We had less than perfect weather this year in Maine and while it made for bad kayaking and sun bathing, it was great for a pilgrimage to Warren, ME. Just up the road from the world famous Moody's diner you see that telltale red roof come into view.

When you first step through the door into the showroom, you cannot help but take a deep breath and sigh. It is a beautiful showroom done in all hardwood floors, ceiling, and walls. It smells of wood shavings too. Arrayed around the room is a veritable museum of old Stanley tools. On the cases on the walls are all of the Lie Nielsen planes. What is most exciting is that you can walk up to any of these items, pick it up, and take it over to any number of the benches and go to work.

My wife accompanied me and I asked her later what she thought of it anxious to get the perspective of a non woodworker. Even she was taken aback by the quality of the tools. Heather will admit that she had no idea what each plane was or why you need so many, but I caught her picking up one or two and examining them closely with an impressed look on her face. I still don’t think she understands the reverence that I have for Lie Nielsen products, but at least she could understand the hard work that goes into all of their products. If nothing else she has plenty to make fun of me about as I raced around the showroom like a little kid in a candy store. I spent some time at the bench trying out the Scrub plane and Fore plane to reduce a rough board to approximately 7/8” thick. I then went to town with the beautiful #7 jointer and the low angle Jack. The cool thing is that all of these showroom planes are tuned nicely and the shavings I was pulling off this curly maple stock were magnificent. Next, I pounded out a mortise using some of the socket mortise chisels, and finished it off using the little router plane. What a joy!!

I talked to Ted in the showroom and asked him about a tour of the factory and he was only happy to oblige. He took a quick poll of the 5 other guys there and of course everyone was interested in taking a peek behind the curtain. So we donned our safety goggles and tramped out into the rain and mud across the compound to one of the production shops.

This is the chisel line where the CNC routers are transforming bar stock steel into the socket chisels. Ted showed us the various stages of the steel from rough stock to finished chisel. What is fascinating is that the CNC machines really only do the rough phases and all the refinement is done by a human and a grinding wheel. In fact throughout the factory it was surprising just how hands on the production process is. I guess that is what quality is all about. In the picture you can see one of the chisels being lapped to 400 grit by hand.

Next we turned a corner and were standing in the plane blank area. Ted told us that all the blanks come from a quarry in New Hampshire. This is where both the bronze and iron casting is done. It was really interesting to see the rough blank as it shows up at Lie Nielsen and watch the various stages to take it to a shiny plane body. Most impressive were the boxes and boxes of plane bodies just waiting to be worked. Here is a box of edge trimming bronze planes.

The plane line was a mass of bodies and CNC machines. It was hard to really see what was going on at each stage but our guide Ted was kind enough to explain all the steps that these plane bodies go through. I took a bunch of pictures here, but upon examination they really don’t show anything and I deleted most of them due to poor quality. (I am inspired by the QC at Lie Nielsen I guess). One thing I thought was cool was the pile of shavings that they create in their shop. Just a little different from what I am used to in my own shop.

Next we tromped back out in the mud and crossed over to the blade room.
This was startling because it looked so familar. Granted the machines are bigger but the sharpening process is just the same as in any of our shops. Someone is grinding bevels on a grinding wheel, another person is lapping and honing using a scary sharp on steroids method. This is where the level of hand made quality really comes into play.

Just a short walk down the hall and into the assembly room. This was really cool as all you see are tubs and tubs of shiny parts. From knurled bronze knobs, to iron and bronze frogs and everything in between. Three people stood at a long table and were painstakingly assembling bench planes. While I was there, they were working on a batch of #4 bronze smoothers. I was once again struck by the meticulous nature of this work. A part would be added and it would be checked against a straight edge or checked for square. This was definately unlike any assembly line I had ever seen where mindless drones insert tab A into slot B. It was obvious how much care these workers put into their work. Across the room one worker was dong a final check on a run of inlay tools and the smell of Linseed oil permeated the room there.

That brought us back to the showroom. I played around with some of the tools some more, but that was it. My wife and I had agreed before the trip that we would just look and save our money for another time. (Woodworking In America in November!!!) Heather was nice enough to buy me a cool Lie Nielsen T shirt though and she now has a better idea why I am so taken with these tools. I have a strong suspicion that somehow something got bought while my back was turned and might show up on a future special ocassion though. The parting thought I had while driving away was how friendly everyone was in the factory. Many of the workers wanted to know where we were from and what we thought. Everyone knew everyone else’s name and they all appeared to be woodworkers themselves. The pride in their work is obvious in how they carry themselves and the products they create. All in all, I was so impressed. I couldn’t stop talking about it for days.

If you are in Maine, make a point to visit Lie Nielsen you won’t regret it. Oh and stop at Moody’s on the way back and get some pie: best stuff on the planet!!

So after getting the table top installed and making some cuts I was overjoyed with how it was working and the complete lack of setup needed to get cutting. The router lift makes my life so much easier. I used this table for my recent flurry of Adirondack furniture builds (10 chairs, 6 footstools, whew!) to round off all the edges on the slats. You can only imagine the pile of sawdust on my floor by the end of that session. I also was missing some of the on board storage that I have with my little bench top model. So I set about designing a cabinet that could function as dust collection and storage for bits and wrenches. I wanted to make sure it was supported well too so that I would not see any table sagging over the years.

First I added some 2×4 angled supports. These are screwed into the underside of the table and to the ash sides. They are bolted to the table saw base.

Now I took some measurements between the supports because I mean to mount the cabinet to the supports rather than to the table top. Here is a dry fit of the carcass:

The top is open and I just ran two ledger strips across the top. I will drive a few screws through this into the table top for alignment purposes, but the weight will be supported by these fittings.

These worked really well because of the tight space inside the cabinet. With the bolts accepting an allen key I was able to squeeze my hand in to hold the key while tightening the assembly.

Next I fitted the door. I had some stereo cabinet hardware hanging around and put it to good use.

I wanted the door to fit as tight as possible so I chiseled out the recess for the hinges.

Since I had the chisels all warmed up I cut out a recess for this jointer dust port that I bought several years ago for another project that I ended up scrapping. I know that the recess is really not necessary. I could have just glued the plate in with some poly glue, but I like my hand tools so what the heck.
Using a marking knife I scribed a line around the port. Then with dividers I marked another rectangle inside that scribed line and cut that out with the jig saw. Now I went back with chisels and chopped the rabbet. Just for fun I smoothed out the rabbeted ledge using my small router plane. Aren’t hand tools fun!

Then I set about making the bit storage drawers. There are spots for 6 drawers. I only cut bit holes in three drawers for now. One of the six drawers is used for storage of insert plates, wrenches, set up bars, etc. The other two I will leave empty for now future growth.

Finally, I set the cabinet in place and shimmed it to height with whatever was laying around the shop. I drilled the 3/8” holes through the supports and into the cabinet side and bolted the whole thing into place.

At the last minute I decided to cut a hole in the side of the cabinet and mounted this switch that I have had buried in a drawer for 5 years or so. The power cord from the router runs from the main compartment up into the top right storage drawer and plugs into the switch from there. The main power cord runs out the back of the cabinet.

Overall I am really happy with this table. The dust collection works great with suction at the fence and out the bottom of the cabinet. The open top to the cabinet works as inflow for backup air since the door does not have any holes in it. I have plenty of bit storage with lots of room to grow. Finally, all the little accessories have a place to live in the top right drawer. The parting shot is the completed cabinet. You can see that I attached the drawer fronts with screws and then plugged them. I had some of these knobs from another projects so they fit the bill nicely.

I hope you enjoyed my little journey here and it will help you if you ever decide to build one of these.

rogersfinewoodworking.com/blog

and pay your respects.

We all have someone in our lives that touches us and inspires us everyday. Clarence did that for me and I will miss him dearly.

Next I needed to think about the fence. I know that I will be able to use my TS fence, but I have this Rockler fence floating around from my old drill press table. As far as I can tell, this is the same as their router table fence just a little smaller. I think it will work fine for my purposes and I can always modify it later if need be. Here I routed the channel for the T bolts that mount the fence.

Normally I would rout a larger channel on the bottom to not allow the T bolt to turn. But once I laid out the lines I realized that it is close enough to the edge so that the side piece will trap the T bolts. This was great and allowed me to just rout one channel in a few passes and I was set to go.

Finally, I attached the dust collection to the fence from the drill press set up. I mounted the router and made a few test cuts and I think this fence will serve my needs very well. This is a major step up from my old table as I had one of those Router Workshop set ups.

I have drawn up some preliminary plans for a “cabinet” of sorts that will allow me minimal bit storage but mostly it will enclose my router and allow for some dust collection. I will probably build in some angle supports for extra support so that there is not so much weight on the TS rails.

Anyway, when we last left off, I was about to install the table into the table saw. Because of the location of the hold in my TS rails, I needed to use screw inserts.

I friction fit the router table into the TS and supported it from below to keep it level. Using a punch set, I marked the hole locations. I then drilled for the fasteners. I used two different kinds because the front rail needs a countersunk screw so the fence operation is not hindered. I couldn’t find any bugle head bolts in the 3/8 size that other inserts used, hence the little brass one you see in the photo. I also used a forstner bit to drill out the footprint of the insert so it would sit flush to the table edge once screwed into place.

Then I put everything in place and tightened it down.

I got a JessEm template to rout the opening when I was at my local Woodcraft. They had it sitting out on the bargain table and I got it for $5! This definately saved me some time. Here I have double stick taped it in place and am ready to rout.

I took several passes to get to the 3/8 depth of the plate plus a little extra for shim room. Then I drilled out corners for my jigsaw blade in order to cut our the rest.

Here is where I realized my error. I have routed the recess just a touch too deep and had over estimated the leveling capacity of the screws set into the bottom of the router plate. I needed to put some shims in place. I had some White Oak and Padauk edging laying around so I ran it through the planer to get it down to 1/8” and glued it in place. I figure if nothing else, this will allow for more wear and tear on the ledge the plate sits on.

Everything clamped up and drying. Next I will build a couple of bit drawers that I can mount to the underside of the table for some on board storage. I am also thinking of building a box around the router to put in some dust collection. I haven’t figured that part out yet.

I have been eyeing the Maste-R-Lift from JessEm for a while so I thought this would be a good time to invest. First I glued and screwed together 2 pieces of 27×20” 3/4 MDF and edge glued and biscuited some scrap 3/4 ash to the sides. Here is the assembly in the clamps

I am going to use some of the leftover laminate from the counter top project for the surface of the table and I want it to run all the way to the edge. To insure a perfectly flat top, I raised the fence on my biscuit joiner 1/32” when I cut the slots on the ash so that the side pieces were 1/32 proud of the MDF substrate. Here I am planing the side flush with the edge trimming plane.

Next, I used Miller dowells to reinforce the corners…

Then I flush trimmed them with my Bakuma…

Here I brushed on the laminate glue onto the table top and the laminate. I let it dry for one hour.

Finally, I used a trim router to flush the top and then my BU Jack plane to put a slight chamfer on the edge to take the sharp corner off.

Time to call it a day. Tomorrow I will position it in the table saw and mark the holes for the screw inserts.

You can see that I painted the walls after the counters were installed in this second shot. Next I removed the counter itself. I plan to reuse this lumber to make a sharpening station at some point in the future. This is how I built the drill press cart as well.

Here I have laid some 2×4s across the cabinets as ribs for support as well as an attachment point from base cabinet to the top which will be formica laminate. The space calls for just over 11 feet so I wanted to use this as an opportunity to practice cutting half lap joinery by hand.

Here I marked the cut lines using a marking gauge and you can see me chiseling out the knife wall before making the saw cut.

From there I made more cuts to practice my technique and to make chiseling out the waste easier. Sorry I got a little involved at this stage and forgot to take pictures. There is a great illustration of this on The Lost Art Press blog that follows the same steps I used from chiseling to using a router plane to clean up the cheeks. One the ribs were glued, I cut dados using the same technique to correspond to all the base cabinet sides. I then screwed the ribs down to the base.

The counter top is two sheets of 3/4 MDF glued and screwed together with laminate top and a red oak edge band secured with biscuits. I then flushed the edge using an edge trimming plane. Here is the final result.

This new countertop is flat, level, and nice and slick. Glue comes right off it as does finish. I am really happy with it and I know it will serve me well for some time to come. Now I have a lot more free floor space and still a lot of counter top. Next comes the bench build to take up that floor space!

I have gotten started on the bottom case and discovered that I wanted to share this so I apologize that that part is not documented. In keeping with The Wood Whisperer’s recent “design on the fly” end table series, I thought I would put up this blog detailing that same process as I really only have vague images in my head as to what the finished product will look like and I am hoping the LJ community might help me focus those images.

My sister-in-law loves asian design so I have decided to do a black lacquer finish on this so I chose inexpensive poplar to make this. Plus I got a great deal on some returned cabriole legs at Lowes (of all the places!) and that is what got me started down the Queen Anne style. I’m all about fusion, so why not an Asian finish on Q.A. style?

The lower case is all mortise and tenon joinery and I had to use a lot of shims to secure the preformed legs to my mortiser bed, but it can be done. I built the drawer runners using pocket screws and will attach the top to the case with the same because that will all be hidden joinery. Take a look at the first dry fit:

I designed the scalloped edges using my french curve and by looking at some Google image examples. I built a small template out of plywood and flush trimmed the final pieces with a router.

I intend to build the top case with frame and panel construction with the front and back panels made from glass or acrylic (open to suggestions here) and the side panel made from PVC coated wire mesh that is pretty common with animal cages. The sides will have inset doors with locks so that she can let the birds out to play.

Obtaining some of this wire mesh is going to be my next step and possibly biggest stumbling block because I am having trouble finding it in small rolls. The 250 foot rolls I have seen are $300 + and ebay only has weird colored rolls. I am looking for black. I need to get some of this stuff so I can know the size of the grooves for the frame and panel set up as well as to get an idea of it’s properties and possible pitfalls.

The drawer in the front will pull out to allow cleaning as the bottom of the upper case will be open and you can see that it will rest into the rabbet on the top. I also think that having these two parts separate will make it easier to transport down to VA to give it to her. I figure a small molding set at the height of the top of the rabbet will conceal the edge nicely once the two cases are put together.

So that is where I am on my first blog. I am interested to hear some thoughts and definately some ideas on glass or acrylic and sources for PVC wire mesh. Has anyone ever made one of these and what were your experiences? What to do about the top? Crown molding, add in a light, etc. Also, I need to think about ways to secure perches and food dishes as well. I can’t wait to hear some ideas.

Shannon