Hand Made Trim

   I need to make a base next.  I used elm to create the base.  Elm has character and a miserable grain that is stringy and does not lend itself to nice case work.  I knew that but ignored myself. 

box base clamped on
 my mini bench topper.

  Since this is a no fastener project I decided to use my beading tool to add a bead on both the top and front face of my base. I could have cut slots with my router and shaped the piece a bit after the fact. 

   What did I learn? I learned that next time I will choose my wood more carefully.  The front board of the base has a knot on the edge. Were I not beading the edge it wouldn't matter as much. And if this project was for someone else, I would have had to begin again.  Since this is my box, I'll fudge the finish on the front and hide the wee problem. I also learned that I really like working with the beading tool and will use it more in the future.  (it is a bit slow, or at least I am slow using it)

 My work with the beading tool is self taught.  I scratched a shallow bead on all sides (6 beads) and then set the blade for a deeper cut and did all six slots again.  I also found that sometimes the scrapper worked better on a push cut than on the pull.

 The other thing I did but doesn't really show in the photograph was use a hand plane to created the 1/4 inch round over.  I laid it out with my marking gauge.

                                                         

and planed the corner to the marks with my block plane.

  I have to next decide and make the drawers I am thinking four. One deep, two not so deep and the top drawer very shallow. That is for tomorrow.

cheers ianw

Smooth

  When building out of wood it is good to have all surfaces smooth to the touch.  All surfaces don't have to be sanded to four hundred grit but they all need some attention, often the surface that comes off the jointer or planer is good enough for an under side of project or the inside of a box.

   In today's project the back side of the boards needed some attention because the boards I was using had been recovered from another furniture project from a couple of years ago.  The back side of the beaded boards were rough cut and had some glue residue as well.

  I had used these bead boards to make doors for cup boards in our previous family room. 

  After a bit of trimming I needed to clean up the back side of the boards.  I have every kind of sander and plane known to man and I finally decided to use 'the beast'

  

THE BEAST 

   3 by 21 inch rip snorting belt sander.  My 'beast' is at least 25 years old and doesn't get much work now days but... there are times, like today that it is just the perfect tool for the job.  I keep a 120 grit belt on the sander and use it when I want to make a whole bunch of dust in a big hurry.  The bead board was not too straight and slightly cupped with a few knots in awkward places so running it through the planer seemed like a bad idea and beginning with an orbital sander seemed too slow. ( with glue and crap on the boards, I wasn't risking a hand plane)

  

   With the belt sander, I clamped the board down and run the sander up and down the board a couple of times to clear away the rough stuff.  Then I used my random orbital sander to finish off the board.

the big clamp is a KHC Xlarge face clamp,
very handy to have around for times like this.

  After things were smoothed out I glued the pieces together to make yet another box.  This box will be sanded and painted once the glue is dry.  The design is for a box to sit on top of a low partition wall and collect car keys, cell phones and other stuff that get emptied out of ones pockets when one comes in through the door at the end of the day. 

    As follow up to the Folding Stool from last week

   

scratched bead on the leg

new seat.  12 inches square,
 my sit down was is to big for the original 10 inch seat.

 all that remains is to stain the stool and give it a couple of coats of shellac.  Photos to follow when the spirit moves to me to finish this job.

cheers, ianw  

P.S. another day of penguin weather.

scratch stock, low budget model

  Last week a video arrived in my inbox from "The Highland Woodworker", at the 15 minute point in the video it showed how to make and use a "scratch stock" I am mostly a router kind of guy but it looked easy and sort of cool, so I gave it a try,

sharpened cutting edge.

  I arrived at the shape of the holder, totally by accident, there was a piece of elm in my scrap box that size and shape.  It actually worked out well because the rounded edges fit nicer in my hand than square edges.  When you look up Scratch Stock, beading tool on the net you find that they are more complex than the one in my photo, but the principle is the same.

  I didn't have a project in process that really needed beading, but so I decided to test my tool on the folding stool that I built last week.  With almost no effort and a dead flat learning curve I was able to put a beaded profile on the stool's legs.  I did this after assembly and so the were some issues with space and clearance for the tool.  Next time I will apply all that detail before assembling the piece. ( as you would with any method)

   If you want to see the video that inspired me you can link here:

   scratch stock.  

  If you go to You Tube there are a variety of links to see other woodworkers and also reviews of some commercially available tools.

  My next plan is to make a version of the beading tool using steel from a reciprocating saw blade for the cutter.  I figure a saw blade should be both sharp and flexible enough for this use, and cheap too.

cheers ianw