Currently I’m teaching sculpture and design at Butler University, and I teach woodworking at my studio and at the Indianapolis Art Center. My teaching goals include instilling lifelong art appreciation, passing on real skills that transcend mediums, getting others excited about making and experiencing art and helping my students discover they can have an impact on society through visual conversation. I’m also tutoring an intern from Butler, and that’s a great joy for me.

I have been an educator for almost as long as I have been an artist, and I find that teaching informs my personal work because I am relating to the greater community. Public art is for the community, and you must know the people to be able to reach them. I still use my motto, “It’s not just woodworking. It’s a lifestyle.” Making functional art embodies the same intentions as the other aspects of having a rich and fulfilling life.

Speaking of life, I’m now a mom to a hilarious, clever and handsome 1-1/2-year-old boy named Arthur. Currently the drill is his favorite tool, but I’m sure that will change as quickly as his shoe size does. Arthur’s father and I have just bought a house with a lovely yard that will hopefully accommodate my new awesome woodshop very soon!

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You’ll notice in the opening photo that I’ve shaped the wide front apron and bottom shelf with a “wave” style edge to create a sense of visual movement. That same shape is repeated across the top of the bench’s slats by using a large template to cut and rout the slats from a glued-up blank. But all these curves aren’t necessary. Straightedged timber would also work for the front apron, top slats and shelf. That’s the version of the project shown in the Exploded View Drawing. How artsy you want your bench to be is up to you!

Getting Started with Stock Surfacing

I use roughsawn western red cedar for almost all of my outdoor projects, because it stands up to the outdoors well and I love its color variations. But it needs some initial surfacing to make it suitable for this bench. So my first step was to run the stock for the 1-1⁄2″-thick parts across my jointer to flatten one face, then send it through my planer to smooth the other faces and reduce the boards to correct thickness. Do the same to your cedar if you’re also starting with thick, rough stock.

With that done, joint one edge of each board flat so you can use that reference edge to rip workpieces to width for the bench top slats, four aprons, lower shelf pieces, inner cross bracing and soil bin lid battens. See the Material List for these part sizes. Now go ahead and crosscut these parts to final length. I broke this stock down at my miter saw, using a stop block on my miter saw station’s fence to make sure the same-length parts would be cut accurately.

The 4x4s I purchased for the legs and bottom stretchers were already milled quite nicely, with flat, smooth faces and square edges. So I just cut the legs and stretchers to length without any further surfacing at the planer or jointer.

Making Joinery

Now it’s time to mill some mortise-and-tenon joinery to attach the stretchers to the legs. Start by laying out the tenons on the ends of the stretcher blanks. Set a marking gauge to 1-1/2″ so you can scribe shoulder lines for the tenons all the way around the ends of the parts. Then install a wide dado blade in your table saw and raise it to 3/4″ high.

I set up a stop on my miter gauge’s long auxiliary fence so all of the shoulder cuts would line up around the workpieces. Make these shoulder cuts on both ends of each stretcher, then remove the stop on the miter gauge and saw away the rest of the material in the tenon areas with more side-by-side passes to complete them.

With the tenons done, use their 2″ x 2″ proportions to lay out a corresponding mortise on each of the legs. Locate these mortises 4-3/4″ up from the bottoms of the legs, centering the mortises on the leg thicknesses. Now step over to your drill press to drill out as much of these mortises as you can. I used a big Forstner bit for this job and set the drilling depth to just a tad deeper than 1-1/2″ so the stretcher tenons would fit fully into them. Drill out the waste in several overlapping plunges.

Tidy up the mortises with a sharp chisel and mallet so their walls are flat and smooth and the corners are square. Now try out the tenons in the leg mortises; they should fit together without needing to “persuade” them into place with a mallet.

You’re nearly ready for some assembly, but first decide if you want to shape the bottom edges of the potting bench’s front apron like I did with a wave pattern. Or leave its bottom edge flat. I drew the swooping shape on a long piece of 3/4″-thick scrap to serve as a template so I would be able to trace the same curvature onto all of the bench’s sculpted parts.

Cut out the template’s shaped edges and sand them smooth. Then trace its profile onto the front apron blank, rough-cut the wavy edge and template-rout it to final form. Ease any sharp edges that are left, and sand smooth all the workpieces you’ve made up to this point.

Assembling the Bench Frame

Tenons can be challenging to cut on really long workpieces. So for ease of assembly, I drilled the inside faces of the four aprons for pocket-screw joints instead. I created two subassemblies for the bench frame by gluing the bottom stretcher tenons into their leg mortises and driving 2-1/2″ exterior pocket screws to attach the short aprons to the upper ends of the legs. I inset the short aprons 1/2″ from the outside faces of the legs. After that came the long, unwieldy front and back aprons. To install those, I first clamped them in place between the subassemblies, setting them back 1/2″ from the faces of the legs as well, then drove their pocket screws home. Working alone as I do, long clamps sure made this step easier!

Next you can install two of the five inner cross braces between the aprons near one end of the bench. I positioned these to straddle the tapered sides of Jonathan’s galvanized steel soil bin (see the Inner Cross Brace Locations Drawing). The bin simply wedges between these cross braces and hangs from them. Position the braces so the rim of the bin will be even with the top edges of the aprons. This way, the bin’s rim will support the removable soil bin lid when that is set into place. Again, I turned to pocket screws to attach these two bin cross braces to the aprons.

Creating Wave-shaped Artisanal Top Slats

The key to recreating the author’s optional wave-shaped details on this potting bench’s top slats, front apron and bottom shelf boils down to basic template routing. A single long template with the sculpted profile on both edges is all you need to trace, cut and rout this shape over and over again. Here’s how it works.

Draw the wave-shaped profile along both edges of an 8-ft. piece of scrap plywood, MDF or solid stock to serve as a template. Cut the template to shape and sand its curved edges smooth.

Trace the template onto the front apron, glued-up top panel (for top slats) and bottom shelf piece shown here. The same template is used for every shaped part.

Use a jigsaw or band saw to cut the wavy profile into each workpiece. Cut about 1/16″ outside of your layout lines. Make sure to have outfeed support in place for band sawing long stock like this.

Pin nail the template to the workpiece so the rough-cut edges extend beyond the edges of the template. If you don’t have a pin nailer, double-sided carpet tape works well, too.

Install a long piloted flush-trim or pattern bit in your router or router table, and adjust the bit so its bearing can roll along the template. Rout away the waste edges.

Once the author had cut and routed her bench’s curvy tabletop slats to shape, she nested them together in their final order to cut a lid for the soil bin. A track saw guided these straight cuts.

Choosing and Building the Benchtop

Now’s the time to choose either my wave-shaped “artisanal” top for your bench or go with straight slats instead. The “straight-slat” approach requires five 5-1/2″-wide boards cut to 92″ lengths. If you want to create a sculpted top, however, start by gluing up enough 1-1/2″-thick stock to create a 32″ x 92″ solid panel.

As shown above, the process for making each wave-shaped, sculpted top slat is pretty easy. Use the long template you made for shaping the front apron’s lower edge to trace a repeating pattern of slats across the panel. Space these layout lines about 1/4″ apart so you’ll have room to cut each of the slats free. You’ll see that the shape of my template enabled me to offset each slat in the layout so the wave pattern appears to “drift” diagonally across the bench’s top. It’s a nice effect!

Once the slat pattern is drawn on your panel, use a jigsaw or band saw (if you have adequate support around it) to saw the slats to rough shape. Cut just outside your layout lines. Then mount your template temporarily to each slat with pin nails or pieces of double-sided tape so you can rout the slat edges flush to the template. Use a long piloted pattern- or flush-trim bit for this task. Clean up all the top slats this way, then break their sharp edges with a 1/8″ roundover bit in a handheld router to keep splinters at bay.

Whether you’ve decided to use straight or sculpted slats, their installation procedure is the same. Flip all the slats upside-down and set them together with their ends and edges aligned. Separate them with some 3/16″-thick scraps. Then get a buddy to help you flip the bench over as I did, and position it carefully on top of the slats, adjusting for an even overhang. My bench’s top overhang was about 1-1/2″ all around. Then set the remaining three cross braces you’ve made into place inside the bench frame aprons, spacing them evenly along its length. These will support the top slats and serve as attachment points for them in the area beyond the soil bin cross braces (refer again to the Inner Cross Brace Locations Drawing). Mark these three “loose” cross braces for pairs of screws at every benchtop slat location.

Installing the Benchtop Slats and Shelf

Once my three braces were laid out for screws, I marked and bored a pair of pocket-screw holes on each end into their top faces. We flipped the bench right-side-up again so I could install the three cross braces flush with the top edges of the aprons using 2-1/2″ pocket screws. And while the bench was off the top slats, I marked them so I could cut a 20-3/4″-wide x 31-1/4″-long lid for the soil bin. When those slat portions are cut free, space them 3/16″ apart and line up their cut edges. Position the two soil bin lid battens on the bottom face of the lid segments and spread them evenly apart. Drive countersunk 2-1/2″ exterior-rated screws through the battens and into the lid slats to fasten the parts together.

With the lid now done, carefully invert the bench frame and set it on the slats again, realigning the parts. Drive 2-1/2″ exterior- rated screws into the cross brace pilot holes you drilled earlier to fasten the top slats in place.

I shaped the edges of the two shelf boards with the wave template to continue that theme there. And since the bench was still upside-down at this point, I drilled countersunk pilot holes through the stretchers so I could fasten the two shelf boards to them from below with 4″ exterior-rated screws.

You can choose to stain and/or finish your bench if you like, but Jonathan and I both agreed that it would look nice with no finish at all. It’s now aged to a lovely silvery gray color.

Download Drawings and Materials List.

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Here’s a great opportunity to have a friend come over and help out, or maybe invite a Scout group to your shop to have a make-and-take meeting! (Our cutting diagram will show you how to yield two of these projects from one 4×8 sheet of 3/4″ plywood, if you’re so inclined.) Feel free to redesign the window shapes and sizes to your liking. Personalize the title of the book, too. Be creative, and most of all, have fun!

Cutting the Pieces to Shape

Cut blanks for the plywood pieces (roof panels, front, back, sides and floor) on your table saw. Prepare a 3/4″-thick blank of wood or plywood for the roof’s “book spine,” too. If you look closely, I used medium-density overlay (MDO) plywood for these main parts; it has a laminated wood core but a smooth, weatherproof resin facing that takes paint really well. Signmakers love it. You can use ordinary exterior-rated plywood instead if you can’t get a sheet of MDO.

Now, lay out the 32° roof angles on the front and back pieces. Then use a sliding bevel gauge, set to this angle, to adjust your miter gauge for cutting the roof angles to shape on the table saw.

Grab one of these roof cutoff pieces to use as a guide for tilting your table saw blade to bevel the top ends of the side pieces; they need to fit flush with the roof panels when those are installed.

While the table saw blade is still tilted to this angle, it’s also the angle you need for the edges of the roof peak/book spine. So, bevel rip one of its edges. Then, with the front and back pieces standing up, hold one roof panel and the spine in place to check their fit. Mark the spine to width, and bevel rip its second edge. Take your time and creep up on the final size to form tight roof joints.

Next, cut a piece of 1/2″-thick lumber to the right widths and lengths to make the various window and door trim parts With this done, I switched blades and cut three pieces of 1/8″-thick acrylic for the larger two windows and the door pane at my table saw. Use a triple-chip tooth blade, if you have one, that will cut it safely. Or, you can buy a simple tool at hardware stores and home centers to score and snap the pieces to shape. I cut out the little round acrylic window using a coping saw with a fine-tooth blade.

Forming the Window Openings

Pre-drill counterbored pilot holes for #8 screws where the sides will attach to the front and back and where all four of these panels will attach to the bottom. Using a stop collar on your bit will ensure that all the counterbores will end up being the same depth.

The acrylic window panels can now become templates for tracing their openings on the side and front panels. Use a speed or combination square to help get each window aligned properly and parallel to the bottom edges of the parts.

Next, go ahead and cut out the window openings. Drill a hole large enough for your jigsaw blade in at least one corner of each opening for making these interior cutouts. When those are done, lay out the larger 11″ x 15″ shape for the door’s “core” piece, and remove that as well — do this carefully, because this piece will be re-used. Cut out the 2-1/22″-round window opening with a jigsaw, Forstner bit or a hole saw.

Now glue and nail the top, bottom and side pieces of the door frame to the core piece. The goal here is to center the core on these wider frame sections so the inside edges of the frame form a rabbet for installing the acrylic pane.

The outer rabbet of the door frame will overlap the door opening and create a weather seal there. When that’s done, set the door in place on the front panel, and glue and nail the trim pieces around the door opening, adjusting them so the door fits with a little gap all around.

Assembling the Building

Let’s assemble the big parts! Attach the front and back panels to the sides with glue and 1-1/2″ screws. Drive more screws along the bottom edges of all four panels into the bottom to secure it. Fill the screw counterbores with wood plugs, and trim them flush.

Next, we can cover up the sawn edges of the openings in the library by attaching the window and door trim. Miter cut the little trim pieces for the round window’s hexagonal frame (60° angles for each cut) and glue it together. A rubber band can make a handy clamp to hold these little pieces in place. While that frame dries, position the four parts of each window’s trim so it overlaps the cutouts and provides surfaces along the back edges to install the windows. Pin nails and glue provide enough holding power for this trim.

Once that’s done, go ahead and attach the window and door panes to the trim and door framework with beads of clear silicone caulk spread along the rabbets.

Those corner joints on the building need to have their exposed plywood edges covered so the plys and little voids don’t show up under paint. I covered the edges with exterior wood putty. Sand the dried putty smooth.

Creating the Book Roof

At this point, we can close up the building by installing the upside-down book roof. Start by rounding over the top edges and what will be the bottom corners of the roof panels with a router, hand plane or sander to make them look more like book covers. Mark the roof pieces with centerlines where they’ll overlap the front, back and sides of the building. Soften the top edges of the roof peak with a hand plane or sanding block to simulate a book spine; make sure these curves stop where the peak will intersect the roof panels. Use 1-1/2″ brad nails and glue to install the roof panels and peak on the building.

Complete the look of the book by laying out and cutting four pieces of curved fretwork that will form the edges of its open pages. Use the gridded drawing as a guide, then cut these pieces to shape with a band saw or jigsaw.

Time to Paint!

Putty and sand any remaining nail holes or defects, and you’re ready to paint your library before doing the last bits of final assembly.

I chose red for the main structure, and when that paint dried, I masked off and painted the trimwork white as well as the library’s interior. Paint the book covers and spine a darker color. But, before you do that, think about whether you want to put a title on the front and back covers of the book. I decided to paint the title sections of the book red to contrast with the roof color, then I used HotStamp letters in my woodburning tool to burn the words into the cover. I also titled the library with HotStamps. (If you aren’t familiar with these stamps, they’re made of brass and thread onto a woodburning tool. Just heat them up to “brand” one letter at a time.) When that’s done, touch up the paint around your lettering or masked-off areas as needed.

I painted the fretwork pieces white, then used my woodburner again to add a series of thin lines to them that look like page edges. A permanent marker would work well for this detailing, too. Attach the fretwork by boring pairs of countersunk screw holes through them and fastening them to the bottom faces of the roof panels. Inset the fretwork back 1/2″ or so from the front and back edges of the roof to add more realism.

Final Assembly Details

All that’s left to do on the library itself is to hang the door. I did that with a pair of 2-1/2″ utility hinges. Pre-drill pilot holes for the hinge screws in the edges of the door frame and the surrounding door trim to prevent splitting the wood. I used a self-centering bit to position these holes accurately. Make sure to mount the hinges straight so the door won’t bind when it swings.

Add a magnetic catch behind the door. Make a little latch out of an off-cut piece and attach it to the door trim with a screw that’s just loose enough in its mounting hole so the latch can swivel around to make sure the library door stays closed when visitors aren’t browsing!

Mounting the Post and Project

The post for the lending library is very easy to make! Use either a table saw or a miter saw to cut two 10-1/2″-long pieces of a cedar or treated 4×4 to form two braces. Miter cut their ends to 45°. I used a 5-ft. length of 4×4 for a center post. Attach the braces to the post with long, countersunk deck screws so their top angles are flush with the top of the post. Then glue and screw a 5″-wide, 20″-long piece of 3/4″ stock to the tops of the post and braces to create a mounting platform for the library.

Dig a hole in the ground where you’ll locate your library. Depending on the length of your post, make the hole deep enough so the top of the platform will be about 3 ft. high. At this height, readers both tall and small will be able to reach the books. Set the post and backfill around it with dirt. Firmly tamp and pack down the backfill.

Install the building on the post by driving 1-1/4″-long screws through the bottom and into the post and braces. Then stand back and admire: your Little Lending Library is open for business!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Exquisitely crafted and designed wooden dresses are what Paul has been focusing on lately.  This clothing is made from incredibly thin cloth-backed veneer that is cut out into small shapes.  Then the small pieces are sewn together in a way that allows movement, kind of like scales.

Paul has won several national awards for this innovative use of wood, including the Grand Prize at the 2017 Craftys in New York and first place in Wearable Expressions at the Palo Verdes Art Center in Caifornia. It’s very cool!  I’ve always wanted to wear wood more than just in jewelry, but of course it’s totally impractical until you combine it with another flexible material.

Paul’s shop was primarily stocked with veneering equipment, including a Kirchfeld press that can apply 120 tons of total pressure.  There was a beautiful Martin panel saw with a digital gauge that was dialed in to be exact up to a very small fraction of an inch.  The tool in the shop that I found to be funny was a sewing dummy.  That was definitely the first time I’ve seen one of those in a woodshop!

Paul teaches marquetry classes internationally, and he is a master furnituremaker.  He showed us some of his earlier work that he still had in the shop, including a gorgeous flip-top dining table, a spinning cabinet and a pair of side tables.  He said he has almost always made multiples of the same design so that the cost could be kept down.  Once you’ve made one, you can easily make eight!

As well as teaching and making, Paul has a business selling kits for creating marquetry.  I recommend studying with Paul, if you ever get the chance.  He is very sweet, very busy, and incredibly knowledgeable.  In all of the work I looked at while visiting his studio, I did not see one mistake!  I don’t do marquetry, but if I did, I’d want to learn from master marqueter Paul Schurch!

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Building my first wooden hand plane alongside an expert like Paul really made the whole process less intimidating and fun! He gave our class a lot of good information about hand planes, and he thoroughly explained each step in the making process. After the two-day workshop, we all left with a deeper appreciation and affinity for these tools. On the following pages, you’ll see the basic plane-making process we followed in the class. With a few adjustments, there are many types of hand planes that can be made: smoothing, coopering, hollowing and so forth. Paul told us, “I believe that part of the fun of making your own planes is that you can design them to do whatever you want, and then call them whatever you want.”

Preparing Stock for the Plane Body

After hearing Paul talk about the different types of planes, I chose to make a scrub plane that I will mostly use for texturing. Paul milled our stock ahead of time, since the class was short. We started with blanks of ash or oak measuring approximately 2-3/4″ x 2-3/4″ x 11″, which will accommodate a 1-1/2″-wide plane blade (also called an iron). Once the blank is square, head to the band saw to resaw 3/8″ off of two opposing sides. These sides and the middle lamination will then need to be re-flattened. The important dimension is that the width of the middle piece is 1/16″ wider than the blade’s width. (For my plane, it was 1-9/16″.) You can use another hand plane to flatten these faces or opt for modern machinery to do it instead. If you use a surface planer or jointer, be sure to take extra precautions for safety’s sake, because these three laminations are quite small. I recommend milling larger wood, then cutting it down. Now, set the pieces back together again to line up the grain pattern along the seams, and mark their position with a registration triangle on top of the blank. If you choose, you can drill small holes for the registration dowels shown above.

Laying out and Creating the Throat

Decide which end will be the front of the plane, based on grain direction. Remove one side piece and mark where the bed will be for the blade. The bed is created by marking and making a 45° cut across the thicker center lamination, approximately 5/9ths of the way to the front, which divides it into two pieces.

I did this at a miter saw, then used a plane iron as a spacer to mark the width of the throat opening. Don’t make the throat opening too wide.

You can always go back later and file more material away to improve its fit. Create the rest of the throat opening on the other piece of the center lamination by marking and cutting a curve on the band saw that leaves plenty of room for chips to escape.

The throat that I’m marking is rather large because scrub planes remove quite a bit of material at one time. Leave some thickness at the bottom of the curve so the short grain here won’t break off during use (see the Drawing above).

Installing the Cross Pin, Gluing Up the Body

There’s a wooden cross pin that holds the plane’s wedge and iron in place. I’m marking where this 3/8″-dia. dowel pin will go. Measuring perpendicular from the bed, locate the pin’s center 9/16″ away from the angled face of the blade bed and centered from top to bottom on the plane body. Clamp the thin outer laminations together, and drill a hole through them both for this pin.

Cut a length of pin and dry assemble the plane body with the pin in place. Then, in what will be the waste areas of the plane body, mark for a pair of 1/4″-diameter holes on each thinner lamination so you can install more short pieces of dowel to help keep the laminations aligned during gluing and clamping.

With the pin in place and the plane laminations clamped together, drill the registration dowel holes 1/2″ deep. Then, go ahead and glue up the plane body. Use clamping cauls and enough glue for good squeeze-out.

When the glue dries, it’s time to re-flatten the sole of your plane using a coarse-grit sandpaper on a flat surface like your jointer bed or a piece of granite.

Be sure to keep the sides of the body square to the sole as you flatten it. Then, glue the pin for the plane iron into place.

Customizing the Plane Body to Fit Your Hand

Now you’re ready to draw the profile of the plane that you want onto the plane body. Cut it out on the band saw. Decide how you want to shape the hand plane, or follow my basic shape in the illustration. At this point, it’s time to turn your roughly shaped plane body into something more comfortable to grip and use.

So, that will require some shaping tools. I put a sharp drawknife, spokeshave, block plane and sandpaper to work to shape my plane body. Soften the sharp edges, and keep removing material from the back end of the body until it fits your palm well.

The last wooden piece to make is the wedge, which fits in front of the plane iron and behind the pin. I cut the wedge to shape on the band saw, then used a block plane to clean up its angled face.

The goals when fitting the wedge include (by using only thumb pressure): a snug fit between the dowel and the plane iron and about 1/4″ space between the bottom end of the wedge and the sharpened end of the blade.

You may need to shorten the wedge or make it thinner, depending on how it fits. Finally, ease the long sharp edges of the sole by chamfering them with a block plane.

Making the Plane Iron

During our two-day class, I not only got to build the wooden plane body but also learned some blacksmithing skills. Starting with O1 steel bar stock, we shaped the cutting edges of our blades and hardened them in a forge so the steel would retain a cutting edge longer. As you can see here, the North House Folk School’s shop is well-equipped for metalworking! To learn the step-by-step process for making a plane iron, see my “More on the Web” article.

Finishing Up the Body

Traditionally, wooden hand planes have no finish. The oil of your hands will create a nice patina over time. Some users prefer to wax the body. If you do this, make sure not to wax the wedge and the pin, because you don’t want them to slip out of position during use.

That’s a quick overview of my process for making the wooden body. In the sidebar below, you can see that we also made the iron for our planes.

While I’ve made other tools, this was the most in-depth build so far. What a sense of satisfaction it was to try out my new plane for the first time! Paul Linden and North House Folk School made the whole experience so rewarding!

Click Here to Download the Drawing of the Plane Body Layout.

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Making the Blade

The class used O1 steel bar stock for making the blades. The first step is to color the end of the piece of steel which will become your blade with either a Sharpie® marker or some steel blue layout fluid. You will also need to mark the center line of the steel.

Next, you will need to scribe a curve on the blade end with a marking knife and then grind the metal at 90° to the line. I chose to make the radius on my blade 6″.

At North House, we used a belt sander to grind the curve onto the blade (photo 2). You will also want to camber the corners on the top of the blade so that they aren’t sharp.

Our North House class instructor had set up a jig at 45° for us to grind the bevel along the entire radius of the plane blade.

As participants in the class, we hardened the steel by heating it in a forge and then quenching it in oil at the beautiful blacksmith shop at North House — but there are many ways to create a small forge for home use, too.

You want to heat the steel a couple of inches up from the blade end to its critical temperature, where the chemical compounds change.

That means you will first look for the red glow to begin as the steel heats up. You will also want to use a magnet to check its magnetism.

When the steel reaches a bright orange color, and no longer has magnetism, it has reached its critical temperature.

After our steel reached this point, we quenched it in oil. The “O” of O1 steel indicates that it is oil hardening: immersing the steel in the oil causes the steel to become hard.

Next, you will need to temper the steel by bringing it to a consistency that will maintain hardness, but still be workable (less brittle) for sharpening. You can achieve this by placing the metal in an oven (a toaster oven works just fine) at 350° for at least half an hour.

We used a bench grinder with 6″ diameter wheels to put a 25° hollow grind bevel along the radius of the blade (photo 7).

Creating this hollow grind along the radius will make it easier to sharpen and resharpen the edge. Next, we moved on to a Tormek sharpening system to refine the edge.

The Tormek features a 10″ diameter wheel which is larger than the 6″ bench grinder wheel used to create the hollow grind. This means the Tormek will not have to remove much material because it only makes contact along the front and back edges of the bevel. Set the Tormek tool-rest to 25°. Starting at one corner, pivot the bevel across the wheel to get a nice, even grind across the blade.

Finish sharpening the edge on sharpening stones or sandpaper. In this case, we used wet/dry sandpaper, 220 grit through 2,500-grit. Start by flattening the back of the blade with the sandpaper on a flat surface, like your jointer bed, or a flat piece of stone or glass.

You only need to flatten the first couple of inches of the blade. As you move through the grits, getting finer and finer, the back of the blade will get shinier and shinier, like a mirror. You want to hold the blade so that it is completely flat; don’t rock it back and forth.

Next, hold the ground edge on the sandpaper and find the spot where you are resting on the front and back edges of the blade. Using sweeping motions, create a flat on the front and back edges of the bevel. This should develop a mirror-like shine across those edges.

Finishing Up

To help prevent rust when your plane is not in use, apply a thin coating of a protective oil, such as camellia oil, on the blade.

And, at last, you are ready to install the iron into your wooden plane body. Place the blade, with the bevel down, along with the wedge into the plane body so that the tip of the iron is about to come out the bottom. Using only thumb pressure, press the wedge in tight, making the blade protrude no more than 1/16″.

It was so exciting trying my hand plane and having it cut beautifully the first time! I am using my scrub plane to add texture to projects: starting with freshly milled wood and leaving little rounded grooves. My plane can also be used to make 45° passes across a board in one direction and then the other to take out any high spots to begin the process of flattening a board.

I’ve made other tools, but this was the most in-depth start to finish process I’ve experienced. I find learning old-school ways of working to be invaluable. That knowledge provides a base for innovation.

I had a blast with my class, and I really appreciate the attention to detail and wealth of knowledge our instructor, Paul Linden, shared. North House Folk School is a very special place for me, and I believe many of the other students feel the same way. It has become place where I cross paths with new and old friends. There is always something to learn. With the diversity of craft-based classes that are offered, there is something for everyone. The mission of NHFS, “to enrich lives and build community by teaching traditional Northern crafts,” is being accomplished with flying colors.

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The post Forging a Plane Iron appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The project went together fairly easily with simultaneous work on different sections. I started with a mock-up to be sure the hardware would be located properly, created the case, constructed the desktop, constructed the bed, and then put it all together.

I created an MDF mock-up to confirm that the metric conversions for the hardware would indeed work. Imperial measurements are very ingrained in our work habits, but I do think metric could be easier for all of us. Fractions don’t come naturally for everyone. Sometimes my new students look at me cross-eyed if asked for something like 5/16″. Fractions, I tell them, take practice.

Why Build a Mock-up?

A mock-up is just an even safer version of the measure twice, cut once practice. Once you have the case pieces built out of the final material, you’ll want to be sure you drill the holes in the proper place, unless you are a fan of the Swiss cheese look or of wasting good wood.

The arm mechanism of the bed/desk required a little bit of tweaking on the mock-up to get the desk resting flat on the floor in the bed position and perfectly level in the desk position.

If you follow our measurements, you will be fine. But if you modify the plan, be sure to make your own mock-up to work out the details. You’ll be glad you did!

The Case

Starting with the large ends of the case, cut the cherry plywood to size on the table saw. Before establishing and routing the curved sections on the case sides, you must rout the V-shape into the straight edges of the plywood. After that, move on to the curved sections, which have a nice solid wood edge treatment attached with a butt joint.

Achieving a solid wood edge on the curved section of the side requires patience and a trick or two. First, I made a couple of trammels out of a scrap piece of MDF. Then I established the pivot point for the trammels at the corner of the work table.

I put the plywood that would become the side on the table and scribed the arc I would be routing onto the plywood using the first trammel. Marking the setup so that I could put the plywood exactly back in place, I used a handheld jigsaw to rough out the arc, leaving about 1/16″ or so to trim off.

Now, with the second trammel set up to cut the arc perfectly, I put the plywood end piece back on the table with a piece of plywood underneath to boost it away from the table (you don’t want to rout into your table). The arm of the trammel needs to be parallel to the table to get a perpendicular cut. You can achieve that by drilling a hole the size of the pivot dowel in small scraps and adding the scraps at the pivot point. Attach the router to the trammel, centering a straight bit in the hole. I used a 3/8″ carbide-tipped straight bit. (Please, be sure to have your router unplugged while you are setting up. I’m a fan of my fingers, and I’m guessing you like yours, too.) Adjust the plywood again so that the edge of the bit aligns with the scribed line. Turning the bit so that you are aligning with the outermost point is imperative to getting the cut where you want it. Clamp the plywood side piece to the table securely. Now plug in the router, and clean up the jigsawn edge by routing that perfect curve from left to right.

Repeat the process for the second side piece, but before you remove it from the work table, drill a second pivot hole in the trammel that will locate the edge of the router bit to the other side of the arc you just cut.

This will allow you to rout the matching curve in the hardwood you’ll use for your edging. Label these holes so that you will know which is which. Grab your hardwood stock and mark the curve from the plywood onto the hardwood.

Cut the curve on the hardwood piece using either the jigsaw or band saw, again leaving at least 1/16″ extra. Place the hardwood piece on the table where it will match up with the plywood curve and then remove the plywood. Rotate the router bit so that the innermost tip is just touching the line on the solid wood.

Take note: you’ll be routing in the opposite direction this time. In order to not have clamps in the way of the trammel, I screwed the solid wood piece (a good portion of the solid piece will be scrap) into a piece of MDF which I clamped to the table. Please, make sure the trammel arm is now perpendicular to the table again. Now you can rout that curve!

I glued the solid wood curve to the plywood by using some creative clamping. Because much of the solid wood piece will be cut away, screw a slightly wider but just as long scrap to the top of it. Clamp two pieces of scrap wood on the front and back faces of the plywood. Now you have two parallel surfaces so you can get good clamping pressure on the curve. Glue the curves together now, and leave the ends of the solid wood long. I usually let glue-ups set overnight.

Once the glued curve is dry, take the base side back to the trammel table. If you used a 3/8″ straight router bit, drill another hole in the trammel arm, making the distance from the first hole 5/8″ less (1/4″ for the edging and 3/8″ to account for the straight bit). Label the three holes on the trammel to use them later on the bed end curve. Yes, you will be doing this exciting exercise again later! Mark on the solid wood where you want the edge to be (for me it was 1/4″ from the plywood to leave a 1/4″ solid wood edge). Mark this curve with a pencil on the solid wood that is now glued to the plywood. Use a jigsaw to cut the curve, leaving at least 1/16″ extra. Align the pieces so the router bit cuts the curve and leaves 1/4″ of solid wood edging glued in place.

After those tricky curves, the next steps may seem like a breeze. Rip the plywood for the top, bottom crossbar, and back of the case. The top stretcher is made from solid wood as well as solid wood edging strips for the bottom stretcher, case sides, bed ends, top and bottom of the bed rails. See the Material List for the dimensions and details of all these pieces. Then go ahead and rout the rest of the plywood edges for the case with the V-groove bit.

Next I moved on to making the body concealers, locking pin blocks, bed stops, and top of the case molding, which are all pretty straight forward. Just follow the sizes and pre-drill according to the Material List and the Drawings. Then I decided to put the top of the case together using the fabulous Festool Domino. The Domino is such a fun tool, and the Festool tools have such great dust collection! I sanded up to 180-grit before gluing up the top of the case. You should sand each group of pieces before gluing, even if I don’t keep reminding you to do so. Remove any pencil lines, etc. Remember, work smarter, not harder.

Before the case sides can be assembled, you must mark and drill for the hardware. I marked where to drill the holes by placing the hardware plate on the case inside and measuring from the bottom and the back side to the edge of the hardware plate. Then mark the center of the holes in the hardware plate. For the piston mounting bracket, the measurements are for marking to the center of the holes. Since the case sides are much too big to get on the drill press, use your combination square next to your drill to help you drill perpendicular holes.

And remember, at some point, you’ll need to notch out the little section on the bottom back of the case to make room for the baseboard. Attach the body concealers, locking pin blocks, and bed stops by countersinking and pre-drilling the holes. I covered the screw heads later using plastic screw cap covers for Phillips and Square-X screws. These little covers snap right in the screw heads, if you countersink to the proper depth.

Moving forward, the case sides, back, and bottom stretcher need to have their Domino mortises machined. In order to get the bottom stretcher where you want it (kind of floating behind the hardware), measure and mark a line to align the Domino machine perpendicular with the bottom of the case. Set all these parts aside now and move on to the desk.

The Desk

The desk assembly is very similar to the case top construction. Rip the desktop to width, use the edge V-groove to attach the solid wood front support, and then cut it to length. Next, make the desk sides and the back out of solid wood. Measure, mark and drill for the hardware that attaches to the desk sides, including the tri-bearer, link pivot and locking pin. You will bolt the tri-bearer to the desk sides now, before gluing up. The cap nuts used with the connector bolts will be concealed in the desktop.

Go ahead and cut Domino mortises in the sides and back to the desktop. I used the same clamping trick of clamping solid wood strips to the desktop in order to get a right clamping angle using short clamps for the desk sides. Then I glued the desk back on.

Edge Banding with V-groove Bits

This project requires about 700 lineal inches of wood edging to cover the plywood edges. I used an Edge V-groove Bit set to attach most of it so the joints would be interlocking. But they only work on straight edges that don’t intersect on the same piece to form an inside corner.

It’s necessary to cover the curved plywood edges and two intersecting straight edges on the bed ends without using the Edge V-groove Bits. I just used a butt joint for those edges.

The setup for the Edge V-groove Bit is pretty straightforward. The negative “V” will be cut into the plywood, and you will align the point of the router bit with the middle of the ply. The positive V will be cut into the solid wood edging.

The strips for the solid edging need to be the thickness you want exposed (1/4″ here) plus 3/8″ which will be routed into a V-shape and glued into the plywood. The width of the solid wood strips should be just over 3/4″. I used a flush-trim bit to trim the hardwood flush with the plywood once it was glued and dry. When routing the matching V into the plywood, make sure the fence is aligned perfectly with the bearing of the bit.

These bits cut pretty clean, but don’t waiver the plywood at all. It will cut too much off of one side, which will leave a gap on that side and mess up the V-groove alignment. I recommend using a featherboard to apply pressure down on the plywood to stabilize those large pieces. Remember, you only get one shot at routing the plywood.

If you try to touch up the cut, the bit will damage the delicate veneer edges. And after routing the solid wood once, there won’t be enough surface left to handle it safely. When routing the banding, featherboards are necessary for downward and inward pressure. Use a push stick, do at least one practice piece, and let the router do the work.

During the tricky parts of this project, one may forget that this should be fun. I recommend keeping cookies on hand for said moments. Cookies can be more soothing than a freshly sharpened hand plane cutting its first ribbon of wood.

The Bed

The bed ends are rather tricky, just like the case ends. Now that you have practiced doing the curves for the case, the curves on this section should be easier. After routing the edge V-groove on the four parts of the sides shown, mark and drill for the trunnion bushing. Then attach the bed end to the case side with the trunnion bushing. You can align the bed end in the perpendicular (desk) position and clamp it. Then mark where the curves will line up on the case side and the bed side. Now remove the bed end.

You are ready once again to go through the steps of making the curves — mark, cut, and rout the plywood, and then move the trammel arm. Mark, cut, and rout the solid edge. Glue the matching pieces as described in the case side curve. Mark the final dimension 1/4″ out from the plywood. Cut it leaving at least 1/16″ of extra wood. Move the trammel arm to the third hole. Clamp the bed end down and rout the curve again. I made this the same curve, but it is 1/4″ smaller than the case side curves. This still looks nice, and it takes the pressure off of counting on the curves lining up spot-on. Once you have completed the curves, glue on the edge treatments. You will need to rip 1/4″ pieces for the edges on each bed end, and you will also need to make the solid wood round pieces with edging. Fit these edges, miter them and glue them on. The clamping for the bed ends is a bit easier because they are smaller. Once all the edges have dried, been flush-trimmed with the router and sanded, then round the corner where the link pivot goes, using a jigsaw or the band saw.

Next, I ripped the bed rails and attached the edge banding using the edge V-groove and glue. Go ahead and chop Domino mortises into the bed rails and the ends of the bed. Glue the rails to the bed ends after sanding. Check for square by measuring corner to corner. Tweak the bed if needed. I used two giant clamps for this assembly. That allowed the middle of the bed to be open, so I went ahead and made the cleats out of solid wood and attached them. Use a countersink bit to pre-drill for the screws. Put screw covers over them later on, because the holes will be visible.

The next step (there are a lot of steps, aren’t there!) involved ripping and crosscutting the 1/4″ sheet stock for the bed bottom cover. Set this piece aside for now. When the bed is in use, you’ll never see the slats, so I used pine alternating with maple for the bed slats, which feature chamfered edges. I also pre-drilled the bed slats using a countersink bit so that the mattress won’t get snagged. For ease of finishing, I did not yet assemble the bed bottom cover or the bed slats.

Finishing/Assembly

Now you are ready to do the most difficult glue-up of the project. Go collect the case parts you set aside earlier and get your biggest clamps close at hand. I clamped the sides of the case to two tables so they wouldn’t fall over while I glued the back and bottom stretcher in place. I also put one of the two long clamps under the case to get the best pressure for the bottom stretcher, and put the other clamp across the back panel. This worked pretty well. All right, now attach the top of the case to the rest of the body with Dominos. I clamped solid strips to the plywood panel so I could get better clamping pressure on the glue-up of the case top to the sides/bottom.

Once I completed construction of the bed, desk and case, I finished sanding everything up to 180-grit. I usually go to at least 220-grit, but I think 180-grit is adequate for this project. Break all of the edges while sanding.

Now, you get to see the wood come alive! I used Watco® Danish Oil for the finish on this project. It is easy to use and protective enough for a bed/desk. Flood the surface with the first coat. Let it sit for about half an hour. I just let it sit long enough to move through the three sections and the bed bottom cover, which did take about 30 minutes. Then wipe everything down, going with the direction of the grain. After 24 hours, I put on another coat of the Watco Danish Oil, and then I wiped it off after going over all of the pieces. You will need to do this a total of five to six times to get a nice buildup of the finish.

Then you need someone to help you assemble. The hardware arms are much too strong for someone to do it by themselves, and the case is unsteady until you attach it to a wall. Start by attaching the bed bottom cover by pinning it between the bed slats and the cleats. Then attach the hardware to the base sides. Next, attach the bed to the desktop using the link pivot. Attach the bed ends to the case ends using the trunnion bushing. Now lift the bed and desktop up to attach the tri-bearer to the hardware arm. This is when you will most need someone to hold the bed and desk in the up position while you pull the arm down and under the tribearer. Move the whole contraption from the bed position to the desk position. It should work smoothly, but you’re not finished yet.

Now you can mark where to drill the holes in the upper and lower locking pin blocks for the nylon bushings that accept the safety locking pins. I marked where to drill these holes by tapping the safety pin into the locking pin block to leave a mark. Remove the locking pin blocks. Drill the holes on the drill press, and then reattach the locking pin blocks to the body case/concealers, and glue in the nylon bushings for the locking pins.

It’s almost time to make your bed and take a well-deserved nap! I disassembled the bed at this point for ease of moving it. Remember! You must anchor the bed/ desk to the wall! Finally, put the mattress in, strap it down using Velcro® straps, and you’re ready to take a load off.

Safety and Knockdown Advice

Let there be no confusion about this next point. This Murphy Bed/Desk absolutely needs to be anchored to the studs in a wall for stability and safety. Also, the techniques for this bed involve permanently gluing the case together. The finished case is just under 36″ wide. Please, keep this in mind when planning where you will install it. You don’t want to be disassembling door frames! There is an option to use confirmat screws to assemble the case sides, case top, bottom stretcher and case back, which would make this project somewhat “knockdown” in nature. If you choose to use confirmat screws, keep the number of times you assemble and disassemble the parts to an absolute minimum.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully you learned something, tried a new technique, or benefited from this project some other way. Now you can leave your work spread out on the desk, pull down your bed in a matter of moments, and take a snooze. Happy working/sleeping!

Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard to Find Hardware

Hiddenbed Twin Mechanism (1) #44833
Statuary Bronze Cap Nuts (8-pack) #31815
3/4″ Edge V-Groove Bit (Convex) (1) #40362
3/4″ Edge V-Groove Bit (Concave) (1) #40368

The post PROJECT: Bed/Desk Combo appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

I’ll also recall how handy it was to have a circle-cutting jig for my compact router — I used it extensively to shape this project’s single-piece back panel and to cut out the outermost “floating” circles and rounded shelves. The circle-cutting jig also makes it easy to mill lots of concentric ripple details. I highly recommend this fun and easy jig for building this project.

While there are larger router circle-cutting jigs that are intended for mid-size machines, this smaller version I used was just right for the job and fit my compact DeWALT router perfectly. A larger jig size and bigger router would be more cumbersome to use here.

For this project, I used up some pre-milled poplar left over from another project. It’s economical, easy to find at home centers and is an excellent hardwood choice for painted projects.

To get your wall shelf underway, start by gluing up a 13-1/2″ x 26″ blank. And while you’re at it, rip and crosscut blanks that will produce the two floating circles and four shelves (pieces 2 and 3). Take a look at the Drawings and you’ll see that the big glued-up panel forms the largest inner circle with the mirror cutout, plus two smaller circles that flank it. These three circles remain as one piece.

Please keep in mind that while the dimensions for my project are outlined here, your circle sizes don’t have to exactly match mine. Just like real puddles, everyone’s shelves will turn out differently. For that matter, you might not even want to duplicate my water theme. You could use this basic approach to make lovely picture frames that are simply connected circles, too.

Gluing Up a Panel

Then, spread glue on both contact surfaces of each joint, and apply clamps uniformly along the panel’s length to distribute the clamping pressure evenly.

Laying Out the Shapes

Once your back panel comes out of the clamps, grab your combination square and a compass so you can lay out the three connected circles on it. When those are drawn, scribe pairs of parallel lines across the outer circles to mark a 3/4″-wide shelf dado on each. I centered these dadoes on the circles for two reasons: first, with one end of each dado terminating where the mirror opening will be, I would be able to mill them without worrying too much about stopping the dado cuts precisely. Second, centering the dadoes will make it easy to set the radii for routing these shelves.

I’ll also recommend that you draw at least one line on the back of this panel, parallel with its long edges, so you can reference it later when aligning the French cleat (ensuring that the shelves will hang level). If you don’t draw a guide line now, you’ll lose all of the panel’s square reference edges once the circle routing is underway.

Milling Dadoes

Now go ahead and cut both 3/8″-deep dadoes on the table saw. Use your dado layout lines to figure out where to set the rip fence for each of these stopped dadoes. Put a piece of tape down on the saw table to mark where to stop cutting each dado (stop them a couple of inches shy of the middle circle’s centerpoint).

You will have to reset the fence and move the piece of tape before ripping the second dado. Then mark and plow a centered groove of the same size along the length of the floating circle blank as well.

Routing the Connected Circles

Here’s when the fun really begins! Fasten the jig’s arm to your router base and install a 1/4″ up-cut spiral bit. Clamp the back panel securely to a sacrificial surface on your workbench.

We’ll begin by routing one of the outer circles, so use the screws it came with to fasten the jig’s base to the center of one of these two circles. Now, keep in mind that you won’t be cutting this circle off of the large blank — it stays connected.

Adjust the jig so the bit will cut on the waste side of the circle’s layout line, and rout the circle 1/4″ deep all the way around by taking many small passes no deeper than 1/16″.

Then, continue routing all the way down through the blank where the two circles don’t overlap (this creates most of the first circle’s outer profile). Then, rout completely down though where the outer circle extends over the mirrored area.

Get Your Grooves On

At this point, you can switch to round nose, core box or other end-profiling bits to create concentric grooves and details in this outer circle. Just change the length of the jig arm setting as you like to cut these ring designs. You can see what sorts and sizes of bits I used.

Sometimes I only took one pass to create a slight concave groove, and other times I would go as deep as 5/16″. Don’t rout deeper than this, though, because you will be attaching the French cleat with screws, and you don’t want a screw to poke through the front! Repeat all of your concentric detailing before unscrewing the jig base.

Now install the jig base at the center of the large mirrored circle. Rout all the way down through the blank to form this circle’s outer upper and lower curves with the up-cut bit, stopping these cuts where they meet the other two circles. Then switch bits to form the mirrored circle’s concentric rings. Finish up its routing with the up-cut bit again to cut down through its top and bottom portion of the mirrored area.

Repeat the whole routing process for the third connected circle. Its “mirror” cut will release the center waste piece.

Switch to the second dadoed blank and rout the two floating circles from it. When those are done, rout the four half-circle shelves from the third blank.

Creating a Mirror Recess

We still need to rout a recess into the back of the middle circle that’s deep enough to house a piece of 1/8″-thick mirror glass and a 1/8″-thick backer board to cover it. I assembled a square framework from 1x scrap wood with a 8-1/8″ x 8-1/8″ inside opening, using pocket screws. Clamping this “template” evenly over the mirror opening on the back of the shelf frame, I was able to use a pattern bit with ,a shank-mounted bearing to rout out the 1/4″-deep mirror recess. A sharp chisel helped me square up the rounded corners that the bit left behind.

With the recess done, I bought a piece of mirror glass and tried my hand at cutting the size I needed. Cut a hardboard backer piece to match.

Cutting Glass

Here’s how: thoroughly clean the mirror and the surface you are going to be scoring the glass on. Dust and dirt can cause a bad score line and break.

Use a straightedge to guide the glass cutter to score the top of the mirror in one pass. You will hear a soft crunching sound as the surface is scored.

Then, with gloves and eye protection on, flex the mirror along the score line gently to snap it cleanly in two. Practice this first to get the hang of it.

Adding Floating Circles, Shelves

Dowels are an easy way to attach the two floating circles to the larger back panel. To mount them, clamp the small circles into place so their dadoes are parallel with those on the larger circles. Then flip the assembly over and draw alignment lines and arrows as needed to mark positions and the dowel locations. Chuck a 5/16″-dia. brad point bit in your drill press or drill/driver, and bore 1-1/8″-deep holes at your marked spots.

Before assembling anything, take some time now to ease the sharp front edges of the three connected circles and the floating circles. I did this on my router table with a 5/16″-dia. roundover bit. Before you rout the edges of the half-circle shelves, insert them into their dadoes so you can mark them for where to stop routing — you don’t want to remove the back corners of the shelves where they insert into the dadoes.

It was then time to use some wood putty to fill all of the screw holes left behind by the circle jig base. I also glued the half-round shelves into the floating circles but decided to wait until after painting to install the shelves in the larger pair of circles. After that came sanding! I only sanded up to 180-grit, since all the wood would be covered with paint; I was mostly just concerned with getting everything smooth. Spend time hand sanding to get the concentric circle details nice and smooth, too.

Bring on the Milk Paint!

While sanding is never my favorite part of a project, I loved the next step: painting! I used General Finishes Milk Paint in Persian Blue and Coastal Blue as the base colors. Then I mixed in some Snow White color to create lighter blue tones for a few of the contoured details.

I turned on my current favorite album and let the afternoon fade away as I brushed on those beautiful colors. Milk paint doesn’t emit toxic fumes, and this pre-mixed brand has a lovely thick consistency. It brushes on smoothly, without leaving any globs.

Finishing Up with a French Cleat

The last pieces to make and install are a pair of French cleats to hang this project on the wall. I made mine from strips of 1/4″ plywood. Bevel-rip one long edge of each strip at 45° so these edges can engage one another when one cleat is mounted on the project and the other is on the wall.

Once the paint thoroughly dries, glue the remaining two shelves into their circle dadoes, and attach the floating circles with glue and dowels. Then set the mirror and backer into place and fasten the French cleat to the back panel with short countersunk screws (it overlaps and secures the backer). Be sure to face the cleat’s bevel downward and inward.

Screw the mating cleat to the wall, with its bevel edge facing up and inward. Be sure to level it first and hit two wall studs, if possible. Now set the shelf into place and push it down to engage the cleats. Then step back and look in the mirror, remembering how much we all owe to clean and plentiful water!

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

Hard to Find Hardware

Rockler Compact Router Ellipse and Circle Jig (1) #55819
Rockler Roundover/Beading Bit – 1/2″ H x 5/16″ R x 1/4″ Shank (1) #26628
Rockler Core Box Router Bits – 1/4″ Shank (1) #90935
1/4″ D x 1″ H x 1/4″ Shank Onsrud Carbide Up-Cut Spiral Bit (1) #82652
Rockler Pattern Router Bit – 1/2″ Dia x 1/4″ H x 1/4″ Shank (1) #33536
GF Milk Paint, Snow White, Pint (1) #35877
GF Milk Paint, Coastal Blue, Pint (1) #39130
GF Milk Paint, Persian Blue, Pint (1) #55917
E-Z Ancor® Wall Anchors with Screws, 2-Pack (1) #47987

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

Cherry’s warm tones conjure up cozy thoughts of entertainment shared around the table for me. So, cherry was my first choice here. To get started, I picked up some 8/4 and 5/4 solid stock and cherry veneered plywood from the local hardwood store. Then I jumped straight into milling up the stock.

Prepping Stock, Tapering the Legs

My cherry lumber was kiln dried, so I wasn’t too worried about giving it time to acclimate to my shop. Even so, since this wasn’t a rushed project, I milled the apron and the leg stock about 1/8″ oversize, then let them sit for about a week. To my surprise, a couple pieces cupped and twisted just a bit; leaving them slightly oversized once again proved to be good practice!

I re-milled everything to be flat, square, and to proper thickness. I left the apron pieces overly long so that I could use them as test pieces for the mitering setup, and I kept back a 12″-long extra piece of apron sized scrap for testing my routing setups, too.

I decided to taper the legs for a couple of reasons: first, I love the look of tapered legs. Second, the taper added to the vintage card table look that I was going for. Rockler’s taper/straight-line jig makes ripping long angles like these safe and easy. Mark the dimensions and the taper angle on one of the legs.

Check that the table saw blade is set square to the saw table. Set the leg in the jig on the table saw and make adjustments so that you will be cutting on the waste side of the marks. Once the jig is set and the leg is locked in place, rip tapers on two adjacent faces of all four legs.

Profiling the Aprons

I played around with a few different styles of aprons for the table. The aprons will be glued to the plywood tabletop and the legs will be attached to them, so the aprons need to be both sturdy and attractive. Simple rounded-over edges would look nice, but I settled on a three-beaded pattern that adds even more interest. A bullnose radius router bit and a 1/2″ straight bit can create this retro looking molding. The exact bits I used are listed in the Hard-to-Find Hardware. This is where you can put that 12″ test piece to work as you check all the setups carefully before you shape the actual apron stock.

Before I got to the router table, I used a 1/2″-wide dado blade stack in the table saw to plow out most of the waste for the two grooves in the aprons. Then I set up the bullnose bit in my router. The bit height should be set so that the bit rounds over the raised section of the molding (see the Drawings). Once the bit height is set, adjust the router fence so that you are only removing about 1/16″ of material at a time, creeping up to create the perfect rounded beads.

Now adjust the bullnose bit in the collet as needed so the cutters will be able to reach and shape the middle bead when the router collet is fully raised. Reset the fence so that, once again, you are only removing about 1/16″ of material at a time. Once the beads are milled, switch to a 1/2″-dia. straight bit to clean up the grooves between the beads.

The next step in making the tabletop is cutting the plywood to size. Evaluate which of its faces looks best, and mark it as the top face.

Notice in the Drawings above that you’ll need to form a tongue on all four edges of the tabletop, and you’ll do that by machining a rabbet. Use a marking gauge to score the plywood 1/8″ in from its top edges. I decided to also tape a piece of paper to the top face to protect it from getting scratched while working with it. Mill the four rabbets with either a dado blade or using a handheld router and rabbeting bit.

The 1/8″-long tongues you’ve just formed are captured in a groove in the aprons to form sturdy, interlocking joints. So go ahead and put a 3/8″-wide dado stack in the table saw. Adjust the rip fence 3/8″ away from it, and raise the blade just slightly higher than 1/8″. Test your setup on the 12″ molding scrap before milling a long groove into the back face of all four aprons. (Milling these grooves slightly deeper than 1/8″ allows a bit of extra depth at the bottom of the joints for excess glue to migrate when the tongues are inserted.)

Mitering the Aprons

Miter joints need to be spot-on accurate to fit together well. Prepare for cutting them by first squaring your table saw miter gauge’s fence to the blade and adding a long sacrificial fence. Now tilt the blade to exactly 45 degrees. Cut miters on the ends of the test piece and one apron, and fit them together. Check for accuracy with a square. If the joint is square, mark the length of one of the aprons and miter it to length. Test it against the plywood tabletop. If it fits properly, cut the other three aprons to length, too, checking for accuracy by fitting them into place on the tabletop. Cut and fit them one at a time.

Assembling the Top with Splines

The apron miter joints are held together with splines that fit into grooves, so we’ll cut those next. Use the Drawings to mark a spline cut on your test molding. Tip your table saw blade to 45 degrees and adjust the blade so it will cut 3/16″ into the mitered face (half the groove width). Now clamp a block to the rip fence, ahead of the blade, to serve as a “step off” for the far ends of the aprons and to help position the groove cuts.

Rip 1/8″-thick splines from a piece of 3/8″ solid stock, and cut them 2-5⁄8″ long so that you’ll have a little extra length to grab onto when gluing up the aprons.

A band clamp is a great choice for gluing up the tabletop. Dry-fit the tabletop pieces first. Make sure you apply plenty of glue in the spline cuts and the apron grooves. Clamp the aprons, splines and top piece together, then carefully scrape the glue squeeze-out from the top after about 20 minutes, once the glue becomes rubbery.

Adding Leg Hardware

The metal leg brackets that allow these table legs to fold can be finicky to install properly. Since the legs are tapered, be sure to orient them correctly inside the brackets so the tapers face inward.

The dimensions spacing the holes from the top of the leg are correct, but these holes are drilled 13/16″ from the outside, non-tapered face of the leg. It is imperative to drill the 5/32″-dia. through-bolt holes on the drill press — they must remain perpendicular as they pass through the legs or the locking mechanism may not work correctly. Go ahead and drill the 3/16″-dia. holes for the machine bolts on the drill press, too.

Round the tops of the legs with a 7/8″ radius on the band saw, and then sand them smooth. When that’s done, soften the sharp edges of the legs using a 3/16″ roundover bit chucked in a router table.

Take a couple of passes so that you don’t overtax the router or risk chipout. I chamfered the feet of these legs with a sanding block and added adhesive-backed felt pads so they won’t snag carpeting or scratch a floor.

Well, you knew it was coming…now it’s time for sanding. I used a palm sander on the top of the table and on the faces of the legs.

A little 1/2″-wide stick wrapped with sandpaper will make sanding the surfaces between the apron beads much easier. I cupped the sandpaper in my hand to sand the rounded edges of the legs and the apron beads.

Finishing with Varnish and Wax

General Finishes Arm-R-Seal in a satin sheen is a great choice for this project. I just love applying the first coat of finish and really bringing the wood’s color and figure to life! I wiped on three coats of finish, allowing at least 8 hours of drying time between each coat. A little scuff-sanding with 400-grit between coats of finish kept the surfaces smooth.

After you give the finish at least 24 hours to cure, I recommend applying paste wax next. First, mush the wax into 0000 steel wool, and then wipe it on in the direction of the grain. Work in small areas so the wax won’t dry before you can buff it smooth with a clean cotton cloth. It’s a simple way to make the surfaces feel velvety smooth.

Assemble and attach the leg hardware, following the instructions that come with it. Hold the legs and hardware in place on the aprons to mark where to drill pilot holes to attach the four leg assemblies to the aprons.

Now try out your new table! The chilly weather has me thinking it’s time for a puzzle and some tea. Enjoy!

Hard to Find Hardware

Card Table Leg Brackets #63198
Taper / Straight Line Jig #21597
Bullnose Radius Router Bit, 1/2″ Shank #32545
Straight, 2-Flute Router Bit, 1/2″ Shank #90550

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

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