Projects

That was Easy!

So it only took about an hour to knock together the bulk of the new crochet.

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Still haven’t made that screw hub.

Before I bolt it to the benchtop, however, I’d like to test a theory.  Crochets without screws work via a wedging action.  Even though mine has a screw, I’d still like to test out a wedge.  So I’m making a softwood insert.

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This is not the actual insert, but you get the idea.

I’ll likely just nail the wedge in place.  If it works, great.  If not, I’ll pry it out.  And when it wears out, I’ll pry it out and replace it.  And wear out, it will, because it’s Eastern White Pine, a species I picked over Douglas Fir because it won’t mar the work.

Does any of this sound crazy?  It’s starting to feel crazy.

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Getting on with it

Having admitted defeat, it only took me a little while to literally and figuratively pick up the pieces.  After salvaging the wooden peg on the failed face vise for use as another wooden screw, I had a choice: put the jaw aside for a rainy day, or use it right away.  Well, you know what they say: nothing gets the blood flowing like hand-ripping American hard woods of greater than 2″ thickness.

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Or, whatever.

I ended up with a board that is 3.25″ wide, 18.25″ long and 2″ thick.  A single pass through the thicknesser to clean up the saw cut and all that’s left is to cross cut it and glue it up.

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I’ll figure something out for the board with the holes.

What am I making, you ask?  I’m making that crochet, with the wooden screw.  Like I should have the first time before wasting five hours on a face vise that doesn’t hold.

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So far I’m at about 30 minutes, including the ripping.

All that’s left to do (after easing the corners) is drill and tap the hole in the beam and pre-drill for the lag bolts which will mount it to the face of the benchtop.

I’ve got a surprise planned for the hub on the wooden screw.  Much more understated than the last time.

But that will have to wait for now.

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Glamour Shots

Does anyone remember glamour shots?  Those airbrushed-to-all-hell personal photos that could make anyone look good?  They were like the Barbara Walters interview of photos.  I’m sure they still exist, because human vanity still exists.

I ask for a very specific reason (and the title of this post is not arbitrary).  I finished the front vise on my new workbench.  And it’s beautiful.

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Soft focus and natural light only.

Aesthetically, it’s everything it’s supposed to be.  The lines are clean, the color match on the jaw and hub are fantastic, and the walnut handle offers a nice contrast.  And look how perfectly it cinches down to the benchtop!

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There is even a bit of wain to give it a rustic look.

But looks aren’t everything.  Truth is: the vise doesn’t work very well.  There is too much play in the maple guide peg, so the vice wracks in all directions.  It works okay with wide stock that can sit on the screw and the peg while I work an edge, but it’s useless for cinching narrow pieces at the top of the jaw.  It also works okay as a crochet for very wide stock that extends below the bottom of the law, but the maple peg wedges itself in the guide hole (like a holdfast) and it’s a pain to free up.

Could I find a metal collar to tighten the guide hole, or otherwise fiddle with it some more, and make the vise work better?  Probably.  Will I?  No.  It’s a sunk cost at this point.  I can re-purpose the jaw for something else and there is nothing wrong with the screw (although I would bet the hub gets trimmed down before it sees use again).  There’s a reason the vise nut is attached to the bench with only hide glue.

One of the hardest things in woodworking, and in life generally, is admitting failure and moving on.  My attempt at a completely wooden front vise has failed.

My heat gun and I are moving on.

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Head Over Heels

Every time I get to a certain point on a project, I ask myself the same question: should I stick with the plan or go in a completely different direction?

I had built this whole project with the idea of putting the video game cases on the bottom and the drawer for controllers on the top.  But that would be stupid, because the drawer would be above eye level.  My solution: flip it 180 degrees.  So it goes in a literal different direction.

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Because why not?

The cleats are more for hanging than anything, and it’s not like they are asymmetrical anyway (having foregone a french cleat in my design).  With the drawer on the bottom, the bottom shelf can immediately be used for holding controllers (because the cleat acts as a stop).  Plus, the game cases fit so tightly on that shelf it doesn’t matter whether the clean (which is also a stop) is on the top or the bottom.

Problem solved.  Not it just needs some paint, before I whip up two more as presents.

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Small Victories

Sometimes I get a little impatient in my woodworking.  Case in point, a random dovetailed pine box I had always meant to section off for nail and screw storage.  Instead, it’s become a rabbeted and nailed box.

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Most of one, anyway.

But I started nailing it together before I cut the rabbets for the dividers.  Lucky for me, I had a stroke of genius: make a single shelf (for a drawer) and hang it on the wall.  And what do you know, it not only fits console game cases on the bottom shelf, but the drawer will be large enough to hold console game controllers.

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Amazing how that works out.

Since I had already nailed on two sides before I started cutting the rabbets, I couldn’t use a chisel other than in the vertical position.  My solution: use a block plane blade.  Surprisingly, the joint fits tight enough for the application.

I will post some pictures of the finished project when I’m done.

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A Familiar Sight

With the floorboards now flushed to the case on the traveling tool tote, I’m at a critical juncture.  Should I finish the dovetailed skirt, or do I fit the tray runners?  Obviously, the runners, but not for the reason you’d think.

The walls of the carcass are only 11/16″ thick.  But the cast iron chest handles I’ve selected take 1″, No. 12 screws.  The case is becoming unwieldy, so in order to attach the handles I need the extra thickness from the runners.  After the handles are attached, I can apply the skirt, add the rot strips and paint the carcass (Tuscan Red this time).    Then I’ll turn to the sliding tray, wall rack and battened lid.

But in the meantime, I only have two wooden clamps and the hide glue needs to dry.

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I Had Almost Forgotten

It’s been a struggle putting together a design for a workbench.  Not because I don’t know what I want to make, but because I need to figure out the best way to make it by hand from construction lumber.  I have about 60 linear feet of Douglas Fir 2×10’s that will become the frame, and I plan to laminate over a dozen Douglas Fir 2×4’s for the top, but creating a step-by-step plan has been elusive.

And for me, that means taking a step back from the theoretical and diving into some practical research.  And what could be a better practice run than those Japanese-style Saw Horses I’ve always wanted?  And what better place to start than the feet, which are a perfect scale analogue for the laminated workbench legs?

Each foot is approximately 24″ long and consists of two boards.  I don’t have any 2×4’s, but I do have some 2×8’s and a panel saw, so here we go!

Step one: rip a 48″ 2×8 into two lengths of 2×4, then crosscut to 24″ each and reassemble in sequence.

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Hand sawing gets the blood pumping.

Step two: carefully mark where the boards meet, and stack each right board on top of the corresponding left board without changing orientation.

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This ensures consistent grain direction, just like a single board.

Step three:  surface plane the two faces where the boards will meet, then square up one edge to each reference face.

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And mark carefully.

Step four: thickness plane each board to S4S and prepare for glue up.

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Before I actually glue up the feet, though, I should create the mortises for the legs by cutting dadoes in the reference faces.  The bottoms are already square to those reference faces, so there is no reason I can’t cut those joints in advance of thicknessing.

The legs, btw, will be made from approximately 30″ of Douglas Fir 2×6.  But that, along with the top and bottom cross rails, is for another day.

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The Clamp I Use Most

Apartment woodworking is mostly about making due.  But that can be said about much of woodworking.  And finding the right tool for the job is important regardless of square footage.

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The clamp I use the most is not a clamp at all.

I’ve talked about alternative clamping styles before.  I’ve even showcased the machinists granite slab as a clamping apparatus before.  The reality is, sometimes a heavy, flat rock is much easier than an actual clamp.

When (for example) I need to glue back down some face grain that split while cutting a dado, I could use a parallel jaw clamp.  Or I could just put a big rock on top of it.  More times than not, I opt for the latter.  Because if I’ve done my job and my joints are square, weight is as good as mechanical clamping pressure.

Speaking of dadoes, these are for a three-board sushi tray from leftover pine.  If the sizing is okay (about 7″ x 15″), I will likely make a couple more from a tougher wood.

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No stopped dadoes, this time.  My masochism knows some bounds.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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I am a Terrible Hypocrite

But what else is new?

Less than a week after swearing off the old planing slab, I decided to rehab it anyway.  I need a suitable work surface for the upcoming workbench build, and it just so happens that my best option had been lurking in the background of the shop.

It also just so happens that I need a pair of sturdy sawhorses as well.  So when I stumbled upon some awesome internet plans for Japanese-style saw horses, I knew it was time to get the slab back in shape.  After flattening and straightening by hand (seen above), the slab was skip-planed to just over 2 7/16″ thickness.

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It’s been almost a year.  This thing had better not move anymore…

With a usable work surface of 71 1/4″ x 12 1/4″ (net of the heavy roundovers hiding some edge fracturing that occurred during flattening), the slab is not quite full size for a Japanese-style workbench (at least not according to this article).  But it should be good enough for preparing the legs and rails for the new workbench.  I even reinstalled the inset vise.

In lieu of a joined planing stop, I utilize an aluminum planing stop like the one I currently use on my smaller maple slab.  I also think I’ll skip the sliding dovetail on the cleat and just friction fit a cleat into a dado (with some beefy screws as reinforcement).  Seems like the sensible thing to do.

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The planing stop is not yet hack-sawed to width.

One day, I may lag bolt the slab to a trestle base and add a tool tray, but in the meantime, I just need some Douglas Fir 4×4’s for the new saw horses.

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Would You Believe It?

Crossing another one off the list is such a great feeling.  I’m very pleased with how the plant table ended up.  It was my first experience with Milk Paint, but it certainly won’t be my last.

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I have since touched up the drawer sides to cover the exposed wood.

Start to finish, each coat took about an hour to apply.  First, a thick base coat of Seagull Grey (which got me a strange retweet from someone on Twitter who apparently retweets every bird-related tweet; very meta). Second, a thinner top coat of Antique White.  Both from General Finishes, purchased off Amazon.

It’s a smaller piece, but it’s quite open, which meant full coverage on every surface, both inside and out.  Only the drawer has any bare wood, as it would not have fit the runners with the extra thickness from the paint.  A good problem to have, I guess.

Milk Paint is easy to apply, dries quickly and seems to be rather forgiving.  A light touch with 320 grit knocked down the nibs and I even got a bit of a distressed look around the dovetailed corners.

I have much of both colors left over, so I expect several upcoming projects will be Seagull Grey or Antique White.

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