Start by cutting to length the eight pieces of 1 x 2 that make up the legs. See the Material List for the cutting details. A miter saw or radial arm saw are perfect for this task, but what’s most important is that they all are cut to exact length.

When you have the leg pieces in hand, it’s time to glue them up. Glue and clamp them into L shaped lengths for strength and durability. A quick tip on this is to use another scrap piece of 1 x 2 as a spacer to hold everything in place for glue.

Set the clamped-up pieces aside for an hour or so while you cut the rest of the components of the framework. Once again, how you cut them is less important than that you achieve square cuts at the proper lengths.

Now is also the time to cut the plywood parts for the seat and shelf (pieces 12 and 13 in the Drawings) to the measurements found in the Material List. With that done, you are well on your way.

Building Side Assemblies

We’ll assemble the framework of the bench using pocket screws to join most of these pieces together, so grab your Kreg Jig and get it set up.

Pre-drill the pocket holes in the side returns (pieces 3). The first task is to glue and pocket- screw these four returns to the shaped front legs (made from pieces 1) and to the long rear legs that are made from pieces 2. See the Drawings for details. You need to produce left- and right-facing side assemblies.

With the side assemblies completed, grab the front rails (pieces 4) and the rear stretchers (pieces 6, 7 and 9) and, with more pocket holes and glue, use these pieces to join the two side assemblies.

Once this framework comes together, your project should be starting to look like a bench! Go ahead and attach the top cap (piece 8) to the upper rear stretcher by gluing and clamping.

Adding the Seat and Shelf

Let’s move on to the seat and shelves. Gather the plywood pieces you cut to size earlier. Pieces 10 and 11 wrap around three edges of the seat. Attach them with glue and screws as shown.

The shelf sits on two shelf supports (pieces 14) that need to be glued to make another L shaped form on the bottom edges of pieces 4 and 9. Glue and clamp them in place and allow the glue to cure. Don’t attach either the seat or shelf yet until after finishing.

The back is made up of 1 x 6 tongue-and-groove lumber. Chop these pieces to length and screw them in place (no glue required). I countersunk the holes in the back pieces to make this task easier and to keep the screws flush to the back surface. Start with the piece at the top of the back and work down. You will need to trim the last piece to fit.

You are essentially done with the construction of the bench, but you still have some work to do. I painted my bench white, but even if you plan to apply a clear finish instead, you need to sand it smooth. If you are painting, sanding to 150-grit will be sufficient. A clear finish requires moving up to 180-grit.

Apply the first coat of paint, preferably a primer of some sort, and look for holes and cracks. Fill them with spackle or some other sort of filler. Gently sand the painted surfaces with 180-grit paper to smooth them. Now apply another coat, and once again check for flaws in the surfaces.

If you are going to be mounting the hardware hooks on the bench, now is the time to measure and drill for their installation screws. Then do another gentle sanding pass and apply the final coat of your paint or clear finish.

Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Pine Entry Bench appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The games that stand out for me the most were mancala — a game we don’t really know the ancient rules for but seemed to work out just fine — and the ever-classic cribbage. Our cribbage board was made by hand, the holes a bit askew and the texture of the wood worn smooth and aged from years of use.

When I was given the challenge to design a reversible hardwood gameboard for Woodworker’s Journal, it was immediately clear that there was no better pairing than mancala and cribbage: they work both in scale and style of play. My gameboard features a slide-out tray that stores cards and cribbage pegs on one end and mancala playing pieces on the other. Whichever gameboard you have facing up presents the correct face of the tray for the playing pieces you need. Magnets keep the tray from sliding out accidentally and prevent spilling when it’s carried.

You’ll need a couple of templates to build this project. While cribbage drilling jigs and templates are widely available (I used Rockler’s three-player small drilling jig), mancala routing templates and the tray template I’ve created for this gameboard are not. You can download and print out free full-size PDF patterns for my jig templates online. You’ll also need a 1-1/2″-dia. Forstner bit, a drill press with a fence, a jigsaw and a spindle sander.

Start by cutting a few pieces of scrap plywood to 8-1/2″ x 19-1/2″ and 7-3/4″ x 19-1/2″, plus some 1″ strips to hold the gameboard blanks in place as you rout them. Using spray adhesive, attach the printed patterns carefully to the plywood template blanks. Then, head over to your drill press to bore the mancala template’s 28 through holes.

This step requires a careful eye. I found that locating the drilling centerpoints with the drill press turned off and lowering the bit to the work surface helped me align each and every hole. Adjust the fence to drill all of the holes in four long rows. Once that’s done, grab your jigsaw and turn the overlapping holes into ovals, cleaning up the sawn edges on a spindle sander. Now drill holes through the tray template, including the 1/2″ holes for the magnets you’ll use to keep the tray closed in the gameboard case.

Cut strips to wrap around one face of each template and attach them with brads. Sand the paper facings off of both jigs, and you’re ready for the fun part!

Choosing the Project’s Hardwood

Any stable hardwood will work well for the playing surfaces and tray. I chose zebrawood and Peruvian walnut as they are not woods I get to play with very often.

Small projects like this are also nice opportunities to learn the working properties of unfamiliar woods, so you are better informed if you decide to use them for much larger and more costly furniture builds later on.

Here’s something else to keep in mind: the potential for warping is a real concern with this little dovetailed sliding tray. To help mitigate this, I used 1/2″-thick stock and laminated the blanks with the grain flipped. That should help keep the tray flat over time.

Time for Template-routing!

I started with a piece of scrap plywood in one of my jigs to dial in the correct depth setting and to get a better sense for how this big bit was going to work in my router. I’m glad I did, and I recommend that you do the same. Take 1/8″ passes to remove the material in your practice piece. I used the depth-setting turret and stop rod on my plunge router to make sure I wouldn’t rout too deeply Then, once you are comfortable, switch to your actual workpieces. On the tray, rout the two cribbage recesses into one face. Then flip it over and turn it around to rout the single recess for the mancala playing pieces in the opposite face. Rout the mancala gameboard now, too.

Set those aside and grab your cribbage board blank; it’s time to drill a bunch of holes! Follow the directions for the jig and you should have a finished cribbage board in a matter of minutes.

Dovetailing the Sides, Tray

Prepare a 3/4″ x 1″ blank that’s 36″ long, then head to the router table for some dovetailing. Install a 1/2″-wide dovetail bit, and adjust the router table’s fence to center the bit on the 1″ face of the workpiece. Raise the bit to 3/8″, and make sure the fence is 3/4″ back from the outside edge of the bit. Install featherboards both to the router table’s fence and alongside the bit on the table to make sure this long, narrow “stick” remains under control when you mill the dovetail socket. After that’s routed, crosscut the two side pieces to final length.

Now adjust your router table fence to mill a dovetail pin along each side of the tray. You want a tight joint that doesn’t bind as you slide the tray in and out. Set up these cuts with the bit buried partially in the fence. Never rout with the wood trapped in between the bit and the fence, or the back of the bit can grab the wood and pull it through violently.

The last step before gluing the parts together is to grab your drill and a 1/2″ brad-point drill bit and drill holes for the magnets. I used the tray jig to drill 1/8″-deep holes into the cribbage supplies side of the tray. Two metal dowel points inserted in these holes helped me locate matching holes in the back of the cribbage board — just line up the cribbage board over the tray with the sides in place, and squeeze the parts together to prick it with centerpoints for drilling. Glue the magnets into their holes, making sure their polarities will attract.

Assembly and Finishing Up

You’re ready for final assembly! Slip the sides onto the tray so it acts as a spacer, then glue the sides to the cribbage board. When the glue tacks up, remove the tray and glue on the mancala board. I found this was an easy method to keep the parts from slipping around.

When the glue dries, finish-sand the case and tray and wipe on a few coats of Danish oil. Waxing the dovetails will help the tray slide in and out more smoothly. Now you have an heirloom gameboard.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Click Here to Download the Full-Size Templates.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Small Cribbage Board Templates, 3-Player, Curved Track (1) #51133
Small Deluxe Cribbage Pegs, 3-Player Set (1) #59924
Rockler Dish Carving Router Bit – 1/2″ Shank (1) #43495
Rockler Dovetail Router Bit – 1/2″ Shank (1) #91078
Rare Earth Magnets, 1/2″ x 1/8″, 10-Pack (1) #30810

The post PROJECT: Reversible Gameboard appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The post VIDEO: Routing Recesses with a Template Guide and Dish Carving Bit appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Round Up Your Tools and a Torch

Let’s take inventory of the primary tools you will need for this project before we get started. I used a table saw, trammel points, band saw, sander, router table, a sharp chisel and a drill press. For the shou sugi ban step, I used a small handheld garden torch made by Magna Industries that you can find at most home improvement stores. It runs off of the same small propane tanks used for heaters and camp stoves. There are larger garden torches available that use a 20 lb. propane cylinder, but I found the larger flame to be a bit too intense for the small detailed parts of the leg joints on this project.

Getting Started

Round up some dimensional cedar lumber for the project. I used a 4×4 for the legs, a piece of 5/4 x 6 decking planed down to 1″ for the aprons and a 2×6 reduced to 1-1/4″ thick for the top.

Cut pieces for the tabletop to rough length, and use a jointer or table saw to flatten their edges. Glue them together to form a panel, making sure to alternate the growth rings from piece to piece to help it stay flat.

When the glue joints dry, use a straightedge aligned across the diagonal corners to find the panel’s centerpoint. Now set a pair of trammel points with a pencil installed to 10-3/8″, and mark a circle around the panel’s center.

Head to the band saw and carefully cut out the circle, sawing just outside the pencil line. Sand the edges to refine the shape, and decide which side will be the top.

Here’s a lesson I learned in that regard: knots will take quite a bit more heat to darken than the clear grain, so if your panel has more knots on one side than the other, make that the bottom face.

Making the Aprons

The aprons, a pretty fun project in their own right, take a few steps to make. If you have never mitered 60° to make a triangle, this will be a good trick to learn. Start with three 1″ x 3″ x 18″ blanks.

To hold the aprons vertically for cutting the miters, I made a quick jig that rides snugly on my table saw’s rip fence and tilted the saw blade to 30°.

Use a scrap piece clamped to the jig to make a test cut and check your angle setting. Once that’s dialed in, cut both ends off of each apron workpiece to produce a crisp, 60° miter.

In the Drawings, you’ll see that the top and bottom edges of the aprons are slightly rounded. To set those curves, I used a long metal ruler and a strap clamp to flex it into the correct curve shape, then traced the curves onto the apron workpieces.

Head back to the band saw to cut them to final shape. Sand these cut edges smooth — it’s easier to do this now than after glue-up. I also clamped the three together for sanding so their shapes would match.

The top of the table will be connected to the aprons with thin metal table top fasteners that fit into slots in the aprons. Since I have a router table and slot cutter, I went ahead and glued and clamped the aprons into a triangle before cutting the fastener slots into the aprons’ inside top faces.

If you don’t have my setup, you can cut shallow saw kerfs into the aprons for the fasteners instead, using a table saw, before gluing the aprons together.

Here are some details for setting up the router table to cut those slots. I installed a three-wing, 3/32″-kerf slot cutter in the table. (Rockler’s 1/4″ shaft #91100 or 1/2″ shaft #91743 bits are both good options here, depending on the router collet size you have.)

Raise the bit so the bottom face of the cutter is 7/16″ off the table. Check to make sure your cutting height matches the table top fastener shape by placing one on the table surface next to the router bit. The bottom of the bit should be slightly higher than the fastener’s height so that, once installed on your finished project, it pulls the top down and holds it snugly.

Mark a 2″-long slot on the inside face of each apron, parallel to its top edge and centered on the apron’s length. Go ahead and cut each 1/2″-deep slot, sinking the apron into the spinning bit slowly and carefully, then sliding the apron against the bit’s bearing to cut the slots to length.

Sawing and Sawing(!) the Legs

One of the trickier parts of this project is cutting the top joints of the legs to accept the angled ends of the aprons. But, if you study the Drawings and the photos carefully, you’ll see that the joint begins as a 1-1/2″ long tenon, which then gets split into two angled tenons to receive the apron. Then the outside shoulder of these tenons is removed when the legs are cut into their curved, final shape.

Start by cutting your leg stock into 2-1/8″ x 3″ blanks. Follow the Drawings to lay out the tenons, and cut them at the band saw. I used my saw’s rip fence as a guide to keep the cheek and shoulder cuts flat and square — this is important in order to ensure that the legs will be square to the aprons. With those cut, use a digital angle finder tool or a bevel gauge to lay out a pair of 60° cut lines on the tenons; follow the Drawings carefully to orient these lines correctly. Grab a fine-tooth backsaw or a Dozuki to cut along those lines to split the tenons down to their shoulders. With both angled cuts made, I widened one of the cuts slightly to make room for a coping saw blade so I could saw horizontally to remove the center waste piece. Clean up the angled faces of the tenons and the bottom cutout areas with a sharp chisel; it’s easy to do on soft cedar.

With the tricky tenons now cut, you can lay out the inner and outer leg curves, once again using a flexible curved shape as a tracing guide. Make sure to leave at least an inch of material for the foot of each leg. I laid out one leg, cut it to shape at the band saw and then used it to trace the other two legs to match. Once all three legs are shaped this way, sand them well to remove the saw marks and set them aside for the time being.

Forming Dowel Joints

The aprons attach to the legs with pairs of 3/8″-dia. dowels. Lay out locations for these dowels on the bottom corners of the apron assembly by using your angle-finding tool or bevel gauge — again set to 60° — to draw a line across the aprons that aligns with their inside corners. Mark a centerpoint for each apron on these lines. Now set your drill press fence 1/2″ away from the center of a chucked, 3/8″ bit. Drill 2″-deep dowel holes at all six marks.

Next, mark the apron corners and legs with “1-2-3” references so you’ll know how the parts go together. Grab a set of 3/8″ metal dowel centers, insert them in the holes of one joint and install the apron on that leg. Tap the apron lightly with a hammer to transfer dowel hole centerpoints onto the leg. Bore them carefully with a handheld drill, making sure the holes are parallel and straight. Move on to make joints 2 and 3 the same way. Once all the holes are drilled, cut six 3-1/2″-long dowels for them.

Now is a good time to do a full dry fit to make sure the project fits together well before you apply finish. Align and attach the apron to the top, using your table top fasteners and 1″ screws. Then install the apron on the legs. I found it easiest to assemble these joints if I put one dowel in the leg and one in the apron for each joint. If you need to make any adjustments to the joint fit, now is the ideal time. Once everything goes together nicely, disassemble the parts.

Staining the Apron

I chose to stain the apron red, which makes a bold contrast with the charred wood that I think looks great! Make sure you wear disposable gloves and old clothes when working with wood dye, because it will permanently stain anything it touches. I wanted a rich, deep red color, so I mixed one part dye to four parts water. Evaluate your dye mixture by wiping it onto some scrap wood. Once you have a color you are pleased with, it’s a very simple wipe on/wipe off stain application with a rag. Try not to splash or drip the dye onto the wood, as those spots may appear darker than the rest of your finish if the dye is allowed to set. Once it’s dyed, set the apron aside to dry, using three of the dowels in their holes as a drying stand.

Preparing for the Burn!

Now comes the part we have all been waiting for! As I talked about initially, shou sugi ban is a method of finishing that helps preserve wood when left outdoors. Bugs don’t like the taste of charred wood, and you will have burned off the softer wood that is less resistant to rot, leaving a hard and relatively impermeable surface.

Before proceeding, make sure you are using your torch in a safe environment. Stay away from grass and other flammables; a driveway or gravel patch will work well. Have a bucket of water on hand in case your table parts accidentally turn into a campfire. I used a few large landscaping rocks to elevate the parts off the ground for burning.

Once I had burned the top and legs and brushed down the surfaces, I wiped a heavy coat of tung oil onto them as a prefinish, let it soak in, then re-burned all the surfaces. This heats up the pores of the wood and sucks the oil in deeper. You’ll start to see a deep, beautiful finish coming through. However, be sure to not get oil inside the leg joints, which could prevent the glue from sticking. Soak and burn one section at a time before flipping the workpieces over and proceeding.

Fire Up the Torch!

Take your time to get the feel of the technique, and be careful not to overcook the surfaces. While a deep alligator scale finish looks very cool, it’s probably too coarse for a tabletop. But, the amount of burn and texturizing is, of course, up to you.

When burning the legs, be careful not to incinerate and damage the small tenons you’ve made or burn the inside of the joints any more than necessary — you’ll want to leave as much untorched wood as possible for the glue-up.

Once the the legs and top are evenly burned, let them cool while you find a stiff wire brush and a garden hose. Lightly scrub down the surfaces to remove excess soot and loose wood. Rinse the parts, and repeat with more scrubbing until the water runs fairly clean off the surfaces. Then leave the legs and tabletop to dry thoroughly for the rest of the day before proceeding with final assembly and finish.

Glue-up and Final Finish

Once the oil is dry to the touch, you can move on to the glue-up. I used Titebond® III waterproof outdoor glue. Glue a dowel into each leg and one into the opposite holes on the apron. Then, with a wet rag handy for squeeze-out, liberally coat the inside surfaces of the joints on the legs and slide everything together. Wipe off the excess glue before it gets rubbery. The pre-oiled surfaces will make this cleanup easy and quick. Now stand your table base on a level surface and lightly tighten a strap clamp around the bottom of the legs to hold them in place. Then set a piece of scrap plywood and some weight on top of the apron to push it all together. Let that dry for three to four hours, and leave the top and base unattached.

For the final coat of finish on the whole project, I applied two coats of General Finishes Outdoor Oil. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a UV-stable linseed oil with mildewcide that’s suitable for all exterior projects. Before applying it, I wiped the base down one last time to remove any remaining sooty oil from the prefinishing step. Then I flooded the oil onto all the part surfaces as well as one face of the tabletop. When that face dried, I proceeded with the edges and the other face, followed by the second coat on the base.

Give the oil a chance to dry thoroughly, and be sure to lay your application rags out flat to dry before throwing them away — linseed oil generates heat as it dries, and that’s a fire you don’t want to have with this project!

At this point, you are only three screws away from being done. Just flip your table over and screw the top on, using the predrilled holes from the dry fit. Now bring your table outside for a well-deserved happy hour on the patio or deck. Here’s to enjoying a bit of dirty work and having a very cool shou sugi ban table to show for your efforts. It’s ready to weather whatever Mother Nature can throw at it for years to come.

Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard to Find Hardware

Dowel Centers Set (1) #27179
Table Top Fasteners (1) #34215
Trammel Points Kit (1) #39394

The post PROJECT: Shou Sugi Ban Side Table appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.