Krenov Inspired Table

The canoe rack went pretty smoothly, and I basically forgot to take pictures till the end.  The rails are half-lap dovetails, and the vertical pieces have giant tenons into the feet.  Each joint is reinforced with a lag screw.  I took an old plastic cutting board and made some feet to keep the wood off the ground.  I think it cleaned up the boats quite nicely.

Canoe Rack

Getting rid of the wire rack improved the living room.  However now the computer monitor sat on top of the tower, on the floor.   I thought about making a quick shaker style end table, or something quick. Then I saw the base of one of Krenov's standing cabinets, and thought that would look good as a small table.  The joinery is pretty simple if you do it while all the pieces are square.

Dry fit of the leg and "apron" joints.

 Around this point I decided to add a drawer.  Since  the "apron" isn't symmetric, and is pretty low on the sides I added something of a web frame to support the drawer and give the legs some rigidity.

Drawer support

Next up is shaping the curves.  This was something I hadn't done before, but really wasn't that hard.  I cut out the curve i liked on one leg, then used that as a pattern for the rest.

Copying the curves

Once the lines are traced, I cut the legs on the band saw.  The legs are curved in both directions, so to make the second set of cuts I taped the cutoffs back on to keep the leg square on the saw

Taping the cut offs back on.

I then smoothed and finessed the curves with spokeshaves. Once they were all similar I rounded over the edges.

All the curves cut, just roundovers and sanding.

The drawer opens to the sides instead of the front.  I also made the drawer sides walnut, to keep the front looking "open".  The drawer fronts are maple, and will hopefully look like part of the apron (except for the pull).  The drawer joinery is halfblind dovetails.

I decided to try my hand at very simple carving for the pulls.  I decided to leave the tool marks to give it some character.  Now in poor lighting the completed table.  All that's left is to apply the finish.

Completed table.  When closed the drawer is inset from the legs a little bit. 

"London pattern" half-blind dovetails.

Bookmatched Top

Carved pulls.

Once the finish is applied I will get some pictures in better lighting.  Just as I was about to apply the finish someone took down a tree, and I got distracted making bowl blanks:

Fresh cut wood.

Cutting to manageable size

No idea what kind of wood this is...any ideas?

1 bowl blank completed for drying.

Rounding the blanks on the bandsaw.

The wood is pretty heavy, even for green wood.  Looks to be ring porous, and the red heartwood is fading to more closely match the sapwood.  Anyone recognize the wood?

Update and a small project

A lot has happened in the last 6+? months since I started the sideboard.  For one thing, I finished it.

Fin.

But then I found a job in a new location.  So my wonderful (7 month pregnant) wife and I packed up our giant Texan house and moved to a suburb of Washington DC.  Just as we were getting settled, and I had started dimensioning the wood for the crib, our little boy decided to arrive 5 weeks early.  Later, we stuck him in a pumpkin...not everyone had fun.

Ian

Since I would rather spend time with my wife and son, than in my new fully functional but very very small shop, I bought a crib.  The cherry allocated for the crib is still kicking around, but it is no longer an item of primary importance.

My new shop (with wood, for the crib?)

Our new house does not have a small alcove for our receiver and DVD player like our old house.  Until now they have been living on a wire rack, that is neither attractive, nor positioned well for use (the remote only worked from 1 cushion on the couch...first world problems).  To remedy this I could either build a new low entertainment center, or make a small thing to lift the TV off the cabinet enough to fit the receiver and DVD player.  Since this isn't permanent, we needed it quick, and I didn't have to buy any wood I decided to build the small lift thing.  It is pretty simply and the dimensions were determined by the receiver.  I did decide to complicate it by making the center support a sliding dovetail instead of a dado.  Since there are lots of how-to's for through dovetails I didn't take pictures of that. I did take pictures of how I made a sliding dovetail by hand.  First I marked the tail and used a marking gauge to define the shoulder.  I used a board to keep the saw at 90 degrees and sawed to the line.

Cutting the shoulder of the dovetail

 I cleared the waste with a chisel then snuck up to the line on each end. By putting part of a wide chisel on the previously excavated section I was able to keep the slope pretty constant, and just worked my way to the middle.

Slicing the angle of the tail

Getting tail size

Transfer tail size

I used dividers to transfer the narrow part of the rail to the pin board?...not sure what that part is called.  The using a block with the same angle cut down to the correct depth making sure to offset the block the the saw kerf (though one could also flip the block over).

Cutting the angle using a guide block

Most of the waste was cleared with a chisel taking care not to destroy the edges.  Then a router plane to sneak up to the final depth.   Once the waste was clear, I adjusted the fit and tapered the tail using the wide chisel.

After clearing the waste with a chisel.

A few passes with the router plane to bring the slot to final depth.

I finished this with a few coats of garnet shellac, and some wax.  Now we can use the remote from anywhere in the room, and the college style wire rack is gone.

The sliding dovetail.

Those other dovetails.

The finished piece, nothing special but it works well.

Next up is a canoe rack out of dimensional lumber.  While the wood may not last forever, the joinery certainly will.

Projects from 2013

Lots of people make resolutions around the first of the year.  I don't really like the whole resolution thing, as it never seems to stick.  One thing I do think about is all the projects I want to build, or complete since there are still a few lingering at various stages.  Soon enough the list of projects I want to build reaches some unobtainable number in 10 years let alone 1 year.  To make myself feel better I then have to make a list of all the projects I've completed, its not as long, but still impressive enough that the to-do list is less intimidating.  All this rambling is leading towards something....the list of project I completed in 2013:

By the end of 2012 I had finished my workbench and reorganized the shop.  To help accommodate the new layout I needed a new lathe stand:

Then started to make everything round:

Tap handle, chisel handle, and peppermill

Bottle bottle opener

Started to play with the mahogany again:

Spice Rack

Roorkhee Chair progress

Then decided to practice my dovetails:

Pine; ready to go

The beginning of 142 dovetails

Quick graduation gift (with a new toy....love the LA Jack)

Finally completed the Roorkhee chairs and bookcase in May

Christy, dutifully trying out the new chairs

Starting to load the bookcase

And then broke into the special walnut I brought down from Boise

Bookmatched crotch walnut for the top

Top Shaped and finished

Completed table

After that work got crazy, we started training for the marathon, oh and the ceiling fell down...and the floor got ripped up....

Just a minor leak causes a big hole Why not just replace the carpet while we're at it? So the project I had been avoiding, a hand tool only chimney cupboard, was pushed back a little further Thicknessing the back panel Kiska does not seem concerned about the delay Whew....that's probably enough for one post.  I will post the remaining 2013 projects in a few days.  I guess I did quite a few projects in 2013.  Hopefully 2014 is at least as productive