Top Corbel Rotunda Shelves

Artisan at the Holidays #2

     May the holiday season bring you the joy of gathering with friends and family as well as a deeper appreciation for the important people in our lives.
     For those of my readers who are artists and craft people this is also an excellent time of year to show appreciation to our patrons.
     For those of you who are instead, or additionally, my own patrons I myself offer now heartfelt appreciation, and I hope my works have provided some added joy to your everyday lives.
     You may even find, embedded in each piece, a unique gift, not just for the holidays, but deriving from the attentions proferred.  Open and enjoy it every day...and thank you for your patronage!
                         

Flying Hint #6: Flight Bag & Seat Slippage

The tendency of the front seats in single-engine Cessna aircraft to come unlocked and slip backwards on their rails has been addressed and likely fixed by Airworthiness Directives.  But I say, "What the heck?"  I put my venerable and indestructible Sporty's flight bag behind the pilot's seat, and just in case I find myself suddenly traveling aft, I won't go very far.  The bag is unlocked, and I can actually reach around and grab things if needed (the arrangement of the contents is well memorized).  This is hardly a problem for the back seat passenger as the density altitude at Flagstaff's 7000' elevation often transforms this 4-place Cessna Skyhawk into a 3-place aircraft.  Of course, if I take the advice I gave to my flight students and keep a gentle touch on the yoke, any surprise seat slippage would result in loosing one's grip rather than having the nose point skyward.

15 Woodworking Tips

Woodworking Tip #15 -- Pseudo Tabletop -- a way to maintain proper alignment of a table top and it's base during fabrication

Woodworking Tip #14 -- Norse Fasteners for Tabletop --  using these very strong and adaptable fasteners to attach a table top to its base

Woodworking Tip #13 -- Doublesticking Drawer Faces  --  a method to keep drawer faces properly positioned on a drawer while the two parts are screwed together

Woodworking Tip #12 --"Pre-square" Large Glue-Ups -- a major helping hand in maintaining the squareness of a structure or carcase while the final glue-up is done

Woodworking Tip #11 -- Curvaceous Corners -- a decorative and error-concealing treatment to solid wood edging applied to plywood shelves

Woodworking Tip #10 -- Traction for Plywood -- keeping extra weight over a pickup's rear wheels while still allowing the space required to transport plywood sheets

Woodworking Tip #9 -- Wedges for Hungarian Shelves  -- a quick way to make wooden wedges for Hungarian shelves or most any other purpose

Woodworking Tip #8 -- Anti-Skid Miter Gauge -- preventing lateral movement of a piece of wood placed against a miter gauge and enhancing safety

Woodworking Tip #7 -- Doweling Jig Stability -- a sure method to keep a doweling jig from tilting while boring a dowel hole in end grain

Woodworking Tip #6 -- Magazine Storage -- a small addition to shelving for magazine storage that keeps all the issues parallel and vertical

Woodworking Tip #5 -- Velcro's New Coat -- an obvious way to use a PSA sanding disc on a sander equipped with a hook and loop type pad

Woodworking Tip #4 -- Level Biscuits -- attaching a line level to a plate joiner in order to keep a biscuit slot parallel to a board's surface when the joiner's bed is unsupported

Woodworking Tip #3 -- Old Sole Eraser -- a cheap and usually available "eraser" to clean sanding belts or discs

Woodworking Tip #2 -- Corner Cut Outs -- a method to assure equal multiple corner cut outs using a table saw sled

Woodworking Tip #1 -- Precision Chops -- pushing a miter saw to the same precision slices produced by a knife trimmer

Finishing Tip #5: Roll on the Oil

"Rollers are for houses...brushes are for furniture."  Despite nearly forty years of woodworking I am still basically ingrained in this mindset.  Even when creating this massive "three story" wall system I used a brush, albeit a large one, to apply the oil:  Solid Cherry Wall System.   However, when a fellow woodworker asked for some help in the final assembly of a 21-piece bunk bed staircase of Pacific madrone and black walnut, I offered to complete the job with a coat of oil.  The side slabs of solid madrone, some 5 feet high by five feet deep, called out for roller application.  With a four inch roller I could hit all the corners of the risers and treads, and a short extension allowed me  to reach through the windows of this a.k.a. children's fort and coat the interior as well.  Not only incredibly faster, the roller also yields a much more even coating, in this case 50% linseed oil and 50% Natural WATCO.  I don't even bother with a roller tray, but just dip the roller part way into the bucket of oil.  And, of course, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Woodworking Tip #15: Pseudo Tabletop

The Table ("The Table") shown in my Oct 27, 2011 post has legs that are flared outward at two degree compound angles.  The resultant complex  sizing and positioning of all the pieces would have been a complete nightmare without a CAD program.  Further, to facilitate and check the registration of all the pieces during the fabrication I built a pseudo tabletop as shown to the left.  In each corner was placed a removable dowel.  As the top of each leg has a permanent dowel installed, the pseudo tabletop, with its dowels removed, was used to insure proper positioning of the leg assembly during glue-up.  This light and easy to manipulate board made it simple to insure that the finished tabletop would be parallel with the compact trestle base.  Then, with the dowels in place, the pseudo tabletop was used to position the holes which were bored in the table's brace rails and received the dowels glued in the top of the legs.  It was also used to set the spacing between the brace rails.  The dowels are merely to keep the legs in position while Norse latches provided the clamping force between the legs and tabletop, see:   Norse Fasteners for Tabletop.

Woodworking Tip #14: Norse Fasteners for Tabletop

I always design my larger, heavier tables so that the top and base can be separated, which greatly facilitates moving, repairing, refinishing, and even, heaven forbid, storage.  Last week's post (Oct. 27, 2011, The Table) shows my latest and fastest, perhaps strongest, methodology employing 4 Norse SXR latches and "J" receivers (norse-inc.com).  These stainless steel latches can exert up to 200# of clamping force, far more than is needed to keep a table and its base securely together.  Dowels glued in the top of the legs keep the alignment correct.  To my mind the latches are also beautiful and the mechanical engineering superb.  I have used Norse latches in other applications.  For instance, their fully mortised Type 2 fasteners attach the sectional pieces of my home dining booth:  flyingcircusstudios.blogspot.com/2007/05/blog-post_17.html.   In this case no hardware whatsoever is visible.  Also visible in this picture are the cushioned glass retainers that hold Chris Norlin's stained glass work (ravenseyeglass.com) in a circular rabbet and beneath the 1/4" plate glass "trivet" embedded in the table's top, stout enough to place even your big casserole of lasagna.  The light box has been removed to show these details.

The Table (Seats Eight)

See the underside too.  Note:  superthin light box is removed.  Lighting under the stained glass powered either by a small battery box or auxiliary transformer.

Companion Chair

Multi-Depth Medicine Cabinet

Center section extends a full 4" into the wall cavity, creating over a half foot of interior shelf depth, while the two side sections rest on the wall's surface.

Viking Express Bed Extension

Resultant Full Size Bed

       This was a shamefully easy woodworking project that was inspired when we purchased this incredible little tent trailer that weighs only 455 pounds and can be pulled by any compact car.  Though the two bunks and mattresses provided will each fit two people we wanted more room and padding to spin the old bones.  The solution was to create a plywood extension that mounts on spacers, resting on the two supports that hold the bunk when the unit is closed, and is supported in the middle by a removable PVC post threaded onto a fitting embedded in the plywood.

Plywood Bed Extension

Viking Express by Forest River

The plywood measures 5" x 70," but the 4" high density foam that is glued to it measures 6" by 70" providing an overhang that rests on the bunk's piano hinge and presses firmly against the existing mattress.  The separate spacers are four layers of baltic birch with a thickness of 1.875," and a carriage bolt holds the whole assembly to the metal triangles with a wing nut. The spacers are recessed from the edge of the plywood extension to allow a contour sheet to wrap around all.  Over the existing mattress and bed extension a 52" x 74" x 2" thick full size egg carton mattress topper is placed.  The bed extension and attached foam fit neatly in the trailer box against the stored mattresses when the unit is closed.  Pretty darn comfy and roomy!  Thoreau's cabin but not his bed.

See also our shop at:  www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingCircusStudios

See another use of the Viking Express as a cargo trailer:  Viking Express Camping/Cargo Trailer Conversion 

Stud Depth Cabinets

Sewing Center

Full Extension Breadboard Pull Out

Woodworking Tip #13: Doublesticking Drawer Faces

Here's a rather two-faced way to perfectly align a drawer face prior to screwing it onto the drawer.  First I support and position the bottommost face on shims before reaching into the drawer and pushing it against the face and into two pieces of fabric mesh, double-stick tape stuck to the left and right side of the drawer.  Next I use this bottom face as a base, placing the remaining faces on top of it, equalizing all the spaces with a combination of different thicknesses of cardboard.  The subsequent drawer is installed on its tracks, and it's face placed on top of the cardboard spacers, as shown askew, positioned laterally, and then pressed into the tape.  The tape holds the face in place while the drawer is screwed into its back, which can be done either inside the carcase or with the drawer removed.  Clamps can augment the process. If it's not possible to push the drawer forward I place foam behind it, just enough the make the drawer protrude slightly and provide compression for the tape bond.  The tape is left in place and provides some pretty good adhesion, though the face can still be removed.  It's a case where a stuck drawer is just what you want.

Display Lattice with Jason Bohnert's Pottery

Pottery display lattice from my July 28, 2011 post now filled with the pottery of Jason Bohnert in his show entitled "kwenCH" at West of the Moon Gallery, 111 E. Aspen Ave. #2, Flagstaff, Arizona.  The show "kwenCH" runs through the month of August.  For more information about Jason, as well as images of his beautiful work, please check out  the JB Pots website: www.jbpots.etsy.com.

See also our own shop at:  www.etsy.com/shop/FlyingCircusStudios

Small Shelf Unit

Pottery Display Lattice

Lean Thinking Tip #8: Major or Minor Seiso?

Last winter I conducted an experiment in maintaining a more perfect, uncluttered workplace.  Following the principle of the five Ss, as explained in Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, I dedicated the first hour of each day to the middle S, which refers to seiso.  Seiso is Japanese for purity but in this context refers to a cleanup campaign conducted on a regular basis.  This experiment was a dismal failure due to the five Fs:   Focus on current project cleanup rather than general, Failure to define discrete, smaller, doable cleanup projects, Fear of the "great mess," Frittering away time quite creatively and Fattening oneself up on a snack and a hot drink.  Then last week I dedicated an entire day to shop seiso and produced a much happier and efficient workplace.  The numerous benefits gained immediately and positively affected production.  By the way, Lean Thinking is a must read for anybody who makes anything, and though it is more directed to large corporations the concepts apply equally well to the small shop.  Hopefully, by the way, you don't find yourself prone to the five Fs.

Tool Tip #10: The Hulk's Bench Scraper

I couldn't find any green gloves for this picture, but just take a long and wide piece of 1/4" plate glass, hold it at an angle safely with thick gloves and then draw it across your workbench in several different directions.  Now you have a monster bench scraper:  off come high spots, glue drops, burrs, splinters and most any piece of debris that could scratch your work.  With repeated use such a scraper has the further benefit of flattening the top of your workbench, which is always a help for any form of glue-up.  Used with care, freshly cut glass makes an excellent scraper for wood, a practice I first encountered in the Chelsea studio of the Greek sculptor Michael Lekakis.  He used little squares of window glass for the final finish on a variety of his wood sculptures.  That's 8 crisp edges without any maddening metal scraper sharpening...the Hulk can keep his shirt on.

My Friend, Kenneth D. Ainsworth

IN MEMORY OF

KENNETH D. AINSWORTH

Rather than the usual tip or portfolio photo, I am dedicating this post as a type of permanent plaque to the memory of my dear friend Kenneth D. Ainsworth who died very suddenly on the Memorial Day just past.  Though I first met Ken back when his oldest son and our son were in Boy Scouts together, the friendship between he and his wife Kay and myself and Sara had deepened in recent years.  We shared many wonderful times together, and some of the best material for our life stories comes from instances of Ken's amazing generosity and good humor.  Ken was one of those rare people who would uplift your spirit by just coming into the room.  I can offer proof of that when Ken did the photography for our daughter's wedding.  In his photo of 17 people of the wedding party every single person shines with their very best smile.  It was easy to do for Ken.  Though a dentist by occupation Ken was a brilliant photographer and leaves a legacy of thousands of photographs, even a few in these pages.  Sara and I were very much looking forward to many years of growing friendship with Ken and his wife Kay but will now have to reset our expectations without his quiet, loving, yet powerful presence.

Tool Tip #9: Securing an Old Favorite

Throughout college my only desk was a hollow core door slab placed over a pair of sawhorses, and I still haven't abandoned this convenient form of table.  Whenever I need an additional work surface open come a pair of Trojan ( http://www.trojantools.com) sawhorses and on goes a 3-0 door slab.  A good door slab typically provides a very flat surface which is useful in assembling face frames or checking the 3-dimensional squareness of a carcase, not to mention being very much lighter than any folding table.  However, having your slab seesaw a load onto the floor is not fun.  To provide greater security for this old favorite I've added a draw tight latch to the end of each 2x4 and bolted the Trojans on as well.  The draw tight latches make attachment quick and easy with no reaching underneath the table.

Home Library -- Room #3

Home Library -- Room #2

Home Library -- Room #1

See also our shop at:  www.flyingcircusstudios.etsy.com

Woodworking Tip # 12: "Presquare" Large Glue-ups

I've found that when it comes to large glue-ups such as wall systems, shelf systems, drawer web frames, even smaller cabinet carcases, it helps a great deal if two of the pieces are already set and firm at right angles.  Really, it doesn't matter which two pieces are "preglued" before the entire carcase is glued-up, for the fact is, having a built-in "framing square" makes the final assembly so much the easier.  Pictured here an actual framing square is clamped to the side of a shelf unit to the keep a shelf square in its dado joint, though the concept would work with biscuits, dowels, or most any other type of joinery.  The bench clamp holds a stiffening stick to prevent any inaccuracies due to measuring square off a concave or convex surface.  Once the glue is set, this pair of pieces will make the larger glue-up much less unwieldy.

Curved Glass Unit in Sectional Retail Display

Detail: Curved Glass Retail Display

Woodworking Tip #11: Curvaceous Corners

I have made a small modification to several recent library shelf systems that consisted of fixed plywood shelves within face frames.  The modification  adds both a touch of elegance and considerable visual interest to what is otherwise a simple design.  A small radius roundover is routed on the end of the shelf edging at the corner that meets the stile, as shown.  Also, making the edging slightly larger than the thickness of the shelf adds a look of solidness and a tiny bit of strength, here 1" edging on 3/4" shelving.

Finishing Tip #4: Soft and Easy Putty

Flagstaff's  preeminent outdoor chef, Lamar Haines, not to mention educator, coach and guide, used to say, "when serving pancakes, make sure to keep the butter soft and the syrup hot."  Who could not agree after trying to spread some half-frozen pat of restaurant butter over one's rapidly cooling pancakes?  When my work serves me up a bunch of nail holes to fill I take inspiration from Lamar and keep my putty soft and easy, not by rolling a little ball of it in my palms thereby making a mess of myself and any tools I'm using, but by warming the entire container of putty by whatever means is handy.  A warm container will keep the putty soft and pliable for any reasonable amount of nail hole fillings.  Most often I use a dedicated flat blade screwdriver, with it's square corners rounded, for pressing in the putty more precisely than a putty knife and with less excess.  For removing what excess is left I use a tack cloth which picks up putty well and polishes off the filling nicely with the wood's surface.

Decorative Door Chime Enclosure

Finishing Tip #3: Drying Rack

This simple drying rack made of 2x4's permits stained, oiled, varnished, painted, lacquered, cleaned, stripped, washed, etc. items to dry in a very compact amount of space with virtually nothing but a few knife-edge contact points between the item and the rack.  The parallel sets of notches are approximately 1/8" wider than the item is thick and 1" deep.  The rack is suitable for cabinet doors, panels, cabinet sides, face frames, door frames, drawer faces, and anything else flat, such as the bookshelves shown.  The width of the notch can, of course, be adjusted for thicker stock as was done in the back half of the rack shown, but then refilled for 3/4" stock with little masonite squares.  You want to produce a slight lean sufficient to prevent the item from falling back to vertical.  Even if you were refinishing just one set of kitchen cabinet doors this rack would both increase your efficiency and preclude any marks in your stain or surface coating.  The drying rack also supports my protocol of finishing all sections of piece prior to assembly, a good subject for a future woodworking tip.

"Woodworking" Tip #10: Traction for Plywood

Transporting hardwood plywood from Spellman Hardwoods to the shop in Flagstaff's wintry conditions is made safer with the help of my tube sand carriages.  Two homemade L-shaped carriages are screwed to the bed behind the wheel wells thus permitting the entire width of the bed to be utilized yet providing extra weight for traction.  The hook shown can receive a tiedown to secure a second tube, making a total of 240# of stable weight with no obstruction.  Of course, full tanks of gas, as every pilot should know, weigh in at 6# per gallon, not to mention prevent condensation.  Coupled with two studless Michelin Latitude tires my venerable 2WD F150 feel like a 4WD, but what transfer case can be dumped into the Flagstaff clay come spring to help loosen things up?

Desktop Book Rack (First Work, Circa 1963)

Lean Thinking Tip #7: The 100-Drawer Hutch

During the 1960's my father worked as a quality assurance rep for the federal government, which meant he was stationed at various plants.   A total brain (a.k.a. nerd) at the time I had little interest in his work stories, but this one stuck in my mind permanently, especially whenever I make drawers:  seems one of the fellows in the crating department at AT&T in Clifton, N.J. bet his coworkers that he could build a 100-drawer hutch in a day.  Remember, before the days of foam and wrap, products were often shipped in wooden crates.  A crating department was a full-blown, completely equipped woodworking shop.  The day was long, the effort Herculean, but a day it was, and the bet was won, so the story goes.

For the self-employed, extracting good value from a day's work is a tricky business, more psychological than logistical.  Often my only boss is a list of production goals.  Monday I gave myself a huge, unrealistic list, but surprised myself as the check marks gathered.  So come 3:00 PM a spot of tea as a little reward, maybe a snack to go with, check the emails perhaps, retrieve the snail mail...a half hour gone with a sizable task remaining, as even retrofit, built-in drawer boxes deserve a nice smooth roundover on their upper rims.  Determined not to undermine this fine day I accomplished the roundover operation at more than double my usual rate...ah, echoes of the 100 drawer hutch.

Flying Hint #5: Engine Failure Troubleshooting - Part 2

In the second part of engine failure troubleshooting (see previous post for Part 1) the right hand flies, and the left hand "fixes."  A little chant goes with the physical pattern in both parts, again to help automate the whole procedure.  In Part 1 say to yourself out loud:  "fuel, carb, throttle and mix."  Part 2 goes:  "mags, master, primer and boost."  First, verify that the ignition switch is set to BOTH, though in the case of a rough or misfiring engine, testing left (L) and right (R) magneto settings could solve the problem.  Second, turn the master off for a failure at takeoff or close to the ground, or, at altitude, confirm that it is on for emergency communications or to enable a restart in the case of a stopped prop.  Third, check that the primer is in and locked.  Fourth, turn the fuel boost pump on if so equipped.  This procedure works well for most Cessna light singles.  Customize it for the plane you fly using the three basic concepts:  use "one hand flies, one hand fixes," design a physical pattern from one control to another and reinforce that pattern with a phrase of one word per control.

Flying Hint #5: Engine Failure Troubleshooting - Part 1

This is the procedure I taught my flight and ground students, just the troubleshooting aspect of an engine failure, which must be done simultaneously with establishing glide speed and choosing an emergency landing site...thus, no peeking!  Do remember to fly the aircraft.  In Part 1 the left hand flies and the right hand fixes, and in Part 2 (next post) the right hand flies and the left hand fixes.  Create a pattern appropriate to the aircraft as the physical path helps cement memory.  In this Cessna check that the fuel selector is on both tanks, move up and apply full carburetor heat, move rightward and apply full throttle and last, adjust the mixture, though the flight manual recommendation for full rich may not be appropriate at high altitudes.  Pointy...square...smooth...bumpy.  Better than counting sheep, review the pattern with your eyes closed, practice cheaply in the cockpit while looking outside at the view of the ramp, and then do the real thing flying with an instructor.

Mahogany Vanity with Talavera Sink