woodworking in an apartment

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Or, rather, a lack of plan.  Over the weekend I finished the bulk of a console table which will support two medium-sized plants.

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Out of River’s reach!

It’s a super simple build and I never even made a drawing.  Three pine boards, joined at the corners by dovetails.  I added a single rail that is [haunched] stub-tenoned to the sides.  After gluing, I plan to pin the stub tenons with some cut nails, which should be a sufficient substitute for drawbores.

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It’s like adding an apron to a workbench.

I think with thicker material I could have done without the rail.  But the boards are less than 3/4″ all around and wracking under the load of two heavy plants is a big concern.  Also, the rail will serve as a drawer stop (more on that below).  I’ve only done a dry fit so far, and the thing is solid as a rock under load, thanks to the tightly-fit dovetails.

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Way more tails/pins than I’m used to, but I think it’s my finest work so far.

Perusing ideas for attaching the drawer, I came across a Lost Art Press CAD drawing for a staked table with drawer.  From the illustration, it looks like the wide and shallow drawer rides on two L-shaped runners that I assume are dadoed into the underside of the tabletop.   This should work well for my similarly wide and shallow drawer.

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I’m not inclined to over-complicate things.

I haven’t made the drawer yet, but I’d rather hang the runners first and then worry about drawer size.  In fact, I will cut the dadoes, assemble the carcass, then attach the runners, then worry about the drawer.  I think that’s the right order.

And the drawer, for variety, will be rabbeted and nailed, rather than dovetailed.  With a wider drawer front to cover the runners.

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It Comes in Waves

I’m taking a long weekend to recharge the batteries a bit.  What better way to unwind than to jump right into some asymmetrical dovetails?

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Quite the grain match, huh?

The above board is the tabletop for a 24x24x12 console table.  The top will overlap the sides about an inch, which will permit me to eventually add a drawer, flush to the top.  That’s the point of the straight pin on the left.

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If it will support itself across 24″ when half-fitted, it’s a tight-enough joint.

I need the table now, so I’ll add the drawer later.  Which is good, because I don’t have any idea how to attach it.  One step at a time, I guess.

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Deviating from the Norm

There has been much going in lately: both in the world and in my own life. Though it all, I’ve been wrapping up some projects and figuring out where to go next.

I have serious need of some indoor plant stands and keep vacillating over the design. So much, in fact, that I’ve decided to go in a different direction.

Osborne Wood Products has begun selling hairpin legs, in 18″ and 29″ heights at very workable prices. I expect some roughly 19″ square maple slabs will be more than sufficient and aesthetically pleasant, but I’ll wait until the legs actually arrive before preparing any stock. I do have just the material, though: some 6/4 rough-sawn hard maple.

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Small Projects

It’s always the small projects that cause the most trouble.  The projects that most often remind me of a certain adage about the relationship between haste and waste.

My brother and sister-in-law asked me to create a mounting board with a simple moulding for a brass clock and matching barometer.  It’s a rather nautical setup, and having no mahogany or teak on hand, I opted for some cherry.  Simple enough, and a great opportunity to use my white charcoal pencils.

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I don’t know much about cherry, but it looks a bit curly to me.

Instead of ripping down two strips from the same piece for the best color match, I thought I might be able to color match and laminate one wide piece and one thin piece.  The color match is good, but not great.  Once the seal coats of dark walnut Danish Oil are set, I’ll blend the color further with a coat of dark paste wax.

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Actually, in softer, less-direct light (id est, not shop lighting), it’s more than adequate.

I have exactly no idea how they plan to hang the thing on the wall.  I have a keyhole router bit if needed, but I would think a better way is hanging wire and rubber pads.

I’ll post a picture on Twitter once the clock and barometer are mounted.

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Medium Tool Chest Retrospective

I didn’t keep track of how many build hours the Medium Tool Chest took, but I can’t imagine it was more than 75 (not including travel time to and from my thickness planer).  I enjoyed the making, but as you all probably know, I won’t be using the chest for my woodworking shop.  It’s just not the right size for my set of tools.

I ordered one more hinge for the top.

I ordered one more hinge for the top.

I think, though, I’ve caught the tool chest bug (slightly more manageable than the workbench bug?).  So my next tool chest will be a custom size more like to the Anarchist’s Tool Chest than the current one.

I learned quite a bit from the project, though.  Some of it is apropos of an apartment woodworking shop, and the rest is just a workbench confessional.  Here goes:

1.)  Cut Nails are awesome.  They hold well and look great.  I think my previous aversion to metal fasteners was mostly because I’d never used real nails before.  I still dislike screws, though.  Even flathead.

2.)  Hand-cut Rabbets are fun.  The tool trays are both rabbeted/glued together (because I’d had enough of dovetailing by the end).  I didn’t own a fillister plane at that point, so I ended up splitting the rabbets (just like you’d split a tenon) and then fine tuning to depth with a router plane.  End result: parallel, uniform rabbets all around.

3.)  Never skimp on flattening.  I thought the oak bottom for the lower tool tray would pull the tray carcass into wind, but I was wrong.  7/16″ oak just isn’t rigid enough to straighten out 11/16″ pine.  I should have flattened and/or thinned the tray carcass boards before joining.  As a result, the lower tray rocked, even when full of heavy tools, which took some flattening.

4.)  Measure twice – cut once.  The upper runners for the tool trays are 1/4″ shorter than they should be.  Because and only because I set my combination square wrong and didn’t check it again before ripping them down.  Sometimes we all need a reminder of the oldest woodworking adage.

5.)  I really do need a larger workbench.  The Milkman’s Workbench is great, but I made the transitional slab (with Veritas planing stop) to handle the longer stock in a (sort of) vice-less approach.  It’s worked well so far, in conjunction with a DIY moxon vise.

Like I always say: now what?

More on Shop-made Rebate Planes

Attaching the fence to the right-hand rebate plane wasn’t nearly as difficult as expected.  I approached it like I would a drawbore, by first drilling the pilot holes in the fence, then using the same brad-point bit to transfer those holes to the body of the plane.  After that, everything came together nicely.

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I did drill all the way through the backer board into the dining table, but that kind of thing happens once in a while.

The above photo shows the fixed fence at max extension (5/8 inch).  I am yet to elongate those holes to permit the fence to adjust to take a narrower cut, but that is just a question of marking and chopping out two slots in the fence.  After the fence is fitted, I’ll recess the scoring spur and the whole thing will be ready for a coat or two of Tung Oil.

I did take some quick test cuts with the fixed fence and was quite pleased.  I’m assuming the slight slope at the edge of the rabbet is due to my unfamiliarity with proper fillister plane technique.

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Product placement!

I hope to start work on the left-hand plane this weekend.

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Warrington Pattern Hammer Recommendation

I don’t usually do tool recommendations, but I have been very pleased with my new Warrington Pattern Hammer.  It’s nothing special, just a $25 dollar amazon find, but it’s worked well so far.

I may have lucked out, but the hammer is well handled and straight, and the balance of the 12oz head feels good in my hand.  If you’re looking for a relatively cheap woodworking hammer, you could do worse.

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Making Replacement Wedges

When I deepened the recess on the set of poor man’s rebate planes to accept a 5/8 inch bench chisel, the initial 1/2 inch wedge for the right-hand version became useless.  This presented two issues: (a) the bed angle itself was sized against the old wedge, so the new wedge must be custom fit; and (b) there had to be an easier way to get the correct bevel than just starting from a four square blank and planing down.

In addition, there was the problem of not having any 5/8 stock, but I fortunately had enough remaining quarter-sawn red oak to resaw some wedge blanks.  Plus, the waste from the resaw, at just over 1/2 thick, is probably usable for something else.

Taking my time, as there is little margin for error.

Taking my time, as there is little margin for error.

The initial recess was marked against a 1:4.5 angled wedge (as recommended in the Paul Seller’s video), but after all the trimming and refinement of the bed, I think it’s now closer to 1:4.  Also, I tried marking the actual bevel angle directly on the blank and rip down along that bevel.  This gave me matching right and left wedges (for the matching right-hand and left-hand planes) that need less work overall in refining the fit.

Perfect fit!

Perfect fit!  Now to make the fence.

I’m excited to finish up the fence and put the right-hand plane to work (after I figure out the best way to attach the scoring spur).  I might even buy a second 5/8 inch Narex chisel so I don’t need to swap back and forth once the left-hand plane is done, but we’ll see.  Here’s hoping using quarter-sawn hardwood will increase the longevity of the planes.

All in all, it’s been a good exercise, and very enjoyable learning basic plane-making.  I’m certain the left-hand version will come out even better than the right.

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Home-made Rebate Plane

I, like most woodworkers, have a Lee Valley/Veritas wish list.  For some time now, just sitting in the “Purchase Later” section of my shopping cart, has been a skew rabbet plane.  In fact, it is next on my list of impulse purchases.  Or at least it was, until today.  Because I’ve decided to make my own rebate plane instead.

Well, two, technically.

Well, two, actually.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend creating a free account at Paul Sellers’ Woodworking Masterclasses.  There are paid project videos, but there are also free-to-watch how-to videos on a wide range of topics.  One installment in the “Poor Man’s” woodworking tools series is a rebate plane that uses a chisel for a plane iron.

I had some lovely quarter-sawn red oak scraps laying around the shop, so I decided to try my hand at planemaking.

Actually quarter-sawn

Actually quarter-sawn.

The first rebate plane came out so well that I decided to make both right and left versions.  The right version originally used a 1/2 inch Narex bevel-edged chisel, but I decided to increase to 5/8 (for both aesthetic and practical reasons), so I need to make a new wedge.

Both versions will have an adjustable fence.  The right version will also have a nicker (or “scoring spur”) made from a re-purposed (read: chipped) wheel marking gauge cutter, for cross-grain rabbeting.

Suffice to say, I now have a Lie-Nielsen wishlist that includes a set of planemaker’s floats.

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