A Woodworking Odyssey

Mr. Bun's Rabbit House

2009-11-15T16:28:00.004-05:00

Mr. Bun's House - concept drawing

Today I finished something that has been on the project list since before I started the cold frames—a "playhouse" for Mr. Bun, a friend's rabbit.

Mr. Bun's House - Parts and measurements

The plan, based on the rabbit playhouse that Mr. Bun has outgrown, was fairly easy to build with two exceptions: the circular window and rounded top doorway. These were the perfect opportunity to try a simple circle cutting jig I'd seen in Fine Woodworking, which screws to the center of the circle and uses a guide bushing that rides in holes drilled at the correct distance—1/2 the diameter of the circle or arc.

This worked well, but I did learn a disadvantage to using this simple setup instead of a more complicated jig that incorporates a router base: if you are not careful to keep downward pressure the router can ride up out of the jig and eat a chunk out of the jig and your work piece fairly quickly. Look closely to the right of the door on the photo below and you will see what appears to be a slight ding—this was the result of learning this the hard way. Fortunately the damage is slight and Mr. Bun should never notice.

The other challenge with the routed circles was that the router bit was too short to cut through the entire thickness of the plywood. I hadn't realized this before starting and so planned for clearance above the bench. I used double stick tape to attach two scraps of plywood to the rabbets on the back of the front piece. These scraps screwed to the workbench to hold the piece stationary and above the bench. Since the router didn't cut through from the top, in the end I drilled the guide hole for the jig screw through the plywood and flipped the piece over to cut the rest of the way through from the other side.

Rabbet Joints on the corners

Of course, when building a rabbit playhouse, one must incorporate rabbet joints wherever possible—one on each corner, and one all the way around the top. These appear to have worked well as both a gluing surface and squaring reference.

Mr. Bun's House - completed

Several years ago a graphic designer friend of mine agreed to design a hallmark for me. I've been stamping my work with it and learning how to make the best impression. I'm still experimenting, but the big innovation this time through is the use of a dead-blow mallet, which eliminated the bounce I've been experiencing. I recently started inking the stamp before pounding it, but the ink I'm using is too thin—it looks crisp to start, but starts to seep into the surrounding grain before it dries. I think I need to find a thicker ink, or stop inking the imprints.

Hallmark on the inside of Mr. Bun's roof

French Polish Tutorial at Sauer & Steiner

2009-10-14T17:11:00.004-04:00

On Saturday, Konrad Sauer posted a short illustrated tutorial on applying French Polish on his blog. It makes the idea of applying this finish, which I've always heard is tedious, almost approachable.

Radial Arm Saw Fix for a Scary Problem

2009-10-05T13:27:00.006-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, in the middle of constructing cold frame lights, my Radial Arm Saw stopped working. This saw is the central machine of my shop: I use it to do just about everything from ripping to chopping to mitering. And though replacing it would be possible, it would hurt—in more ways than one.

Before I turned it off, the saw worked fine through all the cuts I performed, and it did not slow or stop until I turned the switch. There was no smoke or hot smell, and the cuts were not through overlarge or dense material. But when I turned the switch again the saw just buzzed; the blade moved almost imperceptibly in the wrong direction but did not turn at all. After a few tries with the saw still buzzing—turning off, turning on; unplugging, replugging; pressing the reset button, and poking the blade with a stick (probably a dumb idea as I think on it)—there was a little click and the saw no longer reacted to the switch at all.

Perhaps everyone in a situation like wonders if they caused the problem somehow. I wondered, because this once, for the first time, I had turned the switch in the opposite direction from usual. It had to be just coincidence that the two events occurred together. But it was the only thing I could think of that might have caused the saw to stop.

I took out the switch, checked the connections, and reassembled it. Still nothing. My saw is wired with a plug and socket between the switch and the motor so the motor can be easily taken out of the arm and taken elsewhere. I thought "Maybe I can plug in something else and test the switch?" but the plug was on the switch side and the socket on the motor side. So I swapped the two and was ready to test the "broken switch" theory. I plugged in and ran a shop lamp and then the shop vacuum: the switch was definitely OK.

It was in the motor. Again I pressed the red reset button several times and tested the saw with no result. It seemed I was going to have to open the motor to get this fixed, but I'd been in the shop for much of the day and I was frustrated: I decided I wasn't going to get it fixed that day.

Later I had a chance to talk with my friend Sean, who suggested I visit the Old Woodworking Machines forum to look for (or ask for) help. Sure enough, I found a comment string that suggested some possible actions that didn't involve taking apart the motor.

Back in the basement I pressed the reset button harder. There was a promising click. I plugged the saw back it and it was back to buzzing (but still not turning). I was making progress! On to step 2. I rapped on the motor housing—especially near the reset switch—with the handle of a screw driver. Believe it or not, after that the saw worked.

So for the moment, all is well again.

"Making and Mastering Wood Planes" in Print

2009-09-22T15:20:00.003-04:00

Short and sweet:

This is an excellent book, not just for learning to make James Krenov style hand planes, but also for understanding how planes work. I found that much of the information on fettling the blades and chipbreakers applies directly to cast planes as well.

http://www.davidfinck.com/newswork.htm

Fettling: Making the Shop More Functional

2009-09-20T19:31:00.006-04:00

I think beginning woodworkers (and I still consider myself a beginning woodworker) are challenged by all the setup required for the shop to work well. Many tools are sold looking like they are functional, but with serious flaws. And even those that don't have serious flaws need fettling to perform at their potential. These tasks often seem endless.

The router table pictured above came from an estate, complete with router, for about $25. I knew I needed a router table, and I also knew it would be a while before I make the one I have planned. This seemed like a good solution (still does), but the the stock fence, which was designed to look like would allow straight guided cuts as well as small scale jointing, had challenges.

Ryobi is the manufacturer, and the table and fence are made from aluminum. They look like they were cast and machined to be flat, but the fence itself curves significantly. When I placed a straightedge against it, there was a visible deflection of up to 1/8" at the center. Whether I used it with the plastic guide surfaces or without, the fence caused anything that ran over it to stall when it hit the gap, and the act of correcting this problem would put a wrinkle in the line of the routed groove.

I had to fix the router fence before I could route the slots on the cold frame lights. And to do that I needed to finish setting up the jointer (finally). I spent a night last week setting up the jointer, and about an hour and a half this weekend flattening a fence and setting it up to receive the bolts. Two more fettling tasks done. And the router table performed to the tolerances I required (something it would not have done before adding the new face to the fence).

It turns out that the new surface is not actually flat, and some day I may sink the bolts further in and run it over the jointer while it is attached to the fence. Today is not that day.

Very Small Router Bits Used for Inlay

2009-09-12T23:51:00.003-04:00

About a year ago I saw a post by Jameel at Khalaf Oud Luthiery discussing his process for inlay. In it he mentioned very tiny router bits (3/32") which he used to route the most of the mortise. Today I found a site where you can get bits as small as 1/32".

Very cool. I expect this will be useful one day.

Exploded views of the Cold Frame

2009-09-12T10:22:00.005-04:00

Exploded Frame

Exploded Light

The exploded views above give a good idea for just how simple the Cold Frame design is. The 2 x 2 strips at the bottom of the frame are sacrificial parts that can be replaced when the rot gets too bad.

The hardest part of this project is making the sloped sides and cutting the notches for the central brace. The notches really should have a sloped bottom to match that of the frame sides. I achieved this on my frame by marking 1 1/2" down on the top side and 1 5/8" down on the bottom side of each support. I cut to the lines with a hand saw (so the bottom of the kerf was sloped) and chiseled out the waste between the two. For some reason, on both frames the slot on the front of the frame was perfect, but the slot on the back of the frame had side-to-side slop. I think I still need practice cutting to a line, especially with a cross-cut saw.

This weekend I will start preparing the parts for the lights. This should be fairly simple: I need to route 1/4 inch slots in the sides, create the stops (the little blocks that hold the glass in), and cut the frame parts to length. If I have time left over, I'll also make the notched sticks that allow propping of the lights.

I chose to make the lights with tempered glass, which should deliver next Friday. It is very expensive: $88.62 per pane of tempered glass. When I priced other materials, I found that either Plexiglas or regular glass was 25% less expensive, and Polycarbonate was 25% more expensive: $101.28 per pane. Wow!

I hope this frame will still be working in 20 years: that might make the investment of time and materials worthwhile. The experience of making it? Priceless.

Compost Bins Completed

2009-09-08T21:53:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of the summer I designed two possible compost bins based on designs in the book "Let it Rot". Last weekend I finally finished the one I chose to complete (the model with boars on four sides, which won on the merits of hiding the pile from our neighbors).

This is what we had before:

This is what we have now:

There are a lot of nuts and bolts in this beast:

And especially in the middle posts:

The bins look great and are functional, but given the choice to start over I would definitely go with the other design. All the hardware on this design was very expensive, as was the 1 x 6 lumber. The other design would have been easily as functional and because the floor and three sides are made with 2 x materials and cheaper connectors it would have been much less expensive and easier to construct.

But this design taught me quite a bit: I a built a jig for drilling the holes in the posts an equal distance apart, that worked perfectly except that I measured incorrectly and had the holes about 1/8" further apart than on the slats. It wasn't so much of a problem with the outer sides, where the bolts go through one post and one slat, but it was impossible to get through two posts and one slat. I ended up bolting through one hole and drilling out the second hole for each slat once the sides were mostly assembled. Also, did I mention that there are a LOT of nuts, bolts, and washers? And on the center side I was so distracted by the puzzle of getting the bolts in, that I installed the two back posts upside down. So I was able to take out and reinstall those 12 bolts twice. Fun.

Building a Cold Frame for the Winter

2009-08-31T22:11:00.005-04:00

Last winter I read a great book on winter gardens called Four Season Harvest. According to this book, one of the keys to having garden vegetables year round (or at least during an extended season) is the use of a cold frame.

The book describes how to build one of these mini greenhouses in detail, but the width was too great for our garden beds. So after measuring to be sure (3' 3" maximum) I sat down to draw out new plans in Sketchup on Sunday morning. Then I cataloged what I had on the wood rack and what I needed to buy. The whole list looked like this:

Base:

2 sides 3' 3" x 11.25" x 1.5" to be tapered to 7.25" at one end
1 back 7' 9" x 11.25" x 1.5"
1 front 7' 9" x 7.25" x 1.5"
2 long sacrificial bottoms 7' 9" x 1.5" x 1.5"
2 short sacrificial bottoms 3'3" x 1.5" x 1.5"
1 cross brace 3' 4" x 1.5" x 1.5"

Light (x4):

2 light sides 3' 3" x 1.5" x 1.5"
2 light ends 21" x 1.5" x 1.0"
2 stops (to hold the glass in) 3" x .75" x .5"
1 piece of tempered glass 1' 10.5" x 3' 1.5"

Notched prop sticks: (to hold the lights up and vent the frame during warmer days)

4 prop sticks 2.0" x 1.5" x 16" (two inch notches with one inch of material in between)

Other:

50 Kreg self-tapping 2.5" pocket screws (everything is screwed together)
16 Kreg self-tapping 1" Pocket screws (or some other 1" screw for holding the stops on)

A trip to Home Depot and Lowe's later I had all the supplies, including the 1/4 router bit I needed for milling the grooves the glass will sit in. Sunday afternoon was dedicated to milling most of the parts for what will become two cold frames. Many of the parts were cut down from larger lumber. The 2 x 2 stock, for example all started as 2 x 4 or larger.

To cut the tapered ends, I marked the end points of each side (minus about 4" for clearance and support), screwed a piece of pine from one mark to the other, registered it against the front edge of my Radial Arm Saw table, and set the saw blade even with the longer end. I was ready to make the cut, but first I set two combination squares to the depths of those marks. On each of the other three ends I just marked the length from the combination squares and screwed down the same piece of pine as a straightedge. It worked perfectly.

The only hand work was cutting angled notches in the front and back. Here I learned that crosscut really can make a difference, and since the first notch was started with a rip saw and finished with a crosscut saw the fit of the cross brace was a little sloppy. The second one was nice and tight, just like I would have wanted. In the picture below, the blemish is a knot hole.

I nailed the sacrificial sections to the bottoms of all the sides (these can be removed and replaced when rot starts to become a problem), and took one set of parts out into the yard to screw it together with Anne's help. It came out well. With luck, I'll get the lights done next weekend.

Sam Maloof Leaves an Empty Chair

2009-05-26T14:24:00.007-04:00

Sam Maloof passed away last Thursday. He was one of my woodworking heroes: someone that left corporate America to build enduring and beautiful furniture and succeeded wildly. I know he was tremendously lucky as well as talented, but his story still inspires.

If you must be dead to be a legend, a woodworking legend was born Thursday. Thank you, Sam. (Hat tip to Brian)

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-sam-malo of23-2009may23,0,3907018.story

Building the Jointmaker Pro (Part 2)

2009-04-12T21:36:00.006-04:00

In the last post on assembling the Jointmaker, I forgot the picture of required tools. The Allen wrenches came with the Jointmaker, but everything else you'll need on hand. The (accurate) 6" square was extremely useful. The small hammer and needle-nosed pliers were only used once, but without the pliers, it would be very hard to drive the spring pin.

These tiny Phillips head screws hold the saw blade into the spine. I used the longer screw driver to put them in initially, but later (when tightening the blade in) I found the stubby driver to be the right choice.

Here's a picture of the spine with screws in place (though not tightened).

Next was the attachment of saw blade guides. This required the screws and washers pictured above. Notice the very thin washers: these are just .010 inch thick and sit between the saw blade guide and the front spine guide. Getting them in without dropping them was a challenge.

The first guide went on without a problem, and I was pleased with the speed and ease of the assembly. But the second guide occasioned much swearing: Everything seemed to be going well, until the front screw bound up. I backed it out, reseated it, and tried again with the same result. The screw would not go, and I was not going to force it.

I examined both the screw and the tapped hole. The screw had a white residue on the front of it, and the threads inside looked like they might be stripped. I panicked and immediately wrote to Bridge City tools (both to John Economaki and Michael Berg - the production manager. At least for now, their email addresses are included in the User's Guide. And even though it was the weekend, I received a reply from John before the end of the next day. Had I tried scraping the threading gently with an awl, or something else pointed? There might be some gunk in the threads.

The awl couldn't get the right angle, so I made a tool with a small brad:

Sure enough, what looked like cross threading was gunk. After scraping the threads thoroughly, I tried assembly again. This time I could drive the screw past the problem, and a few runs back and forth wore away what was left of the gunk.

Now the entire transmission was assembled. For some reason, the auto focus really didn't want to focus on the anodized aluminum. The picture above was the best I could do (it focused on the thread adjustment).

The instructions called for a transmission check, holding the unit in a bench vise and temporarily attaching the handle to take it, literally for a spin. Everything worked as described: I was ready to install the transmission in the table.

The travelers hold the transmission square to the front and back, and ride in the protractor slots at the front and back of the unit. Notice the white spots on each of them: these are nylon set screws that allow width adjustment to take out slop (there wasn't much) in the fit between the travelers and the front and back plates. The fitting was done before attaching the keel assembly to the frame.

Here's the front traveler being fit to the frame.

The keel is slid through the back plate.

The shaft is inserted into the front traveler.

And the back of the keel rests on the back traveler. Now the keel can be attached and adjusted.

And we're ready to attach the travelers to the front and back plates.

Locking knobs and nylon washers, which prevent damage to the aluminum front and back plates.

The knobs, once installed, will hold the keel in place. These are only finger tightened lightly until adjustments are made to the keel.

The jam nut will hold the handle in place with friction once it has been seated.

The handle screws on, and...

The jam nut is tightened against the bottom of the handle.

These four screws secure the keel on the travelers.

Notice on the shaft, the three nuts. These are part of a clever system for setting depth of cut for exact repetition. The stop that fits there allows perfect depth of cut every time (assuming you set the depth right in the first place).

The saw is beginning to take shape. Now it needs the sliding tables.

There are four dovetailed ways that for the supports for the tables and six aluminum spacers that make two rigid tracks for the tables to ride on.

The tracks slide into the front and back plates to form the rest of the frame.

Now there is a lot more screwing to be done, in the literal sense of the word.

I'm not sure how many screws are seated and tightened during assembly, but there are a lot of them.

Once the tracks are tightened lightly, the tracks are checked and adjusted to make sure they are coplanar.

These four sliders fit the dovetailed ways and make the suspension on which the tables ride. The bumpers prevent damage to the sliders by preventing them ramming into the front and back plates.

Here's one of the sliders after attachment.

And one of the bumpers installed next to it.

One of the sliders for each table has screw holes, the other has slots to allow adjustment back and forth. The one with slots is not fully tightened and once the tables are placed on the ways, with the sliders riding in the dovetails, you pull the slotted slider toward the edge of the table before tightening it down.

The fences attach with square headed bolts, that ride in slots on the bottom of the table.

This is a dovetail nut, which fits into a sacrifice fence and holds it in place. I'll probably want to get a router bit that cuts a matching dovetail at some point, so I can replace the fence when it gets too worn.

The dovetail nut attaches to the front of the fence.

Saw teeth on a seriously thin and well sharpened blade.

The blade inserts between the saw guides and is tightened into the saw spine. Easy to do.

Flip stops allow repeatable angles. There is a track on both the front and back plates. Set the blade at the correct angle, but a flip stop up against it, tighten it down, and you have an instantly repeatable setting that can be moved out of the way when not in use.

Installation of the flip stops requires some coordination, but with a thumb through from the back, and an index finger holding the square nut in back, it goes on quickly.

After all these pictures, I can't believe I didn't take one of the full assembly, but I didn't. I managed to secure the saw to the table and take some test cuts: smooth as glass.

Compost Bin Design Session

2009-04-11T15:27:00.004-04:00

Today I assembled two thoughts for compost bins:

The first is built on a foundation of cinder blocks and has hardware cloth on three sides for ventilation. The fronts are prevented from spreading by a 2x4 attached across the front.

The second is modeled on a traditional New Zealand Box design that I found in the book "Let it Rot". The posts are driven directly into the ground and the slats on three sides are attached to the posts with half inch gaps between them for ventilation. Across the top is a "spreader bar" that prevents the tops from bulging out under the weight of compost. Both have slats that can be slid in at the front to build a taller pile that doesn't fall out.

We'll probably build the second one, because it hides the contents from the neighbors—somehow eggshells and vegetable scraps don't inspire confidence in the modern world, and we've removed many of the bushes that once obscured the compost heap from public viewing.

More Handsaw Practice

2009-04-01T21:12:00.001-04:00

I haven't had much time in the shop. I have been ducking in for 5 minutes at a time to practice cutting to a line, though, using the method described in and earlier post.

I'm getting pretty good.

Building the Jointmaker Pro (Part 1)

2009-03-21T12:15:00.004-04:00

Christmas continued at my house this week with the assembly of the Jointmaker Pro. I received the unassembled version of the Jointmaker, which provided a great opportunity to understand exactly how the machine goes together.

Before starting, I cleared and vacuumed the benchtop. I only wish I had also vacuumed the floor: there are a lot of small parts (with no extras), and I managed to drop three of them. The game of hide and seek would have been easier on a carefully cleaned floor.

The tool parts arrived securely boxed. Inside they were packaged in protective plastic bags, carefully wrapped in paper, or nestled in perfectly-sized high impact Styrofoam compartments.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are a lot of small parts and the assembly requires a lot of patience and care. If I had not had such short lengths of time to work in, and not taken so many pictures along the way, I think it would have taken about three hours to assemble. As it was, it took about 4.5 hours plus time to solve the two troubles I encountered (more on this later).

The hardware was divided into manageable groups of parts, and I kept them in their bags until I neared the end of the process. The logic of the sorting was not always obvious, but there was a logic: all of the same sized screws were in the same bag, and all of the orange aluminum parts were in the same bag, all of the square topped bolts, etc. When I looked for a part, it was usually in the bag I look in first.

In addition to the Allen wrenches Bridge City shipped with the kit, they mentioned the need for a #2 Philips head screw driver, a small hammer, a 9/16" open ended wrench (or adjustable wrench), and needle nosed pliers. I quickly found that a small, accurate square was also required for referencing some of the parts, and I wished many times for Allen wrenches that had screwdriver handles for the two largest sizes that Bridge City supplied.

The front and back panels were wrapped in individual heavy plastic bags to preserve the quality finish of the tool.

The stretchers each had a perfectly fitted seating on the back of the front and rear plates. These were then easily screwed into place.

Doesn't it look good already? But a tool looks good because it works well, so there wasn't too much time spent admiring it. I didn't get nuts with the pictures until later in the assembly process (I really did go nuts), but assembling the shafts to the keel was when the square became useful: it was the perfect tool for ensuring that bearing blocks are square and flush with the keel edges. There are pictures in the manual showing exactly how the gears should interlock. At first it seemed to me that I couldn't do this incorrectly, but the slots in the keel allowed some play in the positioning of the shaft. I found it easiest to check the correct placement by feel: the gears should interlock so that the teeth meet on exactly the same plane.

A blurry picture of the gears after both shafts are attached:

With the shafts assembled, the working part of the tool starts to take shape.

I found the hardest (most nerve wracking) part of the assembly to be inserting the spring pin that attaches the front height shaft to the spine. Needle nose pliers truly were necessary for this, and though the instructions recommend using a small hammer they don't make clear how hard that hammer has to strike to drive the pin home. Too lite and the pin just waggled around. It took a solid blow to get it started enough to abandon the pliers and pound directly.

With the pin fully seated, this is what the connection looks like.

Next, the front and rear height shafts are screwed into the keel. This is where the work of raising and lowering the blade takes place. The instructions have specific lengths mentioned that should protrude from the gear bushings. This was another place that I found the sliding combination square handy: I set the rule to the required height and used it as a depth gauge.

After this step, the keel was held upright in the bench vise, as recommended in step 7. The pitch adjuster screw was inserted and the rear spine guide attached (again with the combination square to seat it properly square and flush to the keel). The next part involved tightening down a screw that threads into the rear pitch adjuster until it is tight, then backing it off slightly. This captures the spine between two washers and allows free movement of the screw while the spine pitch is adjusted. A simple and elegant solution.

Notice the Allen wrench in the top of the spine. There is a very small hole there for inserting this into the trap screw, and the instructions have two names for this screw. I note that one writer on the Bridge City forums had quite a time finding this, and if I hadn't done this in the same sesiion that I threaded the pitch adjuster and trapped the spine, I might also have had troubles.

That ends the first part of the assembly. I'll post the other half of the pictures soon.

Bridge City Tools Jointmaker Pro: It's Here!

2009-03-14T09:39:00.003-04:00

My Christmas present arrived yesterday afternoon. The box of Jointmaker Pro parts was left leaning against the front door, and I started to assemble it.

I will post pictures of the assembly process later, but my first impression: there are a LOT of pieces, and you don't want to lose any of them before you get the machine assembled. I'm glad to be assembling mine, but if you don't like assembly or know you are not careful about assembly projects it will be well worth spending extra and have Bridge City put it together.

6/4" Poplar Board

2009-03-07T11:24:00.002-05:00

I spent time this morning consulting the U.S. Forestry Service's Wood Handbook. I was looking for an affordable wood that would not move too much, carve fairly well, take paint, and be available in 6/4 rough. I settled on Poplar over Basswood (lower movement coefficient and better paintability, especially with latex), and headed off to Downes and Reader.

I just love the lumber yard. I spent a minute just browsing all of the wood. I was tempted to look for more than I had come for (there was still some of the Friejo I bought the last time down) but the memory of the full wood racks and the pile of ash that will need to be added in a month or two when Sean leaves his current house made me decide to stick to my shopping list: at least 10 feet of 6/4 poplar in a board at least 6 inches wide. What I found needed to be cut to fit in the car, so I had it cut to slightly longer than the sword will be: 4 feet. I plan to make two sword blanks simultaneously, so that if I screw up the first one, the second will be ready to go.

Lumber Run and Joint Maker Pro

2009-03-06T21:44:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I'm off to Downes and Reader to get the wood for my next project: a wooden sword. More on this as things develop. It is a fantasy sword commissioned by a reader, and I'm trying to invent a way to sheath it without a sheath, so that the whole sword is visible on his hip.

Oh, and the Joint Maker Pro shipped from Bridge City Tools. I've been coming home with hopes of finding it on my front porch, but it does take packages a while to get all the way across the country!

:)

A Quick Child's Table

2009-02-26T19:25:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday my friend, Mark, visited with his son. Mark's inventive streak runs long and he doesn't let limited experience stop him from making things. He brought the parts for a table he planned to build with August, and he and I took 15 minutes in the shop to sand all the parts.

Above you can see the table he assembled on Sunday with his son's help. The basic design is butt joints and screws. I don't think there is any glue. This table reminds me of many of the furniture pieces I saw in Belize in January: simple, practical, and without pretense. The joints are braced with both brackets and triangular braces. I expect it will hold up to everything August throws at it until after he outgrows it.

Mark plans to make a chair for this little table using the similar construction techniques and more scraps from around the house. Nice work, Mark. Send pictures of the chair when you finish it.

Photographs courtesy and © 2009, Mark Shar.

Crate Breakdown and Sword Commission

2009-02-22T21:44:00.005-05:00

The wood stove was installed on Friday and I spent Saturday morning breaking down the crate and pallet. Sadly, the Aussies who built the crate used Torx screws—the one profile that I didn't have a drill bit for—so the drill in the picture never saw use.

I did have the required T25 profile in a manual screwdriver though, and took out at least 15 of the screws by hand. Those screws are still good and I'll use them and the crate parts (pictured above) for a garden project this spring. I expect the lower pallet wood, which was lower quality, will be used for kindling. With luck the stove will pass inspection on Monday and we'll be soon be disposing of project cut offs by warming the house.

On Friday I received a down payment on a commissioned wooden fantasy sword. I spent about an hour last night testing a method for attaching the cross guard to the body of the sword. The prototype joint worked. I'll likely need to fettle the router plane for this project, though I may try using a pattern bit in the power router first—the router plane is far from ready to use.

Before and After: Loading the Wood Rack

2009-02-20T21:09:00.004-05:00

Last night I loaded the wood rack. Above, you can see how it looked at the beginning of the night. Below is what it looked like when I was done.

I didn't realize just how much wood I had stacked around the basement, and now I'm worried that the pile of ash that's sitting up at my friend Sean's house will not fit anywhere on the rack. The good news is, right now no wood remains piled in other sections of the basement. Here's a look at a few more before and after shots:

The walk way into the shop, lined with sheet goods, spalted maple, and freijo.

The same space with only unassembled metal shelves and insulating panel remaining.

The wall next to my bench and radial arm saw, lined with scraps and two large planks: one of cherry, the other of an unknown hardwood (maple?).

The same space ready to be vacuumed and painted.

And finally, the main section of the basement, piled with lumber: pine, poplar, ash (on the left under the boxes), and oak boards. At the bottom of this pile, a bunch of rough cut pine waits to be used for making (among other things) cold frames.

The same space, ready for reorganization and (my wife tells me) a pallet of wood bricks—fuel for the wood stove.

Journal Entry #8: Paint

2009-02-18T18:46:00.002-05:00

I painted the corner behind the wood rack tonight. It is ready to receive wood tomorrow night.

Journal Entry #7: Do the Washing Up

2009-02-16T18:01:00.004-05:00

Brian Eno, a musician and artist, has published several editions of Oblique Strategies, a set of cards designed to help break unproductive thought patterns. I've handwritten a set for myself and have been using it as a constant inspiration in life—there are so many things that I get bogged down with—and while the strategies were written for artists and musicians they are broad enough to apply to almost any endeavor.

One of these cards says "Do the washing up".

Mess discourages, distracts, and hinders progress on any project. If I can't get motivated, or if I feel overwhelmed in the shop, it almost always helps to take a break and clean everything up. Throw out the thin scrap strips from ripping down boards in the last project (why am I keeping them?), put all the tools back where they belong, file the hardware in the hardware box, and vacuum. Figure out where the pile of lumber should be (what, not the middle of the floor?), and paint the walls white to brighten things up.

And that's what I've been doing this weekend. I completed the woodrack, which will soon house the pile of project wood and open a bunch of basement floor space. The wall next to it is washed and ready for paint. And the workbench has been cleared completely: I'm ready for the next project.

Journal Entry #6: Ripping and Chopping

2009-02-14T21:36:00.002-05:00

Progress. The 2 x 8 lumber I scrounged from my brother-in-law's recent construction debris will be just enough to build a wood rack. Today I ripped 5 of these into 10 2 x 4's and cut down two more to form 6 arms for storing wood. I've been thinking about design for a couple of months now, thinking I would get to this much earlier than I have, and had good input from two friends who have built their own.

Most of the work was done on the radial arm saw. Ripping first, cross cutting second. my design involves a cantilever support that if my imagination is right should put most of the force on the vertical posts and the wall of the basement. This involved notching the 2 x 8 sections so that part will be mortised into the post, and the rest will rest directly on the side of the post. I could have built a fixture to notch these on the radial arm saw, but in the interest of time and of practicing cutting to a line I used a panel saw to cut these by hand. All that practice with the dovetail saw paid off: I stayed acceptably straight and square on all six arms.

I'll post pictures of my rack and possibly a few drawings of my design later (possibly tomorrow). In the meantime, here are pictures of my friends' wood racks, which inspired this design. If all goes well, I will be done sometime tomorrow.

Pictures courtesy and copyright Glenn Lyford and Sean Slattery.

Journal Entry #6: Bookshelves and Magnets

2009-02-13T21:49:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I took down the first bookshelf I built, cut the shelves 3 inches shorter, reassembled it, and set it up on the other side of the room. I also took a smaller bookshelf that used to be in the new spot, cut an access hole in the back of it (for an electrical socket) and moved that shelf into a new place in the living room.

The cause of all this reorganization? We're getting a wood stove and bake oven installed in the dining room, and had to make room for clearance. I'm sure to dispose of a few cutoffs there in the coming years—a big improvement over throwing them all away.

Work's been busy lately, so I've spent only a short time in the shop. When the magnet holder of a new Min Max Thermometer broke on my shin (don't ask) it gave me the excuse I needed to get back into the shop.

Rather than trying to glue together the flimsy plastic magnet holder I broke, I made one out of wood. I sawed a small block out of a 2 x 4 cutoff, drilled a hole in the end to fit the magnet, drilled a smaller hole cross grain to hold the tether, and then on a whim did some shaping with a coping saw, a four-in-hand rasp, a chisel, and some sandpaper. The result is an oddly satisfying and quirky looking replacement that I actually like better than the one that came with the thermometer:

On slate for tomorrow: a wood rack for the basement and possibly a start on the cold frames I've been planning.

Journal Entry #5: Jointer Assembly Complete

2009-02-03T21:19:00.002-05:00

On Sunday I finished assembling the new jointer. I still need to adjust this for use, but I'm within an hour or so of having it fully functional.