In the shop...

Maybe this should be titled "Outside the shop". While not exactly a woodworking project it does contain a piece of wood! I slapped this outboard motor cart together on Saturday. The steel came from re-purposed bed frames that I'm constantly on the lookout for. The tires were cheap sale items from Harbor Freight. I used my MIG welder to build it on the patio in my back yard. I ran out of welding gas right at the end so the last few tack welds holding the axle in place are a bit sloppy. I'll be adding some handles to better maneuver it as well as finishing it up with a few coats of paint. Sorry for the poor quality of the cell phone photo.

This is to store/move a Honda 9.9 HP outboard motor for my sailing club DC Sail. The motor gets clamped to the wood piece like it would to a boat's transom. I plan on building one more of these.

Très petite Roubo: Part 2

The next step on my nephew's bench is to cut the mortises for the stretchers on all the legs. I lay out all the mortises on the legs. It's nice to have several combination squares, this way you can set several different dimensions and make your layout go quicker.

I bored out the majority of the waste with a forstner bit in my drill press. Then clean up with a chisel.

The Stretchers are single 2x4's. I just mill them square and cut the tenon cheeks on the band saw and finish the shoulders with my carcass saw. I then dry fitted all the stretcher tenons into their mortises. Once they slid into place I prepared them for draw boring. I won't go into too much detail here, but draw boring is an amazingly simple way of securing a mortise and tenon joint to be virtually indestructible. You don't even really need glue to hold them together.

I debated whether I should build a vice for the bench. I knew it would take more time than I had, but I just couldn't help but think how cool it would be for my nephew to have a real working leg vise to hold things with. I ended up deciding to prepare the bench for the addition of a leg vice at a later date. Possibly for my nephew's 4th Birthday.

I cut the paralell board mortise the same way as the leg mortises. Instead of cutting a square mortise for the screw like Chris Schwarz did, I just bored an oversized hole. I will be making a maple threaded "nut" that will be let into the back of the leg. Here you can see how I made several kerfs using the band saw which I could easily split out and pare down with a chisel.

I bored and tapped the nut then glued it in place. I'm using a 1-1/2" screw box that I had bought for building my Moxon twin screw vice. It turns out to be the perfect size for a vice screw on a mini Roubo.

The next step was to join the legs to the top. This involves a very cool double mortise/dovetail joint. I started by arranging the legs onto the top and marking the locations for the joints. Since this is all done by hand and there are inevitably slight variations between each leg, I make sure that each leg is numbered to it's location.


Of course one of the legs had to land on this mess. Luckily when I went to cut the dovetail mortise at this location the knot stayed intact after cutting through it and it didn't cause any problems.

The mortises in the top were more of the same drilling out the majority of the waste and chiseling. The difference this time is that the top was too massive to drill on the drill press. I switched to a hand operated bit and brace. I've found that you can bore the holes just as fast this way when compared to boring them with a cordless drill with a forstner bit. The amount of torque you can create with the bit and brace is much greater and more easily controlled than that of a cordless drill. Oh, and you don't need to recharge your battery halfway through. But it is quite a workout on the arms!

The rest of the project was a mad dash so I don't have any more pictures of the process. I was somewhat surprised at how little futzing I had to do to get all the joints to go together for the dry fit. All my sawing, paring, etc must be getting more accurate from all my practice. However, if your joints are tight without glue, you might want to make them a little less tight. With the addition of glue the wood tends to swell a bit. I ended up having to really wail hard on the legs to get them to seat all the way. I'm not sure what my neighbors thought of the 15 minutes of louder than usual banging... on Christmas Eve morning.

Yeah I cut this one pretty close. I was also: shellacking my sister's side table, pinning the mortises on my uncle's picture frame, and sawing out the letters of my nieces name on the band saw. It was a busy morning. I'll show some of those projects later.

It then sat in the back of my truck under a tarp until my nephew opened all of his many, many, many gifts. Then finally I brought it in, he really seems to like it!

I'll try to get a better overall picture of the bench. I just didn't get a chance with all the holiday madness. 

Très petite Roubo: Part 1

Pardon my french. The Roubo bench craze snags another victim. Less than a month before Christmas my sister tells me that my 3 year old nephew really wants a "tool bench". I can't be happier hearing this fact and decided I'd build him his first workbench.

Of course I have plans to build a proper Roubo for myself in the future, but for now I thought a miniature version of  a true to form Roubo would be good practice. I must point out that I am indeed crazy for thinking that I'd have enough time to get it done before Christmas.

I scaled down Chris Shwarz's Old School Roubo design so that the workbench width is 13", just narrow enough to fit through my planer. The proportions aren't perfect since I am going to make it 24" tall and 36" long, but it will be hard to miss this bench as being French.

A quick run to the Orange Menace and I've got 10' 2x4's that call themselves premium. I won't have the luxury to allow the wood to acclimate to my shop before milling. I simply don't have the time, so any twisting and warping will have to be dealt with on the finished piece.

I view common dimensional lumber as the modern day version of what used to be referred to as deal. It's not the greatest lumber, but it's plentiful, cheap and does the job. This is after all a child's workbench.

I chose 2x4's because they were the cheapest and I could glue up the top by turning them on edge, and make the legs with only two boards.

I started by breaking them down on my saw bench. I could have used my circular saw, but I took this as an opportunity to practice  my panel saw skills, and honestly I don't think a circular saw is any faster. It was also a treat to use my grandfather Asher's saw on my nephew Asher's workbench.

I ran them over the jointer and planer to take out some twist and square up the rounded edges. I glued up the legs while working on some other Christmas gifts.

The legs are too big to square up their ends on my shooting board. I scribe a square line using my marking knife all the way around the leg and trim it flat with my low angle block plane. I keep an old contact solution squirt bottle full of denatured alcohol close by for planing end grain. Once I learned this trick I rarely plane end grain without giving it a liberal dousing first.

I then measure the legs 1/8" over long since I know I can just plane the excess flush with the top of the bench when it's done. I crosscut these on the band saw since it doesn't have to be accurate.

I lay out the tenon and sliding dovetail on the legs. I cut the tenons on the band saw as well. I then bash out the waste between the tenon and the dovetail with a big mortise chisel.  You can see how I really do tend to choose whatever tool does the job the fastest while balancing which technique achieves the desired accuracy.

I cut the dovetails on the legs using my inexpensive ryoba saw. It works well since I can make the full cut in one pass since it doesn't have a brass back like a backsaw would. I aim for staying on the waste side of the line so I can clean up these slanting edges later by paring them with a chisel. Here is the result before final fitting

When I glued the top up I didn't worry too much about the rounded edges of the lumber here. I just made sure they were flat on their gluing faces by running them over the jointer and through one pass on the planer. Afterwards I manhandled this panel into my planer, it fit by about a 1/4" of an inch. I planed out all the rough areas till the top was nice and smooth.  Here is the before and after of the rough block vs. the planed surface.

This is where I pulled out the circular saw to hog through most of the crosscutting of the top. However the top was too thick for the saw to cut in one pass, I finished it up with my ryoba.  More to follow...

In the shop...

In the spirit of posting more content, I'm going to  intersperse my longer more thought out posts with quick entries on what I'm doing at the moment "in the shop".

I've built two of these before. It is a Greene and Greene style picture frame. The joints are small mortise and tenons. All it needs is the rabbet, and all the shaping to be done.

I have a bunch of scraps that are good for making try squares. Here is a small one almost completed.

Welcome Back

At the urging of some friends I'm back at the blog. When I saw the date of my last post I can't say I was surprised. It really does take a lot of discipline to keep up with something like this. I'm going to try to post here at least once a week. We shall see how that goes...

I've been questioning the Name of my blog for some time now. I can't say I'm necessarily shopless. Even though my space is small, I've found it more than adequate and sometimes fun to overcome the challenges a small shop presents. So I'm going to keep the name as is, and from time to time focus on the issues those of us wishing to work wood while living in a rental apartment, in a city have to deal with.

When I started setting up my shop here in DC, out of necessity I had started to delve more into the hand tool only route of woodworking. As I've been able to find more ways of making use of my space I've added some of my power tools from my previous shop back into my woodworking.

I worried that I was copping out on the idea of using only hand tools. Then I realized my intention was never to completely forsake power tools, they simply didn't seem to fit into my current space. However, the small space has thought me the value of being skilled at using hand tools. I fully subscribe to the type of woodworking where you use machines to do the heavy lifting of milling your wood to size, and hand tools to finish the joinery and surfaces.

Like always, the lack of posts does not reflect a lack of work. Quite the contrary. The shop has progressed quite a bit since that last post. It has gotten much more "cozy". I've been able to jam enough tools into this little room to make just about anything, and if I can do it it such a small space I hope to inspire others to do so as well.

I hope to have some new posts soon with some actual working content. Stay tuned. But for now, welcome back!

Workbench

One thing that becomes painfully obvious very quickly when woodworking is how much the lack of a good work surface can hinder your work. Back when I started this blog I was taking a class at the Arlington Adult Education center to get some access to the machinery. I had planned on building a traditional cabinet maker's workbench. I quickly realized that finishing even the base to it would be a daunting task within the time I had there. So like many of my projects it was partially finished after two semesters. During the class I had screwed up the dimensions of the stretchers while milling them out of maple. Since I did not want to spend that much I bought some hem-fir 2x6's to build what I told myself would be temporary stretchers until I got around to buying the material for the top. I milled them and glued them up in my shop in PA.

The first thing I did when I got back to DC was to glue up the second trestle.


Then I got busy cutting the tenons into the stretchers. Cutting these massive tenons by hand was a real workout. It took me about a week of cutting one a night after I got home from work.


I'm still trying to improve my hand saw skills, and these tenons provided lots of practice. The cheeks of the tenons required a lot of clean up with a shoulder plane to get them to fit properly. I knew using 2x6 material, bought, glued and milled in PA then brought to DC could cause some problems. Of course after acclimating to my apartment one stretcher got a slight twist in it. It was enough to cause problems getting the tenons in the through mortises, however after some coercion it all came together. This resulted in one of the feet not touching the ground, which won't matter once I get a real top onto this thing and the weight will keep it level. For now a small shim at one foot works.

I then finished the base by chopping out the mortises for the wedges. I had a nice sample of some teak from work that I fashioned into the wedges. The oily nature of the wood worked well and helped the wedges slide into their homes with ease.


This is the first time I've used this form of wedged through mortise. I wanted the ability for the bench base to be disassembled so that you can move it easily. In most workbenches this is done with some bolts but I don't like how bolts look. I know its just a workbench but this joint is able to hold the base together with surprising strength.


The 3/4" plywood bench top, which used to be my drawing table, is only temporary. Which I'm sure will mean a few years. With the help of a friend I also installed my tool cabinet up on the wall. It's starting to look like a shop in here!

Momentum

As my brother in law pointed out I was finally getting some momentum. Then I realized its been a few months since a post. However the good news is that the lack of posts has not been due to the lack of work. In fact I've been very busy lately and I'll be making quite a few posts in short time.

Shortly before Thanksgiving I went home to Pennsylvania with a Toyota Tacoma from Zipcar to pick up some tools and a dresser. I should mention at this time that I find being without a vehicle another challenge to a woodworker, but the availability of renting a pickup truck from Zipcar is invaluable.

I ended up bringing one of my routers, drill press, bench grinder, clamps, some wood and almost all of my hand tools along with my large tool cabinet to store them all in.

My utility room was getting very crowded. I was also pondering whether I could still call myself shopless. Indeed I still have a small space, and no large stationary power tools but many people do woodworking in even smaller places. Like this guy for instance. The extreme being a workshop in a bathroom. But even he has a bandsaw!

Well, yeah I know its been a while... again. What can I say I'm a busy guy. The screen door seems to have lost its high priority since the temperature started to drop. It's all together except for a final coat of paint and the screen.
The screen project that interrupted the kayak project got interrupted by a window project.
Thats done now. Yay I finished something.

I started working on getting my "shop" organized in anticipation of doing some real work on the kayak. I was inspired by the many photos which have Chris Schwarz's tool racks at the offices of Popular Woodworking in the background that I bought a back issue of Woodworking Magazine which described how they were built. They are extremely simple and I can't believe I had to buy the magazine to figure it out. The rack is essentially two strips of wood that sandwich 1/2" spacers. So I found some scraps of wood in the shed and built what you see in the background below the window.


Wow two projects finished I'm on a roll!

So then I started working on the Kayak again. This time my cedar strips are the right width and should conform to the tight curves of the forms much better than my last attempt. However due to the process of re-milling them they now have paper thin edges at the cove side and these flake off and have become a general nuisance. I'm hoping this won't cause any problems and any gaps should be slight enough so that they get planed out when I fair the hull. This time around I've also decided to screw the sheer strips in since last time I had such a hard time keeping them tight against the forms with only staples and nails. I realized that I should have put washers on the screws to keep them from digging into the soft cedar. Mistakes are always a design opportunity so I think what I'm going to do is inlay small diamonds of a contrasting wood, say maple, at every screw hole. Since the holes go into the forms which are spaced at even intervals along the length of the kayak, I think it will look really nice, and maybe even like I did it intentionally.

Screen Door

So, here I am again, taking forever to post. I apologize to my one reader, me. Well like normal I've found another project to distract me from my other projects. I was cleaning out the shed behind my apartment when I realized there was an old screen door up in the rafters. I should note that my current apartment lacks a rear screen door. I was elated when I measured it and it was just about a perfect fit for the steel frame that the ugly steel door sits in. However, it was in pretty sad shape. The wood is pine, and it looks to be an old screen door kit. No one ever bothered to paint it and upon pulling it apart no one ever bothered to even glue it together. It was constructed using one, yes count them one, half inch dowel per joint. The half inch diameter was a problem since the joints were drilled so close to the edge of the rails that the busted through. Someone attempted to fix this with some finish nails. I'd like to think I know what I'm doing (ha! yeah right) so I decided to fix it proper. I decided to patch the places where the dowels blew through, plug the half inch dowel holes and re-drill and re-dowel using two 3/8" dowels per rail, probably 3 on the bottom rail. I'm sure most people would think I'm crazy to bother with this thing, but I figured it should be an easy woodworking project. Some new screen, a coat of paint and a pair of hinges and I'm hoping it should be ready for the party I'm having August 23. We'll see how that works out. I doubt I'll get it painted in time. It will be so nice to have the back door open without having lots of mosquitoes, and gnats flying around my house. I've finally figured out how to get pictures on here. I'll hopefully get some more links, and goodies up soon too. But for now here's a picture of what is currently serving as my "shop" and of course the mess that is in it. I'd eventually like to finish my workbench project and replace my drawing board with it. You can see the state of my "kayak". Yup its just the form so far. I'll save the trials and tribulations about that for another post.

I'm Back?

Wow, life really has a way of getting complicated, and busy, fast. I looked at the date of my last (and first) post. Over a year ago. A lot has changed since then. I'm no longer taking the woodworking classes. I didn't get the work bench finished either. Add that to the never ending list of half finished projects.

I recently moved into a new apartment, with more space, but unfortunately still not a proper shop space. I have what I refer to as a "utility room" off the back of my apartment. Its a nice size but not quite big enough for a real shop. I also have a storage shed in my back yard, which my practicality tells me I can use for something woodworking related but haven't worked it out yet.

However the extra room has some benefits, I will have enough space to do some minor woodworking projects. I've brought some tools from home to help with that. I plan on finishing a few of those half finished projects. I brought my Rikon mini lathe down from PA which should provide hours of fun and shavings! However its not set up yet.

I plan on trying to keep this blog updated more often. I'll probably throw in more than just woodworking as a way to keep some friends and family updated with my life too. To tell the truth I was inspired to get back on here from another blog. Joel mentions at the end of his 04/05/2008 post that an editor at FWW was looking for people that practice woodworking in cramped apartment conditions. It reminded me that this is what my blog was supposed to be all about, and how little I've worked on it.

Welcome

Ever since moving to Washington, DC I have not had much of a chance to do any woodworking since my work shop is still in Lansdale, PA. I am currently working on figuring out a way to find space to move and set up my shop closer to my my current home.

I can not tell you how hard it is not to have my work shop. I'm sure some fellow woodworkers know the feeling. So far I have filled my woodworking need by designing my next projects in a 3d modelling program called Sketchup. It's not helping much but at least I'll be prepared for when I do get my shop set up.

For now, a few coworkers and I have signed up for a woodworking class in through Arlington Adult Education in VA. We've had one class so far and I have to tell you if it wasn't for wanting to take the class with some friends, I would have signed up for the advanced class. The first classes are going to be going over a lot I already know. Hopefully I will still learn something I have missed by being self taught.

Well hopefully I will get a few readers who will enjoy checking out my progress on both the shop and my future projects. I know I get a kick out of reading about other's woodworking adventures on the web.