Making Spreaders

Today we make the spreaders that will brace and strengthen the legs of these tray tables. There are two types of spreader; the upper spreaders also serve as a part of the latching mechanism that will hold the table in the open position and uses a single arch on it’s lower edge as a decorative touch. The lower spreader just braces the legs and uses arches on both the upper and lower edges giving it a bow-tie appearance.

But we start with the rough parts blanks that I made up the other day. These are not thick enough to get two spreaders from each, but too thick to just plane them down. Well… I could just plane them down, but everything that ends up in the dust collection bag is wasted lumber. So instead I resaw a thin piece off of each blank to reduce it’s thickness, then plane them to finished size. The thin pieces I cut off have a number of uses around the shop.

After trimming the thinner pieces to width and length they are ready for final shaping. I use the templates to lay out the over all shape, the location of the latch tab hole in the upper spreaders and the pilot holes in the ends of each spreader.

While working with these templates a thought came to me as a way to increase the efficiency and usefulness of these templates, so I clocked out and built a new one that serves the same purpose as both of these, and adds a new twist that will save time. More about that in a bit.

Then the spreader blanks and I went to the band saw and I cut the arched shapes into the pieces. I leave just a bit of wood outside the lines so that I can trim them down to the line and remove all saw marks and refine the arcs. I have always done this with a drum sander, but this takes a while, produces a good amount of dust and is tedious. It also does not insure that all arches are the same… they will be close, but not necessarily the same because I'm sanding freehand to a line.

The new jig I built wraps around the spreader blank to not only accurately lay it out, but to serve as a holder and routing template that allows me to use a flush trim bit in the router table to trim the spreaders to shape very quickly and accurately. The pilot bearing on the router bit rides on the template while the cutters just below it trim the waste wood away from the part. Pretty slick if I do say so myself.

After shaping the parts I take them to the drill press and yet another jig that holds the spreaders vertically so I can bore pilot holes for the screws that will bind them to the legs. That done I switch the drill press over and set it up to bore the holes that will form the opening for the latching mechanism.

Then it’s back to the router table, now fitted with a round-over bit to round the long edges and the latch opening. And that’s it. Normally I would have started sanding the parts I’ve made so far today, but some things came up that demanded my immediate attention. Good things, but distractions from this project. So we’ll get to that tomorrow.

See you then.

Doug

Making Legs

Today we make the legs for Ira’s tables. I start by taking the parts blanks I roughed out yesterday and send them through the surface planer to bring them down to the required thickness, make both flat faces parallel to one another and to smooth them. I’m removing a fair amount of wood, so it took multiple passes on all 16 legs.

Then they go to the table saw where I trim them to width and length. I use a good miter fence to get them all exactly the same length. When trimming to width I check to see if the blank has bowed any at all. Most do, just a little, as they are being sawn from larger boards. This is why I cut them oversize. I put the concave edge against the fence and trim away the convex side on each leg then reset the fence, flip the parts over and run the freshly sawn edge against the fence to straighten out the concave edge. The result is nice straight legs. They will continue to move around a little bit with the varying humidity in the air, wood does that, but we’ll start off by getting them as straight as we can.

Next I lay them all out on a bench and look them over. I want to pair up the legs by grain pattern and coloring so they look good together, then match pairs into sets of four. I also need to look for things that would indicate whether one end should be at the top or bottom. Once they are all paired up I label them to keep them together as I work with them.

Dolly, my faithful shop assistant, is not happy with me today. She does not like the sound the table saw makes, and normally will stalk over to the door and demand to be let out as soon as I start it up, but today it’s raining. She hates the rain even more than the table saw, so she sits in the hallway and glares at me. But, now, I’m moving on to quieter things.

Now that the legs are the right size I begin laying out the assortment of screw holes and the rounded ends by using the leg template. This template is not as long as a leg; it doesn’t need to be if I’m a bit clever with its design. Some of the screw holes are counter-bored for screw hole plugs, others are not. The inside leg of each pair has holes bored from both faces, the outside leg of the pair does not. It is imperative to keep track of what is what.

I rough out the curved ends on the bandsaw and finish them up on the stationary belt sander, then step over to the drill press and bore the screw holes using a #8 Fuller bit that drills the pilot hole and counterbore all at once. Very handy; a great time saver. A counterbore is like a small well with the screw head sitting at its bottom. This ‘well’ will get a round wooden plug glued into it to hide the screw. Many manufacturers these days simply counter sink the screws – meaning they drill a V shaped hole that allows the screw’s head to sit flush with the wood – then apply a wood grained sticker over the screw head after the piece is finished to hide the screw. The way I do it is better.

At the end of the day I have the leg sets for four tables done with a little time to spare, so I made up the leg mount blocks as well.

Now it’s time to clean up the shop, put away the tools and get ready to go home for supper.

See you tomorrow.

Doug

Roughing It

A while back we pulled lumber for Ira’s set of Heavy Duty Tray Tables and brought it inside the workshop to acclimate. If you’re interested in a discussion of our lumber and how it is prepared, just Click Here. When you're finished there, we'll press on.

I started the day today by taking down from the wall our set of HD Tray Table templates. These little pieces of wood tell me everything I need to know to make a set of tray tables, they also help me layout precise screw hole locations and tricky shaped pieces. There is no plan or set of instructions other than what is written on these templates. This is the case with most of our products.

A few people have asked if I’d sell them a set of plans for something we build, the answer has usually been that this is not possible. Not because we refuse to do so but because there ARE no plans, except for those items that use a commercial set of plans at least for a starting point. In those cases I tell them where they can buy the plans we used.

The first task is to select lumber and lay out the parts on that lumber. Today I will be roughing out the parts blanks, so everything is cut oversize. Basically I’m chunking up 8 to 10 foot long boards of rough sawn red oak into smaller pieces from which the parts will be made in a few days. I try to waste as little as possible, but some sections of boards are just not useable for furniture, so I cut them out and we’ll use them for heating our home.

At days end I have all the parts I’ll need for 4 tables and a stand roughed out and ready to trim to finished size. We will start on that tomorrow.

See you then,

Doug

Enroute

After discussing the situation with Nance, we decided to go ahead and have Old Dominion take this one. Friday evening was the time we had planned to make the run, but just before we were ready to go it started pouring rain. Our crates are pretty well built, but I’m afraid that subjecting it to a driving rain at highways speeds for 23 miles would prove to be a mistake. So we waited until morning.

Early Saturday morning I came over and got things ready; crate out on the dock, truck backed in, all paperwork in hand. I wasn’t sure about the rain, so to be sure I wrapped the crate in an oil cloth to help out in case we ran into some drizzle. But as the sun came up the clouds burned of and we were presented with a beautiful crystalline day.

The crate has been handed off to O.D.F.L. in a couple of hours the PRO number will be in their national computer system and you will be able to track it, and determine it’s expected arrival there, at http://www.odfl.com/ just copy and paste that PRO number I sent you into the tracking window and it will tell you everything.

That's it, we're done for the day, I'm outta here for the weekend.

On Monday we will begin Ira’s set of heavy duty tray tables.

Doug

Boxing ‘Er Up

The day started with a trip into Newport to visit Bryant & Pack Lumber to get the 1x6 – 10’ pine lumber I use for crates. Spruce lumber is a fair bit lighter than pine, but it is also almost 3 times the price, so what little we’d save on shipping costs by shaving a few pounds off a crate this size is lost to the added expense of lumber.

Upon my return I brought the new boards in and began building the base of the crate. Like so many things people build, a good foundation is important if the crate is to protect Nance’s CD End Table all the way to Texas. All our crates incorporate a pallet style base with cut-outs that allow a floor jack or fork lift to get under it and lift. The base itself uses two layers of wood, the outer layer provides most of the strength and a lip for the side panels to hook into, the inner layer offers a lip for the floor of the crate to sit on.

When we start a crate Marie often admonishes me with, “It’s JUST a crate, not a piece of furniture, don’t make yourself crazy over it.” And I try, I really do, but I find myself fussing over things anyway. Oh, well.

Once the base is completed and squared up I bring crate board in from the big shed. This stuff is ½ inch thick, triple layer corrugated cardboard that we get from International Paper in Morristown TN. It offers the same puncture resistance and vertical crush resistance as the ¼’ luan plywood we used to use but is considerably lighter than plywood, less expensive and easier to work with to boot. Plus, being cardboard it recycles easily. There is no down side. What I’m working with here are actually scraps from the last project we shipped. This crate board comes in 9 foot by 16 foot panels which can be a bit tricky to handle in confined spaces. These smaller “scraps” are much easier to work with, yet are plenty big enough to get the pieces I need out of.

For anyone who wants to try crateboard in their shipping here are a couple of tips:
1) A drywaller’s square (that big blue T-square) helps a lot in laying out good square panels.
2) Use a good utility knife with replaceable blade, and replace the blades often. Paper dulls a knife blade faster than you might believe and a dull blade make for more work and crooked cuts.
3) Cut through the board in multiple cuts. Just score the cut along the pencil line with the first cut, then use two or three more passes to complete the cut. On the final pass make cure you have a piece of scrap under the board you are cutting so you don’t cut into your bench.
4) Always orient the corrugations vertically; these are what give you the crush resistance should the truck line set something heavy on top of your crate as it’s being shipped. In a crate this size the wooden banding will easily handle the load, but in larger pieces, this factor will be important.

Once the side pieces are cut I begin constructing the blocking that goes inside to keep the End Table positioned and lining them with foam rubber. The panel waiting for the web cement to set up is the front panel with recesses that snuggle around the drawer pulls to put pressure on the drawer fronts so they don’t move around.

Building these side panels and the blocking takes a while; lots of measuring and custom fitting, but also the spray adhesive we use to hold it all together needs to set up about 10 minutes to reach maximum strength before we put the pieces together. That slows things down.

The next step is to attach the wooden banding. Again we use the spray contact cement for this. We start with the band around the top of the sides so the top band will sit on top of the vertical corner pieces, which sit on top of the base, so any downward forces are fully transmitted from the very top right to the base (and the floor) protecting the crates contents. To attach the vertical corner pieces I remove the side panels and use spring clamps to make sure we get good contact between crate board and wood the full length.

And that’s it. It took almost 7 hours to build this crate, but it’s easy work. I’ve heard from some customers who say they put the crates back together after removing their furniture and used them as a playhouse, doghouse or something similar – seemed a shame to just toss them out. Being cardboard, they won’t stand up to rain and snow for long, but you may do what you want with it. If you’re going to toss it, please knock the lumber off of it and recycle the cardboard. Most recycling programs accept corrugated cardboard now.

UNCRATING INSTRUCTIONS

To open the crate you will need only a #2 Robertson (square drive) screw driver. Using this tip in a reversible power drill or power screwdriver will make the task easier. There is no need for hammers or pry bars as these may damage the table inside.

1) Remove the 8 silver screws and the 4 connector plates from around the base of the crate. These hold the sides to the base so the whole thing can be lifted by the top or sides without separating the top part from the base.
2) Remove the 12 screws from around the perimeter of the top plate and lift the top panel off.
3) Remove the 4 screws from each corner post. Tip each side panel out and lift it up and free of the base. Be careful with the front panel, those Library Pulls like to snag in the foam. Be sure the bottom row are clear before yanking the panel loose or you may damage something.
4) Sometimes a little adhesive gets into the joints between the panels. If you’ve removed all the screws but two panels won’t separate, simple apply slow pulling pressure to both panels until the adhesive pops loose. Crowbars, hammers or dynamite are not necessary.
5) That will leave your table sitting on the crate base, ready to be lifted off and carried inside your home. All the packing will pull away with the crate panels. The table itself weighs only 52 pounds, so it will be easily carried by two healthy individuals, or one good burly one. Just watch the drawers, they’ll want to slide out if the table is tipped forward. Also, check the crate base after you've removed the table to be sure no shelf pins bounced out of the drawers during shipment.

Once your table arrives, we’d very much like to know that it arrived safely. Your comments on the condition of the crate will help us decide if the carrier (trucking company) is doing a good job as well as if our crates are effective enough. And of course we’d love to get your comments of the table itself. We thrive on compliments, but all constructive criticism has helped us refine the product and add new and better features over the years.

By logging into the web site you may leave a Product Review that will be attached to the CD End Table item and available to others who may be considering this product. If that is too much trouble, just send us an e-mail. We’re grateful for any comments you offer.
Now I’m off to run cost bids from the trucking companies. We have used Old Dominion Truck Lines exclusively for the past 7 years and they have served us well; not a single piece we’ve entrusted to them has been damaged in shipping, but their prices have been creeping upwards to the point that our customers have started clutching their chests and falling of their chairs gasping when they see the shipping cost estimate.

I was recently exchanging e-mails with Jon of Cove Hill Furniture and the issue of shipping costs came up. He recommended R&L Carriers; the service he uses. So I’ve been looking into that carrier. They do offer lower rates, all of their trucks are equipped with lift gates and they don’t charge extra to use them, or to make an appointment for delivery. In fact, their customers I’ve talked to (hey… when I applied for an account they wanted references on us, so it’s only fair that we check their references, right?) all say that the company seems to embrace the small accounts and are more user friendly than the more industrially focused freight lines. They have a pretty cool history too, you can read all about it by [clicking here] if you like.

Nance, I'll be e-mailing you with the final arrangements.

Have a great weekend!

Doug

DONE!

During this final day of finishing/assembly I started out by shooting the casework with semi-gloss lacquer. As with each part, it got one full coat, let it dry, shoot a second coat, let it dry, scuff sand to smooth the finish, tack it off to remove the dust and shoot a third coat.

When the finish was dry I installed the drawer slide rails, mounted the apron, and installed the top plate – which had been completely finished separate from the case so I could get to the inside of the case more easily.

One quick note about the top plate: I use special steel fasteners to hold the top in place yet allow it to expand and contract with the atmospheric humidity. These clips are pretty strong and I used a fair number of them. The lip that sticks out on both sides and the front make tempting hand holds when you are moving the cabinet around. While the cabinet is empty this should be fine, but once you've filled it up with a million pounds of CDs, move the cabinet by lifting it from the bottom, don't lift it by the top or you may rip the top fastener clips loose. That would be bad.

Now it’s time to mount the drawer pulls – but alas my collection of screwdrivers does not include one suitable to drive the itty bitty little straight slot screws that came with the pulls. I thought I had one, but I don’t. Solution…

Make one! I took the closest screwdriver I did have and filed it (carefully) down to size for a perfect fit. It worked well and I managed to install all the screws without stripping out any of the screws. Always a good thing, but difficult with these old fashioned straight slot screws. A pull of the screw across a block of beeswax helps to lubricate it as it goes into the wood, and of course I did pay particular attention to drilling proper sized pilot and shank holes, so all went very well.

Then I decided to go the extra step and cut little cards to go into the card holders. They slip out the top of the holder so you can easily write on them. If you rearrange later and want to make new cards, I used file card stock, just use the old ones as patterns for the new ones.

The final parts to intall are the drawer glides that sit in the lower corners of the grid opening to give the drawers a slick surface to slide on and to space them properly in theor openings. These are "tack-in" glides with small nails molded into the glide, so they need to be lightly hammered into position. But with this small of a drawer opening there is no room to swing a hammer. I learned long ago that I could use a piece of scrap hardwood as a caul to hammer on outside of the case and transfer the force to the glide. I round the edges a bit where I hold it or the hammering cuts into my fingers. I wouldn't want to do this all day, but for a few drawers it's a quick and effective workaround.

And that is all there is… it’s done. All that remains is to build a custom crate and hand it off to the truck line and it will be on its way to your house Nance! I will have to go to the lumber yard tomorrow morning to buy crating lumber, but I have crate board on hand. But before I crate it up I want to give it a night to sit so the lacquer hardens up fully.

So, we’re done for the day. I’ll clean up the shop and head home for supper.

Doug

Staining Completed

I had planned to get the three bottle stopper display racks for Dave and Dave completed over the weekend , and Marie and I got quite a bit done on them Saturday, but my plan to finish them up Sunday got scuttled so I had to push that off to Monday. Promises were made as to their delivery date so they could be used in a show. The mission was accomplished and all three racks are on their way.

This morning I lacquered the panels that I stained last time then began assembling the case for the final time. Once the case was all glued together I took it into the finishing room and stained the rails and stiles. No worries about getting stain on the already stained parts because the lacquer allows me to wipe it right off if I drip.

The stain needs to set up overnight. So I finished out the afternoon by “antiquing” the brass library pulls. This is done by immersing the pulls in a bath of an acid solution, waiting until the proper color has been attained, then transferring them to a bath of water and baking soda to neutralize the acid, then drying them with a soft cloth.

After they dry completely I shot them with a light coat of gloss lacquer to protect the finish. Here you can see the antiqued pulls, one of the Antique Brass shelf pins I’ll be using is below them for color comparison, and a raw, bright brass pull is in the bag at the top. I’m pleased with the results… and yes, I remembered to antique the screws too!

Time to clean up and head home for some supper. See you tomorrow!

Doug

Staining the Case

I came in early this morning (5:30) to get a head start on the book keeper stuff that has been piling up on the desk so that would not take time away from the woodworking because I have a good deal to accomplish today and will not have an after-supper shift to fall back on.

I started by lacquering the drawer fronts. The color sample boards came back from Nance (thank you for your diligence in this) so I took the opportunity to test the color of the parts I’d already stained. This may not look to be the right color on your monitor, but by laying the sample on top of the drawer front you can see that they are the exact same color. I love it when that happens.

The entire day was spent sanding and staining the case parts. I started with the top plate, which has been sitting around here for weeks now, having gone through periods of dry weather and very wet weather and it has not curled up any corners or bowed. It should be good and reliable as long as you don’t do anything silly like sitting it in front of a window where the sun will blaze in on it or on top of a heat vent. At least don’t do these things for a couple of weeks to give it a chance to adjust to it’s new home.

I sand each component through all the grits then tack it off and take it into the finishing room for staining. The casework framing I sand as a unit to be sure the joint faces are even and smooth then take the case apart to sand the narrow inside faces of the rails and stiles where they snuggle up around the panels. The panels get sanded separately and will be stained AND get 1 coat of lacquer before I put them back into the casework for final assembly.

I’m using the power sander on these larger parts and assemblies because… well... because I’m lazy. But the final sanding on all parts is done by going back with the final grit to sand it again by hand and with the grain to make sure there are no swirls left by the sander.

By close to days end I have all the panels, the front grid and all rail and stile interior edges sanded and stained. These will now have to set up for a minimum of 8 hours before I can do anything more with them.

The drawers are done except to mount the library pulls, but since I need to "make" them I'll wait on that for just a bit -- until the finishing room is not so crowded The chemicals used to 'antique' the brass pulls can be rather noxious and I'll be wanting to keep that contained and away from the general work space.

So, I’m going to call it quits a little early this evening so I can get this place cleaned up and I’ll be ready to go when my sweetie comes to fetch me.

Have a great weekend!

Doug