work.

first fit was good

The bearers felt snug and they held the weight of the chest on them. No rocking which put a happy face on me. Took the chest out and put it back in again and it was rocking.

not rocking

Checked the chest but it was still laying flat on the tablesaw. I was getting the heebie jeebies about this base and chest ever getting married.

a happy sigh

The far left corner is down - that was why it was rocking again. Evened the bearers out and checked the chest and no rocking.

baby steps

The plan was to nail the bearers on, no glue, and checked the chest for rocking. 

oh what a relief

Bearers nailed on and the chest is dead flat on them - zero rocking.

hmm.......

Leaving the nails in the bearers. I didn't want to risk pulling them off, applying glue, and then nailing them back on. 

screwed the bearers

I added screws to the bearers one at time. After screwing one on I checked that the chest still wasn't rocking. Got them all screwed off and the final check of the chest still had no rocking. Much joy and dancing in the streets of Mudville commenced and lasted for hours.

cleaning up the base

There were a lot of shallow tear out spots that the sandpaper wasn't removing. I had to use a card scraper to finally remove them. I used a #3 only to flush the pins/tails at the end. I didn't want to risk tear out planing the entire length of the sides.

shellac and black dye

Trying this to see how it will look on the cove molding I dyed yesterday.

not black enough

This is the back side of the molding that I didn't dye. I guess I was looking more for this to be a deep black like it was paint.

the dyed side

I don't like this look at all. I thought some of the red oak would peek through but it isn't. This molding doesn't look like wood to me.

from ACE

I  had to make a grocery store run and ACE is in the same parking lot. $10 for a pint can of cherry dye.

cleaning up the chest

This took a lot of time and a ton of calories. Used the #3 to flush the tails/pins on the corners and sanded the chest after that was done.

hmm........

The middle one was dyed on the bare wood. The other two I put a seal coat of shellac first before applying the dye. The middle one is dark but not as splotchy as the top and bottom ones are. They are also lighter. The cherry dye IMO doesn't look like cherry. I think I like the red oak dye was a better match for cherry. Regardless I am going with the cherry dye as is for the cove molding. It will be a contrast between it and the chest cherry.

it worked

Made a template for the handles and tested it on a piece of scrap pine.

back stop

Rounded over the top edge on the front and back to soften it. Got the hinges laid out and stopped here for the day. My wrist was hurting probably from the  RO sander work I did. I'll get the hinges done in the AM. After that is done I can attach the back stop to the lid.

accidental woodworker 

 I went back to the shop after dinner last night intending to spend a few minutes checking out the base/chest rocking issues. Those few minutes morphed into almost 2 hours. One thing led into another and I lost track of time. Figuring out why things were going south on marrying the chest to base started to consume me. In the end I still didn't have a clue as to what was going on. 

Instead of adding the pics from that session to tomorrow's post I am writing it up as a separate post for today. As soon as I post this I'll be returning to that headache and commence doing battle again.

the problem

The base has a teeny bit of twist over the sticks both top and bottom. IMO it is no where close to causing the headache with the chest and base being married. I was starting out first by checking the base and the chest for twist.

the flatness check

This is my preferred way to check for flatness and the chest ain't a rocking on either diagonal. I also checked with the sticks and they said no twist too.

hmm.......

Thinking about this I thought that maybe there was a hump on one or more of the bearers. There wasn't, all four were flat and straight.

light assist

I even shined a light behind the rule and no light peeked out on any of the four bearers. 

hmm......

Thought I had found the problem. Two corners had one above the other and two were the rule hit. I evened the ends were they met but that didn't make the rocking go bye bye.

one of the high corners

Both of the high corners were where I had the veneer. I really thought this was the fix boys and girls.

it wasn't easy

Of course where I had to remove some wood was against the grain. One corner torn out and looked ugly.

sigh

I had to shim the ugly torn out corner so the rule lay flat across corner to corner. Got zero joy when I put the chest on the base. If anything, the rocking was worse then before.

checking the offset

Next check on the hit parade was checking the bearer offset from the top of the base to the bearer. It was off less than a frog hair 360 in a few spots.

hmm.......

Clamped the chest to the base. The clamps pulled it flat and tight to all four bearers. I could see and feel them pull the twist out of base onto the chest.

no joy again

The chest ain't rocking on the base but the base is rocking. It wasn't rocking as bad as the chest unclamped but enough to be annoying.

back to square one

Starting over by checking and removing the twist on the base. I wanted to go forward from here with a known, good flat base.

the final check

When doing this I saw that two of the bottom corners weren't square in one direction. Squared those, flipped it and kept at it until there was zero rocking on the tablesaw. Repeated it for the other side. Base was now flat and not rocking on either the top or bottom.

removed

The bearers came off without any problems. I thought with them being glued that they wouldn't come off as cleanly as they did. The reason why I didn't extend the bearers from side to side was I didn't have any scraps long enough for the long side. When I replace the bearers again I will do that.

hmm.....

Still surprised after seeing this pic how easily this cleaned up. I used a card scraper to remove the glue residue. 

last check

According to the straight edge the top of the base is flat, straight, and all in the same plane 360.

hmm.......

This is not the look I was expecting. I put on a 2nd seal coat of shellac and once it was dry, I wiped on the ebony dye. I was hoping that it would be more dark and black. Maybe I can boost that happening with adding some black dye to the ebony?

accidental woodworker

I stuck to the plan

After dinner I went back to the shop and glued up the 2nd base. It was twisted a bit so I clamped it flat to the workbench. I wasn't expecting it to do anything but when I took off the red handled clamps, the base stayed flat on the bench. Nothing moved or shifted when I did that. Sometimes you get lucky.

cleaning up the base

It probably wasn't necessary but I planed and rasped the base cutout smooth.

it fits

I had built in wiggle room, R/L and F/B. However, it seems I added a wee bit too much R/L - it was 3/16". But that is what the cove molding is for - to cover any gaps between the base and the chest.

blurry pic

Just as well that this was blurry because the tails on this base have some of the ugliest gaps I have seen in many, many moons. This blurry corner had the worse looking ones.

the other end

This corner looks better but it still ain't good IMO. I will use it and shim all the gaps.

the best corner

This is what I was expecting to see on all four but that didn't happen boys and girls.

homemade putty

Gathered up some cherry sawdust and mixed hide glue with it. I filled in all the small gaps with this that didn't need a shim.

bearers done

I glued and screwed the bearers to the inside of the base.  I will screw up through them into the bottom of the chest.

too high?

The bearers are 5/16" down from the top of the base. That puts the plywood bottom a few frog hairs below the top edge. Not that matters much because the cove molding will hide it. In the pic it looks high to my eye, but in person it doesn't.

bottom on

I nixed just screwing the bottom on and instead I glued and nailed it. Flushed the edges of it to the chest.

lid sized

The lid is a 1/2" oversized on the front and sides. I may knocked that back to 3/8" because I'm not exactly in love with this amount of overhang. 

needs shims

I had 4 pin/tails to shim on this end. The other end I had to do 6. Overall I used 14 shims to close up gaps. 

shim stock

I picked through my cherry scraps and used those that closely matched the chest. The japanese dozuki did extremely well sawing the thin shims I needed.

more homemade putty

I shimmed what I could but there were still a few gaps that looked ugly. 99.9% of them were on the tails. I only had to fill two spots on the short ends.

the cove molding

The first step is to put a thin coat of shellac on so the dye doesn't end up splotchy. I put one spoonful of shellac into the container.

hmm.......

I added 3 spoonfuls of the alcohol from the brush container into the spoonful of shellac. That should thin it so the dye goes on even. I don't think the cove molding is pine but it looks like poplar to me. I don't know if this molding will act like pine does when it is dyed.

two of the choices

The plan is to dye it with red oak first. The right one didn't look like the cherry at all. After the red oak has dried I will apply another coat of shellac as a sealer. After that has dried I will apply the ebony as the 2nd dye.

happy with this

The color came out more even then I expected. It also doesn't look that bad against the cherry. (BTW when I was at Lowes there wasn't a drop of cherry dye in the store.) After dinner this will be dry and I'll put on the ebony. I want this molding to stand out from the cherry and that is why I'm using a dark ebony as the top coat dye. I'm hoping that the red underneath will peek out too.

hmm........

The chest is rocking in the base. The chest isn't rocking sitting on the bench. I stacked up some veneer on the low corners until the chest stopped rocking on the base.

it went south

Took the chest out of the base to super glue the veneer stack together. Put the veneer stacks on the bearers and put the chest in place. It was rocking again. Less than two minutes before it wasn't. WTF?

The chest lays flat on the tablesaw with zero rocking in any direction. Under the sticks it shows zero twist too. The bearers show a little twist but I don't think it is enough to cause the amount of rocking I'm seeing. I'll have to set this aside for now and think on it for a while. 

back thing doo dad or doo hickey

I have a book on furniture styles and the names of the parts of them. What I don't have is one thing that has anything like this. I like the look of it on the lid over leaving the lid flat and unpopulated. A back stop is what I came up with to call it.

accidental woodworker 

hmm.......

In pine this would have been a nice looking, deep rosebud. In cherry I can't feel even a hint of a depression from the clamp head. I'm pretty confident that these will disappear once I plane and sand the chest.

making cove molding

This is a 1/2" round nose bit and the cove molding it would make is too small. This is roughly about a 1/4 of being able to cover a 3/4" width. 

a bigger size round nose bit

The cove is bigger but still not big enough. I have a larger round nose bit but it is 1/2" shank and I don't have a router table for the plunge router. This road is a dead end.

hmm.....

I have two small cove molding planes - both of them are 3/8". The profile looks to my eye to be a wee bit too big. But the headache is and was, trying to run the plane on cherry. First I had to fuss for a bazillion years trying to get the plane to take a good shaving - not too shallow and not too heavy. A kind of Goldilocks and the three bears story.

Got that sorted out but I couldn't get a consistent cove on the entire length. The lead in wouldn't develop the full profile no matter what I tried. Decided that was ok as long I added about 6 inches of extra length for the lead in. But when I checked my cherry scraps I didn't have anything long enough to do that. Sigh.

I tried both molding planes and I wasn't happy with what I made with either one of them. I know both work well and make good moldings in pine but with the cherry I have it was garbage. Another big hiccup was the available cherry I had wasn't straight grained. It was mostly cathedrals I would have to plow through. Nixed this and decided on buying and dyeing ready made cove moldings.

working on the base

Molding problem solved so I moved on to making the base for the chest. I didn't know it here yet that I had a major brain dump that would bite me on the arse in the PM session.

not happy with this

I can remove some of this defect when I saw the half pin but not all. Thinking that I will plane a chamfer on the outside edge to remove what is left over.

I like this

If I flipped the board all this would disappear. The opposite face is 99% clear. I want this be facing out so I'll deal with the defect after the base is glued and cook. This is why the defect is on the outside face.

tails laid out

I did two tails at the corners vice one big one. I didn't like the look of a single tail and two didn't look crowded or too small.

one of 3 that came today

I saw these squares on a Fireball You Tube vid and pulled the trigger on the two pack. You can also get a 3 pack or buy the 3 sizes individually. I have a poor record with miters and I think these may help a wee bit.

hmm......

These 45's are substantial. They are made out of steel (?) and it is almost a 1/8" thick. They aren't flimsy feeling and have some heft/weight to them. Both sides have scales on them. I don't know if they offer them in metric. They are made for metal working but I can envision them working with wood with no problems.

I got half sizes

The big square is twice the size of the smaller one. Both will layout 45's, 22 1/2, and 90 degrees. The inside corner is rounded but the flange was dead square when I checked it with my 6" square. 

cove moldings from Lowe's

I got lucky as there were only 4 of these left. I hope my estimation won't bite me on the arse. The plan is to stain these and I have a few ideas percolating in the brain bucket with that.

hinges and handles

Bought a black oxide hinge for the chest from Horton Brasses. The bail handles I got from eBay for $42 including S/H. eBay is the cheapest price I've found this style of handles. 

grandson's art

Leo did the xmas tree when he was 3 years old. Miles's is on the right and he did his a couple of months ago. I hung them on my wall cabinets and snapped a pic of them. I sent it to their mother so she could show it to them. Both are waiting to see them hanging in the shop.

I'm learning

Chiseled a relief on the tails before I tried to dry fit the base.

yikes

This is not what I wanted to see at this point. Go back to the 5th pic and you'll see the boo boo that I totally missed. The long base pieces are short - they are on the inside of the short ends rather than out to the outside faces of them. Real big sigh.

one point for more

Got the short sides correct - so I get one of the two points available.

1 1/2" short

There is no way to fix this mostly because you can't stretch cherry. I can't see repurposing this for something else neither.

hmm.....

I got lucky finding enough wide scrap to get a new base from. This one is about a 1/4" higher and I'm keeping it as is. 

tails laid out

It was a strange feeling after finding my boo boo. I didn't have the urge to give it flying lessons. I'm getting better at dealing with my brain farts I guess.

stayed late

Tails sawn and ready to chop out the center waste. I plan to return to the shop after dinner and get the tails/pins chopped, dry fitted, and glued up and cooking. I want to keep moving on this and get it done ASAP. 

the store bought cove molding

I like this look and the coverage it will have on the base. The molding definitely needs some help color wise. It is too stark of a difference between it and the cherry.

accidental woodworking 

first end panel

Starting chopping pin waste a little after 0800. It took me about the same amount time doing this as chopping the tail waste.

hmm.......

It looks good. Only a couple of the pencil lines are still visible. The pin walls are plumb from the top edge. Batting next is checking the fit.

first corner

It didn't go off the saw. It might have but I didn't want to risk trying it. I rasped the pins until the fit went together with gentle mallet taps. It took 3 trim and checks before I got this.

first corner tail side

Got a gap across the board on the baseline. Wasn't sure what the headache was here yet. I just checking the fit before chopping the next set of pins.

starting on the 2nd corner

It took me over an hour to chop and fit the first corner. I didn't think I would break that record on the 2nd corner .

not easy

The pins initially seated and then stalled about a 1/4 of the way in. I could see which pins were tight and needed some rasping. I did those dance steps 5 times before the pins and tails mated.

I see a pattern developing

The baseline gaps are actually better the previous two attempts to seat them. I was getting a little frustrated trying to get the left 3 to close up but couldn't.

finally got it

Got all the baselines to go bye bye. It took a while but I finally managed to figure it out.

yikes

I rasped the pins too many times. The baseline gaps are history but I now have gaps on the pins. Sigh. 

the fix

I rasped the pins too many times. I was chasing my tail here because the pins weren't the cause of the gaps. The baseline gaps are history but I now have gaps on the pins. Sigh. But chiseling a relief on the tails is what got the them to seat gap free.

#3 corner

Some pins were tight and after rasping them once, I got this fit. I had already chiseled all of the tails. They seated gap free.

#4 corner

I rarely if ever, chisel my tails. It is me being stubborn and thinking it isn't necessary. Well boys and girls, I am still capable of learning and saying I was wrong.

Happy with the fit of the box. Except for the over rasped pins, all the tail pin joints look good. The top/bottom corners are within a frog or less of being flush.

hmm.......

I have my doubts that glue will swell these gaps shut. They might do one or two though and I'll deal with the ones that don't cooperate.

less than a 16th

It is square and it isn't rocking neither. Both the top and bottom are laying flat.

lid

I had forgotten that this lid is a two board glue up. It about 6" too long R/L and 2" F/B. I like the grain pattern in this a lot. No painting can match what nature does in wood.

hmm......

I found this blow out from chopping the waste. I'll glue it in when I glue up the chest. There is another blow up but that one is MIA.

some came

My order from Blacksmith Bolt came but a few didn't make it. I had gotten a refund a couple of days ago but I thought it was from a price issue. Turns out it was screws that weren't in stock. The kicker? - The #6 screws I bought were too small. The screws in the handle are a #7 or metric? 

I was ready

Initially I was going to do the glue up in the AM but nixed it. Got the brush, water jug, and wet rag in standby.

hide glue

I probably could have used yellow glue but I went with hide glue. I have never had a joint freeze on me with hide glue. Besides I didn't have to rush like an idiot to get the glue on and the chest together. 

needed some help

The tails would seat fully but they wouldn't stay. I clamped each tail on both ends. I had to clamp and unclamp this a couple of times because it kept going out of square. As soon as I clamped the top tail it would throw off the square. I had to start clamping from the bottom and work upwards for the chest to stay square as I clamped the tails.

quick Lowes run

This plywood panel was $20 bucks. The same panel in birch was $30. No brainer IMO. This panel felt just as stiff and strong as the birch panel. This face has quarter sawn grain which I like an the other face is white-ish.

the bottom is ready

I think I'm going to just screw the bottom panel on vice glue and nails. At least that is what the game plan is as of this typing.

accidental woodworker 

tail waste

Took my time chopping the tails/pins and kept my strop set up in the sharpening bench vise. There isn't any technique differences working in pine vice cherry. In pine it take no time to chop tails or pins. In cherry it took me over 3 times as long. Albeit I was being cautious but it still took a long time.

cleaning up the tails

I find sawing in hardwoods (cherry in this case) much easier to do. It takes a bit more effort than pine, but nonetheless easier then pine. I think because it is harder and slower, I am able to saw plumb better. 

I normally don't check the tails for square in pine but with cherry not being as compressible I checked all the tails square to the face.

hmm.......

For the most part the tails were square. The ones that were off were only about a frog hair. The tail slopes I sawed from the right were all square except for one. The tail slopes I sawed from the left were all a frog hair off square.

Initially I started correcting the tails for square with a chisel but that was slow going. Even though I only had to remove a frog hair, doing that with a chisel in cherry was going way too slow. I switched over to my modeler's rasp and knocked it out lickety split.

happy face on

The molder's rasp worked better than I thought it would. I didn't go past square and see saw and it took 2 to 4 strokes to correct each out of square. I was being anal about this because cherry if not as forgiving as pine - the pins will be squared also. I want the tails and pins to mesh without binding or other headaches.

the 2nd long side

This side came out the best sawing wise. Only 3 slopes were not square. One on the right and 2 on the left.

pin sawing

Pine or cherry, I don't have headaches sawing the vertical walls of the pin sockets. When I do have an errant saw cut it is usually in the waste side. 

pin sockets sawn

This is as far as I got today with the chest. I had to go out twice in the AM session to run some errands. I think I should be able to get the pins chopped and do a dry fit up of the chest tomorrow.

accidental woodworker 

 I wasn't expecting to get the box done today but I'm calling it done. I will have to wait a week or so for the shellac to set before I put the tills in it. A wee bit of a surprise but I knew it would be done after an hour into the PM session. Actually started on the cherry chest too.

2nd till done

The plywood bottom isn't that same as what I used on the first till. This plywood isn't that light, crappy chinese crap I bought. This one is white on both faces but it has a solid feel to it and it isn't flimsy or floppy. 

hmm......

The top of the 2nd till is a 16th above the bottom of the top till rail. Plenty of room to get my fingers underneath the 2nd till to get it out/in. I made this one a wee bit shorter then the first one.

they fit

Both tills fit and the lid shuts flush. No hiccups, no complaints, and there is much joy and dancing in Mudville.

happy face on

I really like how the hinges are installed on this box. I'll be doing it again on the next box like this I make.

hmm.......

Feet for the box? Thought about after I had spilled my coffee mug on the bench. I whacked out 4 pieces of cherry for them.

chamfered

I couldn't get four screws in the feet because the bottom plywood has two screws at the corners. I had to offset the screws in the feet to miss them.

done

I used black screws because I like how they look against the cherry.

one more to go

I got four coats of shellac on the bottom and sides. Two coats on the feet with two more to go.

another almost done

The tills have 3 coats of shellac and that is all they are getting. I still have to put shellac on the top edges to call them done.

tails sawn

While the shellac was drying, I jumped on the cherry chest. Sawed the tails individually. I usually gang saw the tails but nixed doing that because this is cherry and not pine.

hmm......

The tails line up pretty good. 

the other end

Did almost as good on this end. The 3rd and 4th ones from the left are a frog hair off. 

pit stop

Before I got to chopping the waste I sharpened/honed the four chisels I'll use. Yes, I still haven't rehandled the split handle on the 1" chisel.

handles came

Amazon said they would come today but I wasn't expecting them. These only came in black and I would have preferred brass. The handles on these are spring loaded - they fall back down against the sides of the box. They came with screws too.

hmm......

The handles look good. IMO they look like sturdy toolbox handles. Would have been better if they were brass but I digress.

hmm......

Looks different with the feet. You can't really see them because they are inset about a 1/4" from each side.

one more

The tills are done, I got 3 coats on the tops of both of them. I have two coats on the inside of the box with one more to go.

half pins

Stopping here with the cherry chest. It was 1430 and I didn't want to start chopping and then stop a half hour later. I'll jump into this in the AM.

hinge template

The width of the template is the width of the box. The top of the hinge plate is 3" down from the top of the box. 

worked flawlessly

I didn't screw things up and use the template upside down. But if I had, the handle plate would have hidden the four extra screw holes.

hmm......

Handles are done and I kind of like them. I had settled on these because all the brass ones looked like crappola IMO.  I will use these again on another box. At $8 for two and no S/H from Amazon they are a bargain.

wow

I don't ever remember having left over screws that came with hinges before. They are phillips heads that I don't like - tossed the extras in the catch all bin. I have black, slot head screws coming the Blacksmith Bolt later this week to replace them.

1st glamour pic

Both tills fit with no hiccups. The shellac needs to cure for a while before I can let the tills stay in the box.

2nd glamour pic

I'll pass this on to one of my nephews out in Indiana.

from the good hinge stash

I have two sets of these hinges that I was going to use on the cherry chest. Both of them have ball ends which I like to use on doors but not lids. I ordered bail handles from eBay that are coming this week. I might as well buy a set of flat end hinges from Horton Brasses.

accidental woodworker

first till

Last night after dinner I had glued the bottom on the first till. This AM it was ready to be flushed up.

hmm........

The inside depth of the first till is 1 1/6". I put some tools in it that were on the bench to eyeball it. It passed with flying colors. This is deep enough for the tools I tossed in it. And tools can stick above the top of it too because there is wiggle room under the lid.

done

Planed and sanded baby butt smooth. I am going to set the top of the till down from the top 1/8". 

problem solved

I had thought about how this till could be taken out of the box. I had to shorten it to allow for the chain lid stay. I added a couple extra frog hairs to get my fingers in here. No hiccups with lifting it out freely.

2nd till rails

Made a slight miscalculation with the second till rail. The inside vertical wall of the rabbet is directly in line with the top till rail. No wiggle room but I can still get the till in/out but it is awkward. There is zero wiggle room. I should have made the 'rabbet' wider than it was tall. That would have bumped it out toward the interior and given some wiggle room.

fixed

I added a 1/8" thick piece of cherry to the outside of the 2nd till rails. The first till rails I nailed on but the 2nd one I glued on. I didn't want to because removing them if needed will be a bit of a PITA. 

did better

Did much better on the dovetailing with the 2nd till. All the tails/pins came out snug. I glued them and let them cook for an hour before gluing and nailing on the bottom. However, this till was twisted more than the first one. Didn't think to check the stock for twist before dovetailing them. I ignored it because the stock was short and not too wide.

tomorrow

I hope to get going on the cherry chest in the AM or PM session. The box is essentially done woodworking wise. I ordered some hinges - black finish - from Amazon that I'll get tomorrow or maybe not. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I filled a few voids in the tails with putty and I'll be ready to slap on shellac in the AM for sure. Fingers crossed on that happening as planned..

accidental woodworker

 So far the router box turned into a toolbox is moving along swimmingly. I'm on the fence about making a new box for the plunge router but we'll see what shakes out when I'm done with this box and the cherry chest.

I spent the day in the shop but when I killed the lights I was surprised by how little I had accomplished. I was expecting to see a lot more done based on the time I had spent in the shop. 

hiding the plywood

Used the LN 140 to plane a rabbet for the cherry banding. The cherry was left over from Leo's desk. I glued it in the rabbet with yellow and super glue.

last one

Because of the thinness of the banding I didn't miter it at the corners. I used butt joints and they are small enough that they aren't that noticeable.

top done

I picture framed the top of the box in cherry. I banded the inside of the top in cherry too. 

done

I thought of putting banding on the lid/bottom joint line but didn't.  The big thing IMO was hiding the plywood edges at the bottom. Thinking ahead after looking at this was what about handles? Should I put one on the top or on the sides. This is a substantial box with a 1/2" bottom so it will handle a lot of weight. So handles on the sides gets the cigar.

single dovetail

I am going to put two tills in the box. The box is deep and the two tills will make stowing things in more efficient. The top till will be about 1 1/4" high. the 2nd one beneath it will be about 2" high but that is subject to change.

hmm.....

Went together off the saw with one corner a wee bit loose. These single, small dovetails have always caused me problems. The 1/4" plywood bottom will be glued on and that will add a lot of strength to the till.

it fits just shy of snug

The fit should loosen up once I plane it after it has cooked. Both of the tills won't extend fully R/L because of the chain lid stay. The till beneath this one will also be shorter on the width so it can be lifted out/in.

sigh

I thought the plywood I had was enough to both till bottoms but it wasn't so boys and girls. The left over was wide enough but 1 1/2" short on the length. A Lowes run is upcoming.

waiting

Haven't forgotten the cherry chest. I managed to get one tail board in the Moxon and then nada. I turned my attention back to the toolbox build. The idea was to work on the two together but that ain't happening so far.

accidental woodworker 

 It is actually a left turn project for one, and a new start for the 2nd one. The left turn one started at as a box for my plunge router that turned into a possible toolbox. That one is progressing nicely. The 2nd project is a miniature cherry chest. I have churned out a few of these lately in pine, This will  mirror what I have done but in cherry. Looking forward to how this one turns out.

repurposed box

I had to fill in 8 holes left from plowing the top lid groove. I didn't bother to try and bury it in the tails/pins. I don't mind the look of the plugs.

1/2" bottom

I glued the bottom on rather then installing it in a groove.  While this was cooking I started on the cherry chest.

breaking down the cherry

I had two wide cherry boards for the main carcass and two smaller width boards for the base. I think I have a cove molding plane that I'll need for the molding on top of the base. If not I'll look into buying a cove bit.

hmm......

Put the chest together to eyeball the dimensions. When I laid the corners for dovetailing the size of the box looked awkward. I was thinking of making it smaller in the height but changed my mind after seeing it like this on the bench. 

done

Took me a while to layout the tails. I didn't want a boatload like I have the repurposed dovetailed box. I settled on 6 tails and 5 pins. Not too wide apart and not to close together. 

went with quick and easier

I had about a 16th overhang of the bottom all around to flush. I started planing it and stopped. Planing this 1/2" plywood felt like I was trying to plane stone. Zipped it flush with the small battery router and a flush trim bit.

adding screws

I didn't use a lot of glue securing the bottom on. To make sure it stayed home and played nice nice, I added screws.

hmm.......

The bottom is flat and not rocking but the top still has a wee bit of it. I'm leaving that as is. There isn't any compelling reason to knock it back. Nothing will be married to the top so it doesn't matter.

awkward

Cleaned up the outside of the box with the #4. I planed half this way, flipped it, and planed the other half. Didn't get any appreciable tear out and I followed the planing sanding it with 80 grit.

lid is free

I was going to saw the lid off by hand but nixed it. I couldn't figure out any way to secure it so I could do that. Zipped the lid off on the table saw. Bonus is I didn't have to plane the lid or the bottom to fit.

hmm.......

A couple of weeks ago I watched a YouTube vid on someone making a display case where he surface mounted hinges like this in shallow mortise. That left the hinges flush with the surface. I decide to give that try on this box. Unfortunately these hinges set me back almost $50 and I was a bit reluctant to use them. But they were the only hinges I had on hand that weren't thin stamped crappola. 

done

I like this look a lot. They look so much better than just being surface screwed to the box. 

flush

I was concerned about this aspect of the hinging. The lid is flush with the bottom 360.

ta da

Opens and closes smoothly. No binding, creaking, or complaints.

yikes

I went searching for a latch for the box and this box that has my threaded rod clamps fell off the drill press cabinet and this end popped off. I had to make a detour and glue it back together.

latch installed

This brass latch was the only one I had. It has a locking option that I really didn't want. I had 5 sliver ones but the hinges are brass so the latch has to be brass.

cherry off cuts

I'm going to use these on this box. The first will be to cover the plywood edges of the bottom. Thinking of picture framing the top in cherry also. I have the time and I want this box to look nice. Also thinking of putting one or two tills in the box.

accidental woodworker 

first one fitted

Off the saw the pins and tails were too snug. It took a while before I got it to come together.

hmm......

Tried sawing the pins a different way and it didn't work out. All of the left side cuts were tapered. Some I could straighten and remove, a few I couldn't.

better pic

I usually saw the left vertical saw cut by looking at the saw on the right side. These cuts I looked on the left side of the saw as I made the cut. I sawed the other end cuts the way I usually do and had better cuts. Need more practice sawing on the left.

sigh

The glue up looked good but it is a wee bit short. Note to Self - double check eyeball measurements with a rule/tape.

off the saw

This side was easier to fit. It fit off the saw but I wasn't happy with the tightness of the pins and tails. I didn't think I would be able to glue it up with yellow glue. I felt the glue would swell the pins/tails and make it impossible to seat the two. Trimmed all the pins with a rasp to loosen the fit.

yikes

Had a brain drain on the measurements. The R/L should have been 11 inches but this is 9 5/8". The edge guide fits but barely. There is zero wiggle room but it will still work.

one more to go

No trimming needed for this one to come together. 

hmm......

Last one fitted, box together, and the guide still fits. The plan was to put this in the underside of the lid.

won one, loss the big one

The long rods fit in the interior. These were planned to keep the guide in the lid company. The big loss is the router. It is too tall to put in the box upright but that wasn't a problem. The plan was to lay it down on the bottom.

nope

Remember the R/L being 9 5/8"? Well it is biting me on the arse here. The router is wider then the width of the box. The router won't fit upright and it won't fit laying down. I couldn't think of anyway to salvage this for the router.

got lucky

Found a piece of 6mm and 1/2" plywood for the top and bottom for the box. At Lowes yesterday a 2 foot square piece of 1/2" birch plywood was $22. The 6mm will be used for the top and the 1/2" for the bottom.

rocking

I don't understand where this is coming from. All the corners are flush or less than a frog hair off. It is rocking on the high corners a healthy amount. Removing the rocking was batting next.

doesn't fit

I have a 6mm iron for my Lee Valley plow plane, The 6mm panel doesn't fit in the groove I plowed.

groove width

plywood thickness

It ain't going fit. I wonder if my fellow metric woodworkers have these same headaches?

plowed a shallow rabbet

I ran the rabbet plane 3 times on each side. It was a self supporting fit.

glued and cooking

Needed some help seating the pins and tails. Because of the snug fit and the number of tails, I used hide glue. Hide glue doesn't swell the pins/tails like yellow glue does.

Leo's desk

I'm happy with the dowel joinery I used on this desk. It feels as solid as mortise and tenon joinery. The only downside is what will the desk look like in 20 years?. Will the dowel joinery hold up as well as mortise and tenon joints do.

glamour pic #2

I like the front drawer rail a lot. It doesn't look out of place (IMO) with the rest of the desk.

glamour pic #3

I didn't know if the desk will be up against a wall or not. The back is finished so it can be if needed.

side by side

Both of the grandsons wear the same clothes and share a lot of other same things. The desks hopefully won't be a sore point between them. I don't what one thinking the other got a better deal him.

accidental woodworker

 It has been unseasonable warm for the past 3-4 days. For the past two days the temps got into the low 90's with today topping out at 96F-36C at my house. The official temp for Rhode Island is taking at T F Green airport. That temp was 88F-31C. Normal temps for this time of the year are a high of 69F-21C. According to the blurb I read the temp rarely exceeds 82F-28C. This mini heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow. Fingers crossed on Mother Nature cooperating.

this ain't going to work

 Realized after I got screwed in that it won't stop the drawer from being pulled fully out. It needs another stop between it and the biscuit.

done

Got both of the drawer stops installed without any hiccups. I should have done this on Miles's desk - putting the stop on the tilt rail. Something to remember for the next one.

sigh

I really like how the drawer pulls look against the cherry. Unfortunately the supplied screws are phillips heads which I don't like. I had #5 slotted oval head screws but the heads are too small. I'll get some #6 ones on order ASAP because I can't give this desk to Leo with phillips head screws.

sigh

I was hoping to post the glamour pics of Leo's desk today but that ain't happening boys and girls. I had put a moving blanket on the workbench before I had put the desk on it. There are two drag divots on the top, one small and thin with the other being longer and wider. I couldn't see anything on the moving blanket or something underneath it on the bench that caused it. Regardless I will have to deal with it and for it delaying posting glamour pics.

can you see the router box?

Went to Lowes and bought three 1x12 x 4ft pine boards. The box the router came in gave me the minimum measurements but I had to up them some. There are two router fence guide rods that are 15 inches log - that drives the minimum interior dimensions. The OD measurements are 17x 13x 11 (roughly).

split

I was able to get both long sides and one end from one board. This end had a split that went across the entire width. I broke it in two cleanly and glued it back together. I will let this cook until the AM. 

hmm.......

I hope I never tire making dovetails. It still revs my motor sawing and chopping on two different boards and then having them come together at 90°.  Usually I layout dovetails with a larger pin but I went for a smaller ones because I will be sawing the lid off after the box is cooked.

one side done

When I sized the sides, I did it so any knots or other defects were 4" or more from the dovetails. In hindsight (which sucks sometimes) I should have done one wide tail where the lid would be sawn out.

long sides done

Been a while since I have done so many tails on the ends. Pins on in the on deck circle.

pins laid out

I am a little wary with these boards. Most of the time pine boards I get from Lowes do stupid wood tricks within a day or two. Fingers crossed that these will behave themselves. The remaining two boards will be used for the top and bottom - I'll thickness them down around a 1/2" or so.

The plan is to return the shop after dinner and at least saw out the pins. If I feel ambitious I'll chop them out. Pics on the 11 o'clock news update.

accidental woodworker