Stick Stool

At my sawmill, I picked up a piece of superficially water stained, 1" birch about 5 inches wide and 50" long. I had been wondering what to do with it, I made some cross cuts and edge glued two boards together to make a wider plank. I flattened it and started fitting and wedging pine legs into the birch.  

The lines on the top in the second and third pictures were possible shapes for arcs on the edges, they all looked like hell, so I went without. The top is a bit square to look good with curves on the edges. I think this turned out well for the first stick joined piece I've made, but I wasn't the happiest with the leg joints. I think using a tenon cutter (tapered? taper reamer too then) would help the fit.

The finish is mineral oil (I had linseed upstairs, but only remembered that was my intention when I started soaking the top with the cheap stuff,  cool) after that dries I'll wax the top too.   

Picnic Table for Father's Day

I borrowed some of Schwarz's work from the Autumn 2006 issue of Woodworking Magazine, to build a picnic table version of the American Trestle Table, the cover article. It's made out of mostly clear D. Fir salvaged from the borg's rack of 2x12s. The leg pieces are the wrong size, so I have to use some left overs, to mill more parts, that's been holding me up.

I've gotten a bit farther than the photo's suggest, I've cut the two dadoes that magically turn into a mortise when glued face to face, and glued the feet and top braces together. I still have the longer legs to cut and glue, the joinery for the top braces and stretcher, then I can assemble.  There will be benches too, modeled after 17th century "forms", a hard-to-google bench build by jointers of early American furniture. 

Key Cabinet: Back Mockup

Here is a mockup of the cabinet, with pine frame for the back. I was originally thinking something darker for the back, but I think I will stick with pine, or maybe ash for these components. I will be keeping the Bamboo plywood panel and shelf I think.

Concerning the Craft

Books are an important thing to us, we have the opportunity to spread ideas and learn new things. Whether they are techniques books, essays, plans, or accounts they let us listen to dead or far flung voices.

Right now I'm reading two books on the craftsman as a figure and way or thinking. They are, Richard Sennett's The Craftsman, and Matthen Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft. Both of them are really good book thus far.

I want to get a bit further into them before writing some reviews, but I just couldn't wait to say how wonderful it is to hear someone else (in the mass media) speaking passionately about the value of manual work. 

Key Cabinet: Rabbeted Carcass

I've done a bit more work on the cabinet, the through and stopped rabbets for the frame and panel back are done. Now I'm just waiting on a McMaster order for some 1/4" delrin rods. These will be to dry fit the carcass together and work on it, whilst still being able to disassemble it easily. I had an issue using only 2 dowel pegs per side/end, three of the 8 peds broke during disassembly and I had to nervously drill out the waste... I don't want that to happen again and can't use a waxed peg because it's to be a glue joint.  

These dados, including the stopped ones were cut on the tablesaw with a 6" dado stack. The stopped dado required the use of stops and was pretty simple to do. A bit of chisel work finished the corners. The gap you see is the result ov some cupping in the top and bottom boards. I'll have to plane this little hollow out before much more can happen.

I'm still happy with it and cant wait to start on the back, I'm still not sure whether I should use walnut, QS white oak, or birch for the frame. Bamboo will still be the panel I think.

Key Cabinet: Carcass Dry Fit

The time has finally come, today I made the drilling jig needed to bore the holes for dowels and get the case together. I'm really excited.

Next up, rabbeting the back, cutting the back and door frame components and starting the fitting. I'm still debating about a shelf/drawer. Thoughts on that? 

Key Cabinet Progress

I spent some time in the shop today gluing up a shooting board for my new jointer, which works better than I could have expected on end grain. I also spent some time edge jointing and smoothing the inside faces of the walnut boards for the key cabinet. Here's the pictures from this morning.

I'm very happy with this jointer, I've planed a number of woods walnut, pine, cherry, Brazilian cherry, sapele, beech, red and white oak. The only problem I ran into was on the beech, it is some very tough stuff.