House Woodworking and Gardening Family

While making the simple bevelled wall board for my Ships Clocks a few days ago, it occurred to me that the very same design might make a good (albeit chunky) box lid.

My stock (scaffold board Pine - of which I have a lot of it!) wood is around 1 1/2" thick, the simple design allows me to use what I have without having to waste most of the wood making it thinner. It also saves me a lot of sweat with a hand plane!

It also occurred to me that I have never made a simple Rabbet jointed box...

I completely forgot to take any pictures during the build as things progressed pretty quickly. A rough description of the steps I took are below:
Box Carcass
Cut four pieces (2 long , 2 short) of cheap (pre-planed) Pine to length on the bench hook.
Shoot them to exact lengths with square ends on the shooting board.
Mark and cut the shoulder line of each rabbet on the short sides of the two long boards (the front and back of the box) again using the bench hook - 2 rabbets per long board.
To form the actual rabbets, I first tried using my small shoulder plane with a wooden baton clamped in place to keep me straight, but this proved to be quite slow. For the three remaining rabbets, I simple used my dovetail saw to cut down the end grain (much like sawing a tenon), finally cleaning the joint up with the shoulder plane. In retrospect, I should have (been brave) tried to remove the waste with a chisel which would probably been even faster than sawing.
Use a plough plane to cut 1/4" grooves in the bottom of the boards for the base to fit into.
Cut a thin plywood board to size for the box bottom.
Glue the carcass together.
Plane the edges and joints flush and generally tidy it up.
The Lid
Approximately cut to length a piece of rough scaffold board.
Assess the board for grain direction and use winding sticks to check the wind and straightness of the board. Pencil in notes on the board as to what work is likely to be required and where.
Plane one face flat using my no#6 and mark it as a reference.
Hand plane the adjacent long edge straight and at 90 degrees to the first face and mark it.
Use a marking gauge to mark all around the edges of the board to get it to uniform thickness again using the no#6 to remove wood fast.
Use a marking gauge to mark the second long edge parallel to the first.
Precision cut the board to the required length and ensure it is square.
Mark bevel lines all around the board using a marking gauge. Used my no#4 plane to create the bevels, being careful to finish the short end grain sides first.
Fit small brass hinges and apply some wax finish...
While the box does look rather like a coffin for a small dog or a cat, it was very enjoyable to make with most of the project being completed in a single day. Rabbet jointed boxes come together pretty fast! Not as nice looking or as strong as a dovetailed box, but I did learn from it and at this stage thats the most important aspect for me.

More simple projects to follow ...

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I originally purchased Chairmaking & Design by JeffMiller as an impulse purchase off of Amazon. The used copy I bought cost about $5.00. Since it was rated 4.8 out of 5 stars, I figured it was a good deal. Since reading it over the summer, I’ve had a chair in my head, desperately trying to get into my shop. So it was with great excitement that I read the Woodworking in America 2013 class schedule during my flight to Cincinnati. On Saturday morning there was a chair class (I know there was one on Friday morning too, but I’m sorry. I’m a modern chair style guy, not a Windsor chair fan).

The class began with the discussion of the evolution of chairs.

I arrived at Chairs: Style & Substance to find Ejler Hjorth-Westh introducing himself to the class. Ejler (Eye-ler) immigrated to California from Denmark in the early 1980’s. Since then he has made his trade as a boat builder, a home builder and a furniture maker. He learned furniture making under the tutelage of JamesKrenov at the College of the Redwoods. Now a master (though probably not one to admit it), Ejler teaches at the College of the Redwoods.

The class was a brief history of chairs from a style and political perspective. Ejler took us through from the simplest chairs (basically just a log) to the most ornate Victorian monstrosities. Then World War I hit. Not only did the war permanently disrupt centuries of European social class, it also disrupted the evolution of the chair. After the war the excesses of the Victorian age were cast achoice for the more practical and balanced styles of the 20^th Century (this disruption technically began before the War, but it was the War that pushed it forward).

One of Ejlers full size mock up demonstrated modern chair design.

Though only in the context of chair design, Ejler was able to define Modern, a task that has stumped and derailed previous WIA presenters. To Ejler, the tenants of modern design are that a chair should be both visually and practically functional. Modern exists on a spectrum, between vision without function and function without vision.

Had the class stopped there, it would have been enough for me. I found the history and philosophy of chairs fascinating. There was more.

After talking about chairs through modern design, Ejler then discussed his design philosophy and methods. He described how his design process is gradual. He takes meticulous notes on the client’s request and then ruminates on that request. Once he has worked out the overall design on paper, Ejler moves to a full scale mockup. He assembles his mock ups with a combination of dry joinery and screws. The dry joinery allows him to test different joints, while the screws allow mockups to be disassembled and re-assembled many times over. He emphasized that these steps take time, and the chair maker should not force it. Rather, they should let the design stew.

This is a sample design sketch of Ejlers.

From design, the class discussion moved to comfort. Ejler explained that comfort can only be measured within its design parameter. No chair is comfortable for all functions at all times. A chair should be comfortable for its intended use – reading, dining, etc. If you adhere to narrow design parameters it is easy to define what comfort is.

This classic from Rennie Mackontosh does not ballance vision and function.
There is only vision and no function.

Talk of design then moved to building. Ejler reviewed which joints are stressed in which types of chairs and how he makes them. He finished the class by demonstrating how he makes his arm to seat joint.

From discussions I had during the conference I know that Ejler’s classes were the most divisive of the weekend. People either loved his class or hated his class. I loved his class. I made sure that I was in the front row for his next one.Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.

2013 November Shop Tour

With my October Shop Tour coming so late in the month I chose to wait a few weeks so that at least the project in the shop would be new.

Here is November’s tour. You’ll see not much work on the shop has been done, but I do have a project on the bench. While I’m still eager to get more done on the shop, it’s nice to be in there building.

Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.

Its a new episode of The Woodpecker !

I think that I have mentioned how much I like this guy.

The Lego Travel case is done!

I finished the Lego case on Friday morning and we gave it to my son on Saturday afternoon at his birthday party. He likes it very much. As alchoices, I learned a lot from this project and I look forward to my next one.