Cicip Working

Well, after a small prescribed burn, I have at least one corner of the shop decent enough for some pictures.

First is the new wood rack doing its job quite nicely:


I didnt realize how much 6 stock I had picked up. This was mostly because the old rack couldnt handle 8 stock in an easy manner. Now that I have a much better rack, I can go back to buying longer, and thus more versatile, stock.

As I mentioned in a comment on the previous wood rack post, I added plywood "decking" to the second and third shelf to both increase the racking resistance (earthquakes) and allow for easier storage of shorts. Also, I added sliding trays under the bottom platform to handle even more shorts.

And here is the GGTC - Gigantic Green Tool Chest:




The body of the chest is made of 3/4" birch plywood that I found buried at the bottom of the old wood rack. I dont use plywood very often anymore, but this was leftover from my table saw days and much too nice to send to the landfill.

This is going in to my school shop to safely keep unsupervised hands away from sharp tools.

Now its back to the shop overhaul - next up, the new wall!

Assembling the Cut List...

Working off of my sketches and existing examples of trusted, work bench construction methods, I come up with a plan and begin adding up the numbers. This is generally how I approach a new design, from the sketch I mock up some shapes and sizes using off cuts and batons around my shop to see if in the real world things still look like they do on paper. I settle on the overall size and start down my cut list taking into account the joinery.

The top work surface is where I begin and the two panels of 1" thick, quarter-sawn white Oak are cross cut to length leaving about 1/4" extra for love. The oak used is offcuts from a past project and has been in my shop for over 7 months now, so I know its extremely stable and will make a great work surface and apron. When I originally purchased the wood it was dimensioned before it left the mill so I can surface it all pretty quickly. From jointing plane to smoother Ill get the top glued up before I even begin thinking about the apron.
This being a work shop project Im really trying to keep the budget at a minimum so the bench top and apron are made from off cuts as mentioned with the lower frame made from Ipe. Its an extremely dense exotic I noticed at my local hardware store. They sell it these days as a high-end decking material. This particular stock was already finished at 1 1/2" square and came in 12 lengths. At $15.00 a length I couldnt go wrong. It does come with its edges all beveled but this being a work bench I can live with it. Id prefer to have square stock to begin but I can deal with the off the shelf lumber for the sake of the budget. Now 1 1/2" stock may sound a little undersized for a workbench frame but keep in mind the scale of the piece and the fact that this Ipe is like iron!

Jointing the Edge

With the oak cross cut to length Ill go ahead and joint it. To begin, I clearly mark the planks for grain direction and lay them on my bench top, reference faces up. I decide what two edges Ill be jointing together. I mark the orientation of them with a builders triangle on the face surface and fold them back together keeping the inside edges up. This book matched pair will be clamped together in my face vise and jointed simultaneously. I use a bevel-up jointing plane with a nice wide iron at 2 1/4" and work the edges together. Ill take a series of through shavings checking for square as I go. I finish off the process with a couple of stop shavings to insure no bumps along the edges. Again I check my work with a reliable straight edge and finally, a light pass again planing through, end to end. The nice thing about edge jointing two boards together like this is if youre edges are slightly out of square it really doesnt matter; because of the book matching we did when we clamped them, once unfolded any inconsistencies will cancel each other out. That said, while youre planing, try your best to keep things square! (maybe this is one of those rare occasions you can get in some practice time while actually working on a project and not just something from the scrap wood pile?)

The Glue Dance

With the edges jointed Ill glue up the panels and set them aside for the night. Heres my method for gluing two panels together.
To begin, I set my clamp opening to an 1" wider than the actual piece and lay them down across my bench top. These pieces are just under 3 long so Ill be using 5 clamps, three will go on the bottom and two more across the top.Lay the two planks across the three bottom clamps and a quick dry run will show how things should hopefully go. These two are sitting really nicely together and the joint almost closes itself! Its a good day when that happens...
Because of the stopped shavings I took earlier, when gentle pressure is applied using only the middle clamp, Im confident the outside edges of the joint will be tight.
So a generous amount of glue is spread and I begin again at the middle clamp bringing the pieces together. I use down ward thumb pressure across the joint to keep the seam flat and wont over tighten this first clamp yet- Ill come back to it in a minute. With the middle of the stock held firmly together, Ill use a couple of F style clamps placed on the outside edges and draw the seam down flush along its length. Then working out from the center again I start tightening things up. I stagger the pressure as I go, from left to right and then left outside and finally the right outside clamp. With the five clamps secure Ill move back across and re tighten them all down to finish. Take a step back and have a look- double check your grain is running in the proper direction and your building triangle is mated happily back together. This will be your last chance to change anything!
Go make a coffee and check your email, come back in an hour and begin cleaning up the glue. Ill work between the clamps and remove any squeeze out after it has started to cure but before its too hard to easily scrap away. This is also when Ill usually remove the two outside F clamps; if I leave them on overnight Ill have some deep bruises to deal with tomorrow.






















"Top of the morning to ya!" The glue set up overnight so I remove the clamps and get ready to work. A card scraper down the seam removes any final bits of glue- Im careful not to tear away any wood with it. Im happy with the results- this oak is stable and sits well on my bench top-another good sign! Ill double check with my winding sticks and a metal straight edge taking note of any high spots or twist across the surface.
















A few light passes with the jointer followed with a smoothing plane and Ill double check one edge for square. I now have a reference face and edge and can continue on with dimensioning the panel. Ill use my panel gauge and scribe the finished width around the perimeter; because this was pre-dimensioned wood and I took my time with the glue-up, Im happy to say the piece is almost square with just a few light passes along one end. With that, I now have a panel with two long edges, completely parallel and square with one finished face.
















Ill check the thickness throughout the panel to see if it needs any dressing and working from the bottom, Ill plane the stock to final thickness. Not much to remove so this process is pretty straight forward. Four sided stock with two ends that still need to be addressed- thats where Ill go from here.

Planing End Grain

I get asked alot how I deal with the long end grain on panels. I think some woodworkers are intimidated when it comes to this area so Ill show you the steps I use.
So first things first Ill scribe a deep, crisp line around the perimeter with a knife working off a reliable framing square. The amount of wood Im removing is very minimal, no more than 1/8". Again, the time I took to carefully glue up the panel makes these later steps so much easier.

With my line scribed Ill place the panel vertically in my face vise and block up the bottom off of the shop floor. From there Ill clamp the left side of the panel in the vise and hold the right side with a surface clamp installed in one of the 3/4" holes I have across my work bench apron. My bench didnt come like this but its a feature I could never live without. Before I fully tighten the vise and clamp I like to place a small level across the top of the piece.






















Also, because were dealing with end grain and I dont want to blow out the face grain on the far edge of the panel,(spelching) Ill clamp a piece of scrap wood, thicknessed the same as the work piece and tighten everything down to get started.

Im using my bevel-up jointer again, set to take a fine shaving and carefully work my way down. Im taking light passes, always watching for those first shiny edges starting to appear. Its hard to put into words but youll know it when you get there. Being careful not to over-shoot, I work my way down so I can see my scribe line still wrapping the entire perimeter. With that tiny strip left glistening, I know the edge is square. (but Ill still double check it!) Now I can safetly measure up off of this edge and follow the same procedure for the sixth and final side.















So there you have it- a work bench surface, square on all six sides. It may seem like a lot of steps but the above process probably didnt take much longer than it just took me to write this post. Im ready to begin the bread board ends and assemble my pieces for the apron. That will be next time.
Cheers!

Ive made 3-1/2" backsplashes, which will be applied on site, to the wall using a hot glue gun.  This is probably the quickest way to apply them.  The longest one will be screwed to the back of the countertop in order to move the top 3/4" away from the wall (as I needed to accommodate for the cabinet width on the leg end).
Here are what the backsplashes look like.  The first one is just sitting in place...




Coming soon - installation day!

Okay, time to get this candle rack finished. Well, almost finished :)

The front of the case has two rails: one at the very top and one at the bottom of the candle till...

Wait! Stop the presses! Thats it! Candle till! CANDLE TILL! Thats what this thing is! The name has appeared! Yes!

...just above the drawers. I decided to mould the inside edge of both rails for some visual interest, but I didnt want to get too complex because the candle till :) design is rather understated, in a "Shakerish" kind of way. In the end I went with a simple side bead, and was quite happy with the result.

Heres the tools I used for this step:


The #3 smoothed the surface and edge prior to the moulding being stuck. The 1/4" side bead plane by Andruss (Newark, NJ 1821-41) did what it was made to do over a century and a half ago - amazing!* The Veritas medium shoulder plane I used to clean up a little tear-out in the quirk shoulder by adding a very tiny bevel to the arris. In front of the planes is the finished rail.

* Side note: Im pretty sure this is one of the original group of planes that started me down the moulding plane path in a big way. You can click on the new "Moulding Plane" link in the "Post Categories" section in the left navbar for more on this topic.

The rails were glued to the case while it was being held in the front vise, allowing easier clamping. Heres a shot of the bottom rail being attached.



The next step was the pediment. In my original plan, the pediment was going to be an ogee or cyma curve. But now I was reconsidering.

I created the blank...


...and toyed with the idea of just going with that. But it didnt feel right - too plain and it didnt fit with the curved front of the case.

So I wanted a curve, which I could have worked out with a batten, as I did with the front, but instead I reached for some curve templates:


What? Doesnt everyone keep a Crock Pot lid and an angle food cake pan handy in the shop?

After tracing both curves on the blank and looking at it on the case, I chose the elliptical curve (Crock Pot). Then it was just a matter of shaping the curve with a drawknife and spokeshave.


After that, it just needed to be glued in place. The only tricky part was I wanted it to be attached before the back went on, so I could use the underside of the top to clamp it. As I wanted the back and the pediment to be flush, this meant I needed to make the back so that I would know how thick it would be and then give the pediment the appropriate overhang.

So, time for the back. I brought the thinner stock left over from resawing the case sides (roughly 1/4" - the sides are 1/2" thick) over to the bench and transferred the dimensions directly. I left it slightly oversized and would plane it flush after it was attached.



I also needed the thin stock for the angled back of the till section, so I made a cardboard mock-up to determine the correct size. The short hunks of dowels, with orange paint streaks from their days as part of a pipe clamp rack, are standing in for candles.


Once I was finished adjusting the cardboard to get the correct angle and fit, I used it as a template and cut the stock with a knife.


This worked great, much better than trying to saw the flexible wood, but I was a little to aggressive and split off a chunk that ran inside the line - drat! Oh well, the candles will hide that reminder to take it easy.

I glued cleats across the back of the stock to stiffen it and flatten out some cupping it was developing. Because this was cross grain, I only glued the middle couple of inches - a bit of an experiment really, well see how it works out.


You can see the pediment, waiting in the background, asking "Werent you just about to glue me on about an hour ago?"

Yeah, yeah. So I did - and then the back.


The back was nailed on, and heres the tool set for that job:


"Whats that? Why yes, that is a 30.06 On A Stick™ and serial #000001 to boot! A true collectors item - thanks for noticing!"

And there it is - just waiting on the drawers...


Final Part VI coming SOON!

The roof framing is done!

Next, it was time to begin the sheathing.  I sheathed & sheathed, until I ran out of sheathing . . .

The Pekovich Workshop

Looking down the table saw at the outfeed table and planer.

Chisels at the ready, and natural light abounding, theres work to do on the workbench.

The sharpening bench.

You cant be productive if youre cold. A good heater is critical during Connecticut winters.

Mikes Buffalo drill press is awesome - and older than I am.

A new and awesome bandsaw.

When we toured Mike’s shop in Feburary of 2012 he was working on a cabinet project. You can imagine how quickly large plywood carcasses will fill up a shop that’s already stuffed with equipment as Mike’s is. But that’s ok. What’s a great shop for if not for filling with tools and projects?

Some of the cabinets Mike was working on when we visited.

Youll find out more about Mikes shop in Parts II & III, so stay tuned.