duke
Nordic Pine
Nice tool wall Dr Al , good use of space.
-
Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Oak coffee table - finished!
- Thread starter AndyT
- Start date
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Thanks Andy, that's really useful. That marples one looks great. I'll have to keep a look out for oneAl, here's a winning hand of four jacks.
- a common late 19th/early 20th century wooden one, 17"
- a Stanley 5½, 15" (same length as the No 5 but with a wider iron) (I don't have a no 5 and can't really claim to need one)
- The razee jack you asked about, 15"
- an uncommon Marples design, 14"
View attachment 28385
View attachment 28386
I think all of the old wooden jacks I have had have been 17". (It's not that many really, I'm not a dealer!) Catalogues did list them in different sizes. For example, Charles Nurse, 1902, lists the ordinary style in 12, 14 or 17", with the "sunk handle" in the same sizes, but a shilling extra. Trying planes were 22, 24 or 26" long; jointer planes were 28 or 30".
I've included the Marples beechwood plane too, as it's another lightweight jack plane. They were only available for a few years in the 1960s. (For a full account, see https://williammarplesandsons.com/prefabricated-planes/ .) Mine is a rare variant with a closed handle. You might come across one on eBay or elsewhere - you do seem to be very good at finding old tools! The cast iron frog and iron are the same size as on a No 3 plane, which makes this a nice lightweight option.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Cramming as much into as little space as possible is essential in my little workshop
duke
Nordic Pine
A little off topic but I like the dust port on your band saw. Custom job?
It's a very simple modification. An offcut of plastic waste pipe, glued on with Gripfil and a bracket. It just happened to be the right size for the vacuum cleaner hose. It used to be a regular job to sweep out the drifts of sawdust inside, now not needed so often.
duke
Nordic Pine
I have a 4" dust line connected to my large band saw which isn't taking care of removing the dust . Think I need to cut a 4" hole in the bottom housing to get proper suction. Or use a shop vac connected to the existing port. Band saws make a lot of dust.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Check out the video from Mr Maskery of this parish:
I made a 3D-printed version of his thing (photos here: https://www.cgtk.co.uk/woodwork/powertools/bandsawdustcollector). It works really well. I never bother connecting up the main dust port at the bottom of the bandsaw as the "Maskery tube" catches almost everything.
duke
Nordic Pine
Thanks Dr.Al, I remember his video I will watch it again.
Lurker
Old Oak
duke
Nordic Pine
Lurker, how does your modification improve the square, just asking out of ignorance?
Lurker
Old Oak
Enables you to register the wood under the edge of the workpiece, like a conventional square.
Phil
Old Oak
Good WIP and pics.
Nice timber, the table will look good.
I am very impressed with the use of all the hand tools, especially cutting of the legs. I would have just pushed it over the table saw and then over the planer to get rid of the saw marks.
My hand tools are a Stanley No.3 and 045 Plough. The rest are all power.
And a collection of carving chisels and larger paint tin openers (chisels)
Nice timber, the table will look good.
I am very impressed with the use of all the hand tools, especially cutting of the legs. I would have just pushed it over the table saw and then over the planer to get rid of the saw marks.
My hand tools are a Stanley No.3 and 045 Plough. The rest are all power.
And a collection of carving chisels and larger paint tin openers (chisels)
As so often happens with my projects, I've had to slow down a bit, but don't worry, it will get finished before Christmas.
I managed to find a few more hours in the workshop this morning, so I may as well share the "progress". Trouble is, although it's all fun for me, it must feel a bit repetitive to read at this stage. But it's the way I go - the first stages are spent building a collection of parts, to be fitted together later. If I was starting from PAR timber or had more machinery, it would all be over in a blink - but I would have missed out on what is just as enjoyable as the more eye-catching procedures later on.
I decided to leave the top aside for now and start on the legs. I can then make the undercarriage and fit the top to it.
I'd initially cut out my big lump of oak ready to make the legs 2½" square, but I have now decided that that would be too chunky. In oak, at this scale, 2" is plenty. It makes sense also, as the final design is going to be very similar to two smaller tables we already have. At least one of them will be in the same room. I'll find pictures of them later. Meanwhile, here's an oversized bit for one of the legs, ready to be trimmed down:
Fortunately, it just fits on my little bandsaw
so I can take a slice off one side, turn the wood round and take a smaller slice off another side.
A bigger bandsaw would be nice, but this one does manage to cut its full depth even in hard, dry oak. I don't expect to get a smooth cut straight off the saw; I always leave some spare and plane back to finished size.
This is what planing looks like:
and very pleasant it is on nice straight-grained wood like this.
I also took the long bit of oak and sawed it into three shorter bits, small enough to handle easily.
After not very long I had turned these
into these smaller bits. How about that?!
Most of the time, this wood is pleasantly free of any defects, but as I found when I started cutting it down, there are some internal splits along the medullary rays. I looked over all the pieces and marked them with chalk.
I decided to keep it as simple as possible and just run some hide glue into the cracks, and see what happens. I think I can make the defects disappear, but even if I can't, I can position them turned to the inside, under a table only 16" off the floor. I don't expect anyone to come round to our house and lie down on the carpet with a torch, not even fellow forum members, so I think it will all turn out ok.
I warmed the glue up to make it runny and helped it into the marked cracks with a little spatula and by blowing it with a straw. (Thanks to Pete Maddex for that tip.) Then I put some cramps on to help the cracks close a bit.
That's all for now. The glue will be dry soon and I might make some further progress this week.
I managed to find a few more hours in the workshop this morning, so I may as well share the "progress". Trouble is, although it's all fun for me, it must feel a bit repetitive to read at this stage. But it's the way I go - the first stages are spent building a collection of parts, to be fitted together later. If I was starting from PAR timber or had more machinery, it would all be over in a blink - but I would have missed out on what is just as enjoyable as the more eye-catching procedures later on.
I decided to leave the top aside for now and start on the legs. I can then make the undercarriage and fit the top to it.
I'd initially cut out my big lump of oak ready to make the legs 2½" square, but I have now decided that that would be too chunky. In oak, at this scale, 2" is plenty. It makes sense also, as the final design is going to be very similar to two smaller tables we already have. At least one of them will be in the same room. I'll find pictures of them later. Meanwhile, here's an oversized bit for one of the legs, ready to be trimmed down:
Fortunately, it just fits on my little bandsaw
so I can take a slice off one side, turn the wood round and take a smaller slice off another side.
A bigger bandsaw would be nice, but this one does manage to cut its full depth even in hard, dry oak. I don't expect to get a smooth cut straight off the saw; I always leave some spare and plane back to finished size.
This is what planing looks like:
and very pleasant it is on nice straight-grained wood like this.
I also took the long bit of oak and sawed it into three shorter bits, small enough to handle easily.
After not very long I had turned these
into these smaller bits. How about that?!
Most of the time, this wood is pleasantly free of any defects, but as I found when I started cutting it down, there are some internal splits along the medullary rays. I looked over all the pieces and marked them with chalk.
I decided to keep it as simple as possible and just run some hide glue into the cracks, and see what happens. I think I can make the defects disappear, but even if I can't, I can position them turned to the inside, under a table only 16" off the floor. I don't expect anyone to come round to our house and lie down on the carpet with a torch, not even fellow forum members, so I think it will all turn out ok.
I warmed the glue up to make it runny and helped it into the marked cracks with a little spatula and by blowing it with a straw. (Thanks to Pete Maddex for that tip.) Then I put some cramps on to help the cracks close a bit.
That's all for now. The glue will be dry soon and I might make some further progress this week.
Last edited:
duke
Nordic Pine
Beautiful shavings from the hand plane Andy. I keep all of mine for starting the wood stove.
Amazing what you can do with your band saw!
I need to get some of your hide glue, if I am correct it doesn't require warming to use?
In theory, no it doesn't need warming, but I'm not the only user who finds it's a bit gloopier than it used to be. I just dunk the bottle into a jug of hot water for a few minutes. That makes it easier to spread, or run into cracks.
And yes, I'm enjoying how the oak planes. Much nicer than working with softwood. It just feels more "obedient."
That does look like a lot of fun.
I've been making oak shavings today as well. I've had a break from my table project today to make a bread board as a birthday present. As it's a present, I thought I should do the whole thing with hand tools so that I'd put in the requisite amount of effort! It was great fun. It's amazing how much satisfaction can be had from taking a few swipes with a nicely sharpened hand plane!
I've been making oak shavings today as well. I've had a break from my table project today to make a bread board as a birthday present. As it's a present, I thought I should do the whole thing with hand tools so that I'd put in the requisite amount of effort! It was great fun. It's amazing how much satisfaction can be had from taking a few swipes with a nicely sharpened hand plane!
Mike G
Petrified Pine
One day I shall drop in you Andy. It will go something like this: tea; workshop tour; lying on floor looking under furniture with a torch........
I’ve been known to go in the workshop and plane a lump of scrap just for that purpose. In 20 mins I’ve probably made enough for a month’s worth of fire starting.
I’ve been known to do that while visiting historic houses.One day I shall drop in you Andy. It will go something like this: tea; workshop tour; lying on floor looking under furniture with a torch........
One day I shall drop in you Andy. It will go something like this: tea; workshop tour; lying on floor looking under furniture with a torch........
I've clearly underestimated the dogged determination of the Forum's Finest!
Another week is almost over and despite the lovely sunshine I have managed to catch a few hours in the workshop. I'd better post some more photos before I forget what they are of.
I left you with some attempted repairs to flaws on the insides of the legs. I think they will be ok, but I seem to have omitted to take detailed 'after' photos. If anything looks too bad, I can cut some fresh legs and start over. Here's the story so far, with the best sides outwards.
I needed to decide how much the top would overhang the frame, in order to cut the rails to length. So here are the legs, balanced in position.
I decided that wasn't right and moved the legs further out.
That took quite a long time, as it included measuring other tables and looking at pictures. If I was making a video of this build, everyone would be pressing fast forward by now; but it all takes time, and goes some way to explain my glacial rate of progress. But I'm happy with that. I much prefer having a project on the go to just rushing ahead and then wondering what to do next.
While looking at the underside of the table top, I noticed this bit of damage on the edge which needed to be planed off.
Looking at the timestamps, there seems to be nearly an hour between those photos! Maybe I went and made something else in the interval, or maybe I just moved stuff around, sharpened the tools and thought a bit.
(One point of showing the top being supported is to mention how useful it is to have an adjustable something to put in the opposite end of the vice when gripping a big piece on one side. I use a bit of plywood with a stack of bits of thick card, which adjusts nicely, but there is obviously plenty of scope for cleverer solutions. )
Next, I spent some time tidying up the underneath, getting it flat enough where the rails will go.
There's a lot of really enjoyable planing in this project, but I guess one photo looks much the same as another.
On the top side, I also did some scraping. It's nice to go from this, where there are plenty of visible flaws
to this, which is a bit better, and nearly good enough:
One thing worth mentioning - if only to agree with @TomTrees, who I know is strongly in favour of it - is to use low angle lighting to examine a surface. I turned off the usual bright overhead lights and used one old anglepoise to show this ghastly bit:
which got tamed so it looked like this instead:
I had decided to give the top a simple chamfer, so it matches the other small tables. This was an excuse to play with my favourite block plane, which you will all have seen before,
but also to use this little Mujingfang plane, which is also excellent on end grain. The big difference with this one is that the iron is set much further back in the body, so there is a longer toe in front of the cutting edge. This makes everything more stable.
Marking out the rails and cutting them to size kept me happily occupied for an hour or more. The old brown stain came off very easily, revealing the quality of this old oak:
so I soon had a kit of parts ready.
By this stage, I was being very careful to keep checking that I had all the parts the right way round, to make sure the best surfaces are in the right places and to avoid silly mistakes. I'm not experienced enough to have a deeply learned system of marking the parts, so I borrowed Rob
@Woodbloke's idea of using coloured stickers. After marking mortice positions and then gauging the tenons, I ended up with this rather untidy state of affairs:
which all makes sense to me, provided I don't leave it too long, but there will probably be a week or so without any progress to report. Not to worry! The customer is patient enough.
I left you with some attempted repairs to flaws on the insides of the legs. I think they will be ok, but I seem to have omitted to take detailed 'after' photos. If anything looks too bad, I can cut some fresh legs and start over. Here's the story so far, with the best sides outwards.
I needed to decide how much the top would overhang the frame, in order to cut the rails to length. So here are the legs, balanced in position.
I decided that wasn't right and moved the legs further out.
That took quite a long time, as it included measuring other tables and looking at pictures. If I was making a video of this build, everyone would be pressing fast forward by now; but it all takes time, and goes some way to explain my glacial rate of progress. But I'm happy with that. I much prefer having a project on the go to just rushing ahead and then wondering what to do next.
While looking at the underside of the table top, I noticed this bit of damage on the edge which needed to be planed off.
Looking at the timestamps, there seems to be nearly an hour between those photos! Maybe I went and made something else in the interval, or maybe I just moved stuff around, sharpened the tools and thought a bit.
(One point of showing the top being supported is to mention how useful it is to have an adjustable something to put in the opposite end of the vice when gripping a big piece on one side. I use a bit of plywood with a stack of bits of thick card, which adjusts nicely, but there is obviously plenty of scope for cleverer solutions. )
Next, I spent some time tidying up the underneath, getting it flat enough where the rails will go.
There's a lot of really enjoyable planing in this project, but I guess one photo looks much the same as another.
On the top side, I also did some scraping. It's nice to go from this, where there are plenty of visible flaws
to this, which is a bit better, and nearly good enough:
One thing worth mentioning - if only to agree with @TomTrees, who I know is strongly in favour of it - is to use low angle lighting to examine a surface. I turned off the usual bright overhead lights and used one old anglepoise to show this ghastly bit:
which got tamed so it looked like this instead:
I had decided to give the top a simple chamfer, so it matches the other small tables. This was an excuse to play with my favourite block plane, which you will all have seen before,
but also to use this little Mujingfang plane, which is also excellent on end grain. The big difference with this one is that the iron is set much further back in the body, so there is a longer toe in front of the cutting edge. This makes everything more stable.
Marking out the rails and cutting them to size kept me happily occupied for an hour or more. The old brown stain came off very easily, revealing the quality of this old oak:
so I soon had a kit of parts ready.
By this stage, I was being very careful to keep checking that I had all the parts the right way round, to make sure the best surfaces are in the right places and to avoid silly mistakes. I'm not experienced enough to have a deeply learned system of marking the parts, so I borrowed Rob
@Woodbloke's idea of using coloured stickers. After marking mortice positions and then gauging the tenons, I ended up with this rather untidy state of affairs:
which all makes sense to me, provided I don't leave it too long, but there will probably be a week or so without any progress to report. Not to worry! The customer is patient enough.
Yippee! A rainy weekend means more workshop time, so here's the latest hot news from the basement.
I was keen to get on with cutting mortice and tenon joints to join the rails onto the legs. There's absolutely nothing innovative or special about these. (Indeed, the whole project is an exercise in standard construction, but for those of us who don't make very much, I don't think that's a bad thing. Classic designs got to be classics because they are practical.)
So here's my choice of tool for cutting a mortice - a nice old no-name oval bolstered mortice chisel - you should be able to see the thin shiny strip of precious cast steel, welded onto a wrought iron body.
I've no idea how old it is - probably late 19th or early 20th century - but I am sure I shan't wear it out or need to upgrade it.
I combined that with the familiar handscrew and holdfast combo to hold the work firmly above a leg on the bench. Also, that's to avoid any risk of splitting the wood. Books often recommend leaving an inch of extra timber above the joint, then trimming back, but I decided to live dangerously on this one.
I mostly used the square headed oak mallet in the background, as it's heavier than the round birch one.
I always feel a bit unsystematic when cutting mortices and flip between enlarging a central V and marching the chisel along the mortice width. I'd arbitrarily decided that these needed to be an inch deep, 5/16 wide and 1½ inches long on the full-depth part. That felt a bit deep for the chisel to get down, but I managed it ok. (I did also use a 1/4 inch firmer chisel to get into the corners and to lever out some of the waste. )
A little adjustable square is just the job for checking for full depth and square ends.
Books often seem to skip over any detail on how to mark out and cut haunches.
My simple approach was just to saw down with a small saw and then chisel away the waste.
Cutting tenons was completely normal, I think. Mark out with the mortice gauge, then saw down one corner outside the lines.
Repeat on the other corners so the cuts join up.
And finish off to full depth.
Then cut the shoulders until the bits almost separate
but snap the waste off, to avoid over-cutting. That leaves some odd corners to trim away with a chisel, which I find oddly satisfying.
To mark the haunches, and a shoulder at the bottom (to hide any errors) I marked each tenon from its corresponding mortice,
then extended the lines down, and sawed off the waste. Each joint also got some individual fitting, which was a combination of tidying up the cheeks of the tenon with a chisel or a router plus a little bit of paring inside the mortices. If a joint was tight, I put pencil marks across the tenon, then cut away areas where the lines had been smudged on test assembly.
Things were going well and I was feeling positive.
But what comes after pride? Not a fall as such, but a bit of wood that decided not to be as strong as it needed to be when I knocked it apart!
In my enthusiasm for using old wood, I'd failed to notice that the office furniture makers had economically included some sapwood underneath their office-brown stain.
I'd not noticed this when I'd been admiring the grain on these rails and to be fair, if I'd not cut a joint in it, nothing bad would have happened.
I managed to recover from this setback, but I think I'm hitting the image limit, so I'll leave you with this mugshot of the inferior timber in question - I bet the slightly more orange colour along the top of the rail is shouting out warnings to all you more experienced woodworkers!
To be continued...
I was keen to get on with cutting mortice and tenon joints to join the rails onto the legs. There's absolutely nothing innovative or special about these. (Indeed, the whole project is an exercise in standard construction, but for those of us who don't make very much, I don't think that's a bad thing. Classic designs got to be classics because they are practical.)
So here's my choice of tool for cutting a mortice - a nice old no-name oval bolstered mortice chisel - you should be able to see the thin shiny strip of precious cast steel, welded onto a wrought iron body.
I've no idea how old it is - probably late 19th or early 20th century - but I am sure I shan't wear it out or need to upgrade it.
I combined that with the familiar handscrew and holdfast combo to hold the work firmly above a leg on the bench. Also, that's to avoid any risk of splitting the wood. Books often recommend leaving an inch of extra timber above the joint, then trimming back, but I decided to live dangerously on this one.
I mostly used the square headed oak mallet in the background, as it's heavier than the round birch one.
I always feel a bit unsystematic when cutting mortices and flip between enlarging a central V and marching the chisel along the mortice width. I'd arbitrarily decided that these needed to be an inch deep, 5/16 wide and 1½ inches long on the full-depth part. That felt a bit deep for the chisel to get down, but I managed it ok. (I did also use a 1/4 inch firmer chisel to get into the corners and to lever out some of the waste. )
A little adjustable square is just the job for checking for full depth and square ends.
Books often seem to skip over any detail on how to mark out and cut haunches.
My simple approach was just to saw down with a small saw and then chisel away the waste.
Cutting tenons was completely normal, I think. Mark out with the mortice gauge, then saw down one corner outside the lines.
Repeat on the other corners so the cuts join up.
And finish off to full depth.
Then cut the shoulders until the bits almost separate
but snap the waste off, to avoid over-cutting. That leaves some odd corners to trim away with a chisel, which I find oddly satisfying.
To mark the haunches, and a shoulder at the bottom (to hide any errors) I marked each tenon from its corresponding mortice,
then extended the lines down, and sawed off the waste. Each joint also got some individual fitting, which was a combination of tidying up the cheeks of the tenon with a chisel or a router plus a little bit of paring inside the mortices. If a joint was tight, I put pencil marks across the tenon, then cut away areas where the lines had been smudged on test assembly.
Things were going well and I was feeling positive.
But what comes after pride? Not a fall as such, but a bit of wood that decided not to be as strong as it needed to be when I knocked it apart!
In my enthusiasm for using old wood, I'd failed to notice that the office furniture makers had economically included some sapwood underneath their office-brown stain.
I'd not noticed this when I'd been admiring the grain on these rails and to be fair, if I'd not cut a joint in it, nothing bad would have happened.
I managed to recover from this setback, but I think I'm hitting the image limit, so I'll leave you with this mugshot of the inferior timber in question - I bet the slightly more orange colour along the top of the rail is shouting out warnings to all you more experienced woodworkers!
To be continued...
That’s a shame, quite how did you repair it?
Cabinetman
Old Oak
- Joined
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- Lincolnshire Wolds + Pennsylvania
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- Ian
Well Andy, I’ve gone through a lot of Oak but I’m not sure that would have screamed at me, almost white certainly would have. But also I must say that it does remind me a lot of Red Oak!
I wonder if it was a shake in the wood from when it was felled?
But how did you recover from it? Loose tenon?
I wonder if it was a shake in the wood from when it was felled?
But how did you recover from it? Loose tenon?
duke
Nordic Pine
Damn must have been a bit deflating for you Andy. I like the old wood square, did you make it?
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Ooh, I bet a few naughty words were said at that one. Looking forward to seeing how you resolved it.
It's user made, but not by me. I can't remember how I came by it, but I like it too. A triangle of carefully planed quarter sawn oak set into an oak stock. I've checked it against other squares and it's certainly accurate enough for the purpose. And it's marked with an appropriate owner's name - R.WOOD!
Thanks for the sympathy - it really does help. I'd thought about a loose tenon, but decided to try the simpler option of dowels first.
I could have sawn the stump off square and used a jig to mark the holes, but I'd have to make the jig. So I left the jagged bits in place and tried the panel pin method instead. You just knock in some panel pins to about the same depth, then nip off the heads.
Line the parts up, in the right position (using that handy square again) and knock them together with a mallet
Then separate them to reveal nice clear marks:
To drill 6mm holes, I used a decent quality spur bit and my battery drill - I needed to concentrate on drilling straight. The countersink is fitted in reverse to make a depth stop.
And there's the result. No swearing needed, provided it turns out strong enough. If it doesn't, then I can try a loose tenon or make a new rail.
With that fixed, I could have a complete dry fit of the frame and legs and check for squareness etc. I hope you've got used to the busy background by now - it's only when I see these pictures on a monitor screen that I realise that most workshops don't look mine.
And here it is the right way up, revealing an obvious issue with the length of one of the legs...
Actually, that front left leg is the right size, and corresponds to this table, which is of similar design and lives elsewhere in the same room.
The solution is to saw about an inch off the other three, which I did like this:
I know there are some who would have done that in a few seconds with a power saw, and got a more precise cut, but this is the way that I enjoy.
Now you might think that the next step would be to glue up the undercarriage, but before I do that I needed to prepare the rails to take some buttons. Before I could prepare the rails I needed to make the buttons. And again, working by hand at no particular speed meant I could approach this in little steps, to suit my inexperience and uncertainty.
These are the sort of buttons I mean. They hold the top on the frame but allow for seasonal movement with the over-long slots in the rails.
These are in a little walnut table I made a few years ago, with much encouragement and generous help from Custard, on another forum. He explained that the particular shape he wanted me to make was the only shape acceptable in the Barnsley workshops. Having had a good experience then, I decided to do what I was told this time too, and set about making some more, but slightly unsure of the dimensions I needed.
I used a handy offcut from the table top. First I planed it flat, then I sawed a rebate in it.
That looked a bit chunky, so I planed it down a little. To do that I had to decide which plane to use. I chose this one, because it was the right size for the way the wood was held in the vice, and because I haven't shown it here for a while.
It's a simple home made one, not made by me, though I did restore it a bit from the sad state it used to be in.
The infill is actually SRBP - which I think will be familiar to the electrical engineers. I think it looks rather smart.
With the dimensions decided, I could plough a 5/16" groove in each rail. (I could have decided the positions and just made small slots, but I am pretty sure that a through groove was also commonly used. It's important to be able to hold work for ploughing grooves, whatever size it is. I'm so glad I have these holdfasts and a ready supply of offcuts.
The pictures will be in the next instalment... not long to wait!
Here's that groove, which I could now be sure was in the right place and was the right size:
I finished marking out the buttons
and drilled screw holes in them.
I used the hand drill because I felt like it, and because I was rather enjoying some music on the radio and didn't want to spoil it with noise. And I countersunk the holes the quiet way too.
I knew I'd done them evenly by taking the same number of turns (8) for each one.
I sawed them apart, not using the bandsaw:
and then systematically planed each one down to the required shape. They are not identical, and don't need to be, but they will be the same thickness for the screws I plan to use.
More soon, especially if this rain keeps up.
I finished marking out the buttons
and drilled screw holes in them.
I used the hand drill because I felt like it, and because I was rather enjoying some music on the radio and didn't want to spoil it with noise. And I countersunk the holes the quiet way too.
I knew I'd done them evenly by taking the same number of turns (8) for each one.
I sawed them apart, not using the bandsaw:
and then systematically planed each one down to the required shape. They are not identical, and don't need to be, but they will be the same thickness for the screws I plan to use.
More soon, especially if this rain keeps up.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
Rain, what rain?
I never knew there was a "proper" shape for buttons...
I've got a little shoulder plane that looks very similar to that. I can't remember what the infill is, although I think it's wood rather than SRBP. It's not exactly easy for me to check from Brittany though!
Actually, google photos provides (although even after searching for "plane", there were quite a lot of photos I had to scroll through to find it)
I never knew there was a "proper" shape for buttons...
I've got a little shoulder plane that looks very similar to that. I can't remember what the infill is, although I think it's wood rather than SRBP. It's not exactly easy for me to check from Brittany though!
Actually, google photos provides (although even after searching for "plane", there were quite a lot of photos I had to scroll through to find it
)Two nice useful planes for the price of one!I've got a little shoulder plane that looks very similar to that. I can't remember what the infill is, although I think it's wood rather than SRBP. It's not exactly easy for me to check from Brittany though!
Actually, google photos provides (although even after searching for "plane", there were quite a lot of photos I had to scroll through to find it
View attachment 28814
The riveted construction says "home made" loudly to me, so I guess there's plenty of scope for using whatever is handy. I don't think anyone can claim to have invented that design, but Robert Wearing did describe something similar in an article in the Woodworker, later gathered into one of his books.
Cabinetman
Old Oak
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
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- 3,664
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- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds + Pennsylvania
- Name
- Ian
Great write up Andy, nice buttons too, now I just know you will have the screwheads pointing one way or the other, I noticed that like me as long as they are either at 90 or 180 degrees they are good.
Also noticed when you are preparing for the tenon saw cut you push the chisel across, we are all different, I hold the chisel by the blade as if I was going to stab something and then draw it along the knife cut at sort of an angle, it gives a satisfying paring.
Ian
Also noticed when you are preparing for the tenon saw cut you push the chisel across, we are all different, I hold the chisel by the blade as if I was going to stab something and then draw it along the knife cut at sort of an angle, it gives a satisfying paring.
Ian
Thanks Ian. Just habits really. I've noticed several older books mention using the chisel routinely as a marking knife - is that something you do as well?
Cabinetman
Old Oak
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2020
- Messages
- 3,664
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- 146
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- Lincolnshire Wolds + Pennsylvania
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I might have if I’d thought of it haha, yes habits, wonderful things- mostly.
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Great write up Andy, as always.
I've never thought to do buttons first, before the groove........but what a sensible idea. I've also never thought to make them out of a single piece of scrap like that. Mine are always made from linear scraps, which inevitably means variations in height. I shall be changing my ways for the series of tables I'll be building this winter.
I've never thought to do buttons first, before the groove........but what a sensible idea. I've also never thought to make them out of a single piece of scrap like that. Mine are always made from linear scraps, which inevitably means variations in height. I shall be changing my ways for the series of tables I'll be building this winter.
Thanks Mike. That last comment shows the value of detailed wip threads. None of us knows everything but together we're unbeatable.
Woodbloke
Sequoia
Whenever I do buttons, it's always groove first but a domino slot is also ideal for making an elongated hole. Buttons themselves are always machined on the router table as a long length, then chopped into the requisite number needed and finally the ends of each are shot square on the shooting board. Somewhere in that process, the holes and countersinks are also done - Rob
The rain obligingly kept up, so I have too.
There's not so much to show though, as it's mostly been tidying bits up ready for assembly and finishing (in both senses!).
I spent some time going over the legs with a smoothing plane...
and I chamfered the bottom ends of the legs. Readers who were a bit shocked at the use of a modern quick clamp on these legs a few days ago can rest easy in the knowledge that I swapped to something more dignified this time.
I was thinking that if I lined up all the ends together, I could get the chamfers consistent. That may seem fussy, but if Mike G's going to be lying on the carpet with his torch examining this thing, I need to be careful . I've made sure that the worst bits are out of focus here:
Next, I needed to ease the arrises on the legs (ooh Matron!).
This was one of those times when having a slightly disorderly working environment pays off. The very simplest way to plane along all sharp corners was to hold each leg at 45 degrees in a cradle. I remember that at school there were specially made jigs for this, but I've never needed to make one and might not have space to store it. However, an offcut from a leg was still within easy reach, so I just gripped that in the vice as a stop, like this:
Instant easy workholding with nothing to set or adjust.
To keep everything consistent, I just counted the same number of strokes of the plane each time.
I also went over the faces of the rails with the smoothing plane and then eased their long edges, where inquisitive fingers might go. Rather than use the same block plane you keep seeing, I let this cute little chariot plane join in the fun. It's nice to have a selection of planes, but sometimes it can be a challenge to be fair to them all, and I don't want disputes when my back is turned.
As you can see, it was up to the job, but as far as I can see it has no special advantage over the more easily adjustable block planes that superseded it.
With that all done it was time for a big tidy up, ready for assembly. No photos, but you can imagine tools being put back in their places and the shavings being swept up.
I decided to join pairs of legs together first, then join the two pairs together. I must say, once again I was glad that I had put coloured spots on all the bits. It really does make it easier to immediately see how they go together. The long grooves help too, to identify the insides of the rails and which edge goes up.
Here is a pair of ends, glued and held together. I used a pair of bits of scrap wood the same length as the between-shoulders measurement. I've done this before and I think it's a nice positive check that the joints are actually square enough.
I gave the glue a couple of hours to set enough to not let go when released from the clamps. I already knew that I could fit everything on the bench, just.
Other things that you can spot here are that yes, I did check everything for square, with a big roofing square and by measuring the diagonals. It proved necessary to give one side a bit of a shove, relative to the other one, so I put a yellow handled F-clamp on one rear corner, a handscrew on the opposite corner, then added a little wedge to give the subtle adjustment needed.
Square enough for me:
Although I had already put masking tape along the bars of the clamps, two ends were bare, as this job is longer than the previous one. So I put bits of polythene under each corner. That way I shouldn't get any of those nasty black marks you can get when iron, water and oak get too close together.
And that's it for today.
There's not so much to show though, as it's mostly been tidying bits up ready for assembly and finishing (in both senses!).
I spent some time going over the legs with a smoothing plane...
and I chamfered the bottom ends of the legs. Readers who were a bit shocked at the use of a modern quick clamp on these legs a few days ago can rest easy in the knowledge that I swapped to something more dignified this time.
I was thinking that if I lined up all the ends together, I could get the chamfers consistent. That may seem fussy, but if Mike G's going to be lying on the carpet with his torch examining this thing, I need to be careful
. I've made sure that the worst bits are out of focus here:Next, I needed to ease the arrises on the legs (ooh Matron!).
This was one of those times when having a slightly disorderly working environment pays off. The very simplest way to plane along all sharp corners was to hold each leg at 45 degrees in a cradle. I remember that at school there were specially made jigs for this, but I've never needed to make one and might not have space to store it. However, an offcut from a leg was still within easy reach, so I just gripped that in the vice as a stop, like this:
Instant easy workholding with nothing to set or adjust.
To keep everything consistent, I just counted the same number of strokes of the plane each time.
I also went over the faces of the rails with the smoothing plane and then eased their long edges, where inquisitive fingers might go. Rather than use the same block plane you keep seeing, I let this cute little chariot plane join in the fun. It's nice to have a selection of planes, but sometimes it can be a challenge to be fair to them all, and I don't want disputes when my back is turned.
As you can see, it was up to the job, but as far as I can see it has no special advantage over the more easily adjustable block planes that superseded it.
With that all done it was time for a big tidy up, ready for assembly. No photos, but you can imagine tools being put back in their places and the shavings being swept up.
I decided to join pairs of legs together first, then join the two pairs together. I must say, once again I was glad that I had put coloured spots on all the bits. It really does make it easier to immediately see how they go together. The long grooves help too, to identify the insides of the rails and which edge goes up.
Here is a pair of ends, glued and held together. I used a pair of bits of scrap wood the same length as the between-shoulders measurement. I've done this before and I think it's a nice positive check that the joints are actually square enough.
I gave the glue a couple of hours to set enough to not let go when released from the clamps. I already knew that I could fit everything on the bench, just.
Other things that you can spot here are that yes, I did check everything for square, with a big roofing square and by measuring the diagonals. It proved necessary to give one side a bit of a shove, relative to the other one, so I put a yellow handled F-clamp on one rear corner, a handscrew on the opposite corner, then added a little wedge to give the subtle adjustment needed.
Square enough for me:
Although I had already put masking tape along the bars of the clamps, two ends were bare, as this job is longer than the previous one. So I put bits of polythene under each corner. That way I shouldn't get any of those nasty black marks you can get when iron, water and oak get too close together.
And that's it for today.
When the glue had set, I went over the top again with smoothing plane, scraper and Abranet mesh on a vacuum pad.
Then I had a dry run at fitting the buttons that hold the top on. It's all pretty obvious from the photos. Steel screws first time round. Careful positioning of the frame central on the top, held down onto the bench by a couple of clamps. The right length of drill bit exposed when drilling through the buttons. Wax on the screws.
I put the buttons near the corners, with enough room for comfortable access with the drill and screwdriver.
Then I took it all apart again, supported it on scraps of wood with panel pins in, and applied a first coat of Osmo Poly-X oil, wiped on with a bit of clean rag.
I wiped the surplus oil off with a bit of kitchen towel and left it to dry.
The top had to wait until the next day. I did the outside of the underneath, then inverted it onto a big chunk of wood so the wet finish wasn't touching anything.
10 hours later the same day it got a second coat. (Why is that the instructions tell you to re-coat after 8-10 hours? Is it to do with the first layer only partially curing, and adhering better when it's still a bit fresh?)
Then today, it was up into the sitting room for a final assembly, with brass screws this time:
And here it is, in place, finished.
I've really enjoyed building it. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and suggestions.
What can I make next?
Then I had a dry run at fitting the buttons that hold the top on. It's all pretty obvious from the photos. Steel screws first time round. Careful positioning of the frame central on the top, held down onto the bench by a couple of clamps. The right length of drill bit exposed when drilling through the buttons. Wax on the screws.
I put the buttons near the corners, with enough room for comfortable access with the drill and screwdriver.
Then I took it all apart again, supported it on scraps of wood with panel pins in, and applied a first coat of Osmo Poly-X oil, wiped on with a bit of clean rag.
I wiped the surplus oil off with a bit of kitchen towel and left it to dry.
The top had to wait until the next day. I did the outside of the underneath, then inverted it onto a big chunk of wood so the wet finish wasn't touching anything.
10 hours later the same day it got a second coat. (Why is that the instructions tell you to re-coat after 8-10 hours? Is it to do with the first layer only partially curing, and adhering better when it's still a bit fresh?)
Then today, it was up into the sitting room for a final assembly, with brass screws this time:
And here it is, in place, finished.
I've really enjoyed building it. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and suggestions.
What can I make next?