Woodworkers of Head Case unite!

[Craig Sawyers]

I'm lucky to have a fine museum not far from where I live (in Cheltenham https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/home). Mostly the Arts and Crafts furniture being the things that interest me.

Speaking of Wenge, there is a piece by Alan Peters there, in which the main structure is Wenge, with drawers from Wenge and Yew. It is a thing of Japanese-inspired beauty, made by Peters in 1985. A serving table. Looks minimalist, until you get up close and look at the detail, even down to the treatment of the inside of the drawers.

http://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/wwwopacxImages/wwwopac.ashx?command=getcontent&server=images&value=1986.1392.jpg&width=350&height=350

Peters learnt his skills from Edward Barnsley, who he joined as an apprentice in the early 40's. At that stage Barnsley had no power, and absolutely everything was by hand.

Peters was somewhat quirky - the only hand plane he ever used - for just about everything - was a #7.

[Craig Sawyers]

Here is another wonderful thing at Cheltenham - dining table with pitchfork frame. Made in 1915. Because the records exist, it is know that it too 688 hours (17x40 hour weeks!) to build and sold for $61:18s (£6700 in today's money)

https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/Details/collect/6841

Edited February 2, 2022 by Craig Sawyers

[VPI]

Drama.  If I did not have so much Incra stuff I might have considered the Harvey mitre and sliding table.  Stumpy’s response seems super sponsor directed to me.  

 

 

[naamanf]

1 minute ago, VPI said:

Drama.  If I did not have so much Incra stuff I might have considered the Harvey mitre and sliding table.  Stumpy’s response seems super sponsor directed to me.  

 

 

Yes, I’ve been following. Seems he was really worrying about his credibility with pushing Harvey products. I think these dudes should be doing woodworking as their main job and the internet gig for drug/hooker petty cash. 

[swt61]

21 hours ago, VPI said:

Drama.  If I did not have so much Incra stuff I might have considered the Harvey mitre and sliding table.  Stumpy’s response seems super sponsor directed to me.  

 

 

I watched that shootout the other day, and thought he was right on the money.

[swt61]

Sure was handy having two sets of drills and impacts, while building an Ipe deck at the bosses house. At certain locations I needed different, shorter screws, that took a square drive and needed a different size drill bit to predrill.

 

[naamanf]

56 minutes ago, swt61 said:

Sure was handy having two sets of drills and impacts, while building an Ipe deck at the bosses house. At certain locations I needed different, shorter screws, that took a square drive and needed a different size drill bit to predrill.

 

Being able to double drill and screw would be really nice.

What were we talking about?

On a completely different note, edge banding manually sucks. 

[Voltron]

I've never done veneer edge banding, but I imagine it would suck. I'm working on my dad's desk for my brother in LA and I'm edge banding in a different way -- with solid 1" x 1 3/4" walnut around the old top and a new walnut ply top. Having fun with clamps on clamps.

[swt61]

Love that burled section!

Sure is looking like a woodshop!

[VPI]

Looks like you are ready for your YouTube channel Al. 
 

I am looking at all of the Hammer bandsaws. I think the slightly smaller 3800 may be best, but I cannot find it on their store, only the 4400 and the N2. 

You aficionados know if they dumped the slightly smaller 3800?

Also, any ideas on how I might make a knock off of the drawer pulls for my vintage MCM furniture for the new dresser?

Edited February 6, 2022 by VPI

[swt61]

Steam and a complicated jig.

[Voltron]

... plus expertise in blending wood. 😳

Or maybe a magic ping pong table could fake it in some way.

[naamanf]

19 minutes ago, Voltron said:

... plus expertise in blending wood. 😳

Or maybe a magic ping pong table could fake it in some way.

Ping pong would waste a lot of wood, but could easily do the profile and cut a jig to do the bending around. 

[VPI]

Maybe I will come up with a less fancy copy of the design for this dresser. 
 

I got a pretty good deal on a lower end resaw-capabilish bandsaw, that seems to be well liked by Wood Magazine. I had seen people discussing saving the shipping cost ordering through HD, but the price dropped $550 today. $1300 shipped for this one from Shop Fox. Not sure if it will be worthwhile; but should work for my needs for at least short term. 
 

https://www.grizzly.com/products/shop-fox-14-2-hp-resaw-bandsaw/w1849

Edited February 6, 2022 by VPI

[dsavitsk]

Which one? W1706 shows $1300 with free shipping to me. I wouldn't pay that for it. W1849 is showing $2200 shipped - $1300 for that is a good deal. It lacks the foot brake and ceramic guides of the similarly priced ($2200 shipped and in stock at Woodcraft) Lauguna 14bx. At $900 less that's fine, though I'd rather pay the extra for those two features.

[VPI]

The 1849. I can get upgraded bearing guides but it appears the ceramic ones are reserved for the Grizzly ones. 
I figure since I have no skill; and I am having trouble even figuring out what kind of blades I need, the crappy version will be okay; and I can flip it later if it sucks. Reviews, though few, seem to be very good. 

[dsavitsk]

12 minutes ago, VPI said:

 am having trouble even figuring out what kind of blades I need

If you are resawing, I like the carbide tipped blades. I think they are worth the expense.

[Voltron]

The Hammer rep recommended Lenox blades as the best available. I bought a couple of TriMaster carbide blades and a bi-metal ¼ for angles and curves. 
https://www.bandsawbladesdirect.com/

[naamanf]

Installed the carcasses.  Picking up acacia butcher block for the top tomorrow. Then I need to put together 17 drawer boxes/pull out trays. 

[swt61]

I meant to post this last week when I actually built it, but forgot to. I also forgot to take finished pictures with the newel caps in place, but use your imagination. 

A couple of weeks ago one of the bosses told me that he forgot to call the stair guy to build railings at the new addition of a smallish job. By the time he remembered, the stair guys schedule was too far out to meet our deadline. The railings needed to mimick the existing railings of the San Francisco Victorian home. He asked me if it was something I thought that I could do. Stairs and railings are usually a specialty, and as such are usually subbed out. A sub genre of finish carpentry, if you will. I haven't actually built indoor railings before, but I knew it was something that I could accomplish. 

There were no solid newel posts available in the size that I needed, so I built my own. As these will be painted, I used Poplar. It's a good, stable wood that doesn't have the most beautiful color or grain pattern, but is easy to mill and takes paint very well. The exception are the pickets, which are Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Kind of felt right using a wood from my home state. It's not soft like the usual Cedars, and has a very unique smell when cut.

I got to use a lot of tradesman tricks and practices, and a lot of the math that I told my teachers I'd never need. Yes, they we're right.

I did a lot of good preparation, so it wasn't just dumb luck, but it did fall together beautifully. The absence of a lower rail that the pickets sit on is a bit unique, but the existing rails pickets also connect directly to the stair treads. It actually works quite well at tying the newer, somewhat modern addition to the classic Victorian style. The caps not pictured are a pretty simple double cap design, with the bottom cap being 5/4 material, with a smaller top cap of 3/4.

[swt61]

This week I've been building a lot of specialty stuff at a book store/coffee shop that we're doing for a repeat client. She literally told my bosses that I'm the only one allowed to do any of the finish carpentry, and that they need to make sure to make me available to her and the project. I did a lot of fun, unique stuff at her beachfront home build about 4 years ago, and we have developed a special working relationship. She was directly involved in helping me get a $10 an hour raise about 4 months after starting with this company. Needless to say I am very thankful and loyal toward her.

This project includes some custom wood countertops that I'm building, lot's of outdoor projects out of reclaimed wood (there's a huge backyard where kids can read in a very cool cabana, and has huge planters/benches and a very cool recycle bin out of recycled Cyprus. But one of the projects that I'm really going to have fun with is and indoor tree house that I am designing as well as building. It will be another cozy nook for kids to climb in and read or just hang out. 

Pics to follow at some point soon.

[naamanf]

Looks great, Steve. Building the tree house sounds fun, something I would never attempt with my kids. They would ask every 5 minutes when it would be done, then fight over the best spot when it was finished. Maybe one day I’ll hold each of them their own chair. 
 

Little more work done on the miter station. Figured I should get the counter top done so I can work off it. Woodpecker rail slots cut and test fit in place. Will shoot a couple coats of marine varnish on it tomorrow then mount it in place. Then drawer boxes. Hate drawer boxes. 

[naamanf]

Tried out a new finish today, Total Boat Halcyon in satin. So far pretty impressed (minus the price). As easy and as fast drying as lacquer in a water based varnish. After thining a little with water it was easy to spray with a HVLP gun. Being a marine varnish it should be pretty durable.

 

[Voltron]

Are you making stops for the Woodpeckers track you put in? Steve found some flip stops from Rockler if you want to check out a fast cheaper option than the Woodpeckers StealthStop I bought (and haven't received yet).

I tried my HVLP sprayer for the first time today. Three coats of shellac on the base and drawer faces of my dad's desk. Super easy and smooth once I got the hang of it. Controls for air flow, material flow, spray pattern, and size of pattern takes a little effort to dial in but it was definitely a lot easier than the alternatives. And a much nicer experience than the airless sprayer I tried a couple of times. 

In less happy news, I learned that the maker of the 8' LED lights I installed wasn't playing around when they said not to daisy chain more than five lights together. I had one string of seven lights that I had originally intended to split up with an extension cord at some point but forgot all about it. Yesterday that group of lights started flickering and  went out. Turns out the first one in the chain was melting. 😳 I've now made sure five is the most and might reduce that to four.

[naamanf]

9 minutes ago, Voltron said:

Are you making stops for the Woodpeckers track you put in? Steve found some flip stops from Rockler if you want to check out a fast cheaper option than the Woodpeckers StealthStop I bought (and haven't received yet).

I tried my HVLP sprayer for the first time today. Three coats of shellac on the base and drawer faces of my dad's desk. Super easy and smooth once I got the hang of it. Controls for air flow, material flow, spray pattern, and size of pattern takes a little effort to dial in but it was definitely a lot easier than the alternatives. And a much nicer experience than the airless sprayer I tried a couple of times. 

In less happy news, I learned that the maker of the 8' LED lights I installed wasn't playing around when they said not to daisy chain more than five lights together. I had one string of seven lights that I had originally intended to split up with an extension cord at some point but forgot all about it. Yesterday that group of lights started flickering and  went out. Turns out the first one in the chain was melting. 😳 I've now made sure five is the most and might reduce that to four.

I have a set of the Woodpecker stops on order, but shoot a link to the other ones. I figure worst case I can also make some.

The desk looks awesome. I really like using a HVLP. I have a Devilbiss Finshline, but picked up a Harbor Freight Black Widow. I really like the HF gun, shoots way better than the Devilbiss.