My Evening at WoodCraft

As I write this, I have just returned from spending an evening at the Norwalk, Connecticut WoodCraft, straightening out my lumber. I didn't bring my camera because I didn't want the other guys there using the machines to think I was weird or anything. But it was a cool evening and well worth the time.

This WoodCraft has a fully equipped shop upstairs. They have a 5 HP SawStop and a Unisaw (both table saws, in case you didn't know), a couple of 14" Delta band saws, a Jet band saw (not sure of the size, though I think it's 16"), a couple of drill presses, a Delta DJ-20 jointer, a thickness planer, a radial arm saw (RAS), chop saw, and a couple of router tables. To use their machines, you can either join their woodworker club, which gives you unlimited time in the shop for a certain period, or you can buy a card good for 5, 10 or 20 hours.

I bought a 10 hour card and a 12" Starrett combination square. I have two Stanley combo squares, an old one with a black handle & 12" ruler and a newer one with a 16" ruler & a yellow handle. The nut on the black handle had stripped out, so that one's been useless for several months. The yellow one, it turns out, is not square. So I figured it was time to get a sturdier square. And Starrett has a lifetime warranty on their combo squares: if the square ever goes out of square, you return it to Starrett & they will make it square again.

After a mini adventure getting my lumber & combo square upstairs without dropping anything, I met Frank, who is basically the Keeper of the Shop, at least on Tuesday nights. He is a cool guy & is a retired cabinet maker and he really surprised me when I was using the table saw later on. I'd actually met him a couple of times before when I'd taken some classes at this WoodCraft last winter. He was busy crosscutting some pretty wide (for me) poplar boards on the RAS, about 14" or so. I went over & told him what I needed & when he was finished with his boards he came over to help me.

As you know, I needed to joint the edges of my boards. So Frank gave me the safety run down on the tool & showed me how to edge joint the boards. He let me know in no uncertain terms that I wasn't to touch the cutter head and I wasn't to touch the outfeed table adjustments. I had no desire to touch either, believe me! I like being able to count to 10, and I like being with my family!

I got to do most of the jointing. The DJ-20 was sweet. The tables were more than long enough to support my longest boards, the pieces for the upper cabinet. This went fairly quickly and wasn't any harder than I thought it would be. I'm glad I had a pro like Frank there to help me get started using this tool.

Next, I used the SawStop to rip my boards to final width. The fence was a Biesemeyer clone, and it didn't feel any different from the Biesemeyer commercial fence on my Craftsman 22124. The markings on the tape were different, but no problem to use. I think the markings on the bottom of the tape were metric.

While I was ripping the first board, Frank was watching me carefully. I grabbed one of their plywood push shoes & put it on top of the fence at the start of my cut. I started feeding the stock through & finished with the push shoe. Then Frank said that the only thing he could see that I did wrong was watching the blade instead of the fence. I knew I had to do that, but for some stupid reason I was watching the blade. The fact it had no guard on it is probably what riveted my attention to it. I finished my rips using the proper technique & Frank was satisfied.

That SawStop was sweet! It came up to speed instantly & was very beefy. My 22124 weighs in at about 380 lbs, but this was even more substantial. The blade on it left no tear out whatsoever on my boards, though I did get a little burning on one or two boards. And no, I didn't test the blade brake -- I didn't have any hot dogs with me!

After that, I came home. I had accomplished everything I wanted for the evening and I want to use some of the remaining time to turn some pens with my daughter one weekend. Plus, I used to work in Norwalk & it's a 1 hour drive home, even though it took only 40 minutes to get there from my office.

I did take some pictures of the boards after I got home. Here's one of the "sides" for the lower cabinet & the face frame board that will be glued to it at a 135° angle.

And here is one of the upper cabinet's sides & face frame pieces. Remember, these were both cut from the same board.

The other boards look pretty much the same. I'm very happy with the way these came out.

These boards are all cut to final width & length now. The next step is to cut the joinery to form the 135° angle between these boards. As I posted earlier, I'll be using the bird's mouth joint for this. So I'll be practicing it on some poplar scrap the next time I get in the shop.

See you next time!

Thank God for WoodNet!

I was just over on WoodNet, reading a posting called How to clamp 135-degree joint? Near the end of the thread, there's a posting by ezflier with a link to a web page by WoodNet's own Edwin Hackleman. Edwin is a very intelligent guy who seems to delight in geometric puzzles and how to make them with the simplest possible set ups.

The page in question describes the Bird's Mouth Joint. This is a joint specifically designed to simplify cutting & putting together 8 boards to form an octagon. While I'm not building an octagon, the angle at which the face frame meets the "sides" of the corner cabinet is exactly the same. This joint looks like it will be easier to cut. Let me explain why.

Originally, I was planning to cut 67.5° miters on the edges of the side boards & the face frame stiles. I don't know about you, but I don't have any precise 22.5° or 67.5° reference angles lying around, and I don't know where you'd find any. So there would be a lot of trial and error cutting of scrap to get the saw blade beveled to the right angle.

You then have to glue these boards to each other. I had come up with a clamping caul and had posted a picture of it in that thread. As Ms. Nomer says in the thread, there might be a problem with this configuration not providing enough clamping pressure to keep the mitered edges up against each other.

The bird's mouth joint, on the other hand, looks pretty easy to glue-up. The angled board essentially sits in a socket & is self-aligning. All you have to do is clamp a beveled block to the angled piece, then run a clamp horizontally. And you're done!

So I'm gonna give this a shot using some poplar scraps I have lying around at home tomorrow night. Tonight, I'm going to WoodCraft after work & use their jointer. And maybe a table saw to make sure I have all the edges straight & parallel. Or maybe I'll do the ripping another night at home. Let's see how busy the place is.

To Buy a Jointer, or Not to Buy a Jointer; That Is the Question!

Well, I got home today & found the latest Craftsman Club flyer had arrived. They're having their Craftsman Club days Nov 4 - 10. Normally, this doesn't interest me too much, but they're offering their Orion built 6 1/8" jointer for a member price of $386.99. If you read my last posting, you know that I really need a jointer before I can make any headway on this project.

What's a guy to do?

On the one hand, we just shelled out big bucks to vinyl side the house. We also brought back the contractor who replaced our deck last year to repair this shed roof that overhangs the front entrance & garage door. It seems the columns that were holding the roof up were sitting on the ground, not a footer, and had 2 1/2" of material just rot away over time. He jacked up the roof back to where it was supposed to be, dug & poured new footers, and replaced the columns. We just have to paint it.

On the other hand, I do have a woodworking fund. That's where all the money for this cabinet is coming from, as soon as the charge bills arrive. What's another $400 from that fund for a jointer?

Then there's the used market. I should be able to find a decent used 6" jointer if I started looking. Oh, decision, decisions . . .

So I'm adding a poll to the home page. Let me know what you think I should do. I'll let it run a week & will publish the results this weekend.

Cutting White Oak and Wishing I Had a Jointer

I did manage to get into the shop after church Sunday. I started ripping all of the parts for the face frame and the sides from the white oak. I have two boards that are wide enough to get the sides and the adjacent face frame stiles for the upper case. The boards are wider than I needed, so I decided to rip the parts wider than I needed them to be. Then I could rip the beveled miters I need on the sides that were ripped apart.

I had spent an hour before I started this project making sure the saw was aligned properly. What I didn't do was check the alignment of the splitter to the blade. This would come to bite me, as you'll see.

I took one of these boards & set the fence where I needed it & ripped. Then I put the two pieces back together again, and this is what I saw.

I had put the lines across the joint so I could identify the edges that needed to be adjacent to each other, and so I could get them aligned when I cut them to final length. (I should have cut them to final length first. Not the first time I've made this mistake). The other board came out with the same space in it.

I realized that I have to figure out two things:

1. How did that space get in there in the first place?
2. How to get that space out of there.

The only way to get rid of the space is to joint the boards. The problem is that I don't own a jointer. Well, I do own a #7 hand plane, which is called a jointer, but my skill with the tool is non-existant. And I'm not going to buy a powered jointer right now. There's too much else going on & we just spent a lot of money to fix up the house.

So, to get rid of the space, I'm going to load the boards up into my car tomorrow night, and instead of driving straight home from work, I'm going to drive up to Norwalk, Connecticut & visit the Woodcraft closest to my home. I'll rent some time in their shop & use their DJ-20 to get joint the boards.

Now, I had to figure out how the space got in the boards. The first thing I did was re-check the alignment of the fence to the miter slot & the blade. I did adjust the fence a little bit, but I really didn't think this was the problem. Watching the edge of a board as it rode against the fence while ripping showed me that the board was pulling away from the fence at the end. I was careful to set the fence parallel to the blade & the miter slot, and my measurements showed it was parallel.

That's when I thought to check the splitter's alignment. Sure enough, it was off. I adjusted the splitter, but by now I had no rips left to make. I did rip a piece of poplar later to make the blanks for the legs, and that looked like it rode better against the fence.

Next job was to cross cut parts to length. I used my Osborne EB-3 to make these cuts. I cut the sides & stiles to final length, leaving them wider than I need. I had ripped the face frame rails to final width, but I cross cut them longer than I needed. These parts will get cut to their final dimensions later.

Here's what all of the face frame & side stock looks like after an afternoon spent cutting & cussing.

The last thing I did today was actually cut all of the blanks for the legs & glue them up. Here's what they looked like in the clamp & waxed paper. These will get ripped to final size after the glue has dried, then drilled to accept the leg leveler t-nuts.

I should have put cauls on these blanks because one or two of them slipped while I was eating dinner & the glue was setting up.

See you next time!