The Rest of the Beginning

You may remember the front of this cabinet from my post The Beginning from way back in December in which I created the door with a cherry tree motif using a bolection inlay technique which left the branches and blossoms lightly proud of the surface.

I started the rest of the cabinet by designing it using SketchUp, I continued the wood combination from the door, cherry for the sides, walnut for the shelves and the top/bottom, curly maple for the drawer and the back.

The box is joined with finger joints to highlight the contrasting woods, the shelves are let into the sides with dadoes. The back is 1/4 inch birch plywood with curly maple veneer. The drawer is curly maple with a 1 inch hole for a pull.

I used a 1/2 inch quarter round bit on the inside edge of the hinge side of the door then used a 1/4 inch brass rod attached from the top and the bottom as a pivot hinge. I used a cove bit to route a handle into the free side to keep the lines clean and simple. The door rests inside the edge of the top and bottom letting the walnut frame the door.

The finish is as simple as it comes, a few coats of Watco Danish Oil, Natural, followed by a rubbing with paste wax. I installed a french cleat to the back of the cabinet and attached it to the wall that way. I've very happy with the way this came out. I enjoy making Stickley, Limbert, and Greene & Green reproductions but sometimes it's really nice to design something yourself and see it come to life.

It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.
J. R. R. Tolkien

Limbert #366 Bookcase Finished

The last couple of weekends I spent most of my time finishing the Limbert bookcase, if you're not familiar with my finishing process check out my post on it here. It takes a few days to complete with drying time in between, so while I was waiting I was working on my Shaker table for The Woodwhisperer Guild March Woodworkers Fighting Cancer build. It was kind of nice having two projects going on at the same time, if I got bored with sanding I could switch over to tapering the legs of the table, if I didn't have much time I could work on the drawer. I decided to go with a medium brown finish for the bookcase so I started with medium brown dye and I used brown Mahogany gel stain for the over stain. I took the time to finish the backing plywood prior to attaching it to the back of the case with 1/2 inch staples to allow for any wood movement.
Once the dark wax was mostly dry I had a friend help me carry it into the house, all that quartersawn white oak is heavy. After letting the wax cure overnight I couldn't wait to set up my vintage Kodak camera collection on the top and fill the bookcase with my woodworking and photography books that have been piled on my dining room table for months. Then I decompressed some of my other bookcases leaving me with a whole empty shelf to expand in to.
I was very happy with the way this project came together, I started with just some pictures and measurements, used Sketchup to make them into a workable plan and went on from there. One detail that I didn't cover in my
previous posts is the bevel on the edge of the adjustable shelves, its a nice little touch that you can see in the pictures or some of the antiques. I created the bevel the same way I did on the top of the Shaker table, I adjusted the angle of my tablesaw to 12.5 degrees and set the fence 1/2 inch away from the blade. Using a tall fence and a magnetic featherboard I carefully moved the shelves vertically past the blade. Cuts like this almost always leave burn marks so a little clean up with a low angle smoothing plane was in order. Every time I make something I learn something new, sometimes something big, sometimes something small, I noticed with this bookcase sitting near my last one that my sanding and finishing have improved. I learned on this one that it is easier to finish a bookcase with the back not attached, a lot easier.

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Limbert #234 Tabourette, Part 1

My neighbor asked me to make her an end table and a coffee table in the arts and crafts style to go in her bungalow. I showed her some of the completed pieces in my house and she was drawn more to the Limbert style. I did some more research in my books and online and came up with this little tabourette as an end table, I showed her the pictures and described my idea for a coffee table that would compliment the design of the end table. Coffee tables weren't a part of American homes in the 1900's but I took a Limbert cocktail table and lowered it and changed it some to make it a coffee table, more on that in a later post.

In previous posts I have described my method of scaling plans from pictures but luckily I was able to find descriptions of this table along with dimensions, which are 16"x16"x18" tall. These relate to the widest measurements, the top which will be square. From this and the photos I came up with the dimensions in the picture at the left.

Using Google Sketchup I created a model of the table along with dimensioned elevations, I was also able to look at the components and come up with construction details such as how to connect the sides.

After removing the stock from the clamps and trimming it to size I took this template I made up from the plan above and marked out the areas to be cut out. After removing the bulk of the waste with a jigsaw for the cut outs and the bandsaw for the bottom I carefully aligned the template to the inside of each side piece and screwed it in place. Using a template like this for routing is always good, you can attach it with double sided tape or if piece has a hidden side you can just screw the template to the stock. I used a 1/2 inch pattern cutting bit in the router table to give the cutouts the proper radius at the corners. After this I cut a 45 degree miter on each side of the side pieces.

What followed was some sanding and a little hand work on the cutouts then I glued the miters together using the miter cutoffs as glue blocks a little time cooking in the clamps while I sanded the top. A final sanding on everything inside and out and attaching the top with figure 8 table irons, a little more touch up sanding and a cleaning finished up this project for the weekend and now all that is left if finishing. My neighbor looked at the finish samples that I keep and picked the middle range of the five I have so when I start on the finish I just turn over the sample and the "recipe" is written on the back. For more on my arts and crafts finish and a look at the samples see this post.

" Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

Limbert Tables in SketchUp

I received a couple of emails and comments on scaling the images to create templates for the two Limbert tables I recently posted as SketchUp plans. The first step is to click on each of the pictures to get the larger view, save these to your computer and print them as large as you can. You will notice that the drawing is on a grid, this grid is 1x1 inch. Take a piece of poster board and draw a 1x1 inch grid on it, you can buy poster board with a ghost grid 1/2 x 1/2 inch printed already. Next scale the drawing by transferring the corner points and some guide points for the curve onto the poster board. Connect the dots and you have an outline of the side of the table you want to create as a template. Cut it out and trace it onto a piece of plywood or MDF, cut the template out on a bandsaw and clean up the lines and you have a perfect template to use to create the sides of either or both tables. I hope that this helps.

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows." ~Buddha

Limbert #240 Lamp Table part 2

While I am a huge fan of Robert Lang's Shop Drawings series of books I have found that there can be differences in his shop drawings and some photos of the antiques that I find on the Internet. These differences may well be design or process changes between runs of the furniture. As an avid searcher for pictures of details or original Arts and Crafts furniture I often find details that I prefer better than the one described in Mr. Lang's books. One of these differences is the top cross piece on this table. To your left is a photo I found of an original Limbert #240 Lamp Table, notice the cross braces holding on the top. In Mr. Lang's More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture he calls for four small corbels that match the end of these cross braces. While certainly adequate to hold the top in place I found when I previously built this piece a few years ago that I was less than happy with the final result. I found this picture on EBay where it was listed as an original and indeed had the original stamp of Limbert. Most pictures I've found on antique auction sites show the table from the front and top not showing any of the details. While this may be great for selling the piece it isn't as satisfying for a woodworker that wants to turn it over and see how its made. That is what makes this on of my favorite pictures, apart for the beautiful antique sitting on gravel and leaning on a concrete curb, yikes!
As a result I measured out and made these cross braces for my version of the table. The ends match the curve drawn out by Mr. Lang. I cut 2 pieces of 7/8 inch thick stock 2 inches wide and 18 inches long. After cutting a halflap joint in both pieces I transferred the template of the curve to the wood and cut it out on the bandsaw, I cleaned it up on the oscillating spindle sander and by hand. I then went to the dryfit of the sides and measured the exact distance across the top where the braces will sit. I then transferred the angle of the sides to the stock and cut out the dado on the tablesaw by adjusting the miter gauge, in this case 3 degrees, and sneaking up on the lines then nibbling away at the dado while checking fit with a scrap block. After making all the cuts I could at this angle I moved the miter gauge to the other side of zero to 3 degrees and repeated on the other dados. I tested the fit on the dryfit sides. To my great surprise everything fit and lined up, with just a few light taps with a deadblow the cross braces locked into place on the top of the table.

I cut the tabletop to 20 inches square and marked out 3 inch radius rounds on the corners. I cut the corners on the bandsaw and cleaned it up on the disc sander. Taking everything apart I sanded all the parts to 150 grit and left it for the weekend.

This week while stuck in a hotel overnight for work I pulled up Sketchup and decided to give drawing this table a shot. I have been working on learning Sketchup but it has been a slow process, one reason is that I don't work on it very often, the other is that I'm working on my laptop and had not been using a mouse. I picked up a wireless wheel mouse as recommended to me by many Sketchup guru's and success. Here is a model of this table that I have posted on The WoodWhisperer forum. I did this from memory not having the book with me but after making the jigs, templates and pieces I was very familiar with the measurements. I would suggest using the model to see how it goes together and not for the exact measurements, for that pick up Robert Lang's book More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture.

The project is sitting on my assembly table waiting to be glued up this week and start the finishing process this weekend. This is a really fun project, and while there are no tenons or ebony plugs its beautiful in its lines and curves. Use the sketchup model to take it apart and see how everything goes together, you can learn a lot about how to make a piece by doing this. I'll still do my designing with paper and pencil as it is faster for me and I can let my ideas flow and work them out in my head, but for complicated designs like this one I'll virtually build it and refine it on the computer. Besides, it gives me something to do when stuck out of town in a hotel.

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Wedged Through Tenon

The wedged through tenon is another type of through tenon used in Arts and Crafts Furniture. The process for making the mortise is much the same as the previous post, except that once you get the mortise on the bench to clean it up you must flair the outside ends of the mortise out about one eighth of an inch. This will allow the tenon to be spread by driving a couple of wedges into it, this gives the joint holding power against being pulled back through the mortise. Once the mortise is ready and the tenon is cut you need to drill a hole about a quarter of an inch from the shoulders of the tenon, this will keep the split in the tenon from spreading once the wedges are driven in. The next step is to make a cut from the end of the tenon down to the hole.

You should now cut wedges that are the width of the tenon, they should be just a little longer than the relief cut on the tenon and just a little wider than the slope you cut in the mortise. I prefer to use a contrasting wood as the wedges are an important part of the exposed joinery, but make sure that you are using a hard wood. Since I use quartersawn white oak I usually make my wedges out of wenge or ebony.

The tenon can then be set in the mortise with a coat of glue on the faces and shoulders of the tenon. You must be ready to move along because you have a limited amount of open time with the glue. Start one wedge in the relief cut a quarter of an inch then start the other wedge, using a small block to protect the wedges gently tap them in a little at a time, alternating one then the other. You should end up with an equal amount showing on each wedge when you are finished. Don't attempt to pound them in flush, once them stop moving stop hammering, otherwise you will break the wedge off inside the mortise. Once the glue has dried carefully trim off the excess wedge material and sand flush. You now have a very strong joint that is beautiful as well, a joint that is an integral part of your arts and crafts piece, rather than being hidden its there for the world to see, to celebrate the craftsman that took the time to create it.

Gustav Stickley's motto was "Als Ik kan" it translates from the German to "As I Can", or, more to the point, "To the best of my Ability". , a worthy goal for us all.

The Through Tenon

The through tenon is probably the most important joint in the Arts and Crafts Style. One of the hallmarks of the style is that structural elements are used as decoration since the use of non-essential applied element are not used. Hence the use of of joinery elements to add a detail of interest to the piece of furniture. The through tenon can be cut flush with the surface and wedged, it can be left long and tusked, or in this example, camfered. The mortise is extended completely through the piece and the tenon is extended to protrude and then camfered to soften the edges. You will find this joint on everything from Morris Chairs to small cabinets, the example I'm working with here is from a Stickley small tabouret #603.

I am learning to use Google Sketch-Up, its a free 3-D design and drafting tool you can find here, http://sketchup.google.com/, so I thought I'd give drawing up this joint.

The first thing I did was to draw the leg, 20" tall, 1 1/2"x1 1/2" square. I added the Mortise 4" from the bottom, 1/2"x2".

I made the stretcher 16 1/2" long, 2 1/2"x1", with tenons 1 3/4"x1/2", this done I added an 1/8" chamfer around the end of the tenon.

I combined the two pieces and put a peg through to hold the tenon in place. Now, this seems pretty easy and straight forward, but I have to admit that it took me longer to draw this out in Sketch-Up than it did to make the real through mortise. I spent many hours watching videos on the design, click, build blog at fine woodworking, and reading the posts there, I also spent a lot time at the Google Sketch-Up site.

Today it was time to make some sawdust and really make a trough tenon and mortise, I broke out my plan for the Stickley small tabouret and gathered some 8/4 quartersawn white oak and some 5/4 quartersawn white oak, luckily I had some cut-offs from previous projects so I didn't get into my inventory. As many of you know I build almost everything in quartersawn white oak so I keep a couple of hundred boardfeet of the stuff around.

The first thing I did was to plane the 8/4 stock down to 1 1/2", next I ripped 1 1/2" legs and cut them to 20". After marking the location of the mortises on the best faces of the legs I used my wheel marking gauge to mark the sides of the mortises and also to score a line into the face to help minimize tear out. You could also use a marking gauge or just a square and a knife.

Whatever method you use, the goal is to define the edges of the mortise on the outside face so you can start the cut from here instead of from the inside face like you would in a ordinary mortise.

There are many methods and techniques used to cut mortises, I'm not going to go into each one, just tell you the method that I have learned to be the most efficient for me. I use a hollow chisel mortiser to cut the mortises first, then I will fit the tenons to the mortises. I line up the marked location with the chisel in my mortiser and run a test cut in some of the cut-off from the leg stock. Once I'm happy with the set-up I can quickly and easily knock out the mortises on all four legs.

You can see in this picture that the chisel travelled all the way through the leg, I use a sacrificial scrap under the leg to protect it from blow-out. This leaves you with a pretty good mortise, but you still need to take it to the bench and smooth it out with a sharp chisel, this shouldn't take much more than a little paring and smoothing.

I took a few minutes to mark out the tenon on a cross stretcher so that I could set up the table saw. I raised the blade to pass through the line of the tenon and used the miter gauge's stop so that the blade would pass right at the shoulder line. I cut the shoulders on all four sides of all four legs.

Next I used the cheek cut to adjust the blade so that the blade passes just inside the cut without hitting the shoulder. I adjust the tenon jig by eye, close to, but not on the line. I know that this cut will be fat, but close, after cutting both sides I test it in the mortise. By eye I decide how much over the tenon is and adjusted the jig accordingly. I find that I can get dead on using this method in just a few cuts. This way is much more accurate and less likely to leave you with a skinny tenon than trying to measure it and setting the jig right off.

With the correct width set I cut all of the tenons and take them to the bandsaw to make the edge cheek cut, I set the fence at the correct distance and run all the stretchers through.

I like to leave my tenons a hair wide then take a couple of swipes off each side of the face cheeks with a shoulder plane this lets me get a fit that's snug, but not so tight that you have to force the tenon through the mortise.

Once the tenon is in place I like to check the extra length and mark it at the face of the leg so that the chamfer doesn't protrude into the leg.

I like to remove the material on the disk sander with the table tilted down to 45 degrees. You could use a block plane but be careful as this tends to have a little blowout since you are planing end grain.

The complete through mortise and tenon with chamfer, this is just a dry fit of course. When the cuts are finished for the table and everything is sanded I'll spread glue on the inside half of the tenon and on the shoulders and knock them in place. Once the glue is dry I'll drill a 3/8" hole through the center, careful not to blow out the other side of the leg and hammer a walnut dowel through with a little glue inside the hole. I'll cut the dowels flush and sand them smooth. The dowel adds another decorative element to the joint and helps to hold the joint tight if you have any shrinkage in the stretcher. I will complete the table in future posts and have more posts that focus on the joinery that is used in Arts and Crafts furniture.

Limbert Umbrella Stand part 3, finish line in sight

It's time to finish this Umbrella stand. Now, I've been finishing arts and crafts style furniture for some time, and when I Started it was as simple as it gets, much like every woodworker in the beginning, stain and Poly. As I learned more about the style and wood finishing the technique progressed. I progressed to a danish oil and thought that I was saving time and effort only to find that the finished product was less than satisfactory. Then I came across several articles on creating an arts and crafts finish, these included everything from ammonia fuming to using roofing tar as part of the finish. What I landed on as my go to finish is a multipart process of a water based dye, a sealing coat of shellac, a dark gel stain, a few coats of thicker shellac, with a layer or two of wax to give the piece that antique feel.

I finish sanded to umbrella stand to 150 grit using a random orbit sander followed by hand block sanding. After blowing off the piece with compressed air I use a microfiber tack cloth to further clean the sanding dust from the grain. I have samples of quartersawn white oak that I have sanded and finished with different base colors and using these I decided that I wanted this umbrella stand to have a darker base than my chair and sofa, so I start with a medium brown dye diluted in water. Using a foam brush I flood the surface of the piece with the dye and let it soak in for ten minutes. If I see any areas that are under saturated I add some dye to these areas. After about 10 minutes I use a clean dry rag to wipe off excess dye and to dry the surface. I place the piece on supports to hold it off the table so that air can get to all sides of the stand. I found out the hard way that if you don't do this than the excess dye pools up on the tarp and wicks up from the bottom and discolors the base of the piece. I leave it to dry for a few days.

Once the piece has completely dried you need to lightly sand off any grain that has been raised by the water based dye. You could mix the dye in denatured alcohol to prevent grain raising but it has been shown that alcohol based dyes tend to fade over time. I use 220 grit sandpaper on a sanding block to eliminate any grain that has been raised making sure not to cut to deeply into the dye and not to lighten the edges too much. Once this is done I again use compressed air and a microfiber tack cloth to clean the piece.

I make a nice tight pad out of lint free t-shirt material and wipe on a sealing coat of shellac, this has been thinned to a 1lb. cut. (more on shellac cuts and the whole finishing technique in a future post) After this dries I give it a light rubbing with a 320 grit yellow sanding pad followed by wiping down with the microfiber tack cloth.

Now its time to add the real color, the base color will only be really visible on the ray flakes. I use brown mahogany gel stain, this stain will act as a coloring glaze for the main body and darker coloring into the grain. I use a foam brush to cover the surface with the gel stain, I only do one part at a time because there is a fine line between just right and too dry, if the gel stain gets too dry it will be very difficult to wipe off. When the surface of the gel starts to "flash", that is, starts to look dull, I use another clean soft lint free rag to wipe the gel off and rub it into the grain. This is what gives the finish the "hand rubbed" look, I rub with the grain to remove most of the stain, then across and in circles to rub it into the grain. I make sure that there are no blotches left, the gel stain if left to long resembles paint. After rubbing the surface until the cloth doesn't pick up any color I leave the piece to air and dry overnight.

The left side rubbed out, the right side just the base dye.









After rubbing out the gel stain.

The following day I wipe off any dust that fell on the stand overnight. Taking a 2lb cut of amber shellac I rub on two layers. One of the beauties of shellac is that you don't have to rub out the surface between coats, the denatured alcohol in the mixture melts the surface of the previous layer. Another nice thing is that if for some reason you do get a run or drip, you can take a cloth soaked in denatured alcohol and dissolve it. Once everything is dry and I'm happy with the build of the shellac and the finish, I wipe on a coat of watco dark liquid wax. I use dark wax because of the grainy nature of the white oak, if I had used light wax, once dry it would leave white residue in the grain that would detract from the beauty of the finish. Letting the wax sit for 30 minutes I then wipe the piece with a clean cloth and wipe on another coat of wax let stand, and wipe the surface clean for the final time.

After placing felt pads on the bottom to protect my hardwood floor the Limbert #254 umbrella stand is ready to replace that old umbrella stand that I never really was happy with. Now I am one piece closer to filling my house with handmade high quality furniture.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." William Morris

Limbert Umbrella Stand part 2, bottoms up.

Well I had come up with a way to fit the bottom along with the copper drip pan, but as they say about the best laid plans....
I did have some nice copper left over, but apparently I had used it last spring to make a guard for my bluebird house to keep the local snakes and rats out. What I had left was not wide enough to suit the purpose. Luckily, I had some copper left over from a clock face I made, this is much thinner and not good enough for a drip pan, however I could make a wood bottom and cover it in this thinner copper after its finished. From the original photos I decided that the bottom should be half way between the two cutouts. This came out to 3 inches above the base of the side. I installed the dado blade into my tablesaw at a width of 3/4 of an inch and set it at 4 degrees and 1/4 inch at the lowest. I moved my fence over to the left side of the blade and ran all four sides through.

Before I left the shop the other day I glued up a piece for the bottom, today I cut it at 10 1/4 inches square. I didn't think sending this small piece through the planer was a good idea so I got out my trusty Stanley No. 4 and took a few swipes across the board until it fit snugly but not tightly. Sometimes a well tuned hand plane works faster, and better, that a planer. The added plus is that I can keep listening to Woodtalk while I'm doing it.

The bottom slid nicely into the dado's, with just a little whack from a small dead blow hammer it fit perfectly.

I added the other two sides and checked the fit of the miters along the length. The fit was good and the bottom fit well, so one final sanding of the inside and it was time to glue it up. With a good covering of glue along the miters and inside the dado's I slipped the sides on one at a time making sure that the bottom was centered in the dado.



With some blue tape around the feet and the middle I stood up the umbrella stand. I used two 90 degree clamping blocks at the top to insure squareness and added a few clamps to hold the joints tight while the glue dried. Then I added a few more clamps, then a few more.... I wasn't really pulling the joints together as much as holding the sides tight so the opposing clamps didn't push them out.







I left it to dry overnight and this morning removed the clamps and gave the outside a good sanding to 150 grit with a random orbital sander and then touched up the edges with a sanding block also using 150 grit. The results were fantastic, I am really happy about how this is coming along. If you look at the picture below you can see inside the cutouts to the bottom. I think that I will use the thin copper to cover it after I'm done finishing it.