Scrap Wood Art

April 21, 2024

I took a couple of weeks off after my last project to catch up on my comic book reading. I can report that I got through my entire TBR pile, quite satisfying. I also started working on designs for a couple of future projects, went for some walks, did some cooking and took some naps. At the end of my “vacation” I needed something small to do in the shop that would be fun and not require new materials or a lot of time commitment.

I pulled out my Build Dice from Simone Yetch’s online store, the idea is you roll the three dice and they suggest a thing to build. So, I rolled the following:

This was pretty good for a first roll, usually I have to roll a few times to get something that is interesting to me. I have been wanting to do something with 1/8” veneers, triangles, and scrap wood so this was the perfect excuse.

I had a nice glue-up that I didn’t use from another project that was 2” thick and was a sandwich of 1/4” walnut on both sides and 1 1/2” maple in the middle. That set the size of the slices I was going to use to 2” and therefore the size of the triangles.

I had some walnut off cuts and also western red cedar off cuts which I cut to 2” and I cut 1/8” thick slices out of all of them. They weren’t super even but I was figuring I’d have to flatten everything later.

I built a small cross cut sled for my table saw and put a stop on it at the right angle to cut my triangles.

I cut a whole bunch of triangles from the 1/8” x 2” strips, it went very quickly using the sled. I deliberately didn’t make a plan for how many of each or a particular pattern I wanted to do. I just got a 12” x 15” piece of 1/2” plywood that was pretty flat and marked a center line on it and started putting triangles on it until I saw the pattern that I wanted.

It was a pure accident that I was able to make a border around the central pattern using the glue up triangles. I didn’t worry about perfect placement or alignment of the pieces, and I glued them down to the plywood. After the glue had cured I went back and filled all of the cracks with fine wood filler so that the surface would be consistent when I leveled it.

When the filler had hardened I got out my trusty Makita Belt Sander with a 60 grit belt and leveled the whole surface. I followed that up by sanding 80, 120, 220, and finally 320 grit to get a nice smooth surface.

In the spirit of using up things that were “trash” I had a can of Cherry Danish Oil which after testing I found to be way too red for the project I bought it for and in general probably too red for me. I thought red would be a cool color for this mixture of woods to bring out different tones and features and add a bit of surprise to the look. So I applied the danish oil and I also wet sanded the first coat to see if I could get some grain filling with different colors from all the wood.

I really liked the results, the “dirty” look to the maple is a really cool effect. Finally I had some 1”x1” maple offcut that I made a frame from to set off the panel. I just sanded the frame nicely and put paste wax on it. It was a two day project, but I like how it came up and now I have some art for the shop wall.

Building Project: Pull out shelves for shop storage

April 5, 2024

When you have a shop in a relatively small basement storage space is at a premium. I’m constantly looking for ways to add more storage or in this case make the storage I have more usable. The top shelf in the storage behind the basement stairs has been an evolution from open shelves to a set of flat deep drawers and now to make the top shelf more effective pull out shelf organizers. The problem was that if anything went to the back of this 24 inch deep shelf it would be very hard to access. I saw a great deal on Amazon for Blum TANDEM under-mount slides and I’d been watching someone on YouTube making pull out shelves for a kitchen pantry and this gave me the idea to make a bunch of pull out shelves for the shop.

Three of the units are six inches wide and two are nine inches wide. The front three are 18 inches tall and the back two are 15 inches and 14 inches tall respectively. They are all 21 inches deep. The end panels are 3/4 inch natural birch plywood and the top, bottom and shelves are 1/2 inch natural birch plywood. The rails to keep stuff from coming off the shelves are 1/4” natural birch plywood.

The construction is just rabbets top and bottom and dados to support the shelves. I used glue and 15 gauge finish nails ( I love my Milwaukee cordless 15 gauge finish nailer, it is fantastic ). The back of each cabinet is nailed and glued on.

The TANDEM under-mount slides are pretty easy to work with except for one tiny oversight on my part, there is a minimum drawer width because the levers and mechanism to connect the cabinet to the rails have a fixed width and I was just under it with the six inch wide cabinets. I was able to work around it by modifying the bottom of the six inch cabinets so it all worked out.

I also had to reduce the height of the furthest back cabinet because the spacing between units wasn’t as tight as I’d estimated. I was able to just slice the top off of the unit and make it into an open topped roll-out, just like I had designed it that way to clear the pipe going over it.

All in all they work great, pull out smoothly, soft close, clear everything around them and have made that space very usable. I even have some “baby fat” as Adam Savage calls it, extra storage that is empty. That won’t last long.

Building Project: Weaving Bench

April 1, 2024

My beautiful and talented wife is a weaver and she has recently acquired a thirty six inch eight shaft floor loom. I volunteered to make a weaving bench based on a traditional design to go with it. The bench is adjustable in height both for ergonomics and for adjustments for different setup tasks on the loom as well as the weaving process. It has a removable seat top that allows for a storage area inside the seat.

The traditional design that I had seen had very simple butt joints secured with screws. I decided to do mine in maple 1 1/16” x 11 1/4” for the uprights and the stretcher and 3/4” x 7 1/4” for the seat box and top. The stretcher has penetrating tenons connecting to the uprights with a slight bevel on the exposed tenon ends. The seat box has 3/8” box joints and 1/4” plywood bottom and a 3/4” maple removable top with battens on the bottom to align it in the opening of the box so it doesn’t slide around.

I built a new box joint jig for my table saw which worked very well for cutting the joints. The groove for the bottom panel went through one of the box joint fingers on each corner. At assembly time I plugged those holes with a contrasting walnut plug to give a little decorative detail on both sides of the box.

I was able to screw the two end pieces together after marking up all the features and do all the holes, mortises, and curved band saw cuts with them aligned and secure. I rounded over all the edges on both sides of each upright and the stretchers.

After sanding everything to 320 grit I assembled and glued up all the joints. After some post glue up sanding I put on three coats of wipe on polyurethane finish. I am very happy with the finish and my wife is enjoying the bench.

Building Project: Tapestry Loom

March 16, 2024

[NOTE: Here is a weaving glossary to help decode the terminology below.]

My beautiful and talented wife is a weaver and has been weaving for several years now. She asked me if I would make her a Tapestry Loom for some rug weaving projects she wanted to do. My research into plans for such a loom led me to the wonderful book “Loom Construction” by Jeri Hjert and Paul Von Rosenstiel which is out of print but available from used book dealers. The book has basic plans for most types of looms as well as for many of the ancillary weaving tools.

As usual, I didn’t follow the design exactly since the customer wanted a larger loom and one with more than one heddle rod. I didn’t like the warp tensioning system from the design in the book either since it relied on nuts, washers, and a threaded rod and I wanted something less cumbersome. I designed a system that is similar to some production looms from Schacht but instead of just using a captive nut I used a threaded insert that essentially put metal threads inside the tensioning beam of the loom.

I decided to make the loom out of maple and walnut so that there would be interesting contrast between the parts. The main frame members and the dowels would be maple and the stand, heddle support, and the guides for the tensioning screws would be walnut. The guides for the tensioning screws were made with 1/2” penetrating dowel tenons and add two nice dots of walnut to the outside. I attached the heddle support with a half lap joint so that it appears to wrap around the frame.

There were a couple of tricky work holding issues in the construction process. In the case of the moving tensioning beam I had to drill through holes for the threaded inserts exactly at the same offset and in the same plane through a 1” maple dowel ( By the way https://wood-dowel.com/ makes the most beautiful, exactly on size, true, round, taper free, defect free dowels I have ever seen. I didn’t sand them at all because they came with such a smooth finished surface) and then I had to mill two flats on each end of the same dowel also in the same plane leaving a 1/2” tab to slide in the slot in the loom. I made four 2” square collar blocks out of 3/4” material with a 1” hole precisely in the middle. I was then able to use one block as a spacer to position the hole and another one to then drill the hole through. After drilling the first hole I could use a bolt in the first hole through the block and the dowel to keep the dowel in the same orientation while drilling the second hole on the other end. The four blocks on the same dowel with bolts maintaining the position of the dowel allowed me to use the table saw to cut the flats accurately on both ends like cutting a tenon on a rectangular piece of wood.

The second problem was the warping bar which is a 1/2” dowel that is used to connect the two ends of the warp into a loop around the loom. It needed a hole drilled in each end to receive pins through the sides of the loom to anchor it in place during initial warping of the loom. My drill press is a bench top model and the dowel was 24” long so it wouldn’t fit. I was able to overcome this by unfastening the head of my drill press and rotating it 90 degrees so that the quill was now over the edge of the bench. I then turned the drill press table as well so I could clamp the dowel to the side of the table and position the dowel for drilling.

I also improvised the loom stand based on similar stands I’d seen on production looms. I made it out of walnut which I resawed to approximately 3/8” x 1 1/2” and then drilled fixed positioning holes for the different loom angles. I used some knob bolts that I have used on a lot of other projects which are M6 metric bolts and I got some M6 metric wing nuts to have a lower profile, no tools, tightening solution.

I sanded all the loom parts except the dowels to 320 grit, glued everything up, and then I applied paste wax to everything. I have found that this finish is excellent for loom tools and it gives a renewable slightly slippery finish to them.

I was concerned that my changes to the design of the loom would introduce functional problems because I’m not an experienced loom designer and I don’t have deep knowledge of what dimensions are important on looms. However, either through luck or intuition the finished loom works great and everything operates exactly as it should. My wife is very happy with it and is currently learning how best to use it.

P.S. A couple of days later I made a Tapestry Comb which is used by the weaver to press down the weft tightly each time they cycle back and forth. I glued up some maple scraps to make the 4” x 6 1/2” x 1” blank.

Building Project: Wand Cabinet

February 26, 2024

This project was my first one for someone outside my immediate household. My wife’s cousin Erik (in picture above) operates an attraction in Salem, MA called “Professor Spindlewink’s World of Wizardry” , it is a Fantasy Magic Experience… On Christmas Eve he approached me and asked me if I would build a wand cabinet for his gift shop. He sells seven or so types of wands and he wanted something that would display them better and that fit in with the castle theme of his venue.

I thought this sounded like an interesting project so I agreed to build the cabinet if he would pay for the materials. After visiting the gift shop and measuring the space and getting some general ideas for what the look and features of the cabinet would be I drew up some scale concept drawings for Erik’s approval.

After he approved the design I worked out a materials list and an initial cut list. At first I was thinking of making it out of premium MDF but after consulting some folks at the Eastern Massachusetts Guild of Woodworkers (which I recently joined) I realized that it would be very heavy if I used MDF and the fabrication would have to accommodate specific issues with MDF ( special screws etc… ). They suggested using Poplar because it paints nicely, is easy to work with, is light weight, and is inexpensive. So I chose to use Poplar and I was very happy with that decision.

All of the material was 3/4” x 7 1/4” x 8’ boards which I selected for straightness and clearness at Boulter Plywood. I decided that I would make the cabinet in two pieces an upper cabinet and a lower cabinet. I started by gluing up the major panels for the lower cabinet.

All the extra new space in the shop really helped with this process and clamping up panels on the new island was a pleasure. Being able to walk around all sides of it and having it at that height was a game changer.

The panels came out very flat due to a combination of the boards having been milled nicely in the first place, my improving skills at gluing up panels, and an investment in new parallel clamps. I had very little flattening to do and only planed one of the panels.

I built the lower cabinet from the inside out constructing the inner frame of the cabinet and the three vertical dividers and the horizontal drawer opening out of panels 18 1/2” wide and 3/4” thick, rabbeting and dadoing the junctions and then securing them with glue. Since they were going to be largely hidden by outer side decorative panels I was able to reinforce some of the joints with screws.

I drilled the inside of the divided area for adjustable shelf pins and cut six adjustable shelves to fit in those openings. This was easier than trying to make fixed shelves and also more flexible for my client.

I then built four 3”x3” hollow legs with pyramidal feet ( I used a sled on the table saw to cut the beveled sides) I glued and screwed a cap on the end of the legs and then glued and screwed the feet onto them.

Next I glued and screwed (from the inside) the top of the lower cabinet on. Since all the grain was going in the same direction I was able to just directly attach the top.

With the top in place for reference and after milling some grooves in the sides of the legs to receive decorative panels and rails, I glued the legs on to the sides of the cabinet and also screwed them from inside using a 1/4” counter-sink and then plugging the holes to conceal them.

I made a decorative skirt detail for the lower rails in the front and on the sides. I also installed 1/4” plywood panels on each side and a decorative top rail to make the cabinet seem bigger and in proportion to the legs. Next I built the drawer body and the drawer front and installed them in the cabinet. Then I applied the plywood back.

The final detail was to add a 3/8” quarter round with an 1/16” shadow line detail to the edge of the top of the cabinet with the router. I had a serious mess up with this when the bearing on my old round over bit came off in the middle of the front edge of the top. It caused the router to plunge into the front edge a good 3/4” of an inch and for more than two inches forward before I could stop it.

I routed out the damaged area with a 1/2” inch straight cutting router bit and squared up an area for a patch which I cut to size and glued in. Once it was set I was able to sand it flush, finish routing the edge with a new router bit and then I concealed the edges of the patch with fine wood filler.

I built the upper cabinet in a similar manner echoing the leg design with a pillar on either side of the cabinet opening. The panels for the upper cabinet were 10” wide with the top 10 1/2”. I extended the sides of the cabinet up and down an extra 2 1/4” to give the central area of the cabinet a 3” border, and I added filler panels to close in those areas. I didn’t want to put four pillars on the top of the cabinet since it would make the side panel too small and it would make it look cluttered. Instead I added a “wing” off the back edge of the cabinet that receives the decorative side panel and the rails.

I then figured out the angle that I wanted for the wand display shelf which would be through the center of the cabinet. I put it on cleats so that it could be removable and replaceable in the future. I covered the shelf in red felt to provide a nice display surface for the wands.

The top of the upper cabinet was also removable and was attached with four screws and no glue. I installed small LED spotlights to light the wands inside the case and hid the wiring in the upper border of the cabinet with the cord exiting the back.

I positioned the upper cabinet on top of the lower cabinet and drilled mounting holes with countersinks through the bottom of the top cabinet into the top of the lower cabinet. I then enlarged the holes in the bottom cabinet and installed threaded inserts for M8 furniture connector bolts. These secure the two parts of the case. I added a sheet of red felt for the bottom of the case to cover the bolt heads.

I created full overlay doors with clear acrylic panels in them and repeated the 3/8” quarter round detail around the border of the doors.

Finally I created a decorative pediment to go on top of the upper cabinet. I created a template for the curved profile and then used the band saw and sander to cut the mitered sides of the box into the final shape. I added a matching 3/8” quarter round detail to the bottom of the upper cabinet top and to the edge of the pediment.

Next I applied premium wood filler to all of the seams and gaps and re-sanded the affected areas. Then I applied decorative wood appliques to give the front legs and the upper pillars some additional embellishment.

The finish for this project was paint and I had selected a dark brown/red semi-gloss latex. I set up the garage for spraying and I sprayed everything initially with Zinnser 1-2-3 gray primer using spray cans. That went very well and covered and laid down nicely. I had acquired an inexpensive cordless airless sprayer with the intent to spray the latex top coat as well. After multiple test spray-outs however I just didn’t like the way it was going on and I didn’t want to risk it on such a large cabinet. I switched to plan B and I applied the latex with a roller and with brushes. This worked great and after two coats the finish looked really nice.

I reassembled all of the parts, installed the acrylic in the doors ( I had painted some wood appliques for the upper corners of the windows to look like fretwork and just super-glued them to the acrylic), installed the door knobs, drawer pulls, and hasp for the door.

Erik and I installed the cabinet into his gift shop and it looks great with the wands in it and fits right in with the rest of the environment. I’m very happy with my first commission, it was a great experience and I got to do a lot of new things on this project.

Building Project: A small gift box...

January 3, 2024

My beautiful and talented wife had a great idea this year to exchange “Maker gifts” with some of our friends that we usually do holiday gifts with. They are creative, crafty people as are we. I decided to make a small wooden box with an interesting grain pattern for one of the gifts.

My idea was to use three woods and have the grain of all three woods wrap over the top of the box. I used maple, western red cedar, and walnut. The western red cedar is quite a bit softer than the other two woods which was tricky but it worked out fine in the end.

I cut the wood into strips and then resawed them to 1/2” thickness. This accidentally had the effect of book matching the two stripes of maple on the outside of the blank. I glued up two blanks with extra length and width in the pattern that I wanted.

I’m still figuring out how to use the Rockler Panel Clamps with material thinner than 3/4” it’s a little challenging to pad out the space and get even pressure. I had a decent result with this setup.

I flattened the panel that I decided to use ( you may see the other one in a future project ) with the sanding station and palm sander. I squared it up and cut it to width centering the pattern in the process. I then cut a rabbet on all sides of the panel to receive the sides of the box and the bottom. I then cut the top of the box using a 45 degree miter on the table saw. I had to tweak it a little on the sander and shaving a tiny amount off on the table saw. I then trimmed the front and back of the box to the correct length.

I sanded all the components to final 320 grit inside and out because I wanted to finish the inside to show the grain pattern running through there as well. I then glued the box up.

Once it had dried I tidied it up with the sanding station and I re-sanded areas as needed. I then set the table saw to 1 1/2” and cut around all four sides to create the top lid of the box. I sanded the cut edges then I applied natural Danish Oil in the usual manner.

When the finish had dried I glued in a piece of blue felt to line the bottom of the box and put hinges and a front hasp on the box. I also applied a thin coat of paste wax to the outside of the box.

I really like how the box came out and the person I made it for was pleased with it.

Building Project: Adding work space to the shop

December 18, 2023

My shop where I build things is located in my basement and is connected to my garage which is also under the house. It isn’t very big so I’m always looking for ways to get more room for projects and machines. Recently I was told that my 40+ year old oil powered steam boiler was on it’s way out and that I’d have to replace it. I realized that I could solve this problem and reclaim almost 20 square feet of floor space where my oil tank was located if I converted to gas.

Oil tank on top of platform, under platform is a coal pile from 1929…

So, after a long period of dances with electricians, plumbers, removal people, inspectors etc… I have a new gas powered steam boiler ( No really, I wasn’t going to rip out all of the steam pipes and radiators in my 1929 house, I don’t care… ) and unfortunately under the platform and the coal pile was a granite outcropping like others at the back of my basement. If I wanted a flat floor for a work surface I’d have to reduce the outcropping to at least floor level.

I thought “How hard can it be?” and went out and got a hammer drill, a carbide drill bit, a set of feathers and wedges and set about splitting the outcropping into pieces.

Hammer drill...

Granite removal in progress...

Pile of granite chunks in back yard...

This went well for a while, but it is very hard work. I could only do so much and then I’d have to take a break for a while to keep from hurting myself. Then I ran into a very hard section of the granite that just wouldn’t split. I would tap in the wedges and it wouldn’t crack, the wedges would get stuck and I would end up having to drill the wedges out.

I shifted to “Plan B” which was to score the area at about two inch intervals with a diamond wheel and then use a carbide chisel and sledge hammer to snap off pieces. This made the feather and wedges process seem like the easiest thing in the world. I quickly realized that it would also take forever since I was only getting about a 1/2” thickness of rock removed per round of chipping and I couldn’t even manage to do the whole area at once.

Then I thought perhaps I can just pour concrete in the area that I have cleared and then work on the remaining area in the fullness of time while still getting some floor space. I used multiple online concrete calculators to figure out how much I would need and quickly realized that just mixing that amount of concrete let alone wrangling that number of 50 lb bags would kill me.

“Plan C” rapidly emerged. I called up the masons who had helped me with our new retaining walls and garden landscaping. We came to an agreement on price and in two days they had removed the remaining granite outcropping and poured a new floor section.

Rock removed by professionals and new floor poured…

With the new floor in place I wasted no time in starting to build out the new area. I had thought about the layout many times and I drew up some rough scale drawings to make a material estimate and ordered everything to be delivered from Home Depot. In the meantime I painted the walls with two coats of basement paint.

My plan was to have lower cabinets and work surfaces running into the corner with drawer units and shelf units all painted, with doors, drawer fronts, and cabinet backs to control dust and mildew. There would also be three upper cabinets of similar construction for more shelf storage.

The first step was to screw pressure treated battens to the wall to support the lower and upper cabinets.

Pressure treated battens to support work surfaces screwed to concrete using Tapcon screws…

I then built a 2x4 frame, yes I had considered doing frameless cabinets but I wanted the extra strength to possibly support machines, hammering etc… It also made all of the cabinets modular so if I wanted to move or replace one in the future I could just unscrew it and pop it out of the frame later on.

2x4 frame, yes yes I know it’s unnecessary…

I cut the counter tops out of 23/32” cheap shit sheathing plywood ( which I’m going to top with hardboard later in this story ) and built the boxes, drawers, and shelves out of the same material.

Cabinet boxes 23/32” sides and 1/4” backs… shelf boxes drilled for adjustable shelf pins…

I got a good deal on some cheap drawer slides on Amazon and built and installed all the drawer units with drawer fronts, handles etc… You’ll also note that I’m painting (badly) everything with Zinzer primer to help prevent mildew ( my basement is damp ).

Next was lots of doors, I used simple half-lap joints and some 1” ( really 3/4”) select pine for the frames and 1/4” plywood for the panels. I was able to mass produce the parts since all the uppers were the same doors and the lowers were all the same height.

Doors installed for all of the upper and lower cabinets…

Finally, I built a rolling island with a work surface and storage inside. I found these cool ratcheting leveling casters that have rubber feet that come down and lift up the leg to make the island stationary and it also lets it be leveled pretty accurately.

Rolling leveling work table island with storage…

I’m so excited to have this new workspace finally and I’ve already started building a project with it.

Addendum: A hero tool

I meant to mention a new tool that I got for this project. I knew that I was going to be cutting up a lot of 23/32” ( close to 3/4” ) plywood and other sheet goods for this project. I’ve always been unhappy with clamping straight edges, boards, etc… and trying to follow along them with the circular saw. I watched with jealousy makers on YouTube using lovely Festool Track Saws and doing effortless long cuts. I couldn’t bring myself to part with the money for a track saw. However I found a compromise that only cost a hundred bucks. The Milescraft Track Saw Guide which is an adapter that converts almost any 7.5” circular saw into a track saw. It comes with tracks, clamps, the adapter sled and alignment accessories. I can only say that it works perfectly. It doesn’t do a couple of things that a real track saw can do like plunge cutting and pre-cutting the kerf in front of the saw. I don’t actually need those things, it does everything else. I cut up many sheets of various thickness material quickly and accurately using my 20 year old Porter Cable circular saw and this adapter. Highly recommended.

Building Project: Loom Stand

October 7, 2023

My beautiful and talented wife is a weaver. She recently acquired an Inkle Loom which is used to make decorative belts, borders, ribbons etc… It didn’t come with a stand and she asked if I would make her a stand for it. I have made loom stands before so I was happy to make another one. The loom in this case wasn’t really made to be used on a stand so I decided to make this one more generic with a table top that could be adjusted for angle. I would attach the loom to the table top with knob bolts through the table into threaded inserts in the bottom of the loom.

I was going to make it out of maple like the last one but I didn’t have the right size scraps so I made it out of both maple and walnut. I think the contrasting woods look really nice. The table top is pre-finished furniture grade 3/4” plywood with a quarter inch maple band around it, I sanded the pre-finish off because I was going to put paste wax on the whole thing. I put four 1 1/4” x 2” legs through the top so I could have a place to put the threaded inserts and have the top of the table flush with the top of the support legs.

I used threaded inserts for all of the attachment and pivot points so that there would only be one knob to adjust to loosen or tighten any of the bolts. This worked well once I experimented and found the ideal hole size for the insert. Strangely the inserts were metric inside M8 to be specific but the outside diameter wasn’t an even measurement of any kind it ended up being something like 33/64”.

I made the trestles and the uprights in the same manner as before. I cut the slots for the angle adjustment bars on the router table and I did a better job at centering things this time. The through mortise and tenon joints look nice in contrasting wood.

After a few mock-ups to make sure the hardware was going to work ok, I sanded everything to 320 grit and then glued everything up. I installed the table top to keep the uprights aligned and at the proper separation while the glue set. I did a little sanding of the excess tenons and glue and then I waxed everything with paste wax. This seems to work well for weaving tools, the wax lets the threads slip over the wood without sticking or snagging.

I drilled the holes in the top for holding the loom and drilled matching blind holes in the bottom of the loom for the threaded inserts. I had to create a couple of spacers for the bottom because my knob bolts were a little too long.

The nice thing about this design is if my wife acquires another weaving loom or tool that requires a stand we can just drill some different hold down holes and adapt it to this stand.

I think the threaded inserts worked very nicely and I may go back and adapt the other loom stand to use them as well.

Update on October 17, 2023: I just wanted to put up a scan of my crude drawing that I used to build this one.

Building Project: Outdoor Chairs

September 19, 2023

Please see the prior project for a description of the Fire Table, this project is a complement to that one. I wanted to build some chairs to go with the Fire Table and the new circular patio. We already had a set of chairs we bought ten plus years ago that we really liked so I decided to copy/re-interpret those.

The original chairs were made from teak and teak is WAY too expensive. I made this version from western red cedar. There were a couple of details that required special tooling and fixtures. First one was the rake of the chair back, seat, and back leg. The original manufacturer used a custom finger joint cutter to cut ten degree angle finger joints to join two straight pieces into the angled profile required. I experimented with a standard finger joint router bit in the router table. Let me tell you there is no more terrifying router bit than a finger joint bit. Try as I might I just couldn’t get it to work repeatably, it’d probably work fine to connect two pieces of stock end to end, but not at a ten degree angle.

I decided to use my stacked dado cutter in the table saw and make a custom ten degree box joint sled fixture. This worked great and I was able to make some prototypes of the joint that worked great. It’s also a ninety degree box joint cutter which I’m going to use on my next drawer project.

The back legs glued up great, the angled box joint is very strong. The angle of the back also introduced an issue with the side rails of the chair. In the original the manufacturer had just used screws and wood plugs to connect the rails to the legs. I didn’t want to do that so I decided to do through tenons. The issue was that the mortises in rear leg have to be parallel to the ground so I had to create some ten degree angled block fixtures so I could clamp the legs in the right orientation to drill and chisel the mortises. I also had to create a table saw sled for cutting the ten degree angled shoulders for the tenons.

This all worked very nicely, I found that using a coping saw to square up the through mortises worked better than chisels in the soft cedar. Also, I discovered a minor issue with my otherwise wonderful Dewalt table saw. While it has a big enough arbor for an eight inch dado stack and a nice dado throat plate from the manufacturer, the height setting on the blade doesn’t lock so spinning the mass of a three quarter inch wide dado stack causes the blade to drift downward as you cut. I found that inserting an f-clamp through the front of the saw body and clamping the adjustment wheel tightly stopped this.

I built one chair completely as a proof of concept before I went into production mode to crank out all the parts for the other three.

I also had to get into metal fabrication on this project, the seats on these chairs are fabric sling seats and they are held by aluminum clamping bars bolted through the side rails. I couldn’t find any off-the-shelf hardware like this so I ordered some one inch by half-inch aluminum flat bar. I cut the bars to length, copied the hole pattern from the original chair, drilled them, deburred the holes, rounded the ends on the bench sander, sanded them like wood up to 220 grit which gave them a very smooth brushed look and then I applied two coats of clear spray lacquer. The original clamps were tubes with plugs in the ends, but these look very similar and work great.

Finally I needed to sew the slings for the seats and the backs of the chairs. I found the fabric that was used for the original chairs from a company called Sunbrella. It is a really nice outdoor fabric which doesn’t break down with exposure to the elements and is very comfortable. In order to not have the edges unravel you need to cut it with a hot knife which melts the edges as you cut. You use a sheet of glass for the cutting surface so you don’t set your table on fire and you have something for the cutter to just glide across.

I got a refresher course on using the sewing machine from my beautiful and talented wife. I found the right needle to use ( a ball point to avoid splitting the fibers of the fabric ) and the right thread, a heavy gauge nylon thread that is UV resistant. I watched some videos on cutting and sewing this kind of fabric on the Sailrite sewing machine YouTube channel. I learned about double sided seam tape and how to reduce the thickness in the corners of a panel. Then there was lots of measuring, cutting, folding, taping and finally sewing to make all the panels. I used the hot knife to punch the holes for bolts to pass through and mounted the seats and backs.

I’m really pleased with how they came out and I learned a lot doing this project. I got comfortable with the stacked dado head cutter, and building custom sleds for the table saw, and my sewing improved a lot. I decided not to put finish on any of this outdoor furniture as there was considerable difference of opinion about finishes for cedar for outdoors. It will just weather to grey like the rest of our outdoor furniture. I can always put some mineral oil on it later like I’ve done with the teak if it turns out it needs it. On to the next project!

Update 10/24/2023: Just a couple of updates after deployment. First, one of the chair backs had a joint fail. Incredibly it seemed like the glue never cured and the joint just finally slipped. After some research I found out that western red cedar has an oil that interacts with Tightbond III which is the glue that I used. Apparently you need to sand or machine the surfaces right before applying the glue or it will interact with the oil that comes to the surface. This explains why all of the other joints are just fine and only this one failed. I built this joint and did dry fits with it but I didn’t glue it for several days because it was the first one I did. The rest of the joints I glued up very shortly after machining them. I was able to repair the joint with a brace glued and screwed to the back and I also injected some CA glue into the joint. It is just fine now. Here’s what a good joint and the failed joint look like:

Also I wanted to just share my drawing for the chairs such as it is…

Travel: Greece

June 6, 2023

For the last three years my beautiful and talented wife and I have been trying to go on a tour of Greece that included Crete and all of the great Minoan history there. We finally managed to go in May this year. We went on a tour with Smithsonian Journeys aka Odysseys Unlimited called Classical Greece. We’ve been on many other tours with these folks and as usual the whole experience was top notch. So, lets go day by day…

Day 1,2: Travel to Athens

We flew out of Boston to Munich on Lufthansa ( a partner of United where I have most of my miles ) overnight arriving early in the morning. We fortunately have lounge access so our five hour layover due to a connecting flight change wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We got into Athens a little late but on the good side our luggage made it and it was returned very promptly. We took a cab to the hotel the Athens Capital Center Hotel.

We checked in and in an effort to stay awake for a few more hours we went up to the rooftop bar and had a cocktail.

Day 3: The Acropolis, The Parthenon, Acropolis Museum, and the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture

Our first real day on the tour we are in Athens, breakfast at the hotel was excellent and after a lot of coffee we headed out to go to the Acropolis. We took the bus part of the way up and then walked up through the gates. We were here fourteen years ago but the site, located on top of the hill overlooking Athens is always amazing to look at. They’re in the middle of a major restoration of the Parthenon which is the huge temple at the center of the site. We were early enough that it wasn’t very crowded and we could move around easily. Our guide Lena was excellent, very informative, very organized, and very strategic about where she brought the group and when.

After getting a chance to walk around the Acropolis we went back down the way we came up and walked to the new Acropolis Museum. We were very excited to see this museum as we just missed it’s opening when we visited fourteen years ago. This museum is really beautiful and thoughtfully presented especially the upper floor which is a full scale representation of the marble carvings that used to adorn the Parthanon including detailed replicas of the stolen carvings that are held at the British Museum. Hopefully someday the British Museum will change it’s position and return the carvings in their collection to Greece and they can be displayed here where they belong.

After getting some lunch at the museum cafe we returned to the bus and went to see the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture. This museum is a private collection of a great number of cultural artifacts from Greece. The presentation is a bit old fashioned but the collection itself is very extensive and impressive.

We had a lovely group dinner, which like most of the lunches and dinners on the trip involved excellent Greek appetizers followed by an excellent main course and then some kind of sweet desert. It was definitely good that we were on our feet all day. Needless to say sleeping was not a problem.

Day 4: Delphi

We got on the bus early for the drive to Delphi which is on the slopes of Mount Parnassus a couple of hours drive out of Athens. This is one of the most important oracular sites in Greece. People would travel from all over the Greek world to bring offerings and petition to ask for a prophesy from the Oracle. On the hill as you walk up to the main temple there are treasuries, statues, small temples, all of them offerings from cities or very wealthy people. Many of the artifacts in the museum are offerings that were excavated on the site. At the bottom of the sacred way up the hill there were vendors selling things to use as offerings or even just as souvenirs.

It was raining lightly when we arrived, the mist gave the whole place a great atmosphere. The views as you climbed up to the temple are beautiful looking down the valley. It is one of the nicest ancient sites that I’ve visited for it’s location and landscape.

Again, due to the planning of our tour guide we were there before the hoards that usually crowd the site. We walked down from the site to the museum located on the road below. It was a really nice modern museum with some very striking artifacts from a number of periods of the temple’s use.

Day 5: Corinth / Peloponnese

In the morning we went to the National Archaeological Museum which was just stupendous. There are collections from all periods of ancient Greece along with excellent presentation and documentation. We almost had the museum to ourselves.

From there we took the bus to visit Ancient Corinth. This is where the apostle Paul addressed the Corinthians ( who decided not to prosecute him for blasphemy for his thoughts on the one God ). It was cool to stand below the platform in the agora where he would have given his speech. The city is very well preserved. It was an important port city back in ancient times.

From there we went to the town of Nafplio a nice coastal city on the Peloponnese to have dinner and spend the night.

Day 6: Epidaurus, Mycenae, and Nafplio

First thing in the morning we left on the bus to go to the ancient city of Mycenae which was a powerful local city that controlled the area around it. It was built by the first Greeks by language and writing who are called the Mycenaeans. Many of the stories of Homer relate to these people and their legendary adventures.

After visiting Mycenae we went to a nearby town of Epidaurus which was a special healing shrine. People would travel there and stay in the hospital and receive treatments for whatever was ailing them. Of course most of these treatments were mystical in nature so perhaps not directly effective. But perhaps leaving their day to day life to rest in the sanctuary helped a lot of folks recover on their own.

We had the afternoon off, which in general meant we had lunch and then had a nap.

Day 7: Hydra

This day was a day trip by boat to the island of Hydra off the coast of the Peloponnese. It was a nice island with a charming waterfront. It was a nice break from taking in lots of information about Greek history for several days. We just wandered around and then had lunch before returning on the boat.

Day 8: Heraklion, Crete

We drove back to the airport in Athens and took a short flight to Crete and basically just checked into the hotel and had dinner after a short walk through town.

Day 9: Knossos

We went first to visit the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, they have all of the finds from Knossos and other sites on Crete. Knossos was a Minoan city built in the Bronze Age and the Minoans were a pre-Greek civilization with probably a different language and their writing called Linear-A has not been deciphered. Their art and their architecture however are amazing and you can see it’s influence on later Mycenaean works. They were a sea faring culture that traded with the Egyptians and were recorded by them in paintings and writings. Knossos was excavated and reconstructed by the English Archaeologist Arthur Evans. We also visited the reconstructed site, it gave a great impression of what the architecture of the Minoans would have been like.

Day 10: Spinalonga

This day was another sight seeing trip to a small island off of Crete called Spinalonga which was a Venetian fortress later taken by the Turks and then made into a Leper colony. We wandered through the fortress and had a boat ride around it. Then we went back and had lunch in a small town near by provided by a women’s collective who do traditional cooking for weddings, festivals and other celebrations. They were very kind to us and the food was wonderful, several items I’d never had before.

Day 11: Santorini

We took a high speed ferry over to Santorini from Crete. I was impressed that our tour guide got us on the boat, wrangled all of our luggage and got us all back off with our bags on the other end. It was sort of an every person for themselves sort of scene.

Day 12: Santorini / Akrotiri

Santorini was a Minoan settlement as by all accounts a very rich island. In 1600 BCE the volcano in the center of the island exploded creating the caldera you see above. It also buried everything in the vicinity under a very thick blanket of volcanic ash. The city of Akrotiri was discovered by a shepherd when his goat went down a hole in the ash covering and he found evidence of buildings there. It was on the side of the island that was lightly covered with ash only 30 feet or so. Subsequent excavations have uncovered the city center and about ten percent of the town. It is preserved very well including casts of furniture and other household items that decayed inside their compacted ash enclosure.

Day 13, 14: Travel back to Athens and then to the US

We flew back from Santorini to Athens and had a night to have an excellent farewell dinner in the same roof top restaurant/bar we started in. The only excitement on the way home was a delay getting out of Athens to Munich made our connection very tight. But by some fairy magic there was nobody in passport control when we got there and we zipped through to our gate. We were a little winded but we made it.

We really enjoyed the trip, the museums, sites, hotels, restaurants, the countryside all lived up to our expectations.

Three years retired... An update...

March 13, 2023

This was actually the week that I retired three years ago, I gave my notice on March 16, 2020 and my last day was April 15, 2020. I figured I’d write an update to talk about how things are going.

The process of writing this blog has been helpful because it provides me with a diary of sorts to go back and review and read what I was thinking about and doing in the past. I’m happy that I’ve spent time in the last three years doing all of the things that I visualized myself doing when I retired. My focus has just naturally shifted from one thing to another as my motivation and inspiration dictated. I’ve tried not to force one thing or another to happen. Some projects have come to a natural resting place and I may or may not revisit them. Some trends have developed that I can see continuing for a while.

Building projects have come to dominate my activity and they’ve grown in size and sophistication over the last three years. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and improved my skills a lot over that time. It’s really satisfying to read older posts and to see the progression to more recent ones. Even better is knowing that there is a lot more I need and want to learn.

Writing about my career in the software industry has slowed down, I have covered most of the topics that I had brainstormed on my list three years ago. I’m working slowly on an additional post in this area, but I think it’ll take a while.

I still sit down at the piano and play for myself and noodle on ideas there with some regularity. I think I’m figuring out another project there but again it might be some time before I get focused enough about it to bear down and make it real.

I still enjoy computer gaming with my Occulus Quest 2 ( now Meta ) but it sorta ebbs and flows because so many games that are interesting to me also end up being multi-player only and I’m not interested in interacting with random adult children (and children children) online. But, every so often something comes out with a deep single player campaign and I play it to the best of my old guy slow twitch ability.

Traveling is looking up and we’re hoping to do a major trip to Greece this year and we were able to take a traditional fall vacation in Aruba last year. I was able to get to New York Winter Jazz Fest this year and that was absolutely fantastic.

I’ve been reading more regularly than when I was employed and I’ve returned to subscribing to comic books and reading them for the first time in thirty years or so. I pass the read comic books to my neighbor’s kids since I don’t really collect stuff, they seem to really enjoy them.

I try to keep in touch with colleagues that I’ve worked with and when I talk with them I remember working and I recognize all of the stuff they’re dealing with. It all just feels distant now and I only think of it spontaneously when an item in the news or a moment in a TV show triggers a memory. I’m always happy to chat… I’ve got a very flexible schedule.

A frequent question I get from folks when I tell them I’ve been retired for a while is: “Are you bored? Are you going back to work?” My answer so far has been “…laughs out loud… Oh fuck no!” I am not lacking for projects I’m interested in, and though I miss some of the social aspects of working, the whole blog post I wrote about things I won’t miss is still very true.

In a natural sort of way I feel my old career is getting further and further away behind me. I know less and less about my old companies, when former colleagues mention the names of upper management I often have no idea who they are. Many folks have moved on in their careers sometimes to a couple of companies since then or started their own. I don’t know what a lot of them do anymore. That’s good too, the tendrils of stress related to old plans that I was so focused on delivering have gone from being a once in a while tweet where I would think “Whew, they finally did that…” to not following at all because I don’t recognize any of it anymore.

My plan is to not go back to doing stuff for money (if I can avoid it,) and so far so good. I know that all the important things I learned in my career are timeless and have more to do with dealing with groups of humans than any fleeting technology. If I ever had to I could absolutely do it again, there might be some rusty machinery noises, but it would all come back.

Other than travel (which requires future planning,)I really don’t have any hard and fast goals or KPIs ( sarcasm ) other than to continue as I am. I hope I get to do it for a long time.

That’s all I can think of right now, I’ll probably post another update at some point.

Cheers,
James

Building Project: Side Table Completed!

February 12, 2023

The second part of the TV Lift Case project was to make a side table that matched the TV Lift Case and the rest of the furniture in the room. The table is meant to be a place for guests to set a drink and to have some drawers for storage. I had designed the side table, ordered all the stock, and rough cut the frame parts along with the TV Lift Case. After installing the previous project and cleaning up the shop, I was able to go ahead and finish up construction on the side table.

Like the previous project there was a lot of mortising and fitting tenons and then installation of panels. It was nice to be working on something a lot smaller because all of the work could be done directly on the bench.

Then there was the glue up of the top from the same five and half inch wide Walnut boards. The much smaller top was easy to glue up in my ROCKLER panel clamps, such a great tool.

Then I made the three drawers out of three quarter inch natural birch plywood. I used a new technique that I’d seen on a YouTube channel ( sorry I’m not sure which one ) that used a sort of lock joint at the front, it uses a groove in the front of the drawer and a tenon on the side of the drawer that interlock providing registration and alignment as well as a lot of glue surface. It’s a lot easier to fabricate than more complex box corners like dovetails or finger joints but it provides a lot of the benefits. I found that these were some of the strongest and most square drawers I’ve built to date. I’m definitely going to use this technique going forward.

I changed the way that I mounted the drawer slides, in the past I’d mortised in rails to screw the slides to, in this one I realized that I could just cut an eighth inch rabbet along a single piece of half inch plywood on each side and glue it on the inside of the frame to provide a continuous support top to bottom on each side. A lot less fiddly to fabricate and very strong. You can see this detail in the view up from the bottom in the gallery above.

I made the drawer fronts out of the same five and half inch boards as the top. I added a bevel detail to them to make the front less featureless. I was able to buy the same exact pulls that all the other furniture in my living room use from Pompanoosuc Mills the folks that built them. They were nice to sell me a set as a courtesy. If you like beautiful hand made furniture you should check them out, everything they make is stunning and I have owned many pieces for decades now.

I also cut a detail on the edge of the table top to echo the detail on the other furniture. Then it was on to sanding, again made faster and easier by this piece being smaller and working just in the heated part of the shop on the bench. I then glued everything up and installed the drawers and drawer fronts. Finally I finished it all with WATCO Dark Walnut Danish Oil followed three days later with WATCO Wipe on Polyurethane.

Finally I reinstalled all the hardware and we put the side table where it will live between the guest chairs in the living room.

I’m very happy with how it came out, I learned some new stuff and I think improved some technique on this project.

I think the next few projects will be much smaller and less “ambitious.”

Building Project: TV Lift Case Finished!

January 24, 2023

Whew! Twenty days since the last update and the TV Lift Case is finished and it is in our living room. Well, return with me now to twenty days ago…

After getting all the fabrication done and dry fitting everything I took it all apart again and began sanding. And sanding, and sanding. There are a lot of pieces, and it took about three days total to get everything sanded through three grits 120,220, and 320. I set up a work table so I could sit down while I was sanding. I can tell you my hands and forearms were sore after holding a running palm sander for three days.

Next came applying the finish. This time around I decided to do WATCO Danish Oil with a WATCO Wipe on Polyurethane top coat. I didn’t immediate know which shade of their Walnut Danish Oil I wanted to do so I made a couple of sample pieces with the full finish.

I tested the Medium Walnut (Left) and Dark Walnut (Right) and both me and my beautiful and talented wife liked the Dark Walnut. It seemed warmer and since I was trying to come close to a similar finish on furniture we already had in the living room it also matched better.

Then it was on to a couple of days of applying the finish. One challenging thing was finding space in the part of my basement shop that is warm enough this time of year. I managed to cram everything into the heated space to make sure that the finish would cure properly.

Then I went off to New York for New York City Winter Jazz Fest, three days of wonderful music, great performances, and just hanging out in New York. It also gave the Danish Oil time to completely cure before I started on the three coats of wipe on poly which took a couple of long days. With four hours between coats I caught up on house work and stuff in between.

Finally I assembled the doors and glued them up, a bit tricky because of the way I made the frames for the acrylic, instead of just framing them and installing them from the back the acrylic is actually in a groove inside the frame permanently. Not the way you’re supposed to do it but it’s how I did it. There was some juggling to get all the panels and mullions in place, but I managed to do it.

And then… some electrical work. All along I had wanted to have some kind of safety switch to prevent the lift from going down when the swing arm was extended. With some advice and moral support from my brother the electrical engineer I was able to come up with a circuit that used a micro-switch to disable the lift motor unless the swing arm was completely closed and pressing in the switch. It works great, the only addition after initial testing was a strong magnet on the swing arm bracket to hold the swing arm closed when it is folded up. Turns out the weight of the TV causes it to drift open without it.

I was able to get the same connectors that the manufacturer used to connect the motor to it’s power supply and controller. This meant that I could patch in without cutting any of their wiring. I got some small project boxes to house the micro-switch and the connector for the motor. I found a good place on the frame to bolt the case on so that the switch trigger would contact the swing arm only when it was completely closed.

Then it was finally installation day. With the help of my beautiful (and strong) and talented wife and a dolly and some rope and some ramps to get out the front door, we were able to move the old TV Cabinet out of it’s place. Before hand I had to extract all the cable and streaming and dvd gadgets and their cables. I also had to finally get rid of all of our old VCR tapes that were in the drawer and hadn’t been touched in decades ( yay de-cluttering! )

We also brought all the parts of the new case upstairs and staged them. I reassembled it in the living room and installed the lift, a power strip, cable box, roku box, dvd player, optical to analog audio adapter, and of course the TV. I put felt on the bottom front edge of the TV because it does droop on the swing arm a little and contact the top of the case, the felt lets it just glide across. Here’s a video of it installed and in operation.

Video of TV Lift Cabinet in action.

Finally, I installed the inside LED spot lighting and put some of our nice artifacts that we’ve collected inside. I think it looks nice with the TV deployed and without.

I’m very happy with how it came out and how it functions. Next up is moving on to the matching side table that is part two of this build.

Building Project: TV Lift Case More Progress

January 3, 2023

Another twelve days on the project and I’m done with major fabrication. After the last update I built the false back that divides the front of the case where things will be displayed from the back where the TV and the TV lift mechanism will live. I essentially built a floating frame for the removable plywood panel that forms the false back of the case. I cut a 1” by 3/8” rabbet around the inside of the frame and cut really nice miter joints for the corner. I glued it up and then for strength ( since it is a large frame ) I added a counter sunk screw at each corner. I had some nice hook and loop fastener and I cut eight squares and secured the plywood panel in the recess with them. It looks great like a very fancy cabinet back and yet it is removable in case I ever need to get at the lift or TV.

I made some small panels that will get glued to the inside of the cabinet on the sides to hide the back of the side panels making the interior look completely finished. The plywood I’m using is a bit under 1/4” so there’s even a bit of reveal next to the frame members which helps the illusion. I cut them a bit long so they slide behind the divider making a very nice look.

Next I made the electronics shelf for the cable box, dvd player, Roku etc… to sit on. The trick here was to make it removable so that the panel could be removed behind it. I remembered that I had some shelf pins left over from another project and they were just the thing. I cut the shelf out of 3/4” walnut plywood and set the pins to have it be flush with the top of the middle rail of the cabinet. It’s pretty easy to get in and out of the cabinet.

After this I built the top of the cabinet. I rough cut the 5 1/2” walnut boards to one inch over the final dimensions of the top. After some sorting and arranging to get the best general alignment of the boards I glued them up. I used my new Rockler Panel Clamps and one additional home made clamp made from some center tapered 2x4’s cut to the width of the panel and covered in masking tape. The Rockler clamps worked extremely well. The resulting panel was super flat with no twist in it over all and only some local issues at the seams. I didn’t clean up the glue thinking I could just snap it off with a panel scraper later… won’t do that again. It took scraping, planing, and sanding to get rid of it. I used my new jack plane for the rough smoothing then 80 grit sanding. All in all it looks flatter and better than my last panel glue up.

I cut the panel to final dimension on my table saw for the sides and with my circular saw with an edge guide for the end cuts. I used a coping saw to round the front corners of the top. I then routed the edge detail on with my small router and a 3/8” round over bit with a bearing. The top edge has a 1/8” shoulder before the round-over just like the other furniture in the living room. At this point I needed to do a full test installation of the TV Lift, swingarm, and TV in the case so I could figure out the brackets I’d need to make or modify and to plan where to cut the top into two pieces so one of them could rise up with the TV.

I created a couple of brackets to attach the lift to the bottom of the cabinet and I modified the top lift bracket to fit my setup. All I can say is my cheap RIKON 10” band saw keeps impressing me, I was able to saw through 1/8” steel to trim the bent sides of the top bracket off. It wasn’t comfortable, but with a little cutting oil and some smoky moments it worked. I got the lift mounted and attached to the top. I did all of this with the top in one piece because I realized I would get more precise positioning this way. I then cut the top that I’d just laboriously glued up into two pieces. It came out great and it turned out that my modified connecting plate could just stay on providing a perfect alignment guide for re-installation on the lift.

I installed the swing arm and the TV, I had to adjust the height of the TV’s adapter bracket but it just fit… I may actually have to rout out relief in the bottom of the lid so I can raise the TV another 3/8” of an inch because it is just clearing the top of the case when the swing arm is extended. We’ll see.

After confirming all of that would work and that the lift can handle it going up and down I drilled the wire port in the back with my 2” hole saw. I drilled another wire port in the false back on the right side of the electronics shelf. I got some 2” black grommets to dress up the wire ports and help control the wires.

Next it was on to build the doors. I cut all the frame members out of 2” x 3/4” stock and ripped some 1” x 3/4” stock for the mullions. I laid out all the mortises that I would need and cut all of the tenons that I required using my new mortising jig. I drilled out the rough mortises as before and cleaned them up with a chisel. I have 1/8” acrylic for the “glass” in the doors so I put in a 1/8” x 1/4” groove along the inside of the frames and mullions to receive it.

The doors came together quickly and my only mistake was cutting one of the acrylic panels 1/16” too small, I’ll have to remake it before final assembly.

I mocked up the doors and they fit perfectly and I also verified that the hinges will work, fit and look good.

The next step is going to be a lot of sanding and then finishing and then glue up. Some parts like the doors I am probably going to finish them before gluing them up to keep the finish off the acrylic.

I’ll post another update soon.

Building Project: TV Lift Case Progress

December 22, 2022

So I’m about twelve days into the build and things are going well. I started out cutting all the stock for the frame of the TV Lift Case and the Side Table to length. Then I used my new tenoning jig for the table saw to cut all of the tenons. Fortunately all of the tenons were identical and on the same thickness stock so it went very quickly. I really like the jig, once it is dialed in on a scrap piece of stock it is very consistent and repeatable.

Then I had to also process the skirt boards for the cases which have an arch detail on the bottom. I ended up having to run to Lowes to get a 48” metal ruler so I could use it to scribe the arch. I clamped two pencils at either end of the skirt board and then with the ruler pressed upward against them I pulled it’s center to the peak of the curve and then scribed a line along it. I did this on pairs of skirt boards of the same size that I had taped together. I cut the curve following the line just a bit on the outside with the band saw and then cleaned up curve with the sanding station and a sanding tube on the drill press. I also ripped about 1/2” off of the width of the skirt boards and adjusted the tenon to keep the 1/4” shoulder at the top because the stock I got was 3 1/2” and I needed 3” to have the inside of the case match the height of the TV Lift mechanism.

At this point I moved on to cutting all of the mortises. I used my new x-y vise on the drill press for this and it really helped both the speed and accuracy of removing the bulk of the material in the mortises using a 1/4” Forstner bit. There’s a little bit of slop in the ways on this Harbor Freight vise so I had to tweak the position and use a square reference to verify it vs. the layout but once it was set it stayed very true through each cut and there was a lot less clamping and re-clamping and less error in general. Also the tweaking was easy since the fine adjustments in x-y were trivial. I also invested some time in re-sharpening my 1/4” chisel and as anyone who has put off sharpening their chisel will say “What a difference!”

Then there was a lot of cleaning up mortises and tenons and dry-fitting them and dry-fitting them again. The front of the case has a flush face and the rest of the case is recessed so I had to be really careful with the layout. The skirt board distance to the top of the case was also critical because the lift needs to be mounted against the top of the case and so we need enough room for it.

Next, I wanted to confirm that the TV Lift was going to fit so I cut the bottom panel and got it fitted. I used some spacer blocks to hold it up flush with the top of the skirt boards. I test mounted the lift in the case and it fits just fine. I realized that I hadn’t ordered the right bracket for the top of the lift so I ordered that and it’s on it’s way. Also I’m going to have to make a lower bracket because I want to mount it to the floor of the case, not to the back as it was designed. This is why you test fit everything before you go too far.

After this I took a brief break to see if my idea to mount the TV on a swing arm on the lift was going to work. So I built a bench test rig in the shop so I could run the lift with everything attached. This went quite well, I was able to remove some of the original TV mounting hardware on the lift and bolt on the swing arm without having to drill any holes or modify any of the parts. Then the TV mounted up nicely to the swing arm and the lift seems to manage both of them easily. It is well within the 120 lb limit of the lift mechanism.

After confirming that was all good it was on to doing the side panels of case. I carefully marked where all the panel grooves would be on all of the frame parts. It really does make you nervous performing possibly destructive operations on parts that you’ve invested a lot of time into where you have limited replacement stock as well. Fortunately my new set of precision setup blocks made setting the blade height and distance on the table saw much easier and more accurate. I’ve also adopted the process of always performing cuts on a scrap first and confirming all of the dimensions before proceeding to final cuts. All the grooves went very well. I had to do some of the panel cuts with my hand held circular saw because the panel dimension was too big for my table saw. I developed a good method of clamping the panel to a table or two tables and using a nice straight piece of maple as a saw guide. Next time I order panels I’m going to have the supplier at least cut them in half, I had to have my lovely and talented brother come over and help me with the 3/4” thick panels which were just too unwieldy for me to even move around without bashing everything in the vicinity.

I also installed the cleats made from the off cuts of the skirt boards to hold up the floor of the case. I’m going to hold the floor in place with screws and clips on the bottom.

So, you’ll notice that the interior sides of the cabinet are the “bad side” of the one sided 1/4” walnut plywood. And since this is going to have glass doors, you’ll see them. I know, and I have a plan. The next step, now that I’ve confirmed the size of the whole TV assembly is to build the removable divider between the front and back of the cabinet. Once that is fitted where it’s going to go, I’ll cut inset panels for the interior of the cabinet sides which will get glued onto the back of outside panels and then finished. This will make the inside front that you’ll see look perfect.

That’s all for now, I’ll keep y’all posted with new updates as I go.

Building Project: Improving shop storage...

October 2, 2022

One of the first projects I did after I retired was to replace an old broken down bench with large shelves for storage. It was a good improvement to the shop and did fine service for the last couple of years. However, in two years I’ve acquired more tools and as I filled up that shelf I realized that it was messy and inefficient for getting to things without having to move everything else. Then I was watching an Adam Savage YouTube video of one of his one-day builds to make Flat File Tool Storage and I saw the solution to both problems. Additionally I realized that much of the stock for the project could come from my off cut pile, which needed cleaning out in any case.

The space I had available in the middle shelf next to my bench was 45” x 24” x 13” this included clearance to have the drawers come out and not run into things on the pegboard on one side and to not interfere with my clamp storage on the other side. I decided to split the space down the middle and make five two inch drawers on the left and three three and a half inch drawers on the right. Originally they were going to be all the same width but due to a mistake I made while routing a dado in the top and bottom ( which it turns out I didn’t need anyway ) I ended up making the three and a half inch drawers a little narrower.

I wrestled with going out and buying a compressor and a brad nail gun to assemble the sides and drawers like Adam Savage does ( I often joke to myself that his projects are 80% brads by the end… ) But, for good or ill I just decided to use some short wood screws, a rabbet on the front and rear panels, and glue to hold stuff in place. The looks didn’t really matter to me for something that was going to be in the shop.

I did get slightly fancy and put on drawer fronts and trim around the installation both for looks and to help reduce the sawdust that could get in on the tools and drawer slides. I also broke down and labeled all the drawers in the shop (and even some bins) to help remind me where things lived.

I used the drawer installation method that I’ve seen Jimmy Diresta do and which I’m sure many others have done where you screw the slides to the drawer and then you line everything up in the opening and slide the drawer forward on some spacer/support sticks and screw in the slides. It definitely works great for getting them aligned nicely and for stacks of drawers where you want nice tight consistent spacing.

After it was installed it triggered a review of where all my tools were stored and a bunch of sorting and culling which was also good for the shop. I got rid of a bunch of broken stuff that I had to finally admit I wasn’t going to fix/adapt/use in any reasonable future. It also flattened out the retrieval for a lot of tools making them more usable because I wasn’t meeting the resistance of having to claw through a pile to get to them.

I’m really happy with how this came out and it is a big upgrade for the quality of life in my shop!

A couple of small projects...

September 4, 2022

My beautiful and talented wife replaced one of her looms with a new one and she needed a stand and a tool trap for it. We’ve learned that the design of the one that was offered for it didn’t really hold the loom in position very well so instead of buying one I copied, resized, and adapted a stand that worked well on her larger loom. In addition I had some 1/4” steel rod which fit the holes on the front of the loom perfectly and I made the rails for a tool trap which she covered with some rip-stop nylon from an old garment bag. A tool trap is just a little hammock along the front of the loom to hold various weaving tools while you’re working.

I had a bunch of nice maple off cuts from the Sewing Table project so I was able to make it out of those. Couple of interesting things in the construction were cutting the slot in the top of the uprights and for the sliding adjustable front supports using my router table and doing through tenons both for the uprights and then through those tenons for the stretcher. I glued it up but I probably could have just wedged it given the way the tenons intersect. I sanded it to 320 grit and put a paste wax finish on it which is very smooth and silky.

I found some nice metric bolts in various sizes with knobs on them for the adjustable positioning elements and also to make the loom removable for storage or use on a tabletop.

The other project was also for my beautiful and talented wife and it was a frame for a cross stitch piece that she finished recently. I made the frame out of black mesquite with a natural danish oil finish. I’m getting better at frames, my miters were better on this one and the glue up and fastening was nicer. I used the frame clamping jig that I acquired after the last effort and that helped a lot. I just did a simple bevel detail on the inside of the frame which looks good.

I used an acid free double stick tape to mount the cross stitch to some foam core and then I put an art board spacer between it and the mat as was recommended in various guides I found online. I used acrylic for the “glass”. We blocked the cross stitch to get it reasonably flat and square

Building Project: Sewing Table Completed

August 14, 2022

The sewing table is completed and deployed to the dining room where it will live as a sideboard when not in use for sewing. I ended up doing water based polyurethane for the finish on top of natural danish oil. It is my first poly finish on a piece of furniture and there are lots of things I will do differently the next time. One is that I need a better source of high intensity raking light in my shop. I missed a lot of sanding artifacts in the top and I didn’t see them until it was too late. Maybe in a few decades I’ll take the top off and sand it again and actually surface both sides, but for now it is fine and very serviceable. Lesson learned.

My modified hinges came out great after further trimming them on the band saw, cleaning up the edges on the sanding station and getting a wire wheel to strip/abrade the original finish off of them. I painted them black and they make a nice contrast with the natural finish. I also realized that they needed squaring up and after doing that the doors fit better with fewer washers and such. Also I didn’t need any catches to hold the doors in place when they were completely folded back.

After figuring out where the light should go I drilled a hole for it in the table top, I pressed in a oil impregnated bronze bushing so it wouldn’t destroy the wood over time. I added a hook inside the cabinet to hang the light on when it is stored. It makes set up really quick and my beautiful and talented wife doesn’t need to mess with those stupid clamps.

I added two magnetic catches to keep the doors closed and some nice knobs to the front and now everything is completed. I was originally going to cut a hole in the lift platform for wires from the sewing machine but because of the way this machine’s foot pedal works it actually makes more sense to have the wires go over the front.

I learned a lot on this one, gained some confidence with some of my tools (like the routers for example,) and I know what I need for the next finishing job.

That’s all for now, I’ll post about the next project soon.

Building Project: Sewing Table Progress

August 4, 2022

It’s been busy on the Sewing Table project. I found a local hardwood supplier Boulter Plywood which was great, they’re right over in Medford and they deliver locally. The milled stock and veneer plywood that they provided was really nice, super clean, the wood had clearly been stored really well. They even send along a bundle of off-cuts, so nice. It is all maple. The plywood is mdf in the middle with two veneer faces, super stable, no voids, gorgeous.

This was the most complex design I’ve done to date, a lot of joints, slide out shelves, solid wood table top, three doors, 270 degree hinges, a hole with a hatch in the tabletop, a sewing machine lift. Fortunately it was very repetitious in terms of fabrication. Groove all the uprights (paying attention to which way the grooves are supposed to be pointing), make the same mortise twenty four or so times, tenon all the tenons. I had a good repeatable setup on the drill press for the tenons. The cheek cuts on the band saw were OK, but I think I’m going to get a table saw jig for next time, the band saw blade deflects at the end of the cut just a little and leaves artifacts that have to be cleaned up.

I put together a little time-lapse video showing some of the repetitive parts of the build:

One new thing was gluing up my first tabletop. The mill provided very straight, very consistent boards and I was able to match the edges no problem. I made it slightly oversize so I could cut it to final dimension after the glue up. It was relatively flat and not bad at all for my first time. I did have to surface it with an 80 grit belt on the belt sander and aggressive diagonal sanding across the whole thing. But, it got into shape really quite quickly and I was very pleased with the result.

Of course the very next thing I needed to do was cut a hole in it for the sewing machine to come up through. This is my second time cutting a hole like this and was resolved to do better this time. I used the rectangular router guide jig that I’d bought after the last time. That seems to be my pattern, I struggle through something and it convinces me to buy the right tool for the next time. I got a really nice 1/4” spiral up cutting bit for the router 1 3/4” long. It did a beautiful job cutting through the over 1” thick solid maple. I did three passes and a lesson for next time is to probably do it in just two passes because the remaining wood wasn’t thick enough to support the piece I was cutting out and I had a small amount of tear out. But cutting from the backside of the tabletop with the up cutting spiral bit resulted in a super clean edge other than that. Fortunately the tear out was all just where I was going to rout a dado for the hatch to sit in in any case and so wasn’t really a problem.

The sewing machine lift from ROCKLER was super easy to install and adjust. I put a temporary plywood version of the lift table for marking the location on the underside of the tabletop. Fortunately I had a nice clean cutting experience with the lift hole and so I’m able to use the offcut as a perfectly matched lift table that fits the thickness of the top and looks really nice.

I did a separate glue-up for the hatch and had to do a 1/2” rabbet that matched depth perfectly both on the top and on the backside of the hatch. I used the same rectangular router guide jig and managed to do it without mangling anything. Probably the most precise routing job I’ve done to date, to within a thirty-second of an inch.

I had to modify the 270 degree hinges ( there aren’t a large selection that I could find ). I did find out that my puny band saw can rip through 1/8” steel no problem and I was able to drill new mounting holes and countersink them on my drill press. My first time using cutting oil, now the shop smells like a shop. I still have to clean them up and paint them black but they work.

The slide out shelves were like very short upside down drawers and so they went pretty quickly. I’m getting better at fitting the slides but I still always get that first width a little too tight. Fortunately since they’re just glued up I was able to just rip a bit off and make them fit perfectly.

The doors were easier this time and they fit well. Splitting the right hand door down the middle and installing my first piano hinge was exciting. I wanted the table to look and function like a sideboard in our dining room when it isn’t in use and I think the doors work well for that.

Finally I had to round the corners ( traced a tuna can for the radius) and round over the top and bottom of the tabletop. My new hand held router did great doing the round over. And so after four grades of sanding on the whole thing today is the beginning of doing the finish. I’m doing a natural Danish Oil finish on this one, and I might put water based polyurethane on it as well, but I’m going to wait a few days and see what I think then.

That’s it for this update, more when it goes into service…

Next Project: Sewing Table with Machine Lift

June 26, 2022

My beautiful and talented wife frequently uses her sewing machine ( as well as the even more frightening Serger, multiple needles and blades). Right now she has to carry it down from her crafts cabinet upstairs and set it up on our kitchen table. The light isn’t the best in the kitchen and moving the machine every time is less than optimal. We have an old desk in our dining room that we never ever use and so we thought perhaps we should get rid of the desk and make a sewing table that could also store both machines and the sewing tool box. The dining room has much better light and there would be no carrying the machine any more. ROCKLER makes a sewing machine lift mechanism that can be put inside a desk or table to make the machine rise up through the top and then disappear inside when not in use.

I’m working on the design now and am iterating on a design that will look like a nice cherry colored ( to match or dining room table and chairs ) sideboard when it isn’t in use. And in fact it could provide a surface to serve food or drinks from in the future when it is closed up. The front will have doors that use 270 degree hinges ( and the big one a piano hinge in the middle ) to swing away to opposite sides of the case to allow the operator's knees to go under the surface. There will be a removable panel in the top that will reveal the sewing machine and allow it to rise up to be either flush with the top or be as if it were set on the top.

We’ll have an adjustable goose-neck lamp that can be stored under the table when not in use and installed in a bracket towards the back of the table when it is being used.

There will be two full extension slide out shelves on the left of the knee opening to store the Serger and the sewing tool box respectively.

It will be on brass ball casters to allow it to easily be pulled out from the wall to make space for fabric to flow through the machine and they will have locks to keep the table from moving around while there is sewing going on.

There will be a big out-feed space for the fabric on the left to make it easy to manage large or bulky pieces.

I’ve got a rough idea of the cut-list and hardware required and I’m waiting for the machine lift to get here from ROCKLER so I can look at it’s requirements and make sure I know how I’m going to accommodate it.

If you want to see a similar project this is the video that led me to the ROCKLER machine lift hardware.

I’m also looking to source the wood from a vendor closer to my home since shipping lumber across the country is slow and expensive.

Here are some design sketches so far: