Showing posts with label a. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2014

SOFA TABLE FROM A SEWING TABLE parts used to build

Posted by linua at 10:16 AM Labels: , , , , , , , , 0 comments
 
 
 
I built this sofa table starting with a sewing machine cabinet I purchased at a thrift store.
The finish was in fair shape but many of the moving wood parts didnt work properly anymore,
and the machine wouldnt lift out of the cabinet to use.

 
The legs are what really caught my attention from across the store.
 
 
Once I started to work on removing the machine I found a makers mark on the cabinet.
 
 
Made In Yugoslavia ... The machine is a Piedmont from the Hudsons Bay Company.
 
 
Anyone need parts for their Piedmont?
 
 
I was able to take the whole cabinet apart to start rebuilding a longer table.
I used a kick board for the front, and aged, stained, and waxed some new wood for the top.
 
 
Heres a close up of the finish I created for the top.
 

 
This sofa / console table went to its new home shortly after I finished it.




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Thursday, February 13, 2014

This week Steve makes a hat stand

Posted by linua at 9:15 PM Labels: , , , , , , 0 comments

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A House In The Trees Part V

Posted by linua at 6:15 AM Labels: , , , , , , 0 comments
Progress on the Tree House has progressed at a steady (and slow) rate.
The 3/4" x 12" beast.
I began the actual site work for the tree house by setting the large bolts that will support it. The bolts are critical because they must not only be strong enough to hold up the Treehouse, they must also allow free movement between the trees and the Treehouse in order to accommodate movement of the trees. After I had installed the first few bolts, I looked at the physical space outlined by the three (3) trees I planned on using and realized that I wasnt happy with the size of shape.

In this video, I  describe the change in shape and the replacement of a 10" bolt with a 12" bolt in order to accommodate the fact that the bolt will no longer be perpendicular to the beam.



This next video shows the first of the main beams. At least . . . it tries to. Sorry for the dark shots. By the time I finished that day, the sun had set.



Next up, Ill begin permanently mounting the main beams.

For more on the Tree House build, check out these posts.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

This week Steve makes a rustic side table from free pallets

Posted by linua at 2:15 AM Labels: , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
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Monday, February 10, 2014

a copper top coffee table

Posted by linua at 7:30 PM Labels: , , , , 0 comments
update 8/16/2012 ... we delivered the copper topped coffee table today ... these things are tough to photograph ... after the patina, there are just so many subtle colors, and the metal is sort of shiny underneath, so you pick up reflections from just about everywhere ... but, its in its new home now, and it looks great there ... everyones happy ...
the copper turns into kind of an abstract expresionist painting ... the chemical is somewhat unpredictable in consistency ... were thinking it is that so much copper is recycled today that there are just all kind of things running through it ...

original post from 8/14 below here.

were doing another copper topped table. we made the first one back in may for one of our clients who had a big empty covered porch ...
same process ... because of the way the corners are done, folded straight down, we put little copper corners routed into the subbase flush in place before we start. its important to think about where your later nails are going at this point so you dont have one in the wrong place when you go to apply the top sheets later. click the photos to enlarge them.

starting in one corner, the sheets go around the table with each sheet having a 1" tab that goes past the joint and under the next sheet. the table and the copper are first sprayed with 3m spray 90 contact cement and then CAREFULLY pressed into place ... that stuff is sticky and a sheet stuck down wrong can be tough to relocate.
the sheets are laid out for the nail holes and drilled for the nail shank to pass through the copper and then piloted with a bit slightly smaller than the 1.5" copper slate nails that we use. jim bevels the edges of the heads of the nails by chucking them in a cordless drill and carefully spinning them on the running edge sander . were looking for a beveled head, thats not too small or sanded too thin.
this is the pattern we use. down the center of the joints and 1" to either side. the edges are nailed on center of the 2.25" thick edge, which was bent on a brake in a local tin shop. we also use small cut copper nails treated on the sander toward the bottoms of the corners and joints to keep them down if someones clothes catch on them as they are passing by ...
on to the liver of sulphur and steel wool process, which i described pretty fully in the post for the previous table. a little oil and varnish mix over the patina and some varnish on the legs tomorrow and well be all set. ive got a cad drawing somewhere that i will post with the picture of the table when its finished ... the dimensions are 40 x 60 x 17 high ... the copper around the outside is 13" wide plus the bend, an inch of that is covered by the center sheet, leaving a 12" exposed band around the outside of the table ...
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Getting Er Done One Piece At A Time

Posted by linua at 6:45 PM Labels: , , , , , , , 0 comments
I now have both sides and one shelf pretty much completed on my wife’s plant shelving unit. An expanded course load is keeping me busier than usual this term writing a lot of new curriculum. I am trying to take a few hours out every other day to get this project done, though.

As I work in a next-to-nothing area, it requires some out-of–the-box thinking. Because this particular project is so large, being able to build, assemble and finish it in my shop is out of the question. My shop is my office when it is not being used as a shop and vise versa. Having a project as large as this sitting in the middle of it would kill both uses of the room. I could assemble it and finish it in the diningroom, but I tend to shy away from actions that cause my wife to come down on me heavily, figuratively speaking, of course. I had a friend once whose wife came home to discover he had piled all her furniture at one end of the diningroom and was using the space to build a new dingy. Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen him since they divorced.

With this project, I plan to build and finish each part of it as I go, each piece getting stained and given a few coats of clearcoat before moving on to the next. When everything is ready for the final assembly, I’ll sand each piece down so once it is assembled, it will be ready for more finish coats. This shelf is the first to be completed using this new system.



It is a rather strange looking thing, isn’t it? There is a reason for this design, however. The wide frame below the shelf is there for three reasons. This shelving unit is to hold a bunch of potted plants and nothing weighs more, I think, than a bunch of large bowls of dirt with green things sticking out of them. The tall frame should support the weight. Each shelf gets its own grow light; a 4’ Fluorescent tube. The light’s fixture is mounted on the back of each shelf’s face-frame and hopefully it is wide enough to hide the ugly buggers. Finally, to get as much light as possible on the plants, only the enclosed storage cupboards, which is 18” high at the bottom of the unit, will get a solid back. This means there is a chance the whole thing will rack, so I am hoping these wide shelf frames will limit that. So there is a method to my madness.

The frames are dovetailed together, getting all that long grain to mesh with more long grain for a strong joint. The shelf flat is only glued to its frame rails in the centre 2’ of the width. I drilled three pocket holes, elongating them fore to aft, 10” in from the ends and one in the centre, using brass screws to do the deed. I hope this will not only be enough to hold the shelf in place, but accommodate wood movement when the thing shrinks and swells during the seasons, or my wife spills water on it. Hopefully, it won’t pull itself apart.

I am not a big fan of oak and one of my greater dislikes of it is the fact that the soft grain areas shrink so they are always lower than the hard grain. I researched a way to deal with this and came up with a flooring product, believe it or not. The stuff is called “TimberMate”, and I found it better than any grain filler I have used before. It comes quite thick, almost hard actually, but you can thin it up with water. You can thin it enough to apply with a rag or spread it on with a plastic or stainless steel trowel or paint scraper. Regular metal will cause this stuff to oxidize and turn black, but if it does, the black soon disappears when you sand. It comes toned to match a number of popular woods and you can even tint it if required. It has turned out to be just the ticket.



I started out using it to go after only the really noticeable areas. It dried in short order but I gave it 24 hours each time. It sands very easily, making dust that is very similar to baby powder. As the wood is red oak, I used their matching product and was quite uneasy with it the first go-round as it looked like it is going to stand out like no-body’s business. Once I sanded it, though, I quickly realized that the product is removed from the high points, which is the hard grain, and left in the low, which is the soft grain, and it is a perfect match in colour to those areas. Because I couldn’t tell which parts were filled and which weren’t, I went crazy with it. At 20 bucks an 8-ounce bottle, I think I’ll use it more sparingly on the next one.



Once sanded and cleaned, I taped off some of areas. I covered the ends with masking tape to ensure that no stain or clearcoat ended up on them to compromise the strength of the glue when the piece is assembled. Because of the lights inside it, I wanted to coat the bottom of the shelves with a highly reflective coating so I covered the inside horizontal surface as well for that same reason.



Once set, I gave it a coat of stain, brushed on, ragged off. I used “Old Masters” Gel Stain for this, mixing their Red Mahogany and Provincial colours together 50/50. It is the first time I used this thicker gel stain and I really liked it. It was much easier to apply and clean off than the old, runny style of yore.

I gave it 24 hours to dry and then gave it two coats of Clear Varathane with another 24 hours between those coats. This clearcoat is much shinier than I want, but I like the sheen I get by using higher gloss finishes, then fine steel wooling their shine away and polishing it back with finishing wax. I seem to get a deeper finish starting with higher gloss then I do with satin finishes.

After another 24 hours, I applied the reflective coating to the underside of the shelf, thinking it would be far easier to do as it laid flat on the table rather than wrestling with it from the bottom up once it was assembled. Chroma a PlastiColor Company makes this material and I found it in an automotive supply store. It is decal material used to add chrome rocker panel accents to car bodies so I thought it would probably withstand any moisture issues as well as being fade resistant. It shines nice too.



I don’t think the final result looks too bad. The dovetail joints came out all right without any gapping holes to fill. I do like the design with the double bead on the shelf edge and the single at the bottom of the face. I think they will do nicely at breaking up the mass of this overall design, because massive it is.



I have created a post dealing with the dovetails, or at least my humble way of dealing with them. If you have the time, please have a look and give me your feedback.

Peace,

Mitchell
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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Dedicated Sharpening Bench part 2

Posted by linua at 9:15 PM Labels: , , , , , 0 comments
Assembling the Cut List...

Working off of my sketches and existing examples of trusted, work bench construction methods, I come up with a plan and begin adding up the numbers. This is generally how I approach a new design, from the sketch I mock up some shapes and sizes using off cuts and batons around my shop to see if in the real world things still look like they do on paper. I settle on the overall size and start down my cut list taking into account the joinery.

The top work surface is where I begin and the two panels of 1" thick, quarter-sawn white Oak are cross cut to length leaving about 1/4" extra for love. The oak used is offcuts from a past project and has been in my shop for over 7 months now, so I know its extremely stable and will make a great work surface and apron. When I originally purchased the wood it was dimensioned before it left the mill so I can surface it all pretty quickly. From jointing plane to smoother Ill get the top glued up before I even begin thinking about the apron.
This being a work shop project Im really trying to keep the budget at a minimum so the bench top and apron are made from off cuts as mentioned with the lower frame made from Ipe. Its an extremely dense exotic I noticed at my local hardware store. They sell it these days as a high-end decking material. This particular stock was already finished at 1 1/2" square and came in 12 lengths. At $15.00 a length I couldnt go wrong. It does come with its edges all beveled but this being a work bench I can live with it. Id prefer to have square stock to begin but I can deal with the off the shelf lumber for the sake of the budget. Now 1 1/2" stock may sound a little undersized for a workbench frame but keep in mind the scale of the piece and the fact that this Ipe is like iron!

Jointing the Edge

With the oak cross cut to length Ill go ahead and joint it. To begin, I clearly mark the planks for grain direction and lay them on my bench top, reference faces up. I decide what two edges Ill be jointing together. I mark the orientation of them with a builders triangle on the face surface and fold them back together keeping the inside edges up. This book matched pair will be clamped together in my face vise and jointed simultaneously. I use a bevel-up jointing plane with a nice wide iron at 2 1/4" and work the edges together. Ill take a series of through shavings checking for square as I go. I finish off the process with a couple of stop shavings to insure no bumps along the edges. Again I check my work with a reliable straight edge and finally, a light pass again planing through, end to end. The nice thing about edge jointing two boards together like this is if youre edges are slightly out of square it really doesnt matter; because of the book matching we did when we clamped them, once unfolded any inconsistencies will cancel each other out. That said, while youre planing, try your best to keep things square! (maybe this is one of those rare occasions you can get in some practice time while actually working on a project and not just something from the scrap wood pile?)

The Glue Dance

With the edges jointed Ill glue up the panels and set them aside for the night. Heres my method for gluing two panels together.
To begin, I set my clamp opening to an 1" wider than the actual piece and lay them down across my bench top. These pieces are just under 3 long so Ill be using 5 clamps, three will go on the bottom and two more across the top.Lay the two planks across the three bottom clamps and a quick dry run will show how things should hopefully go. These two are sitting really nicely together and the joint almost closes itself! Its a good day when that happens...
Because of the stopped shavings I took earlier, when gentle pressure is applied using only the middle clamp, Im confident the outside edges of the joint will be tight.
So a generous amount of glue is spread and I begin again at the middle clamp bringing the pieces together. I use down ward thumb pressure across the joint to keep the seam flat and wont over tighten this first clamp yet- Ill come back to it in a minute. With the middle of the stock held firmly together, Ill use a couple of F style clamps placed on the outside edges and draw the seam down flush along its length. Then working out from the center again I start tightening things up. I stagger the pressure as I go, from left to right and then left outside and finally the right outside clamp. With the five clamps secure Ill move back across and re tighten them all down to finish. Take a step back and have a look- double check your grain is running in the proper direction and your building triangle is mated happily back together. This will be your last chance to change anything!
Go make a coffee and check your email, come back in an hour and begin cleaning up the glue. Ill work between the clamps and remove any squeeze out after it has started to cure but before its too hard to easily scrap away. This is also when Ill usually remove the two outside F clamps; if I leave them on overnight Ill have some deep bruises to deal with tomorrow.






















"Top of the morning to ya!" The glue set up overnight so I remove the clamps and get ready to work. A card scraper down the seam removes any final bits of glue- Im careful not to tear away any wood with it. Im happy with the results- this oak is stable and sits well on my bench top-another good sign! Ill double check with my winding sticks and a metal straight edge taking note of any high spots or twist across the surface.
















A few light passes with the jointer followed with a smoothing plane and Ill double check one edge for square. I now have a reference face and edge and can continue on with dimensioning the panel. Ill use my panel gauge and scribe the finished width around the perimeter; because this was pre-dimensioned wood and I took my time with the glue-up, Im happy to say the piece is almost square with just a few light passes along one end. With that, I now have a panel with two long edges, completely parallel and square with one finished face.
















Ill check the thickness throughout the panel to see if it needs any dressing and working from the bottom, Ill plane the stock to final thickness. Not much to remove so this process is pretty straight forward. Four sided stock with two ends that still need to be addressed- thats where Ill go from here.

Planing End Grain

I get asked alot how I deal with the long end grain on panels. I think some woodworkers are intimidated when it comes to this area so Ill show you the steps I use.
So first things first Ill scribe a deep, crisp line around the perimeter with a knife working off a reliable framing square. The amount of wood Im removing is very minimal, no more than 1/8". Again, the time I took to carefully glue up the panel makes these later steps so much easier.

With my line scribed Ill place the panel vertically in my face vise and block up the bottom off of the shop floor. From there Ill clamp the left side of the panel in the vise and hold the right side with a surface clamp installed in one of the 3/4" holes I have across my work bench apron. My bench didnt come like this but its a feature I could never live without. Before I fully tighten the vise and clamp I like to place a small level across the top of the piece.






















Also, because were dealing with end grain and I dont want to blow out the face grain on the far edge of the panel,(spelching) Ill clamp a piece of scrap wood, thicknessed the same as the work piece and tighten everything down to get started.

Im using my bevel-up jointer again, set to take a fine shaving and carefully work my way down. Im taking light passes, always watching for those first shiny edges starting to appear. Its hard to put into words but youll know it when you get there. Being careful not to over-shoot, I work my way down so I can see my scribe line still wrapping the entire perimeter. With that tiny strip left glistening, I know the edge is square. (but Ill still double check it!) Now I can safetly measure up off of this edge and follow the same procedure for the sixth and final side.















So there you have it- a work bench surface, square on all six sides. It may seem like a lot of steps but the above process probably didnt take much longer than it just took me to write this post. Im ready to begin the bread board ends and assemble my pieces for the apron. That will be next time.
Cheers!
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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Get Woodworking projects using a bandsaw

Posted by linua at 11:00 PM Labels: , , , , 0 comments

For you Woodworking projects using a bandsaw must see

Woodworking Projects Using A Bandsaw

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Monday, January 27, 2014

This week Steve makes a rustic side table from free pallets

Posted by linua at 5:30 AM Labels: , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
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Thursday, January 23, 2014

some carved scrolls for a mantle

Posted by linua at 8:15 AM Labels: , , , , , 0 comments
we recently carved some butternut scrolls for a mantle that one of our clients was making.  we had sort of an internet fuzzy photo to use as an inspiration, but we did some google image research and came up with the drawing below.  click the photos to enlarge them ...
 

we were pretty happy with it, as was our client, but i did put  it up on the door for an hour or two to make just a few refinements before it went into our cad program.
draw over it ... copy what you need
the reason we decided to do that was that, as you can see from the first photo, the element had to be 13" thick (!!) to complete the design.  after a little thought, we realized wed need a whole bunch of pieces (about 20, not counting a couple of miscuts and practice pieces) and that led us instantly to the cnc.
after we finished the first one, we checked it on site before we did the second one ... good to go.
 this is an onsite photo after the finish was applied
 
i have the actual cad drawing somewhere and ill post that later ... all for now ...
on site 12/14
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