She Works Wood

Cleaning up some curly cherry with my newly rehabed #6

2012-03-04T07:17:00.001-08:00

I spent a part of Saturday cleaning up an old Stanley #6 that I bought from Josh at HyperKitten. After it was retrofitted with a new blade and all cleaned up I tried it out on some curly cherry that I bought from Hardwoods to Go. This board was hand picked by Shannon Roger as part of the new business endeavor at J. Gibson McIlvain.

I see some very cool door panels in my future. Thanks Shannon!

More saw resources

2012-03-01T18:24:00.002-08:00

FromPlane Shavings Blog

Here's some handy hints to take the mystery out of saw sharpening.

Re-posting this as well to have it all in one place.
Saw Filing Guide

Really Big Bessy

2012-03-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

Darn cell phone camera.

I was in Hardwick's looking for saw files (which they had) and found this 20" x 24" F style clamp. WOW! You could clamp a kid to bench top with that.

The latest cutting board

2012-02-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

I used the Cutting Board Designer to come up with the pattern. Seemed like a good deal for $10. And of course, I used The Wood Whisperer's video.

This board is made of walnut, maple and jatoba.

Finish - General Salad Bowl Finish

Mitre Box Complete

2012-02-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

After putting thing back together, here's how it turned out. Simple and sturdy.

And the cuts turned out pretty well, too.

More pictures after the fold.

New Bed Installed

Foot and Frame repair

Back and Saw Guide Cleaned Up

A tale of two saws

2012-02-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

As you know, I've been working on restoring and sharpening a mitre box saw that I picked up.

While I was working on it, I also got a chance to put together my Wenzloff rip saw. Here's how the handle started.

And here are the saws together. One made in 2012 and one made around 1920. One walnut and one curly apple.

Mike Wenzloff has a great pictorial on how to shape a saw handle here: Shaping a Handle

Spray painting the mitre box

2012-02-02T20:40:00.000-08:00

My box arrived yesterday all spic and span with its repairs barely noticeable. So now, before rust takes hold, it needs painting.

Here's my spray booth ( aka microwave oven box that was used to mail the box and saw to me):

It worked well and I was able to get most of my parts painted. The paint (engine black) will take 7 days to cure. So it'll be a bit before I can put it all back together.

Here's a little background information I found about the saw - 74 (ca. 1910 - 1920).

More photos below the fold.

Last weekend

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

We met for our second Modern Woodworking Association. Mike organized it and did a nice post on it.

MWA Meeting 2 Seattle

Remember the Mitre Box?

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Myonline chum, Joe at McGlynn on Making, graciouslyoffered to bead blast my mitre box. So Ipacked it up and shipped it down to him.

Before:

After:

The clean up on this thing is amazing! He also fixed the crack in the frame and fixed the foot. As usual, I'm in awe of what a good machinist/metal worker (not sure what Joe calls himself) can do.

Make sure you take a look at his site, McGlynn on Making. He just finished completely restoring an old ugly saw .. as part of his new interest in woodworking.

His post on the mitre box here : Marilyn’s Miterbox

Wine Rack

2012-01-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

When we remodeled our house back in 2008 we had to close in two windows since the addition was going on the other side. We've been trying to figure out what to do with the window boxes ever since.

Que woodworking project.

We had some friends over last night who made the agreeable suggestion to put a wine rack in this space. So, after poking around on the internet we found this that we both liked.

NOW!!! Waaaa haaaaHa! I get to drag the spouse to the lumber yard to pick out some nice wood. More on that later.

So, after a quick round with Sketch Up and a few alternative designs, we came back to the original as the best design.

Now I have my measurements, we can go to the lumber yard. :o)

Silly stuff

2012-01-27T19:36:00.000-08:00

Saw Handle Popsicle

Can you find the Diet Dr. Pepper Can in this picture? If you need a hint, click on read more.

I was standing on my workbench and set is down.

Saw Handle Clean Up

2012-01-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

Before:

After (with better lighting):

I followed this procedure:

Refinish a Saw Tote

I varied slightly from this procedure by using wet dry 400 grit sand paper with the BLO.

I haven't put shellac on yet, but will post when I get the whole saw put back together.

Handsaw Essentials - Last Weekend

2012-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I journeyed over to Port Townsend to take Handsaw Essentials. This was a great opportunity for me to get my new mitre box saw sharpened since one of the options for the class was to sharpen/restore a saw.

The tooth line on the blade is about 27" long. Thaaaat should give me some practice. So I started out by putting my saw in Jim's cool but easy to make saw vise written about in his "The New Traditional Woodworker" book. This vise was plenty long enough to handle my blade entirely.

Then I jointed the tooth line with a file and started reshaping teeth by filing perpendicular to the blade.

Once the teeth were established I started to put in a 9 degree rake to the teeth using a saw file guide.

After that I put a slight set on the teeth (.2) since this saw will have a lot of teeth in the wood at the same time.

Lastly, I added fleam at a 20 degree angle (see the red lines on Jim's saw vise) with a slight upward motion to allow all the saw dust from all those teeth in the wood to escape (this is probably some what unique to a mitre box saw).

Jim had a couple of suggestions if you wanted to retooth and demonstrated using a sawzall blade to use if you wanted to make the same number of teeth (7 points per inch for example). Saw files are available at amazon.com.

Good saw sharpening links:

http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html

http://www.badaxetoolworks.com/my-saw-filing-technique.html

http://www.vintagesaws.com/cgi-bin/frameset.cgi?left=main&right=/library/library.html

Wenzloff & Sons

Saw Filing Guide

While my work bench lumber is being held hostage by snow ..

2012-01-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

.. I might as well work on the mitre box saw. I left my lumber on the storage rack at school so no more working on the work bench base until I go back to class.

So I started working on the saw for my mitre box. I used Matt's recipe at the Saw Blog for cleaning the saw plate.

Before:
So I pulled off the handle and got out the Simple Green and wet/dry 400 grit sand paper. Rubbing in from tip to stern, I worked off the grim and rust.

After a good rinsing and drying (hopefully no one will notice that the blow drier made a trip to the shop), I set the saw plate to bask in the radiant heat.

Once thoroughly dried , I applied some paste wax for protection. If you look closely you can see the saw bench and sheet rock reflected in the plate.

Langdon Mitre Box Saw Miller Falls Mass, U.S.A

And look what I uncovered after removing all the grim. Now to sharpening.

Two WIAs??

2012-01-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

WIA in Kentucky and California??!! Hmmm ...

Questions for my metal working / tool repair buddies

2012-01-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

I bought this saw on Ebay because I think I can make cross cuts by hand instead of on the table saw. And .. I want to be able to miter accurately as well. I chose this one because .. well .. it looked well used and cared for AND because I want to use it. Collecting doesn't do much for me.

So what and how much to clean and repair?

First, there's a small crack in the frame and the back foot is broken off. Some one recommended JB weld to fix these item (since I can't weld nor do I have the equipment). I do, however, have a friend who welds although he's new to it.

Here are my questions:

What's the best way to repair the crack? I was thinking "spot weld" on the back side of the frame.

Should I have the foot rebuilt and if so, any suggestions on how to do that?
Cleaning. There doesn't appear to be a lot of rust just a layer of greasy black "something". Maybe its original paint or added later paint. Should I clean it or just leave it.

Thoughts on assessing and lubrication the saw holding mechanism. It works fine as is, but I want to make sure it stays that way.

Chocolate walnut and maple inside with a cherry outside ..

2012-01-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

So the tool cabinet is finally finished. Outside dimensions: 35" high by 29" wide by 15" deep.

Glamor shots:

Outside

Doors have book matched white oak panels with cherry frame. I picked the panels up from Bell Forest. Handles are oil rubbed bronze.

Yes, I have gotten a few comments that this is too nice for a tool cabinet, but hey, at least now I know I can do the cabinets for the inside of the house.

The panels were run through a power planer because I was having trouble with the knots and the significant cup. Since then I've learned a few lessons from Joe and how to plane knots. I'll try that next time.

Inside with Tools

Cubbies were sized for specific tools. Shelves are cherry with walnut dividers. The back panels are left over from another project tongue and groove fir boards that I purchased from a local lumber yard.

This is my entire arsenal of planes and I have a little room to expand but I'm hoping I'm done with major hand plane acquisitions. (9 planes, right?) Some of these will hang on the interior of the doors.

Cabinet Side and Door Grain Matching. I glued up the panels for the sides including the door width and then ripped out the door sides to make sure I had an appealing grain pattern.

Dove tail drawers - Maple and Walnut with a small bead on the top and bottom. These will hold my chisels and drill bits which I store in rolls. This allows me to pick up the whole roll at once and take it to the bench.

I still need to hang many of my tools. The brace, egg beater drill, spoke shave, etc. will be mounted later on the inside of the doors.

The Finish - I tried something new for this cabinet and really loved it. The pores on the doors needed to be filled (white oak) to get a smooth exterior finish. This wood filler worked wonders and dried clear. Then I added the wipe on, wipe off satin finish .. in my garage. No nibs and I couldn't be happier with the results.

I got the idea to use a transparent filler from Rob Bois' butternut cabinet project.

From the Doh! Files
(a little reminders that I'm still learning not to make stupid mistakes)

1. Measure before you cut .. Doh!

2. Don't drop your work on the concrete floor because even with a little water and a hot iron, you might not be able to decompress the fibers ... Doh!

3. Pair up you tail board to make sure you don't cut your tail board upside down .. Doh!

The Parting Shot

Links to other posts for this project: Tool Cabinet Project Page

I hate having two big projects going at once ..

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

.. especially when I'm so close to finishing my tool cabinet, but alas .. here we go.

I get this great opportunity ever quarter to use big machines I'll never have room for in my own shop. For $ 150 a quarter, I can sign up for Woodworking II at Seattle Central. They have eight Saw Stops, a 20" helix head planer, an 8" helix head jointers and a big ass dust collection system. The beauty of it .. I don't have to maintain a single one of them.

So off to school with my big pieces a maple for my workbench project. Class starts this week which is why I'm starting now. Originally, all I did was a rough break down the stock. Now I need start milling the pieces which is where the machines at school come in.

BTW, Seattle Central invested in $ 25 M (as in million) in a new Wood Construction Center building. It'll be opening later this year. I'm sure it'll be mostly for the day time classes, but hey, the evening crew is bound to get some benefits from it as well.

More drawer progress

2012-01-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

I was able to have some fun putting some details on my drawer fronts with an old beader I purchased a while back.

After that, I rabbeted the bottoms of the drawers with my skewed rabbet plane. Now onto the fitting process.

PS. Here's the proper way to orient your board if you're going to use the scraper to shear the fibers of the dovetail sockets.

Blind dovetails

2012-01-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

I certainly like the way my dovetail sockets cleaned up. Used the card scraper to sever the fibers and the shim to pare out the bottom of the socket. Worked well for me.

Zzzzttt, zzzttt, zzttt

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ha! Now that I've figured out some good sharpening techniques and how to set my plow plane up, its a lot of fun to use. Walnut and Maple are much more fun than African Mahogany!

Some tips on making blind dovetails

2012-01-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

This is were I got the idea to use the card scraper. There are a few other tips to check out as well.

Tips for CuttingHalfblind Dovetails Part 1, with Tim Rousseau

Tips for CuttingHalfblind Dovetails Part 2, with Tim Rousseau

Shannon - you'll notice how he orients the boards to prevent breaking the pins. Doh! Should have watched this again before I did it.

More fun (really .. it is fun!) with drawers

2012-01-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice close up of my drawer sides with the tails cut. The small gap between the boards is the rabbet I cut to help line up sides and front. Its a trick I learned from Chris Schwarz. Next I'll use the fret saw to clean out the waste and trim up with a chisel.

I'm cutting half blind dovetails into the walnut drawer fronts.

Here's a trick I learned .. from some where. When cutting the half blind socket, the saw doesn't cut the entire socket. If you sharpen the edge of a scraper and then hammer it into the saw kerf, it cuts the socket full length and .. in theory makes it easier to clean out.

Drawers

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I'm still putting together my drawers. I've fitted the front and sides in the drawer slots and marked out drawer parts. I'll be dovetailing the sides and putting in a slot for the drawer bottom.

Originally I was going to pin the backs, but I've been watching how Shannon Rogers is doing his drawers for his Hand Tool School Tool cabinet, so I'll be putting in one single dovetail for the back.

Sides and bottom are 1/2" maple with a 3/4" walnut front.

The hinges are in ..

2011-12-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

I installed the wrap around piano hinges that will hold both the clamp shell doors.

Now, onto the drawers.

Tool Cabinet close ups .. playing with my new camera close up lens

2011-12-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

I still don't have finish on my cabinet yet, but I wanted to try out my new close up camera lens that I got for Christmas. So here's a few shots:

Top left to right: door panel knot, shelf and hinge mortise, back french cleat and dovetail close up.
Bottom left to right: dividers, drawer web frame, cabinet top.
Full photos below the fold.

Door panel knot.

Back french cleat.

Web frame for drawer.

Cabinet side with hinge mortise and shelf.

Dividers for tool cubbies.

Case dovetails.

Door panel sneak peak

2011-12-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

Got my very cool book matched panels planed down to size (Thanks Mike!) and got the first panel put together. The panels are made of white oak and the frame is cherry. I'm starting to get excited about how this is turning out.

Cleaning up ...

2011-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

The doors start to come together ..

2011-12-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

Love my Lie Nelsen Tongue and Groove plane for this job.

Tool Cabinet Test Run

2011-12-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

So obviously I still need to make the doors .. and the drawers, but here's a sneak peak at the cabinet. I added some tools for perspective. The lower 2 slots will have drawers. The shelf above the drawer slots is for miscellaneous tools.

A close up on the slots.

PS. Check out the top of the cabinet. The mirror finish is from my jointer plane. Yes, this is an unsolicited hand plane commercial. ;o)

The big glue up ..

2011-12-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I made the drawer web. Since my web parts were 3/4" thick I used my newly purchased from Ebay tongue and groove plane to cut the groove for the tenons. It worked like a charm!

With all the pieces put together, I glued up the cabinet (Yee Ha!) Tomorrow we'll see how it turns out.

Ramped shooting board?

2011-12-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

I don't need no stinkin' ~~badge~~ ramp!

Ok, not really. I still want to build one, but I saw this clever trick in Wood Magazine this month. Putting a small piece of scrap under the edge of the piece you're shooting creates a ramp and moves the area of blade wear. (see arrow in picture)

This is a great excuse to continue to postpone building the ramped version. ;o)

Then I made a walnut sandwich. Ok, not really that either. I trimmed up the cabinet dividers on the band saw. Then I cleaned them up with a rasp and a little sandpaper.

The curves will allow a little bit easier access to the cubbies.

Silly me ..

2011-12-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday stooping over my bench working on my cabinet and by the end of day had a sore back.

This morning I decided to pull out the BOB (bench on bench). Should have done that sooner!

Outfitting the cubbies with dividers

2011-12-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

Today I started fitting the dividers for the cubbies and putting the tools in place to make sure the fit is correct.

Tool Cabinet interruption - Workbench stock break down

2011-12-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Today I interrupted my tool cabinet making to break down the stock for my workbench base that I'll be building as part of the workbench guild build. My workbench top is already complete so I won't be making that part.

I really don't like cutting 8/4 stock on the table saw. It always feels kinda scary so I used my track saw to cut a straight edge and then crosscut to rough dimensions. This is an idea I stole from watching some of Marc's Usteam.

So here's the pile of Western (soft) maple all cut so that I can tuck it away in the shop until the guild build is in full swing (January).

Trip to Edensaw

2011-12-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

Mike Lingenfelter and journeyed over to Port Townsend to pick up workbench material for the upcoming Wood Whisperer “guild build”. This was also our first official meeting of the Modern WoodworkingAssociation.

It was much fun. Perhaps a bit for me than Mike since I found what I needed. Darn! Maybe we'll have to go back.

Anyway, I can home with some soft (Western) maple to re-build the base of my workbench. This is the next project after my tool cabinet is complete. I’ll be adding a leg vise to and an end vise to my bench which will make things really nice.

Stay tuned!

Shelving is in ..

2011-12-02T17:46:00.000-08:00

Shelves are done. Drawer web and cubby hole dividers are next.

More tool cabinet progress ..

2011-11-30T19:03:00.000-08:00

Can you find the patch on the top??

Wow! It's starting to look like a real cabinet.

Cabinet back

2011-11-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

Managed to sneak some time in the shop and got the back started the back.

I used up the last of my 1/2" tongue and groove pieces left over from another projects to form up the back.

This is pretty easy to do, but now I have screw a strip on to hold the pieces together so that glue up isn't a nightmare.

Keeping things flat

2011-11-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

Here's hopin' my dividers stay dividers and don't turn into potato chips.

Some knuckle headed wood worker put a groove in the wrong place on my cabinet

2011-11-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

Man! In spite of color coded tape, hand drawn in grooves, etc. SOMEONE, I'm not namin' names, put a groove on the opposite side of the piece. Geez!

So now I have to fix it.

And this is one reason I fell in love with hand planes. For me, it makes this repair possible and fairly easy.

First I squared up the end of the groove (don't tell anyone, but for long stop grooves, I use a router).

After cleaning it up, I cut a piece slightly over-sized and then trimmed it to fit ..

.. using the jointer.

Then the shooting board to trim the ends.

Wee! fun! you can still see it, but it looks way better than a gaping groove.

And .. its on the top of the cabinet, so it'll be hard to see.

Note to self: when the fit gets really close, put glue in the groove. A good fitting piece will be really hard to get out during dryfitting.

Oh .. and some one tell the cat that we bought that electric blanket for us ... not the cat. :oD

Starting to put things together

2011-11-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

Started working on the dividers for the tool cubbies. I decided to make them of walnut for contrast.

The drawer fronts will also be made of walnut.

Dados done and starting to put the back together.

Thinking about a mark/stamp for my work

2011-11-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, I got the idea from Chris and thought it was cool. He had a stamp made of some dividers which has become his identifying mark. I thought I'd come up with an identifying mark, perhaps of a tool I made. I've made a dovetail saw and a panel gauge; so using those as a mark and then, perhaps, adding my blog handle to help make the stamp unique. Here's a couple for consideration:

Dovetail Saw

Panel Gauge

This gives a little bit of an idea of what it would look like.

Here it is with out the Logo. Better?

Ever thought about doing this? Any lessons learned?

Cheating on my edges

2011-11-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

No surprise, I have favorite tools. This is one of them. Its a Stanley No. 386 Jointer Gauge or Fence that I got off of eBay.

Some might think this is cheating, but I love it. It positions my hands perfectly and makes jointing a edge a ton of fun. I don't have to be obsessive about checking my edges and it helps me move my jack or jointer plane with easy. Most importantly, it gets a square edge ever time.

It also works nicely on end grain.

The only bad news is that its kinda hard to find and collectors like them, which can make them expensive. If you're willing to take one that missing a knob or otherwise not in perfect, but working condition, you can save some money.

Here's where I found a few other options.
Hyperkitten - Center of the Table
ST. JAMES BAY TOOL CO. - under new products.
Fine Tool Journal

A little more tool cabinet progress

2011-11-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

Stopped dados for shelving and a little bit of double checking to make sure things are going to fit.

Things are going so slow. The end of the year has so many things to take me away from the work. Oh, and I'll be sneaking off to buy so more work to rebuild the base of my work bench. More on that later.

Here's a fun fact. I started this blog about a year and 1/2 ago and I'm up to 10,000 views. That's pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks for readin'!

My shop space has been bugging me ....

2011-11-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

So I spend the weekend selling off some tools I wasn't using, cleaning the shop and building this assembly/outfeed table on wheels.

I've been using a plywood sheet on saw horses which shorta hogged the space underneath it. So it don't LOOK like a big change, but it opened up the space underneath and tidied things up nicely.

You can see that my paper pattern is still on the wall and my tool cabinet is still in the making. I've notice that I tend to clean my desk at work if I start feeling overwhelmed at work. I'm thinking that this project might have been a similar organization exercise. And it always makes me feel better.

Procrastination or a response to feeling over whelmed?? Or, something that just needed to be done? Maybe all three??

Link to the casters if you need it: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=30842&filter=workbench%20casters

Creating the doors and mortising in the door hinges

2011-10-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Originally I glued up the side pieces with the door width included. This made sure both the doors and case were squared together and the gain matched. After carefully squaring the back edges up, I trimmed off the door pieces. So now I have put the door pieces back on using the hinges.

I wanted to not be limited by hinges on the doors so I'm using .. yes, I know .. ugly piano hinges. I decided to mortise them in to make sure they don't interfere with drawers and to make the whole thing look a bit more finished.

The router plane sure makes some fun shavings when you set it correctly. Now that the mortises for the door are in I know where the front of the dados for the shelves need to go.

Happiness!

2011-10-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

See previous post for explanation:
Ok, who has their workbench against the wall and likes it??

Ok, who has their workbench against the wall and likes it??

2011-10-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

I used to have my workbench away from the wall in the middle of the garage. On the recommendation of Mr. Schwarz and in need of space to put things together, I moved my workbench next to the wall under the tool hanging cabinet.

I gotta say, I'm not really lovin' it there. The tool cabinet for my hand tools that I'm working on now is wider than my bench and sleppin' the workbench around to be able to work on it is turning out to be kind of a pain. Going on the back side, I end up getting hung up in the hanging tools.

I need to do so more work on the shop. Shrink the outfeed table, move the bike to the back yard shed (after I build it), come up with a new sharpen station since the new cabinet will block the current location. But if I leave the workbench against the wall, this will be a long term thing.

Perhaps my floor is also part of the problem. Little rubber mats are getting in the way of moving the bench and end up being a trip hazard when they get scrunched up by the bench.

Thoughts?

Tool Cabinet - Putting together the case .. finally

2011-10-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Things have been extremely busy and I haven't had much shop time to work on the the tool cabinet. But today, I got the tool cabinet put together and edges trimmed up.

Inspector Kitten came in and declared the dovetails .. mediocre. And a disappointment .. since they weren't actually attached to any birds.

After this, I'll start working on the interior joinery.

Then .. there will be another long delay while I put together my rip saw. Pictures to come on that.

English Lay Our Square Complete

2011-10-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Haven't had much time to work in the shop between knee surgery, being out of town and family obligations.

But ... I've been sneaking out there to finish this little project up.

It's now hanging on the shop wall.

Phooey .. no more woodworking this weekend

2011-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Getin' old sucks. According to the doctor, when one gets .. lets say .. in one's late forties, knee meniscus start losing water and are easy to tear. If you kneel for extended periods of time, this also squeeses water out of the meniscus and that first step you take after getting up can tear it. According to him .. gardening .. is the biggest reason for this kneed injury.

Fortunately, its a day surgery so I'll be sitting on the couch reading about woodworking this weekend instead of doing it.

Inside of the knee picture below the fold.

They're all wasted ...

2011-09-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well at least the tails are.

I also used my newly acquired knowledge from my Handtool Essentials class to tune up the Skew Rabbet Plane. Man, someone needs to do a video on that one. First time set up is pretty tricky, but now it works wonderfully.

So here's what I did to tune up the skewed rabbet plane:
1. Sight down the bottom of the plane and line the blade up with only a small bit of the blade showing. The blade should be proud of the the body by about 1/32" so that the fibers don't push back and mess up the path of the plane (Chris talks about this here.)

2. Make sure the lever cap is snugged but not too tight.

3. Adjust the small blade set screws in the side of the body to keep the blade from moving side to side. It may make a lot of sense to take a quick peek at the instructions for the plane at this point.

4. Now ... since the blade is poking out slightly proud of the body, you need to line up the nicker with the proud blade. I (and Chris) use the a small straight edge to line these up. The nicker can be moved by unscrewing the front fence rod and get a tiny screw driver to move it. I actually use my Silver Sharpie to color the blade so I can see it.

So in theroy, when this is all done, the plane should work beautifully, but it took a lot more going back and forth between the steps. Oy!

I've also been rearranging the shop. I pushed the workbench up against the wall. I wanted it to be closer to the new tool cabinet which will hand on the wall to the left of the bench. I'm also converting my current cabinet to a most used hand tools set up (it had mostly power tool stuff in it before).

Wow, this is going to be a big cabinet

2011-09-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

I lined up the pieces prior to joinery and removing the door frames from the glued up panels. I realized this is going to be a really big cabinet now that I see it. Hope it doesn't pull the wall down once I get all the tools in. :o)

Summer interuptions over

2011-09-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

So we journeyed to Manzanita, Oregon and then traveled up to Port Townsend School of Woodworking for a .. woodworking class, of course. This was a Handtool Intensives class and crammed full of information.

There was some crazy lookin' dude there trying to teach us how the French used their workbenches as shooting boards. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.

It was an awesome class and much fun was had. I have at least a few stories that will pay for beer anytime I want to threaten to tell them. In addition to learning hand tool techniques, we also made the English layout square, which I didn't quite finish. More pictures of that when it's done.

Oh, and I discovered an new t-shirt collection when in PT. And I so almost bought this for that crazy lookin' dude.

Oh .. and there's a woodworking one as well. ;~D

All milled and ready to go ..

2011-08-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the next few weeks I have various summer time "interruptions", so it might be slow going from here on out .. slower than normal anyway.

The Tool Cabinet Begins

2011-08-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today I started milling boards for the tool cabinet. The cherry I have is already milled to 3/4". I just needed to match, joint, flatten and glue up.

I also had a visitor ..

Shop Cat come in for a different perspective on the world. All and all a fun day.

I can do this right???

2011-08-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I started laying things out. The tool cabinet poster went up on the wall where the real cabinet will ultimately reside.

I started laying out all the cherry and trying to match up pieces for gluing. Most sides of the cabinet will require gluing 3 boards together and the shelves 2 boards. Four sides and FIVE shelves.

Then there's the back which will use up the remaining tongue and groove fir I have left. And then there's five drawers to be made.

And finally I got out the panels for the door fronts. These are book matched oak and 3/4' thick that I'll need to take an 1/8 to 1/4" off of so they'll be proper door panels.

By the time it was all over, I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. So I ran upstairs to look at the newly completed bathroom wall cabinet .. I think I can, I think I can ....

This is the final design. The bottom 3 slots will have drawers in them (not drawn). Cubbies on the second and third shelf will go all the way across the cabinet (not drawn out) and are spaced for individual planes.

Here's the link to the sketch up file: Final Tool Cabinet.

Panel gauge complete

2011-08-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

Arm is made of cherry and head is made of maple. This was a Hand Tool School project and something I was missing.

There are a ton of mistakes here. I'm still learning to not be so greedy with the plow plane. Cuts that are too deep tend to blow out the sides. The pencil holder needs fixing cuz the arm is too low to fully hold up the pencil and make it stable. And I broke off a steel screw (that I think wasn't really steel) that I used to pre-drive the holes for the brass screws in the head, etc. Oh and don't polish the brass after its in the wood, it turns the wood grey.

One thing I did right was listen to Brian over at Galoototron regarding rounding out the bottom side of the arm to make it sit stable. I used my chair maker's scraper to make the shape on the bottom of the arm.

I think it was a fun project ...

No more procrastination ..

2011-08-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've not been likin' the wasted space in my tool cabinet design. So I took as step back and redesigned. I took a second look at the Chris's wall hanging tool cabinet and this is what I'm callin' my final design.

Some light tools will hang on the doors, but most will reside in drawers so I can carry them to the work bench, which is actually further away than I'd like.

I also drew it out on paper and laid tools in their spot. I used my Anarchist Tool Chest list to visualize where the tools would go.

I'm declaring this done and am finally going to start building.

Tool Layout

2011-08-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Laid out all my tools to see how they will fit in the cabinet. The lower row will be the cubbies for the individual planes. The upper part will hold the tools in the shown position.

Other tools will hang on the cabinet sides and the interior of the doors.

Distraction

2011-08-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Bought a board yesterday to complete the desk top I'll be making some time in the future. I already have two 12 to 13" quarter sawn mahogany boards and need one more to finish out the top. The great news is my bench handled this easily as I had planned it would.

I'm still working on the tool cabinet sketch up. After discovering that my slanted platform wasn't going to work, I started redesigning.

More progress in Sketch Up

2011-08-01T20:16:00.001-07:00

Working on the next project - the tool cabinet

2011-07-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

And a panel gauge, which I have a picture of somewhere but can't find it.

Slow on the woodworking front these days cuz I have a knee flare up going on. I use "flare up" cuz they seem to happen at regular intervals these days.

Final Pictures of the Wall Cabinet

2011-07-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Finish: General Finish - Outdoor Oil
- foam brush applicator and after a few minutes wipe off and remove pools.
Wood: African Mahogany

Some of the previous posts:

Still workin' on the finish ..

2011-07-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

.. and I see a few spots I missed.

The French cleat is in .. and wood for the next project

2011-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

I was able to cut my 45 degree angled french cleat by hand. Yah! me. So, with a good saw, I can actually saw a straight line. I installed the cabinet part and will hang the wall part once the finishing is complete.

Then, I got my hands on some nice cherry for the next project .. the Tool Cabinet. Which I'm still trying to figure out. Clam shell doors or not. How big (my space is pretty limited).

I think I'll build the angled plane platform first and then design around it. I'm hoping also to make the cabinet changeable. So that'll keep it interesting.

And yes, that's more African Mahogany up there, but it sure is pretty.

The Hinges are in

2011-07-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

I finally had time to put the hinges in. Glued the hinges on to the doors in the proper locations. Scored the location, popped off the hinge and routered between the lines.

I still have some fitting to do, but I'm close.

Drawer all glued up

2011-07-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

I made the bottom out of a scrap of cherry. I made 1/4" grooves and the plywood I have on hand is, of course, too small for those grooves.

Then I glued up the drawer after a bit of finishing with my smoother. I'll open up the clamps later today and see how it fits.

Band Saw Adjustment

2011-07-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Mark that I met at my saw making class told me about this video and I found it very helpful.
How to adjust drift angle on a bandsaw

There is good folding a bandsaw blade reminder video as well.
How to fold a Bandsaw Blade

The answer is 4

2011-07-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

I started working on the drawer today and got to use my new, sharpened by me dovetail saw. I work grrreat! And made short work of the drawer dovetails.

So .. I now know that the drawer will hold 4 rolls of TP.

The end is in sight.

Mouse TP??

2011-07-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, that's what it looked like to me. One guess what it is.

One of the reasons I really like working with hand planes is that you can really finesse work pieces to the nat's eye lash. Understand that can be a bad thing too. But when doors, it really makes it easy to be able make a perfect fit by taking off small bits here and there.

One thing I learned when siding the house is that you don't need to make things level, they just need to look level. When I put up siding, I made sure it was parallel to the window sills, which are not level in a 100+ year old house.

The same thing applies when making a cabinet .. it just needs to look square and even, it doesn't always need to be exactly square. Of course making it perfectly square every time would make for less futzing around. But hey, I'm rarely perfect in my execution and my hand plane usually bail me out.

Makin' the panels look good and a sneek peek.

2011-06-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

I went back and forth today about whether to use the sander or plane to clean up the panels. Stupid tear out. I ended up scccrraaapin'. After all, folks pay a lot of money for hand scrrrapped floors? BTW, love my little Lie Nielsen scraper for exactly this reason. :)

I put mineral spirits on the panels to check progress and see if I was eliminated the tear out. Wanna sneak peek of what it'll look like with finish??

WC Update

2011-06-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

Having to use more power tools than I wanted becuase of the switching grian in the Mahogany.

Today's WC Progress

2011-06-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Panels and lots of door fitting tomorrow.

The clamps have landed!

2011-06-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

This morning the Fed Ex man showed up with the goods. I'm at home working in the shop this week so this was great timing. Here are all the clamps and the list of what arrived is below in the You Never Have Enough link.

First Impressions:

Arrival: The clamps arrived in good shape, which is quite a feat these days since a lot packages arrive at the house these day looking like they've been through a gorilla suitcase commercial.

Handles: There have been a lot of comments about the smallness of the handles. So I compared it to my large F-style clamp.

The Jrs have the same diameter handle but shorter.
The Uniclamps have small handles compared to the F style. I'll be using these later tomorrow to put together my cabinet door, so we'll see if this is a problem.

Comparison to the Larger Bessy Clamps:

Weight - I personally like the weight of the Jrs. When I have to heft up a 40" Kevo clamp to diagonally adjust a cabinet, its pretty hard to manage. I tried this out with a Jr and found it much easier.
Bar height - the big Kevos have a different height than the Jrs, so no mixing and matching if you need a similar bar height.
Staying Open - This is the one thing that I find really annoying about the big Kevos. If you stand them on their head the handle section goes rocketing down the bar .. sometimes on my thumb. Staying open would really help when, for example, you are trying to laminate a workbench top and you're trying to stack the next section on its side. It looks like the Jrs will stay open .. but not the Uniclamps (???). Uni is open in the picture, but the handle base went rocketing down as soon as I touched it.

Clamp Quality - The clamps all looked well made except for two of the Jrs. Take a look at the gap between the clamp beds. I'll be measuring to see if the clamp pads are vertical to bar, but something looks amiss her.

BTW - I now have a full clamp rack. Thanks Bessy! .. for filling it out for me.

K Body® REVO™ JR Product Test

Today was groove makin' day ..

2011-06-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Made the grooves for the door panels. Also got through most of the tenons and the mortises.

BTW .. I got a hold of Chris Schwartz new sharpening video. Yes, I know there's a ton out there about sharpening. But, in his usual way, he breaks it down so that all of it make sense. Its a great video.

You can never have enough clamps!

2011-06-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

So the Bessy test clamps are on the way! Here's the list of what's coming (Left to right):

REVO™ 2 x 24”
REVO™ 2 x 31”
REVO™ Jr. 2 x 24”
REVO™ Jr. 2 x 36”
UniKlamp 2 x 12”
UniKlamp 2 x 24”

The purpose behind this is to get our impressions on how the REVO™ Jr. fits in to our line of parallel clamps as a mid-size, mid-priced product.

Questions to be answered:

Is it a good compromise to pick if the investment in a REVO™ is just too great?
What features work well for you?
What do you like?
What do you not like? Openness and honesty please.

BTW - feel free to share your thoughts. That's what this is all about after all. I know Vic expressed concerns over small handles. I'm jazzed to try out the lighter version. More to come as soon as the goods arrive.

Oh, if you don't know what this is about, click here -> Revo Jr. Clamp Product Test

Startin' on the Doors

2011-06-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday, I un-clamped the wall cabinet .. and it stayed together. Confession, I was a little worried about the epoxy. When I went to bed Saturday night, it hadn't yet harden.

So onward with the doors. I trimmed up the styles with hand saw, this was a first.

Then I cleaned the rails board and trimmed it to length.

After that, I couldn't help myself. I pulled out the panels for the door to get a sneak peak at how they're going to look.

Cabinet Glue Up and Styles

2011-06-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yippee! I got the cabinet glued up. That's a big milestone. I used some very slow setting epoxy and was really happy I did. Lots of things to get in place on this one and I needed all the time I could get.

Then I started working on the board that I'll be cut the styles from. A lot times the planner makes a ribbed surface which is not so flat. So I had to clean it up with my 50 degree planer blade to avoid tear out.

It cleaned up nicely. The African Mahogany is proving tricky to work with. But using my high angle plane blade and a scraper plane, I've been able to get rid of almost all of the tear out.

I've also been checking the surface by spreading mineral spirits on it to see how it will finish and remove any problem areas.

So I cut my styles and made a styles sandwich with the fixing to remove the saw blade marks.

Workin' on the Wall Cabinet

2011-06-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

I spent some time workin' on the wall cabinet yesterday and I almost forgot to take pictures.

I worked on installing the bottom 1/2 of the knife hinges and I think they turned out pretty well. I used a router to remove the center material and then chiseled out the rest. Always remember to do the stop grain end first (cross gain).

Do you sign your work? Fortunately I remember to sign on the inside of the case under the drawer before I glued it together.

Dovetail saw making class

2011-06-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got the opportunity to go over to the Port Townsend School of Wood Working to make a dovetail saw with Mr. Wenzloff. It was great fun.

Our kits came with all the parts. Pre-cut handle, saw blade with teeth cut, saw nuts and the file to sharpen with.

The first task was to shape the handle with rasps after drawing on the desired shape.

Mine turned out pretty well, but you'll probably notice what I call the "birth mark". Yes, Marilyn dropped her handle on the concrete right on the horn causing a crack in it. When Mike and I tried to repair it, we pulled the fracture piece right out .. drat!

Birth mark can be seen on the top horn here.

So now I have a birth mark on my pretty little dove tail saw and lots of fun memories.

More on sharpening in another post.

Shelves installed

2011-06-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Managed to get these in tonight.

Progress.

All Planes on deck

2011-06-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well almost any way. Today I was fitting the doug fir tongue and groove paneling into the back of the case.

I needed a tight fit, so I slightly undersized the grooves. Used my shooting board to size the length perfectly.

Then trimmed the tongue and groove for a perfect fit using the skewed rabbet plane and 3/4" shoulder plane.

Since I was dealing with individual pieces and not a single panel, I asked Marc (Wood Whisperer) for ideas about how to handle glue up. His suggestion was to do a dry assembly, attach a backer board and glue in the middle to allow wood movement.

I think it turned out fabulously .. and its starting to look like a real case!

Workin' on the Dado

2011-06-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I cut the lines, chiseled them out and then sawed out the sides.

The hardest part of this whole endeavor was getting the saw started.

After some chiseling, the dados for the shelf, case divider and back panel were done. The Mahogany didn't give me any trouble to day.

So here are the steps:
1. Mark out the lines based on the center line of the shelf/divider and using the piece to size.
2. Chisel out a valley for the saw to fit.
3. Drill out the end so the saw will have an opening.
4. Saw the side walls. I ended up using a block as a guide to get the saw started.
5. Chisel out the waste.
6. Finish up with a router.

Wall Cabinet Case complete

2011-05-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

Now on to the interior joinery.

I get better at sharpening .. and my dovetails get better

2011-05-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm getting better at sharpening and consequently getting better at my dovetails. Less pull out and smoother surfaces for the joints to connect on.

I also got a new tool (jeweler's saw) to help me speed things along (I'm soooooo slow). Lack of shop time, a full time job and still pretty much doing most things for the first time makes for lots of time needed to complete a project. But hey, whose in hurry, anyway?

Oh, and what's with the pink tape? Wellll .. I thought you'd never ask. I'm off to a wood working class soon and bringing my own tools. The pink tape serves two purposes:

1. I can see across the room where my tools are if someones using them. It'll help me keep track of them.
2. I've heard that most men won't touch pink tools. It'll be fun to see if its true. : D

Related links:
Chris Schwarz saw review

Encountering the reverse grain that I keep hearing about

Wall Cabinet - Dovetails laid out and partially cut

Time to start the next project - Guild Build # 2 - The Flippin' Potty Cabinet

Encountering the reverse grain that I keep hearing about

2011-05-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today I experienced that infamous intertwining gain that I've heard about in African Mahogany (AM).

Tear out, yikes. I was able to minimize it with the scraper but it still needs some work. AM is an oddly softer wood and .. it .. loves .. to hang on .. to your chisels .. uh!

Lots of sharpening today. Oh and I got my tails cut out.

Some of us just laid around. The rest of us cut dovetails and did laundry.

Time to start the next project - Guild Build # 2 - The Flippin' Potty Cabinet

Wall Cabinet - Dovetails laid out and partially cut

2011-05-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday - Side pieces pieces for the cabinet are milled to size, tails laid our and cut.

Next I'll chisel out the waste and then lay out the pins. I used the dovetail saw guide to cut these.

So far, African Mahogany has been berry, berry good to me. Bell Forest seems to have sent over some pretty nice stuff.

Previous posts:

Time to start the next project - Guild Build # 2 - The Flippin' Potty Cabinet

Finished - two smaller confidence building projects

2011-05-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

I put the final finish on the TV Table and finished up the wooden plane.

Derrick, teacher/owner of Puget Sound Woodworking, and I had great time shaping our wooden planes (he was building one for himself while teaching me how to make mine). So now I'm up to speed on building, shaping, tuning and sharpening the blade of a wooden plane.

I also used shellac finish for the first time .. and became a convert. However, now that I know that its really bug spit scarped off the bark of trees by some really poor folk, I'll probably make sure I only buy what I absolutely need.

More information / previous posts:

Wooden Plane Progress

Table for the TV

Time to start the next project - Guild Build # 2 - The Flippin' Potty Cabinet

2011-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

While the finish on the TV table is drying, its time to think about the next project.

Now I know you all (both of you) have been wondering "whatever happened to that wall cabinet Marilyn was going to do"? Well, it finally time.

So the wood I have for this is African mahogany. I've never worked with African mahogany and I'm kinda worried about how it will plane, chisel, etc. We'll see.

So why the nickname?? I was reading something a while ago (I can't remember what) where Chris Schwarz was talking about building a wall cabinet over the toilet and he referred to it as the "flipping potty cabinet". So mine was also named.

Oh and this is a Wood Whisperer Guild Build Project. I wanted to work along, but other things got in the way.

So here we go!

PDF for my reference

Epoxy and Cherry dust are making me look like a champion dovetailer!

2011-05-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

NO, not because I'm smoking it.

Because it fills all the gaps in so nicely.

K Body® REVO™ JR

2011-05-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

It now looks like we won't be receiving our clamps for testing until June now. However, I was in Woodcraft today and what do I see, but the K Body Revo Jr. clamp for sale.

So I did a little mini product test while in the store. Almost all my clamps are Bessy clamps and one of the things that has given me troubles in the past is holding the jaws apart when the clamp is standing on its head. Now, I wax my clamps to prevent glue from sticking to them, so that probably doesn't help.

I took the 24" Revo Jr., opened the jaw and sure enough it stayed open. That seems like a really nice feature.

My friend Vic expressed concern that the wooden handles are smaller and would be harder to use. The ones in the store sure enough have smaller handles, but they worked well in my hands and I don't have really small hands. But .. it might be a problem for folks with larger hands.

What I really like is compared to the larger Bessey clamps is that the Jrs are lighter. And for me, who continues to tweak her elbow tendons, that's a really good thing. Same power, less weight seems like it might be really good.

However, I probably need to use the clamps before I can say anything definitive. And that will have to wait till June.

A Quick Peek at the Clamps I'll be testing
Yeah! I get to be a guinea pig!

Table for the TV

2011-05-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'm putting this together so that the media play and dvd player will fit under the TV.

12" Cherry boards, so no power tools on this one since my planer is only 10".

Wooden Plane Progress

2011-05-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

This morning I traveled up to Snohomish to take a wood working class - Build a Krenov Style Wooden Hand Plane. This class uses the kit and a Hock blade. We had a great deal of fun and we'll make it look fancy when I go back for the final part of the class.

Here's what it looks like so far. The wood is Jarrah. The plane kit can be found here.

A Quick Peek at the Clamps I'll be testing

2011-05-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

K Body® REVO™ JR, parallel clamp (click here to watch YouTube)

I should be receiving these in a couple of weeks and will provide photos and information as I use them.

Related post:
Yeah, I get to be a guinea pig!

My new fun read!

2011-05-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Titled "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker," this short book was written by an anonymous tradesman and tells the fictional tale of Thomas, a lad of 13 or 14 who is apprenticed to a rural shop that builds everything from built-ins to more elaborate veneered casework. The book was written to guide young people who might be considering a life in the joinery or cabinetmaking trades, and every page is filled with surprises.

Welcome to my new Blog - She Works Wood

2011-04-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

On the advice of my marketing expert (my spouse), I needed to make my blog more search-able. So I've renamed it. Things should mostly be the same.

Take that! You neighborhood backyard burglars!

2011-04-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of burglaries in the the neighborhood, so last night we added a motion light in the back yard.

Psst .. check out the new shed location (the box is for the new outlets for the shed).

Someone's going to have fun building that! And a shed in the back yard means more room in the shop .. yee haa!

A Woodworking Journey

2011-04-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

I keep my eye on Craigslist for less expensive wood left over from projects. So far, I've had some pretty good luck and last week some one was selling 12 to 13" wide mahogany so we journeyed over to Bremerton to pick it up this morning. We decided to make a day of it since getting to Bremerton requires an hour ride on the ferry.

The Office