The Cranky Sailor Workshop - Ep 1
Okay, I don't normally get into the whole 'blogging' thing but with a sentence of encouragement from a fellow LJ I thought I'd take the plunge and show off the length, breadth and depth of my woodworking disabilities on my first real job for another person who actually has money to pay me.
A few things first off..
1. Yes, it's messy. My shop..I know. We just moved into our house a few months ago and things aren't fully stashed away yet. I straighten things out on a daily basis and field day towards the end of the week but clutter is unfortunately my constant companion.
2. I appreciate constructive advice. I'm only at the Junior Chipmonk Woodworking level (got the merit badge to prove it!) and I am quite aware that how I do things isn't always, or perhaps mostly, isn't how things are done by the pros. I'll take advice although I might be past the point where I can make use of it on this project.
3. If you don't like the blog, well, it wasn't my idea! Without mentioning names it was brought on by 3fi~gerpa~. So there.
I now return you to "the cherry coffee table" already in progress:
My neighbor was visiting and saw some of the things that I'd built in the past and 'mentioned' how much she'd like a round topped coffee table made of cherry. Having danced this dance before I told her that I'd see what I could do when I had the time, figuring that the subject would die out like has happened many times before. Well, over the course of several weeks she persisted, even when I told her that the materials alone would run to over $500, so I agreed to make a rough sketchup drawing and see what she thought.
I dunno..I guess you'd call the style…traditional? Simple? Simplistic? As I was going through my stacks of magazines last night I realized it looks similar to a Stickley tabouret. If it was stepped on and squashed by an elephant. Or something.
She loved it. We discussed a few more things but she didn't want the design changed. Armed with her approval on the design I went wood shopping, even got taken to the 'secret warehouse' of rough lumber at Frost Hardwood and brought home some rough stock and started milling. This was my first opportunity to turn ol' Frankenplane loose using my newest, bestest buddy, the 21st century workbench which I built last month. It rocks! Only figuratively, of course; it's stable as heck and heavy as you'd expect from about 160bf of solid ash.
Things went fairly well and I was able to get the stock milled straight and it even stayed that way. I considered myself to have had a good day. The next day I milled out the legs and stretchers and marked my mortise and tenon locations before life intruded and took me away.
Today I wanted to get the mortises and tenons cut and fitted then get started on the half lap joinery on the stretchers. I'm getting better at mortise and tenons but still they sometimes come out looking like something a retarded beaver got a hold of, so I had my apprehensions at this point. No, seriously, I've made some horrid MT joints before. I dragged out the mortising attachment for my drill press and quickly realized that it doesn't fit this Delta dp at all. The sliding blocks which secure the fence to the table are too large to slide in the channels provided in the dp table. Problem. I then spent the next few hours brainstorming up a work around.
Finally! A use for that X-Y milling table I got off craigslist two years ago! Then I commenced to burning holes in some cherry. I was quite pleased with the final result as long as you recall my poor track record.
Two of the MT joints slipped together with nothing more than a few light hand taps and required really no fiddling with and the other six only needed minor trimming.
And I do mean MINOR..this is the sum total of all shavings I needed to remove to make the tenons fit with only light tapping to seat.
I fit the joints all together and this is what I ended the day with. I can work on the half laps tomorrow and even start final milling and begin laminating the table tops.
Thanks for looking!
Blue
Okay, I don't normally get into the whole 'blogging' thing but with a sentence of encouragement from a fellow LJ I thought I'd take the plunge and show off the length, breadth and depth of my woodworking disabilities on my first real job for another person who actually has money to pay me.
A few things first off..
1. Yes, it's messy. My shop..I know. We just moved into our house a few months ago and things aren't fully stashed away yet. I straighten things out on a daily basis and field day towards the end of the week but clutter is unfortunately my constant companion.
2. I appreciate constructive advice. I'm only at the Junior Chipmonk Woodworking level (got the merit badge to prove it!) and I am quite aware that how I do things isn't always, or perhaps mostly, isn't how things are done by the pros. I'll take advice although I might be past the point where I can make use of it on this project.
3. If you don't like the blog, well, it wasn't my idea! Without mentioning names it was brought on by 3fi~gerpa~. So there.
I now return you to "the cherry coffee table" already in progress:
My neighbor was visiting and saw some of the things that I'd built in the past and 'mentioned' how much she'd like a round topped coffee table made of cherry. Having danced this dance before I told her that I'd see what I could do when I had the time, figuring that the subject would die out like has happened many times before. Well, over the course of several weeks she persisted, even when I told her that the materials alone would run to over $500, so I agreed to make a rough sketchup drawing and see what she thought.
I dunno..I guess you'd call the style…traditional? Simple? Simplistic? As I was going through my stacks of magazines last night I realized it looks similar to a Stickley tabouret. If it was stepped on and squashed by an elephant. Or something.
She loved it. We discussed a few more things but she didn't want the design changed. Armed with her approval on the design I went wood shopping, even got taken to the 'secret warehouse' of rough lumber at Frost Hardwood and brought home some rough stock and started milling. This was my first opportunity to turn ol' Frankenplane loose using my newest, bestest buddy, the 21st century workbench which I built last month. It rocks! Only figuratively, of course; it's stable as heck and heavy as you'd expect from about 160bf of solid ash.
Things went fairly well and I was able to get the stock milled straight and it even stayed that way. I considered myself to have had a good day. The next day I milled out the legs and stretchers and marked my mortise and tenon locations before life intruded and took me away.
Today I wanted to get the mortises and tenons cut and fitted then get started on the half lap joinery on the stretchers. I'm getting better at mortise and tenons but still they sometimes come out looking like something a retarded beaver got a hold of, so I had my apprehensions at this point. No, seriously, I've made some horrid MT joints before. I dragged out the mortising attachment for my drill press and quickly realized that it doesn't fit this Delta dp at all. The sliding blocks which secure the fence to the table are too large to slide in the channels provided in the dp table. Problem. I then spent the next few hours brainstorming up a work around.
Finally! A use for that X-Y milling table I got off craigslist two years ago! Then I commenced to burning holes in some cherry. I was quite pleased with the final result as long as you recall my poor track record.
Two of the MT joints slipped together with nothing more than a few light hand taps and required really no fiddling with and the other six only needed minor trimming.
And I do mean MINOR..this is the sum total of all shavings I needed to remove to make the tenons fit with only light tapping to seat.
I fit the joints all together and this is what I ended the day with. I can work on the half laps tomorrow and even start final milling and begin laminating the table tops.
Thanks for looking!
Blue