Isla’s Bed – Staining
This is another project where I am finishing first and assembling the completely finished pieces. This avoids issues with glue squeeze out and having to sand inside corners (which I hate to do). By finishing first, I can also spray the finish coats on while the pieces are horizontal , which mitigates my uneven spray […]
Isla’s Bed – Tenons and End Panels
With the mortises complete, it is time to start on the tenons. Now is the time that careful stock prep and thickness planing will start to pay off. The cross rails for the head and foot boards require tenons to fit into the legs. When making tenons on long pieces such as these, my favorite […]
Isla’s Bed Stock Prep and Joinery
The seemingly boring part of the project is preparing the stock. This includes cutting to rough length, jointing the faces, planing both sides, jointing a clean edge. Finally, ripping to width and cutting to length. Some of the steps desire more attention than they are commonly given. With rough sawn lumber, you need to surface […]
Isla’s Bed Design Features
I have made a number of beds. The design and construction techniques have evolved along the way to simplify the joinery, minimize fit-up trimming as well as sanding of the finished joints. This is while retaining the strength of mortise and tenon as well as frame and panel construction techniques. One of the key design […]
Dining Table – Trestle Base
The table was modeled completely in Sketchup. This helps to not just plan the work but then I can export individual components such as the legs as input for the CNC router. The leg component was exported and then imported into vCarve Pro which I use to model items for the CNC router. I was […]
Dining Table
Well I am committed now. We have discussed making a new dining table for years. However it had not risen to the top of the project heap. The goals include: Seat 6 when collapsed Seat 10 when expanded More width as the current table leaves little room for side place settings and a center piece […]
Clamp racks
Clamp racks are an easy project with the CNC router. They are a good way to use up the ever increasing pile of plywood scraps. I had an old and very simple rack for F clamps above the bench by the radial arm saws. However, it is not very convenient requiring a long reach to […]
Isla in her crib
So now the project is complete. The crib is delivered and Isla seems to enjoy it. However at 3 weeks old, she still seems almost lost in it.
Crib – Finishing and Assembly
Finish, then Assemble design This design is based on the technique of: finish, then assemble. This will sound backwards to most people, but is a very logical and efficient way to do certain kinds of projects – especially those with lots of small parts. It works well with many Craftsman designs or adaptations of them. […]
Crib – Rails and slats
Rails and Slats Today we were mortising the crib side rails and slats. The lower rail mortises were done on the CNC router. Overall, there are 50 mortises to cut for the slats. The front rails are 5″ tall and the end rails are and 6″ tall. So these had to be clamped upright to […]
