Sailboat Tiller Part 3

Completed! Three coats of marine varnish. Pretty smooth, the width came out nice. I awoke thinking about making a mock handle to align the bolt holes which I did with a 2x4 first. That made for a much nicer fit. 

Sailboat Tiller Part 2

New sailboat tiller is coming along nicely. Cherry with maple stripe in the center. Shaping is coming along

Sailboat Tiller Part 1

New tiller in progress. I may learn some lessons on why these are frequently horizontally laminated but I think it's most likely for the typical curves. This is a pretty small tiller so I am doing vertical for the nice effect with a hard maple stripe down the center. Cherry sides. We will see how it holds up

Toy Box

This is another design I was inspired to attempt after looking through some catalogs. This is a toy box for my son so we can try to reduce the slow spread of toys across the room/house (fight entropy!) so... This is what we start with:

So far we have a few legs laminated ad the mortises started:

More as we go...

Boat Repairs

I am into sailing... it's a new passion, and interestingly has offered many opportunities for woodworking, more than I would have imagined :) So the new season is approaching slowly but surely as the frozen gives way to green and sunshine. (little known fact: the movie "Frozen" was filmed in central Minnesota)

So I'm now trying to start repairs on the fiberglass of my boat.  These are the pictures of the areas that need repairs:

First is the bow.  I'm sure this is mostly from poor attempts at putting my boat back on the trailer, which proved much more difficult than launching :)

This one is on the keel... again this was produced when trailering the boat at the end of the season and trying to hit the trailer.  I have already designed some trailer improvements to help guide the keel onto the trailer without banging it around so much.  I plan on adding them when the weather improves.

Finally, the keel fiberglass appears to be in a little rough shape but I'm not sure how much of this is cosmetic vs. damaging, i.e. will the fiberglass pick up water and soften or something?  I'm seeking help on this topic now so hopefully I will post the repairs as I complete them.

Laying a stone tile floor, part 3

Finally, the stone goes down: 

Next is to seal the travertine and grout the tiles. Almost done!

Side note: we somehow crashed a drill during mixing. I suspect a faulty piece of equipment but it looks like a short along the armature of the drill motor: 

Replacement or repair cost as much as the drill, so we replaced it and gave the new one back to the neighbors who loaned it to us (Doh!)

Laying a stone tile floor, part 2

The previous threshold was pretty rotten so it had to go. 

So the new one was placed with significant silicone caulking to seal it up. 

A little damage to the casing from prying out the rotten portion but will have to be fixed up when it is a little warmer. 

Te cement board:

Laying a stone tile floor, part 1

While I know this isn't woodworking per se, I did write a post once about how those skills have helped translate into other projects, so this is a callback to that sentiment. Anyways, we decided to redo the "sunroom" floor after the dog finished off the old carpet that was in there (in fairness, he really just put it out of its misery.) and it was decided that we would be laying travertine. So we ripped the carpets out and pulled up all te carpet tacking. I checked to make sure te floor was level (it was) and flat (it mostly was) and we are now dry-fitting the cement board underlayment. Now, I read many various posts about skipping the thinset mortar under the backer boards, and ultimately the final word is "don't be lazy, fool!" which is what the manufacturer says to do, too. (Hardieboard). Additionally , I'm hoping the additional layer on thinset will help offset the extremely slight crowning at the middle of the room and allow a more flat surface when screwed down. We shall see...

Small Rack

Small rack to hold dog leashes in the laundry room. This is a piece of aspen that really fished well. The dowel posts are poplar. Stain is "gunstock". 

I chamfered the edges and used a Forstner bit on the drill press with the board propped on a similar thickness board beneath it for the angle. Top coat of de-waxed shellac.  I really had no idea aspen had such a nice grain to it. 

Keyed mortise and tenon 2

After a few mistakes here and there, the keyed mortise and tenon coffee table is nearing a final state.  A few notes: maple is hard to work with, but the keyed tenon is solid as a rock as a result.  So that is nice.  I might still cut new keys as these are still a little too "angular" and they are slightly too long/high.  

I am very pleased with the table top, it will be the first project that was really properly surfaced prior to finishing.  The lamination turned out very nice as well, and the sanding makes such an immense difference in the finish of the final piece.  I think once the keys are fixed up and the top secured, we will be happy.  This was an additional test-piece prior to working on the cherry bench that was the inspiration for this piece.

Adirondack Chair

So this was my most recent project. It is interesting because this was the absolute first thing I started when I didn't know anything at all, then I took a big long break from it. Then, I came back to it after doing other projects with more skill (and more tools). Full disclosure: I used a jigsaw and sander. Now that I can go outside it is a little easier to do those things. 

Now I need to make a few more or it will be a pretty lonely seat :) it is comfortable which is nice and I think it is aesthetically pleasing as well. It is cedar with teak oil finish.

Hard Maple - they aren't kidding

Prior to making the cherry bench, I wanted to make a slightly less serious project. We need a coffee table and I like the look of the Stickley "fireside bench", so this is loosely based on that design. 

This is my first project in maple, and for the record, hard maple really earns the title of "hard". What a difference from working with poplar and pine. I think I already need to re sharpen pretty much everything I've used on it so far. 

The first photo is of the initial laminating of the top.  While I am improving in my larger lamination skills, the required trying and truing took hours of hand planing to get reasonably flat.  I don't have a true scrub plane, but I now fully understand the utility of one.  I also picked up a nice long Stanley #7 which helped immensely for the longer runs.

This is the top of the bench withe some initial dry fitting and measurements for making the keyed tenons.  I realized after fitting that I did not do a shouldered tenon, which was a mistake.  I decided to place reinforcement blocks underneath to bolster it instead of cutting a new piece; I may change my mind before final assembly.

Keyed mortise and tenon

The next project has keyed mortise and tenons, but before I ruin perfectly nice cherry pieces, I thought i should work out a few kinks. Here are the first few attempts. I'm trying to get a very slight 5 degree angle to the entry point, as the receiving mortise is a panel type leg for a bench, and has a slight tilt. I have already learned if you over tighten the key you will take a beautiful chunk out of the remaining mortise... So gentle taps only!

Poplar TV stand: 6 - Completed

Stained with Minwax "Red Mahogany", and Minwax Paste Wax.  We were going for a rustic, slightly "worn" look, which works well with my rustic, novice joinery.  The finish came out nicely.  We had read before that the poplar would take up the stain in a "blotchy" fashion, we did not use pre-finish, though we thought about it.  Looking back, it might have evened out the color, but it works nicely.  

The top being smooth-planed to reduce sanding.  We left a lot of the rough plane marks to enhance the desired appearance.   I had not accounted for the visibility of the wire-mess that emanates from my TV, so I might be adding some hideaway features shortly to hide the cables underneath.

Poplar TV Stand: 5

The bottom shelf is done. Somehow I had a bit of an issue with fitting one corner. Lesson here I think is decide on the shelf design first and dry fit instead if trying to wedge it in and size it as you go. At least I learned a little repair work as a bonus. Next: attach top, sand, stain!

Small repair in the back corner, which ended up being the front.  It fit nicely.

Gramercy Tools Holdfasts

I had seen a holdfast used many a time on The Woodwright's Shop and elsewhere, and finally saw a reasonably priced option available from Gramercy Tools. They work as advertised, and I am pleased. It is actually quite amazing how often I find myself reaching for one. As a bonus, my bench seems much more "legit" with dog holes in it ;)
We shall see where this takes us now...

Poplar TV Stand: 4

Laminating the top. Next will be the bottom shelf. I found that just gluing two at a time was far easier though I was initially tempted to try all three at once. I'm glad a went with the former.

Poplar TV Stand: 3

The frame is coming together nicely. I got a crazy idea to test my joinery skills and try a sort of dovetail style joint for the cross piece of the bottom shelf. I'm pleased to report it worked out quite nicely and provided a nice tight fit.

Roubo book stand: poplar

While in the middle of the TV stand project, I got the itch to do one of these book stands. I had a very dark leftover piece of poplar from the TV stand, and thought this would make a nice stand. So I eyeballed the dimensions and made an odd number of hinge points... I am wondering if I have a panel saw up to the task of the final splitting...

Stanley #358 mitre saw: my new chop-saw

I had driven by this a number of times in an antique shop window and finally went in to check it out. Since I am still early on in my learning woodworking I didn't really have an appreciation for some of these tools. I had seen this tool on The Woodwright's Shop. After having to make a series of cuts using a cheap plastic (and overly flexible) mitre box, I realize the incredible utility of this saw. It was well taken care of and I have had to do little other than lubricate it and it does the job well. I may contact an author of a post on his restore regarding the oft missing piece that controls the length of pieces