Here’s the two most recent pieces to come out of the shop, and my attempt to document them. Any and all feedback is always welcome, but I would especially appreciate any comments on these two images, as they are part of a larger package that I will be using in my application to the Residency Mastery Program at The Northwest Woodworking Studio. People know me. I’m kind of a big deal.
I’ve been hammering away on this job, trying to get things wrapped up, so sorry for the delay in new content. I thought the job was just about wrapped up, but turns out the guys want one more piece, so here we go again. So of the new total of 5, 3 pieces are finished, done, out the door and delivered already… the main piece, the entry counter is well under way, and I hope to have it delivered by weeks end. The final piece will be about a week behind that… so THEN I’ll start back on the projects than I am sure you are just dying to see. Right? Right…
So here’s a few shots of the workbenches I build for the guys… very utilitarian stuff, but it serves their needs. All the base joinery is mitered half-lap joints, glued and finish nailed. The tops are a double lamination of 3/4 plywood, so they are beefy and hell for stout, perfect work counter, and wrapped with a solid wood edging to protect the plywood edges. The benches aren’t quite finished in these shots, but you get the idea…
Now I am trying to get the front counter wrapped up… the side pieces are dovetailed to the top, and are quite long. I struggled a while trying to figure out the best way to cut the dovetails, and finally came up with this solution. Probably not OSHA approved methodology, but it worked…
Making steady progress on the small job currently in the shop. If everything continues to go to plan, I’ll have the 3 minor pieces finished by Monday or Tuesday, and then I can start the final piece and get it all out the door by the mid-March deadline… hopefully sooner. Once that happens, we’ll get back to the hall table and desk projects (I promise)… I’m excited to see those two pieces come together. I’ll be in some this weekend to try to get a little further along on this… for now, I’m just wishing I would finish my outfeed table, so I can finish my crosscut sled, so I can cut dados in a way that doesn’t cause me to lose the use of my thumbs for the next 4 days… check back for progress on Monday… hopefully I will have some stuff wrapped up.
So….. yeah. Looks like the hall table is on hold for a bit longer. I picked up another small job with a REALLY short deadline, so all my energy is gonna have to go into that for now… good news is the short deadline will force me to get it done and out of the shop, and back onto other projects. Of course, I will be issuing myself an extension on the mid-March deadline for the desk and hall table… let’s say if they aren’t wrapped by mid-April, no birthday cake for me. That sounds fair. Anyway, the new job is rough milled and stickered as of 15 minutes ago… I’ll give these components until at least mid-week before taking them down to final sizing. In the mean time, I will work on some other elements of the project. While mostly utility type pieces, I was able to talk the clients into doing one piece with a little more visual interest. I’ll attempt to keep ya posted…
Well… partly because I was being a little overly ambitious to start with, and partly because we had some kind of biblical storm front immediately followed by a dry front last night, the components for the table are not ready to milled to final thickness. Realistically, they need to just chill for about a week, which works out well cause I will be out of the shop for the rest of the week. So, for now the table is on hold.
So instead I spent the morning working on a few other things. The first is a small concept piece that I finished up. This is a prototype box I built for KB to use as a temporary jewelry box until the planets align and I can build her the real one. Idea being that after I rough out the pieces for a furniture project, I have a lot of small random scrap pieces. This is one of several designs I have come up with to make use of these small cutoffs and leftovers. More to come in the future…
Here’s the box closed…
and open…
The box is a solid piece of cherry, and the dovetailed lid is zebrawood. Another reason I used these specific woods, is to see how they interact visually, as they are the woods I am using on another project that I am (finally) getting back around to. I started this desk back in late October, and unfortunately it got put on the back burner during the holidays. I will be working on this project along with the hall table, and hope to complete both projects by the first or second week of March. The desk is cherry, and I plan to do a solid zebrawood top. Some of the assemblies have been glued up in these pictures, and the rest is just loosely dry fitted. The ‘box’ component on the end will have a panel in the front, and a drawer and door in the back. Here’s a quick walk around the piece…
I’ll be out of the shop for the rest of the day, and week, so look for an update on Sunday or Monday…
When I got to the shop this morning, I took a second to marvel at exactly how much sawdust there must be floating around in the air while I am milling lumber. While aware of this, and it’s the very reason I purchased my air filtration system, it’s still pretty amazing to see how much crap it sucks out of the air (and prevents it from living in my lungs…). Point being, wow. (That’s a new filter on the left, just for good comparison… and mind you, that accumulation is from less than a week…)
So after mulling the purchase of a powered respirator, I got to work on the table. Ideally, I would have done this work yesterday, when I milled everything to rough length and width, but I ran out of time and steam. So, today is a short day for the table, as all I can really do is now mill everything to rough thickness as well, and re-sticker it and wait. I started by grouping the components by their finished thickness, so as to make sure I milled everything to the same thickness. Next, I established one flat face on the jointer, and using that as a reference, resawed everything on the bandsaw to it’s rough thickness.
Now all the table components are milled to their rough length, width and thickness, and have been re-stickered to allow any movement to take place in the wood prior to milling everything down to final thickness. In case anyone was wondering what Ambrosia Maple is, here ya go. This is going to make up the three drawer fronts of the table. Should look sharp.
Now we wait… I’ll check the stack tomorrow, and if things look good, I’ll be able to keep moving, but might have to give it another day or two before I start taking things down to final size…
I got started on the hall table this afternoon. I laid out all the components of the table on 6/4 Hard Maple, and 4/4 Hard Maple, Wenge, and Ambrosia Maple, and roughed out the pieces on the bandsaw. I stickered the slightly oversized components and left them overnight, to allow any movement to take place prior to sizing the pieces to their final dimensions. Notice the Wenge slab at the bottom of the stack… its an extremely difficult wood to work, but finishes beautifully, and should contrast the Maple very nicely.
Ok… lets try something a little different. In an effort to force myself to stay accountable, and carefully document project process, I am gonna attempt a daily process blog for a couple of projects and see how it goes. So yeah… check back for new content, hopefully daily… feel free to add comments, questions or ridicule.
Came up with a new design for a small hall table concept piece this weekend, and worked out the details in SketchUp, model shown below.
The table will be constructed without metal fasteners, using mortise and tenon joinery, and sliding dovetails with the drawers using a combination of half-blind dovetails, through dovetails, and through wedged tenons on the small center drawer. The majority of the table will be constructed of Hard Maple, with a solid singular piece of Wenge for the top, and Ambrosia Maple drawer fronts. The drawer fronts / apron have a gentle arch, and the legs curve gracefully down, making the piece very light on its feet.
for the few folks who read this, apologies on the lack of new content… been busy with the new house, and working on the design for the new shop. the house is coming along nicely, got a few more smallish projects to wrap up, but the shop design is getting really close to finalized. hoping to get some bids and through permitting, i don’t know, maybe even break ground, by the end of the month…. take a gander, let me know what you think… personally, I love it, and can’t wait for it to be in my backyard. Then the fun part of moving my equipment up here… anyone feeling up to helping me move 4 machines, all weighting close to or over 1000 lbs. each? come on, it’ll be fuuuuuunnnnn……. what if i buy beer and pizza?
edit: added new image of shop in context of existing yard… yaarrrr…..
this morning i was sitting at the kitchen table at the tornado magnet, eating some grapenuts, checking the weather, basically minding my own business, right? suddenly, i could feel someone staring at me. now, being the overly paranoid person i am, i immediately assumed that i was mere seconds away from certain death. i took a few seconds to decide whether i wanted to see the face of my would-be killer, then slowly turned and, accepting my fate, looked out the window. this gruesome sight is what met my eyes… 
okay… so, not the stone cold killer i was expecting, but still, ya gotta admit, she does look menacing, right? in completely unrelated news (well, loosely related if you consider both subjects contain animals behaving in a manner undesirable to me) i learned today that this, apparently, is the most important tool in my shop… 
little bastards… fyi, it’s unnerving as hell to have your fingers inches from a tablesaw blade while dozens of yellow jackets buzz around you, clearly unhappy about the high pitch whine coming from the saw motor. after being stung on four separate occasions (luckily none of which were during potential finger-removing operations), i declared war. suffice it to say, i lost said war. come to find out, what i thought was a dozen or two yellow jackets is probably closer to 200, maybe more. despite the fact that the battlefield is strewn with the enemy dead, i am out of ammo, and they still hold that hill. i will go into civilization in the morning to procure more wasp spray (a whole case, if they got it) and resume the fight. i just hope i don’t get addicted to yellow jacket toxin like captain murphy. (well, that was a scorpion, but you get the point…. sealab, people. stay with me.) wish me luck, i fear they have figured out my very short list of possible attack methods, and are planning a counter offensive as we speak…