One of the quickest ways to fasten two pieces of wood is to use screws. But not all screws are the same. Years ago I started by using drywall screws from the big box store. They are good for drywall, but that is it. They have very little strength. Currently, I get my screws from McFeely’s. Their square drive screws are much easier to use than normal philips head screws (there is a much more positive connection between the driver and the screw).
I would recommend starting with a #8 flathead screw assortment of whatever finish you like. And currently McFeely’s is having a $1 shipping and handling special (for the continental US only).
Cam Out Torque table for different types of screws (from the McFeely’s FAQ section of their website)
Cutting boards made by the Curtis boys (all three of us).
It has been a while since I’ve written. I would love to pretend it was because I have a crazy exciting life, and I’ve been too busy living it. But sadly, that isn’t the case. I have been busy, but not that exciting.
I spent this month making cutting board after cutting board. My cousin got married two weekends ago, so as a wedding gift, I made him a set of drunken cutting boards, inspired by projects on lumberjocks. They turned out pretty nice (for my first try). Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them (I didn’t want to post before the wedding, in the odd chance that he actually reads this blog).
I decided that cutting boards would be a good way to use up the wood cut-offs I have laying around the shop, and a good project to do with the boys. I took all the interesting short pieces of lumber laying around, cut the boards to 18″ long, milled them to the same thickness, and cut them into strips of varying width (1/2″, 1″ and 2″). I then let the boys pick out the strips they wanted to use and they glued up the boards. I made sure that the boards were narrower than 8″ when glued up so we could flatten them quickly on the jointer.
I had enough strips for Will, Ben and Ben’s friend, Anthony, to make boards. I also made two myself (with the remaining wood). One is a little bigger (pictured above), and the second I gave to a friend at work.
I’ll have to write more later about the wedding trip to Bowling Green, KY, visit to Mammoth cave with dad and Barbara, and a stop over in Louisville to see a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years. I would love to share all the pictures I took on my trip, but the camera stayed on the counter where I forgot it.
It is nice to be home and back working on the workshop. It is making progress. I’ll take more pictures tomorrow night (maybe).
I finished the final two shelves for the bookcase last night. I love the spray finish and spray system. A step that would have taken nearly a week with an oil-based finish can be finished in a couple of hours. When I used a wiping varnish, I had to let the project dry overnight between coats. With the spray finish it takes 15-30 minutes to dry between coats. That means more coats in a single night, and fewer dust particles on the project. The water-based finish also leaves much less of a smell in the house (and no smell on the project after it dries to the touch in 30 minutes).
It will be a nice addition to have book storage in the study. I’m okay with how the bookcase turned out. I can see some of the mistakes I made – I probably should fit the shelves after the carcase is constructed and need a proper shelf-hole jig. But overall it feels pretty sturdy and looks not too bad. Last night I bet Will a quarter he couldn’t find two mistakes in 5 minutes on the project. Of course the first mistake he found was one that I hadn’t noticed before – it is good to find another honest critic in the house. No sense in building projects for the house if I don’t try to make myself a better woodworker from each project.
I also have been making some progress on rearranging the workshop. My first attempt to reorganize failed (having the planer between the jointer and table saw made for a much too long walk around the jointer to feed wood into the planer).
Today we are planning a chore day. I will get some concrete to pour a footing for an additional support post for the workshop, and then work on making a small patio/step in front of the door to the workshop – I have been using the workshop enough that all the grass is dead – it is now a mud pit. I am using some lumber I have left over and the remaining concrete blocks from the patio. So it is a double bonus. I use up some materials I have sitting around and get a new entrance step to the workshop.
Of course I am expecting to get all these projects done and still have time to hand out, maybe paint the new door to the workshop, maybe work on shelves for the workshop. However, I am learning (yes, it does take a long time to learn) and am only planning the two outside projects for today. Anything else will be a bonus.
Workshop wall after reorganizing. I removed a workbench that was only used to store junk - now to build proper storage for that junk)
The cherry bookshelves after a coat of shellac (I did take a shortcut and not finish the bottom)
What a night… there is nothing like listening to a strong wind in an old house. I never cease to be amazed by how much noise the house makes in the wind. The barn is even worse. I don’t really like working in the barn when it is this windy. Luckily I have project work to do inside the house.
Over the weekend, Susanna and I moved the cherry bookshelves from the workshop to the basement to be finished. I spent a couple of evenings this week sanding the carcase to prepare it for the finish. The plan is to do one coat of shellac and then spray the water-based top coat. Tonight I applied a single coat of shellac. I probably won’t be able to spray the shelves until this weekend.
I have two of the four shelves completely finished. The last two shelves will be finished after I am done with the case. There isn’t enough room in the finishing room to manage the case and shelves at the same time (yes I do need to get rid of things).
I have a couple of clamping squares – they are useful for making sure that corners are perfectly square when I do glue-ups. I have one from Woodpeckers Precision Tools. It is a beautiful piece of machined aluminum:
Woodpeckers clamping square
I love the the tools from Woodpeckers. All the ones I have used are high quality and precise. Not the cheap tools one can get from the local stores.
I have two larger plastic clamping squares from Rockler. They are plastic, and of course don’t have the fine feel of the machined aluminum. However, they are a little larger (and easier to clamp), and work just as well for the projects I have needed them for. They are also a little cheaper:
Clamp-it square from Rockler Woodworking
I only have 3 total clamping squares and have been able to get by with that many. Another 2 would be useful at times. I might recomment starting with a pair of the aluminum ones, on sale now at Woodpeckers. The Woodpeckers tools are made in the USA as well.
It seems in the workshop one either needs one or two clamps at a time for a project, or two shops worth of clamps for a glue-up. Never anything in-between. I’ve had to glue the face frame to the bookshelves in individual pieces because of my limited number of clamps. However, the current arrangement of the workshop makes it nearly impossible to walk all the way around the case when it is on the saw horses. So maybe it is good that I didn’t have enough clamps to attempt a big glue-up at once.
Attaching one side of the face frame to the shelves
The project overall is coming along pretty quickly. It is amazing how quick a project can be done when using sheet goods (can you say no milling of lumber).
On the down side, the top that I glued up isn’t deep enough with the face frame attached. Luckily, I have a spare piece of cherry milled and ready (hey, I do eventually learn – to mill up extra lumber) to cut and glue to the top to get it deep enough. Now if I had more clamps to do the glue-up while the face frame dries. I guess it doesn’t matter – I can’t get to the table saw with the case in it’s current location. And I don’t want to move it with the glue drying…
I was able to finish two of the shelves (build, glue edging on, one coat of shellac, and 2-3 coats of spray varnish). They turned out pretty nice. Cherry is pretty light colored right after finishing. A couple of months exposed to light and hopefully it will turn darker.
Shelves after spray finish (plus a table leaf that had been sitting in the basement for years just waiting for me to finish).
Writing in my blog – a good way to spend filling the time between the glue-up and when I can take the clamps off (and move the shelves). I think it may be time to get more clamps. Maybe a pack of 24-inch clamps from USA Clamp Company. I have 5 clamps made by them, and I love them. Plus they are way cheaper than the bar clamps purchased at most woodworking supply stores.
The bookshelf carcase naked - needs back, face frame, shelves and top...
After assembling the carcase, I started milling and building the rest of the bookshelf. I milled the face frame and shelf fronts from a single 72″ section of cherry. The shelf panels have a 1″ tall piece of 3/4″ thick cherry glued to the plywood. I decided to use a little taller piece of wood than the 3/4″ thick shelf. The wood will be flush on the top, and extend slightly below the shelf. Having a thicker piece of wood will add some rigidity to the shelves so they won’t sag under the weight of books.
Two of the four shelves glued up with a solid cherry edge piece
I glued up the top from two pieces of the cherry. I set it on the top of the shelves and it had a decent overhang and room to cut the board square. However I forgot that the bookcase will have a 3/4″ cherry face frame attached (Duh). Not sure if the top will be big enough. Luckily I have another piece (or two) of cherry milled that I can add to the top panel if needed.
The top panel glued up
The edges to be glued were jointed on the power jointer. However the jointer didn’t leave the best edge for gluing (I think it needs new blades), so I used a hand plane to do the final jointing prior to glue up. The trick is to make sure both edges are perfectly square to the faces (that they aren’t on this panel can be seen by the very slight bow in the panel when I hold a straight edge across it. I’ll have to remember to keep checking the edges with the square when I use the hand planes… I’m hoping that the slight bow in the top will just be a design feature (either to cause water to run off the front and back – if the the convex side is up – or a place to store tennis balls where Tucker can’t get them – if the concave side is up).
I started a new project this weekend. We are in desperate need of a set of bookshelves for the study – all the books are in boxes on the floor for now (or in the barn). I had been searching the web to find a simple plan that allowed a set of shelves to be made from one sheet of plywood.
I found this link. I am using the same basic dimensions for the bookshelves – however the construction of the carcase is using pocket-hole screws not biscuit joints. I looked at picking up plywood from GK Woodworking in Griswold. Susanna and I discussed either making the shelves out of red oak (total cost about $125 – I had plenty of red oak on hand for the face frame and top) or cherry (total cost of about $250). We decided to go with red oak.
On Saturday morning I called GK Woodworking and asked about picking up some red oak plywood. He had sold his last 3 sheets of red oak that morning (apparently he sells very little red oak, but of course in one day he had two people interested). So cherry it was. Will and I headed off to pick up the lumber (while Susanna took Ben to his piano lesson). Twenty minutes and $245 later I had a piece of 3/4″ cherry plywood (for the shelves), a piece of 1/4″ cherry plywood (for the back) and 9 bdft of 4/4 (1″ thick) rough cherry. Not exactly low cost bookshelves – but I imagine that to purchase shelves already made would cost much more.
Cherry lumber for low-cost bookshelves
Saturday afternoon I spent a couple of hours cutting up the 3/4″ sheet of plywood (2 sides, 1 top, 1 bottom, and 4 shelves). I cut the rabbet on the two sides to hold the back, drilled holes for the shelves (I will use pins to make the shelves adjustable) and assembled the carcase. I will use solid cherry on the top to cover the top piece of plywood (and hide the ends of the sides).
The pocket-hole joinery is quick and easy – if you can hide the screws. On this project the carcase is made from two shelves (top and bottom) and two sides. The pocket hole screws are on the top side of the top. That surface will be covered with a solid cherry top (not yet sure how I’m going to attach the top yet – but hey, why plan everything at once). The screws are attached from below the bottom shelf. That shelf is 2 1/2″ from the bottom of the sides, but won’t be visible unless one turns the shelves upside down.
Shelf pieces cut from plywood sheet
Tonight I milled the lumber for the face frame and the shelf fronts. The next step is to clean up the face frame, cut to length and glue the frame to the carcase. The glue is plenty strong to hold the face frame to the carcase.
A couple of things I have noticed so far in this project:
My shop is not designed to easily handle 4×8 sheets of plywood. When I rearrange, I will have to leave a space large enough to cut down sheet goods.
The 100 tooth saw blade that came with the table saw does a beautiful job on cutting the plywood.
The cabinet grade plywood is MUCH nicer to deal with than the crap you get at the home center. No voids in the middle, and the veneer is significantly thicker than the cheap stuff
I had to crosscut the sheet with my circular saw – the blade on that saw did not leave the nicest edge
I have a couple of variations of this shelf in my mind to try. The shelf might look good with corner posts, though I would do them a little differently from the Woodworkers Guild of America link above – I would make them out of the same material as the shelves, and most definitely taper the legs. I might make the decorative top out of plywood, edged with solid wood – it would make attaching the top simpler and more sturdy. The problem with attaching the solid top to the plywood carcase is that the solid top will shrink and swell with the room humidity. The plywood is stable with changes in humidity (which is why the carcase and shelves are made from plywood – much better for this type of project than solid wood).
I think a shelf pin drilling jig, such as this one from Woodpeckers would make drilling the shelf pin holes much simpler and more accurate.
Looking ahead, I am thinking about building a kitchen island. Again, I want it to be simple and inexpensive – so I’m still thinking of options.
I finished the piano bench today. The first project of the year is done. I didn’t actually start it this year, but I think it still counts. The next woodworking project will be bookshelves for the study. I’ll wait to start until I finish the crown molding in the living room and the weather warms up enough I won’t get frostbite in the workshop (it was a chilly 10 degrees F this am).
Over the past three days I stained the bench. It is made from red oak, so to more closely match the piano, I added a dark stain. I put 3 or 4 coats of stain on after the wood was prepared with grain filler. I used a single coat of dewaxed shellac on top of the stain prior to the water-based top coat. The top coat is two coats of Agualente (by ML Campbell) sprayed on. The finish is a pre-catalyzed top coat, so I was able to recoat within 30 minutes (dry to the touch in 15 minutes).
Susanna and I had completed the fabric and batting on the top last night. It was the first time either of us had put fabric on a bench seat, so it isn’t the best job, but it turned out pretty nice. I made 4 tabs to attach the top to the bench out of scrap oak.
Completed Bench
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the project. The base was constructed with mortise and tenon joints, and the legs tapered. I’ve moved up from pocket-hole screws. I’m not thrilled about the stain – I didn’t do the best job on the finish. However I used a lighter setting on the spray gun, and I think the top coat came out better than on the boys shelves.
Lessons learned from this project: Make sure to count the height of the padding and fabric when figuring out the height of the bench. Take the time to adjust the fence on the router table when cutting the mortises the first time (saves having to mill 4 new legs and re-cut the mortises). If one wants a dark bench, use dark wood.
My personal critique of the project: The mortise and tenon joints are okay – there are a couple of small gaps between the tenon shoulders and the legs. I think tight joinery comes from practice practice practice. There are definitely spots where the stain isn’t even. I should stain the project prior to assembly – the inside corners are difficult to stain evenly. Spend a little more time doing the corners on the fabric top.
One of the quickest ways to fasten two pieces of wood is to use screws. But not all screws are the same. Years ago I started by using drywall screws from the big box store. They are good for drywall, but that is it. They have very little strength. Currently, I get my screws from McFeely’s. Their square drive screws are much easier to use than normal philips head screws (there is a much more positive connection between the driver and the screw).
