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haves,and,have,nots

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Door Update

Fitting the Panels and Cutting Rabbet for the GlassThese last few days Ive been busy with the door project; with the main frame essentially complete I focused on the four door panels. These are solid Oak about 1 1/8" thick and needed to be rabbeted on all four sides to slide into the 1/2" door dados. The dados were cut about 1/4" deeper than needed to allow the panels to expand and contract as all solid wood will do over time. A straight forward procedure that first establishes the width and depth of the panel rabbets with my marking gauge and then starting the cut with my skew rabbet plane by Veritas. Ive read a few reviews of this plane and it seems like most have been good but to be frank, I still cant seem to find a rhythm with it. Maybe its just me but this plane never quite lived up to expectations. After using it for a year or more now I still seem to get inconsistent results.? Perhaps its the angled front knob that throws me off or the uncomfortable side profile while in use...could be the knobs that hold the fence in position have come loose on me a few times while in use and I find when I really tighten the little turn screws down to keep things tightly in place, I need a pair of pliers to get them open again.? anyone else have any thoughts on this plane? Whatever the reasons are its not my favourite plane to use for the entire process of cutting rabbets. (as a side note I should say that my small plough and large router planes by Veritas are great tools that I use daily; just seems the skew block has some issues-at least in my hands!)So with that in mind I begin the rabbet with the Veritas and once a shallow groove is established Ill switch over to my medium sized shoulder plane to finish off the cuts. I get better results with this approach and clean things up with my side rabbet planes to complete. Again I apologise, no shots of these last few steps...been so busy trying to get this project done that the camera is sometimes an after thought! Sorry...
With the panels cut and fit Ill lay out the larger rabbets around the window section. This is basically the same procedure as the last and I did remember to turn on the camera.
To begin, a nice deep scribe line with the marking gauge on the back of the door.
With the rabbet widths and depths nicely scribed into the Oak Ill go ahead and dis-assemble things to begin the process. Again its a combination of the skew rabbet plane to start, followed by my shoulder plane. These are all stopped rabbets so each end of the channel needs to be cut with my large router plane. I work my choice down through the fiber until I reach my desired depth. This procedure is generally the same for the four components but after I did the first two I started to remove the waste with a little more gusto. In the photos you may notice a large Japanese style chisel on my bench top; for removing this waste in a hurry I resorted to the bash and crash of the 1 3/8" wide steel and my heavy mallet.
Once the bulk of the material is removed I clean up the bottom and sides of the groove with again the shoulder plane and router to get tight into the corners...
another dry fit to check and I can move on.
I follow these same steps and complete the other three rabbets getting a little more aggressive with the mallet and chisel as I go; these rabbets are big and deep and in this small work space the simple task of taking a style, cutting a rabbet, fitting the rail and then taking it apart and fine tuning things is a real workout. As the door gets closer to completion my shop is feeling smaller and smaller. I can safely say that this is the first and the last door Ill attempt to build in this workspace.
From here its on to some more hand planing but my spirits are lifted because Im very happy with the results so far. This planing session should be one of the last and my smoothing plane is taking paper shavings off of the stock. Another dry fit and I can start to get set-up for the mouldings...
Hallelujah!

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New Offerings from Veritas

Tongue-and-Groove Accessories for Plow Plane 

Veritas Small Plow Plane with 1/2-in. cutter and conversion kit installed.

One of my favorite, and most used tools has to be the Small Plow Plane by Veritas. I reach for it on almost every project I make and just recently, Lee Valley has come up with a few new additions to make this already great tool even better.
Veritas has introduced a series of Tongue and Groove blades along with a complete line of large size cutters. Up until this point the sizes ranged from 1/8-in. up to 1/4-in. Great for drawer bottom grooves and small scale cabinet work but this new line extends the range all the choice up to 3/4-in. They’re available in A2 tool steel and only took a few seconds to polish and put to work. A simple conversion kit that easily installs on the existing plane make it possible to use this new, larger line of cutting irons.
This past week I’ve been making some moldings for one of the projects in my new book and if you’ve ever made moldings you know that the bulk of the work happens before you ever touch a molding plane. A series of grooves and rabbets are created to remove the bulk of the material before the hollows and rounds refine the profile. Just this morning I used both the new 1/2-in. cutter and then the 1/4-in. T & G to establish the profile on a piece of walnut. Once complete, it was quick and easy to define the shape with my Hollows and Rounds.
The change over from standard plow plane using the conversion kit was quick and easy with excellent results.

Bottom of Plow Plane showing 1/4-in. T & G cutter.

If you’re someone who would rather create your grooves with a hand tool instead of on a router table or table saw, then the Veritas Small Plow Plane, along with this new line of cutting irons will fill all of your grooving needs.
To make the deal even sweeter, Lee Valley is offering a discounted, introductory price until June 18th so get ‘em while they’re hot~
Cheers!

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The Soundtrack of Life

Fine Homebuilding
When people ask me what I do for a living I tell them I’m a wood worker…sometimes. Sometimes I say I’m a musician. Sometimes I say I’m a Dad. Sometimes worlds collide and I’m able to do a project that mixes mediums and over the last few months that is sort of what occurred.
I was asked by the fine folks at Fine Homebuilding.com to write six original scores for some new online video features they’ve recently produced. In between chapters for my new book and wood working classes, I managed to write and record the pieces and I’m thrilled to be able to share them with you. The video’s are available here, at the Fine Homebuilding website and represent the 2012, Fine Homebuilding HOUSES Award Winners. Jump over to the link and take a look at some incredible home designs and architecture.
Ranging from remodels to new homes,  best-energy smart homes and retirement there is something there for everyone.
Colin Russell has produced some fine video’s and the back ground music isn’t that bad either!
Check it out when you get a few minutes.
Cheers!

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One for the Road

A Cabinetmakers ToolchestJust a quick note to say that the new (and last?) issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine has an edited version of one of the chapters from my book. A Cabinetmakers Toolchest- project one. For anyone that doesnt yet have a copy of Made by Hand, this may be a nice choice to get a good look at some of whats inside. The issue, #181, February 2010 also has the first instalment of George Walkers new column, Design Matters as well as a few other great articles. Watch for it at your local newsstands.
Cheers!

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Mahogany Wall Shelf

Its Monday morning and I just finished this small wall shelf over the weekend. Its body and interior drawer are African Mahogany, the drawer front is Flame Birch and the runners are made of Rosewood. I wanted to try to incorporate the sliding drawer rails into a piece so this was more or less an experiment. Kind of a Modern look with traditional joinery.
Im happy how it turned out. The dovetails were a bit of a challenge due to the thickness of the Mahogany. The Birch for the drawer front is known as Flame Birch and has a real figured grain. Lots of shimmer. This adds to the difficulty of the piece due to the reversing grain pattern that create the Flame look. A cabinet scraper was the tool for the job. The finish is a hand rubbed wax.

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Its All In The Details Sans The Detail Planes That Is

Things are coming along with my wife’s plant shelving unit. Not as quickly as I would like it to, but at least things are heading in the right direction.

I now have both sides completed, and son-of-a-gun if they don’t match. I have alchoices found this to be the hardest part of building anything; when you get one side done, you have to match it. I would save myself a lot of grief with this if I worked like Rob over on the woodbloke blog. He makes scale models and does tremendous research before he even buys the materials. Often, as with this project, I don’t work from a plan. I just come up with a concept and start at it. I know that if I spent a little time creating plans, I could cut all the pieces in one go and they would all be the same. Knowing and doing is two different things, though. I just think that working things through as I go along is a lot more fun. I work one side until I get it the choice I want it, and then I shoot myself in the foot making the match.

The first order of business was dressing the stock.  Using a scraper, I got rid of the squeezed out glue and realized that I would have to do very little planing. In fact, I only had to touch the plane to it in two or three places. The whole thing was cleaned up with a card scraper. I purchased a Veritas Scraper Set some time ago and I love the thing, especially the holder. I can take out a hunk of skin working with cotton balls, so anything that minimizes the chance of blood ending up on the wood is a good thing for me. While the set is a winner for me, the card holder is the bonus. It makes holding the scraper blade so much easier, especially for these large jobs.

Once I had the faces smooth, I cut the piece to length. The shelves are made from a glue-up of two 1” x 6” pieces, so the final width was 10 ¾”, which is the width I made the sides. As a result, I did not have to do any ripping on them.

I then shot the ends using my temporary shooting board with my 15” Veritas Low-Angle Jack. I have no idea how I lived without this appliance for so long, but I’m very happy to have it now. The dark areas in the image above are sweat stains, by the choice.

I shot the long edges with a Stanley No.7, and I was ready to do the detail.

The detail on the shelf edge is a perfect example of why I don’t work with plans. In my drawing, I placed a three-bead reed along each edge of the shelves, but all the other details are single beads. As I looked among the Stanley No.66 Beader blades, I realized that the design would probably be more unified if the shelf edges matched the other shadow lines. I ended up putting the reeding blade back and using a single ¼” beading blade.

I started out adding a bead to the outer edges. I then wanted to remove the ¼” space between so I pulled out the little Veritas Miniature Shoulder Plane and the set of Veritas Detail Rabbet Planes. Now these little planes are really well made and I am sure in the hands of someone a heck of a lot more capable with tools than myself, they are probably an incredible advantage to a shop, but, man, I had a hell of a time with them.

The Miniature Shoulder has a blade adjuster on it, so setting the blade was very easy. Getting that blade to remove the oak in anything that resembled a reasonable amount of time, however, was another story. With a sole that is ¼” wide by 2 ½” long and only weighing in at 1.7 ounces, it was like trying to remove wood with a feather. I knew at the time I was asking a lot of this little plane. Maybe on a smaller project, one that does not involve hardwood, I might have stood a better chance. It didn’t take long to realize that there was no choice the day was going to be long enough for me to plow out that space using that tool.

I then turned to the Veritas ¼” Detail Rabbet plane. At 3”, these planes are a little longer with a bit more heft to them, but they are awkward little buggers to hold. Because of their height, they are also difficult to keep square to the stock. Being a tad lighter than what was needed, it wasnt going to remove stock in a hurry either. The biggest issue I had with them, though, was setting up the blade. There is no adjustment and the only choice to work it is to set it using two fingers and doing so by feel, not the easiest choice for a raw amateur to set a plane blade.  I also noticed that after two runs down the 52” length, the plane was uncomfortably warm in my hand, damn near hot, actually.

I said the heck with the lot of them (ok, so maybe a little stronger than that), and went to the Veritas Miniature Plow Plane, which is what I should have started with in the first place. It was much more controllable and removed what I wanted in about 4 minutes flat. I finished it all off with a quick sand and I was done for the day.

Thankfully, only two of the four shelves require this treatment, the other two having square faced edges.

Tomorrow, I’ll start trying to match it.

Peace,

Mitchell

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