A short break in transmission

The lack of posts this year has only been partly due to an old (1986) injury, which has progressively got more and more painful until I decided I had to get something done with it, and voila!  Eight screws in the wrist:

The other reason has been a lack of time or inclination when there are other more pressing things to attend to.  But now I will be somewhat limited as far as work or recreation I have no excuses...

A thin veneer of success

Another Trade Me purchase a while ago was a small (600mm diameter) side table, advertised as 'solid mahogany', but with a damaged leather top.

When I picked it up it was immediately apparent that, although the legs looked mahogany-ish, the top was most definitely plywood.  A quick look at the underside revealed its provenance - made in England in the 1970's.  Oh well, after some negotiation I purchased it anyway for $30, with the aim to do 'something' with it.  Real leather for a replacement top seemed to be difficult to find in the sort of thickness I was after, so the table sat on top of a cupboard in the workshop for several months.

Then, on a visit to a specialty plywood merchant recently I noticed some leftover loose veneers of Sapele Pomelle or figured African Mahogany (Entandrophragma cylindricum) for sale for $3 each.  I bought three sheets, each one not quite big enough to cover the table top. 

These are modern machine peeled veneers, only 0.5mm thick and they were already starting to split, but maybe I could come up with an appealing pattern.

By the time I discarded the damaged and split pieces there was just enough for eight triangular sections.  Having never done any veneering before and not having access to a vacuum press or hide glue I though it would be a good learning exercise at the least.  I made up a board using 20mm MDF wrapped in kitchen paper to stop the glue adhering to it.

Then I glued the veneers using standard wood glue and placed the board on top, weighted it with a very flat paving stone and then clamped everything in place.

Unfortunately, as I suspected, the veneer wrinkled quite a bit due to the water content in the PVA glue.

To add to the problem, I managed to sand right through the wafer thin veneer in a couple of places in attempt to flatten out the wrinkles.

Next, the copper plated aluminium claw feet were pretty scruffy - bare patches of aluminium were showing through.  Based on my previous success re-plating the steel wardrobe handles I thought this would be an easy fix.

What I didn't count on was just how reactive aluminium is in a hydrochloric acid solution.  Adding insult to injury, two of the feet dropped off the wire hangers into the etching bath and by the time I fished them out the feet looked like this.

Never mind.  The table is still perfectly serviceable, even with its wrinkly top and missing feet.  Here it is with about six thin coats of shellac applied.

Not a complete success, but a great learning opportunity.

Bargain Wardrobe

As mentioned previously here, another oak wardrobe was purchased off Trade Me for $29 back in mid 2014.

It was a bargain, but not without issues.  The main one being either past or current borer activity.  There was no way to tell whether the little critters were still alive so it had a liberal application of permethrin and then spent the next year undercover (along with another piece with similar Swiss cheesiness).

With no sign of fresh activity, I began addressing some of the other issues.

Some new American oak trim was installed to match the existing (left hand side door jamb and bottom moulding in photo above).

A new plywood drawer bottom was cut to replace the ugly and broken modern pine one.

And while I was at it the drawer completely fell apart so it was re-glued.

Before

The copper plated steel hardware had completely lost its copper plate, so I thought I would have a go at re-plating it with a hydrochloric acid solution, some old copper wire and a 6V battery.

The 6V battery proved to be too vigorous and the copper did not deposit well, so I had another go with an AA battery (1.5V) and this worked just fine.

The result, while not completely uniform, was a great improvement.

After copper plating.

Next, the loose mirror was re-secured using small triangular section blocks as per the original.  I used a piece of polycarbonate to protect the mirror surface while tapping pins in.

A new plywood back for the mirror was fixed in place and stained to match the carcase.  Then all that was left to do was apply a few coats of shellac (orange shellac flakes mixed with methylated spirits and applied using a brush or 'rubber' (cotton wad wrapped in cloth).

The new wood came up ok, but I still haven't got the stain colour right (new jamb strip on the left, original one on the right, below).

Then there was the small logistical issue of how to get the wardrobe across the gravel driveway.  The cabriole legs prevented me from using the hand truck, but my shop dollies and a few offcuts of plywood smoothed the path so to speak.

The bargain $29 wardrobe now resides happily in our bedroom - allowing for labour, materials, electricity etc it only cost $6029! 

 

 

More Adirondacs

My good friend Rob was keen to build a couple of deck chairs, so we have spent a very enjoyable half dozen weekday evenings building another four examples of Norm's classic (blogged previously here).

And here are the finished products.  Two in pressure treated pine by Rob (to be painted) and two in Vitex (Vitex cofassus) as a wedding gift for my sister.

More Offcuts

Some leftover short offcuts of 190x45 American oak from the wood trim on the house (window sills) presented another good opportunity for maximum timber utilisation.  

This simple knife block was a good afternoon project.  Slots were cut on the table saw and then the three pieces (about 210mm long each) were glued together.

The hardest part was drilling the round hole for the knife steel.  Using various bits and extensions in the drill press, I eventually managed to drill all the way to the bottom, but not without the hole wandering approx 5mm from its vertical alignment - not terrible I guess, but I would like to come up with a better technique for future attempts.

The photo below also shows another problem - the pieces of 190x45 were slightly cupped.  They were too wide for my 6" jointer, and my cheap lunchbox thicknesser takes a nasty snipe out of the first 50mm, which would be unacceptable for such short pieces.

Rather than try to hand flatten them, I concluded that all that was necessary was some modern cross linked poly vinyl acetate adhesive and a good bit of clamp pressure, and voila!

 Oh well, I've learnt my lesson then.

Off-cuts

Cutting the hole for the sink in our new laminated macrocarpa bench top resulted in a nice piece of wood, surplus to requirements.  What better use for the off-cut than another cutting board (or three) - this time butcher's blocks.

After gluing up strips of the laminated wood they were flattened with a combination of a hand held belt sander and a block plane.

The block plane was originally developed to flatten butcher's blocks but is one of the most useful tools in the workshop.  Here is my one (image from the Veritas Tools website).

Celery Pine

Recently, a good friend of mine had a tree fall over at the top of his property.  It was not a big tree, but it had some relatively straight branch-free sections.  Known as tanakaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides) it is also called celery top pine, or just celery pine for its distinctive leaf shape.  It was used by maori for canoe and house building and is considered strong and durable for a pine.

The tree had fallen over onto one of the cattle fences.  Fortunately it was caught up by its branches, but it needed to be cleared before it damaged the fence.  It seemed like a waste to turn it into firewood so we cut it into manageable pieces, which I took home and then I sealed the ends with some leftover paint.

Next, I made a small sled to run the logs through my 14" bandsaw.  The log here is screwed to the angled timber fence to keep it parallel with the saw blade and the whole assembly was then slid along against the factory aluminium fence.

Once I had two flat, square faces I then mounted my custom made MDF ripping fence and cut all the logs into 50mm planks.

Except... I didn't.  The home milling attempt was a slight disaster.  My small 14" bandsaw simply wasn't up to the task.  The band kept slipping on the tyres, the 3/4" 3tpi carbon steel blade couldn't clear the waste from the green wood and wandered like a lost schoolboy.  The bearing guides vibrated and shook so much that they literally fell apart mid-cut.

This was really not going to work for the rest of the logs.  Fortunately I found a guy called John Furniss up the road (www.woodyone.co.nz) in deepest Makarau who has a portable Woodmizer sawmill and was easily able to convert the logs into nice 50mm flitches.

  And this is where they will stay for the next two years to fully air dry.  Hopefully 2017 will see them turned into something other than firewood!

The Kitchen Build

This project has been on the back burner (so to speak) for the last few years.

After drawing up the layout and elevations, it was back to Cypress Sawmill for some more macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa) - this time three 600mm wide pre-laminated boards for the benchtops.

To create the L-shape in the benchtop, rebates were made in the underside for standard benchtop joiners.  This was done with a Forstner bit, and cleaned up with a router.  The trenches for the bolt shaft were made with a hand saw and chisel and a few biscuits were added to aid alignment.

We chose to round-over the edges with a 1/2" radius on the top and a 1/4" on the bottom to give a traditional look.

I did the engineering on a new factory for a kitchen company a few years ago, and so we came to an arrangement that they would build the basic cabinets for me.  It also worked out well that they made such a solid product compared to the standard offerings.  Hibiscus Kitchens make their cabinets with a rigid aluminium frame, which means that the hinges and panels are firmly attached to the carcase, not screwed to chipboard or MDF as is more common.  We are really pleased with the cabinets and they should outlast us with any luck.

Once Mike and the Hibiscus Kitchen team had installed and cabinets I then fitted the doors and drawer hardware and did a dry fit on the benchtops, masking them ready for silicone sealing and screwing down.  The benchtops were oiled with two coats of Danish Oil, and will be occasionally scrubbed and re-oiled as necessary, with an understanding that we will still get some staining and discolouration over time - all of which will add a patina of age and use.

I then fitted the sink and and connected the water and waste pipework for the dishwasher etc and we now finally have a proper kitchen! (Only 3 1/2 years after we moved in).

There is still a lot of finishing to be done - kick plates, tiling, extractor ducting etc, but overall we are pleased with the way it has come together.

Adirondack Chairs - tick

New Year's resolution No. 4 was to build two Adirondack chairs (often called, incorrectly, Cape Cod chairs in NZ).  These chairs have been around since the turn of the 20th century and come in all shapes and colours.

So where to go for a good design?  The chairs are named after the Adirondac Mountains in upstate New York and are more carpentry than fine woodworking.  Possibly the most well known American carpenter is Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop fame - a legend in a plaid shirt.

He produced a version of the Adirondack chair on one of his shows and then subsequently America's Popular Woodworking magazine profiled it (and Norm) in one of their issues.  The article, with basic drawings can be downloaded free here.

To make this and any subsequent builds go as smoothly as possible I first made a full set of MDF patterns.

Next, the patterns were traced onto the timber using the most appealing grain and avoiding timber defects like splits and knots.

For this project I used macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa) because... well, there is a sawmill down the road specialising in it.  But also because macrocarpa heartwood has natural durability and is easy to work.

And because when I was a boy my father made a boat from macrocarpa.  The distinctive smell of the wood still takes me back to the boatshed in our back yard, when as a 10 year old boy I watched this huge hull take shape.  I am still in awe at my dad's abilities to turn his hand to anything from fixing electronics to building an extension on the house.

The shapes were cut out with the bandsaw, sanded and rounded over with the router.

Next, a little assembly and dry fitting...

Followed by disassembly, gluing with a waterproof adhesive and reassembly, then a couple of coats of outdoor furniture oil.

And there we have it, ready for use.  A bit late for summer maybe, but no doubt ready for many summers ahead.

The Free Boat

Who could turn down a free boat?  And since we built a dam and created a small pond about a year ago we now have the perfect place to launch it.  Of course the boat was free for a reason.  This is no QE2.  It is a tiny six foot dingy.  Once several holes in the hull were repaired with fibreglass...

...the inside was painted with leftover house paint (to cover up some ugly spray paint tagging) and a new seat was made from a plywood off-cut, which was glued and screwed to the old one...

...and a central support was added to strengthen the broken seat using timber from an old barbecue stand...

....it was then ready for sea trials....

Just don't mention that I managed to tip out of it while showing off to my lovely wife.