Some times the plane shavings are just too cool

There aren't many pictures this week, after all sawing and cleaning pins isn't a lot different than the equivalent operations with tails.

Some times the plane shavings are just too cool to not play with. Earlier in the day I had cut some dados that left some very curly shavings. When Megan arrived they simply begged to be attached to her finger tips. Halloween costumes are everywhere.

 Other than the spacing be much larger, the process of cleaning out between pins is much the same as cleaning out between the tails of Kashley's dovetails.

 The top of the sides of the plinth needs dados cut to install the carcase support rails. Kashley is holding the wood that used to be where the dado is now.

Next week we are committed to assembly!

Bill

Cutting our tails.

With much anticipation the ladies started dovetailing their plinths on Sunday afternoon.

I essentially use Alan Peters' method of laying out and cutting dovetails. I do it tails first. I know many people prefer pins first but I think the tails first vs pins first argument is silly. Do it the way you are most comfortable which is probably the way you first learned to cut them. Save the emotional energy for something that actually matters.

We start by marking the width of the pin board around the ends of the tail boards by setting a marking gauge to the width of pin board and running it completely around the ends of the tail boards. We continue by determining the size of the half-pins on the ends. I seem to tend toward 1/4" varying larger or smaller with the size of the board. I set one divider to the size of the half-pin and set it aside to mark all of my boards at once.

Next I determine the number of tails I want, stepping that off on the end of the first board until I have set the opening on the second divider to the size of one tail plus one pin. Then I mark all of the tail cuts using an extra fine point pen and bevel gauge. Do not use gel ink, it soaks into the wood ruining the piece (guess how I know that little fact...). I mark the angle by running the pen up from the mark we scribed with the marking gauge and straight across the end of the board.

Since the girls have been practicing sawing to a line and are now quite good at it, the tail board is positioned plumb in the vice. Sawing straight across the top and down at the marked angle, they carefully stopped right at the scribed line.

Most of the waste is removed with a fret saw and then cleaned up with a chisel.

I was impressed with both ladies sawing abilities. If you look back at where we started compared to today you would not guess that both have only a few sessions experience. When it comes to handling a chisel neither is taking a back seat to anyone.

As always happens we ran out of time before we ran out of enthusiasm. Next week we'll layout and cut the pins and plow the grooves and dados for the carcase rails. Then we will assemble the plinths.

Bill

First Night of the Hand Tool class at Woodcraft

Another short post because I need to pack up for the Open House at Hickory and Oak tomorrow.

My "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest" class at Woodcraft began last night. The class is smaller than I expected but both students are ready to go.

Ready for students

We begin by assembling bench accessories and then jump into stock selection. Since the plinth for the blanket chest is 5" high and our stock was between 5" and 6" each student cross cut parts using a hand saw for half of their parts and then a tenon saw/bench hook combination for the remainder.

 I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a long rip cut to do, so I had them rip a 10' board down the middle.

Nothing like ripping 10' of poplar to get the evening going.

We working on creating the reference face of our boards and called it a night. Nice short three hours class. I hope they enjoyed it, all the rest of the sessions are eight hours long.

Bill

A very short update

Kashley and Megan are both ready to cut dovetails on their plinths. The lumber is completely dimensioned and all of it looks good. There are no pictures this week because it was all about thicknessing the boards and laying out the tails. There will be a ton of pictures next week since they will be cutting tails, laying out pins and assembling the plinths. The project is all smooth sailing from here. No new techniques to learn just applying the skills they have developed to larger pieces. Oh, and a ton of dovetails.

Megan is going with me to the class that starts tomorrow in Grand Rapids. She will help students learn to saw by hand and select/markout lumber.

On Saturday I'll be at Hickory & Oak. Stop by between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm if you want to save some money on lumber. Steve will show you how the sawmill runs and I will answer woodworking questions, teach sharpening and do some hand tool joinery.

Bill

A Twofer

Last night I taught SketchUp for Woodworkers I in Grand Rapids at Woodcraft. I didn't get any photos but it's really not a "Let's get a picture" sort of class. Everyone seems stoked for the second class despite that fact that we didn't get as far as I usually do. We ran out of time just before we added dovetails and mortise/tenon joins to the table we were building together. Due to that the November 26 SketchUp for Woodworkers II class will begin with joinery and then progress into designing from photos, photo-realistic output, templates and more. If you have taken any of my SketchUp for Woodworkers classes and want access to the notes and models I used just send me a request and I will share it with you via google docs. Everyone in the class signed on to the newsletter so welcome to all the new folks.

Last Sunday the Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest class continued. In this session I had Kashley build a small box to give her some pre-carcase construction dovetail practice. As she worked I managed to get what is my current all time favorite photo of dovetailing.

If you look at the full sized image you can see the reflection of the wood in the saw plate. Notice the wood in the reflection is perfectly straight relative to the actual board. This is how you can tell that she is holding the saw perfectly plumb. I also like that you can feel her focus right through the picture. Kashley's knife layouts were spot on and all of her saw cuts were dead plumb.

A little chisel and mallet work.

Followed by some precision clean up in the vise.

And...we ran out of time.

Mean while Megan practiced sawing plumb and to a line.

Megan's sawing is getting quite good. All but 1 (out of 30-ish) were perfect. It looked like a hair pick when she was done.

I try to teach at least two skills that will perform each operation that is needed in building the project. Megan is now dimensioning her plinth pieces for width. After sawing as close to the line as she was comfortable last time I had her use a scrub plane to remove most of the waste. This time she used a draw knife. The expression on her face is priceless.

But it wasn't long before she was quite comfortable pulling that big old knife toward herself.

Next she sawed them to length and then shot them with the #51.

 If you've noticed the blue left handed glove, that is not a fashion statement. It is the result of getting bitten by a tenon saw. The lesson was well learned and she jumped right back up on the horse.

It looks like we may start cutting our "for reals" dovetails next week. First, however, we have to dimension the lumber for thickness.

As always, comments are welcomed and questions are answered.

Bill