Best selling wood projects - Building a Rosewood Hall Table Part 1

Best selling wood projects

The ukulele is progressing, but has gone on the back burner while this commission is completed.

Preparing Stock 

For this hall table I will use some very old Australian Rosewood.
It was felled over twenty years ago and has sat around all that time waiting to be turned into something beautiful.
Hope I do it justice.

 

The exterior of the rosewood has deteriorated but the timber underneath is quite lovely.

The bandsaw makes short work of ripping down to size.
Here I am cutting the legs.

Note the push stick on the right for assisting with the feeding when using the fence on the bandsaw.
Saves losing fingers if things slip up.

Here is the slab that will become the top of the table.

Already some interesting grain is evident and this will need to be watched to prevent tearout when working with tools.

There is a natural edge to this slab which I will preserve as the leading edge of the table top.
It is weather beaten and grungy, so it will need refining when the time comes.

In its present shape this slab is too long and will be trimmed to size, being careful to remove as much cracking and checking (see far end)   as possible.

Next step will be to mill the legs.  These will be square in section at first but will be tapered later.

The four legs are all 45mm square to begin with.

First step will be to cut these to length.

Before tapering, the mortices that will house the rails will be cut.  It is much easier to do this with square stock than with tapered stock.

Also, the rails need to be housed in mortices that are square to the rail ends.

The grain in the legs is not straight, and has a distinct sloping attitude to it.  I will use this to advantage when it comes time to taper the legs.  The tapers will follow the grain.

Next step is to cut out the front and back rails as well as the side rails.

These will be the same width and thickness.

Here I have cut more rails than I need.

there is some checking towards the ends of the individual timbers and the grain varies with the timbers used.

There is also some significant sapwood that shows some signs of  insect larval damage.

I want to use the sapwood in the design if possible, but will carefully remove any damaged sections first.

The rails need truing and the bandsaw marks need removing from the edges and faces.
Here I am using a Stanley Number 31 transitional plane as my jointer.

The edges are checked for square against a strong light.  As you can see, this edge still needs work.

The Legs

Once the legs have had their mortices cut - I use a router for this - then the legs can be tapered.
A rough taper is cut on two faces of each leg on the bandsaw.

The legs are then smoothed using the Stanley jointer once more.

Once smooth, the edges need to be dressed to prevent splintering and the base of each leg chamfered.

This chamfer stops the bottom of the leg splintering, and also creates a shadow line under the foot - adding a little elegance.

In the next part, I will dress the table top and gather all of the parts before final assembly.
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Best selling wood projects - Building a Ukulele Part 1 Timber Selection Layout

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My first Ukulele - here goes ..................

Ive been ruminating on this for weeks now, and its time to make a start.  After much research, and not a little searching for appropriate timber, Im actually in the starting blocks and ready to go.

Since this is my first Uke, I am going to treat the whole build as a learning experience.  Join with me and watch the progress and the mistakes as we travel this luthiered road together.


Timber Selection

I have acquired some very nice timber for the project(s) but have decided to keep the better pieces for later builds, in case I stuff up badly on the first attempt. 
Some tonewoods that I have acquired for the tops and the body includes:

• Huon Pine
• King Billy Pine
• Tasmanian Myrtle
• Tasmanian Blackwood
• Black Heart Sassafras

Heres what Im going to be using this time around:

The soundboard will be western red cedar.  These pieces have been ripped down from some ship-lap boards from my brother in laws kitchen - left over after his recent renovation.  They are very old and nicely quarter sawn.

The fretboard, headstock and bridge will be made of Australian rosewood.  As this is my first ukulele, I am bound to make some mistakes in the build.  Better to do that with less exotic timbers, and save the good stuff for later ukeuleles.

Just to refresh your memory on uke nomenclature here is a quick revision:

The back and sides will be ripped from some figured sassafras, and the neck will be made up of some laminated straight grained sassafras as well.

The linings will be made from paulonia - because I found a piece in the woodpile - and it is light and should prove quite satisfactory.

Making The Linings

Linings are the curved strips that adhere to the sides and assist the gluing of the soundboard and the back of the ukulele.  These can be purchased from music suppliers, but I decided to make my own.

Ill use the table saw, and this is what I will end up with before cutting into strips:

To get to this point, I made up a little jig which is screwed to the mitre gauge.  It is simply a pin hammered into the face of the mitre gauge - 5mm from the cut line.

The cuts are made in the surface of the piece of paulonia so that they leave about 1/8 of the thickness remaining.  These multiple kerfs allow the linings to be bent, to follow the curves of the sides of the ukulele.

After each cut, the kerf that has just been made is placed over the pin, and the cut repeated 5mm away.  This continues until the board is mostly kerfed.  There will be a small amount at the end that wont be done, as it is too small to be supported by the mitre gauge - and too dangerous to attempt without it.

Once the kerfing is complete, I cut this kerfed board into thin strips on my bandsaw.

Here are the finished linings:

The linings are easy to bend, and will be put aside until the body assembly stage of construction.

Next step will be to rip the pieces of sassafras for the sides and back.  That will have to wait until next time.

This is going to be fun ...... cant wait ........

...... and happy woodworking to all ....................
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Best selling wood projects - Fixing Your Mistakes How to Repair an Unwanted Mortice

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It happens to everyone sooner or later - that moment of lapsed concentration or simple tiredness that results in a seeming catastrophe.
We should listen to our bodies more - when the body is saying enough - and we decide that we will do just that little bit more - we create the circumstances for errors to occur.

Happened to me a few days ago at the end of the day (of course - haha)
I had cut the legs for a hall table, and had decided that it wouldnt take long to cut the mortices before I finished for the day.

The first three legs went swimmingly.  It was the final leg that ended with the same number of mortices as the other three - only one of them was on the wrong face of the leg.
That sinking feeling started when I realised that I did not have any more thick stock to make a replacement leg.
What to do?

1. Put it down
2. Turn off the power
3. Close the workshop for the day
4. Make a cup of tea and just sit a while

By the next day I had figured a solution and decided to document it for anyone else caught like I was.
First step was to cut the mortice where it should have been the first time.
Secondly - make a matching infill piece to hide that errant mortice.

Here is the offending leg with one too many mortices.
The correct mortice was cut while the leg is still square.  Now to fix the extra one.

First step is to find some matching timber.  Here I have an offcut from the current project.
The timber is silky oak.

Of course, being an offcut, it is a little rough around the edges - so some truing with my 5-1/2 plane is called for.

I am going to make a fill piece that will hopefully not be noticed too much when finished.

I am cutting this over-sized as I want to taper the plug for a tight fit.

I start by using my plane (Lie Neilsen 5-1/2 in this case) and slope one side of the tapered plug.

Next, I cut the other side at a similar taper using a rip saw - this is an Atkins.

More planing after the cut is made - and here is the tapered plug

Trial fit........

The end is rounded following the circle drawn with a pair of compasses.
Note that the circular end is also tapered.

Looks pretty snug .......

Glue-up and clamp overnight.
Trim to size and plane back flush with the surface.

Here is another shot with the colour subdued.

Bobs your uncle!
And here is the finished table awaiting lacquer:

My workshop is sooooo dusty and shavings-covered, that the lacquering will take place on the back verandah - when the wind stops (haha)

Happy shavings to all
Tom

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Best selling wood projects - Restoring A Gateleg Table Part 1

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This particular table was a ruin when I got it.  Broken and in pieces.
It sat in a corner of the shed waiting for me to move it up my priority list.

When I finally got around to it, I thought to do a little research on its design origins.
 The design is very old - 330 years at least.

Here is one remarkably similar, dating from around 1680.

It is oval in shape with spiral legs.  The only differences are that the spirals are restricted to the legs alone, and do not include spiral cross bracing at the bottom as this one does.

The bracing on mine is plain, but the other similarities are uncannily the same.  This one - a Charles II gateleg table - is made from walnut, while mine is made from oak, English Oak I think.

Somehow I dont think that mine will fetch the same auction price that this one reached - 6,250 English pounds at Christies of London!


In its previous life mine probably looked like this next one - a stained oaken build, with near identical features.

Unfortunately the top had been used as a depository for coffee cups and wet glasses and bottles. It looked like several episodes of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey.

Add to that - the scratches and general wear and tear of daily life, and the poor old thing was showing signs of distress.

The oak has been stained with the same type of varnish as this.  Because of the damage to the top, a complete sand back was necessary.

Like the timbers in this table top, the boards used in the tops construction were not bookmatched - indeed, not matched in any way at all that I could see.  Apart from the fact that they are all oak, they have little in common.  Edge joins were proud of each other and badly aligned.

So ......... where to start.  All of the joints that werent broken were loose.  Since they are all dowel joints, they come apart fairly easily with a soft faced dead-blow hammer.

Having successfully separated the pieces, and carefully labelled them for re-assembly, it was time to start from the inside out.
So the gatelegs were attacked first.  Each had to be extracted from its frame, and then disassembled.  The joints were cleaned, and all old glue scraped or shaved away with a sharp chisel.

When re-glued, it is important to check for square.  The two interior diagonals are measured with a pair of sticks, and if not the same, are adjusted by wracking with a long clamp - as shown here.

Only after the gateleg has dried, can it be inserted into the frame created by the two legs, and the upper and lower rails.  The gateleg is held in place by a pair of dowels that allow it to pivot as a hinge.

A trial fit shows that there is no binding along the top and bottom rails, and the gate swings freely.

The whole frame is then re-assembled with attention once again to square.

Clamps this time have to be much longer, and mine only just fill the bill.  I take care to use packing so that the jaws dont damage the surface of the oak legs.  Glue and leave to set overnight.

These steps have to be repeated for both sets of gatelegs and their corresponding frames.  Once both are done, the top and bottom side rails can be attached to form the table base.  Ill do this next time in part 2.

May your problems be enough to challenge you so that you may grow in the solving ...............

.............. and may your cup of joy flow over.
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Best selling wood projects - A Simple Utility Tray Project Part 3

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 Whod a thought  -  a tray in three parts!
My kids are always commenting on how long it takes me to do things .... now I know what they mean.
OK here we go.

I have decided to prepare the boards for the bottom of the tray so that they snug into each other with a ship-lap joint. This will eliminate gaps in the timber. The  boards could just as easily been edge joined, but I prefer this.

Any rebate plane with a fence will do.  This is a Stanley 289 with a skewed blade.

The side boards need some dressing as well.  To round over the top edge of these two boards, I am using an old wooden beading plane. Easy as pie to use, and gets the job done in super quick time as well.

These old planes can be found around the markets very cheaply - most people prefer to use an electric router these days.  Beaders like these have the advantage of being carbon neutral, and cordless!  Furthermore, there is no noise and no dust.

They work best in softwoods, and this oregon is a piece of cake to work.   The rounded edge is technically a nosing, but the beading plane does the job well enough.
See:

Fixing the bottom in place requires a bit of trial and error fitting, until the boards are just right all the way around.

Once happy with the fitting, they can be trimmed to size and laid out for nailing.

I left the middle two in place, and scribed a line to mark where they touched the bottom of the sides .  Important step this - as you cant see through the timber.

Put the two outside timbers back, and continue the line onto them as well.

The nails are flat headed and these have been bronzed.  Makes them look back-counrty authentic, and in keeping with the style of the tray.

All of the joints are glued as well as nailed.

The ship-lap of the base is clearly visible here.

Make a feature of the row of nails that hold the handle in place at each end.

And - here it is.

One utility tray.

Might be a little large for the kitchen, but would not look out of place collecting vegetables from the garden.

It can also be used in the potting shed, in the workshop as a tool tote - ala Roy Underhill, or even as a toy tray for kids or the family pet.  Great for soft toys or lego blocks.

If youd like to make one of these, go right ahead.  Add to it, or change it to suit yourself, and have fun doing it.

Happy woodworking to all ....
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