Remember in my blog post “It’s All Done With Mirrors” when I wrote that when I open up a package of sequenced veneer that the first this I do it number the pieces?  Well this is when I explain a bit more of why I do that.

When veneering surfaces you can pick many different styles.  You can use one big piece of veneer or one of the following:

• Straight book matching
• 4-way book matching
• Radial matching (in the case of round pieces)

Here I want to address a potential problem that can happen with both 4-way & radial methods.

When we start laying out for both of these styles we tend to go in numerical order (1, 2, 3…).  But this can come back and bite you is when the seams from veneer piece 4 matches up to veneer piece 1 (in the case of 4-way matching.  Or the seams from your last piece of veneer butting up to your first piece in the case of radial matching.

When companies cut & sequence veneer they slice and stack it in the order it was cut from the log.  The further down the pile you go the more likely your grain patterns change.  Sometimes this differs slightly but sometimes it’s quite drastic.  It all depends on the tree.

So to try and reduce the chance of dealing with this I use The Rule of 2.

The Rule of 2 says that no piece of veneer shall be butted up to another piece higher than 2x from the number you gave it in the beginning?  (Confusing I know but take a look at the two examples below.)

As you can see, at no time does any piece of veneer butt up against another piece of veneer that has a number higher than 2x it’s given number.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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.

Popularity: 7% [?]

So let me start off with this: “Have you ever had one of those days where you shouldn’t be in the shop?”

You know, one of those days where everything turns out to be a PITA?!?

Well today was MY day!

Due to our schedules at home/work it’s been a while since I’ve been able to work on the federal inlay table and I needed to finish up the inlay on the apron.

I’ve had the semicircles on the ends done since my blog entry on Stringing Tight Curves. But since then I had not finished “connecting the dots” so to speak until today.

But I should have known better. I wasn’t in the mood to do it.

And I had other junk to do:

• computer & virus updates to install
• the Olympics was on
• laundry to be done
• yadda, yadda, yadda

But I needed to get this project moving.  Either that or submit my entry to the “Worlds Longest Time To Complete A Project” contest.

So anyway, against my better judgment, I went out and turned the heaters on so the shop could warm up and then started cutting/trimming pieces of inlay to size and made a quick 45 degree jig to help cut the scarf joints so I could glue the pieces into the my apron.

All in all, I only had 6 pieces to fit and it should have taken about an hour to do (taking my sweet time in all) but NO! Everything that could go wrong did.

It didn’t matter how many times I dry fitted the pieces into my apron, no matter how well the scarf joints went together, every time I put glue into the groove trouble would show its face.

I had 4 pieces just break, one that broke once I had it in but had to dig out with dental tools, (because the glue started setting and fit was that tight) way more glue squeeze out then I intended to clean up, and anything else you could come up with!

But in the end of day I got it all worked out but wow what a pain!  So next time you’re not “feeling it” take a hint, it might not be worth it!

BTW as a side note. Dental tools are great for working with inlay but get them from a dentist. The 4 piece set they sell at Rockler are garbage! (Now that’s not a dig at Rockler, just a “impromptu review” of that particular product.)

Popularity: 4% [?]

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?)

Popularity: 14% [?]

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!!

Popularity: 48% [?]

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.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Saturday morning I set out to Glen Huey’s shop to do a little research on an issue I was having with my Bosch Colt router.

Earlier in the month I had purchased a precision collet from PreciseBits.com that would allow me to use 1/8” bits in my Colt for inlay work.  (Routing for stringing 1/16” and below)

When I tried to test fit the collet it worked great except I could never get it tight enough to actually hold a 1/8” bit.  This is because I was using both a spanner wrench that came with the collet and the tiny wrench that Bosch mailed out to people who didn’t like using the “red button” to tighten their bits.

The reason I don’t use the “red button” to help tighten my bits is because I use a Micro Fence plunge base with my Colt.  (Something that made the Colt 100x more useful!) And by doing so the base hides the button making it impossible to reach hence the use of two wrenches.

So what we found is that the precision collet was so much larger than the stock collet that it bottomed out on the wrench.  This made it impossible to completely tighten.  You could get it tight enough to not come off but not enough for it to hold the bit.

This is where out of the box thinking comes in.  We had to have a thinner wrench.  Since we didn’t have access to grinder we used a spindle sander and a fence to sand the end of the wrench down.  This allowed us to get it thin enough (without making it too thing to be used) so we could hold the bit in place.

What we deducted is that we know Bosch doesn’t give the extra wrench away with the kits (you have call them to get it) because of the “red button” deal and that PreciseBits.com didn’t have it when designing the collet for 1/8” bits.  Or if they did, they decided to still make it extra long to get extra threads holding the bit in place since it was so small.

So after that we walked over to Stan’s (a local doughnut shop) to reward ourselves for a job well done!

Now I’m wondering what I can modify this Saturday…

Popularity: 17% [?]

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!

Popularity: 3% [?]

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

Popularity: 3% [?]

A few weeks ago I attended a class with Steve Latta on making federal card table legs.  In this class he showed off and demoed from a bench he designed to do inlay work on.  (The main reason for the bench is to get the work elevated off your bench to help eliminate back pain.)

After getting an opportunity to work on his elevated bench in class I decided I had to go home and build one.  But in typical Tim “The Tool-man” Taylor fashion I had to make it better to make it mine.

Once I set out to make this I had 3 things in mind:

1. I was determined that I was going to use what I had on hand to make it. (lumber, vise, etc)
2. I was going to modify it to hold wide boards as well.
3. I was also going to build different sized bench dogs to accommodate any clamping range.

I built my version of the bench to be 9″ x 9″ x 45″ overall.  It consists of a 1 3/4″ poplar top and a pair supports for that are I-beam shaped and constructed from two 1 1/2″ x 4″ pieces of pine with a 1″ thick piece of plywood connecting them.

Once I had the bench assembled I routed 3/4″ diameter holes (4″ on center) down the center of the top to accommodate holding card table legs.  I then routed two more rows near the outside of the bench to accommodate holding wide boards (such as spice box doors) for doing inlay work.  In addition I stole a vise from another bench I no longer use and installed it on one end.

I didn’t want to use the steel dog included on my vise as the only way to secure my work. To get around this, I elevated the board I installed on the vise jaw to give me 9” of space for clamping pressure.

By doing this, I was able to change this from a simple leg bench to something that I can utilize more when doing inlay work.

(P.S. No I don’t do any inlay work in plywood.  It was just used to in the example.)

LESSONS LEARNED – Actually prior to assembling the bench I took the top over to my drill press so I could drill 3/4″ holes but the bit deflected/broke and bored an oval that I had the joy of plugging.  Stupid mistake on my part!

Popularity: 59% [?]