Get Woodworking Week Post – Box Challenge Build

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2013-01-30 22.44.46 Since my shop is in a garage, and in Ohio, I am don’t know that I will get much if any woodworking done this week.  Much of it depends if my kerosene heater can compensate for cold air outside.  However, I think it is worth talking about my current project, which is part of a box challenge that a group of us are participating in.  The idea of the challenge is to build a box that pushes your skills.

2013-01-19 18.22.49The first skill challenge for me was hand cut dovetails.  I took a class a couple years ago, and made several practice bookends, but never actually did a project with DTs on all four corners.  The answer to the top question is tails first.  🙂  I spent a lot of time being extra careful, with both the DT saw and chisels to get the joints as clean as possible.  The only area that I consistently had issues with were the half pins on the ends.  This is where I had the worse gaps.  The rest of the DTs ended up reasonably tight.  I haven’t glued the box up yet, so I have decided yet how I will close up those gaps.

2013-01-30 22.45.05After completing the four sides, I started working on top and bottom pieces.  The top I ended up doing a square turning to make it domed shape.  The I started working on the bottom.  I couldn’t bring myself to just making it from plywood.  It had to be solid wood.  I started out just rabbeting the bottom piece to fit in the dados in the sides.  I didn’t like how it looked.  So I grabbed my #3 and started working away at it.  I marked some guidelines, and next thing I know, I had a raised panel for the bottom!

2013-01-19 23.04.08I still have some work to do on the box, and any more work I do on it this week, I will update as another GWW post.

Hand Tool Cabinet – Update 1

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I got some time today to work on the hand tool cabinet, specifically starting on the hand plane storage.  I am actually breaking from my sketch-up plan almost completely on this.  Since I made the cabinet an inch deeper, I decided I could do a little better for my block planes.  So I decided I would build a block plane garage.  I had a few cut-offs that were left from the case construction, so they were wide enough, w4ithout glue-ups.  I planed these down to 1/2″ thick, as I felt 3/4″ thick would be too much.  After I planed them down, I ripped the stock to width, then cut each piece to length.  At this phase, I wasn’t sure how many cubbies I would have (I was playing this by ear after all), so I made sure I cut what turned out to be one extra spacer.  At this point, I glued everything together. Once the glue was dry, I did a base sanding to get everything good and smooth.  On the router table, I routed round overs on the front.  At this point, I noticed that it was sitting as flat as I would have liked.  So I took my hand planes, and started planing down the bottom of the dividers, until I got sitting flat.  From there I took a rasp and completed the round overs.  Now this may seems like a minor detail, but it doesn’t take long, and it makes the piece look so much more refined.  From there, I did the final sanding.

The next phase of plane storage will be the till for the bench planes.  I haven’t 100% decided how the plane will turn out, I am thinking through some ideas.  As soon as I come up with something, I will post here.  I still have the doors to make for the cabinet.  I figured out that I need more wood to completethem, so I haven’t started yet.  My driveway the last few weekend has been inaccessible due to road work.  My plan next weekend is to go to my hardwood supplier and get more so that I can start on the doors when I am ready for them.

Tool Cabinet Project – Finally!

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Ever since I completed the chisel rack at the beginning of 2011, I have been wanting to build a hand tool cabinet.  Over the past year or so I have off and on been working on a design for the cabinet using sketch-up.  So to take advantage of a long weekend, this past Saturday I finally started the actual build.  Right off the bat, I made a design change to the cabinet, simply because I had the wood to do with.  I had some wide boards of maple I have been holding back for this project, that were a bit wider then the 7″ depth I had planned on.  So I added on an extra inch, making it 8″ deep.  I was pretty much in the shop all day Saturday, and got most of the case work done on it.  The only items missing were the dividers for the drawers and the back.  During the process of cutting the dados, I made another design change.  I decided it may be good to have one of the drawers wider, so I took out the center divider.

Sunday, I did spend nearly as much time in the shop as the heat and humidity (it wanted to rain all day, but didn’t) were horrible.  I did however clean up all the glue joints and sanded it.

Today, Labor Day Monday, I glued in the dividers and back.  This was also the inaugural run of my new cross-cut sled I made.  I have been meaning to make one for years, even bought Incra’s slider bar a couple years ago, but never got around to it.  The back on this is 27″ wide, and would be impossible to cut with the miter gauge on the table saw.  I did break it down to manageable piece with my circular saw, but that does not leave a clean cut.  In fact it tears up the veneer on the baltic birch ply horribly.  I used my roller stand to support the sled, and was able to safely cross cut the back down to the exact size I needed.  All I can say is, I wish I hadn’t waited so long to make one! The rest of the time I spent in the shop today was sanding the back.

All-in-all, I am happy with the progress I made, in fact a little surprised I am already this far a long.  I was hoping for the first glue-up this weekend, but managed to get that done the first day.  Most likely I will work on the door boxes next, but I am considering work on the plane till portion next.