tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21783453528390092852024-02-07T18:56:47.791-08:00Woodworking With SasquatchAndrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-85049225826345753862014-05-15T15:45:00.001-07:002014-05-15T15:45:57.467-07:00Where in the World Is Sasquatch Woodworking?My buddy Mike sent me this pic from a recent climbing trip at Whiskey Peak, NV. Had to post it. <br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-79190682483746148212014-05-05T21:41:00.001-07:002014-05-05T21:42:49.995-07:00The Workbench Part VIII - Top and Shelf<br />
The build goes on...albeit slowly. However it is a nice milestone in that I finally made it to the lumber yard to buy the wood for the top of the bench. This has been something I kept putting off but finally I had a nice Friday afternoon to head up to <a href="http://moxonhardwoods.com/">Moxon Hardwoods</a> only 10 minutes from my house. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyvDHKg6pPMciZOm-IeLtmbPK7ak5kK7e68lOZyPo2YB6o0qsR0heuIR2CGaYqEkYdjFyhsVw-kX2fTiMZGmqN-MZdQNBohsEPPcW-D0cyxzU7djgJOfCCy47wO6APaobUyVO71Wz9jMM/s1600/P1000994s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyvDHKg6pPMciZOm-IeLtmbPK7ak5kK7e68lOZyPo2YB6o0qsR0heuIR2CGaYqEkYdjFyhsVw-kX2fTiMZGmqN-MZdQNBohsEPPcW-D0cyxzU7djgJOfCCy47wO6APaobUyVO71Wz9jMM/s1600/P1000994s.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a>Besides carrying some amazing local hard and softwoods, they are the largest supplier of Australian hardwood flooring in the country. The company is actually Australian owned but just happen to have an outpost in Portland, OR. After getting an awesome tour around the facility the salesmen showed me a huge pallet of 6/4 (1-1/2") thick hard maple slabs. Each slab was 7 to 12" in width and 9' long. These things are heavy. I picked up seven boards which should give me enough to make a top that is 24" wide x 3" thick x 7' long.<br />
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A little while before getting the wood for the top I was able to cut a few slats for the bottom shelf from the milled pallet wood. I like the look it gives...reclaimed character for sure. I've got a few more to finish up but it should go pretty fast. Until the next time, stay happy and get your woodworking on.</div>
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Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-45653308095239311462014-03-30T20:25:00.004-07:002014-03-30T20:37:56.077-07:00The Workbench Part VII - Bench Bolts and Shelf<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been able to make a little progress on the bench and it has been nice but I wish I was further along. In the last few weeks I have glued up the short sides of the bench with the short rails and then pegged the joint with a bit of oak dowel rod. The peg doesn't add a lot of extra strength but looks good. Once the short sides were glued up it was time to figure out how to attach the long rails. I had received a nice gift certificate to Lee Valley Tools (<strong><a href="http://tinyurl.com/29l3j62">http://tinyurl.com/29l3j62</a>) </strong>from Moms and Pops for the birthday and was perusing their website for ideas when I came across a product called knock-down bench bolts. Basically it's a long hex bolt that goes through the leg and then captures the rail with an embedded cylindrical nut. The diagram on the left from their web site shows how it works. When I read the caption it made me giggle like a 10-year old boy. "They said butt" I said in my head. Ah...some things never get old. These offer a nice option if I ever need to break the bench down and move it somewhere. It took a while to drill through the legs and center the hole just right for the nut but I finally got it work with a little persuasion. The pic below shows how the bolt looks on the outside of the leg. You can also see the pegs that are holding the short rails in. All in all I'm really happy with how it works and feels. I've said it before and I'll say it again...this thing is solid. I had Stella get on the rails and jump up and down just to prove it to myself.<br />
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After getting the legs all bolted together I started deconstructing an old pallet that I had brought in to the garage to dry off. When Alex surprised me with a table saw for our 10th anniversary it was delivered on a nice big pallet. And rather than chucking it I decided to put it to good use. <br />
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Pallet wood has great character but it is a pain in the ass to take apart. They use screw shank nails and those things don't want to come out. As you can see there were quite a few nails in the boards I did and I didn't even mess with the main oak frame. Each one of those pieces had a minimum of 24 nails in various states. I'm not that much of a masochist to try and tackle those.<br />
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After salvaging all of the boards that I could it was time to plane them down to a usable thickness of 1/2" to fit on the rabbet that I had designed in for the shelf. As careful as I was in removing the nails I still missed one and it knicked the planer knives pretty good. Might be worth investing in one of those wand-type metal detectors. <br />
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After planing everything down it became apparent that I was going to be just short on covering the whole shelf area. Oh well, I'm sure I can wrangle up something somewhere to make up the difference. I'm leaving for Bogota, Colombia on Tuesday for a week long work trip so the bench will have to wait. Happy woodworking and until next time!Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-59117990321343077282014-03-02T19:47:00.000-08:002014-03-02T19:48:07.734-08:00A Bit of AwesomeI thought I would do a separate post on the pure awesomeness I received on my birthday. Alex surprised me with a "Woodworking With Sasquatch" t-shirt designed by my good buddy Keith. I couldn't have asked for a cooler, more personal gift. Thanks you guys!<br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-2207821702269280752014-03-02T12:25:00.004-08:002014-03-02T12:39:33.128-08:00The Workbench Part VI - Oh My MortiseIt's been far too long since my last post but I have been working ever so slowly on the many mortises for this workbench. As tedious as it's been, I really feel that my chisel work has improved in hollowing out the 12 mortises. For each one, I was able to take out the majority of the material on the drill press with a forstner bit. The trickiest part was supporting the legs on the drill press table. I've added making a drill press table to the never ending list of projects.<br />
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Once the bulk of the mortise is drilled out, the next step is to square the inside walls to accept the tenons. This is where the true workout started. I was really wailing on the chisel with the mallet to get through the end grain sections. At first it felt like I would never finish as each mortise was taking thirty minutes or more. However I got a little better and by the end I was able to get a 90º face on the first or second try.<br />
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The real trick here as well is to have a super sharp chisel so it doesn't tear the grain up. I can get my hand tools pretty sharp but I feel like there's still room for improvement.<br />
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After finally getting all of the mortises finished up I was able to do a dry fit of the bench and I must say I feel proud to have got this far. This thing is heavy and should have no problem withstanding wailing on it with a hammer and chisel.<br />
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Also I had to get an "action" shot for a work profile and Alex was nice enough to snap a picture of me planing one of the short rails. Next up is pegging the short rails to the legs and then installing some knockdown bench bolts on the long rails so that the bench could be taken apart and moved if ever needed.<br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-53954912182575803792014-01-19T13:47:00.000-08:002014-01-19T13:51:27.857-08:00The Worbench Part V - Mortise Layout and Long Rail MillingHappy New Years everyone! Been a little while since the last post but I've had some time to get back into the shop now that we're back into the usual patterns. The holiday break was very nice with Stella and I taking a daddy/daughter trip back to see the grandparents and Alex making over Stella's room in our absence. We had one surprised kid when we got back!<br />
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Back in the shop, I got to work laying out the mortises for the short rails. I used the tenons I had already cut to help lay them out and referenced everything from the bottom of the legs. There is one mortise on the wide side of each leg for the bottom short rail and one for the upper short rail. <br />
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With the short rail mortises laid out, my next step was to mill down the lumber for the long rails. The wood had been acclimating in the shop for about a month so was ready to go. I did an initial milling one evening, bring everything to about 1/4" of final dimensions. After letting them rest for another couple of days I milled them to final dimension and cut them to length. The next step will be to cut the long rail tenons and finish laying out the mortises.<br />
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It's kind of slow going but I'm feeling pretty confident that this bench is going to last a lifetime. Looking at that pile of wood in the last picture I think to myself, "Man that is just for the base of this thing!" It's got to weigh close to 150-200 lbs which means this bench will be able to take a beating and keep on going. Talk to you soon.<br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-80645913742145535682013-12-26T16:58:00.002-08:002013-12-26T17:01:20.474-08:00The Workbench Part IV - Short Rail Tenons and LegsHappy holidays! What better way to celebrate Christmas then to sneak off into the shop for a bit and do some woodworking. I left last time with the short rails a little wonky after the first milling. Each rail had two faces still flat and square so I started the final milling with those. I ran them through the planer and then finally the table saw which thankfully resulted in four perfectly square short rails. I cut these to length (21-1/2") on the miter fence and went about laying out the tenons. <br />
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Now the tenons can be really any dimension you want as long as it mechanically makes sense. I already decided to deviate from the downloaded plan by making the short rails beefier but I stuck with the plan dimensions in making the tenons two inches long. The structural shoulders ended up 1/2" deep while the cosmetic top shoulders I set at 1/4". I used a marking gauge to scribe a 2" line all along the rail from both ends. After that I set up the dado stack in the table saw which allows for a wider continuous cut. At 3/4" it still took three passes for each face...3 x 4 x 8 = 96 passes. Let's just say it took a little while. The wife stopped in while I was cutting these tenons and took a couple of action shots. I'm wearing my most festive red and white checkered shirt. Kind of a ginger Santa Claus look going when you get down to it...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJRqUBZcEycruqdYu8oHbHY3WikD9V_lwat7pzSooZy5momUnnbv1CyyoKqJaqn-FckOf096r1F7W5yTI8z5vQfCD8yGlG2bEiTCGBMdb9jVNhNHSxdSjtutlB2YzZ-A-pjD6dBuUf36M/s1600/P1000854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJRqUBZcEycruqdYu8oHbHY3WikD9V_lwat7pzSooZy5momUnnbv1CyyoKqJaqn-FckOf096r1F7W5yTI8z5vQfCD8yGlG2bEiTCGBMdb9jVNhNHSxdSjtutlB2YzZ-A-pjD6dBuUf36M/s1600/P1000854.JPG" height="360" width="640" /></a>After the tenons had been cut on the table saw the faces were a little rough so I took them over to the bench hook and used my shoulder plane to flatten them. <br />
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With all of these finished up I thought it fitting to stack everything together as a small sense of accomplishment. Note the wooden mallet behind the shoulder plane...a most excellent Christmas gift from the wife.<br />
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The last thing I did for the day was cut the workbench legs to length and put a nice chamfer on the bottom. This will prevent the workbench from catching if I ever need to scoot it around on the floor. The daughter and I leave for a trip to Kansas tomorrow to see the folks so I plan to start milling the mortises in the legs when we get back.<br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-4801493458501839882013-12-22T14:52:00.002-08:002013-12-22T14:57:45.193-08:00The Workbench Part III - Milling the Short Rails<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVI3bJtk8eBc6wjl5M9otwMHU0tzb9-4xLUJguplo13qHs1kcrdoqCTQ6fSLAy5S3PoLZ40_NAQxicXABmu36plOWinY64YEQOs6BK20QSmTk87d_UswZ4_hyphenhyphenpfAMX23bZaZZVOu4V1A44/s1600/Short+Rails.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVI3bJtk8eBc6wjl5M9otwMHU0tzb9-4xLUJguplo13qHs1kcrdoqCTQ6fSLAy5S3PoLZ40_NAQxicXABmu36plOWinY64YEQOs6BK20QSmTk87d_UswZ4_hyphenhyphenpfAMX23bZaZZVOu4V1A44/s1600/Short+Rails.PNG" height="286" width="320" /></a>As I mentioned in the last post, I pulled a couple of old Siberian Spruce beams from outside into the garage that I plan to use for the upper and lower short rails on the workbench base. You can see the short rails highlighted in the 3D drawing of the bench which is available as a free download from Benchcrafted. These short rails are fit into the bench legs using mortise and tenon joinery. To add even more strength, the tenons are drawbored (pegged in layman terms) which helps keep the joint tight during seasonal wood movement.<br />
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I left the straighter beam to use for the long base rails on the bench and started breaking down the other beam for the four rails. I cut each to a rough length of 23" and started milling them up.<br />
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I ran the beams over the jointer, then the planar and got them to the table saw before I realized <br />
something was amiss. Either through user error or the wood "springing" as I milled it, only one of the pieces ran truly square to the table saw fence. I have often read that it is best to do a first phase of milling where you let the wood acclimate a little more before finishing it off to final dimensions. After seeing what happened here, I decided to stop with most of the material removed and let the rails sit for a few days before doing anything else. I want to make sure the wood has stopped moving before I get into cutting the joinery. <br />
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Recently I added a cast iron extension wing onto the new table saw to provide a more stable surface for crosscutting, etc. With the wing installed I thought that a good test would be to trim the ends of the milled legs. The result was pretty cool when the legs were placed in a way that created a annular ring "circle" so to speak. This add-on to the table saw will definitely help when it comes to cutting the tenons in the base. <br />
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Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-30948460953969264232013-12-15T19:16:00.002-08:002013-12-22T14:57:37.018-08:00The Workbench Part II - Milling the Legs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7e_tlM3vFoCXjAZH0b3juqtKqxq7UoVl6zLOMd856y71yHFo8KIilnj9ETWbxSV8hmSP2AsOwn6m1in98FlKIYJ-tOOUa9snqD7sAloucA5IgPYc7x7GBIamY2zhs4L2hLT1OBIunta4/s1600/P1000841.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7e_tlM3vFoCXjAZH0b3juqtKqxq7UoVl6zLOMd856y71yHFo8KIilnj9ETWbxSV8hmSP2AsOwn6m1in98FlKIYJ-tOOUa9snqD7sAloucA5IgPYc7x7GBIamY2zhs4L2hLT1OBIunta4/s1600/P1000841.JPG" height="225" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIPcCzphQtLsYNW5dGAtKBev6QyUe7gba84axPRcOhPxb7CE0eYAwkvSKkaZ-LqvSwgZxISAv30rCrR6FwhmxlofFWsRKVKNp1lUhyphenhyphenZLiCL4uyHp5pP4hAEO-Y45k1zD97Hwx-bZpntya/s1600/P1000842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIPcCzphQtLsYNW5dGAtKBev6QyUe7gba84axPRcOhPxb7CE0eYAwkvSKkaZ-LqvSwgZxISAv30rCrR6FwhmxlofFWsRKVKNp1lUhyphenhyphenZLiCL4uyHp5pP4hAEO-Y45k1zD97Hwx-bZpntya/s1600/P1000842.JPG" height="400" width="225" /></a>After rough cutting the legs to length last weekend, it was time to start milling them down to final dimensions. I learned early on that to get a piece of lumber flat and square for woodworking there is a certain order that will produce the best results. I started by flattening the widest face on the jointer bed. You can see one of the legs on the jointer bed in the first picture to the right. My jointer has a 6" wide bed so it's always nice if the rough lumber doesn't exceed that dimension. From this post you might think that I'm sponsored by Ridgid tools, but alas they haven't come calling yet. Once you have one wide face of your piece flat, you can rotate it 90º and run that flat face up against the jointer fence to get the other face square to it. Then it's time to move to the planer which will mill the other wide face parallel to the first face. I ran a couple legs through the planer and it was struggling mightily. I decided to take it apart to look at the knives and sure enough they had lost their edge. The nice thing about the Ridgid knives is that they have a sharpened edge on both sides, so it was just a matter of rotating them to get a fresh edge. I also set the planer right on the garage floor to minimize vibrations. In little time I had three faces flat and square. Then I took the legs over to the table saw and ripped them to final width. The finished dimensions of the legs are 5" wide by 3-1/4" wide and they have some pretty good heft. Not as massive or heavy as maple or oak but a great reuse of a discarded beam. There are still some pretty good checks and other defects but I think I can work around most of them. I also pulled a couple of old Siberian spruce beams into the garage to acclimate that I picked up locally years ago from Salvage Works (<a href="http://www.salvageworkspdx.com/">http://www.salvageworkspdx.com/</a>). If you live in the area and haven't been to their store yet then make the trip. Preston and crew have an amazing assortment of salvaged wood, hardware, shop made furniture and other unique odds and ends. Tune in next time when I will work on milling the spruce beams into what will serve as the lower and upper rails of the bench.<br />
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Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2178345352839009285.post-70473443648220361492013-12-08T13:10:00.001-08:002013-12-22T14:57:29.357-08:00The Workbench Part I - Rough Cutting the Legs<div style="text-align: left;">
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We moved into a new house back in August and for the first time I have my own woodshop space. After taking some time to get the tools set up (including a new Saw Stop table saw from my wife Lola) I'm ready to start my first major project. And what better first project for the new woodshop then a genuine workbench. For the design I've chosen a modification of 18th century French cabinetmaker Andre Roubo's classic design which pairs beefy legs with a massive top and plenty of work holding capability. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAbjPMUfo84tFb3jihOyApd5UvATCf0Nq5uGVdyEWjgTxqnVEtObzP7AqmniFj_lg3RDcND18mDUOvyR4aDWp7YeHCBeSM43qjBpRM3-Nq0sCMf527S7TKmfT3Ddm5vQ3g1nZXOC9JLgE/s1600/P1000795.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAbjPMUfo84tFb3jihOyApd5UvATCf0Nq5uGVdyEWjgTxqnVEtObzP7AqmniFj_lg3RDcND18mDUOvyR4aDWp7YeHCBeSM43qjBpRM3-Nq0sCMf527S7TKmfT3Ddm5vQ3g1nZXOC9JLgE/s320/P1000795.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a>There are many different blogs on building one of these benches which have become very popular so I figure I'll have plenty of resources. My ultimate dream is to pair the bench with some of the amazing woodworking vises made by the Benchcrafted company(<a href="http://benchcrafted.com/str.html">http://benchcrafted.com/str.html</a>) but for now I'll just start working on the foundation.<br />
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I had inherited a couple old wood beams from my brother years ago and used one to build the chicken coop at our old house. The other one came over in the move and it is the perfect length for the legs. I started by rough cutting the beam into (4) 36" lengths, not worrying too much about the ends being straight as this will all be fine tuned later. There are some pretty decent checks, random cuts, etc in the beam so I'll need to think about patching some areas or cutting around them. For now it's cool to see the tight end grain in the Douglas Fir legs and think of what will be. More later...<br />
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<br />Andrew Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11760909278762702687noreply@blogger.com4