We've all heard Norm's boilerplate at the beginning of every episode of New Yankee Workshop: "read.. know.. safety glasses", etc. They're common sense "givens". I won't belabor them by repeating them here.
But every shop owner has acquired his own set of lessons from "life experience" and I thought I'd share some of mine. Some are safety tips but some are productivity ideas.
shop
My Personal Top Eight Shop Tips (learned the hard way)
Submitted by Steve on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 11:47pm
3 commentsGot a shop? You need this stuff!
Submitted by Steve on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 10:52pm
Last weekend, my boss and I made the trek to the annual NJ Woodworking Show. Jeb has a pretty nice woodworking shop but his passion is car and motorcycle restoration. He's done several old bikes -- Velocettes and Moto Guzzis -- but his current project is a 1955 Land Rover. The Rover looked like it had been parked at the bottom of a river for the last fifty years but after two years he's nearing paint and finish, which means he needed supplies, which means we both needed to hit the show.
I've been looking for a decent steel tool deck cleaner for a couple of years. Nothing I've tried worked much better than WD40, #00 steel wool and carnuba wax. Jeb told me that he'd had good results with Boeshield and, sure enough, we found it at the show. It's expensive but it was worth a try.
I've been looking for a decent steel tool deck cleaner for a couple of years. Nothing I've tried worked much better than WD40, #00 steel wool and carnuba wax. Jeb told me that he'd had good results with Boeshield and, sure enough, we found it at the show. It's expensive but it was worth a try.
Add new commentNew Stained Glass Projects
Submitted by Steve on Tue, 12/11/2007 - 10:09pm
I have several stained glass tasks in the queue here. Some, like the upper cabinet doors in the living room media cabinet, have been on hold since 2003. Others, like the funky stairway skylight, I've wanted to replace since the day I first saw the place.
While stained glass construction is fairly mechanical and basically just woodworking joinery using glass and lead came, the design, templating and piecing out can be very time consuming. Most of the glass I've done here is fairly simple and angular to match the existing stained glass. But I wanted something a bit more ornamental for these new projects.
The delay is mostly because I suck at drawing. I can muddle my way through Photoshop if I have to and I've even built a few nice web page banners using "creative appropriation" of assets conceived by others. Change a few lines, overlay a mask or two, morph a few elements and, poof, it's mine. Derivative art.
While stained glass construction is fairly mechanical and basically just woodworking joinery using glass and lead came, the design, templating and piecing out can be very time consuming. Most of the glass I've done here is fairly simple and angular to match the existing stained glass. But I wanted something a bit more ornamental for these new projects.
The delay is mostly because I suck at drawing. I can muddle my way through Photoshop if I have to and I've even built a few nice web page banners using "creative appropriation" of assets conceived by others. Change a few lines, overlay a mask or two, morph a few elements and, poof, it's mine. Derivative art.
Stripping a Door: Part 1
Submitted by Steve on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:41pm
The prologue of this story is an old door that needed to be stripped. I brought in my amateur stripper, Doc Karen, to serve as my photo model for this two part pictorial. Even anesthesiologists have to moonlight to make ends meet these days <grin>.
I was gratified that she took our tutorial seriously enough to wear her surgical scrubs (mismatched as they were). I guess that makes me "House".
Karen's own house is full of painted architectural woodwork so she wanted to learn how the paint stripping process worked. Since it's her door now I was only too happy to hand her the tools and take my position behind the camera, tucking an occasional dollar bill in her rubber glove and yelling, "Take it all off, baby!" until she threatened to beat me stupid.
The first thing she did was get the door in a comfortable working position on a pair of sawhorses. Whenever possible, try to remove the woodwork and get it horizontal. This applies to baseboards and casings too. If you don't, you'll know why this is a good idea about twenty minutes into working with a heavy heat gun. These things ain't hair dryers.
Karen prepped the area so she would have the tools and supplies she needed when she needed them. I told her it was probably a lot like what they do before one of her operations. This is less important at the heat gun stage than it is when you start with the chemicals. Get all your scrapers and brushes together. Lay a plastic garbage bag on a convenient nearby surface where you can set down your grungy tools when the phone rings. Place a 40-gallon garbage can within arm's length and have a spare bag ready. Pre-rip a lot of paper towels into a pile. It's hard to do that while wearing heavy gloves.
I was gratified that she took our tutorial seriously enough to wear her surgical scrubs (mismatched as they were). I guess that makes me "House".
Karen's own house is full of painted architectural woodwork so she wanted to learn how the paint stripping process worked. Since it's her door now I was only too happy to hand her the tools and take my position behind the camera, tucking an occasional dollar bill in her rubber glove and yelling, "Take it all off, baby!" until she threatened to beat me stupid.
The first thing she did was get the door in a comfortable working position on a pair of sawhorses. Whenever possible, try to remove the woodwork and get it horizontal. This applies to baseboards and casings too. If you don't, you'll know why this is a good idea about twenty minutes into working with a heavy heat gun. These things ain't hair dryers.
Karen prepped the area so she would have the tools and supplies she needed when she needed them. I told her it was probably a lot like what they do before one of her operations. This is less important at the heat gun stage than it is when you start with the chemicals. Get all your scrapers and brushes together. Lay a plastic garbage bag on a convenient nearby surface where you can set down your grungy tools when the phone rings. Place a 40-gallon garbage can within arm's length and have a spare bag ready. Pre-rip a lot of paper towels into a pile. It's hard to do that while wearing heavy gloves.
More and more sawdust
Submitted by Steve on Sat, 06/09/2007 - 8:28pm
With a challenging software project winding up, the top floor reno winding down and my tools reunited with their friends in the basement, it was time to turn my attention to the crime scene that used to be my shop. This cleaning has to last several months because it will probably be that long before I'll be using the tools again.
I don't mind working in a messy environment but I can't start a new project unless everything is neat and tidy, with every tool in its proper place, the table saw waxed, stationary tools aligned, blades sharpened, etc. This is my operating room, after all, and you don't open up a new patient with the last one's blood still on the walls.
Today was the marathon cleanup of the past nine months of mayhem. It actually began last night because I needed to catch this morning's garbage pickup. Did I mention how much the Sanitation guys love me? They even autographed one of my garbage cans a few years ago, scrawling "Balls!" on it with black magic marker.
I don't mind working in a messy environment but I can't start a new project unless everything is neat and tidy, with every tool in its proper place, the table saw waxed, stationary tools aligned, blades sharpened, etc. This is my operating room, after all, and you don't open up a new patient with the last one's blood still on the walls.
Today was the marathon cleanup of the past nine months of mayhem. It actually began last night because I needed to catch this morning's garbage pickup. Did I mention how much the Sanitation guys love me? They even autographed one of my garbage cans a few years ago, scrawling "Balls!" on it with black magic marker.
Face Frame 101
Submitted by Steve on Thu, 12/07/2006 - 4:02pm
There's a subculture in the carpentry world that one could call "wood nerds". They passionately argue with each other over arcane topics like fish glue and lumber humidity, armed with canons of really impressive woodworking knowledge. I learn a lot from them but after a while it's like listening to trekkie geeks debate the relative pulchritudes of Lt. Uhuru versus Seven of Nine.
One of these contentious topics is "face frame" versus "32mm frameless" cabinet construction. Most traditional cabinets are face frame while "European style" cabinets are generally frameless, or boxes with full-width doors. Both work. That's about the extent of my interest.
Today I built a face frame. It will be for a 44", built-in dresser for my bedroom reno. Because the dresser will be installed in an alcove, all you'll see of it are the drawers and the face frame. It will have a cupboard mounted on it so it doesn't need a nice top. I can even save a few bucks by using A/C plywood for the carcass. Easy-breezy. But this is about the face frame.
The frame is red oak. Most of it is leftovers from the bedroom renovation. There's a 1x6 top rail, a 1x3 bottom rail, 1x3 stiles and 1x2 stretchers (the spacers between the drawers). I debated whether to make this a three or four drawer dresser. I settled on three deep drawers because it means one less messy drawer.
When cutting face frame components I slightly overcut each piece, then edge joint them to remove any bows and run them through the planer so everything fits flush. It's surprising the differences you can find in 1-by lumber, even with lumber from the same yard. I've seen it vary by as much +-1/16".
Then I remeasure, clamp the sibling pieces together and cut them to finish size together. Besides guaranteeing exactly matching lengths it reduces tear-out.
The next step is dryfitting them to make sure everything plays well together.
Using a jig I drilled pocket holes on the back side of the stiles and stretchers. These hold recessed, galvanized screws. I resisted pocket hole construction for years as a cheap production shop shortcut but I got over it. It virtually eliminates clamping time and makes for a much stronger frame, which is another positive because a face frame cabinet gets most of its strength from the frame.
It leaves you with holes like this. A little glue and a 1-1/4" galvanized screw and the joint is stronger than the wood around it. The hole can be plugged with a dowel but I usually don't bother with something like this, which you can only see by pulling out the drawers and sticking your head inside.
I wanted this cabinet to have some decoration so I decided to incorporate a carving on the top rail that's sort of become the logo for this renovation. I even have one over my garage door.
I had to darken this photo in Photoshop because the wax on the tablesaw extension was too reflective.
Because I absolutely suck at wood carving, I used technology. I did it with a plunge router and a template system. It took less than fifteen minutes to finish the "carving". In fact, I know exactly how long it took. I started with "Born In The USA", then Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam" and finished the job on the closing chorus of Weather Report's "Birdland".
Finally, I assembled the face frame. I don't have room for a real assembly table in my shop yet so I used the table saw extension and a rafting square. A little glue and some pocket screws aaaand... done.
Then I loaded a stacked dado head in my table saw and cut 3/4" dados for the cabinet sides. This increases the glue surface and makes for a much stronger joint. The trick is to make the dado shallow enough that it doesn't hit those pocket screws or I'd be out a $90 Freud dado set. I've already trashed a saw blade on this project so I'm at my limit.
Finally, a little sanding through the grits (100/150/220) and it's ready for the carcass. Total time to completion: two+ hours.
One of these contentious topics is "face frame" versus "32mm frameless" cabinet construction. Most traditional cabinets are face frame while "European style" cabinets are generally frameless, or boxes with full-width doors. Both work. That's about the extent of my interest.
Today I built a face frame. It will be for a 44", built-in dresser for my bedroom reno. Because the dresser will be installed in an alcove, all you'll see of it are the drawers and the face frame. It will have a cupboard mounted on it so it doesn't need a nice top. I can even save a few bucks by using A/C plywood for the carcass. Easy-breezy. But this is about the face frame.
The frame is red oak. Most of it is leftovers from the bedroom renovation. There's a 1x6 top rail, a 1x3 bottom rail, 1x3 stiles and 1x2 stretchers (the spacers between the drawers). I debated whether to make this a three or four drawer dresser. I settled on three deep drawers because it means one less messy drawer.
When cutting face frame components I slightly overcut each piece, then edge joint them to remove any bows and run them through the planer so everything fits flush. It's surprising the differences you can find in 1-by lumber, even with lumber from the same yard. I've seen it vary by as much +-1/16".
Then I remeasure, clamp the sibling pieces together and cut them to finish size together. Besides guaranteeing exactly matching lengths it reduces tear-out.
The next step is dryfitting them to make sure everything plays well together.
Using a jig I drilled pocket holes on the back side of the stiles and stretchers. These hold recessed, galvanized screws. I resisted pocket hole construction for years as a cheap production shop shortcut but I got over it. It virtually eliminates clamping time and makes for a much stronger frame, which is another positive because a face frame cabinet gets most of its strength from the frame.
It leaves you with holes like this. A little glue and a 1-1/4" galvanized screw and the joint is stronger than the wood around it. The hole can be plugged with a dowel but I usually don't bother with something like this, which you can only see by pulling out the drawers and sticking your head inside.
I wanted this cabinet to have some decoration so I decided to incorporate a carving on the top rail that's sort of become the logo for this renovation. I even have one over my garage door.
I had to darken this photo in Photoshop because the wax on the tablesaw extension was too reflective.
Because I absolutely suck at wood carving, I used technology. I did it with a plunge router and a template system. It took less than fifteen minutes to finish the "carving". In fact, I know exactly how long it took. I started with "Born In The USA", then Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam" and finished the job on the closing chorus of Weather Report's "Birdland".
Finally, I assembled the face frame. I don't have room for a real assembly table in my shop yet so I used the table saw extension and a rafting square. A little glue and some pocket screws aaaand... done.
Then I loaded a stacked dado head in my table saw and cut 3/4" dados for the cabinet sides. This increases the glue surface and makes for a much stronger joint. The trick is to make the dado shallow enough that it doesn't hit those pocket screws or I'd be out a $90 Freud dado set. I've already trashed a saw blade on this project so I'm at my limit.
Finally, a little sanding through the grits (100/150/220) and it's ready for the carcass. Total time to completion: two+ hours.
The Basement
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The basement was, well, a basement. Besides the obvious, the concrete floor had worn away to dirt in several places, there was evidence of severe termite infestation and the main beam had a serious looking crack. After adding a lally column for temporary support, the basement was so filled with obstructions that it would have been almost impossible to make it a functional living space (or in my case, a functional shop).
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| The seller’s cousin shows me around the basement storage room. Note the crack in the main beam over his head. | Another less obvious problem, including one missed by two termite inspectors, was the colony feeding on the joists underneath that funky old drywall. | |
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| The first order of business was three days of gutting. The basement was littered with partition walls built from odds and ends apparently found on garbage pickup day. The stairway, or what was left of it by the termites, came down with a couple of well placed cuts of a Sawzall. Take a look at the angle on the john in the back. Guess where else those varmints hit. |
The next job was to rip up the concrete floor. As it was so thin and cracked, this was actually pretty easy. A sledge hammer, a crowbar and some strong backs were all that was needed. And a twenty cubic yard dumpster.
Since this was the perfect time to replace the hundred year-old plumbing, trenches were dug and new no-hub was run and plumbing roughed in for a downstairs bath. It was easy work for me because I left these two jobs to licensed contractors. Hey, I pick my battles. |
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I originally wanted to drop the finished floor six inches but a laser level put that idea to rest. The existing floor was waaaay out of level. To do so would have meant having to re-pitch all the plumbing underneath. So I settled on removing eight inches of dirt at the back and two at the front.
The upstairs waste pipe was also removed. It will be doglegged against the back wall at tie-in to remove yet another basement obstruction. |
With a great deal of angst but the assurance of an engineer who said that it existed mainly to take the bounce out of the upstairs floors, the main beam and posts were carefully removed in order to get a clean 3500psi concrete pour.
This really wasn’t the way to do it. While the house didn’t collapse, the upstairs plaster took a beating from it. It took a roll of mesh tape and three days of plastering to fix the hairline cracks. |
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| While the concrete cured, I went back to my dining room shop and began constructing treads and risers for the new basement stairs. A $1300 termite extermination gave me some assurance that this one wouldn’t suffer the same fate in the near future | I got this much done in a day, thanks to a way cool stair tread system I saw on one of the home shows, Easy Riser. The hardest part was finding them. I eventually located a box in Indiana for $70. The treads were mounted temporarily while I finished the risers. A couple of scraps of 1/2" birch plywood served as a skirt board. | |
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| The steam heat pipes, water, gas and most electrical have been relocated to the central soffet, next to the new steel I-beam. CAT-5 ethernet cable was pulled to a central punch block across the ceiling. A central vacuum was installed (Vacuflo, visible on the back wall in the new utility room). Temporary lighting was installed. A full bath has been rough-plumbed, vented and wired, along with a laundry alcove. A glass block wall replaced the old termite-ridden double-hungs and a kalamein security door was installed. | Another angle. I still have to frame the party wall. You can see the drywall I need for that. I just have to move that one last piece of conduit and the ceiling will be ready for can lights and sheetrock. One issue came up in the very cold weather lately: the fact that I don’t have any basement radiators. It’s comfortable now but once the utility room and that soffet are closed in, it could get a bit outdoorsy down here. I hit upon a novel solution: installing forced air vents along the soffet and a small squirrel cage fan to evacuate heat from that 2" steam pipe, possibly triggered by a thermocouple on the pipe. | |
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| Most of the drywall is up, taped and primed. 13 recessed lights replaced the temporary lighting, all running on X10 of course. The full bath is ready for tile and fixtures. | View from the back. The ceiling will probably be the last thing I close in because there’s still a bit of wiring I need to do for the first floor | |
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| The basement may not be finished but the shop is functional. So I'm moving on to other projects in the living areas. Those clamps are securing one of the French doors I'm building for the living room rehab. See all that dust on the pipes over the table saw? It's because of static electricity generated by the central vac pipe overhead. I get a lot of abuse for that red oak workbench I built. | Three years later, with more tools. | |
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| The basement bath is done, except for installing the doors. I'd like to say this was a painless job but just rerouting the plumbing to hide it under that pedestal lav, which I needed because of the restricted knee room for the john, took a weekend. | The shower pan. This was a wonderboard, mud and liner job. Yes, I know the tile match is dubious. I started off building and tiling the shower and got a great deal on tumbled stone from a contractor overage. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to do the entire bathroom and to buy this tile at retail would have blown the budget big time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. | |
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| view from the shop. | I need to resize this shot, obviously. | |
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Shop Stuff
Shop Stuff
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This isn't my house. I mentioned on the home page how tasty the original woodwork was in these houses and how the previous owners of mine inexplicably ditched it all. This is the dining room in my neighbors' house. It's hard to believe that a hundred years ago this was how formula homes were built. You wouldn't find woodwork like this in a modern house costing seven figures.
Originally, I wanted to replicate this without the dark stain but as I got into the project I decided to be a little more creative and a bit more practical. |
The Cabinets
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Labor Day weekend, 2002 was a rain-out so I holed up in the shop.
I'm constructing the two built-in china cabinets for the dining room. One will be a media cabinet and the other a display cabinet. |
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Faceframe construction. I was originally going to do this with solid lumber but I still had a lot of nice red oak plywood left over from the ceiling. I ripped some of the old oak from the original beams to use as banding to hide the plywood edge. I like the subtleness of the mitered picture frame detail on the faceframe and plywood adds dimensional stability you can't get with solid hardwood. Veneer plywood also makes it a lot easier to get matching grains, especially with lumberyard red oak.
Much of the face frame will be concealed by column details, which will be solid oak... mostly recycled stuff. |
The faceframe had to be strong because these cabinets are going to be heavy, especially with stained glass doors hanging on them. So I biscuit joined the rails and stiles and used a pair of pocket screws at each joint. I resisted pocket screw faceframe construction as an artless shortcut because so much cheap prefab cabinetry uses it, but I'm a convert. It only took one project to sell me on how well it works. | |
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| Frame assembly. Before this was done I half-lapped the edges for the side panels. I prefer using the router table for this, mainly because my Ryobi table saw sounds like it's about to grenade with a 3/4" stack dado set. | Faceframe #2. When my tax refund arrives I'll make the decision between a Delta or Powermatic 66 replacement for the BT3000. Mainly, I need a saw on wheels so I can make room for an assembly table. Using the table saw for layouts is a pain. | |
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| The inside rails and stiles are glued and pocket screwed to the perimeter frame. These are solid oak, not plywood. | The faceframes are done, awaiting sanding. The side panels are already cut and half lapped for the back. I've got to weasel someone with an SUV to help me haul a couple of sheets of 1/2" red oak ply for the back panels. My VW Golf isn't up to the task of plywood retrieval. | |
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| Milling the rails and stiles for the cabinet doors. The lowers will have raised 11" panels made from laminated and biscuited 1x6 red oak blanks. The uppers will either be stained or mullioned glass. I haven't decided yet. | Dry-fitting the the lower cabinet door frames. These are 1x2" red oak that I ripped from 1x6. To accomodate the raised panel, I used a pair of router bits called rail and stile cutters. If you've never made a raised panel door before, it's simpler than it looks. I used to think this was a black art. One cutter does the visible profiling around the edge and digs a 1/4" x 3/8" dado for the panel. The other cutter is a reverse profile for the perpendicular member. It's used on the end grain of the lumber of the rail. See below. | |
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| I'm using the 'B' bit to cut the rail so it mates with the exposed 'A' cutter profile. The trick here is that you're cutting end grain which has a tendency to split out. You would normally back the rail with a sacrificial piece of scrap lumber to prevent tear-outs. Instead, I did this cut in several passes, which worked well enough. It's critical that the fence and guide be perfectly square and that the roller bearing on the bit is flush with the fence. The hardest part is getting the "B" profile bit to match the "A" profile's depth. You go through a lot of scrap lumber when setting up the bits so it's best to plan the cuts as a production line. |
Door construction. I built a jig to make sure the doors are assembled square.
The panel can't be glued or nailed into the rails/stiles because humidity will cause it to expand and contract, especially across the grain. It has to float in the frame. |
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| The panel cutter is the third bit in the exciting raised panel trilogy. There's not much to say about it. Cut across the end grain first so the perpendicular cut will remove any tear-out. Also, this should be done with a variable speed router set to low speed. Panel cutters are wide bits and the torque at a router's nominal speed can cause the carbide tips to fly off... not reassuring on a waist-level table tool and a bit spinning at 200mph. | The lower doors are done, awaiting sanding. | |
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| The upper doors frames are done. I'll decide this week what I want in those panels. Whatever, it will be leaded glass. |
I needed another photo to balance the page so here's a shot of the cabinets before the door installation. By the way, I've since removed the center stretcher in the upper cabinets. It was a useless obstruction.
If you're into this stuff, there will be a "Son of Shop Page" in the near future, if only because I haven't started the second floor renovation yet. I have big plans for that, including a bunch of computer room built ins. For now this project will continue on the Dining Room page. |
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