As to the steam generator, Rockler sells a great one. The company’s Steam Bending Kit is safe to use and has all the pieces you need to get started. You can make your own, but there’s the risk that it could explode — something to definitely avoid! The steam generator needs to be connected to the steaming chamber with a hose. The chambers themselves can be made from solid wood, CDX exterior plywood (our example on the opposite page) or PVC designed for very hot temperatures. (Some schedules of PVC will go limp when treated to steam.)

The chamber we made is much larger than we needed for these little hooks, so we added a movable chamber divider. Next time we may be making some long table legs or sled runners instead … who knows?

What About the Wood?

Air-dried wood is a must; the kiln-drying process hardens the lignum when it heats the wood. Green wood is your best bet — wood that has a moisture content of 20 to 30 percent bends most easily. While there are some conflicting opinions as to which species of wood is best for steam bending, most lists include white and red oak, ash, elm, hickory, beach and birch.

Sourcing green hardwood can be a bit of a challenge, but local saw mills will have a supply. Also, you can look up local woodturners who usually have sources for green lumber. If you are adventuresome and you own a band saw, you can harvest your own pieces from recently downed logs and limbs.

Avoiding a break when you bend is the goal. Your bending blanks should be wider than they are thick, and the bending face should be plainsawn. You’ll get the best results when the grain runs the entire length of the blank’s edge. If the grain runs off the edge, be sure to orient that toward the “inside” of the curve. Here are three tips that proved very useful for us: 1) Sand the blank smooth before you bend it; 2) Chamfer the edges with a block plane and 3) Soak the blank in water with Downy fabric softener. All of these steps reduce breakage.

Steam Bending Guidelines

• Presoak wood several hours in water/Downy liquid fabric softener.
• Convex and concave curves on one piece require a two-part form.
• Use air-dried lumber so its lignum is not hardened by heat.
• Lumber with 20 to 30 percent moisture content bends best.
• Lumber drier than 10 percent will not bend without breaking.
• Use plainsawn wood that’s wider than it is thick.
• Prepare blanks with vertical grain running the length of the edge.
• Choose straight surfaced wood without knots, rot or other flaws.
• Overly long workpieces helps with leverage when clamping.
• Steam one hour per inch of wood thickness.
• You may need to re-steam large bends (15 minutes per re-steaming).
• Once bent, allow to cool for one hour, then move to a drying form.
• Expect some springback once the wood dries, and plan for it.

Making the Bending Form and Hook Blanks

First, you need to make the bending forms. We used 3/4″ MDF, but Baltic birch plywood or solid wood will also work. We’re providing drawings of the hooks’ inside and outside curves and their ovoid shape on a free downloadable PDF.

Cut two pieces of 3/4″ stock 7″ wide by 11″ long, and transfer the two curved shapes for the bending mold onto the pieces. Take them to the band saw and cut as closely to the lines as you can. Then use a drum sander or stationary belt sander to refine the lines. Set the pieces flat on a worktop 3/8″ apart and see if their curved edges align well. If they do not, use a sander to adjust the profiles. These are your bending form templates.

Use the templates to create the mold pieces from six 3/4″ x 7″ x 11″ blanks. Make three of the concave and three of the convex pieces. Carefully align the curved faces for each form, gluing them together. We secured one of the forms to an additional piece of MDF for a base so that only one of the two curved forms would be able to move when clamping up steamed parts.

With that done, now it’s time to make the hook blanks. Ours are 3/8″ x 2″ x 11″ red elm, but the other hardwood species mentioned earlier would be just as good. We cut them from a section of a log, and it was admittedly a challenge to get pieces with the grain running correctly. We needed three pieces for the coatrack, so we made five blanks to allow for potential fractures.

Once roughed out, we planed and sanded the blanks smooth. Chamfer their edges, then soak them in water with a bit of Downy fabric softener. Experienced steam benders swear by Downy. It apparently softens the lignum. Who knew?

Turning Up the (Steamy) Heat!

Our steam chamber has grooves on the inside that allow us to insert adjustable slats that suspend the hardwood blanks in the middle of the chamber. We also installed a chamber divider to limit the steaming area inside. Plugging in the steam generator, we waited for about 15 minutes for it to start making a substantial amount of steam, then another 30 minutes to be certain the chamber was up the correct temperature and humidity. We put one hardwood blank into the chamber and set a timer. Steam the wood about one hour per inch of thickness. As these pieces are approximately a third of an inch thick, 20 to 25 minutes of steaming was required.

Before the piece is ready to bend, get three strong clamps ready to go. When the timer rings, carefully open the chamber door and stand back — that steam is hot! Unplug the steam generator. With gloves on, place the blank inside the bending forms and center it. Install a clamp in the center of the forms to start the bending process. You don’t need to move quickly, but don’t dawdle; the blank begins to cool immediately. Using the other two clamps, continue to squeeze the forms together until the blank is bent to its new shape.

The bent wood needs to stay in the forms for at least an hour. While it is in there, make a cooling form that matches just the concave side of the bending form. Once the piece has cooled for an hour, take it out and clamp it in the cooling form. Let it set at least overnight. When you unclamp it the next day, it might spring back a bit … that’s to be expected.

Complete the coat hook shaping process by tracing the ovoid shape found in the Drawing onto the face of the bent blank. Cut out the coat hook shapes on a band saw or scroll saw and sand them smooth. We chose a 1/2″ x 2″ x 24″ piece of wenge for a backboard. To mount the assembly to the wall, we drilled two holes 16″ apart.

Then we placed the hooks evenly along the 24″ board, avoiding the mounting holes. Attach the hooks with a spot of glue and two #8 x 1/2″ black washerhead screws. When the glue cures, apply a few coats of Watco oil finish, and fasten your new coatrack to the wall.

We hope that this simple steam bending process and project may entice you to try it out. It’s a great way to expand your woodworking horizons by adding more curves!

Click Here to Download the Full-Size Template.

The post PROJECT: Scandinavian Modern Steam Bent Coat Hooks appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Building this shelf will definitely give your dado blade a workout, with lots of repetitive cutting. But ganging the parts together, and using Rockler’s Cross Lap Jig, will help to speed the process along and ensure accuracy.

Machining the Front Slat

Let’s get this project started by making blanks for all the parts you see in the Material List. You’ll need some 1″-thick stock for the two middle supports, 3/4″ stock for the front and back slats and end supports and 1/4″-thick strips for the eight filler slats.

Set up a 3/4″-wide dado blade in your table saw and raise it to 1/2″. With a step-off block clamped to your saw’s rip fence for safety, mill a 3/4″-wide notch into each bottom corner of the front slat, flipping the workpiece end-for-end to make these two cuts. Then reset the rip fence so you can cut two 1″-wide, 1/2″-deep dadoes in the front slat that eventually will house tongues on the front ends of the two middle supports.

Gang-Cutting with Painter’s Tape

As you can see in several photos here, we’ll be gang-cutting groups of similar parts. It’s a great way to speed the repetitive cuts along. Gather together the filler and back slats into one bundle, and group the middle and end supports for a second bundle. Align the part ends carefully for each grouping, and wrap tape over their top and front surfaces to secure them. I didn’t wrap tape all the way around the bundles in order to keep tape off the saw table and miter gauge fence — all the repetitive cuts will wear through it, leaving tape shreds that can gum up the saw table.

Notching the Filler and Back Slats

Carry out the same process for milling the filler and back slats as you did for the front slat, only this time raise the dado blade to 1-3/4″. Use the front slat as a guide to set the rip fence so you can cut a pair of 1″-wide dadoes in the bundle for the middle supports, flipping it end-for-end between cuts. Then reset the fence to cut a 3/4″-wide notch into this group on both ends. You’ll know you’ve tackled this cutting operation correctly if your filler/back slat bundle ends up looking the same as the front slat does, only with much deeper cuts at each location.

Cross-Lap Jig for Even Spacing

Next, we’ll cut a series of eight 1/4″-wide x 1/4″-deep dadoes into the top edges of the middle/end supports bundle to form the cross-lap connections for the filler slats. So change out your 3/4″-wide dado for one that’s 1/4″ wide, and set it 1/4″ high.

These dadoes need to be exactly 1/2″ apart, which is where Rockler’s Cross Lap Jig comes in handy: it has adjustable metal indexing pins that engage each dado you cut to set the spacing for the next dado perfectly. Go ahead and cut these dadoes, positioning them 1-1/4″ in from the part ends.

We still need to cut a 1/4″-deep, 3/4″-wide notch into the top back corner of this bundle to finish the cross-lap joint with the back slat, so install your 3/4″-wide dado blade again and clamp the step-off block to the rip fence to mill the notch.

Then, without moving the rip fence, crank up the blade height to 1-1/2″ to cut another 3/4″-wide notch on the other end of this bundle. It will leave a 1/2″-thick tongue on the bottoms of the middle and end supports that fits into the bottom openings of the front slat to wrap up those cross-lap joints.

Assembly: A Little Glue Will Do

At this point, you’ve got a lot of loose parts that are just begging to get put together! But don’t jump the gun here. Now is the time to carefully finish-sand them all up to 180-grit. While sanding, I made sure to not round over any edges, which could detract from the crisp, clean look of a well-made cross-lap joint When you’re done sanding, clamp and glue the front and back slats together with the middle and end supports to form your shelf’s frame. Apply just enough glue to avoid any glue squeeze-out. Now go ahead and insert the filler slats, applying dabs of glue to each cross-lap surface. As these slats fit into place, you’ll notice that the shelf will become more and more rigid. When all the filler slats were in place, I used long wooden handscrew clamps to press them down tightly to the cross supports.

Allow the assembly to dry overnight, then apply finish. I brushed on several coats of Watco® Natural finish, which really seemed to bring the cherry to life!

Installing Blind Shelf Supports

With the assembly process behind you, it’s time to hang your new shelf. I opted for Rockler’s I-Semble Heavy-Duty Blind Shelf Supports to mount mine to the wall. The hardware consists of two differently-sized steel rods that are each welded to a steel plate. The thinner rod component fits into a hole in the shelf and the thicker rod component goes into a hole in a wall stud. The steel plates screw together and fit into mortises in the shelf back to hide the hardware. These Blind Shelf Supports are rated to hold up to 125 lbs per two supports, when installed into stud locations no more than 32″ on center.

Before I routed out mortises in the shelf’s back slat, I used Rockler’s Blind Shelf Support Drilling Guide to bore 9/16″-diameter holes for the rods that go into the shelf. Start by marking a centerline on the back of the shelf and locating two marks that are 16″ on center and align with the centers of the middle supports. Drill the holes 5″ deep.

Once those holes are done, it’s time to mortise for the hardware plates. To do that, I created a slotted jig from a piece of 1/2″ plywood with a fence underneath to clamp against the shelf. I routed a 7/8″-wide x 4-1/2″-long slot through the jig’s top panel, centered on it.

With the jig clamped in place on the shelf’s back edge, a 5/16″ guide bushing and a 1/4″ straight bit in my router enabled me to cut a 3/4″-wide mortise for each of the two shelf supports. I milled these mortises 5/8″ deep.

To hang the shelf, I located two 16″ on-center wall studs and established a level line between them. Using the Blind Shelf Support Drilling Guide and a 21/64″ bit, I drilled 3″-deep holes for the support rods into my wall studs. I assembled and leveled the brackets with their included screws, then slid the shelf onto its rods to hang it.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

I-Semble Heavy-Duty Blind Shelf Supports (1) #59434
21/64″ Black Oxide Drill Bit, 4-5/8″ length (1) #54702
14mm HSS Brad Point Drill Bit for Wood (1) #56029
Blind Shelf Support Drilling Guide (1) #62744

The post PROJECT: Slatted Cherry Shelf appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Starting with the Legs

Glue up 2″-thick blanks for the front and back legs from 5/4 stock planed to 1″. A blank measuring 6″ x 46″ will yield both a front leg and a back leg. Once the blanks come out of the clamps, flatten their edges on a jointer or with a plane.

Use Rockler’s cardboard templates to trace the front and back leg profiles on the blanks. Or create your own template by enlarging the gridded drawing. When drawing the back leg shapes, position the template so the front edge of the lower portion of the leg is flush with the blank’s edge. This way, the upper angled portion of the legs runs diagonally across the blank.

At the band saw, cut the four legs to rough shape, sawing about 1/16″ outside your layout lines.

Use your back leg template again to form a rigid template from a piece of scrap plywood or MDF that’s at least 1/4″ thick. We’ll use this rigid template for routing. Carefully cut the template out, following the layout lines. Sand the template’s edges smooth and flat.

Adhere the back leg template to one of the leg blanks with double-sided tape so the rough-cut edges of the blank extend beyond the edges of the template. Install a long pattern bit (bearing on the shank) in your router table — I used Rockler’s Double Bearing Flush Trim Bit with the end bearing removed. Adjust the bit’s height so the pilot bearing will roll along the edge of the template. Start the router and feed the workpiece and template along the bit, trimming off as much of the overhanging waste as the bit can reach — most pattern bits won’t extend all the way across a 2″-thick workpiece.

While your feed direction should be from right to left as usual, try at all costs to avoid routing against the grain direction (where the upper portion of the back leg crosses the wood grain at an angle). Run the router at its highest speed and feed very slowly to prevent the bit from tearing out the wood grain in these areas. Then raise the bit and make a second pass to remove the rest of the waste. Repeat the template-routing process on the second back leg.

With that done, create a plywood or MDF template for the front legs using Rockler’s cardboard front leg template as a pattern or by enlarging the gridded drawing.

Rip a pair of front leg blanks to 2″ wide from the stock remaining from the back leg blanks. Cut these blanks 1/2″ to 1″ overly long, and trace the cloud lift profile onto the front face of each leg blank. We won’t cut and template-rout this front edge to shape until much later in the building process, but marking it will help keep the legs’ orientation clear and avoid mistakes when marking and cutting the chair frame joinery.

Decide which legs will be left and right for your chair or chairs, and mark the four legs on their ends so you can avoid confusion as you work.

Drilling Mortises

Make blanks for the front, back and side seat rails from 3/4″-thick stock. Use Rockler’s cardboard template or the gridded drawing to draw the cloud lift profile onto the bottom edge of the front seat rail.

We’ll be using Rockler’s 3/8″-thick hardwood Beadlock loose tenons to assemble most of the major joinery of this chair. Rockler’s Beadlock system is very easy to use. If you can drill holes with a drill/driver, you can produce sturdy leg/rail connections without other tools. The Beadlock drilling jig simply clamps onto a workpiece, and shifting a hardened drilling guide within the jig to two positions — A and B — enables you to drill a series of side-by-side holes to create precise mortises for the premade Beadlock tenon stock. Once a pair of mortises are drilled for a joint, assembling legs and rails is as easy as cutting the tenon stock to the correct length and gluing them into place.

We’ll use a pair of Beadlock tenons to connect the seat rails to the legs at every joint. Mark a pair of mortise centerlines 15/16″ in from the top and bottom edges of each of the four seat rails on their ends. Now carefully transfer these layout marks directly from the seat rails onto the appropriate leg faces. On the front legs, plan for the extra part length to be at the top, and mark the mortises below it.

With the 3/8″-hole guide block installed in the Beadlock jig, bore both mortises into the ends of the seat rails. For each mortise, drill the three “A” series holes first, then the two “B” series holes to complete the five-hole mortise shape. Drill these 16 mortises 1-1/4″ deep, using the stop collar provided with the Beadlock drill bit to control the drilling depth. Clean out all the waste inside.

Now carefully cut out the cloud lift profile on the front seat rail at the band saw or using a scroll saw or jigsaw. Sand the profile smooth, up to the layout line.

When the seat rail mortises are done, you can drill corresponding pairs of mortises in the front and back legs. To space these correctly, install 1/4″ and 1/2″ plastic Beadlock spacers inside the Beadlock jig behind the steel drilling guide. Clamp the jig against the inside faces of the legs for this operation. Bore the leg mortises 1-1/4″ deep for the front and back seat rails. Change the drilling depth to 7/8″ when you bore the side seat rail mortises into the legs.

Next, crosscut eight Beadlock tenons for each chair to 2-1/2″ long for the front and back seat rail joints, and make eight 2-1/8″-long tenons for the side seat rail joints. Dry fit the legs and seat rails with tenons inserted in the joints, to make sure these joints come together easily and close fully when you clamp them. If all looks good, disassemble the parts so you can trim off the extra material from the tops of the front legs.

Making Crest and Back Rails

The 7/8″-thick crest and back rails are curved on their front and back faces to make the chair back more comfortable to rest against. There are numerous ways to create blanks for these rails, including steam bending or gluing many thin laminations together over a curved form. But for ease of construction, I chose to cut them out of 8/4″ solid stock instead. If you decide do the same thing, prepare a 2″-thick blank for each of these rails, using the Material List dimensions.

The curved profile of these rails will require nearly the full thickness of these blanks, but we’ll need to reuse the front and back offcuts several times in the overall machining process. So to thicken and strengthen what will be the back offcut, face-glue a piece of scrap hardboard or thin plywood to the back face of each blank (you can see it clearly in the photos).

Trace Rockler’s curved, C-shaped cardboard template for the crest and back rails onto the top edge of each blank, or draw the shape from the gridded pattern. Align the front edges of the template with the front corners of the workpieces when laying out the part shapes. Then draw the cloud lift profile on the front face of the crest rail workpiece.

Mark the crest and back rail blanks for a single Beadlock mortise on each end. Locate the centerlines of these mortises 1-1/2″ up from the bottom part edges. To position these mortises correctly on the rail thickness, install both 1/16″ and 1/8″ spacers inside the Beadlock jig behind the guide block. Set the drilling depth to 3/4″. Clamp the Beadlock jig against the front face of each blank, and drill out the crest and back rail mortises.

Head to the band saw so you can cut the rails’ curved profiles. Carefully cut just outside the curved layout lines, and make these long curved cuts in a single pass. After you cut each waste piece free, stick the offcut back into place on the blank with pieces of double-sided tape before cutting the second long curve. This way, the blank will retain most of its original thickness so it can stand squarely on the saw table for safer and more accurate cutting now, as well as during routing in the next step.

Notice in the Drawings that the crest and back rails have a long curved groove that houses the chair’s back slats. We’ll rout these grooves into the rails now. This would be a tricky and nearly impossible operation for a handheld router to accomplish, but it’s quite easy to do with a purpose-made jig at the router table. The jig I made consists of a 3/4″-thick plywood base with a 1/2″-wide groove routed through it that matches the curves of the crest/back rail. Three clamps on the jig press the rail workpieces down during routing, and I added a couple of strips of double-sided tape to the jig base for even more insurance. To use the jig, I install a 1/2″ O.D. guide collar and a 3/8″ upcut spiral bit in the router table. The guide collar’s bushing fits inside the jig’s groove. Sliding the jig from side to side routs the curved grooves consistently and easily.

To create the curved groove in the jig’s base, I used my MDF crest/back rail template to create a much larger template with a curved edge that was wide enough to support the base of a handheld router. With a 1/2″ spiral upcut bit installed in the router and a guide collar surrounding the bit that was just large enough for bit clearance, I attached my larger curved template to the plywood blank for the jig base and template-routed completely through it to form the jig’s slotted opening. Keep the router pressed firmly against the larger template as you rout your way through the jig base — the smoothness and accuracy of this groove determines how well the jig will work for routing the grooves in the chair rails.

Assemble the jig and use it to mill a centered, 3/8″-wide, 1/2″-deep slot along the bottom edge of the crest rail and into the top edge of the back rail. Be sure to center the crest and back rails carefully on the routing jig when clamping them to ensure that the grooves will be positioned accurately. Rout these grooves in a series of three or four deepening passes.

It’s time to sand the curved faces of the crest and back rails, so take them to your spindle sander or use long sanding drums on a drill press. When you remove the taped offcut to sand each face, stick it back on after sanding to help stabilize the workpiece for sanding the other face. If you have neither machine option for this step, a flexible sanding block will also do the job.

Once that’s done, go ahead and cut the top cloud lift profile to shape on the crest rail. Do this with both front and back waste pieces taped in place. Sand this profile smooth before removing the front and back waste pieces for the last time.

Next, mark the inside faces of the back legs for the four Beadlock mortises that will attach the crest and back rails to them. Locate centerlines for the crest rail mortises 1-1⁄4″ down from the top ends of the back legs, and mark the centers of the back rail mortises 22″ down from the legs’ top ends. To drill these 1-1⁄4″-deep mortises, install the 1/2″ spacer behind the guide block in the Beadlock jig, and clamp the jig to the front faces of the back legs this time. (The crook in the back legs doesn’t allow the jig to be clamped properly for drilling the back rail mortises; that’s the reason for using the front faces of the back legs to register the jig.)

Cut 2″-long Beadlock tenons for the crest and back rail joints, then dry fit these rails in the chair framework with the tenons in place to confirm that the parts go together well.

Creating the Thin Bottom Rails

The two bottom rails and cross rail are 7/8″ x 7/8″ in section, and they’ll be joined together and to the chair legs with 3/8″-dia. dowels. It will be difficult to clamp most doweling jigs to the ends of rails this thin to drill centered holes into them. So start with a piece of 7/8″-thick, 14-1/2″-long stock that’s much wider than necessary to create the two bottom rails. Mark center points for drilling that are 7/16″ in from both long edges of your workpiece, and clamp your doweling jig securely to drill 3/8″-dia. holes 3/4″ deep. Then take the workpiece to your table saw and rip both 7/8″-wide rails from it. Make these cuts carefully to be certain the dowel holes are centered on the rail ends.

Now drill a 3/8″-dia., 3/4″-deep hole into each bottom rail for the cross rail. Center these holes, lengthwise.

Study the Drawings to verify the correct faces of your chair legs for marking the dowel hole locations for the bottom side rails. These dowel holes should be 8-1/2″ up from the bottom end and 15/16″ in from the outside face of each leg (this will locate the bottom rails 1/2″ in from the outside leg faces). Once you’ve marked the four center points, head to the drill press so you can drill them 3/4″ in deep with a brad-point bit.

With that done, dry fit all the chair parts together up to this point with the Beadlock tenons and dowels in place, and clamp the joints. This will help you determine what the final length of the bottom cross rail should be. Make it the same way as you made the two other bottom rails, starting from a piece of wider stock and drilling the dowel holes into its ends before ripping the cross rail free. Test its fit between the bottom rails in the chair with the tenons and dowels fitted into place.

It’s finally time to take the front legs to the band saw and rough cut their front cloud lifted faces. Template-rout these profiles to final shape, then sand the legs’ front faces smooth using an oscillating spindle sander, sanding drums or by hand sanding.

Installing Back Slats, Spacers

It’s time to get those back slats into place! So dry assemble the chair again in order to measure the actual distance between the back and crest rails from the bottom of the curved grooves. Then prepare enough 3/8″-thick stock to rip the six straight slats to size. Rockler’s cardboard template kit provides a template for the two curved outer slats, or use our gridded drawing. Trace their shapes on a workpiece that’s wide enough to create both slats. Saw the profiles just outside the layout lines, and sand or template-rout the cloud lifts smooth and even. Rip the outer slats free. Sand all eight slats up to 180-grit.

Despite the fact that the slat grooves in the crest and back rails are curved, the spacers that fit between the slats and hold them in position can actually be made from straight strips of stock, because the curvature of the grooves is so gradual. Prepare long strips of 3/8″-thick, 1/2″-wide stock. The 18″ length that’s specified on the Material List is longer than necessary to allow for a few extra spacers, if needed.

Carefully cut two 1-1/4″-long spacers to fit between the center two slats and a dozen 3/4″-long spacers that fit between the rest of the straight-edged slats.

Finish sand the crest and back rails and the slats, because we’ll be installing the slats and spacers permanently at this point. When those are smooth and ready to go, dry fit all eight slats between the two rails in the grooves, and reinstall this loose assembly back on the chair. Spread the slats out along the grooves so they’re roughly in position. Then, starting in the middle of the crest and back rails, insert the two 1-1/4″ spacers with dabs of glue into the rail grooves. Double-check that these two spacers are centered on the rail lengths. Slide the adjacent pair of slats against these longer spacers. Now glue and insert 3/4″-long spacers into the grooves alongside the first two slats. Slide the next slats over, and repeat this process to position and locate the other straight slats, 3/4″ spacers and the outer two profiled slats.

The outermost four spacers that fit between the profiled slats and the back legs should be about 1-3/8″ long, and you’ll need to trim their ends at angles to fit flush against the legs. It’s a fussy process, but take your time to get a good fit. Once these four spacers are ready, glue them into place in the grooves to finish the slat installation. Let the glue dry while the backrest subassembly is still dry fitted on the chair.

Assembling the Framework

Take the chair apart so you can finish sand all the faces and edges of the legs and rails to 180-grit. I also used a sanding block to break all the sharp edges of the parts to reduce the chances for splinters and to give the chair a softer-looking appeal. Chamfer the top and bottom ends of the back legs and the bottoms of the front legs with a trim router and chamfering bit set for a 1/8″-deep cut. I think chamfering the bottom ends of furniture legs is always a good idea — it safeguards these fragile edges and corners from chipping during use.

With that done, you can start the final assembly process by gluing and clamping the backrest subassembly and back seat rail between the two back legs with Beadlock tenons installed. Then glue and clamp the front seat rail and front legs together with their tenons in place. Assemble the lower rails and cross rail with dowels and glue, making sure that this “H” configuration of parts lays flat on a work surface. I used hide glue for all of these connections because we’ll be staining these chairs, and any glue splotches I might have left behind — which stick out like a sore thumb under a stained finish — are easy to clean away by scrubbing with water.

When the back, front and bottom rail subassemblies dry, bring the whole chair frame together by adding the side seat rails and lower rail assembly with their tenons and dowels in place.

Adding the Seat Board and Finish

The upholstered seat consists of a 3/4″ plywood seat board with a layer of 2″-thick foam on top, covered with your choice of fabric, vinyl or leather. The seat board rests on four cleats. Make the seat board by measuring its opening on your chair frame — it may vary slightly from the Material List size. Make the seat board about 1/8″ smaller in both dimensions than its opening in the chair frame, in order to fit the seat covering you have in mind. Whatever covering you choose, it will need to wrap around the edges of the seat board and will take up the extra space inside the frame. Cut the seat board to shape, then mark and cut a 3/4″ x 3/4″ notch out of each corner at the band saw or with a jigsaw so it can fit around the inside corners of the chair legs.

Sort through your project’s scrap lumber for a piece to make the chair’s four seat board cleats, and rip and crosscut those to size. Make the thickness of these cleats match the distance from the inside corners of the legs to the seat rails; on my chair, it’s 11/16″. Position and clamp the cleats against the seat rails inside the chair framework so the top of the seat board will be flush with the tops of the front legs and seat rails. Fasten the cleats to the seat rails with three countersunk screws per cleat.

Old Master’s Red Mahogany oil-based stain enriched the color of the white oak I used for my chairs. It also will match the color of the Cloud Lift Table that ran in our June issue, if you’re planning to use these chairs as a set with that table. Mix the stain well and wipe it onto all the exposed wood. Allow the stain to absorb for a few minutes, then wipe off the excess. Give oil-based stain at least 24 hours to dry thoroughly. Longer is even better, especially if your shop is humid or cool.

The next day, you can topcoat the chairs with your choice of finish. I started by spraying on two light coats of clear aerosol shellac to enhance the oak’s quartersawn figure and to help build a film of finish quickly. When that dried, I followed with aerosol lacquer to change the finish from shellac’s low glossiness to a duller satiny sheen.

Simple Upholstery Wraps It Up

Upholstering the square seat boards of these chairs is about as easy as that job can be. Start by breaking their sharp corners with a file or sanding block, then skim off the long top and bottom edges as well as the sharp areas in the notched corners with a 1/8″ roundover bit in a handheld router. Doing this will prevent tearing the fabric when you’re stretching it over the seat board, and soft edges will also prolong the life of the fabric over time. Then draw four layout lines on one face of the seat boards, 2″ in from each edge, to create a smaller penciled square layout area.

Ordinary 2″-thick, high-density urethane foam, available at fabric stores, is a good thickness and choice for padding. Mark one face of the foam with a 15-3/4″ square — or to match the actual size of your seat boards. You can certainly cut this foam with a long-bladed, sharp utility knife, but a band saw will do the job even better. Tip the saw table to 30 degrees, and carefully cut along the layout lines you’ve marked on the foam to create a beveled seat pad with its angled edges flaring out from your marked lines (the face opposite the one you marked will end up being a larger square after it’s bevel-cut to size).

Cut your fabric or other seat covering to 23″ x 23″. Lay it face down on a work surface and center the beveled foam on it with the larger face of the foam against the seat covering. Set the seat board on top of the foam with its pencil-marked face up and the edges aligned with the foam’s edges. Now gently pull the side flaps of the seat covering up and over the seat board, one side at a time, and staple the flap to the seat board. Pull the covering evenly, aligning its edge to the penciled layout line you drew on the seat board earlier. A helper can make this holding-and-fastening process easier to do.

When stapling, drive a staple in the center of the flap first, then work your way out from there, pulling the covering evenly and stapling every 2″ or so. Now pull the remaining unstapled areas of seat covering taut, and drive more staples to hold these areas in place, too.

I quickly discovered that while a manual staple gun might be up to task for this operation, mine sure wasn’t. The Baltic birch I used for my seat boards just bent the staples. So I switched to a PT50 pneumatic stapler from Arrow, which was both inexpensive — around $40 at a local home center — and worked like a charm to sink the staples properly.

When all four flaps are secured, pull the four corners of the seat covering up and over the seat board notches to form long tongues. Staple these tongues down securely.

Press the upholstered seat board down into place in the chair frame, and drive 1-1/2″ wood screws up through the cleats to attach the seat. These new dining room chairs are now ready to use — and you can add them to your proud list of woodworking accomplishments!

Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Using a Digital Angle Gauge

Wixey’s Digital Angle Gauge is a helpful battery-powered accessory for setting blade tilt angles without using a protractor or conventional bevel gauge.

It features an LED readout that reports angle settings to a tenth of a degree. To use the gauge, set its magnetized base against a saw blade and zero out the display.

When you tilt the blade, the Angle Gauge will report its exact tilt as it changes. For this lampshade project’s 29-degree bevels, the gauge’s simple and accurate operation came in very handy!

Cutting Panel Sides, Bottoms and Tops

I started by ripping a piece of 1/2″-thick maple stock, measuring 5″ x 24″, into six long strips that would become the 12 side pieces for the shade’s six panels.

To do that, I tilted my table saw blade carefully to 29 degrees using a Wixey Digital Angle Gauge, and bevel-ripped both long edges of the board.

Returning the saw blade to 90 degrees, I then ripped two 1/2″-wide x 24″-long strips with the bevel cuts on one edge of each. Repeat this process to make four more long strips with one beveled edge and one square edge.

Now take what remains of this piece of stock and rip it into six more 1/2″-wide strips with your blade kept at 90 degrees.

Each of the bevel-edged strips you just made will become two panel side pieces. Using a miter gauge on the table saw, I cut a dozen of these panel sides to 11″ long, carefully squaring up their ends.

You’ll use the remaining six long strips with square edges to make the panel top and bottom pieces. To do this, swivel your miter gauge to 12 degrees and cut six pieces for the panel bottoms to 5″ long. Cut six pieces for the panel tops to 1-1/2″ long.

Use a stop block clamped to your saw’s rip fence to control the length of these long and short parts.

And when you’re orienting the angled cuts on the ends of each bottom or top workpiece, cut them so the angles are facing one another. Finish sand all the wood parts you’ve made so far.

Panel Gluing and Clamping Jig

Gluing and clamping these side, top and bottom pieces together to form panels will be a lot easier if you use a simple jig. It consists of three fixed pieces of 1/2″ MDF that will form an outer frame around the panel when you assemble it. A wedged piece slides along one of the jig’s frame pieces to provide clamping pressure. I used a large piece of melamine as the base for my jig, because glue won’t stick to it. Cut three 2″-wide pieces of MDF for the jig frame parts. Bevel one edge of one piece to 29 degrees, and crosscut it 11″ long. Fasten this piece to the jig base with screws so its square edge is flush to one of the base’s long edges. Orient its beveled edge down so it will press a panel side down and flat when in use. Now miter cut the ends of a second MDF frame piece to 12 degrees, and make it 8-7/8″ long. Keep its long edges square.

Attach this frame piece to the jig with screws so one of its angled ends aligns with the same edge of the jig base as the first frame piece did and so it forms an angle with the first frame piece. The third frame piece I attached was the wedged clamping side. I first beveled the edge of this MDF frame piece to 29 degrees, then split the workpiece across its diagonal with the blade at 90 degrees to form two wedges.

Attach the wedge without the bevel to the jig base so the other wedge (with the beveled edge) can slide along it to provide tension against the panel parts as you glue them up. Cut and screw a cleat over the fixed wedge to hold down the sliding wedge during clamping. Then use your jig to glue and clamp two side pieces, a top and bottom to form each of the six panels. When you install the maple parts in the jig, face the bevels on the panel side pieces so they engage the bevels on the jig’s side and wedge. Gently tap the wedge into place.

Second Jig Combines Panels into a Shade

Once the glue dried on my shade’s six panels, I created another quick jig from MDF that would be used to glue the panels together in an upright position. To arrange the jig’s six blocking pieces into a hexagon shape, I simply taped the panel frames together temporarily, butted the blocks against them and attached the blocks to the jig base with screws. I cut a shallow bevel along the inside edge of each block to improve its hold-down ability.

Ready to Install Rice Paper

The best way to adhere the rice paper to the panels, I learned, is to use a mixture of wood glue and water thinned to the consistency of white school glue. I brushed glue onto the narrower (inner) face of each panel, making sure to not get any glue on the frame edges.

I then carefully set the panel down onto flattened rice paper I had taped to a larger melamine surface, making sure there were no ripples in the paper. I found it easiest to place the bottom down first and then gently set the top down.

When gluing the panels to the paper, make sure they don’t sit too long, or the glue could soak through to your work surface. As soon as the glue tacks up, trim the rice paper overly large and turn the panels paper-side up. Allow the glue to dry for a few more minutes, then trim off the rest of the extra paper flush to the wood edges.

Final Assembly, Finishing and Hanging

When the paper joints are fully dry, you can proceed to glue the six frames together along their beveled edges, using the upright clamping jig and blocking to align and hold the parts in place. A second set of hands can be helpful for this step! Adjust the joints carefully as you position the six frames on the jig, and don’t overtighten the blocking pieces in case you want to make slight adjustments before the glue sets. After the glue on my lampshade frame joints dried overnight, but before I did any touch-up sanding, I sprayed a very light coat of aerosol lacquer to the inside and outside of the shade. I did this to help prevent any sanding dust from attaching to the rice paper. When that dries, sand the frame where you need to, and touch up any bare wood with more lacquer.

Every lampshade needs to have a support to hang from. For that, I used a simple 1/4″ x 1/2″ strip of maple with 21-degree bevels cut on each end. Drilling a slightly larger hole than the threaded post on Rob’s lamp harp, I was able to make a simple yet effective support for hanging it and wrapping up this project.

Nick Brady is a relatively new builder and project designer in Rockler’s shop at company headquarters, but he’s been a hobbyist woodworker for a long time and formerly was a middle-school band teacher. This lampshade project proved to be a bit of a mathematical brainteaser, but Nick says he enjoyed the challenge it presented!

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Then one day while driving by a municipal lawn waste site, I saw some big sections of tree trunks laying around. I often look for possible turning stock opportunities at this site and mostly I am disappointed, but not this time.

I was checking out what I thought was a big chunk of maple when I rolled it over and saw the significant red streaking running through the grain. It was box elder, a relative of maple. And on top of that, the section I was looking at revealed very curly grain; it looked like grain from a burl, but there was no apparent burl. The piece was big and heavy, and I had no chainsaw with me, so I squatted down and used my legs to lift it without sending me to a chiropractor. When I eventually sectioned up the piece, the grain was even better than I had hoped.

With input from Jeff Jacobson, our art director, I figured out how to saw up two large sections and a couple of smaller pieces to get the best yield from this massive log. My cordless chainsaw and a band saw helped me create two pieces that could be mounted on the lathe.

Rough-turning on the Lathe

Next up, how to go about loading the first blank for turning. I chose to use a faceplate to mount the chunk. It was about 9″ long, 7″ wide and still very green, so it was pretty heavy. The faceplate coupled with pressure from the tailstock held it securely as I started to shape the piece.

Using a spindle roughing-out gouge, I first reduced the blank to a rough cylinder. There were significant bark inclusions and the blank was not remotely balanced. But with a bit of patience, I cut enough away for it to spin smoothly. With the rough stuff done, it was time to consider the shape. We decided to build a shop-made lampshade, with its top much narrower than the bottom. So I settled on a curved shape for my turning with a similar ratio of narrow top to wide bottom — but whereas the shade would be geometric in composition, the base would be much more organic. Shaped like a vase or wine carafe, it has a short 3-1⁄4″-diameter foot, swelling to roughly a 6-1⁄2″ wide diameter and narrowing down to a small 2″ top end.

I really enjoy woodturning but confess I still have much to learn. Using various gouges, square- and round-end scrapers and carbide-insert tools from Rockler, I refined the shape until I was pleased with the results. I’m sure a more experienced turner would have achieved a smoother surface, but this curly green wood was still a bit fuzzy when I was done turning. Luckily, I’m nearly a rocket scientist when it comes to sanding! (Sigh.) While the box elder’s figure was fun to see as I turned the rough shape, the figure really showed its stunning character as I smoothed the piece with ever-finer sandpaper. I sanded the lamp body up to 320-grit.

To begin the finishing steps, I decided to use some Glu-Boost Fill n’ Finish as a pore filler. It’s a cyanoacrylate product that basically does not cure until it is sprayed with a hardener. I turned the lathe down to its slowest speed (56 rpm) and carefully squeezed the product onto the lamp body while holding a clean cloth under the application area.

I rubbed the product into the grain and then sprayed the hardener on it. The results were amazing: a super-smooth surface with the pores perfectly filled. I sanded that surface with 320- and 400-grit sandpaper, then wiped on a thin coat of gloss water-based polyurethane. When it dried, I burnished the poly with a coarse paper towel and repeated the process two more times.

Ready for Hardware and Wiring

With that completed, I parted off the top of the turning and drilled a 3/8″-diameter hole through the lamp body from top to bottom, using a 9-13/16″ Fisch Brad Point Bit right on the lathe.

I unmounted the lamp body and used a Forstner bit to bore a recess into its base. Then on the router table, I formed a shallow slot to allow the lamp cord an exit from the bottom.

Installing the lamp hardware was super easy; I just followed the package directions. My wooden lamp body was then complete, so I turned another version. If you turn a lamp, you can try to make a shop-made lampshade to go with it. Rockler offers lamp shade options too, or buy one from other sources.

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Cloud Lift Chair: If you liked the look of last issue’s “Cloud Lift Table” project but wished we would have provided a chair plan to complement it, you’re in luck! This stylish chair also features Rockler’s easy-to-build, exceedingly sturdy Beadlock loose-tenon joinery.

Slatted Cherry Shelf: If you’re a fan of floating shelves but not the “slab-wood” variety, here’s a visually lighter cross-lapped alternative that’s fun to build.

Making a Lamp and Shade: Who says lamps are humdrum? Our publisher challenges that notion by putting a stunning piece of box elder on the lathe to turn a custom base. We raise the stakes even higher with a rice paper lamp shade project you can build for it.

Scandinavian Modern Steam-bent Coat Hooks: A band saw isn’t the only way to make wood conform to curves. In this starter project, you’ll learn how to bend air-dried stock to your will with steam.

Woodturning: Turning a tray will improve your tool control for large faceplate work. Ernie Conover shares the step-by-step process.

Tool Tutorial: Can you imagine woodworking without a cadre of clamps? We sure can’t! When it comes time to put the squeeze on your next project, A.J. Hamler discusses the primary clamp styles no woodworking shop should be without.

Tool Preview: If our description of the Cloud Lift Chair left you wondering about Beadlock joinery, here’s a two-page tour, featuring an updated jig that makes loose tenons even easier to install.

Hardworking Woods: While the first thing that probably comes to mind with “mesquite” is a savory barbecue, we put that application on the back burner to consider this desert-tough tree’s potential as woodworking lumber.

Shop Talk: Meet Stevie Estler, an up-and-coming maker/influencer. And if you’ve been wondering why lumber prices are sky-high these days, our report explains several causes.

Buying Lumber: Whether you’re making cabinets, jigs or templates, sheet goods generally are the go-to material choice. Here are six smart options for woodworking.

The post Woodworker’s Journal July/August 2021 appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

For further discussion on steam bending and instructions on how to build this project, download this article.

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WORX 20V Power Share 4-1/2″ WORXSAW Brushless Compact Circular Saw

Dremel Home Solutions Rechargeable Glue Pen

Rockler Doweling Jig Kits

Milwaukee M12 23 Gauge Pin Nailer

The post July/August 2021 What’s in Store Roundup appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

These days, woodworkers and builders are posting memes offering to trade 2x4s for late-model Corvettes or, as Clint Miller, a sales representative for Automated Building Components in Chetek, Wisconsin, said, “I could take my wife out for a steak dinner with four 2x4s, 8 feet long … that’s 50 bucks. A year ago, they would have been $10 or $15.”

So, what’s up? Well, you may recall a worldwide pandemic that began in 2020. Lockdowns that spring meant people stayed home, and businesses — including those in the building and lumber industry — shut down for a while. Then, while many people sheltered at home, they decided to remodel. That’s the demand.

What about supply? The short answer is: there hasn’t been enough of it. Lumber mill shutdowns due to COVID-19 were a factor, according to the NAHB. Plus, there isn’t enough domestic supply. The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association’s (NLBMDA) 2021 National Policy Agenda states that “as much as one-third of the framing lumber used in the U.S. comes from Canada each year.” And the U.S. charges tariffs on Canadian lumber.

Organizations such as NAHB and NLBMDA have been lobbying for reductions in tariffs. They’d also like to expand the domestic lumber supply through such methods as increasing logging from U.S. federal forests — through responsible management and in an environmentally sustainable manner, they’re careful to note in their advocacy documents.

Some other factors:

• Domestic producers are selling their lumber abroad.

• The 2008 economic downturn closed many sawmills.

• Remaining mills have limited kiln capacity and face labor shortages.

When Will This End?

What’s the solution? It seems we’ll have to wait it out. Until when? That answer is tougher to predict.

Clint Miller, whose company works with roof and floor trusses as well as other engineered wood products, thinks that we’re facing a “rubber band economy,” which will contract, then spring back with elasticity before leveling out at a certain point. For now, though, “Everything is such a mess that it’s going to take a while to get there,” Miller said.

For an expanded version of this article including helpful links to learn more about the lumber shortage, click here to download the PDF.

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