Google Comments

As the Penultimate Woodshop is a Blogger blog, its easy for me to integrate with Google+ using Google+ comments. Google+ comments mean that comments to a blog post or to the corresponding Google+ post will show at both locations.

Should I use Standard Blogger Comments, Google+
Integrated Comments or would you rather mail in
a comments form?

When Google+ comments first came out, I tried them out. I found that they allowed for much more interaction around posts and more conversation.
As much as I liked this, I turned them off when I found that they required a Google account in order to comment (no more anonymous).
Since then Ive watched, and almost all of the comments I receive are from people with Google accounts. So, Im turning Google+ comments back on. I really enjoyed the increased comments.
While doing this, Im not looking to exclude anyone. So, if you find that youre not able to comment because you dont have a Google account, please email me. If I find that Google+ comments is causing problems, or disenfranchising my audience, I will turn them off again. As far as Im concerned the increased conversation is nice, but not at the expense of others ability to comment.
So please, if you find the Google+ comments a problem, let me know. Otherwise, please join in the conversation.

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Andys Intro To Sculpted Furniture

I think that sculpted furniture is a pinnacle of design and comfort. Andy Chidwick is a master of the form.

Three of Andys wonderfully sculpted chairs.

While I was reviewing Todd Clippingers American Craftsman Workshop site for my recent Updated Woodworking Blogs post, I came across Todds post, New Woodworking Article  by Andy Chidwick.

It features Andys recent article in Woodworker West. The article is (as it sounds) a great primer to making sculpted furniture. You need to check it out before you make your next piece.

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N?1 Spiers Dovetail Plane

This post has written by Vittorio Thinking of metal planes I often think to Stewart Spiers

I like much the side profile and handles, so I searched for a model; I found it on the Handplane Central website, so I adapted the draw for a 2 inches blade and tried to building the plane.

I used Fe 430 steel bars (5x70mm) for sole and sides, joined the two sides in three points by countersunk screws (in this choice the screws do not interfere while the pieces are clamped in the vice) and cut the tails.

  The mouth is opened by boring it with a 3 mm tip, hack saw blade and a 2,5 mm file. I obtained two angles, one of 47° (seat angle) and the other of 45° (wear angle).

The blade support (47°) is fixed by 3 iron rivets (dia. 6,5 mm)

The sole is prepared for jointing and the classical Spiers profile is cut. Beautiful but a little bit laborious.

Sanding by 80 grit abrasive paper (sides are screwed to a piece of wood)

During the tail peening, if joints are precise, 2 mm of extra length are enough, otherwise 3 mm are necessary for closing all gaps. 

Lever cap: I could not imitate the original because had not a model; however the job was acceptable for me.

The chipbreaker showed some rusted areas, so I sanded it (80 and 120 grit) and created the profile for a good adherence to blade at cutting edge.

The Sorby blade is 2" wide parallel iron (from e-bay); 25° bevel, 30° microbevel.

The cap iron screw (M8, 16 mm head) was built by welding together a rectangular nut with a screwed rod. 

Bun and handle are ash wood, stained and treated with shellac. Read More..

New stain and poly testing

As I mentioned in my previous post I bought some new stain so I tried it out last night.  I bought a couple of little cans of polyurethane when I did my first ever stain and poly job on my sons step stool.  I have a little can of Minwax Oil-Modified poly that I used on the step stool and a Varathane water based poly.  Since I am using a water based stain I figured that I would try the water based poly too.
The seat and shelves really warped when I cut down the 1x10 to size so now the dividers dont fit correctly.  They are sitting on the crown in the middle and dont touch at the front or back so I decided to glue and tack in some supports on the sides.  I am using the dividers since they are sanded down to 120 grit like everything else.  I am going to sand one more of them to 220 grit to test more staining.  When I stained the step stool it was only sanded to 120 and I was really happy with the choice it turned out.

I put supports in for the shelves just to play it safe.  I apllied glue and then just tacked them in with 1.25" brads in my nail gun.

I flooded the sample with stain and let it sit for 10 minutes.

The piece on the left is the one I flooded with a brush and let sit for 10 minutes.  The one on the right I apllied the stain with a rag and just worked it in for a few seconds and then wiped right off again.  It is a little liighter and less blotchy.

This is with 1 light coat of the Varathane water based poly.  The directions on the can of stain said that I could apply poly after 1 hour.  I waited 1.25 hours and put it on at 11:45 PM.

I lightly sanded the pieces down with 220 and then wiped them down with a clean towel and then a tack cloth.

Second coat of poly apllied at 8:20 am.

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More Stools pt3

• Part 1
• Part 2

Ok ... next comes the leg bracing for our stools. Each stool will have a lap jointed brace across each pair of opposing legs (Ill call it a side brace) and a longer single brace that runs down the center that is lap jointed into the side braces. Make sense?.... Hmn... maybe better explained in pictures.

First, the lap joint sockets need to be marked in the legs.

After marking out using the knife and being careful to get the complimentary 10 degree splay angle in the correct direction, I pared the cut lines with a chisel, before making three cuts per socket to help allow the waste to be easily removed with a chisel.

Two stools with four legs each, times three cuts per leg equals twenty four cuts to be made just for half a lap joint. What seems like an easy process seems to take me a lot longer than I think it will. Its easy to kill a few hours and not achieve an awful lot of progress...

Using the vice to hold the stock flush with my marking lines, I used the smaller chisel to remove most of one side of the socket to the center.

Then I flipped the work piece around to do the other side.

Then used the large chisel places directly in the baseline, using the vice jaws to keep the chisel face flat.

Finally finishing off by hand and paring achoice any roughness.

Now it was back to the bench hook to cut four lengths of wood, two braces per stool.

I placed the square braces directly into the sockets in the legs and marked out the joints to be cut with the seat top attached using a pencil. It was nice to see the pencil marks agreeing with both my square and bevel gauge almost exactly, meaning my joints must be acceptable and the stool is remaining pretty square.

Its actually starting to look a bit like a stool... The center brace (just sitting in place in the picture above) is nice and straight forward with the joints cut at a sensible 90 degrees and therefore there is no messing around with bevel gauges. A couple of minutes center finding using dividers, some squared lines with the knife and a few strokes of the saw and a bit of chisel work later ...

We have a stool! On my previous stool I cut the center brace flush with the side braces, but this time I thought I would try and make a feature of the end grain of the center brace which in turn will result in a stronger joint. In fact, even without any glue I was able to sit on the stool - albeit very carefully!
So ... Now repeat all the above for the other stool. *Sigh* I kind of wish I had done one stool at a time now as the progress would have been a lot faster. Its surprising how much time it takes to build such a simple little project.

Still to do:

• Bevel and smooth all the edges and surfaces.
• Dry fit and final trimming of joinery, before glue up.
• Flush cut all the joints and trim the legs to match the splay angle so the feet sit square.
• Sand and finish.

Stay tuned...

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MWA Podcast 33 Paul Limiski

MWA Podcast Episode 33 - Paul Lemiski (57:55)

Download the MP3

Date: July 1, 2013

By: Chris Adkins, Dyami Plotke, Tom Iovino

Description: Join us for this episode with Paul Lemiski. For more information on Paul, show notes, and the Modern Woodworkers Association visit http://modernwoodworkersassociation.com

Show notes:What’s in the shop?

• Chris
• Chris’ shop is filled with his household goods as he paints and carpets his home.
• Dyami
• Dad’s Benchtop Bench
• Tom
• 2x4 challenge

• Blog post that piqued our interest
• Infinity tool Works Lock Miter Jig
• Peter Has Dividers
• By Hand And Eye

• Main topic
• Paul Lemiski of Canadian Woodworks
• Where did you learn it? What got you into making sculpted furniture?
• learned from Hal Taylor
• 5 Questions

1. how did you get into woodworking?
1. High School Shop Teacher
2. whats your favorite tool?
1. Kutzall or Festool RO150
3. who has influenced you the most?
1. Sam Maloof
4. What was your biggest stumbling block & could it have been avoided?
1. Starts many projects simultaneously. Juggling them is hard.
5. How has the internet influenced your work?
1. The influence has been very important.
2. Working without influence has been

• Next broadcast’s topic
• Special Guest, Wilbur Pan of giantcypress.net
• So long as he’s not called into the hospital

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Throwing Axes At Unisaws With Roy Underhill

This episode was too good not to re-post.Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast 40.

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2013 April Shop Tour

March proved a productive month in the shop. The April Shop Tour finally shows some progress.

Since the March tour, Ive managed to get back to working on the shop and youll see that the back wall is finally finished.

Since the April tour video was filmed, Ive actually finished that last piece in the corner. The May tour may even include some electric work.

After 2 tries, it finally fit!

Did you get much done in your shop in March?

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