Why yes...

that is a Lie-Nielson #4 Smooth Plane on my workbench.  And I am happy to see it.  My dad and I took a 3.5 hour (one way) road trip to Highland Hardware today to see the Wood Whisperer and meet other guildies. We were both blown away by how many tools Highland has on hand.  Not only that, they were all knowledgeable and very helpful. I wish I had this to clean up the stock for the shaker table. Well, now I do have it, and can't wait to put it to use. 

About that craftsmanship...

Finishing a piece of furniture is an art form.  An art form, of which, I do not have a complete grasp. I stained the ash shaker table with Olympic Pecan stain.  It went on easy with a cheap styrofoam brush.  I used the blue Scott shop towels for wiping off the excess, a tip I learned from a Wood Whisperer interview with Michael Dresdner.  What I didn't expect was it to dry so fast.  Getting the excess stain off took some extra wiping. Overall, I'm happy with the result.  You'll notice I didn't take much care staining the inside.  There's a lot of glue spots & splotches. The legs are great, but...

Here is where my craftsmanship failed.  As you can see there's tool marks from the planer.  Hidden from the eye, that is until stain was applied.  Notice the undulating pattern is somewhat spread out, which is probably why I didn't feel it with my bare hand.  Next time, though, I know to do some extra hand planing before applying my stain.

Testing stain...

Just a quick update.  I hand sanded the shaker table and took a leftover piece of ash and did some test staining.  I drew a line down the middle of the board and shellaced one side.  After the shellac dried I sanded with 400 grit and applied a cherry stain to both sides.  On the back, I applied pecan stain to half, and golden maple to the other half.  I plan on checking it tomorrow to see how it all looks.  One of those stains will go on the table I'm sure.

Dropped drawer repair

In an attempt to repair the dropped drawer, I took the advice of some fellow woodworkers.  I added a beveled edge to the drawer front.  Now, I wanted the bevel smaller, but turns out the dent was larger than expected.  It looks funny from the sides, but it's done now and I can't take it back.

From the front, it looks pretty good.  I think I may have to put a small bevel on the top edge of the top as well.  That bevel I will make much smaller than the bevel on the drawer.

Quick update...

Sanded the Shaker Table this weekend.  Still trying to figure out what to apply for finish.

Old school or new school?

When it came time to put the bevel on the underside of the top I had a choice.  Table saw, or hand planes?  I watched this Wood Whisperer video, in which he used both approaches.  I had planned on using the table saw, but when I thought about the effort required to get everything setup I decided to give hand planes a shot.   Wow, it was fast.  I finished all 4 bevels in the time it would have taken me to setup the table saw.

I beveled the front and back first, and I'm glad I did.  After cutting the top to the dimensions in the plans, I only had, roughly, a  7/8" overhang on the front and back. I measured out a 3/4" bevel, and planed it down with a block plane, and smoothed it with my #7.  Then I took a look at my top.  I had marked out a  2" bevel on the sides.  Why?  Because that's how much room I had.  I decided to scrap the 2" bevel and just go with 3/4" all the way around.

I promised a pic of the dropped drawer corner.  Here it is.  Still working out how to fix this.  You can see from the 2 pictures that it's in an awkward place.

Sometimes the work is not the reward...

Quilt Rack

I've put in around 40 hours making a quilt rack for my sister-in-law and niece.  That sounds like a lot of time, but it's not when you enjoy the work.  One reason it took so long was because woodworking is my hobby.  Like most hobbyist I get a few hours here and there to work on a project, which means I have to context switch each time I come back to the project.  I like woodworking because, unlike developing software, I create tangible items.  Something that a person with a history degree, the history majors I know wouldn't understand Dijkstra's Algorithm, can look at and understand.  The building of the quilt rack was only part of the reward.  The best part was seeing my sister-in-law's reaction when I gave it to her.  Gifting in general is fun.  When you can gift something that you created, that's where the real reward comes in.

I forgot to take a picture of it before giving it away, so please forgive the clamps.  Oh, and I hate the look of the stained poplar, but wifey liked it and wouldn't let me paint it.  For those that are interested I'll list out the finishing process.

1. Sanding with 180 -> 220 grit
2. 1lb cut spit-coat of shellac
3. quick sanding with 220 grit
4. stain with dark walnut stain
5. swearing
6. stain with dark red mahogany stain
7. more swearing
8. 1 coat of polyurethane
9. sanding with 600 grit
10. another coat of polyurethane

Shaker Table
I've been busy with the Shaker table build the past week.  The task was to build the drawer and attach the drawer rails.  I've cut half-blind dovetails before, with disastrous results.  This time things went much smoother.  The picture you see below is my bench vise. I'm thinking of patenting it. None of this "quick release" expensive screw vise stuff for me, no way. Counting the 2x4 I think I have a total of $20 in the vise.  That said, I get about $5 worth of performance.

While my vise isn't ideal, I was able to layout the tails, and start sawing.  I took my time and followed the sawing advice from Chris Schwarz's re-print of, and guide to "The Jointer and Cabinet Maker".

While my sawing techniques have drastically improved in the past weeks., my chiseling techniques have not.  One problem, as I found out after finishing the drawer was that my chisels were extremely dull.  Schwarz, at point in the book mentions (paraphrasing) "If your chisels compress the fibers of the end grain it's time to sharpen".  Yup it's time to sharpen.

Two things are not pictured in this update. 

1.  The bent corner of the drawer front where I dropped it

2.  The top being cradled by clamps for glue up.  

When I find the camera, which I put in a "safe" place, I'll post pics.