A Woodworking Odyssey

Tool Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Today I went on a bit of a tool shopping spree at Lee Valley and Rockler. The initial motivation was to replace a pair of Crash Scissors I misplaced at Pennsic.

Of course a trip to the tool shop is never safe, even if just on the computer. I ended up finding a list of clamps I had jotted down a few months ago after I read Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, so I got those and (oh yes) some hones I've been intending to get since Beauty is using dull knives in the kitchen and I'm carrying a dull knife in my pocket. For good measure I got a dust hood to install on the Radial Arm Saw. So here's the complete list.

From Rockler:

Tabletop Dust Fitting
2 10" Rockler Brand Wooden Hand Screws (at $4.99 each!)

From Lee Valley:

The damage for both purchases combined was about $187. Ouch. I hope to resist buying tools for a while: Christmas is coming and Beauty gets mad when The Beast uses up her good gift ideas.

Photo courtesy of Lee Valley.

Sand Table Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:04:00 +0000

The sand table was assembled and used for East Kingdom battle planning during the Pennsic War this year. I completed the parts just before leaving on vacation, stained them in camp during the first days I was there, and then assembled them into a sandbox on legs the following day. Here are all the parts, ready for assembly:

The key pieces where the legs, which I had pocket screwed together with the Kreg pocket hole jig. Each leg has a shelf that makes assembly easier and helps support the weight of the sand. Each of the side pieces has a ledge that is glued and screwed on. These sit flush with the top of the leg shelves, and the sides screw directly to the legs:

The addition of a lower stretcher makes the table side stable:

The second side slides into place much like a puzzle piece:

Installing the additional sides and stretchers makes a solid pedestal for the table:

A plywood bottom slides in to create the sandbox:

Five bags of sand filled the box:

A plywood top makes a functional table when the sand table is not in use.

The project was a success. The only thing that needs changing for next year is more or better sealant for the box (especially the lid). Moisture from the sand caused the table top to curl upward a little at the corners, and made the bottom swell enough that it took some force to knock it out at the end of the two weeks. Both of those problems should be corrected after a year of dry storage.

Return from Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I'm back from two week's vacation and will start posting again soon. I did not find the primitive woodworking I had hoped to see while on the trip, but did have some woodworking experiences. I'll post pictures of the sand table and bench finishing projects soon.

Kreg Pocket Hole Jig / Shop tricks

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:02:00 +0000

My new "cool tool" was bought specifically for a project: a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig. I'm not keen on glue and screw construction, because it seems like cheating, but this time I had a temporary table to build for use outdoors. Pocket holes seemed like the right idea.

I had never used one of these before, but after this project I'll feel comfortable using it whenever it is needed. And it was a GREAT purchase: the jig works like they say it will work, and the precision was in all the right places. The drill bit is super sharp (I think you really could cut yourself on it pretty easily) and fits with perfect clearance into the jig. The table legs went together quickly and seem super sturdy. I may comment further after the table has spent two weeks outdoors.

Notice the two silver containers in the front. My wife buys Lush bathroom products, which are super expensive as soaps go, but they do tend to give her these little silver canisters. These fit perfectly into the spaces of the box, and keep some screws with the jig.
First: no, I am not actually ripping this board this way, that would be dangerous. The saw is just perched there while I took the picture. As part of the project, I had to cross cut some boards that were too long for my bench.

Two clever things (I think) are going on in this picture. First, the pink thing under the board: this is some foam insulation left over from siding the house. It gave me a sacrifice table to prevent damage to my bench. Even though the bench is functional, not beautiful, saw cuts in the surface would be a problem. This trick worked beautifully.

Second, notice the baby gate in the background. I don't have an outfeed, saw horse, or any other dedicated table extension, and I knew I needed something. The baby gate became my table extension: it adjusted to the height I needed and had a surface I could clamp to the board I was cutting. This worked great, and until I have another solution I won't allow that to be sold or given away.

I'm off on vacation for the next two weeks, so no posts from me. I'm hoping to catch sight of a spring pole lathe and some coopering while I'm gone. We'll see what happens. I plan to take a picture of the table once it is set up, and if I manage that I'll post when I get home.

Until my return, may your the saws of your enemy be dull.

First Rabbets with the Moving Fillister

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Here's the moving fillister plane with the wedge inserted correctly. Also shavings and a half-decent rabbet (my fifth of the night) as evidence that it works. Seating the blade properly challenged me quite a bit since I'm used to the incremental adjustments on the metal bench planes. When I finally got it seated with a light enough cut, it turned out to be skewed slightly, so in profile this rabbet has a slight slope, like half of a sliding dovetail. That's nothing a chisel won't fix until I get the hang of this tool.

Just a little more playing around, and I'll feel ready to try this on something that matters.

Moving Fillister and Painting Project

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:03:00 +0000

As my big summer vacation approaches, I have less time to write. There is such a limited time to complete the projects I have. So I'm going to let pictures speak for me. First: the moving fillister arrived. Perhaps the blades need honing, as Patrick said, but they are the sharpest blades I've ever received on a used tool. The previous owner obviously used this tool, and cared for it well.

Second (and unrelated to woodworking): I've been working on the new shield (someday I'ld like to try making one of these using bent laminated wood, but right now it is T6 aluminum that has been curved with an English Wheel and covered with glued-on canvas).

I'll be working on this for a few more days, finishing the painting, shellacking over it and rigging it to fit comfortably on my arm. The painting you see took me most of yesterday afternoon. What remains is painting the white areas with the finish paint (what you see is the gesso) and touching up of some of the lines. I'm really happy with how this looks; it will be a shame to see it scuffed once I put it to use.

Tails First or Pins First?

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:17:00 +0000

I've cut dovetails using both the tails-first and pins-first methods. When I was taught to do this, it was using the pins-first method, and although I was a beginner, the joints were very tight and accurate. They just required a lot of correction along the way.

Soon afterward, I saw a video by Rob Cosman on making dovetails and he cut the joint tails first. It looked to have many advantages for speeding the process and making it more accurate so I started experimenting. I soon found that a pencil was inadequate for marking the pins, where it worked just fine for marking the tails on a pins-first joint. This caused me a lot of grief as I didn't have a marking knife. I tried a number of solutions, including a sheetrock knife (don't try this at home, kids), but they all compromised the tightness of the joints. Finally, Fine Woodworking did a test on marking knives and included a $3.37 solution: the Xacto Knife. Problem solved, and my tails-first joints got much tighter.

Yesterday, Christopher Schwartz posted a list of reasons why he has adopted the tails-first method, and a couple of them are destined for my shop: gang cuts should be a real time saver, and I'll be trying the rabbetting trick soon after the moving fillester arrives in my shop.

Fettling a Jointer Plane

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:40:00 +0000

My shop contains few working power tools. I'm not really a Neanderthal, but the shop has developed accidentally with an emphasis toward hand tools. This is partly because of my penchant for getting things used or free, and partly just bad luck.

For example, I would love to have a working jointer, but the little bench top model I bought for a "bargain" was setup incorrectly by its previous owner, and so far I've been unable to release the blades to adjust them properly (the man must have been a beast, because those screws are not budging, even after multiple WD-40 and Kroil applications). There's no point in trying to joint with blades that are set out of square.

I believe learning a task with hand tools teaches me more about power tools than learning it with power tools teaches me about hand tools. This may or may not prove useful some day, but I've been betting that it will. Hand tools also fettle more quickly than power tools (are power tools fettled?). My band saw, for example has much larger parts and labor requirements before it works to a fine standard than a any bench plane will.

So when it came time to glue up the bench tops for my bench project and I had a choice between driving the three hour round trip to my friend's house to use his power jointer or spending the time fettling my jointer plane and doing it by hand, you can guess which one I chose.

The plane had promise, but it needed some help.

My sole aim was to have both sides of the mouth in the same plane. Right, well even if the puns are unintended, I wanted to make sure the front and back of the mouth would contact any board I'm flattening. To ensure that, I made reference marks in front of and behind the mouth using a Sharpie and started flattening the plane on my "reference" surface.

The reference surface is a cutoff piece of marble that I got free at from a local granite counter manufacturer. It works well as a flattening surface and is heavy enough to hold a length of Klingspor Gold Cloth Roll under the ends using just gravity as an adhesive. The Klingspor sand paper is fairly expensive, especially at this width, but it is so worth the cost. It can be torn to an appropriate length using just a straight edge, it has a good tooth, and you can vacuum it clean and keep using it for quite a while.

With the plane assembled—no blade of course—I planed the surface flat on the sand paper. Here it is: flat enough, with just a hint of the mark left at the front of the mouth (all of that is in a scratch pattern that would take ages to sand flat, so I called it "flat enough").

The blade had apparently been sharpened and polished by its previous owner on a grinder with a felt wheel. Even though it looked good with a finely polished surface, it wasn't good. I had to flatten, square, joint, and resharpen the blade to get it going right.

I'm not going to comment on how this was done, except to say that I don't have a grinder (remember my lack of power tools?) so almost all of this was done on the Gold sandpaper. Ages ago I had purchased a sharpening jig from Lee Valley, and this made it easier to redefine the bevel at the correct angle. I also acquired a really thin metal ruler last year, which made polishing the back of the blade much easier than it might have been: I used the David Charlesworth trick of laying the ruler on one side of the oil stone to hold the back of the blade at a consistent angle and focus the polishing on the end of the blade. It was the first time I had done this, and it worked wonderfully. I'll cheerfully do it again when flattening plane blades, which don't get used as reference surfaces.

After honing on the oil stone, I hoped for the best. And fine, frothy shavings emerged. Success. I was ready to start jointing.

Moving Fillister Purchase

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:09:00 +0000

I've been planning to pick up a moving fillister plane for some time, so what better way to celebrate the return from a week-long vacation than to buy one from Patrick Leach. No, I was not fast enough to get WP3 (apparently you need to be quick in this town), but true to his word Patrick has others stock. I'll soon be joining rabbets by hand.

The moving fillister is a flexible solution for cutting rabbets, both with and against the grain. Since it has a built in nicker, it can cut across the grain without tearing out hunks of wood, and can just as easily cut with the grain. If you want to read more about it, Christopher Schwartz extolled its virtues on the Woodworking Magazine blog at the beginning of May.

Research on Waterproofing Wooden Furniture

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:32:00 +0000

I'm working on a pair of knock-down benches on a design by my friend Sean. These are being built with the ash I purchased last fall. I've finished gluing up the tops in one big panel that will be ripped down for two bench tops and one or two stretchers (as yet to be determined) Once the cutting gets under way, these should come together in under a day.

Since the benches are intended as camping equipment, and last year's two-week camping trip included 6 consecutive days of rain, I need to waterproof these appropriately. Some quick research turned up a couple sources.

First, from the U.S. Government, I found a short piece on finishing wood for outdoor use. This one sticks with traditional Big Box finishes—paints, stains, and varnishes—rating them on appropriate use. This gave me some thought: did I want to paint the benches, as this article suggested. Not really. And Ash wasn't on the list of recommended outdoor woods. Hmm.

So I started thinking about wooden boats, and my trip to Mystic Seaport last year. What would a boat builder do? Assuming that a boat builder would use ash in the first place. I turned up two more sites of interest: one about spar varnish and the other about a homemade polymer coating. As intriguing as the homemade option is, I think I'm planning to track down some spar varnish. I found three brands that seemed promising: Sutherland Welles, Man O'War, and Z Spar. I think one of these will end up on the benches.

If anyone has suggestions or cautions on finishing these benches correctly, please chime in.

The Promise of Pinch Dogs

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:02:00 +0000

This week I conducted a quick experiment: I jointed a couple of warped scrap bits to see how the pinch dogs I received last Christmas would work. The first thing I learned is that pinch dogs want roughly even surfaces: I knew they could go around corners (for mitered joints or more difficult multi-angle glue-up), but it didn't seem likely that they would work on the ends if the surfaces were not relatively coplanar.

Out came the hand saw (it was late and children were sleeping) and I cut down the longer board to roughly the same length as the shorter board. Then I smeared both edges with glue and started pounding in pinch dogs.

Thats when I learned that this tool could benefit from a little help when being applied. I would have liked to have a couple straight pieces of wood clamped together on each end of the work piece to keep the boards in the same plane. It also would have worked better if the boards were lightly held in place on the bench and had not been cupped (and therefore more like a rocker than a pedestal).

Even with these challenges, I managed to clamp the boards using these glorified staples, and set the assembly aside to dry. That was Monday night. When I came back to it this evening, I set it on the bench and it looked like the picture at the top of the page. The joint looked tight in spite of the trouble I had during glue up, but the rough cut surfaces and misaligned edges could be hiding the reality.

To get a closer look at the joint, I planed the surface down until the joint was revealed. Sure enough, the pinch dogs had done their job and held the joint tight. If you look closely at the picture below, you might see the joint, but it is tightly glued. The holes are visible where two pinch dogs held the joint together on the surface, but there will be many projects where that holes like that will be concealed. I expect to use these for the bench project I'm working on now: the holes won't be visible on the underside of the benches, and I've rough cut the stock long enough that I can trim off the ends after glue up.

First Dovetail for an Eight-year-old

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Here's a great post by Konrad Sauer about his son's first through dovetail. This is the kind of experience that blow me away about being a parent.

Pile of Boxes and Warping Lid

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:58:00 +0000

I went to an event that had a marvelous door prize: 18 boxes made by my friend Sean. These were intended as prizes for a tournament, but there were only 23 entrants total, so almost everyone went home with a box. These boxes were made from some of the ash purchased at the same time as my stock pile.

As a member of one of the tournament teams, I came home with one of these boxes. It sat in my front hallway for the last four days, looking pretty. But now that the heat and humidity have returned to normal levels, the lid and front side are starting to cup away from the box. In part, I think this is a case of grain orientation; in part, a case of excessive moisture. I've taken the box into the basement and lightly misted it with water on the cupped sides. I've also cracked the lid to get the inside drying faster. I don't know if either of these actions will help, but it's worth a try.

Now I'm worrying about the benches I'm making, and hoping that the better treatment of my lumber (painted ends and tarp over top) will mean less moisture content. I did some research to see if you can figure moisture content without a meter, and found a method for calculating moisture content with an oven and a scale.

Perhaps I'll try it before building my benches.

Box Assembly

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Yesterday night I returned to the shop. The bottom and insides of the cherry dovetailed box had been finished with two coats of Tung oil finish and a coat of wax. The finished cherry glowed almost golden, practically begging me to glue it together.

Having come this far without incident, I wanted to be sure to get the glue up right. I checked my labels, still visible on the outside of the box, and laid out the parts in relative position with the bottom in the center. I placed the sides with the bottom slots of each piece laid alongside the bottom. I had clamps ready if I should need them; also a 12" rule, a mallet, four pine blocks cut with fingers slightly thinner than the tails, glue spreaders and glue cup cut from a small paper cup, a spray bottle of water, paper towels, and scraps of cherry created when I cut the dovetails.

Surveying the scene, I ran through the process in my head. It seemed that everything I needed lay in front of me. I used some poster putty to temporarily attach the paper glue cup to the bench top (have you ever chased a glue cup under the bench while your open time was ticking away? I have.). Then I poured enough wood glue into the cup and started spreading glue on the long grain of the pin boards. Perhaps I should have also spread glue on the tail boards, but I chose not to do so. I knew the tails had a fairly tight fit, and I wanted to minimize squeeze out.
After adding glue to all the pins, I lightly inserted one set of tails into the corresponding sets of pins, first on one side and then the other. Using one of the pine blocks to protect the cherry side from the mallet, I tapped the end home, working alternately from one edge to the other. When that end was set, I turned the box over and slid the bottom into its slot, then repeated the process of inserting the tails and driving the second end home.

I now had a box. Using the 12' rule, I tested for square. Then I looked at the inside for squeeze out. At this point I realized two sections were not driven all the way home, so I applied the mallet just a little bit harder to drive them into place. The box was still square, and there was only one spot of squeeze out. Since the inside was already finished, cleaning this was no big deal. I sprayed a paper towel lightly with water and wiped away the glue spot.

At the last, I looked at the dovetails critically. Only one spot looked like it needed significant help, so I made a small wedge from one of the cherry scraps. I dipped this in glue and lightly tapped it into the gap (making sure to line up the grain so it would appear to be part of the pin – I think end grain hides better than edge grain and its easier to make the wedge that way). So now the assembly is done. My only worry is that I may have driven this wedge a little too far and deformed the tail enough to be noticeable. We'll see tonight when I trim it flush.

Counting My Blessings

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:07:00 +0000

I'm blessed with a very full life and a variety of interests. As a result, nothing gets as much attention as I would like and woodworking shares its favored slot with many other pursuits. This week's schedule illustrates what I mean:

Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Drive to upstate New York to camp and engage in some medieval armored combat and socializing with friends.

Monday
Work on the dovetailed box, but also mow, weed, and edge the lawn, play kick with my nephews, cook for and clean up after a barbecue, shower the kids, have family movie night, and facilitate bed time (a time consuming endeavor included in every night when I'm at home).

Tuesday
Work followed by Karate training. Home and showered by 10 p.m.

Wednesday
Work followed by medieval armored combat practice. Get sucked into the end of the Red Wings and Celtics games. Home and showered by 2 a.m.

Thursday
Work followed by Ballet pickup (daughter 1) followed by bed time. Maybe glue up that box at last.
Friday
Work followed by family movie night followed by packing for the weekend.

Saturday
Drive to even further upstate New York for my grandmother's 90th birthday party. Socialize and camp the night.

Sunday
Socialize, take down camp, and drive the five hours home. Maybe start bevelling the box lid and cutting the thumb notch.

I suppose this explains why my list of completed projects seems so short and my list of planned projects seems so long. I think about woodworking quite a lot, but I can't do much of it: too many other things compete.

Dovetailed Box - Progress Report

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:52:00 +0000

I continued work on the box as much as possible this weekend (amidst a two day camping trip, yard work, and a barbecue):

All sides of the bottom, and the insides of the box sides have been finished with two coats of tung oil finish and a coat of lightly buffed wax.
My maker's mark has been stamped in the bottom.
The profile on the top sections of the box sides has been beveled. One of the bevels is slightly steeper than the other two, but trying to correct this would just cause problems. It looks fine as it is.
I cut pine blocks that fit the tail fingers of the ends. These will be used to protect the box from the clamps I will use to set the box square and keep it that way until dry.
I set out the clamps and set them to the right size for the project, cut a paper cup (both for a glue dish AND glue spreaders), and laid out the parts: ready to glue (possibly tomorrow night).

In all, I'm happy with the progress, but I'm anxious to finish so I can move on to the bench project. I want the benches for Mid-July for a test run, and I don't have much free time between now and then.

First Quality Ash: Surfacing Reveals a Treasure

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:41:00 +0000

Back in November I wrote about picking up what I hoped was top quality ash (firsts and seconds). It was rough cut, so even though my first impression was that it was a bargain at 95¢ a board foot, I couldn't be sure. This isn't a great shot, but here's what it looked like then:

A few weekends ago I pulled about 5 boards for a bench project (more on that later). I marked out the lengths I needed for rough cuts and set to work jointing, chopping, ripping, and planing. When the work was done, I was very happy with my purchase. Here's what those 5 boards look like now:

I don't know what I expected, but this is better than I imagined. The wood has been in the shop acclimatizing for a couple weeks. I'll soon start glue up for benches that are real furniture, but break down entirely. These will replace the cheap folding camp chairs we have to replace every other year.

Chuck Bender's New Blog

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:51:00 +0000

I just stumbled across a blog by Chuck Bender, who runs the Acanthus Workshop. He has started posting step by step as he builds an Oxbow chest. Already in the two main posts Chuck has introduced a couple of techniques that had not occurred to me, including the modification of router bits to create a custom profile, and erasing part of a profile with a well set straight bit.

The blog is called Parings - A woodworker's journal. Check it out.

Pounce Wheel and Pounce Bag: Another Marking Technique

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Christopher Schwartz wrote an article about pouncing a while ago, over at Woodworking Magazine's blog. This is a technique that seems like it could speed the process of transferring dovetails. Probably not significant in a basement shop, but definately relevant to makers who may be laying out and cutting multiple dovetail joints.

In the comments on the article, someone mentioned a pounce wheel:

I've used a pounce (pronounced pöns, I believe) bag before, but never for dovetails.
My usual use for one is to transfer curved patterns from paper to full size templates. The technique is to lay the paper plan onto the template stock, and trace over the line with a pounce wheel. A pounce wheel is a spiked wheel on the end of a stylus. It sort of resembles a Texas cowboy's spur, in miniature. Anyway, the pounce bag is bounced on the row of tiny holes, and a clear dotted line shows up on the template stock, ready to bandsaw to shape.

This is a very cool way to transfer curves from a full-sized paper pattern to a template or workpiece. The pounce wheel is something I've seen when browsing the tools section of the fabric store while my wife improved her stockpile of fabric, so if you want a pounce wheel and don't know where to find it, try calling your local fabric store.

A Classic Tool-lover's Novel

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:57:00 +0000

I'm travelling this week to attend my grandmother's funeral. At a time like this, when one is away from his home and spending too much time in airports and airplanes, it's good to have a freindly and inspiring novel that doesn't require too much brain power. I chose to reread a tool-user's classic, Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute, and I'm glad I did.

The story's protagonist, Keith Stewart, engages me from the start; he has a heart of gold, and a passion for tools that have me rooting for him immediately. Maybe best of all, he has done what I haven't the courage to do: stopped the well-paying job and lived his passion. He eeks out a living designing, building, and writing about minature machines (that work!). Keith is so like people I know and like, and has such a clear sense of what is important, that I'm thrilled to be his virtual companion on an adventure that would make me proud to have done.

Neville Shute either had or acquired enough of an understanding of machinery to provide detailed descriptions of proceedure (most notably when Keith is turning five metal eggs), and must have had a sense of wonder for the world. His novel brings me in contact with several disciplines—machinist, engineer, pilot, seaman—and in all cases makes detailed and fascinating description of how these trades are exercised. And through it all, I get to follow my talented and unobtrusive friend, Keith, see what's interesting about what he sees, and celebrate the successes of this everyman, this tool user, this ultimate inspiration for what life could be if I were just brave and dedicated and talented enough.

This novel has helped take my mind off the funeral. I'm glad to be visiting an old friend at a time when I've lost one. If you haven't read Trustee from the Toolroom, give it a try. I can't garantee you'll like it, but it is a good bet.

Patching a Poorly Cut Dovetail

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:33:00 +0000

I've been practicing by making boxes with half-blind dovetails and frame and panel bottoms. Although I was taught to cut near the line and approach slowly and carefully, I know it is faster to cut perfectly with the saw. So I've been cutting right to the line and dealing with the consequences, knowing I will spend more time now for reduced time in the future.

The first two joints came out quite nicely, but on the third joint my hope for the best didn't work so well. I wrote last week about cutting on the wrong side of the waste line. The good news is that my practice of cutting to the line meant I was only one saw's width too wide instead of more. But there was a saw's width gap.

I didn't think that could be fixed with a simple wedge (as I plan with the bottom side of the same tail), so I decided to patch it with some of the waste generated while cutting the pins.

The first step was to identify a waste piece that would fit, and make sure it fit snugly. I chose to patch the pin rather than the tail, because end grain is less likely to show noticeably. Then I made sure the side and corner of the tail were square and flat.

Even though my chosen waste piece had a flat section, there was a notch where I had started the chop. I needed a safe way to flatten this, and a chisel was definitely not that way. While puzzling over this, I remembered a miniature plane that might work. It looked to be just right for this application, so I tuned gave the blade a quick flattening and sharpening. Then I clamped it in the vice and ran the intended patch over it until it was flat.

Note: Looking at the picture, I realize this probably is not safe for the ends of my fingers. I was lucky and did not make finger shavings. Let me know if you have a safer idea for how to do this in the future.

Then I used a chisel to cut a matching angle for the bottom edge and test fit the patch to the tail.

Glue up was next. I used Tightbond II and a small c-clamp to attach it.
After letting that sit for a day, I trimmed the patch flush with the pin.

Then marked it for a new cut.

And trimmed to the line with a chisel. Actually, I trimmed past the line on one end (insert a favorite string of curses here) but the result is much better than I started with. The remaining gap can be wedged during glue up or hidden by peening the end grain.

Picture Problems Solved

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:54:00 +0000

After discovering that the pictures for this blog were distributed across several computers, some of which had been since retired, I wrote to my service provider asking their help. They were able to restore all of the pictures to the former location and copy/paste fixed the broken links.

Many thanks to the folks over at HighSpeedWeb.net. They have always been helpful and reasonably priced. But now they've pulled me out of the fire, and I'm especially happy with them.

An Old Building Gets a New Face - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

In December I noted the progress on a local historic remodel. At that time the siding was partially applied to the tower, and I said:

...much of the siding we see in this picture looks poorly applied because the visible corners aren't flush. But don't worry. When they finish the skin, the corners will be flush-cut and end caps will be installed and perfectly fitted (I hope). The slop we see in the corners will be gone, hidden by the finishing details.

On Thursday I remembered the camera and took a picture that proved the rule. All that "slop" I noted has indeed been covered by a corner end cap. I especially like the cornice details at each corner: these visually become a capital and transform the end cap into a column. The show is on.

Thoughts on Dovetails

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:42:00 +0000

Since I've been making dovetails, I've thought a lot about why they are made the way they are. The first time I tried a dovetail, I automatically laid out the joint with half tails at the top and bottom. I soon learned that this was not recommended.

Tage Frid, in the first book of his excellent series Tage Frid Teaches Wooodworking stressed that dovetails should start and end with half pins and not half tails. I believe that the reason for pinning top and bottom is to provide a mechanical restriction should either board try to cup away from the joint.

Using half pins at top and bottom theoretically fixes the pinboard and tail board from cupping. The half tail offers no such restriction. Because the angle of the tail runs with the grain rather than across it. there is nothing preventing the edges of either the pinboard or tailboard from cupping away from the joint. The first such restriction will be the first pin. So the rule of starting and ending with half pins is a good one because it improves the chances of the joint staying tight.

Today I discovered that this good-sense rule was not always practiced in the past.
If you look at the section on Antique Dovetails in this Popular Woodworking blog entry, you'll see that only one of these follows Tage Frid's admonition. Instead, most started with a half pin at the top, and ended with a half tail at the bottom. As evidenced by the half pins at the top, these craftsman obviously knew that half pins offered an advantage. But why didn't they pin the bottom? At first I guessed that they wanted the top to stay absolutely flush with the drawer because the user was most likely to notice gaps there. But if they were willing to pin the top, was it so much more work to create a half pin at the bottom?

On further thought, I suspect there was some planned advantage to this layout: there must be a reason why leaving out the bottom half pin was faster and easier. I suspect that reason is the groove holding in the bottom of the drawer. I obviously can't see the interior of any of the drawers Glenn Huey showed us, but I suspect that both the sides and front have a channel for the bottom that runs right through area of the half tail. Laying out with a half tail at the bottom allows the maker to work without fear of accidentally exposing these channels with a misplaced saw cut or chisel (something that can easily happen with a half pin). This advantage probably justifies a gamble on the stability of bottom end of drawer.

Planned upgrade to the Shop Drill Press

noreply@blogger.com (rookster) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:03:00 +0000

For some time I've been planning to build a woodworking table on my drill press. I knew I needed a fence and a good reference surface that would be wider than the standard metal working table that's on there. Today, browsing the Woodsmith site, Woodworking Online, I found a plan that provides all the features I require and makes the execution a snap.