| Blog series by RaggedKerf | updated 04-22-2013 01:20 PM | 14 parts | 14305 reads | 5 comments total |
Part 1: Using REAL Wood
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. My mother competes every year in multiple track meets for seniors, known collectively as the Senior Games (they’re broadcast on ESPN sometimes). She’s been doing this for a few years and has amassed quite the co...
Part 2: Let's Start This Project (right after I make a jig)
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. So I began the project for my Mom by cutting the walnut and maple to length for the front and back (maple) and sides (walnut). After I clamped the walnut side pieces together and planed them along the edge, I glued the pie...
Part 3: First Dovetails!
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. When I was ready to head back out to the shop, I discovered the Walnut fairy had left two pieces of walnut ready for work. She’s pretty good at gluing too…After a few passes with the hand plane I’m sure the...
Part 4: More Dovetails...
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. Over the past week I have spent all my free time in the shop cutting more dovetails. I have, I am happy to report, improved my abilities and speed. The first joint, from the last post, took about 2.5 hours. The next one on...
Part 5: Fitting It All Together
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. I spent today doing the tedious work of smoothing out all the dovetails. I used the 1” chisel, mallet, and the new Moxon mini-bench to make all the dovetails as tight as I could get them. There are still plenty of gap...
Part 6: The Devil's in the Details
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. While fuming over the death of my hand plane (see death of a plane below) I decided to switch tactics and work on the detail piece that will grace the front of the chest. I plan to use a piece of basswood, carved, and set i...
Part 7: Trimming the Fat in Style
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. Well, I went and got the new hand plane (the WoodRiver #5 Jack I wrote a review about already). Now that I have my new planing stop installed in the bench and my new jack plane in hand, I put the carving down and gave the a...
Part 8: Relief Carving is Good for the Soul
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. I just love relief carving. It’s so relaxing. And it’s pretty comfortable on the mini-bench too. Though I will look into making an angled piece to hold the work so I don’t have to crane my neck over the w...
Part 9: Finishing the Carving
Note to my readers: This entry is part of the secret project I’ve mention previously. Now that it’s been delivered, I can post this without ruining the surprise… I put some more time in on the carving….another two days (which is really only about 4 hours), and it’s all done! I carefully trimmed the wood to the pencil lines then used chisels to gentle chamfer the edges of the letters and the winged foot. Then I trimmed an emory board to a point amd used ...
Part 10: Router Inlay
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. Today’s task was to fit the completed carving into the front panel of the box. To do this, I decided to mark out the area I needed and use the router my dad donated to the shop last October. It felt good to use this o...
Part 11: The Lid, or, No Tablesaw, No Problem!
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. Oh yeah, this post actually is the result of 6 days in the workshop—-some didn’t have pictures and I didn’t want to bore you with just text, so I put it all together under the title of The Lid. At last, w...
Part 12: Lining With Felt
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. Once the lid was read for finishing, I decided to add feet to the box to give it a little better look. Just sitting on the ground wasn’t doing it for me. I settled on little wooden wheels I got from Michael’s fo...
Part 13: Let's Get Shellacked
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. This last stage was probably the most fun, the least amount of work, and yielded the most obvious results. After going over (one last time) everything with 220 grit sand paper by hand, I was ready to vacuum all the dust off ...
Part 14: It's Done!
Note to my readers—-this is the secret project I’ve mentioned a few times. It has consumed my shop time since February. That’s why it’s been so slow on the blog for the last few months. Now that it has been delivered, I can post the details. No, there are no bells and whistles on this thing—-if Mom wants to put some in it, more power to her. I built it, she can use it however she wants. But to finish it, I had to do three things yet: (1) install the lat...
