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Woodworks by.John
Japanese Tool Box in Ash
I’ve been seeing these boxes on Pinterest, Instagram, and other places on the net so decided to make a pair of them for my grandsons Christmas present this year. They both are collectors of “things” so think they will like Opa’s interpretations of them for their “treasure chests”! I mail ordered some Ash from Woodworkers Source and they sent some beautiful pieces, one especially will be destined for the lids. With this blog I’ll break down the process to not only illustrate it for anyone else that may build one of these but also to remind me in case I make another! I hope that Connor and Rory will look at this and possibly be inspired to explore this world of woodworking that their Opa loves so much.
Mortises:
Working with the Ash has been an experience, it is very hard and the grain structure also makes it difficult to scribe clean, crisp lines to work to. Mike Pekovich from Fine Woodworking Magazine has a video series where he uses tape along with marking gauges and spacer blocks to accomplish this. You may need to be a member of the magazine to access it. For my project I could only mark the outside of the boards because the inside has a dado cut to accept the side pieces, this meant I really needed to be accurate on the layout and his technique really worked great, the Ash — well that’s a different story!
Tenons:
If the mortises had cut cleanly each on them should have been exactly the same size, however; not being able to obtain clean cuts meant that they were slightly different so couldn’t use all of the techniques Mike Pekovich showed in his project.
Sliding Tray:
To add versatility each box will have a sliding tray made from 1/4″ thick Beech left over from another project. They’re about two thirds the length of the box and 1 3/4″ deep. No pictures but simple mitered construction using packing tape for assembly. The plywood bottom sits in a dado and the bottom of the box is covered with a heavy fabric on mat-board.
Lid, Battens, and Wedge:
There’s not a lot of exact information that I could find about the battens and the wedge. I’ve read that traditionally the boxes didn’t have a locking wedge. Tradition also has them assembled with nails and the bottom is nailed on. I chose to set the bottom in a dado and also join the battens with glue, screws, and plugs. Some show the wedge without an angled cut but I choose angling it make it more secure. Since these are going to a much more humid location than Las Vegas left a good 1/16″ gap between the lid and the sides of the box. The first step was creating the pieces for the top of the box and lid battens.
Fitting the lid required some experimentation. One end of it has a fixed batten that I located 1/4″ from one end. A spot of glue at the center and screws at each end secured that. I used a piece of plywood to fine tune the length of the lid and I’d recommend doing that if you make one of these. Much easier to screw up a scrap of plywood than a beautifully figured piece of Ash! Basically, after that first batten is attached you insert the lid and slide it so that it’s against the box piece. Then place the other lid batten and wedge in position, draw a line to locate it. A trick I saw and used was to put blocks inside of the box that held the lid at the right height. Now I was able to drill the pilot holes for the screws directly into the lid and attach it in place.
Final Steps:
One change I made was to drill a 3/8″ hole in the locking wedge piece and then glued in a short dowel. These boxes will probably not be stacked and with the higher humidity that wedge could become difficult to remove. I don’t want them tapping it with a hammer! My finish of choice is Osmo #3043, two coats applied with nylon scotch pads. This was a good, challenging process; here’s a slide show of the finished Japanese Toolboxes.
I Don’t Care if it is a DRY HEAT!!
For almost the entire month of July and now well into August the weather for my location has been telling us we’re under an Excessive Heat Warning. Don’t get me wrong, I love living in the desert but this is getting to me!! My shop isn’t air conditioned and it’s not a possibility anyway but by lunch time temperatures are in the low 100’s and I’ve recorded a high of 118° many afternoons. Coolest is usually in high 80’s/low 90’s. I can tolerate the heat for the most part but am unable to do any finishing or gilding. Glue-ups can be done in the house but finishing creates too many fumes so I’m at a standstill for to complete two frames currently ready for finishing. One of them is this one with twisted feathers carved in the corners and I’m anxious to see how it will look when finished. Click on the link for a brief YouTube video of it.
In the meantime, I’ve tackled a few projects to keep myself in the shop and off of the couch! A friend approached me and said he needed a boot jack and wondered if I’d be able to help him out on that. Never one to turn down any project/challenge I told him sure and proceeded to educate myself on them. The internet is full of information (not all valid unfortunately) so you need some discernment. They’re basically a board with either a rounded or V-shaped hole at one end which is elevated a couple of inches to allow your boot to slip in and then pull your foot out of it. Here’s what I came up with:
Completed Boot Jack View of leather monogramI had some Peruvian Walnut (aka Tropical Walnut) which I thought would be a good choice for this project. If you follow my blogs you know I’ve recently been experimenting with leather so decided it would be a nice touch to add a monogram. I was able to copy/paste and then resize an alphabet from free internet sources and transfer that to a piece of 3/16″ vegetable tanned leather. For that authentic western look I had some small clavos which were nailed in each corner. The piece that elevates the boot jack is inserted into a dado then glued, screwed, and plugged. Although this wood is great to use hand tools on it can get splintery, especially when it’s in a hot shop in a dry climate; almost like a kiln! I could have used a router to cut out the inlay but prefer the quietness and process of using hand tools. Here’s a photo montage of that process:
Scribing template to get proper size Outline of monogram knifed into wood Depth chiseled on ends and one edge Accurately placing monogram to scribe last edge Chiseled depth all around perimeter and then chiseled almost to it Stanley No.71 router plane to bring to final depthOnce the perimeter was chiseled to depth I used a bench chisel to take out the center area, leaving it somewhat pillowed. When the depth was close to what it should be my antique Stanley 71 took care of getting the bottom flat and uniform to the required depth. That area was taped off and 3 coats of OSMO 3043 were applied. Once dry, the leather was installed with contact cement and the clavos. I enjoyed the look on my friends face and his appreciation when I gave him his boot jack — that’s what it’s all about
The other project I completed was this display board for Diane’s studio where she can put her in progress paintings. She tends to work on more than one painting at a time and would place them on the floor between sessions. There is a limited amount of wall space and it’s also possible to kick them accidently. It’s also difficult for her to really see her work as a potential buyer would too. The board was made from a 5’x5′ piece of 3/4″, pre-finished Baltic Birch. It’s located on a wall a good distance from her easel so she can study it at a distance. She’s mentioned a few times already how having it at this height and on a neutral background really helps her study her work. Many times I’ve seen her take a painting from our wall that’s already been framed to make some minor changes to that she hadn’t noticed at the easel.
Making this was fairly straight forward and as you may know Baltic Birch plywood is heavy! The first step was to layout and drill the holes for 1″ dowels. We decided on 6″ centers and 3″ from the edges. This worked out evenly for the 60″ dimension. I made a template from some MDF and drilled small holes in it to locate the center of each of the 100 holes. My first choice was to use a forstner bit since they make the most accurate holes, however; Baltic birch plywood is so dense and has lots of adhesive the bit I used was toast after about 4 holes! Next up I tried an auger style bit but it too had a difficult time even starting. Final resort was a spade bit that had a spur on each edge, this worked well as long as I kept the speed of the drill slow, matter of fact I used the screw setting on my Makita. To prevent blow out the plywood was placed on the cheapest piece of 1×4 I could find and this worked well. To finish off the holes I used a router to cut a slight chamfer in each one and also added that chamfer to the outside edge.
Next up was installation. I’ve always been a fan of French Cleats and saw that the largest internet retailer had 30″ aluminum ones. Great, or so I thought until I got them. Very flimsy and worst of all it came with flat head screws but the holes weren’t countersunk so when you attempt to slide them together the head of the screw stick out and prevents the cleat from seating!! Glad they have an easy return policy and proceeded to make my own cleat from a piece of Poplar. Actually was a blessing in disguise because the stud spacing on that wall isn’t the standard 16″ on center. Here’s some pictures to illustrate the process, click on them to see the entire photo.
Locating pilot holes 1″ spade bit works best Chamfered vs. Original hole Shop-made French Cleats