March 28th, 2011

Distressing Painted Furniture one comment

Topics:Shaker, Tip, Woodworking

How do you make distressed furniture?


That is one of most asked questions I get after I’ve made a painted piece of furniture.  So I thought I’d share how I do that.

First off let me say the projects I make are typically not beat up. I really do not believe that after going through all the time & effort to build the thing that I should then be beating the hell out of it!

Now if in the building process I find I mistakenly cut a piece too short or did something stupid that can’t be fixed… well then its game on! (But at this stage I’m taking no survivors. I’m making firewood!)

Anyway, back to my method…

Once I have completed the woodworking part of the piece I go ahead & stain the entire piece. Let that dry & then spray a few coats of shellac to seal it.

From here, I tape off or take off the part that isn’t getting painted & go through the finishing of it how I normally would.

Once I have that part completed I turn my attention to the paint.

While I’m mixing the acrylic paint (I use Olde Century Colors paint) I map out in my mind how I’m going to paint the piece in sections.

For example in the bench project I just did I painted it in this order:

  • the support rails
  • one end
  • then the other end

Once I’ve completed a section & it’s almost dry I take a soaking wet (but not dripping) wash cloth & wipe the paint away where I think it might wear & tear. Then I wipe away a few spots just to give it a little more effect.

From here I rinse out the wash cloth & I move on to the next section & repeat the process until the entire piece is completed.

After completely drying I look at where I’ve exposed the stained parts & see if I might have gone overboard. If I have I simply repaint that part of that section.

When I’m satisfied with what I see I reassemble the project & put it to use.

And that’s how I go about making a distressed painted project. I know there are a lot of other ways to do this but let’s face it I’m lazy & this method is simple.

I mean it did take me 7 years to build the piece!

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February 4th, 2011

Using H Hinges 2 comments

Topics:Tip, Woodworking

Today while at lunch I was busy trying to sketch a project that I was designing as a tall laundry room cupboard for my house when a fellow co-worker/woodworker stopped to take a look.

While we were talking about the piece, why I was designing it and what it would be used for, he made a comment that my project had a flush mounted door. He then went on to tell me how he hated flush mounted doors because you have to chisel out the wood while installing the hinges. He finished by telling me that the time wasn’t worth the effort in his eyes.

At that point I just kind of smiled and said I don’t do any of that.

At first he gave a quizitive look of “huh?” and then after a few seconds of letting what I said sink in, he said “please don’t tell me you just flush mount the butt hinges?”

That’s when I opened up my web browser and introduced him to “H” hinges.

Part of a Thomas Jefferson reproduction

Click here to read the rest of the article at Horton Brasses.



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December 15th, 2010

Hardware Comparison no comments

Topics:Tip, Woodworking

Recently I received my December issue of Popular Woodworking magazine. While looking at it during lunch, one of my woodworking co-workers stopped to look at Glen Huey’s Line & Berry Chest of Drawers that graced the cover.

Photo provided by PopularWoodworking.com

After thumbing through the article he smiled & said it must be nice! Puzzled I took the bait & asked, “What do you mean?”

That sparked a discussion about why one should use/buy quality lumber & hardware on projects & then suddenly his point finally surfaced. “Did you see the price of that hardware?” he blurted out.

Click here to read the rest from Horton Brasses



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November 23rd, 2010

How I Install Drawer Hardware no comments

Topics:Blog, Tip

Recently I was talking projects with a couple of my woodworking buddies. One was working on a chest of drawers & was complaining about having to measure, mark & drill each pull for every drawer. I kind of smiled & told him I have a simple solution shortcut for that. Below is a step by step procedure on how I install drawer pulls on all of my projects.

After I have built & finished my project I get the smallest drawer & lay out the hardware I’ve selected.

Click here to read the rest of the article at Horton Brasses.



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October 18th, 2010

How I Install a Half-Mortise Lock 3 comments

Topics:Blog, Tip, Woodworking

Read my guest post on “How I Install a Half-Mortise Lock” on Horton Brasses Blog.



Popularity: 22% [?]

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June 27th, 2010

How I Make Stringing one comment

Topics:Inlay, Tip, Uncategorized

A few months ago Chuck Bender of Acanthus Workshop posted a video of how he makes his stringing. (See below)



Well I tried that out and it worked like a charm. I even posted something on the blog about it and I’ve used the heck out of the stringing I made.

Then I needed more. (Seems I didn’t make enough!) So I decided to take a few minutes this weekend to cut some. The only thing is while Chucks way works, it’s a bit to set up and I’ll admit I’m lazy!

So knowing I was going to make my string Sunday afternoon, I went out in the shop around 10pm Saturday night and built a quick jig. This jig is really nothing more than a wide push stick that keeps my hands away from the blade and pushes both my string and cut off away from the blade.

Now all I do is clamp on an auxiliary fence so the stringing wont get caught in under my stock fence. Then set my fence up for a 1/16″ and cut away using my new jig.

Here’s a couple of photos of the jig in use.



And a video of how easy it is to use.





Popularity: 15% [?]

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May 11th, 2010

Fast, Cheap & Easy 4 comments

Topics:Tip, Woodworking

When I’m woodworking & working with a design (or modifying an existing one) it seems the project always comes up with “opportunities” (I call them problems) to work out.  Sometimes they are very simple and sometimes they require a lot of thought.

With that, I’m a visual person; especially when it comes to working out problems.   And it’s not only in woodworking, I’m like that at work too.

Last year my boss & coworker started to chuckle when they saw me hang up a 3’ x 4’ whiteboard in my cube.  Asking questions like “whats that for?” & “who paid for that?”  They figured it was just a toy and after a week the $70 work spent on it would be for not.

But several months and several of their worked out “opportunities” later they figured it was time both of them get one for their cubes as well.

Well at home this had me wanting (I call it “needing”) to put a couple of whiteboards in my garage/shop but I wasn’t willing to spend $140 for them!  (I mean come on, that’s going to cut into my music, DVD & book fund.)

So while surfing the web at lunch one day I was looking at whiteboard paint and reading the horror stories of it and having to apply it and whatnot so I clicked on. Then just a few clicks later I came across what I considered gold.

It was a Mythbusters shop tour where they asked Jamie (the owner of M5 Industries, where MB is shot) about all the whiteboards everywhere.  He went on to explain that he and alot of other companies make their own whiteboards from the same materials as glossy melamine shower/tub boards.

With that I grabbed a whiteout pen and went to Lowes to test this out.  Once I found the boards (located in the paneling section of the store) I did a small test on the corner of one and it worked perfect.

After smiling at the fact that it worked (and looking over my shoulder to see if a worker noticed my “test”) I went and grabbed a plywood cart loaded 2 of the 4’x 8’ sheets, had them cut in half & picked up some construction adhesive.  $30.52 later I had 4 whiteboards & the means to hang them.

So far I’ve hung 2 of them up in the garage. Where the other two will  go is still a guess at this point.  (Maybe I’ll mount them to some fiberboard to make them study & portable.)  But the next time I can’t figure out my “opportunity” I won’t be able to say that I can’t visualize it!

(Forgive me for the photos.  It’s a 3g iPhone.)

Popularity: 8% [?]

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March 17th, 2010

Matching Seams – The Rule of 2 one comment

Topics:Blog, federal, Inlay, Tip, Woodworking

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% [?]

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March 9th, 2010

It’s All Done With Mirrors no comments

Topics:Blog, Dave, federal, Inlay, Tip, Woodworking

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.)

Index

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.

BookMatch BookMatch3

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!

Quad Quad2

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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February 6th, 2010

How I Make Tapered Legs no comments

Topics:Blog, Dave, Glen Huey, Music, Tip, Woodworking

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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