Sunday I decided to start working on the back rails for my table so when I headed out to the shop I I milled up the following parts to size.

• 1 – Spacer 3/4″” x 3.5″ x 5″
• 1 – Middle Stretcher 3/4″ x 3.5″ x 9″
• 2 – Swing Stretchers 3/4″ x 3.5″ x 14″

The length of the swing stretchers didn’t really matter I just knew 14″ was long enough for this stage of the game. Later I’ll need to cut them down and mill a tenon on each to attach to the legs.

With my parts milled it was time to start doing some layout work. The swings stretchers work by the way of hinged fingers so I marked a line 1 1/4″ from the edge of boards & laid out 5 equal spaces at 11/16″. (Click the photo for a better view)

From here I raised my table saw blade to 1 1/4″. Using an extended fence on my miter gauge, I nibbled away the slots in between the fingers making note to cut on the waste side of the line.

(Note: Depending on the type of blade you have in your table saw, you may need to go back with a chisel and do some clean up to the top of the spaces.)

After doing a dry fit I dug a penny out & used it to layout a round over on the ends of the fingers & using the spindle sander I rounded the corners.

I then did another dry fit but this time I clamped the 3 pieces to an auxiliary board (to keep the pieces from moving) & made my way over to the drill press it to bore 2 holes for the 1/4″ dia. steel rod that holds the parts together but also lets them swing open when needed.

Then using 2 drill bits as pins I did another test fit and found that when I tried to swing out my stretcher they were rubbing against the middle stretcher.

So using a carving chisel I cut out some relief for the fingers so they could swing open.

At this point I realized that I didn’t have the steal rod. So now I have to head out to Home Depot to pick one up but here’s a pic of the pre-assembly.

The next step for me is going to be working on the inlay in the legs but that’s for another post…

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First off, this tip is  most beneficial when you have in large sheets of sequenced veneer.  But since I did not have any in hand I pulled out this Woodcraft mini-pack to use for my demonstration.

Indexing: When I open up any pack (large or small) of sequenced veneer the first thing I do is grab a pencil and number the pieces in one of the corners.  Since the manufacture has sequenced the veneer this will help you keep the the pieces in the order that they were cut from the log.  If you intend to do any book-matching with your veneer this will help you in the layout out of that so your growth rings match more closely.  (That we’ll expand on in another posting.)

Book-matching: When I start with a simple book-matching project I like to play around and see what pattern will look best for my project.  Since most burl is brittle and I don’t want to damage the sheets flipping them over trying to find a good match I simply grab a mirror.  This way I can position it anywhere on the top piece of my veneer stack (2 pieces) without worrying about  damaging them and I’m able to visually see immediately what the resulting match will be.

Once I find a match I like I use the mirror as a guide and grab a pencil to put a couple of registration marks on the veneer.  From here I  go to registering the pieces, taping them together, and start cutting them to size to use  with the project.

Quad Book-matching: If I’m going for a really cool look on say a table top I’ll grab 2 mirrors (oh and 4 pieces of veneer) and hold them at a 90 degree angle and can see visually see what that will look like.  By doing this I’m able to move all over the piece (remember the note about large pieces of veneer) until I find the pattern that really pops!

Other Uses: Also by using two mirror you can bring the angle in (under 90 degrees) and use the same procedure to get an idea of how a radial book-match would look.

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This past week I ventured over to Glen Huey‘s shop to use his jointer (mine is in dire need of blade sharpening) to make tapered legs for the federal card table I’m working on. The next day I was chewing the fat with another woodworker at work who asked how I did it with just a jointer.

After several drawings & step by step directions on the white board in my office he looked at me and said “I just can’t see it!” So I told him I’d go home an take a few step by step photos and that’s when the light bulb went off. I remembered that Popular Woodworking posted a video online of the very technique.

So we logged into the web and did a quick search for it so he could “see” it. After viewing Glen demonstrating the technique he looked at me with that “you have to to be kidding me” look. But before he could speak I said “yes, it’s that damn easy and works every time!”

I believe it was Troy Sexton who first came up with this method and shared it with Pop Wood but prior to learning it from Glen I can say I used each and every jig I could find to make this operation easier. It didn’t matter if it involved a tablesaw or a bandsaw it was a pain to set up and get done. But this, it’s super easy, accurate and CRAZY FAST!

So using the code provided by Pop Wood’s player I embedded the video of Glen demonstration the technique.

Give it try cause once you do you’ll use it every time you need to taper legs!

If you’re not a believer yet maybe you’ll enjoy this video of Orianthi featuring Steve Vai performing: “Highly Strung” instead?!? They’re both phenomenal guitar players!

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While working on my federal table last weekend, I set my sites on inlaying the curved string on the apron. After several attempt at trying to make the radius buy misting the string and using a soldering iron (and breaking each and every string) I gave up.   I was licked and all was lost.

At this point I was seriously wondering why in the world I didn’t just go with three rectangles on my apron instead of getting fancy and laying out curved ends.

So I stomped into the house and started digging up all my books, magazines, printed internet articles, DVDs, VHSs anything do to with inlay methods of work and found – NOTHING!

That was until I sent a distress email to Glen & Chuck asking what in the world I could be doing wrong. (After all I had bent lots of stringing using an iron before.)

Then the suggestion came to think bigger!  So with that I traded in the soldering iron for a piece of pipe and torch.  And the following is a step by step process on how I was able to make the curved inlay.

Step 1: While soaking my inlay in hot water I put a piece of pipe, about the same size of the bend I want, into a vise and heat it using a torch.

Step 2: After the pipe is heated I take a piece of string and using a piece of flashing as a backer I set the middle of what is to become my curve on the pipe.

Step 3: Using constant downward pressure I slowly pull the string around the pipe. (You will hear sizzling at this point.)

Step 4: I hold the two sides together with one hand while rubbing the back of the flashing with my other. (Think of it as trying to rub out a crease. But be careful because the flashing will be hot!)

Step 5: Release the pressure and take a look at your curve. Make sure it doesn’t have any cracks or splits.  (If it does you either did step 3 too fast or the pipe has cooled down too much.)

Step 6: Cut it length and install it.

Once I completed this I went back through all my resources and I found at least 3 different places where this method was demonstrated.  (Why is it you can never find anything when you need it?)

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This year on New Years Eve day I decided it was time to move the Federal Card Table I was working on along.  It had felt like forever since I last worked on it due to the holidays and having to get a second shot for tennis elbow.

After many long discussions about how to complete this with power tools (that would involve elaborate jigs, much set up time, etc..) I decided to break out my Steve Latta stringing tools I purchased a while back.  Armed with them (and 96 Rock playing on the radio) I set out for an afternoon of using nothing but hand tools.  (Those of you who know me, know this is a big step for me!)

Having already completed the layout work and gluing on my temporary backer blocks I started by setting up the radius cutter and plowing out the curved ends. (Below you can also see where I used a dental pick to help with the clean out.)

From here I set my straight cutter and simply connected the two half circles for each of the 3 sections.

I have to say even though I’m a power tool guy, I did have an enjoyable (and semi-quiet) day of woodworking in peace!  I might have to expand on this!!

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Recently I’ve been working on a new Federal Card Table for my home.  While working on it I decided to use my Lie-Nielsen radius inlay cutter (based off Steve Latta‘s design) to make my apron inlay circular vs rectangular.  (Photos of that to come)

So prior to just going hog wild on my apron itself I applied a piece of veneer on my apron cutoff and started playing around with the radius cutter.  After trying the layout a couple of times I was happy with the job the cutter did but boy I didn’t like the center point hole that was left behind.

After thinking a bit I overcame this by deciding to do all my layout work and mark my cross hairs in pencil on the apron.  After that I cut a few shims and marked a set of cross hairs on them and then broke out the hot glue gun to attached the shims to my apron making sure to align the cross hairs from the shim to the cross hairs on the apron.

Now I have a piece of wood that will receive the center point hole that I can remove with a little heat and have zero marks left behind!

Do you have a different way that you would have (or have) attacked this type of issue?  Is so share them in the comments below.

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When I’m gluing up a project I’m always grabbing for my 16oz Titebond glue bottle.  It’s lightweight but still holds enough glue for any glue up I’ve ever had.  (I have carpal tunnel so lightweight is always good!)

Also, I’ve noticed when retailers put Titebond on sale it’s usually the 32oz bottle and I’m fine with that.  Why you ask?

Well almost always the tip of my 16oz bottle is glued shut.  It doesn’t matter if I wipe it off, chip at it or even chew the dry glue off of it. It’s ALWAYS stuck.

So what I do is grab a small bowl of hot water and throw the stupid cap (from the 16oz bottle) in it just as I’m about to clue up a project.  From there I grab the cap off my 32oz bottle and screw it onto my 16oz bottle and go to work.  (They’re the same size)

Then after the clue has had a chance to soften up and off the other cap, I dry it off and put it on my 32oz bottle.

Maybe not the easiest  but I can say issue solved.

Thoughts?

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Woodworking and research goes hand and hand so much that we have developed so many ways of doing it.  Seems we are always doing the following:

• Collecting every how-to book we can find on a topic
• Subscribing to every woodworking magazine we can find
• Scouring the web for every free plan we can dig up
• Buying museum books covering a specific time period
• Or a combination of all

Now I’ll be the first to tell you I refer to my museum books (and Glen Huey’s) all the time.  They are an endless resource of detail and information when I can’t get my hands or eyes near a collection to study for a project.

Tome Reader by Ozyman

Well as the years go on those books are being publish less and less and the ones that are out there are becoming harder to come by and if you find the one you want or need it costs a small fortune!

So with the graces of the internet, more auction houses and bloggers are posting beautiful photos and details online.  Now the problems with this is keeping track of them and let’s face it when you need them your computer will crap out and you’ll lose your bookmarks.  (Personal experience it talking here)

To help get around this I found a wonderful free tool on the internet (on for my iPhone) that does all that but more for you.  It’s called Evernote and if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth its weight in gold!

Some of its features are the following:

• “Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe.”
• “Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks.”
• “Search for notes by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote magically makes printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too.”

I’ve used this so much that I’ve graduated from the free version to the pay version.   By doing so I’m now keeping track of woodworking projects, work ideas, home photos, blog ideas, you name it and it can’t be easier to use.   (NOTE: For $5 a month you get more monthly allowance for uploads & storage with the pay version but if you don’t use the crap out it you’ll never need to think about the pay version!)

I don’t want to waste your time with a tutorial on how I put it to use.  I’d rather you go take a look at it and see how great it is.

And no, I’m no way associated or get paid by them.  It’s just too cool of a tool to not share!

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If you’re like me and you own more than 1 router then you’re more than likely running around looking for a wrench, collet or even the dang routers themselves.

Well after several years of collecting routers and playing “Where’s Waldo” with their accessories I started looking at ways to keep everything together without giving up shelf space and keeping them easily within reach.

So I kept looking in magazines, books and on the web looking for something I liked or didn’t like about what others have made or sold.  After about 3 minutes of that (ADD kicked in I guess) I said heck with it and opened up Sketch Up.

With that I basically spent an evening (according to my wife anyway) drawing and redefining the design to make a shelf that held 3 routers (but let you keep a bit loaded) and had a shelf to house the wrenches and other crap that you never use but don’t want to throw away.

Armed with that plan, I set off to the garage to build 2 of them but before I cut anything I redesigned it yet again.

In my original plan I had my bottom shelf attached to the sides/dividers with a ½ dado but decided I wanted to beef up that support. So I moved the bottom and the shelf up ¼” so I could make full dados instead.

I don’t know if anyone had a need for anything like this so I’ve uploaded my original Sketch Up file into the 3D Warehouse for you to download and use. It works well and its super easy to build.

(Actually, I could have sworn I saw a version of this idea in an old ShopNotes so Ann & I spend an hour combing through every issue of it and Woodsmith magazines I have.  After coming up empty handed I figured I must have drept it up then went to Sketch Up.)

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Did you know that back in the day Federal Period furniture builders had a grading system in place for customers who purchased their works?

I didn’t but it made since once it was explained to me.  This is a brief explanation of how it works with card table legs.

The system was based on two things:

• The amount of stringing you wanted & where.
• The amount of coin you were willing to part with.

Using a 4 leg card table as an example, if the customer didn’t want to spend much money, they would get fronts of the front two legs of their table stringed and a simple oval inlayed.

This would be considered a “C” customer.

If the customer had few more dollars and wanted to fancy up their piece they would get fronts of all four legs stringed and have a fancier oval inlayed into the two front legs.

This would get you upgraded to a “B” customer.

Now, if you were just showing off how much cash you were tripping over you’d get the front and out sides of you back two legs stringed.  In addition you’d also get the front and both sides of your front two legs strings as well as a fancier oven inlayed.

This would get you to the top of the class as being an “A” customer.

Now this was just an example of the legs.  The same theory held true for the amount (and how fancy) of stringing you wanted on the aprons and tops.

In addition I found that the cabinet makers of old didn’t always make their inlays.  Just like we mail order for them or buy them from Woodcraft/Rockler, they had craftsmen who did nothing but made inlays for them to buy and use in their furniture.  (The main difference was they didn’t use CNC machines to make theirs.)

1. Photo #2 given to me by Glen Huey
2. Photo #3 from Maui Woodworker’s Guild from their workshop with Steve Latta
3. Photo #1 was found many months ago on Google and I have yet to find it  again so I can give proper credit

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