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Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 21 May 2020, 19:56
by Mike G
Goodness knows how many years ago, maybe 15 or 20, I made a couple of oak settles. I even posted about it on a forum somewhere, and one or two of you have been around long enough to perhaps have seen them back then. One of them has had a really tough life, having been parked in front of the underfloor heating manifold at my last house for all of its life until we moved house. Being in the kitchen, it has also been mopped at the bottom repeatedly:

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As you can see, it has really suffered. Time to give it a bit of TLC, I thought, so I popped it out to the workshop. No mean feat as it is solid oak throughout and weighs a ton. I needed a sack barrow for the task.

It's quite nice inside, and features an absolute rarity....some turning of mine:

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I popped the bottom out:

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Then made some minor adjustments to the sides:

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This was rather unfortunate. A loose panel that wasn't as loose as it should have been:

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I've discovered that I used PU adhesive in building this, so maybe it foamed up and went somewhere it shouldn't have done. No problem. A bit of filler and polish will soon hide the problem. The settle is going to a new home in the porch, so I want it looking spick and span for its new location.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 21 May 2020, 21:17
by kirkpoore1
Mike you have a gift for drama. :)

If only you'd have used hide glue--then you would have had to repair it years ago. :lol:

Kirk

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 21 May 2020, 21:19
by DaveL
I am sure you must have a good reason for sawing it in half, but it does seem a bit unkind!

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 07:44
by Pinch
I remember these very well. You posted them on here when I was making Andy's settle about 3 years ago. I like them a lot and they look beautifully made. I can imagine the weight of them. 8-)

I have every faith in what you're doing is the correct decision. :P

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 07:55
by Andyp
I hope you have a cunning plan :)

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 08:54
by MattS
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Sure a bit of polish would have fixed it - no need to saw in half!! :D Keen to see what you have planned!

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 11:28
by Mike G
Pinch wrote:.........I have every faith in what you're doing is the correct decision. :P


My wife has just seen it. She isn't quite so confident as you! :)

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 11:28
by TrimTheKing
I'm guessing if it's going in the porch then it needs to be a bit shallower...

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 18:39
by RogerS
Mike G wrote:
Pinch wrote:.........I have every faith in what you're doing is the correct decision. :P


My wife has just seen it. She isn't quite so confident as you! :)


I've got one like that. They don't seem sympathetic when the time comes. But we like 'em that way, don't we !

Still think taking a saw to it was cruel.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations.

PostPosted: 22 May 2020, 20:26
by Mike G
I decided I didn't need the lower panels in the front, so I made a minor intervention with a jig saw:

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Removing the remnants from the edge grooves wasn't entirely without collateral damage:

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Here's one of the tenons cut off flush:

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A few minutes work with some chisels restored the mortise to its former glory, and revealed that I used to use machinery rather more than I do today:

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Here is the arm rest mortise after removing the tenon:

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My wife made me stop at this point. I was going to cut out the cracks in the back panels and put in 2 Dutchmen, then carve a Tudor rose in the middle of each panel. She thought I was joking:

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I had really hoped to avoid this next problem. Raising a panel in situ is just such a silly idea:

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Moving on to the tenons, I marked and cut the shoulders (knife then saw):

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Workholding was something of a trial. Not your classic set up, and it made an awkward job even more awkward:

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I didn't get long at this today, so that's all I managed I'm afraid. I did however buy a whole load of wood, so more exciting woodworking adventures will ensue.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 17:18
by Mike G
The next phase of the works involved putting the two halves of the settle back together again. This was quite awkward, and after a bit of thought I made a quick template of the back legs to ease proceedings:

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When offered up to the side panels I could now mark out the shoulder lines:

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However, because the arm rest was in a different plane from the side panel, the mark I made for that was a best guess, and not to be relied upon:

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What I did was cut the bottom two tenons accurately as per the template, but make the shoulder of the armrest 3 or 4mm on the safe side of the marked line. Then, it was a case of continual offering-up-and-adjusting. Sometimes those seekers of perfection miss out on the pragmatic solution, and this was a good example of guessing and adjusting. Poor old Steve Maskery has just fallen over in the corner in a heap, covered in a cold sweat . :) Anyway, sneaking up on the final shoulder line, and adjusting the panels etc in the process, took maybe 3 hours:

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But finally, everything lined up properly, the joints fitted well, the panels slid into their grooves, and all was well with the world:

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Whilst the glue on that was drying I adjusted and put back the little overhang, the fixed part of the top:

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This photo, showing the seat offered up in its position, shows you how much width I had removed (and also how much colour I had stripped out of the thing by scraping off the oil and wax mess:

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So I hacked a piece off the front of the seat to make it fit its new circumstances:

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All the grooves around the front frame which had previously taken panels needed infilling:

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Those bored of dovetails might want to look away now.

The whole idea of this alteration to the settle was to convert it from being a box to being a shoe rack, with a couple of big drawers. So, time to make some drawers:

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But what's this, Mike? Why would you suddenly swap from dovetails to box joints?

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Patience, grasshopper.......First, I need to cut a couple of short grooves in here:

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The chisels fitted, but the mallet didn't. The router fitted, but the dust extraction didn't. Oh well, who needs functioning lungs anyway?

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Having previously made the draw sides and back, time to fit the fronts:

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I put a little cut across the middle of each one, and chamfered it, to give the appearance of having 4 drawers rather than two:

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Now, the answer to the box joint question. I really wanted to have the deepest possible drawers (front-to-back) that I could. These drawers are going to run on proprietry runners, so the face of the drawer has to overhang the sides by the thickness of the runner. Normally this is achieved by making a drawer box and planting on a drawer front, but, as I said, I needed the maximum possible front-to-back measurement. Thus the sides needed to join directly into the back of the drawer front, and for a novel problem I devised a novel variation of a joint:

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The floor of each drawer is long (about a metre) and although narrow I felt there was a good chance of them starting to sag over time. I therefore decided to strengthen the floor with some muntins:

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All glued up:

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Whilst the drawers were drying, I did a little experiment with some dye to see if I could match the new into the old:

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After cleaning up the drawers:

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....I messed about for quite a while making them fit properly:

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The final construction task was to re-build the floor, but above the drawers rather than below them. This involved a new piece on the back of the box, and these grooved end-pieces:

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The front of those cross-pieces sits in the groove I struggled to rout out way back up there ^^^ somewhere. Here's a trial fit of the flooring. Note the half lap joint:

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There is no possible means of clamping, so I found some heavy stuff for the glue up:

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I abandoned the idea of dying the new to match the old. The previous finish was oil, so I was pretty much stuck with re-oiling (unless I stripped right back to bare wood), so I tossed a coin between Osmo and Danish, and went with the latter. This was going to yellow fairly rapidly anyway, and the settle is going in quite a light space, so will also darken again fairly soon. Therefore, I reasoned, even if the match isn't great now in 6 months time no-one will be able to tell new from old:

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The area under the seat is a throw-in space for dog leads, gloves, balls, whistles etc (you know......dog-walking necessities).

After finally (yeah, yeah, I know it's been 3 or 4 years. I've been busy) sealing the porch floor, I wheeled the settle around and plonked it in position:

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Here, for comparison, is what it looked like before I started work:

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It all fits rather well. I'm rather pleased with the settle 2.0. unfortunately, we had originally planned that it would be on the other side of the porch, and so I had installed these coat pegs accordingly. Since we changed our minds on the settle location, they're now on the wrong side of the room. How on earth am I going to get them out, whole, for re-location to the other side? They're friction fitted......but there's lots of friction:

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Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 17:38
by DaveL
If you find the drawing for the pegs and a few off cuts of oak I could turn some more for you. So you could just leave the current ones there, or trim them off flush.
I could have a look on my PC, the drawing might still be there somewhere.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 17:45
by Malc2098
Nice.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 17:47
by Mike G
Very kind of you Dave. It might well come to that......but I'm going to have a try at hauling the old ones out tomorrow. I'll let you know. As for finding the drawing...!!! Miracles happen, I guess. I do have one or two of your pegs surplus, which would probably be easier for you to work from anyway, wouldn't it?

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 18:05
by Andyp
Great job. I can barely see the join from here.

You certainly can't leave those pegs there, at head height for someone.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 18:07
by Phil
:text-goodpost:


Nice job Mike. :eusa-clap:

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 18:07
by Woodbloke
Great conversion Mike, please don't take offence but I reckon you could have chosen those drawer pulls a little more sympathetically...far too plain and conservative. IMO something a little more 'ye oldie worldie, Olde England' blah blah etc might be more in keeping.
I've said it before plenty of times, but handles/pulls are THE most important part of any project. Just my two Euros (for what they're worth and it's not much :D) and repeat, no offence intended - Rob >> ducking for cover :D

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 18:16
by Mike G
They're a place holder, Rod, whilst we look for something more appropriate. Actually, whilst we try to agree what would be more appropriate..... :lol:

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 19:31
by DaveL
Yes I should be able turn more from a pattern peg.
What diameter are they? I might have a collet that could grip them to give a better chance of removing the current ones.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 19:46
by Mike G
I'm making a wooden collet tomorrow, Dave. If that doesn't work I'll let you know, but I have a plan coming together.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 20:00
by DaveL
I have just had a thought as to why they are held so firmly, the pegs where dry i.e. seasoned while the beam you fitted them into was still relatively green. So the holes have shrunk as the beam has dried. That's a technique used in chair making to stop the spindles becoming loose in the legs. I am not sure you will get the out whole!

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 20:25
by Mike G
DaveL wrote:......I am not sure you will get them out whole!


Neither am I!

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 20:54
by MJ80
That Mike is utterly brilliant

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 21:20
by RogerS
:eusa-clap: :eusa-clap: That's a real tour-de-force, Mike.

Re: Oak settle: minor alterations(finished).

PostPosted: 27 May 2020, 21:35
by Mike G
Thanks guys.