Roycroftian Repair

Catch up
This is a project I started from quartersawn white oak scraps about three years ago. However, I got involved in other things, so it has been bouncing around in storage getting slightly damaged during the interim. I took it out to inspect it and start the finishing process; aka actually completing the piece.

This is from “More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture” by Robert Lange. The Little Journey’s Bookstand was originally made by Roycroft to to hold a set of books called “Little Journey’s”. (I have a set of the books now… thanks to ebay).

I used the project to prepare for making a large dining table that is not finished yet either. This was the first time I cut through mortises and angled through mortises. For a small project there is a lot of hand work, 16 though-mortises, besides the eight housed mortise and tenon joints. I also hand chamfered the tenon ends. I drew out a full size pattern for the foot.

Figure Faults
Time for inspection. I still liked the overall piece and most of the wood selection. The top in particular I remember book matching.

I was not very happy with my some of the workwork. At the time I built this, I had only been woodworking for about a year.

Here were some of the problems…

The tenons were too deep to cut out with a tablesaw, So I cut them on the bandsaw, freehand. Unfortunately I nicked the actual shelf.

You can also see that the shoulder is not sitting flush to the leg.

Also seen here…

Corrections
A new friend who is also a pro woodworker came by and I was showing him some of the problems I found in thei piece. He gave me a bit of good advice to fix the bandsaw nick. “Trim the entire shelf,” he said. He then gave me a great reminder that it is often easier to have an offset than to try to get parts flush.

So yesterday I knocked down the project and began by trimming both shelves.

I then decided that I now had the knowledge and skills to better square the tenon shoulders along the ends of the shelf.
I used a crosscut sled to square the shoulders closest to the shelf edges. I should have done that the first time!
(no pic)

Then to handle the middle section (between the tenons), I clamped on a straight edge t-square and got out the flush trim bit.

I routed the middle section flush staying away from the tenons.

I chiseled the corners clean.

Since I had changed the tenon depth, I had to recut some of the trough mortices deeper.

I have a few more to go, but was very pleased with the repairs so far. Check out the fit of the shelf shoulders now….

Next up
A few more mortises and re-sanding.

Good neighbors

The Trade
On Wed. Night I did a talk for my neighborhood association’s general meeting on our house restoration and my furniture projects. I talked in length about using recycled wood.

Afterwards a neighbor contacted me and offered some wood that had been stored in his garage for 20 years. At the time that he bought it, it was milled from old growth fir.
I took home a small stash of fir, including a few 12” wide boards…

and a 7/8” thick, 14 footer.

Hmmmmm. possibilities…

In return

He asked if I could help him with reproduce some shoe molding that had been missing from his house for 20 years. He seems pretty meticulous about records and had a sample scrap of the original molding. I was expecting something with a radius and was surprised to see a simple little beveled molding.

I found some of my nice recycled stock and planed it down to a matching 1”height.

I used the sample to set the blade at six degrees to cut the bevel

I needed a way to rip away the edge of the board at a consistent 3/8” so I made a little jig consisting of my miter guage with a feeler block clamped to it.

I set the sample piece against the blade, touched the feeler to it,and then clamped it in place.

Then I set the fence using the jig. (I saw a variant of this in a youtube video.

I ripped the stock and dropped it off to a happy neighbor. He just e-mailed me to offer some 6×6’s..

I’m gonna need a bigger rack.

How to make a pushstick

Here is a sample of the types of videos I have been making for lumberjocks. How to make a pushstick (a tablesaw essential).

Join in and make one

Woodworking Gallery

Very cool feature from lumberjocks. My woodworking projects projected as a 3d gallery. Check it out. http://lumberjocks.com/galleries/gizmodyne Also join Lumberjocks if you have any interest in woodworking.

Dishwasher Panel Progress

Testing on the machine
Originally uploaded by gizmodyne

I am 3/4 of the way through making a custom panel to fit my dishwasher. It is made of recycled douglas fir beams.

I blog most of the construction details at my woodworking blog:

Hope to finish it up this week and get it installed this weekend.

Restoration History 5: Birdhouses for everyone

This is not exactly a restoration story. But it explains a bit about how we approach the madness of our house and our interest in woodworking.

Birdhouse (c. 2002)

I was always a little interested in woodworking. We had also started shopping for furniture and seen how expensive it was. Around the house I had built a fence and a small garden bench but nothing major.

At a garden store one day, we saw a cute little bird house for around $25.

“I bet I can make that,” I said. One fence board and some extra paint later….

2003

I set up a tiny shop in the basement, but I was about to quit woodworking after destroying a small bookend project by drilling agressively. That was when I decided to take a class. Best woodworking decision ever. The commute was hellish and the class was tiring: a two hour drive after work with rush hour traffic, and then four hours of woodworking till ten. Luckily Kris came too.

During this time I bought my first router and a table saw to work on projects at home. My father-in-law had given me a starter jigsaw and circular saw and I had a cheap plane or two. Kristin didn’t yell at me when I bought the table saw and even let me keep it in the living room for about six months.

I built the red blue chair too during this time.

Bigger Birdhouse

We were starting to have some serious storage issues. Did I mention we had no garage? Then I decided to build a shed one night.
I got a book,got a rafter square to measure our house's roof pitch, altered the drawings to match, and... here it is.

The foundation is built of pressure treated wood on cement blocks. The most time consuming part for me was cutting the rafters and the shingle work. I bought the window at a salvage yard and learned to reglaze it after breaking the glass while building a jam. The door is tongue and groove cedar with a z-brace to hold it together. 8'x"8 foot dimensions overall.