Well this was our last bandsaw box making class, pretty much a wrap-up session. Much of my time was spend sanding on my shaped box so it would be ready for finishing. I am starting a new class on finishing this coming Wednesday so I will not be doing anything to this box till I get some ideas from class. We did some show and tell on our boxes and overall review as well. The presentation of our completion certificates will not be till the December group meeting so it gives me some additional time to hopefully make at least one more bandsaw box.

As far as additional woodworking this weekend, there was not much. I had some work to do as well as relatives in town for my sons birthday party. I did get a chance to review the last spot of insulating I thought I needed to do in the walls of my shop and determined it was not needed. There is a steel beam above the garage door where I was going to insulate and not much room between it and the drywall to make it worth it for me to tear into it. I will see how well the heat bill is this winter with what I already did in the other walls and to the overhead door and then make the call next year. One more task crossed off the to do list, getting pretty close to just fun woodworking things for me to do this winter.  Yeah!

I worked on the new logo for the site and some color changes. I am going to run the logo by some friends first and see what they think before I commit to it.

So next plans in the shop? Well I have these boxes to finish along with my Celtic inlay box from spring. I also will be making a drill press table and a few other jigs, but I did decide a workbench needed to be on that list. So keep checking back as I will really start into some project over the next few months, as will as post information from my finishing class.

Below are the photos of the bandsaw boxes made in class.

 I finished my square bandsaw box last week so much of this class was spent working on a non-square box. Murry’s bandsaw was once again working and I was able to get a start on my triangular shaped box.

Non-square bandsaw boxes are cut in much the same way as square ones with a slight variation. Typically you cut the outside shape first, then cut off the top and bottom of the box, and last cut out the middle shape. You then glue the bottom back on to the box along with gluing the entry saw kerf that was made when cutting the inside box shape; lid is finished off just like on the square box.

My box was designed to use oak dowels as decoration and a pivot point for the lid; hopefully I will take some time to add photos of it to the web in the next few weeks. I worked on it outside of class and I am in the process of gluing it all back together. I also took the time to sweep and tidy up the shop as well as finish resealing my tool tops. My jointer top needed it really badly and knew I was going to use that tool more in the next few weeks. The oak boards I cleaned up a few weeks ago I glued up to make a block for an additional bandsaw box. I will need to square it up some next weekend but it should make a nice box.

I received a couple books I ordered including The Ultimate Band Saw Book for additional ideas as well as one on hand cutting dovetails. I am thinking my next large project will be a new computer table or a workbench, either one I would like to use some hand cut dovetails which I have not done since shop class in high school.

The remaining free time this last weekend I used to explore some ideas for a new logo and look for the web site. I would like to change things up some but it all comes down to time and my desire to sit in front of a computer, which is low right now. I would rather be in the shop making things with my time and with an additional finishing class I enrolled in starting in a few weeks, I am unsure how much time that class will need from me so I am limiting my commitments.

We spent much of our time creating our first square bandsaw box made out of basswood. I forgot my digital camera so I did not get any photos, also Murry had bandsaw equipment issues so I personally did not get as far on my box in class as I would have liked. While making one of my cuts I noticed and could feel the blade having way too much flex on his bandsaw. The cut I was making got way off and Murry thought it was because I was not holding the project tight to the fence. After problems by others in the class we realized the saw was off and needed to be tuned. Not sure how that all happened but oh well, have to expect these things when woodworking.

The cutting sequence to a square bandsaw box is top, bottom, long sides, short sides. Once you cut all these off you use the core, protected with wax or tape from glue, to glue the sides and bottom back up in the original correct order. When the glue drys you take the core and cut a small 1/4 inch slice off to use on the top for the lid. You can use the core, your glued up box, and some paper as a riser to help glue this centered on the lid.

I used my own bandsaw on Saturday and Sunday and finished up my square box along with sanding it. I even got a neat broken piece of walnut strip chiseled into the lid for a handle. Hopefully I will have time to spray poly finish on it this week and add a cloth liner to the bottom before class on Saturday. When I get it finished I will add a photo to the web site. Seems silly to spend so much time on a small basswood box but then again it is my first bandsaw box and anything worth doing should be worth doing right. Next Saturdays class we will start on a shaped bandsaw box, much more fun in my opinion. I did joint some small pieces of oak that I then cut up to use for making a layered glue-up block for some other bandsaw box here in the next few weeks. I ordered the book that was recommended in last class along with another called “The Ultimate Band Saw Box Book” by Donna LaChance Menke for additional box ideas.

Complete my tablesaw tune-up this weekend as well so I am almost all set to do some serious woodworking. I found I need to treat my bandsaw and jointer tables as well for rust. The constant battle over rust and rust protection is never done, especially in my garage shop.

I made it back from my conference in Vegas on Friday but barely. I ended up either getting the flu or food poisoning my last night out in Vegas and it was not a fun trip back to Iowa. Personally I think it was food poisoning which then became the flu and now six days later is still flu like with a really bad cold to top things off. Since being sick I have spend little time in the shop but was able to make it to my first bandsaw box class on Saturday. See I was actually feeling better and then wham I got sick all over again.

Saturday’s class was very good, nice to finally have a purpose to be in the shop again. Our instructor, Murry, is very good as well and extremely helpful. There are four of us in the class since he has a small shop and most of the work will be done in class. That is great for me with only a few hours on the weekends to spare to my hobby.

The class time was spent doing meet and greets along with covering shop safety, location of materials, and getting use to Murry’s bandsaw. We then discussed the two different bandsaw boxes we will make, one a shape and the other square. The shape box is produced by first cutting out the shape from a block of wood, cutting the top and bottom off, and then cutting out the inside of the shape. Once the inside is cut out you can glue the bottom back on and fill in the hole where you entered to cut the inside out. You glue a slice from what was cut off on the inside to the top to help make a lid. The directions was given to the square box but much more detailed and Murry will have a handout next week.

Murry recommended 1/4 inch blades for most of the bandsaw boxes along with the book “Building Beautiful Boxes With Your Bandsaw” by Lois Keener Ventura. I will have to pick myself up a copy someday. I have my shape selected for next week, a rounded triangle, along with about as much shop prep time as my health will allow. I hope to be able to do a glueup of some boards to make an additional box as a side project.

I did not see a lot of woodworking action last weekend but what I did see was some rust on my tablesaw top. Being so busy since spring and only using the saw to cut construction lumber I had forgotten to clean and re-seal the top. The rust was surface only but it did cause a chain reaction in which the time I did have this weekend was spent tuning up my saw. All the usual steps were taken from clean out, clean up, and dry lube to re-seal, alignments, etc. One extra step I did take was replacing my old belt with a new Power Twist Linked V-Belt I had purchased last year but never got around to installing. The saw had a very small jerk on start up and a little vibration, have to admit that this belt cleared that up without any extras calibrations and seems to have the saw running much smoother. These belts are great in that they cannot get dead spots because of the links, which I had from the saw sitting idle. I am not completely done with the tuneup but hopefully can wrap it up next weekend and start making some dust with it again.

Last night was our first fall meeting of the Des Moines Woodworkers after the annual summer break. The meeting was good with an excellent discussion and demonstration on hand planing a board flat. The meeting was video taped and I guess it will be posted to the Internet, if it is publicly available I will post a link out to it.

Not sure how much woodworking I will be able to accomplish this next weekend or even posting about what was done, I fly out to Vegas on Sunday for the week on a work related trip. When I return I expect my bandsaw box class will start soon which will be good for me; I need a strong push to be in the shop and actually making stuff.

I found woodworking after being a DIY guy and getting sick and tired of the homes I lived in tore up. At least with making furniture you can walk away and come back, it is not in your face each and every day. This all changed when my wife and I decide to remodel our home’s exterior which was in dire need of improvement. To save some cash, I pushed myself to return to DIY and fix it up ourselves.

The pictures do the talking, here is my house when we bought it over six years ago.

Here is the house three years ago, not much has changed. I forgot to take an updated photo before starting all the work, but other then bigger trees, bushes, and the home looking even more weathered, it was the same.

Here it is after five months of work.

So what all did we do? Well, first was the Anderson casement windows with the prairie grids we completely installed and finished ourselves. These are the 400 series vinyl clad exterior and pine interior windows which we custom stained to match the rest of the home’s trim. All but one window was re-sized bigger; the livingroom window was made a few inches shorter since it was so big, especially on the height looking way out of proportion with the other windows on the front.

Then came the steel front entry door which was a custom ordered and painted with an aluminum frame along with a new aluminum Larson storm door. Once again, we installed and finished these doors ourselves. Up to this point none of this was that bad to accomplish, but we were entering July and still had tons more we wanted to do.

Then like any home remodel project the beast starts taking on a mind of it’s own and stone veneer was decided. After hunting up an Eldorado Stone we liked, I decided to once again do this project myself. After completing all the prep work and scratch coat, I quickly realized I am not a mason but a woodworker. The whole process felt unnatural and I decided to hire out the stone installation over my scratch coat. The process went well and I came out ok on the costs, but another month was almost burned up and the end of summer fast approaching along with my tiring of doing all this work. We still had not started siding and that was the one big thing we really wanted done. Our old masonite siding was falling apart from lack of care and after researching decide on Hardi-Plank. I wanted to do this myself but common sense was kicking in and along with something someone said about some jobs not worth doing yourself. If I could get a quality install for a price I had in my mind, I would hire it out and I did. While the siding was being done we took the opportunity to add insulation and re-sheat the garage/shop walls ourselves. Even though you’re not doing the bulk of the labor, it is still work and this kept me busy for another couple weeks.

Then it happen, a big storm came through and caused damage to all the neighbors’ roofs. I luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, did not lose shingles or have damage, but it did cause me to have to be up on the roof to check and see exactly how bad my shingles were first hand. After sixteen years these cheep old shingles were end of life and not sealing down at all. The guys doing the siding mentioned the roof was bad as well and I went out for bids. Roofing is one thing I have done before and I will not do it again. I found my guy and in a couple days had a new roof, something I was never planning to do in the first place.

Now with the stone done, new siding, and a new roof all I needed to do next was to paint it. Again, we wanted to do this ourselves so three weeks later it was all painted and down to the finishing touches.

Much effort was taken to make sure all the designs, colors, fixtures, and accessories would match and give the home that unique but pleasing look and still remain in touch with the rest of the neighborhood. I believe the years of woodworking and learning attention to detail helped accomplish this during our remodel. Of course, my appreciation for Frank Lloyd Wright did not hurt either.

With all the thought, time, work, money, and of course arguments that went into this project, it is hard to believe we are done and it has been five months. This has been so much a part of daily life that it was hard this weekend to stop, relax, refocus, and do things we once enjoyed. We have done windows, doors, stone, siding, insulation, roof, painting, and not to mention all the other little side projects that came along. Was it worth it, yes. We like the house and the new look it now portrays and given the plans not to move, we have time to enjoy it. When the time comes to move, we have improved our value and chances to sell. We only have thoughts of a new deck someday, but that is now on hold till we regroup.

Done just in time for Fall, I get to enjoy a nice clean shop from this last weekends work and a greater appreciation for my woodworking hobby.

I think the title sums it up, and I cannot believe it has been over five months since my last post or any woodworking for that matter. This year’s Labor Day held much more meaning for me as I celebrated the labors of my five month remodeling project and competed house. Apologies to anyone still RSS feeding on my site with no posts but I had to make a tough choice back in March and woodworking took the back burner. I mentioned about replacing my shop/garage side door as a project which in turn became a return to my DIY roots for a remodel of the exterior of my house. The remodel has been needed for several years now and when the decision was officially made, putting off woodworking until it was done was a requirement. I could have easily posted my DIY adventures but to be honest the work went faster without the added blogging and it was not really content I wanted for this site. Honestly all the work, stress, and turmoil that came with this project, or any project like it, is something I hope to soon forget and just bask in my appolishments. The photos will soon be posted and a summery post(s) of the project but keep with me and I will soon be back on the woodworking track since I cleaned and organized the shop this weekend along with signing up for a few more Fall woodworking classes. For those that left all I can say is oh well, chapter two of the Neighborhood Woodworker is just starting and it is going to be better then the first.

Here is an image of my progress to this point on the inlay for my walnut box. I would like to be further along but a different shop project got in the way the last couple weeks and seeing the design is inlaying so well with the technique of using multiple arcs I decided not to rush it.

As mentioned in a previous post, much of a weekend did end up with me trying to figure out my Celtic design for the box and how to cut this as a string inlay. One thing I did do first was to cut my Baltic birch plywood bottom for the box. I measured (as shown in the photo) the inside grooves the bottom was to rest in on both the front/back pieces and the side pieces (pairs being equal) so I could cut this bottom a hair shy of an exact fix. There is not much wood movement with Baltic birch plywood to worry about, but I cut this a hair short from an exact fit to be more assured I would not have issues assembling the box during glue-up.

Next was finding a design I liked on the Internet, not worrying about how I would inlay it, and then sizing and positioning it on the box front panel. As you can see in the photo I found my design and aligned it using measurements and some of the lock parts I will be using on the box. Once the design and a small piece of carbon paper was securely taped into the position I liked, I then traced the pattern to transferred it onto the wood.

Cutting inlay strips out of a piece of American Holly I had so I can get a nice white contrast was my next step. I keep some of the Holly aside to be use for the tray and other features such as a handle and splines. Cutting inlay on the tablesaw is an expensive operation but I find it to be easy and fast.

I use a zero clearance insert plate and set the fence ~1/32″ from the blade. I always make sure I also use a splitter and a push board to keep my hands well away from the blade and allows me to push the board and the cut strip into and out of the saw. The push board is nothing more then a long board with a notch that the blade cuts into ever so slightly. Now I raise the blade to just a hair over the Holly board and cut my strips, making sure I use a feather board on the front side of the cut to keep the wood against the fence going into the cut. Takes some practice and setup but well worth the effort. A few good 1/32″ thick strips will yield quite a bit of inlay.

Once I have strips cut I can then cut them into my ~2/32″ inlay piece using a shooter board and knife tool, the board being nothing more then an MDF with a lipped piece of hardwood and the cutting tool is similar to a marking gage. I would like to improve on my inlay cutting tool so maybe someday I will detail building one.

I had to do quite a bit of thinking on cutting this pattern as my circle inlay jig would not produce a tight enough circle, and I believe I could not have built one that would do this easily. I tried free handing on a test piece but the results did not look very nice. After some time I decided to cut the arcs in multiple passes by moving my center point each time. I end up with not quite a smooth curve but if I end my cuts at meeting/crossing points of other lines the human eye should not pick it up as it will all blend into the full pattern. I made my first cut and inlaid a strip, happy with the results so far. Guess I will be hitting this inlaying hard over the next week or so.

Another part I worked on was sanding the veneered panel for my top, I had yet to start this process and wanted my rabbet to be cut as close to the final panel thickness as possible and once the box is glued up, sanding the inside lid face will be difficult. Once sanded the panel is pretty nice for a practice veneer piece and will need to be cut down to final size before assembly.

I have a little over half of the inlay done since starting this post and finally posting it. The multiple cut arcs are working nicely. I got side tracked this past weekend replacing the door to my shop with one that has a window. The door job is not completed yet but hopefully will post some images of it and the inlay process sometime yet this week.

I purchased some UHMW the other week and one of the things I made was a new rabbeting fence for the tablesaw out of a piece of the plastic. This type of addition to the tablesaw allows you to make more accurate, safer, repeatable rabbet cuts on edges of boards without placing your nice fence in close contact to the blade. Allows you to bury the blade into the jig for a much nicer cut. I hope to show this during the process of building my walnut box.

I have not worked much with the plastic but find it very easy to machine and makes great jig parts. One of the fliers in with my UHMW had a web link with some additional information.

The jig is basically a 3/4″ thick piece of UHMW that has been cut down to be as long as my tablesaw top and a hair shorter then the height of my fence. This allows me to realign this jig to the same place against the fence each time using the tablesaw top, given they are the same size. I then drilled two 3/8″ holes all the way though at each end so I could then flip the jig and use the back side down the road when the first shows wear. The 3/8″ holes hold the Universal Fence Clamps made by Rockler which I picked up during a sale but never really used till now. They seem to do a good job holding the jig in place and tight against the fence, and I like how the clamps are out of my way during cuts.

I did smooth both sides of the UHMW with a cabinet scrapper and a little sanding making it almost like glass. Looking forward to really testing this new setup out when I cut rabbets for my veneer top panel of the walnut box.