Woodworking

Finished table

November 11, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 3 of 3 in the series Hall table #2

I’ve been procrastinating on this post for a number of reasons. The veneering I did for the top didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped. A combination of crazy humid weather and possibly not enough glue caused the veneer to form checks. This reminds me of how much timber is in synch with the environment, even long after the tree has been felled.

Wood movement in veneer

I decided to go in a different direction for the top. I had a nice piece of camphor wood waiting for an opportunity like this. So after some slicing up, resawing and gluing, we have a new table top. I really quite like the end result and the grain in the camphor is very striking.

Camphor wood top

Finished hall table #2

If you like this table, or any of my other work, I’m starting to sell some pieces on etsy. So, take a look at my etsy store for details.

Tags: hall table, Woodworking

Veneering the hall table top

November 4, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 2 of 3 in the series Hall table #2

The glue

I’m using “hide glue” for this process which is also known as animal glue. Yes, it’s literally made from bits of (dead) animal tissue, essentially cellulose. Animal glue has been used for many thousands of years and is perfect for veneering.

The basic process is to hydrate the glue granules with water, head it up to 60-80C and brush it onto the surface. The glue become tacky as it cools (which only take a few seconds). This provides the initial stickiness you need to lay down and position the veneer. Over the next few hours, the glue’s moisture evaporates and it pulls the two pieces of wood together forming a very tight bond.

What I love about it? It’s very forgiving. Just heat it up with a hairdryer or iron and it goes soft again ready for you to adjust.

The problem with it? It stinks!

Hide Glue warming in the pot

The veneering

The piece had lots of twisting grain and knots causing it to “bubble” up in places. Essentially, some parts of the wood had expanded more than others. To soften the wood I used a mixture of water, glycerine and denatured alcohol. I covered both sides of the veneer in this concoction, sandwiched it between two pieces of plywood, and waited. After a few hours, it had decided to give up and was laying perfectly flat. Time to rumble!

Splash on the glue, lay down the veneer, slide it around a little and then use a veneer hammer to push out all the excess glue. The video below shows this process from start to finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiIZ63CrSbM

The result

The table is coming along nicely. Some more finessing and finishing to do and we should be done and dusted.

Dry fit of the table with top

Tags: hall table, veneering, Woodworking

A hall table on my own

October 14, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 1 of 3 in the series Hall table #2

Sheez, has it really been that long? Well, the weather hasn’t been conducive to start gazing and it’s been too cold to sit out in the workshop building stuff. This last couple of weeks though I’ve started up again and decided to build a hall table. The last hall table I built (which was also the first) was as part of a course at Ideal Tools. This time, I’m trying it on my own.

A colleague from work, Michael Green, provided me with a very nice piece of birdseye featured Huon Pine veneer. I’ve designed this table around that piece.

First up however is rough cutting the parts from a slab. I’m using one of the English Elm slabs I bought at auction a few years ago. Cutting up the slab took a fair bit of work and heavy lifting but after a good day’s work I got the result I was after.

Rough cut parts

To join the legs to the aprons, I would usually rush to the Festool Domino. This time I decided to cut some sliding dovetails. Some time spent at the router table and then with a chisel in hand produced an ok result. The fit is quite solid but not great enough to be exposed to viewers. This image is probably the last you will ever see of it before it gets covered up with the top.

Dovetailed corner

With the basic frame pieces done, I started work on finessing some of the shape. This began with tapering the legs. I used an inside taper, the same style I was taught at my course. The end result is quite pleasing and really gives the whole piece a light feel to it.

First dry fit

Moving onto the top, I had a number of options in mind. After playing around with a few pieces I’m settling on framing the huon pine top. The frame will be flush with the legs. This means I will need to plane the aprons down slightly so the frame can give a subtle shadow line around the piece. I’ll do this part once I have the frame cut to precise size.

Framed top - clamped in place

Tags: hall table, Woodworking

Hudson coffee table

July 14, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 3 of 3 in the series Hudson dining table

After delivering their dining table, the owners of this new home asked me to build them a matching coffee table. Was I stoked? Totally! Unfortunately due to various illnesses, work and getting caught up in the summer night skies, it took me a lot longer to finish than I wanted. Now however, I’m finally ready to show it off.

As with their dining table, this one is designed by Steven Hanson (the guy who built their home). It is build using 100% recycled/reclaimed Australian timbers … Victorian Ash (lighter) and Queensland Spotted Gum (darker). A simple finish of Scandinavian Oil and a very thin layer of wax tops it off.

Here’s a video showing the last half of the build.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-n9vcr5cn8

Finished Hudson coffee table

Final inspect by Stanley

Tags: commission, hall table, Woodworking

Obligatory start of year post

January 5, 2011 By Carl Joseph 1 Comment

I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but not wanting to feel left out, here are my current goals for the time ahead. Yes, alright, well these are “goals” as such and they don’t fit that S.M.A.R.T. method crap, but they are things which are in my head at the moment, so take them as they come …

New Year Resolutions

Language learning

I am aiming to reach a conversational level of proficiency with both Czech and Italian.

Over the years of listening to Italian (and speaking small amounts of it) I have acquired that intrinsic feel for the grammar and structure. Improving my Italian will be a matter of “becoming comfortable” with it and learning more vocabulary, rather than learning any formal rules and the like. The most difficult part for me will be to better understand and separate the various dialectical differences spoken amongst my older family members.

My learning of the Czech language will take a slightly different course. I still need to become more comfortable with the sound and rhythm of the language. Much more vocabulary and significantly more real life conversational practice is required. I also intend to watch more Czech films this year which should be fun.

James Krenov at work

I have already done a small number of commissions but I don’t want to take on too many of them. There are just so many other styles and things I would like to explore at the same time. I do intend to make a few pieces of “fine furniture” and sell them. Either smaller things like boxes, picture frames and lamps, or larger things like hall tables and cabinets.

There are three things I do want to build this year:

Brain food

A couple of months ago, I finally found a Masters Degree I was keen to undertake. My interests are a little esoteric so finding a degree which is broad enough to hold my interest has been a challenge. The Masters in Organisational Dynamics seems to cover a number of aspects I am interested in as well as provide enough flexibility to keep it interesting for me. Cognition, psychology, identity of self, learning theory and meditation are all part of it.

Unfortunately they have cancelled the degree for 2011 and will be recommencing it in 2012 under a new banner.

The National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA) is a spin off of the Organisational Dynamics department at RMIT. They kick off the new degree in 2012 so I need to find something to study and keep my brain going this year. I’ve been toying with the idea of a Psychology (diploma or certificate) so I will see where that takes me in the meantime.

Citizenship

I was born an Australian citizen and have Italian heritage. One day I would like to move to Europe and even live in Italy for a while. To do this easily, I will need to get my Italian citizenship.

Italian passport Now, for those of you against the whole “dual-citizenship” caper, let me tell you these two things:

I believe every naturally born Australian should partake in an Australian Oath of Citizenship, or at least have an option to affirm their allegiance when they turn 18.
I am an Italian citizen and have always been one since I took that first breath after birth.

Italy is one of the few nations who bestow citizenship jure sanguinis (right of blood). So as long as one of my parents was still an Italian citizen (i.e. didn’t renounce their citizenship) when I was born, then I am automatically an Italian citizen. It doesn’t matter than I was born in Australia.

So, I just have to fill in the requisite paperwork and then apply for my EU passport. Easy!

Other stuff

All the other stuff which is currently occupying my thoughts and will hopefully lead somewhere soon …

Get bike riding again
Commence and publish online a family history (i.e. of my own family and ancestry)
Build a deck, pergola, garden beds and tidy up the backyard overall
Meditate more and meditate regularly

Tags: goals, languages, Woodworking

Book cabinet part II: Door frames

January 2, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part of 2 in the series Book cabinet

With this being the first door frames I had ever made, I did a fair amount of research and looking at photographs before starting. I decided that this piece will have two narrow glass doors. The intention here is to make the cabinet appear taller and narrower than it really is. Cutting up some pieces of plywood helped me to decide the proportions of the frame. I’m quite glad I did this as it really helped to give me a sense of the piece before cutting up precious real wood.

Using plywood to test various proportions for the door frame.

The top rail of the door frame will feature a slight curve (to match the side panels). I built a template from plywood and then used this to route the curve onto the mahogany. Once I was happy with it, I cut the curve into two (one for each door) by cutting away the centre portion. This “missing piece” will be replaced by the vertical parts of the door frame.

The top door rail ready to be routed against a plywood template I made earlier.

I had intended to hand cut the mortise and tenons for the door frame. Before I realised however, I had already cut the parts to size and didn’t leave any additional wood for the tenons. So I had to resort to my Festool Domino to make the joints. I was a little disappointed by this but the end result should be almost the same.

The frame needed a little planing to ensure it fit snuggly within the carcass. At this stage I’m not too fussed about getting a perfect fit as I haven’t purchased hinges or glued up the carcass yet.

I intentionally made the doors a little wider so that I could plane them down to fit perfectly.

After some initial planing, it was time to stand back and look at how things are evolving so far.

Tags: book cabinet, casework, Woodworking

Book cabinet part I: Building the carcass

January 2, 2011 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part of 2 in the series Book cabinet

I recently started building a small cabinet to hold a number of recipe books we have. The cabinet will hang on the wall next to the kitchen bench. I started by sketching out some basic designs. However, as is normal for me, I prefer to figure things out as I go along so things started taking shape as I built it.

I began with a large piece of Eastern Mahogany which I had lying around in the workshop waiting for the right project to come along. The face was already quite flat so I started by planing the edge with one of my new HNT Gordon planes.

Once I had a nice square edge to reference from, I cut this piece up to make the sides, top, bottom and shelf. With the sides placed flat on my table, I used my router to cut a few grooves to hold the top/bottom and shelf in place.

Since this piece will have two doors, the middle shelf needs to sit back from the front edge. Therefore I had to make sure the groove didn’t go all the way to the front as that would leave a nice hole next to each door frame.

A little tweaking of the joints and we have a simple carcass of a cabinet.

The carcass as it currently is feels quite “boxy”. Before finishing up for the day, I put a curve on the top of the two sides. To draw the curve I held a pencil at the end of a long piece of string. I pinned the other end of the string down to the bench and then used it as a large compass. After making a template for the curve I used my router and a template bit to cut the sides. The result is quite nice. I was actually quite surprised the impact such a small detail has had on the piece already.

Tags: book cabinet, casework, Woodworking

Shop-vac … the musical

December 2, 2010 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

Well, not quite a musical but it is a song with a very awesome video now created for it. The video uses a technique called Kinetic Typography and I must say, it’s pretty darned awesome.

If you get the chance, check out some of Jonathan Coulton‘s other music. It’s actually pretty good and cleverly humorous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sOfO8Ei1g

Some of the lyrics for you below. This is pretty true of my life right now and probably for most woodworkers out there.

If you need me
I’ll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

But you’ll be OK
Cause you’ll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

Tags: funny, music, shop-vac, Woodworking

Hudson dining table project – completed

October 28, 2010 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 2 of 3 in the series Hudson dining table

It’s been a while since I wrote about this dining table commission. That’s because I’ve been too busy building it to write, but now it is finally finished. Here’s the process I went through …

Putting together the top

First step was to cut all the table top pieces to size and put an angled taper on them. That way, when they came together they would form the overall triangle shape. I had one of these taper jigs which has been great for smaller work. So based on that model I made myself a very long one for this job.
[Read more...]

Tags: commission, table, Woodworking

Hudson Dining Table project

June 23, 2010 By Carl Joseph Leave a Comment

This is part 1 of 3 in the series Hudson dining table

I’ve been commissioned to build a dining table! So from a coffee table, a small box and now a full sized dining table. Hmmm … and this was only going to be a hobby for me.

The table is designed by the architect and builder of the home, Steve Hanson. Steve’s houses are quite remarkable but not in a “look at me” kind of way. He has somewhat of a Lloyd Wright philosophy where the house relates to the landscape and to how the people live amongst it.

This table design is no exception. As Steve puts it … “[The table top] reflects the geometry of the house … with the bottom rail being a metaphor for the roof.”

I’m very much looking forward to seeing this piece in situ. It will surely be a pleasure to build something designed specifically for the environment where it will live.

So, onto the table …

: Rough timber

: Basic geometry

: Basic rendered view from the side

: Basic rendered view from the top

[Read more...]