Building a desk

Way back in 2001, I taught a class where everyone made a Roll-Top desk. Or a desk with a tamboured hutch, depending on what you want to call it. Instead of this class being a typical six-week long session, we doubled it and built the desk in twelve weeks, or roughly 36 hours.


It was an amazing class, and to this day, I still hear from some of the people who took it, saying how much they love the desks they built.


Imagine this desk being passed down through the years to family members.


Cool.


So along with everyone else in the class, I built a desk too. Instead of including a upper hutch, I added a smaller storage area on top, where my laptop could be stored. I also played around a bit with curves, which I love, Love, LOVE.

Anyone who is familiar with my work knows I have an obsession with circles and squares. I'm not sure what that's about, but they're everywhere.

In tile.


And tops.



And insets.



And relief carving.





It's a weird thing - even one of my favorite albums of all time is In Square Circle.

And though you can't tell by the angle of this photo, the top on this desk has a large sweeping curve on both ends.

The fronts of the three drawers mimic this curve, and tie it all together. I was also experimenting with Milk Paint at the time, and decided to add a little color to the piece, so the teal areas that you see are milk painted and slightly sanded, so the wood grain shows through.

All of this leads up to the new desk I'm currently building.


I loved the design of the original desk so much that I'm building a duplicate - for myself.


People who hang around my studio/school know I've been working on the desk for probably three months. It's tough to finish something like this when I only get about five hours a week to work on it.


So I'm in the homestretch - all that's left to do are the drawer fronts. Now usually, finishing the fronts is a little hectic for me, as they're the last thing I work on, and one of the more noticeable details.

Imagine my horror when I planed the piece of wood I'd saved for the drawer fronts, only to discover that the grain on it was awful. And of course.. it was my last piece of this wood.

What wood? Good question.

I bought this lumber at an auction, it wasn't labeled, but it was gorgeous. After a little calculating, I decided I had just enough to build this piece. I've been trying to identify the specie ever since, but every time I decide that it's a certain wood, I do a little research and decide it's not that wood afterall.

A little research helped me locate a wood identification service, so I recently sent a small sample of it off to their lab. Hopefully, I'll soon know what the hell this wood it! (And as a professional, I'm a little embarrassed that I can't identify it!)

So stay tuned - I'll be finishing the drawers in just a few days, and will post my solution to this design problem.

Looking for a one of a kind gift?

If you're looking for a one of a kind gift this holiday season, I'd like to show you something very cool.

Bob Ingersoll and I first met when he enrolled in one of my woodworking classes many years ago. In truth, Bob already knew his way around a woodshop when he took the class. Some people take that first class and decide that woodworking isn't for them. But others find their niche. Bob definitely found his with the design of these banks.




Bob specializes in making heirloom banks out of old post office box doors, some of which date back to the late 1800's. These one-of-a-kind boxes have wooden cases built around the door, and feature a very nice coin slot plate on top.



On the bottom of each bank, Bob writes the combination for the door lock. Dial in the correct numbers and the door opens to reveal the inside of your bank.


You didn't really think I was going to show you my combination, did you?


Check out the detail on the front of this particular door.


Bob constructs these boxes out of various woods - anything from maple, walnut, cherry, or wormy chestnut - to some exotics like Brazilian cherry and bubinga. His finishing technique (Watco, of course!) is superb.

What did you expect? I taught him!

Talk about the ultimate gift for the person who has everything - a bank that matches the wood in their home. Or their desk. Or their office at work.

Now I'm not just bragging about him because he's a friend. And I certainly don't have any financial stake in his business. I'm writing about his pieces because they're very well made, quite unique, and are sure to become one of those items you can pass down through the years.


Bob can be e-mailed at ringers234@aol.com. His busy season is starting now, so if you're interested in one of his banks, I suggest you don't delay.

Very cool pen-turning video

Opening a bottle of wine

You never know when you're going to need to open a bottle of wine and not have a corkscrew handy. This tipsy Frenchman has an easy solution. Check this out!

Cutting Boards

Cutting boards are amazing projects for beginners. Oh, stop yawning - everyone has to eat.

And usually that involves cutting and dicing and chopping. Isn't it better to cut and dice and chop on a board that you've made, rather than one of those cheesy acrylic things that thirty million other people have in their kitchen?

You know what's even better? Look how proud these new woodworkers look.

New goodies in the shop

Once a year, I visit Ohio to see family and celebrate my mom's birthday. So if you've been wondering why I haven't posted in a while, that's the reason.

Traveling is a hassle, no doubt. The long lines, the crowds, the security checks - it's all an inconvenience. But the worst part? Being around so many people during the start of flu season. It didn't help that the ditz on the plane next to me kept sneezing in my direction. I guess she thought it was rude to sneeze on her boyfriend, so I was a better target. Now I'm fighting a cold, and starting a pot of chicken soup.


But I'm ready to hop back into some woodworking, and I couldn't think of a better place to start than with a new tool I just bought.

(FYI - I bought this tool, I wasn't given one to review by the manufacturer.)

(I wish!)



When I'm building a piece of furniture, I almost always hide my fasteners by pre-drilling some countersunk holes. Once the screw is in place, I'll fill the hole with a plug that I make of the same wood, which more of less makes that screw disappear.

But when I heard about this new tool by FastCap, I thought it might work for something I've been wanting to do - utilize square holes, more commonly called mortises.


This tool is designed to cut small (5/16") mortises by striking the end of the tool so that the chisel


can cut a perfect mortise for one of these,

which are little plastic decorative buttons.


Now I would never dream of using something as cheesy as these little plastic buttons, But I love the idea of striking a small chisel in order to cut my mortise. That means I'm not limited to only cutting these with my stationary mortiser.

Very cool.

To test it, I chose a piece of soft wood first.


One or two strikes of my hammer cut this.


The plastic button popped in place perfectly.



Now if I want to install a screw in one of these, I'll still have to drill a pilot hole. Not a big deal.

It would be easy to cut a long "dowel" that is 5/16" square, and use those to fill the holes. But that would leave me with end grain showing, which I don't really want. So I'm working out a way to mass produce some flat grained, 5/16" square plugs.


While I'm trying to figure it out, I'll just have a bowl of "penicillin" and play with a couple of ideas I have. There are many ways I could make the buttons, but I want to come up with a SIMPLE method. Simple, as in - something I can make in five minutes or less.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to let me know.

Table Making

I'm adding a few more picture to this post, as last night concluded the Tablemaking classes I've been teaching. Seven out of the eleven people enrolled actually walked out with finished tables. I have to say, I'm quite impressed with their work.

To think that twelve weeks ago, most of them had never touched a tablesaw, let alone attempted complex joinery is amazing.


Jim's small table in Cherry was surprisingly sturdy, with a slatted shelf, tapered legs, and mortise and tenon joinery throughout the piece.


In this photo, Cal is pre-drilling some holes for the screws that will beef-up the leg joinery on his Parsons Table.

Ann's project went from this


to this in no time!



When I say that she's is thrilled with the barbeque cart that she made, I'm probably not adequately conveying the amount of enthusiasm she had for building this. She's been smiling and shaking her head in disbelief the whole time she's been working on this piece. This cart features two lower shelves, and a drawer, a towel rack, all perfect for her outdoor grilling needs.



Allison comes from an amazing design background, and it shows in this small desk she's building. This Red Oak desk has pinned tenons, gracefully tapered legs, and will feature a small pencil drawer that she'll finish building (and hanging) tonight.


She painstakingly chose the layout of her wood, so that the top and aprons feature some remarkable grain patterns. I'm thrilled with the job she's done, and can't wait to see this piece finished. From the comments on her Facebook page, it sounds like her friends are already starting to put in orders for the pieces they want her to build.

And here's the (mostly) completed piece!


As an architect, Betty came up with plans and was amazingly organized about building her Frank Lloyd Wright table. This was probably one of the more complex pieces built during this session, and it's simply gorgeous. This picture does it no justice, it's Walnut, and filled with some intricate details that she resolved on her own. I love having bright, enthusiastic people like Betty in my classes, I learned as much from her as (I hope) she did from me.


I'm know I keep raving about the various students and the work they accomplished, but Joyce is on of those people you just want to succeed. When I "met" Joyce about three months ago on the phone, she explained that she'd always wanted to learn woodworking, but never had the chance. She wasn't sure she'd be able to do it, but - considering she's a fourth grade teacher, I thought - there's probably not much she CAN'T do!



Imagine our delight when Joyce tackled building three tables at once! She built them for her classroom, and she couldn't have been more proud. Me, too.



And finally, Mike the fireman, who literally attacked his table with more enthusiasm than I've seen in a long time. His Walnut and African Mahogany table (he wanted me to mention that it was constructed of two woods!) was the first big piece he'd ever attempted. I'm just guessing, but I think there will be many more to come. Even as he finished the last bit of work on this last night, I could see his wheels spinning, as he came up with new and better designs to build. Good for him, he has a lot of potential to become a great woodworker.

For the most part, these pictures include everyone's tables that were completed, or close to being done. Pretty amazing work. I'll try to add the other tables as they're completed.

Now I'm off to catch a plane and visit family back east...

Autumn

While there a dozen or more woodworking projects awaiting my attention today, I couldn't stop myself from working in the yard all morning. The garden went from this


to this.


Oh, and we have this


When I went into the kitchen to clean and freeze these veggies, I flipped on the TV to watch Saturday Night Live, which I Tivo'ed last night. If you missed this, here's a funny clip. Someone's bound to get in trouble for this one. I love her reaction when she realizes what she's just said on live TV. Priceless.

Great video

Replacing bearings on a Delta Jointer

This will be a quick post, as I'm swamped with tool repairs. I guess that's to be expected with running a woodworking school. Shit happens, tools break. Deal with it. I've spent the better part of the last few weeks repairing things, including installing a new 1.5 HP motor on the 6x48 belt sander in the shop

and replacing the bearings on the jointer. Oh, and hanging a new air cleaner from the 14' ceiling in the bench room. You know, routine stuff. This isn't for sissies, trust me.

When you turn on your jointer and it starts screaming like a freight train, you pretty much know there's a problem.

It was pretty easy to figure out that the cutterhead bearings were the source of all the noise, and I'd love to say I took some great photos and documented the whole process. But the repair happened so quickly, I barely had time to whip out my camera and shoot anything.


My incredibly mechanically-inclined friend, Philip, just happened to stop by when the jointer was well into "screaming" mode, and being the generous person he is, suggested we rip it apart and fix it right then and there.

So we did.



Luckily, there's a place that sells bearings just down the street. The bad news was - it was close to closing time, and we were heading into the weekend. If you saw a blur of a white cargo van flying out of the parking lot, that was me, heading off to buy the replacements before they closed.

Of course, that meant pulling the bearings off each end of the cutterhead. That's not so easy without a bearing puller, but Philip and I made due with a couple of flat pry bars and a giant flat screwdriver. A few skinned knuckles later, and we had the cutterhead stripped.



Luckily, the bearings were in common ones, and in stock.


And not that expensive, something like $25 total.


The bigger question was - remembering how it all went back together. We had a pile of parts, and remember, we took this apart very quickly.


Philip has such a good memory for stuff like that. Me? I can't remember what I wore yesterday, but he is a genius for all things mechanical.


I had company in town for dinner, that happens a lot when you live in Las Vegas. So we weren't able to re-assemble the jointer until the following evening.

So we met the next evening, and four hours later (and countless numbers of passes on the jointer, to adjust it), the repair was complete. Frankly, getting the machine reassembled was the easy part. Adjusting the outfeed table, which had to be moved out of the way to remove the cutterhead, was the difficult part. This particular jointer had an outfeed table that's adjustable at each of the four corners. Getting it back in to place took some perseverance.


Anyway, all in a day's work, it's finally done. I'd like to thank Philip and Dan for their help and sage advice with all my tool issues. Having guys like them in my life make me a lucky person.

And the beat goes on...

James Krenov, RIP

The single most influential woodworker in my life has been James Krenov. Have I ever met him? Unfortunately, no. But that doesn't mean that he hasn't been a major force in how I design and build.







For anyone just starting their woodworking journey, I highly recommend you buy these three books on cabinetmaking.

My work today would look much different today without Krenov's influence. He didn't simply teach me about how to use a plane, or choosing the proper hardware, he taught me how to look at wood.

Quite frankly, eleven years of woodworking classes (high school, college, and a four year carpentry apprenticeship) didn't teach me as much as one of his books.

James Krenov 1920-2009

I'm on my way out to teach a class, so I don't have time to blog right now. But I just wanted to post a link to this article about James Krenov, who passed away at the age of 89.

It's a very sad day in the woodworking world.

Slab roller retrofit - part four

My last post ended with the motor belt being too loose, so I had to figure out how to add some tension to it. My good friend Dan pointed out that I could simply slide the motor off to one side, thus increasing the distance between the two pulleys.


Yup.. but wouldn't that have made it too simple?


So I removed the shelf and experimented with a few different thicknesses of shelf material, to come up with the right spacing.


Making sure everything is lined up properly.


I had to remove the old shelf and make a new one, with an extension on it, to mount the motor. That meant taking the leg off (again) and sliding the old shelf out, and the new one in place. Here's the new shelf.

Yes, if you're paying attention, it's upside down. (The countersinks should be on the bottom.)

Of course, I noticed that before I bolted the leg back on. Not.


Here is the new shelf, right side up, in place.

It might look simple, but it took me a few days to do all this work. Although it sounds like a luxury, having two studios is a pain. I always find myself in need of a tool that's at the other studio, or needing to cut something when I'm not near the proper tools.

Oy, it's always something.

I knew that even with the new shelf cut, the motor was going to be a tad too low, so I decided to lift it up by placing a fat washer underneath each mounting hole.


The best way to accomplish this is with a big cup of coffee, a nice assortment of washers and bolts, and some patience.

After a little experimenting, I decided one fat washer underneath each mounting hole was all it needed.

Bolted in place.


The suspense is killing me. I want to get this baby cranking.

Recycled Houses in the NYTimes

This New York Times article on Recycled Houses might be the coolest thing I've read in ages. I've been working on a line of furniture made from recycled materials, and this article dovetailed nicely with what I'm attempting.

You MUST check out the slide show, the mosaic work and the ceiling made of old picture frame samples are my favorites.

Slab roller retrofit - part three

Turns out that mounting the motor to the shelf of my slab roller turned into a much bigger job than I anticipated. The motor itself has four threaded mounting holes.



So it was easy to lay out the hole spacing on a piece of Baltic Birch plywood, and drill the holes.


Of course, I had to countersink the screw heads, so that the plywood would sit flush on the shelf.


Even with that huge assortment of screws that I had, I still didn't have four matching ones. So off I went to the local hardware store.


Of course, once I got to the store, I couldn't remember the length I needed, so I bought a few different sizes, just to be sure.


With the right hardware, this part was easy.


And I'm so fussy, of course I had to align all the screw slots.


Here's the motor mounted to the plywood, awaiting the next step - mounting the pulleys.


On the rollers, there is a 5/8" arbor, where I'll mount the top pulley. But first, I had to knock this pin out.


So I grabbed my "go-to" baby ball peen hammer. It doesn't look that small, but here it is, next to a normal sized one.


Then I grabbed a punch, to knock the pin all the way out.


And then mounted the pulley with a set screw.


With a level, I tried to roughly align everything.


Before I could mount the lower pulley to the motor, I realized I needed a piece of keystock for the motor shaft.


Luckily, I had a long piece of it sitting in a drawer.


So I put it in a vice and cut off a small piece of it.

Then filed off the rough edges.


With a little bit of coaxing, the pulley was mounted to the motor shaft.


The next part was easy - place the motor on the shelf below, and slip the belt onto both pulleys.



The only problem - the belt was a little long, making it way too loose on the pulleys.

Do you think I could wait until I had the right sized belt? Hells no, I clamped the motor/plywood down and flipped the switch on for the motor.


And I have to say - watching that motor slowly turn the rollers was a moment of sheer joy. My buddy Dave, the designer of this system, not only included a speed control for this motor control, but he made the motor reversible. It's an incredibly sweet system.

But because the belt was so loose, I didn't try running any clay through the rollers.

Next step - either lowering the shelf to make the belt tighter. Or buying a smaller belt. Hopefully, my next (and final) post about this slab roller retrofit will include a short video to show how great this works.

Stay tuned...

Pretty interesting video

The third installment of how I added a motor to my slab roller is coming, but I haven't quite finished everything yet. Meanwhile, here's a pretty fascinating video showing how a trailer is built, thanks to some time elapsed videography

Enjoy!

Motorizing a slab roller, part two

When I ended Part One of how I added a motor to my slab roller, I'd just finished adding a shelf to the legs, thus giving myself a place to mount the motor.


Even though the motor that will drive the slab roller looks wimpy, it's not.


I decided mounting the motor control box would be my first task. It's location is important, and I didn't want it to be in an inconvenient location.


Looking at the end of the slab roller, it made sense to use some of the same bolts that were used to connect the legs to the apron. That metal is fairly beefy, and I didn't feel like drilling new holes, if I didn't need to. So I removed a couple of the bolts on each leg.


After a little measuring to determine the size for a piece of plywood, I propped the control box up against the plywood, to make sure I'd done everything correctly.


Of course, I couldn't use the old bolts that I'd removed from each leg, they were now too short, with the addition of the plywood. So I went over to my "bolt drawer".

Doesn't every one have one of those?

OK, it's a big mess. (I knew you were thinking that.) But it had exactly what I was looking for - longer bolts.

Then I drilled some holes for mounting the box to the plywood. Don't pay any attention to that dried blood on the handle of my drill. That's from a while ago.


Everything was going according to plan, I bolted the plywood in place, and then hit my first snag.


The location of the holes meant I needed to drill some new holes in the legs.


But remember that I mentioned those legs were made of heavy gauge of metal? I had to drill holes in the metal when mounting that shelf, and it wasn't any fun. In fact, it was probably the worst part of that whole task. So I put on my thinking cap and decided I'd add a couple spacers behind the plywood, so that the bolts wouldn't have to go through the legs.

Spacers? No problem... just a short walk over to the "Washer" drawer.


Pure washer heaven.


A couple of spacers later, and the control box is mounted. It's location is perfect.


It really went together quite easily.


Well, sort of. I scratched the crap out of my arm while reaching for something.

Considering how hot it was in my studio, I thought this would be a good time to quit for the day.


Oh, what was I thinking? I can't stop in the middle of something like this. So I started examining the motor, to figure out how to mount it.


Dave was kind enough to put a warning label on the plug that CANNOT be plugged into a regular wall outlet. And he left me a note that said I could mount the motor in one of two ways. I chose the four holes on the bottom.


Bolts, anyone? I'm the queen of bolts.


A couple of measurements, to determine the size of the plywood I'll need to cut.



A little more measuring, which brings up a pet peeve. Notice the tape measure, and how it reads upside-down?

That's why I bought several of these from Lee Valley, made for right-handers like me.



Isn't 93% of the world right-handed? Can anyone tell me why ALL tape measures don't read like the Lee Valley tape measure?

Just as I was ready to start mounting the motor to a piece of plywood, I realized I was running out of time. I have a class to teach in a few hours, and I need to clean up and print off a few hand-outs.


Stay tuned, the next step will be interesting....

Summertime grilling

Don't you just love grilling in the summertime?

Motorizing a slab roller, part one

It started with a Northstar slab roller.


Well, no, I take it back, it started with a backache.


See, I have a bad back. Too many years of hard labor, added to the fact that I'm only five feet tall. OK, a little taller in work boots. Still, lifting sheets of plywood, or flipping an armoire on it's side has taken it's toll on my spine.

When I roll out slabs of clay to make tile, it hurts. Not right then; it hurts the next day, or two, or seven. So working with clay has gotten more and more difficult over the years. I needed a better way.

Now I'm lucky. I have some friends that are MUCH smarter than me, and I turn to them when I'm having one of those "how the hell do I do this?" moments. So last year, when I was suffering from a horrible backache, I asked my buddy Dave, who by the way, is a genius, to help me figure out how to motorize my slab roller.

I'm not making it up about Dave being a genius. He is. And even better, he's a motion control expert. He's worked for years in the field of automation, and is the go-to guy if you're looking to automate something within your business.

So the first thing Dave suggested was pulling off the huge crank wheel, so see what we had to work with.


Simple enough, there was a 5/8" shaft.


Now have you ever met someone who is so smart, they can calculate things in their head in seconds, when it would have taken you hours to do all the calculations? So giving Dave some rough dimensions of the space I had to work with was all he needed.

First thing he had me do was add a shelf underneath, so I would have a place to bolt down a motor. The height wasn't entirely critical, but I knew I was going to need about 16" between that pulley and the one I would mount below. So I measured accordingly, and started building my shelf. Here are the 2x4's on the each end.



Then I added some cross pieces, to beef it up.



Lag bolts hold the legs together. I forgot to mention that almost all of this material was stuff I had laying around the woodshop. So I walked over to my "lag drawer" and looked for some appropriate sizes.


Yes, that's an old library card catalog. Excellent for storing stuff in the woodshop.


Perfect.


Well, not so fast. There wasn't a
way to get a plywood shelf in place without removing one of the legs.

So off came the leg. (I had to prop up the slab roller with a shop cart, to keep it from tipping over while the leg was off.)


And on went the shelf.



With the leg back in place, the first part of this retrofit is starting to shape up.

Another buddy of mine had donated a small motor to this project, so just for the heck of it, I hooked it up.


With some luck, I realized I'd put that mounting shelf in the perfect place for the motor belt that I'd purchased. (What's that line about even a broken clock being right twice a day?)


So.. it all looks pretty great, right?

Well, not really.

The first time I plugged in the motor and fed a piece of clay through the rollers, I ended up with a huge splat of clay on the wall, ten feet away.

Back to the drawing board.

Which brings me back to Dave. A couple of phone calls and a little begging, and ... well... stay tuned for part two.

Burgers and Building Furniture

There's an interesting article in the New York Times about custom furniture. Most people assume that ordering a piece of furniture from a custom builder is going to be difficult, or will take too long. While it's true that you usually can't walk into someone's studio and pick a piece out of their "showroom", it's usually not that long of a waiting period to receive delivery of your custom piece.

And ordering a piece ensures that you get EXACTLY the details you want, including your choice of hardware, or wood, or design details that you require. Not to mention a level of quality that often isn't associated with a store-bought piece.

Funny, I recently had this conversation with a couple of woodworking buddies - we all build custom pieces. And we were discussing the how some buyers think that the price of a custom piece might be less than a store bought piece. Less?

Let's see... that's sort of likening a burger at Mikky D's


to a 5 Napkin Burger.


Both have a place in the culinary world, but one might be of necessity, and one of choice. Sort of like furnishing your home.