Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
The planter box is done! Well, I still need to make a thing to go around the top edge, but the thing is assembled, finished, lined, filled with soil, and has strawberries planted. It took a lot of fussing to finish up the joinery, drill draw-bore holes, and get everything else ready for final assembly outside.
I didn’t have enough free space to do the full test fit in my basement, but then I realized it would fit around my bench. The picture of that also shows the pieces for the top trim thing just lying in place to get a visual preview. I think I’ll do mitered bridle joints for that.
The picture of it half assembled shows a better view of how I did the bottom. It’s five pieces of cedar fencing laid across three 4×4 timbers, I guess one could call them sleepers. I pegged them in place so they wouldn’t wiggle about and left gaps for drainage/air circulation. I rabbeted the ends of the slats so they fit into 1/2″ channels I routed into the inside faces of either end of the bed. I also made cutouts in the side walls for them to rest on the sleepers. This may seem overly complicated, but it means the main structure of the bed is not touching the ground at all but is still well supported. I live in the rainy PNW, so I wanted to make sure it won’t just hold water and rot in the winter.
Anyway, assembly went fairly smoothly, and tapping the pegs home was pretty damn satisfying. I put a coat of BLO on the inside of the walls. That done, we stapled weed barrier cloth to the inside to prevent direct soil/wood contact and filled it up. I coated the outside with “red cedar” colored Penofin, which we already had for protecting fence posts from the elements. It’s a bit redder than I’d like, but it worked pretty well on our fence posts so it should do nicely here.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Looks great! I really like the dividers. Well done.
I’m working on a drawer in almost exactly the same spot right now. Dovetails are done but I don’t have the wood for the bottom on hand so I’m mulling over other aspects of it. How is your drawer supported? I can see a glimpse of something in the second picture but I’d love to know how it’s attached to the bench.
Your profile picture is appropriate. Let’s just all take this as a lesson in the impermanence of all things. The object is ephemeral, but the work performed to make it will forevermore have happened. 😉
When I was making my bedside table, as I was doing the final smoothing on the lower shelf it flew off the bench and split right down the middle as it clattered on the floor. I glued it back together and it all turned out okay, but man, that moment sucked. The worst part was that I felt it coming. I was tired but grimly determined to make progress, despite not being able to get it clamped solidly. Sometimes learning hurts. Sounds like I got just a twinge of what you’re feeling, but take heart, there’s always the next project!
After a productive handful of days I’ve now finished chopping all 32 mortises, and a second pair of tenons. Glad to hit this milestone. It was fun but also a bit daunting to have so many large mortises to get through, but the last 20 or so only took me a little under 15 minutes each.
Now I just need to do the rest of the tenons, make pegs and drill drawbore holes, and do a few miscellaneous things and it’ll be ready to knock together. Hoping to do that by the weekend, but we’ll just have to see how productive I am after work this week.
Looks fantastic! Very nice joints. I’m working on a drawer for my bench as well, in red alder. My bench is a few feet away from the wall, so I’m doing mine push/pull style across the center of the bench. I might do a couple like yours for the end farthest from the vise. Would love to see pictures of yours when they’re done, and especially how they’re installed in the bench.
Chopping the mortises is under way. So far I’ve finished 8 of 32 total, I’d reckon they’re taking about 25 minutes each. How far I’ve come since chopping my first ever mortises for my workbench, sitting cross-legged on the floor of my basement for hours on end. Having a bench is so nice! It’s also nice having a mortising chisel for this, my regular chisel isn’t getting so beaten up this time.
I’ve also cut the first pair of tenons on the end of one of the 2x12s. I borrowed the layout from the breadboard end cutting board. Instead of sawing the cheeks, I only cut the shoulder lines, then dadoed almost to depth across the cheek, and split away most of the waste with a chisel. Then I planed across the grain until I got to proper thickness.
This worked really well. Having a 1/2″ dado made splitting away the waste way easier and more controlled than just a saw kerf, and gave me a very obvious indication of proper depth. Then I just cut away the waste to either side of the tenons, leaving a 1/2″ deep haunch and it was ready for a test fit.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.The walls will fit into the corner posts in breadboard-style mortise and tenons. For the haunches, I cut 1/2″ wide by 1/2″ deep dadoes into two adjacent sides of each post. I first marked with a mortising gauge, then deepened the lines with a knife, sawed kerfs roughly to depth with my rip tenon saw, and then routed out the dadoe with my router plane. I love my router plane so this was pretty enjoyable.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Nice work on the cutting board, and I love the look of the end grain in those pins!
I too have found cedar to be a pain to work. I’m chopping a bunch of large mortises in 4×4 cedar for my current project, and you’d think that chopping mortises would be a breeze in such a soft wood but even a newly sharpened mortise chisel just crushes the fibers a lot of the time. I’ve had it tear out easily and in surprising ways when planing, but with the throat set very, very narrow I got much better results. It also seems like it dulls my tool edges faster than cherry or walnut.
Here’s a test fit of the whole thing. Still need to clean up a few little things, but I’m real close to doing final assembly and putting a finish on it. I’ve already done a coat of pure tung oil, will coat with shellac over the weekend.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Here are the pictures. The first two show the underside of the bottom shelf and how it will slide onto the stretcher. The latter two show the underside of the upper shelf, and the dovetail/tenon/turnbutton thingies I attempted to describe above.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Okay, after lots of experimenting and fiddling around I finally worked out how to attach the shelves.
For the lower shelf, I went with a sliding dovetail. After cutting the dovetail-shaped recess across the shelf, I made a stretcher for the leg frame with a corresponding sliding dovetail that spans the lower rails. For final attachment I can just slide the shelf on with a bit of glue.
For the upper shelf, I tried out housed sliding dovetails. Since I had already made all the top rails before deciding, I ended up making a pair of short thingies with a dovetail along one edge and a tenon protruding from the end. The dovetail bit drops into an escapement chopped into the underside of the shelf, then slides into a short dovetail slot. As it slides into place, the tenon fits into a mortise in the rail. This holds the shelf flush against the top rails. For kicks I also drilled the rails and little tenons for drawbore pins. It’s hard to describe in words, and I can’t see or post pictures right now for some reason, but it’s a bit like a turn button mutated and sprouted a dovetail. If this sounds bonkers, it probably is, but I had fun with it and mostly like how it turned out. I’ll post pictures when that’s working again.
Anyway, having convinced myself that I can securely attach both shelves now, I went ahead and glued up the leg frame. It went smoothly and things fitted well without much fuss. I even debated not clamping it because it all seemed snug, but thought that might be tempting fate.
-
AuthorPosts