Edjumacation...innit?

This is going to be the last entry in the Blog for a couple of weeks, so you, dear reader, can revert to something a bit more cultural, learned and high brow. Rather than peruse this nefarious drivel from dawn to dusk, it'll do absolute wonders for your 'edjumacation'...innit!

You see, unlike poor KH a while ago, (I nearly slipped in 'old' there, but that would be skating on the very, very thinnest of ice) my bags are packed and I'm ready for the 'off' at 0300 tomorrow morning, as SWIMBO is whisking me off to warmer climes.

"Where's the fool off to now?" I can hear you muttering.

Yours truly is off on a pleasant boaty jaunt down the Nile in Egypt, hoping to see all the ancient sights around Luxor (the old Egyptian capital of Thebes) including the Valley of the Kings and The Temple of Abu Simbel...that's only the first week though. The second will see me loafing on a beach in the Red Sea with some relaxed swimming and snorkeling.

There's even a remote chance I'll come back slightly more 'edjumacated' than when I left...it's a tough life for the Bloke, but someone's got to do it...

The Best Laid Scheme

The recent jobs completed in the 'shop, great though they are, have started to deplete my once reasonable stock of cabinet timber. Unlike Mother Hubbard, the cupboard isn't bare yet, but I'm distinctly aware that the rack isn't quite as full as it ought to be. Like most woodies I suspect, I tend to hoard timber, treating it like the most precious miser's gold and tending to only have a clear out when I've got a load of stuff smaller than my fingernail (which really is too small to do anything with.) I've got enough air died elm to make another cabinet and only one board left of the oak that I bought a few years ago, but that's about it...plus of course the assorted odds n'ends that inevitably accumulate in odd drawers and corners of the 'shop.

I've therefore decided that I'm going to adopt a very early New Year resolution. Apart from one or two essentials, the purchase of new and shiny toolage is going to be put on hold 'till I retire so that any available cash will be spent on building up the timber store.

So that's the plan...call it Plan A.

But as all good planners know, there should always be Plan B...and the best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley...

Agribox

The little oak box didn't turn out too badly after all...you can see from the pic that the 'precision sanding' technique worked very well as the front of the lid sits true and level.














The whole effect is fairly chunky and could have been made just a fraction slimmer...for certain the handle is a bit 'agricultural' and had I made it a little daintier then the overall effect would be a bit 'lighter'. The dovetails also extend by around 3mm which on a small box this size is probably too much...2mm would have been more in keeping. The Japanese paring chisels were great for this as the finish on the dovetails has been left straight from the tool, with just a wipe of worn 240g paper to take off the arris.

What's always intrigued me is that a decent piece of work can be made from a couple of lumps of gash timber in the off-cuts box and amazingly...I've still got enough left over to do another one (but not anytime soon) as I'm up and away on holiday...

Precision papering...simples!

I had a problem.

As you are well aware by now, I have plenty of them and sometimes they defy my feeble attempts at a 'fix' (thereby blunting the bandsaw blade teeth a little more)

Sometimes though, the 'fix' is such a stroke of pure brilliant, unadulterated genius that it makes my head swim.

First and foremost, the first pic shows the interior of a little oak box wherein the lid sits inside the rebate on the two surfaces (arrowed) However, much to my dismay, those two surfaces were not parallel when the box came out of the cramps, so that when the lid was fitted for the first time, one corner was down by around 3mm (even though the lid was true)...possibly bandsaw fodder before too long!

Second and foremost...how to go about fixing it? I had a deep ponderation for a long while and various nefarious options wafted across the grey goo such as:

...spending a lot of cash on a hideously expensive LN chisel plane, which would probably be be used for this job and then sold. Building a complicated router jig to remove the offending high spots from each corner. Doable, but unnecessarily complicated.

Eventually, after a further eon had passed, I wondered what the simplest way would be, as 'simple' is usually much better than complicated.

The easy way was simply to sand it off!

All I did was to get hold of small bit of 12mm ply and shoot the edges dead square. A piece of 150g paper was stuck to one side (using double sided tape) and 220g to the other. This was then trimmed off level with a Stanley knife. Ten minutes work with my new precision sanding block and all four of the bearing surfaces for the lid were level and parallel...cut the hinge recesses a fraction deeper to suit and Robert's your aunty's sister (or something like that!)

Sometimes, my undoubted genius for fixing cock-ups requires the purchase of a least a gallon of the 'good stuff' just to keep the halo polished...simples!

Convolutedly complex

No posts hereabouts for a week or so, mainly 'cos I've started back at work after a few months off with a medical condition which is now thankfully under control...as long as I keep on taking the tablets I should be good for a few more years making sawdust!

However, things have not been quiet in the 'shop as I used the last few days before starting work to make a small oak box, mainly using the exposed and rounded dovetails that I had a go at a few days ago. I'm due to shortly get hold of another lump of air dried English oak (of which more later) As I had a couple of smallish pieces left over from the last lot and the vendor was selling it to me for a very reasonable price, it would be good if he and his new partner could have something made from it. It's almost done as I just need to finish off the scribed and mitered lining tonight and then start polishing. As always though, fitting the bloody hinges caused a few headaches and was one of the more irritating parts of the job.

I got hold of a couple of books yesterday as SWIMBO unexpectedly let fly with her credit card and bought me the 'Complete Japanese Joinery' If you have some sort of pre-conceived, misbegotten idea that secret mitred dovetails ought to be rated 10/10 in terms of difficulty, then a swift dip into this little tome will very rapidly change your mind...I've never seen such complex and convoluted ways to join two (or three, of four) bits of wood. Boggling of the mind only comes close...

The other book that arrived yesterday was a hard backed edition (complete with DVD) of 'Made by Hand' from the Unplugged Woodshop I only had a quick peek into it last night, but there are one or three ideas in there that possibly hold some promise for an idea regarding the next major project. In any event, it's a decent enough book (apart from the somewhat casual Americanese style of presentation) to go into the woodwork library.

Blanched

Having just finished a fairly major project, I'm really at a bit of a 'loose end' regarding another big job, but I've got one or two ideas kicking around for another cabinet of some sort, based loosely on a Japanese theme of some sort using exposed joinery, but how I'm going to do it and what it's going to look like...I've no idea, not a sausage!

I did remember though, that I had a 'foto-copy of an article from FWW about making a right angle corner joint, or 'kane tsugi'. In the square part of the joint (which is locked by a peg) lurks a hidden bridle joint, so although it looks fairly straight forward to make, there's a lot more too it. I thought I'd have a go with an oddment of mahogany, using a piece of ebony for the square peg.

In the article (which I read with a foreboding sense of deja vu), the author, being from far distant lands across the big pond, uses an unguarded table saw blade to cut some of the joint. Whilst I have a high regard for much that happens in American woodworking circles, their cavalier attitude to 'elf n'safety makes me turn pale...indeed many of their 'shop machinery practices have been illegal in Europe for decades.

Marking out and cutting were fairly straight forward, the only tricky bit was making the tenon for the bridle ( a router is the easiest and most accurate way to do that) and some judicious work with paring chisels saw the joint completed. Believe it or not, the little square pin was the hardest part to get 'spot on' as I cut the bevels once it was glued in place. I think a little work on the peg beforehand (using the mitre shooting board) is needed when I do it for real.














I also had a go at a simple through dovetail, with the end of the tail exposed and rounded over. Easy enough, but again some care needed in the cleaning up and just as a little exercise, I'm making a small Krenovianish box in English Oak with this sort of jointing...

Installation

In case you're wondering what the Media Unit looks like with all the gear installed...herewith a little pic. The two big spaces are now filled with equipment assorted on 6mm smoke glass shelves so that the access holes at the back can no longer be seen. (The glare in the TV screen is generated by the lights, which unfortunately I can't do very much about)




















But in addition to that, I also ran up a simple unit to hold DVD's and CD's out of a few odd scabby bits of mdf that were loafing around the 'shop. As I've got acres of teak veneer and plenty of bits to use for the lipping, this little job turned out quite well for an absolutely minimum outlay, which, being a parsimonious sort of soul, I found quite agreeable...