Last summer, Kari Hultman kindly shared her lumber stockpile with me, and let me take as much as I could fit on my truck (leaving room for the contents of my Sister-in-Laws apartment). Since I brought it home, this lumber has resided in our sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room. Unfortunately that room is the only choice to the back door that lets out onto the deck. As the room had to serve duty as a buffet station during our Memorial Day Party, we set about cleaning it out.
The sun/hot tub/miscellaneous storage room lumber pile.
Moving the lumber was, of course, my job. As I broke down the stacks and transferred them one-by-one to the attic I came across a piece with two live edges that looked particularly like a tree to me. I couldn’t initially think of what to do with it, but its form struck me and I set it aside.
This beauty caught my eye.
By the time I was done moving the lumber, it had dawned on me. I knew what I would do. The piece would serve as the left vertical member of the banner rack I have to make for the MWA banner we’ll be displaying at Woodworking in America.I immediately broke out an assortment of sanders and took the rough sawn face and still partially barky edges to a smooth, 80 grit. Then I successfully filled a face crack epoxy. When it came to the multiple cracks in the back face, I first routed out the cracks a little bit to make the epoxy application easier. Unfortunately, the epoxy application didn’t go so well on the back face. I probably mixed it wrong, but whatever the reason, my 5 minuted epoxy was still tacky 2 days later.
A typical crack on the back, routed to allow additional epoxy to fit in.
I allowed it a third day to dry, and when it was still tacky I posed the question to Twitter. What should I do? One of the ideas I liked was to heat it up under a heat lamp in order to accelerate the drying. Unfortunately, within about an hour the heat lamp took hard and tacky to soft and bubbly. Thankfully, removal of the heat and time seem to have restored it to hard and tacky.
Not a formula for dry epoxy.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on the Banner Rack so far, but since I have to design the rest, buy the lumber for the rest and it was one of may pices of word stacked in the shop preventing me from walking around, I took the piece as was and put it achoice in the attack. It gets warm up there, but not crazy, heat lamp hot. Hopefully when I pull it down in a month or two, it’ll be dry enough to work on.These videos walk you through the process of sanding and epoxying the piece.
I’ll keep everyone posted when I get back to it, and please don’t forget to check out the MWA Banner Rack in person when you visit our booth at both Woodworking in America Conferences.
Before getting to the OSB, I fastened the XPS panels to prevent them from shifting. I secured each of the 2 x 8 XPS panels with two (2) Tapcons into the underlying concrete floor. Thats not enough for permanent attachment, but since Id be attaching the OSB through the XPS, it only needed to be attached enough to hold still while I installed it. I started every other row of XPS with a half sheet so that though there were many joints where three (3) panels met, there were no four (4) panel joints.
The corded PC impact driver burnt out after driving about 2 dozen Tapcons.
After the XPS, I installed the 3/4" tongue and groove OSB. I used a half sheet of OSB on every other row also to achieve the same 3 panel joints. Each sheet of OSB was fastened through the XPS into the concrete with 18 tapcons in a 4-3-4-3-4 patten, installed along the factory markings which are painted on the OSB to help identify where the framing is for typical installations. This left me with a floor fastened every 1.7’ on center. It shouldn’t be going anywhere.
Its beginning to look like a floor.
With the XPS installed to 7-1/2” from the garage door and the OSB installed to 12” from the edge of the XPS I called it a day on installing the floor. I has hoped to also make the threshold which will fit in the 7-1/2” space, but I realized too late that my planer was stuck in my living room, surrounded by the other workshop paraphernalia.
The next morning, after I picked up my new jointer, I began the long task of loading all of the tools into the shop by myself. By the time my wife got home in the early afternoon, the only thing left in the living room was my work bench.
Reloaded with the contents of my shop.
Though I still need to build the threshold and tie it into the OSB I’ve spent the few weeks since the floor was installed coloring the walls and setting the shop back up. In that time, I’ve already come to appreciate how nice working on the new floor is. When I step from the concrete at the door to the OSB I can immediately feel how firm and soft the new floor is.
Though I’m far from finished, it’s absolutely delightful to be able to reach a
This is part III of a III part series read parts I & II here.
I began working on the light ring stand at about 8:30 pm. It had to be completed that night, for in the morning it was to leave on a cross country drive. If that deadline wasn’t enough, it was also the first night of the newly resurrected #woodchat. Besides making the stand, I was tweeting and Google+ Hangouting for much of the night.To construct the base, I used a 1” thick, factory made sheet of finger jointed pine. I find that using sheets like this for non-decorative pieces is cost effective and the boards I rip from these sheets are much straighter than dimensional lumber would be.
The partially assembled light ring stand.
The entire stand is made from strips, about 2” thick, except for the upper half of each leg. As I ran out of the 1” think sheet and it was 10:30 at night by that point, I used the only dimensional lumber I had in the shop, pieces of 2”x4” Timberstrand to make the tops of the legs. Almost all of the joinery is made using T-nuts, 5/16” threaded rod and plastic knobs for easy breakdown. I set the T-nuts and install short pieces of threaded rod in each, secured with LocTite Threadlocker. Luckily, I had Ari around to cut the threaded rod lenghs for me while I fabricated the stand. The only permanently attached pieces are the receivers for the legs, where are permanently screwed to the feet.
The completed light ring stand with the light ring in place. The stand is assembled with clamps as the LocTite was not yet dry.
When assembled, the stand is about 7’ high and can hold the light ring, centered at any height from about 3’6” to 6’9”. The light ring is simply placed against the upper legs of the stand and ring’s handles are clamped to the stand using small quick clamps.
To use the light ring, simply stand behind it, and take your photo through the ring, so that your subject is evenly illuminated on every side of the photo.
The stand, broken down and ready for travel.
Broken down, the stand is made of up 9 pieces, none longer than 4’. Though I didn’t have time to do so before the light ring and stand left of the west coast, I told Ari that if I picked up some large Velcro straps, it would make the stand easier to transport.
The light ring is now at home in LA, and its cooking with gas.
The light ring is now in LA, and soon it’ll be illuminating the stars.What odd projects have you made to meet your friend’s needs?
Get Woodworking Week may be over, but don’t tell John.John is an 80 year old Korean war veteran who I’ve come to know because he wants to learn woodworking. While you’d be right to ask yourself why a one-eyed octogenarian who needs a walker is interested in learning a craft he currently knows nothing about, his reasoning turns out to be the same as many of us. John want’s to learn to woodwork because he needs a table for his computer and can’t find the right one commercially.John and I spent the afternoon in my shop where we discussed the basic table he plans to build and the method of building it. We went from hand cut mortise and tenons to routed floating tenons to pocket screws.
This joint is OK.
I know that while steering someone from a hand cut mortise and tenon to a pocket screw may be blasphemous to some, I was happy to do it.
This joint works too.
It’s not that I want John to be a power tool woodworker who only uses steel fasteners. It’s that I want John to be a woodworker. As he’s never built anything, I think jumping right into a table build with eight (8) hand cut mortise and tenons would be enough to turn anyone achoice in frustration. I stressed to John that as much as he’s eager to learn and practice joinery, it was also important to actually building something. The satisfaction and pride of actually building a pocket hole joined table will certainly nurture his love of woodworking more than the frustration of a table that won’t assemble because of miscut tenons.
Just be sure it ends in something like this.
I say this often because I feel it’s important. It is not about how you build something. It’s about that you do building something. Start small and simply. Let your first few projects succeed. Then, once you’ve learned the basics let your interest take you to any style of joinery method you choose.
Or like this. The important thing is to just build.
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.
The boat they made on GardenFork.tv, which I was using as the basis for my design, was made of a single sheet of plywood. It was about 24” wide with sides about 12” high. Though Eric from GardenFork.tv is a trim guy, his narrow boat road very low in the water when he launched it as a solo passenger. As I wanted to be able to take my kids (and even other adults) in the boat with me, I decided I would need two (2) sheets of plywood.
With this as a plan, I headed straight to Lowes once we were settled in at Lake George (and I was back from the trip to Fine Woodworking Live I made immediately after arriving).
Yep, thats what a boat looks like before its put in the water.
Since the ¼” luan I used on the mock boat was awfully damn thin, and the plywood bottom would need to support me, I opted to use ?” CDX plywood. Though it was bowed and coarsely textured as most CDX is, I felt it provided me the best mix of strength, weight and cost. For the battens, I chose to switch to 2”x2”, so the tips of the screws wouldn’t poke through the ¾” thickness of the 1”x used in the mock boat. I also bought some 2”x4”, metal saw horse brackets and a small drop cloth so I could work at a comfortable height and keep the mess in check.
Ready for ripping!
In the parking lot, I had to rip down the 4’x8’ sheets of plywood before they would fit inside my truck. This being upstate New York, there was no problem woodworking in the parking lot.More (Ply)Wood Boat Posts.
Matt Kenney at Fine Woodworking: It’s impossible to cheat at woodworking
Steve Branam hosts Free Woodworking Classes at the New England Home Show (The Furniture Project)
The Drunken Woodworker David Picciuto
Goings on in the MWA
Lie-Nielsen at 3rd Ward last weekend
The Woodworking Show in Western Springfield Massachusetts 1/11/13 - 1/13/13
Main topic
Megan Fitzpatrick, the new Editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine
Megan discussed taking the reigns at Popular Woodworking magazine, how she got her twitter handle and the up to the minute info on Woodworking in America.
Next broadcast’s topic
Scott Meek, of Scott Meek Woodworks, maker of beautiful hand crafted wooden planes.
This second Ghetto WorkCenter video shows the completed WorkCenter. After making the saw tray and boom arm I kept going and moved on to make a tool holder. As I documented in my last post, I made the Tool Holder by coping the V design of the Festool Tool Holders. I made mine of wood and it mounts on the Ghetto WorkCenter. Now I can hang two tools on the WorkCenter while keeping the saw off the ground and the hose out of the choice.
We knew Salvatore Mastrangelo at one of the many pleasant meetings we organize in the shop of our friend Daniele (left in the first pic).Salvatore is a really pleasant and exclusive person, full of life experiences. A true professional, filled with an uncontrollable passion for everything is related to woodworking.
He expresses with great skillmost of all his outstanding artistic vein in the art of carving.
This time we have "forced" him to teach us some good rule to acquire the best practice in this work and, under his leadership, we have tried to do some exercise.The quality of carving tools and their sharpness are fundamental prerequisites for best results.
In this regard, it is very useful to have a sharpening stone on the bench for honing more frequently the cutting edge of most commonly used tools.In the picture it shows a concave shaped oil stone that best fits the profile of some edges. Unfortunately the time available is never enough, but we memorized some good advice on strategies of work, the importance of a good initial design and the respect of plans on which the various details are located, in order to obtain a perspective effect.
Finally we add a couple of pictures that illustrate the Salvatores work.I think they comment themselves.
Now that the boat was built and waterproofed, the only things left to do before it’s maiden voyage were to take it to the lake, and determine how I would propel it. I, of course, decided to take it to the lake first, and fabricate its means of propulsion in the parking lot next to the beach.
Have boat, will travel.
While Eric used a single oar for his GardenFork.tv boat, I found that with the increased width of my boat it was too wide to use a single oar effectively. I made two (2) oars (like a traditional row boat) instead.
I built the oars in the parking lot at the beach.
I attached the U-shaped oar pivots on the dock.
The oars were cut to length on the dock too.
The finished oars.
Making the oars was as simple as cutting a rectangle of scrap ?” plywood, trimming the corners off and then screwing it to a 2”x2”. To act as oar pivots, I cut two U-shaped pieces of plywood and screwed them to the outside face of the batten with ran down the top of each side. The oars simply dropped in the opening, which was cut with enough room to allow the oars to move.
Finally, ready for the open sea.
Finally, the boat (dubbed the S.S. Sea Man) was ready to set sail.My cousins, Doug and Robert, and I carried it passed the rocks (Lake George is beautiful, but lacks sandy beaches) and into the water. I gave it a brief moment to confirm it was watertight. Then I hopped in and I set off rowing.
Row like the wind.
The boat was in and out of the water for three (3) or four (4) days over the course of our vacation. It proved a stable craft. My kids (and cousin) enjoyed going out on the boat and it proved a stable platform for launching firecrackers. I was able to successfully carry two (2) adults and probably could have managed a third.
I did ultimately get the hand of steering it with the oars.
After the first day, I moved the cross batten further back to reduce the number of times I hit my knuckles on it while rowing. That made it better, but not great. In the end, what kept the boat’s use down were the unbearably uncomfortable square oar handles and the cramps I managed to get from the lack of a seat.
To move the batten back, I first added a new one, then removed the old one so the boat sides wouldnt spring back together.
I managed to row a good choices into the lake. Had a had a destination, I may have gone further.
Come aboard, were expecting you.
From the boat, I was able to get the usual great views of the lake and shore.
A panoramic taken with my phone from the boat.
Though it was my intention to scrap the boat after the vacation was over, my Dad seemed to have taken a liking to it and offered to store it at his barn in Greenwich, NY until next summer. That, of course, has me thinking. I already know how I’ll be adding seats and a better pivot mechanism for the oars next year.
The boat survives, to be sailed again next summer.
While there are inherent risks in boating of any kind, and this isn’t a project you should take on without considering those risks, I’d highly encourage building a plywood boat of your own if you get a chance. The one featured on GardenFork.tv is very straightforward to build (just leave out the bottom window) or embellish it as I did. Either choice, there’s nothing like the feeling of sailing the open seas heading to Mexico in boat you crafted with your own hands.
I started assembly on the Hall Tree last night. I ran into some unexpected problems so I didnt get as much done as I had hoped to.
I started with the rear backsplash for the shelf at the top. This one went pretty well. I used my
Rockler Clampit and it did a good job.
This is the bottom with the apron in the front. Since the pocket holes are on the inside I put the Clampit on the outside. In hindsight I should have put the clamps all the choice to the inside of the Clampit. I had put them further out to allow me to get the drill to the pocket hole but I think putting the clamps all the choice inside would have worked better. The wood ended up drifting and one of the screws split the edge of the front corner.
I forced some glue into the split and clamped it and you can barely tell now. I just need to do some sanding and after I paint it you will never know.
I got the top shelf mounted, glued and screwed in and I was very happy with the result.
Only the top shelf, backsplash, and bottom front apron are actually attached. I dry fit the rest to see how it looks. I hope to get the rest of it assembled tonight.
