Tables Continued

Today I glued up the rest of the table parts and then pegged the tenon joints, 16 pegs in each table.  I used

 1/4 inch dowels for the pegs

.  

Asian Longhorn Beetle

Sometimes you do things just because they're fun.  A few post ago I talked about a project I built for my friend Jeff Ellis that was a stump.  Jeff volunteers for the River Bend Farm and he had a display about the longhorn Beetle.  This is the end result.  Jeff used spray foam adhesive as the bark, it worked really well.  This was a

fun project

 . 

Ready for glue up

Today I went into the studio for a couple of hours to sand the table parts.

I have some old wide pine floor boards that I cut to size and will use as the tops. All of the parts have been sanded and are ready to be glued up.  I'm leaving the floor boards looking as they are.

Parts, Parts, Parts

The end result, nice clean tapers and mortises.  This is a simple jig, a piece of plywood cut to size and a couple of clamps.  It works well.  I cut the tenons on the aprons using a single saw blade on the table saw. 

The tenon is only 7/16 inch wide so I only needed to make a couple of passes with the saw. The tenons are through tenons, meaning they run the full length of the mortise.  The legs are light so the tenons are only 1/4 inch wide and 7/16 inch deep.

Tomorrow I'll sand the parts, glue them up and cut and glue up the tops.  

Mortises and Tapered Legs

I threw a 1/4 inch straight bit into the router table and use it to cut a 1/2 inch deep mortise in the

 center of the  leg

I used a plywood taper leg jig I had used on an earlier project to taper the legs on the table saw.  The stock I had at hand was 1 1/8 inch thick so I cut the legs square and tapered them to 3/4 inch at the bottom. 

Tables old and new

Today I went into the studio without having anything particular to build.  I have a lot of projects on the go but today was about getting organized.  I guess it was a little early spring cleaning.   As I was cleaning I discovered some table legs from earlier projects that I brought with me from New Jersey.   I got inspired to make some small shaker style tables.  I love re - using old parts so I used some off cuts from a previous project for the legs and aprons. I have some old wide plank pine tongue and grooved floor boards that I'm going to use for the tops.

cigar Box Guitar complete

Today I tweaked some things on the guitar.  I put a coat of wax on the box, not the best thing for sound but I love the warmth it gave it.  I inlaid a coin in the neck, made a bridge and strung it up.  I'm not sure of the tuning of the tthree strings.  I have to do a little more research.  The top is a little too thick, dampening the sound but I worked with what I had.  A thinner cigar box lid will be better.

Cigar Box Continued

A couple of weeks ago I was at the local Salvation Army thrift store.  I found a cardigan sweater vest that had these great mother of pearl looking buttons.  I liked the vest but I bought it mostly for the buttons.  I drilled a hole large enough to accomodate the buttons and inlayed them as fret markers on the guitar.

Here is the guitar almost complete'

Cigar Box Guitar

After an intense week of teaching or making I like to wind down and clear my head by making something fun.  This cigar box guitar is certainly that.  Last year I made a ukulele out of a Hormel Ham container.  I called it my Hamolin.  It played well.  My Friend Mike Lilly in Pennsylvania has it.  I'm making a cigar box guitar for the show " The Garage" so it's a good warm up for it. 

I had to take the lid off of the box, cut a notch in the body to accommodate the fret board and then glue the lid back on.  I cut a series of sound holes in the lid.  I made a bridge and nut using some small off cuts of rosewood and cocobolo I had left over from a previous project.  I sanded the body and sprayed a coat of lacquer all over the guitar.  The neck and fret board are made out of a piece of 3/4 inch mahogany.  The tuning pegs were cheap to buy.  I ordered the pegs from Stuart MacDonald Luthier supply.  A package of six only cost $14.00. All that is left to do is to string it up'

Puttzing Around

Today I spent the day cleaning and just puttzing around,  I took the prototype box for Fiona's guitar stand and attached some sides and a handle too make a small carry all tool box.  The handle is a red maple stick, tenoned into the sides.  Nothing much, just puttzing around.

Cigar Box Guitar

Thanks to Jay at Lynch's Liquor Store I became the proud owner of these awesome cigar boxes.  Jeff Ellis, the producer of our show " The Garage" suggested that I do an episode making a cigar box guitar.  Today I started making one too see what is involved.  It was fun.  Keep watching too see how it develops.

Spring Cleaning

Today I spent the day in the studio re-grouping after my week teaching at Yestermorrow Design Build School and doing a little early spring cleaning, re- accuanting myself with the studio. 

The end of a very busy week

Here is an image of the finished credenza. We still had to attached the doors and and a couple of drawer fronts.  This was a busy week.  I'm proud of what we accomplished.  The students learned about biscuit joinery, edging and flush trimming with a router.  They learned how to make forms for gluing up and then using these forms to act as a sled and aid in cutting our coopered panels.  They also learned how to kerf cut boards and make a base and how to hang and attached drawers.  A lot of material was covered in a short time.  This piece looks quite simple in it's design but it offered up quite a few challenges.

Fitting and finishing

It's hard to really see the nice graceful curve of this piece because it's so large.  I placed the doors on top of the cabinet, they still needed to be ripped in two and then fitted as well as the bottom drawer front.  This was an ambitious project to do in  five days.  All that was left to do was to cut and fit the doors and to put on a couple of drawer fronts and the back and the piece would've been complete.  The drawers were attached using full extension glides.  This was a fun piece to build.

Credenza glue up

Here are some images of the credenza glued up. We then started to fit the doors and drawers together.  The center panels are made out of solid cherry and coopered.  The two drawers on the left side will fit into the spaces above.  The drawer boxes are fitted with curved ledger strips allowing us to fit the curved, coopered

fronts on.  The back has been cut but not put on yet.

 

Making and edging drawers

The credenza has five drawers in it.  We made the drawers out of Baltic birch plywood and edged them with poplar.  Again- a good lesson learned in that you can never have enough clamps.  Below are the drawers being edged with the hardwood and clamped.  We used pocket screws to construct the drawers.  The false fronts of the drawers are made out of solid cheery, coopered to form the curve. 

Making coopered doors

Nathan and Gaylin are orienting the grain on some staves they cut.  Staves are the individual pieces of wood, cut on an angle tht are used too make a curved panel.  In our case a door and some drawers.  We made a form that was cut from the pattern of the full scale drawing to help with the glue up.  The form is mde up of curved pieces of plywood and glued onto a plywood base.  We made three large coopered panels.  Two are for the doors and one is for the drawers.  The two large panels will have a section that is cross cut from it to become the outside drawer fronts.  The center large panel will be crosscut into three too form the center drawer faces.  Each large door will be ripped into two to form the doors.

Coffee Break

Matt and Matt entertained us at break one day.  These two guys are from the area and are fantastic musicians.  This was an awesome jam.  The view below is looking out of the window from the computer

room.

 

Laying out biscuits

Here Evan trys to make sense of all of the parts.  The gables and dividers are joind to the bottom are joined together with biscuits.  Evan spent a lot of time laying out and positioning where the joints would be cut.  Biscuits are easy to do but can be confusing, it's real easy to get turned around and cut on ein the wrong

spot

 .   

Making the base

 Evan and Gillian work on constructingg the base.  All corners are mitered.  The back of the base is poplar and the two sides and front of the base are made out of cherry.  Two sides are mitered at 90 degrees and the front is mitered at 41 degrees.  Because of the full scale drawing we were able to determine the angle with a bevel gauge directly from the drawing.  The corners are reinforced with plywood corner blocks that also act as an area to attached the bottom to.  Below is Matt lending a hand to the construction of the base.  I was really impressed with the results.  All of the students only have four weeks prior experience in woodworking and here they are making coopered doors and kerf bending wood.   



Kerf Bending

Here Evan shows off the fruits of his labor.  This is a solid piece of cherry eight feet long and four inches wide. We cut saw cut ( kerfs) into the back face.  The cuts are made every half inch and go within an eighth of an inch from the surface. The piece worked great.  We were able to curve it around our frame and cut the miters on the ends, creating a beautiful looking base for the credenza.   

 

Bow Front Continued

Here is the bottom of the credenza being edged in hardwood.  The gentle curve of the credenza is part of an ellipse which meant it was easier to take a direct read of our curve with a bevel gauge rather than try to work out a mathematical formula.  The doors and drawers were coopered using this method.  This is where having a full scale drawing of your piece is important.

 

Bow Front Credenza

The project I designed for the client and the class to build was a bow front credenza out of cherry veneered plywood and solid wood.  I made a full scale drawing and a template of the piece.  This made it easier to work from.  The dimensions of the piece are 84" long x 34" high by 24" wide at the center.  There is a black granite top that will overhang the credenza by an inch all around.  Here you can see the bottom of the credenza and the sides getting hardwood edging glued on.  The edging is then flush trimmed to give it a nice clean look.  The credenza is frame less with inset doors and drawers. You can see that you can never have

 enough clamps.

Yestermorrow Again

This past week I taught a class at Yestermorrow.  There are eight students participating in a eleven week woodworking intensive at Yetermorrow.  The students live on campus during the program.  I was a visiting artist for week 5 of the program, teaching a class in advanced cabinetry.  Myself and the students were involved in building a client-based commission.  I designed a piece for the client weeks prior to the class and then the piece is used as a teaching tool, myself and the students construct it.  It's an ambitious endeavor.

Driving up to Yestermorrow was a little nerve racking.  Once I hit the New Hampshire border I had Ice all the way up into Vermont.  What would normally be a four and a half hour drive took me seven and a half, but it was all worth it when I got there.

 I was invited that evening to the kitchen to have a few beers and jam.  Four of the people in these images were students of mine.  Gillian is playing the violin, Matt is playing the banjo and the other Matt is playing guitar.   Jacob brought two guitars, one so I could play.  Jacob was very gracious and let me play his Martin guitar.  One of my students is from my neck of the woods in Ontario, Canada.  Can you tell which one he is?  The night was a lot of fun, a great ice breaker.  Thanks to all of the students for making me feel

comfortable. 

       



maple sugar display

Sometimes it's nice too build something that doesn't take a lot of thought or finesse.  I like to build something random and uncomplicated before I have to really focus on a serious piece and worry about details.  It's sort of like a stretch before the run, a warm up of sorts.  My friend Jeff is doing a display for a maple syrup festival.  He found an old television that will be equipped with a computer that will have images on it of the sugaring process.  The TV will sit on a faux log.  Jeff will spray the log to give it a texture then paint it.
Today I made the faux log out of plywood and coverd it with Masonite.

 

This was fun way to spend the day in the studio.  While I was building this for Jeff I was working out the detail of my class I will be teaching next week at Yestermorrow Design School.

Robins, groundhogs and adirondack Chairs

When I arrived at the studio this morning I was greeted by a sure sign that spring is around the corner.

All of the snow had melted and exposed the Adirondack chairs that were left outside all winter.  They look beautiful, just waiting for someone to sit it in them and enjoy the sun.  Who needs a robin or a groundhog seeing his shadow, this is a sure sign that spring is near.

Drawing full scale

Today I started to draw a full scale projection of the bow front credenza I'm working on for my class at Yestermorrow.  I taped some Kraft paper to a full sheet of plywood and started measuring.  The best way to see proportions is to just draw out an example.  If you don't like what you see, erase it and start all over again.  I clamped two boards at the length of the credenza and use a 1/4" strip of pine to project a curve for the bow front.  This is arbitrary.  Once I got a curve that I thought looked good, I traced it.  This is the start of a full scale drawing. I'll then draw all of the interior dimensions on the paper and ply.  I can then use this drawing to calculate my materials and use the drawing as a template to order the black granite top from.

Process

Here is a sketch of a bow front credenza I'm designing for a client in Vermont.
The process is part of the course I'm teaching in advanced cabinetry at the Yestermorrow  Design School in Warren, VT.  from Feb 28- March 5. www.yestermorrow.org The class is involved in a community based project.  The credenza is our project.
We still have to work out the details.  The doors and drawers are curved, mimicking the curved edge of the clients dining table.  The credenza will be made out of cherry and have a black granite top.

The end of a good week

We've had so much snow that we haven't been able to get into the studio as much as we would like but this week has been a good week.  I finished some projects that have been lingering.  Here is Fiona's stand complete and the rustic chair for the show.  All - in - all a good way to end the week.