# A tale of three parts



## adzeman (9 Mar 2013)

This is a WIP of three parts running concurrently. 

Firstly. In September last year purchased a thicknesser/planer where does it go in a small crowded workshop?

Second It requires a stand.

Third. I need to improve my door making skills.

Part of my negotiations with SWMBO I agreed for our dryer and spare washing machine to be kept in the workshop along with my beer fridge. as luck would have it some of our white goods went belly up and a visit to the fire sale at Comet resulted in all our kitchen white goods being replaced. This resulted in a re-negotiation with floor space resulting in just the dryer staying along with my fridge.

So this is the canvas.






Further to the three parts I need to improve my skill set in making doors. I am happy making them out of timber wether hardwood or softwood but I would like to tru other materials such as MDF and some of the modern paints which most kitchen units are decorated.

So this is the plan






There’s a lot to work out from this plan so the first item is to build the first cupboard keeping it as small or narrow as possible. The minimum width being the width of the wash basket it has to hold.






Having established this position the next point will be the tool stand/shelves or is it the planer/thicknesser base? I need both, I have the dimensions of the planer but it has a number of protrusions, knobs and the like and it may have to spin to come out of the gap so the planer base is favourite. I used the top rail of the cupboard as a rod to calculate the height as I want the planer plate to be just 6mm above my bench heights.






I purchased the casters and used them to calculate the height off the floor.


----------



## adidat (9 Mar 2013)

adzeman":13sf1lib said:


>



fantastic use of a story stick! (hammer) 

adidat


----------



## adzeman (10 Mar 2013)

My basic thoughts put on to Sketchup.






Depending on the Rugby this aft will cut out the stock using the rod. I find these days cant do the simplist job without one make too many masuring errors. What an admission for a surveyor. Could be an age thing, Have to wear reading glasses too many other distractions.


----------



## adzeman (10 Mar 2013)

Part three was the making of the doors and trying out the new matt water based paints that have become popular especially with the new legislation coming into force banning oil based paints. I started the door process some two weeks ago eager to try out theF & B paints I had purchased.
I started by making a 2 x 1 softwood face frame.






The rails and stiles were given a central groove






It was then when I realised is was not a tale of three parts but a tale of four parts. Using a plough on plywood or MDF will not work I will have to start and complete that project I have been putting off for a few years now that is make a router table with a router lift.

A completed basic door with planted mouldings. I would have preferred a bolection mould but as I finished this door last Sunday and was the only mould available from Homebase. When the router table is working forming a bolection mould could be another oroject.






The pair of doors undercoated.






Here is an error in workmanship. despite trying out on scrap wood a drop in concentration caused a slip and a rescue was in order and yhis was the best I could give. I did manage to sand the whispy fibres away. I should have formed the staff bead prior to assembly then I would have only ruined a style which then would be replaceable now I have a below standard door. Most people dont notice the defect but every time I look at the door my eyes go straight to it.






Hanging doors to face frame.






Hung doors on face frame with door knobs and turn button






Completed cupboard






I know some of you have used F & B paints and not been happy with the results but I am quite satisfied with the results so far.
Must start on planning out how to build a router lift on a router table.


----------



## adzeman (10 Mar 2013)

The face frame and doors fixed insitu.


----------



## Lee J (11 Mar 2013)

Can I just add if your keeping the dryer in the workshop try to make the unit around it as tight from dust as you can. I trashed a dryer that used to be in my workshop and it was wood dust that got taken into the air intakes and eventually cooked it. 

just a thought


----------



## twothumbs (11 Mar 2013)

I see you use a storey or setting out rod and a good example to us all especially when you get tired. There was a thread about this a while back. Excellent for consistent sizing. To some extent they went into decline after everyone could read and write. I know we have rather gone backwards there so we may see them coming back! Presumably the foreman did the rod and it was passed around at each stage. Also when repitition was needed ..same door, same windows, that sort of thing. Now did they cut to the pencil line or over the line? Must have been in the marking..need to think. Best wishes.


----------



## adzeman (11 Mar 2013)

two thumbs wrote


> Presumably the foreman did the rod and it was passed around at each stage.


Our shop was a small village shop and we were all taught the essential use of a rod. We used a 2H Pencil with a chisel point to mark out. This gave a fine line and was constantly sharpened on a scrap of fine sandpaper. When I left the the village shop to train as a surveyor the large joiners shop had a setting out department which had long benches. For the very large projects say shopfitting they used rolls of detail paper (similar to tracing paper) same stuff we used in the drawing office for other work they had long whitewashed pine boards. With regards to which side of the line it was a thin line and as long as you were consistant and marked only one way say left of or right of line or centre of line it didnt matter. One important point you cannot set a machine exactly the same so once the machinist had set his machine he protected it untill all stock had been cut. If the machine had to be left over night he took the fuse home with him.
I am not sure what practices (change to) I do not know what practices are in place today all I know then measurering was kCarpenters would come back from site with a strip of wood where the actual size was marked on it saay of the width and height of an opening. If you go to York Minster they have a medeval setting out floor in clay and they wood mark out the windows and doors full size and use this for making windows and doors including the tracery of stonework.


----------



## adzeman (11 Mar 2013)

Progress for today.

Framed together






Corners rounded off using my 18th centuary plane






Horns cut off and sanded down and and castors







Floor added







First undercoat for mid tones (Need undercoat for deep tones)


----------



## adzeman (11 Mar 2013)

Part four the router lift.

Securing the router to a 12mm ply backing.






Cleaning rebates after bulk of waste removed with the table saw.






Sliders in position


----------



## adzeman (12 Mar 2013)

Cock ups three
The width of the doors to the cupboard for the basket are a shade narrow opings OK but doors do not fold back enough so will have to buy her a new basket.

If you look at the jubilee clips I cant get access to take the router out so I need new clips and bend them the other way.

The width of the ply needed to be wider by 12mm to give more room for the holding bolt and the threaded rod.

I really ned a router lift to make the router lift (homer)


----------



## Racers (12 Mar 2013)

These might help http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... ver&_rdc=1

Pete


----------



## adzeman (12 Mar 2013)

Thanks Pete it was not the actual process of screwing the bolt when I put the other plate in the sliders it was directly over the screws I have turned them round noe and all is working except the screw handle I made the bolt has fallen out :roll: I will do another embarrising pic.


----------



## adzeman (12 Mar 2013)

Bolts face wrong way






Close up showing bolts facing wrong way Cant unscrew them






Making the turn screw






Nut Araldited in






Cut out Turnbutton






Cutting out completed






Turn buiion added to shank and varnished






Top routed out and ply infill added with completed turnbutton






Dissaster showing the nut became unstuck fron shank


----------



## adzeman (14 Mar 2013)

Wth the undercoat dry I can now check the height against a work bench. Its fine the planned 6mmm






The doors can now be made using my new router lift (using a spanner till I repair the turnbutton)
The first door from the Homebase catalogue I will call the Lacsells (their may be a copy right issue here?)

The glue up






Cramps removed






Sanded and trimmed to size. Face






Ditto inside face


----------



## Racers (14 Mar 2013)

Hi, Mike

Try a putting a T-nut between the laminations, that should stop the problem with the nut pulling out.

Pete


----------



## adzeman (14 Mar 2013)

Thanks Pete that was one of the ideas but would mean making a new turnbutton thats do big deal. Another idea is to screw a large washer over the top of the nut. It has been working OK with the spanner without the turnbutton just a bit fussey.
I need to move on with the project and complete the stand. Because of tight space I need to work out the slight turning of the table as I pull it out and see what protrusions get in the way.


----------



## Racers (14 Mar 2013)

Hi, Mike

You could use the existing top and make a new bottom piece, the ply should split one on the laminations.

Pete


----------



## adzeman (14 Mar 2013)

Very true Pete I am being pressurised at the moment by the wife to get this saga finished and I am begining to feel I have started a job too far. While this work is going on the shops all over the place. Knocked out another door this afternoon which I am calling the Shoreham. Still took some grief though.

Router Table set up for use






Routering the grooves.






Set out for a glue up


----------



## adzeman (14 Mar 2013)

Assembled, glued and cramped up.


----------



## adzeman (16 Mar 2013)

Three down one to go. Following the Homebase theme I am calling this style the Norfolk.









Not wanting my planer/thickmesser stand just to be an empty box I toyed with the various schemes to utalise the centre space.







The intention to store boxes of screws but abandened this idea when I found the space fits my chop saw so only one door needs to open the others can be fixed. Now my router lift is working I may try my han at a bolection mould.


----------



## adzeman (18 Mar 2013)

Today spent on cutting the stock for the end shelf unit.


----------



## adzeman (19 Mar 2013)

With the stock cut to size the Dado's can be set out.






Dado cutting jig in place






Dado' cut.


----------



## adzeman (20 Mar 2013)

Hi Pete repaired the turnbutton exactly as you reccomended. The coller did split and I had to make another and because of the araldite one of the screws was locked and therefore split, to which I will fill. 

Repaired turnbutton back face 






Repaired turnbutton front face


----------



## adzeman (20 Mar 2013)

The Assembly





Gluing up the top frame







Top frame fixwd






All assembled






Putting in Mahogany strips






Fitting the planes.


----------



## adzeman (22 Mar 2013)

Not much going on in the shop today or yesterday due to undercoating the planer/thicknesser base. Had a good brush up and a vac down.
I need to divert back to the stand so I can physically work out any stretch as the planer is moved out of its designated space and to see which knobs and protrusions interfere with this process. 

The plan for turning (going to give it to George Osborn)






The doors with a water based undercoat for dark colours






The base with a finish coat and undercoat.






Have not decided if to fix them with hinges or secure them so they dont open?


----------



## adzeman (23 Mar 2013)

Three sides and the top are on.






And you missed a bit (theres a strong wind blowing)






Its a box!


----------



## adzeman (26 Mar 2013)

Given a coat of gloss, when this is dry bolting the machine on to the base is the next job.


----------



## adzeman (28 Mar 2013)

The machine is bolted to the stand and tried into the gap and out again. Just fits.


----------



## adzeman (1 Apr 2013)

Have not done much on the planer/thicknesser project due to the Easter Hols but put the plane/thicknesser in its designated spot and fixed a face frame.






I need to make some more doors but though the router lift works OK require to reduce the dust it makes therefore< I am going to try a small venturi as made for the RAS. I am building the venturi of the top of my head to see how or if it works.


----------



## adzeman (2 Apr 2013)

The glue having set the venturi is assembled the face with a hole cut out to take the hose. 






Now this is silly 






The rear view 






The front view 






Does it work? Yes and better than anticipated. The suction was strong enough to hold the height gauge firm to the face of the fence. 






The suction also works on the timber being fed through holding that against the fence. Granted its only 2 x 1 and I would not expect this to occur on larger stock but still unexpected.


----------



## JakeS (2 Apr 2013)

adzeman":ydbptxwh said:


> The suction also works on the timber being fed through holding that against the fence. Granted its only 2 x 1 and I would not expect this to occur on larger stock but still unexpected.



I have a similar set up on my (supposedly temporary) router table; at one point I wanted to rout a small groove across the bottom of some ~25mm wooden discs (to make a housing joint) and I figured it would be safer to use some double-sided tape to stick them to the bottom of a length of wood than try and push them through individually. The first cut I completely failed to think about which direction the air would be sucking from (it would need to be below to remove chips, of course) and turned the vacuum on, and it ripped most of the discs off the tape _sideways_, in spite of downward pressure on the scrap.

I had trouble dislodging those that remained with the levering aid of an old cheap chisel under the side of them, so it's not like the tape was rubbish!


----------



## graduate_owner (2 Apr 2013)

Hi Adzeman,

Regarding your error in workmanship due to lapse in concentration - 

I 'm probably being a bit thick here (and I'm no experienced woodworker, having never made a set of doors) but - where's the error? I can't see it. They look like a nice pair of doors to me. Perhaps someone can explain?

K


----------



## adzeman (2 Apr 2013)

> Regarding your error in workmanship due to lapse in concentration


The photo makes it look better than it really is but if you enlarge the picture or look carefully at the staff bead you can see some wisps of grain. The original staff bead was larger and when forming I slipped and gouged the face of the bead. To doctor it I had to form a smaller bead over the original and do a bit of hand shaping with a chisel. A lot of hand sanding. I know its there and each time I look at it my eye goes straight to it.


----------



## adzeman (3 Apr 2013)

> They look like a nice pair of doors to me. Perhaps someone can explain?



I have included an enlargement to demonstrate where I went wrong, my attempts to make a correction and my personal improvement not to do it again and better my skill. This index is called "Projects, workshop tours and past mistakes" I try to mark all my work and for this door I would be lucky to give it a seven. It is 45 years ago since I earnt a living from carpentry now its a hobby. I try to produce work that is acceptable for other people and what I find is if I have not done something for a long time I need to practice. Like dovetails the more I do the better I become so, I oisometimes over produce a project for example as an extreem:- Where a but nailed joint would be OK I would half lap or form a tenon. The enlarged pic shows the raggy edge and a poor joint. Both were improved with sanding and filler but thats not the point. Good work is sharp or crisp in appearance and that is the target. Incidently there was an improvement on the other doors.


----------



## adzeman (3 Apr 2013)

Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, I rebated and applied the Staff Bead moulding to the stile of the next door to make on the list.


----------



## AndyT (3 Apr 2013)

Mike, thanks for your frankness in showing us the warts and all version - I think this is much more useful to anyone wanting to get better at woodwork than some carefully posed pictures suggesting that everything is always perfect!


----------



## adzeman (4 Apr 2013)

No, thank you for your comment. To me there are some great craftsmen out there but I think except for a very few skill has to be learnt. Similar to music, another of my hobbies, where the majority of us have to practice and overcome hurdles and move on. My current hurdle is producing the Bolection moulding I drew and included in an earlier post. I know I could alter the pattern but the one I drew is as near as I can get to the traditional shape I remember. I purchased the planes I thought I would require but still had difficulty in producing the required shape. Rather than describe my results so far I think a picture can save a thousand words.






I didn't have a small enough plane to form the small half round so I asked a guy I know to look for one. I got a call he had found one and went off to have a look. Purchased it straight away on sight as it is a Gabriel (£6.00) so even if It will not do I know someone who would be interested.






I will fettle it up and give it a go.


----------



## AndyT (4 Apr 2013)

Excellent stuff!

And a good example of relative prices and values - what quality of router cutter could you get for £6? And would it still be useful and usable in 200 years time?!! ;-)


----------



## Webby (4 Apr 2013)

I am enjoying this  ......a nice read please keep us updated 

and thanks for sharing warts and all :wink: 


Dave:O)


----------



## adzeman (4 Apr 2013)

Hi Dave, which thread, 



> a nice read please keep us updated



There are about 4 going off here. The one on the bolection mould started in tools index but thank you for the intrest shown.


----------



## Webby (5 Apr 2013)

This one "A tale of three parts" or it could be "Four" :wink: 

Didn't know about the other ones :roll: :wink: 


Dave :O)


----------



## adzeman (5 Apr 2013)

I am a bit taken back by the responce of warts an all. The three parts are basically 
1). Working round the white goods in a small workshop.
2). Building a Planer/thicknesser base.
3). somrwhere to store my increasing collection of wood planes.
Plus. to carry out the above, make a router lift.
An oppertunity to try out different styles of doors (need the practice).
In building the doors making my own mouldings by hand or using the router lift. And its all taking an age which the errors I keep making are not helping. Once you start a work in progress post you have to keep on with it or do you? Do I give up the W.I.P. and return to making the odd comment.
Yesterday didnt go as well as what I hoped, when I started making the next set of doors. When I stripped the cramps off this morning dispondency set it in with the resuls. Yes it was sharper/crisper than the first pair made, but there were still mistakes caused by me knowing the rules and breaking them. A question of do as I say not as I do.

In the photo it dosn't look too bad and it should look better when cleaned and sanded up.







If I had not broken these rules I would be nearer to perfection.

Advice ignored. When gluing up set your stall out. Before gluing up make sure you have selected and marked the stock face side and edge. Don’t use the glue straight from the container use some form of container (yogurt pot). Have some clean damp rags handy and a glue brush that fits into the joints.

To post what actually happened can be related to a comedy film such as the "Plank" I am embarressed.


----------



## AndyT (5 Apr 2013)

Mike, we've all been there, don't give up!

Any deviation from perfection will be noticeable to the person who made it, but pass completely unseen by generations of other people, who see the whole thing, not the details. 

Our house is late Victorian. When I look closely at the internal joinery, I see loads of mistakes and re-workings where things were cut slightly the wrong size or at the wrong angle. (Indeed, on plan the whole house is narrower at the front than the back and most of the rooms are not square.) But do people look at it and think what a mess it is? No, they see the whole thing, not the snags, and think it's stylish and decorative.

It will be the same with your projects!


----------



## adzeman (5 Apr 2013)

Thanks for the encouragement Andy I think it is the weather its so cold. It went better today stripped the next leaf which turned out satisfactorily.






My youngest has got a few jobs for me to do at her place so will be going over to West Suxxex for the week end. A rest from the project will be what the Doctor ordered.


----------



## adzeman (6 Apr 2013)

There will be no work in Progress on the, "A tale in three parts" as next week its re-erecting and repairing a Ceder Wood Greenhouse. Not very interesting W.I.P. except on Monday when I visit the timber yard for some Cedar or some alternative. The sole pieces have suffered with wrot maybe oak or teak (Iroko) Depends on whats available and when I fully inspect the parts the extent of the wrot tomorrow.


----------

