Once the hinges were finally installed, it came time for me to make the doors. They are a rather simple design. Each door is a piece of ¾” baltic birch plywood with a 3” wide top and bottom lip. The top and bottom lips are to create pockets behind the doors where I’ll be able to store chisels and other hand tools.

Assembly squares and clamps ensure the hinges
are in the correct position of relative dimensioning.

As with every step of construction, I began by relatively dimensioning the size of the door opening. I used assembly squares and clamps to hold the hinges in their proper closed position and then used my story stick to determine the actual width of the door opening.

Using the story stick I cut the door panels and test fit them with a single screw in each door.

Test fitting the doors.

Once I knew the door panels fit, next came cutting the lips. I did this by first ripping a piece of ¾” baltic birch to 3”. Then I laid the piece inside the cabinet against the top and bottom. I  set the pieces against the side and directly marked the center triangle. It was then a simple matter of taking the 3” strips over to the miter saw and voila, I had my tops and bottoms cut.

Rasping the hinge recesses.

Before attaching the top and bottom lips, I took my rasp to them to create a small recess to house the portion of the hinge which wraps around the back of the door panel.

Dominoing the lips on the doors

This will come as a shock to anyone who’s been following along, but I then attached the top and bottom with my Domino. I got sloppy with the last row of Dominos, failing to adjust the width as I should have, but the bottom won’t have to hold any weight, so just four (4) is still probably overkill.

Plenty of hinge room now.

Once the lips were glues on, I tried fitting the doors. Unfortunately, I found that the recesses which I had rasped into the lips, and had feared would be too deep, were in fact too shallow. The hinge would not fit into them. While I could have taken out my metal tools and trimmed the hinge, I instead chose to take the doors to the table saw. I set the fence exactly the door thickness achoice from the blade and made four (4) quick cuts to allow room for the hinges. This did result in over-sized recesses, but it’s only shop furniture.

It doesnt photograph any different, but the door panel
is now smoother than a babys bottom.

The final thing I did to the doors before mounting was to test out my Mirka AbraNet sanding pads. I ran through the full assorted pack, P80 to P600 and was nothing but impressed. My doors are now almost glass like in their finish and I haven’t finished them yet!Do you take easy over pretty on shop furniture?

Other Bastard Wall Cabinet PostsWinter Wall Cabinet WonderlandThe Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)Trudging Towards Tool StorageCutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)A Home For My PlanesContinued Wall Cabinet AssemblyWhats a Bastard Wall Cabinet without Shelves?

Boxing in the Bastard Tool Cabinet

Door Hinges on the Bastard Wall Cabinet

Oh, You Mean That Was Supposed To Lift?

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Here’s the latest video on the shop wall renovation. Not a whole lot of progress, but I did manage to finish the last of the electrical access panel frames.This last frame was the tricky one, incorporating a door to reach the electrical panel.

If youd like to catch up on how the Tree House got to this point, be sure to check out these older posts.

Progress on the shop renovations continue at a snails pace. In the last week, all Ive manged to accomplish is the installation of 4 magnetic catches for the door which covers the electrical panel. This quick video walks through the installed catches and the process of installing the final metal receiver plate (for the magnet to catch). I dont mention it in the video, but I drilled out for the magnets and receiver plates with a Forstner bit in a cordless drill.

For more on the shop renovation, check out these prior posts.

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My Festool Random Orbit Sanders

I like to sand. I know that goes contrary to popular opinion, but I find sanding relaxing.The reason I like sanding is that I’ve stocked myself up with an arsenal of sanding paraphernalia that usually make it easy. My normal routine is to use a Festool random orbit sander connected to my CT22 dust extractor via my vacuum boom arm. The result is that sanding is usually a relaxing process. It could be a little monotonous, but listening to an entertaining podcast or book takes care of that. If you don’t have a decent vacuum and boom arm to connect to your sander, you really should. The less dust, the greater the sanding enjoyment.

This weekend I’ve had to leave my fancy set up behind and sand by hand. I’m making some wands (more on them in a future post), and there’s not a flat surface on them.The result has been lots and lots of hand sanding. I’ve used 3M Sandblaster sanding pads for the wands, and while I’ve been happy with the results, I’ve been hating the process. I now remember why so many of us hate sanding.How do you deal with sanding?

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After I spokeshaved the first blank into a dowel, I regrouped and took a full size sketch I had made based on Kenneth’s photos and made copies. Then I took the copies and the remaining four (4) blanks down to my Dad’s shop. I glued on the sketch copies and fired up the band saw (mine doesn’t quite run right now). When I was done, I was left with four (4) square pieces of wood that had the rough in and out nature of the wands.

Two (2) wands fresh off the bandsaw, and one post rasping.

I took the post-bandsaw blanks home and started to make them round. I began with my spokeshave on the thin, long business end of the wands. This quickly knocked down the corners and the round shape began to emerge.

The wonderful Shinto Rasp.

Next I began rasping. The rough shaping was continued with my Shinto rasp set up in course mode. By holding the rasp at about a 75° relative to the length of the wand and working my choice up and down the length while tipping the rasp back and forth over the wand I was able to get all three (3) sections of each wand relatively round. They weren’t perfect, but as they are hand made by eye, they were just the right combination of uniformity and uniqueness.

A wand, post rasping, and the wonderful Auriou rasp I used to fine
tune the work of the Shinto.

I cleaned up the initial rasping with the Shinto set up in fine mode and for the final shaping I moved to my Auriou rasp. I used it to clean up the inside corners and edges as well as create the recessed area in the middle of the handle portion of each wand.

The four (4) wands, ready to be freed
from their bases.

At this point the wands were shaped, but still attached to square stock at the butt of their handles. The square stock had been left to allow them to be clamped in my bench vises.

Time to cut.

I cut the square stock off using my Veritas Carcass Saw. I then went back to the Auriou rasp and made the final shaping to the butt end of the handles.

The four wands, ready for finish (not for cutting).

Once you finally get there, do you often find the scary part of a project actually wasnt so bad?

Its Wanderful: Part 1

Its Wanderful: Part 2

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Now that the wands were just about shaped, I thought about the carving. Kenneth’s wand that I was using as a design basis is covered in wonderful carving that he managed to create using just a set of cheap carving tools. I had picked up the same set of tools, so off I went. First I practiced on the initial blank that I had turned to a dowel with my spokeshave. Then I went on to the first wand.

Marking lines I drew on the initial blank to carve. In the background
you can see a close up of the awesome carved handles of Kenneths wand.

I found the carving results to be acceptable (I certainly wasn’t thrilled with the results). They were however, far too time consuming. At this point I was beginning to seriously run low on time. Knowing that un-carved wands derived in time for the movie premier were better than carved wands delivered weeks later, I completed the carving on the business end half of the first wand handle and called it quits on the carving.

The one wand I half carved (dont tell that the order of the
description is slightly out of  order for better continuity)

Even though the carving phase of the project was aborted due to time and the results leave something to be desired, the process did intrigue me enough that I plan to take Kari up on her offer to provide some guidance. Having gotten my feet wet and seeing the beauties she’s able to turn out, carving is now certainly on my list of woodworking skills to learn.

Whos ready to sand?

Once the carving was done aborted it came time to sand. Though I normally enjoy sanding (thanks to my nice random orbit sanders, vacuum boom arm and headphones), I found the hand sanding of these damn wands almost unbearably tedious. By the time I had worked though the 80 and 100 grit sanding pads I was ready to call it quits. Luckily the small windows of evening shop time I get meant that by the time I was fed up with it, it was time to call it a night anychoice. Over the course of a few days I did manage to sand all four (4) wands to 320 grit.

Do youre natural work breaks break up the tedious tasks too?

Its Wanderful: Part 1

Its Wanderful: Part 2

Its Wanderful: Part 3

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The Bastard Cabinet: Now with Hinges!

It’s been far too long since I’ve worked (or blogged about) the Bastard Wall Cabinet. To be honest, nothings been done on the cabinet since my last post about it on March 22, 2011. That is, nothing until today. Keeping my head down and finishing my work homework on Saturday afternoon meant that I was actually able to steal a whole hour in the shop on Sunday.

I’m up to fabricating and installing the cabinet doors. As they will be relatively dimensioned, just like every other cabinet component, I decided to install the hinges first so that I can exactly mark the size of the doors.

I’m using Rockler Partial Wrap Slotted Piano Hinges. Though the brass platting breaks my usual chrome and brushed nickle aesthetic, these hinges are wonderful for doors made of sheet goods. The partial wrap means that on the door I’ll be screwing into both face and end grain so there’s no worry about screw holding power as there would be if I was only attaching to the end grain.

The hinges clamped in place, ready for marking.

I began by laying the hinges against the cabinet sides where they will be installed and marking them (I marked them on blue tape to make the pencil line easier to see). I used a try square to mark perpendicular to the hinge barrel. Then I took the hinges over to my bench, clamped them down and went to work with a fresh hack saw blade. That sized them right. A few quick passes with a file and the cut ends were nice and smooth.

Using relative dimensioning to position the hinges.

To install the hinges I began by fitting a scrap of ¾” baltic birch plywood (my door material) into the hing and setting it so that the scrap was flush with the end of the side panel as the final door should be. I then slid a temporary fence against the inside edge of the hinge and clamped the fence on. Once I removed the scrap door spacer, opened and clamped the hinge against the temporary fence, I was ready to install. I used a centering bit to pre-drill and then used an extra long bit in my screw gun to prevent the body of the screw gun from hitting the fence. I set the torque nice and low and each screw went in without a fuss.

In testing, the hinges seem to be working fine. Next I’ll re-mount the plane shelf (I forgot to account for door & hinge clearance when installing it) and then it’s on to doors. Hopefully this cabinet will be up on the wall soon.

Have you stolen and shop time lately?

Other Bastard Wall Cabinet PostsWinter Wall Cabinet WonderlandThe Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)Trudging Towards Tool StorageCutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)A Home For My PlanesContinued Wall Cabinet AssemblyWhats a Bastard Wall Cabinet without Shelves?

Boxing in the Bastard Tool Cabinet

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When Im not woodworking (or talking about woodworking or going to a woodworking conference) Im a project manager for Roof Services, a large roofing and waterproofing firm on Long Island. In that role Ive been lucky enough to connect with the nice folks at Fine Homebuilding to record a few of our recent residential projects. I had a full length article on residential flat roofs in the June/July 2012 issue (#228).

My Coworker Tom, during a video shoot at the Fine Homebuilding Project House.

A few weeks ago I shot a short video with Fine Homebuilding, explaining how to bend copper chimney flashing from sheet copper. The video was released yesterday on the Fine Homebuilding web site. Ive had a chance to watch it, and thanks mostly to their great editing ability, I think its pretty good. Im certainly proud of it.
If you like mixed media in your woodworking projects, there are bits in here you can pick up that will apply to any sheet metal you may fabricate with. If youre only into woodworking, then Im sorry youll have to wait for my next post. I was in the middle of writing a review of Maurice Pommiers Grandpas Workshop, but the release of this video was too exciting to pass up. The review will come next week, along with more woodworking.

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