Author: The Apartment Woodworker

The Apartment Woodworker is a weekly blog with insights, projects and tips for making the most of woodworking with hand tools in confined spaces.

How to Finish with Shellac

I have little experience with finishes that aren’t Milk Paint or Danish Oil.  It’s a shortcoming; I know.  But I’ve been experimenting with shellac finish on the little box I made.  Here is, as near as I can tell, a fail-safe process for finishing a project with Shellac.

Step 1:  Brush on coat of sanding sealer, then sand with 220 grit sandpaper when dry.

Step 2:  Apply 2-5 coats of shellac, thinned to approximately 50-50 with denatured alcohol, sanding with 220 grit sand paper between coats.

Step 3:  Agonize over puddling and corning and consider throwing entire project away.

Step 4:  Remove shellac with denatured alcohol and paint entire project with milk paint in shame.

Step 5:  Lock project away in closet never to be seen again.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

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I Guess It Works

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I made a box.  A simple thing, really.  Four sides, with through dovetails at the corners and a bottom that is glued on.  All out of leftover, bone dry EWP from the home center.  For me, none of that is out of the ordinary.  What is, however, is that it has a lid.  And what a glorious lid!

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Okay, maybe not so glorious from the outside.

Both the bottom and the lid are single boards, rounded over on all four sides on both faces.  The lid, however, is not attached by hinges.  Instead, a batten and some buttons on the underside of the lid it keep it from sliding around.  Each is rounded over at the edges to help the lid slide into place.  It seems to work pretty well.

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All leftover Douglas Fir, which I hear is harder and more rigid than EWP.

I am certain that someone will tell me I did this all wrong, and it’s not a sound way affix a lid.  I’m willing to bet I won’t care, especially if I end up nailing on the buttons.

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The Vainglorious Optimism of Despair

It’s that time of year again.  The time for reflection, introspection and after-Christmas sales.  The time when everyone looks back at the previous revolution around the Sun and thinks: “Man, that sucked.  But next year: that’s going to be my year.”  I applaud your hope, whether real or feigned.  But I will not delude myself into thinking things are looking up.  My only hope is that, just like cleaning your room as a child, things have to get worse before they get better.

And so we find ourselves, on the precipice of autocracy, the world almost certain to figuratively and literally burn.  But I have my workbench, and my tools, and my hands and my mind.  And for this, I am grateful.  So if I am needed, you can find me in the shop making something that will last.

And when the world does burn, at least the hide glue will flow better for a time.  Happy New Year, everyone.

Here is a picture of my cat under a blanket.

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Merry Christmas and Whatnot (2016)

It’s Christmas, again. Happens every year, just about this time. 

Here at The Apartment Woodworker, I’m excited for my next mini project: another interlocking plant stand to match the original. 

Solid as a rock.


They are fun to make and involve two of the three basic joints (mortise and tenon; lap joint [a form of housing joint]). Best of all, they make use of some extra whitewood stud offcuts. 

The best use of a leftover 45″ offcut I can find.


I hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday. 

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I Think I Figured It Out (Thank You!)

Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions about why a leg wasn’t seated squarely in its joint.  After quadruple checking my combination square for squareness (it is), it turns out the culprit was human error.

First, the shoulder isn’t perfectly seated after all.  The mortise canted ever so slightly inward, but the toothed underside of the benchtop hid the minute gap between the slab and the shoulder of the mortise.  I corrected  this (with a bit of paring inside the mortise) and the joint still (thankfully) fits very snugly.  The canted mortise was about 75% of the problem.

Second, there is a very slight hollow where I was resting my square.  It must be left over from traversing the underside of the benchtop.  It runs down a couple thou toward the mortise, which doesn’t really show with a long straightedge across the whole width.  But with a small machinist’s square, it’s plain as day.  Not worth fussing over, I think.

Oh well.  At least I got blog two posts out of it.

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I Am So Confused (Please help!)

I cut the first leg mortise in the slab for my new ash workbench and I’ve hit a snag.  I can’t figure out what the problem is.

If the reference surface on the leg is flat and true…

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Which is it.

And the mortise is cut into the undreside of a benchtop in a plane that is perfectly flat…

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Which it is (double checked it with my square).

And my shoulder line for the tenon is perfectly square to the reference face on the leg…

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Which it is (sorry for the blurry picture).

Then why is the reference face of the leg not perpendicular to the underside of the benchtop when the shoulder is perfectly seated to the leg?

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What am I doing wrong?

My best guess is that there is some optical illusion from the toothed surface and the tenon isn’t actually seated all the way.  I can bend the leg out a bit to make it square, and it’s 12/4 ash, so that’s probably at the joint, not the leg itself, right?  But I fear that adjusting the inside of the mortise might make the tenon loose (it’s friction fit right now).

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End Grain Problems

Monday’s post was apparently number 200 here at The Apartment Woodworker.  I feel like 200 posts in a little over two years isn’t so bad.  Here’s to the next 200 or so.  Still with me?  Good.

Call me crazy, but I left the workbench slab in the clamps for almost 48 hours.  There was a tiny bit of twist (maybe 1/64″) in the mating surfaces between the two timbers and I didn’t take any chance the PVA glue (Titebond II) would fail simply for insufficient curing time.  This isn’t 3/4″ pine here.  But I’m starting to think the twist might have had something to do with this nasty check at the end of one board.

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Masked for when it gets stabilized.

I’ve talked about it in the past, but I like to stabilize end grain checks with thin viscosity cyanoacrylate glue (i.e., super glue).  It dies hard and clear and penetrates deep into the check.  This particular check goes almost 3/4 of the way through the thickness, but seems to angle upward, so I might not need the whole bottle of CA glue.  But if I do, so be it.

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That ridge in the middle of the tape is the gap.

The good news is the check is on the underside of the main slab, and at the back right corner (to hide the bit of wain).  As long as the check gets sealed up, that should be the end of the problem.

Should be.

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That Still Only Counts as One

I’ve been building an even better workbench of late, and today was a major milestone in the build: laminating the top. Unlike my current workbench, the main slab of this benchtop is just two boards. And they both came from the same length of wood, so in my book, that still counts as only one board. 

Gimli would be proud.

The lamination is 91 inches long, 15.5 inches wide, and a shade under 4 inches thick. I would like the benchtop to be about 22 inches of total depth, but I dont have any more 12/4 ash and I don’t want to laminate smaller boards onto the main slab.  So I have a decision to make: add a tool well or make a torsion box out of 5/4 ash to form the final third of the benchtop. Can it be both?

That hollow will come out during final dressing.

I keep thinking about that stretcherless Shaker Workbench and how that back board was held on with pegs in the main slab. But I’d like the option to use the tool well when I don’t need a full-depth bench. 

Has anyone ever made a reversible tool well?

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Slippery Slope

I’ve been watching a ton of New Yankee Workshop lately. Norm Abram is the Bob Ross of woodworking; and Christopher Schwarz is right: Norm is hilarious. Roman Ogee, not Roman Orgy. Lolz. 

It’s gotten me thinking though: what if I had Norm’s signature tool, a radial arm saw?  It goes against everything I believe in (not really).  But I do have a double bevel compound miter saw, so would halflaps on that be any slower or worse than doing it by hand?  Probably not, and as long as I cut the shoulder by hand (so I knew it was perfectly square), wouldn’t hogging out the waste by power tool be okay?  I already use a thickness planer on boards I made S2S by hand. 

This will need paring with both a chisel and a router plane.

I’ll give it a try and see how slippery the slope really is. 

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Lock and Load

I’ve been rapid fire finishing smaller projects, in the hope of clearing out some space in the shop. 

First, I finished (literally and figuratively) my travel-size tool chest. It’s not a coffin. 

But I would be okay being buried in it.

Then, I completed the first of two Japanese saw horses. The second one is in process, and I will probably make two more in short order. 

I will skip the bevel on the feet next time.

Next, the rolling cart for my new Craftsman tool chest went together rather easily. It’s solid, if unspectacular.

I plan to add a saw till under the lid with rare earth magnets.

Finally, a hanging corner shelf for my bedroom was an exercise in directional planing. After some espresso stain, it may become an upcoming Basic Project.

I’ve never had studs to screw into before.

There are a few other things to clear out as well, but nothing woodworking related.  The shop feels less cluttered, at least. 

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