Birthday Gifts

This time last year I was just starting to gear up for the crib.  I never made it.  Ian came a bit early, and now I have a bunch of 6/4 cherry, but that's a problem for the future.

This year I had some birthday requests.  As soon as my shop was setup I started making Ian a set of blocks.  I based them off of Unit Blocks available from different places.  The idea is that 1 unit is 1 3/8" x 2 3/4" x 5 1/2" (nominally 1x2x4).  The rest of the blocks are based on those dimensions.   There isn't much to building them, just cut them out, and plane or sand (I planed the faces and sanded the corners).  Any non-90 degree cuts were roughed at the band saw and then cleaned up with a plane.  I finished them with an walnut oil carnuba wax blend.  It gave them a fantastic feel and nice color.  It is safe for mouths, and easily repaired.  Ian is a bit young to be building with them, but he will gladly knock over any tower we make.

This fort didn't last long once Ian woke up.

The completion of blocks created another problem; Ian's toys had taken over multiple rooms.  To help remedy that I built a toy chest.  This was a pretty simple build; just dimensioned poplar and plywood glued and screwed together.  The finish is chalkboard paint and milk paint.  It was a quick, fun project, and a good way to test out the new shop space.  I did splurge on the Rockler torsion hinges, and they are well worth the investment.

Ian thought some of the screws could use a little help.

With his birthday out of the way I got back to organizing the basement and found one box of beer glasses that hadn't been unpacked.  Since we ran out of room in the kitchen I made some quick floating shelves out of some oak scraps I had laying around.  I sank some 3/8" rod into the studs, then marked the boards with those locations.  I had to use a slightly larger drill bit on the boards, but they fit snugly and aren't carrying that much weight.  During a test fit, they didn't look the way I wanted so I added a bevel on the edges.  I finished them with a quick pass of a smoothing plane and a coat of danish oil.

Nothing special but they work.

While none of these projects were very challenging, the items were needed and it was a good way to test the work space. The shop space works well, and is by far the nicest space I've had.  The only problem was the lighting in the hand tool area.   That was a quick but much needed fix.

The two new lights throw plenty of light on the work surface.

Working with Reclaimed Wood

The short answer is Don't.  Unless you are super cheap (probably not as cost effective as you think), or like hard dirty work, or are some enviro-nazi that will only use previously killed trees.  There are some other reasons, of which mine is in there, but its a long story. Click Here to skip to the method I use to clean up reclaimed wood.

Back in 2010-2011 I built our dining room table.  I found a guy on Craigslist that used to live in Michigan, and when the auto industry tanked he moved down here to the oil industry.  While in Michigan he had taken down an ice house.  For those in the south, this is a place to store ice, cut from the lake (naturally occurring, not a reservoir), and stored with sawdust to help keep it from melting and sticking to its self it is not a rundown shack where you get drunk...at least that's not its primary purpose.  Most of this wood were dead-straight rift sawn oak 2"x4"s (2 inches by 4 inches...not nominal, real).  It was really great stuff.  There were also quite a few 1x12s of pine.  He even gave me two coffee cans of the original wrought nails.  The oak I cleaned up with some planes, and the tablesaw, resawed it to thickness and build the tabletop.  The pine I used to make the shell for my bar, the guts are a modified chest freezer.

Dining Room Table

Exposed Joinery, the feet and cleats are 4x4s

Bar from barn siding, tap handles have since been replaced with wood.

As I neared completion on the top I started to think about the trestle base.  My reclaimed oak pile that previously looked in exhaustible was now down to 1 long piece and a dozen 12-14" pieces I assume were blocking between studs.  After some panic and searching of Craigslist I found a guy selling "Reclaimed Oak 4x4s".  Coming off of the great wood score I figured these would be perfect for completing this table, and the subsequent building of my workbench.  I bought 20 of these 8-12' 4x4s, that apparently were used on truck beds to separate loads of pipe.  Turns out only about 2/3 of the boards were oak, there were 4-6 maple and a few cherry .No nail holes, no character, nothing.  Well, nothing but bow and crook and twist and warp and cracking and splitting.  All of which I only noticed once I was home.  Getting any square board of reasonable thickness along the full 8' was out, plus I didn't want 4 different species just for the top of my bench.  I ended up buying new soft maple for my bench, definitely worth it.  I got some usable pieces for the table legs, and used some for for a table for my friend. (Of which I forgot to take pictures)

These were stored away from other wood, some pieces had bugs, and they were covered in dirt, murder on blades.  My approah to using them was to take a handheld belt sander with 24 grit and clean off the exterior and bring down high spots.  I did this outside, wearing a respirator, and my snot was still black for a couple days.  So the rest of the wood sat unused taunting me.  Every so often I would think about using a piece for some small project, go scrap a little off, see a knot, split or something and put that off a little longer.

My Method:
Now in 2014 I have a much better understanding of square, usable wood, a scrub plane and a bandsaw.  The first thing I do is cut them down to just over the length I need, in this case ~40", this cuts the amount of twist in half.  Really the first thing you should do is remove any possibility of metal in the wood.  I did this a few years ago when I bought it, and Brady covers it pretty well.  Staring with the "prettiest" face I take the scrub plane to it, first removing the weathered layer, and then hogging of the high spots.  My scrub plane is an old (post-war) #5, with a 6" radius and its dull.  I think I sharpened it last year, so if you are concerned with having to get a nice sharp blade on a small radius, don't be. [Side note, I will be sharpening this again soon].

Selecting the flattest face to start on, using my bench as a reference

Hey look..its cherry

The beauty of this is I can take "shavings" that are thicker than 1/32".  This makes removing even severe twist pretty quick.  I work this face till it sits flat on my bench, with no rocking.  I take a few passes with the jointer plane to help it slide more consistently, then flip it over.  On the opposite side I take a pass or two with the scrub plane, then draw a straight line.  I do this to all the boards I'm dressing.  Then its to the bandsaw, and I freehand cut that line (remember the only flat side is on the table).

Cut the the line (the first face is on the bench)

A couple quick passes to make sure the second face is square to the first

Back at the bench I clean up the bandsawn face with the jointer plane, and make sure its 90* to the first face.  Again I tend to do the same operation for all the boards at once.  While I could go straight to the thickness planer, I think its best to use the bandsaw first.  I use the fence on my bandsaw putting the square corner into the fence, and cut of just enough to square the other two sides.  By adding this step at the bandsaw, your planer blades will last longer,  and you wont have to take hundreds of passes at the planer.  Yes, your bandsaw blade will dull but not as quick as your planer blades and its only passing though maybe a 1/32" of crud at the top of the board so its not that bad.

Dull planer knives avoided

After a couple passes through the t least 2 faces are square, preferably the sides you want to use/see.  From here is all about what your plan is.  I didn't want thefew times now, and its pretty fast, I went from (s)crap to "hey look cherry and maple"planer I go back to my bench to make sure things didn't get wonky somewhere in my process.  A couple quick passes with whatever plane is handy tends to take out and (very) minor wobble, and make sure a in an aftern full 3.5" so I resawed/ripped it to size at the bandsaw.  I let it sit for a few days on stickers to allow any weird remaining stresses to work their way out, its still ~1/8" over in all dimensions.  I've used this method a oon.  Though I will not be buying and more reclaimed wood for quite some time

Nice thick S4S cherry

Busy Month

Its been over a month since I last posted, and I got out in the shop some.  I made a table for my friend's new house.  After building my hall table a few years ago I realized that (rectangular) tables are pretty simple structures.  A top, an apron, and legs, 8 mortise and tenon joints, and a way to attach the top, typically using screws to allow for some movement.  To make this table a little more interesting I decided to splay the legs at 5 degrees.  While this isn't a lot, it does change the some construction details, and was a good exercise in thinking outside of square.  Since this was built using reclaimed wood, I also decided to start with rough concept in my head, but let the wood dictate the design and dimensions as it is built.  This build went pretty fast so I once again didn't take many pictures.

Dry fit with some scraps for the top and shelf.

The table was requested to be a medium brown, and glossy, so I used the same finish I used on the bookshelves, WB dye, shellac, a glaze, then topcoats of shellac, and a coat of wax. 

After the dye and stain, ready for shellac.

Finished and ready for delivery

Quartersawn top

Overall this build when smoothly, and it was fun to design it as I built it.  I also broke into some of pear I acquired when my friend took down a tree.  I used some of the thinner pieces to make an 11-grooved box a la Roy Underhill.  This is a fun little box that is primarily made with a plow plane, in my case a rebranded Stanley 45.  it went surprisingly smooth although it is very easy to blowout when cutting the grooves for the splines, so I will probably use a backing board in the future.  The pear has some really nice figure, which was a good trial of my high angle blades for my low angle jack.  I was really pleased with the results until I put a coat of shellac on, and then the "end grain" really stands out as it disrupts the reflection.  I guess I'll have to sand next time.

11 Groove box out of Pear

The next projects will be a bit of a departure.  One is a still a Stickley piece, #800 Sideboard however it will have drawers and will be out of cherry.  The other two are a Shaker rocking chair and foot rest (cherry or maple), and a crib/bed (cherry).  The rocking chair requires me to make a bed extension and steady rest for my lathe, and also some steam bending.  The crib involves lots of slats, and some nice curves on the top rails, as well as some hopefully inventive, strong, and knockdown hardware solutions.  Hopefully I can get them done in 7 months, and remember to take some pictures.

3 Bookshelves Completed

I gave both sets of parents a tilt top table this year.  One as parts  for my Dad's birthday.  The other (completed) as a Christmas gift to the in-laws (a 2013 project I forgot last post).  Since we were going to Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving I decided to save on shipping, and pack the table in my luggage.  Luckily all the parts are small, and only the three legs need to be glued, and not necessarily clamped since they are sliding dovetails.  So I packed the parts, some glue, and a screwdriver.  20 minutes of work, and a couple hours to dry, and the table was complete.

Cherry Tilt-Top at the in-laws

The bookshelves for my sisters while portable, would not fit in luggage, and since each set( 2 uprights, 4 shelves, 8 pegs) weighs about 35 lbs, that doesn't leave much room for protection from baggage handlers or clothes.  On top of that they weren't finished when my family had to leave.    They each got a slightly modified version of my A&C finish that I used on our dining table.  Preraise the grain then sand with 220.  Apply a waterbased dye, then a seal coat of Seal-a-cell or shellac.  On top of the seal coat is an oil stain, I prefer using a gel stain, but the liquid stain works well too.  Here is where I switched it up a bit, in the past I have used Arm-R-Seal with great success, but with so many surfaces, and now that I own a compressor I wanted to try spraying.  These shelves got 3 coats of Zinnser Sealcoat.  Once cured for a couple days I applied a furniture wax with synthetic steel wool.

Spraying Carly's shelves

Completed Shelves

To ship them I used some 2-ply corrugated cardboard I saved from replacing the fridge, and some 1/2" insulating foam and constructed a fairly rigid box that didn't allow the shelves to move at all.  They seemed to make it just fine, and Carly already has hers setup.

With the girls bookshelves finished and out of the shop it was time to get back to my bookshelf.  After finessing the joinery it was time to fit the wedges and then chamfer all the edges

Ready for sanding, finish, and cookbooks

After that its on to sanding, and finishing.  I am using the finishing schedule as above.

After the first coat of dye

Completed bookshelf

Already full of cookbooks

Holiday Vacation

Vacations are tricky for those with lots of hobbies and full time jobs.  On the one hand its a chance to travel/see family/relax/etc.  on the other, all you want to do is spend time on your hobbies.  I was lucky enough that this vacation I was able to do both.

My parents and youngest sister came down to celebrate Christmas with my wife and me.  This year the big gift went to my sisters, both receiving a fairly portable set of bookshelves.  For Libby the gift was some time in the shop making her own.

Both "received" their gifts(oak/picture of oak) a little early, even though the actual bookshelves still aren't done yet.  To streamline the process for Libby, I decided to build Carly's alongside (the fact that I was too busy with other project had nothing to to with it not getting done before the holidays).

Once again I didn't take many pictures along the way, but we made pretty good progress and actually got the dye and stain on the bookshelves before Libby had to go back to school.


 Of course things didn't go perfectly and someone ended up needed stitches.  Luckily it was not my little sister.  Remember to secure your work piece when paring your mortises.  The good news is I should be able to remember the date of my last tetanus shot a little easier...Christmas 2013.  We did use plenty of safe practices while sanding.

They flew back to Rochester, and I started finishing Carly's and even got to work a little on the bookcase I get to keep.  I am taking a very hybrid approach on this project, I drilled holes for the mortises, and removed most of the waste with a jigsaw.  Then went back and cleaned them up with chisels.  The plan is to get this dyed by the weekend so I can spray shellac on all three at once.

A busy few weeks( a very late Roubo Part 2)

Gluing the back slab.

I was able to get the two top slabs glued up.  I decided to give myself a break, and picked up some Titebond II Extend.  That was a huge help, and allowed me to get both slabs glued up with very little touch-up needed afterwards.  Surprisingly I didn't use ALL of my clamps (some were too small).

The following week I started a 2 week long class/test at work, which consumed almost all my time, and all my energy.  I was able to take a short break, and cut some dovetails, make a sticking board and stick some moldings.  All in preparation for a demonstration at the hand tool splinter group meeting.

Second load of pear

"Floating" wine rack

I was also given a free pear tree, as long as I cut it up and hauled it home....2 carloads later....looks like I have a couple dozen bowls to practice on. I also had to make a wedding gift.  I decided on a wine rack similar to one I made for us a few months ago.

After the class I was finally ready to get back at working on the bench.  I had flattened one side to send it through the thickness planer, but after all the reclaimed oak, and surfacing the boards for glue up I decided to change the blades.  Turns out the last time I switched blades I tightened the bolts a little too much, and rounded 8 of them trying to get them out.  Luckily I had a screw extractor that worked for 7 of them, and then broke getting the last one out.  Now a week later I have replacement bolts, the blades are new and sharp, and its time to get back to work.

One hour later, and the slabs are nice and parallel and exactly 4 in thick.
I think the title should more correctly read a busy few months, as I am just now posting this, and part 3 is done and 4 is close.