This is the maple back. I’ve carved guides using templates I made out of aluminum. After aligning the guides to the plate surface it’s a simple matter of carving away the excess and blending. There are 6 templates. 1 through 5 are horizontal left to right with the last spanning the length.

A close up.

Another view of the vertical template.

Notice the points of light? More carving to go…

The template should sit on the surface.

The work space.

Here is one of the scrapers I use to remove the sawtooth finger plane marks. I have to use the sawtooth because maple will tear out and leave divots in the surface.

Staged ‘assembly’.

Side shot.

Views of the scroll.

Finished plate surface. Need to trim up the edge and the ‘points’ still.

Top and Back.

The other sides. I still have to make a jig to hold the plates to be able to carve the inside.

Gluing the linings to the ribs. The 2mm lining strengthens the 1mm thick ribs and provides a wider surface for the plates to glue to.

Thanks for viewing!

Here’s a jig I made to cut the edges to size.

Does anyone see what ‘the problem’ is in this picture? Think hard…

It’s a 1hp Craftsman router with a 3/8” straight bit. I call it a ‘face off’ bit, but I could be wrong? The jig part is the device holding the router steady. It’s 1/8” aluminum plate sitting on 3 Delrin plastic blocks attached to a recycled formica sink cut out. I needed something to free up my hands to work the wood. The cut is a little ‘proud’ of 4mm. I’ll get it closer later. It really is 4.5mm at the ‘points’ you see in the picture and about 4mm around the sides. It’s optical aesthetics.

Here is the first pass. I didn’t get too far before realizing, “Dang, that router bit must be dull!?”

Of course, what is ‘wrong’ in the picture above is the bit is UPSIDE DOWN! Oops! It doesn’t cut too well, but it sure does burn wood!

Here is yours truly making sawdust. Lots of it. Which is why I did this outside. The jig stays on the planter pretty well, but I think I’ll make some kind of box to set it on, as it did move a little.

The result is a really clean edge. Because I haven’t done this for over a year, I forgot the ‘trick’ of going the other way with the wood (L to R). I’ll have to see if I can glue this piece back on. With any luck, it won’t even be noticed.

Next is to use my gouges and templates to shape the top and back.

Had a bit of an issue with the bending iron. It seems it is rather delicate and putting it on high (10) is a no no. It’s a Watlow ‘Firerod’ embedded in the aluminum tower. The current flow at 10 apparently burns out the element? It requires about an hour to get to bending temperature – and had I read the sheet that it came with…

It was repaired free of charge and henceforth I will be careful to mind the dial! Nothing past 5 from now on.

Progress! I have both rib sets in place, though only one is ready to build. It takes about 24 hrs to set the hide glue properly and tomorrow I should be able to work the 2nd violin.

First, a pic of the resharpened inside gouges from #1 in this series. Instead of a blunt edge, it’s swept back which helped with sharpening the edge. It’s not as ‘fine’ (smooth) an edge as my chisels, but it cuts the hair on my arm just fine.

Here is the final glue up of the bottom rib. It is one piece of 1.2mm maple. Typically, this would be two pieces butt joined at the bottom block (top block here) where the end pin is. This is a known weak spot with regards to cracks, even more so when you drill a hole in the middle of it! Stradivarius used one piece – he was the master!

Next I show the detail of the corner block which is ‘unfinished’. I still have to trim the extra wings off the ribs and sand down the edges to 30mm at the heel block and 32mm at the end pin block. You can see the extra width of the ribs here.

Here is the finished corner. Note the inside rib fits nicely up to the outer rib? Then I square off the outer rib just to the line of the inside rib edge.

Here is a ‘top down’ detailed view of one of the corner joints.

After centering, I’ve placed the mold on the spruce top. The washers are 3mm and 4mm thick and will be used to define the outside edges of both the top and the back. I don’t know if Stradivarius had washers like this, but I do.

Tracing the outside edge of the ribs with a sharp pencil inside the washer yields the following outline.

Here is the final shape of the back. Next is band sawing the rough shape – don’t cut that line! Afterwords, I’ll use finger planes to get it to the edge of the line.

Thanks for watching!

I then drew the points and top and bottom using the template. These are two different violins – reason for two templates.

Using the inside gouge (newly sharpened btw!) I then trimmed the inside bouts first. This is so the outside part of the block reinforces the middle bout after it’s bent. When I trim the outside it will also trim the inside rib leaving a nice clean line for the outside to butt against.

Here I’m trimming the outside points and getting them ready for the next phase – bending and attaching the lower and upper bouts.

Points trimmed and ready for the bouts.

Bending the upper and lower bouts.

What to do first (besides building a bench)? Got to have a plan!

Well, actually, you need a mold to shape the ribs (sides) of the violin to. A good book to start learning is ”The Art and Method of the Violin Maker” by Henry Strobel.

Here’s a plan. Though I won’t follow this one exactly, it’s for reference.

What we have here are two molds with corner and end blocks in place. Notice the shape of the ‘points’ to be carved? The one on the right is a Stradivari pattern circa 1705. It’s 346.5 mm long from top to bottom. The other is a Vuillaume pattern of a Strad. It’s 345.0 mm and is the pattern I used to make my first violin.

This one is of a Buck Bros. inside gouge I acquired. I use it to cut the corners on the blocks.

Here’s a closeup of the business end.

Another view…

I have a question on sharpening this tool. I used a dremel tool to shape the inside lip as best I could. It’s sharp, but not as sharp as I would like it.

If anyone has a trick, or tip on sharpening an inside gouge, sharp enough to shave my arm. Please let me know.

I never built a bench, or anything else – unless you consider that bowl I turned in wood shop 45 years ago? – so there was some learning curve involved. I never: made box joints or drawers, glued up a top, made and installed mortise & tenon’s, installed a vice – let alone two different kinds. I’m actually surprised at how well it turned out. I don’t consider myself a ‘wood worker’ in the traditional sense. It’s like, ‘Hey! I can do this!” Wow!!

Drawers are in and they actually work! Handles are on. It’s oiled. I’m planning to build some inserts for dividers in the top drawers, but that’s not a major project…

I may throw in a TV stand in the future, also some more ‘legs’ as I have a nice maple flat table top that needs some support, but for the most part, it is DONE! May I present: THE BENCH!

Drawers from the side…

All set and ready to go!

Thanks to all you LJ’s who have given me ideas and encouragement over the last couple months!

I checked around for plans for a box joint jig and decided that the one from Shopnotes.com (PlansNow) was the better of the two. In retrospect, next time I’d go buy a Porter Cable type dovetail jig for a couple hundred and save myself a ton of time, but I had fun putting the kit together – ‘kit’ meaning I happened to have a piece of oak laying around and had to scrounge for the parts all over town. The best place I found for pieces parts is ACE hardware. They really have it all. Maple was ‘recommended’ – Oak is terrible to drill.

The bottoms are 3/16” underlayment. Really inexpensive and mahogany veneer!

front of jig

back of jig Note the bigger side knobs? I modified the plan. Much more torque and easier to turn than those recommended.

Here’s one of the 3 3/4” drawers.

closeup of the box joint

Clamped to dry

The 2nd largest drawer (3 3/4”) on the left with the 6” drawer waiting – note the two-tone joined pieces? A combination of the two.

Observations:
The box joint jig worked great. It’s a lot slower than using a commercial type router-jig however. Surprisingly, it’s very accurate. Is most promising feature is that it’s adjustable. Just dial in the size joint you want, this from 1/8” to 1 1/4” – or larger, if you constructed the jig to accommodate the size desired.

What would I change if I make drawers again? I’d choose a 3/16” (or larger) box joint instead of the 1/4” especially for the big drawer. It was a struggle getting it together with all that friction – they were fairly tight joints. The 1/4’s look nice on the boxes I’ve seen made here though.

I would also make the cut a hair deeper to make certain the joint ears flushed with the sides. I’m only a gnat’s ear proud, but ya know!

I have some of the 3/4 birch ply carcass left over that I’ll use as fronts on the drawers. I’m framing them 1/4” with some of the bench maple to hide the laminate to match the front sliding face on the left half.

There is some good ancient information here. Enjoy!

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devices2.html

The plan calls for 19-3/4” deep (carcass is 20” deep) but they don’t make 19” sliders. I got 18”s.

The width of the drawer is 23” (I know, I’ve read that they shouldn’t be wider than the slider, oh well…) Depth of the drawer is 3-3/4” and there will be a 3/16” thick bottom within that dimension. I figure it’s not going to hold 100lbs of stuff (limit on the slider pair).

The Question: Should I make the drawers 18” deep to fit the slider, or is there a fudge factor allowed where I could make them say, 19” deep?

Drawers are new to me…thank you….

Ron

The plans were none to clear, in fact they call for a wooden dowel. How long would that last before wearing out? So, I opted for the smooth shank on a 1/4” wood bolt. Hacked the hex head off, then the screw end and I had a nice 1/4” steel rod 3/4” long. I polished the ends and fit them to the door – see before pic. That’s when ‘the issue’ happened! It wouldn’t slide for nothing! Push, pull, tussle, tug grumble grrrr…

Tried bees wax, couldn’t get the wax in the 1/4” slot. Should I heat it up? Too complicated. It has to be simpler! I’m thinking of all these ‘fixes’ – a plastic insert? maybe there’s a center slide I could install on the underside of the top? Nope. Back to the drawing board.

I decided to round off the ends more than I thought necessary on the first attempt. Chucked the rod in my drill press and mill bastarded it. Smoothed it off with some 400 w/d paper. Put it back in the door and WOW! it was amazing! Just as if it was designed that way.

before

after

Small successes sure make the job fun. Now that this part is out of the way, I’m on to making drawers next.

I thought folks here would appreciate a hands on design method. Notice the French curves and dividers…no autocad here!

Follow the process of designing a bottle decanter from start to finish.

Design story: The Decanter from Landor Associates on Vimeo.

Next is to make the door for the left side and drawers for the right

The vise is completed. It has about a 3” throat because the dog block thickness is also about 3”. It probably should be closer to the left edge, but I don’t plan to be cutting anything – got a chop saw for that. Mostly violin making and this vise will allow me to plane and join the quarter sawn tops and backs for a mirror image. It’s still a bit stiff on the quick release, but it should wear in after use.

Here’s a close up of the handle detail. What you have here is a 1” rubber “O” ring from Auto Zone $1. It helps keep the noise level down. The handle is 1-1/8” Poplar? from Lowes. It fits nicely in the whatever that end piece is called. You can buy a cheap finished handle with plastic ends (that look like the end of a cane?) for about $12 or so. I have about $12 in two handles and still have about 2 feet of dowel left!

Next is the rosette ends. It’s used in the corners of trim above an old style door. I cut them round on the band saw and sanded to shape.

I checked for square as much as possible. I even clamped the square to the sides. Pretty darn close considering. I may be 1/16th off end to end? I’m certain I could do even better with better equipment.

Is it square? You bet!

Note the table to the right? It’s gone and the bench is perpendicular to where it sits here.

Some creative clamping. Tow straps!

The dilemma I faced was that I had planned on putting in a front vise, but then decided that the Groz I have is really too big for this bench. I then settled on this Czech vise I picked up from Lee Valley. It’s a little lighter weight. I just drilled the holes and tested the fit.

The vise has to be installed before the carcass can be. Today, I cleaned up the shop. I removed the 6’ table (the plan all along) and rotated the bench 90 degrees which opened up a lot of space. It’s still a mess of progress, but I hate to put it all away if I’m still using the tools.

When I get disillusioned I step outside and check out the view around here:

Tomorrow, back to the day job. When I get home I’ll finish the vise. I’ll then put the carcass under the bench.

Next… the front door and drawers….

I am totally impressed with the biscuit joiner. It will save me hours of time and improve my accuracy 100%.

All I can say is WOW! What an invention.

From the plans:

So, I spent the better part of a day routing out 1/4” deep 1/8” slots in 3/4” birch ply which mates up with some rock maple edging with corresponding slots. I’m thinking ”Hey, this is going to look really cool, birch and maple.” Got the splines cut and started dry assembly only to discover that the router slot wasn’t as ‘clean’ as I’d like. There was a little wandering in the ply and it isn’t going to ‘match up’ and not just a little spot, but more than I care to sand down.

How the heck did that happen? I thought for sure I held that router steady and took my time, yet it turned out lousy!!

After reading here I figured that a biscuit joiner was the way to go. So, off to the local big box to see what they have. I looked at the PC 557 $219! Dang that’s expensive, but you get 2 blades and 7 settings. Ryobi has one for $100, but it has only 3 settings. Huh? Looked at the Freud from Italy $125 – they make great blades, 5 yr warr… Dewalt $199…? Decisions, decisions…

This ‘trip’ took about 3 hours, because HD carries ‘X’ and Lowes carries ‘Y’. Back and forth to 3 stores in total because Lowes #1 was out, so off to #2 only to learn they were too. (Makes me wonder if they are having cash flow issues not having inventory?) Finally fed up with the run around, I returned to HD and got the PC 557. It was only $20 more than the Dewalt.

I haven’t used it yet, but plan to tomorrow. I’m attempting to ‘save’ the material I’ve slotted by gluing splines in and will trim them to size before using the PC 557. Wish me luck! I’ll take some pictures of the progress.

What I’ve learned – if you want a professional job – splines and slots are not the way to go. Also, check the contents of the purchase! I went home and opened my new tool only to discover that someone took the 4” blade. In fact, it looked as if they used the tool (or swapped their old one?) because it was dirty. I returned it for a ‘new’ machine. Look for a black wire tie locking the case from the factory – if it’s broken/missing make sure you check contents. The new box had one.

The gal assured me they check the returns, but seriously, how many folks would actually check for the blade? Apparently, none.

As we all know there are hazards in the work place. The hobby shop is no exception. Lose your health and you lose a lot.

I first read here about the Dust Deputy collection system to reduce dust in the shop. I checked out their prices and thought “If this was made in China, it would be $20!”

Being the cheapskate that I am – AKA frugal, I started researching how to make one for my self.

What I have learned:

First off, health issues. Bill Pentz has done the work. All we need to do is learn from his experience. He says DO NOT trust the claims of some of the popular cyclone manufacturers!

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

Here is a nicely compiled chart from Bill Pentz of each type of wood and its effect on ones health:

http://www.billpentz.com/Woodworking/Cyclone/WoodToxicityTable.cfm and a discussion on

From the ‘wayback’ machine, how to build your own http://web.archive.org/web/20010724162940/http://www.mgsweb.com/woodworking/cyclone/minicyclone.htm

Here is another site I found.

http://wayneswoodwork.davyfamily.com/

I have a Craftsman 10” contractor’s table saw circa 1970s that needs a better fence. The stock fence just isn’t true.

I’ve been looking at all kinds of them out there. Prices range from $150 to $400+.

Anyone have a recommendation?

I don’t do a lot of cutting, but if I had a better fence I might. I’m going to build an armoire for the living room and accuracy would be necessary.

What about the saw itself?

I installed turned pulleys and a segmented belt which smoothed it out. I figure a fence would make a good saw out of it without spending a bunch of money.

I don’t want to spend a boatload – i.e., throw good money after bad. So far, I have about $80 into it, including the saw!

Thanks for the input.