I enjoyed your tip suggesting coating a cutting board with paraffin. In sharing it with my wife, she wondered what would happen if you put a hot roast on the board for cutting. Will the hot meat melt the paraffin coating?

– Terry Elfers
Cincinnati, Ohio

Canning paraffin, which is what we used in the article, starts to melt at about 100° F., so yes, a very hot roast could theoretically soften or even melt wax. It would not matter much because you scrape all the paraffin off except what resides in the pores. Since a cutting board with a roast on it is horizontal, and melted paraffin flows downward thanks to gravity, you would not likely get any on the roast, or at least not enough to notice. If the surface of the hot roast is wet (juicy), as is usually the case, wax won’t adhere to it anyway, and in any case, that wax is nontoxic.

Still, I should point out that paraffin is generally used not on serving boards, but on butcher’s chopping blocks, mainly used for cutting cold, raw meat, where the surface is all end grain. For a serving board, or even a flat grain cutting board, I’d go with boiled linseed oil.

I make lawn chairs for neighbors and family. I use pine lumber because of cost and put clear varnish on for finish. After a year or two, the finish fades or peels. Someone told me to spray chairs with the clear finish they use on cars. Can I really do that? Look forward to your reply so I can make more durable items.

– Paul Liput
Hacienda Hills, California

Yes, you can spray wood with automotive clear coat, but I think you have a larger problem than that will solve.

Pine is not an ideal choice for exterior furniture since it moves a lot, contains a lot of sap, is rather soft and, unless it is pressure treated, has no natural resistance to bugs or rot. If you really want to make more durable items, start with a wood that has good exterior durability (mahogany, white oak, red cedar, ipe, redwood, cypress, teak).

To get back to your specific question, there are plenty of finishes that will work on pine, but do make sure you check the wood’s moisture content before finishing, and let it dry if it is above 12%. Finishing wood that is too wet is an invitation to peeling.

A good exterior clear varnish or spar varnish should hold up more than one year, but not much more. Other options include deck coatings, which need almost yearly renewal, exterior house paint (over primer) if you want a solid color, or even, as someone suggested to you, automotive urethanes. Nothing will hold up very long, so your choices are between something that holds up a little longer, or something that is easy to rejuvenate.

In my retirement, I anticipate creating woodworking projects such as multi-species cutting boards, wooden bowls, wooden spoons, etc., etc.

I have completed several of those cutting boards for a couple of my granddaughters and finished them with mineral oil with the assumption that they would be food-safe. Through normal use, the boards have needed a refurbishing. My question is: Am I correct in my assumption? Or would it be better (and food-safe) to use the boiled linseed oil instead of the mineral oil? If I can use the linseed oil, can I apply it directly over the mineral oil presently on the boards without presenting an adhesion or curing problem?

– Herb Fogelberg
Woodbury, Minnesota

Yes, and no, in that order.

Yes, you can use boiled linseed oil on a cutting board. It is food-safe once dry, and it will hold up a lot longer than mineral oil, though not forever. You can replenish when needed.

No, you can’t go over the mineral oil, since that never dries and you can’t put a drying finish, like boiled linseed oil, over a non-drying or still wet finish. To redo the board you’ve already done, first remove the mineral oil by scrubbing the wood with mineral spirits to solvate the mineral oil, then blotting it up with paper towels. Get as much oil out as possible. Follow up with a scrub using an ammonia based cleaner, such as Windex®. Ammonia is a surfactant, meaning it will help “grab” that last bit of mineral oil.

When the wood is clean and dry, sand it smooth, then flood it liberally with boiled linseed oil, re-wetting the surface wherever the oil is absorbed. After 10 or 15 minutes of flooding, wipe off all the excess oil and let the board cure in a warm, dry place for two days before putting it into service.

Incidentally, drying oils, like linseed oil, may not cure over woods in the dalbergia family, so if you plan on using anything from the rosewood family in your multi-species boards, leave those natural.

I have built a dining room table using bamboo flooring that I planed down to a uniform thickness. I glued it to a 36″ x 54″ top and sanded down to a 500-grit paper. I finished with five coats of tung oil, using 4/0 steel wool between coats. When we put a coffee cup on the table with a coaster, it raised up the tung oil and also raised up the grain on the wood. I thought maybe I didn’t wait to cure the oil.

After reading your column, I noticed noticed that the author leans to boiled linseed oil — and his tung oil shows “100 percent pure tung oil.” Do I need to sand off my tung oil down to bare wood, or can I apply BLO on top of the tung oil?

– Marvin Steffen
Alford, Florida

I’m going to assume you are certain that your flooring was pure bamboo with nothing else in it. Otherwise, this may be a different issue entirely. You might be dealing with resin or waxes added to the bamboo “boards” during manufacture, which could affect how oil dries and cures. Let’s assume you have untainted bamboo and move on to the finish. I don’t know what was in your “tung oil” product, but if it did not dry completely, you want to remove it, even if you must resort to paint remover. First, though, try scrubbing it with mineral spirits on a nylon abrasive pad. That should remove any uncured oil. You won’t have much luck trying to sand oil off: sanding liquid oil simply grinds it into the wood and moves it around.

You can certainly go over cured tung oil with linseed oil, but that’s not what I would suggest in this case. For a dining room table, which gets lots of wear and plenty of heat and stains, I’d go with an oil-based polyurethane varnish. It, too, can go over any cured oil. Just clean and scuff sand for adhesion first.

The post Frequently Asked Finishing Questions appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

However, GluBoost® products are different indeed and open up a whole new world of options for us woodworkers.

Most notable in their line is Fill n’ Finish, a flexible, clear cyanoacrylate that stays liquid until you spray it with GluBoost accelerator, after which it solidifies instantly and cures clear. It seems hard to believe, but it’s true.

That means you can apply it to wood as a finish or pore filler, take your sweet time about getting it smooth and uniform, then spray it, and it cures almost instantly, ready to sand or recoat in just seconds. Among other uses, it is perfect for finishing turnings, right on the lathe. It cures clear, with no bubbles, pitting, hazing, crazing, blooming, yellowing or white spots.

Because it stays liquid indefinitely, you can even color it by mixing their Master-Tint line of colorants right into the cyanoacrylate, and it still won’t cure until it is sprayed with accelerator. Add a small amount of powder for a translucent color, more for solid colors. It’s a boon for filling dings in every type of clear, tinted, or solid color finishes, including notoriously hard-to-repair epoxies and polyesters.

Once Fill n’ Finish does cure, it is flexible. We don’t often think of them that way, but all wood finishes must be somewhat flexible to tolerate wood movement without cracking.

That flexibility is essential as a finish and also to create repairs in cracked or dinged finishes that don’t pop out or crack over time. As an adhesive, a flexible glue line is more shock-resistant than a rigid one.

The GluDry accelerator itself is also very slow drying, which is quite handy if you plan to use either Fill n’ Finish or their more typical adhesive, MasterGlu, as traditional adhesive. Spray one side of a bond with accelerator and put the cyanoacrylate on the other. Once they come in contact, cure comes in seconds.

Both the slow-drying, long open time Fill n’ Finish and the more typical self-curing MasterGlu come in both regular and super thin versions, the latter ideal for penetrating dense woods. Both are great for solidifying spalted or punky wood.

If you’re wondering why you’ve not heard of Glu-Boost before, in part it is because the products were first introduced to luthiers (guitarmakers) and mostly sold through luthiery supply companies.

You can find out more through their website at www.gluboost.com, where the 2 oz. bottles of Fill n’ Finish sell for $15 and the 4 oz. GluDry is priced at $12.

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I drill a second, centered hole at the bottom for the post’s threaded insert. Once the levelers are installed, you can back them out until the pad just clears the big hole and serves its leveling purpose but without lifting the leg too far up. With this fix, you’ll almost forget the levelers are even there.

– Willie Sandry
Camas, Washington

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First, Some Table Considerations

The overall size of an outfeed table surface should depend on the shop setup, the size of table saw it will be used with and the length of stock you typically use in your projects. The biggest factor is shop size. None of us have unlimited space, so we ought to make sure we use the space we do have as efficiently as possible. In other words, a huge outfeed table might be nice, but if it doesn’t fit in your shop, then it isn’t going to be all that effective.

For other design considerations, take a look at your shop layout and how you have your table saw positioned. In my shop, for instance, I have an outlet against the wall that can’t be blocked. Further, my jointer’s infeed table is adjacent to where the outfeed table must go. So, an outfeed table with drawers or doors on the end would be impractical for my shop’s layout.

The next factor to think about is how wide to make the outfeed table. This will again depend on the size of your table saw and overall shop layout. It might make sense to make the outfeed table as wide as your table saw so, no matter what the rip fence is set to, the workpiece will be fully supported. If you rarely make cuts that wide and would rather use the extra space behind the saw for storing something else, a narrower table might be better for you.

Finally, don’t forget to think about the amount of overhang between the saw and the cabinet. Most saws have their dust collection port extending out the back, so clearance for a dust hose is important. If the saw is on a mobile base, there could be other clearance issues as well. With my table saw, I needed to account for both the dust port and my mobile base. I opted to design the cabinet so it would have space underneath to nest over part of the mobile base. This reduced the amount of overhang I needed, while also reducing the amount of dead space between the saw and the cabinet.

Building the Cabinet

The cabinet carcass is made from 3/4″ plywood and joined with rabbets and dadoes. I broke the sheets down into manageable pieces with a track saw before bringing them into the shop and cutting them down to final size at the table saw. Mill rabbets on the top and bottom edges of the side panels to connect with the cabinet top and bottom panels. The sides, top and bottom will also need a 1/2″-wide by 3/8″-deep rabbet along their back edge for fitting the back panel into place. Lastly, plow dadoes across the top and bottom panels to fit the vertical divider; be sure to adjust the width of these two dadoes carefully to match the thickness of your plywood — these days, it’s typically 23/32″ wide and not a true 3/4″.

Next, dry-fit the cabinet pieces together, and cut the back panel to fit its opening. The rabbets make everything come together easily, as all the parts are self-aligning and self-squaring. Drill rows of shelf-pin holes into the walls of the left cavity. After a final check to make sure everything seems in order, you can glue up the case. Gluing in the back panel further helps to square the case and reinforces the structure, which will help keep the cabinet from sagging.

Rip and crosscut pieces of 3/4″ x 3/4″ edge banding from solid wood to cover the exposed plywood edges on the cabinet front. Glue and clamp them in place.

Because I hate limiting my options, I added both leveling feet and casters to the base of the cabinet. The leveling feet provide a stable base and make it very easy to bring the outfeed table up to the right height for the table saw. When the cabinet needs to be moved, I can simply lower it onto the casters.

Adding the Door

I built my cabinet door using simple frame-and-panel construction. First, run a 1/4″-deep, 1/2″-wide groove along the edges of the rails and three stiles to fit the panel stock.

Then cut mating tongues into the ends of the rails and center stile. This creates the door frame.

Since the panels are plywood and don’t need to float to allow for wood movement, the door can be glued up as a solid unit.

When the glue has dried, trim the door to final size to fit the opening (you’ll want the gap sized similarly to that of the drawers), and hang it on its hinges. Add the shelf to the cabinet cavity, which also serves as a doorstop.

Constructing the Top

I wanted to make the top fairly substantial so it would hold up well as a work surface. I considered doing a laminated strip top (like a workbench) but opted instead to use a single slab with a live edge. This gives the outfeed table a unique look, and orienting the live edge so it slants toward the top also works as a functional detail: it allows materials to slide onto the table easily. A few years ago, I cut a boule of ash slabs (the slabs are cut from one log and kept together in the order of sawing) with my chainsaw mill. The log was a bit short, which made the slabs the perfect length for this project. If you do the same, flatten and surface the top, attach it to the cabinet and cut a pair of dadoes to extend your table saw’s miter slots. To give this top more versatility as a work surface, I also installed two lengths of T-track at 90° to each other along the side and front edge.

Another option, if you don’t have access to slab lumber, would be to double up a couple sheets of 3/4″ plywood for the top.

Adding the Drawers

I made the four drawer boxes the same way as the cabinet, by breaking down some 1/2″ plywood into strips for the sides, fronts, backs and bottoms, then rabbeting the drawer fronts and backs to receive the sides. Here’s how to make sizing the drawer for its opening extremely foolproof: after the front and backs are cut to rough length, place them into the case beside the drawer slides and evaluate the fit — whatever you get at this step will be the fit you get once the drawer is assembled. Adjust the part lengths, if needed. Then mill rabbets into the ends of the drawer fronts and backs, as well as along the bottom inside edges of the fronts, backs and sides, to fit the drawer bottoms.

Hang the cabinet-side components of the drawer slides in the case next, and fasten the drawer slide components to the drawer sides. Now, glue and bradnail the drawer boxes together, and hang the boxes in the case before the glue sets. I do this so that each drawer’s geometry fits the case’s geometry — if the case is a little out of square, the drawers will be equally out of square but will operate flawlessly anyway.

Cut the four drawer faces to length and width, and install them on the drawers with a few screws. To make setting gaps around the drawers easy, I cut a full-length thin strip of wood to act as a spacer. Placing the strip between the drawer faces as you work your way up the stack ensures that the gap will be consistent between each drawer and all the way from left to right. Since I built my cabinet when the humidity was low, I used a 1/8″ gap. That way, the drawer faces will have plenty of cross-grain expansion space as they get wider when the humidity goes up.

Finishing Up

At this point, it’s up to you whether or not to apply a finish. Shop projects are a great opportunity to use up the last bit of finish that might be sitting in a can on your shelf. In this case, I applied two coats of a wiping varnish. The first coat really brought out the color and figure in the wood, and the second coat helped to even out the sheen. I added a coat of paste wax to the top to further protect it from glue and to make workpieces slide across it more easily. Once the finishing is done, you can reassemble everything and install the door and drawer pulls.

My outfeed table was a much needed shop upgrade. I’m loving having the functionality of the workpiece support without having to set up roller stands or worry about catching parts before they fall off the back of the saw. And, of course, having more drawers and shelf space for storage has really helped cut down on the clutter of small items that otherwise just seem to float around the shop. The project’s slab top is also fantastic to look at, which further adds to the inviting nature of my shop. Shop projects don’t always have to be pretty — an argument can be made for making things quickly and roughly — but a little curb appeal never hurts, either.

Shop projects are also great for practice: if you make a mistake, you’ll see it every time you’re in your shop as a constant reminder not to make that mistake again. When you move on to more demanding projects, you will have the process all figured out and can proceed more confidently and effectively.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

3″ Heavy-Duty Polyurethane Casters (2) #38865
Heavy-Duty Lifting Leveler (2) #81239
Blum® Soft-Close 110° Inset Hinges (1) #34807
Stainless Steel Naples Pulls, 96 mm (4) #52127
Stainless Steel Naples Knob, 39 mm (1) #56737
Nickel 1/4″ Shelf Supports (1) #33860
18″ 75-lb. Full-Extension Drawer Slides (1) #48022
Rockler 4 Ft. Universal T-Tracks (2) #20054
Rockler T-Track Intersection Kit (1) #22209

We’ve also assembled a list of optional, suggested accessories that will increase the usefulness of your table:

Rockler T-Track Inline Cam Clamp (2) #52145
Rockler T-Track Corner Stop (2) #81239
Rockler Hold Down Clamp (2) #35283
Rockler Auto-Lock T-Track Hold Down Clamp #54280
Rockler Bench Cookie Plus Master Kit #56071
Rockler Bench Cookie Plus Risers #46311
Rockler Vacuum Clamp Pod Kit (2) #56071
Rockler Vacuum Pump Kit #57519

The post PROJECT: Table Saw Outfeed Table appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

AshleyHarwood.net

Ashley Harwood is an accomplished woodturner who teaches classes at her studio in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as at schools throughout the world. Ashley turns a wide variety of bowls and jewelry, but her best known work is her sea urchin ornament.

She’s even produced a full-length DVD for sale that features step-by-step instructions for how she makes this beautiful ornament and includes tool sharpening and spindle turning technique instructions. You can find a list of her upcoming classes on her website, and the best place to see what she’s working on now is her Instagram page, @ashleyharwoodturning.

FourEyesFurniture.com

ZHFabrications.com

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For a striking look, I used maple for the handles, while sapele and African mahogany veneer ply make up the tray. Since those maple handles are thin, they are a good candidate for hot-pipe bending. Using that technique of bending wood, which I will explain later in this article, is a surprisingly simple way to achieve the curved visual effect and add a new skill set you can call upon for other woodworking projects.

The basic construction of this tray’s framework is pretty simple, too — especially if you’ve cut dovetails before. I’ve already discussed my wood choices for the sides, ends and bottom. You’ll want to get started by cutting those pieces into the dimensions stated in the Material List.

Dovetail Decisions

I don’t intend this article to be a tutorial on how to cut dovetails; my opinion is that the best guide for both beginner and seasoned woodworkers is The Complete Dovetail by Ian Kirby, available on Amazon.com. Here, I will only cover the key dovetail steps that I followed for this tray.

I chose to make the sides of the tray the tail boards for my dovetails and the tray ends the pin boards. This allows the tails (and less end grain) to be seen when the tray is brought out to serve. If you prefer more end grain on the front, you can choose to cut the sides as the pin boards instead.

How many tails to put in a dovetail joint is both a structural and an aesthetic consideration. For the size of this tray, even one tail is probably good enough for the structural strength. However, I chose to have three tails in the joint to add a visual element of craftsmanship to the piece.

Starting with the Tails

After deciding on the tail/pin design, the first step is to lay out the dovetails — a task I usually complete with a pair of dividers and marking gauge.

I am a “tails-first” dovetailer, meaning I mark and cut the tail slopes first. Be sure to practice sawing straight and plumb on scraps in order to build your confidence before you take the plunge with your prepared stock.

With the tails sawn, remove the waste from the pin sockets with a fret or coping saw, or simply chop the waste out. To saw off the outside half pins, I start by chiseling a V-groove on the shoulder line to act as a saw guide.

With practice, you can saw to the gauge line with very little left to clean up for the edge shoulder. After chopping to the gauge lines, check that the shoulders are square and flat, and pare away any high spots.

Sawing the Pins

Marking the pins from the tails is best done with a dovetail alignment jig; it’s a shop aid made popular by David Barron, a British furniture and tool maker. The jig is simply a right-angled brace with a fence to align the reference edges of the tail and pin boards.

To mark out, hold the tail board on the horizontal part and the pin board on the vertical part, both against the fence, and scribe out the pins.

To complete the pin markings, draw vertical saw guidelines from the end grain scribed lines down the outside face.

Sawing the pins to match the tails is a tall order for a lot of people, because one needs to split the scribed line and saw straight down along the vertical guidelines at the same time.

This is where the earlier suggestion of setting your workpiece plumb, or level, before you start will help your plumb cuts.

After sawing the pins, remove the waste and clean up the shoulders in a similar manner as described above for the tails. Once all the pins are cut, do a dry-fitting of the joint.

Adding Rabbets for the Tray Bottom

The last joinery to cut for the tray is the rabbets to accept the bottom. Stopped rabbets are cut on the tray ends, while through rabbets are plowed on the tray sides.

After setting the plow plane, I cut the rabbets on the sides. For a stopped rabbet, I drilled holes at the ends to mark out the length of the rabbet, and then I laid out the width and depth of the rabbet with a marking gauge.

The holes at both ends served as both length and depth guides for planing. I excavated most of the rabbet with the plow plane and then squared the ends with chisels. If you don’t have a plow plane, cut all the rabbets with a router mounted in a router table.

Bending the Handles Against a Hot Pipe

As the name implies, the hot-pipe bending method shapes strips of wood against a pipe, heated with a propane torch. You can mount the pipe to a post with a flange or U-bolts, insulated by a layer of fiberglass material, as I’ve done in the photos.

In use, clamp the post in a vise and hold the torch at an angle in a handscrew or cradle on the bench. Wear gloves or use pairs of pliers where necessary for protection.

Not all wood species are suitable for bending. Choose straight-grained, air-dried and knot-free hardwood, such as maple, ash, cherry and walnut, that is no thicker than 1/4″. Avoid the use of softwood and exotic wood.

To bend wood with the hot pipe, first soak the pieces in hot or room temperature water for at least several hours. Ignite the torch and aim the flame at the inner side of the pipe to heat the pipe to about 200° Fahrenheit and then maintain the temperature with a low flame.

If this is the first time you are trying this bending method, use a scrap to practice. Mark the center point of the piece and slowly rock the piece on the pipe in a seesaw motion, applying gentle and steady pressure. To prevent scorching the strip, keep it in contact with the pipe for no more than 10 seconds at a time, and re-wet both sides of the spot often.

To shape a gradual curve like the handles for this tray, move the piece slightly to another spot for bending. Once the center curve is shaped, flip the wood over to bend the curves on the opposite side to form the handle.

Assembly and Finishing

After dry-fitting the tray’s ends and sides, glue up the tray and nail or screw the plywood bottom in place before installing the handles.

I used waxed pine blocks as clamping cauls to pull the tails and pins tightly together during this final assembly.

For a touch of flair, after easing the handles’ sharp edges, I riveted the handles to the tray instead of using screws. For added strength, I put a dab of epoxy glue into the holes before hammering the rivets home.

You’ll want to protect the tray from heat and spills, so spray on a few coats of polyurethane, with light sanding in between coats.

Finally, after the finish dries, attach some cork pads to the bottom corners. Now, rustle up some snacks and drinks, and put your new assistant into service — with gusto!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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I think every woodworker should eventually build a Shaker-inspired chest like this, because it’s one of those enduring woodworking classics. It also provides a good opportunity to practice your dovetailing skills. If you haven’t built a chest like this before, here’s your chance to give one a go!

Starting Out with Dovetails

Let’s get this project underway by gluing up panels for the chest’s front, back and sides. Flatten their glue seams by scraping or hand-planing, sand the panels up to 120-grit and then cut them to final size, making sure their ends are square. Mark the outside “show” faces on the panels, and label the corner joints to keep their orientation clear.

The next step is to cut through dovetail joints to bring the chest panels together. You could cut these with a router and dovetail jig, which is a perfectly acceptable option. But for this project, I wanted to make narrower pins than my dovetail jig will allow. I also wanted the freedom to space the pattern as I liked, so I decided to cut them by hand instead.

If you like the look of my pin and tail pattern (see the Drawings), lay out the tails on the front panel. Start by scribing a baseline for the tails all the way around both ends of the panel with a marking gauge. Set these scribe lines about 1/32″ deeper than the thickness of the side panels (this way, the tails will protrude ever so slightly when the joints are assembled so you can trim or sand them perfectly flush).

Then lay out the centerpoints of the pins, with a half pin on the top end of the chest only. I laid mine out with eight pins, spaced 1-7/8″ apart, on center. The bottoms of the pin sockets are 1/2″ wide, and I set the angles of the tails to a 1:6 slope (about 10°). Use a sliding bevel to draw the tails to shape with a sharp, fine-point or mechanical pencil.

Extend the tail reference lines across the ends of the front panel with a square. Scribe baselines for the tails onto the back panel. Then clamp the back panel to the front panel with their inside faces against one another and so the ends and edges are even. Transfer the tail lines from the front panel to the back panel. Use these lines as references to draw a matching pattern of tails on the outside face of the back panel.

Next, saw the tails down to the baselines with a fine-toothed dovetail saw, following your layout lines. If you’re skilled with handsawing, you’ll do these freehand. But, if you’re less than confident that you can saw squarely and accurately, I tried out a clever and simple one-piece aluminum jig that I’ll highly recommend to you.

Once the tail cuts are made, remove the waste between them to create the pin sockets. You could chop the waste out with a 1/2″ chisel, working in from both faces of the panels and down to the base lines. Or, you can saw it out with a coping or fret saw first, leaving just a bit of waste at the bottom of each pin socket. Then, pare or chop this waste away, working carefully and in from both faces. When the sockets are cleaned out, make sure their baselines are flat across the panel thickness so the pins will slide into them squarely. Check the baselines with the blade of a square extended through the sockets; it should rest evenly across them. Then, carefully trim off the half-pin waste on the top end of the panels.

With the tails now cut to shape on both the front and back panels, clamp a side panel to the edge of your bench with an end facing up, and align the correct tail board over it. Carefully transfer the angled tail pattern onto its end to mark for the pins. Use a sharp, thin-bladed pocketknife or a marking knife to scribe these lines. Repeat for the other three corner joints.

Grab your marking gauge, again set 1/32″ deeper than the thickness of the front and back panel, to scribe baselines across the faces of the side panels so the pins will protrude slightly beyond when the joints are assembled. Darken the knifed pin lines with a sharp pencil to make them easier to see when sawing. Then draw straight lines down from the knifed lines on the end grain to the baselines to complete the pin shapes.

With each side panel clamped at a comfortable working height for hand-sawing, cut straight down to the baselines to form the angled faces of the pins. Again, my Barron Dovetail Guide, flipped to its pin orientation and held in place, was able to help me guide these cuts easily. Aim as best you can to literally split these layout lines with the saw blade — it will help to minimize the amount of paring you’ll have to do next to refine the fit of the joints.

Saw or chop out the waste in the tail socket areas. Effectively, the process is the same as when clearing the pin socket areas, but here there’s more waste to remove. Use wider chisels to help speed the process along, and work carefully when you’re chiseling up to the baselines to keep them straight and evenly aligned with one another. The scored baselines will give your chisel edge accurate registration here.

Now, fit the corner joints together one joint at a time. If you’ve cut carefully, the pins and tails should engage one another at least partially, right from the start. If they don’t, you’ve got some paring to do to improve the fit. The important point of note here is to pare as little material away as possible so the joints will close snugly. Remove too much, and you’ll open up gaps that will show. Remove too little, and the panels can crack if it takes excessive force to engage the dovetails. Pare only from the angled, inside faces of the pins, leaving the tail pattern alone. Work slowly and carefully. Continue to test-fit the joints until they close easily enough to tap together by hand without undue force.

Forming Rabbets and Grooves

Notice in the Drawings that the chest’s bottom panel fits into a 3/4″-wide, 3/8″-deep rabbet that runs around the bottom inside edge of the chest. Each of these rabbet cuts must stop before it reaches the ends of the panels, or the cuts will show through when the dovetails are assembled. With the chest carcass dry-fitted together, mark out the rabbeted areas.

I used a 3/4″-dia. straight bit in a router table to mill these rabbets in a series of progressively deeper passes. Make sure to mark the cutting limits of the bit on your router table’s fence so you’ll know where to start and stop these cuts. Square up the rounded ends of the rabbets with a sharp chisel.

And since you’re at the router table, there’s also a 1/2″-wide x 1/8″-deep groove that runs along the inside faces of the front and back panels to fit two cleats that will support the chest’s movable tray. Rout these two grooves now as well. I terminated the grooves 1/4″ from the ends of the panels.

Finish-sand the inside faces of all four chest panels up to 180-grit. Now go ahead and assemble the chest carcass with glue and clamps, making sure the box is square by measuring across its diagonals. Don’t rush the job — I glued up the back corner joints in one session with the front panel dry-fitted as a spacer. Then, when those joints dried, I glued the front corner joints together. Once the carcass comes out of the clamps, clean up the outside faces of the corner joints by planing or sanding until the ends of the tails and pins are flush.

Cut a 16-3/4″ x 29-1/4″ plywood bottom panel to fit the chest’s rabbeted recess. Sand the inside face of the plywood smooth. Then glue and brad-nail the panel into place. Make up some tray cleats, too, and install them into their grooves in the front and back panels.

Building the Base

The chest’s base consists of four 1-1/2″-thick workpieces, beveled to 45° on their ends. Start out by ripping them to a final width of 4-1/4″ and crosscutting them overly long by a few inches. Bevel joints are invariably tricky to cut accurately so they close tightly, and the wider the joints or thicker the material, the more exacting your saw setup needs to be. I made a long scrap fence of doubled-up MDF and attached it to two miter gauges in order to provide plenty of stout backup support for these long workpieces. I also used a 1/8″ full-kerf blade on my table saw — the thicker and stiffer the blade, the flatter the cuts will be. However you choose to make these angled cuts, test your saw setup by making practice cuts first and adjusting the blade’s tilt angle as needed until the joints meet at 90°. Then, bevel-cut the parts to final length, using a stop block and clamps to control the part lengths accurately.

Glue alone won’t offer enough strength on these end-grain joints, so I reinforced them with two 10 x 50 mm Festool Domino tenons at each joint. Dowels, biscuits, short splines or shop-made loose tenons would be good options here if you don’t have a Domino joiner. Dry-fit the base together with these reinforcements in place so you know the joints will close completely.

Next, it’s time to cut the base’s curved feet. I made a pair of scrap plywood templates — one for the cutout on the base’s front and back and another for the base sides. I used them first as tracing guides and rough-cut the feet to shape at the band saw. Then, I adhered the templates to each workpiece with carpet tape in order to trim the contours to final shape with a long piloted flush-trim bit at the router table.

Sand these curves and the rest of the part surfaces up to 180 grit, and glue the base together. Use strap or bar clamps to pull the joints tight.

Give the base joints several hours to dry, then go ahead and fasten the chest carcass and base together. Do this by attaching 3/4″ x 3/4″ cleats to the inside faces of the base with countersunk screws. Position the top edges of the cleats flush with the top edges of the base. The base projects 1″ out from the chest carcass all around; invert the chest carcass and position the base over it carefully. Clamp the carcass and base together, then drive countersunk attachment screws through the cleats and into the chest bottom.

All that’s left to do on the base is to make and install moldings around its top edges to create a pleasing visual transition here. I chose a 5/8″-radius cove profile for my moldings and milled it into 3/4″ x 3/4″ strips of leftover cherry at the router table. Finish-sand the moldings, miter-cut them to length, and install them — it’s a good idea to cut and fit these pieces one at a time so you can make any necessary adjustments to the joints as you go.

Mounting the Lid

The chest’s solid panel lid overhangs the carcass by 3/4″ all around. In back, the overhang helps to hide the large torsion hinges from Rockler that I used for this project (they hold the lid open through much of its travel without further support and prevent it from slamming down). Glue up the lid panel, and flatten the glue joints when it comes out of the clamps. Then, cut it to final width and length.

Locating these non-mortising hinges accurately on the lid is a bit of a “blind” operation if you mount them to the carcass first. That’s because they’re inset from the lid’s back edge and don’t benefit from the registration advantage that mortises would offer. So, to make things easier, I started by mounting the hinges to the lid instead of to the carcass back. That way, there’s no guesswork about where the hinges should then be attached to the lid. If you do the same, make sure the hinges are perfectly aligned along a penciled layout line when you screw them to the lid. I spaced them 4-3/4″ in from the ends of the lid and positioned the front edge of their hinge leaves 2-1/4″ in from the lid’s back edge.

With the hinges in place, set the lid on the chest and mark the carcass back for the hinge locations. When closed, these hinges are about 3/16″ thick, which will prevent the lid from resting completely flat on the chest. I didn’t want to see a gap under the lid, just because of the hinge thickness, so I cut a pair of wide mortises into the top back edge of the carcass to recess the hinge bodies. A trim router, shallow piloted mortising bit and a simple edge guide made it easy to do this accurately.

Install the hinge leaves into the chest mortises with a few screws so you can test the lid’s fit and hinge action. If you’re satisfied with the result, remove the hinges from both the chest and lid so you can add a decorative profile to the lid’s front and side edges. I shaped the bottom edges with a 3/8″-radius piloted roundover bit to complement the cove molding on the base and to make the lid more pleasant to grasp. Along the lid’s back, I just eased the sharp edges and corners with a sanding block and left it at that.

Adding the Sliding Tray

The tray is simply an open-topped box with a 1/4″ plywood bottom that gives this chest a second level of internal storage. I made mine from 1/2″ maple, which provides a splash of brighter wood color to the rest of this project’s dark cherry. Once its front, back and sides were cut to size, I brought the corners of the tray together with 1/4″ box joints to add some decorative flair and strength. Be careful to stop the bottom panel grooves accordingly when you rout them so they won’t show through on the assembled joints. I positioned these grooves 1/4″ up from the bottom edges of the tray framework. Sand the tray parts, and glue it together.

Final Hardware and Finishing

To give this chest a bit of security, I added a keyed lockset. Rockler provides a step-by-step instructions page for installing it, which is available as a downloadable PDF. But briefly, here’s how the process goes. I centered the lock on the chest’s front wall, then bored a 1-1/2″-deep, 1-7/8″-long mortise for the lock body using a 5/16″-dia. brad point bit and a clamp-on doweling jig.

The lock has a 3/8″-wide, oblong selvedge plate on top that requires a shallow mortise to recess it into. I routed that mortise with a shop-made, clamp-on slotted jig, 3/4″ O.D. guide collar and a 3/8″ straight bit. Once the selvedge mortise was cut, I switched to a long 5/16″-dia. straight bit and, using the same shop-made jig, cleaned up the walls of the deep mortise. But, a chisel would do the job just fine, too.

A 1/4″-dia. hole, drilled through the face of the chest, and a little chiseling below that, provided access to the lock for the skeleton key. Install the lock body in the chest with screws.

A brass strike plate attaches to the chest lid to engage the lock bolt. Mark the underside of the lid carefully to position this strike plate — you only have one shot to get it right! I knew I was on target by using a simple trick: I colored the top edge of the raised lock bolt with a black permanent marker and closed the lid down onto it to transfer the bolt’s exact location. Another shop-made jig with a shorter slot helped me rout the strike plate mortise accurately. The bolt also requires extra clearance behind the strike plate so it can pivot up into the locked position. For that, I switched to a 3/16″-dia. straight bit and used the same mortising jig to excavate the bolt’s deeper recess. Attach the strike plate to the lid to wrap up the hardware installation. Then remove the lock components and hinges to prepare for finishing.

A good way to warm up the color of cherry and accentuate its figure is to apply a drying oil first. I wiped on a heavy coat of Rockler’s 100 percent pure tung oil and gave that a full 24 hours to dry, followed by a barrier coat of dewaxed shellac to seal in any oily residue and smell, then four coats of satin lacquer.

To keep the maple tray as blonde as possible, I used a water-based non-yellowing varnish from General Finishes called High Performance. It dries incredibly fast and imparts very little color to the wood. My hope is that, whenever this chest is unlocked and opened, the lighter-colored tray with its showy corner geometry will be a welcomed surprise waiting inside.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard to Find Hardware

Lid-Stay Torsion Hinge Lid Support, Rustic Bronze (1) #37327
Full Mortise Chest Lock (1) #28241

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

Table Saw Outfeed Table: YouTube personality Matt Cremona brings his live edge lumber to the shop with a slab-topped table saw outfeed table. We also present the option for a plywood top for this super-handy shop helper.

Classic Cherry Chest: Hand-cut dovetails add a keepsake element to this moderately sized storage chest.

Elegant Curved-Handle Serving Tray: Learn to create curves with the hot-pipe bending technique employed for this distinctive serving tray.

Tool Tutorial: Learn band saw basics (what it can do, what to look for) and beyond (set up, safety and making the cut) in this overview of the shop workhorse from tool expert Sandor Nagyszalanczy.

Woodturning: You’ve done a first turning, left your green wood to dry .. and now what? Now, it’s time to re-turn it to final shape, with the guidance of woodturner Ernie Conover.

The post Woodworker’s Journal – September/October 2018 appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

See More About the Sjöbergs Elite 2500C Workbench Here.

Tailgater Tire Table

The post September/October 2018 – What’s in Store Round-up appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

We’ve also assembled a list of optional, suggested accessories that will increase the usefulness of your table:

Rockler T-Track Inline Cam Clamp (2) #52145
Rockler T-Track Corner Stop (2) #81239
Rockler Hold Down Clamp (2) #35283
Rockler Auto-Lock T-Track Hold Down Clamp #54280
Rockler Bench Cookie Plus Master Kit #56071
Rockler Bench Cookie Plus Risers #46311
Rockler Vacuum Clamp Pod Kit (2) #56071
Rockler Vacuum Pump Kit #57519

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