Last Saturday my son displayed his art in a show with his art class at the Central Park Zoo. It was a well received show and outside of heat, it was a wonderful day. My frame was actually well received, sloppy corners an all. Luckily though, I was able to make a second piece to help display his art and this one came out much nicer.
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| Dylans art show display |
One of his three (3) dimensional projects was a clock. It’s a collage of clocks glued onto a box, with a round porthole cut out to reveal a clock face inside also.
Since the clock just sits on whatever you put it, I was asked to make a clock stand.
Initially I was going to make a low stand with ornate feet. As the deadline approached I was looking through The Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction. After thumbing through the section on feet and basically deciding on making a rounded base with mitered legs, I then flipped through the cabinet on stand section. I occurred to me that I could make a tall stand for the clock rather than a stubby one.
With that idea in my head, I went out to the shop and started milling legs and aprons. I was making a tiny shaker table to hold the clock.
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| Should I clean my table saw blade. |
I won’t go into too much detail on the table, as there are many resources online for making a shaker end table (I’d personally recommend the Shaker End Table Woodwhisperer Guild Project).
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| The finished clock stand with the clock atop. |
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| Perfect miters right off the miter saw. |
The first thumb chair is done!
I finally finished the first thumb chair! Why do these projects alchoices seem to take so long?
to clamp it for next time so we will see if that works better on the next one.
of the chair as well.
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I was wondering if any of you have these (or other) combo machines? Are they worth it? Is setup an issue? Most importantly, how close to a wall can you place the machine?
Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.
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and bottoms flat. The top of the legs is at a 5 degree bevel but the crosspiece
is not so I had to be careful when I attached them to keep the high point to
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I forgot to put the pocket holes for the seat in when I cut the pieces to length
so I added them here.The plan called for 4 pocket holes for the seat back but I put 5 to play it safe.
I drilled a 1 inch hole in the seat back for a thumb.
Here is the hole sanded smooth.
Time for some finish sanding
And more sanding....
I couldnt think of a good choice to clamp the 2 pieces together and like alchoices
my piece drifted a little bit when I screwed it together. I thought of a possible choiceto clamp it for next time so we will see if that works better on the next one.
The 2 pieces are ready for assembly!
I centered and clamped them and then screwed them together. No glue.
Here is the chair ready for stain.
Here it is stained. If you have seen any of my other kid projects then you know
that I used the same stain to try and make them all match.Somehow, I alchoices manage to blow out the thumb on the glove on my right hand
when I stain projects.1st coat of poly applied.
I let it sit over night and then gave it a light sanding and applied the second coat.
3rd coat of poly applied and it is ready to go in the house!
I put some self adhesive felt pads on the bottom of the feet. I dont know if they will last
but it is worth a try. I forgot to mention it above but I also put 2 coats of poly on the bottomof the chair as well.
All ready for my 2 boys to start fighting over. I better get the second one done
quick!?This is post 3 of a 3 part series.
You can read part 1 here:
2013/01/lets-make-thumb-chair.html
2013/01/lets-make-thumb-chair.html
and part 2 here:
2013/02/thumb-chair-update.html
A Chair Or A Hole In My Head
I need to make a chair right now like I need a hole in my head.
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| Looks like a chair, no? |
I have at least a blog post worth of unfinished, halfchoice built projects in my shop. Yet, I’m having a damn hard time working on any of them. In my head, I keep turning my chair design over and over.
As with many of my ideas, I’m thinking of building my first chair out of Timberstrand. I’m in agreement with all of you who I’m sure are yelling that real wood - Walnut even - is what real chairs should be made of. Even though I’ve a soft spot in my heart for Timberstrand, I agree that it’s not what truly fine chairs are made of.
This chair though, is more experiment than fine woodworking. I’m using it to test my design, push my skill and see if Timberstrand shapes and dyes well.
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This video demonstrates the first part of the test. Will my arm and joinery be strong enough?
My first sketchup of the rocking chair cradle
I mentioned in one of my VLOGs a couple of weeks ago that I am going to make a rocking chair cradle for my brother and his wife who are expecting their first child in January. I am hoping to have it completed by Christmas. I have finished my first draft of the project in Sketchup. I expect to be making some design changes as I mock it up but this is what I am starting out with. I have no idea what kind of joinery I am going to use yet or if those rocker bottoms will even work. It should be interesting...
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Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.
Jointer Planer or Jointer Planer
Ive alchoices been of the mind that having a separate jointer and planer was a better use of space in a narrow shop where having the room to lift up the jointer bed of a combo machine could be an issue. Frustrations with aligning the beds of my mid-50s jointer and not knowing where to put my planer have me re-thinking that
Im currently thinking that I may be better off with a 12" combo machine instead. I would have to put it on a mobile base, but it could be more efficient with space than the two machines and would certainly increase my jointing capacity.
I want this to be my last jointer/planer purchase for a decade or two and I want it to have a helical cutter head. Im currently considering (and saving for) the Jet or Grizzly.
I also noticed in the new Rikon in an email from Highland Woodworking today. |
| The current jointer I love and hate. |
I want this to be my last jointer/planer purchase for a decade or two and I want it to have a helical cutter head. Im currently considering (and saving for) the Jet or Grizzly.
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| Woodcraft had a 15% off sale this past weekend on the Jet, which got me thinking. |
Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.
A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part II
With everything milled, the Dominos cut and the tile recesses made, it was time for the initial glue up. I glued up the four (4) side of box which forms the rear glue stick storage compartment. Then I glued the extra long walnut side and rear ebony block to it.
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| Still a bit too square for my taste. |
Next I began the shaping, as I wanted to make sure I was able to work the edge I would no longer be able to reach after final glue up. The shaping was, of course, the hard and the fun part of the project. It was the first project I was able to use my Foredom rotary tool on. Using a Kutzall bit, it made quick work of the walnut and ebony. I still used my rasps for final shaping, but the Foredom was much, much faster for the rough work.
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| The glue stick caddy, post shaping. |
Once I’d done about 70% of the shaping, I glued the sub assemblies to the base. As you may have guesses, I joined everything with Dominos. This made for easy, quick and strong joints between the vertical components and the base.
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| Flaring the curved verticals into the base was easy. |
The final shaping could now be done. I used my Festool RAS 115 to blend the shaped side of the base into the shaped side of the verticals. I learned from Andy Chidwick that using a hard platen on the RAS 115 with a 40 grit sanding disc allows you to use the sander like a grinder with better dust control and more finesse. As I had with the Foredom, I followed up the RAS 115 with rasps.
With the shaping done, I dealt with the small gap that was left between the ebony and walnut on the front piece. The glue up hadnt been perfect and there was about a 1/16” gap at the top of the joint. To fill it I dyed some 5 minute epoxy with India Ink. This created Epoxy almost the exact color of the ebony.
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| Just a touch of black epoxy made the gap disappear (I know I messed up the order). |
After the shaping, I had to deal with the coarse texture.Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.
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Lets make a thumb chair
There are several woodworking sites that I follow on Facebook and one of them is Ana Whites. She runs a DIY blog and gives out plenty of free plans that she sketches. A couple of weeks ago she posted a plan for a thumb chair that you can find HERE. Once I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for my two boys. It can be made out of 1x3s and some 1x12. My local Home Depot never has flat 1x12s so I picked up some 1x6s and will be gluing them up for the seat bottom & back.
This is the example from her blog.
I set the angle for 10 degrees
and the bevel for 5 degrees
Here is the mitre saw all set up and ready to cut
I am making 2 chairs and I set up a stop block to make sure all the
legs are the same length. I almost reset the saw to the other side to cut the otherhalf of the legs when I realized that you can flip and then turn them over to get the
opposite side.
Make sure that the bevel leans into the center of the chair when you
connect the pieces.
I drilled pockety holes into the cross pieces for the legs and the stretchers
that connect the two leg assemblies.
This Kreg clamp is a life saver. I have a real problem with the wood shifting
when I drill in the pockets holes and making the pieces uneven.
It wasnt in the plans but I used a 1/4" roundover bit on my router table
to ease over the sides of the legs and bottom of the crosspieces. I left the topand bottoms flat. The top of the legs is at a 5 degree bevel but the crosspiece
is not so I had to be careful when I attached them to keep the high point to
the outside.
I also rounded over the bottom of the stretchers.
I used my Rockler mini clamp-it to get the strectchers in the right
place and angle for gluing and screwing.
Its alchoices good to have a helper.
I marked the two pieces to make them easier to line up.
One side done.
I test fitted it before applying glue.
One of my legs shifted a little so its not quite square but
it sits flat on the ground so I am not going to complain.
Im halfchoice done with the first chair.
?This is post 1 of a 3 part series.
You can read part 2 here:
2013/02/thumb-chair-update.html
and part 3 here:
2013/02/thumb-chair-update.html
and part 3 here:
2013/02/the-first-thumb-chair-is-done.html
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