Tuesday - Mortising

As promised, today we continued to make the casework framing. We start with completing the tenons by cutting the haunches on the bandsaw. You may note that one is deeper than the other. The haunch that will be toward the end of the stile is cut deeper to leave more wood at the corner of the joint and reduce the chance that the end of the stile will split out during assembly. A few licks with a piece of sand paper clean off the fuzzy bits left by the saw blade and yields a nice clean tenon.

Then we return to the marking gauge, but today we flip it over and use the other side which has a pair of adjustable pins. By carefully setting the distance between these pins and the gap between the inner pin and the face of the tool, we can lay out the mortise sides in one pass.

The ends of the mortise are taken from the tenons that will go into them. Theoretically, the tenons are all the same, so any one should fit into any of the mortises if I lay them out and cut them all alike. But real life doesn’t pay much attention to theory, so I find it less troublesome to set up these cuts by laying the tenon across the edge of the stile. In most cases they do come out to be interchangeable, but once in a while one will be just a tad wider, requiring some extra work with a chisel.

Cutting the mortises is done with a special attachment on our drill press that drills square holes; I make one hole at each end of the mortise, then connect the two. A few moments of clean-out work with a chisel and we have a nice clean mortise. Then we test fit the tenon into it, adjust if necessary and move onto the next. A properly fitted mortise & tenon joint will have a snug fit; not so tight it must be hammered together, but not so loose it just drops in. Too tight and it will be difficult to assemble once glue is in place, too loose and the glue will not bond the wood and the joint will fail. I start with the end panels because they’re smallest and least complicated.

The back panel and doors take more room to work with, so are easier to do once the end panels parts are assembled and set aside elsewhere. The back panel and doors have center stiles that need to be mortised in then assembled in the proper order. When the day is done, we have all the framework needed to build the cabinet... sort of.

The parts are all here now, but there are grooves and dadoes that will be needed where the parts join together. And of course we will need to make the panels that fill in the middles of these frames. We’ll get started on those tomorrow.

Doug

Monday - Gettin Cheeky

Here we go into another new week. Today I continued in the process of parts making by laying out and cutting the tenon shoulders and cheeks.

This starts with a marking gauge, which uses a small knife blade to score a line where the tenon shoulder will be. Because the marking gauge can be set for the exact distance from the end of the board and the knife makes a cleaner, finer line than a pencil does (and because pencil is hard to see on a dark wood like walnut) I prefer using a marking gauge over a ruler and pencil.

Then we do a little set-up on the Incra Miter Fence so that the edge of the saw kerf falls precisely on the marked line, and cut the tenon shoulders. The end rails are shorter than the door rails, which are shorter than the back rails all of which are different from the center stiles – but they all get tenons. All but the center stiles are a 2” long tenon, so the blade height remains the same for all of them, but after each set the fence must be recalibrated for a new board length.

When done each end of each board has a groove cut completely around it which serves as the transition of the tenon. Some folks will simply put a dado head on and cut the tenon cheek and shoulder all at once. But I find that this tears out the wood pretty badly as such a large blade exits the wood, making for an ugly joint.

The next step is to cut the cheeks. I use my shop built tenoning jig for this. It hold the rail upright and square to the blade, supporting it and the rail passes through the blade. Two things I find helpful; first I lightly sand the shoulder cuts to remove the “fuzzy bits” that are bound to be there. These bits can hold the rail out away from the tenoning jig just a hair, but a hair off each side means the tenon will be too thin and won’t fit into the mortise well. A sloppy joint is a weak joint. The other is that I chop a correctly sized mortise in a scrap piece of wood and keep it handy. As each tenon is cut, I test fit it into this test mortise to insure a precise fit.

At the end of the I have a pile of parts with very clean, well fitted tenons.

Tomorrow we'll cut the haunches and start chopping mortises.

Doug

Friday: Rails & Stiles

I’m back on the job today and I spent the day making the parts that will form the frame of the casework; rails & stiles mostly. No panels yet.

To start this process I took the large, rough sawn boards that were brought in to acclimate several weeks ago, sorted through them to find those with the grain and color I want, then cut them into smaller boards according to my cut list. These boards were each just a bit longer and wider than the parts they will become. Then I surface planed them to make both wide faces flat, smooth and perfectly parallel to one another… and just the right distance away from one another.

Then it’s back to the table saw. Swap out the 24 tooth blade used for roughing for a 40 tooth blade that gives a smoother finish, and carefully trim both edges of each board. This does two things, it makes the board just the right width with nice straight edges and, by trimming both edges, it makes sure that the edges are perpendicular to the wide faces. Sloppy edges mean that the joinery we will cut shortly will not snug up nice and tight. So I want each board nice and square.

Then we trim both ends of each piece to bring them to exact length and perfectly square. Our new Incra 1000SE does a great job of both, because it has two adjustable stops to set the cut-off length. The first cut squares up one end and leaves the board ¼” over-length. Flip down the second stop, flip the board end for end and cut it again to square the other end and make it the correct length. This is a solid, precise tool and I’m glad we bought it.

When the day is over we have all the rails (horizontal parts) and stiles (vertical parts) needed to make the 4 “ends”, the wide back panel, and the two doors. Next week we’ll cut the mortises and tenons needed to create the framework.

Hope you have a great weekend. If the rain stops, Marie and I will be out on the high hill tomorrow working on tying back the retaining wall with rebar and concrete anchors so we can remove the brace boards. Once that’s done, we can excavate for footers.

Doug

Wednesday & Thursday

These days were spent in personal pursuits. Mostly. Wednesday I was running hither & yon acquiring supplies needed for the next phase of our construction project, trying to fix a friends’ computer, and purchasing some new tools. Thursday I worked on Smoky Mountain Woodwork's RSS feed set-up and our Google Base feed, but at the same time produced the two stain sample boards that have been ordered. These were to be finished in polyurethane, so there were long periods of dry time when I could produce no dust. I had hoped to get more done in the shop, but wasn’t feeling well, and experience has shown me that if I rest a bit when I first start feeling poorly I’ll loose one day; if I push it to get something very important accomplished I’ll end up loosing several days to sickness. So it seemed a good time to do these stain boards and try to rest some. I’ll be back in the shop on Friday. Doug

Tuesday

Time in: 7:15 am I spent the morning putting the workshop back together and straightening things up again, then spent the rest of the morning configuring the new Incra Miter 1000SE we just got. This marvelous new tool will make it much easier to cut very precise lengths and angles. The shop made miter fence that I made years ago did quite well for a ling time, but recently it developed a bow in the fence that makes getting a precise angle difficult. And it never was much good at getting anything other than a 90° or 45° angle dead on. Time to step up. I’ll scavenge the track and scale to use in a drill press table. The miter gauge it’s self got refitted with a short plywood fence and will be used for roughing out lumber parts, saving the Incra fence for precise work while cutting parts to finished size. After lunch I got shanghaied and taken to Bybee to photograph a beautiful piece of property that Tim & Katherine are trying to sell. I posted an on-line listing for them, and it needed pictures. The address (in case you’re looking for property in East Tennessee) is http://www.fsboadvertisingservice.com/Listing.asp?Listing=40226 When I got back it was late enough that I only had time to work on some small jobs in the shop a bit. The evening session was spent ordering supplies, answering e-mail and doing bookkeeping. Tomorrow I’ve been assigned to ferret out and purchase the supplies we’ll need to install before the foundations are laid: septic line, water line, phone line, Ethernet cable for the computers and conduit to bury them in, as well as rebar and concrete for the retaining wall tie-backs. That will take a good part of the day, but I may get some woodworking in during the afternoon. Doug

Monday

Although this IS New Years Day and we had planned on taking it as a holiday, it turned out to be the only convenient time for all concerned to deliver Rev. Calvin’s desk. He lives about 30 miles from here, so we have personally delivered all three pieces of his Pastor’s Study as we got them completed.

This time there were some wrinkles. We had agreed that Marie and I would bring it out in the early afternoon. But Rev. Calvin called me early that morning to let me know that a member of the church had died during the night and he needed to talk with the widow at 2:00, could we reschedule for 11:00 in the morning?

Seemed easy enough, it just meant that I needed to get going on gathering up the tools and supplies I would need to install the desk. I gathered these together and moved the 400 pound table saw out of the way so the desk could come out the big roll-up door. Then started up the truck, turned it around and backed it in to load it. But when I went to start it up again, the battery was completely dead. It fired right up the first time, but now even the warning buzzers sounded sick.

I put a battery charger on it and let it go for a bit, but it did not improve things at all. I borrowed Joyce & Pat’s car and jump started it, and it started easily enough, but when the cables were removed and the truck put in gear, the engine died and would not re-start.

I called Rev. Calvin and explained the situation and asked him if it would be alright if he’d call me when he gets back from his bereavement visit and we’d run it out then… we’ll need to go into town and get a new battery first.

So that’s what we did. Marie and I borrowed the car and ran into Newport to an auto parts store. They tested the old battery (6 years old) and found that it had a dead cell and was only putting out 10 volts. So we bought a replacement, hauled it back to the shop and I installed it. The truck fired right up and purred like a kitten again.

We got the call about 3:15, and headed out. It didn’t take long to put the desk in, but running all the computer cables and moving the components for him (they’re really good folks, so I don’t mind at all doing these extra things for them) took a while. But when we flipped the switch, everything started right up and worked just like it should.

Just call me Doug-Bob the furniture builder, auto mechanic, and computer whiz.

I just thank the Good Lord that He provided me with enough talent in each of these fields to cope with them. I am by no means an expert on the last two, but I get by most of the time.

I was a little disappointed at not being able to get a good angle to take a picture of the whole Pastors Study, comprised of two 3 food wide by 9 foot tall bookcases and the computer desk between them. I’ll work on that again when they get some of the now unnecessary furniture out of the room.

See you tomorrow!

Doug

Saturday – All Done!

The Blogger folks have gotten the difficulty with the picture posting utility straightened out, so I can again show you what I've been up to. Thank you Blogger Folks!

Normally I don’t work in the shop on Saturday, but since we were gone all day Thursday, and we’re running behind again anyway, I decided I’d best spend today finishing up Calvin’s desk.

So, I spent the day removing all the hardware, shooting lacquer, and reassembling the entire desk. There were a couple of tense moments, but nothing I couldn’t (with God’s help) figure out a way to get it to work out.

End result: very nice. I think Calvin will be pleased. In fact, someone who saw this desk deing built was so pleased with it that she ordered a shorter version for a computer desk in her kitchen.

Now, I’ll get back to Dan’s sewing cabinet. The two large plates I glued up a few weeks ago have been through several high/low humidity cycles. One had developed a very slight bow, the other remains dead flat. The one that is slightly bowed will become the lower top so it can draw upon the cabinet casework to draw it flat. The other will become the fold out leaves. I’ll get going on that project again right after New Years.

Happy New Years, and if old acquaintances be forgot… call them up and remember!

Doug

Friday

I put in a long day today and got quite a bit accomplished. Unfortunately, this new (non-beta) version of Blogger refuses to accept photos, so I can’t share pictures with you. Sorry. Hopefully they'll get that fixed and I can go back to showing you what has been accomplished. Basically, I trimmed and squared the door/drawer front blank and cut it into a door and matching drawer front. Then I cut the parts needed to build the drawer box, including a pencil tray. I’m using a sliding dovetail joint to attach the drawer sides to the drawer front, so I cut those. Then cut the grooves and dadoes needed to house the dividers and bottom. Before assembling the drawer I needed to stain the oak drawer front, so I took time to do that as well as the door. When it was dry enough to handle safely I put the drawer together and mounted the drawer slides, then mounted the door hinges. The door and drawer front don’t quite line up right so I’m chiseling pockets in the door and case to correct that. I got it almost done before quitting time, and will finish it up tomorrow. Doug

Thursday

Today Marie and I are gone to North Carolina to confer with our builders, iron out all the little details and sign a vast pile of paperwork. This will take nearly all of the day. I’ll be back in the shop tomorrow. Doug

Wednesday

First thing this morning I built a nice hot fire in the wood stove to take the chill off the air in the shop. It got chilly last night. Once I achieved an air temp of 55° again I rolled the main part of the desk over on the small workbench that has been supporting it, tacked it off and stained it.

Then I had to leave for a bit and let the stain set up. Once it’s no longer tacky I can proceed.

Seems we’ve decided to add a door and a pencil drawer to this project. So I need to make those and stain them before we go further.

I spent the afternoon ripping strips and gluing them together in half-panels, then surface planing the half-panels and jointing the halves and gluing the halves together into the blank that will yield a nice flat door and matching drawer front.

It's a bit early, but I now have a shortage of space again. And we have out of town relatives visiting -- whom I am not spending much time with because I don't get to take extended leaves of absence, so Marie and I will be taking them out to dinner this evening. Therefore, I need to get cleaned up and change clothes anyway.

Doug

Tuesday

We are rounding third base and heading for home.

Today I trimmed the shelves and the keyboard tray to finished size and sanded them thoroughly. Then I cleaned up the shop a bit.

I removed the pedestal from the desk – to make things easier to handle – and stained everything but the top of the desk. This will all have to set overnight to cure, then I’ll begin putting things back together and getting ready to shoot some lacquer.

Doug

Monday

Today we're taking the day off to celebrate the birth of our Lord, savior and friend. We'll be back at work tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Doug & Marie

Friday

Kind of a nasty day weather-wise. Not cold by any means -- I didn't even have to start up the woodstove today -- but grey and drizzly all day long. At least I wasn't tempted to go out and work on The Hill!

More visible progress today; I finished up and mounted the modesty panel, attached the storage pedestal to the modesty panel and the desk top then installed the keyboard slide. The rest of the time today was spent milling, jointing and gluing up blanks for the two shelves and the keyboard tray.

That’s about it for today.

Merry Christmas!

And remember, Christmas without Christ is just a mas.

Doug

Thursday – Coming together

Today was one of those gratifying days when you actually get to see some real progress. Making parts is fine, but it’s always a thrill when you get to put some parts together to build something 3-dimensional. Even if it’s only temporarily.

The day started off a bit late because early this morning I received an order for a bottle stopper rack that we have on-hand and needed to get the order processed and get the rack packaged up and ready to ship out on today’s UPS pick-up. I made it.

Then it was back to work on Calvin’s desk. I started by making the front and back rails for the storage pedestal, then assembled the pedestal. I also made the bottom shelf and cut the back panel and put these in place as well.

I also milled out the parts for and glued up the modesty panel – it’s in clamps overnight (standing behind the desk). And I attached the free leg panel. I have to be careful because without the modesty panel in place to brace it, it will be rather fragile.

I’m going to forego the evening session again – feeling a bit worn out again, but getting better.

Doug

Wednesday - recovering

I’m feeling enough better to get back to work. Spent the morning finishing up the small projects that were ordered for Christmas delivery. There is a third wall hung stopper rack which was posted to the Christmas Shop page. I guess I’ll need to pull that page down in another day or two. Best write myself a note…

And I finished up Jackie's 2 tier stopper rack in cherry and oak. It turned out very nice. That needs to be shipped off to her sister.

This afternoon I was cutting slots in the pedestal sides of Calvin’s desk to house shelf standards, then re-assembled the three panels with glue and clamps. That used up the afternoon. I’ll quit now and not put in an evening session today – still recovering and all.

Doug

Tuesday – Out Sick

I’m severely under the weather today – something is going around, half our church was out sick on Sunday. Today I’m staying in and working on some web site stuff. I plan to be back at it tomorrow. Doug

Monday

This morning was spent packaging up the bag handles for In The Bag and milling out parts for the two remaining bottle stopper racks in the list. After lunch I utilized the warm sunny weather to chop out some tie-back trenches up on the high hill. I figured I should use the daylight for outside chores and till go back to the workshop this evening and work late. Otherwise I’m not going to get everything done before construction starts. After supper I indeed went back to the workshop and finished cutting all the mortises in Rev. Calvin’s desk pedestals, then hand fitted and dry assembled them. That pretty will used up this day. Doug

Friday

I spent the morning cutting tenons on all the parts of the desk base. I chose to use the bandsaw for this, and broke not one but two bands! I guess they were getting old; still sharp but the welds broke. One can be re-welded, the other kinked pretty badly and will have to be replaced.

During the afternoon I set up the drill press for chopping mortises then laid out the mortises on the parts and chopped all needed to assemble one of the three pedestal panels -- and discovered that my ¼” mortising chisel is bent. What a day!

At least we got good news on our constructio project. Take one large step forward.

That pretty well used up the afternoon. But everything is set up and ready to go next time.

Doug

Thursday

Not much to talk about today; This morning I put a final coat of oil on Catherines bag handles. Then I roughed out the parts I’ll need for the three “legs” under Rev. Calvin’s desk top, then trimmed and thickness planed them to finished size. That pretty well killed the day. During a break I posted some needle cases we turned up in the store room to the Christmas Shop section. Doug

Wednesday

The weather has been much warmer lately, so I can get an early start: I don’t have to wait for the workshop to warm up to a workable temperature. This morning it was 52° when I went out at 7:30. Very nice.

I spent the morning working on Rev. Calvin’s desk top; planning the two halves that I made yesterday smooth and to thickness, then joining the halves together. Again while glue was drying I was working on Caroline's bag handles.

During my lunch break I started posting some bottle stoppers we found to the Christmas Shop section of our web site. I’ll get the rest done this evening. Click the title of this post to go to the Christmas Shop and see what we’re offering for immediate shipment. Most everything is one-of-a-kind.

Most of the afternoon was spent shaping, sanding, grain filling and sanding some more on the desk top. It’s done and it’s beautiful! Now on to those fiddly bits that go under the desk top.

I finished up the day by giving Caroline’s bag handles a second coat of oil. I’ll see how they look in the morning. If they need to be scuffed and oiled again, I’ll do that right off otherwise they will be ready to ship out.

Doug