Precision Biscuit Joining

I have a Porter Cable biscuit joiner that I get to use on occasion.  I pretty much use biscuits for three purposes:

1. To align two pieces of wood for gluing; emphasis on the aligning part.  If I were to glue together several planks of wood to make a tabletop, I'd definitely use my biscuit joiner to align all the planks for a stress-free glue up.  The biscuits keep pieces of wood from slipping (wet with glue), and if you cut them precisely, you have fine-furniture quality alignment in those glue ups.
2. To create a jig in my woodshop.  It's quick, gets the job done, and I'd rather be building furniture than spending a lot of time with elaborate joinery.
3. Prototype building.  If you're needing to build a prototype of a piece of furniture, it helps in achieving a  quick and dirty version of the piece you plan on building.

For our purposes here, I want to talk about a simple jig I use to achieve (1) in my above list; precision alignment.  Honestly, I'm having a hard time actually calling it a jig, since all the jig really is are two screws and a piece of plywood.  Note the two screws and plywood.

Yup, this simple bad-boy achieves one thing and one thing only.  It keeps the biscuit joiner stationary during your cut, and the only thing you need to hold still is your work-piece.  All the error introduced in cutting biscuits is by moving the biscuit joiner during your plunge cut (when it's not screwed down to a piece of plywood).  Even with the steadiest of hands, there are little errors you're introducing into your cuts by moving the biscuit plunger AND holding steady your work-piece.  Why make it harder on yourself?  Just anchor this bad-boy down with a couple of screws to some plywood, and VIOLA, you have near perfection in aligning your slotted cuts!

Here's a sample sequence of cutting biscuit slots.  The piece is the top to one of  my message centers.  It's pretty self-explanatory.

Cutting the frame...

Cutting the biscuit slot on the top...

Here's the biscuit alignment of the top to the frame.

BAM!  And the alignment of the top to the frame were perfectly aligned.  Imagine if you did this to glue up your table tops?  There is a lot LESS sanding involved when you cut your biscuit slots this way.

Sharpening A Cheap Bench Plane

For Christmas, my wife gifted me a Veritas Sharpening System. Having a sharpening guide for my hand planes and chisels takes sharpening my woodworking tools to a whole new level.  I also use Norton Waterstones (their starter kit).  In my experience, waterstones are hard to beat when you know how to use them correctly for sharpening.  Also, please excuse my usage of the word block plane.  This is not a block plane, it's a bench plane.  Can you say I'm a little camera nervous?

Asian Inspired Tealight Candle Holder

So, I reclaimed some neglected cherry wood I used to make a coffee table with (for my wifey).  It's been a while since I've worked with cherry and I forgot how much I LOVE it!  This is due partly because it's easy to cut and shape, but also for the grain quarter sawn cherry gives.  Look at the below picture and note the absolute beauty in the (nearly) horizontal lines of the grain.  This is what cherry looks like untouched (i.e. recently cut and sanded).  Cherry has a really cool characteristic of darkening when UV rays hit it.  In a couple of months, this tealight candle holder will be several shades darker.  It's one of the only woods I'm aware of that actually doesn't fade with sunlight.  Beautiful stuff.

Here's what the asian tealight candle holder looks like in it's entirety before sealing and finishing.

I wanted to have a more substantial tealight holder, one that is sort of beefy in size.  This particular one easily accommodates your run-of-the-mill tealight candle.  The width of this holder is about 3 1/2 inches wide, BEEFY!

Yep, here's where the magic happens!  General Finishes makes some of the best wood sealers and topcoats!  They use superior resins in their varnishes (for topcoats).  This is their SEAL-A-CELL clear oil for protecting wood.  You would use this product instead of staining.  Their SEAL-A-CELL is compatible with many dyes so you can create your own stains (sort of).  I used it without any color and this effectively brings out the grain (and can really make figured wood pop).

Here's what the cherry looks like with a super-saturating amount of SEAL-A-CELL.  It really brings out the uniqueness of the cherry (click the image to see a larger view of it).  I'll later apply several coats of Arm-R-Seal (also a product by General Finishes).  I'll update this post later when I get several coats of the topcoat on.  If you'd like to buy one of these wonderful Asian inspired tealight candle holders, visit my etsy shop or send me a message.

Edit - A day later, here's what the tealight candle holder looks like with three coats of Arm-R-Seal topcoat.

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Distressed Chalkboard Message Center

I've been making these chalkboard message centers for about a year now.  They're an absolute joy to make because each one has six, count'em, SIX! mortise and tenons in the frame construction.  These are designed and built in a tradition of woodworking I compulsively adhere to.  Old school construction you might say.  Say it again, OLD SCHOOL.  I've constructed these in many different materials, from spalted maple to your run-of-the-mill pine.  My wife is gifted in picking relevant paint colors and distressing these bad-boys and I wish I had her skill in color matching.  I'm going to use this blog post to explain my decidedly favorite part in the construction of these message centers; the joinery.

There are four mortise-tenons in the bottom frame and two in the top frame.  In the below image, I was making a batch of the message centers for selling to friends (and for my Etsy shop).  The mortising tool I primarily use is my router table with a tall fence.  It allows me to frame-out these chalkboard panels with pure perfection.  It takes very little sanding for the joints since the joined pieces are perfectly flush to each other.

Here's a bottom view of the message center and its relevant joint.  Flush and true, and I thank my router table and square fence for these results.

One more thing I'd like to point out in terms of joinery is the tightness (i.e. absolutely no gap) in all the joints.  This is mainly due to joined pieces of wood being cut exactly at right angles.  I took several hours building my table saw chop sled to cut pieces square within 1/1000 of an inch per foot.  For those who don't quite understand what I'm saying here, suffice it to say these joined pieces are dead square.

Like I said previously, these little buggers are an absolute joy to make.  I honestly put in about 5 - 8 hours in each one I make (from milling the wood to the final sealer), and that's not counting the time for paint, sealer, and glue to dry.  The trouble-free joinery makes assembly pain-free, but my perfectionism takes over with my cabinet scraper and sanding (to the point of sculpting/shaping).  Here's the one I built for my wife in the entryway of our house, and the list is real.  Don't forget the measuring spoons!

So, if you'd like one of these unique and stylish chalkboard message centers as an excellent addition to your entry way, kitchen, or what-have-you, drop me a message or visit my Etsy shop.

Jewellery Box For My Wife

I made this little jewellery box for my wife.  I wanted to try my hand at box making with my left-over maple I had, AND I wanted to try adding a little flare with the dovetail keys (instead of the usual splines I always see).  The lid and dovetail keys are made from lacewood, and I've found that lacewood really likes to put splinters into my hands.

But I'm a stronger person because of it :-)  Oh, I sealed it with good ol' Danish oil.  It really brought out the grain in the lacewood.

Cherry Wood For My Coffee Table!!!

Well, my pa and I drove close to an hour and a half to get this stack of cherry.  Being in the mid-west, the wood-mill we went to is the closest one to my home.  I LOVE the smell of fresh wood, just waiting to be formed into something beautiful.  I really like the grain in this stack of cherry and I'm pretty excited to rip into it soon.  Sure brings me to thinking about God's creation, and just the pure beauty of it all bundled in a stack of wood.

So, after buying this stack of gold, I've decided that my wife and I will have to drink extra fancy coffee for this table, because cherry around these parts ain't so cheap :-)

It is my intention to post the entire process of building from start to finish (pun intended).  And I'll probably post the build in video parts to keep it underwhelming (in terms of capturing it on video).

I'm so excited!
Pax...

Straight Cut Shoulders For Dovetails, Tenons, Etc!

My wife and I recently purchased a new camera that shoots high def - 1080p!  Whew whoo! We're excited about it since we love capturing photos/videos of our children.  I thought I'd give it a try for taping some how-to videos (instead of taking a lot of still pictures) on woodworking.

I hope you find something useful in this tutorial, because it took me a while to get my skills to this point.  My goal is to give some helpful tips and skills that can cut some of the tedious trial and errors I, and many other woodworkers, have gone through.

Enjoy!