The Guild Top Table

The Wood Whisperer Guild is about to embark on their next group build -- the Tilt Top Table.

Safety first . . . and second . . . and third . . .

What is the Wood Whisperer Guild you ask? Surely you know already if you’re an active part of the online woodworking community. If you’re new, the Guild is the members section of the Wood Whisperer Site. Why be a member? There are many great reasons. If you’re not yet familiar with them, you can watch an exhausted and dreary eyed me talk about why the Guild is so great.

This build will be a neat project. It’s going to be a traditional tilt top table. While this traditional form of furniture isn’t quite to my taste, it is much to my wife’s. I’m sure that if it’s not quite your style either, someone you know will still love it.Regardless of style, it’s going to be an interesting build. It’ll be the first time a Guild Build breaks out the lathe. The flip top and gently splaying legs that extend the shape of the center turning will also be fun to build. Or you could bastardize the design and not turn or splay it, as I’d probably do.

That is the great thing about Guild Builds. Though it’s a community build of many Guild members building along with Marc, the project’s not as important as the community. I’ve never had as much fun building a project as I have with the Guild Builds I’ve participated in. Even when my own project veered off dramatically from the one Marc was building, it was still great to participate with the group and share the camaraderie that only comes from building along with a group. Short of sharing a classroom, the Wood Whisperer Guild is the best choice to enjoy you woodworking (and learn) with others.

Learn more about the table with Marcs introduction video.

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Racking The Quilts Part IV

With all the shaping finally done for the Quilt Rack, it was time to sand. I used a combination of random orbit sanders and 3M Sandblaster sanding pads. I like the sanding pads because the foam backing keeps the pad rounded and prevents gouging or flattening the curves of the work piece. The sanding began with 80 grit and progressed to 180.

My finish sample board.

After sanding, I began experimenting with finishes. I took a scrap of Flame Yellow Birch which I had milled and sanded along with the quilt rack pieces. I ran blue tape down the middle and applied boiled linseed oil to one half and General Finishes Merlot Dye Stain to the other.
It was somewhere around this point that I was corrected regarding the due date. It turned out I only had one week until my mother-in-law’s birthday party, not two. I immediately abandoned my finish samples and got back to the business of assembling the quilt rack.

The cross members assembled to one leg.

I assembled the rack on my table saw so that I could rest in on a flat surface and ensure that it was square and wouldn’t rock. First I glued the cross members to one leg/foot assembly, then the other. As I was trying to push the second leg/foot assembly on, one of the Dominos gave me a hard time and wouldn’t slide into the cross member enough. Mid glue-up I pulled out a small pull saw and cut then end off the Domino. The leg/foot then fit on properly and I had an assembled quilt rack.

By sheer dumb luck, I was able to assemble the quilt rack
square on the first try with no tweaking.

I clamped the rack with one parallel clamp for each cross member. I had a few extra clamps ready to run diagonally across the quilt rack to counteract and racking, but all four foot points sat perfectly on the table saw with no racking present at all.
With the assembly done, I next moved on to finishing the quilt rack.

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Safety Loop

 

When we use a block plane with one hand for planing a piece held in the grip, there is the risk of tripping on the edge and see the plane flying to the floor, almost alchoices with tragic consequences for our tool.Of course precautions are taken only after having experienced the event and so my vintage #9 1 / 2  has experienced how hard the lab floor is! Fortunately, the body plane was not damaged: the only consequence was the cap lever breaking.I had the idea for the problem solution from Nintendo Wii remote to wich I removed the safety loop and secured it in the slot created by the mouth regulating lever. In other block plane models it can also be secured directly around the front knobIt does not interfere with the planing action  and avoid any danger of falling.

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Covering a Window Well

This weekend I made a quick project for a friend. Its a cover to fit over one of his basement window wells. Its designed to allow light to come in, but keep rain and snow out.

The wooden carcass for the window cover.

To make the well, I built a simple frame from 1/2" plywood. To join the frame, I used sections of dimensional lumber and screwed both faces in, rather than try to pocket screw or screw into the end grain of the thin, 1/2" plywood. The back of the frame was cut as an inverted "U" shape so as not to block the water. On the top, pitched surface I installed 1-1/2" wide strips to support the Lexan top. I place one of these strips on each end and one in the middle.

Fabricating the aluminum was much easier using commercial equipment
such as this finger brake.

Once the wooden carcass was done, I then clad the sides and front apron in .040 aluminum. The aluminum extends 2" down passed the sides and front to lap over and seal the joint between the wooden window well cover carcass and the masonry window well. I also covered the center support strip. It didnt need the aluminum from a waterproof perspective, but I though the clean white surface looked much better than plywood. To fabricate the aluminum, I used our commercial sheer and brake at work. Using commercial sheet metal equipment is much faster and cleaner than forming each piece by hand. Once formed I attached each piece to the carcass with neoprene gasketed stainless steel screws.

I was careful not to crack the Lexan when I drilled out for the fasteners.

When I installed the Lexan top, I ran a thin bead of M-1 sealant under each side to seal it. Since its a water shedding design, the bottom didnt need to be sealed. The overlap at the bottom is sufficient to keep water out.
At the top edge the aluminum trim fits over, rather than under, the Lexan to shed water.

Dry fitting the cover over the window well.

The entire assembly rests loosely on the existing masonry window well. In order to keep water which may run down the wall from running behind the cover, as separate, nail-on counter-flashing was installed on the wall. Its sealed with a non-curing butyl mastic under compression and more M-1 to prevent water entry.

The nail-on counter-flashing is the only part actually attached to the house.
The top trim of the window well cover extends behind it.

The top of the cover extend behind the nail-on counter-flashing. This properly sheds water while allowing the cover to be removed if and when its necessary.

The completed cover, installed over the window well.

This wasnt the most existing of woodworking projects, but I did get to use my track saw and I do like working with sheet metal. Most importantly, its a simple project that should help my friend out and keep his basement dry.

Basement Window Well Cover

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Fabrication: Initial Cutting & Setup

Once I had the design sketched out on the LVL I began by making relief cuts in the back face which would make the concave curved cut easier.

These Relief Cuts Will Make Cutting The Rear Curve Easier.

I did all my cutting on the band saw. This was the first project I made using my new Carter Guides. I won’t say they turn my crappy Ridgid band saw into a super star, but they do make it usable and predictable. For that, I give them credit and appreciation.

Once I had made the relief cuts, it occurred to me that a square block would be much easier to clamp and work then a curved one. Thankfully I thought of this when I did and left the back square (if slotted) for the time being.

Next, I cut out the “L” shape on the inside face. This too was easily done on the band saw using the Carter Guide. Though an “L” because the back and base are at 90° to each other, they are both reclined slightly to hold the bottle at a slight back tilt.

The Basic L.

Once the “L” was cut out of the inside face, I got ready to sculpt the concave face of the back. Having picked up an ArborTech Turbo Plane and a Saburrtooth Extra Coarse donut wheel since my last power sculpted project, I began the sculpting on a practice piece. When I was done I had tried the Turbo Plane, Saburrtooth wheel, my Festool RAS 115 and my medium grit Kutzall wheel. While the Turbo Plane and Saburrtooth have some potential and the RAS 115 is a great tool for finer shaping, I ended up preferring the moderate material removal rate, controllability and smooth resulting finish of the Kutzall. To paraphrase Paul Lemiski, the Kutzall is awesome.

The Saburrtooth Extra Coarse Proved Too Aggressive.

With the sculpting tool decided on, I took a scrap piece of 1x3 and screwed a very small piece of OSB to the end. Then I took the wine rack and placed it on the OSB. I secured it by screwing up through the OSB into the bottom of the wine rack. This firmly attached the 1x3 and allowed me to easily hold the rack in position with my bench vise.

Catch all the Wine Rack Posts Here.

Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.

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Hook Board

Another super quick & dirty project...
A fast approaching birthday and the question of where to hang dog leads and keys in the pantry.
Both problems solved ...

A scrap of Pine, some dowel and some spare brass hooks I had kicking around....
I squared, chamfered edges and smoothed  with my No#4 Plane.Used a bradawl for the threaded brass hooks. Drilled the holes and glued in the dowel. A lick of boiled Linseed oil. Done!
Its Rustic....

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Dougs Clamp Rack

A few weeks ago I made it up to my Dad’s shop in Greenwich, NY. He’s still setting up the shop and working on finding homes for all of the tools he moved up from Long Island in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sandy. While I was working with him I set up a new Very Super Cool Tools table saw fence (which I’ll post about shortly), cut about 40 drawer bottoms on the table saw, dadoed for the drawer bottoms in the sides, front and back of the drawers and finished a new clamp rack.

My Dads shop during a visit I made over the summer.

The clamp rack is a fairly basic design which he first intended to be a temporary solution to get the clamps off the floor. He assumed that he’d live with it for a while and then make a permanent one from better materials and of a design refined by use.

This initial clamp stand is fairly simple. It’s a box made of ¾” CDX plywood. It rests on a base of plywood that has a dimensional lumber lip for stability and four casters underneath for mobility. There is one half shelf and one full shelf. So far half the base holds heavy duty pipe clamps and the half shelf holds wooden handscrews. He hasn’t figured out what to put on the top shelf.

A view of the clamp rack showing the side, base, half shelf and shelf.

Inside the clamp rack, there the half shelf is missing there are racks running down each side. These racks hold his F-Style clamps.

The racks for the F-Style clamps are deep to accommodate the handles.
They dont have ends so that the clamps can be slid, rather than lifted, out.

On one exterior side is a Woodpecker Heavy Duty Clamp Rack filled with K-Body parallel clamps. The other exterior side is lined with shop made racks of my own design which hold Irwin Quick-Grip clamps. There’s also a half-length rack on that side for the shorter Quick-Grips.

This side holds the Quick-Grip clamps.

These racks were quick to make and the head of the clamp fits in easily.

This was a quick and rewarding project that has helped clean up the shop and made finding and reaching clamps much easier. Though it’s barely been used, my Dad is already regretting not having made of better wood as he thinks this could be the final design.

The finished clamp rack.

How do you store your clamps?

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