The Editor's Mailbox

Quick Little Boxes

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:12:28 GMT

Posted by: Gina Eide

If you’re short on gift ideas, let me recommend making elegant little boxes, Doug Stowe-style. A group of us here at the Taunton Press churned out a bunch as gifts for family and friends. We tackled the project as an introduction to woodworking, but the refined boxes are an excellent quick project for woodworkers of any level.

Little Boxes. A simple but elegant design, with decorative splines in the mitered corners.

Associate Editor Tom Begnal led us in the project, but Stowe’s design was our inspiration. The idea came from his book and DVD on Basic Box Making. There’s an excerpt from his book on FineWoodworking.com with plans and detailed instructions on how to make the boxes.

Student and teacher. Tom Begnal (right) helps a beginning box-maker set up the tablesaw.

The best part about this project was the handy jigs that kept fingers out of harms way. Tom practically built us a jig for every cut, very useful for mass production and for dealing with such small pieces.

Big finish. Here I am, using one of Tom's jigs to cut slots for the decorative splines.

So, if you’re in need of a last minute gift, try out one of Doug Stowe’s boxes. Or, if you have some down time over the holidays, these boxes are a great way to introduce a son or daughter, grandchild, spouse, or friend to woodworking.

Build a Table in Only 8 Months

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:33:15 GMT

Posted by Matt Berger

The problem with chronicling a project in a blog is that everyone who reads it finds out how much of a slacker you are. If you click on the "Coffee Table Project" link at the bottom of this entry, you'll see that it was more than eight months ago that I started making my flame birch coffee table.

Well, hopefully my latest progress on this project will revive your faith in me; I have been working on the breadboard end joinery for the past few weeks, assembled the parts, and last night I applied the first coat of Waterlox. Here's a photo essay on my progress:

Tenons by hand and machine
The first step to cutting the two massive tenons (shown above) for the breadboard-end joinery was to establish the tenon shoulders and cheeks. I did this with a router and tablesaw. First, I clamped a piece of plywood to the slab tabletop that guided the router and established the shoulder on both sides. Then I used a dado blade to cut away the remainder of the waste. At that point, I had one long tenon spanning the entire width of the tabletop, which I cleaned up with a shoulder plane.

Next, I used a handsaw to establish the tenon widths and chopped away the waste with a chisel. You'll notice that I left a short tenon spanning the full width of the tabletop. I figured it would help keep the tabletop aligned in the mortise while it shrinks and expands through the years.

Matching mortises by hand and machine
I had to make a design compromise in order to simplify the cutting of the mortises. I wasn't up to the challenge of locating the two mortises with a marking gauge, so I cheated and used a dado blade to cut a long groove across the entire length of the leg assembly, where it joined with the tabletop This groove matched the location of short tenon on the tabletop. I roughed out the deep mortises at the drill press and then cleaned them up with a chisel. The great thing about this technique was that I was able to use the groove as a guide for my chisel.

The downside to this technique was that the the groove extended to the outside edge of the leg assembly and would be visible when assembled. To disguise the groove, I borrowed a design element from the Greene Brothers: a neat little plug that is glued to the tabletop and mimicks a spline. This plug also disguises any seasonal movement.

Minimal Glue Required
The table spent a few days dry assembled and it was surprisingly sturdy even without glue. So I wasn't worried when it came time to actually glue the tabletop to the leg assembly. To account for seasonal movement, I only applied glue to a small section in the center of the joint. If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see two elongated holes in each tenon. Once the parts were assembled, I drove a small nail through the bottom of the joint into the elongated hole. This will keep the joint tight but still allow for side to side movement.

Clamping Pressure
As you can see in the photo above, the table is now assembled with glue. I always find this step of the process stressful because there's no turning back. But alls well that ends well. I did some final scraping and sanding over the weekend and the finish is going on nicely. Tune in tomorrow for a photo of the finished piece.

Newfangled skin for a traditional kayak

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:05:49 GMT

posted by: Steve Scott

Here’s a unique way to gauge the success of your next woodworking project: Try swaddling it tightly in plastic wrap and tossing it in the nearest body of water to see how well it floats.

For those who’ve just finished a chest of drawers or dining table, this test may yield disappointing results. But if you happen to be building a kayak, like this one by Ohio woodworker Mike Bielski, it’s an important and potentially rewarding step.

A Saran Wrap skin keeps Bielski's kayak afloat.

Bielski patterned his watercraft after traditional kayaks used by aboriginal hunters in Greenland. The project is a mix of traditional and modern in both materials and technique. Since trees are scarce (make that nonexistent) in Greenland, those early boatbuilders used whatever driftwood they could scrounge. In that spirit, Bielski used locally harvested ash and sassafras for his kayak’s frame. (For more on the types of kayak construction, click here.)

Bielski had no formal plan. Instead, he based the construction on measurements taken from his body and sized according to his proportions. He used no adhesive in the construction. The frame's integrity depends on the mortise-and-tenon joints, pegs and trunnels, and lashings of artificial sinew (nylon strands encased in beeswax).

Lashing the frame.

I traveled to Waterville, Ohio, near Toledo, in July to shoot photos for an article that Bielski had written for Fine Woodworking. At the time, the boat project was an impressive but very porous looking 18-ft.-long ribcage of steam-bent ash resting on sawhorses outside his shop. Since then he has completed the lashings and added the final stringers and the coaming (the ring that defines where the kayaker sits). To make the coaming, Bielski steam-bent a 7-ft.-long piece of 3/8x1-1/2-in. ash into a small egg-shaped ring with a minimum radius of 4 in.

Bielski soaked the ash for the coaming for five days before trying to bend it.

Bielski sent these photos after I asked how the project was coming. He reports that the sea trial--which lasted about 5 minutes--was a success.

It floats!

After removing the temporary Saran Wrap hull, Bielski began sewing on a permanent skin of 8.5-oz. ballistic nylon, which will be sealed with a flexible urethane coating. He anticipates christening the completed kayak in Lake Erie sometime during the week of Sept. 17.

Bielski is a member of Qajaq USA, the North American affiliate of Qaannat Kattuffiat, the association of Greenland Kayaking clubs. If you would like to learn more about traditional kayaks and kayaking, you can find information at their web site.

--Steve Scott is an associate editor at Fine Woodworking.

Photos by Mike Bielski