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I was in a random hardware store today when I saw a couple of these little guys sitting on the shelf. I thought, for $9, why not? Rosewood body, with a small brass wear strip on the bottom. The blade is 7/8″ wide, and seems to be positioned well in the mouth. It’s probably a crappy blade, but I’m decent at sharpening, so that should be surmountable.
Looking forward to trying it out!
So I was thinking that I’d cut two 3/8″ slices off of this block, and then cut those in half longways to be the walls of the box. I went with my dovetail saw to have a finer cut (and leave me with more wood left on the block for the top and bottom). Can you tell what I ran into here?
Note to self: Check the depth of the saw when planning your cuts!
P.S. I did try throwing my Stanley backsaw in there; I could get it in, but I couldn’t get it to cut!
I mentioned recently that I felt like actually making something before working on my bench. What better project for my beginner skills than a simple dovetail box? I haven’t waded through the loads of plans online for boxes, so this plan of mine might not work. Let me know what you think.
First, I had an idea that maybe I could build the entire box out of a single block of 2×4 that is 5 1/2″ long. Here’s my block – it’s kempas by the way (click for big size, you wood junkies):
The dimensions of the box top (and bottom) I thought would be roughly 4″ by 5 1/3″ (I read somewhere that a 1:1 1/3 ratio is nice for boxes). So I thought that I would just rip the top and bottom of the box right off the top of this block of wood – I dunno, maybe 1/2″ thick for each? That would leave me something like 5/8″ left. Is is crazy to think of cutting that in two 1/4″ (ish) pieces, that I’d then rip down the middle for the four walls? Are dovetails for 1/4″ thick pieces too fine for a beginner?
I guess I’m just being lazy to cut off more wood for the walls, and also I’m trying to mimimize (maybe neurotically so) wood waste.
Another question I have is how to join the box to the bottom. I was thinking that I’d just slap some glue on the bottom of the box walls and throw it onto the bottom, but that sounds so crude to say it. The top will be hinged somehow – I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
A shooting board isn’t considered a major project – or even a minor one – for most woodworkers. However, it’s something I want to write about because at this early stage in my woodworking journey, I’m learning something new with every endeavor.
Skills Learned/Practiced:
- using a square (and I’m glad I invested in a Starrett)
- using a block plane to trim up (flush) the edges
- making a very thin cut with my dovetail saw (to avoid having to plane/sand)
- gluing (sounds dumb, but I’ve had bad luck with glue in the past and have learned a bit since then)
Lessons Learned:
- Factor Murphy’s Law into every project. Despite the fact that I checked that the cleat was square to the fence more times than even an obsessive-compulsive would, once I had the cleat screwed on, it was off of square! That’s exactly why I didn’t glue the cleat onto the fence in the first place. So I just popped one of the screws out, realigned and added the center screw in case the new screw hole was too close to the wrong one.
- Always start with way more materials than you need. I’m such a beginning woodworker that I don’t even have any scrap yet! I had to buy the MDF and shelf scraps from Ikea’s refuse section (pretty cheap, though). Even then, I found myself short when planning my 45-degree angle shooting board. The plans I saw recommended 24″ long shooting boards. Since I don’t have any current plans for anything wider than a 2×10, I just went for something closer to 15″. I didn’t even consider how much space it would take for a 45-degree cleat going both ways! So that shooting board will have to wait.
Questions:
- Why do you need to have a 45-degree cleat going both ways? I suppose once I start trying to build something like a frame or box, it’ll come clear. But for now I can’t see it.
- I’ve seen one reference (Landis, I think) recommend a groove for the chips right at the base of the fence. Is it really necessary?
I also plan to do a 45-degree shooting board like LumberJock Mot demonstrates in this video, but that’ll also have to wait.
My wife is out of the country attending a conference, and while I do have kid duty (age 4.5 and 3), I still manage to steal away from time to time to do some woodworking. Gotta love those DVDs that have the “Play Continuously” option!
So even though I’m supposed to be working on my bench, I get these ideas of things to make and want to act on them. One of them is to make my wife a little box. She has no need of a little box, but it’s the thought that counts. Well, the thought for her and also the thought of trying some more dovetails and maybe my first splines. Let’s be honest here.
But before I get started on a box, I thought it would be a good idea to make myself a couple shooting boards – one at a 90-degree angle, another at a 45-degree angle. I was initially turned on to shooting boards from Landis’ workbench book, and then the video I watched from fellow LumberJock Mot put me over the edge.
But just prepping the wood for the shooting boards is quite the hassle with the bench (simple cabinet) I have to work with! I only have an all-purpose vise on the top, but it’s bolted into like a 1/8″ top so it wobbles all over the place, and one day will just pull right out, I know it. The bench is so long that it is extremely difficult to cut on the right side of it, and even if I could, the cabinet storage underneath makes clamping virtually impossible if not done on the very edge.
I’m green enough as a woodworker that I don’t mind talking about (or posting pictures of) me doing crazy stupid stuff. Here is one such picture: me getting creative trying to saw off the ends of this scrap Ikea shelf. You can see the vice threatening to pull right out – thus my hand functioning as an additional clamp. Click the pic for full size:
Oh, and about the title of the post. At one point I got frustrated, thinking I was wasting all this time just for a couple shooting boards. But then I realized the inherent value of these jigs and just how much time they will save me in the long run. Well worth the effort.
But yes, I did for one moment wish that I had a table saw.
I’ve never been a woodworker. Shoot, I was never even a handy man. For the first 35 of my 38 years, I never owned a tool more “tooly” than a hammer.
So why do I have a dream of one day running a shop making furniture and teaching woodworking?
I think part of it is just from the excitement of discovering a new hobby. Another part of it is from living in a country where woodworking doesn’t exist as a hobby. Not only is woodworking not a hobby, it doesn’t even seem to be a job. I have yet to find furniture in this country that wasn’t either mass-produced or imported (or both).
Of course, I still have no idea whether I even have any knack for woodworking. I’ve only made a couple things (very average, at that), and am still working on my first project (my bench) since pulling the plug on power tools. It’s fun, but I’m not fooling myself – I have a long way to go if I want to be experienced enough to go into the business of woodworking (even if I have zero competition!).
Until then, I’m just going to enjoy myself. Because if you can’t do that, why bother?
I was considering using dowels to help hold my boards together for my benchtop; specifically, those boards that are a little extra bowed. However, Matt of Matt’s Basement Workshop has informed me that due to the considerable strength of face-to-face gluing, that dowels might not be necessary – even for bowed boards.
However, just in case, I decided to make a simple jig following Matt’s suggestion, which was:
Two pieces of wood, one attached to the top of the other to act as a lip, then just drill a hole at the required length from the edge. Then you can move it to where you need it and drill corresponding holes at the same depth.
This may or may not be what Matt had in mind, but I think it will work. And to give myself a little extra practice, I decided to dovetail (by hand) the two pieces of wood together. Overall, I was pleased with the result. The dovetail wasn’t perfect – there are a couple gaps that resulted perhaps from uneven sanding – but who expects perfection on their first dovetail? It’s a plenty strong joint.
As for the jig itself, I drilled a 3/8″ hole at the general midpoint of a 2×4 face, and another on the top at the general midpoint of a 2×4 edge. I don’t think it has to be dead-on centered, so long as it’s not too close to the edge of the board. I cut a notch in the bottom to line up the hole with the line I will have drawn on the board, so my dowel holes match up.
The one thing I was disappointed in, though, was the holes themselves. The surface of the holes was a bit ragged, despite my having used a pretty new bit. Granted, it was a power drill bit and I was using it in my bit brace. But my brace held the bit just fine and I expected better. I chamfered the hole slightly with a countersink bit, just to take a tiny bit of the ugliness away from the hole, but still – I need to sharpen up my auger bits to see if they’ll do a better job.
I found myself really wanting this jig to look nice. But that’s silly – it’s just a jig! But I also realize that even in making jigs, we can practice the techniques that will make our actual projects turn out nicer.
Last week, I discovered The Wood Whisperer, thanks to a comment here by the whisperer himself, Marc Spagnuolo. He’s got a great web presence thing going on, with his video podcast as well as an audio podcast (Wood Talk Online) that he does with Matt Vanderlist of Matt’s Basement Workshop (also a podcast). I’ve downloaded every podcast put out by both The Wood Whisperer and Wood Talk Online, and am now playing catch-up; in the past week, I’ve listened to like 7 Wood Talk Online podcasts and have watched a handful of Wood Whisperer video podcasts!
I also just joined LumberJocks, a web community of woodworking enthusiasts. So if you’ve come to this site from there, welcome! I was shocked to receive about ten responses within an hour of me posting my profile and a little more about me over there. My profile at LumberJocks is here.
I’ve linked to The Wood Whisperer and LumberJocks over on my sidebar. Thanks for being out there on the web – people like me need sites like yours!
A couple weeks ago I talked about my workshop: a utility room in the back of the house that is about 6 1/2 feet by 8 1/2 feet. This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time in there organizing it. I still had tools wrapped in bubble wrap and newspaper, sitting idle in my plastic “please moisture, leave us alone” tub.
So I took some scraps of wood and put them to good use. A useless wooden block plane I bought a few years ago proved to be a wonderful drill bit stand, and a scrap I pulled off of a chair or something five years ago is now holding my screwdrivers. A board I practiced woodburning on is now a simple sharpening station (which will be able to mount to my bench). The various projects gave me a lot of experience using my great-grandfather’s bit brace. I also assembled (rather poorly) a bevel gauge kit I bought off of eBay a few months ago. That gave me more experience – using a hack saw, filing metal (protruding brass) and sanding the wood and brass.
With the experience, I gained more confidence. With the organization, I gained more order to my shop and more peace of mind. A couple times today, I found myself wandering over to my shop just to stand there. I didn’t do anything; I just enjoyed the room.
Next I need to sharpen a couple plane blades and then I’ll get back to planing down the bench top lumber. I’m not making very good progress – it’s hard work!
It seems that the most common lumber you can get at the local hardware stores is meranti and merbau. These are two different types, if I’m not mistaken, of the same species, Shorea. I thought that this would be what I’d be building my bench out of. Turns out that the stuff most readily available at the particular shop I went to (after checking out a few others) was kempas (scientific name koompassia malaccensis).
It’s a beautiful wood, in my opinion, and maybe this is in part due to the dark orange color and also because of its interlocked grain (which I had to look up to even know what that meant). Apparently, interlocked grain is pretty common for tropical woods. The one thing I didn’t know about was the difference between sapwood and heartwood. Only the heartwood has the nice dark orange color. The sapwood is pale and bland. I do have several boards of sapwood, and thought I had different wood altogether. Now I know. So I may have to go back and get some more heartwood, or just use the sapwood for my stretchers.
Here’s a pic of a board just as I got it from the hardware shop:
And here’s a portion of it after having been planed:
I look forward to seeing how this will look sanded down and with some oil on it!
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