What's on the bench.

[RichardA]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, Chestnut said:

Trying to make the most of this pencil. It takes a pliers to sharpen now.

End glue another pencil, or a piece of scrap to it.

[JohnG]

This was a fast and crude build, but I did a (less than) one day build of a knockdown-ish puzzle table for my wife. There’s 1-2 times a year that she gets a puzzle kick and will go through a number of puzzles. With 3 kids 6 and under, our existing tables and horizontal surfaces are out of the question. 

Plywood top with a 3/16” lip to prevent small hands from pushing pieces off the edge. Plywood legs index into with some blocking on the underside of the table, and stretchers are screwed on. 
One long edge without a stretcher so you can pull a chair in. 

When the puzzle craving as been satisfied, the legs and stretchers can sort of nest into the underside of the top and be stored away. Might rebuild a “finer” version down the road when time is not so limited, but this serves our needs for now.

[gee-dub]

On 3/26/2023 at 8:36 AM, Chestnut said:

Trying to make the most of this pencil. It takes a pliers to sharpen now.

I use these to milk the full life out of my colored pencils.

[Chestnut]

Haven't had much shop time in April. For what ever reason spring thaw has brought with it nasty colds or possibly influenza. Hazel got sick the 10th, which pulled me out of the shop. I then got what ever she had the 15th, my wife got it the 17th. Luckily Hazel recovered in a day or 2 but it's now 16 days later and I'm still not back to 100%. For a solid 10 days i could only breathe through my mouth. I felt somewhat ok but didn't want to work in the shop cause I was tired and congested.

This past weekend I got back in the shop but the chairs are on hold. Hazel has been mobile for 6 weeks now but has gotten fast. She can crawl at walking speed and is very interested in the railing above the stairs down to our lower level. The baluster spacing is around 6" and which she can easily fit through. My plan was to add an intermediate baluster between each decorative one. Conveniently i have oak in the shop that is rift sawn that will be perfect for this.

The balusters are 3/4" square. To secure them in place i made trim 5/16" thick to hold the balusters in place on all 4 sides. I'm just using CA glue to glue everything together. I don't need it to last forever just need to get through the toddler years.

If my description of how i am doing this is hard to follow the pictures probably don't help much. I was able to get the exact same stain used on all the red oak in the house and it matches wonderfully. Any color variance is from the wood not the stain.

I may come back after the fact and hit each baluster with a pair of 23 gauge pins but the ca glue is probably sturdy enough. It takes me about 10 min to install a baluster in each space there are 20 total so 200 min of work. Not bad to make a fix that fits and doesn't look awful.

[legenddc]

I was just thinking you've been awfully quiet lately but I haven't had much of a chance to check out the showcase or journal pages. Sorry to hear everyone's been sick. I sure know how that goes.

[pkinneb]

Man she's already mobile...they grow up way to fast LOL

[roughsawn]

I like that stain, Drew. Do you mind sharing the name and color?

[Dave H]

My guess on the stain would be golden oak.

[Chestnut]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:50 PM, roughsawn said:

I like that stain, Drew. Do you mind sharing the name and color?

On 5/6/2023 at 7:47 PM, Dave H said:

My guess on the stain would be golden oak.

Old masters Dark Oak is my guess but I'm not at home and can't check. I got it at Hirschfields. It might even be their house brand. If i remember I'll post again with a picture of the can.

[roughsawn]

It takes a pretty light stain to not darken red oak darker than I like. Or sometimes I'll stain with early american, and touch it up with sandpaper to take off some of the stain. I like the way that turns out.

[Chestnut]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:50 PM, roughsawn said:

I like that stain, Drew. Do you mind sharing the name and color?

[legenddc]

Spent some time last night and today working on putting together a jig to make picture frames. Glad I bought the Peachtree miter bar slides to speed things along.

[legenddc]

“Finished” my picture frame jig today. I used the plans from Make Something for it. I need a longer bolt for the toggle clamp.  

Quick test with some scrap pine showed a perfect corner. 

I’m not crazy about how close to the blade your hands would be if you’re making a smaller frame. Was thinking of adding some T-track and a hold down clamp or the Rockler Auto-Lock hold down clamp. Open to suggestions if anyone has a better idea.

[curlyoak]

On 5/23/2023 at 1:29 PM, legenddc said:

Quick test with some scrap pine showed a perfect corner

Part A is perfect. But the test is A,B,C,D. That is you need all 4 pieces to check for square. Squares can be off. But I'd bet that it is square...

[legenddc]

On 5/23/2023 at 1:52 PM, curlyoak said:

Part A is perfect. But the test is A,B,C,D. That is you need all 4 pieces to check for square. Squares can be off. But I'd bet that it is square...

Very true. I will mill up some lumber soon for a true, 4 piece test.

[legenddc]

Found some scrap and ran a quick test. Seems like it works just fine. Next I need to put together a spline jig and get to work. 

[roughsawn]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:05 AM, Chestnut said:

Thank you for taking the time to post that. I'll try to find some.

[JohnG]

On 5/24/2023 at 1:30 PM, legenddc said:

Found some scrap and ran a quick test. Seems like it works just fine. Next I need to put together a spline jig and get to work. 

I highly recommend an L fence for the table saw to trim the splines after they are glued in. In my book it beats all other methods by a long shot. 

[gee-dub]

A few days of uncommon SoCal weather mean I am a bit behind in getting to the "finishing the finish" stage on the latest effort.

The top and a few other parts got rubbed out today.  The balance should be ready tomorrow (wait . . . I've heard that for the last three days!?!) so I hope to be ready to wax and deliver in a few days.

[Coop]

On 5/23/2023 at 12:52 PM, curlyoak said:

Part A is perfect. But the test is A,B,C,D. That is you need all 4 pieces to check for square. Squares can be off. But I'd bet that it is square...

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that if one end of a side is cut on one side of the jig and the other end is cut on the other side of the jig and repeated on all four sides, and all four sides are the same length, then frame should be close to perfectly square. 

[JohnG]

On 5/24/2023 at 7:27 PM, Coop said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that if one end of a side is cut on one side of the jig and the other end is cut on the other side of the jig and repeated on all four sides, and all four sides are the same length, then frame should be close to perfectly square. 

So long as the square is truly square

[wtnhighlander]

The two sides of that jig still must be 90* to one another, but using it as @Coop described, they don't have to be exactly 45* to the blade.

[Tom King]

Looks good from here, and worthy of copying.

[curlyoak]

It is all governed by the square as indicated above. It works if it is not exactly 45 degrees. It fails if  the square is not true.

[Chestnut]

The wider the material you use for the frame the more you can see errors. So if you are practicing with some scrap cut the frame material 4-5 inches wide and you'll really see how accurate it is.