The first was that Yuri is no longer our assistant instructor. She was on loan from a fellowship program at the school, and returns to that program full time. I would say that we'll miss her, but she's just in the next building.
We met our new assistant instructor, Austin, this morning. He is a very experienced woodworker who is here for the next six weeks. This is evidently the 12th year he's taught here.
The next six week is also a new phase for us. Our initial project is supposed to have been completed. More about that later. During this new phase, our project is called the Case-Piece Project. Quoting from the instructions for this project:
This project builds knowledge and skills that provide a strong foundation for fine woodworking. The assignment is to design and construct a solid-wood case piece (such as a cabinet, box, or chest) that elegantly balances the following requirements:
- At least one hinged door and one drawer
- Solid wood throughout
- Must be made to an exacting level of craftsmanship
- Must be ready to apply finish within the six weeks allotted.
- Must be modest in scale
- Ideally incorporates the following elements:
- at least one frame and panel
- a piston-fit drawer
- at least on web frame
- no more than two mitered corners
There are some other requirements, but that's the gist of the project.
So, I stayed up late last night looking on the Internet to get some ideas. I had two different projects in mind. I very much need a place to store my hand tools, ideally a wall cabinet. So that was one of my possible projects. The other thing I had in mind would be a sort of end table for in my living room next to the credenza on which I have my TV. I'd use it for a lamp, and a place to put CD's/DVD's. But, the tool cabinet was my first choice.
I brought in printouts of a lot of pictures of wall hung tool cabinets this morning. I showed them to Austin, and described what I had in mind. He agreed that was a good learning project and had a great deal of potential for me to experiment with different techniques. So, I guess that's what I'm going to be making over the next month and a half.
In addition to trying to merge a bunch of ideas gleaned from my Internet search, I also examined several examples here on the campus. In one of the other classrooms there is one cabinet that I particularly admired, although I thought it was a little small for my needs. I was able to talk to the fellow who built it, and he told me that if he had to do it again, he'd make it bigger! That was an unsolicited comment.
I measured a lot of tools, including a #7 jointer plane. I have one of those at home, and it will have a significant effect on the size of the cabinet. At almost 22 inches in length and almost 6 inches from sole to the top of the tote, it is pretty much one of the largest and heaviest hand tools I own.
The Book Rack project
This morning I used a bandsaw to cut off the waste parts of the two side pieces on the book rack, and the result is what you see in the photo. I then had to plane the top of the side pieces - if you look closely, you may notice that they are pretty rough. I planed the top of the back piece so that its top edge angle matches the side pieces, and I cleaned up the rough edges on the bottom edges of both sides. The bottoms of the two feet will have to wait until the rack is glued up before I can trim them, so that the whole thing will sit properly on a table.
It might not be clear from the photo, but all the angles are based on the 1:7 ratio triangle, and hence the name I've given the rack. I chose the pieces for the sides so that the grain "cathedrals" on both sides are going in the same direction.
Once I got it all trimmed up , I figured that I'd be gluing up the project before lunch.
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| The book rack, fresh from trimming the top and bottom of the sides on the bandsaw. |
Austin suggested that I put a finish on the inner surfaces before gluing, as that would make final finishing easier. In order to do that, I had to take the whole thing apart and sand all the inner surfaces in preparation for finishing.
When I started sanding, I noticed that I had knocked out a small sliver of wood in the vicinity of one of the mortises. I probably did it when I was knocking the thing apart. I searched for the missing piece, but couldn't find it. It wasn't very visible, but it was a defect I didn't want to leave. Fixing it involved finding a carving gouge, cutting a new sliver of wood from a scrap board, cutting out a similar sized area on the rack, and gluing the piece into the cut out area.
I cut a new piece which matched the grain of the area it was going to replace pretty well. I glued the piece in and set the whole thing aside to dry. I think that once the repair is sanded to match the rest of the piece, it should be pretty difficult to see. In fact, less than about 3/16 inch of it will show; the rest will be covered by the tenon shoulder. But, by the time I got to the point of having it glued in, we were into the next phase of the class.
In the morning before class starts I should be able to sand it down, and start the finishing process. If the weather is good, I might be able to put a second coat of finish on tomorrow evening.
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