General Woodworking

So, in the little free time that I seem to have these days, I’ve been building the obligatory dining room table. It’s to be in solid red oak, a no-leaf design, and fairly large: about 7′ long. (That’s roughly 2100mm for those who measure in sensible.)

Lengths that long make things unfortunate. I’m not using really thick stock, so there will be battens and such underneath to keep things straight, but just finding clear boards that aren’t excessively bowed has been a problem. In any case, I’m getting somewhere:

Now, the length introduces another problem, that when edge-joining, you’re going to have a really hard time getting everything to line up. Even if you were somehow to find perfectly straight boards, they start flexing around a bit at that length, so managing it is annoying.

There are several ways around this, such as creating index battens to clamp to the faces while gluing up, but in the end, I’ve decided just to index with inserts. In this case, sort of small loose tenon things, and matching mortises for them to fit in.

Even though I recently bought a mortiser (blasphemy, I know), this stuff is so hard to manage that I decided that it would just be easier to do it by hand. And since I wasn’t really in the mood to whack it out with my normal mortise chisels, I went for the old “clamp a guide to the face” method:

Essentially, mark the edge away from the face with a marking gauge, clamp on the guide/jig/whatever, drill out most of the waste (a brad-point bit is helpful in this small size), and excavate with the chisel up against the guide. It’s surprisingly quick.

When finished, a board looks like this:

I don’t bother to put much (if any) glue to affix the loose tenons during glue-up because it’s a hectic time, and the edge-glue joint all around is much stronger anyway. But it really does help tremendously to keep everything behaved while getting the work in the clamps without worrying about if things are flopping around or sliding into the wrong place. Sometimes I’ll also put small F-clamps over the very ends to bring those into alignment, if necessary.

This is one of those times when you are tempted to buy a biscuit joiner or something like that because it might save a little bit of time (or at least seem easier), but I really don’t want to buy another tool. (I guess I have a doweling jig for some reason, but dowels make me go meh.) And really, preparing the faces and edges has been the most time-consuming thing in this project anyway. So far.

But I do wish it were as easy as the smaller table tops that you can just slap together all in one shot.

going for it

No balls, no blue chips I say. Jumped into nailing off the top battens willing to risk any splitting. Besides, nailing off the top will strengthen the box's butt joinery.

sigh

First box and I got a few tiny splits on 3 of 4 of the end nails. I also got 2 splits on the center nails. But it could have been worse and I can live with the teeny splits.

this sucks

Wasn't expecting this to happen. The nail appeared to go in straight, in the middle of the end, but it came out at an angle.

lid fits in spite of it

At least the nail isn't interfering with the lid fitting. The lid still fits in both orientations too.

simple layout

I could have eyeballed it but the ruler wasn't in the way and stayed while I drilled the holes.

side trip

The fence company dropped two fence pickets off. 3 pickets were loose and I was able to nail them back in place. I got permission from my next door neighbor to walk behind her fence to get to mine and put the two new ones in. I used screws instead of nails. The fence company used what looked like aluminum spiral nails - thin and flimsy looking. They certainly pulled out easy as can be - nothing like pulling spiral nails I have dealt with before.

done

Nailed off the remaining 5 boxes. Doing it with brass nails didn't register until I was done using the cut nails.

replacement box

This is the replacement for the box with the errant nail. I tried to back it out but it wasn't happening. I don't want to chance some young fingers accidentally getting stabbed by it. Got the first coat of the hard paste wax on it. Two more to go and it can join the other 2.

I got a third coat on all of the original 3 boxes. The final coat I rubbed on a thin coat, waited 15 minutes, and buffed them with a face cloth. I didn't bother with the soft or hard buffing pads. They weren't making any difference with the look of the finish.

hmm.....

Two cords for this 1/2HP motor. One is the line cord and the other is for the on/off switch. I want to reuse the on/off switch on the 3/4HP motor. Should be doable without wasting too many calories.

this sucks pond scum

The switch and the line cords are soldered - not crimped or wire nutted together. That will make reusing this motor a wee bit involved, ie, soldering a new on/off switch. I left the wires I snipped long so I will be able to figure out how to do that.
 

old line cord

This one has had the snot beat out of it. It still works but definitely not OSHA approved. I'll have to buy a new cord at Lowes - I think they still sell line cord by the foot. This one is a few inches over 8 feet long.

hiccup

I'll have to wire the motor and switch before I secure the motor on the bandsaw. This cover will be up close and personal with the bottom frame of the bandsaw.

hmm....

This deserves a bit more than a 'hmm....'. I need to feed in two cords and that isn't going to happen. There isn't enough room for that. 

might work

There isn't a lot of extra real estate to put in a 2nd opening for a cable clamp. I'll remove this one and check if a romex clamp will fit. I should be able to get two cords in that with no problems. I don't have a good way of securing the two cords this way. And there is zero strain relief not mention it would be easy ingress for sawdust from the bandsaw.

I'll make a road trip to Lowes first thing in the AM. I rely on the bandsaw too much to have it unavailable to use. No turning back now because I can't readily swap 1/2HP motor back in service.

accidental woodworker