The Editor's Mailbox

Veneering for Couch Potatoes

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:11:02 GMT

I spent the better part of my weekend living out one of my ultimate woodworking fantasies: working on a project while sitting on the couch watching a marathon session of Flip That House and the DIY channel.

I see it as the woodworkers’ equivalent to a sports fans who drinks a six pack over Sunday football; or an intellectual who settles into his favorite wing-chair for Meet The Press and The New York Times crossword puzzle.

In my case, I was slicing sheets of veneer into tiny squares for a checkerboard marquetry project, using a neat little jig I made to fit onto my living room coffee table. I thought other people might appreciate the simple method I used to slice and assemble the squares. You never know when you might want to settle in front of the television with a flitch of veneer.

Veneering for Dummies

There are a few time-tested methods for cutting veneer, including the double-bevel technique that creates an almost invisible seam and the scroll saw for cutting multiple pieces of veneer at a time. Since my project was small, I opted to use a straightedge and utility knife.

STEP ONE: Gather your tools

Other than your television remote to mute commercials, you’ll need a run-of-the-mill utility knife with a sharp blade, a metal straightedge, a carpenter’s square, a roll solid of veneer tape, a roll of masking tape, and veneer.

STEP TWO: The bench hook

Assemble the simple plywood bench hook (more accurately in my case, a coffee-table hook). It consists of a plywood surface with a fence on top to register work against, and a hook on the bottom that keeps it pressed against the table. The fence should be set exactly 90 degrees to the sides and parallel with the bottom edge so you can register your square against any edge.

STEP THREE: Cutting the veneer

It takes care and patience to cut veneer with a utility knife. Just like solid lumber, you have to pay attention to grain direction to get good clean results. To prevent the blade from wandering when cutting in the direction of the grain, keep the utility knife butted tightly against the straight edge. To prevent tearout when cutting across the grain, you can either score the cut on both sides before you cut all the way through, or tape the cutting line with masking tape, as shown in the photo above.

STEP FOUR: Tape the seams

Once all your pieces are prepared, the fun part is assembling them into your marquetry design. Use masking tape on the glue face to hold the parts together temporarily, and then tape the show face with veneer tape to hold the pieces together for the glue up. Remember to remove the masking tape before you apply it to your solid surface.

STEP FIVE: Change the channel

I haven’t figured out a way yet to glue-up the veneer in my leaving room, so until I do, watch some more TV until you’re ready to head to the shop.

Custom Pulls Add Character

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:30:10 GMT

Posted by: John Tetreault

Recently I was nearing the end of a project and still had not decided on a style for the drawer pull. The piece was a 1700’s style writing desk made entirely of American chestnut, recycled from the wide floorboards and hand-hewn beams (for the leg stock) of a 1700’s barn. I did change a few of the traditional design elements for that time period, like substituting square legs with a chamfer for the colonial turned style. Also the interior is designed to house a laptop and the shelves to fit standard sized paper and CD cases.

Back to the drawer pull dilemma. An original would surely have turned knobs to match the turned legs, but that didn’t seem to fit with the now square legs. Square pulls would compliment the legs but may give the piece an Arts & Crafts feel, which I didn’t think would fit the overall design. Finally, after thinking about the original use of the piece as a writing desk, it came to me.

The solution was a hand carved feather pull, reminiscent of an early writing quill. Because of the single wide drawer, an actual size writing quill seemed just the right scale and offers room for four fingers to securely grasp the pull.

Now when I stand back and look at the overall piece, it just looks right to me. Even though this desk was built in 2007 instead of 1700, I think the feather drawer pull adds a little character and hints at the time when someone may be sitting at the candlelit desk, quill in hand.

Phil Lowe Takes Your Plane Questions

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:58:37 GMT

Taking Questions
We're traveling to Beverly, Mass., next week to meet up with furniture maker Philip C. Lowe to shoot some photos for an upcoming article in Fine Woodworking magazine. Lowe just completed a Queen Anne lowboy project and we're heading to his shop with our camera gear to take some beauty shots of the finished project.

While we're there, we thought it would be a nice opportunity to engage Lowe in a video question-and-answer session, similar to the recent video series we published with Garrett Hack about choosing and using chisels.

ASK A QUESTION ABOUT HAND PLANES. Send an email to fw@taunton.com with your question, your full name (with pronunciation if necessary), and your complete contact information in case we need to contact you.

Everything you wanted to know about hand planes
There is no shortage of handplanes in Lowe's classroom workshop. Through the years he's amassed an impressive collection that includes just about every category of plane there is, from wood molding planes, to mid-century Stanleys, to obscure specialty planes. Most importantly, Lowe knows how to repair, tune up, and use them.

So if you have a burning question about handplanes, here's your chance to get it answered by one of the most knowledgeable hand-tool woodworkers there is.

When he's not in the shop, Lowe enjoys taking his sail boat out for a spin in nearby Salem harbor.

Impressive credentials
Lowe was featured in his local newspaper for a recent commission he completed for the Peabody Essex Museum in nearby Salem to reproduce a set of parlor chairs originally built by Samuel McIntire. Lowe is a good friend of the Peabody and has done a series of restoration and consulting gigs for the museum's world-class furniture collection.

Early next week, you'll hear more about Lowe's talents as a teacher when Fine Woodworking editor Charlie Reina files a blog report about his recent trip to Lowe's shop to take part in a week-long class on using hand tools.

Wooden Sunglasses

Thu, 17 May 2007 15:26:05 GMT

Text, Photos, and Illustration by:
John Tetreault, assistant art director

I rarely wear sunglasses, but at one time, I did have a favorite old pair with fake tortoise shell frames and acrylic polarized lenses. Unfortunately, I somehow broke both earpieces off and I knew they would have to be laid to rest, or maybe not. The best feature was the polarized lens and they were still unscratched and clear. I pondered if the frames could be re-made of wood.

This project started as sort of a muse, but I figured wood sunglasses may actually turn out to be very comfortable since they would be custom fit, and they were sure to be different. I chose mahogany because of it’s strength-to-weight ratio and because mahogany is easy to carve.

For the lens frames, I started with a block of mahogany about 6 in. long and 2 in. square and transferred rough measurements from the original frames onto the block. After band-sawing the rough shape, I used a small chisel to get the curve of the frames roughed out further. A small rotary tool with a sanding bit allowed me to refine the edges and prepare for the next step of removing the wood where the lens would go. I held the block gently in a bench vise and traced the shape of the lenses onto the wood. I drilled a 3/4 in. diam. hole at the center of each lens and started to carve away the wood up to within 1/8 in. away from the traced outline of the lens. I then switched to a circular cut-off tip and carved out a groove about 1/8 in. back from the front face of the frames and about 1/8 in deep. After a few fitting try’s and more carving, the lens popped into place.

The earpieces were made from two more blocks about 2 in. square by 6 in. long, in order to achieve the curve to wrap around your head, without having to bend the wood (see drawing above). Most work was done on the bandsaw with some carving and sanding with the rotary tool.

This version has a wooden hinge held tight with a small brass pin. A few light coats of boiled linseed oil gave them a nice tactile feel and a satin sheen. In retrospect, a metal spring hinge would make them more user-friendly and practical for active sports, but there is something kind of cool about these being made entirely of wood. For driving and walking around, these stay on just fine. They’re my new favorite sunglasses: lightweight, comfortable, and being made of a particularly aromatic piece of mahogany, they smell good too.

How To Insulate Garage Doors

Tue, 01 May 2007 20:31:02 GMT

Posted by: Asa Chrsitiana

Winter has finally come to an end here in the Northeast, which means I can put away the shovel and sleds and open up my garage workshop to the great outdoors. I use my shop all winter despite the frigid temperature, so I have to keep it heated and well insulated. If you have a garage shop like me, you know that the weak link to keeping it warm is the garage doors. It is tempting to just fill them in with framing, or leave them off the building to start with, but this can hurt resale value. Most people want to use a garage as… a garage.

Staying warm. To keep the cold out and the heat in, I built insulating panels that cover the outside of my garage doors. I removed them last week and can now open the doors up on nice days, load lumber more easily, and get to my lawn tractor.

When we built the house I did choose insulated doors, and tried to beef up their R-value by gluing panels of rigid foam insulation to the inside faces, but still I lost hundreds of dollars of heat around the edges each year. I keep my shop at about 50 degrees, a comfortable working temp, and more than enough to prevent condensation and keep glue and finishes from freezing. My first solution was to hide the propane bill from my wife every month, but I knew my days were numbered. My second solution was to turn off the heat most of the time, but my tools started to rust and I hated traipsing back into the house to get glue and waterstones.

I wracked my brain trying to figure out how to seal the doors from the inside, until I considered sealing them from the outside. That was my “aha” moment. The exterior door openings are plenty deep, and I realized I could fit frames to them piece by piece. I couldn’t find a tip or a technique for that anywhere in our publications (my usual approach), so I just winged it. My simple system has been a great success, costing about $200 in materials, storing easily in the basement during the summer, and paying for itself the first winter.

On the inside. Each insulating panel is comprised of a simple lumber frame, rigid foam insulation, and weather stripping on the edges.

I ripped up stud lumber to make 1-1/2-in.-thick frames, joining them with screws. I used pressure-treated lumber for the bottom rails, which would sit on the driveway all winter. I broke the door opening into thirds so each panel would be light and small enough for me to get through the Bilco doors and into the basement. I found some exterior plywood at Home Depot with a painted beige finish on one side--nice enough to look at all winter and tough enough to shed snow--and I screwed that to the frames. Then I filled the frames with rigid foam insulation, using construction adhesive to attach it to the plywood. Last, I nailed some tough but thin weather stripping to the outside edges.

Attaching the panels. I screw small wood blocks to the edges of the opening to keep the big panels in place.

The panels seal the openings almost perfectly, and where they don’t I stuff in foam stripping when I install them each year. A few simple screw blocks keep them in place. Bingo.