woodworking in an apartment

Engage the Forward Stabilizers

I’ve been a bit under the weather, so not much has gotten done in the workshop. That’s not all bad, though. It gave a Douglas Fir post, which I bought to be the top rails on the Japanese-style Saw Horses, more time to acclimate. A good thing, too: it was sopping wet when purchased, as though left out in the rain for a day or two before the pallet was brought to the rack.

Over the last couple of weeks of drying, the two 36″ lengths that will become the top rails stayed quite straight. There was barely any twist either. What did happen, though, was some severe checking on the ends and on one face. It makes me think the wood was greener than it should have been (or was left out in the rain for a very long time).

This is what happens when wood dries too fast.

None of the checks were structural, nor very deep. Not even the long check down the face grain seen in the above picture. That does not mean, however, that they shouldn’t be stabilized. There will after all be mortises within a couple inches of each end.

My strong preference for stabilizing end grain checking (and knots, for that matter) has always been thin viscosity cyanoacrylate glue. Like the Ents at Isengard, I just keep pouring CA glue into the checks until the gaps are filled and the bubbling stops. Then I give it about five minutes to set before I seal it up with spray activator.

It looks gross, but it works.

I will let those sit for a day or two to fully harden inside, then I’ll square up the ends with a chop saw. The end result should be pristine end grain and clean glue lines in the stabilized checks.

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Nothing Too Extreme

While I wait for the Douglas Fir posts to dry out and become the top rails for my new sawhorses, I’ve doing a little bit of shaping around the edges. Literally.

One design element I’ve noticed in most saw horses of this style are the beveled feet. Although the rake varies, very rarely are the feet left four square. So I went with the crowd.

Subtle on its own, but noticeable in comparison.

Each bevel is about 3/8″ deep and 7.5″ long, but the measurements are not exact. I am sans band saw, so all work was done with a No. 4 set as heavy as I could.

The most surprising part was the ability to work in both grain directions. My No. 4 is by no means supertuned for smoothing, but it was sharp and I was able to work in both grain directions with only slight tear out. And a couple final passes with my No. 4 1/2 in the correct direction cleared all of that up.

It’s nice when something actually works right the first time. I’m pleased enough with the shape of this first foot that it will become the pattern for the other three feet.

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Where We Last Left Off

Things went better than expected with the laminated feet for the prototype Japanese-style sawhorse prototype.

About as well as could be hoped, judging by the facial expression.

Before I hit the thickness planer this weekend, I did in fact cut the dadoes that will end up being the mortise in each laminated foot. When cutting wide dadoes, I like to leave a bridge section in the middle on which to register the sole of the router plane. I don’t know why, but this time before thicknessing I left the bridges in one foot and removed the bridges in the other. There was no difference in the thicknessing result, FYI.

In any event, the bridge is easily chiseled away after the majority of the dado is proper depth.

Like so.

I also tried something new, which I will call “gang-thicknessing”. Having taken the time to square up each edge to the reference face, I clamped the foot assembly together before sending it through the thicknesser. It goes without saying that you should ensure the metal clamps are clear of both the cutter head and the sides of the machine before doing this. But if done right, it will ensure assembled foot is parallel (and each foot is exactly the same height).

Again: CLAMPS CLEAR OF THE CUTTER HEAD AND THE SIDES!

The sides and top of each foot still need dressing to remove any plane tracks, but I am very pleased with how it all came together. I have also dimensioned the rest of the prototype parts (legs, stretcher, top rail) and hope to finish the joinery in the next couple days. Meanwhile, the feet are glued up and drying.

Other than the knots, it kind of looks like LVL, doesn’t it?

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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.

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.

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.

And mark carefully.

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

[Picture not found…yet.]

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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Some Scattered Thoughts

Sometimes, I regret spending the first year or so of my woodworking life using primarily power tools. I ponder how much further along I’d be in my hand work and sigh. Sunk costs, I guess. But more than that, I wonder how awesome it would have been to learn on a proper workbench. I started on a Black & Decker Workmate 425, so it could have been worse.

But then what is the right type of workbench for a new apartment woodworker? While I love my Milkman’s Workbench, and am glad to have made it, it’s not my go-to workbench anymore. And I certainly did not have the skill to make one just starting out (not to mention the PWW article had not even been written yet). So what would I do? I’d buy another Black & Decker Workmate 425, of course, and start on my basic set of tools.

But then, I would buy four, eight foot long Douglas Fir 2x4s and laminate a 48″ x 12″ slab. Which I could then dress by hand, drill some dog holes for a planing stop and clamp to a sturdy table with angle iron. Then I’d use that surface to make a DIY moxon vise from veneer press screws and some red oak or maple 2×4’s and have all the workholding I could need for a while. Then I would use the moxon vise to make a shooting board.

I’m not just spitballing here. I woodwork almost exclusively on a 48″ x 9″ x 1.5″ maple slab, a shop-made moxon vise with 24″ between the screws, and a plywood shooting board. And it works for me.

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A Rare How-To

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I spent most of #blizzard2016 hand-cutting mitered half lap joints for a cherry side table. The finished piece will have eight such joints, and although I’m only about halfway through the first of two frames, I’d like to reflect a bit on the process.

The goal is to have four each of these.

First off, some defined terms. For the duration of this post, I will refer to the lower piece in the picture above (the E-G piece) as the “Angled Piece”. The upper piece in the picture (the E-F piece) will henceforth be known as the “Recessed Piece”. I’m sure they have proper names that have no relevance to what I’m about to say.

On each Angled Piece, there are three cuts to make. The first two apply to all lap joints: a shoulder crosscut and a cheek rip cut. The third is unique to the mitered half lap: a 45° miter cut across the face. My preferred order is (i) cheek, (ii) shoulder, (iii) miter, but whatever you do, always make the cheek rip BEFORE you cut the miter. Otherwise, you will lose your guiding kerf on the rest of the rip as you get to full depth.

Don’t be a hero. Start with the easy cut.

Once all three cuts are made, and after the cheek is flat and parallel to the face (whether off the saw or by router plane), it’s time to square the shoulder to the reference edge by paring down to the knife line. Then is the most critical step: true the miter to 45° using the same reference edge to which the shoulder was squared.

When I cut the first joint, I thought to just straighten the miter, transfer the mark to the Recessed Piece and leave well enough alone. After all, it doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be consistent. Since my shoulder was square, this would have worked fine, assuming I sawed perfectly and my full knife line was intact. But alas, the saw jumped out of the kerf and took part of my knife line with it. So fitting the joint became trial and error angle finding with a shoulder plane.

If you instead true the miter to 45°, go ahead and still use the Angled Piece to transfer the mark to the Recessed Piece (it’s easier than using a combination square). But if you saw less than perfectly, you can always fall back on just truing the mitered recess to 45°. With a straight edge on the Recessed Piece and a square shoulder on the Angled Piece, everything will come together perfectly either way.

Like this, but without half an hour of shoulder planing.

One more thing: depending on how much material you remove from the miter on the Angled Piece getting it to 45°, you may need a couple passes on the shoulder to bring it back in plane with the end of the miter. Otherwise, your inside corners won’t meet right at the miter.

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Finding the Hole(s)

It’s pretty snowy out, all of a sudden. And I’m using the quiet time to get some things done in the shop. Sharpening and plane making in the early am, then onto other tasks.

On my list for a while was drilling a few more dog holes in the maple planing bench. Not actually for bench dogs, but for aluminum planing stops. Extremely low-profile, they come in several lengths (and can be hacksawed to exact measurements). I’m sure I’ve talked about them before, but I could not live without them in my apartment woodworking shop.

Not sure if others sell them, but all mine are from Lee Valley/Veritas.

The pegs (which come in 3/4″ or 20mm) slide in a track on the underside of the stop, so they fit in a variety of dog hole configurations. And the pegs are shallow (less than 1 1/2″): perfect for a clamp-on workbench made of 8/4 maple.

In addition to their utility for surface planing (seen above), I have found these planing stops to be quite useful as bench hooks. Two more holes to the right side of the bench now make a crosscutting bench hook (see below). And because my plywood shooting board/bench hook is too deep for this particular bench, I no longer have to unclamp the whole bench every time I want to cut a tenon shoulder.

And it saves me from always digging out the saw benches.

There are actually three more holes to drill. One centered in the far right for a holdfast. And two more along the back edge on the left side of the bench to form a perpendicular for traversing and general bracing. Everything is measured and marked; I’m just taking it slowly today.

Hope all my east coast readers are staying off the roads. It’s not too bad out here, but pretty blustery. I can only imagine what it’s like further north.

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An Oft-forgotten Step

There is much in the process from a pile of lumber to a piece of furniture. More than just stock preparation and joinery, anyway.

Although each are integral unto themselves.

One of the most important steps to my creative process is initial parts layout. In any piece where the grain will be visible, before any lines are scribed or joints cut, I always lay the pieces out on the bench and read the grain. Then I arrange the parts in a way that is (i) most aesthetically pleasing and (ii) works for any unique considerations in the piece.

Like this.

From past experience, I know the vertical pieces in an assembly like this should be the most stable pieces. This means the four straightest, tightest grain boards become the stiles of the side frames. Once assembled, these two frames will then be joined with several cross rails, which (together with the tops of the frames) should also be as stable as possible. Whatever is left can be the lower rails and the drawer runners.

Assuming everything is joined squarely (a big assumption, sometimes), the piece then has the best chance of resisting twisting after final assembly. And it doesn’t hurt that the cherry in question is as dry as anything I’ve ever worked with.

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Basic Project: Sushi Tray

As a new segment here at The Apartment Woodworker, I will be documenting some of the smaller projects I find interesting and which I think are good for skill-building. I’m not one for CAD, so the focus will be on the (sometimes extremely) limited set of hand tools these projects require. There may be basic cut lists as required, but most of it will be rough dimensions.

This isn’t about teaching people how to woodwork. There is a body of instructional material out there far better than I’m capable of producing. Just Google “Paul Sellers the three joints” and go from there. The goal here is to inspire people to pick up some hand tools and make something, without breaking the bank on a tool collection or materials. So without further ado:

I love sushi (specifically, spicy salmon rolls). I’ve always wanted wood sushi trays (I see them called “geta”). So I recently decided to build a prototype. I like this project because it requires friction-fit dadoes, which are my favorite joint to cut. Mine was built from scraps, so I’ll make more as I have the materials.

As far as first tries without plans, it’s not bad.

It’s true that similar items retail for under $20 each on Amazon.com. But you know what also costs under $20? An eight foot select pine 1x 8 from the home center, and you can get four trays out of a single board. You’ll need some food-safe finish (like butcher block oil) and food-safe glue (like Titebond II), but that’s still about half the cost of paying someone else to make you a set of four.

Use harder, food-safe cutting-board woods if you’d like, but they probably aren’t necessary for the amount of abuse these will take. That having been said, everyone has allergies, so go with whatever food-safe wood works for you. And regardless of wood, I also like to surface plane every board I get from the home center. I have no idea what kind of gunk it’s been exposed to, so I always feel more comfortable with clean fibers showing.

The essential tools for the project are as follows:

1/2 and 3/4 chisels, plus mallet
No. 4 or No. 5 bench plane
9-14 TPI Rip cut saw (panel or tenon is fine)
Combination square and marking knife
Tape measure
Sandpaper
Food-safe glue (I used Titebond II)
Food-safe finish (I used Goddard’s butcher block oil)

Optional tools (which will make the work easier) are:

Router plane (any size will do)
Wide chisel (1″+)
Shooting board (if you don’t have one, walk away from this project right now and make one)

The top is made from a 15″ length of 1×8. The feet are made by ripping a 7.5″ length of 1×8 into thirds and squaring everything up with a bench plane (you need two feet per tray). There is no magic to the height of the feet, but anything between 2″ and 3″ should be fine. For aesthetics, the feet are slightly longer than the top.

There are two dadoes on the underside to accept the feet. Because the top has a 2:1 ratio, for symmetry I started the dados 2x their thickness from the outside edges (in this case, about 1.5″). Each dado is supposed to be 1/4″ depth, but if you’re like me, you always end up deeper because of errant depth chops on the sidewalls. If you have a router plane, awesome. If not, pare the dadoes with a chisel (and go slow, being careful about uniform depth). None of the above measurements are requirements, but I have found that dado depth probably shouldn’t be more than 1/2 the thickness of the top piece.

And be sure to label your parts.

Break the corners everywhere (except where the feet fit in the dadoes) with a plane or sandpaper. A bead of glue on the floor of a friction fit dado is more than enough for a permanent joint. If you need to, drive the feet home with a mallet and a piece of scrap and leave them for an hour. Then lightly sand the top, clean off the dust and finish all over with a thick rub of butcher block oil (the pine will be thirsty). After a wash or two, reapply more butcher block oil to the top face. It should be good for many uses after that. And if you used a PVA glue, it should be dishwasher safe.

And that’s it. Repeat as many times as you like.

Congratulations! You now have practice hand-cutting open dadoes, which you will use in woodworking forever. And the trays are quite multi-purpose, working just as well for cheese and crackers or as coasters.

I hope this has been informative. If not, keep it to yourself.

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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.

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.

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

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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