I think that sculpted furniture is a pinnacle of design and comfort. Andy Chidwick is a master of the form.
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| Three of Andys wonderfully sculpted chairs. |
While I was reviewing Todd Clippingers American Craftsman Workshop site for my recent Updated Woodworking Blogs post, I came across Todds post,
New Woodworking Article by Andy Chidwick.
It features Andys recent article in Woodworker West. The article is (as it sounds) a great primer to making sculpted furniture. You need to check it out before you make your next piece.
?Now that the Hall Tree is done I could start working on the kids table again. I stained it on Saturday to match the Hall Tree since they will be in the same area. The stain came out a little blotchy in some areas. The directions on the stain say that it does not need any conditioner applied first and I had great results with all my tests on the Hall Tree. I bought the wood for the hall tree at Home Depot and the wood for the table was purchased at Lowes. I also sanded the table a couple of weeks ago. Im thinking that I should have re-sanded it the same day to open the pores a little more. I also should have found some scraps from the Lowes wood to test the stain on. I put one coat of poly on the bottom on the tabletop, let it dry for an hour, and then flipped it over and put a coat on the top. I am going to give it a light sanding tonight and then apply another coat on both sides. My goal is to have 2 coats on the bottom of the tabletop and the legs and frame and then 5 coats on the tabletop itself.
On a side note its still pretty neat to see the color pop when you add the poly.
?I lightly sanded the hall tree with 220 last night and applied a 3rd coat of poly. Even with being careful I managed to sand through the poly and some of the stain in a few spots. I have been trying to be careful to not make the coats of poly too thick and I think I have been making them a little too thin. I am leaving the light parts there for now as I think it gives it a little character. I was planning on putting a 4th coat on just the top shelf and seat but I think I am going to put an extra coat on the whole thing.
I am going to oversand some of my test pieces down to bare wood and see if I can put some brown stain on it and make it look weathered. If that turns out well I may redo some of the hall tree at a later date.
As woodworkers we all have benches. Some are just a sheet of 3/4" plywood on saw horses and others are full blown hand made Roubo shrines. Until we come up with at least the most basic bench (just a horizontal work surface) were really of very little use as a woodworker. |
| Thats my current bench, under all those routers. |
My current bench is a factory made Whiteside that I picked up on Craigslist for $150.00 a few years ago. It is a basic Nordic style bench, about 24” wide by 60” long and has two (2) mediocre vises. Mediocre is in fact the best choice to describe the whole bench.While it is what I have and it usually gets the job done, it is certainly not what I want. What I want is a mutant with the ancestry of Roubo, the bones of modern materials and an eye towards the 21st century.
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An out of proportion hand drawn cross section
of the bench design Im working on. |
Point #2: The legs must be flush with edge of the top. Without this feature youre left with a 2 dimensional clamping surface, or put another choice, you have 2/3 of a workbench.
I cut the slot out of the benchtop for the dogs and tailstock. What a giant pain in the rear? Norm does it in the video in like 30 seconds and it took me nearly an hour.
I attached the 2 pieces of plywood together with 1" drywall screws and some of them ended up poking through so I had to cut off all the tips with my dremel before running the piece through the tablesaw.
I marked the two ends of the slot and then cut them on the tablesaw.
I got them close and then finished them with a jigsaw.
I also used the jigsaw to cut the ends.
All cut and ready for the next step.
I marked the corners and then clamped a framing square down to use as a cut guide for my small cordless saw.
I cut it close and then used the jigsaw to finish it.
I made sure that all my cuts were square to the material.
Here it is all cut out.
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I never seem to leave Woodworking in America having taken enough media back with me. This year, though I took plenty of photos, I didnt take any videos (except for some silly Vines). Luckily, many others did take videos.
+Marc Spagnuolo took many great videos and after what Im sure was much more editing than I would like to do, he put together this great video on what he saw in Covington.
+Matt Vanderlist was paying much more attention in Roy Underhills
Timber! class which opened the conference. He has this great video showing how Roy squares a log.
On Saturday in the marketplace I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Lee Valley Tools. Connie from their social media team talked with many bloggers and some actual talented wood workers and tool makers. I believe there will be a few videos coming out in the coming weeks. This first one covers what the interviewees would teach kids first. I cant say mine is the best answer (it isnt) but there clearly are some wood workers with a great grasp on how to bring the young into the craft.
Of the silly Vines I shot, here is my favorite. Ive already shared it and Im sorry if youve already seen it. I just cant help buy laugh every time I watch.
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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My wife asked me to make a planter box for our front porch. I showed her the Ice Chest/Cooler box and said imagine this wider and shallower. She like the basic idea but wanted it lower to the ground and shallower. I redesigned the box to fit her wishes and came up with the planter below. I used 6 - 1 x 6 x 72 cedar fence pickets to make this planter.
I started out by setting up a stop block on my miter saw at 16".
I cut the bottoms off of all 6 pickets to use as legs. This leaves me with six 56" boards.
I then cut three of these at 39". These will be used for the sides. I ripped one board into two 2 1/2" strips. Each side will have one 5 1/2" board and one 2 1/2" board.
I reset the stop block at 13". I got three pieces from the leftover after cutting the 39" pieces and then got eight more from two more pickets with the bottom cut off. This leaves me with one more picket at a length of 56".
This gave me 11 boards to work with. I will be using 3 for the ends and 8 for the bottom.
I set my table saw at 2 1/2" to rip the legs and the boards for the sides and end.
I ripped four legs at 2 1/2" and one of the 39" sides into two 2 1/2" wide boards and one of the 13" ends into two 2 1/2" wide boards. I made sure to keep the two pieces of each leg together to make matching legs.
I took the two remaining legs and ripped them to 3" wide to be used in the center.
I left the stop block set at 13" and adjusted my miter saw to 45 degrees and cut both sides of the center legs.
Here are all the pieces cut except for the top frame.
Make sure to make 2 left legs and 2 right legs.
I built the legs using glue, a nail gun, and clamps.
I let the legs sit for 2 hours while the glue set.
Once the legs were dry I put a slight chamfer on all the exposed edges to soften the look and minimize splinters. I also chamfered the pieces to go on the bottom to help with drainage.
Here are all the pieces chamfered, sanded to 120 grit, and ready for assembly.
I started with the short ends so that the bottom pieces will be the right length to stretch across. I also setup the legs so that the joint will be facing the short side. When you look at the long side of the planter you will only see the full 3" side.
I glued and screwed the 13" boards to the top section of the legs. I put the 5 1/2" section on the bottom. The floor pieces will be screwed into this so I wanted them attached to a board with more screws in the legs. I couldnt find any coated deck screws in a 1" length so I had to use drywall screws.
I then took the two sides and glued and screwed in the 39" boards.
I marked the center of the side and the center of the middle leg.
I applied some glue and then clamped it in place.
I then set the planter on its side and pre drilled & counter sunk the holes.
I then screwed the legs to the side..
All assembled and ready for stain.
I went with a light cherry stain.
I took the last remaining 56" piece of picket and cut it into one 14" length and one 41" length. I ripped each of those into two 2 1/2" wide boards and then cut the ends at 45 degrees for a frame for the top.
I attached the frame to the top using glues, 1 1/2" brads and clamps. I applied a heavy coat of indoor/outdoor spar urethane to the entire planter inside and out. Please note that the floor has not been installed yet.
The floor consists of seven 13" full boards and one more cut to fit. I applied two heavy coats of indoor/outdoor urethane to these.
Here is the floor ready for assembly.
Here is the chamfer I made earlier. I am hoping that this will work for drainage.
I predrilled,
and screwed the floor in. No glue.
Here is another look at one of the chamfers.
Once the floor was installed I put one more coat of the spar urethane on the whole thing. It is now ready to be installed.
Now we just need to put some flowers in it.
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