Blog series by Zuki | updated 01-21-2008 01:17 AM | 7 parts | 13996 reads | 60 comments total |
Part 1: Im gonna try dovetails
Well . . . DW (Dear Wife) did not like my initial idea for the 2×4 project so yesterday evening she spent a little time surfing the net looking for things she would like to have in the house. She found a XXXXXX and asked ”can you make this?”. I said ”yes . . . but there are dovetails involved . . . and I have not done dovetails before.” I started to think twice, but I said to myself . . . ”self, one of the main goals of the LJ WW Awards is to challenge on...
Part 2: The lumber has landed
Well DW and I went X-Country skiing this morning. It was a beautiful day. When we returned I worked on my cut list calculations for my XXXXX. I was surprised to see that I can actually make two XXXXXs instead of one. Or to look at it another way . . . I have spare parts just in case I screw up the dovetails. This evening I decided to sift through my pile of construction grade 2×4s that I store in my shop (all two of them) to look for the best one. Here am I holding my stick. ...
Part 3: Making Dust on Project X
This evening I checked another item off my list for Project X. I spent a couple of hours calculating, measuring, cutting, cussing, planeing, cleaning, moving and a few other “ings” I seem to be forgetting. Due to some strategic use of my planer (some would call it an accident) I managed to squeeze another 2 key pieces out of the 2×4. Exxxxxxcellent. Well . . . DW was not up for taking pictures tonight . . . so the “no pictures, did not happen” does not apply. Tomorrow night I ...
Part 4: Dovetailing (NPDH)
I did not get out to the shop last night . . . rough day at work drained the good right out of me. I did get out tonight to work on dovetails. Well . . . I did better than I expected. Now I’m not saying I going to win any awards for my dovetail joinery, but the four pieces of the top did fit together. On my practice run I found that the Irwin Dovetail saw I had purchased was just to rough on the spruce. So I put it away. I found the best saw was my Stanley Japanese pull saw . . . un...
Part 5: One Word - Pictures
Ok . . . I have been put under tremendous peer pressure to provide pics because of the NPDH rule. Not making dust this evening but I did convince DW to take a few snaps. Note to self – get DW new digital camera so I can inherit hers. The first two pics show my first ever attempt at hand cut dovetails. I am happy with the way it came out. I just have to practice more to get better. Here are two pics of Project X. The top snap shows the top section of Project X. There is o...
Part 6: And the beat goes on
Managed to get out in the shop this weekend. The weather was really strange . . . +5 and rain. Lots of snow gone. I finished off the remainder of the dovetails. Staying inside the pencil lines and cutting straight were the biggest challenges. I also found that chopping out the tails with a chisel was a bit of a pain because the spruce would collapse and not cut clean. Took a bit of work cleaning the pins and tails . . . but in the end they all fit together with a satisfying “cluk”. ...
Part 7: The end is near !
Well the end is getting near for Project X – 2×4. I had a little “oopsie” when dry fitting the pieces and had to rely on my homemade edible glue to stick the “oopsie” back together. Actually there are better words to express how I felt, but as this is a family site . . . “oopsie” will do just fine. The pics above are from yesterday and I have arranged Project X and its twin in order to deceive the average woodworker. You can only decipher what it actually is if you ha...