The Wooden Boat Show

I'm heading to The Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, CT today. I have no doubt that I will see every one of you there.

My favorite part of this hobby is executing things I've never done before. The sliding dovetails with curved shoulders on these legs is one of these instances. 

The first one will be fun. The third will likely leave me thinking "I'm glad I don't have to do that again."

A B C D Exciting News!

First we'll start with some awesome news. Yesterday Chris Schwarz announced the imminent printing of my book, "Mouldings in Practice" that he is publishing through Lost Art Press. The book is 99.9% complete. It will go to the printer in the next week or so, which means shipping is about a month away.

I've seen the final document. Chris and company FAR exceeded my expectations. I'm very excited.

On to the post. Last week we took a quick look at the waist moulding and support of Bill Anderson's corner cabinet featured on The Woodwright's Shop with Roy Underhill. Let's take a quick look at the two moulding that comprise the crown.

I'll show you the steps, you tell me which plane's you will use in terms of pairs 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 (you'll also need a side round).

Step1 

Step 2 

Step 3 

Steps 1 and 3 will actually all be executed at the same time. I break it down into 2 steps because it shows the purpose of the rabbets. Step 1 includes the rabbets that separate the included profiles (coves from fillets, beads, etc.) Step 3 shows the rabbets that will guide the rounds. Step 2 is in the middle of the two because I got ahead of myself and didn't feel like redrawing.

Step 5

Step 6 

Step 7 

Step 8 

Step 9 

Step 10 

As Summer Winds Down

Well, the summer solstice has come and gone. Each consecutive day will slowly get shorter as we head into fall and then a long winter.

The pins will be pulled from our golf courses. The docks will be pulled out of our rivers. The humidifiers will be turned on in our bedrooms after the dehumidifiers are turned off in out basements. The heavy woodworking season is coming as we'll spend more time in our warm basements and cold garages instead of all the various summer activities that trump our work.

In no time at all I will see if this thing is structurally sound as the winds pick up and I need to shovel a foot of snow off this last weekend's project.

It feels like summer just began.

M N L O K P J...

I rarely bring anything to read with me when I know I will be sitting for a long time. I like my time alone, even if it's at a crowded venue.

I do this in airports, trains and jury duty.

Once I got bored and decided to learn the alphabet backwards. A few years later my wife told me I couldn't do the alphabet from the inside out. It took me an hour (without pen or paper) that she undoubtedly regretted. My nieces and nephews are impressed. You're probably not. Not yet, at least.

In honor of my brilliance, we will be looking at the mouldings from Bill Anderson's Corner Cabinet from the inside out. Starting with the waist and support: the point where the upper case sits upon the lower.

Basic Dimensions:

Radii (note the ellipses)

The first rabbets/joint. You will need a specialized sticking board for the support moulding on the left. A properly dimensioned stick to fill the void will work.)

Rabbets at all of the transition points from hollow to round, fillet to hollow, etc. 

The orange rabbet below shall be cut during the previous step, but it's not a transition point so it didn't fit in the description. This orange rabbet removes more material with the plane that's easiest to maintain (rabbet) and gives clearance for the side round's profile in red. 

This rabbet is the transition point between the two sized rounds to create the ellipse. Again, it shall be cut the the rabbets above. 

Still during that first step, add a rabbet for each round to be used. The rabbets for the support moulding have already been made.

Chamfer for each hollow. 

Knock off corners. When making an ellipse I usually start with the larger of the two planes... Since I'm looking to talk about this in terms of my standard quarter set, we will be using a #10 round to mimic the shape of a 12 and a block plane or something similar as a substitute for the hollow. Try it, you'll be happy with the results.

And then move to the smaller. #6 hollow and #8 round

Knock off corners up top with a #4 hollow

And more corners. Use a #10 here. When making a cove that abuts a bead, as we have below, a side round will create clearance, but not enough for the perfectly sized round. I'd probably use a 10 round here even it I didn't have a 12 (a 13 cuts a radius of 7/8, not 13/16, but I digress.)

And the last corners. Use a #4 hollow to mimic a #3, you'll get it.

Complete 

Bill executes his mouldings a little different. He starts his rounds upon a chamfer and uses a plow to groove clearance for the side round and subsequent rounds.

His starting point for hollows/rounds looks quite different than where I start. 

The results, of course, are the same. 

Except that his was done in wood.

So why did I start in the middle? because it's the one I wanted to do first.

Riding Coattails

Bill Anderson was a recently a guest on The Woodwright's Shop with Roy Underhill to illustrate the making of a Walnut Colonial Corner Cupboard along with all of the various details--mouldings included.

I have had several email exchanges with Bill and finally met him at Woodworking in America last year. He uses these planes differently than I do, but the results are the same.

Bill sent me the profiles from the cupboard and here we are.

Take a look at the profiles. Think about how to execute them. Watch the episode with Roy. Stay tuned here because we will go through them one by one in a different fashion than Bill showed Roy, but with the same results.

That's a lot of custom shaper knives!

I will explain the following shapes in terms of pairs 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and a side round.

I got a little sanding done this morning, too.

More Pedestal Progress

After several early mornings...