Perpetuating Woodworking – Community Project

Posted on April 29, 2013 by samcappo

16 June Update:

Its been a few days since I have made a post – but I have been working! The chest is nearly complete. I was able to get the primer coat on today and build the shipping crate. I am not happy with the shipping crate, so I plan on modifying it just a bit. Other than that – two coats of paint, reinstall the hinges, install the handles and we are done. I hope to have it on a truck this week for delivery next week.

We are getting very close – I am getting excited.

Thanks again.

05 June Update:

Hi everyone. The tool list is rounding out famously. Only a few things to go. I am really feeling the pressure – I am getting real close to having only one person to blame for the project not being complete (that would be me). My plan is to finish construction this weekend. I was able to the chest body cleaned up tonight – just have to build and install the top. Painting shortly after that.

Below is a picture of two beautiful squares that were made by Aaron Moore. Aaron is part of the duo that runs Walke Moore Tools. He also donated the two small clamps, that he also sells. These little clamps are very neat. The site also has an interesting blog worth giving a look too. Thanks for building the square for us Aaron!

02 June Update:

I was able to get a bit of work in on the tool chest done this evening. the front panel is complete and the top is in clamps waiting for glue to dry. I still need to clean up the outside, build / install the top, and of course paint. Since there were so many different panels going on to the outside at different times I left the outside “rough.” I cleaned up the inside as my reference face and then took a few quick passes with the smoothing plane. Once the edges were jointed I was happy to start with the joinery. I am hoping this theory works out. It was derived to save a bit of time.

I was a bit surprised how easy the front locking system went in. I was assuming this was going to take quite a bit of fiddling. It didn’t.

I am a bit nervous about the breadboard ends. I have never done this before, but there is a first time for everything.

Chris also sent me a note that the bench is on it’s way to my house. The project is coming together nicely.

Tool list update (only a few more items to go):

Thanks again everyone!

28 May Update:

I was able to get some work done on the chest this weekend but not enough. Here are a few progress pictures.

The tongue and groove was fun to make – it was the first time I have done this. You can see my bevel gauge – I have left the angle locked since the first cut. I refuse to unlock it until the chest is done.

I also learned something about screwing on the bottom lip. Don’t put a screw directly in the middle – the wooden latch goes through there. Whoops. I have an idea on how to fix it.

The 8 lb load test went well!

22 May Update:

Thanks again everyone – Tool List Update:

21 May Update:

Tool list update and a better photograph.

20 May Update:

Here is a quick update. I was able to get the chest glued up this afternoon. Here is a quick (and terrible mobile phone) picture. I will get a better one up soon. I still need to order some chest lift, all of the other hardware has arrived. I will also need to get some paint. We may need a vote on paint color. We are still on track for an early June ship out.

I also updated the tool list and ordered the last few unclaimed items. I have highlighted the items I have received in yellow.

Thanks again for helping!

12 May Update:

Fail. I failed to complete my goal for the weekend. I don’t think it will prevent me from finishing the build by early June though. My excuse – I had to go into work today. I don’t really like excuses though – I still didn’t finish. I did get to talk to my mom - so that was a success.

I am not sure why “they” call lumber S4S. While it may be surfaced – it is necessarily ready for anything. A few quick swipes from the No. 7, No. 2, & No. 51 and it was ready to go. I have never dovetailed cypress before but I know it is on the softer side – so I was a little more aggressive on my sawing.

There are still a few tools left to be picked up on the list if anyone else is interested.

Ethan – whose is donating the No.4 has posted some informations about his refurb. Interesting posts - http://thekiltedwoodworker.com/

For the tool donors – I sent an email about shipping – if you didn’t see it please post a comment or send me an email.

Here are a few progress pictures:

I do have to admit – I used my Festool track saw to cut the top bevel. Don’t tell anyone.

10 May Update:

Nearly all of the items on the list are accounted for. I should have the last few taken care of the first part of next week. The goals for the weekend are: dovetail the carcass, cut the 30° bevel on the top, and install the shelf. Pictures of the chest state should be up no later than Monday night. If I move fast enough I hope to have the back prepped for install and the panels glued up.

I have also ordered the hinges and screws for the project. I will post pics when they get here.

For all of those that are donating I have sent out an email with my shipping address and few instructions. If you are donating and did not receive the email please let me know.

I believe we are still on schedule for an early June ship out date.

Thanks again.

04 May Update:

The list is almost complete. There are only a few items remaining. Thanks again to all those who have donated. For the last few items on the last I have been in contact with Patrick Leach who runs the wonderful supertool.com. I should be able to round out the remaining items with Patrick’s help.

I also ran to the lumber yard today to pick up the lumber for the chest. I was able to pick up some 1 x 12 S4S cypress to make the chest out of. I choose it because – it is local, it is not extremely heavy, it is wide enough so that I only have to glue up 3 panels, and it looks nice. I cut all the pieces to rough size – I am going to give it a week to acclimate to the house before I start building the chest. I do need to order a couple of hinges and some nice screws. We are well on the way – I think everything should be complete by the beginning of June.

Thanks again.

01 May Update – 2300 hrs.

This is still going great. I am still amazed at the generosity.

I have learned a couple of things so far: 1) there is an absolutely mind boggling number of coping saws out there that people are willing to donate and 2) I drastically underestimated the communications side of this project.

For all of those that are on the list, my plan is to send out a group email with my shipping address when we get the list finalized. I am trying to make this as simple as possible – I don’t want to over engineer it. (What engineers like me typically do)

30 April Update – 2130 hrs

Wow – I now am feeling the pressure to get the tool chest built – It appears that I am the only one holding up this process. I hope to get started prepping stock this weekend.

I would like to thank all of you that have chosen to participate. I have updated the list below to show what has been donated to date. (Mr. Szczpepanski screwed up my spreadsheet because he has just too many consonants in his name)

I didn’t think about it previously but a very hard part of this has been telling people no. More people than this list reflects have offered to participate…but someone beat them to the punch on the item they wished to donate. To those of you that I had to decline, I do apologize. Maybe we can do this again one day!

Original Post (29 April):

I like to do nice things for people and I hope you do as well.

When I first started this blog I wrote a post about perpetuating woodworking. The idea behind this post was that we should consider purchasing tools solely to donate them.

Well, that is not good enough for me anymore.

Not too long ago my feeble mind began churning this subject over again. How do I get more people building? Then it came to me – build a tool chest, fill it with tools, and a portable bench – then give it away to an eager student, without the resources to obtain their own tools. The goal is to provide someone with a basic set of tools so they can start building anywhere – immediately.

But where does the community project come into play, you ask? Just wait, I am about to ask for your help.

I don’t think I could do this on my own in a reasonable amount of time, so I figured I could reach out to fellow woodworkers. I started by creating a list of tools, with help, and a guess at the cost if they were to be purchased. This was to give me a rough estimate of what a project like this would cost.

I assume many woodworkers out there are much like me – we have more tools than we need. I think we can cull our sets to help another get started. Giving someone a tool also seems much more personal. Once someone gave me a LN No.2 – gave it to me! – each time I use that tool it seems different than all of my other tools. I want others to have that feeling. So my request is this – if you have something on the list that you would like to donate please do. For those who do not have something on the list and would like to purchase something for the tool chest that would be wonderful as well. Lastly, for those who don’t fall into the two previous categories – I do need some shop made tools. I would really like help here to see this project through.

I do have a request – I need tools that are ready to go when the final recipient receives them. I need you to send over sharp and true tools. I could buy and refurbish vintage tools but then this project would drag on until 2025.

Another question – what am I doing? I will be building the tool chest. I will be building the small version of the Dutch tool chest as described by Mr. Christopher Schwarz.

I have also been in contact with Mr. Christopher Schwarz about the milkman’s bench and because I didn’t have a clue about how to get this project off the ground. He said he would happily donate an extra bench and a heap of Lost Art Press books and DVDs – Thanks Heaps, Chris!!! Milkman’s bench in action.

Now the hard part – how do I give this thing away? Many ideas have surfaced including a raffle, essay contest, nomination by others, etc….. I have settled on nomination by others, and a very deserving aspiring woodworker has been chosen. I can’t speak too much about this person because they may be able to piece it together and I want it to be a surprise. A friend has suggested someone – you will just have to trust me, and I him, as I have never met this person before.

So where do we go from here? I will keep posting about the progress in both tool chest construction and tools that are in the kit. The goal is to have the chest out the door by 01 July.

One more thing – I could use some help spreading the word. If possible could you re-blog this?

Please email me or post a comment if you would like to join in this project and donate something. samcappo@gmail.com. If you would like to donate anonymously please let me know.

Thanks so much – I think we are going to make someone very happy in the near future.

Here is the list we are trying to compete.

photos courtesy of Lost Art Press.

Moulding Planes – Rounding Out A Hollow In My Skill Set!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by samcappo

I do apologize about the title. I couldn’t resist.

Recently my tool collection expanded. I added a set of No.4 and No. 6 hollows and rounds and a wooden rabbet plane. I have no experience with moulding planes but they seemed like a fun way to change up some of my work. These planes were made by Philly Planes. I ordered them in mid December and they showed up just a few days ago. Ordering was a breeze, a few email exchanges and the order was placed. The fit and finish of the planes is nice and they worked straight out of the box.

I really don’t have any specific project lined up for these planes but I figured that learning how to use wooden moulding planes would be fun and would probably come in useful at some point in time.

When they showed up I couldn’t resist trying to create a profile. The result is shown in the photographs below. One of the things I noticed was that the wooden rabbet plane is quite easy to use. I used a marking gauge to strike a deep line and then tipped the plane and ran the cutter down the gauge line. This small trench guides the plane until it can register against the side of the rabbet. After that the only thing you have to do is push. A strange thing here was that I found the simple wooden rabbet plane much easier to use and much less intimidating than my metal moving fillister. I still struggle with the metal plane. After 4 rabbets with the wooden plane my confidence in the tool was already running high. I find it strange that at times advancement is not necessarily improvement.

I still have much to learn on how to use the planes but it should be fun learning it. I am a bit nervous about having to sharpen the H&Rs!

Any tips out there for getting started with moulding planes?

The shop foreman is always keeping a watchful eye on the hands.

Tip – Easy Stud Finder

Posted on April 11, 2013 by samcappo

Just a quick tip. I am not sure where I saw this but it works.

When installing baseboards I nail them to the studs in the wall. Nailing them to drywall is relatively useless. Instead of marking all of the studs with tape I use magnets. I knock on the wall, listening for a solid sound, until I think I have found the stud. Then I run a magnet vertically to find a screw holding the drywall to the stud. The strong rare earth magnets find the screws easily. I then just line the gun up vertically and nail the baseboard in.

Here is a quick mobile phone picture of what it looks like.

Case Work

Posted on April 4, 2013 by samcappo

Recently I have been out on vacation, working vigorously at my day job, and building cases.

Vacation was a nice break from all work – both house and day job. I was able to roam the streets of San Francisco and spend some time with my favorite piece of plywood.

While in San Francisco I was on a mission to buy clothing that is made in the good ol’ USA and of high quality. I picked up a few things but one of the best parts was interacting with some of the manufacturers. It was great to see young people passionate about their product and how it ties into life.

After that I headed to Colorado to go snowboarding. I do this a few times a year to ensure my adrenaline fix is met. I really enjoy not knowing if I am capable of performing a task but going for it anyway. My snowboard, Never Summer, also made in the USA.

Now I am home and I have been toiling away building cases for my home. I have never built cases like this before so it has been quite enjoyable. I started with the hall closet. It is about 2 feet deep, 7′ wide, and has a 3′ door opening. The design was to build floor to ceiling shelves on the sides. I started out by bringing home about 12 sheets 8′ x 4′ plywood. First off – these huge sheets are a huge pain in the a** to handle.

I first cross cut them to size with my festool track saw. I am sure this is perfectly easy with a sled and standard saw but the track saw makes it very easy. Once the pieces were cut to length I went to my little table saw. I planned it so the sides and back were the same width. I used the table saw to get everything to the correct width – This was a two person job at times because handling a 4′x4′ sheet of plywood by myself seemed a bit sketchy and dangerous.

Here are the cases prior to being fully installed.

Once I had all of the pieces cut to size. I used a simple T-shaped jig to cut the dados and rabbets with the router. I made a dado for the middle shelf and rabbets on the top and bottom of the side piece. I then rabbet the back of the side piece. This was so the back and sides were all the same width – time saver / manufacturing approach. Once the routing was complete I cleaned up the “fuzz” left from the router with a chisel and screwed everything together. I did use a confirmat screw for the joining. I am not sure if these fancy screws were necessary but I used them any way. After the boxes were but together I used a block plane to flush everything up. I did feel a bit dirty using my nice block plane on plywood – but it worked and nobody saw me do it.

After the boxes were built I built a base. It is made of two layers of plywood. The outside box is joined together with pocket hole screws and the inside box is screwed to the outside box. I put the inside box in so that it would create a double rabbet corner. I then level the box with shims and screwed small plywood feet on to carry the load. I was uncomfortable with leaving it just shimmed beneath. Then I screwed the box to a stud. It feels solid.

The other box I built was to house shoes in my closet. Same basic construction but due to its width I used a center divider. I used pocket hole screws to join the dividers to the middle shelf. The box will rest directly on the baseboards.Once the cases are fully installed they will get face framed so there are no gaps between them and the walls. After that primer and oil base paint – white of course. Then off to the next project.

I did not glue and screw the cases together. They are just screwed, which makes me hope that this was not an error in which I am the one that gets screwed as they come apart.

More to come on the cases as the get installed. I am sure there are more hurdles I am unaware of.

Another Addiction

Posted on February 20, 2013 by samcappo

Recently a friend of mine really screwed me over, this is the same friend that owns the Lambert table. He came to me and told me he needed me to build him something and quick. He told me that his daugther was enamored with the new movie “Brave” in which the protagonist was a young lady whose weapon was a bow. He also told me that his daughter (5 yrs old) had a kids bow but it broke. He need a bow for his daughter and he needed it soon.

First thought – yeah right, how the hell am I going to build a bow.

For the next few days, while laying my new floor, the thought of building a bow just was eating at me. How would I build a bow? I can figure this out. I hate you Mr. Lambert.

Then one afternoon I gave it a try. The first try – I found a scrap / ugly piece of walnut that had a drastic bend in the grain. I roughed out a curve with the jig saw and tried to bend it – snap. Ok – back to the drawing board. The second try – I found an offcut of maple that was about 3/4″ wide and about 3/8″ thick. I tapered the thicknes from the middle, glued on two small pieces as a handle, and rasped notches for the string and arrow. Then I flug a dowel across the room. Success! Then I looked at it more – it was hideous.

I had about an hour left in the day so I went back to the drawing board. I can make this just as functional and a lot more attractive. So I grabbed another piece of maple.

This time I ripped a about a 2″ wide piece of 4/4 maple. Then I made 2 more stopped rip cut – making the arms thinner than the handle. I popped of the waste with the coping saw and went to town shaping the bow with the spoke shave – not very complicated. I basically just tapered the bow from the handle to the edges. I broke the edges, again with the spoke shave. I grabbed my rasp – cut notches for the string, a notch for the arrow, and shaped the tips of the arms.

I threw on a piece of cotton string and again slung a dowel across the room. Success.

It looks much better, too. The gift was delivered and the child was ecstatic.

The natural next question is – why do you hate your friend? You only spent about two hours or your time and you made a child happy. The reason I loathe Mr. Lambert is that now I am crack rock addicted to learning how to make a real bow. I have been researching bow building and the more I do the more I want to build one. It is a type of woodworking that I have never fathomed before. I found the below picture on buildyourownbow.com. I find this work amazing. This seems to be a project that would force accuracy of the highest level.

This is probably not an item I need to add to my obnoxiously long to do list but I really want to build one. Looks like my woodworking library is going to expand in a way I never imagined.

The funniest part of this story is that I was telling a friend about it and he stated: “you have the perfect house for it.” My response – “What?” He then explained due to the fact that you have a shotgun house you also have a 130′ long side yard – perfect for target set-up. Even better the backstop is a huge cement block wall. Brilliant.

Has anyone out there built a bow?

Striking Entertainment

Posted on February 5, 2013 by samcappo

I started this post a couple of weeks ago but didn’t finish it…..then I saw multiple blog entries about striking tools so I decided to put it off…..then I was asked to share about the mallet in a previous post. So here we are, more striking tools talk.

From left to right is my progression in striking tools.

The wooden mallet was first on my bench. I used it for basically everything. While its function was commendable its form was lacking. It was an inexpensive starter that filled almost all of my needs except – it is not made in the US and it is ugly.

The next up was the dead blow mallet which has the exact same properties and flaws as the wooden mallet.

Then I picked up this inexpensive Stanley hammer made in England. It is / was a great tool for adjusting my planes and tapping in a brad or two.

The real change came when Tom, Kat’s dad, went to a L-N hand tool event and decided that I should own this Glen-Drake chisel hammer. This was a drastic difference in chiseling. The control was superb. I now longer felt that I was beating my chisel to death. This is a great hammer and I used on my Lie-Nielsen chisels which have a wooden handle with no issues at all.

Everything was going well until I saw that Gramercy Tools was coming out with a new hammer. My American consumer side promptly beat up my minimalist side so I purchased it. This hammer has been great it handles all of small nail driving with ease, it can adjust my planes, and I thoroughly enjoy looking at it.

The Blue Spruce chisel mallet was not next my next purchase but if I am going in picture order it is next. I was able to use one of these and it was great. It just seemed to feel better than the Glen Drake chisel hammer. I enjoyed its use much I bought one and haven’t turned back. I also feel that I don’t have to watch the top of the chisel as closely because the head is larger. I have not used it for chopping a mortise yet. I use the Glen-Drake, which works well and prevents me from swinging it like a baseball bat because of its head size. If I had to chose between the chisel hammer and the mallet I would say it would be a toss up. (Probably the mallet.)

The hammer is next. I forget where I purchased it but it out-classes my carpenters Estwing in everyway. The handle is comfortable and it puts away 1-3/4″ nails like nobody’s business. It is about to get a serious workout as I start installing trim for home soon.I think I paid about 20 bucks for it.

Last and definitely not least is the monster mallet. This is a Woodworkers Edge Mallet created by Glen Huey. Needless to say this is not the first post about this great mallet. I love this mallet for 2 main reasons: it is a joy to use and I almost never look at my hideous dead blow mallet anymore. The handle is easy on the hands and the mass of the head packs a serious punch. I have not used it to drive a mortise chisel yet but I think it would excel at that as well. I did make a minor adjustment to it when I got it – the edges of the brass were quite sharp so I knocked them down with a file.

Not too long ago I used it so split a panel in half which was obviously the mallets fault – it had nothing to do with the poorly cut dovetail or the over zealous operator.

The Blue Spruce mallet and the Woodworkers edge mallet get used the most followed by the Gramercy Tools and claw hammer. At some point I will donate the 3 on the left to a good cause…

Have fun.

Plane Anywhere (and it is faster)

Posted on February 4, 2013 by samcappo

You really can plane any place you like.

This weekend I was prepping the trim for my doors. The trim is 5/4 x 4″ poplar.

I decide to perform an experminent to determine how long it would take to prep the trim: sanding versus planing. The time was important because all of my trim for my doors and windows are in the same state.I have 7 windows and 5 doors to trim which equates to about 20 pieces that are 7′ long and 45 pieces that are ~4′-5′ long. The goal was to knock off the planer / saw marks so they would look nice. The stock was relatively well sized.

Due to the fact that my bench is not at my house, it’s at Kat’s, I needed a place to plane. I do have a small “bench” – sawhorses with a MDF / 2x top at my house but it is not suitable for this planing. So i set out to find a place to plane – front porch to the rescue. I screwed down a stop to the porch and got after it. This was a little bit of a pain because the steps were in the way. I had to transfer from pulling to pushing. The deck is also not flat so I used some veneer tape as shims. I also used my No. 4 because it could dip in and out of the wavy “bench.” Looking for pretty not straight. For the spots I couldn’t get the plane to cut, due to the board or “bench,” I quickly hand sanded them – I am not completely crazy.

For the sanding I tried the belt sander, which was too aggressive, then I move to the oscillating sander which worked ok. It was fine for the show face, but the edges were a real pain. It was easier to hand sand those. It was also not easy to intentionally cup the back. I did this so I wouldn’t have to fight the drywall / jamb that everyone knows is perfectly flat. There was a bit of edge correction which made sanding a real nightmare.

I started with power sanding – 2 pieces took 22 minutes or about 1.6 minutes per foot. Then I switched over to planing which took 14 minutes or about 1 minute per foot. With a bit of gorilla math this comes out to be about 9-1/4 hours for power tools and 6 hours for hand planing. Planing – a 3-1/4 hour time saver. That’s big for me since I typically only get to work on my house on the weekends and a bit after work.

I do realize that if I had a drum sander, an expensive table saw, and a well set up jointer power tools would probably be faster – so hand tools win (for my shop-less set up.)

It did also help that it was 68 degrees and beautiful outside. It wasn’t NOLA in August.

The moral of the story is trim has to look nice before it gets painted and you should test efficieny while working – you may be surprised.

Have fun.

Fail….

Posted on January 21, 2013 by samcappo

Yesterday I was cutting some dovetails for the second night stand I am building. I finished up cutting and did a quick test fit – I knew I could get them started so I figured I was good.

Today I was doing a test fit prior to gluing. The result was my first epic failure in a project. The panel split all the way through, cute.

I am attempting to glue it back together. We will see if that panel is done…..I really hope not. Strangely, I am not that upset – maybe it is just shock.

On another note my new mallet is awesome.

Slick Bench – Reclaimed Lumber.

Posted on January 16, 2013 by samcappo

A while back I put some pics up of my workbench – then a discussion broke out about my desire to build a bench of reclaimed lumber. Come to find out our friend Ryan built one.

Here are pictures of his bench from reclaimed lumber. I think it looks awesome and makes me want to build another bench – bad. The wood is just interesting to me – I love it.

From Ryan: It’s mostly fir with some pine/spruce thrown in. The house was between 85 and 100 years old. The grain in most of it was very fine and close grained. The old nail holes are visible on every surface, I like it, some people might not. Haven’t noticed much in the way of movement, old dry and stable

Where the conversation all started: http://planedetails.com/?p=104

Thanks again for sharing Ryan – the bench is awesome.

workbench22

have fun.

Slap on the Paint (with safety briefing)

Posted on January 16, 2013 by samcappo

You know you are a bad jack-ass when your scaffolding contains packing tape.

I am nearly finished painting my hall which means it is almost time to do a heap of woodworking in my house – floor, doors, window trim, closet built-ins…..etc. I am very excited about this because I enjoy when my woodworking becomes part of my home.

Back to painting. After painting again I have found a few more things that are pertinent to brush painting.

I think the most important is what you do after the first coat of primer is put on. While I am priming I keep a very important tool in my back pocket – a pencil. I use it to mark where all of the screw ups are – I mark on the dry wall where the baseboards will go. Then you don’t have to paint over it. I use the body reference system – K for knee, H for hip, etc……This is a ridiculous system, I know – I should just put a distance from the floor. My system gets really silly between 6’2″ (my height) and 10′ (the ceiling) – I won’t even begin to explain that disaster.

The first coat of primer with a strong raking light brings out imperfections – it also makes your stomach hurt because what you thought was a nice job with the mud, well – wasn’t. Do as much touch up now because then you won’t have to spot prime – because the entire wall is getting primed again. Taking care of these issues now makes the rest of the job much easier.

Another experiment in the hall was painting direction. I already know that I like to paint from right to left with the final brush stroke going away from me. I hadn’t thought about the direction of the light – I found out that I like to paint away from the light. This is primarily because I like to get close to the wall and look down the wall for dry spots. Putting myself between the lights and what I am looking at was well let’s just say dumb.

I also worked on a new technique. I was putting paint on the wall and smoothing it immediately. This time I tried putting on a heavier wide coat and then smoothing across a longer section. This actually worked quite well. I would put on about a 5 – 6 inch section about 5′ long then do another and smooth all the way to about 2″ from the bottom – this made a continuous stroke and made the the transitions nice. I would catch that 2″ section on the next path.

Trying new techniques makes painting much more enjoyable for me.

Have fun with the brush (and avoid that roller).