The Renaissance Woodworker » queen anne

RWW 94 Queen Anne Side Table Part 5: Drawer Details

Shannon — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:13:12 +0000

Here is the final episode in my unplugged attempt to turn a simple Shaker side table into a low country Southern Queen Anne version. In this episode I tackle the drawer and fit it. I did not go into detail on the ogee molding so stay tuned for a dedicated episode in the future on sticking moldings by hand as well as another episode on applying a shellac spray finish as I break in my new Earlex HVLP system.

I had a lot of fun building this piece entirely by hand and it was very satisfying to put my skills to the test this way. Now for the next project, I think I am ready to plug my thickness planer back in and probably my bandsaw too!

Enjoy!

RWW 93 Queen Anne Table Part 4, The Details

Shannon — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:15:34 +0000

I hope you haven’t been holding your breath for this episode because it took me long enough to get it out. Time to return to the Queen Anne Table and get busy with the details that really make it a Queen Anne period piece.

Enjoy the show!

The Skill Gained from Doing it “The Hard Way”

Shannon — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:16:43 +0000

The last few weeks have not been banner woodworking weeks for me. Not because of a lack of shop time…far from it. I have been furiously working to complete my Queen Anne Side Table. The less than stellar experience comes from my own mistakes. This has been a series of “nothing gone right” shop days. For those of you who watched my last podcast and raised their eyebrows at sheer board footage I went through to practice tapered turned legs you will know what I’m talking about. 12/4 stock is not cheap no matter what species you buy and considering that by the end of the build I had made 9 legs and gone through almost 24 board feet, my wallet was a wee bit lighter. Eventually when I had screwed up two of the Walnut legs I had to make the decision of whether to buy more 12/4 Walnut or glue together some thinner scraps to form the 2.5″ square legs. Obviously the cheaper method would be to laminate some new blanks but I was concerned about the appearance and lack of continuity to the over all piece. The reality however was that I just did not have the budget available to head up the Hearne Hardwoods and buy some more 12/4 stock at $9/board foot.

So I did it the hard way. There was no question that I would get the best color match doing it this way since I was essentially gluing up cutoffs from the original stock to make these 2 legs. The problem was that I only had thin strips about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick and would need anywhere from 6 to 10 laminations to make my 2.5″ square stock. This many laminations can be tough to get a good consistent grain pattern as well as add a lot of jointing and planing work (especially doing it by hand). Not to mention the difficulty of laminating so many pieces and keeping them in line so you don’t waste stock cleaning it up later.

In the end I feel I was able to get 2 good looking blanks with almost invisible glue lines. It helped that I used dark brown hide glue as well since it blended in with the Walnut very nicely. I knew that I would use these two legs at the back of the table so I wasn’t too concerned but I made sure to place the non laminated side forward when laying out for the turning. Once I have established the pommel and turned the lower portion of the leg, I stepped back to assess the look.

Laminated Leg Blank

I am really happy with this as the turning blended the different strips together and you have to look really hard to pick out the glue lines. Moreover the color is consistent and the grain all flows nicely together. So really my point here is going through this exercise reaped a lot of benefits for me: it gave me even more planing practice as I flattened each face, more glue up practice as I laminated all the blanks and kept them in line, and design practice as I worked to unify the grain and piece them together.

It would have been a lot faster to buy some new stock, but in the long run the payoff for doing it the hard way far outweighs the time difference.

RWW 88 Queen Anne Table Part 3: Turning the Cabriole Legs

Shannon — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:27:24 +0000

This episode was a trial to make. It was an example of those times in the shop when nothing goes right. However, I managed to turn out 4 legs and learned a lot along the way. What more can you ask for in a project right? Come along and learn about eccentric turning.

RWW 86 Queen Anne Side Table Part 2: The Joinery

Shannon — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:54:15 +0000

Its time to chop some mortises and cut some tenons. Once again no electrons were harmed during the filming of this podcast.

Click To Play

Episode # 85 Queen Anne Table Part 1

Shannon — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:51:41 +0000

Today I start a new project series. I’ll be posting in parallel to The Wood Whisperer Community in the Guild area as well because this is a project I am building along with my fellow Guild members. This is part of the much touted Woodworkers Fighting Cancer effort. Today I introduce my design and discuss the simplicity of the original form and how you can alter it slightly to achieve very different stylistic results. I’ll wrap up the episode with a look at stock prep the old fashioned way. Check your power tools at the door because this build is going to be done with sweat power only.

Click To Play

UPDATE:

Dana wrote me and brought to my attention a great article in Fine Woodworking by Will Neptune called “Engineering a Table with Drawers”. This is a much more detailed look at the construction methods that are common among all pieces of this form. In fact he leads out by saying “there is a Shaker table hidden in every table with drawers”. Membership to the Fine Woodworking site is required to read the full article but you can check it out here. Thanks for the tip Dana!

Hand Saws Can Maximize Stock Yield and Grain Flow

Shannon — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:27:39 +0000

I was breaking down a beautiful 12″ wide Walnut board for the Queen Anne side table I’m building for The Wood Whisperer Guild build. I got the wide board from the mill specifically for the top that will be 16 x 20. Once I removed the sap wood from both edges the 12″ board would yield about 9.5″ so I would do the top with a 2 board panel. This still leaves about half of the original 8 foot length left over to squeeze out the aprons. However the sapwood lines zig-zags about and limits my total width in a few places. If I were breaking down this stock on a table saw I would be hard pressed to maximize the yield and wouldn’t be able to get all of my aprons from this piece. I guess if I were to use a tapering jig or some way to secure the stock at an angle to the blade I could do it, but why bother when I have hand saws within reach.

Using a rip saw I was able to cut just outside the sapwood transition line that was really at an angle to the actual edge of the board. Then following a parallel line on the opposite sapwood transition I was able to remove a board wide enough to get my wide aprons and my narrower front apron pieces that go around the drawer. If I had run it across the table saw I would have lost about 2″ of heartwood stock.

This entire exercise just reminded me how much freedom you have with hand tools to work with the grain of your raw lumber. A little hand plane work and I have flat and parallel edges and now the grain is parallel to the edge of the board too for a better flow and visual effect around the table. I think I give the impression of being a hand tool purist in this blog and maybe I’m heading that direction, I do still work with my power tools. I think my point is that when I can work the wood by hand, I pay a little more attention to the grain direction and “story” that the tree is trying to tell me.

The Wood Whisperer Guild Fights Cancer

Shannon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:03:19 +0000

I have mentioned before what a valuable resource The Wood Whisperer Guild is to me. It seems that it is time to give back. Marc Spagnuolo thought it would be fun to organize a group build where all of us guildees could build a simple project and help one another out during the collective build. The chosen project is a simple Shaker side table like this one I built earlier this year.

The design is simple enough that even our most novice members can challenge themselves to build their first furniture piece. On the other end for the more advanced members the simplicity of the design allows for a lot of variation and personal embellishment. In my case I want to satisfy my Queen Anne tastes by adding a little southern 18th century charm to it and model the table after a piece in the Colonial Williamsburg collection. More on this later and I will of course share my build process. That is not what this post is about as you may have guessed by the title.

One of our number, Duane, has been fighting with pancreatic cancer for a while now. You may remember Duane from Marc’s steamer trunk build where he helped Duane build an heirloom by creating a video series. Unfortunately, Duane’s cancer is not ready to give up it’s fight and it has taken a strong hold on him lately. He is really excited about this group build but has concerns about being strong enough to complete it. Marc and Nicole, being the incredible people that they are, flew out to Ohio to visit Duane and do some one on one coaching to give Duane his head start on the project.

That was not enough and Marc has dedicated our March build to Duane and for every guild member that completes this project, Marc and Nicole are going to personally donate $5 to the American Cancer Society. In addition, being the savvy business people they are, this dynamic duo has gotten a few companies to agree to match this amount too. All of the guild members are encouraged to donate as well and we of course welcome the general public to donate. I have been in touch with Marc and he is working on getting a donation page up on his free site. I’ll let you know when that is up and link to it as well. Stay tuned, in the meantime…

Now I have recommended that everyone join the guild in the past because of the value it can bring to your woodworking, but now there is a higher calling. Why not join up, learn a lot, make some great friends, build a beautiful piece of furniture, and contribute to a great cause. I make no secret of the fact that I am an affiliate for the guild and if you click the link at the top of this page and join the guild, I will donate 100% of my affiliate fees back to the American Cancer Society for the duration of this project.

Come on, everybody’s doing it. Let me sum up by quoting our Guild master Marc in an email he sent earlier today.

This isn’t just about woodworking as a task, its about woodworking as a
lifestyle, and woodworking as a Community. I want people to be inspired
by what we are doing, and perhaps even donate to the cause themselves.

God bless you Marc and Nicole, and hang in there Duane we’re all praying for you.