I’ve had some time to start on the TV Stand/Console.  There have been some ups and downs with this project.  The construction has been moving along quite nicely, without any real issues.  An “incident” that happened during the project, was that my planer spun the pulley that was connected to the cutting head.

When the pulley came loose, it also damaged the cutting head.  I would have had to replace the pulley and the cutting head.  This planer is a “lunchbox” style planer from Grizzly (G0505).  The “good” thing about Grizzly, is that you can order just about any part for their machines and the cost isn’t that bad.  I’ve never been happy with this planer, so I took this opportunity to replace it.  I ended up going with a Dewalt DW375.  I’ve used it to surface a few boards and I’m loving this machine!  The finished surface is pretty smooth for power planer, and the Snipe is much less than my Grizzly.

As for the TV stand, I’ve made some pretty good progress on the base.  I have the ends assembled, and was working on the back this weekend.  The back is Frame and Panel construction (like just about everything else on this project).

The back is divided up into 2 panels.  I got to the point where I need to cut and install the center Stile.  Measuring for the length of the Stile, is next to impossible.  I really don’t use a rule/tape very much, only for the first few pieces of a project.  Then the rest is cut to fit.

I cut my Stile over sized, then clamped in place.  After making sure it was square, I then used a Marking Knife to mark the top and bottom.

After I had those marks, I just added the length of my Tenons and cut them to final size.  This approach is quick, accurate and nearly foolproof.

I then needed to cut the back panels to size.  Cutting them to width is pretty easy, with a couple rip cuts on the Table Saw.  Crosscutting to length was another issue.  These panels were too wide for my Miter Gauge or Crosscut Sled.

I struck a knife line square across one of the panels.  I then lined the two panels together, then clamped them in the vise.

My current project will be a new TV Stand for our Living Room.  I’m building the stand out of European Beech.  I’ve started milling some of the lumber and have started on the legs and stretches of the base.

This project is going to have a lot of Mortise & Tenons and Frame & Panels in it.  The project is all solid wood, no plywood for the panels or top.  Although I was tempted.

Today I cut some grooves using my Veritas Plow Plane.  When I first got this plane, I had mixed results with it.  First, I discovered I using it wrong.  Chris Schwarz has blogged a couple times on how to properly use these kinds for jointery planes.  The key is (if you are right handed) to allow your right hand do the pushing forward, and use your left hand to apply lateral pressure to the fence.  Don’t be tempted to use your left hand to push forward, it will only cause you to be unbalanced.

The other key, was to add a larger auxiliary fence to the plane.  The small metal one just isn’t larger enough, to give you a good reference surface.  I think I can go even larger on mine, but this was a big improvement.

As you might remember, I’m not using power routers anymore.  Cutting these grooves would have been a task for the router.  I’m quite sure I cut these grooves just as fast with the hand plane, then I would have with the router!  One router task checked off the list.

Chris Schwarz sure started something with these Moxon Vises.  Some people might look at this as a fad, but I know it solves a problem I’ve had for a while, a tired back.  I solved the tried back problem a couple years ago, when I built what I called a Benchtop Bench.  This worked well, to raise your work up, so you aren’t hunched over while cutting joinery.  The only real issue I had with my Benchtop Bench, was storage.  Even though it’s kind of small, it was bulkly and difficult to find a home for.  I have a spot where I think the Moxon Vise can hang the wall.  It will make it easy to get to, which means I will use it more.A lot people are making their own screws and handles for their Moxon Vise and I admire that.  I recently bought some bench vise hardware from Benchcrafted, for a new bench I’m planning to build.  Even though I haven’t used the hardware yet, I was very impressed by the quality.  So much so, I decided to order their Moxon hardware.In the kit you get:  handles (hand-wheels), screws, nuts, washers, and suede leather for the chop.

You can use just about any wood for the vise.  The day I went to the lumber yard, Maple was the best choice.  I also looked at Ash and Beech, but selection was poor.  You really don’t need that much for the project.  You also don’t need to make the vise as large as the plans suggest.  The plans even show some shorter versions.

I did use the drill press to drill the ¾” holes through the two main pieces.  The holes on the front chop do get elongated, to allow the chop pivot a little.  This will let you hold some irregular shaped pieces if needed, and it just makes sliding the front chop easier.

The nut on the inside, needs to recessed.  You could just bore a round hole and slip the nut in, or even route a square hole with a template.  I wanted a clean tight fit.  I bolted the nut in place, and marked around it with a marking knife.

Then I bored out some of the waste using the drill press, then clean up the rest with a chisel.

Besides gluing the back clamping bar to the back, that’s all of the hard stuff.  After putting it together the first time.  I chose to flush up the top pieces.  It was pretty close, but it needed a few swipes with a plane.

The handles come as raw cast iron.  I’m sure they would develop a patina over time, but rust could be a problem.  Recently Jameel posted on his blog, a couple ways to patina the handles.  The first was to season the cast iron, like you would cast iron cookware.  I love my cast iron cookware, so I’m familiar with the process.  The only issue for me, was the logo button attached to the handles.  I asked Jameel if the plastic button would stand up to the heat of the oven and he said not likely.  Brenchcrafted is now shipping their handles without attaching the logo buttons, in case you want to do the oven approach.  The good news, Jameel had another option, Gun Bluing.  I’m no expert on Gun Bluing, but it’s a chemical process that adds a patina to the metal, to help protect it.

I picked a small bottle of the solution. I followed the instructions and added a few coats.  I got a nice deep patina on the handles.  Jameel then recommends adding a couple coats of Minwax Antique Oil Finish, to the handles.

My camera really doesn’t do the handles justice.  They look really nice, and I’m happy with this process.

The last step was to add the suede to the front chop.  I just used spray adhesive to attach the leather.  The leather really is optional.  I tested the vise before I put the leather on, and the holding power is amazing.  With the leather, it’s just out of this world.  I’ve had vises where I had to put a considerable amount of pressure on it and things still slipped, this isn’t the case with this vise.  The wheels spin fast and freely.  A moderate spin is all you need, to lock a piece in place.  I’ve never had vise work that well before.

Other people have made accessories for their Moxon Vise.  I may add a detachable support off the back, like a benchtop.  Other people have shown how this can help with transferring dovetails.  Others have made this a permanent fixture on the vise, but I’d like to make it detachable.  If it’s permanent, I’m back to a benchtop bench and storage because an issue again.

The Benchcrafted hardware is a luxury.  I’ve been selling some of the tools I don’t use anymore, and I decided to treat myself to something nice.  I don’t regret my purchase, and I can’t wait to start on the new bench!

I had some Curly Maple leftover from a previous project. I was able to find some pretty straight grained pieces, for this project. You don’t need much lumber, you might find what you need in your scrap bin.

You need to glue the brass pins into the handles. The instructions recommend Epoxy. I used a couple blocks with holes drilled in them, to act as cauls while clamping.

You only need 3 pieces of wood for the saw. I milled and sized the pieces according to the plans.

Most of the work is in shaping the the side pieces. The plans include full scale drawings of the pieces. I used some carbon paper, to transfer the shape of the sides.

The transfer isn’t pretty, but close enough to get the job done. I then used my band saw to rough out the shape.

I then used: spokeshaves, rasps, planes, and sandpaper to refine the shape. There are a few tapers and chamfers on the pieces. This helps reduce the weight of the saw. The plans give you recommendations on these tapers and chamfers.

Stringing up the saw is pretty straightforward. I used 100lbs test braided fishing line. I wrapped 4 loops around the saw, and tied it off. I made my toggle out of some Oak dowel I had. I’d like to turn a matching toggle someday, but for now I’ll use what I have.

I don’t like film finishes on many of my wooden tools. I quite often sand off the factory finish, for tools I’ve bought! I prefer to feel the wood, and I think you get a better grip with “raw” wood. I just put a nice coat of Boiled Linseed Oil on the saw. The saw tensioned up without cracking. I’ve done a few short test cuts, and it’s cutting very well. I weighed the finished saw, and it came in at 11.1oz. It’s about the same weight as my Lie-Nielsen Dovetail saw. I was amazed, I thought the Bow Saw would have been heavier!  It was fun project.  I recommend the kit and the project to anyone looking to add a Bow Saw to their Tool Chest.

A dry assembly of backs showed the joints were coming together pretty well.

After all of the joinery was cut, it was time to cleanup all of the back stats, 10 in all.  I used verity of tools to get this done, including:  spokeshaves, rasps, and lots of hand sanding.  To help hold the slats while working on them, I clamped pipe clamp in my vise.  I then clamped the slat in the pipe clamp.  This worked really well.

The final assembly and glue up went pretty quick.  I have one back glued up, and the second will be finished this weekend.

I’m getting really close to finishing these chairs.  I think it’s time my wife and I start looking at upholstery!

With the change in plans, my black slats are now 2” too long (the length of the tenons on each end). I hand sawed the slats to length, and did a pretty decent job. Although some clean-up was going to be needed. The interesting thing about curved backs, you can only really check for square across the width. There really isn’t any way to check for square across the thickness. I knew the ends needed a little work, but I had to scratch my head for a while, thinking of a way to true up the ends. Normally I would just use a shooting board, to clean-up the ends. As you might guess, curves and shooting boards don’t work well together.

If I could make an appliance that could hold the back slats, while I shot the ends, this would solve my problem. I wasn’t convince I could make something that could hold the slats accurately enough for this. Needless to say I was wrong, it worked great!

I knocked the appliance together in about 15 minutes. I traced the curve from one of the slats on some MDF. I then drilled (3) ¼” holes just under the line of the curve, for some dowel supports. I felt 3 supports were enough. The back slats do very somewhat and having fewer supports, I felt would help each register better.

If I had to do this over, I would clamp from the top, with a toggle clamp instead. I had to be careful when I was clamping the piece, it could rock a little if I wasn’t careful.

I made the appliance slightly narrower than the back slat itself. I didn’t want the plane cutting into or registering off the end of the appliance. The appliance itself, registered up against the fence of the shooting board. I was amazed at how well this work! The other nice side effect of this approach, I could shoot the back slats to length, to a very high degree of accuracy. Each back slats are easily withing a few Thou. of each other.

After cleaning up the ends on all of the slats, I turned my attention to shaping them. The back slats have a simple Could Lift on them. I made quick template to trace the pattern.

I used the bandsaw to rough out the shape. I then used: a spokeshave, a spindle sander, and some hand sanding to refine the shape. The pictures below, are of a sample piece. I have 10 back slats I need to add the cloud lift to. I ran out of time today, so that will be next weekend’s task.

My process for resawing, is pretty standard. I mill the lumber, so it’s flat a square. I then slice off the thickness of lamination I want. In this case, I want an ⅛” finished lamination. I had to add about a 1/32” to my laminations, to give me enough leeway to clean up the saw marks. Then I take the reaming stock, and run it over the Jointer to clean up the cut face. Then I repeat until I run out of wood.

Now the laminations have one smooth face (from the Jointer), and one rough face (from the Bandsaw). I don’t have a drum sander, so it’s hand tools for me to clean up the rough face. It actually went pretty fast with a hand plane. Even with ⅛” laminations, I was able to plane up against a stop, without the lamination buckling. I used my #7 plane. The #7 allows you to have fair mount of the plane on the lamination, before the blade started cutting. This really helped to keep the lamination from buckling. I was also able to fine-tune the laminations. If one side or end was ticker then the rest, I could to a few extra passes with plane in those areas. A pair digital calipers really came in handing for this process.

After all of the liminations were cleaned up, it was time to glue it up. For this project I’ve been using Titebond III glue, because it has a darker tint to it. Titebond III also has a longer open time, which is helpful for this lamination glue up.

I let the laminations sit overnight, in the clamps. I then scraped off the excess glue, and run one edge over the Jointer. I then cut the slats to width on the bandsaw, then clean up that cut edge back on the Jointer.

I had very little spring-back, when I unclampled the slats. Also, the glue lines are almost invisible. You really need to know where to look to find the glue lines.

I haven’t started to cut the tenons on the back slats yet, but this how I’m going to mark the joints. Recently Bob Lang, at Popular Woodworking Magazine, built a traditional Morris Chair. He created a template stick, that represented the width of the slats with the Tenons cut into it. You then lay the template across the back slat, and mark the location of the tenons.

It seemed like a simple and accurate way to layout the tenons.

I’ll be posting how it worked out, later.

Making the bracket is pretty straightforward.  I used the approach I learned from Darrell Peart, in one of his G&G Details classes.  You can also see his approach in his book “Greene & Greene Design Elements for the Workshop”.

I created templates for the two shapes, and used them to transfer patterns on the blocks I milled up.

I used my bandsaw to rough out the shape.  I then used my oscillating belt and spindle sander to refine the shape.  The edges were rounded over, using an 1/8″ round-over bit and a router.  Then there was a lot of hand sanding, finishing the shaping and to cleaning up the router marks.

To help strengthen this joint, I used a spline. Overall I feel the joint came out pretty well. The glue line blends in pretty well, and I don’t mind seeing the spline on the edges.

Once I had all of the arms cut and glued up, I started marking out the location for the mortises. I started by laying the armrest across the side, so I could mark the exact location off of the tenons.

Traditionally you would do a through-tenon on these chairs, but I wimped out. Also, I had some issues cutting the back tenons on the legs, and those came out a little smaller than the front ones. So I chose not to do through-tenons. I will add a “false tenon” on the top of the arms, to simulate a through tenon.  Don’t judge me, you do what you have to do .  I’m thinking about using Ebony for the false tenons. I’ll do some tests and see how that looks.

Chopping the mortises I used a more “traditional” approach, and hogged out most of waste at the drill press. Then cleaned up the sides and corners with a chisel.

Some fine tuning was done on the tenons, using a Shoulder Plane, to get a really nice fit.

The last step was to finish shaping the arms. All of the corners were rounded, using my oscillating belt sander. I have to say, I’m really liking this Ridgid sander. It is proving to be a really nice purchase.

Also, all of the edges were rounded over, with an ⅛” round-over bit and a router.

The next step is to work on the backs. To get the exact width of the back, I did a dry assembly of the base. You can really start to see what the chairs will look like. I’m very pleased with how things are coming together!

Also, for those who missed it, I started blogging about this project over on WoodTalkOnline. You can find 3 other posts over there, on how I got this far. I’ll be finishing up this project here on my site.