Category: woodworking

I know I haven’t posted about woodworking for a while. To tell you the truth, I haven’t had much to post about. Two weeks ago class was canceled because of the college’s spring break and then last week’s class just kind of frustrating. I didn’t accomplish as much as I needed to in order to finish on time and I’ve been a little bummed about it since class.

The main thing that I accomplished last week is that I got the tray and lid supports cut down to size and glued in. And I was also this close to finishing assembling the trays (but didn’t take any pictures of that part since, you know, it didn’t end up happening.)

I cut strips of walnut down to 1/4″ thickness and then sanded them to 1/8″ thick.

Then I cut the strips to the width of these grooves in the boxes.
(Not pictured: the strip I ruined because I brought the saw down on it before it (the saw) was spinning at full speed and it (the wood strip) got ripped out of my hand–safety first!)

And then I glued the strips in place.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to finish assembling the boxes in the two classes I have left, but applying the finish at the shop is pretty much out of the picture now. I guess it won’t be too bad: the boxes are small enough that I can oil and lacquer them at home without too much hassle.

I need to stop moping about running out of time but it’s frustrating. If I had just one more class period I would be set! (Le sigh.) Oh well, I’ll buckle down and do my best to finish as much as I can.

I made some nice progress at woodworking last week. The lids were taken out of the clamps and turned out okay. There were a few small gaps where the mitered edges had slipped a bit in the clamps but I don’t think they’re that noticeable.

The three lids, waiting to be sanded.

A close-up of the lacewood and curly maple lid.

Next I cut stock to size for the sliding trays inside the jewelry boxes. I used the table saw to cut dadoes for the tray dividers and rabbits on the sides.

This Wednesday I’ll cut wood down to size to make tray dividers, glue the trays together, and sand the lids down.

Just three more classes left! (Yikes!)

Class this week was kind of a comedy of errors. I carpool to class with my friend Kristin and this week when she picked me up I handed her a soda for the ride and tucked one into my purse for myself. As we’re driving down the street I feel something wet and realize that my soda is leaking. We have to pull over so I can pour an inch of soda out of my bag. My cellphone, wallet, and camera all got wet; the wallet and camera are okay but the cellphone is kaput. Out of the three things the phone was the most expendable since it was a cheap Go phone I got at Target but I’m worried that my sim card is ruined and I’ll have lost all of my contacts. *Grrr.*

Anyway, when we got to class I promptly realize that I left my plans at home! This, on top of the Great Soda Debacle of Aught Nine, was almost too much and I wasted a good 10 minutes fuming and pacing about in frustration. Then I calmed down and got to work on the box lids which I didn’t need my plans for anyway.

Instead of doing a true panel for the lid I am gluing the trim onto the middle panel and then sanding it smooth. I’m using African lacewood for the middle and some gorgeous curly maple for the sides of the lid.

After cutting the middle panel to size I cut the maple pieces on a chop saw set at a 45 degree angle. It was painstaking work. I took multiple passes at cutting the pieces because they need to be exactly the right size and I didn’t want to cut them too short. Sometimes it would take me 6 or 7 passes to get it right. But it paid off; I only cut one piece too short.

Then I glued the lids together.

A lid in clamps being glued.

Three sets of gluey lid goodness.

My instructor was super nice and let me glue up even though there wasn’t enough time left during class. (We’re only supposed to glue up if there’s enough time in class to take our projects out of the clamps before class is over.) I was pretty desperate to get the lids glued this week so I can sand them next week. He said he would take care of the lids and put them in my locker the next morning. (Being one of only two girls in the class really pays off sometimes!)

There’s only four more classes left but I still think I’ll be able to finish on time (fingers crossed). I think it will mostly depend on what I can get done next week. One thing’s for sure: I’m going to be certain to bring my plans!

Woodworking class was pretty fun this week. I was getting worried that I would run out of time and not be able to finish the jewelry boxes, but we have five more classes left and I think I’m in good shape since I got the boxes glued together this last week.

Sanding the insides of the boxes with a sequence of 80, 100, 120, and 150-grit sandpaper.

Making sure everything’s ready to glue.

I put a dab of glue in each of the tails and clamped the box together.

The assembled boxes.

Apparently when I cut the dovetails some of the pieces weren’t exactly flush in the jig; in the above photo you can see some gaps on some of the joints. My instructor said that he’ll help me shim the gaps with some slivers of walnut to fill them in.

After I got the boxes glued together I started cutting the curly maple and lacewood I’m going to use for the lids. Next week I’ll get the lids glued together and hopefully start working on the tray inserts.

This last week I cut all of the grooves on the inside of the boxes. There were a lot to cut: all the pieces have grooves for the bottom of the box to fit in, the front and back pieces have additional grooves for tray supports, and each front piece also has a groove for a lid stop.

I cut the grooves using a router on a router table. It’s pretty foolproof and I ran multiple tests on scrap wood but I still messed up once. I hadn’t tightened down the fence enough and it slipped when I was cutting and so one groove was a little crooked.

I was SO sad and convinced that I had ruined a whole box but my instructor said it would be okay and then I realized that it would. Phew! (Some minor mistake like this usually happens at least once during every project of mine.)

Next week: sanding the inside of the pieces and (finally) gluing up the box.

Well, I found my memory card. It was sitting on a package of socks I had bought for E (of course).

Anyway, these photos are from the first two weeks of class.

My plans and the raw lumber.

I decided to base the jewelry boxes off of these plans I found in an old copy of Woodsmith magazine. (Yes, I said “boxes.” I am, perhaps very foolishly, planning to make more than one.) The orange boards running vertically in the photo are African lacewood, a kind of pricey exotic, which I’m going to use on the lids. The boards running horizontally are walnut (a big favorite of mine) which the boxes themselves will be made out of.

The first week of class I planed and sanded the walnut down to 5/8″ thick and then cut the fronts and backs and ends to size. If I’m cutting two pieces that need to be the exact same size I like to tape them together and cut them at the same time to ensure they’re uniform.

A side piece and the front of the box in the dovetail jig.

This last Wednesday I cut the dovetails for the box joints. The plans called for another type of joint but I wanted to learn how to cut dovetails so I switched it up. I think dovetails can be very pretty. Because they’re very strong structurally dovetails are considered a sign of quality craftmanship and you’ll see them used in higher end kitchen cabinetry and furniture.

Cutting the dovetails with the router.

The cut dovetailed joint. The jig offsets the two pieces so when they’re flipped around they’ll fit together.

The cut dovetails. The jig I used cuts blind dovetails and so they will only be visable on the sides of the boxes.

When I finished cutting the dovetails for the three boxes without any major mishaps I breathed a big sigh of relief. Next I need to cut the grooves for the bottom of the box and tray supports, sand the insides, and glue the boxes together with the bottoms.

So in the fall I decided to make some cutting boards to give as Christmas presents. As is usual when it comes to my woodworking projects I grossly underestimated the time and effort it would take. (So please forgive me if you’re family and you didn’t get a board! I ended up with fewer than I had planned.)

Overall I was quite happy with how they turned out. They’re made out of walnut, cherry, and maple and are put together with the end grain facing up. Because they’re made on the end-grain, I couldn’t run them through the planer to even out the surface because it would have chipped them like crazy. So there was A LOT of sanding involved (way, WAY too much sanding). But I think it was worth it in the end.

End grain cutting boards are more durable than normal boards because it’s the hardest edge of the wood. They’re also easier on your knives because the blades will slip in between the wood fibers like in between the bristles of a paintbrush and so to a certain extent they’re self-healing. I used glue that’s been FDA-approved as food safe and finished them with several coats of mineral oil.

(By the way, if you have a wooden cutting board that’s looking dry or thrashed you can sand the surface with a light grit sandpaper and then rub on a couple coats of mineral oil (available at drug stores in the, um, laxative section) and it should really refresh it.)

I’m getting excited about this upcoming semester of woodworking class. It starts at the end of the month and my good friend Kristin is going to take the class with me which will be very fun. I’m planning on making some small boxes because I want to improve my joinery skills and also have the chance to work with some exotic woods which I can only afford to buy in small quantities. My goal is to have detail plans drawn up before class starts which should cut down on class time wasted waffling over dimensions and such.

P.S. – Oh, and to those of you who received a cutting board, remember that if you put it in the dishwasher I will HUNT YOU DOWN. Happy new year! xoxo.