So, I decided to do something about it. I got the idea from an article I read online sometime last year and filed away in my mind…and from the little drawers that I nested in the medal chest I made for my mom. It’s simple really—-two rails support an open box. All I did was make the rails the full length of the drawer, and half as high. Then I made the box half as deep as the drawer and half as tall.

The drawer measured 19” long, 7 15/16” wide and 3” deep. So my rails are (1/4” aspen) 19” long and 1.5” high. The box itself is (again that 1/4” aspen) 1.5” tall, 7 3/4” wide and 9” long. Now I can put frequently used stuff in the box and slide it over stuff in the back of the drawer to get to frequently used stuff in the bottom of the front of the drawer.

It’s very simply constructed, just butt joint the sides together and nail, then cut out a 1/8” thick piece of plywood to fit the bottom, clamp and nail around the edges. I hit it with the Nice Ash block plane and smoothed out all the corners until it felt comfortable in the hand. With the light stuff going in it, I wasn’t worried about structural strength at all. Besides, the bottom stretches across the entire drawer and rests on both rails, so it’s not like something can fall through. As an added bonus I got to use the little ball peen hammer I resurrected from the family tool chest! Although all the vinegar I used to remove the rust has made the handle a bit…off. It feels tacky in the hand and just not nice. So I think it needs to go. Another project! Ah….but back to the one at hand…

Confused? Here’s some pics.

Below is a shot of the drawer with just the rails installed:

Next I place the little insert in and….

Whaddya know, it holds the big bulky stuff that was usually in the back and making a mess out of everything else. But, with the flick of a wrist, the drawer slides to the back and I can still get to the other stuff I normally use:

As you can see from the pics above, I still need to attach the rails to the sides of the drawer—-I have tiny little nails for that, shouldn’t take more than 3 per side I think. I hit the rails (and all the parts, actually) with the hand planes before installation so everything is nice and glassy smooth and square.

Once I put some wax on the rails the little drawer will really glide (it already does, but it should work even better with wax). I think, start to finish, this project took about an hour.

No, there are no bells and whistles on this thing—-if Mom wants to put some in it, more power to her.  I built it, she can use it however she wants.

But to finish it, I had to do three things yet: (1) install the latch mechanism, (2) install the hinges, and (3) install the little rails that the inner boxes will rest on, making the interior storage double.

I went back to the chisels, traced the fancy looking hing design on the back of the chest where I wanted them and started chopping and carving (those little carving tools I used on the basswood worked great on the maple too!).  After about 30 minutes, I had to perfect hinge mortises cut out of the maple:It was surprisingly easy to get those complicated shapes with the carving chisels.  I started at the bottom where it was circular and used an appropriately sized Forstner bit in the drill to make the hole the right depth.  Once that was there, I just chopped out the rectangular part (at the top) and then used the curved little carving chisels to pare out the curved and sharp cornered bits.  I was expecting it to be really really hard, but only moderately so.  Sharp tools do indeed make all the difference.

Anyway, once the hinge mortises were done, I flipped the box over and installed the latch mechanism.  I don’t know what it’s called, but it has two little rollers that seem to spring open and lock on a spear shaped piece that is mounted to the lid.  This was much more simple than the hinges: just trace it where you want it and cut out the rectangle of wood.

The hard part?  I couldn’t get the mallet inside the box with the chisel to generate force like I could with the hinge mortises.  I had to rely totally on hand power to take tiny little slices of wood off with the chisel.  It took as long as it did to do two hinge mortises.  Here’s the result:

I did a test fit to make sure everything works.  The little six inch gnomon makes a hand lid prop.  Note on the underside of the lid, you can see the spear latch catch I mentioned above: Now that the hardware was installed, the next thing was to line the inside of the lid.  I had planned to remove the lid anyway because I’ll be shipping the box (I know…talk about worry…I’m going to trust this to FedEx?  Savage baggage master?) and don’t want the lid and/or hinges to get damaged by a shearing blow to the packing box.  Having the lid off made it easier to line with felt too.

I chose another color from FSU, gold.  This was even easier than lining the box—-I chose to fit and cut the felt first, then spray the back of the felt and drop into place.  It was a little dicey because there was no smooth surface—-everything was angles because I didn’t smooth out the inside of the lid (I knew I’d be covering it, so why bother?).   Here’s the result:

Not too bad, eh?

Okay, that left putting in the little rails for the inner boxes.  Nothing to see here, really.  Just two parallel square dowels nailed down with tiny 3/4” brads to the inside of the box, about 3” up from the floor.  When the inner boxes (trays really) sit on the rails, the tops are flush with the top of the box.  Sitting on the rails allows them to slide left and right and easily be taken out as well to access the bottom of the chest.

And there you have it!  One complete medal chest, complete with carvings.  I’m shipping it south to Florida for a surprise for Mom.  When we visit there later this month, I’ll get better pictures, complete with medals for a Project Complete post.

I don’t know what was harder—-the actual building process (this is my first real, finished piece) or packaging it up and giving to the guy behind the counter at the shipping place.  It was hard to let go.  I sure hope it gets there in one piece!

This last stage was probably the most fun, the least amount of work, and yielded the most obvious results.  After going over (one last time) everything with 220 grit sand paper by hand, I was ready to vacuum all the dust off of the wood, attach the feet and start shellacking this thing.

I chose spray shellac in a clear (which is actually called “blonde” due to the very faint yellow color it imparts on the lighter woods).  I applied 8 coats each to the little boxes and 6 coats to the base and lid.  It used up the entire can.

The great thing about shellac is how fast it dries if you use thin coats in the right environment.  It’s been raining and cold here for weeks.  But the day I sprayed, it was mostly cloudy, about 60° and had a very gentle westerly breeze.  Perfect.

I set up out on the porch, with the pieces on foam insulation to protect the deck and house, and started spraying.  Every 8 minutes I added another coat.  Why 8 minutes?  Because the can said 15.  I sprayed and waited 15 the first time.  The wood was bone dry.  So the next time I waited 10 minutes.  Again, bone dry.  Then I tried 8 minutes.  It was dry, but you could tell it had just dried.  So thereafter, I sprayed in 8 minute intervals.

This took from mid morning through about 4pm—-I sanded with 400 grit sandpaper on the next to last coat and got a nice glossy smooth surface on everything for the last coat.  As I put the empty can in the trash, I noticed I had finished (get it?) right when the clouds darkened and the next round of 3-day soakers rolled in.  I closed up the garage after the last coat dried and packed everything up—-the shellacking was complete!

The next day, I went out to the garage and buffed everything with the old brown paper bag trick.  Here’s the result:

Everything has a nice glossy, soft (yet hard) smooth finish to it and feels wonderful.  And that shellac made the grain (especially the walnut) just explode.  I love it!

Once the lid was read for finishing, I decided to add feet to the box to give it a little better look.  Just sitting on the ground wasn’t doing it for me.  I settled on little wooden wheels I got from Michael’s for another project that I can’t even remember now.

They will be attached with brass woodscrews through the bottom corners of the box.

Like so.

Next it was time to do the felt lining.  I don’t want Mom’s hard won medals just rattling around down there on the plywood bottom and maple and walnut sides.  So I got some maroon felt and sprayed adhesive on the bottom, then put it down and trimmed it to size:

Then I did the same with the two little boxes (remember them?  They’ve been sitting under the workbench for over week now just waitnig…).  Here they are just before I lined them with the maroon (one of the colors from Florida State University, Mom’s alma mater):

I’m getting close now…I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sure hope it isn’t a train…

Oh yeah, this post actually is the result of 6 days in the workshop—-some didn’t have pictures and I didn’t want to bore you with just text, so I put it all together under the title of The Lid.

At last, we come to the critical juncture of the project.  I designed a curved lid, rather like a low treasure chest.  But whether or not I would be able to build said lid was another story.  As a result, I had in the back of my mind an alternate plan: build a flat top lid like Peter Follansbee and use peg and dowel hinges.

But first I had to attempt my original design.  It called for 6 pieces of 3/4” maple ripped to 2” wide and 18” long.  On each piece, to achieve a nice gentle arc no higher than 2” in the middle of the lid, I had to slice off 2.5° each long edge.

First I had to rip 6 skinny planks.  I drew the lines and set up the 8ft plank on the bench.  Using my Japanese saw, I cross cut the first 18” section about an inch long for good measure.  Then I set that up with a clamped straight edge and got out the circular saw…which promptly started to bind and burn wood after about 4 inches.  Maybe it was the way I was trying to clamp it—-maybe it was the rigid foam insulation I had under it to protect the bench, maybe it was my technique, maybe ti was the saw.  Whatever the cause, I had had enough after 15 minutes of sweating and cursing.

I clamped the 19” stock in my leg vise and hacked it apart with the trusty old carpenter’s saw I got for free from Menard’s last year.  I love rebates.  And free tools.

About 40 sweaty minutes later I was ready for a beer.  But, I had 6 planks ripped from that soft maple.  Who the hell are they kidding?  That maple is anything but soft!

Thus endeth day one.  So far so good.

The next day, tired and sore from my workout with the maple, I got ready to plane angles using the new WoodRiver plane.  But first, I had to go through and square up every plank from my hacking them out of that 8ft board.

So, I turned on the radio and hitched up the lid planks to the workbench and started planing.  And planing…and planing.  But it was fun.  The WoodRiver jack plane really made short work of that maple.  It was remarkable how easy it was to slide that beast over the wood and leave a glass smooth surface with perfectly perpendicular edges.

It took about an hour to true up all the planks and get them to the correct dimensions.  Here’s part of the mess left behind:

On the third day, I had to start planing the 2.5° angle off each side.  Easy enough.  I drew out the angle on a piece of paper.  Transfered that to the bevel guage, then put that up to the wood and traced the angle on the end.  If I had a tablesaw, it would be a matter of seconds—-line up the fence, tilt the blade, run the plank through.   Done.

But alas, a tablesaw is something I (a) don’t have and (b) don’t have the space for.  So I had to look to my handheld table saw—-no, not the circular saw.  That already failed.  I’m talking hand planes, baby.  Old school.

I simply put the plank on the bench, nestled up to the planing stop and starting planing at an angle until I got it right.  It took no more than 5 minutes per side, per plank.

At the end of the day, here’s what I had—-4 inner planks, angled correctly, starting to form the arch.

I realized I’d have to trim them to length later.  I just wanted to get the arch done first.  That left the front and rear planks.  These were angled up pretty quick.  Then it was time for a test fit.  I taped them all up with painters tape and took the assembled lid over to the box and put it together:

It’s finally starting to look like my design!!!  But, you can see the issue—-the front (and rear) lip of the lid is angled too steep and makes the lid look unnatural.  So…I measured out lines on where I needed to trim the first and last planks.  That would make the lid drop and sit flush with the top of the box.

But how to cut this?  The little angles on the sides were nothing—-just a mere shaving with the plane.  But now we’re talking about 1/4” chunk of wood that needs to be removed.  Again…if I had a tablesaw, it’d be no challenge at all.  But, I’m rocking this old school so I turned to the new plane to prove itself yet again.

First, I needed some way to hold the plank.  I couldn’t simply rest it on the bench like I did the first time.  The new angle was too steep and it kept falling over.  So, I took out the chisels and hacked out the right angle I needed to support the plank (and let me plane flat down) out of a 2×4:

Here it is on end, with the mark of where I need to slice to on the plank:

This was about 15 minutes into the planing…after another 15 minutes, I had one plank right at the line:

Smooth as glass and accurate to boot.  I took a break for a drink of water and hit the other plank (thank goodness there were only two…this was quite the workout).  After those two were trimmed, I set up the miter saw and cut all the lid planks to length.  It took only a few minutes and got them all within sanding distance of even.  Then, at the end of the day it was another dry fit:

Success!  That fits much better.  I glued up the planks and called it a day.  To glue them up, I simply opened the tape and kept the planks edges touching.  Spread in the glue, roll them up and wrap in tape—-it looked exactly like the picture above.  It’s a trick that I’ve seen on so many websites and in every magazine that I can’t really quote a source.  Here's one to give you the general idea, from Popular Woodworking.

Next up was the sides of the top.  I planned on using the last of the walnut to extend the sides of the box up to be curved and support the planks of the lid.  Here’s how I did it.  First, I rigged up the scrollsaw and cut rough curves out of the walnut to match the curve of the lid.  I set the lid on end and traced the interior line of the planks on each side panel as well.

Break out the chisels, it’s time to work.  I hacked through half the width of the walnut following the inner template and got this:

This is a progress shot of the left side, halfway done.  You can see the inner lip there—-that will support the left end of the lid.  My plan is then to sand the outer lip curve down to be flush with the upper edge of the lid.

When I needed a break (chiseling that much walnut was not easy) I began sanding the lid to make a nice smooth curve.  To do this, I started with the random orbital sander on 100 grit.  After all the sharp edges were off, I hit it with 150 grit.  Then I switch to hand power and used 220 grit sand paper.  When everything was nearly there and I could only just feel the raised edges of the individual planks, I took it to the belt sander.  Polished it by hand again with 220 and then 400 grit sand paper and here’s the result:

Then I put it on the box again to check how it looked:

Getting there…but the box was missing something…

That’s it!  Some very fine mahogany strips (1mm thick by 5mm wide) leftover from my USS Independence model I built in law school.  Mitered with a chisel (lol) and glued with super glue, they made a nice little border around the carving, that really makes it pop.

Okay, back to the lid sides…I got both of them done and sized:

and then glued them up:

Once the glue dried I was able to hit the whole lid with the belt sander, orbital sander and hand sander to get a nice smooth surface.  At this point it felt like my arms were going to fall off and I called the lid a success.

Today’s task was to fit the completed carving into the front panel of the box.  To do this, I decided to mark out the area I needed and use the router my dad donated to the shop last October.  It felt good to use this old workhorse, considering he used it to make a toybox on wheels for me when I was 2 that not only still exists, but now houses toys for my son in the basement.

I carefully looked at ideas on how to proceed from around the internet, and settled on Kari's once more.  Her work is just plain inspiring.  So, with that in mind, I set off to imitate her…hopefully.  Maybe.

Since I was starting to feel the time crunch (mid-April is only weeks away now), I opted to forego the hand tools only and broke out the powah routah.  First I drew pencil lines on the front panel and got the carving exactly where I wanted it.   Then I took a Forstner bit in my drill and chewed down about 1/8” (the final depth I was shooting for since the basswood “plaque” is only 1/4” thick).

This was so I have a spot to start the router.  It’s not a plunge router, so the hole had to be started so I don’t chew the whole thing up trying to get going.  At least, that’s what it looked like in my mind.

When I put the router up on the wood and was about to pull the trigger, I realized that I couldn’t see the layout lines for [insert expletive here].  So, off comes the router and one goes the blue painters tape, cinched in just a hair inside the layout lines (I would be thanking myself for this in a few minutes  to make sure I didn’t go beyond where I wanted.  This is only the 2nd time I’ve used a router, by the way…

Right, time to rout.  I got the necessary safety gear and cranked ‘er up and within a minute or two, this is what I had (besides a nice pile of sawdust and wood chips):

As you can see in the bottom right corner, I went a tad be over the blue tape line when I got too excited about how easy the router was cutting the wood and it kind of got away from me.  Like I said above, I thanked myself for the tape because once peeled off, that little boo-boo was right on the layout line.  No harm, no foul.

Next, I took my chisels and Kroktskaft and went to town.  Gonna have to get me some full size chisels because the mallet dwarfs every tool I have right now…anyhoo, the chisels made surprisingly easy work of chopping through the maple and getting the router’s leavings cleaned up and ship shape.  Here’s what I had after 15 minutes:You can see the size difference between the mallet and the chisel….and the square chopped out of the maple ain’t too bad either.  Now for a test fit.Like a glove!  I think this is my favorite part of the whole project so far.  I love how that carving turned out and it’s got me really excited to carve more in the future.

Okay, so after patting myself on the back for a while, I took the plank and the carving and went inside to glue up (the garage is still only about 40° right now and it takes glue forever to dry so I just bring stuff inside).  Here is the finalized front panel, ready for assembly:

And now, there’s nothing left but the lid and finishing.  Gulp.  The curved lid that I had so brazenly designed now stared me in the face and grinned, beckoning me to my doom.  Awesome.   Not today, but soon.  Because I have more work to do.

Heh.  ’Cause I forgot to add the bottom.   After playing with the Kreg Jig for over an hour—-I mean actually playing…it was fun!—-the bottom was finally attached.  Now the chest box was actually complete.

I put some more time in on the carving….another two days (which is really only about 4 hours), and it’s all done! 

I carefully trimmed the wood to the pencil lines then used chisels to gentle chamfer the edges of the letters and the winged foot.  Then I trimmed an emory board to a point amd used the two sides to sand the edges nice amd smooth. 

To get the shadows on the sandal straps, I undercut the edges, creating a nice line that is subtle but there. 

Finally I needed a way to whole the background less…chaotic. 

I don’t have a curved neck chisel so I couldn’t really get the wavy pattern to go away (the gouges erased some grooves and mad more in a never ending spiral).

So, reading up on the problem led me to the following solution:  I took the mallet and a medium nail set and tapped away.  Every tap left a tiny little circle impressed in the wood.  When I tapped…and tapped…a lot…it created a background that seemed to lower the highpoints and let your eye focus on the raised elememts of the carving.  In effect, the winged foot and initials really pop!!

I am really happy with how this turned out since it’s my first attempt at relief carving!

I just love relief carving.  It’s so relaxing.  And it’s pretty comfortable on the mini-bench too.  Though I will look into making an angled piece to hold the work so I don’t have to crane my neck over the work.  My neck gets a little sore spending a few hours doing this… But that’s nothing a cold beer at the end of the day can’t fix.

Here’s the latest progress shot:

Well, I went and got the new hand plane (the WoodRiver #5 Jack I wrote a review about already). Now that I have my new planing stop installed in the bench and my new jack plane in hand, I put the carving down and gave the assembled medal chest (such as it is) the old hairy eyeball and prepared for the showdown.

It actually was more of a slaughter.  See, where the maple had killed the Groz plane and laughed while telling the store to the walnut last time….this time, I was the one laughing.  Like a mad man as the new jack plane destroyed that maple that was sticking up above the walnut.  Just sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.  About five minutes of schnik schnik and fluttering curls of maple later, I had a flat, level surface on the first side and I was grinning like a ‘possum eatin’ a sweet potato.

20 minutes after the WoodRiver plane set eyes on the medal chest for the first time, the box was leveled and glass-smooth.

New plane 1, medal chest 0.

Then I noticed that on one side, the dovetails just didn’t fit right—-the walnut side didn’t recess into the maple well enough and so the tailboard was sticking up above the pins.  I figure I had 2 solutions…cut out some more waste from the pins on both the front and back of the box to allow the side panel to sit deeper (we’re talking about 1/16” of an inch), or….(says I, eyeing the new hand plane sitting there with a smug look after it just put the smack down on the maple) plane the thickness of the entire side panel down to fit flush.

I chose option 2.

Because I am crazy.  And planing with this thing is just plane fun (da dump dump tssssh)

And I noticed that (of course) when I glued up the side, the grain is running in opposite directions.  Did the plane care?  Like the honey badger, this plane didn’t give a…well, if you saw the video you know what I mean.

5 minutes of grinning later I had a thinned plank of walnut, glass smooth.

I LOVE this plane.  It may not be a made in America Lie-Nielsen, but it didn’t cost $400, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever used!

New plane 2, medal chest 0.

While fuming over the death of my hand plane (see death of a plane below) I decided to switch tactics and work on the detail piece that will grace the front of the chest.  I plan to use a piece of basswood, carved, and set into the front of the chest.  How, you ask?  I will use the router to cut out a slight (the basswood is only 1/4” thick) notch the size of the carving and then set it in so it’s jut a little proud of the chest itself.  I got the idea from who else, but the Village Carpenter.  I’ve been reading her blog from the beginning lately and she is just AMAZING.  Very inspiring.

Here’s the design.  Since most of the medals are from track and field events (high jump, javelin, shot put, discus, and some running events—-yeah, I told you, my mom is crazy athletic) I opted for the winged foot of Mercury, international symbol of track and field events.  And flying feet.

Her initials will fit in opposing corners.  There will be a slight border around the hole thing.  I’m thinking it’s going to be about 4” x 4”.  Not enough to be a distraction to the overall design, but enough to catch your attention.

I transferred the image to the wood using tracing paper.  Draw the image (or trace from a master drawing—-as you can see above, the master drawing was a thumbnail, so I just did real thing on the tracing paper), then cover the back of the tracing paper with graphite over the image.  Place that on the wood and then use a stylus (or dull pencil or anything with a point that’s not sharp enough to punch through the paper) and trace your art.  Peel off the paper and this is what I ended up with (I darkened it up a bit so you can see it better):

I put the Ramelson carving chisels my lovely wife got me for Christmas (thanks sweetie!) to use today after a quick honing session (these things were scary sharp in the box ready to go…I can’t say enough good things about this set!)  and here’s the result so far:

This relief carving thing is so far, easier than I thought!  I love it… definitely going to do more of this.

The death of a plane: It met an untimely death (or maybe timely, actually…keep reading) during the sharpening process.  Well, the chipbreaker/iron assembly did actually.  The plane is what it has always been…a decent, usable (in softwoods that is) plane made in India.  The iron has always been prone to dulling very fast and the chipbreaker never did sit flush with the iron.  Try as I might I could not get it flat enough to be flush.  It didn’t help that the chipbreaker wasn’t manufactured correctly—-it was skewed towards the right so that it never did fit perfectly in the plane.  As I said, it worked plenty well enough in the pine I made the bench out of…the trash bags full of shavings is proof of that.  But when it encountered the maple and walnut this project is made from—-psshtpbbbth—-not so much.

So I decided to use the belt sander instead of the scary sharp sandpaper setup I have been using.  Well, the chipbreaker did not like it when I tried to flatten it and it disintegrated faster than balsa wood on that belt sander.  Result: one chipbreaker that no longer breaks chips and one plane blade that is sharp (or so I thought at the time) but utterly worthless.  The plane is now a paperweight.  A cool looking paperweight, but a paperweight none the less.

That’s when I had my "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" moment.  I have struggled (silently) with the mechanisms and fit and finish on this plane since day one.  It served me (reluctantly) well enough but now that I have moved into so-called real wood species, the Indian plane (Groz if any of you are wondering—-by the way do NOT get one unless you are an expert and know, I mean really know how to rehab a plane) is just not usable any more.  Especially without a chipbreaker/iron.

I mean, I guess I could use it as a mallet.

After I calmed down a bit, I realized two things: (1) to my horror, a lot of this project (including the curved lid) was based on me being able to get the Groz working.  Now that it’s dead…gulp…without a table saw, how am I supposed to get angles and bevels cut? (2) I need a new hand plane—-see (1).  This new plane…whenever I acquire it will be a quality plane…not from India!

I spent today doing the tedious work of smoothing out all the dovetails.  I used the 1” chisel, mallet, and the new Moxon mini-bench to make all the dovetails as tight as I could get them.  There are still plenty of gaps but they weren’t nearly as obvious or heinous as they were before today.  I’d say the mini-bench is a success!  And my back doesn’t hurt either!  The remaining gaps are just chalked up to inexperience, but overall, I’m pleased with the way it’s coming together.

The box is strong as hell without glue and I can’t make any corner wobble.  This thing should be plenty solid to hold a bunch of medals.

I have noticed that somehow I didn’t cut all the dovetails perfect which means the box itself has a little twist to it (all four corners do not touch a flat surface at the same time, only 2 do).  That’s fine, because the maple sides are about 1/8” too tall for the walnut sides.  I noticed when I bought the wood.  So my plan is to use the plane to bring the maple in line with the walnut and in the process make a nice level box.

So…I got everything all set up to sharpen my planes and figured I’d do the chisels as well (I bought a new 1/8” chisel and a new plane blade).  That’s when I realized I was out of time for today.

So tomorrow, it’s sharpening and honing to get some mirror finishes, then I can start on slicing and dicing.

Perhaps I’ll attach the bottom first…decisions decisions.

Over the past week I have spent all my free time in the shop cutting more dovetails.  I have, I am happy to report, improved my abilities and speed.  The first joint, from the last post, took about 2.5 hours.  The next one only took about 2 hours.  The third one, where I changed methods  only took about 1.5 hours and was much cleaner and required less effort to fit.  It was my best one yet!  Here’s the photos:

This here is number #2.  The middle tail looks busted but it’s not…the walnut had a slight rough spot on the end-grain when I glued it up…I was aware of it when I glued up the side but as I used all the walnut I had, there was no option but to use it.  One of the sides was just going to have a nasty spot.  So I put it in the back right corner where hopefully it won’t get too much notice.   I’m tempted to try and fill it with sawdust and glue and sand/file/plane (not in that order) to make it look better.  Here it is from another angle:And below is the third join….It’s on the left in the picture above.  The last join is the upper left one, yet to be cut in this photo.

• I started this project using the Paul Sellers coping saw method.  It worked, but I have nowhere near the skill with the coping saw required to get clean lines.  The test box and the first two joins on this project proved that to me.  I switched instead to Kari Hultman's chisel method to remove waste and I couldn’t be happier.  I am much better with chisels than the coping saw.

When I was ready to head back out to the shop, I discovered the Walnut fairy had left two pieces of walnut ready for work.  She’s pretty good at gluing too…After a few passes with the hand plane I’m sure the bit of line there between the boards will go away.  I’m more concerned with starting the dovetails (completing them of course on the menu as well).

After reading just about everything I could get my hands on (and there is a lot on the internet about dovetails) I decided to run with Megan Fitzpatrick’s (of Popular Woodworking Magazine fame) method for laying out lines for the tails.  You can watch her awesome instructional video here.  It really is the simplest method and wonder of wonders, it worked!  In no time at all, using just a compass, I had my dovetails marked (and they were equal in size) and I was ready to cut.  Gulp.

I was too nervous about screwing up to remember to take photos of the cutting process but I think you can use your imagination.  Basically, I took a saw (big long metal flat thing with pointy teeth) and made cuts in the end-grain (the short side) of the first walnut side.  That walnut cuts reeeeaaaaaalllly nice.

I was so happy with my ability at cutting that walnut so straight that I jumped right in and cut the maple pin board as well.  To get the pins, I just followed standard procedure and clamped the maple board in the leg vise, then balanced the tailboard on top and transferred the shape of the tails to the end of the maple board.

A few more quick cuts with the backsaw and cross cuts with the coping saw to remove the waste and I was ready to chop and pare with the chisels to get it the joins nice and tight.

At this point it dawned on me that I should take a picture…so here’s how I chopped the remaining waste to the line for the pins.I realize now I did this backwards from how I saw it on Kari Hultman’s amazing site, The Village Carpenter.  She had the board resting on the bench (because, I don’t know, it makes sense) instead of acting like a diving board like I did.  Chalk it up to excitement.  And a cluttered bench.  This project is messy!

Okay, so I merely put down some scrap plywood to be the backer, then the maple board, then a piece of milled pine (I didn’t have any hardwood available, which would have been a lot better) to give my chisel a “cheat” so I could attain 90* right off the bat.

Then it’s just tap with the mallet and take tiny bites until you’re flush with your marking line.

After a few calming breaths and a quick prayer, I lined up the boards and tried a fit to see how I did.  Everything looked crisp and sharp (to me!)...and boy was it tight.  I couldn’t get it together by hand…I needed to trim a few slivers from each board with the chisels and then popped ‘em together with the mallet.   This time…

Victory!  It worked!!!  And it looked good! I about did a little dance there in the garage I was so happy.  Instead,  I wiped the sweat from my brow (this was a 2 and a half hour marathon of cutting and chiseling and chopping and cussing) and got a beer.

Then I took some more pictures.

And an Aleve (okay that was later…I spent the rest of the day with an aching back, sore arms and a big smile on my face).

Some of you may notice in the last photo that the maple is slightly wider (higher) than the walnut.  The walnut was listed as milled to 4” (it was) and the maple to 8” (it was actually 8 1/4”).  The result is the maple sticks out beyond the walnut by 1/8” on either side.  I will deal with this with the hand plane later.  I figure if I screw up the dovetails there’s no point in messing withe board width.

So I began the project for my Mom by cutting the walnut and maple to length for the front and back (maple) and sides (walnut).

After I clamped the walnut side pieces together and planed them along the edge, I glued the pieces together so that I will end up with two properly sized sides.

And no, I’m not drinking while I’m working…that little Coke Zero bottle is to collect the Walnut sawdust as I cut…never know when I’ll need some to fix mistakes.

While the walnut was drying, I worked on making a Paul Sellers 7:1 dovetail jig.  I had some scrap oak laying around that was about 1 1/2” wide and 1/2” thick.  Using the method he espouses in this video as a guide, I saved time cutting and shaping by cutting a middle piece, then the angled piece using my bevel angle to transfer a 7:1 angle, and then cut a square block.

Once you wrap your mind around how it’s used, it’s quick to make.  I glued everything up and set it to dry.

Next I’m going to try my hand at dovetails in the walnut!  Nervous, but excited.  That’s pricey wood to screw up if I don’t do it right.  Here’s hoping my time crunch won’t bite me in the arse.

My mother competes every year in multiple track meets for seniors, known collectively as the Senior Games (they’re broadcast on ESPN sometimes).  She’s been doing this for a few years and has amassed quite the collection of medals (dad takes stock of the medals in terms of weightnot number, ie, when someone asks how many she has, he replies, “Oh, about 15 pounds”).  Yes, she is, was and always shall be a jock.  If I have any athletic ability at all it comes from her.

So!  For my first real project, I’m building a little chest for my mom to keep and display (at least some of) her medals.  The sides will be made of walnut and the front and back and top will be maple.  I had originally planned to make it with butt joints pegged, ala Peter Follansbee, but decided to be adventurous and try my hand at dovetailing.  I’ve been looking for an excuse to learn this mystical art and now’s the time.  So stick around and watch me throw my proverbial hat over the wall and force myself to figure out how to go get it.

Here are the plans that I came up with:

Am I nervous?  You bet.  All told, there’s about $150 worth of material ($90 just in the maple and walnut alone!!!), there’s a new technique that I have to practice and put to use (dovetailing), there’s a new style (curved lid), then I plan to line the interior with not one but 2 colors of felt to match her alma mater (FSU) and have two removable sliding trays, there’s the fact that it’s for my mom, and I’m going to make some kind of decorative carving to give it a little bling, and I’m putting it all out here on the internet to be critiqued and observed…yeah, I’m a bit nervous.

I still can’t get over paying nearly $100 for two planks of wood.  Granted, it’s pretty cool—-I got an 8 foot 1” x 8” plank of soft maple with a nice grain pattern and a piece of walnut that’s 1”x 4”x 48” that has really neat grain.

One last thing…if you’re reading this, then the project is already complete.  See, it’s a combination birthday/Mother’s day gift for her, so I’ve been writing this and keeping it secret.  Now that it’s done, I’m posting the progress so you can see what went into making it.

Am I (was I) overly ambitious?  Well, you’re about to find out.

First order of business was to get the poplar nut-housings cut and chopped so I can make the handles for the threaded rods like on my leg vise. These are about half the size of the leg vise hardware so it went a lot faster. Especially because I could take the mini-bench (as it is) in the house where it’s warm and hack out the holes without worrying about damaging furniture! I just put it on the ground and sat on my knees. 20 minutes later I had the hardware embedded in the poplar and ready to be cut free.
Once cut free and sanded the handles were ready.

I then mounted the face of the vice to the bench (out in the garage again) and clamped it together so I could drill out 3/8” holes for some oak dowels to go through the back of the vise and into the front legs. These pegs will support the front vise so all the weight doesn’t land on the threaded rods. I didn’t glue the dowels in place so they can be removed/replaced if necessary. They are nice and snug however. The picture was after I attached the hardware though…

Once the holes were drilled, I hacked out notches on either corner of the vise face with the coping saw (and didn’t do that well, so I have another item for the “must practice” list).

I may go back and cut out the marked parts on the upper corners you see above, or maybe I’ll chisel it down to make a little bevel look…or maybe I’ll leave good enough the hell alone. At any rate, that’s pure decoration that I don’t have time for. Maybe when I’m done with the secret project.

Then it was just a matter of putting poplar encased hardware on the rods and locking everything down. Insert the pegs and voila, the Moxon vise is complete. Verily!

And does it work for the intended purpose? Brilliantly!

My back feels better already. Can’t wait to hit the dovetails again!

My solution came from a few sources, not surprising the Schwarz was one of them. I had read his blog entry on Moxon vises and seen the episode of Woodwright’s Shop (I think the title was “2 screws for you” or something like that) where he demonstrated it’s use. At the time I thought it was neat, but not really necessary for my work. But now? Oh yes, I need.

That led me to this website, where there is a handy article on making just such a device, on the cheap! I like it even more.

I decided (of course) to modify it to suit my needs, namely, to clamp and raise the work piece up about a foot to make it easier for me to cut dovetails, carve (eventually) and do detail work without stooping.

Just happens that I have a spare oak step tread from my father-in-law that’s been sitting in his garage for a while and in my garage for the last few months. Then I spotted the 4×4 cutoffs from when I built my bench…an idea started to brew.

I decided to make a mini bench that I could clamp to the surface of my main bench, and throw a Moxon vise (on the cheap) on the front. A quick trip to the BORG and I had the supplies I needed: an 8 ft 2×6, a 3 foot 3/8” threaded rod, some nuts and washers to fit said rod, and I was in business. I had some scrap 1/2” poplar laying around for some reason, so I decided to make the handles of the Moxon vise like the handle on my leg visehttp://vaughtwoodworks.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/workbench-day-31-mounting-the-leg-vise-part-3/, in miniature!

First, I cut the 4×4s to length, 10 1/4” for the front legs (which will sit on a 3/4” thick scrap of plywood that will extend on either side of the Moxon mini-bench so it can be clamped flush with the front of the main bench). When I went to cut the two rear legs (11” to make the thing level) I discovered to my horror that I only had enough 4×4 scrap for one leg. So…I cut two 11” sections of 2×4 scrap and screwed them together.

Before I attached the legs, I decided to clean up the bottom of the shelf. I cut it to length (about 28”). Nice solid oak. The top was stained and finished glossy, so I decided to make that the bottom. The other side side was dirty, dusty and a bit moldy and rough. So I took the #4 plane and cleaned it up.

The picture shows what the step looked like before (the cutoff on the right) and after. It didn’t take long——really glad I put the plane away last time with a sharp iron. There was a bit of a cup in the plank as well, so I smoothed that out and made it more level before attaching the legs.

To attach the legs, I countersunk pilot holes for 3” Deckmate screws and put three in each leg, with 4 in the 2×4 leg. I put the heads of the screws about 1/16” below the surface to allow me to plane the surface a little more and clean up the edges of the countersunk holes.

Then I flipped it over, marveling at how solid it felt already, and attached the plywood clamp base to the front legs with some more Deckmates. I may attach rails to the legs to keep it a little more rigid..after all they’re only held on with 3 screws (4 on the 2×4 leg). We’ll see.

Flipped back right-side up, the next task was to mount half the Moxon vise.

Before I attached, it, I took the back and the front and lined them up, then whipped out the drill press to make some holes for the threaded rods to slip through. Once they were lined up and then enlarged just a bit (I need the hole big enough that the rod will move freely, but the 3/8” nut I plan to embed in the wood won’t move).

On the back of the vise, I chiseled out two little holes for nuts to be sunk.

Then I lined up the back of the vise and attached it to the front legs with more Deckmates.

Some swipes with the #4 and the vise backing was flush with the bench top. Nice. So far, I’m pretty pleased with the way this is turning out.

Here’s the first shot, after I had already completed the top border. It went surprisingly fast. Took about 10 minutes to lay it out and 5 minutes to carve it.

Then I drew the pattern for the bottom—-this is what I did for the top, by the way. After 5 minutes of carving (during which I noticed my knife starting to dull…so guess what happesn next time!) I had this:

Now the front of the box has a nice (for me) little pattern. Oddly enough, it’s either a series of triangles or (like I see it) an undulating ribbon that’s “raised”. I think if I darken the triangles and the lines, it will make the ribbon “pop”. We’ll see what it looks like when I carry the pattern around all four sides…

So what was I doing out there in the “warm” (been averaging about 10-20 since Christmas INSIDE the garage) shop you ask? Practicing dovetails! I have a big project (my biggest actually) coming up real quick and while it is classified until completed, I need a certain skill set before I start. Namely, dovetail joints.

I busted out some scrap basswood from my first tentative steps into the world of chip carving around Christmas and hacked up some sides of a new tea box (to replace the first box I ever made with some horrible finger joints).

I used the Japanese saw I received for Christmas and while getting used to the pull-cut motion took a few cuts, this baby cuts like a laser and leaves a great edge.

I tried my hand at layouts following Paul Sellers excellent video on Youtube, and had my first tails cut in no time. Man, I am really loving that leg vise I added to the bench now! Too bad my skills with the coping saw are not so hot!

Next I transferred the tails profile to the side end piece and marked where the pins are.
A few moments later and I was putting the two pieces together. Easy as pie.

A little too easy, actually.

As you can see from the picture, there is a nasty gap between the two pieces. A mistake on my part: I made my marks, then cut on the line with the backsaw, actually wavering a little and coming inside the line, making the tails too small by a hair and the pins likewise too small…add them together and the gap is big!
Armed with the knowledge that I screwed up and how I did it, I tried again…and the second joint fit better, but was still a little sloppy. I realized now the coping saw was the problem. When cutting out the waste, I’m (a) not very experienced with the wierd, loosey-goosey feel of the coping saw vs the back/miter saw and as a result, the kerf wobbled taking more wood off than I wanted. Result: another gap riddle joint…though not as bad as #1.
For the third joint, I decided to score the waste part to be cut with a knife so the coping saw had a groove to follow. I also cut the pins and tails slightly big this time. I figured with the pins and tails big, I’ll use a chisel to sneak up on a tight joint. Having the splintery basswood scored with the knife let the coping saw leave a smoother cut and helped control the ragged kerf (lol) left by the tiny flexible coping saw.

This joint was better, but trying to trim basswood with a chisel didn’t work and a few chunks broke off…result: more gaps, but best one yet!

Last chance to get it right…I took my time, tried not to cut the tails and pins big, scored the waste and then trimmed it all up with the utility knife instead of chisel and BAM, my best dovetail joint yet!!

Not the best in the world, but a personal best. I can feel how it would work a lot better on hardwood…basswood is probably too soft to mess with anyway but I had it laying around and it was just the right size for a tea box.

It took all of 45 minutes and once put together, I was grinning from ear to ear. No glue and it feels sturdy, even with the gaps and all! Awesome!

You can see in the foreground one of the better joints. The one on the left is the first one I cut—-the gaps in profile look heinous but hey, not bad for a first try, I figure. Should have used a denser wood but ah well, now I now how basswood reacts to dovetailing!

Next I’m going to chip carve this puppy and get the bottom and top on…

Man it felt great to get some shoptime in. Woodworking is good for the soul!

So the practice box that has been sitting neglected on the bench for…I don’t know how many weeks…finally saw a little love a few days ago.

I got really sick the day after Christmas and haven’t fully kicked whatever it was that knocked me out, but enough is enough. I had to DO something other than lay around the house coughing and sneezing.

So, since standing out in the freezing garage (the garage, always a little warmer than outside, has been averaging about 25-30° for the past 3 weeks) was out of the question, I decided to bring the work inside.

I have been kicking around an idea I noticed on Dan's blog (if you haven’t seen his blog, I highly recommend it, he’s got some genius ideas) where he played around with staining wood with tea. This has become more interesting to me as the temperature continues to get lower and lower. See, I don’t want to stain something out in the garage because (1) it takes FOREVER and a day to dry in cold weather and (2) it needs ventilation to get rid of the nasty fumes…which means opening the garage door. I could bring things in the house to dry, but then I’d have to have a window open and the heat on…and my better half would NOT go for that. I don’t think I would either, it’s just plain wasteful.

However, I’ve used tea in the past to stain paper and make it look like parchment for school projects, etc. So after reading Dan’s blog and a few others espousing the benefits of staining with tea, I figured, why not?

I started with a 2 qt saucepan full of water. I got it going at a rolling boil and put in 6 Tetley bags of tea (just your plain, generic iced tea) I happened to have laying around. I let this steep for about 10 minutes, then removed the bags, cranked up the heat again and let the tea boil for 20 minutes. What I had left was this:

You can see the line in the pan where the tea was originally at and where it reduced to. I gave it another 30 minutes to cool off and poured it into an empty tomato sauce jar. It certainly looks concentrated enough.

I spread out some newspaper on the table and used a sponge brush to apply the tea. After one coat the brush had snapped so I just used the sponge. It wasn’t hard at all, took maybe 5 minutes to coat. I noticed immediately that the darkness of the concentrated tea did not get transferred to the wood. When the first coat was on, it literally looked like the wood was merely wet. That piece of basswood in the foreground is my practice board for chip carving. The box looked pretty similar in color to that piece of basswood before I started staining it. Here’s the lid after one application:

So when that first coat was dry (maybe an hour or so) I put another one on:You can see the Q-Tips there in the picture, I dipped them in the stain to get inside the little parts of the scrollwork badge on the lid. It took me a while but I got all the little bare parts of aspen stained…

Then I added another coat…

And another.

The photos don’t look too different, but I can tell you when it’s right in front of you, there is a dramatic difference. It almost looks like I took a cherry stain pen to it!

Finally, I added one last coat to bring the total to 5:

Again, looking from one picture to the next, it’s kind of hard to see a difference, but when you’re holding it in your hands there’s a big difference. Take a look at the first and last coats…I decided to go light on the inner panels and it worked great—-the oak and the poplar are now pretty similar in color (the oak trim is still darker) and the pine inner panel is lighter than both so it makes a nice 3-tone contrast. I really am happy with how this is turning out.

I learned a bit about how different woods react to the tea too—-the main shell of the box is just plain pine…that took the stain okay, I guess, but seemed to resist pretty well. The parts that were poplar took the stain much better than the pine, especially the end grain. The oak trim already had some stain on it (I recycled quarter-round trim) so it got hardly any benefit from the tea at all. The aspen lid, however, soaked up the stain like nobody’s business. It went from bone white to the color you see above, which practically matches the poplar (that went from a light green to the cherry-esque color). The grain raised more on the aspen than on the other wood types, but man did it soak up the color.

As far as how long the stain stretched—-the 2 quarts of water I started with boiled down to about 1/3 a jar of pasta sauce. That 1/3 jar gave me 5 good coats. Obviously, the more I stain, the darker it gets, but for this project, I think the 5 coats I’ve given it are plenty. I’ll have to sand it gently before I finish with poly to make things nice and smooth again…