Dylans Clock Stand

Last Saturday my son displayed his art in a show with his art class at the Central Park Zoo. It was a well received show and outside of heat, it was a wonderful day. My frame was actually well received, sloppy corners an all. Luckily though, I was able to make a second piece to help display his art and this one came out much nicer.

Dylans art show display

One of his three (3) dimensional projects was a clock. It’s a collage of clocks glued onto a box, with a round porthole cut out to reveal a clock face inside also.

Since the clock just sits on whatever you put it, I was asked to make a clock stand.

Initially I was going to make a low stand with ornate feet. As the deadline approached I was looking through The Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction. After thumbing through the section on feet and basically deciding on making a rounded base with mitered legs, I then flipped through the cabinet on stand section. I occurred to me that I could make a tall stand for the clock rather than a stubby one.

With that idea in my head, I went out to the shop and started milling legs and aprons. I was making a tiny shaker table to hold the clock.

Should I clean my table saw blade.

I won’t go into too much detail on the table, as there are many resources online for making a shaker end table (I’d personally recommend the Shaker End Table Woodwhisperer Guild Project).

The one thing that I was rather pleased about regarding the table construction was the mitered frame is used as a top to hold the Clock. After having issues cutting miters on my table saw with my Incra jig, I chose to make these on my miter saw. When I cut a test piece and held it against a japanese miter square I have, I was pleasantly surprised to find the miter saw was perfect. I cut all eight miter cuts on the miter saw and the frame came together 100% gap free.

The finished clock stand with the clock atop.

Perfect miters right off the miter saw.

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When you have to work small in section pieces with molding, plow and rebate planes, may be convenient to use a proper board which helps to keep them steady during planing. It simply consists of a leveled board , at least 150 cm long and with section of about 10 x2, 5 cm. On its surface can be glued  a stright rail (section 4x2, 5 cm).

It is important that the side of the rail is square with the backing surface of the piece. I used some screws inserted at the end of the board; they have the task of stopping the piece during processing. They can be tightened and loosened to allow to avoid the piece escapes from board. If the piece is square it will be sufficient. However, it is convenient to work pieces longer than the final measure to use the edges or parts that will be discarded (cheek of  a tenon in the pic), to ensure all through thin nails. The table is stopped by dogs and lateral vice.

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I need to make a chair right now like I need a hole in my head.

Looks like a chair, no?

I have at least a blog post worth of unfinished, halfchoice built projects in my shop. Yet, I’m having a damn hard time working on any of them. In my head, I keep turning my chair design over and over.

As with many of my ideas, I’m thinking of building my first chair out of Timberstrand. I’m in agreement with all of you who I’m sure are yelling that real wood - Walnut even - is what real chairs should be made of. Even though I’ve a soft spot in my heart for Timberstrand, I agree that it’s not what truly fine chairs are made of.

This chair though, is more experiment than fine woodworking. I’m using it to test my design, push my skill and see if Timberstrand shapes and dyes well.

This video demonstrates the first part of the test. Will my arm and joinery be strong enough?

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Jointer Planer or Jointer Planer

Ive alchoices been of the mind that having a separate jointer and planer was a better use of space in a narrow shop where having the room to lift up the jointer bed of a combo machine could be an issue. Frustrations with aligning the beds of my mid-50s jointer and not knowing where to put my planer have me re-thinking that

The current jointer I love and hate.

Im currently thinking that I may be better off with a 12" combo machine instead. I would have to put it on a mobile base, but it could be more efficient with space than the two machines and would certainly increase my jointing capacity.
I want this to be my last jointer/planer purchase for a decade or two and I want it to have a helical cutter head. Im currently considering (and saving for) the Jet or Grizzly.

Woodcraft had a 15% off sale this past weekend on the Jet, which got me thinking.

I also noticed in the new Rikon in an email from Highland Woodworking today.

I was wondering if any of you have these (or other) combo machines? Are they worth it? Is setup an issue? Most importantly, how close to a wall can you place the machine?
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.

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