Workbench Upgrade!

From J:

For the most part, my workbench/saw stand has been pretty good. It fits my tools well and has been perfectly functional. But I'm still wanting more workspace and storage. So, this weekend, I built some.

Item 1: Router table. A router table lets you mount your router in a fixed location and use a fence to dictate where you cut. It's great for all sorts of things. Commercially, these things cost $150-300 for small, benchtop models. Not too expensive, but you need benchspace to put it and somewhere to store it, which I am lacking. My solution: a slide-away router table/shelf.

Ingredients:

• 1x sheet of 3/4 birch plywood, cut to size
• Some 1x2 strips for reinforcement
• 2x T-track slots with ruler, for fence mounting and positioning
• 1x drawer slide kit, 20" length
• A fixed router base
• Miscellaneous hardware for mounting

This really is a pretty simple design. I cut the plywood to size, drilled holes (3x mounting holes + 1x big hole for the router bit to poke through) and routed out some slots for the T-track. Careful measurement made sure that the tracks are parallel to each other. Reinforce the bottom underneath the T-track and at the edges with 1x2 strips. Hang the drawer slides at the desired height, and enjoy!

Stealth mode: engaged.

Ta-da!

It's a little bit lower than ideal work height but given the design constraints I can't complain and am very happy with the results. I made a fence out of some more 3/4 birch ply and some leftover hard maple. This is mounted to the T-track with 1/4-20 bolts and some knobs. I added some bolts through the workbench top that screw into nuts in the T-track to take weight off of the drawer slides when the top is extended; these also stabilize the whole assembly.

So functional!

First project using the new router table: drawers for the workbench. One of my upcoming projects will feature drawers and I needed to practice some before using expensive wood. I had some leftover pine from building my workbench and shop cabinets that I used for my practice drawers. The main construction technique here is a sliding dovetail, which is easily cut using a dovetail bit on a (you guessed it) router table. The table is needed to get a precise depth of cut so that the male and female halves of the joint fit tightly. This is a variation on the traditional dovetail that is 1) much easier to make and 2) also very strong. I don't really have the desire to get a hand saw and cut traditional dovetails over the course of a week.

After cutting all of the dovetails I used some leftover 3/32" plywood from my cabinet doors for the bottom of the drawers. Three of the pieces (front and sides) got a 1/4" slot routed in (using the router table!) for the plywood to sit in. Assembly is straightforward, just glue up the dovetails on the front and sides, glue in the plywood, then glue up the back of the drawer and slide it (or use a rubber mallet, these things fit tightly) onto the back set of dovetails on the side pieces.

Nice, tight joints.

 

I mounted it using some more drawer slides and added a knob I had laying around. A nice upgrade, and a big feeling of accomplishment! Drawers were pretty intimidating since the joinery is somewhat complex, but the router table makes things easy!

The perfect place for my router accessories.

Router table cost: $10 plywood, $25 T-track, $15 hardware and slides.
Drawer cost: free, this is why you keep scraps.

Project thoughts: Extremely pleased with the router table. Once I figured out how I could keep it supported (bolts through the workbench top) I felt much better about the idea. If the mounting needs to change, it can - the top is self contained and can be remounted wherever or however it needs to be without affecting its performance. The T-track and fence work very well. Two of the drawers that I made turned out well, but a larger one for the cabinet under the saw did not...the pine dovetails fell apart when I tried to fit it together during glueup (I was not pleased when that happened). Not too surprising, as this particular pine had a very bad tendency to chip. Harder woods will go better. Bring on the next project!

The Letter "S"

This post is brought to you by the letter "S."

We've had a cold, wet week that just makes you want to stay inside and snooze.

Or snuggle for some extra warmth.

It even makes you want to stay inside and get things done around the house. When we painted over the weekend, we noticed that each piece of bedroom furniture is signed and dated by the carpenter. I can't say that I had looked at the back of our furniture in much detail until we pulled it all out to paint the room. It's a really neat touch, though. Thanks to Sheldon, Paul, James, Hoover, Steve, and David for making our furniture between 7-12-11 and 7-15-11.

Mid-week we got the very best kind of snow. Big, beautiful flakes that don't really stick on roads. It was nice to watch the snow falling (this is the view from my office window) but not have problems driving home at the end of the day.

A hot crock pot meal is always nice on cold days. Our current obsession (we have a batch cooking as I write this post) is Stubb's Hatch Chile Cookin' Sauce. This stuff is amazing. Just put it in a crock pot with 1.5 pounds of chicken breast and let it cook on low all day. You end up with spiced chicken that shreds with a fork and is delicious in tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc.

Hope everyone enjoys their Saturday and Sunday!

Man oh Man(chester) Tan

We did it. The master bedroom has been painted which leaves us only one room left to paint in the entire house (the master bath). Cue the music...

Here's what it looked like with the old Taupe Mist walls:

And here it is with the new Manchester Tan walls:

If you'd like to play "spot the differences" in the two photos, we also moved the bed further from the wall with the shadow boxes and turned our new quilt 90 degrees (this seems to make the quilt feel less retro and more modern).

The new color makes the room feel cozier and we're thrilled with how well it coordinates with our furniture and bedding.

We still need to paint swatches in the bathroom to decide what color we'll be using. The bathroom is pretty small so I think we have enough of any of the five colors we've used elsewhere in the house to choose from.

So what will it be? Manchester Tan? Muslin? Stonington Gray? Edgecomb Gray? Revere Pewter?

We shall see...

Entryway Furniture

From J:

Next woodworking project: entryway furniture. Our old key hook was a (admittedly) college-worthy item that I won (while in college). Add on to that some coat hooks that left hoops on our coats from being too pointy and it was pretty clear that our entryway could use an upgrade. Luckily, I know a guy who can now make furniture: me.

Wood of choice: American cherry. It's gorgeous and machines well.
Construction technique of choice: mortise and tenon. It's time consuming but incredibly strong and should last forever. It is also something of a challenge compared to other techniques (like pocket screws or biscuits/dowels) and a good skill to learn/practice.

So, I went to the local hardwood supplier and bought about $400 dollars of cherry. It was on sale, and I couldn't help myself! Nice wide boards, very pretty grain on them. 47 board feet worth - enough to do these projects and with plenty left over for some other items.

Next step: get the cherry home. I like having an SUV.

I also had to upgrade my workshop to store 47 board feet of cherry, which meant adding in some brackets. Two brackets into the studs later, and I have some wood storage!

 

Now, on to the construction. I dimensioned up the lumber using mostly my circular saw and crosscut sled. I'll be upgrading my crosscut sled after this project, since it was only able to handle boards that are less than ~10" wide - some of these boards were bigger. Learning curve!

I took the cutoff from the widest board (for the top of the coat rack) and dimensioned it up a little bit further for the key rack parts. Then, I had to add the mortises and tenons. Mortises were cut using my plunge router with a 3/8" bit. This was the first time I'd ever used the plunge router and it went quite well. I used an old piece of plywood for an edge guide to keep my cuts in line. The edges of the mortises were cleaned up with a chisel to make them nice and square.

 



Here's one of the side pieces for the coat rack with the mortises cut, waiting for the curve to be jig sawed.



Tenons were cut on the table saw with a dado blade. Nothing fancy.

 

 

Time for the first dry fits!

 

 

Dry fits were pretty good - I had to go back and clean up the edges of the tenons a bit to make sure that they fit well. No big deal, I was really pleased with how well it came together. I routed a chamfer on the edges for some visual interest. Next comes...glueup. This was a nightmare for the coat rack. The wood glue I used will swell the tenons slightly as it's absorbed, which made it very tough to get together. There's a huge time crunch as well since the working time isn't very long. After some...persuasion...with my rubber mallet, it went together.

Everything was given a final sand to clean up any glue spots or roughness, then I finished with some General Finishes Arm-R-Seal urethane varnish. Three coats on the coat rack, four on the key rack (I expect it to get abused more), buffing between each coat with 0000 steel wool. So pretty.

Hanging the coat rack was a challenge due to its size and weight, but I used a combination of keyholes and figure-8s to mount it into three studs and one anchor. It's not going anywhere.

The hardware on everything is cast iron colonial-style hooks that I found online. They work perfectly! Wifey found the wicker baskets locally. This is my first real "fine" furniture and I'm extremely proud with how it turned out! The cherry should naturally darken over the next year or so to a richer brown.

Total cost: ~$200 ($100 wood, $80 hardware/hooks, $20 finish and consumables). Took about a month from start to finish, with a break for holiday travel in the middle.

Project highlights: This was an intimidating investment in wood up front, so anything that looked decent at the end was going to be a success in my book. I think everything looks great. I'm particularly proud with how I recovered from a couple of mistakes. I know where they are, but wifey hasn't been able to find them yet. A good sign!

Places for improvement: Better cuts on the tenons to begin with to limit fine adjustments later. I learned a lot during glue up, as well. I'll be using epoxy or doing partial glueups to avoid the hectic situation I found myself in. Learning curve!



Welcome, 2015!

We're back into the swing of things after the holidays. Although having two weeks off was wonderful, my first week back to work (even with a day off for snow) seemed so long. Here's a recap of what we've been up to.

After a Christmas at home, including very stylish gym wear,

This is what elves work out in, right?

we took a last-minute road trip to visit J's family.

"The back seat is suddenly very dark.
Hello? Where did you guys go?"

Allie was very excited to find her very own Christmas stocking at Nana and Papa's house.

She made herself right at home by lounging in every possible place there is to lounge.

Aww yiss.

Aww yiss.

Aww yiss.

After the new year, DC got its first big snow of the season.

DC drivers did not disappoint while attempting to drive in the snow.

Snow = Freak out and drive like an idiot!

Thankfully, I had a snow day and J was able to drive in after most of the early morning accidents had been cleared. We took Allie out to play in the snow, of course.

Here's to a new year and new memories for J + A and Allie!