Enjoy the episode and like Brian, let me know if something is on your mind that you want to learn more about. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll make up something witty and add music!

What world do these people live in? I’m pretty happy with my joinery and milling skills but regardless of the effort I put in, it always seems that my case work needs just a little encouragement towards the magic 90 degree mark. Maybe Karma is trying to tell me to design crazy asymmetrical and curving pieces where 90 degrees doesn’t exist.

Until I start to channel Maloof or Esherick I need a little help. I find the easiest way to correct a case is to insert a known right angle into the inside corners and use clamping pressure to easy the case into alignment. These angles I bought at Rockler years ago have saved my butt more than once but really any shop made angle that is sturdy or even some corner brackets from the home center will do it as long as they scribe a 90 degree angle.

So until your world lines up perfectly and all your joints fits the first time without any adjusting, this tip might make things a little easier.

So here is my case, dry fit and clamped. Before starting the feet I had routed the sliding dovetail pin groove. With the case assembled I can now get an accurate measure of how long the shelf needs to be. Let’s talk about the process and then I can explain where I was having problems. My router table hangs off my table saw. I like this arrangement because I can use the table saw fence from time to time as a fence for the router. This works great for case work because you can set the fence far away from the bit to make grooves in the center of a side like in this case. My groove runs 14.5″ up from the bottom of the side so using the table saw fence makes this job easy. So first you need to run the dovetail grooves. Make sure you do NOT touch the bit height setting that that when you cut the tails you can ensure a good fit. Then you set up a sacrificial fence and bury the bit into it exposing only the tiniest piece of the bit. You then need to run your shelf board across the bit vertically so it helps if your fence is tall to provide extra support. I always take a piece of scrap and sneak up on the fit making minuscule adjustments until I have a sound fit. With sliding dovetails you want the fit a little looser or you will kill yourself trying to get them seated properly especially once the glue has swollen the joint.

So I started on my test piece sneaking up on the fit when I realized that my tail was about 1/8″ longer than the pin groove and I would have a gap at the shoulder.

I knew I had not touched the bit setting so something else must be wrong. My first thought was that the router table wasn’t flat and maybe the top had sagged. Using a straight edge and feeler gauges I determined that the top is flat to within .002 so that is not the problem. I double checked the bit height against my groove and then is when I realized that my case board was just the slightest bit bowed (curved along the length) and must have risen up as I made the cross cutting rout. The bow was so slight that I could flatten the board with very little downward pressure and the way the case is constructed would pull everything in line so I wasn’t worried about that. That slight variation however had essentially shortened the depth of the pin groove in a few places. I had to set up again for the cross cut and making sure of solid downward pressure was able to fix the depth of the groove in that one board. Of course the way a dovetail bit cuts means that that particular groove would be slightly wider on that edge. That is not a problem because it is the back edge of the case and I usually slightly taper my tails to ease the fit. In this case I had the opposite with an every so slightly flared groove. If you do have a board that isn’t exactly flat you can either make sure it is flat or route the groove using a hand held router that will track the curves like a shorter hand plane would.

So now it was back to cutting the tails on the shelf. Using a 12″ wide board makes for plenty of registration against the fence, but you must make sure that this board is flat or risk ending up with a similar problem that I had with the groove. So I double checked the flatness and ran the tails.

As I said above, I like to slightly taper my tails to ease the fit into the case so using a shoulder plane set for a very light cut, I trimmed a 128th or so off each side of the back half of the tails. I am aiming for a fit that I can press into place without a mallet but one that is very tight right at the front to seal up any gaps on that show face. Here you can see the back of the shelf as it enters the front of the case and the slight gap created by tapering the tail.

So I set the shelf a little more than halfway in to make sure I have a good fit that will still work once glue is has swollen the joint and I stop there. Working with a soft wood like Pine means that you don’t want to spend too much time dry fitting a joint like this or it won’t be so tight anymore. One great thing about this joint is that although it takes the highest precision to fit well, it really helps to correct a lot of errors in the base by pulling all the side together and flattening out any cup or bow and this is common with cheap home center pine like this. It will be flat one moment and potato chip the next. The other thing is that properly fit, you only need glue the very front edge and the rest of the joint will allow the case side to expand and contract while keeping the all important show face nice and flush.

By the way, here are the glue blocks in place on the inside of the feet as well. This will really strengthen that miter joint nicely.

Next I will take everything apart again and start cutting rabbets for the applied integral case beading. Time to put away the power tools and pull out the rabbet plane. Now I’m going to turn up the music, turn off the dust collector and galoot out for a bit.

Now I’ll use my square to strike a line to define the front edge of the foot.

I want this front edge square for now and I will bandsaw the curve later after the glue up when I have a bracket foot. So it’s over to the table saw to cut the 45 degree miter.

Cut the bulk of the waste then creep up on the final fit

These cuts are best done by hacking off the bulk of the waste then trimming the last 1/16 or so with a light pass for a good glue surface. Or if you like, take the piece to your shooting board and clean it up there for a tight fit.

I’m about ready to glue these into bracket feet, but first I have to cut the inside profile of the foot because I won’t be able to get to it easily after the glue up.

Make sure to cut the inside profile before gluing

Now to glue them together. I bind the mitered edge with packing tape, slather on the glue, then clamp the assembly together with these great industrial strength rubber bands that I got from Rockler several years ago. They have become probably the most valuable clamp I have in the shop due to their flexibility (rim shot) with odd shapes.

Glued and Cooking

Next time I will cut the outer profile to complete the feet.

To my loyal podcast subscribers, as you can see I am getting into the shop but really no more than 20 minutes or so at a time so I have decided to blog this build rather than film it to prevent a long lag of no content at all. I hope you enjoy it and I will get the camera rolling again shortly.

Set the pattern so that the grain follows the curve of the foot

I took my bevel gauge and set the angle needed to crosscut the individual feet blanks from the larger board.

Use a bevel gauge to match the angle

Then I used that bevel setting to position my miter gauge on the table saw.

Use the miter gauge to cut out French foot blanks

Finally I have a blank cut to the exact height of the foot but allows the grain to flow along with the curve. From here I am free to miter the 45 degree corner referencing off this fresh edge. The inside edge will be cut on the bandsaw.

Now the grain will add strength to the feet

I am creating some templates for ball & claw feet as well as some trim molding for the chest of drawers I will be building next as part of The Wood Whisperer Guild summer build. I thought I would bring you all along with this process since I haven’t really found much published on it and I believe this is a skill all woodworkers should have.

Let me first say that you need not have a set of plans with a grid overlaid although that is helpful and pretty commonly available. If you only have a photograph you can add your own grid and calculate your dimensions using some known quantities. This is probably a topic for it’s own post but I just wanted to put it out there as a possibility.

In this specific case I knew I was dealing with a 1/2″ grid so I laid out a 1/2″ grid on a piece of stiff cardboard. I normally would use something like hardboard or thin ply but this is what I had on hand and it is really heavy cardboard.

Now I begin looking at the drawing and marking dots on my grid where the drawing intersect the grid. You don’t need to get hyper accurate here and I tend break each grid square down into quarters and mark the dot at the quarter or halfway point. Pay particular attention to your place on the grid and make sure you follow the drawing. By the end of this exercise you have something like this.

All that is left to do is connect the dots. I did this with a Sharpie marker so it would show up on camera better but I sketched in the lines with pencil first and shaped the curves to my liking. This is the point where you can add your own character to the design or focus on getting the reproduction just right.

Now I just need to cut out the pattern, refine it to the curve and I’m set to start shaping my blanks.

Unless of course that joint won’t close up and leaves a gap. It’s kind of like leaving the cadence off a piece of music or the punch line off a joke. It throws off the karmic balance of one’s woodshop and must be corrected before anything else is done. That sometimes includes sleeping, eating, and breathing!

So you can imagine my despair when after hand cutting a mortise and tenon, ensuring that everything was flat, square, and to size there was a 1/4″ gap at the shoulder. What’s worse, the tenon slid into the mortise with such smooth precision until it stopped firm.

This was not the slow stop that you get when the tenon is too thick and it binds. This was a thunk like the tenon was too long for the mortise. The crazy thing is the mortise is open at the top so I could look down the side and see that I had a 1/4″ gap at the bottom of the mortise. It seems as if the tenon was sporting a phantom extra 1/4″ and it was pining for it’s amputated tip.

My list of tips and tricks spun through my mind on how to close up a gappy shoulder and I checked off each one by checking the work.

1. The tenon shoulders were square and not interfering with the fit.
2. The mortise walls were flat and didn’t taper.
3. The floor of the mortise was flat and consistent depth along it’s entire length (I used the router plane to verify)

What the heck???? I even posted my dilemma on Twitter and received the expected responses from my virtual helpers. I kept going back to that “thunk” feeling when the tenon apparently bottomed out. It couldn’t be binding because it just wouldn’t stop in the joint like that. There had to be something physical stopping the joint from going together. Out came a flashlight and I began sighting into the end of the open mortise while the tenon was in the joint. Sure enough there was a sliver of wood that was popping out and preventing the tenon from closing. It was a sliver only about 1/8″ across that was anchored to the bottom of the mortise and as the tight fitting tenon pushed into the mortise, the splinter edged out only a tiny bit but acted as stop. Since the sliver was practically centered and the fit was so tight, it firmly stopped the joint from closing along the entire width.

What was amazing was once the tenon was removed the sliver practically disappeared into the wall of the mortise which was why I couldn’t find it upon initial inspection. Needless to say it was quickly and easily removed and my joint slid home with no gap at all. Fitting this joint was interesting because it forced me to work through all of the possible snags you can encounter and this serves as a handy reminder for troubleshooting in the future. Usually something like this is solved very easily once the mystery is figured out and the mask is removed from the monster to reveal that it is actually Mr. Winston who runs the old carnival.

Mystery solved by those dang meddling kids in the groovy van once again.

This episode came out longer than I had planned as I really try to keep them under 30 minutes. However, I find that oftentimes woodworking shows can be frustrating by telling you how to do something without actually showing it so I decided to keep in all of my footage of cutting the tongue and groove joints by hand. So I apologize for the 200+ MB download (even after compression) but I hope you will enjoy the show.

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This week I add the dust frame and back panel to the chest carcase and then move on to dovetailing all 5 drawers. I hope you enjoy this episode and don’t hesitate to hit me with questions or suggestions on how I can improve.

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Not sure how many parts this build will work out to but enjoy.

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Since this footage was shot I have finished the leg vise and you can see it if you look close in one of the opening photos. I’ll post that part soon, but really y’all are caught up to my progress now.

Oh yeah, let me know what you think of my new opening credits segment with episode specific shots.

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I arrived home from the office after a long day knowing that I needed to head back out in a minute to run a few errands with my wife. There was not time to really get into anything nor did I want to sit down in front of the TV knowing that the law of inertia would probably keep me there. Instead I wandered into the shop and looked around thinking I would take in the smell of wood shavings for a bit. Laying on my bench was a the parallel guide for the sliding leg vise of my Roubo. I had drilled the peg holes already and I only needed to cut the detail on the end before joining it to the mortise on the chop.

Such a simple task to saw two miters and clean them up but one that would enfold me in such a feeling a contentment and excited peace.

A quick whack of the mallet upon the hold fast cemented the guide to the front of the bench at an angle, presenting the miter cut in a vertical aspect. Pinch the work and press the shiny saw plate to my fingers. Lift the weight of the saw off the wood and push lightly forward to start the cut. Release the weight of the saw while releasing my unconsciously held breath and the saw begins to cut eagerly. With each stroke I relax my grip on the saw further and the tension of the day eases from my neck and shoulders. The waste of the miter falls away and I take a moment to bask in the glory of a finely sharpened saw and the fine ribbons of wood created with a rip cut saw.

Whack, and the hold fast releases it’s grip on the Ash. I move the piece to the bench top and set it atop another scrap of wood, positioning the freshly sawn edge so that it slightly overhangs the scrap. Turning my block plane on it’s side, I begin to shoot the edge and within a few strokes I have a polished, flat edge that gleams like only planed end grain can do.

My work is done, but not yet prepared to release myself from my meditation, I lean the block plane over towards the work piece and begin to chamfer the mitered edge to give it a little more style. I revel in the minuscule adjustments needed to create an even chamfer on all three sides at the end of the guide and watch the light bouncing off the faceted face until the angles match all the way around.

My wife’s voice breaks my reverie, it is time to go. I put down my block plane and walk away from the bench, not sad to go, but satisfied with work well done. I look over my shoulder one last time before I switch off the lights and smile. “See you next time” I say and walk out refreshed and ready to face whatever comes my way.

Enjoy!

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Make sure you check out Chuck’s blog for complete instructions on how to make your own set of Bender inlay tools.

Finally, a few points on Sulfur inlay that I forgot to mention in the podcast. When cutting the recess for the Sulfur, you should undercut and create a kind of dovetail effect to lock in the material. Once the Sulfur is cool and scraped clean, it should be painted with Shellac to seal it in and protect the color before applying your finish of choice.

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This is a great question from Dirk in Oklahoma…

Shannon,

First, thanks for all the information you so freely pass along to your readers. I have read/ watched your use of jointer planes. I have a Stanely #7 and when I use it to joint an edge the edge rarely comes out square to the board face, it usually cut at a tilt even if I focus on keeping the plane level and square to the board face. Do I need to grind a curve on my iron? Thanks for you time and advice.

Dirk

Here is what I had to say on the topic. A bit verbose but I think I covered it.

Dirk,

This is a good question and an issue that I deal with a lot too. I think a lot of people will benefit from this so I am going to put up a blog on it and probably do a quick audioboo on the topic too.

No matter how hard we try inevitably the board will tilt because we tend to favor a hand unless you are truly ambidextrous. The easy answer is you need to check your board often with a square and assess from there to determine where you need to be putting pressure on the board. Putting a camber in your blade is a great way to level an edge quickly because you don’t worry about where you are putting your weight or tilting the plane. The curve will naturally take a heavier shaving from the middle of the blade so align the middle of the blade where you need to take the most wood off. I do recommend this on your jointer plane but don’t get carried away with the camber. It only needs to be slight. If you have a plane with a heavier camber like a scrub or fore plane you can quickly level the edge and then hit it with your jointer too.

I am a firm believer in learning to do things multiple ways so you have another trick up your sleeve. What if you are squaring an edge on a shorter board and it doesn’t make sense to use a long jointer? You may not want a camber on all your blades or may not want to deal with the extra sharpening effort involved so you should know how to square an edge without the camber technique. Do not tilt the plane ever, you will never get it right on and the chance of changing the angle mid way through the stroke is very high. Place the plane flat on the edge and lean your weight towards the high side. You will actually see that the plane is taking a heavier shaving on that side. This is what I learned at Chuck Bender’s shop and it works great and there is no need to camber your blade. It is very subtle and I’ll give you an example. I am left handed so I push with my left hand on the tote. I will set my plane on the board with right hand on the knob and ready to plane. If the high side of my board is to the left I will take my left hand and slightly twist it to the left throughout the stroke. This is all that is needed to take that heavier shaving and level the board.

I would advise practicing this and you will be amazed at how quickly and accurately you can bring an edge square and there is no balancing act or need to move the plane side to side. This has become my technique of choice now and I actually sharpen by jointer straight across now. The only planes I have with camber are my scrub and fore planes for rough work and a smoother. Although the smoother is so slight that you could just say that I broke the corners to prevent plane tracks.

What are your thoughts? Any other techniques that work out there?

Here are my thoughts from the road.

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Chuck has a great shop next to his house in an old barn. While he has some plans on the drawing board to expand he already has quite a bit of space. Here is a shot across his machine room. Check out the massive planer in the foreground.

Here is the infamous “aircraft carrier” jointer. This things takes more than 5 minutes just to wind down when you turn it off!

Here is the bench room.

To illustrate the simplicity philosophy that Chuck endorses here is a shot of his sharpening jig that he uses for hollow grinding an edge.

And here it is in action while he teaches a student how to grind an edge. Chuck lines up the bevel angle by eye and then drops the stick down to the floor where he plants his foot and holds the jig in place.

Many will shout and decry this method as inaccurate for bevel angles and the slight arc you may get to the edge by pivoting off a central point but all I can say is, look at Chuck’s body of work and ask yourself if he needs to be more accurate with his sharpening.

More to come on the second part of the class.

Posted via web from renaissanceww’s posterous

Enjoy the show!

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Now let’s see how many people I alienate by admitting that I cut my dovetails pins first…

Enjoy the show!

By the way, special thanks to Chuck Bender for showing me the dovetail light!

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Anyway, on with the show.

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What I found striking about this video is that the whole thing is filmed in real time. Rob actually cuts the joint right in front of you and it doesn’t fit perfectly right off the saw. He goes through painstaking detail to refine the fit using several techniques to end up with an incredible fit. I was especially interested in his use of a skew rabbet plane to trim the face of the tenon cheeks to fit. His layout technique is simple and clear and I walked away from this video with an excellent idea of how I could apply it to my own work.

The second DVD ups the ante and Rob cuts a through wedged tenon. This joint has no room for error on the face side and using the same techniques, he cuts the entire joint in real time. The finishing touch is Rob’s simple layout of the wedges and installation.

I definately enjoyed every minute of this series and if nothing else there was some gratuitous Lie Nielsen tools on display throughout with lots of wispy shavings floating on the breeze!

And for those of you out there screaming at me, “get to work on that bench”, I’ll have you know that this was studying woodworking techniques and it is work. Besides, I put it on the shop TV and sat on my benchtop to watch it so technically I was working on my bench, literally!

Check out the link below to this video series.

Rob Cosman Woodworking Series

This episode is for you Rick!

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Other excellent sources for this technique are the videos:

Coarse, Medium, and Fine by Chris Schwarz
Rough to Ready by Rob Cosman

Also be sure to check out Mack’s latest Way of the Galoot podcast, episode 16 where he addresses this same topic in response to the Twitter conversation. As of the time of this publishing, Mack had not put up the blog to go along with the episode but you can find it on iTunes or Blip.tv.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode when I take a straight edge plane blade and grind a curve and hone it for use in a Fore or Scrub plane.

The blog of the week is Fresh Shaving run my Muddler Mike at http://freshshavings.blogspot.com Don’t forget to get your entries in for next week’s pen giveaway sponsored by Penn State Industries.

As always send me an email if you have any questions at shannon@rogersfinewoodworking.com or leave a comment here on the blog.

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http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/item/5453/carve-a-rosette-1-2-3