Project plan: part

Showing posts with label part. Show all posts

Thursday, February 13, 2014

A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part I

This project began many months ago when my wife, a crafter, pinned this glue gun rack to one of her Pinterest boards. When I saw it I figured it would be easy to make and improve upon, so I re-pinned it to my Neat Things Carolyn Would Like Me To Build board.

The pin that started it the odyssey.

Fast forward a few weeks from my initially seeing it and after a particularly rough day at work I declared that I would need some time alone to unwind and headed to the shop. That’s when I set to building my version of the glue gun rack.

I decided that the the glue gun rack I built would be an experiment in sculpted design. Specifically, I wanted to juxtapose a rigid, rectilinear design on two (2) edges, while creating a flowing, sculpted surface on the other two (2).

Starting on the rack.

I made the glue gun rack from some scraps of Walnut and Ebony I had on hand. As with any process, it began by milling the lumber flat and square. Then I did my basic layout.

Figuring out where things will go.

First, I glued the Ebony to a piece of Walnut to make a large billet. Then I used my Domino to make the mortises in all the pieces.

Dominos anyone?

With the joinery done, I marked out the basic shapes on each piece, and rough cut them on my band saw.

Rough shaping prior to assembly.

The final step before glue up was to recesses out for the glass tile the tip of the glue gun rests on. To do this, I used my small DeWalt trim router with an 1/8” spiral upcut bit and the plunge base. I routed freehand to within about 1/8” of the line and then cleaned up the edge with my chisels.

Next time, well glue up and begin shaping.

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.

Monday, February 10, 2014

A Dedicated Sharpening Bench part 1

An Introduction...

"The best hand tools in the world are worthless in the hands of the woodworker who cannot sharpen them."

After reading and experimenting with, practicing and then studying the different techniques of sharpening Ive come to settle on a system that is working for me in my current shop space and thats good! A freshly sharpened hand tool can turn the most challenging joinery tasks into wonderful and relaxed procedures. Your work will be cleaner with tighter fitting joinery and your tools will perform as they were intended to the day they were made. The joys of working wood will be that much the greater.
In my own basement work space here in Toronto, Ive followed the line and Im happy with my results; but something Im not happy with and have been promising myself for months to address is my sharpening location and current set-up.
One day last year, I noticed a neighbour throwing out a small wooden table. I snatched it up, rescuing it from the eternal wasteland of the land fill site and have been using it as my sharpening table ever since. Prior to the table I was using a sharpening hook system I designed awhile ago. It was basically an over-sized bench hook with some cleats to hold water stones and a side area for stone storage. The sharpening hook worked when my bench top wasnt cluttered, (which if you know me you know that it hasnt happened much this past year!) so the routine of moving my work project or tools to make room for the sharpening hook soon became tiresome. The small throw away tables footprint has also become reminiscent of a drunken sailor on shore leave so Ive finally decided, with a little help from Fine Woodworking.com, to build a new bench dedicated to sharpening.
A small scale workbench with large scale workbench strength. The frame has mortise and tenon joinery with a solid 1" thick work surface that has bread board ends fitted into a heavy, through dovetailed apron.
It has a tool tray featuring a unique and convenient way of actually holding tools ! (not just for the hamsters anymore) and Ive added some off the shelf items that will also add to the -dare I say- pleasure of sharpening?

Do you currently have a dedicated sharpening area? Is it a re-used piece of furniture or maybe a purpose made table or bench? Id love to hear about it- be part of the discussion and share some thoughts.

In the next post Ill assemble my cut list and get right into the project with some stock preparation and Ill glue-up the top panels...stay tuned.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Stephens Step Stool Part V

With the entire step stool now glued up I realized I hadn’t cut feet yet. I took my Lee Valley Drawing Bow and marked out a subtle curve in the middle of each leg. Once I cut out the curve with a jig saw, it left two (2) feet on each leg.

All ready for feet.

Now with feet I took the step stool over to my router table. After the nasty incident with my neighbor during this stage of my last project, I setup my router table inside this time.

I removed the fence and used a bearing guided ¼” radius roundover bit, I ran every reachable edge of the stool (except the bottom) over it. This method took a bit of getting used too. With a bit of practice I soon found it easy as the stool is not so big as to hang completely off the router table yet is big enough to provide plenty of reference and holding surface.

Its starting to look curved.

Fresh off the router table the stool (or any piece having this roundover method used) is rounded, but not done. The routed curves on the edges are hard, disjointed and where they do flow into each other they have a shallow, machine cut look. I only use the router to hog off most of the waste, not to provide my final edges. After routing it is time for rasping.

My arsenal (and some additional).

As I’ve grown to enjoy the process and results of using rasps, my collection of rasps has grown. As I’ve used them more and more, favorites have emerged and others have fallen out of use. On Stephen’s Step Stool I did all my initial rasping using my Shinto 9” rasp. Though amazingly cheap, the woven blade is exceptional at coarse and medium rasping with efficient chip removal. Unlike other cheap rasps I’ve used, the Shinto does not leave tooth tracks (due to the woven blade).

The Shinto is wonderful at coarse work.

Next I used my Auriou #9 Cabinet Makers rasp. The Auriou further refines the curves while taking the coarse surface left by the Shinto and smoothing it to a much more consistent surface. Finally I used my new Gramercy 5” 25 tpi cabinet makers rasp. This Gramercy is delightfully light and leaves a very smooth surface (for a rasp).

With all the rasp work I do my goal is to further refine and flair the curves. I want them be organic, flowing and invite touch.

As transformative as the rasps are, even fine rasps leave a surface too coarse for finish. When I’m done with the rasps I switch to my Rotex sanders. I use an RO 125 and an RO 90. When setup on Rotex mode with an 80 or 120 grit sanding pad and set to speed 1, they do a wonderful job of removing the rasping marks. They also use the Festool Interface pads which allow the sanders to wrap the rounded edges and prevent flattening.

Gaps? What gaps?

After sanding the curved edges I added blue Transtint dye to 5-minute epoxy and filled in the few big gaps in the dovetails. Once the epoxy was dry I took out the sanders again, this time sanding the entire stool. I currently sand up through 220 grit, though I’m not completely satisfied with my sanding results. I’m not sure what changes I’ll make, but I’m considering going much higher in grit.

Find all of the Step Stool posts here.

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.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Its Wanderful Part 3

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 way 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