Flattening a table top with a hand plane

Here is a video clip showing how to use a hand plane to even up individual planks of a table top and also to flatten it across it's width.

This is one of the techniques that goes into a hand made table.  Working with a sharp plane like this is a lot of fun.  It is very satisfying as it hisses through the wood.  This will be one of my Trestle Tables but with have two add-on end leaves.  I will post more about this table as it comes along.
Happy Spring.
Stay dry,
Tim

Chairs, Tables, Rain

I have not posted in a while as spring is here and things are very busy with work, kid's soccer, outside clean up and projects after a long winter and the joy of warmer weather even if it has been very, very, very, wet.

I am working on a couple of dining tables at the moment as well as getting a set of eight New Waltham Side Chairs together.  

These chairs have the laminated leg brace that is morticed into the leg. The picture below shows that being fitted. I rough the fit on the jointer and finish it off to a tight friction fit with a hand plane.

Getting ready to assemble the legs and braces for a New Waltham Side Chair.  Behind me is a cherry table top for a Trestle Table that I am making.  

All of my chairs use wedged tenon joinery. This is the wedged leg tenon coming through the  top of the seat.  This will be chiseled off and then the seat will be ground to it's final shaped and sanded smooth.

Hopefully, we will have some more sunshine soon.  It has been a very wet spring here.  Flooding generally is not an issue in this area but it is getting to be a real problem for some.  The weather does seem to be changing with so much snow this winter and now all of the rain.  

Time to go grind some chair seats. 

Stay dry,

Tim

"You can't get there from here"

Yesterday I made a big delivery to an Island in Maine. (When I post information or images from a customers house, I never mention names or exact places to protect the privacy of my customers.)  It sure is fun, though, to be able to see where my work is going. And it is rare that I can actually get a decent photo of the furniture in place. 

 The caretaker for the owner of the house arranged for the mail boat to meet me at the pier where the mailboat captain and the caretaker's son helped me load 10 Waltham chairs and a painted pencil post bed into the boat (a great old wooden boat).  Robert, the captain, let me know that the, boat, Sea Queen,  was built by the the boat owner's father many years before.  I appreciate fiberglass and steel but there is nothing like a wooden boat.

We made the two mile trip out to the island under clear skies, smooth water and 50 degree temps.  We hit it just right.  If we had planned this one day ahead or behind, it would have been raining.  And moving $12,000. worth of furniture in the rain would have been more than stressful.

Waltham chairs, wrapped and ready, aboard Sea Queen.

 At the island, the captain, Robert,  and I, (the only one's aboard as things are slow this time of year) were met by the caretaker Michael with two vans and a trailer to take all of the furniture to the client's house.   These islands in Maine are great places.  I spend so much time alone that I really feel drawn to these quiet places.   Maybe being the youngest of four has something to do with that.  But that again is another story.

Waltham chairs in place around the dining table.

Pencil Post bed in place. This bed was painted with oil based enamel paint instead of my usual milk paint. We tried for a white milk paint but you have to want a real antique look especially in the white ranges.  This light cream color worked well in an enamel as the house is full of this fresh paint look and it matches the tables and chest that they already had.

view from the island

After unwrapping and setting up the chairs and bed I was returned to the mainland by the caretaker, his son and a friend of theirs who was working on one of the island's 30- 40 houses.  The four of us and four man sized bags of packing blankets loaded into the pictured skiff for that trip.  It was a safe trip in a very beamy skiff over calm water,  but highly unusual for the Vermont furniture maker making a delivery

I had intended to stay on the coast for the night but all of the hotels were closed down for the off season.  So, I hit the road again and arrived home in the wee hours of the morning after 15 hours of driving.   My new, used Dodge Grand Caravan did a great job on the country roads that connect central Vermont to central Maine (you can get there but it ain't easy).  It got 22- 24 miles per gallon and I think I could have fit 12 or 14 chairs in it as well as the pencil post bed.   We furniture makers do learn how to pack a vehicle.

Enjoy the sun,

Tim

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

This has been a very crazy winter as far as the snow goes. It just keeps coming. When the car needs a new muffler, it needs a new muffler, even during the snowstorm.  This is from one of the earlier storms.  The rest of these pictures are after our latest storm. The Big One.  It really was. Very heavy snow, a lot of it, and it came very quickly.  Some days, it has been hard to get anything done in the shop after hours of plowing with my 1956 Massey Ferguson farm tractor, and shoveling.  Well, the snow is pretty,  the skiing etc has been very good this year, and the kids have had lots of snow days.  At the beginning of February, I made the mistake of saying that winter must be almost over and it has not been that cold. soon after we had a string of deep cold and heavy snows.  I will keep my thoughts to myself next winter.   Happy Spring,  Tim

Yes, there is a car under there.

The path to the house just gets deeper and deeper.

Our kids, pretending that the picnic table is a ship in a sea of snow. (30" deep)

Get Cranky.

Once in a while there is a fun little project that opens up the mind.  While this table still needs it's glass top, I am very happy with how it looks so far considering it's obvious simplicity. Two slabs of wood with a crank shaft bolted in between.  I did this for my client who is the owner of a Mercedes dealership. I am assuming that the crank shaft is from a Mercedes.  Before it is all done, the crank shaft is going to get cleaned up and sent out to be plated so it will be nice and shiny.  How about a dining table made with the crankshaft of a truck or large marine engine?  You'd need a forklift to move it.  If anyone has other ideas of things with structural integrity that could become the spine of a table, let me know.

Some New Pens

Below are three new pens that I just made.  They are mahogany with gold, curly maple with gun metal, and cherry with gun metal hardware. They are twist pens with ballpoint black Cross refills.  I am selling my wine stoppers in some local galleries but I will only be offering the pens through my website. $20. each.  Other available hardware finishes are silver, copper and antique brass.  I think that the cherry and maple pens are my favorites.  

Enjoy the snow if you are getting it.  We have just gotten about 6 inches in the last 2-3 hours.
Have a good one,
Tim

Making some eight sided tapering pencil posts and sharpening.

I am currently working on two queen size pencil post beds so I am making all of the posts at the same time. Once the post is made square, it is then tapered on the table saw to a four sided tapering post.   In order to make the remaining 4 facets (to make eight in all) first the post is scribed to mark out where the extra facets will lie then the lambs tongue is rough chiseled, then most of stock is removed staying a bit above the scribe lines.  I use a power planer for this to same my arms.  Then finally a hand plane is used to finish off the final facets until the scribe lines are all gone.

roughing the lambs tongue

taking fine shavings with a cabinet scraper

lambs tongue after finishing
with chisel and scraper

I made this little hand plane about
15 years ago. It is a great plane for this work.

lambs tongue before finishing

the new tool rest for my grinder. not pretty but
it works very nicely.

For all of this hand work, sharp tools are a must.  My grinding wheel has not been working well lately and I have been having a really hard time getting blades to be true before honing in the water stone.  I finally took the time to re-make my tool support for the grinder.  I used a wooden hinge that I had made as a test when I made a gate leg table last year.  This is a very rigid hinge. The difference was instantly amazing.  I was able to get a straight even grind that was quickly honed to a perfect edge.  When all is working properly, a new grind/sharpen takes about 5 minutes.  Before I fixed my jig, I was easily taking 30 minutes or more of very frustrating time to do the job and not ending up with good results.  Now that I can create a fine even sharpened edge, I should be able to just hone for the next two sharpenings and skip the grinding part.  More time saved.

the two white lines are actually the mirror
smooth surface of  the front and back edge of
the hollow ground bevel.

Stay sharp,
Tim