Table and Chairs - Restoration

  My sister in law told me that she had a table and chairs that came from her husband's family and she had always intended to fix them up for their use.   For twenty years or so she had intended this, I volunteered to make this long held dream a reality.

  This what I have with which to work:

 a fruit box of parts.  By the way the table and chairs are for kids.  I like kids and that is why I volunteered for the project.  In this box are nearly all the parts for the table and two chairs  no legs.

  I gathered the pieces together.  One wing of the top was badly split, I took it apart and re-glued it first then I took the hardware and wire brushed the rust off and painted it.

  This table and chairs are so old that they are constructed  just like adult furniture.  The legs are held on by corner brackets into which the legs bolt.

  One of the legs did not have the bolt in place, it had rusted away with time.

  I drilled the leg, threaded the hole (1/4-20) and drove the piece of threaded stock into the hole with glue.  It is as good as new as far as anyone can tell.  Doing this stage of the repairs called to service a set of tools that came from my Grandfather's  workshop, which I have never used before, these tools have traveled around in the bottom of my metal tool box for at least twenty five years. I kept the tools because they were my Dad's, Dad's and for no other real reason.

    As a kid I remember my Grandfather using this tap set a couple of times and in high school shop class I drilled and taped something as an assignment but had not used these tools before.  I have drilled and taped wood for nut crackers in the past, same principle. So I drilled the leg and then taped the hole so the threaded rod would have good grip. As a diversion while glue dried I took the time to remove the many years of rust and neglect from the handles. That tap and die set was made my Ace ? and is at least 60 years old. Good tools last, buy good tools.

  

table complete,

  as far as I am taking it anyway.  My sister-in-law can paint it to her personal taste.  There are really too many filled spots to make this a nice piece to be stained I feel. I think it is made from poplar or some other semi-hard, white wood.  There is an underlying green tint that makes me think poplar.  And with new replacement hinges the wings go down just like kitchen tables did when we were kids. 

  The next step is to turn eight legs for the chairs.  Turning matching items has not been successful in the past.  I need to study on the design and make a plan and a template.  Luckily the legs are only about ten inches long so failure won't waste much wood.

  Legs.....next week.

  

Sanding and Drilling and Tapping, Oh My.

  The sanding story is nearly always a cutting board story in my shop.  Everyone I know needs a cutting board and I like making them. 

 These boards are oak, sanded to 400 grit and finished with Hemp Oil.  I like Hemp Oil as it is natural, food safe and grown locally.  As with any cutting board these will need to be re-oiled over time.  In a busy kitchen a wooden board can be re-oiled with just about any cooking oil since it will not have time to go rancid before it needs to be renewed.   Maple makes a very nice cutting board too, I just don't have a ready supply of maple handy.

  The other project was another nut cracker. 

  This version got sort of antiqued finish.  No, I don't really like it and no I won't do it again.

  This is one of the few things I make in my shop that  requires special tools and doesn't have a variety of ways to be made.

  I use a big forstner bit to drill the vertical hole.  I mean big.  In this case 1 3/8 inch big.  To drill the hole I hold the wood in a large wooden hand screw, which I clamp to the drill press table.  If everything goes well, you could hold the wood with your hand.  If things don't go well...well.  Just clamp things down when drilling a really big hole.

  The horizontal hole is another story altogether.  I drill that hole with my brace and bit. I threaded a one inch dowel and so needed a 7/8 inch hole in the side of the piece.  I prefer to use the hand drill because it is really slow and there is less chance of break out or splitting.

   Once the hole is drilled I use the tap which matches the threaded dowel and slowly tap the hole in the side.

  I have used this tap and die set several times over the last couple of years and here are a couple of tips for threading and tapping wood.

  -soft wood is easier, so if you can get away with poplar or pine, this latest nut cracker is cedar, use it.

- soak the dowel for a couple of days in food safe oil, the threads will cut better, not perfect, but better.  If you have the time and have planned ahead turn your own dowels from quality wood with straight grain but still oil it.

- when tapping the hole, oil it and the tap too. Dry wood is more likely to splinter. A dry tap more likely to stick.

-go slow, threading and tapping wood takes time.

- clean up and oil the tap and die box when done so it will be perfect when you come to use it again in ten months.

 

  This is one tool  for which there is not a work around.  There are multiple ways to cut, drill, shape, plane, fasten and finish,  only one way to cut threads and tap wood.

  It is January 11th and we have no snow.  That is a good thing.

cheers ianw

Stereo Stand in Action, and another prototype

  I know it seems as though I never actually get anything built here is a photograph of the stereo stand I built early in January.  As you can see the stand was made to fit that space exactly and rather than try and match stain colours the owner painted it black.

 Here is the stand sitting on my bench before heading off to its new home. On January 10th I talked a bit about making this unit. Pieces of furniture this size are a challenge in my shop space.  I have all the tools, but have given away much of my working space to accommodate the tools. As my bigger machines wear out I will seriously look at alternatives like a track saw to replace tools like my table saw and sliding mitre saw. 

  Most everyone recognizes a pant hanger like this, and some of you even remember when they worked well and you didn't have to pick you dress pants up from the floor on a regular basis.

  
 Make no mistake, I am not a fancy Dan who wears special party clothes all the time but I do have some  nice pants that get worn to church and funerals etc and the new pant hangers are CRAP.  

  The spring mechanism is too weak to hold the pants, or the wood falls off or the little crap plastic thing breaks and....my pants are on the floor.

 As a wood worker I decided it was time to address this problem.

  This is the very rough prototype.  I used my dowel threading kit to make wooden nuts and bolts so that I can fasten the pant legs firmly in the hanger.  This version is designed to hold nice light weight dress pants, or...heavy chinos without either falling to the floor.

 I know that this will be a bit fussy to put my pants into, but having it work first time, every time is worth a bit of fussing.

  I have yet to decide what to do about the hanger part, I am going bend my own hooks from heavy wire probably.

  If you want to thread dowel I suggest that you use high quality hardwood dowel, maple has worked well and soak the dowel in something like tung or linseed oil or to make sure the fibres are fully swollen before you cut the threads. When I tapped the nuts I put oil on the tap just like I would if I were taping metal. 

 I'll keep you posted on the success of this prototype.

cheers, ianw