Jigs Aplenty

I thought before I started this chair project that luthiers were the jig fanatics of the woodworking world, but chairmaking ranks right up there with the "best" of them.

This entry is focusing on some of the jigs I have put together to help chair replication. if I were building one chair, I would be done by now, (hmmmm) but in order to make the chair set more or less identical, a jig would help in the repeatability of the steps and help the chairs look more or less the same when complete. One thing I have learned from all the reading and youtube'g on this subject is to not get too caught up in each chair being an exact match of the others - if it looks fair, it is fair, a common refrain of chairbuilders. I learned this first hand whern I was doing the template take-offs for the chair seat; I thought I had done a pretty good job making the curves on the front the same, they were 3/8" different, something that could not be seen by eye - I guess it was "fair".



End of leg mortise jig showing
indexing strip for alignment
of wedge slot with leg mortise.



Router template in place to rout
leg mortise



Completed leg mortise - First one took 3 hours,
remaining 3 on jig took 15 minutes!!

For the undercarriage of the chair two jigs were required, one to mortise the leg and one to build the bentwood braces for the legs. The leg mortise jig is a box to hold the turned leg in position, without moving and to keep the mortise coplanar with the leg splay. the jig also had to ensure the leg mortise was in alignment with the wedge slot in the leg tenon. I laid this out so all the leg tenons in the top of the chair seat would point toward the centre (in an "X" shape).

 

Two jigs for rear and front leg leg angles.


The next jig required was one to laminate the bentwood leg brackets. These leg brackets are a staple of modern shaker chair/bench construction, I talked about them in the last blog, but wanted to highlight the jig and post a better picture than the phone pic I used earlier.

Since the front and rear legs splay from the cente axis at different angles, two different brackets are required for each chair - 2 for the front and 2 for the back.

Each bracket is 4-5 thin strips of ash cut to 9/16" wide and stacked to 1/2" high and bent around the form and held until the glue is dry with clamps - lots of clamps. Most of these strips were offcuts from the spindle and leg milling operations. 

Once removed from the form they are planed down to 1/2" wide to fit in the leg mortise and shaped  by hand to ease the edges and improve the look.

This picture is an upclose look (click on it to zoom) of the brackets in place on the prototype chair.

I currently have enough brackets glued up for 3 chairs - 4 to go!

Chair seat templates

The final jigs I needed before I could start making chairs were the templates for the seat profiles and shapes. Using plexiglas I laid out the top shape, the leg chamfer, the sides and front profiles from the prototype. This allowed me to refine the shapes for the rough work I did carving the prototype seat.

back to the shop!

Jig's to drill tenon holes through seat top -
One for each corner.



Spindle Update - this is 70 spindles
with tenons on both ends and turned
rough round - ready to be tapered and sanded.



Leminster Chair Progressing!!

Since the prototype is more or less complete, I have been working through the massive amount of turning I have for the chairs. Even at 5 minutes apiece to turn a spindle, that’s still lots of hours at the lathe.

I have been working on the support brackets for underneath the chair. These are bent ash laminations which are shaped around a mold to conform to the angles of the front and back legs. This meant ripping the offcuts from the leg and spindle stock prep to lots and lots of 3/32” strips and cutting them to length to be bent and glued in the mold.

In addition I built a jig to rout the mortise iton the leg to receive the bent wood bracket. This was a complex exercise, the jig needed to hold the turned leg still while routing the ¼” deep and ½” wide by 6” groove in the round leg. This exercise took a morning to get to the point where I had one leg mortised, the great part was that it took 15 minutes to do the other 3!



Support brackets screwed in place on prototype

This picture shows the underside of the updated prototype chair with the curved brackets installed, they are screwed in place (not glued). On the finished chair these will be glued into the leg and the screw holes plugged and blended into the bracket. Even with the tenons not glued in the mortises, these brackets stiffen the chair up a lot more than before.

The side view of the chair shows the subtlety of this design, while adding very little visually, the structure is improved a lot. I like this clean down under look (like a Ken doll J) which to my eye is more interesting than a typical stretcher design. This approach is typical of the shaker style of chair and bench construction, and is one of the key shaker design features I have included in what is more or less Windsor style chair. I guess this makes sense because Leminster is 20 Km or so from my hometown of Windsor (NS) so it strays from the Windsor-style, but not too far!!

I only have two molds (one for each angle) for the bent laminations so can only do one chair set per day as it is necessary for the glue to dry hard(8 hours) before removing them or they will spring back to shape or weaken the glue joint. While these were gluing up I spent a bit of time at the bandsaw cutting the crest rails to final shape and rough cutting the seats to shape. The next step with these is sanding and hand-shaping each of the crest rails before drilling the spindle holes; the final machine step for the crest rail will be to rout a round over on the top face of the crest rail – this ill only be to remove the bulk of the material, as it will be hand-shaped once attached to the chair.



Six cherry and one walnut rough cut seats and crest rails.

I spent quite a bit of time shaping a plexiglass template for the seat, refining the curves on the front and back, as well as the final placement of the leg mortises. From using the prototype as a dining chair for a couple of weeks I saw a few subtle things I wanted to change in the final design. Next step for the seats will be final bandsawing to exact shape and cleaning up the outside shape to set up for mark-up before carving begins.

Dulcitars fill in time when I get bored with turning.

One of the things I know about myself is that I can only do a redundant task for so long before needing a change. Turning chair spindles is one of those tasks,and while I am very pleased with my progress to date I need a couple of other projects to distract me from the mind-numbing hours of spindle turning.

The first of these projects is building a few strumsticks. I got a plan from Woodnet by Bill Wells which is a very simple project. Plans here.

I hve not built any instruments in a bit, so it gaves me a chance to re-acquaint my self with this craft. Not a lot of writing, let the pictures tell the story.

Squaring and cleaning up the body of the instrument from nice quartersawn maple.
 Nice Sauer & Steiner Panel Plane!

Four bodies with sides cut ready for insertion of end block. Very interesting construction with sliced sides opened up forming the body of the instrumnt.

End blocks inserted inserted into bodies and glued up. Neat how the sides are opened up to form the body.

A few cocobolo headstock overlays I had glued up,
 which will make a nice instrument back.

Some offcuts from guitar backs can be re-glued into bookmatched backs
 for the instruments, lets me use some stuff that has been sitting around for a long time.
Theese are koa, elm and walnut.

Smoothing the edges for the back and top with the Auriou rasp - a nice tool.

Completed instrument with rosewood fingerboard,
again used from sone old stock that has been sitting around for years.

Closeup of top showing a mini version of my logo.
These are cool!

Back to spindles. Next step for the instruments is to drill out the holes for tuning machines, fret the fingerboard and get it ready for finish - stay tuned, I will get bored again soon - this I know to be true.

Leminster Chair Project in full swing!

Nice selecion of cherry with chair seats hidden insde

With the chair prototype complete, it was time to mill up the lumber for the seat, legs and spindles. I bought some nice 2” cherry from Halifax Hardwood and let it acclimatize in the shop for a week before touching it. While it was getting comfortable in its new home, I milled up the ash which would become the legs and back spindles.




Since I am making 7 chairs, that’s 63 spindles and 28 legs, sure to challenge my attention span to complete, but I have the right attitude about the amount of time it will take and will ensure I have lots of projects to distract me and fill in those voids when I am ready to slit my wrists from hours (days) of turning. I am avoiding my natural tendency to rush to complete something which inevitably disappoints – telling folks this will take a few months helps me to avoid rushing.

Cherry Seat glue-up.

With all the ash milling complete it was time to tackle the cherry. I took more time grain and colour matching for each seat than I ever have done on a non-guitar project. Using my new Sauer Panel plane as a jointer plane to clean up machine marks made the tightest joint lines I have ever had. Each seat blank was carefully aligned and glued up in the clamps for a day each, ensuring no weakness whatsoever would be introduced into the glue joints. This was one week of one seat blank per day. During this time I was starting the production line setup to turn the spindles. Using the tenon cutter I put a ¾” diameter tenon on one end and a ½” tenon on the other end of 70 spindles. I made a few extra to deal with the inevitable turning disasters and to improve my colour matching potential later on.

Summary of work to date is all spindles tenon’d and about 50 turned round in prep for the final turning and tapering stage in the lathe. Seat blanks all glued up and the crest rails all cut out rough.

Lots of work left to do

I spent the morning yesterday making a jig for the seat’s outside shape, smoothing the corner profiles, finalizing the leg tenon locations and the spindle locations, which I have refined a bit to please the eye more. I also built a jig to ensure the crest rails are all identical and ease the final smoothing on the spindle sander with a guide wheel for the drill press.

 I cannot say enough about the approach of building a prototype first, this allowed me to work out design details and production details I could not have otherwise visualized. Where possible I definitely will use this approach going forward. While building the prototype I also built the drilling jigs for the spindle and leg holes, using them to drill the holes for the prototype. This proved the jig build and I expect the drilling phase to go quickly on the production chairs when the time comes.

Back to the lathe.

Benchtop Extension Complete

I know that I said shop version 2.0 was complete, so let’s call this version 2.1 will we?

When I built the new wall benches in November I only built 12 feet of benches to sit along 14 feet of wall, this was mostly because most of  the ash I got could only yield 6’ of usable length per piece. So I ended up with 2 – 6’ benches, with 2’ of wall space calling out to be fulfilled. My plan was to make a short wall-mounted section from the leftover ash while I was milling it up for the chair project. 

Well it’s done, the idea was to put a bit more finish on this section so I could use it for a sharpening area and the water would not bother it. It has about 5 coats of poly on it and seems to bead up the water quite well. It will be necessary to wipe up after I am done, but having the stones and honing jig readily accessibl,e ensures I will sharpen when I should, not when I HAVE to!

Laser Printer Logo Imprint

When this section was ready for finish I wanted to put my logo on it, so I tried for the first time the iron on the laser print trick. It worked okay, but the unevenness of the ash created a few voids, so I had to sketch in a few sections with a pencil, since it was a rough sketch anyway, it looked okay. I was pleased with the final result.

Sharpening Station

Since I was applying finish anyway, I decided to put another coat of ply on the entire 14’ of bench. This evened it up as there were a few sections of punkiness that the first 2 coats just soaked into. This new area has created an awesome work area, as with most shop improvements, I wonder how I got by without it!

New

Leminster Chair is Born

Leminster Chair Prototype

After lots of carving and shaping, and re-shaping, and some more re-shaping I think I am close to a chair we can live with. The seat and the crest rail will be Cherry (like the bench) and the legs and spindles will be ash.

I have named the design as a tribute to the home of my Dad, a place that is not even a wide spot in the road.

The prototype is done in aspen and maple so a lot of the dramatic look is lost in the sea of white wood. In addition the legs will be reinforced with a curved ash bracket which will be mortised into the leg and screwed to the base of the seat. This chair has been in use for almost a week to test out the ergonomics and it is a hit with LOML and others so it is set!

Building this prototype was a real headscratcher with the geometry, in particular the back, with the angles and curve of the crest rail. Not having access to a chair that matches what I saw in my head meant several attempts to get the feel I was after. This ended up being extremely comfortable and a visually appealing look. I will likely chamfer or round the front top edge of the crest rail to bring the eye down a bit.

The cherry for the seats has been bought and is getting comfortable in the shop. It will get glued up into seat blanks this week. Meanwhile I have been milling the ash and have 80 ash spindle squares roughed out with enough leg blanks for 3 chairs so far - another trip to wood store for some more ash.

Time to build some chairs. I expect this to take a couple of months, so will post updates as major bits are completed.

Chair Making Project Begins

Now that my shop renovations and tool upgrades are completed (for now!) I have been contemplating a new long-term project to focus on, while filling in the gaps with small jobs and turnings as my attention span wanders.

I have been thinking about a new set of chairs to replace the ones we have been using forever - of course there is nothing wrong with them, so they will likely end up downloaded to one of the boys' apartments.


Shaker/Windsor bench in Cherry & Maple

 

I have been bouncing around design ideas for a while, but I knew I wanted to use a style I have used before in a bench I made many years ago. This Shaker/Windsor style bench of Cherry and Maple (above) combines the simplicity of the Shaker style of very little ornamentation, with the elegance of the Windsor-style chair with a clean spindle back. I like the clean look underneath, so wanted to make a chair without stretchers - this would take some work as the stretchers provide a lot of support underneath that will have to be replaced.



Design to Wood

I did a lot of research both online and in books on chair construction, and asked lots of questions. Since I had made a number of stools in the past I knew I was in for a geometry primer fit for one of my son's engineering courses. I quickly became schooled on the subtleties of leg splay, setback, offsets, compound angles and knew this would need a prototype build in order to avoid butchering some good material. Also, since I was making six of these, I would build the jigs as I went so I could ensure they would be identical (more or less) when they were finished.





Carving in Process



Carved Seat

I glued up a piece of Aspen and designed a seat, many iterations on paper resulted in this design which I transferred to the wood and cut to shape. I got out the trusty luthier planes and set about finding the shape of the seat, which I knew was hidden somewhere in that Aspen. This process involved a few discussions with my wife as we sat on it to determine if what I was coming up with was comfortable. This process is a lot like shaping an archtop guitar or mandolin so was very comfortable for me.

  

Hi-Tech Chair Prototyping Jig

With the seat shaped, I needed to determine the angles for legs and location of the tenons in the seat to make an overall look we were happy with. My complex clamping jig was to keep everything correct in three dimensions while I tried various locations and lengths for the legs. When we were happy with the look, I took off all the angles and measurements so I could build some drilling jigs and make some holes. This was easier than I thought, each of my test cuts on scrap was perfect the first time, so time to drill the seat. Now that this done, I will be able ensure all the seats have the same leg geometry and will be able to quickly do that part of the machining when the time comes.

Now to turn some legs!

Sauer Plane Finds Loving Home

Sauer & Steiner SNo.4L in Desert Ironwood

Just back from another visit with the plane-building man-genius Konrad Sauer from Sauer & Steiner Toolworks; these visits are always fun to catch up on the latest projects, family and the general state of the woodworking world.



Front View



This time I picked up my new SNo.4L smoothing plane in Desert Ironwood. During my last visit we sorted through his collection of interesting woods and picked out a nice piece of figured Desert Ironwood; Konrad kept me updated with pics as he opened it up to reveal a stunning example of this wonderful material.

I continue to be amazed at the variations and unbelievable figure this wood reveals, Konrad's post here shows some other amazing examples here.



Rear View



Aside from a stunning looking tool, this baby works like a dream, like butter through an amboyna burl and birds-eye maple.

Again, the experience of using a tool designed for my hand and my eye is a pleasure one has to experience to understand.

Back to the shop.



Homemade slatwall an improvement over pegboard.

When I was building the wall storage cabinet recently, I wanted to incorporate a flexible exposed storage area for my planes. This would allow me to custom config the space to give me quick and ready access to whichever plane I wanted and a nice display option when they are not in use. Having used this setup for a few months I am very pleased with hoiw it has turned out. I am not a fan of keeping these everyday tools in a cabinet where they are more difficult to access (or see!)

One could always think pegboard as an option for this setup, however I was concerned with the weight of some of these planes as well as how the pegboard looks, well 'er like pegboard...



Home version of Guitar Store wall



I like slatwall as a wall storage option as it provides a flexible, strong and sometimes decorative wall treatment which provides ready access to the items stored on it. It is easily re-configured and there are many hardware options available at the retail level.

I did the usual web search for slatwall options for inspiration, let me tell you there was not much info out there to help me! Of course there were many slatwall options out there, some of which look really good, as well as tools and jigs to build it. However all of these are geared towards sheetgoods and larger format assemblies, mostly router-based bits that cut the slot for you. I was truly look for a homeshop remedy, so I had to design one from scratch for my use. The area I was working with was relatively small and I really wanted to use a nice material for the backdrop. I used commercial slatwall as a guide to ensure any hardware I bought would fit, so I started experimenting.

In keeping with my theme for using recycled material for this cabinet I used some leftover Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves) hardwood flooring as my slats. I started by ripping the tongues and grooves off the flooring to a finished width of 2-5/8". I removed the lacquer finish in the thickness sander, but did not reduce the thickness any more than I needed to in order to yield the depth I wanted, to avoid needing to make the lip too thin. Final thickness was 11/16" from 3/4" hardwood flooring.

   

Slatwall edge shot



After much experimenting (in pine) I settled on the following sizes for my slatwall pieces:

• width of strips 2-5/8"
• rabbet width - 1/2"
• rabbet height - 1/2"

With the rabbet this size, it left a 3/16" lip which is pretty much what you need for the hardware to operate smoothly, going to 1/4" made some things too tight to sit properly and the space underneath provides clearance for the slatwall hardware when you are installing it. There is very little tolerance outside these dimensions. With the strips installed 3/8" apart all the commercial hardware I tested operated smoothly. The only real option one has is to reduce the width of strips to allow more strips per wall area, but I would not recommend going below 1-1/2" strips as you need enough material to attach to the wall and support the assembly. The rabbet size and inter-strip gap need to remain very close to these dimensions.

The next step was how to mount them, since I do not like my joinery to show, it needed to be hidden. My solution was a 1/2" plywood back cut to the opening size of the cabinet, with screws to attach the strips from behind. I cut a bunch of pine spacer strips to layout the slats on the backer board for several reasons: this allowed me ensure the strips worked out in a usable layout (not too close to bottom where slot was unusable, or close to the top where you could not insert the hangers) I had saved two strips that would be the top and bottom and cut them to width to fill the leftover gap. The other key reason for pre-layout was to allow me to draw lines on the backer board to show the exposed parts so I could finsh them before assembly. I transferred the gap lines to the edges of the plywood + 1/2" and joined them with a pencil after removing the slats. I was only using some poly here, but knew it would be difficult to finish after assembly. I also drilled two holes per slat through to the back of the plywood for reference later when it came time to screw the slats on. Then as Norm would say: "time for some assembly". Now trying to screw the slats on while keeping them lined up was going to be a challenge, so I dropped a bead of glue behind each strip, clamped them all in place and carefully flipped it over once the glue had dried. then it was a simple matter of predrilling my slats through the reference holes I drilled earlier and driving the screws.

The entire assembly was ripped to width  and inserted into the opening and screwed to the plywood cabinet backer. I inserted a couple of vertical filler strips planed to fit to hide the gaps and it was ready to go on the wall.

The planes are supported using some mounting shelves I had built many years ago which were screwed to the wall before. I had to modify them for slatwall installation and will write a future blog on this technique using store-bought metal hangers added to my shelves.

Very satisfying project, with the finished result a far nicer solution than commercial slatwall with all the flexibility and storage options this technology provides.

RDW

Workshop ver 2.0 complete.

This entry is about a shop reorg, but before I start I wanted to share a story.

It’s a story about a man whom I have never met, I have only spoken to him on the phone. First I should step back to the beginning. I was reading Konrad Sauer’s blog about finding some special walnut from a Kijiji search, so I decided to do a search of my own. Sure enough, a search for lumber turned up an ad for a bunch of hardwood for sale not far from my home. I was thinking of building a couple of benches and was looking for some good wood at a modest cost. The price was modest, at $2/bf for ash, oak and maple this was what I was after. I sent in an email and got a response from a woman who was helping her brother out by clearing out his home and shop, and the wood was part of the inventory. She said her brother was pretty sick and might be able to meet me at the house to help me sort through it. I borrowed a buddy’s truck and drove to the address, a nice old home on the corner of two quiet streets, in a small town like many others I have come to know in this part of the world.

The sister and a family friend led me down through a little door into a basement workshop, (the owner was too sick to come) maybe 500 sq. feet (the entire basement) filled with lumber and very little workspace to do actual woodworking – but they had wood! I was having trouble finding what I was after so the sister called the brother on the mobile and he pointed me at the good stuff. There was a bit of teak, and some walnut, which I bought all of, I was after some ash to build some benches and he had a pile of it, both 1 and 2 inches thick. I thanked him for his help and sorted through the pile to get as much as I could fit in the truck for the drive home. On my way home I could not help but think about this family selling all the tools and material from a lifetime of woodworking and felt a connection to this man through our common craft. I had the wood he bought many years ago, no doubt with plans in mind and I was continuing that vision as one woodworking generation to another. When I got the wood home and stacked, I could not help but think about its previous owner and throughout the project feel the connection through the wood to another woodworking generation: while this wood cannot tell his story, he is as much part of its legacy as I am.

I ended up with about 160’ of ash, mostly 2”, planed it up to see what I had and proceeded to mill it up to make some benchtops. Since the wood was air-dried it had quite a bit of checking, so I worked around it to minimize the waste, using the shorter bits for legs and stretchers and had the material laid out for my projects. After all was said and done, there were a couple of boxes of kindling for my buddy and not much else.

Smoothing the legs til they look like glass, that Sauer A1 is amazing!

I was not building a proper workbench, more like work tables to go against the wall to replace a couple of salvage laminated work surfaces I had been using for 12-15 years. The tops would be 2” thick and 24”x72” in size, built to the work height of 34 inches these were to become the location for most of my project layout and assembly. I did not need another workbench as I have the dream bench I built over 20 years ago I cannot do without, these would be just tables.

After lots of gluing and hernia-inducing lumber moves the tops were done, and the base built using traditional trestle bench design giving a solid foundation for many years of woodworking. Of course any shop reno is not straight-forward, not only did I need to unload the benches and find a temporary place for the riggings, I needed to paint the floor underneath (left over from workshop ver. 1.5 reno) and paint the wall behind which was necessary since I would likely not have access to them again for many years. I have been doing some work on these benches since they were finished and they are exactly what I was after; but I still cannot look at them without thinking of the wood’s previous owner, and that someday another woodworking generation will likely come to cherish the previous generations’ contributions as much as I do. Thanks Harry!

The finished work benches line the shop wall.

Planes get upgraded Storage



Plane/Tool Storage before upgrade.



As part of the ongoing workshop 2.0 project, it was time to upgrade my exisiting plane storage.  I had picked up a couple of new planes and either needed to build some new holders or breakdown and build a proper cabinet.

Now was the time to build the cabinet that would provide a nice plane display and increase the storage near the bench at the same time.

In Progress

I decided to make the cabinet out of cherry, since I was trying to use up that last piece of cherry tabletop from our old dining table I had made 20 years ago. the rest of the cherry  had gone into a coffee table for Brendan and a couple other small projects. Other than the top and bottom pieces, this is all recyled material. the cabinet is 6' long to span the complete length of the table underneath and 6" deep. The cabinet is deep enough to  serve its purpose without interfering with the benchtop work area.

Slatwall plane storage/display area

The Centre section of the cabinet is a section of open slatwall. The slatwall is made from leftover Tigerwood from my office flooring project and is mounted to a piece of plywood underlay (also salvage) and inserted in the opening. I believe it does a nice job of holding the planes both for esthetics and access.

I re-worked my plane shelves which were screwed to the wall, by attaching metal slatwall clips to the back which allows me to re-configure as necessary.

The finished cabinet with doors attached provides plenty of storage and keeps my planes right where I can reach them. I am very pleased with the result!

Ta Da

Improving Shop Tool Storage with Mag-Bloks

Organizing tools in the shop is always a challenge for everyone. Using available space to keep every thing you need close at hand without creating clutter is always a balancing act. This post focuses on my bench tools which I like to keep close at hand on my main bench.

A while back I bought a few of the Benchcrafted One-of-a-kind Mag-Bloks. if you are not familiar with these Mag-Bloks, check them out here. I purchased some cherry ones a few years ago and they have very strong holding power, with a nice wood covering. The one-of-a-kind Mag-Bloks are offered from time-to-time on their website and are always made from unique woods - a serious weakness of mine...

Once I received these nice pieces in the mail I set them out on the bench for a few days and noodled on how to best use them. Eventually I settled on attaching them to the back of my bench for rulers, awls, screwdrivers and a few pieces I wanted to keep handy. But for me, just attaching them to the bench was not enough, I needed to upgrade them!! My solution was to insert a piece of wood between the Mag-Blok and the bench back to hold a row of hand tools. This picture shows the layout on a piece of 5/8" tigerwood and some of the tools layed out for the best arrangement.

Once I had a layout I was okay with, over to the tablesaw to dado out the openings to about 3/8" depth, this provided plenty of clearance for all the tools I was planning on storing there. This piece was then attached between the Mag-Blog and Bench using the Mag-Bloks screws and voila lots of storage for my collection of mostly cocobolo handled hand tools - I very nice setup I must say so myself.

Saws and such...

Chisels and Marking tools.

A nice addition to my bench storage without taking up too much space.

RDW

Old Plane gets new look.

This is my trusty Lie-Nielson No. 4 which I have had for many years and is probably the plane I use the most on a day-to-day basis. I had seen some of the work done by Catharine Kennedy online before and thought this trusty old standby could use some new clothes. I ripped the plane apart and sent the body and lever cap off to Catharine to do her magic. My only guidance was "less filigree and more acanthus" and I think she got it bang on.

She also engraved my initials on the lever cap, which looks great as well. Once this gets mauled a bit and the bronze patina restored it will look like the =trusty ole steed that it is - just with a new pair of shoes!

RDW

Beautiful new planes land in new home

I just got back from one of my all too regular trips to Toronto, but this time I got to do a little something for myself for a change. I rented a car and drove up to Kitchener to visit Konrad Sauer to pick up my new infill planes he has been building for me. More about the planes in a little bit; but first I need to say Konrad is one of the good guys in this business and a real pleasure to meet in person, after many months of online dialog.

Of course I got a tour of his awesome shop, but we had a chance to talk about everything from the business to our boys - like running into an old friend I have not seen for years. A couple hours went by all too quickly and I had to hit the road to catch my plane home.

From my reading and personal observation, Konrad is one of the pre-eminent plane builders working today - and Canadian too! His approach very much seeks a complete balance between form and function - his planes have a stunning visual presentation, as well as dreamy usability. I had a chance to look over a number of his works in progress, and there are many other lucky woodworkers out there, all sizes and styles of planes, matched with exquisite wood choices - illustrating the true artist at work.

  

The first plane I ordered many months ago was a small Norris No. 7 Shoulder plane to give me the tool to clean out dadoes as well as tenon shoulders. I picked the small one to give me the flexibility to cover most sizes. I am very pleased with this little guy, executed in Brazilian Rosewood infill and bronze sides, it looks and feel amazing in my hand. And oh yeah, it is sharp as a razor and leaves a flawless smooth edge in its wake.

After I waited a few weeks for the No. 7, I felt now was the time to replace my Record No. 6 with an infill. I use that plane for rough jointing of lumber by hand to better control the process, and often to waste less material, I will finish it with a tiny skim on the power jointer to make sure its square and flat after the plane is done. While I do not do much surface prep by hand, I feel if I had the hand tool to do so, I would go this route over other more aggressive options - like the belt sander!

This plane is an A1 Panel Plane, which serves many purposes from true jointer to flattening flat surfaces for finishing. I chose Brazilian Rosewood for the infill as I love the colour and Konrad had more from the same piece the No. 7 was made from, so why not? This picture shows this magnificent beast in all its 16.5" glory. A little shorter than the No. 6, but much heavier and much smoother to use. It takes shavings you can see through with virtually no effort.

These two planes will have a permanent place of honour in my shop as well my go-to planes for many uses. I am also sure my grandchildren will get many years of use before they hand them off to their children, a true heirloom piece I am honoured to be the custodian of for future generations.

RDW

Handyman Challenge project re-born

I had the somewhat misguided idea to show up for the Canada's Greatest Handyman Challenge a while back when it was in Halifax; and while I made it through to the second stage, I crashed and burned miserably. The lesson I learned was that I need the time to think an idea through and work out the technical challenges on my own timetable - stick a clock on me and a camera in my face and its a different story!!

This piece is about the project I built to get into the show, the only criteria was to build something portable from a single sheet of plywood. So me being me grabbed the challenge and used it as an opportuntity to do something very special. While plywood is not normally a fine material, I decided to use some cherry plywood I had in the shop, with the objective of making it not look like it was made from plywood.

The front carcase corners are mitred to hide the plywood edge - no edge banding allowed. Even the drawer sides are resawn from the same plywood to stay true to the rules of the contest. The top was a bit of a challenge, so to hide the edges, I mitred the three facing edges and turned it into itself to hide the edge. I was was very pleased with this and apparently so were the judges - enough said on that!

Once the sting of the experience passed I decided I wanted to use as much of this project as I could to avoid wasting all that work and material. This piece was to get a new drawer, drawer front, door front and top from solid cherry. I kept the design simple and was very pleased with the final outcome.

the design now has a decidedly shaker appearance and will serve very nicely as a nightstand in my No. 2 son's recently vacated bedroom.

Even though my TV days are over, I got to meet Mike Holmes, which was really my objective all along!!!!

New Article Online

The article I wrote for WoodTurning Online on the screwdrivers has been published. It can be viewed here. This article explains in lots of detail how I made these tools, including a couple of options to drill the holes and layout the blanks - Happy Turning.

Note: Read the article before you order the parts to make sure you get the right parts, others (me too) have ordered the wrong quantitites of the ferrules, so be careful.

Happy turning,

Articles for Woodturning Online

I have been turning wood into sawdust for over 25 years now and have gained some insight into how some things are done, now it is time to share.

For many years one of the resources I have used for new ideas and techniques is Wood Turning Online. They have hundreds of articles and project ideas which are put together by other woodworkers  from around the world and shared through this site.

I was asked recently by the site operator to write a few articles for the site; the first one I put together was a simple lamination technique for turning pepper mills, which was published here. I have just finished writing another article on turning screwdriver handles which I blogged about here. It should be published soon.